This week started for us with our Sunday morning session of district conference. The conference was amazing, just like the ones in our beloved Provo Grandview East Stake. One of the speakers told the story behind the hymn that has been sung by the Tabernacle Choir, "It Is Well With My Soul", by Horatio Spafford. I had heard this story many years ago, but had forgotten about it. Hearing it again brought me great comfort and hope. I love this hymn. It is so calming and majestic to me. I thought that I would include this article that I found in this blog for we truly all need comfort and hope. The hymn can be found sung by the Tabernacle Choir on the YouTube link below, if you would like to hear it. You will need to copy and paste the link in the YouTube's search bar:
https://youtu.be/Eg5O2y1UXw4
"Horatio Spafford (1828-1888) was a successful lawyer and real estate investor in Chicago. He and his wife, Anna, had one son and four daughters and lived a life of philanthropy and service in their church, until 1871 that is. In that year they lost their four-year-old son to scarlet fever and a few months later the great Chicago fire wiped out the majority of their property holdings. They made it through the next two years until, in 1873, tragedy struck again. The Spaffords had planned to visit Europe as a family, but business kept Horatio behind. On the voyage, the ship that Anna and their four daughters were traveling on struck another vessel and sank rapidly. Only Anna survived; she sent a hauntingly brief telegram to Horatio bearing the words “Saved alone.”
One can only imagine Spafford’s grief upon receiving the news. It must have been paralyzing. But on his own voyage to meet Anna as his ship neared the place where his daughters had drowned he was inspired to write the lyrics for hymn “It is Well with My Soul.” Unlike many heartbreak songs, it focuses less on what what was lost and more on where hope can be found. No doubt Spafford was shattered by the loss of his daughters, but his heart turned to the faithfulness of God in the midst of loss and the work of Jesus to rescue sinners. The hymn does not diminish or gloss over pain and tragedy but rather proclaims that God is present in them and greater than them."
Horatio Spafford
That story is so inspiring to me. I love it!
Early Monday morning found us leaving our flat to drive up to Dublin for another zone conference. This zone conference was to be extra special because our area seventy, President Boom, would officiate. We arrived to Dublin just before lunch time and joined the Evenson's for lunch and a trip to the Ireland National Museum of Archeology. Our lunch was amazing! Probable the BEST lunch ever in Ireland. We found a food shop in Dublin called Mr Burrito Dublin. Oh yeah, baby!! No kidding...this was heaven! I got the pulled chicken burrito and elder got three tacos. You can bet that I am already looking forward to going to Dublin again to serve the Lord and to eat a burrito!
My new food best friend!
After lunch, we went to the museum. All the national museums of Ireland in Dublin are free to the public. Ireland has 4 national museums in Dublin, but Dublin actually has more than 40 museums scattered within the city, most of them having a small admission fee. This museum was interesting to elder and I because it houses seven exhibits and many of the real "treasures" that have been found in Ireland extending over centuries of time. Here are photos of some of the items we saw there:
This is the entrance to the National Ireland Museum of Archeology
This is the huge rotunda inside looking up
These primevial tools from 3,000 years ago where found here in Ireland
This is a partially preserved longboat found in a bog in Lough Lurgan and did measure 50 feet in length during it's use, This longboat dates to the Early Bronze Age and is carved out one enormous solid oak trunk
Early Bronze Age pottery
This is the real deal! This presumed staff topper came from Newgrange, where I had that unbelievable spiritual experience months ago. This is truly one of Ireland's treasures!!
Every door that we walked through to get to another exhibit looked like this! Very ornate and beautiful
This beautiful staircase was how we got up to the second floor
This is a real Celtic ax. Pretty cool stuff, huh!
