Another Transfer Week with More Flat Inspections

     We had another busy week this week and even got to travel the Republic of Ireland a little bit more. We also got to spend some extra time with some of the young missionaries here and, of course, spent time with many of our friends and several branch members. All in all, it was a very good week!

     On Easter Sunday last week, I was woken up by the peeling of church bells. They rang so loud and so long. It was so awesome to be woken up that way on that very important day of the glorious remembrance of our Lord and His great love that He has for each of us. I also realized that those bells rang like they did, which really was so beautiful, to call all to come to church and come worship Him. I loved it!!! After our one hour church meeting, where I bore my testimony once again, we came back to our flat for a simple meal and many Easter phone calls to our children. The Easter bunny even came to drop off a sweet gift for Elder and I. 

     Monday found us spending our day with the zone leaders who also live here in Limerick. We all decided to drive out to visit Cashel, where Elder and I went to last summer. The young elders had never been there and we never took the time to go into Cormac's chapel, so we were all happy to go. In case you don't remember Cashel, it is the enormous complex that is displayed at the top of my blog page right under my title of our mission. I loved going there the first time and I loved going there again. 

     The Rock of Cashel, or St. Patrick's Rock, was built in the 5th century. The legend surrounding this hallowed place is that it was the place where St. Patrick started Christianity in Ireland by converting Aenghus the King of Munster.  Brian Boru, the mighty historic Irish leader, who is well known here because of his harp that is the iconic symbol of Ireland, was also made King at the Rock in 978. By the 1100s, Cashel had become the most significant center of ecclesiastical power in all of Ireland. Most of the buildings there now are from the 12th and 13th centuries and represent many European architecture influences. Here are a few pictures taken outside on the Cashel complex

This is the main building found on the rock today. It is actually several buildings all connected into one, each serving their specific roles

I love this picture! The field of yellow behind the church ruins is the wildflower called rape. Irish farmers grow it to turn the pollen into rapeseed oil for cooking or roasting. The image of the yellow was very stunning!!!

This view is looking to the north and over the wall that surrounds Cashel  

When we arrived, this small group of youth were playing Irish music for the guests who were about to enter the complex. They were very good and their music added to my experience!

Here is a nice photo of both Elder Petrovey and Elder Giugliarelli at Cashel

     One of the tours Elder Muirhead and I wanted to do was to go inside Cormac's Chapel which is attached to the main building. The chapel, which is named after one of the South Munster Kings, is one of the finest examples of early Romanesque architecture found anywhere in Ireland. It was built in the early 1100s and was covered from floor to ceiling with rich colored frescoes. Fragments of these frescoes can still be seen today! Very impressive! The inside has many round arches and the overall inside of the chapel is made up of sandstone. Also inside on the western wall is the oldest sarcophagus in Ireland. It was used for the final resting place of Cormac's brother and is in very good condition considering how old it is. Here are some pictures.

This is the outside wall and front door of Cormac's chapel

Look at the beauty of this chapel. I have never seen one like this in my whole life. It was breathtaking

Really! It was so amazing, so detaled, so magnificent! These are the types of photos that I just love to take

This is a partial fresco still on the wall today. I can't even imagine what this chapel would have looked like back then

These are columns reaching up to the ceiling and again, were covered with exquisite frescoes

If you were to turn around, this would be what you would see at the other end of the chapel. Notice the sarcophagus that I described to you earlier

Here is a close up of the sarcophagus. Back then, there would have been one large flat stone laid on top, covering the whole sarcophagus. If you look closely into where it is broken, you can see a small dark hole on the back wall. There was actually two of these inside and they were used to release the pressure of the decaying body once laid inside 

Here we all are! From left to right: Elder Giugliarelli Elder M, Sister M and Elder Petrovey

     While we were walking around the complex, within minutes the wind picked up and we found ourselves running for cover as a major rain storm caught us all by surprise! I think the young elders were also surprised to see how fast I could run and how slow Elder Muirhead still walked, getting totally soaked before reaching shelter. When the rain slowed down, we went back to the car to eat our lunch and then we went back into Cashel and spent another hour there. It was such a wonderful afternoon.

