Maurene and I both feel that the Lord has sent us here to Limerick, Ireland for a reason, there is a purpose for us to be here. We also feel that will be made known unto us some time in the future. For now, we have to have faith and press forward and do what we can and hopefully be a positive force in the lives of the Young Single Adults and the branch here in Limerick. We decided early this week that one thing we can do here that will help is to have a Family Home Evening group for the YSAs, especially those who are living away from home. So this next Sunday we are going to have our first one. We are going to have them here in our home and are excited to start this. We thought that Sunday evening would be a good time to hold it and then YSAs who are living and home can come if they want and still be involved with their families on Monday evening. We had something exciting happen last Monday, we found a hot air corn popper! Maurene was so excited. It is small, like most things here, but it pops well and now Maurene can have her popcorn fix. We had a very busy day on Tuesday that started with district meeting and then we did our first two apartment inspections for the Elders here in Limerick. They went well with not too many things to be fixed and both of them were untidy but clean which is the most important thing. We drove the sisters to the store for groceries, taught a lesson with them for one of their investigators and then met with the YSA reps to do some planning. We were tired by the end of the day! On Wednesday we inspected the sister's apartment and of course it got an excellent rating. They have a very nice place that used to be a couples apartment and Maurene fell in love with it. After the inspection we went to La Garda, police station, to apply for our card to let us stay here in Ireland for the next year. We heard horror stories about how long it would take but we were in and out of there in about a half hour! So we were very happy about that. So to celebrate we took a little drive out to Adare, a village about 15 minutes from Limerick because we had heard to much about it being a typical Irish village. It was beautiful and we had a great time there. Our favourite part was the little park in the town. In the evening, we did a Skype call with the couple in Cork that are called to facilitate YSA activities for the district. We were going to drive down there on Thursday but this saved us a lot of time and travel. We had a nice visit getting to know them and doing some planning for future district activities. We thought we were going to have a really busy day again on Friday with lessons with the sisters but everyone cancelled during the course of the day, the life of a missionary! During our travels during the day we stopped at the Milk Market, a kind of a farmer's market in downtown Limerick. There was lots to look at and see and we shared a delicious Nutella and strawberry crepe made by this fellow from Northern France. Later that afternoon we walked over to visit a family who are investigating the church who live close to us. They are from Albania and we had a good visit with him. He is a landscaper and his yard is just gorgeous. They have been coming faithfully to church for a few months now and we hope they will be baptized soon, very nice family. On Saturday morning we drove out to the University of Limerick to visit one of our YSAs who lives on campus. We had a great visit with her, she is from San Diego and is doing a second degree in sociology and psychology. The campus was just beautiful, very wooded with lots of little streams and fountains. We then baked cookies in the afternoon for the first time and they turned out well but definitely tasted different from the ones we would make at home. The ingredients are different so that has to be expected. On Sunday we travelled out to Tralee, a town about 100 kms from here with a small branch, to attend church and visit with the YSAs who live out there. It was a beautiful drive but took us about 90 minutes to drive there due to the narrow roads and all the small towns that we drove through. But we really enjoyed the drive, at least on the way home, since it was a beautiful sunny day with really nice scenery. There was a total of 15 people at church, including 6 missionaries, so it was small but there was a great spirit there. The people were so warm and friendly and you could feel their strong testimonies of the gospel. There was only one YSA at church, Alice, but we had a good visit with her. She is a fourth year student in nursing and we look forward to involving her in the YSA activities. We also met the young missionaries, Elder Jamieson is from Okotoks, and the Wingets, the senior couple who are assigned to that branch. It was a good week and we accomplished much. It seems like we are moving forward slowly but moving forward. We have faith in the Lord to help us along the way.
1 Comment
Darlene Nielsen
11/3/2015 06:28:51 pm
Hi, who would have thought. My Grandpa Hunt's Family came from Limerick to Ontario. We also served with Sister O'Keefe from Ireland in Cape Breton she was a great missionary. It is a small world. Think of you often. Take Care Love Doug & Darlene
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AuthorThis is the blog of Elder Tom and Sister Maurene Wilson of our mission to the Scotland/Ireland Mission. Archives
October 2016
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