Missionary Work Mixed With A Little Fun!

      This week, we shared our time supporting both the zone leaders and the sister missionaries, which added more time to our service clock. It made our week certainly go by much faster and gave us both greater joy. Our two young missionary companionships here in Limerick are so amazing! They work so well with their companions, always looking out for their needs first, and each has such a powerful testimony of Jesus Christ. Each of theirs hearts only desire to bring souls unto Christ! Limerick is very blessed!

     On Monday of this week, we drove ourselves and the sister missionaries to the grocery store. Elder and I did our shopping and the sisters did their shopping. Because the sisters have only been to that store once before, we had to wait a short time for them to finish. We were just happy that we could help them again. After dinner, the sisters and us gathered at our flat and we had a FHE just by ourselves. We talked about the restoration of the church, Joseph Smith and the many miracles that happened at that time. It made my heart feel so good to discuss the events that occurred in Palmyra, New York 200 years ago. The sisters loved it too, because they were able to learn more than they knew before.

     On Tuesday, the sisters and us drove down to Cork for our weekly district council training meeting. We were joined by the Cork elders and the Waterford elders. Since our district changed, Cork will be the site of all of our weekly meetings. We discussed each friend that these missionaries have and how to learn to give our ALL to Jesus Christ and His gospel. This coming week, each of us have been invited to become more like Him by choosing one of His attributes, researching more about that attribute and then reporting our findings to the others in the district. I am looking forward to that! Elder Botos, our district leader will also provide us a lunch that day after meetings. Everyone had only good things to tell us about his cooking skills. The sisters and us had a wonderful fish and chips lunch Irish style before we drove back to Limerick.

We went to Jackie Lennox's fish shop which is renown in that part of Ireland, They claim that "fish and chips" started there.

Not typically my kind of meal, but with so little time left in Ireland, I gave myself permission to indulge one more time! Fortunately, Elder M ate more than half of this

     Wednesday, once again, found us helping the sisters teach Suzann more of the gospel. We continued our discussion about the plan of salvation. Suzann got excited when we taught her about the 3 different degrees of glory. She said that it never made sense to her that other churches only give someone 2 choices...heaven or hell. She also learned more about Adam and Eve and their part of God's plan. It was amazing!! The sisters wanted to stay in the same location as our chapel to look for new friends. Elder and I had an auto repair that needed our attention, so we left to do that. Later that evening, we joined the sisters again to help teach the English class and the 3 students that came that night. It was another fun night of learning and enjoying each other's company.

With all the traveling we are asked to do for the next few weeks, checking the tires is always good!

     On Thursday, Elder and I went with one of our branch members, Sister Potts, to help her minister to 2 of her sisters. One of the sisters lives just 15 minutes away and the other sister lived one hour away. When we got to the first house where Joy lives, her husband had just gotten off of his night shift work and so we all sat down at their table and enjoyed, what was for me, a brunch. I wish I had known we were going to eat there, before I ate my own breakfast. Oh well, I ate a partial plate of food and then Sister Potts gave her and her husband a wonderful lesson on each of our potential of becoming "glorious and eternal"! 

     The funny thing that happened next was when we arrived at the second where Olive lives, she too, had a meal for us. I literally ate 3 meals in 3 hours. That was crazy, but crazy good. I had one meal of oatmeal, one meal of lasagna and the last meal of homemade vegetable soup with assorted meats and breads. Later that night, I had a little snack before I went to bed. Olive loved Sister Potts lesson too. My closing remarks of this blog will include Sister Pott's lesson. I hope that I can type it for you as well as she was able to teach it!

So this is why we check our tires often. You can plainly see that this road only has the ability for one car to be driving on it. Should another car in the opposite direction appear, both cars have to drive up onto their edge of the road (burm) and SLOWLY pass each other. This is one of the scary situations in Ireland that I will never miss when I return home!

Sister Potts and I

We passed by this castle on our hour long drive on Thursday. Do you know how many castles are in Ireland? Ready???? Over 3,000! 1,400 lie in ruin acrosst the island. 

Now if this is not the sweetest picture, I don't know what is!!! On our way back to our flat Thursday, we drove by the old Irish phone booth. It was so cute and it just screamed to me to stop and take a picture of hubby. Well, he kindly turned around, took his place in front of the booth and then struck this pose! Amazing!!!

     On Friday of this past week, we invited the zone leaders over for lunch. I have been very faithful to feed the elders once a month. It certainly was a blessing to have fed both the sisters and the elders within the last 10 days. That never happens in Utah. In our ward, we are lucky to even be able to put your name on the sign-up sheet before all the slots are filled! After lunch, the elders gave us a beautiful gospel message. We ended our evening attending the branch missionary correlation meeting and then hurried home to join an all mission zoom for Come Follow Me. Here is a picture of Elder M and myself with both sets of missionaries.

Sisters always come first...

And then the elders!

This is a picture of us participating in the weekly missionary correlation meeting. We also had 2 members on a zoom with us that night. We had a great discussion and discussed many ideas for branch unity and bringing others to Christ.

