This week we were able to attend another zone conference in Dublin. I have to admit, Elder and I are getting pretty good about driving on the Irish motorway and maneuvering our way safely to our designated zone conference chapel in Finglas, on the west outskirts of Dublin. More about that later. I, personally, also had several new experiences that I had never had before this past week. Those are always a wonderful surprise, but more about that in a few minutes also!
Our week, starting out on Sunday, caught us by surprise. About ten minutes before we were to walk out our front door for church, we got a phone call from our branch president. I answered the phone. President Kelly asked me if Elder and I could teach the youth Sunday school class in about one hour and a half. My mind stalled for a split second as I was trying to comprehend what he had just asked me when I heard myself say, "Sure!" That was a surprise! Fortunately, the lesson was on the birth of the Christ child, but I didn't know that until after the fact. I later considered myself very lucky to be able to teach that lesson. So while all the other members sitting in sacrament was listening to the talks (including Elder Muirhead), I was reading through the lesson and marking scriptures to get through the youth class. Another surprise that morning happened when Elder and I both walked in just before the class started to find 18 youth gathered around the table. Well, with faith, it all worked out!
On Monday, Elder and I went to the grocery store to purchase the fixings for me to make a large pot of soup for zone conference. I have never made large pot of soup filled to the brim like that before. That was a chore. It took me almost one hour just to prep the vegetables I was going to use. I ended up making almost 40 cups of soup! But, once again, with faith, it all worked out. And, again, I was surprised! Little did I know how long it would take me to cool down a pot of soup that large to package it! Yeah, it was like an all day affair. Well, it too got done. Then, about one hour later, Elder and I were holding another YSA FHE at our flat. I'll be forever grateful that we decided to do a game night that night. Even for that, I had to quickly clean up the flat and prepare treats and drinks for everyone. This was one tired missionary by the time I fell into bed for the night!
The next morning we were up by 6am and out the door before 7. It is at least just over a two hour drive to Dublin for us. The temperature that morning was only 24 degrees with warnings of freeze and slippery roads. We decided to drive slower than normal, which was alright by me. Once we got closer to Dublin, the sun rose to take away the darkness of the early morning. The closer we got, the more traffic we ran into. Like lots!! After it was all said and done, we were about 40 minutes later than expected. Surprise again! This did cause a small concern as we were asked to pick up 2 young sisters from the Dublin train station and get them to zone conference on time. Fortunately, another senior couple volunteered to help us out. Zone conference that day was delayed by 30 minutes until all were present.
Once conference started, our good President McCrudden and his wife spoke to all of us. In their opening remarks, we as a whole, were asked to continue to pray for a temple in our area. President also said that a vital part of getting a temple is to have more baptisms. He asked all of us to pray that we might baptize the 244 new friends we all set as one of our 2023 mission goals. This is the highest baptismal goal ever purposed during President McCrudden's administration. President explained to us from the Book of Luke that even as the shepherds went in haste to find the babe, that we, too, need to find those in spiritual need in haste. He encouraged the young missionaries also to make sure they teach the doctrines of the church.
Sister McCrudden spoke next and referred to a talk given by Neil Maxwell. I loved the quote she read from his talk, "We should certainly count our blessings, but we should also make our blessings count"! That was so powerful to me. After they finished, the APs talked and several safety videos were shown. In time, I went into the kitchen to finish warming up the soup I made and to offer any assistance where needed. Lunch went great and all were happily fed. I will always be amazed by what it takes to feed a crowd!
After lunch, President McCrudden answered questions about the priesthood ordinances of the church. He was able to instruct these new priesthood holders with valuable information on the ordinances, like the who, what, when, where and how. In the last part at zone conference for us, the sister training leaders (STLs) instruct all of us by leading a discussion on "what are you doing to better know the Savior"? One of the conclusions we came up with was if we want to come to better know Him then we must sincerely study more of Him, enlarge our capacity to serve, and give simple, pure testimony of Him. As we do this, we were told, our desires will align more completely with His desires and His purposes will become our purposes. I loved that! As Elder and I were the only senior couple that drove up early that morning and needed to drive back that same night, we got permission to leave one hour early. Once again, our zone conference was very, very successful.
On Wednesday, we woke up to........SNOW! Not a lot, but definitely the white stuff. I realized when I first saw it, how much I do miss snow. Here is a funny story. I was the first of us to find the snow outside our window that morning. Seeing that I had just woken up, I was still in my shorts and my t-shirt. Without a coat on, I quickly ran outside to take a picture of the snow. I left the front door open just a hair to get right back in. As I ran out a little further to get a better picture, I heard my front door close. I didn't take our house key with me. :( Yeah, it was below freezing outside. Yeah, that was a surprise!
After I took the picture (of course I had to do that first), I looked for little rocks to throw up to hit our bedroom window. After successfully throwing several rocks and not seeing Elder look out the window, I realized that Elder was not going to hear anything without his hearing aids in. What was I to do???? For a split second, my mind answered, "Yeah, that's a great question"!!! Duhhhh. I looked around and thought if worse comes to worse, I could maybe stay inside a neighbor's home. Then I got an impression to ring our doorbell and beat on the front door. Being obedient, that's just what I did! After a few minutes of trying that without luck, I got another impression. I texted Elder (who still struggles using his phone) with a simple message saying "Come to the front door". I'm telling you, typically Elder is very, very, very slow to respond to his phone, if he even sees a text at all. Believe it or not, within one minute, he opened the door to let me in! I don't know what even made him look at his phone right then or how he ever even saw my message, but I was very grateful that prayer and faith worked again. Once again, I was greatly surprised
Great post!
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