The LDS Church is small but growing in Ireland.  We’re in the Cork Branch in the Limerick District, which consists of branches in Cork, Waterford, Limerick, Tralee and Galway.  Our branch has 70-80 people come each week and we’re pushing to get up to 120.  Most members live in Cork or in a nearby town/suburb called Ballincollig, with a few farther out.
The building is small but fits us, other than the parking lot.  There are 20 regular spaces (plus 2 handicapped), but a number of people take the bus so that helps.  It will be interesting to see what happens as we grow.
Blaik is currently the Branch Clerk, a job he loves.  But it entails early meetings and we only have one car and live 20-25 minutes away.  So I take him in, come back home and get ready, and then go in myself.  And then wait for him afterwards, and since there’s no foyer area with seating, that’s not the greatest.  But there are usually a lot of people hanging around so we’re doing ok.
I was called as the 1st Counselor in Relief Society about 6 weeks ago and am learning how much there is to learn—about the calling, the sisters, and myself.  And I’m sort of the de facto choir director for Christmas.  (Jane, I hear your voice in my head all the time!)
It’s General Conference weekend right now, and we’re adapting to a strange schedule.  We watched the re-broadcast of the Relief Society Broadcast (originally Sept 27th) at 3 pm Saturday, followed by the Sat. morning session of General Conference from 5-7 pm.  Then we all went home.  This morning, they showed last night’s Priesthood session from 10-noon, then we’ll watch the Saturday evening session from 1-3, then have a pitch-in dinner, then the Sunday morning session live from 5-7.  Then most people go home, but I guess a few stay for the closing session from 9-11.  But that wouldn’t put us home until probably 11:45, after clean up and driving, which is too late for Blaik and Monday morning work, so I think we’ll come home and watch the rest on the computer some evening this week.
It was kind of nice, though, to sit there at 5:00 yesterday and know that Bryan and Tim are in basically the same place doing the same thing we were.  Happy thoughts.