Sligo 04/18/2016

Hello Everyone!

It's been a great week and my sixth transfer in the Scotland/Ireland Mission is on its way!

I can't believe that yesterday (Sunday the 17th was my 7th month mark). Missionary work here in Sligo is going well!

Monday:

We taught our friend Frank. We read the Book of Mormon with him because he never has time to read it. We see him today, so hopefully he had a chance to read!

Tuesday:

We taught a woman named Lovett. She is from Nigeria. We taught her the Plan of Salvation. She is new to Sligo and isgetting used to English but she understood what we had to share.

After that we went to Tubercurry to see some friends. But they were not home so we had to catch a bus back to Sligo

Wednesday:

We taught a man named Javad in the afternoon. He originally is from Iran. He was very receptive and was excited to start meeting with missionaries again!

After we taught a woman from Brazil named Angelica . She wasn't very religious and we found her in the former investigator section in our phone. One thing that I find funny is that every one here thinks I'm 25-28 but when they find out I'm only 18 they are shocked, shocks me too. She was really shocked as well. She was interested in reading the Book of Mormon because she loves reading.

Later on we did some tracting until dinner.

Thursday:
We took our bikes to the bike shop to get repaired. They were missing brake pads so we need to fix the bikes so we could travel around faster!

After we taught a man named Andrew. He is from Africa. We teach so many people from Africa that its hard to get track of where they are from in Africa. He met missionaries before so we talked about why he wanted to meet us again. He has always lived far from the church building so that's why he stopped going but we are glad that he can see us.

After we went finding by the Sligo I.T.. We met some interesting people a few were interested in meeting us at a later time.   

We taught Jesus and Loander, t he Venezuelans, In the Evening we met up with  the Ducsins, a Wonderful member couple from Philippines. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how we can find out if this is the truth.

Friday:

We went to church early in the morning because we were going to skype into Dublin for a leadership training. The Ducsins lent us their IPAD so we could Skype instead of traveling 4 hours to Dublin. It was interesting because we were the only leadership team that wasn't in Dublin, but it was good!

In the afternoon, we visited our Less active friend from the Bronx, Ed. Ed was asking what my favorite baseball team was and I said the New York Yankees. He likes the New York Mets so he was determined to make me a Mets fan. Its always great to visit with him. I shared about being grateful for what God has already given us because he blesses us so much!

We had Family Home Evening at night. The Ducsins talked about the stories in the Book of Mormon. We were assigned in group to sing verses from Book of Mormon Stories and act them out. My group had Samuel the Lamanite and the 2 thousand stripling warriors. It was fun! If you find the Ducsins on Facebook you can ask them for the videos!

Saturday:

We picked up our bikes and we got the other parts we needed.

We planned to ride to a beach town close to Sligo to do some finding. It was called Strand hill. It ended being mostly up hill and 4 miles to the town. We got there and it was so beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Kennebunkport because of all the shops and surfers. I took some nice pictures of us in our bike gear at the Atlantic ocean! We talked to some very nice people.

The 4 mile trip back was tough but it was good. We did finding in the city until our dinner time!

Sunday:

We had a wonderful church meeting. The speakers talked about being grateful for all we have!

We talked with Stephan about his Baptism. It will be this coming Sunday after church in a Lake! He seems really excited and we are excited for him!

After church we did a lot of finding and rode our bikes out to tract!

It was a great week!

Joseph

                                                  Elder Vasvary and I at the Atlantic Ocean

Sligo 04/11/2016

We got moves call yesterday! Elder Vasvary and I are staying in Sligo! We are going to celebrate by buying some cool stickers for our new planners!

Monday:

We taught our friend Frank in the evening. We shared scriptures in the Book of Mormon that show why the Book of Mormon is important to help us with understanding. Frank has been asking this every time, the spirit helped us to teach clearly and to testify of the Book of Mormon.

Tuesday:

We had district meeting in Sligo. We talked about teaching people and not lessons. We also talked about how we need to use our priesthood more and not be lazy as President Nelson said in General Conference.

Afterwards we did finding for most of our day. We met some interesting people. One guy said he likes to shoot people. Kind of scary but I testified of Jesus Christ because that makes me feel strong.

There is a homeless Hungarian man that we talk to everyday. He can't really speak English so he just speaks to Elder Vasvary. He seems to like me because he always asks if I'm doing ok!

We met a guy from Oklahoma. He was wearing al ot of Oklahoma State gear. I told him that I lived in Norman and started speaking against Oklahoma University. Funny guy!

Wednesday:

We went to a town outside of Sligo called Tubercurry. We taught our investigator Stephen there. We talked to him about the Law of Chasity, Word of Wisdom and Tithing. We are working with him on the tea but he is excited to get baptized on the 24th of April!

We taught a Slovakian family after that. We talked about  the 10 commandments to the kids. Really funny kids. The oldest son drove us to the bus stop in his custom gangster Mercedes!

