We begin our letter this week sharing our experience of seeing President Uchtdorf in Belfast yesterday. The Belfast Stake is about 2 hours away from Dublin and you will remember it is a separate country from Dublin, which is in the Republic of Ireland. Belfast is Northern Ireland. The Belfast Stake is a large stake, with 11 units in it stretching across all of Northern Ireland, but Northern Ireland is only about 1/4 the size of Utah. The entire island if Ireland (both Irish countries) is close to the size of Utah. The Republic of Ireland is about 3/4 the size of Utah and has a stake in Dublin and a District in the south. Having President Uchtdorf come to Ireland brought huge anticipation, with many people guessing what might be happening. Because Belfast is a large stake there was speculation that the stake might be split, or the real hope of everyone in both countries was that he would announce a temple to be built here. The reality was neither, but that it was the last of his tour of Europe, making evaluations of primarily what needs to be done for the immigrant population in all of Europe.
But regardless of there not being any great announcement, the people were thrilled to have a member of the First Presidency visit and the conference was limited ticketing. We had planned to go to the conference for a few weeks, since we learned we could get tickets since we serve that area, and we knew to get good seats we would have to arrive early, so we booked a hotel for Saturday night about 1/2 hour away. As it turned out, we were not able to leave until rather late Saturday and when we checked into the hotel, the desk attendant woman was alone and when she saw our name tags, she asked us if we were coming for some special church meetings. We were thrilled to tell her yes and what it was all about. Then she told us that her daughter had been invited to go (an investigator). We said it would be a very memorable event and her daughter would surely feel the Spirit. Her response was, "I'm sure, because I feel the Spirit right now just talking about it!" She was so sweet that when we got to our room we dug out our best Pamphlets and took them to her in case she would like to read them during her night work. She was delighted and wanted to know if she could really keep them. How fun!
Sunday morning was amazing! It had rained much of Saturday--in fact we got soaked at a YSA activity in Dublin City Center and it rained loads in the night, but Sunday morning brought the clearest warmest summer morning ever. We arrived at the Stake Center at 7:30--which was barely early enough to earn seats in the chapel---but some saints had queued up at 3:30, and everyone was full of joy. Everyone who waited was blessed with comfortable weather and a happy buzz of anticipation. A total of 1005 were counted, which of course was not only a record, but meant that even the classrooms and halls were filled and sound was piped in. President Uchtdorf, ---accompanied but Elder Kearon, the area authority 70 (you will remember he spoke in conference about the refugees) ---came in from the back of the Cultural Hall so that many people could see him. Our Mission President and wife, and Elder and Sister Kearon, and Sister Uchtdorf all spoke first and then President Uchdorf for about 45 minutes.
It was so interesting to us that the main theme of the conference was forgiveness. We had not really thought so much about the serious concern of overcoming the hard feelings of the troubles in Ireland from the 1970's to about 2000. A few people have tried to help us understand the magnitude of what happened then, but we did not think about it in light of the need for the people to forgive in order to grow spiritually. The membership of Irish people just doesn't seem to grow much, and the feeling we had was that especially the Church members need to forgive and heal spiritually for the nations to be able to progress spiritually. Right now 90% of the convert baptisms are of temporary immigrants, so the real membership of Ireland doesn't increase. Another factor is that many of the good saints end up moving away from Ireland, and some who carry so much responsibility to keep the smaller units strong just wear out and become less active. So the message from everyone was to forgive. President Uchtdorf of course had the strong attention and his experiences even as fighter pilot in the war were incredible examples of the difficulty of overcoming hatred. The hope of a temple is spoken of so often in meetings here, and President Uchtdorf addressed that hope, with the counsel that it would come when the growth happened. Right now, there just aren't enough saints to have a temple, and the membership won't grow unless old wrongs are forgiven and the saints become completely obedient and missionary-minded. President Uchtdorf's message is that we can't become true followers of Christ if we can't forgive. It was a powerful sermon.
