Dear Family and Friends,
To Start our letter this
week, we have a tricky question for the Grandchildren:
Do they have the 4th
of July in Ireland?
Answer: of course they do. They have the 1, 2,3, 4, 5,…..and so on!
They just don’t celebrate
American Independence Day! J
Next question: Do they have the 24th of July in
Ireland?
Answer: Of course they do! ---AND they do celebrate
Pioneer Day as Saints! Surprising? It was to us! So this week we felt a little closer to home
as we celebrated Pioneer Day in the parking lot of the church (right outside
our little house.)
This is how the celebration
went: For at least two months, a group
of people, mostly two old men have been painting really cute pioneer cartoon
pictures on old sheets to hang in the cultural hall, and for this entire week
they have been working on putting up huge pavilion size tents for the
celebration. We, (but mostly Grandpa)
helped a lot to figure out and set up the tents--two of which had never been
set up before--so it was a big job! It
all had to be set up ahead for the food and games to happen.
The food was as much like an
American BBQ as possible, hamburgers and hot dogs---except there seems to be no
such thing as hot dogs, ---so they use good long sausages. They also had potato chips, juice, watermelon,
and Slushies. Since we had trouble with
the Slushy machine we rented for the YSA Convention, they let us have the
Slushy machine again at no cost, so it was the hit of the day! For us it was too cool to enjoy a frozen
drink--but the kids came back again and again!
There was a fun booth for
face painting, and one of the older men is an expert at balloon art. He made the most elaborate 10-balloon-sized-creations,
(and he said he would teach me how to do it).
They had a good Tug of War, but the funniest activity was the “welly
toss”. Try to think what that would be.
A “welly” is short for a
Wellington Boot, which is the big rubber boots that are worn here for the rain. The size of the “Welly” you had to toss
depended on your age. and boy or girl.
The men had big ones and the kids had little ones etc. They stood at the Pioneer Day Banner to begin,
and threw it down the parking lot driveway.
It was measured off and whoever threw it the farthest (without hitting
the spectators!) got the gold or silver “welly trophy”. It was really funny and
fun---and certainly a new twist on Pioneer Day Activities. Grandma
tried, but it is pretty hard and she didn’t win, ---and Grandpa was too busy cooking
on his little old resurrected grill that saved the day. Somehow the big grill had not been used for
years, so it was not only late getting here, but totally rusty and slow to heat
up. So 80% of the BBQ was thanks to
Grandpa!
There were about 100 people
here, which is a good turnout, and a good mix of people. Some investigators seemed to have a fun time
along with the veteran Irish. So we did
celebrate the 24th of July in style!
The morning of the
Celebration we had another celebration, the baptism of one of our friends. Coincidentally his NAME is Wellington. (He didn’t come to the BBQ party J) His baptism
was very special to us because we have known him since he came to Ireland about
3 months ago, when he requested to study with the missionaries. We were introduced to him to see if we could
help him get a job. He is very
intelligent, from Botswana, Africa, but studied in England. We really could see the Lord’s hand in the
way things developed, because only a few weeks after we started working with
him, we met a man in Northern Ireland who is an entrepreneur and he told us he
had opportunities for people to work.
When we learned of his options we thought first of Wellington and
shortly thereafter took Wellington to Belfast to meet the man with the business
opportunity. Since then they have been
happily getting a business started.
About a month ago Wellington
was able to bring his wife, Polo, to Ireland.
She has not been as interested in the Church, but we do see her interest
increasing, when we do things with them from time to time. One day this week, we spent most of the day
with Polo because she is so lonely. “Wells”
goes to work, and she stays at home with no friends or family. She is afraid to drive here, and afraid to
catch a bus for fear of getting lost, so she can only go for short walks. We had a nice time talking to her, eating
lunch, and went to the nearby Botanical Gardens with her. The baptism was so good. Grandpa and another man spoke, and the talks
were so good, so clear, so thought provoking.
It was good for both Wells and Polo.
The evening of the same day
with Polo, we spent a long time with another friend, Nick from Romania. We hardly ever have days that are not quite
busy, but it seemed like this day was planned and orchestrated in Heaven to
have time just to visit with investigator friends. Nick really wanted to talk and share his
dreams and plans which are centered around working hard to save enough money to
move to a new apartment so he can stop smoking and bring his little daughter
from Romania to live here. This is a
huge and hard dream for him, but we reviewed what he knows about the doctrine
of the gospel, and he has a good understanding of so much. We have really tried to encourage him to
prepare for baptism because he will need the blessings of the Spirit to help
him reach his goals. He really has
faith that the Lord will bless and
help him. Nick has only been in Ireland
since February and he feels the Lord’s hand has already been in everything that
has happened to him.
Tonight Nick came to our
house again because he was off early since it was a “bank holiday” and he
wanted to study the scriptures with us some more. It is remarkable to see the physical change
in him and the questions he asks about the scriptures are so full of
faith. He also asked us if we would go
shopping with him soon, so he could get some more suitable clothes for church. In the recent past we have had to urge him to
even come to church because although he said he wanted to be baptized we have
not been seeing too much progress.
Suddenly now he is reading the scriptures on his own and we think he is becoming
self-motivated in all the important things.
We will admit that being away
from home is hard, but we are being blessed with dear
friends. We truly love the
investigators, and the new members, ---many of whom are, or have been, in our job
classes or English class. We have fun
and good relationships with the YSA, and are making some pretty real friendships
with the Irish church members. Irish are
nice, but not fully trusting of any foreigners so we feel blessed to be more accepted. On Sunday we spoke in Sacrament Meeting and combined
RS/Prsthd and then went to dinner at a member’s home that we have come to know
well, because we have done a lot of things with their ward. The Bishop and his wife, who are very young,
but very faithful, were there too. It is
fun to be able to joke with them and learn their stories.
On Friday we drove to start
new classes in a city almost 3 hours away.
It made for a late night by the time we got back home, but we love the
great effort of those who came long distances themselves, and also brought food. We realized a little too late that we had not
started the cake we thought we should take, but hurried and made it anyway. It was just what was needed, and while we
were cleaning up the total cake got cleaned up too! J It is funny
how often we don’t hardly taste the treats, but it is ok. Don’t worry that we are getting too thin
since we spend so much time in meetings and in the car--and so little time
being really active!
And so ends July! We wore coats on the 30th, turned
on the heat on the 31st and were not alone. Even some Irish were wearing coats on Saturday. Tonight an investigator from Brazil chuckled that
he was wearing his coat that he rarely wears even in the winter in Brazil, and
it is summer in Ireland. We didn’t tell him
what to expect when it gets winter here.
Our “bumper crop” of 6 tomatoes
are still smaller than cherry tomatoes and as green as green can be. Green is likely--its Ireland!
Well, we shall close for
now. We send our love to you and sincere
prayers that you will feel our love, and be blessed with all that makes you
truly happy.
Hugs and more hugs!
More fun balloon art. The spider is in suspension from the green balloon.
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