December 26, 2011

And, we wonder why kids are afraid of Santa?

Belfast City Hall and International Market in foreground

Belfast City Hall

Belfast Harbour

We hope all of you had a very special Christmas and are looking forward to wonderful, healthy, happy, and richly blessed 2012!
Had some pretty sick grandchildren this week. :( Sage with a fever of 103 degrees and throwing up, (she's such a tiny little thing, we hate to see her so sick! She needs to keep her food down.) Gavin with a trip to emergency with a molar that died, was infected and needed to be extracted. Glad they were both all better for the holidays!
Found out about moves (transfers) today. We're grateful for the missionaries that will be staying on with us in this area and sad to see some move on. It amazes me how attached you get to these young elders and sisters in a very short time!
We went to Dublin Tuesday for an "All Ireland Zone Conference." We had a most enjoyable time together. There were around 66 of us there including President and Sister Griffiths - our mission president and his wife. We watched "17 Miracles" (which we hadn't had the opportunity of seeing before we got out here.) So touching and inspiring! Elder Blickenstaff was called out to help with the inspecting of cars and I was called out the last 20 minutes or so to help with wrapping presents for the missionaries who hadn't yet received presents from home. So we still haven't seen the whole movie. We had a very tasty lunch provided by the local Relief Society sisters and a very fun gift exchange. We heard many inspiring conversion stories from some of our missionaries who will shortly be going home. We had a reading of The Fourth Magi, which is a Griffiths family tradition, with the singing of Christmas hymns intermingled. It was a very enjoyable day. Sure wish we could do some of our traveling to and from places in the daylight over here. Traveling anywhere over here is beautiful, but it has to be daylight to get the benefit from it!
We had a very successful Institute Christmas dinner Wednesday. 49 YSA's, eight missionaries (including us), the stake presidency and their wives and the institute teachers were in attendance. We had Chinese take out. (That was a first for us. :D ) We had a great gift exchange where Elder Blick read a Left/Wright Story. What's that you ask? Well. . . go google it. It was a fun/funny way to get the gifts all mixed up. They had "great craic" with that. The rest of the night was Karaoke singing and just mixing and mingling. I LOVE THIS MISSION! We've been called to party, party, party!!!
We spent a couple of days with one of our elders keeping him company in the hospital. Nothing serious, he just needed to have a procedure done. He was only supposed to be in overnight, but the doctor never came back the next day to release him so he had to stay another night. I became best friends with his mother. ; ) I was their source of communication with each other and keeping her up with how things were going with him. I know how I would feel if I was so far away from any of my children and something of an emergency nature happened . . . Oh wait! That already happened with our son, Jason, when he broke both bones in his left leg not long ago . . .
We had a great Christmas Eve dinner with six missionaries here at our flat. Four that are in our district and two others that invited themselves along. ; ) We enjoyed visiting, eating a nice big meal and having Elder Blickenstaff read us the Christmas story from Luke Chapter 2, with the Joseph Smith translation added in to clarify. It's a tradition that we've done with our children for the last 34 years, so we are continuing it over here. Then we were off to a musical Christmas Eve program over at the Cavehill Ward building. Very wonderful program with much musical talent.
Christmas day was spent at a sacrament meeting at the Bangor building with the combined Bangor First and Second Wards. Great talks by both bishops there. One on Joseph, the earthly father of the Savior. Not much of anything is recorded about him, but we can only imagine what an amazing man he must have been to be trusted to be the guardian of the Son of God.
We spent the remainder of our Christmas day at a nice family Christmas dinner with the Nobles (institute teachers) and some of their children and grandchildren, a great gathering of around sixteen people. We finished off the festivities by facetiming (video-chatting) with 4 of our 5 kids.
There you have it! Our Christmas out in the mission field, "Norn Iron" style.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!
With much love, Sister Blickendinker

eejet - idiot
peelers - police
stick - cane
shattered - very tired
nye - now

From Worst to First

Merry Christmas to each of you from those of us fortunate enough to be spending this holiday season in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Last week was without doubt, the worst and best week of our mission, to date.

In 2003, we spent two wonderful weeks touring Scotland with my brother and his wife (Mike & Kristy Blickenstaff). One day on that tour, we stopped to go to the bathroom and found ourselves in the award winning 2002 Loo of the Year loo! It was so clean that Aunt Judy would be proud to serve Christmas Dinner on the floor. You could not have gotten a cleaner loo if you spent the next thirty days working it over for 10 hours a day with your tongue and a toothbrush.

I wish I had had access to the Loo of the Year last week because I could have used it to cheer myself up. I spent the better part of two days in the loo being as miserable as possible. At one point, I even opened up for business simultaneously on the toilet and in the sink. It was awesome! I had more fun than a tourist eating fruit in Guadalajara.

While all this enjoyment was playing out, my companion got me on a plane to Edinburgh, Scotland. When we arrived, I went to bed and didn’t get up until noon the next day. The 34 senior missionaries serving in the Scotland Ireland Mission congregated in the mission office for three days of training. 33 of them got up earlier than me and drove off north to visit a castle. My companion went with them and told me later I missed the most spectacular castle she had ever toured. This cheered me immensely but did nothing for my health.

I’m getting stomach cramps just thinking about this while I write this paragraph. Just this morning, I read in the Belfast Telegraph that Kim Jong-il passed away. I quote from the article, “Kim, who took over North Korea after his father Kim Il-sung died in 1994, ‘passed away from a great mental and physical strain’ during a train ride at 8:30 am on Saturday, the Korean Central News Agency said.”

Let me testify that I am a living witness to the fact that a great mental and physical strain will not kill you. It will, however, prolong your anguish in the loo, even if you are fortunate enough to be stationed in the Loo of the Year.

Anyway, eventually I began to venture out for longer periods of time and I did manage to attend and even participate in the senior missionary conference after missing the main cultural event at the castle.

The conference was wonderful. We were privileged to be visited by the couple in charge of supporting all YSA Centers in Europe. Their training was very helpful. Two of the Area Seventies in our mission also talked to us. Each of them touched our hearts, lifted our spirits and opened our vision. Our mission president taught and testified. The conference was uplifting, motivating, filling, energizing, visionary and just plain good. We loved everything and everyone.

We are so grateful to be serving here and we love the people. We enjoyed Scotland and the company of other missionaries our age (sort of). [Author’s Note: Sort of modifies their age, not our enjoyment of their company.] But we were happy to come back to Belfast Saturday night and climb into our own wee bed.

Sunday morning we got up and drove 45 minutes to attend sacrament meeting in a ward south of us. When we walked in, about 10 minutes before the meeting started, the bishop asked, “Are you our speakers today?”

“We weren’t planning on it, but we are here to do whatever you need,” I replied.

“Good,” he said. “You are our sacrament speakers today.”

And of course, we turned out to be good ones. An assigned high councilor did not show so we just stood up and preached the word just like we were in downtown Blanding!

The sermons were doctrinally correct and it was a lot more fun than sitting in the loo.

Elder Blickenstaff and his lovely companion

Picture Post!

A rip snortin' game of crab football (soccer).

Belfast Town Hall

Sister Blick with Gerry, the self acclaimed "number one best looking tourist attraction in Belfast." (Security guard at the lookout dome at Victoria Square.)

Belfast is the birthplace of the Titanic. "Built by Irishmen, sunk by an Englishman."

