The Irish Sea

Monday was preparation day so we met the McDowells in Newry and spent the day together. It was a beautiful sunny day and it felt good to go and do something different. Of course, the first pictures we had to stop and take were of the sheep!

You can tell Spring is on the way, there were lots of little lambs.

This was a beautiful lake on the way to Beleek. I was so excited to go to Beleek to the China factory. But when we got there, we found out there are two Beleek villages and the one I wanted was the other one! Two hours away! So that will have to be another trip!

Little lambs...

Ireland has lots of rolling hills.

Here we are.

We spent about an hour picking up beautiful green rocks and lots of shells. We had our pockets full.....then on the way back to the car, we thought maybe we weren't allowed to take them...so we threw them all back! We could see the headlines.... "American Missionaries steal rocks and shells"....well, after telling the story to several people in the ward, who all got a good chuckle....they assured us that it was fine to take the rocks and shells! So I guess we get to go back!

Looking north...towards Belfast.

There is quite a bit of snow on the mountains.

After the beach, we went into Newcastle. It is such a beautiful city.


We ate at a nice little restaurant and enjoyed the little shops and bakeries on the street.
We stopped for one more picture on our way home and felt grateful for a beautiful day in Ireland spent with wonderful friends.

Now...back to work!!!! (we did give out a few pass-a-long cards :)

As Time Goes By....

It was three months ago today that Birch and I left home for our mission. The time is quickly fleeing. We have had a lot of great experiences and have met so many wonderful people. They tell me here in the mission that after 3 months you aren't homesick anymore...I'm not sure I believe that, but it is good to be here. This is a picture of the whole mission! Taken at the all mission conference held in Dublin on February 4, 2010.

This week we traveled to Omagh for our district meeting. Elder Watt drove the mission van so it was nice for Elder Holt and I to sit back and enjoy the scenery. This is the church. There are about 45 members that attend each week. It sits on a beautiful lot of land. Hopefully they will have a chapel there someday.

We celebrated Elder Ranger's birthday. My first chocolate cake made from scratch in Ireland!

Elder Holt standing at the pulpit. They have a key board so I was able to play while we sang. I love to hear the elders sing.....

Here we are. Elder Palmer, Sister Holt, Elder Ranger, Elder Evans and Elder Watt. Elder Holt took the picture.

Elder Watt, our district leader, led us in a great game of Jeopardy. He had some pretty hard questions.... like how many pages in PMG. We had a good time, although it did get a little competitive!

In the end....look who won! All the elders decided to take a gamble and wager all their points on the last question. I played it safe and didn't gamble any points.....lesson to be learned....don't gamble!

Later this week, we went on a 3-4 mile walk with our investigator Roberta. She lives by two lakes and wanted to show us the scenery. We had a really nice day with her and Brandy, her dog.


There was a little farm along the way, so we stopped and visited the animals. More sheep.

Some ducks.....I thought the tall ones were cute.

Look at the horns on this guy!

Too cute!

There were more animals.. llamas, horses, cows, bulls, pigs, chickens.....fun to see.




We kept walking and came to Tanaghmore Park.

This is a wood carving of the potatoe famine.

A viking...

My first Leprechaun, sitting on a mushroom.

More walking.....

These trees are significant to Roberta. She told us a neat story about an experience she had under these trees, feeling the umbrella of God protecting her and the arms of God surrounding her.

There were many beautiful swans.

We had a wonderful walk with a wonderful friend. We look forward to our cottage meetings as we share the gospel with her.

It's been a good week!

Choose Today to Impact Tomorrow

Yesterday turned out to be another beautiful day in Northern Ireland. Elder Holt and I left our house early in freezing fog, and headed to Belfast for the "All Youth Regional Day" at the Hollywood chapel. We had an opening devotional and then headed out for an adventure to the Ulster Folk Museum! By the time we got there the sun was shinning and although it was chilly, we had a beautiful day.

This is a little village that has been reconstructed with buildings from different time periods in Irish history. It was like walking back in time.

This little donkey and shetland pony were posing for a picture.

Lots of cottages down the path. The earliest was built in the 1600's.

On top of this little hill, you could see the Belfast bay in the distance.

Lunch time with the youth! There were about 50 youth from all over the Isle. They were fun to watch. Youth in the church are the same wherever you go. They were all well behaved and we enjoyed getting to know them. One young man just got his mission call to the new Scottland Ireland Mission! He's not going far from home!

The basket shop.

Soda bread cooking on an open fire. They use "peat" for fuel......I think I like wood.......or coal.

The Church.

More youth, heading up the hill.

Sister Holt......

Elder Holt.....

This was a fun cottage. There was a pretty garden in the front. I love the thatched roofs!

