Pettit's Highland Highlights: A Week of Conferences

Dear Family and Friends,
Its Easter Sunday and after a week of being gone from our "home" here in Dublin, we are glad to be back. We had some marvelous experiences, but since it wasn't a vacation we are glad to get our bags unpacked and be snug in our little cottage again.  We miss family the most with holiday time, ---and Grandpa missed being able to impose the "Grandpa tax" on the kids' Easter baskets! We were amazed at the quantities of chocolate being sold,---- and the grocery stores seem to be in competition of who could have the fanciest Easter billboards about chocolate egg hunts, so we think the Irish children must have tummy aches without Grandpa to help them.

Easter holiday has been a big event here in Ireland because of the celebration of the 100 year anniversary of the Irish revolution. We didn't realize it at the time, but he children have been out of school since St. Patrick's Day, and will be out all this coming week as well. We heard that the St. Patrick's Day Parade was not as big as the Easter Rising Parade, but we don't know for sure since we have been in "enemy territory" (England and Northern Ireland ) the entire time of celebration. The cemetery across the street was scheduled to have some significant events with the 'Easter Rising', because some of the most renowned war patriots are buried there. We were quite interested in going over to watch for resurrections, but we don't think that was actually in the plan. :) It seems Easter is far more about the Easter Bunny and the Revolution than the Atonement.

We have been speaking and presenting in wards throughout Ireland for the last 3 months, so this morning we were happy to be able to attend our "own ward" for Easter Sunday. The talks were so good and seeing our friends was a special treat. Although we are rarely here on Sundays, we have been involved with some wonderful people here and it was nice to see them. One man teased us about being less active, but we told him we are very active Christians. We attend on both Christmas and Easter. (for you grandchildren who don't know; many people think they are religious if they attend their church that much.  There are so many huge and beautiful church buildings all throughout Ireland--but they are mostly very old and now not used much at all. We wish we could help the people see the importance of faith in their lives, but some years ago the issues with Catholic Priests really turned the people against religion.   We know that is not unique to Ireland, but it seems especially significant here.

Most of the people who seem to be taking lessons from the missionaries are immigrants. These immigrants are mostly not the refugees that are such a concern, but nevertheless people looking for a better life here and are looking for a better life in all ways ---including religion.   When we came home today one of our investigator friends told us how much he missed us, since we were gone all week. He had some tough times to sort out and missed being able to talk to us about the challenges he had. It really touched out hearts and we felt the same for him. We realized that missionaries are truly given the blessing of a special measure of Heavenly Father's love (Charity) for His children. It is a joy to experience this special portion of love.   We know you who have served as missionaries know what we are talking about---and you who are yet to serve can look forward to that blessing.

We left for London for our Self Reliance Conference on Monday morning. The conferences are scheduled for every six months--although maybe not always in the same location. We rather wish they would be the same place so we could get more efficient with the travel arrangements. It takes awhile to know the tricks of the connections. We caught a plane to Gatwick (London), a train to Victoria Station (which seemed like we could have been in the Harry Potter movie) and then the subway to Kensington which was then walking distance to the famous Hyde Park Chapel. It was so fun to be there for our meetings. The Chapel is a four story building (modern and LDS style) right in the middle of a very expensive area of London. We walked past embassies and national museums and even got to go in one museum for 30 minutes before our meetings started. The Chapel is the most used building in the church (we heard). It has a Visitor's Center, 2 stakes, 4 wards, a mission office, Self Reliance Office, a Public Affairs Office, and a YSA center! We met an Elder and Sister who are working there from Idaho Falls that know Kent and Patrice.

Our meetings were a gathering of all the SR couples from the UK and Ireland, and the Area Directors from Frankfurt, Germany. The training was done by our two Self Reliance Managers for the area. We enjoyed meeting all the couples and sharing ideas and needs, but we also received a lot of training. Most of us stayed in the same hotel which was a nice Holiday Inn. The weather while we were there was quite pleasant, unusually sunny for London, and made walking around enjoyable. On Wednesday night we were lucky to be able to all go down to the Parliament area. Since it was Grandma's first time in London, seeing Big Ben was a thrill, but even better we met with an LDS MP (Member of Parliament) who took us on a private tour of the House of Commons and the House of Lords and the connecting Parliamentary Hall with wonderful historic features. We saw floor plaques of things that happened on that very spot both modern and very old, such as the trial of Sir Thomas Moore and the beheading of King Charles the 1st.

The MP knew we were all Americans so he pushed the nobility of England's government over the seeming chaos that America is now experiencing, making for a little light humorous banter. The traditions of Parliament are very set, even to the point that you cannot sit on any of the benches (there are signs to be sure you don't) and protocol for almost everything done. The night monitor was dressed in traditional long magistrate style robes and made sure we didn't do anything out of order, but we did have a little fun standing where the debaters face each other across the table. We saw the Queen's throne for when she attends, and smaller thrones for her husband and the Prince. Of course it was all very ornate and very old. We were not allowed to take pictures in the parliament but we will share some of the other areas where we could do photos.

We got home on Thursday evening in time to teach a finance class, and work a little more on our presentation for the YSA Conference. We were not officially asked to do a seminar for the YSA Conference very much before we left for London, (because the young adults were in charge) so we needed to do more preparation before we left the next day. Elder Herbertson of the Seventy spoke to us in London emphasizing the need to especially work with the Young Adults, so we were glad we could include parts of what he taught along with the plans we had started, but it kept us hopping to get it done and get ready to leave Friday afternoon.

We also had to stop awhile to get oriented on our new car that was finally delivered. It doesn't seem much different, still very small, but it is a Hyundai so maybe it will be better. One feature of our old car was the "suicide doors" that open from the front to the back. We had one passenger man who truly hated riding in it for fear a door would open by accident and he would go out!

As for the Conference in Belfast, we weren't really impressed with the organization but we will wait to hear what the YSA think. We had 14 YSA go, which even though it was a little expensive, was a full 1/3 of all who attended. We arranged bus fares for most of the "kids" and took 3 with us in the car. They had members of the stake host them for two nights, but they forgot to get a place for us. We were okay with getting a hotel, but it was a little bit of stress until we got there--then we were glad we could have more time to prepare. On Saturday we presented twice, ate a little lunch and left to go do a missionary flat check and visit with our Stake Specialists in Belfast. Then we came home--and lucky we did because we both started to feel pretty "shot" and have taken it easy all day to ward off flu symptoms.

We hope you all had a fun and wonderful Spring Break. We are glad to be busy because we miss you especially at holiday times. It would help if you could arrange to send the "Grandpa Tax" of Easter candy directly to us here. (Just kidding!)

Love to all,

Grandma and Grandpa

Mom and Dad

Lynne and Lanette

A display of humming birds in the Natural History Museum, near the Hyde Park chapel.

Entering the "center of the earth" in the Natural History Museum.

The couple on the right is Elder and Sister Reuckert from Frankfurt (their home is in Salt Lake). They are the Area Directors for Self Reliance. On the right is Les Pointer. He works for the Church as Area Manager, and lives in England. (He is our direct boss.)

This is looking out the window of our training room in the Hyde Park chapel. This is a group of elementary students "queuing up" to go in the Science Museum.

Here is the group of Self Reliance Specialists from England, Scotland, and Ireland.

In front of the Hyde Park chapel. The Christus looks out on the street. Neat, huh?

In front of Parliament building, downtown London.

In front of Parliament with Les Pointer.

In front of the "Queen's Tower" attached to the House of Lords in the Parliament building. When the Queen opens Parliament, she enters on the street level of this tower.