Edinburgh Mormons

Church on Sunday was an adventure. We were a bit late heading out the door with the stroller and everything. After a 15 minute walk, we had to wait for a later bus than we had planned which dropped us off at the aptly named ’Holy Corner’ because there are churches on three corners. Too bad ours wasn’t one of them. We had another 15 minute walk to get to our church. As we turned what we thought was the correct corner, it was confirmed by people getting out of their cars in dresses and suits. We asked one of them where the LDS church was and she exclaimed with her brogue ’that’s where we’re heading now, isn't’ it? Just follow us!” So we did. Actually, they let us pass because they were rather slow. We were in this gorgeous neighborhood of old prestigious houses and big beautiful trees just starting to turn fall colors. Then we turned into the church parking lot and, to put it in Catherine’s words, ‘Bleh’. The church is a rather old LDS building style—I think from the 60’s or something. Not very fitting for the neighborhood—but what it lacked in esthetics, it made up for in hustle and bustle! The parking lot was packed! We walked into the full foyer and asked one of the six elders standing there where the RS room was and he said that today was stake conference. I said, “You mean this is not your typical attendance at Sacrament Meeting?” He laughed and said he wished. So, instead of being late for church, our timing was perfect getting there 10 minutes before stake conference started. But we had to locate our own chairs and sit single file along the edge of the cultural hall because the gym and stage were packed, as were the chapel and overflow. Before you’re too amazed, the building is a smaller building—everything is about half the size of our building. But still, there were a lot of people!

And it was delightful to hear everything with a Scotish Brogue. There was this adorable prospective missionary that talked about preparing to serve a mission but included some of the things he was going to miss. He said, “Brother’s & sisters—I have to be honest with ya. I’m going to miss the girls.” If you could have heard it in his brogue—you would have laughed out loud.

I was able to attend the next Sunday with them, and we were there in plenty of time. They had a lot of chairs set up in the Relief Society Room and I thought perhaps Sunday School would be in there as well, but turns out they needed all those chairs for sisters! There were at least 3 that were new that day, including Catherine. I was visiting and they had at least 4 investigators. In fact, during Sacrament meeting, they confirmed 5 new members—not one of them was an 8 year old! They have 3 sets of elders in that ward, and man are they busy! I guess two Sundays ago, they had 8 new member confirmations! It seemed that many of them were Chinese—they must have some great contacts, don’t you think? I had looked forward to RS and SS lessons with the Scottish accent, but alas the RS lesson was taught by a Senior missionary from Utah (the mission home is adjacent to the church) and the SS lesson was taught by another sister from northern Utah. Sacrament meeting was fun though. Ben commented that the only thing different in his priesthood meeting is that the boring priesthood lesson was given in a Scottish accent.