When elder and I went to Lough Gur, they displayed a replica of this in their visitor centre. This one is the original which was found under the ground by two boys using sickles. This treasure dates from 1200-800 BC. Lough Gur is home to Ireland's oldest and largest stone circle
This is called a dord, an Irish horn, dating back to 1,000 BC
This fine gold necklace is what's called the Coggalbeg hoard. It was made in Ireland and dates back to 2300-2000 BC
I loved this treasure! This is a kingly robe made from animal furs from centuries ago. It was found in one of Ireland's bogs. If you haven't heard about these historic bogs, they have preserved for us to perfection anything buried in them, including humans!
This medieval shoe came out of a bog. It is so well preserved
I love these kilts pins. I have been trying to found an antique one while I am here, but they are hard to find
Do you all remember Brian Boru? He was the high king of Ireland in 1002 AD and owned the famous iconic Irish harp that I pictured months ago. This is a case he owned which they think he had either treasures or a book inside for safe keeping
This piece of pottery is outstanding, not only because of its shape, but also that it still shows the original paint from almost a thousand years ago
The last room we visited was the Egyptian exhibit. I LOVE everything Egyptian. This room was very cool for me! This photo shows Egyptian writing on stone
An Egyptian face mask and collar. It blows my mind that I can stand in front of articles like this that were in existence thousands of years ago
This museum had several sarcophagi. It was great to stand in front of one again. Many years ago I was privilege to go to Egypt and see many of its wonders! That trip was one of my best life experiences ever!
As we left the parking garage to go to our hotel, I couldn't pay for my parking ticket. It just wouldn't take my credit card. Elder Muirhead noticed that another car had just passed through the gate next to the one we were at and so he decided to go to that gate. Unfortunately, he totally misjudged the curb and we ended up with a flat tire. It was the same tire that we had just got replaced only months ago. We had to change the wheel to the spare and hoped and prayed that we would make it back safely to the hotel 30 minutes away. We did!!! Hallelujah!
Here is my elder doing his thing. I am so happy that he knows so much about cars, especially tires (Ha ha)
One of the Christmas decorated buildings along the River Liffey in downtown Dublin. Very beautiful!
After arriving to the hotel and getting a late dinner (wasn't part of the plan), we headed to bed to get prepared for our zone conference. Our mission president, President McCrudden, was so excited to show off his amazing missionaries to President Boom. He even wanted his senior couples to provide a special luncheon that day, so all of the missionaries got showcased.
President Boom told a personal story while he was teaching us that proved to be a great miracle in his life. He said that right after being sustained as an area seventy, that he was asked to attend several training sessions by his priesthood leaders. He had only attended one of the trainings when he received a phone call with an assignment. He was asked if he would be willing to go as an area seventy to an East Germany Stake to preach and testify even though he wasn't fully trained yet. He immediately said "yes". After he hung up the phone, he became very troubled and told his wife and family what was just asked of him. He told us that his troubling problem was that he never really learned how to speak German. "I took a little German in school, but didn't like it and dropped the class", he said. For the next few weeks, his family gathered around him to help him take a crash course. He still felt so unprepared.
As time got closer to his assignment, he needed more help than what he was already doing for himself. He stated that he really didn't want to use a translator, as the power of his testimony and teachings would be lost in translation. So he went to the Lord. He said that he prayed and fasted many times up to the day of the event. When it was his turn to speak, a miracle happened. He testified that as he stood at the pulpit, that he alone by himself, was able to give his talk in German! He then gave us a powerful lesson on faith, prayer and fasting. He ended his teaching by quoting Ether 12:6, "for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith". Very powerful! Here are a few pictures from the conference.
Area Seventy President Boom, his wife and us. The mission president made me the official photographer and with that comes special privileges!
Feeding a large crowd like this takes a lot of planning and coordinating. It's such a great feeling when everyone is happy afterwards!
Our official Irish December 2022 mission photo taken by me and the timer on my phone
Sister McCrudden made sure that President Boom knew that each and everyone of us were President McCrudden's shining stars!!
