Dear Family and Friends,
Well, the months are rolling along, and
November has turned into December. On
the 13th of this month, we will have been in Ireland for a full
year. Looking back, it doesn’t seem
nearly as long as it did looking at it from the front end, but that is
typical. We certainly have experienced a
lot of things over the past year, and we feel like we have been on the run
almost every day, which has made time go by really fast.
The Christmas season is in full swing
here, as we imagine it is at home. Since
this year we know where the stores are we are seeing the decorations and
shopping rush a little more. The traffic
is significant and everyone blames it on Christmas shopping. We have visited in a few homes and it is fun
to see their decorations, which are quite like home.
But the seasons don’t change much. The days get noticeably shorter (sunup is
usually around 8:00 am, and it starts getting dark shortly after 4:00 pm) but
the temperature only varies between the high 30’s and the mid-40’s, with
“misty” rain. This fall has been
unusually dry, with not nearly as many hefty rainstorms, but there is always a
little moisture in the air, and it seems very cold. Everyone on the street now is wearing a
stocking cap and a heavy coat, and most of the time several layers. Even though we don’t get the extreme
temperature changes that Utah gets, it still seems cold. Even the Leprechauns are dressing warmer! The calendar says it is December, so we miss
the snow that we know you are getting.
The most boring job in the world would be the Irish National Ski Team
Coach. There aren’t many mountains
around here, let alone hills, and certainly not snow. Oh well, no country is perfect. We’re taking care of our craving for snow,
however, by moving north about 700 miles.
We understand that the winter days in Sweden are even shorter than
Ireland. We would like to arrange our
flight to Stockholm so that we land in the daylight, but we don’t know which
hour of the day that would be.
Speaking of being busy, this week has been
another “on the go” week. We suddenly
have so much to do to wrap things up so we can leave, and so little time to do
it in. After a Monday at home to catch
up on office work and few lessons with
the young missionaries, we were off Tuesday morning to Limerick (2 hours) to
train two elders who are going home next week, and to attend part of the
Limerick Zone Conference. We are getting
a little more polished on our presentation for the exiting Elders, and it such
a blessing to see how much these wonderful young people have matured in their
understanding of the Gospel and their approach to life. They are literally “head and shoulders” above
most young people their age in their preparation for what is ahead. Our purpose in the training is to encourage
them not to lose the momentum they have gained as a missionary, and to not forget
to do the things that made them successful in the mission field. We teach them a little about how to
effectively present the skills they have gained as a missionary, goal setting,
the importance of education, choosing the proper career, and managing time and money. They usually are reluctant to stop thinking
about missionary work long enough to think a little about going home, but they
are bright, strong, and willing to learn.
It is a real pleasure to work with them.
We tell them that they need to always work together with their spouse in
financial planning and goal setting, and that the first step to doing that is
to get a spouse. That usually gets their
attention.
We got back from Limerick in time to do
the last minute meal preparation for the Job Search class which we facilitate
on Tuesday nights. It is a class for
just the YSA, and we hope it gains a little momentum as the word gets
around. They of course like grandma’s
cooking, but this time they really seemed to get a feel for what this class could
actually do to help them in their job search.
We hold the gospel Foundations part of the lesson for an hour, break to
attend Institute, and then finish
up for another hour after that. It makes for a little late night, but the
class members seem to be willing to do it.
Coleman, Emma, and baby Curran - SR Specialist in Galway, Ireland.
Youth group in Limerick Branch. This was our first SR presentation to a youth group with the "Bobilator" exercise.
"Graduation" from Finance Class, Tralee, Ireland. Dom and Ashley Anne Knight, Margaret and Jack
Tralee graduation again. With them are the Walkers, Senior Couple in Tralee.
We had fun giving them the certificates and candy leis.
They are a happy group!
Valarie is from Mexico. She is such a wonderful person, and we pray that she will one day join the Church.
Wednesday we attended the Dublin Zone
Conference, held right here in our chapel, so no driving this day. Grandma helped prepare lunch for the
missionaries, and we got to be a part of the whole Zone Conference. It was so fun. We recite our “Missionary Purpose” and sing
the mission song right along with the Elders and Sisters, and it really makes
us feel a part of things. President
Donaldson is such a great mission president, and he has been able to get the
missionaries to accomplish things they didn’t know they could. We think we told you before that they have
already had twice as many baptisms this year as last, and they are well on their
way to make 360 for the year!
After the conference was over, we had
dinner at a restaurant with the mission president and his wife, and the mission
presidency counselor and his wife. What
a wonderful privilege! It was just a
relaxed social evening with them, and each time we are with them we grow to
love them even more. They are deeply
spiritual, highly effective leaders, and we have learned a great deal from
them. We are going to miss them so
much. They are working so hard and
making such a difference here. They are
on the road constantly with Zone Conferences and interviews, and they just
learned that they need to interview the missionaries even more frequently than
they now are. Being a mission president
is a very hard job. They looked so tired
during the dinner, and they still had to drive to Belfast that night for a Zone
Conference the next day.
As for us, we waited until early the next
morning to drive to Belfast for the same Zone Conference, since we had three
Elders and one Sister to train before they left the mission field. We conducted our usual training, and had just
as much fun as we usually do, even though we messed up on the timing somehow
and missed lunch. (Fortunately the group
we were training made the meal.) However, we did get to go in and listen to the
testimonies of the departing missionaries and the final instructions from
President Donaldson, as well as hear a special presentation given to the
Belfast Stake President, who was being released in two days. Once again, we realized how much we are going
to miss this mission. After the
meetings, we rushed back to Dublin in time to teach a lesson with the sister
missionaries.