This is how we keep babies dry over here.

We had good craic!

December 11th

We had our first official episode of flat inspecting this week. We went to the abodes of two sets of elders. Their future wives would be proud at how well they cleaned their places for inspection. One thing we noticed about both places is that they are at least twice as big as our flat (and that works for me). I’m glad our place is small and very easy to keep up with. Elder Blickenstaff was a little jealous. He said these flats were nothing like the dives he lived in when he was on his first mission in Belgium.

We met up with the sister missionaries when we went to do our weekly attendance records at the YSA Center. They go there weekly to send out their weekly emails. When we were all done we took them to the city center, where we met up with 6 elders. It was their Preparation Day and it was decided that we would all go on a bus tour of Belfast. We got to see the Murals and the Peace Walls and learn a little bit about "The Troubles". Belfast has had its share of challenges down through the years. Our big challenge was that we darned near froze to death! The weather has taken a turn - much colder temperatures the day we decided to do this. It was a double-decker bus and we were upstairs. The back part was open, so the whole thing might as well have been open. It started out being 1 degree Celsius and got all the way up to 4 (that's 33-38 degrees Fahrenheit, with 90% humidity. That equals bone-chilling COLD! ! ! When we got off the bus we walked over to a McDonald's and got hot chocolate. Never was warming up needed so desperately!

My poor, dear companion has had some interesting health challenges in the short time we've been over here. He had a wee bit of an eye infection right off the bat . . . he came really close to his back going completely out on him . . . then he got a major crick in his neck . . . and just recently he came down with a cold and sore throat. Glad it didn't turn into strep! None of it has been that bad. It hasn't slowed us down a bit, but does make me wonder at this rate how long the poor old dear will hold up!?!

We will be having the opportunity of teaching a couple of institute courses starting in January to some of our YSA's that aren't able to attend the institute class on Wednesday nights. We have taken a survey and some have shown an interest in a Saturday morning class and a Thursday evening class. That will give several more of them an opportunity to attend. Elder Blickenstaff is anxious to teach and Sister Blickenstaff is anxious . . . to fix some refreshments for after class.

Got a great view and photos from a lookout dome at the Victoria Square shopping center. While we were up there we talked with Gerry. He told us that he's the #1 attraction in Belfast. They get over 10,000 people up there a week to look at the view and he's there quite a bit of that time and claims it's his good looks that's the attraction. ;-) He is quite the character! (Photo to come soon of this good-looking attraction!)

We had some extremely strong winds this week. There was one point when I wouldn't have been surprised if a cow flew past our window! No joke. Scotland had 165 mile an hour winds blow through. Lots of damage - trees down, power outages. Kind of reminded me of good old hurricane times in Houston. Needless to say, we hunkered down for that time period. We watched a good old Irish movie, Waking Ned Divine, had some popcorn and waited for things to “blow over.” It was almost like a real date.

We got to scope out St. George's Market Saturday. This is a large “farmers market” and is held every Friday, Saturday and Sunday in an old building downtown. They sell everything from fish to soap to crafts to bacon burgers (which is a bun, stuffed with bacon but no burger). We also want to the International Christmas Market. They have goods from all over the world for sale there. We bought some Old Farmers Cheese from Holland for the elder, and a winter hat for me.

Went to a stake Relief Society Christmas dinner and program. (Elder B. opted out of going to that. Go figure. :-/ )

Yesterday we went to the Newtownabbey Ward's (children's) Christmas party. We got to play a rousing game of "O'Grady Says" (more commonly known in the States as "Simon Says,") and "Musical Chairs." We spoke in their sacrament meeting today. After the meeting block we were invited to go over to the bishops home for dinner. They live out in the country in a really big old beautiful home high on a bluff overlooking the ocean. You can see Scotland out their living room windows. We ended our day by seeing a taped replay of the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional from last week. It was really good and we enjoyed it.

That's about it for this week. There hasn't been a whole lot going on over at the Centre because of various holiday programs and activities. It's beginning to look and feel a lot like Christmas around here!

You know the routine-

trolley - shopping cart

yous - you plural

torch - flashlight

dander - walk

good craic- (pronounced crack) - good fun

Sister Blickenstaff

'Senior Missionary of the Year'

Business: Our son, Joel emailed me a one-line summary of the BYU-Hawaii game: BYU was in the rear end kicking business and business was GOOD!

Now that we have conducted the business, herein follows some other stuff. So it does.

Top o’ the mornin’ to you. No one here actually says that, but I know you expect them to, so I am fulfilling your expectations, so I am.

Missionaries are divided into small groups for reporting and training purposes. For example, we are assigned to the Bangor District. Besides us, we have two young elders and two young sisters who are in our district. All of the districts in Northern Ireland form a zone. Our zone is called the Belfast Zone. In our zone, we have two senior couples and 18 young missionaries. Down south, in the Republic of Ireland, there are an additional two senior missionary couples and one set of older single sister missionaries. In Scotland, there are several more senior missionary couples. Remember this, as there will be a quiz later. So there will be.

We had a district meeting this past week. Our district leader is a young missionary from Utah. He is a great teacher and missionary. This does not bear on the story, but I just want you to know. There was another district having their meeting in the same building at the same time. Our zone leaders, who are both young elders from England were also there, to make sure the doctrine was pure. So they were.

We had a lovely (this is a great adjective used in Northern Ireland – everything that is good is either lovely or brilliant) doctrinal discussion about scripture study and some other stuff. At the conclusion of the meetings, all of the missionaries decided to go eat lunch together. We went to a Thai restaurant that offered a lovely lunch special for £6 (approximately $9.60 in Wasatch County money). As we waited for our food, the young missionaries were having a good time, as they are want to do on these occasions. The conversation turned somehow to one of them quoting Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. So it did.

The elder said, “I don’t know how to put this, but I’m kind of a big deal….People know me.”

After several seconds of silence, I said, “Do you have many leather-bound books?”

The entire group erupted into sustained laughter. One of the zone leaders, Elder Thomas, leaned over to me and said, “I think you have just won senior missionary of the year.”

I was delighted that they were delighted that an old guy like me even knew what they were talking about. It was lovely. So it was.

You are now asking yourself, “How can Elder Blickenstaff top this?” Well, I am glad you asked. Today Sister Blickenstaff and I drove about 10 miles south to the neighbouring city of Lisburn, where we attended church meetings with the Lisburn Ward. We had a lovely time and even met a lady who knew where Heber City is. Years ago she was an exchange student and attended high school in Evanston, Wyoming. Now I know that people from Heber City don’t always think about Evanston as a potential answer to the question, “What large city is Heber City near?” However, I recommend it should you be given the opportunity in the future. So I do.

Anyway, we really enjoyed the people and meetings. The testimonies were good and we felt honoured to be there. At the conclusion of the meeting block, we had a short discussion with the bishop about the YSA in his ward, who are really a great strength to our Centre. Finally, we were finished and headed out to the car park (a Northern Irish term for parking lot). So we did.

We punched up the address to our flat in the GPS and headed off. Now you might be asking yourself why didn’t we just retrace our route and just return back the way we came? Well, Mr. Know It All, it ain’t that simple! For one thing, the road we came on was closed. Now you might be asking yourself how did we come over on it if it was closed? Well, Mr. Know It All, we aren’t saying, just in case the NIPS (Northern Ireland Police Service) are monitoring this blog. Suffice it to say that we could not go back the way we came. Like many of life’s highways, once you make up your mind there is no turning back. So there is not.

