Week 9

We have already been on our mission for 9 weeks! The days are going by quickly. We seem to get busier every week and realize how much work we have to do! This week we attended ward PEC, took dinner to a sister in the ward who is very sick (she loved the chicken and broccoli casserole), taught some English lessons to Fatinha, went to district meeting, and visited several less-active families. I was pretty excited to get my package from Coldwater Creek, I called and ordered a few things and they we so nice to ship to Northern Ireland. They said I was the first! So they get my vote for best customer service! Luckily, everything fit! Today we taught a new investigator, Roberta. It was really fun and she wants us to come back next week for more lessons. She is also coming to church Sunday. When we were leaving, the moon was shining on the lake right outside her home so I took a picture! It was very peaceful.
This is one of my favorite things....the ivy growing up all the trees.
You can't see this very good, but there is this horse that just wanders around, grazing on this grass. He is always there and there are no fences. One night he was standing on the side of the motorway. It's crazy! One member told us he belongs to the gypsies....?????
This week Elder Lamb and Elder Watt came over and cooked dinner for us. They are fun missionaries. Elder Lamb went home to Canada today. For dessert we had scones with jam and cream! Clotted cream..... Fast becoming a favorite thing!!!
Here is the district. We had "moves" this week so now some of them are in new areas.
Elder Watt and Elder Lamb......the lamb and the lion....we love the young Elders!! This week theey went with us to find some addresses. We hadn't been able to find one man after many tries, and that day, he was just leaving his home when we got there so Elder Holt was able to talk to him! Little miracles. We also ran into a less active sister in Poundland today. She was on our list of people to call and invite to church this week. We invited her and she said she would come! Little miracles......
Last Saturday Fatinha was baptized! It was a wonderful baptism and she is so happy. She said she has never been so happy and peaceful. This week she was blessed with a job! We are happy for her. Even though we speak different languages the spirit is strong when we talk about the gospel and she has become a good friend.

Missionary Update

I have been thinking a lot about the people we have met here in Northern Ireland. We have only been here six weeks or so and we have made so many new friends. We have had contact with about 60 families in the ward, about 40%. This is how we do it:

We started a birthday program, we deliver Birthday Cards to everyone in the ward. Yesterday, we went to a less-active member, she said "how did you know it was my birthday? I haven't had contact with that church for years!" But she was very nice.

Another less-active sister couldn't even remember ever going to our church. She said "I go to another church and pay my tithes there so I am committed to them." But when Elder Holt asked if she wanted her name removed from the church records she said" Oh no! It's OK....please come and call on me again!"

We have 30 Young Adult members in our ward. Five are active and attend the YSA Sunday School class that we teach. We have delivered invitations to all of them. Hopefully more will start coming! We are also planning some YSA activities in our area.

We have had appointments almost every night for the last two weeks. We have met the nicest couple, John and Bette. Bette comes to church every week, but John, who was baptized about 3 years ago has quit coming. We have so much fun with them. John is a wonderful person and tonight he told us he would come to church next week to hear us speak! Pressure's on!

Last night we went to a "Pantomime"(play) at the Town Hall in Portadown. We are working with a part-member family and the husband, who is not a member, was in the play. He is also a wonderful man and has committed to read the Book of Mormon.

We have two investigators that we are teaching Sunday, both are friends of members.
That is the very best way! The members are very supportive and we enjoy cottage meetings at their homes.

Andrea and Julie are two less-active sisters who are both delightful. Andrea has the missionaries over every Monday night. She remembers every elder that has ever served in Portadown. She makes us feel so welcome and we "almost" have her committed to come to church with us!

Julie has been less-active for years, but I know she has a testimony and we will keep praying and working with her. Her brother-in-law is the stake patriarch and her non-member daughter invited us to dinner last week after running into us in Tescos. We had a delightful evening with her and her boys.

We have district meetings once a week, and zone conference once a month. Today we had interviews with President Creer. We were asked today to speak at Youth Conference in February....we are keeping busy!

Tuesday the young elders were both sick. We helped them out by taking them soup and crackers, Elder Holt gave them blessings, and we covered their appointments. We had a two hour discussion with a couple that has been investigating for about a year. It was good. They also said they would like to come to church to hear us speak...

Another investigator, Fatinha is going to be baptized Saturday! Although she doesn't speak English well, we have been to her house twice this week and we are so excited for her! Friday we are going to start English lessons with her.

Missionary work is great. We hope we can help in small ways bring the gospel to these wonderful people. It's good to be busy, the weeks are going quickly.

Preparation Day

We went for a ride to Lough Neagh the other day. There are big homes in Northern Ireland after all! In fact we have seen some beautiful big homes, all out in the country. I would love to go through some of them!

Here's a pheasant in the field. He was beautiful but started to run away when I got out to take the picture. There isn't alot of wild life. Just farm animals!

This is the lake, the biggest one in Ireland. It's about 10 miles from our house.

I guess it takes about 3 hours to drive all the way around the lake. It's pretty big and empties into the sea at one point.

I hear it's a pretty good fishing lake. perch, trout....by the way, they have the BEST Fish and Chips here! The cod and Halibut are both good!

