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
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