Birthday, Birthday and More Birthday!!!

      For the past four years, my family has been able to celebrate back-to-back-to-back birthdays in March!!! It has become one of my favorite weeks of the year. This year, our fifth, has been even better. For those who know me well, you know that I relish birthdays (especially my own) with a passion. Maybe being so far away from home and family at this time, has place these 3 birthdays in a higher sphere for me than ever before. And maybe this week is more exciting as we also celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Ireland. No matter why this year's celebrations seems so much better, know that I am so very happy to be a part of each and every one of them!

     In my family, we have 6 birthdays in 25 days and soon, we will also have a grandchild's wedding anniversary in March too. Talk about a lot of parties! We also have a birthday at the very end of February and another birthday at the very beginning of April. Isn't that so fun!!! If only every family could experience celebrations of life over and over again. I don't think that I will ever get tired of all this fun! I love it!

     This week, Ireland is celebrating St. Patrick's Day. This yearly party day commemorates the Irish saint, St. Patrick, who, centuries ago, introduced Christianity to this isle. Though in years past, St Patrick's Day truly celebrated this saintly man who lived hundreds of years ago; today, this day actually celebrates all things Irish.  Nevertheless, in Ireland, St. Patrick's Day is huge and continues to bring deep patriotic feelings for all Irishmen. Limerick had several St Patrick Day events happening this week and on Tuesday, we were able to go and enjoy the beginning of the fun.

This was a great brass and reed band who entertained those in attendance at St. Mary's Cathedral. I was so happy to be attendance, as they performed a medley of music from Les Mis, one of my favorites!

     This week's family birthday celebrations started off on Wednesday with my daughter, Rachael. Rachael is my sixth child and my fourth daughter. She was the sweetest baby back when she was young and now continues to be an absolute sweetheart! On her birthday, we were able to talk to her by phone and see a photograph of her favorite gift that day, given to her by her loving husband. It sounded like she had a great day, so filled with love from both family and friends, some close and some far away.  

My favorite photo of Rachael! Isn't she beautiful! Both inside and out!!!!

     On Thursday, our grandson, Matthew, turned another year older. It is like times like this that I wish that I could stop the hands of time and just bask in the moment. I'm telling you, this young boy completely steals my heart away every single time. He is so very sweet and, oh, so funny. He is also very smart and very talented!! If I could spend everyday with him, I'd be one happy camper! I am a very blessed grandmother to hear this young man call me "grandma"!!!

Here is a picture of my grandson, Matthew! 

Everyone loves Matthew!!

     On Friday, we got to celebrate all over again and, like I said, we even got to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with hundreds and hundreds of Irish people. I always thought that it was so cool that Elder Muirhead's birthday was on St. Patrick's Day. So, of course, I also thought that it would be super cool that we get to celebrate his 70th birthday on St. Patrick's Day while serving in Ireland! 

     This morning, Elder Muirhead woke up to a breakfast in bed. By lunch time, we walked from our flat, across the bridge and watched the Limerick St. Patrick's Day parade. It was a very fun parade, including a couple of bagpipe bands. After the parade ended, we went to a nearby Mexican fast food place and had a delicious lunch. Here are a few pictures of Elder's day.

Breakfast in bed! Lucky man!

Our district singing Elder "Happy Birthday" on a zoom meeting

Elder at the St. Patrick's Day parade

Lots of people in the parade. Everyone was dressed in green

A bagpipe band. Always my favorite!

A green (scary) human caterpillar

Elder ready to dive into his lunch!

Elder Muirhead's official 70th birthday portrait (Irish style)!

     

     Later that same day, we found ourselves attending our branch's weekly Book of Mormon class. This week, we quickly skimmed through the rest of the Isaiah chapters in 2 Nephi and found ways, after discussing each chapter, of how we can apply Isaiah's lessons into our own lives. It was great to hear all the different ways that the class came up with that can help us remain faithful as we look forward to the Millennial day. After Elder and I put the teaching equipment away, I asked him to follow me to have a look at something.

     When we opened the closed door at the end of the hall, 13 branch members yelled, "Surprise! Happy Birthday!" Elder Muirhead had no clue that we had organized a small surprise birthday party for him that night. Then, everyone started singing happy birthday to him. It was magical! Elder blew out candles, cut his own cake and dished everyone a bowl of treats. Later, a few extra branch members showed up to also celebrate the night with us. Here are a few more pictures.

The BIG surprise!

70 years young

Elder blowing out his candles. The branch was kind and saved him from blowing out 70 of them!

A close up of the cake, which was fantastic!!! It was layered with chocolate cake, whipped topping and thin layers of raspberry filling. Yum, yum!

