About a month ago, we were taking a little holiday from our missionary labors because our dear friends, Layne and Kris, came to Ireland to visit. As we were touring the Ring of Kerry one day, we got a phone call from Pres. Thompson, 1st counselor to Pres. Donaldson, the mission President. Pres Thompson is over the Ireland area at the request of the President. Anyhoo, we got this phone call, wherein Pres. T tells us that we are being transferred to Scotland! That was a big surprise. Pres had discussed with us the possibility of being moved at the last All Ireland Conference and we told him that we would serve wherever he felt we should serve. Then we left it in his hands. So we knew it was a possibility, but the surprise was that it was Scotland. The area where we were to be assigned is Beith, a tiny village 20 min west of Glasgow. Obviously, we've never heard of it, nor have most of the people we talked to. The news of our transfer was bittersweet: bitter because it meant we would be leaving behind all our great friends in the Branch, the English class and the town of Tralee. Sweet because we would be heading on to new adventures in a new place. We hadn't entertained the thought that we might be able to serve in Scotland.
Pres D decided to take Senior missionaries out of Tralee completely for the time being, so besides packing ourselves up, we also had to close down our flat, which meant we had to pack up, give away, and dispose of everything in the flat except the furnishings. That made the move somewhat more difficult. It took us several days, in between teaching our final English classes, trying to find a new flat in Beith, arranging for a baptism, and saying goodbye to all our friends. It was a whirlwind few days.
It was so hard to say goodbye to all the dear friends we've made. At our final Park Run, they thanked us for our volunteer service for 24 weeks, and we received goodbyes and hugs from the many friends we made there: Siobhan, Pat, Tony, Triona, Jerry, Joan, Stella, Malachy, Caroline, and several others.
Saying goodbye to our dear, sweet neighbors, Kathriona and Sophie was particularly hard. Kathriona did so much for us and took good care of us so we would love Ireland. Then, of course, there were all the members we worked with in the Branch: T and Aggie, the Brownlees, Louise, Jack, Robert, Tadd (formerly E. Hoppe, that "trained" us when we came to Ireland) and the Knight family. Also the investigators, Con and James. We had so many wonderful, and sometimes hard experiences, with all these people-they will be always in our memories. We pray that they will all stay active and growing in the Gospel and will help that little "twig" to grow into a full ward someday.
It took us a while to find a flat in Beith. We only had pictures on websites to go by. Sis Broadfoot, the Branch President's wife was helping us from the Beith end. She had looked at the flat here in Beith and was scheduled to look at 3 others, but we felt like it was going to take too long, and none of the other flats were in Beith, so we took the plunge and decided that the Beith flat would be the one. We wanted to be able to go straight from the All Ireland Conference in Dublin, to Belfast and then on to Scotland, we we pushed things along a little. The landlord agreed to furnish it for an extra 100 pounds a month, so we sealed the deal.
The Sisters were continuing in Tralee, and we all wondered how they would get by without us and a car. Fortunately, E Peacock, who was our ZL for 11 days before being elevated to AP, worked his magic and got them a car. Now we didn't feel so bad leaving them.
So, the night before the Conference, we packed up our car, added 6 cakes for the Conference to the pile in the car,and sent the Sisters by bus to Dublin. Tues morning at half 5 we departed Tralee for Dublin and ultimately Scotland. Farewell, Tralee!
After the Conference, we headed out for Belfast, where we spent the night. We found a lovely B&B guesthouse called "The Gregory" to stay for the night. The concierge was a lovely young woman named Ines, from Portugal. She was so sweet and helpful and delightful to be around. We had a beautiful room with a kingsize bed that was so soft and comfy. It was heaven to get a restful night's sleep in such a bed.
The next morning it was on to Beith! We enjoyed the 3 hour ferry ride to Scotland and had a beautiful sunny drive to Beith. We didn't know our flat address so had to call the Mission Office. We finally arrived at a row of terrace houses and located ours. Our first view of the flat was not encouraging. It was old, shabby, had holes in the walls and was papered in a black and silver design on one wall and dark grey green on the other three walls. Thank goodness there were two big window fore and aft to make the room more light. The stairwell is cramped, we can feel holes in the floorboards in a few places and it's pretty tiny. One of the first things we noticed was that there were no closets in the bedrooms, or dressers. No place to put our clothes. When we mentioned it to the letting agent she said, "well, you didn't ask for closets." Maybe because we just assumed there would be closets. Overall, we weren't too thrilled with our new accomodations, but decided we would just have to make do for the present. Our letting agent ordered wardrobes and dressers and we finally had them after two more days. We did a wallpapering and painting DIY on the living room and finally feel comfortable there.
We have now been in Beith two months and we are loving it! Yes, the town is small and crowded, but we are close to the big city, we are making wonderful friends, the Branch is fabulous and we are being given many opportunities. Come along with us as we continue on this Scottish journey!
HASTE YE BACK!
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