Welcoming in the New Year

     We certainly wish all of you a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!!! We are very excited for this new year and look forward to do even more good while we serve here in Ireland! In our most recent all missionary zoom meeting, we found out our total mission baptismal goal for 2023 is 244 new converts. Though this is the highest goal ever set during President McCrudden's administration, all of us are on board to meet and even exceed this lofty number. We have already learned that by working hard every day, being totally prepared (both temporally and spiritually), and fasting and praying for miracles, that we can do this! What a privilege it is to work weekly side by side with our eight stalwart, righteous young elders and sisters in our district, who, with our support, are the gatherers in this part of the Lord's vineyard. They are such an amazing example to Elder and I every time we meet with them.

     To catch you up from a week ago, we both had a wonderful, quiet Christmas. During the days just before Christmas, we were blessed to work hard and support the members, branch leaders and our missionaries in many areas, including being involved in a baptism for a new convert from Galway. We also received blessings from our members that week who either fed us a meal, gave us Christmas cards or expressed their love to us for our service to them. That made our Christmas even more meaningful to us. We also received several emails or Christmas cards from some of you at home that also added great joy in our hearts. Our local church meeting Christmas Day was filled with scriptures and songs of joy and praise. Who could ask for more????

     We also took a little time to view how Limerick celebrated Christmas. They, like many in the states, were either busy preparing for the big day or they found those whom they hadn't seen for awhile and we could see them talking, laughing and loving their reunion. It was sweet. Their local mall was nicely decorated, helping those inside with the gifting of Christmas. We were able to take several walks in-between cold and rain and were blessed for doing so. I even captured several pigeons huddling in a narrow King John's castle window for warmth. Included also is a picture of the wonderful, thoughtful gifts that we opened after church Christmas Day.

The big mall in Limerick

On one of our walks, this seagull flew this close to us and I was able to snap this picture

Here are three pigeons huddling by one of the narrow defensive window openings at King John's castle

Our Christmas dinner, Yummy!!!

Our amazing 2022 Christmas gifts! 

     The best part of our Christmas Day was the opportunity of talking on the phone to everyone of our seven children, including some of our grandchildren!!! We were able to personally tell every one of our children that they were (and will always be) our greatest presents. We spent about 30 minutes with each family, which was so wonderful. We talked with our Rachael the longest, which this momma really needed. Rachael and I would often spend a lot of time talking on the phone to each other almost daily before we left on our mission. Her longer phone call felt so normal to me again. I can't wait to get home and start up that tradition again!!! After we finished talking for literally hours (hey, it takes a long time to talk with seven children), we went to bed so happy and fulfilled.

     This last week kept us busy. We attended all of our scheduled meetings and commitments, including housing the young sister missionaries all of Tuesday afternoon until they could catch their train ride back up to Galway. We also devoted many hours of service to our local young missionaries, Elder Hardy and Elder Petrovay. If you will remember, they were able to recently move into a brand new flat, never before occupied. This last week, their old lease expired and their old flat needed to be cleaned and rearranged to give back to the landlord. Seeing that this type of work is right up our alley, Elder and I got to work! We cleaned, threw out, reorganized, fixed and then cleaned again. This is how the old flat turned out!  

Here I am scrubbing out a refrigerator

Now I am in the very back of our church vehicle, trapped like a mouse, holding onto a large bookcase that could only fit in our car. It took up all of my passenger seat, forcing me to sit where the only place left was. By the time we got to the other flat, I was all crunched up! Not fun!

The old Irish landlord wanted us to fix several items and move some furniture overnight for him. The curtains that Elder is pointing to were totally ripped off from the railing up on the ceiling. Elder got a great idea, modified 20 plastic parts and fixed the curtains so well that the landlord congratulated us for a job very well done. I'm sure glad that job was finished!

The cleaned and reorganized kitchen/living room

The master bedroom. What I haven't told you yet is the many hours it took me to wash all of the towels and rags used to clean the old flat and then wash all the used bedding that is now back with the young elders. 

