We've been enjoying more sunshine this week then we did last week. I do so love it when the sun shines!
We have found the people here to be very friendly and helpful wherever we are. They're wonderful.
I like that we are warned with a yellow light when the traffic light is going to turn from red to green as well as green to red. That the kids here wear uniforms to school. They look really sharp and they don't have to impress anyone and spend a fortune on their 'school' clothes.
I enjoy our washer/dryer combination. It does about two articles of clothing, so yes, it's a wee bit on the small side. It takes about 90 minutes to get your clothes not even semi-dry, so we have resorted to drying them on clothes drying racks in our bedroom.
We went on several walks this week. We are so impressed with the houses and yards around here. Very neat, tidy and immaculately kept up. Just about every property looks freshly painted, the big pained windows are always sparklingly clean. I take Elder Blickenstaff along so that when we do get lost at least we'll be lost together. :D We are having fun exploring our neighborhood. We heard of a walking/hiking/ biking trail near a 1700's five arched stone bridge (Shaw's Bridge) over the River Lagan not too far from here. Beautiful trails. Amazing that we are so close to the City of Belfast and yet it seems so rural and remote. Took some great photos that I'll send along soon.
We had our first zone meeting yesterday. We were taught about The 4th Missionary. It was a great presentation and a great reminder of the kind of missionaries we should be striving to be. President Griffith's is a great teacher. We enjoyed a lesson from our zone leaders as well. Then we had to leave there and go to where the Young Single Adult Convention was starting. The kick-off was a Halloween Dance. Around 110 youth checked in at the convention. They are here mainly from Belfast, but from all over the UK as well. Most of the youth came in costumes. There were some great ones! (Again, more photos to follow.) They went out street tracting this morning, they are currently at some water activities where they are going on banana boats (?) and inner tubes, where they love to get bumped off into the not so warm water. (They are a lot hardier than we are! It's a good thing we aren't suppose to participate anyway.) It's DANG COLD!!! They will go disco roller skating later still today. That I would like to see!!! but I'll be helping them out as dinner draws near by browning hamburger meat for Sloppy Joes. We will have church here in the centre tomorrow morning. Elder Blickenstaff and I have been given the responsibility of teaching the Sunday School lesson. We will have a question and answer discussion. (Discussing answers to questions that the youth wrote down during registration yesterday for us . . . so . . . never a dull moment!)
All is going crazy, busy, good.
Love to all,
Sister Blick
We also discovered that our order for broadband in the flat has been assigned to Elder John Blickenspaff.
Last Saturday night, we drove to the Portadown Ward, about 45 minutes away, to attend the baptism of Michelle Silcock. She will be disowned and shunned by her family when they learn that she has become a Latter-day Saint, but she feels strongly that she wants and needs to do this. There were about 30 people at the service. Afterwards, we visited with the Bishop, Joseph Bridgewater. He is a very nice man and this is the fourth baptism in their ward this year.
When we arrived back home, about 21:00, we had to make our obligatory run to Tesco for some groceries so we wouldn’t have to break the Sabbath on our first Sunday in Northern Ireland. This took an hour. When we got to the flat, we discovered that our natural gas account was locked up as we had let the amount of prepaid gas get too low. Here, instead of getting a bill for the gas used during the past month, we must purchase our gas in advance. I had to run to a local convenience store, where I paid for £20 worth of natural gas to be put on my smart card. I then took the card back to the flat, where I inserted the card into the meter and transferred the £20 credit to the meter. This amounted to the prepayment of approximately 38 cubic meters of gas. I have no idea under Heaven how much gas that is or how long it will take us to burn it up. This process took about an hour and then I was finally able to have a wee bit of supper. I had some grapes from Italy, a clementine from Spain, two cherry tomatoes from Holland, some English cheese and some kind of Irish smoothie concoction of mangoes and passion fruit.
