Happy Christmas

 Sister Nicoll and I decided to make cards this year. Hope your Christmas was as enjoyable as ours was.

This past week has been filled with CRAZY exciting things. Our Zone had a zone development last friday and the activity was Dodgeball! If you don't already know I LOVE dodgeball. I'm not the best, but I enjoy it. In fact I was apart of the Provo Dodgeball Association (PDA). One of the best Associations I've joined!

Anyway, I was super excited to find that we were playing dodgeball with the zone. There are three districts in our zone and each of us had uniforms. The names were as follows: The Ugly knots styled celtic jerseys and ties, The stripling oneies fashioned animal onies,

 and We were the Dublin Dustbins 

 we fashioned bin bags! It was awesome! Our team chant was "We're Rubbish" It was hilarious! Despite our chant and our name we did quite well.

By the end of the game we only had one twisted ankle (ok this happened before the game started, but dodgeball made it worse).

One broken finger 

 a couple of jammed fingers and zone unity.

A great way to start off the Christmas weekend. It's a good thing we have Christmas to recover. I woke up with the best feeling; sore ribs, sore back, sore deltoid, sore core. A good sign of a successful dodgeball game! It took my body two-three days to fully recover. Every time I laughed my ribs would hurt, but I still think it's always worth it!


Christmas is always a happy time of the year and I would like to give a big THANK YOU to all who sent presents. It was so fun to be able to open a gift for Christmas. 

 I love how I look like I have one leg in the picture and how Sister Nicoll wasn't ready for the picture! As you can see it was a great Christmas for us!

Hope all is well with each of you and I hope you have an amazing new year!

~Sister Garlock

Seaside and Exchanges

Our area is HUGE! We cover part of the city of Dublin as well as small towns on the outskirts of Dublin. Most of our time is traveling, but it's well worth it. These pictures are taken by the Sea shore in a place called Balbriggan

We were able to place two Books of Mormon in twenty minutes along with teaching lessons. WE had a successful day in Balbriggan!

Sorry my brain is everywhere and can't focus. I realized that I haven't taken hardly any pictures these past two weeks and Sister Nicoll has. As I was looking at her pictures I realized I haven't missed out on a lot. Time and life is flying by and I haven't been able to keep up with my weekly reports. I'm repenting now and promise I'll give you a more uplifting, better post after Christmas.

For now enjoy the pictures

This is how cool Finglas Ward is: The picture with the older woman has a story: This happened after Sacrament meeting. Sister More(named has been changed) was waiting to give us our Christmas cards. As we were talking and figuring out which one goes to which member we all were a bit confused and getting tired. Sister More throws her hands in the air and lays back as she is in the picture! I couldn't help but laugh!!! Sister More is a character and she knows how to make Sister Nicoll and me laugh! It was a priceless moment for us!

Hope you all have a Happy and Merry Christmas

Wonderful things in Finglas, Ireland

This is my companion Sister Nicoll. She is pretty much the best!

This is a church surrounded by a graveyard. Creepy? a little. I would have a hard time leaving mass in the evening feeling uplifted when I was surrounded by dead bodies. However, It's a beautiful church in a beautiful area

Babs and me. This is a great story. Babs is our Irish mother, she takes care of us each week by giving us food and making sure we are warm enough each day. We were over for dinner. Babs doesn't like anyone to do her dishes, but I thought I would take a chance and try. Babs caught me and told me she would take me down. I told her to bring it! she said i'll arm wrestle you. I thought "I did push ups this morning, I'm pretty confident I could put up a good fight" So I accepted.

We got into position and clarified the rules so there was no miscommunication. One, two three. Babs had a good start but I resisted instantly. My arm was almost down when she started wiggling my wrist (totally cheating). Once she stopped I managed to pull her arm back over to where we started. We didn't move from the starting position for what seemed like two minutes  I would tease her a bit and push hard and than relax. We both knew we had to draw and that's what we did. When we released our grip we heard an usual sound. The only way I can describe it is......umm.. It sounded like someone wearing shorts was standing up off of a leather chair! It was hilarious!!!!