The first three routes that our trusty GPS took us down all ended up in the same place, staring a ROAD CLOSED sign in the face. Finally, we just decided to drive off in some randomly selected direction and ignore the first several orders to turn. This decisive action eventually got us into a roundabout. For those of you who live in Utah and have never been to the state’s only roundabout in Park City, a roundabout is what they build in Europe to control traffic at an intersection instead of using traffic lights. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, where civilised people still drive on the left side of the road from the right side of the car and spell civilised with an s rather than a z, one always enters the roundabout turning left. You drive around the circle to the left until you come to the road you desire to exit onto and then you signal left, and turn right. Yes, for those of you who are still with me, you have to turn left to go right, but not until you have first signalled your intention to go right by turning on your left blinker. So you do.

[Note: in Belfast, it is quite common to add a wee 3 or 4 word sentence at the end of whatever it is about which you are talking. So it is. The addition is completely superfluous and adds no clarity or helpful information whatsoever. So it does not.

Anyway, after entering the roundabout, I became brain paralysed (which is correctly spelled here with an s) and could not decide where to exit. So we drove around the circle several times while we held a calm conversation about the probability of getting home. At one point, Sister Blickenstaff helpfully said, “I sure hope we get home before dark.”

After a good laugh, I just decided I should do the manly man thing – I closed my eyes and punched it. When I opened them, we were driving down a lovely country lane. About 6 miles later, we popped out on a road we recognised (can you tell I have British English turned on in me wee spell checker?) and had an otherwise uneventful drive home, arriving just before dark. It was brilliant. So it was.

Now, you may be asking yourself, “How in the world can you ever top that, Elder Blickenstaff?”

Well, I am glad you asked. I had a wee eye infection when I first arrived here. I had to go down and register with a local physician. The only doctor’s office we had seen was just a mile down the road so we went there. There was a lot of paper work so we decided to both sign up, in the even that Sister Blickenstaff might need to return at some point in the future with a malady. The nice lady helping us asked if I wanted a male doctor, which I did. She asked if Sister Blickenstaff wanted a female doctor, which she did.

So we are all set up and they asked us both to return and have an initial exam, just to make sure they had a baseline on us. We went back and it was all well and good. Until I started to read the handout they gave me about the medical practice. In the handout, I discovered two interesting facts:

1. By law they are only allowed to treat patients who live, “within four miles southeast and southwest of the office and three miles north.” In fact, they are the only doctors in that prescribed area. While we definitely qualify, I just thought it was an interesting restriction on their practice.
2. All of the physicians in this practice are gynecologists. This is the first time in my life that I can brag to my cousins, “My doctor is a gynecologist.”

If any of you run into any of our children, please encourage them to write; we miss them. So we do.

It’s lovely, so it is.

Elder Blickenstaff

Picture Post!

Belfast Castle Goat

Belfast Castle

YSA Soccer on Asphalt

Giants Causeway

Giants Causeway with Sisters Peterson and Oswald

Bap, Pram & Ice Lolly

We got to attend our first Zone Development meeting this past week with 20 of our younger constituents. Our Zone Leaders are such sharp elders. The rest of the day was their Preparation Day. They wanted to play a little football (soccer) in the car park (parking lot - asphalt no less!) I was praying that none of them were going to 'eat it.' We don't need any of them getting hurt. We then drove over to the Belfast Castle. Beautiful. It was built not too long ago. (1811-1870. We will include photos of it soon.) We went to Boojum for our weekly fix of a great Mexican burrito. We had such a great time with all these young elders and sisters.

Since we're here in potato country I just had to make us up a big batch of potato soup. I have to admit it turned out pretty tasty.

Learned how to do indexing from our sweet institute teacher, Sister Noble. I'm excited to start doing that. I can fill some of my spare day-time, since we are serving a night mission. Every thing we do with the YSA pretty much starts at 7:00-7:30 in the evenings and goes until 11:00-12:00 or later. On the upside of that we don't have to have our day begin at 6:30 like our counterparts do. For that I'm SO grateful! :D

With Christmas right around the corner I asked some of the YSA's if there was a fun souvenir shop or somewhere that I could find fun things that have a "local charm" about them somewhere here in Belfast. They recommended a place that we checked out right in downtown Belfast. They have the cutest things there and I do believe that it will be my 'one stop shopping spot' for all my Christmas needs this year!!!

We were invited to spend "American Thanksgiving" with our stake president and his wife and their two sweet daughters. They live in a beautiful home in the beautiful area of Bangor. They fixed us one fabulous feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, cooked carrots, green salad, gravy, corn on the cob, soda bread, yams, cranberry sauce . . . I brought a green bean casserole. They had a red, white and blue dessert for us. Raspberries, blueberries and whipped cream over carrot cake. Yum! They really went all out and it was so very kind of them to want us to have a nice Thanksgiving meal.

Later in the week we had a chance to go with President McCrudden and make a four hour drive to Limerick for a youth conference that the 14-18 year olds from the Belfast Stake were invited to. President has really taken us under his wing and wants us to be a part of the various things that are going on that involve his stake. We got to meet several of the future YSA's that will turn 18 this coming year and become young single adults and start attending the Centre. (I think President McCrudden enjoys having company on these long road trips he needs to take, and we appreciate being included.)

Today was YSA Church. We would love to have YSA Church every week, but these youth are needed for various positions in their home wards, so we get to have a great meeting block with them every other month. After our meetings we all eat a nice big meal and visit. I could talk and laugh with these youth for hours! Oh wait . . . I DO ! ! !

From the country that made tights possible. (Best invention EVER! Otherwise my wee legs would have frozen off by now!) Cheerio! Sister Blick

Again, the Irish slang for the week-

bap- bun or roll (like hamburger bun)
pram - stroller
sausengers- sausages
give way - yield
ice lolly - popsicle

Hello from Sunny Northern Ireland!

Just kidding. But we have been blessed with temperate weather with regards to temperature and the wee odd bit of sunshine now and again.

We had stake conference this weekend and it was marvelous. Best one we’ve been to yet (anywhere, not just in Northern Ireland). The talks were all encouraging and inviting; there was nothing said that was castigating. Much of what I heard was about how the gospel of Jesus Christ has changed lives and blessed families. It was very uplifting and energizing to me.

I also believe we are safe in saying that this is the first time in the History of the World that the name, “Blickenstaff” was mentioned in a stake conference in the U.K. And more than once!

First, I was sustained as a member of the high council.

Second, Sister Blickenstaff and I were mentioned by the stake president as the newly called missionary couple working with Young Single Adults in the stake.

Finally, Sister Blickenstaff was asked to offer the closing prayer in the Sunday session. When the stake president announced the prayer, he stated that she was the better half of the YSA Centre missionary couple. He said, “Elder Blickenstaff is ok too, but she is the better half.”

So there you have it, history in the making right before our very eyes!

I should mention that the prayer she offered was the best one of the conference. She sounded just like a General Authoritess (i.e. a female authority, of which she is one). She did a good job. I didn’t even have to lean over like Mark Adams did to me before I spoke in our Not A Farewell meeting in Heber City and remind her not to embarrass the family. Seriously, it was a wonderful prayer and I am proud of her.

