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!

Happy New Year from Ireland

Today it's snowing here in Northern Ireland. They keep telling us we brought the snow with us because it never snows here....We have settled into our new home. But since we still don't have our own internet, I can't post pictures yet....some things are difficult to figure out when you are in a different country!

We are adjusting well and the people here are very friendly and helpful. We have been housed, fed, entertained, showed with gifts and feel like we already have good friends. The church is the same wherever you go!

Elder Holt and I started teaching a Young Single Adult Sunday School class which has been fun. We have visited about 50 members of the ward, with only a few unfavorable receptions. I have seen lots of little shops I can't wait to go to.....

More to come soon.

We Made it!

We made it to Ireland! We arrived Saturday morning and spent the day in Dublin with the mission president's wife. The mission president was in London for meetings. We went to a fun park, toured the Guiness mansion, went to a Christmas market, and toured downtown Dublin. It was a busy but fun day. We were pretty tired....Sunday, we drove to our new area, Portadown in Northern Ireland. The ward was having ward conference so we met the Stake Presidency of the Belfast Stake. We spoke in Sacrament meeting.....the members were all very nice but some of them were hard to understand! We are staying with a member family until we can find a place of our own. Hopefully soon! Today, Monday, we went to Belfast for our district meeting. We took the Elders with us which was good since we had no idea where we were going. They stayed in Belfast so we were on our own to get home. We only got lost a few times!!! It's a little scary driving a new car on the left side of the road! Lots of round-a-bouts! The adventure has begun! We'll post pictures soon.

The Olsons visit SLC

This weekend our good friend Peggy came to Salt Lake City to visit her son Tim who was dancing in a show at Kingsbury Hall. Since we were still here, we went to the show "It's a Wonderful Life" with her. Tim did an awsome job dancing and acting. It was as good as most Broadway shows I have seen! Tim has moved to Utah from NYC and seems to enjoy the west! We have known him for many years, watching him dance at Northland with our girls. It's fun to see him dance with the Oddesey Dance Company.

On Sunday, we took Peggy and Tim to Temple Square since they had never been there. (a little missionary work :)

We had a wonderful time showing them around and enjoyed being there with them.

There is nothing quite like Temple Square at Christmas Time. We feel blessed to be here, enjoying this wonderful season.

Mission Training Center (MTC)

On November 30, we entered the MTC in Provo, UT. We had a wonderful week meeting new people and learning what we should do as missionaries. There were 2200 missionaries there. 25 "Senior Couples" and many young men and women, willing to go all over the world, with different assignments, sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. The spirit was strong and the week went by very fast. The McDowell's from Sacramento CA are also going to the Dublin Ireland Mission and we became fast friends. They are really a fun couple.

The MTC is like a mini city, with everything you need from post office to beauty salon. There were Christmas lights lighting up the center quad. Very festive!

Here's Elder Holt in front of the main building.

Us with the McDowell's. They were able to leave Saturday for Ireland. We are still waiting for our visas. It was sad to see them leave without us.

This was our district. Elder Holt was the district leader.....Brother Spencer, the young guy, was our trainer. He was great and we learned a lot from him.

The famous mission map...everyone points to their mission and takes a picture!
This is Elder and Sister James. They were going to the Congo...but because of medical reasons, they were reassigned the last day to Orlando Florida! We had a lot of fun with them.

The Thompsons were from Brisbane, Australia and the are going to Italy! It was fun to hear them speak Italian with an Australian accent!
The McDowells.
The Herrs are from Utah and they are going to Norway. They could barely reach their country on the map. They will be serving 450 miles north of the Artic Circle and won't see the sun until March!

We had a wonderful week. Now we are waiting in Salt Lake at my parents house for our visas to come. We are hopeful it won't be too long! Maybe tomorrow????

Almost There!

Our mission prep is almost done! We have been crazy busy trying to get everything in order. The visa application is in, we've talked in church and Stake Conference, we've had all our shots, (my arm is still sore...), our drivers liscences and temple recommends have been renewed. The "Will" is done...the house is packed...the leaves are raked,the suitcases bought and we are being set apart as missionaries tonight! One more week and we leave for the MTC. That gives me three days before Thanksgiving to make sure I have all the clothes I need!!! We are getting excited to just be on our way.

The best news is that Jasper is home from the hospital. He is such a happy little guy and it is so fun to hold him even with all his tubes! We are so thankful for him.