Newfoundland

     President Pratt was determined we needed to see some of Newfoundland before we went home. We'd been to Gander once shortly after we arrived, but we arrived late at night, were in meetings the next day and a big storm hit the following morning, so we didn't see much of anything except black and white. President Pratt decided he needed our help at the District Conference that was held in St. John's last weekend, so we tagged along with him. St. John's is the oldest settlement in North America.

     President Pratt had an emergency

come up while we were driving to the airport, so he put off his flight for 24 hours and flew up the next night. We ended up taking a later flight than originally planned and then the taxi driver got lost, so we didn't get to our hotel room until 2:00. In the morning. And we lost 30 minutes because Newfoundland is a half hour ahead of Halifax. (We've now heard of three places that are a half hour different rather than jumping ahead a full hours.) We enjoyed sleeping in a little before meeting the Sisters Friday morning to borrow their car to do a little sightseeing. Our first stop was Cape Spear. It is the easternmost point in Canada, and of course all of North America. According to one website, "Stand here with your back to the sea and the entire population of North American is to the west of you. Face the sea and the next stop east is Ireland." It was a cold, drizzly day, but we enjoyed walking around the area. There are also two lighthouses, a WWII defense battery (guarding North America from German U-boats), art museum, and gift shop.

The oldest lighthouse in Newfoundland (no longer in operation)

The new lighthouse

Rough water

A picture of a picture of what it looks like on a clear day

     The museum has the works of one artist (don't remember his name) who painted pictures of all 81 lighthouses on Newfoundland, and it only took him 2 1/2 years. He did it while he was working full time and just painted in his free time.

     We had great weather while the kids were here, so we figured we were paying for it on this trip. We went to a lot of places, but didn't see as much as we would have liked.

     Our next stop was Signal Hill. For some reason the road was closed to cars but we could walk up.

     Later that afternoon we snapped a picture of it from our hotel room after the rain stopped.

     We went to a museum called The Rooms. It had lots of interesting exhibits, but we faded fast and didn't check them all out. On our way back to the hotel for naps, we passed this basilica built in the mid 1800s:

     It's always surprising to go inside of a basilica or cathedral and look out through the beautiful stained glass windows that look so plain and drab on the outside.

     St. John's is known for its Jellybean Row Houses. They're called that because they look like jelly beans stacked up in a row, all colors of the rainbow. Here's one shot of just a few, but there are streets and streets and streets lined with Jellybean Row Houses.

     Saturday night was the adult meeting for District Conference. The uplifting talks were very good, and there were some things said in the talks that we needed to hear. Afterward they had a potluck dinner with lots and lots of food and then some entertainment. They had arranged for a group called the Perlin Players, which that night consisted of 7 Special Needs people lip syncing. The Perlin Players have been going for 30 years and have won awards. We'd been told about them before dinner and wondered how well they would be able to pull it off. The answer is very well. Amazingly well. The first song was a guy performing Frank Sinatra's "My Way." If we hadn't known better, we would have thought he was really singing.

Mr. Sinatra

The back up singers mimicked oohing and ahhing perfectly. The drummer had all the right moves at the right times and the guitarists strummed along, looking slightly bored like many guitarists do. Then they switched instruments and a lady did a Leslie Gore tune. Throughout the evening they took turns on the drums, keyboard, violin, trumpet, guitars, sax, and harmonica. One fun part of the evening was when the lady at the keyboard had to make an emergency exit but everything else continued--the music, the other singers, the whole show. All in all, it was a delightful evening.

 

      Driving back to our hotel Elder Holbrook noticed a nearby street on the GPS, so we turned and drove down our street. There was also a Holbrook Place next to it. It's fun to be famous!

   






     Sunday was the 15th anniversary of 9/11. There is an article about the role Newfoundlanders played in dealing with diverted flights. Very interesting, very moving. Newfoundlanders are like that.

     Sunday after the meetings and interviews were over, we found we had a little time before we needed to head back to the airport, so President and Sister Pratt said they'd like to go to Cape Spear (they hadn't ever been there before). It was a beautiful, sunny day, so we saw a little more than we had on the rainy Friday.

President and Sister Pratt

     We were surprised to see the surf was a lot wilder on a sunny day than it had been during the storm. We stood and watched the waves for a long time, mesmerized

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What a difference a little sun makes!

     Life is kind of like the weather. Those buildings were there in the rain, but we had a hard time seeing them. However, add a little light, and things become clear.



     God has been so good to us. We love having this opportunity to spend a little of our time to give back to Him in gratitude.