We also discovered this week that we are serving with two missionaries who know some of our relatives. A sister from downtown Mona is serving in Dublin. She was in Belfast for a couple of days and we took the sisters to meet Finn McCool at the Giant’s Causeway. En route, we found out that she knows Taylor and went to high school with her. Sister Blickenstaff told her that Taylor was my sister’s daughter. I am a bit slow, but I am not that inattentive at family reunions so I piped up and opined that she was not my sister’s daughter. Sister Blickenstaff said that I was incorrect but when I said, “Taylor’s mother is my sister’s daughter," my dear companion made another historical first by admitting that I was right. This admittance is the first such case in the 35 years we have been married and I recorded it in my journal as it is likely to be the last.

Then this afternoon, we found an Elder James, from Lindon Utah, serving in a different area than us in Belfast. He told us that he knew MaCee and MaKell from high school and liked them. Naturally, anyone who likes our relatives is automatically liked back by us and we told him so.

Besides meeting people who know some Blickenstaffs, we both enjoyed a quick trip to Dublin, Ireland with our stake president last Friday, to attend a meeting there and spend some time with two senior missionary couples getting ready to leave for home. One couple has been the Dublin CfYA couple and the other couple are employment missionaries. The employment couple is from Raymond, Alberta, Canada and know the Redds there, as well as my first companion from my first mission.

It’s like Old Home Week here (look it up on Wikipedia). You can’t ever get far enough away in the world that you can’t connect back to Blanding.

My last item of bidness is to report the broken tibia and fibula on one of the only two legs that our son Jason has in this world. He was playing football (European, not American) and came down wrong. He is now sporting a new piece of hardware and, if I can count correctly on the X-ray, 14 screws just above his ankle. He had surgery and is now back in his apartment in charge of nursing himself back to health. We are thankful that it wasn’t worse, grateful that it didn’t happen to us, sorry that it happened to him and sad that we can’t be there to mother (and father) him a wee bit. Get well soon, son.

Which reminds me, the other day I accidentally told our GPS to take us Home. It came up with the message that Home was 4,555 miles away and was computing the quickest driving route to take us there. For about 3 seconds I thought about being home and then I canceled the trip and found a closer destination that was only 5 miles away.

We love you more than all the red licorice in the world.

Elder Blickenstaff

********************

Hmmmmm . . . . This week?

We are loving our brisk, blustery, almost daily fall walks near Shaw's Bridge. The trails for walking, jogging, biking . . . are so lush and beautiful. We also did more exploring of the Antrim Coast. This time we took the sister missionaries along. They enjoyed getting out and seeing some of the sights on their preparation day. They have heard about the Giants Causeway for many months and finally got to see it themselves.

We went to Dublin to talk with a couple of senior couples that will be going home within the month and no couples scheduled to come in to replace them. We wanted to check out how they were handling their Seminaries & Institutes and Employment areas. We might start doing Employment Workshops. There is a real problem with unemployment over here. (It's everywhere.) So many of our young singles are qualified to get much higher paying jobs but they're only able to get jobs that are minimum wage, and those are the lucky ones! Work is scarce, and the welfare program over here pays more than many of the jobs do.

A news update from home - We found out that when Jason was playing soccer he broke two bones in his leg and needed to have surgery . . . I hate it when things like this happen and we're not around to be any comfort or help whatsoever. Now he's sporting some metal plates and needing to take it really easy for the next six weeks or more. Ouch!!!

We're enjoying every minute we spend with the YSA. We got to teach them about the importance of keeping a journal for home evening. We had a great discussion and one of them who has only been a member for a little over 6 months is very excited about getting a journal and getting started. (Wish we lived by a Deseret Book Store and I would have picked one up for him myself!) Another has decided that his laptop is the way he wants to start keeping his and showed me one of his journal entries a couple of days later when he wrote about a car accident he had just had on the way to the Centre! Kind of wish he had happier things to write about, but he was all excited about recording that experience to look back on later. I really didn't think that a home evening lesson on keeping records to a bunch of young men would have gone over so well. It was great! They're great!

We just finished I believe the most spirit filled stake conference weekend I've ever been to in my entire life! Absolutely amazing. The talks, testimonies and music shared were 'lovely.' We got another invitation to go to the temple with the youth of one of our wards here in the stake. An invitation to speak in one of the wards. (And so it begins . . . The first of MANY talks that we'll give!) We have plans to spend our 'American Thanksgiving' with our stake president and his family. President McCrudden says his wife 'makes a lovely pumpkin pie.' : )

We hope you enjoy a very warm, family-filled, 'count your many blessings' Thanksgiving weekend.

Northern Irish Slang lesson for this week-

gobsmacked - surprised
brilliant- excellent, first class
travelator - escalator
rashers - bacon slices
windscreen - windshield

We're thankful for YOU!

Sister B

Fall is in the air

Awesome School Bus

Now THAT'S Fish 'n Chips

Ballintoy Harbor

Whitepark Bay

Giants Causeway

Dunluce Castle

What a beautiful country! These pictures look like they belong in a magazine! Thanks for sharing Elder and Sister Blickenstaff!

Cooker, Hob, Chips, Crisps, Roasties and Tea

Some observations.

This week, for your edification and further tutelage, I offer some of my observations, now that we have been “on Island” for almost four weeks (which makes us practically experts, having that San Juan County Redd blood that does not inhibit our opinions of our opinions, etc.).

• It rains a lot
• The countryside is beautiful and green (see previous)
• The roads are extremely narrow
• Drivers are extremely friendly
• Northern Ireland is not to be used interchangeably with Ireland – two different countries
• There is no way you could ever drive at the speed limit on most roads in Northern Ireland
• People are extremely polite
• Potato chips are called crisps
• Some crisps are meat flavored (I am not making this up – there are beef, chicken, and bacon flavored crisps, as well as shrimp – there is also balsamic vinegar, malt vinegar, cheese and onion, and extra salty)
• French fries are called chips and you can eat them with ketchup, mustard, BBQ sauce, mayo, salad crème, chili, malt vinegar or, if you must, plain
• If you ask for salt on your chips, you get more salt than you’ve had in the last year
• Chips (if you are confused, I am talking about fries) are often served with pizza
• We go grocery shopping about every 3 days (or more often if we want to eat food with our meals)
• Fresh food in the grocery stores does not have preservatives added, so everything expires within a few days of when it is placed on the shelf for sale
• The selection of cheese is awesome!
• Store-bought bread is good
• We were told they did not have good peanut butter but that is a lie to keep you from visiting – On my first try, I found peanut butter that Jason would eat (Jason and I share a high standard for peanut butter)
• I just read that a study here indicated people who eat pickle and cheese sandwiches are more likely to be intelligent
• Dinner is called tea
• Potatoes are served at tea
• Multiple variations of potatoes are served at the same tea – for example, mashed with roasted, mashed with boiled or roasted with boiled
• Roasted potatoes are called roasties
• Mashed potatoes with scallions are called champ
• I am called Elder
• There is no concept of a city block. I am simply told, “We don’t have ‘em.”
• Dish towels are called tea towels – they are used but not eaten
• Ovens are cookers and stove tops are hobs
• No one we have met has a long or difficult to spell or pronounce last name, like ours
• Everything costs more
• The single largest expense we have in a month is diesel for the car
• You cannot cash a check that someone else has written to you (you can deposit it, but you cannot cash it for currency)
• Bank deposits are made by sticking your cash and checks into a machine where the coins and bills are counted and the checks are electronically scanned and printed on your receipt for credit at a later date (after a bank employee looks at the check and decides whether or not it is legit)
• Credit and debit cards are not swiped; instead the cards have an electronic chip imbedded in the card and is used with a PIN code. Therefore you insert the card into a reader and enter your PIN, then pull the card out. We have actually had to show a cashier how to swipe our US card before we got all sophisticated and obtained a chip & pin card from our local Northern Ireland bank.
• Hot salsa is not
• Mild salsa is
• Traffic lights turn yellow to warn you they are about to turn green
• Not nearly as many cyclists as I had imagined
• No cyclists my age; they are all young men
• No women cyclists (Since my fist draft of this post, I did actually see a lady riding a bicycle)
• No way would I ever ride here – I would be endangering my entire body and my life
• Washers do
• Dryers don’t
• Iron-free shirts must be ironed because dryers don’t (dry – they don’t iron either)
• The Church is the same here as anywhere we have been
• We are having a great time
• Our YSA activities usually crank up around 9 and go like ninety until midnight
• Our YSA had never had an oatmeal cookie until my companion made them (the cookies, not the YSA) but we could not tell if they liked them
• Our YSA had never had rice crispy treats until my companion made them (the treats, not the YSA) and we could tell they loved them
• We are older than we used to be and we feel even older than that
• We have a new granddaughter who was born on 11.11.11 at 1:00 pm – Her dad, Joel, says they ran out of ones or they would have waited 11 minutes
• No one is Belfast seems to have ever heard of Blanding – what’s up with that?
• My companion and I have good craic (look it up in Wikipedia)

