Northern Ireland

Hello People That I Love!

The Blickenstaffs are safe and sound in Northern Ireland! And guess what? The wind blows here and it rains a lot. This is my careful observation after three days.

We are ensconced in our SMALL but very nice flat. It is almost new, only a couple of years old. The previous tenants were one of the couples we are replacing so they left us some treasures: two bottles of peanut butter, some jam, some canned and baking goods, some laundry detergent, towels, sheets and pillows. The flat is much nicer than any place I ever saw on my first mission.

It has a combination washer/dryer located under the sink in the kitchen. We are told that the washer is good and the dryer leaves much to be desired if you, in fact, want the dryer to actually dry your clothes. We haven't tried it out yet.

We have signed up for broadband in the flat, but they are unable to connect us any sooner than November 10. They won't let me (or Brian Regan) come down and flip the switch ourselves this afternoon. They are only able to offer a maximum download speed of 33.7 Mb! This is a disappointing 8 times faster than any speed I have ever had at any location I have lived at in my entire post-Internet life. (My pre-Internet life may have been faster but I have no way of knowing.)

We have been here for three days and have been to Tesco at least once, and sometimes more, on each of those days. Tesco is the United Kingdom's answer to WalMart. I am the United Kingdom's answer to the question, "Who is your favourite (spelled in the UK way) new missionary at the Belfast Centre for Young Adults?"

We are learning how to drive on the left side of the road by driving on the left side of the road. We got in the car at the mission home and drove across Scotland from Edinburgh to Glascow and down the coast to a port on the Irish sea, where we boarded a car ferry for Belfast. When you drive on the left, and your steering wheel is on the right, you are totally confused. To turn on the wipers you play with the signals and to turn on the turn signals you play with the wipers. To avoid getting killed you listen very carefully to your wife and do exactly what she's says. For example, if she says, "Elder, you are going to hit the curb," you almost immediately hit the curb. I know this from personal experience and three days worth of practice. The curb you hit is on your left, and you can't see it from where you are sitting in the car on the right. It makes for some exciting times in the vehicle. Our car is a late model Vauxhall Meriva CDTi with 12,000 miles and a smoking hot diesel engine. It was made for speed and power, which is how we roll, baby.

After a 3 hour cruise (same length as Gilligan’s Island) on the car ferry, Elder & Sister Holt met us at the Belfast ship terminal, introduced themselves and we all drove straight to the Belfast Centre for Young Adults (the CFYA or the Centre), where we met some of the YS Adults for Institute. After Institute, we attended the CFYA Advisory Council Meeting, which started about 9:30 p.m. Eventually, around 10:30 p.m., we arrived at our flat and hauled our bags up to the second floor. The apartment is very nice and a little larger than I had thought, but still quite small. However, what it lacked in size, it made up for in temperature. It was very cold so we went to bed around 1:30 a.m. to keep from freezing to death.

Our first full day in Northern Ireland was cold and rainy. We figured out how to turn on the heat, unpacked, straightened up our apartment, made two runs to Tesco, filled up the car (with diesel, Gary Hume) and generally rested from our labors because we are too old to run with the big dogs.

The next day we started our efforts with scripture study and then went off to the Centre with Elder & Sister Holt at 9:00. We opened up the building for the annual fire and safety inspection. While that was going on, the Holts trained us in the operation and financing of the Centre.

The Belfast Centre was one of the first to receive authorization to open, and is the only Centre in Europe that has it own Church-owned building. Two Belfast wards were combined and the Centre was authorized to be housed in the ward building that was being vacated. There are approximately 300 YSA in the Belfast Northern Ireland Stake, with about 100 active. The definition of active is a YSA who comes to the Centre at least once per month. The group is quite strong compared to other Centers.

Here is a summary of the meetings and activities that Sister Blickenstaff and I are involved with:

· Monday night – family home evening at the Centre, we teach

· Tuesday night – institute class at the Centre, we teach occasionally

· Wednesday night – institute at the Centre, we attend, but don’t teach. Following Wednesday institute at the Centre, we attend and participate in the CFYA Advisory Council

· Friday night – YSA activity night at the Centre until midnight, we attend and participate

· Sunday – one Sunday every other month, 3-hour meeting block for YSA in the Centre, we attend, the YSA are serving in their home wards on the other Sundays

· Sunday evening – gospel discussion, we organize, attend and sometimes lead the discussion

· I serve on the stake high council with the assignment for YSA in the stake

· Each Sunday, except for the bi-monthly YSA 3-our meeting block, we visit one of the wards or branches in the stake. This allows us to get to every unit in the stake, once per quarter.

The Belfast Northern Ireland Stake encompasses all of Northern Ireland. There is also a stake in Dublin and a district in Cork.

We have a lot to learn and we are slow!

The Holts are the Centre couple we are replacing. They showed us their favorite restaurant this afternoon. It serves Thai food and we enjoyed a nice lunch together. After lunch, we made our obligatory daily run to Tesco to get more stuff for our flat. During the course of our discussions today, we discovered that the Holts are very well acquainted with the Wiests. Elder Holt and Joel Wiest were bishops in Minneapolis at the same time. Then they served together in the stake presidency. Later, Joel became the CFO of Target Stores and Elder Holt reported to him at work. Joel and I worked at the MTC together, teaching Het Nederlands. Small world.

The YSA here are terrific. I have had some wonderful conversations with them and we have already fallen in love with them. Hopefully, they will come to like us. They are obviously attached to the Holts, who leave in about a week.

I was called to serve on the high council this morning, by the stake president, who was calling from Germany, on his way home from a conference in Austria. Sister B and I are are jumping in and loving it.

Ta Ta for now, from Northern Ireland.

Elder Blickenstaff

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Went for a walk the other morning. At first I was going to go straight down the road we live on and come straight back. I then decided that I'd circle around our 'block.' Not that simple! The roads around here are mazes. No signs to tell you about dead end streets. I didn't pay attention to the way I went, so when I back tracked I just kept taking wrong turns and got really lost! I had told John that I would only be gone a half hour. When it became an hour he figured I was lost and had a prayer that I would find my way back. He was just about ready to get in the car and come looking for me. I was praying non-stop myself. So . . . lost in Belfast, no cell phone, didn't know our cell phone # if I would have had it with me.) Didn't know my address at that point. (I sure do now!) I eventually made my way back . . . in tears. Nice to know that the Lord answers the prayers of lost souls!

We just got through with a meeting with the Church Education System 'big wigs' from Salt Lake and England. There were about 10 of us (missionaries and YSA's) that showed them around the Centre and explained everything that it has to offer these Young Single Adults. Dad and I have been asked to teach Sunday School and bear our testimonies in Sacrament Meeting next Sunday. We went to Church at the Holywood Road Ward (pronounced 'Hollywood') here in Belfast. It was their Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentation. So cute!!! Only 6 children. 2 boys and 4 girls. (I noticed that they didn't have the Sunbeam aged littles participate). One of the little girls looked EXACTLY like Riley in 2-3 years. It made my eyes tear up several times during the program. She was so precious. They were all really well behaved, and since there were so few of them they each had many speaking parts. They sang like little angels but with much gusto. We went to the Young Singles Sunday School class. There were 12 of us in the room. We got to meet the sister missionaries that are serving here close by. One's from Provo and the other from Rigby, Idaho. We have been given so much information about the things we are going to be involved in, we think our heads are going to explode!!! Feel like we're on a roller coaster ride where we are feeling great and then we feel like we we are going to drown in all our responsibilities! ( I know, welcome to missionary work, right? )

Sister Blickenstaff