Pettit's Highland Highlights

1-4-2016

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow a year has passed and it doesn’t seem like more than a few weeks! Emoji

Yes, we did survive the New Year here in Ireland and hope you all have had a nice close to the holidays as well. At home we know it is always a little hard to get past all the irregular schedules as much as you look forward to it all year, so we hope that things are now comfortably settling into a great start of a new calendar year for you. Thank you for your letters and sharing. We hope things are doing well at home.

Things have been a little slow here for us the past week, because everyone is "on holiday" but we have stayed active and with everything so different from home, it really has not seemed like the nostalgic holiday to miss. Of course we think of all of you and wish we could have been there to give hugs for Porter's, Lydia's, and Briel's Birthdays and especially for Lincoln's Baptism day. We were glad we could call and visit with each of you and hope these were special days for you. We love each of you so much!

The weather here in Dublin is staying much the same. For ,us it means it rains a lot here and the flowers love it! Rain means we still don't clearly know which direction we are going much of the time. Today we saw some rare blue skies and it was great since we were out early this morning (4:30 a.m.) to pick up the Elders and get downtown to line up for getting our "Guarda Card" (immigration pass). The office opened at 8:00 but we wanted to shorten the process of being among hundreds in line. We stood outside in fairly nice temperatures for January, (it was supposed to rain this morning--but didn't!) but we still got a bit cold after so long. We were able to get some hot chocolate later on that helped us endure, and we felt really blessed that we were numbers 13 and 14 and it only took two more hours after they opened!! We passed all the paperwork and fingerprint hoops and now are legal until 2017.

The weather for the native folk means craziness! We are assured that this is not normal and that this is the WORST possible weather ever. You may have heard of flooding problems in all of Europe and it is affecting Ireland, just not here as far as we know. Limerick Stake is southern Ireland (not to be confused politically as the opposite of Northern Ireland--and north western Ireland is not part of Northern Ireland!) Living here, we have found they are very sensitive to those differences. We have to be careful when we talk of location. ---Anyway, Limerick and the south have had a lot of flooding,--- and even lately evacuations. And in Scotland, we hear that fairly major roads have been washed away. They say it is all the tail spin of the hurricanes hitting the east coast of U.S., and surely a sign of the times. Today, since it was sunny, we saw the groundskeepers at Trinity College mowing the lawn! It was too wet of course, but it needed it, and it looked so funny when we realized it is January 4th! Happy Birthday Mother!

Our activities this week have been very varied. We had a planning meeting with the YSA leaders, but until we meet with the Stake leaders and even Mission leaders we are just getting ideas.---Except that we did plan a New Years Party. The YSA used to be very active with about 30 Young Adults participating twice a week, but the consensus is that it was too much, so now we don't have many coming. The New Years Party was at a guys apartment in downtown Dublin to accommodate travel issues because the buses wouldn't run late, but there were not many there. We took a lot of food: pulled pork, fruit, treats, and drinks and we thought how lucky we are that we have a car, quite unlike Kent and Patrice who had to bus it to everything they did! We took our card games and the kids seemed to really like it. We watched the New Year celebrations of London and thought we should be there next year since it seemed so beautiful. We didn't feel like we stayed late, but with travel and all we crawled in bed at 2 a.m.

Earlier in the week, we had a great meeting with a Self Reliance Specialist, Noel Barnes, from the Limerick District. He came to Dublin to bring his daughter shopping and so he had a lot of time available. We had him for lunch and then we were able to discuss more of the progress and plans their district is making. We are so impressed with their efforts and determination. They started the program about a year ago as directed, but it just didn't succeed. We feel this is mostly not any fault of theirs. The need is great, but the program is so new, their branches are so small, and the distances are so difficult. We knew it was an issue, but as we learned more fully what a commitment it would take for members to participate, it is a wonder they would even try. They are not giving up, but to hold classes, many of the people would have to travel as much as 3 hours each way, have the class for 2 hours and return another 3 hours. Of course it could only happen on a Saturday, but we can't imagine being able to give anyone enough incentive to sacrifice to that extent.----So the three of us came upon the idea of holding classes through Skype or some other remote system. Of course we don't know if, or how things will work out, but it seems like Dad's experience in teaching a few Distant Ed classes at USU may not have been a coincidence. of experience. It is just so great to see the faith of these good people in trying to implement this program.

Prior to our visit with Noel we had been studying extensively to more fully internalize the Self Reliance program so that we could prepare for the presentations we have coming up. We feel that our opportunities to represent the program need to be as powerful as possible so that the saints will really catch the vision. All the stakes have been introduced and so far not been able to get a good start, so we will probably not have many more chances to build testimonies of its importance. (With no pun intended) we decided to make a power point presentation to use along with our teaching. The Limerick committee had had the same idea. They have also been working so hard to bring success to their district and made a power point as well. We both shared/traded ideas and we were able to incorporate some new insights from their "first failure" that we feel will really help other stakes who have not had a failure yet because they have not progressed that far. We were so blessed to get their perspective on how to really use the ward/branch council to make this program work. We came up the concept of using a gears model to represent the need of working together to make forward progress and we are quite excited about it. The more we study, the more we see that this is not a new program at all, just the fulfillment of the continuous effort of the gospel to establish Zion.

