Our dear family and friends,
We love you all very much and recognize you have been very patient in waiting for another email. We hope to do this now on a regular basis and it will serve to keep you informed as to our progress and also a journal update for us and our dear lovely family who we miss very much and of course our dear friends also. We are finally getting into some sort of routine but nothing about this mission is routine. Let us explain a little and you will see. As mentioned in an earlier email when we left the MTC ( seems like a very long time ago ) The volcanic ash was causing havoc all over the UK and Ireland -- our flight was one of the only ones taking off - now that's the luck o' the oirish !! We arrived in Dublins fair city and were greeted by the President and his good wife, went to the mission office, met the staff, got oriented, had lunch and received our first assignment. That's where everything went sideways !! You see the President indicated to us in an earlier email while we were in Calgary that we would probably be in some small town like Tralee or Galway in the Republic and would proclaim the gospel and Elder McBride would probably be the branch president with Sister McBride working in RS, etc. Well that idea changed very fast -- on the morning of our arrival he received a prompting and the inspiration to take us to Belfast City to coordinate the affairs of the YSA Centre. We would have no certain area and would instead cover all of Northern Ireland attending all of the wards and branches and also have the responsability for almost 500 young single adults, including a host of other activities and of course institute. WHAT A SURPRIZE and going right into the centre of Belfast City where so many of the old stalwart members of the church knew us as newly weds, etc. We ae now working with many of their grandchildren and We can tell you it is indeed a wonderful treat. Sister McBride is establishing a fabulous rapport with many of these young woman and is being a tremendous help to them in many ways. We will explain some of our activities later and I think I could easily convince many of you that are our age to come on a mission and receive the blessings we enjoying.
Making our way out of Dublin before we even got on the motorway, Pres. Creer sprung his 2nd surprize on us " We have just one little snag ---- we have nowhere for you to live !!! " --- welcome to the mission field ( in this case, I think the Irish fields are green and ready to harvest ) Fortunately Elder McBride has a dear lovely sister outside Belfast and so we made a quick phone call and of course she was delighted to have us. Now, Elder McBride's sister lives in a 200 year old cottage near the ocean and I can tell getting our suitcases up to a small upper loft room with stairs that are only 18 inches wide is a story all in itself. We were ablt to stay there until we found a lovely apartment near the centre.
The Pres. and his wife, got the Elders to bring a car, he left us at the centre, gave us some instruction, a set of guidelines for the Europe area YSA centres, the keys to the building and said, " God bless " We said our goodbyes, and then looked at each other saying " NOW WHAT !! " --- welcome to the mission field. We started that morning at 4.30 am and were finally crawling into bed at Elder McBrides sister's at 2.00am the next day -- welcome to the mission field. The weather in Ireland has been incredible since we arrived -- everyday we can truly sing, " There is sunshine in my soul today " It has only rained one day in 6 weeks and that was only the famous Irish mist. While at Zetta's we could start early each day, before studies, with a walk along the promenade by the beautiful ocean, to the lighthouse -- Elder McBride would climb the 166 steps to the top and also another 6 or so steep inclines and would recommend it for a great start to a day of service. The gentle waves lapping into shore, the green slopes running down to the sea, and the birds singing merrily are a real tonic ---- no wonder the great Irish writer, George Bernard Shaw said " Ireland sir, for good or evil is like no other place on earth " Zetta really spoiled her missionaries, as she has always done and we are indebted to her, but it was challenging as we had to go to the centre each day and it was a good hours drive and through Belfast City traffic often. So we found a very nice apartment near the centre as we had been requested to do. We are only a few minutes from the city centre, very close to the YSA centre ( the only one in all of Europe as a free standing building owned by the church ) and of course nearby are several colleges and Queens University -- where a number of our YSA go to school. From each window of our apartment we look out into luscious green foliage, it is like living in a park and yet it is very close to downtown. Hope we are painting a picture for you of how green Ireland really is. Our days are filled with a myriad of differring responsibilities, including challenges. This certainly is so unlike the mission we had a vision of ---- BUT WE ARE LOVING IT. Also an interesting little note that one might call a coincidence but really it is one of those mini miracles that Pres. Monson speaks of : - as a young man of 19 Elder McBride worked on the building of this structure -- then it was an inner city chapel, only the 2nd in Northern Ireland.
