I thought after last week's busy schedule, that this week would be much slower. Well, I was wrong! This week, we were almost as busy. Besides attending all of our meetings as scheduled, spending a wonderful day with our closest senior companionship couple, and then just life in Limerick this week, we were busy. Once again, I would rather be busy than not be. I always feel such a feeling of increased self-worth, success and gratitude after busier weeks. The Lord certainly knows each of His missionaries, their temporal and spiritual needs, and then uses us to fulfill His work. This I know with certainty!
Last Sunday here at our branch, we had a wonderful sacrament meeting and a very deep gospel doctrine class on a Isaiah chapter. Every week it seems that we get more members moving in from other countries. This week was not different. We received two new branch members from Africa, a young African woman and a separate young African man. They are both here to study. I know that the young woman (I can't remember her name) is a practicing nurse wanting to move her career to the next level. The young man, Joshua, is here right now to learn English. I love their smiles and their excitement for the gospel!!!
We also had 5 visitors from the states that day. For those of you who know me well, most of you know that every year my two youngest daughters and I go on a "girl's vacation". We have enjoyed so many different places and faces together over the last thirteen years of doing it. It's actually one of the highlights of every year for me. Well, these 5 visiting members from the states were a 95 year old mother and her four adult daughters spending time together on their "girl's vacation". That was such an amazing and thrilling sight for me to see that I have inwardly committed to keep doing our "girl's vacation" for as long as I can. The thought alone makes me so happy!!!!
On Monday, our mission had a transfer day. We drove our two established missionaries to the train station as Elder Schneider was called to serve as a district leader in Dublin. We needed to hurry back to our flat to receive our brand new dryer. We had gone about three weeks without a dryer, which in Ireland, can be a challenge with frequent rain storms and not having the ability to dry our clothes outside. Fortunately, we were able to spread our damp clothing all over our flat before going to bed and, most of the time, were able to put our stiffly dried clothing away the next morning. My biggest problem was using a towel after a shower that felt like sandpaper! Our kind landlord fixed that problem today for us!
Our very small, but private back porch (notice the little flower we have growing amongst the porch tiles) where we could hang up our damp laundry
The arrival of my new little best friend!!! Obviously, I suffered too long without this useful product in my life!
Ta da!!! As winter begins here, this could not have come at a better time. So grateful!
When Elder Hardy, our other missionary stationed here, returned back hours later, he arrived with his new companion, Elder Larrubia. We got to pick them up at the train station and deliver them back to their flat safely. We also had YSA family home evening later that day. This week, we asked Marla, the YSA representative, to conduct and make assignments. Marla came so well prepared, which made Elder and I very happy. Marla, who is from Mexico, is here also to learn English. It is so pleasant to watch these YSAs take the lead even if they struggle with the language. We also got to introduce our new elder to everyone. We had a very fun night playing Jenga together, even though every time the wood tower would fall over, one of the elders was always the cause. It made us all laugh.
On Tuesday, the Irish national circus came to town for a one week stay starting September 24. The parking lot chosen for them to use for this venue is about 400 steps away from our flat. Seriously! This circus travels all over yearly to bring the circus to the people of Ireland. It is the only circus found on the Isle. By noon, Elder and I were able to go back to St. Mary's cathedral to listen to another concert. This time Christoforos Karathanasis, a violinist, and his piano accompanist performed for us. They performed three pieces which were played with perfection. Both artists were very disciplined in their command of their instruments. It was a very enjoyable hour, which included the awesome background of the 850 year old cathedral and it's marvelous acoustics.
One of the circus trucks carrying equipment
St. Mary's cathedral performers
On Wednesday, we had our weekly mission district training meeting. It was good to welcome the newly assigned missionaries to our district. Because of receiving these new missionaries, we took time to introduce all of ourselves to the rest of the group. What we didn't know is that after our introductions, we would be given the task to ask specific questions to the missionary to our right about their themselves. Elder Muirhead just happened to be sitting to my right, so I got smart and asked him "What characteristic of his wife do you appreciate the most?", then I leaned in closer and starred at him. He was very quick to give a loving answer. I told him afterwards that if he had answered wrong, that I would not have made him dinner that night! He replied, "Then I'm very glad that I answered right"!