Here is the result of our arm wrestle. Needless to say, I think she will think twice before asking me for another arm wrestle! haha

This is Dorrie. I have one thing to say about Dorrie. She will always keep you guessing.

Have a great week!

~Sister Garlock

Ireland Adventures

Here is the two hour Ferry ride to Ireland. I'm so grateful there was another sister to share the experience with. 

While on the ferry ride Sister Morgan and I were watching the other missionaries luggage. We each took turns to explore the ferry and we offered to wait (so nice i know!). While we were waiting a woman approached us and asked if either of us would like a massage. I hesitated to think, she noticed I was thinking and started to explain more. I never intended to get a massage because I would feel highly uncomfortable getting one as a missionary. I appreciated her offer but declined. She tried to entice me, but as soon as she did ALL six Elders walked up behind her! She turned around and felt overwhelmed, in a nervous voice she offered a massage to the Elders and told them what deck it would be available on. She definitely earned gold brownie points in my book.
I couldn't help, but think of the singles ward movie when one of the characters was telling a story about how Sister missionaries were chapping doors and they happened to chap a door of a murderer. The murderer didn't cause any harm to the sisters and later when his friend asked why the murder responded 'Because of the two tall men standing behind them' haha It was great!

Here is my new companion; Sister Nicoll. She pretty much is amazing and hilarious and great to work with. I have a lot of say about her and we've only been serving together for a weekend. Let's just say I'm REAL excited for this transfer! 

Sister Nicoll says that it usually never rains in Ireland, but during the weekend it's rained THREE times! I think I brought the rain with me from Scotland. I learned that white tights are NEVER a good idea! haha
Sunday was a RAINY day. It started in the morning and continued til the evening. Honestly, I felt like I didn't leave Scotland. Sister Nicoll asked me 'How are you dealing with this' I responded 'This is normal for me, It rains like this at least once a week in Scotland' By the end of the evening we were drookit (see picture above). All the members we visited gave us something to keep us dry and warm.


You never know how much a culture is a part of you until you leave. There have been so many words I say that don't make sense to anybody. I have to pause and think 'oh right that's a Scottish word/saying' and then explain what it means. It's quite hilarious. I now know I have enough Scottish culture to set me apart!


Hope you all have a great week!


¬ Sister Garlock

Happy, Happy Week of Thanksgiving!

Here is my district. A great bundle of joy they are. I love how the sisters are properly placed in front in an awkward "i'm pretty" pose haha. It's funny to be a sister and not be able to touch any of the Elders unless you are giving them a handshake! :)

THANKSGIVING at SEDA'S

  It was Seda's first Thanksgiving. She was overly excited about cooking the meal as well as spending time with us at dinner. The meal was DELICIOUS! There were a few alterations made such as : We had appetizers: Fish with pickled beetroot and cherry tomatos (yum), We had pumpkin and parnship soup instead of pumpkin pie, we had chicken instead of turkey (only because they don't sell turkey's this time of the year and we had Banana Flan for pudding! (it's Prince Williams favorite!) haha. Everything else was the same!

The end result was the same. Stuffed to the point where I looked like a waddling duck! Sister Hopkin and I didn't understand because our main dish was smaller than our other thanksgiving portions, but we still left bloated and too full to breath. I think it was a mind set. At least for me because three hours later I felt normal again.

There is always an adventure at Seda's. This was the adventure

Here is the Banana Flan

 This is the grease proof paper that was covering the flan; before she put the bananas on

End result.

It was hilarious. I was doing the dishes when all of a sudden Seda comes up to me and says "do you want to like it?" I pretend to like it, turn and before I know it the paper is squished against my face. We laughed and laughed! It's always a fun experience to be with Seda! haha

Also in other news. Moves call was yesterday. I know you are all anxious to hear................I'm MOVING TO IRELAND. A place called Findles (i think that is how it's spelled). It's in Dublin and i'm OVERLY excited. I feel like i've completed my work in East Kilbride. I have no regrets. It was such a great calming feeling when President Brown gave me my new assignment. Answer to prayers.