CFNI (Cheerio from Northern Ireland)

Elder Blickenstaff

********************

To start off the week Elder Blick went to register for Surgery. No it's not like it sounds. That's their term for registering for a doctor. Good to do that so if one is ever needed, you're all registered and ready to go with one of your choosing.

We both went to a bishops training meeting. Our stake president wanted us to meet all the bishops in the stake and what better time to do it than at bishops training! Needless to say, I felt a wee bit out numbered! The next night we both went back to the stake center to a stake council meeting. Elder Blick has been called to serve on the high council over the YSA and the Newtownabbey Ward.

We wandered around Belfast City Hall. A very beautiful old building!

Met a Northern Irish Gentleman on one of our walks. He was 82 years old. We said 'Hello' to each other, he commented about the sunshine and then a bit about himself. He was delightful. He gave us a couple of religious pamphlets (and here WE are the missionaries!) We talked for about an hour. He bore his testimony about how there is someone greater that us (and he would point up) that is in control of things. We talked for a good hour. Such a sweet man. I ran to our car when we got back to the parking lot and grabbed a Book of Mormon. We bore our testimonies about it. We explained that it is another testament of Jesus Christ, where it came from and about Joseph Smith . . . We wrote down our names and phone number on the inside of the book and gave to him, challenging him to read it. It was such a neat experience, I was so touched by his sweet spirit. He's a widower and my heart goes out to him. I just wanted to bring him home with us.

I went out with the sister missionaries two days In a row this week. The first day rained and rained and rained. We got drenched! We got stood up. We went to a members house and practiced the lesson on the Restoration on her. She gave us hot chocolate for which we were ever so grateful!!! The next day was cold, but sunny. After confirming an appointment with another YSA investigator we were again stood up. We did speak with this young mans grandfather. He was SO incredibly hard to understand! Holy makeral! Luckily the sisters could understand him, and so was I the longer I was around him to get the gist of what he was saying.

The highlight of this week is that Joel and April had their little girl, Abigail Joanne on 11/11/11 at 1:00. (Joel said they ran out of 1's!!!) 7 pounds 3 ounces. Everything went well for both mother and baby, for which we are so grateful! She's a cutie! Thank goodness for email!

We went to the Newtownabbey ( pronounced Newton Abbey) Ward. We were asked to bear our testimonies. There were only 37 people in Sacrament Meeting, 8 in Relief Society, and that included the teacher! They are small in numbers but so strong in spirit! You can imagine how often your turn would come around for speaking in church, or doing anything in the ward for that matter. Needless to say, the bishop did ask us to speak in December.

It's tradition here at the center for the YSA's to have the senior missionary couple get up and talk about themselves in a 'Getting to Know You' Fireside, so that's what we did last night. They enjoyed hearing that I had broken my arm two weeks before we got married ( so that means I was married with a cast on my right arm.) That I dated two of Elder Blick's cousins before I met him and said, "I give up! I must be suppose to marry into this family!" And that I kept from laughing out loud when I was introduced to him because the guy that was doing the introducing pronounced 'Blickenstaff' even funnier than the name actually is, and now it's been my name too for the last 35 years! The Rice Krispie Treats we brought were a big hit.

Your Irish slang lesson for the week . . .

sweets - candy
boot - trunk of car
da - dad/father
dummy - pacifier
holliers - holidays/vacations

. . . And thus ends another week on the Emerald Isle.

Love to all,

Sister Blickenstaff

Hey, those that I love!

Halloween is celebrated here pretty much like it's celebrated in the U.S. (The origins are from Ireland. It was an "ancient Celtic festival" don't ya know? :D )

Our support team went home this week. (The Holts, whom we're replacing). We're glad our paths crossed and that they were able to show us some of what our responsibilities are here at the Youth Center. But now we're on our own! Wish us luck!

We had our first district meeting this past week. There are only 6 of us in our district, Sister Chichoni, Sister Oswald, Elder Beal, Elder Sutherland, Elder Blick and me. What a great little bunch of sharp missionaries. (Them, not necessarily us.) Elder Beal taught us how to be successful missionaries. We reviewed 'The 4th Missionary' presentation that President Griffith's presented to us last week. He also taught using 'Preach My Gospel.' What an amazing manual that is!

We got a major hankering for some Mexican food this week. We heard from some of the young singles that the missionaries love a place in downtown Belfast called Boojum's. (not your typical Mexican sounding place. Don't know how they came up with that name) . . . Anyway, we both enjoyed a HUMONGOUS burrito, and we were both a little surprised . . . It was darned good Mexican food!

I'm loving my gospel study time each day. I'm studying Preach My Gospel in depth, memorizing/re-memorizing scriptures, studying the conference issue of the Ensign, studying the Book of Mormon with the attitude, "So what?" "Why was that recorded?" "What was the message these prophets were trying to get across?" I love the scriptures they give me such strength and comfort!

Weekly we go to a leadership training institute class taught by our stake president. He works for the seminary and institute program in this area. He's a great teacher. He has a great love for the young singles and it shows. It's good that he feels so strongly for them. That helps us out tremendously. Anything we want for them he's all for.

We go for daily walks. Since Elder Blickenstaff goes with me we don't get near as lost as when I have gone by myself. We make our way through a quaint little neighborhood up on a hill and walk laps around a soccer field next to a Primary (Elementary) School and have quite a beautiful view of Belfast and the harbor. (I keep forgetting my camera to get some shots from up there.) It's quite lovely from up there.

