S.E.M. Podcast - Scotland, Edinburgh Mission

Andy Harper served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from February of 2008 through February of 2010. Andy takes us all on a journey with his stories and memories of his time in Scotland. He starts off sharing his talent of playing the bagpipes, and then talks about his fun experiences, including learning to drive in Dundee, having his flat broken into, and more. Andy currently lives near Fairbank...

Garrett Smith served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from October of 2005 through October of 2007. Garrett shares his incredible experience of coming on a mission, including keeping his papers secret from his parents. In Scotland, he talks about how playing pint Jenga ruined his ability to hold his bladder, pinning down Elder O'Bryan in the mission home and "Air Mail" stamped him all over, and...

Tom Carlton served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from August of 2008 through August of 2010. Throughout his time serving in areas with council flats, he found himself wondering is there was something more. Then he was moved to the area of Perth where it was lush countryside and beautiful. Tom loved serving in Scotland and later discovered he is more Scottish than English in his genealogy. Tom...

Shaun Thomas served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from October of 2002 through October of 2004. Shaun shares his incredible journey, including nearly getting stuck on a remote island in Orkney, serving in the mission home and preparing a farm breakfast that Sister Vriens loved, and having some NED girls offer him and his companion to "have your babies". Shaun loved his companions who learned...

Craig Stratton served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from February of 2004 through December of 2005. Craig opens up about his tasks he was handed by President Vriens to help get some of his initial companions on track. He also shares his love for competition, including taking a swing at his MTC companion (Jack Bryce) and beating him in a footrace that lead to a pull hamstring for Jack. Craig l...

Trent Clawson served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from December of 2003 through December of 2005. Trent shares with us his journey through the mission, including beat boxing with Eminem's brother (Devin Fisher), going to court after crashing the Thurso Elder's car, and creating a replica Nessie to float down the River Ness. He also shares some insight into a very spiritual experience with hi...

Tobias Luchs served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from January of 2006 through January of 2008. Toby comes on the podcast and shares his journey of becoming a missionary, including setting aside a life that was set in place to come to Scotland. He also shares about his companionship unifiers and other fun experiences that helped him overcome his shyness during his time in the mission. Tobias...

Evan Slade served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from November of 2007 through November of 2009. He comes on the podcast and shares his incredible family history ties to Scotland, along with his prediction that he would serve in Scotland since he was 5 years old. Evan also shares about his adventures of riding bikes through Paisley, serving in the branch presidency in Greenock, and so much mor...

Amy (Cooper) Taylor comes back on the podcast. As another one of our original guests in the infancy of the S.E.M. Podcast, she has been an avid listener since her original episode and had more she wanted to share. She talks about all the experiences she had with each of her companions and the things she learned from each of them. Amy currently lives near Vernal, Utah, with her husband and their 4...

Zack Hewlett comes back on the podcast after his episode in the early days of the S.E.M. Podcast was filled with his most fresh memories. Nearly a year later, so many memories have come flooding back that there was more to share. Zack currently lives in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, with his wife and their daughter. Recorded May 4, 2023

President Tom Fredrick and his wife, Barbara, served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from July of 2006 through June of 2009. They both came on the podcast and shared their unique conversion stories, their sealing adventure, and the details of how they got their call to Scotland. This is one you don't want to miss. President and Sister Fredrick currently live in Salt Lake City, Utah. They have 1...

Drew Allen served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from November of 2007 through November of 2009. During his time in Scotland, he had many fun adventures, including a streak of baptisms/confirmation no-shows, making pheasant curry from road kill, and having his flat broken into several times. His favorite area of his mission was Dundee, Bingham Ward, despite his challenges of finding investigat...

David Lehmann served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from September of 2002 through September of 2004. David shares about his fun times, including learning to fish in the Shetland Isles, running the coal race in Kelty, and day trip drives to the Isle of Skye from Inverness. He loved serving in Scotland and all the wonderful people that he served with. David currently lives in Freiburg, Germany,...

Brian Baer served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from April of 2004 through April of 2006. As our first ever podcast guest, Brian was our guinea pig and came on early in our podcast. Since then, he has been reflecting on all the memories that have been flooding back to him about his time in Scotland. In this episode, Brian recalls memories of street contacting on his own in his greenie area, b...

Adam Payne served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from April of 2006 through March of 2008. He experienced visa issues coming from Canada and had a temporary assignment to New Jersey, Cherry Hills, but was blessed to receive his visa just in time to leave for England and the MTC in Preston. Adam shares about zone olympics, learning to drive in Scotland, and being pooped on by a pigeon to get hi...

Craig Day served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from July of 2008 through July of 2010. Craig shares with us how he was coerced by a girl he fancied to serve a mission, along with some amazing stories about learning the mission expectations during the prime of "Hammer Time". He shares his experiences in leadership, along with his fun times that included snow balls that destroyed a NED, filling...

Tyler Monteath served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from February of 2008 through December of 2009. Tyler shares his amazing story of how he came to serve a mission, and an epic story about his epic blind date with his wife when he got home from Scotland. He also shared some amazing memories from the mission, including eating his companion's food they didn't like at dinner appointments, a pet...

Zac Lovell served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from July of 2008 through July of 2010. Zac spent a nearly perfect split of his mission between President Fredrick and President Griffiths. During this time, Zac experienced the hustle of the mission and baptized many people during the beginning of the mission. He followed the direction of the mission leaders during "hammer time" and had a bapti...

Elder A. Cummins served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from October of 2008 through July of 2010, with his last 3 transfers taking place in the Scotland, Ireland Mission. A. comes on the podcast and shares his experiences, including being egged 2 days into the mission field, finding his flat door completely kicked in and nothing missing, and the intensity of "Hammer Time". He also shares his w...

Sarah Jagger served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from March of 2006 through September of 2007. Sarah shares about her incredible journey serving in Scotland, including serving as a young women's president, attending multiple youth camps, and learning to drive a stick shift in her first area. She enjoyed prank wars with the Elders in Ayr, and pulled the ultimate prank when she and her compani...

John Coon served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from December of 2007 through December of 2009. John comes on the podcast and shares how amazing his time was in Scotland. He recalls seeing a knife fight, driving to a light in the right lane (the opposite side of the traffic), throwing away an investigator's cigarettes (3400+ fags), and being in Elder Holland's splash zone at Zone Conference. J...

Chris Martin served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from October of 2001 through October of 2003. Chris comes on and shares how his decision to serve a mission truly shaped his life. During his mission, he met J.K. Rowling his 2nd day in Scotland, broke a big toe during a football match, and destroying a Vauxhall Corsa's oil pan attempting to blow through a monster puddle. Chris also shares abo...

Jonathan Shenton served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from May of 2006 through May of 2008. He came into the mission and loved the work and the people of Elgin to start. Jonathan shares how his time from the beginning evolved a great deal as "hammertime" changed how he went about sharing the gospel. He stood his ground and did the work in the way he felt best benefitted his areas and companio...

Heather Bond served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from September of 2002 through September of 2004. She is joined by her husband, Scott Christley, who uniquely was very involved in Heather's mission and shares some of his memories. Heather has some incredible stories, including moments of unexplained sluggishness, being pushed out of the way of bottle rockets, and avoiding death. She also sha...

David Cain served in the Scotland, Edinburgh Mission from July 2008 through July of 2010. David comes on the podcast and shares about how the mission's culture was a tough one to crack. Nevertheless, he showed resilence and determination to be the best missionary he could be while serving the people in Scotland. David had a different MTC experience, as home was 20 minutes down the road and many te...