After we returned back to our flat, we still had a busy week. With transfers happening again this week, I was assigned to do two flat inspections for both Galway and Limerick and the accompanying paperwork. In Limerick, for the Christmas season, the city sets up a nearby park with an indoor ice skating rink, concession stands, a merry-go-round and a Ferris wheel. Elder and I strolled over there after lunch to see it. The following are photos of our adventure.
The indoor ice skating rink
Some mime performers
Elder and I by the merry-go-round
On Wednesday night, we joined the missionaries in the weekly English Connect class. That night we had 9 people, including the missionaries, in attendance. Three of the newer attendees stated that they would like to come to church on Sunday. It is always wonderful to hear that commitment.
On Thursday morning, I went out to see the huge fog display outside. Everyday now, it gets a little more colder than the day before. The fog was so thick that you literally could not see anything. Look at the photograph that I was able to take a little later when the sun popped out!
Isn't that stunning???
Later, we asked the young elders to go with us to the new missionary flat, just across the river from us, to help us move furniture around. Because we all had several items that we needed to take up to the flat, Elder Muirhead dropped us off nearby while he went to park the car. The young elders and I went right to work and were able to move the one bed into a different bedroom, along with tables, chairs and nightstands. During the 20 minutes we were moving furniture, I kept running down the stairs to let Elder Muirhead inside the secured unit. Every time I went down, Elder Muirhead was no where in sight.
When I went back up the second time to where the elders were, I asked them to call Elder Muirhead to find out where he was. Elder Muirhead never answered the phone and, once again, was not found down by the secured door. The young missionaries and I decided to go outside and walk around the nearby blocks to find him. After walking for 30 minutes and not finding him, I decided that he must have gone back to our flat, so the three of us started walking back there. After another seven or so minutes went by, Elder Hardy got a phone from a strange number. It was Elder Muirhead calling using a stranger's phone. We quickly turned around and found Elder Muirhead on a nearby street corner. What a blessing. He was missing for over an hour.
When we met up with him, he explained that his phone would not dial out. He looked for and asked strangers if he could make an emergency phone call and did so until someone was finally kind enough to offer their phone to him. During the time he was missing, we thought that maybe he had a hard time just finding a parking space for the car or found something interesting to look at. I have to admit that I was anxious to find him to say the least. We felt so blessed that the Lord, again, protected and helped us that morning. Later in the day we went out one hour away to help the Pott's family again, who are still cleaning their new house while trying to move in. We also spent time with Sister Smirnoff, who wanted us to review a college paper she had just finished and needed to submit. We hardly had to help her as she did a really great job on her own.
On Friday, we meet with our friend, David, whom we have been helping the young elders teach the gospel to. Just as a reminder, David is very well versed in the Bible and has been to many churches in his quest for truth. A couple of weeks ago, after a great lesson, I thought that we had David coming closer unto to Christ. This week, he had a harder time accepting the Great Apostasy. He continues to accept invitations to learn more, so we all feel good that he is still interested. By Friday night, I was found teaching another Book of Mormon class. Here is a picture of us with David.
Elder, David and me
Early Saturday morning, a hard frost covered Limerick. With the fog still thick and the weather being damp and windy, even the sidewalks were slick. I was amazed to see how heavy the frost gets here. I'm sure that I haven't seen the worst of it yet. No blade of grass, no car windshield, not even spider webs were spared. Check this next photo out.
I don't think I have ever seen this thick of frost before. The strands on this spider web were as thick as baby yarn and what a beautiful natural design!
After lunch on Saturday, Elder and I went back over to both of the new flats to finish getting them prepared for occupancy this coming week. At the newest flat, we emptied the vacuum cleaner, set up the smoke/CO2 detector, put away new dishes, a slow cooker and some baking pans and then we made the beds, assuring all looked nice. We then drove over to the other new flat across town. We placed a new slow cooker there, along with baking pans and a new smoke/CO2 detector. We also took away unwanted items and then boxed them up for storage. I will have two more items to complete on Monday and then, I think those jobs will be completed.
Love,
Sister Muirhead
No comments:
Post a Comment