Went to a stake variety show. Amazing talents in this Belfast Stake. From a drum solo, to dancing, to piano, to comedians, to singing . . . Very entertaining and also for a good cause, partly asking for donations to help out with cancer research. To top it off we had scones with icing and jam for refreshments. It was grand!

We did some very fun sightseeing up through the Antrim Coast. We couldn't have hand picked a more beautiful day to see some beautiful sights. Stopped at the East strand on the Causeway Coastal Route, wandered around Portrush, stopped to see the remains of Dunluce Castle (built between the 15th & 17th centuries.) Went to the Giants Causeway- Very unique cracked lava that creates columns. Quite picturesque next to the ocean. Drove by Dunsverick Castle, then on to the town of Ballycastle where we had a great dinner of fish and chips. (The biggest portion of fish and chips I've ever seen!) Could have, and should have shared just one order!

Took an hour and forty five minute drive one way up to Londonderry to have a fireside with 3 YSA's from up there. Brought 7 from around here (Belfast). Had a great discussion on Personal Revelation. Just lovin' these YSA's!!!

Thus ends another week!

I'm trying to bone up on my Irish slang.
Thought I'd share a wee bit of it with you.

"bucketing" - raining heavily
"cake hole" - mouth
"cheesed off"- angry/annoyed
"cooker" - stove
"crisps" - potato chips

Love to all!
Sister B.

October 29, 2011 – Saturday

Today it rained. But not while I was outside, which I count as a great blessing.

Day 2 of the Belfast YSA Convention started at the Centre. We had about 90 YSA, divided up into groups for service projects. One group went out to pick up litter. Another group went out with the full-time missionaries (the young ones) to street contact. Another group made blankets for a humanitarian project. Our last group wrapped shoeboxes with Christmas wrapping. Later in the year, we will fill those boxes with items to be delivered to the soldiers from Northern Ireland who are fighting in the War Against Terror in the Middle East.

The service was all happily contributed. The street contacting group placed several copies of the Book of Mormon. They came back charged up and ready to proselyte. The YSA each made their own lunch, from food items we brought in to the Centre. After lunch, they divided into two groups to play. One group went to a water park and the other went to race go-carts. They came back for pizza and chips (french fries) and then all went out to disco roller skate.

We spent the day in the Centre, cleaning up after each feed and getting the building ready for Sabbath services tomorrow. It was a long day and Sister Blickenstaff did not get much to eat. I, on the other hand, had about 2 pounds of chips. I tried them with mustard, vinegar and U.K. ketchup. Of those three choices, mustard was definitely the best.

We change from British Summer Time tonight, so I am celebrating by eating some Henry Goode’s Soft Eating Licorice. Outside they are setting of fireworks. I don’t know if that is because we are going off of British Summer Time, or if they are celebrating Halloween two days early, or if the general populace is just thrilled that I am eating Henry Goode’s Soft Eating Licorice.

Also, we just got a phone call from our Zone Leaders, reminding all missionaries not to cold call or street contact on Halloween. We don’t need to get missionary efforts confused with a Trick or Treat visit. This good counsel did not change our plans as we will be closing up shop after the final day of our YSA Belfast 2011 Convention.

October 30, 2011 – Sunday

Today it rained. But it was before we got up this morning.

There is no way to describe today. We just had a marvelous spiritual feast. We had between 90 and a hundred people in our YSA sacrament meeting this morning. As we began to sing the opening song, I felt the power and enthusiasm of those young people singing. The Holy Spirit witnessed to me that God loved those young souls and that it was a privilege for us to be there.

The Holt’s gave their final sacrament meeting talks as missionaries. We were asked to share our testimonies. I shared my experience with the Spirit from the opening hymn. Sister Blickenstaff shared that she was a convert and talked about understanding the challenges of new members. She expressed how grateful we both are to be serving in Northern Ireland. President & Sister Boyd spoke. He talked about his addiction to playing with Legos. He compared building with Legos to our lives. We are each like a unique Lego block that God needs to build the perfect kingdom. President McCrudden spoke powerfully about how much the Lord loves us.

After the meeting the Stake President told Sister Blickenstaff how much he appreciated what she shared in her testimony. He said that mine was ok, but hers was wonderful.

Sister Blickenstaff and I taught Sunday School. We had asked the YSA to write down any gospel questions they may have when they registered on Friday night. We drew from those questions and answered 5 or 6 of them from the scriptures. We took turns and I thought it went quite well. At least no one threw anything at us or booed.

President and Sister McCrudden taught the joint third hour meeting. He shared video of a talk by Elder Holland about moving out of St. George to go to school as a young married father. He also played video of remarks by Elder Cook entitled, “Hope ya know we’re having a hard time.”

I really enjoyed the meeting block. We then fed about 120 people, counting the adults, in two shifts. After we fed everyone else, we ate. Then I did dishes for many hours (probably about 1 in actual counting time) while Sister Blickenstaff talked with several of the young ladies about their conversion experiences.

At 5:00 pm we reconvened for a fireside. Our mission president and his wife were the speakers. They opened it up for questions and got some good ones. We broke from that about 6:30 pm and fed them all again. Following that meal, we held a testimony meeting. It started at 7:45 and went for two hours. It was one if the best meetings I have ever attended. We had YSA from Northern Ireland, The Republic, Scotland, Wales, England, Sweden, Finland, Brazil, Botswana, Australia and the US share their testimonies. Each one was precious. After the meeting, I felt impressed to visit with two YSA from China. They both joined the Church as students in Edinburgh. One has been a member for 18 months, the other for two months. Both will return to China at the conclusion of their studies. They told me they could practice their religion after they go home but they are not allowed to teach it to others. It is ok for them to join the Church when they are out of the country, but if someone wants to get baptized in China, they can’t; they have to go to Hong Kong to get baptized. When I asked if their parents knew they were LDS, they both said yes, but that their parents did not understand. Not many people in China have even heard of Jesus Christ so it was difficult to tell their parents about the gospel. They told me that there were about 60 YSA in Edinburgh, one third of which are Chinese. When I said, “Americans don’t like English food,” one of them touched me on the arm and said, “Nobody likes English food.” They were very cute and we had a wonderful conversation with them. They invited us to come to their flat and they would cook some real Chinese food for us that was not boring.

We had a great, full day. We had to kick them out of the building at midnight.

October 31, 2011 – Monday

Today it rained. But it was before we got up this morning.

Today is the last day of Convention. It was a day for the YSA to hang out and chill and eat leftovers. It is obvious that none of them actually wanted to leave. They enjoyed the opportunity to be with one another, to laugh, to share, to give and to receive strength.

We spent the day at the Centre just enjoying their company.

Tonight Sister Blickenstaff taught Family Home Evening. We had 10 YSA attend, which is 7 more than the previous world record! We talked about the importance of keeping a journal. I thought the lesson was great. She seemed very much at ease and enjoyed the opportunity to teach. I am grateful that I felt inspired to restart my journaling when we entered the MTC. I know that when we take the time to record things in our journal, the Lord can use that opportunity to reveal something to us about the events we are recording that we would not otherwise know. It is one of the ways we can make ourselves open for receiving personal revelation. The Lord will share insights with us that we could not otherwise gain when we take a few moments to reflect on what to record about an event, meeting, feeling, decision, etc.