After spending a few hours there, we headed back to the church and we taught a workshop on

"Choose Today to Imact Tomorrow" I talked about my great, great, great, great grandfather who had joined the church in Crawfordsburn Ireland in 1841. Elder Holt told William McDonald's story from his autobiography, (pretending he was him). The youth seemed to enjoy the story and then we talked about the impact our choices make on others. We figured out that there could be well over a million people who are or were members of the church just because James McDonald made the choice to be baptized and join the restored church of Jesus Christ.

The choices we all make every day will impact someone, somewhere.... I am thankful James McDonald made such a good choice!

We found these sweets, chewits....which made a great handout.... "Chews" today to Impact Tomorrow" They were a hit! It was a fun day and Elder Holt counted it as teaching 50 members on the weekly report! (There were a few non-members there as well..:)

P.S. My new toy! I finally purchased a new kettle. So now I can have instant hot water any time! It's great for hot chocolate, barley cup and licorice tea or anything else hot you want to drink! (some people just like hot water!) No wonder they have have such beautiful tea cups!

Cooking, Baking, Entertaining!

This is the neighborhood Ice Cream truck that comes around every day.

He parks right in front of our house. We haven't tried the ice cream yet but have watched others get it. We are waiting for it to warm up! Sometimes he comes quite late..... We hear he sells more than ice cream.........

This past week was a busy cooking week. Monday, treats for FHE with the single adults. Tuesday, Lasagna for the mission district meeting, Wednesday, dinner for a family in the ward...Friday, Mexican for 2 families and the Elders, Saturday, treats for the YSA activity at our house, Sunday, Barbecue Beef for the ward "Linger-longer, and of course Valentines Day Cookies to deliver and have for FHE tonight! It takes me longer to make anything here because I am still getting use to what I can find and how to improvise...but it's working! As you can see in the top picture, I used a pringles can for a rolling pin, made my own cookie cutter out of card stock, used a pot for a mixing bowl (mixed by hand, no mixer...) baked the cookies on a cookie sheet and a cake pan! It's kind of fun to see how creative I can be! Elder Holt helped!

When we have people over we usually end up using every dish, pan and utensil that we have....

sometimes I chuckle when I think of all the dishes I have at home! Life is simple....life is good!

Scotland Ireland Mission! One Tenth done!

To begin, for those of you who questioned my clotted cream comment, here's a picture. Elder Watt calls it clotted cream, the Irish call it double cream....it's just really firm cream with a little spice in it. Take my word for it, it's yummy!

Next, this is the first sign of spring! These little crocus flowers popped out last week in the front yard! I was pretty excited! Today I noticed some little white flowers in the back....I think lots are on the way! It helps when we get a few days of sunshine! I feel a little guilty when I hear of all the snow still falling in Minnesota! But we are still colder than Florida!!!!

Last week, we had an all mission conference in Dublin. It was wonderful to gather as a whole mission! We took the young elders with us for the two hour drive in the rain....When we got there Elder Kerr, an area authority was there and the announcement was made that the Scotland Mission and the Ireland Mission are being combined as of July 1, 2010! It will be the Scotland Ireland Mission and the mission home will be in Scotland. Right now Scotland has 5 stakes and Ireland has two stakes and a district. Elder Kerr said several other missions will be combined in the world....watch the church news next week! We are excited and hope that we will be able to serve in Scotland too, although my heart is in Ireland right now with the wonderful saints here. We enjoyed the day, especially visiting with our good friends the McDowells from the MTC.

It's always fun to be with the other missionaries in the field.

This is the mission office. It's on one side of the church parking lot. It's fun to go in and remember our mission office days in the MMM.

Last week was also Elder Watt's birthday. We had dinner at Fatima's. I found some cupcakes at the bakery and we had a little party. We love Elder Watt and will be sad when he is transferred. He is a great district leader and a good missionary.

We had district meeting at our house today and the Elders all stayed for lunch. Last week we started a FHE group with the single adults in the ward. It has been a good experience and we enjoy having them come to our home every Monday night. This week the Young single adults are also coming over for a little get together.

We are teaching a wonderful investigator, Roberta. She is amazing and loves everything we teach her. It great to see her find answers in the gospel that she has been searching for. She has been to church 3 weeks now and is reading the Book of Mormon.

Little miracles continue to happen each day as we look for the Lord's hand in our lives each day.

There was a sister just baptized in Belfast who was taught the gospel on the internet by the MTC missionaries! She showed up at church one Sunday and then started working with the missionaries here! That is the power of pass-along-cards!

We have now been on our mission for 10 of the 100 weeks! One tenth done....The time is going by quickly as we work hard and love the people here. (but we still miss home!)