Friday was taken up with all sorts of odds
and ends, and we spent the evening with Nick, our perpetual investigator. By the end of our visit, we thought we had
him convinced to attend church on Sunday and meet with the bishop to determine
what had to be done to be prepared for baptism before we left. We really had high hopes, but then we were
disappointed again when Sunday came around and he wasn’t feeling well enough to
go to church. It has been very hard for
us to want him to come into the Church so badly, and to see challenge after
challenge come along to prevent that. We
are so worried that if he goes back to Romania without being baptized, he never
will be. It is causing us a lot of
concern, and we are not sure what to do.
We have tried very hard, but there still might be something more we
should do. We’re just not sure what it
is.
On
Saturday morning we drove to a little branch about an hour away to assist the
young Elders to start their new class.
This is the experimental group and we thought we should help out with as
much time as we have. The great news is
they would have been fine without us.
These two young Elders were so good to follow the prescribed format, ----and
other than the lunch we brought that gave the class a little more time to enjoy
being together, we really weren’t very useful.
We wish every class that starts would have the faith of these two
Elders.
Later
on Saturday we met with a great young woman investigator from Brazil that we
are going to miss. It was nice to have a
chance to see her for a while and enjoy lunch together because she has been so
busy with all her jobs lately. (She is a
product of the Job Search class.) She is very accomplished in Brazil and now is
willing to do any work she can while she improves her English. She
doesn’t feel very connected with family at home and really dislikes the corruption
there, so she wants to stay in Ireland.
We hope someday she will join the Church and be able to have even more
blessings.
And finally on Saturday night we went to a
farewell party that was not for us, but they treated us as special as if it
were. The party was hosted by the stake
president counselor who is moving to England for a new job. They had a nice catered Chinese buffet which
was lovely, but the friends were the real treat. We had such a nice time visiting and feeling
the blessing of knowing such great people.
We wonder if the people of Sweden can ever be so inclusive as these
friends have been. One tender conversation
was with the new stake president counselor whose 6-year-old daughter is having
brain surgery in a few weeks to remove tumors that are caused by Tuberous
Sclerosis. Of course, that hit us very
close to home. He was interested in some
of the medications that Lydia is taking, and we are going to correspond with
him. He and his wife are showing
wonderful faith in the face of this trial, and our heart goes out to them.
Sunday morning found us back on the road
to Belfast to attend their Stake Conference in which a new stake presidency was
called. We really enjoyed the meeting
(it brought back some memories), and were especially touched by the remarks of
Elder Sabin, a member of the Seventy who was the visiting authority. He seemed so caring and understanding, and
really wanted the members of the stake to feel the Savior’s love for them. He said something that was really funny, as well. He said that he was sure that outgoing stake
president had slept like a baby the night before. He was also sure that the newly-called stake
president had slept like a baby too: up
every 30 minutes and crying! We sat
with our good friends the Bowens, who worked in Self Reliance when we first got
here. They are such good people, and we
will try to keep in touch with them in the future. They are the ones who introduced us to
something new for our bucket list: skiing in Austria. They have done it a couple of times, and told
us that it was absolutely wonderful and not all that expensive. All right, all right - we can dream, can’t
we?
After the meeting, we spent some time in
emotional farewells with the mission president and counselor and their wives. We will probably not see them again before we
go to Sweden, and it was hard to say goodbye.
We had gifts for them and the Bowens, and it was good to see them all
again one last time. We also very much
enjoyed visiting with some of the people we have met and worked with in the
Belfast Stake. The Self Reliance
initiative seems to be in good hands there now, and we pray that it will really
take hold.
We got back from Belfast in time to have
dinner at the house of some members in Clondalkin, the Coles, who we have
worked with in their ward on SR and other things. She is Relief Society President and he is in
the Bishopric, and we have come to really admire them. It was so fun to spend some time with them. They have been very good to us here.
After dinner, we attended a musical
fireside put on by the YSA. The number
in attendance wasn’t great, but there was a great spirit in the meeting, and we
stayed after to visit for quite a long time.
We continue to pray for these young people because they face so many
challenges as members of the Church in Ireland.
They have wonderful testimonies though, and work hard to keep the
standards. It’s just hard to get a
“critical mass” of young people here, and so many leave for places where there
are more members of the Church. They
want so badly to marry someone who is strong in the church, and there just
aren’t that many here. Distances, the
cost of transportation, and so many other things make it hard for them to do
all that they would like to do, but they are trying, and the Lord will bless
them.
It’s now Monday again, and today we
drove to Galway (2 hours) to spend time with the branch Self Reliance Specialist
and his wife. They need some
encouragement, and it seemed to mean a lot to them that we would make the trip
just to have lunch with them. It is so
hard for them in such a small branch where the numbers are few and people are not
so strong. We are actually quite
concerned about them, and pray for the Lord’s help in supporting them. We would really like to come back to Ireland
to visit these branches and help “prop up” things, but we’re not sure if we
can. Job security - that’s it - we will
never run out of things to do.
Enough for this week. Let’s end with a testimony of this Work. Surely there is no more wonderful work than
to be part of building the Lord’s Kingdom, whether in Utah or Ireland. The miracles just keep coming, and that should
be no surprise, since the Lord is so involved in this work and He will make
sure that it succeeds. We have been
thinking lately how important it is for us - all of us - to do what we can,
small or large, to prepare the Church for the Second Coming. That is what we are all doing: preparing for
the coming of the Savior. This is no
ordinary task! What a blessing for us to
be living in this important Dispensation, when the Lord’s hand is so clearly
visible in the “grand millennial mission” (President Hinckley) of the Church.
Thank you so much for your love, support,
and examples to us. We continue to pray
for you so much, and hope you are having a marvelous Christmas season!
Love,
Grandma and Grandpa
Mom and Dad
Lynne and Lanette
Elder and Sister Pettit
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