21 Feb 2014 Trying to catch up

I hope I haven't completely lost my following on this blog. There has been so much up and down in our lives over the last two months that I really don't know where to begin. I guess the most important thing for me to say is that we very nearly lost my sister, Lynda, two months ago, and  that, at this point, she continues to linger. She is in constant pain but has an extremely strong will to live. My siblings, daughter, and niece, as well as Lynda's husband and sons have been spending time with her daily at the care facility to try to keep her spirits up. And this coming Tuesday we will be in Salt Lake for a week to do what we can to help. Because my own emotions have been so up and down over these two months, it is impacted the amount of effective work we've been able to do.

However, we have been able to have several nice visits with members of the Waterford Branch and have been very heartened by the welcomes we have received by pretty much everyone we have gone to visit. Most of them have been more than willing to come to Sacrament Meeting after meeting with us. The branch president here is very focused on missionary work and reactivation, which is a great help to the missionaries.

I've got new pictures to show. Here they are:

 This is a picture of our home from the front and then a bit of our lovely couch and ... whatever.

 Here we are in front of Edinburgh Castle in Scotland

 View of Edinburgh from the Castle

The pathway all thru the Castle.

 That's me, in case you forgot what I look like!

 This is Elder Walker, and his pet lion. (You've heard of Richard the Lion-Hearted, yeah?)

The beautiful Ettrick Hotel where we stayed in Edinburgh. It was very luxurious, or "posh" as they say here.

1 29 2014 We found Kathleen O'Rourke's ancestral home, Ballymitty in Co. Wexford!

So yesterday we went on a scouting expedition to further get the lay of the land. This time we adventured toward Enniscorthy by way of New Ross. New Ross is the town where JFK commissioned that a famine ship replica be built and used to give people a feeling for the hardship of the famine emigrants in sailing to America, Australia, and other points. On our trip to Ireland in 2006, we toured the ship - I believe it's called the Brophy, or something like that. This time we only drove past it. It felt strange because we were so focused in 2006 on everything ancient that we weren't even aware of all the newness around us. This time it was obvious and distracting. But that ship is still beautiful and perhaps one day we'll take a pair of missionaries with us to see it again.

Anyway, when we got to Enniscorthy, we attempted to see three branch members, none of whom was at home. But our time was not wasted because a few good things happened after that. One was that we were able to place a Book of Mormon in the Wexford County Library.

For the next part, I need to explain something. Our GPS is programmed so that we have the option of driving to our various destinations either using "faster time" or a "shorter distance". Since we didn't like the way the "faster time" seemed to be working, we switched to "shorter distance". Now, because of this switch, we found ourselves bouncing around on all kinds of side roads. It is my habit, while we're riding (and if I'm not knitting), to read the road signs, and that's just what I was doing when I read the following sign:

I just about jumped out of my seat! This first sign was followed quickly thereafter with this sign:

Many of you wouldn't recognize the significance of this, but I did IMMEDIATELY!! Friends of Kathleen O'Rourke, in the Hillcrest 5th Ward in Sandy, would know that Ballymitty is the ancestral homeland of Kathleen's adoptive family, either the O'Hara's (her adoptive father's name) or her adoptive mother's name, which I can't come up with at the time. Seeing this sign was such a thrill to me because I wasn't looking for it - and I had told Kathleen that we were not likely to see this little town because we thought we'd be serving our whole mission in Sligo - on the other side of Ireland. Anyway, there it was, and we followed the little sign at the top for the one kilometer to find this tiny, tiny town (probably the smallest we've seen). While there we saw the church first (they ALL have churches) and then we came across a lady who was taking her horses in for the night. The little pony at the bottom is her 35-year-old pure shetland. We asked her if she was familiar with any O'Hara's still in Ballymitty, but she said there are none. Oh, well, time marches on.

1 29 2014 Our Waterford chapter begins

We arrived in Waterford yesterday. We are living in what they call a "semi-detached" home. In America, we would call it a duplex. My first impression as we came through the door was - eeuuw, it stinks! So our first order of business this morning was to buy an air freshener. We'll see how it works. The reason for the smell is the age of the home and the carpet on the floor. Getting back to that "semi-detached" thing, someone explained it to us as a home which has one common wall with another home. I immediately tried to picture a home with TWO common walls - say, the side and then the back ... makes for a kind of funny visual methinks.

We have had phone conversations with both the elders and sisters here, but have not met them yet. We spent today getting our bearings, finding a library and a post office, and buying a few necessities at a Lidl store. We also drove down to the quay where we thought the old Waterford Factory was, but we didn't find it. I can't imagine that they have torn in down. That would be almost a sacrilege. The sunset tonight was just breathtaking. The air here is so clear that it makes the clouds somehow prettier and when the sun goes down, it's yellow, not red, like Salt Lake.

