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