Coming Full Circle as Our Mission Comes to a Close-Part 1

     As this, our second mission, comes quickly to a close, I came to realize this week how Elder and I have come full circle in several areas in both of our lives. This past week, we spent most of our time traveling through Ireland one last time and taking a small break from our normal missionary service that we have provided in Limerick since we came here almost one year ago. To start this week's blog, I will go just a little out of order date wise, but will include my personal writings and photos as usual.

     When we returned home Friday evening, we drove right over to my friend, Sister Smirnovs' house. We were met there by the young elders and had a marvelous BBQ meal with delicious chicken and Brazilian rice that about knocked my socks off my feet. It was sooooo yummy. One of the younger elders had three platefuls himself, not being able to stop eating. After the elders gave a short doctrinal message, Elder M and I stayed for a few extra minutes and enjoyed relaxing and talking together. Here are a couple of photos taken that night.

From left to right: Elder Millardi, Amos, Gitana, Sister Muirhead, Elder Roy and Elder Muirhead

Gitana is such a sweet friend. I love her!!!

     On Saturday, we left our flat early to join our branch's missionary correlation team (with wives) to go clean an elderly branch member's front and back yards. Another correlation team member came the night before and cut down a good portion of the many weeds that were present. Even with his help, both parts of the yard needed all 10 of us that morning to complete the task. Though the work was hard, we all enjoyed working side by side with each other to make a difference.

Here are all of the missionaries doing their portion of the work when we first started. We are ankle deep in stinging nettle!

I went out front with the Faloon's to help with that part

Here is the after picture. What a difference we made!

Even the front yard looks beautiful now!

Our team: Bro Bedi, sister missionaries, Sis Bedi, Elder M, Bro Faloon, Sis Faloon, young elders and myself

     Today, Sunday, our branch's Relief Society presidency were not available, so Sister Gemma Graham and myself, took over the meeting and directed our RS class with the assigned general conference message. For 2 older women, I think we did an amazing job! I love the way that the church allows you to perfect your leadership skills and lend a handing hand in any area needed. 

     Now, let's go back to last Monday. On that day, Elder and I took the sister missionaries with us to go grocery shopping. After getting all the items that we all needed, we dropped the sisters off at their flat. When we arrived back to our flat, we put our groceries away, started a wash or two and then started packing for our 4 day trip that would start the next day. We asked our mission president back in August if we could drive to the small town in Northern Ireland where one of Elder M's families originated from. Our president gave us his permission, but either time or weather stopped us from going. We were more than determined to get there this time!

     We left with the sister missionaries very early Tuesday morning to drive together up to Dublin for another zone conference. This zone conference would be our last. This Finagles chapel was where we first started our mission zone conferences and is now where we will end them also. This becomes our first full-circle. As usual, this zone conference was full of great messages of the gospel and held in its audience, many wonderful friends....some of them never to be seen again! Sister McCrudden addressed us about making sure that we treated all that we would encounter as we preached the gospel with love and kindness. We, certainly, all needed to hear those words again. Sister McCrudden directed our thoughts to Ether 12:27, where the Lord gives us weaknesses to help us become strong. She also talked about humility and how we need to be humble followers of Christ. I love her instructions!

     President McCrudden started his training lesson by allowing us to watch the YouTube video entitled, "Praise To The Man", sang by the Choir at Temple Square which showed paintings of the life of the prophet! Wow! I love the Prophet Joseph. He did so much for the salvation of men in these latter-days. After serving in Palmyra, New York, I will always praise that man! After President completed his instruction, he told us that our mission will bless everyone that we love, It will bless our spouse, our children and our grandchildren! He then said that we needed to strive to know the Savior's face and His voice. He, too, is a great man. I'm so grateful for his leadership and example. As we closed our zone conference, one of the senior men surprised us by entering the chapel, dressed in full Scottish kilt and played "Praise To The Man" on his bagpipe. Talk about having your soul touched!!!! I wish you were all there to have felt that electrifying rendition. That will never be forgotten!

Our last group photo in the Scotland/Ireland Mission. President thanked me for all the many group photos I have taken this last year for our mission records. He is more than welcomed!

Elder Muirhead bearing his last testimony to a chapel truly full of Father's angels!

Cute Sister McCrudden teaching all the young missionaries needed kitchen skills and safety protocol

Elder Kitchen with his bagpipe

     After conference, we grabbed a quick dinner and jumped in the car to head for Belfast, Northern Ireland. We got there just as the sun was setting. 