     When we returned back to Limerick, we quickly got ready for our weekly YSA FHE. That night, we scheduled another game night. 10 of us were at our flat in person and we unanimously decided to play Jenga. I was so very happy with that decision. What all of the YSAs did not know, was that I was told earlier that same morning, that that night would be the last night for YSA FHE at the Muirhead flat. Our mission president told us that the church leadership no longer wanted any senior couple to be involved in that program. I told our good president that I had been telling my branch president about the urgency to find other branch members to help, but weekly there was never a change made. The new YSA plan is to allow the YSAs to hold their own FHE using called branch representatives to lead. So after our evening was completed, I quietly and tearfully thanked the Lord that I was able to serve in that capacity for all those months. The YSA program is alive and well in Limerick. I am happily handing the YSA baton over to others.

Our last YSA FHE

     On Tuesday of last week, we had a all Limerick district zoom and discussed ways that we could be more successful in our weekly companionship planning sessions. Many good ideas were shared among us. After our zoom ended, we spent time with our friend, Gitana. She needed a little more explanation and advise about a school assignment that she did not understand. She also fed us an early dinner made of turkey and mashed potatoes. After we were through helping her, I started my assigned flat inspections. These flat inspections come up just before a transfer weekend, which was coming up, so we were happy to do it again. After the inspection was completed, I finished filling out the official flat inspection form and emailed off to the mission office.

     On Wednesday, Gitana called me again and we spent just a little more time discussing how to finish off her assignment. I was happy, again, to help her in this new learning curve of hers. She has certainly come a long way and I am so proud of her. By 1:30 in the afternoon, I was doing another flat inspection, but this time, I was able to do a virtual phone call with the zone leaders. They did a very nice job of cleaning their flat, but had several questions that only a mom would know the answer. I'm glad that I was able to give them direction and support. We ended the night at the church to help the elders with a hour long friend missionary lesson with Alexandra and Adda. I was really excited to see them again. They had not been to church lately and I thought that we had lost them. In reality, they went on a holiday and were not in town for over a week. We taught them about prophets. It was amazing. Right after, we stayed and helped with the English Connect class.

     Thursday morning, we got up early and drove 2 hours away to the elders who live in Waterford. These elders (our district leaders) had just recently moved out of their old flat and into a new flat. We were able to not only spend time with them, but we inspected their new flat and joined them for almost 2 hours and helped them clean almost half of their old flat. Elder M and I scrubbed walls or cleaned windows/glass the whole time. Every time I have to wash walls, which can be a tough job, I pretend that I am Daniel, the young boy in the movie Karate Kid. He was told that if he ever wanted to get better doing karate, he needed to wax on and wax off! After helping those young elders and knowing that we may never travel to Waterford again, we also took a side trip to a place called Mount Congreve Gardens.

The Waterford elders and us (Elder Goslin and Elder Coffman)

     Mount Congreve gardens in about a 15 minute drive from Waterford. It is known as one of the "Great Gardens of the World". Ambrose Congreve started planting gardens when he was a teenager. He later cleared a large area of his property to plant even more. The mount itself was created through the inspiration, generosity and encouragement of Lionel N. de Rothchild, who was famous for his skill at landscaping. They, along with Herman Cool, a skilled hired hand by Mr. Congreve, the garden was not only developed, by began to thrive. This garden has the largest variety of plants from around the world than any other garden known to man. Guess how many different plants can be found there? Are you ready?? Do you really want to know??? The suspense is killing me!

     Alright! 10,000!!! You read that right...10,000 different plants! Absolutely amazing. You will find many plants there from the following countries: Ireland, Asia, Australia, Africa, South America, Europe and North America. Mr. Congreve lived to be 104 years old and lucky for us, his legacy now goes on and on. Ambrose oversaw the planting of thousands of Magnolias, Rhododendrons, and exotic specimens inspired by his travels across the globe. Though the estate is now under a trust with the state of Ireland, the gardens continue to explore and develop new plant additions and hybrids of Rhododendrons and Magnolias among others. While walking through the garden, I so wished that we could have come during last summer when many more plants were in bloom, but I am grateful for what I was able to see for myself. Here are just a few pictures from that garden and, oh.......the fragrance!!! Unbelievable!