The next day was our first Sunday in Northern Ireland. It rained. We attended the Holywood Road Ward, which is the ward in which we live. In a brilliant nod to common sense, church services in Northern Ireland start at 10:00 a.m. We were introduced as the new missionary couple, Elder and Sister Blickerstaff. The members were nice, the bishop was a lovely, tender man and the experience was wonderful. It was rather cold in the building. The heating system, after decades of use, has finally gone out and is being totally replaced. The ward will start meeting in the Youth Centre in a few weeks, for six months while the repair work takes place. Before today, I thought to myself that changing the heating system out during the winter sounds a bit odd, but after today, I can see why they need to do it now, and I totally concur.
It was the annual primary program and it was very nicely done. The entire primary consists of 6 children: 4 girls and 2 boys. The singing was energetic and well done and the talks were brilliant. One of the boys said that his mother had served a mission, his dad had been converted to the gospel because of the missionaries, his grandparents had served a mission and he hoped to someday serve a mission himself. It was the best, to the point, two minute talk about missionary work I have ever heard.
Afterwards, we gave the young sister missionaries a ride back to their flat. It was raining and the distance was close to 5 miles. They were meeting with President Griffiths in their apartment and he waved to us as he got out of his car. We drove home, a distance of about 2 miles, where we got soaked from the car to the flat. The place was very cold but we cranked up the heat and had another meal from the nice people at Tesco. We also had a salad or something.
That evening, we went back to the Centre for the Sunday evening fireside. We had 25 YSA in attendance, as well as the entire stake presidency. The topic was the recent temple trip the YSA organized to the Preston England Temple. Four of them spoke about their experiences and then the YSA choir sang. They were fantastic. Sister and Elder Holt spoke about the Centre, the Temple trip and their love of the YSA. Most of the YSA were crying. The stake president was the final speaker. He thanked the Holts and welcomed us. He said he had been practicing saying Blickenstaff all week.
After the fireside, the stake presidency met with the Holts, Nobles and us. President McCrudden asked us all to take a few minutes and introduce ourselves. He is a former police inspector. For 30 years he was the head of the weapons training division for the police in Northern Ireland. He had 300 trainers working for him. He was responsible for training in every firearm, rifle, grenade, cannon and sniper weapon in the arsenal. A few months ago he retired and was hired by the Church as the CES Director for Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Liverpool. He has been the stake president for 3 years. He joined the Church when he was 19, was basically kicked out by his parents for doing so and served a full-time mission, to Washington state.
His first counselor, President Napier, joined the church when he was a young man. In answer to prayer, he dated an LDS girl whose father asked him if he would listen to the missionaries, who turned out to be sister missionaries and he felt the Spirit.
President Boyd is a former bishop and has been in the stake presidency for 4 months. He is responsible for YSA.
It was a great meeting. President McCrudden welcomed us to the Centre. He asked us to attend a meeting tomorrow with Elder Sonny Donaldson, of the Seventy, and Brother Richard Hawks from CES. They are coming to see the Belfast Centre.
After that meeting, he asked Sister Blickenstaff and I to stay behind. He told us that he was so pleased to have a missionary couple to replace the Holts. He told us to visit everywhere in the stake and help the members hold on to the YSA. He said that when he was called him to serve as the stake president he was told there are two holes in every stake: the youth and the YSA. He was instructed to cover those two holes. He said that he wanted us to travel with him to the Republic of Ireland when he goes on CES business so we can meet another couple, serving in Dublin and see what they are doing with their YSA.
In the course of the evening, we were asked to bear our testimonies at the YSA Convention next weekend, as well as teach the Sunday school class. We are also teaching family home evening tomorrow and providing the treat.
Sister Blickenstaff said to me, “Well Elder, I don’t know about you, but every once in a while, this mission just absolutely terrifies me.”
The next day it rained. Again. All day. Sweet! In between getting drenched, here’s what we did:
We attended a meeting with Elder Sonny Donaldson, an Area Seventy. He brought Brother Richard Hawks and Brother Mike Somebody from CES in Salt Lake City. They wanted to see the Belfast Centre for Young Adults. Four of our YSA came the Centre and they were fabulous. They talked about how much they enjoyed having the Centre, how many less actives they had reactivated in the last 12 months, how many temple marriages had occurred in the last 12 months between YSA that met each other at the Center and what a wonderful response they were getting from the YSA. The meeting lasted more than two hours and was wonderful.