After our training meeting, the other senior couple, the Evenson's, that has only been in Ireland for less than a month, and us went sight seeing together. We ended up having a nice lunch at our flat and then walked over to King John's castle. We all had such a great time, spending over 5 hours together. Both elders hit it right off, as did both of us sisters. It was a well needed change from active missionary work.
Posing with the Evenson's
There is one thing I will always love about Limerick and it is the incredible cloud action that happens often here. There are times that the scenery before my eyes just takes my breath away, Below are two examples that literally happened about 18 hours apart from each other.
Look at those clouds, especially the lower ones. So amazingly beautiful!!
Early the next morning with fog across the Shannon River
I have to also show you this little girl standing near the railing of the Shannon River with her parents sitting nearby. Look how close she gets to birds, pigeons and seagulls! The next photo shows her getting ready to throw some crumbs out and look how quickly those birds are up and ready to receive. If you look, she hasn't ever released any crumbs out of her hand yet!
You can never get this close to wild birds in Provo, UT
Crumbs in hand, but not thrown out yet. You would think that those poor birds never get anything to eat. What a falsehood! Believe me, they are fed by many daily
Talking about the Shannon River, which connects to the ocean, here is a picture of the river at low tide. In just a few hours after this picture was taken, the river was totally full again. It truly is always changing
This past Thursday ended up being a prep day for me to be ready again to teach another Book of Mormon class. Though the numbers of class participants have not exceeded over 10, its wonderful to direct the amazing discussions that have happen every week. At times, I feel like the branch president asked the wrong person to teach that class. So many members here is Limerick are so intelligent, not only about the scriptures, but also about the stories, history, peoples, cultures, etc.
I got to share with the class two of my favorite articles concerning the night that Moroni give Joseph Smith the gold plates. I love these two articles because they add more to my knowledge, including a more personal touch to that eventful night. Below are the links if you are interested.
Studying 1 Nephi chapter 1. So packed with so much!!! I could spend hours just on this chapter alone!
This last Friday was "Cultural Night" in Limerick. This event has not happened since the beginning of COVID. Typically on a Friday night, just about everything closes down right at 5 pm. On this night, any building that had ties to anything cultural stayed open until 10 pm, some even later. The really cool part of this night was that EVERYTHING cultural was FREE!!! There was an aerial dancing event, a concert inside King John's castle, free entrance into all museums, music and dance concerts galore all over the city and many more venues too numerous to name. I saw the aerial acts, took a couple of pictures at the castle that night and walked through the Hunt Museum, especially their religious medieval artifacts display. What a fun way to celebrate culture!
This couple is from Chile and performed a cute pantomime of two people falling in love
They were not only good, but quite funny
Aerial dancers way up high
Doing spinning moves in the air
A young man doing an Irish jig. He was fantastic
Their finale. It was wonderful
The concert inside King John's castle
A photo of the crowd inside the castle during Cultural Night Limerick
A 15th century wooden carving of Mary and the baby, Jesus at the Hunt Museum. They have a small but incredible display of antique religious items
To end our week, our YSA group had a BBQ at our flat on Saturday. I love these young adults. They are so full of love and excitement for life, it's almost catchy. Emma, our newest YSA, from the states, here for a masters degree in violin performance, was about to celebrate an up-coming birthday, but we surprised her first. Our young elders had an appointment that they needed to keep at that very moment and missed the party, but came over right after this picture was taken. We are all bonding so well and certainly enjoy every minute that we get to spend with one another.
YSA BBQ and Emma's (in middle) birthday party
Once again as I end this week's blog, I want to again bare my testimony of all the good that the gospel brings to all that will "come and see". Serving in Ireland has already been such a joy to us. We love our branch. So many of our branch members have taken us in and have showed us so much love. I love to join with them every week and see the light in their eyes and hear the joy in their hearts. I bare testimony that God does live. I know it. I know that Jesus is the Christ. He is always there for me and answers even my simplest prayers, where I can never doubt His love for me. I am truly blessed. Each one of you are also a great blessing to me. I love you more than words can express. May God keep you all healthy and safe until we meet again...
And I can't wait for that day to come!
Kathy:
ReplyDeleteCan you give me your Limerick address so I can write a note to you? Rosemary ❤
Kathy,
ReplyDeleteCan you send me your Limerick address so I can write a note to you? Rosemary ❤