Good-bye Sligo, Hello Waterford!

One of the questions we had when we began our 12 month mission was "will we ever be transferred?" We got the answer today, New Years' Eve: yes! We are being transferred on or after January 17th to Waterford, which is located more or less in the southeast corner of Ireland. It is the home of the former Waterford Crystal Factory and Store. I say former because in about 2008, for reasons which you can guess, it was closed down. To me, and I'm sure to a large population of people around the world, this was a great tragedy. I am, however, grateful to say that I was able to purchase some of the last crystal produced by Waterford and I even have some at home which my sister, Susan, brought me, and which she had autographed and dated by the man who made it.

Anyway, I digress. I need to say something about the work we might be doing in Waterford. There was a senior couple who served there recently and they spent a great deal of time and money on visiting less-active members of the church. In fact, they had a regular list whom they visited at the same time every week. Three days of the week they were gone from 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. doing these visits. Now it's two months later and we don't know if the couple that's in Waterford now has continued that work or if they are doing other things. At any rate, we will find out soon. It's been our experience in Sligo that focusing on the active members of the branch has been a better use of our time. We really struggled with trying to find and reactivate the less-active, but it was all in vain. That's not to say that at some point these people won't return to the Church. It's just a tad disheartening to see people pull away from the thing which for us is the most important thing.

We had an interesting experience on Dec. 21st. It was a baptism, but the confirmation has not happened yet. Padder (that's not actually the way his name is spelled, but that is what people call him) ... anyway Padder has been investigating the Church for three years now and felt that it was finally the right time for him to go ahead and be baptized. Elder Walker was asked to interview him because he is a set-apart senior missionary and it was either him or the zone leaders and President Brown said that he (Elder Walker) should do it. So for 2-1/2 hours they talked and afterwards Richard felt like Padder was ready and worthy. So we went ahead. Here are a few pictures of the happy day:

Up until we reached the "Waters of Mormon" it had been raining steadily all day. Then we got there, got out of the cars, and the rain stopped. The sun came beaming through the clouds and it turned into a gorgeous day, as I hope you can tell by the last picture. We went to the Walshes' for food afterwards and then home. The next day Padder was supposed to be confirmed, but he didn't show up. At first the elders were able to continue getting in touch with him, but at this point he's just slipped off the face of the planet (I'm writing this on Jan. 6). We knew that he was very concerned because on Christmas he had had a few drinks and I suppose he thought by doing that he had cancelled out the baptism. But he hasn't. And we learned from this experience (well, probably Elder Walker already knew this) that a baptism without a confirmation doesn't have to be repeated for one full year. So he has time to get things "sorted" as they like to say. If I ever doubted that the Irish have a huge problem with alcohol, I surely don't doubt it now. And this business of being baptized and then not confirmed has happened several times before in this branch. It makes me wonder why they don't routinely confirm people on the same day that they're baptized! But that's not my call to make.

Bad news, good news

I want to tell you about last Tuesday. It was quite a day, jam-packed with missionary-ing.

But before I set forth the details, may I just say that we are desperately worried about my next-older sister, Lynda. Lynda was taken by her husband to the ER last Saturday because she "couldn't breathe." Upon arriving, she was whisked away to the ICU and intubated. Then the tests began - CAT scans, x-rays, blood tests, an MRI. She had a central line put in through her neck to get all the blood pressure medications and antibiotics into her system more quickly. Her blood pressure was extremely low. I don't know if pneumonia was diagnosed immediately, or if it took a while to determine that that was the problem. Anyway, they mostly know now what they're working against, but they still don't know what caused it. I heard that she also had a mass in her arm and that she may need surgery to remove it. Right now they're trying to deal with a high amount of ammonia in her liver. The biggest concern is that she hasn't awakened since Saturday, so that's five days. They did an MRI to determine brain function and she tested out okay for that. Fantastic news! I was greatly relieved on that score. I would be most grateful to anyone who would send up a prayer on Lynda's behalf. She needs a lot of help and I can't bear the thought of losing her, especially when I'm so far away.

So, then, last Tuesday ...

It began with District Meeting in Mullingar. I'm sure I've said before that it takes about two hours to get there and two to get back. (Funny how that works!) In between we had a two hour meeting and then lunch at Subways. Mmm.

We had only been home a few minutes when we had to leave to run over to Globe House. Globe House is a kind of halfway house (again, I've probably talked about this) for people who have fled their country and are waiting to get a visa to either stay and work in Ireland or move somewhere else. Our purpose in going there this time was to help with a little Christmas party for the 50 children who live their with one or both parents.

