Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday was Thanksgiving so we picked up the McBrides and headed down the motorway to the Finglas chapel in Dublin.

All the senior couples were there and we had a wonderful time socializing and sharing mission experiences.

The food was great!

It's nice to be with others that are doing the same thing we are!

We are thankful for so many things and we feel so blessed to have family and good friends who are supporting us as we serve our mission... even though we miss them all very much!!!

After dinner we went across the street and caught the bus to downtown Dublin.

Dublin is a fun city. It was a beautiful, crisp day!

Our first stop was Trinity College.

Such a beautiful campus with amazing buildings!

We were able to go with a YSA student who is going to school there to view the Book of Mormon John Taylor used while he was in Ireland in the 1800's. It was pretty amazing to turn the pages and read the Book of Mormon in paragraph form. The book was donated to the Trinity Library in the 1970's from a family here. A rare treasure for sure!!

Elder McDowell with Elder Holt....

We also went and saw the Book of Kells. The four gospels written by monks in 800 a.d. We couldn't take pictures, but it was fascinating to see!!!!





After leaving the college we went to the House of Ireland and did a little shopping! Beautiful things in a beautiful little shop!

Dublin was fun to see at night with all the Christmas hustle and bustle. I really enjoyed riding the double decker bus back to the church. So fun to look down at all the shop windows all decorated for Christmas!

Back at the church we all made a turkey sandwich and Elder Neeley brought out his ukele. We all stood around in the kitchen and sang Irish ballads! Can you believe most everyone knew them! I guess that means we have been here a long time!

Great fun!

Good friends!

A perfect way to end a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! We had a great time and made it back safe and sound to Belfast. Next year we will be home, remembering the good times we had in Ireland!

Leaving Lurgan

We said good-bye to our little home in Marlborough Park in Lurgan. It was sad as we drove through the neighborhood for the last time. We left our friendly lions that have guarded the driveway for the past 11 months!

One last look. We will always have fond memories of the time we lived here. (Except for the August spiders....yuck!)

We drove through downtown Lurgan on our way to Belfast.

They had just put the Christmas decorations up and it was very festive.

I rolled the window down to get a better picture. The town Christmas tree was huge!

Goodbye little Lurgan, on to big Belfast!

The first night in our new little flat, I decided to decorate. With what???? Of course!! I pulled out the souvenirs that I have purchased this past year. Tea towels look great on the wall!!

Not much furniture, and a lot of bare wood floors.....

The kitchen is nice. Everything we need.

We have settled in quite comfortably! We like it more and more each day!

Loughbrickland

For the past year we have wanted to find Loughbrickland! In 1840, Elder John Taylor baptized Brother Thomas Tait, the first member of the church in Ireland in this lake. They were walking from Newry to Belfast, discussing the gospel. When they reached Loughbrickland Brother Tait decided this was the place to be baptized!

Brother McConnell went with us to show us exactly where the lake was. Not too far, in fact it is in the boundaries of the Portadown Ward.

In 1985, Elder Neal A. Maxwell stood on the mound across the lake and dedicated the land for missionary work. Many of the ward members were there and it's fun to hear them tell the history of the church in Ireland.

This week we had our last district meeting in the Antrim district. We are now part of the Hollywood district and will meet in Belfast.

A few weeks ago, we went to Chris and Christy's for brunch. While we were there, Christy showed me how to spin wool on her spinning wheel! It was pretty hard to get the hang of it but I had a lot of fun trying! Christy made me a cute little lamb out of the yarn she had spun!

We had our last Sunday as missionaries in Portadown Ward. We will treasure the friendships we have made.

Good times!