Coming up this week we have meetings with our Dublin stake and next week the Belfast stake. We hope we can help them get the vision and begin to make progress as well.

In addition to this work, we have been helping a little by attending some investigator discussions with the Elders and Sisters. It is wonderful how they have been able to find young people (many from Brazil) who have come to Ireland to study English and who are interested in the gospel. They have such faith from the very beginning---to commit to baptism dates and make a great effort to come and be taught. We also went to a baptism on Saturday night, and plan for one again next week of young people who have gained full testimonies and want to change their lives. At church almost everyone is a convert and even many who have only been members a few years are so radiant and full of doctrine and faith. It is a testimony builder to get to know them. In our ward there is a deaf group and signing of the meetings. The signs are a little different but close enough for me to communicate some. They are a very excited, happy group. How lucky that we can associate with them. After fast meeting they had a "chew and chat" so we brought quite a bit of food. We had left over pork from the YSA to share, so we just got more rolls and brought some other things to help make it fun. The "chew" was more than the "chat" and it went fast so we had to eat when we got home--but that was fine.

We are finding that our time is very flexible. We have some specific time commitments, but we also have a lot of freedom too. When we are tired of studying--or out and about for other things we have been doing a few fun things. On New Years Day we took the Elders to a member's for dinner that was quite far away so we decided to make it an outing for ourselves. We found a castle near there to go see. Unfortunately it was not open but we explored around the grounds. It had beautiful rock walled gardens. It seemed like a movie scene--maybe, The Secret Garden. They had apple trees growing on horizontal flat wires like grapes--not bushy at all, and other exotic plants. We saw a tree that was almost creepy! Look it up. It is called a Monkey Puzzle from Argentina. Ben have you seen them? Its branches look like tails all twisting around. Its origami-folded shaped leaves are very sharp. We think no dinosaur would try to set them! Then why would it be an endangered species?

On Saturday day, our chosen P-day for the week, we decided to make our morning exercise a hike adventure. We drove to the coast and hiked along the mountainside with the beautiful cliffs below overlooking the Irish Sea. It was rather rainy--of course, so it was quite muddy, but there were others doing the same. The Irish people dress warmly, wools, hats, and boots, but they also get out and enjoy their country. We parked at the top of the hill and hiked all the way around to the inner bayside, then had to walk back up the streets to the top of the hill. It was "quite grand" as the Irish would say.

Driving for us is getting easier--most of the time. We are almost used to the left side, and the Garmin is so helpful, but last night when the Sisters asked us to give them a ride to a members home for Sunday night dinner , we really had a ride! We agreed to do it, since it was only 20 minutes away but the address wasn't a sure thing and then part way the Sisters said it felt wrong, so we tried to add on the phone to help. What a scream! The two were close but not exactly and it made us make so many mistakes. Finally we turned off the Garmin to use the phone and didn't realize that the big difference was the way they counted exits from the roundabouts was one number different than we were used to. (They counted where you are as #1, the next as #2 etc. In addition the road signs were too late to help. The signs were right where you were supposed to be turned, not ahead at all! Well, we drove back and forth on the motorways missing exits and starting over for an hour before we finally found a solution. I doubt the Sisters will ask for a shorter ride in a car than the bus again. Emoji

You would think we did it on purpose!

Today along with our big job to get our Guarda Card we felt so lucky to get done that we decided to add a little adventure. We had heard that the best way to take the day was to get your number and then take short excursions all day in and out of the building while waiting. Since we didn't have to do that, we decided to still make the best of the location and made the nearby walk over to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells. This book is on display in the magnificent Trinity Library--which was worth the walk as well. It cost us $10 each to see the museum displays , but it is so famous. (sorry, no photos allowed) The preservation of the book is remarkable since it has survived Viking and Dane raiding, fires, and greed. It is a magnificently hand decorated, hand calligraphied, copy of the four gospels. Its pages are made on thin scraped leather and is dated back to 800 A.D. The decorations are so symbolic and detailed, even with gold accents. Even though it was in Latin, we could recognize a few words. We thought it is no wonder that with so much effort put into hand transcribing, there might be errors or even deliberate changes. It is certain that anyone who worked on it would feel a real "ownership" of the effort. This week when we were helping with investigator lessons, one young man asked where the Gold Plates were now. It stands to reason that if the Book of Keels can be on display, why not the Golden Plates? They were last seen in 1830--right? It was a little bit of a challenge to help him believe that an angel would bring them, and then an angel would take them away. But the important thing is not where they are now, but are they true? A later conversation of some new members was so genuine about the topic of the truth of the Book of Mormon and the impossibility of Joseph Smith doing anything other than translating them by the power of Heaven.

As you can tell, we are alive and well--and feeling blessed. We hope all is well at home with each of you. Good luck as you start back to school kids! Always be great and faithful.

Love you Loads!

Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, Elder and Sister Pettit

Monkey Puzzle Tree