2nd Week in Cork Aug 12, 2010

12 Aug 2010

2 Rossan
The Highlands
Wilton, Sarsfield Road
Cork, Ireland



Dear Family,

It is late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.
I’m going to get this letter off to you even though it’s after 1:00 am here.

Life is crazy around here. We still have not got the internet problem solved, yet. That will be fixed this coming Sunday. The other Senior Missionary couple will be leaving for Scotland then. They have 2 months left on their contract and we will just take over their contract. That will save us a little money. Right now it seems like we are going through money like crazy. We are finally in our furnished “flat” (not). So, we have had to go out and buy all the dishware “stuff”, bedding linen “stuff”, cleaning “stuff”, etc. We are OK, though. It is just that this kind of shopping is being done at 10:00 in the evening and having to be put away. Mom has away of making it comfortable. We have a little flower here and there in the house. Pots and pans are all organized. It’s feeling pretty comfortable.

Some electric company man had to come out and inspect the place today to give it an “energy efficiency” rating. Our flat is all- electric (info about that in another letter) so he told us that our “energy efficiency” rating will not be very high, but the flat is so small that it shouldn’t cost us too much to keep. That might give you an idea about the size of the flat. (we’ll send pictures).

We have had a busy time getting around to visit all the people that Elder and Sister Neild wanted to introduce us to. There are stories that we will try to share with you as we continue to meet with these people. Mom has 2 people that she is teaching to read English. The man, we call Paul Osemwekhae, is Nigerian and about 45 or 50 years old. Phonically, the last name is “O sem we ki”. He is a soft spoken person, baptized, Aaronic Priesthood holder. After Mom teaches him English then I teach the Gospel to him. We are working to have him be ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood. He has a couple of daughters and a son by a woman that is not his wife, but he says that is a past time before he joined the Church. The other is a young lady, Joy Aruebose, who is also Nigerian, married, 5 children, inactive members of the Church. They quit coming to church after the mission sisters were transferred. I have not met them, but Mom says she is a very pleasant.

I’ll give you a quick look into last weeks schedule.
Sunday started with an 10:00am meeting with President Griffiths, the mission president, followed by Sacrament Meeting (Mom played the organ, which is a new experience on the organ), Sunday School, then Priesthood/Relief Society. Next came “training” from a couple from Germany about the YSA program. That was from 2:00pm to 6:00pm. We had a break for an hour while Sister Nield and Mom fixed dinner, then more training from 7:00pm to 9:30pm hereat our flat. One long day with one meal.
Monday morning, Elder and Sister Nields and Mom and I took the Shumways, the trainers from Germany, to Blarney Castle then put them on a train back to Dublin. Mom got to kiss the Blarney Stone. (We’ll send a picture). We got back in time for YSA council meeting at 6:30pm, followed by YSA Family Home Evening. There are 2 young ladies that take the bus across town to get to all church functions, so Mom and I take them back to their home if it is late. We got lost coming back, wandered through the maze of one-ways and detours and got home at 11:00pm.
Tuesday, we picked up a set of Elders and drove to Dublin for an All-Area Conference with the President over the European Missions. All Missionaries in Ireland attended. It is about a 2 ½ hour drive to Dublin. We loaded up the missionaries and a few boxes that Elder and Sister Nield are forwarding to Scotland, and drove to Dublin, arriving about 11:00am. We met a lot of missionaries and started meeting at 12:00noon. The meeting lasted about 6 hours with no food and no water. Got back in the car, stopped for food, and drove back to Cork. With a slight course correction because of a wrong turn, we go home at11:00pm.
Wednesday, we went visiting members and less-actives with the Nields and the evening was filled with a planning meeting for YSA and then followed by institute – class for YSA. We took the two sisters home in Cork and got lost again, returning at 11 PM. We come home, have a banana or apple and fall into bed after prayer.

Seems no one lives close to the church except us. Visiting is always an adventure. Addresses don’t really exist and there isn’t such a thing as zip codes. They think that is violating their privacy. You know us, we love an adventure so we take advantage of the ride and really look around. It just takes so much time.

Thursday, we went visiting a family in South Cork with the Nields. We have lined up another visit with the family and also a visit to the rest home to the grandma that is 83 years old and a member. I talked to her on the phone (this is Mom speaking now) and she cried that we would come to visit her. Mind you, this is an hour or more away from where we live. We plan to go next week. We went to an island that is near where this family lives. It is a costal city and there is a ferry that takes you to this small island that has garden to view. We saw a seal sunning on a rock on the way. It was so fun and beautiful. We took pictures and will send some. We got home about 7;30pm and we fell into bed and slept until 9:30. We got up and ran to Tesco (their version of Target – not) and bought some food and screws and a screwdriver and went home. We couldn’t go to sleep until 1:30. Dumb!!! We read our emails and started responding. (We borrowed Neild’s toggle so we could get on)
Friday, we are going visiting today and tonight. We are invited outside of town for dinner. I am not excited to eat anywhere. It is so different and I am so picky about my meat. Thank goodness for potatoes and veggies. (Time warp – Dad is now speaking) Just got back from dinner at the Walsh’s home. It is 10:20pm. We had a great time. They are a young 26-ish couple with 3 boys, ages about 7, 4, and 1. She is a church member from Grantsville, Utah. He is Irish and is Catholic. Met in Boston and later, got married and moved back to Ireland. Previous Senior Missionary couple felt that he did not have much interest, but from what she told Mom, he may be having a change in his life. She would like to have the missionaries come and teach him. He came to church last week and I sat with him. It was very comfortable to talk to him. We must not have scared them too badly, because they invited us for Thanksgiving dinner. By the way, Mom enjoyed dinner tonight. Jayme had made lasagna, bread sticks and salad. It was good. Dessert was a rich chocolate cake, which was a little much for me, but it was all tasty. I’m going to try and attach some pictures. They are taken from a mountain (hill really) above their home. They took us there after dinner for the view.
Saturday we teach Paul O. English and a priesthood lesson in the morning and that night is a YSD activity that I have to make the meal for. Busy little life we have here. Hope we can make a difference. I have been asked to teach Relief Society this Sunday and play the organ again and they have asked us to speak in Sacrament Meeting. That’s going to be a testimony bearing for me. Bed still sucks. I am trying to find a foam topper for it. I still limp on my right foot. It heals so slowly and I remember that. My right foot has lost the skin on the heel due to a huge blister from wearing shoes (imagine that). I keep a plaster (bandage) on it and inside the shoe but I still have pain because I have to walk. Oh well, I think they think I am crippled. Won’t they be surprised when I can walk and even run.

It is now Friday night at 12:07. We will try to get this emailed to you tomorrow. After Sunday we won’t have to wait for internet connection. We will have our own. YEA!!!!

Love you all,

Dad