The YSA told us tonight about some of their Halloween traditions. Apparently, Halloween is a much more celebrated thing in England. They told us when they were children they had to recite a little rhyme at the door in order to get a sweet or money. They didn’t just say, “Trick or Treat.” Fireworks are always part of the celebration. They also told us it was a good night for missionaries to be indoors, as women in Belfast often dress scantily for the evening. We enjoyed having a good, safe place to spend Halloween!

I was asked to give a priesthood blessing to one of the YSA, Rachel White. It was a sweet experience and I was glad to be asked.

After we got home, around 9:00 pm, the Holts presented us with one last multi-armload haul of gifts. They gave us food, cleaning supplies, a vacuum, a duvet (combination bedspread comforter), floor mat, envelopes and oatmeal. They have been as kind as people could be, welcomed us lovingly and helped us learn as much as we could in the few days we overlapped with them. They leave us nervous but determined to carry on and build on what they have accomplished here at the YSA Centre. We cannot replace them, because we are different people than they are. But we can build on what they have done and with the Lord’s help, perhaps we can reach out and touch someone by just loving them and caring about their lives. We are so appreciative of the opportunity to serve a mission together. Although we do not feel qualified, we are somewhat comforted in knowing that no one is ever qualified for any calling when they are called. Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies, in time and after they have done all that they can do to rise to the call. One thing I know we will no have any difficulty in doing, is loving the YSA. We have already mastered that.

November 1, 2011 – Tuesday

We attended District Meeting, but only because Sister Chichoni called us this morning and asked for a lift. We had totally forgotten about it and were thankful for the reminder or we would have missed. Elder Beal, our district leader, taught us about the importance of personal scripture study. He challenged us to read Chapter 2 of Preach My Gospel and identify 3 things we could apply to our own scripture study before next district meeting. It was an uplifting meeting and I am thankful I was able to attend.

We took another attempt this afternoon at figuring out how to use our washer. It took us three cycles to get my white shirts white. This machine is not very forgiving. When you select the washing cycle and press the Start button, there is no going back. You cannot cancel a cycle or push a ReDo button. You can turn the machine off, but when you turn it back on, you are resuming whatever cycle you originally selected. It is too bad for you if you select the wrong cycle by accident. The only way you can get out of your original cycle is to finish the course.

Tonight, we attended Institute, with President McCrudden teaching. We had five YSA attend and we had a good discussion. It was a good evening. Rachel White was there and indicated she felt better since she received the blessing.

November 2, 2011 – Wednesday

It didn’t rain today, until tonight.

When I asked our stake president where I could find a notary, he told me that in Northern Ireland, certain public officials are empowered to notarize documents. Public officials include police officers, lawyers, judges, ministers and others. He said that as stake president, he was officially recognized as a minister and as such he could notarize documents. He said I could go get it notarized by a lawyer for £100 but he would notarize it for free. I know a deal when I see one, so I pulled out the Quitclaim Deed I had received from Mom’s attorney and signed it. President McCrudden then notarized it. Sister Blick and I then drove to a wee post office in the back of a convenience store and sent it off to America (assuming Monticello is still part of the Union) for £.76 or $1.22 (I don’t know how much it is in Confederate money).

Sister Chochoni, one of the sister missionaries, asked me to give her a blessing this afternoon. I don’t know what she is dealing with, but we experienced a sweet , calming influence from the Holy Ghost and Sister Chochoni seemed grateful for the words of comfort.

After a bite o’ supper we went to the Centre for Institute. We had a nice turnout of almost 30 YSA. I was also asked to give another blessing; this one to one of our YSA, Jared D’Hulst. It is nice to be asked for a blessing, as that is how we obtain the opportunity to use the priesthood.

November 3, 2011 – Thursday

Today was a day to catch up a bit. We did some laundry; it seemed like a dump truck load to me. We did some grocery shopping at Tesco. We also printed some photos that Sister Blickenstaff took of the YSA during Convention.

We then drove downtown to find Boojum, a Mexican burrito place that came highly recommended by Ryan Rodwell, one of the YSA who is a connoisseur of fine take-away. He said, “Elder Blickenstaff, Boojum makes the best Mexican food on the island.” With an introduction like that, we needed to run a personal test.

We found Boojum with our trusty Sat Nav, but what we did not find was a place to park. The area was quite close to Queen’s University and so we saw a lot of young people in the area. We drove past the place and made a few turns and eventually, found one parking spot left. It was on the left side of the road, and required me to parallel park from over there on the right side of the car. I am not very good at parking yet, so I had to run up over the curb and park with one wheel on the sidewalk to make things work out.

Eventually, we got out and found we were parked right under a sign that said,

Ticket Zone

Mon – Fri

8:00 am – 6:00 pm

4 hours

No return within 1 hour

Well, we are dumb Americans so we decided that this sign meant that you could park here for 4 hours between 8 and 6, but you had to park for a minimum of 1 hour or you would get a ticket. I remarked that it seemed like a dumb sign to me and that they shouldn’t ticket you if you only parked for 30 minutes. We locked our car and went happily on our way.

There was a long line of students waiting out the door at Boojum, so we knew it was going to be good. After all, there’s a line. It took us about 20 minutes to work our way to the counter. Boojum turns out to be a great little Mexican food place. They offered burritos, “fajita” burritos, tacos, filling in a bowl and salad (why can’t we ever have a salad our something). Sister Blickenstaff ordered a burrito and I ordered a fajita burrito. The only difference between the two is the burrito is served with your choice of black or pinto beans while the fajita style has no beans but is served with grilled peppers and onions. Both came with white rice with a little cilantro (as little as possible so that Cathie Miller would be happy, although I doubt she has any plans to come to Northern Ireland anytime soon), salsa, chicken, beef or pork, picante sauce and some kind of cheese. When we sat down at a little table in the back, we were both delighted. Boojum makes a great burrito! We enjoyed every bite, after which my companion said that she had not had Mexican food for over a month and she was pretty happy with her lunch.

As we walked outside, for some reason it suddenly dawned on me that I had misinterpreted the parking sign back at the car. I had an epiphany, no doubt fueled by a good burrito. What the sign actually meant was that I needed to walk to a parking ticket machine and purchase a ticket to display on my dashboard, proving that I was authorized to park there for up to 4 hours! After 4 hours you have to drive away for at least one hour before you can re-park for 4 more hours. We quickened our pace and quickly regained the parked car. No ticket on the windshield but perhaps in Northern Ireland you just get a ticket in the mail, which is how they process moving violations. We don’t yet know if we lucked out or not. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the magic beans in the burrito will protect us from the parking mistake of two dumb, but now slightly smarter, Americans.

November 4, 2011 – Friday

We got up and went for a walk today. It was sunny and warm and wonderful.

We did a bit of shopping and then went to a doctor’s appointment for Jennifer (just a get-to-know-you appointment as we are being admitted to this particular surgery). They are only allowed to treat patients that live in a specific geographic area. Their office brochure says, “We are able to treat patients who live within four miles southeast and southwest of the main surgery and three miles north.” It is called the Mount Oriel Medical Centre.

The YSA Centre was closed tonight, in support of a stake variety show that was raising money for cancer research in Northern Ireland. It was very good. The talent was remarkable and we enjoyed ourselves very much.

As were introducing ourselves to some of the members, a man told us that his name was Brother Reid. He serves on the high council and welcomed us to the country. He asked where were from. Since almost every American missionary is from Utah, we’ve been answering that question by saying that we are from Texas. When I said that to Brother Reid, he asked, “You don’t happen to know any Redds from Texas, do you?

