I've only just begun!

WikiTravel.org:
"Aberdeen is a prosperous and cosmopolitan city (partly due to North Sea oil) and is characterized by its grand and ornate architecture. Most buildings are constructed out of granite quarried in and around the city, and as a result, Aberdeen is often referred to as The Granite City. It is also known for its many outstanding parks, gardens and floral displays throughout the city, as well as its long, sandy beach. Aberdeen also boasts the title of Oil Capital of Europe and has been voted in several polls as the happiest place in Britain."

                                                

                                                       First flat - Aberdeen Scotland

                                                      

                                                                 King of the hill
                  These pictures are from Friday, June 28 when we helped a man in a wheelchair get to the top.

                                                            On top o' the world

                                                                What is this thing?

In the MTC I told everyone the weather is just like home.  Everyone was always cold so they had the rooms way hot and I was always sweating non-stop while I was there.  Near the mission home when we climbed Arthur’s Seat, Pratt’s Hill, it was amazing.  It felt like you could see all of Scotland from one spot and I was speechless.  I forgot my camera, but it was something like I’ve never seen before.  The climb wasn’t too bad but in my dress pants and tie, it was pretty hard.  It was also pretty hot when we were there. 

My area is just mainly bus and walking... a lot of walking, but the zone leaders have a car and my companion and I got to drive to our area from the mission home and that was super nice. By the way, it was an automatic.  I wish we had a car, it doesn’t look that hard to drive, they say that when you drive you need to stay on the white line or you will veer off.  It still freaks me out a little driving on the wrong side of the road when I see cars turning and every one drives fast but they are really good drivers.  I haven’t driven and it sounds like a slim chance that I will.  The roads are all very curvy and they are all brick and bumpy.  We are about a 3-4 hour drive from the mission home.  We go walking every day and street contacting a LOOOOOTTTT, but it’s starting to not be all that bad.

My ward is the stake building, small than ours, and there are only like 70 members.  Of course it’s the smallest branch I remember being in.  The Branch President is pretty young but a super nice guy.  I’m not actually sure how far we are from the Church because I don’t really know where anything is here haha but it’s like a 10 or 15 minute bus ride.  A majority of the members are pretty old but they are really nice and funny.  We might have dinner appointments with members maybe once or twice a week.  My ward kind of separates itself from the missionaries, which makes it pretty hard.  We watched the missionary general broadcast.  I  thought it was amazing!!   It was just the thing that my ward needed to hear and it really made me understand and know that when my bishop said "missionaries aren’t meant to find, they are meant to teach" and it was so true, but it didn’t really help that only one person in my ward went to see it.  Church today was good and a little off but I could tell it was the same because our church is the same all around the world 

Meal times are a lot like America, it’s surprising.  I’m not sure about odd foods yet, since me and my companion just make our food it’s all been American or pretty normal food.  They have milk and Nesquick but I haven’t seen it combined into chocolate milk.  It’s weird, it feels like they have an off-brand of everything we have in America, I’ll make a list sometime.

 
The first couple of days I couldn’t understand a thing anyone said but now it’s like they all speak English.  It’s almost like everyone here has a different accent because they have so many in Scotland.  WE DO A LOT OF STREET CONTACTING! The work here is super slow and we only have like two or three investigators which is really bad and most of them are out of town this week. There’s a man named George from Spain and he will be gone visiting his family this week.   We haven’t gotten any new ones since I have been here because the people are very hard hearted and it makes me kind of sad that they are missing so much.  From the time I’ve been chapping, they all say, “Not today.” Or, “I’m feeling ill.”  We cover about half of Aberdeen.

Elder Holbrook doesn’t have an accent.  He’s a really nice guy and I really like him and he has already taught me a lot.  He’s been out about a year.  This is the first time he’s trained someone.  It’s funny because his last companion just left to go home and I’m just starting. None of the missionaries have accents but they all use the same words that everyone in the UK uses.
 
Other than people driving on the other side of the road, everyone has a super small house and everything is super expensive here.  It’s crazy, but we can get most of our food for less than a dollar haha but there are so many things that are strange but I don’t remember because it’s all just becoming natural to me haha.  When we were driving, you would see sheep at least every five minutes.  It’s strangely very normal, I was expecting big rolling hills like Braveheart, but it’s nothing like that. Where I’m at, it’s pretty much like an old downtown Seattle. 

New words and phrases:

chapping - going door to door 
nay bother- no problem
Ciao,- they use a lot 
fit ye deeing- what are you doing 
fit- i dont know 
and they sometimes just add "poul" on the end of a sentence... I’m not sure why but a lot of it is just Aberdeen lingo. 

The work is slow and we are doing a lot of finding but I know it is the correct work and that it will get easier with more time and I am starting to love it here.  My flat is one of the smallest in all the Scotland/ Ireland mission and I love it!  Everyone here has super nice cars and the people are really nice but every once in a while you get a scary one.  Make sure that you tell everyone on facebook and all my friends that they can write me through this email: RHanson@myldsmail.net  and that I want to hear from them!  Also it’s just best to send mail or boxes to the mission home. I knew I had a lot to say but by the end of the week I always forget.

Can you think of some recipes for some really cheap filling food that I could make because they should have about everything here.  The view from one corner of my flat where you can see the entire flat and we figure it’s about 150 sq ft, maybe.

I love you!  Elder Hanson