February 5, 2012

Stormont

The Bangor District

Elders Blick, Beal, Smithers

Sisters Blick, Chichoni, Peterson

Baaaaaa?

The gorgeous building pictured above, the Stormont Parliament Building, was built in 1921 at a cost of nearly £1.7 million, it was designed to house the newly formed Government of Northern Ireland. The Senate chamber was used by the Royal Air Force as an operations room during World War II. Between 1973 and 1998 it served as the headquarters of the Northern Ireland civil service. Between 1982 and 1986 it served as the seat of the rolling-devolution assembly. It is now the home of the Northern Ireland Assembly. There's your wee history lesson for the day. It's quite a beautiful building; we pass by it quite regularly in our comings and goings.

For the past six weeks I've been busy taking individual photos of all our Young Single Adults and now have their pictures all arranged on a bulletin board in the hallway at the Centre. It has been such a big hit. I had no idea when I started doing this that they would get this much of a kick out of it! They love it. They gather around it and have a great time pairing their peers (not themselves, mind you) with each other and giggling all the while. Yeah, you guessed it, it's the girls that do this. Since we've been here we have had two of our YSAs receive their mission calls and one couple has gotten engaged. They are planning a June wedding in the Preston Temple. It's truly wonderful to see them make good choices and do good things with their lives.

Elder Blickenstaff has had his dream realized for the past four weeks with the startup of an additional institute class he gets to teach. It is offered for those, because of work or other commitments, that cannot come to the main class on Wednesdays. He loves this opportunity and is quite a gifted teacher (if I do say so my own self). We have had anywhere between zero and seven show on any given Saturday morning. Elder Blickenstaff fills their spirits and I fill their bellies with some sort of sweet bread or muffin afterwards. We make a good team this way.

We enjoyed a Preparation Day with six of our younger colleagues going to Mandarin, a Chinese Buffet in Bangor for lunch and then coming back to the Bangor church building cultural hall to an afternoon of tossing a football around and playing many rounds of UNO and Phase 10. These missionaries work so hard. It's fun to be around them when they can let down and really have fun and enjoy one another. And they do! Transfers are coming up this next week. Who will stay and who will go? At least we know where we will be. :o)

We won't be recognizable by the end of our mission I'm sure. This is carb country to the MAX ! ! ! Cooking and gaining weight are what we seem to be doing, unfortunately (haven't been on a scale, but . . .). Haven't seen a salad to order on any menu in this country. End result? We'll probably be needing to be rolled off the airplane in 14 months. The food here is wonderful! Potatoes any way you can possibly imagine. Speaking of potatoes, If you are rather bored with the potato crisp (chip) flavors to choose from in the states you need to come over here and experience: Beef, Canadian Ham, Sausage, Pork, Chicken, Cream Cheese & Chive, Pickled Onion, Prawn Cocktail, Smokey Bacon, Tomato Ketchup, Worcester Sauce, and more! More amazing fish and chips you will never find anywhere, ever. Wonderful steak/mince pies. Chocolate that is TO DIE FOR! (None of that waxy American stuff!) I could go on and on.

Earlier this week I was laying in bed mid-morning feeling quite blah. Have been coming down with something that settled into a major chest cough. Feeling a wee bit discouraged. What's with this? I'm rarely ever sick and since we've been here, it's been one thing after another with one or the other or both of us ! ! ! Anyway, as I laid there in my bed our door buzzer buzzed. It was the Royal Post with a package from our daughter. In this package was a box of both DayQuil AND NyQuil ! ! ! What a tender mercy! Here she is over 4,500 miles away and thought she should send these to us a couple of weeks ago. Who says the Lord isn't in the small things in our lives? Thank you so much, Jana! The locally-available decongestants and most over the counter medications that we have tried or have heard about from others don't really do much of anything.

Today we are missing the baby blessing of our newest little grand daughter Abigail Joanne in Houston Texas! :o( We so hate to miss out on any of these milestones in our children or grandchildren's lives. We know it was a momentous occasion. Much love to Joel and April and their family!

Merrily we roll along experiencing longer days as we approach spring. We had thought that we would serve several senior missions. We've gotten really spoiled by this one. How do you top going to an incredibly beautiful lush green country, being required to attend incredibly fun, creative activities, hob knob with brilliant eighteen to thirty one year olds and be able to speak English while doing all that? There's no topping this one.

granda - grandfather
return top - yo yo
plasters - Band Aids

"The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scots as a joke, but the Scots haven't seen the joke yet."

Cheerio for now! Love you all oooodles!
Sister Blick