This is a perfectly terrible picture of them, but really I shouldn't have even taken it because of their status. I was gently reminded of that after I snapped it. I don't think anyone's really recognizable, but you get the general feel. I found this to be a particularly touching occasion because we know people who live in this building, and while it's pretty clean, it's also pretty sterile. And the two men who live here and belong to our branch have both been stuck there for about six years! 

After we finished with the gaiety of the Christmas party and picking up sticky things off the floor, we hustled to our next appointment, which was our last caroling practice before our big performance tomorrow. We've had five practices and I think I probably mentioned that, in desperation, they asked me to be their conductor this year. I was happy to do it and have had to stretch myself a bit to do it, but I've got to say that's it's been a real pleasure to participate in this, and for both Richard and myself it - along with a baptism that was just recently scheduled! - will probably be the highlight of the Christmas season for us here. 

More about the baptism in a minute.

So then after the practice, we ran again back to our apartment to host a youth activity. We had only two young women who came, but we also had the elders, and the YM and YW presidents (a married couple). What we did this night was project the film "Ephraim's Rescue" on our wall and watched it while eating apples and popcorn. We've actually seen this film three times now, but we've enjoyed it every time and will probably buy it when we get home. It is kind of a companion piece to "17 Miracles." I didn't take any pictures of this activity, so you'll just have to use your imaginations!

When it was over, we drove the two girls home - it takes about 35 minutes each way. They live in Bundoran and the wind was beginning to pick up that night.

And then on Wednesday, overnight, it snowed! What a surprise! Snow in Ireland, while not unheard of, is unusual. And I understand that there are four more fronts that expected to come through Sligo between now and Christmas. That's a whole lot of weather. In fact, we read in the Irish Independent today that a woman very near Mullingar was killed when a tree fell on her car yesterday! And we were there just the day before! Yikes!

Again - not a very good picture, but it's proof of the snow in Sligo.

So, about the baptism. It seems so strange the way it came up. Elder Walker and I have been pretty involved with the first three elders here in the teaching they were doing, but these last two elders are more independent, so we know less about how things are going. We have, in fact, just more or less turned our sights on the branch itself and the members that we already have. And then, out of the blue, we hear that Peadar (pronounced Pather) King has decided, after three years off and on with the missionaries, that he's ready to be baptized. Last night Elder Walker interviewed him for 2-1/2 hours and found him worthy. So Saturday we'll drive out to Glencar Lake, for the second time on our mission, and witness a baptism. We begin the service at the branch first, where we can all sit in relative comfort before going out into the cold. Peader is not concerned about it because he says he learned to swim in a river. We are pleased and excited for him to take this important step. He already recognizes what a difference in can make in his life if he continues to live righteously. And Sunday, before our Christmas service begins, he will be confirmed. It will be, like the caroling, such a highlight for us.

Man, what a weekend!

So sorry to be lax in writing my blog. I think if someone is going to be a blogger, then they darn well ought to be writing, yeah?

I will start with this weekend and then backtrack a bit. Yesterday, we finally had a combined youth activity with the youth of the Mullingar branch. (We started planning this activity in August!) Mullingar is almost two hours east of Sligo and they had six of their 11 youth who attended. We had four of our six. We were actually quite satisfied with those numbers because we feel that this was really a good activity and having many more people might have just gummed up the works. Here is a picture of most of the youth (on either side) and the elders in the middle.

So the activity is probably familiar to anyone who has been a member of the Church for 20 years or so. It's the one where the youth are all brought into a room which has been laid out like an airplane and they are told that they are taking a flight to Paris. We spent many hours preparing for this production, but it was so worth it. The flight gets underway, after everyone - with their individualized passports and boarding passes - have been seated in the plane. Two of the youth played the roles of flight attendants and they passed around the refreshments and then took care of the "rubbish".

About ten minutes into the flight there was an announcement that the captain had reported a problem with the engine and then within seconds we could hear the plane going down (our YM president in the Sligo branch, Sigfred Ducusin, is very techno-savvy, so he was able to create the visual and sound effects for us.

The next thing we knew the plane crashed and then Captain Smith (a.k.a. Elder Walker) came to the front of the room representing the angel who was telling everyone that the plane had crashed and there were no survivors. There was some tittering in the group for a few seconds and then they became very quiet. Elder Walker continued to explain to them that they would now be leaving this place and moving either into Spirit Prison or Paradise (based on whether they received a slip of paper or not). We split the group then and they each went in with one of the missionaries who explained to them about why they were assigned to their initial place of rest and who it was that they would see there. Even though we have all learned these things in church classes over many years, it was enlightening to see it presented this way and I was reminded of things that I had not thought about in a long time. Richard is such a faithful reader of the scriptures, but I continually struggle with it, so I have forgotten things like the fact that it was Christ who first began teaching people in Spirit Prison while he was yet a spirit Himself. I was sitting in the Spirit Prison room and was there when the people from Paradise came to teach them. Then I slipped out of the room so that I could see them come pouring out of Spirit Prison - just like those to are blessed to have their temple work done and who accept that work. There was something especially effective about this for me.

