Lag time

I'm sick. Not death bed sick, just bronchitis, hot lungs, sore throat sick. I came down with this yesterday. BUT, the good news is that I had bronchitis last year and was prescribed an inhalant called QVar AND I brought it with me to Ireland. Yay! After all the bouts of bronchitis I've had in my life, I've never been prescribed an inhalant until last year. It worked beeeautifully the first time and seems to be doing much good again this time. So, soon (hopefully tomorrow) I'll be back on my feet and running (oh, sure) again. Thank you for all the prayers that are said for the missionaries. We feel it, believe me, and we appreciate it. One of the "junior" missionaries was commenting Tuesday on our way home from Dublin about how good it feels to be set apart to do this work and how it elevates us to a higher place than we've ever experienced. I feel grateful that I am one of the senior missionaries, who has experienced life both ways: (1) where I receive the "average" dose of God's blessings, and (2) where I receive blessings set aside for missionaries.

It's been amazing to me how often I am called upon to say prayers and how those prayers are not being said anymore from any kind of "agenda" that I have in mind, but really are being guided by Heavenly Father. I can't help but think about our dear friend, Bonnie Landvatter, and the prayers she offered which were always  given with a catch in her throat because she was so sincere.

Yesterday, the elders took a train ride to Carrick-on-Shannon to meet up with a 37-year-old GOLDEN investigator. He, on his own, has been studying the literature of the Church for the past YEAR and is now ready to be baptized. Elder Walker (Jr.) has been on his mission for almost a year now and has never met anyone as prepared as this man is. This is really an especially timely blessing because the work here has been discouraging, with really only two women who are moving towards joining the Church. The elders do a phenomenal job of finding investigators, but these people are so are to convert. The Catholic Church here is like Big Brother and the generations of people who have been members of it become more and more set in their ways. Even when they join the LDS Church, within six months they've generally stopped coming. I have become more and more appreciative of the strength of my home ward the longer we are here.

Below are a few pictures from Catholic cemeteries and also a bunch of swans near the Glass House Hotel in Sligo. I have forgotten the name of the river that they're swimming in.