This is the original Congreve family living room. Family lived here until 2011, when after, the grounds were given by trust to the state of Ireland

It took me about 1.5 hours to quickly walk through all 3 garden areas. I seriously could have taken hundreds of photos

Flowers all over the place

This is one of Congreve's hybrid flowers developed many years ago

I loved this flower and I love this photo! How about a few more photos of the garden?

This archway gets you into the walled portion of the garden which gave me the feelings of peace and joy

Vibrant colors abound for those flowers that had already bloomed

There were several benches to sit down, rest and ponder or just smell the lovely fragrances

Can you image what this will look like in another 2-3 months. I loved the stone staircase

This small gazebo is strategically placed where it is. Mr. Congreve has a small burial spot here and as you can see, it also overlooks the River Suir, one of Mr. Congreve's favorites

This flowering bush was big, bright and beautiful!

     After driving the 2 hours back to Limerick, I had another flat inspection to do with the Galway sisters. Their flat also looked good and only needed a little touching up to make it passable. By the time I ended that video chat and had dinner, I was tired and went to bed. On Friday, I spent the day working on my weekly Book of Mormon lesson. Just like on Monday was my last YSA FHE, Friday was also my last Book of Mormon class. With our time quickly coming to an end here in Ireland, I decided to end my class after finishing the book of 2 Nephi. I am so impressed that it took our class 7 1/2 months to cover only 117 pages, but boy, we did so very thoroughly! Hopefully, either the branch president, the branch members or the missionary correlation committee will find another teacher and keep the class going. 

     On Saturday, we had one more flat inspection to do and then I had lots of reports to finish and email up to the mission office. It was also officially "transfer day" and I was so excited to see what new changes would be made in our district. Little did I think that something great was about to happen, but it did. Limerick finally got a second set of missionaries to help further the work here and I couldn't be happier. Besides getting 2 more young missionaries, they just happened to be 2 young sisters! What a great addition they will be for the Lord, for the branch members and for the young (zone leader) elders that serve here with us! Really, this is the best news ever. If our district can get a few more baptisms, who then become full-time members, Limerick might finally become the ward and a stake that has been hoped for for years! And another stake in Ireland might very possibly grant this island a House of the Lord! My only heartache was that my favorite elder that I have had the pleasure to serve with, Elder Petrovey, got transferred up to Dundee, Scotland. God bless you, Elder Petrovey!

     As I close this week's blog, I want to bear my testimony of the Book of Mormon. What an amazing, life-changing, full of truth and light book it truly is! I so love Nephi. He is my favorite Book of Mormon prophet. To watch him go from being a young teenager in the beginning of the book, to becoming a mighty prophet of God, shows you what the Lord can do to us in each of our lives. He had been so faithful, so trusting, such a devoted student of the Word, a loving leader, a great defender; truly, a son of God! Did you know that in 1st and 2nd Nephi, that Nephi covers all the essential teachings that will bring any man back to the presence of God! Those 2 books alone are like a reader's digest version of the rest of the Book of Mormon in its entirety! Praise the Lord for holding Nephi in the palms of His hands!

     And though I love all of Nephi's writings, his last 3 chapters, from 2 Nephi, chapters 31-33 are probably my favorite. Why?? In those chapters, known as Nephi's last lecture, Nephi speaks from the depths of his heart. Have you ever pondered if a prophet of God knew that his time was coming to an end, what would he want to say to those whom he loves? When I read those chapters, I imagine myself sitting there in person with him when he gave that speech. I can hear Nephi pleading with me to go forward, never backward, in the goal of obtaining eternal life. I'm telling you, I absolutely know that Nephi knew, without any variation, the way back to the celestial kingdom. In those last 3 chapters, he tells us in great plainness the doctrine of Christ, how to follow Him, a formula for us to stay on the covenant path, a great discourse on the Holy Ghost, addresses the importance of faith, hope and charity and finally leaves us his marvelous symbolic ending testimony in the ONLY name given under heaven, even that of Christ! I also love how Nephi, just like the our Savior, always listened and always felt the need that he must obey. This is certainly a goal that I would like to obtain some day. That is my prayer. May God bless each of you until we meet again next week.