But more about Belfast in part 2!

     On this last road trip of ours, we drove another 1,000 miles, starting from Limerick, to Belfast, to Omagh, to Fivemiletown, to Sligo, to Connemara-Galway, and then back to Limerick again! This statement fulfills another full circle for us, as now we can say that we have been to every major area in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. I was quite surprised how different Northern Ireland looks compared to the Republic. Maybe it is just because Northern Ireland is owned by Great Britain and certainly appears much more British than the Republic does. While there, we saw both some sunshine and some rain, including rainbows. One rainbow we saw literally stood straight up with no bow. I don't think I have ever seen that before. We also saw beautiful countrysides, high mountains and even the Great Atlantic Way that runs along the west coast of all of Ireland. Here are a couple of pictures as examples of places that we saw.

Here's some of Northern Ireland's sunshine. After driving across from Belfast to Omagh, I certainly can see where this country's wool industry comes from. I have never seen so many sheep before  

And more are still coming!!!!

I took this picture from the car while Elder was driving. The cloud action over here is totally amazing!!!

You can't see holes in the clouds with blue sky behind them like this in Utah

We drove through the worst rain storm we had seen in Ireland. It poured until we couldn't see out of our windshield and then it slowed down, only to start up again even worse. This was a prize we saw when we reached the end of the storm. You can see that this rainbow was huge, brilliant, and showing all of its bands of color.

I was thrilled to see such tall mountains in Northern Ireland. What a beautiful sight! I had no idea

This is Glencar Waterfalls from the main road

Beautiful mountains and beautiful valleys

One of the many lakes we drove by in the southern part of Northern Ireland

I love this picture!! Those are swans getting ready to take off on the Great Atlantic Way

     Just in case there are some of you who are not familiar with the importance of why we wanted to serve in the Scotland/Ireland Mission at this time, I will re-tell the reason. When Elder Muirhead was 12 years, he received his patriarchal blessing, a special blessing that is given in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In that blessing, Elder was told that he would serve a mission in the land of his fellowman (he served both in Michigan and in New York) and would cross the mighty ocean and serve in the lands of his forefathers. After waiting almost 60 years, Elder finally got his call to serve in the Scotland/Ireland Mission for our church. As we waited for our visas to be approved, we were notified that we would be serving in the Republic of Ireland. Elder M really felt good about that change of plans. Now, at our mission's close, I see us coming full circle in fulfilling prophesy from years ago.

     The Muirhead line came mostly from Scotland, but his ancestral line also included the Hall family who lived in Ireland before the country was split during the war of its independence. One of the Hall family members, John Hall (1851-1937) and family lived in the small Irish village known as (and still known today as) Fivemiletown in County Tyrone. I always thought that the name was awesome. Fivemiletown was founded in 1619 by Sir William Stewart. Fivemiletown, which is now classified as a village (though its name reads "town") originally received its name due to the fact of where this village was located. Its exact location was 5 Irish miles from its nearest neighbors in more than one direction. An Irish mile equals 1.27 statute miles or 2044 meters. Because many smaller Irish villages from the past are non-existent today, Fivemiletown continues to thrive with a whopping population of just over 1,000 residents. Essentially, if you blink as you are driving through, you might miss Fivemiletown!

     In 1900, Elizabeth Hall, John's daughter, immigrated to the United States and later married John McCallum Muirhead. No modern direct descendant from this Muirhead-Hall family line has ever gone back to Ireland to visit their forefather's lands as far as we know. What a thrill to stand next to Elder Muirhead as we made this event a possibility. A family full circle, if you will! We had discussed the opportunities to walk everywhere we could around Fivemiletown and stand in places where we knew family had stood over one hundred years ago. We definitely knew of one place where John Hall stood and that was in a small chapel in Fivemiletown called Cavanalech Presbyterian Church. It was in this chapel that John married Anne Hall in 1879 and then would also marry Jane Walker in 1888, after Anne's untimely death. The largest church in this same town, St. John's Church, also held some Hall gravesites. We thought that we would only be able to view these churches from the outside, but "with God, nothing is impossible"! Read on........

