God Be With You til We Meet Again

We flew first into Amsterdam, and then backtracked to Edinburgh, Scotland.  We were met at the airport by Pres and Sis Donaldson and the AP's.  We arrived the day before all the Elders and 1 Sister who were going home, (or dying, in missionary parlance), so Pres Donaldson, his 1st Counselor, Pres. Thompson and the AP's were busy figuring out transfers.  They were also getting ready for an influx of  24 new missionaries on Wed.

Our first day was pretty low key.  Sis Donaldson fed us some soup and rolls and the they took us to our nearby hotel so we could take a nap and try to stave off the effects of jet lag.  After a nap and some freshening up, we went back to the mission home for dinner.

The next day, Pres Thompson and his wife took us on a driving tour of Edinburgh.  What a beautiful city, full of historic charm!  Massive stone buildings everywhere.

Edinburgh Castle, high qn a hill and massive! This is where they hold the Tattoo
every year, which is a huge bagpiping competition.

After they drove us around and treated us to a delicious chocolate crepe, we went back to the mission home and picked up Pres and Sis Donaldson and the departing Missionaries and went to Pratt's Hill for the departing Missionaries final reporting.  It is a tradition in the Scotland/Ireland Mission to take the incoming missionaries up to almost the top of Arthur's Seat, which is what the natives call the large dormant volcano in the center of Edinburgh, which gives a view of the entire city.  The missionaries, however, call it Pratt's Hill because it is the hill Orson Pratt climbed and dedicated Scotland for the preaching of the Gospel.  While there on Pratt's Hill, he covenanted with the Lord, that he would work very hard, if the Lord would give him 200 people to convert.  Apparently, this happened, so it has been called Pratt's Hill ever since.  The tradition follows Elder Pratt's lead, and the missionaries are instructed to make a covenant with the Lord about what they will covenant to do and what they would ask the Lord to do in return.

We walked around a little and admired the view, and talked to some of the Elders and the one Sister who were going home.  Then Pres Donaldson reminded the missionaries of the covenant they each made at the beginning of their missions and told them to find a private place and report.  

After giving them some time to do so, he called them all back together and we sang a hymn and had a prayer.

Then it was time for some pictures.

Pres and Sis Dionaldson and the Walkers at the top of Pratt's Hill

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The departing Elders, Sis Petch, Pres & Sis Donaldson, and Pres. & Sis Thompson




After a delicious dinner prepared by Sis Donaldson, Sis Thompson and Wendy, who helps when there are big occasions and around the largest table I had ever seen, we had a final Testimony meeting with these wonderful missionaries.  They all bore strong and beautiful testimonies of the work and their love for the Savior.
After the closing prayer, they joined arms and sang, with gusto, the Mission Song.  We hadn't heard it yet, so it was wonderful to hear these young elders and sister sing it with feeling and enthusiasm! These young returning missionaries are going to do great things!

After the meeting we were told that we would be driving our mission car from Edinburgh all the way down to Tralee. Because the journey was so long, they put us up at a Radisson Hotel in Belfast. We left from Edinburgh the next morning, drove, on the LEFT side of the road 4 hours down to the ferry  at Cairnryan and then ferried over to Northern Ireland, which took two hours, and then drove another bit to Belfast.  We managed to follow all the directions pretty well, until we missed the one that would take us to our hotel in Belfast.  So we took the next exit and drove around the city Centre until we managed to find the hotel.  The next morning, we followed the googlemap written directions (no GPS or SAPNAT)  and managed to get ourselves all the way down to Tralee, where we were met at our flat by the Wingets, the couple we are replacing.  They showed us around the flat and explained all the quirks and intricacies of our flat, and then sat us down and shared with us all our responsibilites and a little bit about the branch members, the less active members, and the non-member friends that make up the whole of the Tralee Branch.  That night we attended a RS dinner that was a welcome for us and more a farewell for the Wingets, so we were able to meet at least, most of the female members of the Tralee Branch, et all.
Thursday morning, we met with the Wingets, Ashley Ann Knight and her husband Dominic, the Branch Pres and spent a pleasant, but somewhat frustrating morning trying to sort out our iphones so we can use them here.  We had a lot of help from Shauna at the ie store, and finally were able to get everything set up.  Then after showing us some of the essential places we would need to know around town, we said farewell to the Wingets, who left for Limerick so they could catch their plane out of Shannon Airport the next day.  The Knights came on with us and showed us where Tesco, the grocery store was.