Our wonderful and caring branch members. About half way through the party, 3 other families came to celebrate with us. We had about 25 people in attendance, which is 1/4 of the entire branch. This is evidence of how Elder Muirhead has touched the lives here of many!

     The celebration for St. Patrick's Day continued through the weekend. On Saturday, there were several street shows happening in the City Centre. Many Limerick community members were on hand to watch and participate. To end Limerick's St. Patrick's Day celebration on Sunday, the city put on an international marching band competition, with bands from all over including the United States. I captured just a few more photos from the week-end party.

That's some crazy guy on stilts behind me

A street juggler playing with fire

This high school band traveled all the way from Aurora, Colorado!

They even braved an Irish rain storm!

Bagpipe bands also joined in the competition

This is a high school band from Tipperary County, just south of us

     With this past week being more fun and entertaining, we also had several missionary assignments that we fulfilled. On Monday, for YSA FHE, we welcomed the 3 new Brazilians into our home and with the help of our own YSAs, a basic teaching of the restoration of the gospel was taught. Although the training was spoken in Portuguese, the message was received by our new friends and they even asked questions at the end. We still had a little time left over, so we also played Jenga with them. Believe it or not, none of these new friends had ever heard of or played Jenga before. It was awesome!

     On Tuesday, Elder and I drove up to Galway and cleaned the young sisters old flat that they just moved out of. As we entered that flat, we were happy to see how much progress those 2 sisters had completed. Ever room was cleaned well except for the kitchen and the bathroom, so Elder and I rolled up our sleeves and went to work. Elder cleaned the bathroom, while I cleaned the kitchen. All the cleaning in both of those rooms were completed before we left, except for the oven. The inside of the oven just needed a light cleaning, but we did not have any cleaning products to get the job done. So, after we left, we contacted the sisters and assigned them to go back one more time and finish the oven. 

     Wednesday evening brought us, the young elders and the same 3 friends together for the weekly English Connect class. We even had one branch member, Andrea, join us for that meeting, Because the 3 from Brazil had only been in Ireland for one week and hardly knew any English, we taught them how to start a very basic conversation using personal introductions. They actually picked up on what was taught pretty well. We invited them to join us at church on Sunday and were very happy to see them again on Sunday. 

     On Friday, Elder and I joined the other Limerick district missionaries in our weekly district training meeting on zoom. After the transfer calls that took place on March 11th, out of our 4 young sister missionaries and our 4 young elders, we got 5 new missionaries to replace the ones who were called to serve elsewhere. We got 2 new young sister missionaries and 3 new young elders, including one new zone leader and 2 new district leaders. That is quite a big change for us here. Elder and I are excited to see how well we can all work together to accomplish the goal of furthering the spread of the gospel here in the Limerick district. The photo below is Elder and mine's newest young elder that we will closely work with for the next 5 weeks. His name is Elder Giugliarelli from Italy.

Elder Giugliarelli

     We also were able this week to serve 2 of our branch members who needed our help and I, personally, was able to catch up a little with the Come Follow Me lessons. Also, because I have been asked to teach the Relief Society lesson next week, I have been able to read and ponder the lesson by Elder Holland that I will give. So, this week has been a good mixture of both a little fun and a little missionary work! 

     I'd like to close this week's blog but posting an encouraging statement from Gary E. Stevenson from             General Conference October 2022.

     I love this statement. This has become a truly meaningful truth to me now, especially while serving here in Limerick, than perhaps, if I was just at home. Honestly, the missionary force in this southern part of Ireland put on their faith and the courage needed every day and then go out and seek for those who want a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. These seekers are so very few and far in-between. We know that they are out there; we pray that they will hear our voice and take the invitation to "Come Unto Christ". 

     All of us missionaries can attest that, in Ireland, it certainly helps our friends to see who we really are and to also hear our bold, yet humble testimonies. We, the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are so different from everyone else in Ireland. Even the young elders and sisters here; the next generation of leaders, are happy, faithful, caring, helpful, giving, knowledgable, trustworthy, reliable and loving, just to name a few. They are different and they do stand out! They work endless hours, both on their feet and on their knees. Their whole purpose is to never give up seeking for the one and to continue to be the righteous son or daughter of God that they desire to be. Their focus on being who they know they are has a rubbing-off effect on every senior couple that serves along side them. 

     Like Elder Stevenson, I invite each of us to show the world what a faithful member and covenant child of God looks like. We may not have the opportunity right now to wear a missionary tag over our heart, but every member is a missionary. President Nelson has also said, "Embrace being different! Though some may not fully understand why you do or you don't do certain things, you never know how your example will affect others". May God bless us all to show that difference...the difference of Jesus Christ! Blessings will come to both us and others as we do so.

    See you next week.