     Fivemiletown is such a small town that your choices for overnight stays are VERY limited, like only 4 places! Really! Of course with 4 different places, I had choice to make. After reading some reviews and looking at some land maps, I decided to purchase our only night there at the Clogher Valley Golf Club B&B. There really wasn't anything spectacular about this B&B. In fact, the reviews matched exactly what was offered us. The next morning, as we were eating our breakfast, the manager came out to check on us and I asked her if she could answer me a question. I told her that we had come to see the Cavanaleck Presbyterian Church where Elder's great-grandparents had been married in. I asked her where the church was located in town. She knew right where it was, though she stated that she was a member of St. John's Church of Ireland. 

     In the next breathe, she told us that one of her employees, Victor, Collum, who was due to come into work within the hour was also the part-time caretaker for the Cavanaleck Presbyterian Church. She said that he had keys to even let us inside and would also escort us to the location. I could NOT believe what she just said! That WAS NOT a coincidence! Within the hour, Elder and I both stood inside that small chapel, honoring his ancestors who lived and loved there! Even just stepping out of the car and placing my left foot on the tarred driveway allowed my heart to be overcome with an abundance of sacred feelings. I still can't believe the blessings that our Father in Heaven gave us that early, rainy morning in Fivemiletown, Northern Ireland!!! 

Finally! A Hall family descendent standing once again in Fivemiletown, County Tyrone!

Fivemiletown's Main Street today! A simple, quiet place

Fivemiletown Cavanaleck Presbyterian Church and graveyard. This church was first erected in 1676 and was rebuilt in 1907

This is a photo inside that same church. There was something absolutely palpable that you could literally feel as we walk up the aisle. Ancestors WERE present!

This headstone that Elder is posing next to is most likely a relative. We could not find any stones of direct ancestors, but I testify that that is where they lived and worshipped

I love this picture. Just looking at it fills my heart with such joy!

     The same manager from where we ate earlier also found out that there was a scheduled wedding that same morning in St John's Church. She said that if we got there around 11:00am, the church would be open and that we would be able to see the inside of that church too. So, at 10:50am, off we went to St John's. When we got there, we noticed a place where we could park. An elderly man was standing by the parking lot gate wiggling his fingers over and over. I got out of the car, told him that we would love to see the inside of the church (he, too, was that church's caretaker) and asked if we could park there for just a few minutes. He said that would be okay, but he had been trying to get the gate to open for quite a while with no luck. I asked him if I could help him. He humbly told me the combination to the lock. Within seconds the gate was open! He exclaimed in a loud voice, "Thank God for women"! It made my whole day! 

     Once inside, we met his niece who was the organist for the wedding. She played a quick number for us on the organ. The acoustics were amazing. I asked her in secret if she could play Elder Muirhead's favorite song, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring". She played it for him by memory on the piano. What a treat!!!  All done in little Fivemiletown. So prefect!

   

St John's Church of Ireland

Inside the chapel of St John's church

A handmade banner

This was so cool. Instead of seeing beautiful stained glass, like I had seen so many times before, this window allows the beautiful forest of trees that line that side of the church to be admired by all

St John's graveyard where we found several more Hall names

This is the cutest photo I took in Fivemiletown. This is a picture of Elder pouring himself a cup of ale....Ginger ale, that is!

     And that was only half of our trip! Next week, I will present part 2. In closing, I want to bear a greater knowledge given to me as I was performing temple work for one of my ancestors over 30 years ago. I had been praying to receive a more sure knowledge of Christ. On a day in May 1989, in a temple of our God, I received my answer. On that day, while being proxy for my ancestor, Mary, I came to know that there really is life after life. I testify that at the exact same time that I was helping Mary in person at the veil, that Mary, in reality, was finally passing through into God's presence. Without the higher knowledge of the gospel and strict obedience, one cannot enter into the kingdom. The gospel, with all its priesthood rights and ordinances, is absolutely true and we, when given the higher knowledge of the gospel, are called to the work and we must do the work! 

    President Thomas S. Monson has said, “Those who understand the eternal blessings which come from the temple know that no sacrifice is too great, no price too heavy, no struggle too difficult in order to receive those blessings. There are never too many miles to travel, too many obstacles to overcome, or too much discomfort to endure.” This once in a life-time experience has proven to me again the great importance of, not only being worthy, but also of the need to participate regularly in the temples of God. I also testify that with more and more temples being announced and built today, that the Lord expects us to serve our loved ones and bring them unto full salvation. 

     May we be faithful in searching our family histories, may we be faithful in our obedience to God's commands, and may we be more faithful in our temple attendance. There will always be more to do, but like President Monson said, those who understand the eternal blessings of the temple will endure and will be blessed for their righteous efforts.