Lots to do here, but we feel we are starting to settle in.  Come back again to see more of our missionary doings!

The MTC

We made it through our MTC experience and it was wonderful! The theme and main focus of our efforts was to Invite Others to Come Unto Christ.  We had fabulous instructors from the ranks of young returned missionaries, who were, all of them, truly stellar examples. Our two main instructors were Sister Amy Anderson for our morning classes and Brother Hyde in the afternoon. They taught us a lot in the few short hours we had together, but it was mostly their examples of being great missionaries that taught us the most.

Our District was made up of 4 couples: the Bradfords, who were going to Bosnia and who actually left early so they could be in Bosnia by Sunday so Elder Bradford could assume his duties as Branch President. They did not speak Bosnian.
The Fergesons, who were going to Taichang, Taiwan. They had lived in Hong Kong for 10 hrs previously, so Elder Fergeson did know Chinese well.
The Lindebergs, who were going to Nauvoo.

Our didstrict and teacher, Sis Amy Anderson

Our District with  teacher Bro Hyde

the Symbol of yhe ScotlandIreland Mission
"What ever thou art, Act well thy part"

Also, the brother of Ray's best friend and his wife, Kirk and Daena Westover, were at the MTC at the same time. They are going to Atlanta, Georgia.

Walkers and Westovers

Our Setting Apart

 Here we are after our Setting Apart from our Stake President on Sunday September 18th

The days of our probation (waiting to go to the MTC) are winding down.  We have had a couple of hiccups in our planned schedule before we left. We planned to spend 9 days in So Carolina, then 12 days home to finish up final preparations, and then enter the MTC on Sept. 19.  It has been said that "when man plans, God laughs". Well God had a good laugh on us!

We had planned to fly to South Carolina the end of Aug to be with our daughter when she gave birth to our 4th grandchild.  She was due on the 30th and has never gone past her due date with her other 3 children, so we thought we would hopefully make it in time to be there to greet this new grandchild. Another daughter, Meghan had even come a week before us, just to be sure she would be there to photograph the happy event, as she had been too late on two other births.  So, on the 29th, we were all there waiting....and waiting.....and waiting.  Aug 30th came and went.  Then the 31st.  Meghan was scheduled to fly out on the 31st.  Should she extend, or go home and miss everything? We debated and discussed.  It was finally decided that since we didn't know when the blessed event would actually happen, that she had already been away from her own family for 8 days, and it would cost her a pretty penny to extend, she sadly and reluctantly went home without taking a single picture of the birth.

And then we waited, and waited, and waited...and waited some more.  We were scheduled to fly out on Tues the 6th, but as the days passed with no baby, we decided that we needed to extend, knowing that Kellee would need help after the baby came.  So we changed our flight and planned to stay an extra 5 days.  Labor day weekend came and we thought,  maybe Mon, since that is LABOR Day.  Nope. Tues came and the midwives came for a check up, and what they found was less than encouraging. Kellee was now a full week overdue, which was a new and frustrating situation.  Since waiting was all we could do, we waited.

Finally, at 10:30 that night, labor began and baby Zayva was born early the next morning.  The waiting was over!  We were so happy we could stay and witness this blessed event and then be able to help out for a few days after.

Now we are home, looking at squeezing in all that needs to be done into 6 days.  Whew, it'll be tough, but we are up to the challenge!  Bring it on!