I said, “I know all the Redds in Texas; I am a Redd.”

His eyes opened wide and he asked, “Do you know John Redd?”

I said, “Not only do I know him, but he is my cousin.”

Brother Reid told me that Elder Redd was his favorite missionary companion but he had lost touch with him. He said, “Tell Elder Redd that you have found the leprechaun and he is well and active.”

Then he asked me if Elder Redd was still active in the Church. I had a spell of family amnesia and thought we were talking about Rob Adams so I said, “I’m not sure, but I am going to find out.”

Anyway, I hope I can reconnect Brother Reid with Brother Redd, that Rob Adams is still active in the Church, and that there is actually a pot o’ gold in the vicinity of this leprechaun.

November 5, 2011 – Saturday

Today was our first opportunity to do just a wee bit of sightseeing in Northern Ireland. We drove up to Portrush, on the north Antrim coast. It is a small town at the end of a peninsula jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean. It was a cold day, about 6C when we started out. It was quite foggy early this morning in Belfast, but the fog had given way to sunshine as we got into the car.

Driving north, we drove into a fog bank and thought that perhaps our day would not turn out as we hoped. However, we soon drove out of the fog, back into the sunlight. It turned out to be a glorious day. We parked the car in Portrush and walked along the beach. In spite of the temperature, people were surfing and playing in the water. Of course they were all wearing wet suits.

After making our way along the strand and then down the little main street, we got back in the car and drove about 3 miles east along the coast to the remains of a castle. It was built in the 13^th century and is called Dunluce Castle. It became the stronghold of Sorley Boy MacDonnell and his clansmen. Sorley Boy means “Yellow Charles” in Irish. The English ran Sorley Boy out of the castle in 1584 but he came back a few days later, hauled his men up the cliff in a basket during the night, annihilated the English garrison and reclaimed his castle. Everything was cool for half a century, but in 1639 a great storm swept the castle’s kitchen off the cliff top, along with seven cooks and the dinner they were preparing. War is one thing, but losing your cooks and your dinner is entirely another matter. The MacDonnells moved to a less precarious residence and abandoned Dunluce. The extensive ruins sat there until 2011 when they were visited by a couple of wee missionaries from Heber City and now you know the rest of the story.

We continued east and drove to the Giant’s Causeway. The Causeway is a World Heritage Site due to the unique nature of its geology. The site is composed of about 40,000 uniformly shaped basalt columns packed closely together as if to form a giant stepping stone pathway stretching out of the sea. Years, ago, way before Randy Thorn was admitted to dental school, cooling and shrinking lava formed the columns. Most of them are hexagons. Legend says that the Irish giant, Finn MacCool (I am not making this up – is that a cool name or what?), created the Giant’s Causeway (probably using a MacBook Air). We enjoyed walking to, on and around the Causeway.

From here, we drove on a few miles to a very unique and dramatic, small harbor at Ballintoy. From here, we could see Carrick-a-Rede, a rope swing that connects the main island with a smaller one, Whitepark Bay and Rathlin Island, where Robert the Bruce took refuge in 1306 after his defeat by the English. On this island, according to legend, he was inspired by the efforts of a spider to repeatedly reach the roof of a cave. He is supposed to have formulated the apothegm (look it up) “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” He did try again, returning to Scotland and defeating the English in the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. But that is a story for another day.

We drove on into Ballycastle, where we found neither a Bally nor a castle. But by this time it was getting dark and we were getting hungry, having had only a Northern Irish Greek Yoghurt early this morning. We parked, found out we were in a Ticket Zone and parked again where we were not. We walked around the main street for a while and decided it was time for fish and chips. We went into a little place and ordered two fish and chip meals, which turned out to be enough food to sustain the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on Conference weekend. The fish was a huge slab of white fish and the chips were a zackly enough to fill a small wheelbarrow. And I am not talking about a zackly, I am talking, precisely “a zackly.”

Forty-five minutes later, we wallowed out into the evening air and rolled down the hill in the general direction of the car. This little snack set us back £11.70 or about $18.72 (13.05 Euro, 18.05 Canadian, 1,511.12 Yen, 522.84 Rubles or 1,493.95 MSPT – Microsoft Points – the currency of Xbox Live Marketplace). In LDS dollars, it was about 20% of the cost of filling up the diesel tank on our mission car. Let me explain that. Diesel is running £1.40 per litre, or £5.30 per gallon, which is $8.46 per gallon. This means it costs me about $101.52 to put 12 gallons of diesel in the car, which would buy me approximately 10 orders of fish and chips, which would be enough to feed my companion and I for 40 days and 40 nights. I assume that Noah ordered about $100 worth of fish and chips when it started to rain and it lasted him until the weather cleared up again. He didn't need no stinking diesel. This is the gospel according to John (Blickenstaff).

Anyway, we eventually made it back to Belfast and actually home before Guy Fawkes impersonators started trying to blow up Parliament again. Remember, remember, the fifth of November (circa 1605). But that is a story for another day.

Tune in next week for more fun European history facts.

November 6, 2011 – Sunday

Today we made our first visit to Bangor, NI. It was a beautiful drive to the building and we enjoyed the meeting block. As I listened to the testimonies, I realized that these members were testifying of the same truths that members would be testifying of in Heber City or Humble or downtown Blanding. I felt the spirit and sincere gratitude from these saints for the blessings granted them by becoming acquainted with the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

After the meetings, Brother & Sister Noble invited us to dinner. They are the couple from the Belfast Stake who are assigned to teach institute at the YSA Centre. They are had a houseguest from Wales, Anne, whom they met while they were all serving missions at the Preston Temple.

The dinner was lovely. We had meat and potatoes (mashed and roasted), cabbage and parsnips, with cherry crumble and ice cream for desert. The food was brilliant and I remarked that I had not had a parsnip since me own wee mother fed them to me as a boy. It was a wonderful reminder that mothers are indispensable.

We had just enough time to run home for a bag of crisps (potato chips) and head out to the far reaches of the kingdom to Londonderry for a YSA fireside. It took us about 90 minutes to drive to what the Protestants call Londonderry, the Catholics call Derry, the news media call Londonderry/Derry and the radio people call Slash. We met with 3 local YSA and brought 7 up from Belfast. The Nobles had been asked to talk about personal revelation. They shared some things for about 30 minutes and then turned it over to Sister Blickenstaff and I to lead a discussion. We had a great discussion for another 30 minutes. Sister Blick and I jumped up did our best not to confuse anyone.

We did get asked a question about who was Moses talking to on Sinai, Jesus or Heavenly Father. I answered in a way that opened up more questions and when we were finished, I could tell that we had not explained it well. I promised I would go do my homework and get back with an answer that was easier to understand.

On the way home, I called Joel and asked him to square away my doctrine, which he did, and that is one of the reasons that I am happy to be a Dad. Joel read a passage to me from Elder McConkie’s Mormon Doctrine, which properly explained everything.

True doctrine is energizing and exhilarating.

I was grateful that the 7 YSA drove up from Belfast to support the outlying area. There was a Snow Patrol concert so the fact that we drew 10 YSA to the fireside made me feel pretty good.

Well. that's it for now. We are alive and well in Northern Ireland. We love each of you and pray for you every single day.

Elder Blickenstaff