You know you've been in an area long enough when the members say "I'm sure you would like to go somewhere else and serve, see more of your mission" I'm pretty sure the member who told me that prayed that I would be moved! haha

East Kilbride has shaped me into a better person and i will be FOREVER grateful.

Hope you all have a great week!

~Sister Garlock

Halloween

First, I need to say: I'm rubbish. I completely forgot to take a picture of my costume as a missionary. We are not allowed to dress up from head to toe, but i managed to find a costume that was within missionary rules. I'll include the picture in next's week blog.

This has been the LONGEST, shortest week. It was Halloween, exchanges and MIRACLES were coming out of hidden places. Truly amazing. This past week Sister Hopkin and myself decided to have a miracle wall. Each night we were to think of one miracle for the day, write it down and stick it up on our wall. I feel like my day is complete when we write our miracle, knowing that a miracle did happen and that we were fulfilling our missionary responsibilities  There is nothing better than going to bed KNOWING that you have done everything you could have done for that day!!!

Needless to say, talking about daily miracles helps us sleep peacefully.

Exchanges happen again this transfer and they were once again helpful! I LOVE exchanges!!!!!!!!!

Have a great week!

~Sister Garlock

Is it a bird? Is it a Plane? no It's CLOUDS

This week the clouds have been absolutely amazing!!! Honestly I can't get over the clouds here, it's almost an obsession, almost. The weather changes quite rapidly here in Scotland and I love watching the clouds move across the sky. This past week I've been looking up towards the clouds! Thought I would share one of God's greatest gifts of the creation with you from across the world. 

In other news in the East Kilbride area I have developed a new skill.....Changing toliet seats! A while back Sister Oswald and I were trying to open the window to air out the bathroom. Now our bathroom is old and the window has some moldy bits. Due to leaking the window seal drooped, in order to open the window one sister had to hold up the the wood to make room for the window to swing opened. I took it upon myself push the wood up allowing Sister Oswald to push the window opened. We were successful! On my way down off the toliet the cover slides and we here a CRACK! I jumped away from the toliet turn around and find that I broke the toliet seat cover.UGH! We didn't bother fixing it so we left it. Three months later I was fed up with a broken seat cover. yeah I know, I should have fixed it ASAP.

Last week I fixed it. Here are the before and after shots. 

Hope you all have a great week!

~Sister Garlock

What didn't happen to us this week

Honestly, this week has been very eventful and I want to share everything.

*Did you see a welcome mat?*

 This huge spider was spotted during planning and was quickly removed

 *TACOS!*

 I forgot how much I LOVE tacos! We made them for a less-active and they were delicious!

*Autumn*

 It was great to play in the leaves on our way to our next appointment. Autumn is the best season of the year!

*CANDY!!!*

Seriously, this is not a trick picture, it is in fact a reality. This is weeks of candy that we haven't eaten yet. We managed to give some to the other missionaries!

*Glasgow Museum*

Read first paragraph second line.... Even they knew we would be judged from the desire of our hearts! haha I couldn't help but giggle a wee bit

 Elvis- If he could speak i'm sure he would say "ye a cheeky besom!"

We were in a Trio with SISTER PARKS. She is great!

I found my Knight and Shining Armor! I had to travel half way across the world, but I found him!

*BAPTISM!!!*

We ended the great week with a BAPTISM!!!!!!

Bill Graham was found on 19 July 2012 at 8 O' clock pm. We taught him on a park bench, luckily the weather was nice to us and he was the first person Sister Hopkin EVER talked to, taught and invited to be baptized. Three months later he was!

I have one thing left to say. Don't be jealous. I'm sure you had a great week as well.

Take care, enjoy the leaves and buckle up for winter.

~Sister Garlock