     Saturday was a fun day for us. Limerick yearly puts on an event called the Shannon Riverfest. It is 3 days of entertainment for all. On Saturday, Elder and I walked across the river from us for a BBQ. After that, we walked over to an Irish car show. For all of you that know Elder M, he LOVES old cars. This car show will be his one and only chance to see European old cars, so while he went to the car show, I went to saw the water show in the river. Here are lots of pictures of that day.

This was the largest celebration that we saw while here. It made me think that maybe this event is their big summer kickoff!

They had lots of amazement park rides. This was the tallest Ferris wheel

You could pay extra and take a kayaking tour of the city via the river

This is a large crowd enjoying music and dinner on the waterfront

These are sisters posing for me in the largest lounging chair I have ever seen

The young kids were going nuts over the face painting artists there. The artists were incredibly good!

This man is doing the free fall tower that landed him on a large safety stunt bag

Fireworks at night over the river!

This poor Irish man got the task of slaving over Elder M's BBQ meal!

It looks like that poor Irish man did ok because Elder is smiling!

Here are several of Elder's favorite cars in the car show. This is a Lamborghini

This is a custom Jaguar. This is the type of car he dreams of!

This is a very rare Mercedes which is the companies open-wing edition. You literally have to climb into and out of this car. Elder said, "Nice car, but poor design!" It is worth over one million dollars today

This is a 1914 Renault

No car show in Europe should ever be without at least one Ferrari!

This car from the 1930's is a Bugatti. Elder really liked this one up close and personal

Now it's my turn with the water show. Here we go!

This is a man skiing off the back of a jet ski. When the jet ski went fast enough, the skier would do some amazing aerials!

Now I thought that this was so cool! This also is a jet ski that looks like a miniature race car. It held 2 passages and really had a lot of speed behind it. I loved it!

The best part of the water show for me, and I'm sure for most people was when the water fly boards came out. I saw these fly once before in Arizona with my son Richard, but this time they had some incredible professionals!

There were 3 professionals fly boarding for the crowd, and they really put on a huge show for us.

It was amazing to me of how many angles they could direct they flight path. If you have never seen these professionals do their thing, they do most of it at top speed. The hose that you can clearly see attached to him and also jet ski that uplifts the water and gives him the power to do his stunts

Not only are the professional close together, but they each have a girl in their arms and they are dancing with them. Wow!!!

This fly boarder is holding a green flare. Minutes before, he was holding an orange flare...you know, for the colors of the Irish flag

This fly boarder is like 30-40 feet in the air holding the Riverfest flag. All the crowd starting cheering!

Doing a synchronized move together

Literally moving sideways!

He literally was right over my head! I could not believe it!

A close-up of dancing done while on a fly board

Ready for more! I am!! Wait til you see what else my camera captured! It is totally amazing!

Wow, look at that form. He must have the strongest thigh muscles ever

Then he moved right into this...totally sideways!

Here is a great picture to show you how high they could get!

Now I have saved my very best photos of this event for the last. GET READY!!

Amazing trick, amazing photo!

Okay! I can't top this fly board picture ever again. Talk about perfect timing, right? Super, duper incredible!!

     Then, finally on Sunday, our branch did their last munch and mingle with Sister Muirhead's encouragement and help. It has been so wonderful to see how these munch and mingles for the past year has done so much good for, not only branch unity, but for deepening friendships and showing greater love one to another. I hope that they will continue to make this a vital part of the branch mission goal!

The munch and mingle here is so wonderful because of all the diversity of the branch members and the cultural food that they bring

          As I close this evening, I'd like to try to teach the lesson that Sister Potts taught the 2 sisters we visited earlier this week. Sister Potts took her lesson for the LDS resource manual containing emotional resilience, then under the title of "God's Greatest Creations".  She read part of the Hans Christian Anderson story of the "Ugly Ducking". If you will remember, that duckling was born very large and very ugly. All the other ducklings always picked on him. At one point, feeling entirely overwhelmed, this ugly ducking decided to fly away. He would later see the most majestic creatures he had ever seen fly overhead and decided to fly to try and catch up with them. When he landed nearby where those beautiful creatures were, he looked into the water's reflection and could not believe what he was looking at. He realized at that very moment of who he was! I have always loved that story. I feel that we all have a little ugly ducking inside us at certain times.

     Then Sister Potts read that we all, both sons and daughters, come from the "greatest, most glorious being in the universe". He loves each of us infinitely and wants only the best for each of us. And then this lesson reads, "THIS KNOWLEDGE CHANGES EVERYTHING!" How true that is!! It can change our present circumstances and our future. It literally can change the world, if we choose to accept it and trust in God! "If we only understood who we are and what is in store for us", then "our hearts would overflow with such gratitude and happiness". "You are no ordinary beings. You are glorious and eternal." 

     How often do we remember that...that we ARE glorious and eternal. President Kimball stated that "the whole intent of the gospel plan is to provide an opportunity for each of you to reach your fullest potential".  Hugh Nibley wrote once about a truth that he read while reading a non-canonized statement by Jesus. It read, "If you could see your real image which came into being before you, then you would be willing to endure anything!" And then I'd like to also quote one of my favorite LDS quotes. This one comes from President Benson. He said, " Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that He can make a lot more out of their lives that they can. He can deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls and pour out peace. 

     May we never forget who we really are and where we really came from, is my hope and prayer for us all , now and through our endurance to the end!