Then began the assignment of people to each of the three kingdoms of Heaven. We all went through them together, beginning with the Telestial, of course, which was lit only by white Christmas lights - imitating stars, and no heat in the room. Elder Benesch taught us about who would be assigned to this sphere, but was good to emphasize that this WAS a degree of glory, even if it was the lowest, and that we could progress in this degree. But, wouldn't it be great if we had something more?

So we moved to the Terrestrial Kingdom, where Elder Celestini (he's Italian, obviously, and his name means celestial - how cool is that?) - anyway, Elder Celestini taught us about the Terrestrial Kingdom.

There is more light in this room because the windows were not fully covered as they had been in the Telestial Room. We learned that the glory here is comparable to the moon - something much more than the stars, but not as much as the sun. Then, of course, we moved to the Celestial Room.

The young man at the pulpit is the 18-year-old president of the Young Men's Quorum in the Mullingar Branch. He gave a very impressive talk about the desirability of the Celestial Kingdom but, again, was considerate of the feelings of those who may have relatives that are never going to be there because they would not even be comfortable there.

When all was said and done, no one was in a hurry to leave. We had all enjoyed the experience and were glad we had participated. I think this is an activity that the youth will long remember, just as others of us, who have done this before, remember it so well.

So today - I'll be brief - was Sunday and the Primary Program. I am the Primary President, so I spoke, along with my one counselor, Chris Grannis. Also, the three children in our Primary each said a small part and sang a song for us. I thought it turned out just fine. And our attendance was up - we had 27 people there today, including an investigator and three visitors. Yay.

I was going to say more, but this has been a pretty long blog, so I'll let you off the hook now. Bye! 

Where have all the Mormons gone?

It's Sunday evening here, Nov. 17th, 2013. We've had four weeks of really poor attendance at Church and it's hard to know for sure what to blame it on. Basically, as I'm sure I've mentioned, we have two families who are the bulwark of our tiny branch, and when they don't come, we take a really bit hit. One family, the Walshes, consist of mom, dad, three teen sons, and a 21-year-old daughter. The father in this family provides the ride for another, bigger family - the Campbells - who have seven active members, but no driver. The daughter in the Walsh family drives the Walsh family because Mom is blind. So, anyway, the Walshes for one reason or another have been absent for four weeks and will be absent for another two, at least. And no Walshes equals no Campbells which equals poor attendance. The last three weeks we've had 17, 15, and 23. It's just sad. And Satan would love us to be discouraged. For that reason alone, we refuse to be.

Let's see if I can find something happier to talk about. One funny thing that happened is that one night the elders were in the midst of "exchanges" when they found themselves locked out of their flat. We considered the options and they came to the conclusion that there was really no choice but to let them sleep at our apartment. So here are Elder Holum (a zone leader) and Elder Wightman, one of our pair of regular missionaries. They were obviously grateful for the housing! And elders are always a joy to be around, so we didn't mind a bit!

We've had some wonderful activities with the youth and YSA in our branch. One of them was a pumpkin carving party. Pumpkins in Ireland are a bit of a rarity, but we were able to locate some in a store here. We went online and found a few patterns that we thought would be appropriate (the character "Sonic" was a big hit with a 12-year-old named Harry). And then we prepared the pumpkins for carving by cutting the bottoms off and then cleaning them out. The youth thought we were pretty clever to think of cutting the bottoms off, rather than the tops, once they understood how much easier it is to light them that way. Here are some pictures from the activity:

(Notice the pumpkin on the far right - Laura, the girl on the left above, carved different faces on each side, so the other side of her pumpkin is reflected in the window. We thought it was a great effect and wished that we had thought to do them all that way!)

Great smile - lousy picture. Oh, well.

Jumping right from Halloween to Christmas ... this is a decoration that was demonstrated for us at a Relief Society Conference which was held in the Finglas Stake Center in Dublin. (Finglas rhymes with ring-glass.) For me it was one of the best days here. I was absolutely surrounded by Relief Society sisters. I think there were something like 90 of them there, and I really think I may have written about this before. But it's worth a second mention anyway because it meant that much to me.

This is obviously a picture of a rainbow. We were looking out our front window to the northwest as this beauty formed. I actually took six pictures of it, but this was the last and best. We've seen at least four rainbows here, the last one was a double and we could see the whole arch - really amazing.

Okay, one quick last thing: we had a mug-painting activity with the youth last Tuesday and, again, it was great fun. There are five or six youth who come each time and I didn't get any close-ups of the finished products, but here we are hard at work:

Until next time, I remain tired but humble Sister Walker