     I thought for this blog that I would talk a little about all the different nationalities and educational levels found here in Ireland. Being from the great state of New York, I thought that I had already been exposed to the world's largest melting pot. Since COVID and the Ukrainian War, Ireland's percentage of different nationalities has changed drastically. Ireland had over 65,000 new immigrants in 2021 alone! Every time I am walking the main streets or in any store, it is very clear that there are many, many people here from all over the world. And this is just little Limerick, not large Dublin. I have often thought about the many reasons someone from another country would want to live here. Ireland is not a cheap place to live (but free social medicine if you qualify) and even getting your foot into the country is a huge process. The question for the future will be how many more peoples (current population is just over 5 million) will this little island be able to hold before it sinks!

     When Elder and I were applying for our Irish visas, we submitted over one hundred pages of documentation from insurance companies, banks, etc, just to make it past the first assessment stage. We even had to purchase a Utah marriage certificate, drive up to Salt Lake City and spend $95 to get the Utah State lieutenant governor to autograph the document. I later found out that Ireland is one of the hardest countries to get residency in. I'm telling you, it was a big, long process. So I don't understand what Ireland has that is so appealing. Ok....they do have marvelous castles! I get that!

     Here are some of the nationalities that can be found here. Irish (with its many different accents), French, German, Americans, Africans (from many parts of Africa, including the deepest parts of Africa), English (UK), Scottish, Welch, New Zealand and Australia, Polish, Lithuanians, Russians, Ukraine (bless their hearts), Romanian, Lativan, Asians, Brazilian and many other South American countries, Mexico, Italian, India....and I probably missed a few. Wow!!! I think that is crazy. It is totally amazing that with all these very different peoples, with their different cultures and languages, that they can even exist together on one little island in a large ocean as well as they do!

     The Irish also have a very different labeled education system than America does. The Irish education system is made up of primary school and post-primary school (also know as secondary school). You must ensure that your child gets a certain minimum education from ages 6-16 or until they have completed 3 years of post-primary education. Many people continue on after post-primary to further their education to the  third-level. State-funded education is available at all levels, unless you choose to send your child to a private school. They have religious based schooling for Catholics and Protestants, national schools and private schools here.

     Early childhood care and preschool is free here in Ireland. Primary level children are not required to start school until they are 6 years old. Many children start their formal primary school education starting at age 5. All students using the Irish education program must study Irish or the Gaelic language. Ireland's post-primary education is divided up into 2 different stages, junior cycle (12-15 year olds) and senior cycle (16-18 year s). Both primary and post-primary students have to pass their exams as required. In the senior cycle, these students must choose between 3 different specialized certifications for their graduation direction. Any student in Ireland with special needs can either mainstream with additional support or go to a specialized school for their individual needs. 

All students wear school uniforms here of many different styles and colors depending on the school. Many schools here in Limerick have both the boys and the girls wear ties

     After post-primary school, many students elect to further their education to what is known as the third level school experience. This third level education is made up of a number of sectors that are substantially funded by the State, unless you are a non-resident. For non-residents, Irish third level colleges do have high tuition fees. The sectors are divided basically into the university sector, the technological sector and colleges of education. Universities offer bachelor, master and doctorate degrees upon graduation. The technological sector includes training for IT, and training for business, science, engineering, linguistics and music. Typically, a certification follows any training from the technological sector divisions. Interesting, huh??? Well, that is probably enough about Irish things for this week.

     As this new year begins, I want to also begin with sharing my testimony with you. I know and love my Heavenly Father. It will always be a miracle to me how God truly answers His missionaries prayers and sometimes almost immediately. I also know my loving Savior and friend, Jesus, who is the Christ. I love the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. I know that it contains the gospel of Christ with more clarity, including plain and precious truths. I love the prophets in that book. Each of them has shaped and reshaped my life over and over again. I am so grateful for and testify of to living prophets. Like each of you, I don't know where I would be without their faithfulness to help direct and keep us on the covenant path. Without a temple close to me at this time, I find myself sometimes in tears remembering the great blessings and power that can only be had from regular temple attendance. I AM truly blessed! My goal for the beginning of this new year is to increase my knowledge of Christ as we study Come Follow Me, serve and love more and, especially...hear Him. May each of you come closer to Him, too, this year.

Until next week...

With love,

Sister Muirhead