Arriving in Waterford, Ireland

The flight was long, and when you fly West to East, against the sun, it shortens the days and makes it seem even longer.  The night came so quickly and the ocean is so wide.  It gets a little scary when you think that all there is beneath you is water further than the eye could see, if you could see.  By the time the sun thought of rising, we were already on the ground and in the terminal.  To my great surprise and relief, once again nobody was standing in customs to go through our things and tell us that we certainly could not bring in 18 months of drugs into their country.   So we walked right by and felt blessed.  And yes Allison, I worried too much about that.  But that's my job.

Elder andSister McKendrick

Elder McKendrick was waiting for us before we left the building.  He helped us with the luggage and drove us to his place.  Elder and Sister McKendrick  have an apartment on the Stake Center property, which makes it very handy for them because they are the YSA couple for the Dublin Stake.  We spoke with them for a couple of hours.  They thought we should stay and sleep a while and they had a meeting anyway, but sleeping there meant getting out the CPAP, and I knew that when I fall asleep, I would not wake up for some time.  We still had over 2 hours to drive to get to Waterford.  So we loved them and thanked them and took to the road.

Bleary-eyed Webers

I had prepared my GPS by purchasing a UK chip with maps and although I worried about it functioning, there was not anything else I could really do except have faith that my effort was enough.  My OCD was kicking in pretty good when we turned it on, put in the address and clicked "GO," because the first thing it did was say "no matches found."  I PANICKED inside for a moment then The Sat/Nav reconsidered and up came the satellites and the road was clearly marked.

Home Sweet Home

I was amazed at how quickly my hard earned English driving training returned.  As soon as the newness wore off, the tired took over and I started drifting over the lines on both sides.  We were too tired to really take in the wonder that is Ireland, but we arrived at our destination without incident and located our new home.

We are unsure exactly how long we will be here.  It may not be for the entire mission, but it will likely be for half of it.  Normally they leave couples in one of the two countries for a little less than a year, because of the effort and expense of getting a driving license.  You can drive for a year in either country on your US license, so they often shift couples from one country to the other.  I am uncertain if my English license will work here in Ireland, but I will find out. We have heard both answers, but none officially.

Karen's Cooker

We unlocked the door and looked around the house.  Not a bad place to stay.  We have 3 bedrooms, 2 with double beds and one with a single bed,  a large living room with a gas fireplace, a nice kitchen, and a garage accessible by inside door only.  A back yard with a huge hedge, situated in a very nice neighborhood.  I don't know how I will be able to trim the hedge as there is no equipment here to do it and no ladder to get up high enough.  I called the letting agency and they said they would make sure it was taken care of.  The owner came by later and told us that he had planted the hedge for privacy, and that he will trim it, but probably no more often than once every couple of years.

Big Hedge, No, not me, the Hedge!

The kitchen Queen

Karen says that the kitchen here has more cooking space than her kitchen at home.  I can see that the remodel we have planned for our kitchen will be top priority when we return.



About that, we think that if we are still able enough when we get home, it may be a short stay.  We think we should wear out selves out in the work of the Lord.

We may well be resubmitting missionary papers within a year of our return.

The refrigerator is small, but we are only two.

We were so tired and hungry.  The dear McConnel's had left some food, so we ate a little something and took a 4 hour nap.  When we finally got up, we fixed some dinner and went to bed and slept another 12 hours.

It took me nearly 2 weeks before I could get up on time and go to bed on time and not be dead tired all day.  Karen recovered more easily I think.

We met many members on Sunday, and they all seemed very pleased to have us there.  We made some dear friends already, and had good discussions with a number of them.  Good people these Irish.

We meet in an old refurbished factory.  We do not have a picture of it now and I will not wait to post this blog spot, so I will add that picture next time.  We take up about one-tenth of the building, and are busting out of it.  In a recent Zone Conference we met with Pres. Brown for the first time.  I mentioned to him that our circumstances were crowded there, and that we have had 63, 63, and 74 in attendance on the 3 Sundays we have been here.  Each Sunday, we noticed there were some of the very active members who are out of town, and that if they were all to show up, I was not sure we could contain them in that facility.  He was pleased and concerned, and made some notes.  He said, "I know just who to speak to." I believe there are plans in the works for a building of our own. It would make the missionary work here ever so much better if we had a building we could show investigators, it kind of gives permanence to our appearance.

We learned that the Relief Society Pres.  had already started circulating a dinner list for the missionaries for the holidays.  They will have us all covered for eating on Christmas @ 1pm, Christmas @ 5pm, Boxing day @ 1pm and 5pm, New years day a@ 1and 5pm.  How are we supposed to eat twice each of those days so close together.  And you know, the 1pm schedule will probably be late, and then OH MY for the 5pm one.

Waterford is in lower Center near the coast

We have 3 pairs of missionaries here, and the members are spread out far and wide.  Waterford is the largest city, and centrally located, but it does not have the majority of the active members.  There are 4 directions we travel from here and each one takes close to an hour.