I installed the cedar slats that formed the feature wall in the chapel that remains there to this very day -- there were other parts I labored on and each has a story. Elder McBride had the opportunity to speak with a large group of YSA in this centre recently and they seemed to be very interested those stories. It never seems to amaze us how our Heavenly Father knows everything, every little detail of our individual lives from the very beginning and orchestrates those happenings in our lives.
Here are some of the activities we are involved with. It would make you head spin and it does ours, sometimes : -
Institute -- summer presently, but we have approx 45 attending and come September that will swell to approx. 70.
Servive work -- we took the entire group to Belfast City Cemetary -- ( that's in the dead cebtre of Belfast -- only joking !! ) It was fascinating -- remind us to tell you the stories. Very famous names such as CS LEWIS family are buried there -- also the infamous such as IRA and PROVO terrorists. Our Y SA loved it --- we have vests for them with LDS all over them and MORMON HELPING HANDS that bring recognition to the church.
We are working toward a YSA ward and presently have special block Sunday meetings from time in the centre that take a lot of preparing for and then a number of meetings during the week including our work with the YSA PRESIDENCY.
We travel and speak in different wards each Sunday, meet with YSA and also go with young adults on Search and rescue -- the less active and the great missionary work that we take to that age group including the universities. Do you think we are busy !! We have 2 full time Elders assigned to the centre and we train them in the use of the centre and in working with YSA -- there is much more.
We have some famous members in our YSA. If you have not heard of the name JASON SMYTH --- you soon will. Jason is a great young man with a slight vision impairment. He won the gold medals in 100m and 200m in the Bejing PARA Olympics in 2008. He has been in the Ensign and is constantly being written up in papers all over Europe. He trains in the winter with the US OLYMPIC team and then comes home to Ireland in the summer, running in many big events throughout Europe. The media call him the USIAN BOLT of the para olympics. Jason is presently preparing for the OLYMPICS IN LONDON 2012 and if he stays injury free he will the first ever competitor to run in both the OLYMPICS and the Para Olympics in the same year. He just broke the Irish track and field record last week -- the record was his own. He is a fantastic young man and extremely humble. Elder McBride asked him where his gold medals are ---- he said, " ah, my mom keeps them somewhere " Look out for his name , he will be a famous Mormon and we have him in our YSA.
The young people we work with are extremely gifted -- for such a small island to have all of this talent -- we have a concert pianist, kids that can make a guitar sing, a clarinet musician in the Belfast orchestra, professional footballers, etc. We are now working on a concert to showcase all their talents -- we will put it on at the centre and invite the whole stake. We need Kristy Jenkins here urgently !!!
Next email we need to tell you about our historic mission conference in Dublin --- the mission will change on the 1st of July to the Scotland / Ireland Mission and we have another Mission conference held in Belfast on the 3rd July which we will inform you of. At the conference in Dublin, it happened to fall on our 41st wedding anniversary and all the missionaries sang to us and gave us a nice IRISH chocolate bar.
Our days are long but filled with great things. We love these young people dearly. They have accepted us with open arms and we are building lasting relationships as we invite them to come unto Christ, get involved with us in this great missionary service and in mentoring them to become productive in community service and a host of other things in their lives. They do great work and it is wonderful to watch. We love the Gospel with all our hearts. We are alive in Christ and we love him and testify that he lives, he is the only begotten of the father, the Son Of God, our redeemer. We love our work, although challenging at times and are witnessing the great blessings coming to fruition that Pres. Spackman pronouned upon our heads at our setting apart.
May the sun shine warm upon yer face, the rains fall soft upon yer fields and until we meet again may God hold you in the palm of his hands,
Please feel free to send this on to all our other friends that may not be listed above. Our laptop is not bringing up all our friends addresses. We will try to solve that.
Elder and Sister McBride.
PS ---- We will forward our new mission address as soon as we know it --- it will be Edinburgh Scotland ----- ( yes, bonnie wee Scotland --- oh ye''ll tak the hi road and a'll tak the low road, but a'll be in Scotland afore ye )