We have had other special things happen this week too that we would like to share. We are continuing with our classes and they are going pretty well, though 12 weeks is a long commitment for people to make, so a few drop out, but for the most part we have been enjoying the group interaction and spirit of the work. But our favorite experiences are when we get to participate with the investigators. On Thursday, we were invited to join the Elders in teaching David, who is a black South African refugee. His stories of his sufferings during apartheid were fascinating and very sad. For instance, his employer had the police put him in jail for no reason just before payday so that he wouldn't get paid. This happened repeatedly. He finally made his way to Ireland with his wife to find a better life. He converted to Christianity a number of years ago, and has a strong testimony - and knowledge - of the Bible. When we asked him if he believed that God had a body of flesh and bones, he said: "Certainly. How else could we be created in His image?" We were blown away. When we gave him a Book of Mormon, he hugged it to his chest and said: "This is a happy day." Things like this are happening more and more often. People are coming up to the missionaries on the street, or sometimes just showing up at a chapel, where they are touched by a familiar Spirit, and they know very quickly that they have found the truth. We are witnessing, first-hand, the prophesied gathering of the elect. What a special experience!
We have also had special experiences with newly-baptized members. On two occasions in the last week, we have seen men cry as they described their love of the Gospel that has just come into their lives. They were both so embarrassed as they wept, thinking that we felt they were weak, but they could not help themselves as the Spirit testified to them. It is a wonderful thing to watch them express their pure and simple faith. It certainly does make us examine the depth of our testimony, and realize that we, too, must be converted, even though we have been members of the Church our whole lives. We simply cannot take it for granted.
One of the highlights of our week happens during our Monday night English class. It is always fun - we play games like speed Scrabble and Balderdash - but tonight we decided to couple it with a real Gospel message. We all took turns reading from "True to the Faith." The words were hard, but they seemed to really enjoy not only expanding their vocabulary, but also learning basic Gospel principles. Tonight's topic was the Priesthood, and it was interesting to see how little they really understood about it, even though several of them are scheduled for baptism right away. We had a neat discussion about Priesthood power, right in the middle of our struggle to get native Portuguese speakers to pronounce "Aaronic" and "Melchizedek" and "authority" and "quorum" correctly. They are really intelligent, accomplished people who have come here to improve their English, and they have found the Truth. We love them! They seem so appreciative and so guileless. Funny story: we were talking about Mr. and Mrs. and Miss and Ms., and we told them about the name Lynne. They laughed and laughed!
Today (Monday) was just another day in the mission field: get up, run 3 miles, transplant some trees in the backyard in an attempt to make it somewhat presentable, clean up, eat, read scriptures, pray, drive to the house of a YSA to get her ready for a job interview tomorrow, hurry back to spend two hours with a Brazilian immigrant Church member to re-do his resume and practice interview questions, email a report to our supervisor, communicate with the Self-Reliance specialist in Belfast, refine some details on the YSA convention to be held in July, run to the store to get supplies for the dinner we will serve our visiting supervisor tomorrow, prepare for English class, bake cookies for English class, and then hold English class. Tomorrow is a repeat, more or less.
Grandma is working with the Relief Society president of one of the wards to organize a weekly sewing/cooking/crafts class for some refugee (mostly African) women who are cooped in a "retention hotel" (refugee camp?) close to the church building. We are really hoping it works out, and we will keep you posted.
Well, enough for now. Our testimonies grow stronger by the day, and we are feeling so blessed to witness the Gospel changing lives on a daily basis. We are also feeling especially blessed because of your goodness, and your prayers in our behalf. We promise not to let ourselves get homesick, but we surely do miss you and think about you and pray for you.
Love,
Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, Lynne and Lanette
Grandpa rolls up his suit pants to water the garden.
"Till We Meet", was the theme of a big party where 4 missionaries were going home, one YSA was going on a mission, and one Brazilian student who was a blessing to everyone was going home.
Below: Evelin, he darling Brazilian friend. We got her a quad and she was so happy.
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