The Blessing of Being Here in Ireland

    The longer we are here in Ireland, the more of a blessing it is for us. Both spiritual and temporal blessings have been given, to not only us, but to our dear family and loved ones. We have also come to understand better if we give just a little more help and effort here in our branch, that big differences can be made. We are truly so grateful to be here serving at this time.

     I also want to lighten things up in this week's blog. We all are in need of a good chuckle from time to time or maybe we just need to stop and smell the roses. Both of those sound very good right now to me.  So here is my chuckle. It's not my very best, but it is all that I have work with this week. 

     As you will remember, we live right across the street from the River Shannon. You will also remember that it is the largest river in Ireland, as well as Europe. We also live, as many of the Irish would say, in a fairly large city with a large population. Adding those two items together equals...seagulls!!!! And lots of them. Their sounds awake me every morning (earlier than wanted ofcourse) and their cries go on all day until darkness covers the city. Here is a photo of a smaller, but substantial, flocking of these creatures in only one small area. nearby. 

    

  These birds are almost a menace to society here, especially if you are not paying attention where you are walking when they are present. They also drive dogs crazy. I have seen many owners hold tight to their leashes as some dogs here must have some very strong inherent hunting genes. You get the picture, right? They say "birds of a feather, flock together", except............

This seagull has come to learn that he is head and shoulders above all!!

Okay, not that funny! Hey, work with me, will you???

     Let's try another one. Hopefully, this one will give you more of a chuckle. What is another name for an Irish lawnmower???

A hungry horse! Everyone in the rural areas has one of these and it looks like this type of lawnmower works pretty good! Ha ha!

     This week was another busy missionary week for us. Between YSA family home evening, two branch correlation meetings, a district missionary training meeting, English Connect (a self-reliance course), a senior missionary group family home evening, a district YSA meeting, visiting and supporting a few of the branch members, personal study, companion study, daily exercise and developing new lesson plans for our up-coming adult Book of Mormon class that starts soon, we kept ourselves happy and engaged! 

     I would like to tell you about one of our branch members that was assigned to us to reactivate. She is a single mother with a teenage son, who was active before the pandemic and then stopped coming. After being assigned, we called her and asked her is we could stop by one day to introduce ourselves and leave a blessing. She said, "Yes"! On that very first visit, this sister and I hit it right off. By the time we needed to leave that day, she invited us to come back the next week. She also came out to church that Sunday. So exciting!

     The next week, we visited her again. She and I had so much to talk about. She told me that she had been thinking about getting into a local trade school to become an EMT. I told her that I thought that she would be wonderful in that career. Before we left that day, she asked me to pray for her. I asked God to bless her with her heart's desire. She told me a week later, that she was touched in her heart as I said those words. Long story short, she recently had her interview with the school, filled out the application and was accepted into the program. She was so excited and I was too, And she continues to come to church every Sunday!

     Last week, she asked both Elder and I some deep thoughtful gospel questions. She privately told us a little more about her life's experiences. We did our best to answer her questions, but told her that we would do some research and be better prepared this week when we come over. Then she look at me and asked me if I would help her prepare for the temple! Wow! I thought my heart was going to explode! So, as you can see, with this member alone, we have much to do with God's help. More to come in future blogs.

     On Saturday, while out walking for our exercise, we found two men doing, what we thought, was a less seen career that was more popular many years ago. Though this career path still exists, it isn't very common in our part of Utah. The two men were having a wonderful time working together to professionally wash store front windows. You couldn't help to see how each of them knew exactly what to do and when to do it, even though their jobs were distinctly different from each others. It almost look like a well practiced synchronized dance. Our walk included another walk by King John's castle and its meaningful reflection that day.

One window washer is washing and the other is using the squeegee

King John's castle

     

     Elder and I also took the time to go out on another date night. We had only done this once before since we have arrived. We elected to go to a well-known restaurant here called "SpitJack's", where they serve rotisserie meats and two sides. We ordered a full rack of spare ribs, which happens to be Elder's favorite. It was good food and a good time out together. 

     

Yay for date nights!!!

     There is one more item I'd like to show you that is very common here and not so much back home in Utah. In today's Limerick, with it being a larger city that has a large university attached to it, many of the housing complexes have much I common. The similarity is that most of these complexes are one long building which contains several individual, private flats. There are some housing complexes here that literally cover a whole block that look exactly the same, yet contain many individual flats. One thing always stands out and individualizes every single flat and that is the color of the outside doors.

There are white ones

Black ones

Older red ones with modern technology

And another red one that has 7 different doorbells! Weird!!!

This picture shows a local housing complex with four different individual flats. This is what housing here commonly looks like. 

     Well, no one quite knows how this practice of painting the doors different colors got started, but there are a few ideas. I'm telling you that if the doors on some of these complexes were not painted differently, I would never know which one was mine! One of the ideas made me smile as it caused me to reflect on the many strong Irish people I see around me on a daily basis. Here is what some suppose. Remember, no one truly knows why doors are so colorful.

     In the 1840s, Ireland suffered a seven year bout of famine. Not even Queen Victoria could help relieve the suffering. She was known in Ireland as the "famine Queen". When Victoria died, Ireland was asked, like the other portions of the British Isles, to paint very household door black to mourn for the queen. Well, these strong opinionated subjects rebelled and decided to paint every door a different color. Now that's Ireland!!! 

Also yellow ones

Blue ones

Green ones.....and on and on. I also believe that I am not the only one who truly appropriates all the different colors of doors in Ireland!

     Thank you all again for supporting us on this mission as you read these blog posts, pray for us or just send us happy thoughts. We feel your support daily and it does greatly help us here! This week has once more proven to us without a doubt that God lives and loves all His children. His merciful arm is always extended and He desires all to return. We absolutely know that His work rolls forward here in Ireland as He depends on the young single adults and the older couples who have been called to serve in helping move the work forward. And it is moving forward! We see miracles every day.

     How grateful I am for my loving Savior, who forgives me through my faults and is always encouraging me to be better. I am better this week; better than I was last week and I look forward to becoming even better this new week. May hearts continue to be touched and changed as we all do God work, wherever we are! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true! I so testify!

Saint Mary's Cathedral after a recent rainstorm