Thursday:

We went finding for most of the day. We were let into a house where some drunk guys were singing karaoke. They sang for us some gospel songs. We had a hard time leaving because they wanted us to stay and sing with them but we manged to leave!

Later on we taught a recent convert named Mensah. We talked about the Pioneers with him. We related it to him and how he is a Pioneer for his family. He left his family in Ghana and is waiting for citizenship here so he can some day bring his family here.

So something earlier in the day happened. A less active member named Ann texted us and said she wanted to meet with us because she wanted to return to church. She also said her Fiance and Kids (From another Husband) are interested. We met them later that night and it was great. Ann's Fiancee's name is Micheal and he is from Florida. Her kids are Daniel(13), Anita(11), and Owen (7). We taught the restoration and they loved it. It reminded me of Dallin, Madison, and Jack because of their Personalities. They said they hope to be at church on Sunday!

Friday:

We taught a man named J.K Finnegan. It was interesting lesson.. That's all I can say because it was really intense.

We had family home evening that night. They did family history for the new and non members. I was able to talk to our Branch President and members about who we working with!

Saturday:

We did finding for the whole day. It rained a lot and during the evening it snowed really hard. We were soaked by the end of the day but it was a good day of finding!

Sunday:

We had so many people at church. We had Ann's family, our Venezuelan friends and a lot of visitors. There were some members from Idaho visiting. One of the visitors's was Tom was a former superintendent of Idaho and now works Nationally for Education. I told him that I would be attending BYU Idaho in Fall 2017. He told me that BYU Idaho was now the biggest (Size) university in the state of Idaho passing Boise State.

I taught Gospel principles. I taught Charity and how we can strive to have the pure love that Christ had!

The members made us a Irish Dinner after church. It had potatoes, steak, and corn. It was filling and then they gave us cheese cake and ice cream! I am grateful for the members and what they do for us!

The rest of the day we did finding!

Hope everything is going well back at home!

Joseph

                                                             

                                                             Practicing my ukele

04/04/2016 Sligo

What a great week! General Conference was amazing!

Monday:

Jesus, The Venezuelan, cut my hair. He did a great job!

The Mullingar Elders came down that night for exchanges the next day. We watched the Book of Mormon animated videos before bed! Remember the ones we had on VHS!

Tuesday:

In the afternoon, Elder Watson and I went to the Walshs to do some service. We helped them move around their furniture, which they couldn't do by themselves. I love doing service. It was great because I got a big lick in the face by their huge German Shepard.

Elder Davis and I taught a lesson after that. We met with a woman who name is Maria Fe. We testified of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. I invited her to be baptized if she found out that this is the truth and she said yes. It was a miracle and right as that happened a big hail storm hit (I didn't have my rain jacket so that was fun).

After we tracted for the rest of the day. Its weird it doesn't get dark till past 9, so its weird going in for dinner at 8 because its so light out.

Wednesday:

We had some lessons set up for today but they all fell though.   So the day was really just finding.

Thursday:

We did mostly finding today.

Elder Vasvary had to some District leader stuff so i prepared a Paper on Thomas S. Monson for one of the new members that hasn't seen Conference before.  After we taught Mensah, a new member from Ghana. We talked about prophets and the current prophet and president Thomas S. Monson.

Friday:

We taught our Less active member Ed (the one from New York). We shared about Christ and how acting like him can bring us joy.   At night we had Family Home Evening. The members talked about Family History. It was good. It was a little confusing to our non member friends but hopefully we can simplify it for them.

Elder Vasvary made a Hungarian dish for the F.H.E.. It was really good, he couldn't find Hungarian sausages so he made it with Polish sausages. He says he doesn't make Hungarian food often here because the ingredients are very expensive over here in Ireland.

Saturday:

We talked our Polish friend Berta. We talked about Prophets and General Conference. We invited her to come her to come hear a Prophets voice.   After that we did finding until general conference. 

We watched Conference at the Church on the Roku they had. We tried to watch it on BYU tv but the Sports nation was going over so we had to find it on Mormon Channel.  I really liked Elder Hallstrom's talk about Children of God. Its important to remember who we are. I was glad I got to meet him in February at the Dublin Mission Conference. 

Sunday:

We watched Priesthood Session. It was great. I loved President Monson's short but powerful talk on the power of the priesthood.  We basically were at the Church all day watching conference, it was great. We had 5 investigators come to the Sunday Morning Session at 5pm. They thought it was good.

I can tell what the topic of this Conference was: Family, Marriage and the Temple. Makes me think about how I could have done better to spend time with family. I bet you loved Elder Ballard's talk, Apostolic council to put our phones in the basket so we can spend more time with Family. I love Elder Ballard, he is straight to the point and very powerful.

I love General Conference!

Joseph

                                              Enjoying Mormon Tabernacle Choir