We have had a very busy and enjoyable week. On Thursday we had an all Ireland Christmas conference in Dublin. So we set off in the early morning with our two Elders and drove down there, not our favorite part of the day. It was not the usual zone conference. We played games, including a "snow ball" fight, did some singing of Christmas carols, watched the movie "Brave", had lunch together and then put on a nativity at the end. It was great to relax with the other missionaries and see them have a good time and enjoy each others company. We got to visit with and say goodbye to the Reimers and Hawkes who are headed home on January 6. We will then be the senior, senior couple in the mission. Before we went back to Omagh, the Dublin stake president took a photo of the missionaires with his drone in a 360 which was the mission goal for baptisms which was met. Elder and Sister Reimers were good friends and were a big help to us. They served their mission in Galway and were in our Limerick district for quite a while. They helped us feed the missionairies at district meetings and were encouraging and positive. This was their second mission and they are planning on another one soon after they get home to California in January. I woke up one morning this week and looked out the kitchen window at our back yard and saw a trampoline. It dawned on me that we did not have a trampoline. It was sitting upright in the yard like it belonged. I looked over to the neighbours and theirs was missing. I guess we had a big wind during the night and it picked up that trampoline and blew it over the fence into our yard. Very strange! We have thought for a while that we would like to do some community service on a regular basis. So we volunteered to help out at the Goodwill Gift Charity Shop here in Omagh. It is located in the city centre and is run by a Catholic couple. The proceeds from the shop go to help the homeless in the area. We are going to work there for four hours every Friday and this week was our first shift. There is lots of work to do there and we spent our first day sorting out new donations that had arrived in the last little while. They are sad that we will only be here until March but I think it will be a good experience. They want to come to the church and talk to the members about their shop and I answered a lot of Brian's questions that day about the church. On Christmas Eve we had our local Elders Wayment and Palmer over for the evening. We ordered in some pizza and since both of them are basketball fans we watched a BYU basketball game on my MacBook together. We had some snacks and played a few hands of hearts with them. It was a nice relaxing evening and we enjoyed spending it with them. Christmas Day started off with church. We only had Sacrament meeting with a few talks and lots of music. Both Maurene and I spoke, she played the piano and I led the music. It was a nice service and we had a few visitors. I always enjoy having Christmas Day on a Sunday. After church we went home and opened gifts and then went over to the Fosters for Christmas dinner. They are such a nice couple and we really enjoy their company. They prepared a really nice meal with both turkey and ham and I was stuffed when it was over. We gave them some Lindor chocolates which are their favorite and they gave us exactly the same thing. We had a good laugh over that. After dinner was the best part of the day, we FaceTimed with our children and grandchildren. We had chats with all of them and got to share in their Christmas Day which was wonderful. We got some great news when talking with Kailey and Caleb, they are expecting a baby girl in May! They kept it a secret until now and the best part is we will be home for the new arrival! A great end to a wonderul day!
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AuthorThis is the blog of Elder Tom and Sister Maurene Wilson of our mission to the Scotland/Ireland Mission. Archives
October 2016
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