Today is preparation day and I am home blogging! Elder Holt went to Belfast to play BB with the "young elders". I had a wee breakfast of Irish Soda bread and yogurt. I "hoovered" the floor with our wee vaccum...did the wash in the wee wash machine, watched a mother taking her wee lad for a stroll in the pram, ate a sweet and a biscuit, (candy and cookie) Barley cup for tea time. It was lovely. They have the neatest 'Kettles" to instantly heat the water for tea! I'm looking for a fun one to purchase and bring home! Some other words we are getting use to:

Trunk of the car is the boot

Hood of the car is the bonnet

A chip is a french fry

A crisp is a chip

A diaper is a nappie (Nappie changing room)

Restroom is the "toilet" Ladies and Gents

Cell phone is the "Mobile" We "ring" people now, not call them

Gas is "Petrol"

It's fun to learn the different words! It's brillant! Maybe we'll have gammon (ham) for supper.

Two more favorites!

Our little red post box. Waiting for mail....

I love the sheep here, especially the black sheep and the sheep that are lost. Hopefully we can help find a few and bring them back to the fold. There are such wonderful people here. They need the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives.

More Pictures

Portadown Elders.

Our District and the zone leaders. We have alot of missionaries here from England and Canada.

On the street of Portadown.

Countryside, going to Dundalk to visit the McDowells, the senior couple that came the same time we did.

I love this little church. Sometimes it has smoke coming out of it. There are so many churches here.

Pictures

Church in Portadown, Northern Ireland

St. Patrick's church in Dublin,

Field in Dublin. The US Embassy is located in the distant trees.

St. Patrick's Church in Dublin.

Driving on the left side of the road. Quite an experience for us right side drivers!!

Christmas in Ireland

Christmas is over but I wanted to blog our experience here. This is Christmas dinner with a family in our ward. Ham, stuffing, chicken, mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, brussel sprouts ( Elder Holt's favorite....JK and we get them all the time LOL) mashed carrots and turnips! We started with a green salad with prawns. They always dish your plate for you and it's usually much more than enough!

Merry Christmas Day! This is the cutest little family. They all have red hair and the cutest Irish accents. The children had fun popping the poppers and finding their prizes.

Our ward Christmas Party. Our bishop is on the right, he and the former bishop were having a contest to see who could build the best gingerbread house. It was fun to watch.

There was a good turnout. Christmas parties in the church are the same everywhere. Lots of fun and good food.

The first day we were in Ireland we went to the Christmas party in Dublin. This is Santee. The children love Santee.

Christmas Eve with more members of the ward.

The first day we were here, we went to the Guiness mansion to hear Christmas carolers. They say the sun never shines in Ireland but it was a beautiful sunny day. The grounds around the mansion were very nice.

Nativity scene.

The open market.

There were fun Christmas booths and much singing. Lots of good food.

We were able to meet some other couples and senior missionaries in the mission. It was a fun day. Before we headed north to Portadown.

Our Home in Northern Ireland

This is our home in Lurgan, Northern Ireland. We were pretty lucky to find such a nice place. The first day we looked I was pretty discouraged and told Elder Holt to take me home! But the next day we found this nice brick duplex, with these cute "lions and gate" to protect us! It really is a nice place to live. This is our car, that won't fit down the driveway. Everything is small here.

This is the front yard. It's nice. Can you believe the grass is this green in December?

Here is the washing machine, outside in a little room off the kitchen. No dryers.....hang everything and hope it dries by morning!

The kitchen, before we got the microwave and toaster. I did put our four plates and four glasss in the cute glass cupboard now.

Sink, Refrigerator on top, freezer on bottom. Small but nice. The cooker, (stove) is on the right. Everything we need.

This is the small spare bedroom. No sheets or bedding yet. These radiators are in every room.

This is the dining room. The glass doors are very pretty throughout the house.

Our fireplace is really nice. Here it is all decorated for Christmas. I think it's my favorite part of the house. We can burn coal in it but haven't tried it yet.

Our living room has this couch and a chair. It's quite colorful! Not everything matches but it's OK! We're missionaries!

The bathroom is very nice. They had just refinished it. Electric shower on the right. You pull a cord and instant hot water!

There isn't a double bed in the house, so we put two twins together. This is where we sleep. President and Sister Creer gave us a nice duvet and cover with two pillows!

This is actually the master bedroom but the bed has no mattress. So we just keep our clothees in these nice built in closets. We use this room to iron and hang clothes!

Here is the backyard. I think it will be nice in the spring and summer.

More backyard with the oil tank. Everyone heats with oil. You can smell it in the neighborhoods. It's pretty expensive to heat the houses so everyone turns it off at night and during the day when they are gone.

This picture is for Julie. I got my first Irish hair cut today. She was chopping like crazy!!! And then spiked it up! It's not so bad now that I'm use to it! It will grow, but we miss our regular hair dresser!!!! The girl that cut Elder Holt's hair was alittle more conservative. She took a pass a long card. She had never heard of the church before.

Today we took a drive to find some less actives. It was cold and foggy but the countryside was beautiful. I love these sheep! They are everywhere.

This is just a couple of miles up the road from our house.

The ice on the trees was beautiful. It has snowed more this week than it has for 30 years here. The Irish are so cute all out sweeping the snow off their driveways. There are no snow shovels here, no snow plows, no salt trucks....they do have some grid trucks but the grid is all gone now. They are really in a delima and can't wait for the weather to warm up! It's been in the 20's! That is so cold for here!

Beautiful countryside!

It's good to be here. The people are all so friendly and it's fun seeing new places everyday!