We then drove to our local bank and spent an hour trying to figure out how to get money out of the ATM and into our account. We had a lovely time, but I had to talk to 3 people in the States about my Wells Fargo account before I could actually transfer some cash. Wells Fargo may be big, but they don't know nothing about efficiency.
Sister Blickenstaff and I then spent the rest of the afternoon in an exciting assault on the Northern Irish National Health Service. I have developed an infection in my left eyelid that has painfully swollen the lid way larger than normal. We went in to a surgery (Doctor’s office) down the hill from our flat. We were told that we needed to fill out some papers and they would call us back within the next 2-3 weeks to see the doctor. Sister Blick started to cry, which was a tender moment for me. When I asked her what was wrong, she said she felt bad for me. It melted my heart, even though we had just come in out of the very cold and windy down pouring of rain. Almost immediately, the receptionist asked if I needed to see the doctor today. I responded by looking pain filled, which was no exaggeration. She whispered, “Why don’t you take a seat and work on these papers and I’ll just see if the doctor can take a look at your eye while you are here.
It was an immediate and clear manifestation of the tender mercy of the Lord intervening on my behalf. We sat down to fill out the paperwork. In a few minutes, the receptionist came out and told us that the doctor would see us in a few minutes time. She asked if she could make copies of our passports or driving licenses. We handed her our licenses. She looked at the them, then leaned over and said, “You two are with the Mormon Church aren’t you?’
I asked, “How can you tell that by our driving license?”
She replied, “You have a very clean-cut look about you and your driving license is from Utah, so I knew you were Mormons.”
I thanked her for noticing. Just then, my name was called for the doctor. He was a young man, who was very polite. He examined my eye for about 4 seconds and wrote me out a prescription for the chemist. He said I have blepharitis, which made me feel pretty special. Ten minutes later, I had myself some antibiotic eye drops made with loving care, just for bleparitic patients such as myself.
After a brief stop at home, we headed to the Centre for Family Home Evening. We had one YSA show up. Sister Blick taught the lesson and brought the treat. We talked about having a sense of humor. It was a good lesson, with some good humor and a good treat (caramel popcorn).
We were able to FaceTime with Jeremy in Essen, Germany for about 25 minutes. It was wonderful to see his bright smiling face.
We came home in the rain and were thankful to be dry inside.
The next day it rained. But then we saw the sun for about an hour! It was amazing. We had some blue sky after a wee shower. However, we have been told that it will start pouring again in a couple of days. Apparently this month has already set a record rainfall in Belfast. We’ve recorded an amount that is twice the normal for the month.
I spent the morning at the Centre waiting for a BT technician to come do magical Internet things. He never showed and I left at noon. While I was waiting, Elder Holt showed me his spreadsheet where he has been keeping tabs (get it?) on the YSA. It was complicated and I can’t possibly remember everything he showed me, but it was impressive.
My companion and I spent the entire afternoon at Tesco, shopping for groceries. And tonight she fixed us a wonderful meal of ravioli. I made the salad, because I said, “Why can’t we ever had a salad or something?” just like Nacho Libre.
That night, we attended the YSA institute class taught by the stake president. It was a good lesson; he is teaching the leadership class.
Afterwards, we had to hang around for a couple of hours troubleshooting the office email problems at Timber Lakes. I had to quit and go to bed before we got to the bottom of it, but we made some progress.
It turned colder after the rain let up today. As we drove home tonight, it was 8° C, which is 46.4° F or 281° Kelvin or 506° Rankine. But it was a humid Rankine, so it seemed colder.
Jason emailed us a photo of a house just down the street from our flat. It gave us a good laugh that he was trying to track us down using Internet cameras. We had better behave, as we don’t know who might be watching us, when or how.
We started off the next day with a brisk walk along Saintfield Road. We had some blue sky and every once in a while, Old Mr. Sun popped through to wish us well. Mostly, however, I wished I had brought a sweatshirt with me from the States. Along our way, I stopped in at the chemist (pharmacy) and asked about some cleaning solution for my Braun razor. They are able to special order such things into their shop and so if it turns out to be the correct size, I will be fixed in about a week. Everyone we have met here has been so nice to us and tries so hard to understand what we are saying. I wonder if it as enjoyable for a native to listen to foreign accented English as it is for Americans to listen to the Scots or the Irish speak.