What a good looking group.
Elder Coombs, Sisters Knab, Henkel, the Webers, Elder Edwards

We usually take one pair with us when we go to district and zone meetings, but we cannot take them all.  In our district, 5 of the missionaries have been here as short a time as we.  One elder has been here 6 weeks longer.  The two Sisters are absolutely amazing.  They have 3 investigators with a date for baptism already.  They are investigator-finding Magnets.  The Elders have one as well.  Because the Sisters cannot meet young men any place that is not public, they always try to have their discussions with members present.  We like to involve the Branch as much as possible.  We have a lovely living room and we often have them come here when nobody else in the Branch can have them over.

Sister Knab is pretty close to going home.  She is the best at finding and meeting people on the street.  They have a new position in the mission, and I believe all missions, called "Sister Trainers" She was one of the first Sister Trainers in this mission, and you can see why, she loves to meet people on the street, and she loves missionary work.  It just comes bubbling out of her and she literally bounces up and down at the prospect.  Her favorite time of year is street meeting during Christmas time.  Her birthday was the other day and we had a celebration for her at District meeting.


On one of our recent trips to the outer regions of the Branch boundaries we met with the Condemi Family.  The Condemi’s are a marvelous family. Mom and Dad are about the same age as our Ben and Ana. They have two daughters and a son. The oldest daughter, Leah, is the same age as Alessia,  and Tomaso is Sean’s age. They have a younger daughter, Emma, who is the second grade.

   The children are marvelous.  Leah, the 16 year old plays the piano for Sacrament meeting.  Brother Condemi runs an Italian Ice shop.  They fed us and my oh my was it good.  For dessert we had two kinds of Gelato.  We have to get to his shop and get Karen stocked.  You know she is a Gelato freak.  Just look at these precious children.  He will want to give us the ice cream, but I already told him that I would not go if he didn't let me pay.  He said "maybe I give you a little discount." I do foresee a battle here.

On our drive to their home, the GPS kept telling me to go "off road."  We had to put the GPS coordinates in, and then wing it when you get close.

Along the way we discovered a tree.  We had to stop and investigate.  It was truly a work of art, and Metallic, and huge, it must have been 50 feet tall.  And it must have been quite expensive.  We could not find anybody nearby to ask about it, but I think we will.  If you look closely, you can pick out images of a violin, pitcher, washboard, ladder, and a lot more.

We also saw a couple of other neat things.  Like this gas station in a small town.  Just pull over and "top it off. "

We have done a lot of shopping while we have been here.  There are so many things we need to have to run a house.  Although these places are "furnished," they do not have some of the things we really need.  A knife that actually cuts, a potato pealer, garbage can, spices, pepsi max, gary's nutmix, print cartridges, good pork sausage and on and on.  One thing that is an absolute necessity is German Chocolate
Lindor Balls.  We found a good one here.  The Lidl Store has all kinds of German goodies at Christmas time.  Look at this one. There are only a couple of large Name Grocery stores here.  Tesco being the largest and most plentiful.  So if they don't have it, you won't find it at all.  Like canned pumpkin.  Not available in Ireland.  I went on line to Ebay.Co.UK and was about to purchase some and have it shipped here at an exorbitant price when it said that they could not ship to our address.  That means Ireland.  We have a can in our cupbord, but it was brought here from Scotland.  We spoke to the Morgans and they are going to try to get us some from the UK and ship it to us from there.  They sounded confident that it an be done.

Well, that is all for now, We love you all and miss you, but are doing our best to do the Lord's will here and stay busy and involved.  We have friends to find and lives to help change.  What a marvelous opportunity to serve.  Gramma and Grumpa Weber

Karen’s Corner

On our drive from Dublin to Waterford, we marveled at the verdant, green countryside. It is truly picturesque, the rolling hills, the interlocking pastures with their green hedges and a herd of cows in the meadow. A picture doesn’t do it justice.

News From Waterford                     

On Saturday, November 2, Waterford celebrated All Souls Day in memory of deceased loved ones. It is celebrated throughout Ireland. I believe it is like our Memorial Day event. Candles are lit in memory of departed loved ones. It is interesting that it follows on the heels of Halloween, which the Irish also celebrate.  

The City of Waterford will be celebrating its 1100 birthday in 2014. “Waterford is Ireland’s oldest city and is also older than all of the Northern European capitals with the exception of London and Paris. In 914 the great Viking adventurer and pirate, Regnall, a grandson of Ivor the Boneless, established a base here and built a Long port or ships’ haven, which would in time become a modern city.

“The city was capture, by the Anglo Normans in 1170, and the Vikings were expelled bringing about a dramatic change for the city. Within a few years of being captured, Waterford was escalated to the status of Royal City, which owed allegiance to the Anglo Norman King of England, Henry II. Modern day Waterford City still retains six towers and long stretches of town walls from these periods which represents the largest collection of medieval defensive towers and walls in Ireland.”

Presently Waterford has about 50,000 people, with another 50,000 in the rest of the County. From reading the newspaper, I learned the residents here struggle with the same problems we have in the states. They also experience many positive happenings, created by individuals working to improve their community. One of these is a yearly tree day for primary school children. On this day they learn about trees how they help the environment and improve the air we breathe. They have class projects and participate in guided woodland walks. “Show a little Atreeciation for trees.”  Clever theme.

            We have found the Irish people to be very courteous and willing to help. If chairs are in short number, the young men will offer their chairs to seniors. - Karen