The day before, I was able to find some contact lens cleaning solution at Tesco. The Ciba Vision brand is available here, but costs twice as much as it does stateside, so I will be trying another brand that is much cheaper.
We walked both sides of the road, looking for the house that Jason found a picture of on the Internet. It looks so much like every house around here, but we were unable to identify the exact match.
We also did some laundry. We are experimenting with our machine. It is one machine, a combination washer/dryer. After it washes a load, it becomes the dryer. The loads are small, but the washer is efficient. The dryer doesn’t really dry anything; it removes enough water so that when you take the clothes out, they don’t drip. You hang your laundry on every available projectile in the flat and wait for Mother Nature to take her course. Synthetics dry very fast. For example, my socks are made from bamboo fibre and they dry very quickly. Some of Jennifer’s tops need 24 hours. We are experimenting with different settings to see which combination makes us the most happy, cheerful, cleanly clothed missionaries in Northern Ireland.
We did NOT go to Tesco that day. Instead, we tried a different store, Sainsbury’s. It had been recommended to us by Jason, who is trying to make sure we have the full experience. We liked it! They had some American foods that Tesco does not. For example, ranch dressing. They also had marshmallows, which are essential for Rice Krispy treats. They even had a few flavors of Brianna’s salad dressing, which the discerning reader will know, is made in Brenham, Texas, just down the road from Blue Bell Ice Cream.
I have no idea what we will do for entertainment once the thrill of grocery shopping wears off. I guess we’ll just have to see if there is anything else to do for fun on this island.
Sister Blickenstaff made a delicious slow cooker (Northern Irish for crock pot) stew this afternoon. It was very good and I wanted more, but she told me we were not allowed to eat the whole pot in one sitting.
That night, we went to the Centre for institute classes. The teacher for the Missionary Preparation class texted in that he was unable to attend so I taught my first institute class. I thought it went pretty well, but then I am a Redd and we tend to overestimate how much we charm other people who are not.
In any case, it was an enjoyable evening.
The next day it rained. But not much. We had a lot of sunshine as well. Thursdays are a bit quite so far. We went to a large (huge, actually) nature preserve and parked at a place called Shaw’s Bridge. The bridge itself is a 5-arch stone bridge that was built in 1709 using stones that were there from an earlier fortress. It was originally an oak bridge built by Captain Shaw in 1655 to allow Oliver Cromwell's gunners to cross the River Lagan. We walked along the river for a couple of miles. It was very peaceful and beautiful. Hard to believe we are in the largest city in Northern Ireland when we walk along the river bank and see the trees, undergrowth, cows and hills.
We spent the afternoon going through the records of the YSA left by our predecessors and studying the scriptures. I read the October Ensign cover to cover. It is a wonderful treatise on the Book of Mormon.
Yesterday we attended our first Zone Meeting. It was called “Interviews and Training.” Our district came at the same time and we were in training meetings, while the mission president called out missionaries one at a time and interviewed them. The training was excellent. The President led a discussion entitled, “The Fourth Missionary” and focused on the differences between missionaries that submit their hearts completely to the Lord and those that just go through the motions until they had endured all the way to the end of their mission. Sister Griffiths also led a discussion about receiving personal revelation (answers to prayers). The interviews stretched out long enough that the senior couples had to leave to get ready for a YSA event before any of us were interviewed so I don’t know what happens when one gets interviewed.
The opening activity was a dance. I did not ever even imagine that I would be going in a mission to attend a Church dance, but that is exactly what we did tonight. This dance had the distinction of lasting the latest. We closed it down around 12:30 a.m. But not before we got to eat some sandwiches, which were provided as refreshments. I was trying to pull open a drink box, when one of the YSA informed me that I needed a straw. Then he said, “If we don’t have a straw, we just turn it upside down and gnaw off the corner,” which I believe was a joke. When we left for home, it was raining like crazy at that time, which indicates to me that people our age should have been in bed several hours before the dance ended.
We did have a good time, met a lot of great kids and were happy to hit the hay when it was all done.
More on the rest of the Convention next week.
Elder Blickenstaff
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