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 

Sligo 3/28/2016

Tuesday:

We traveled to Mullingar in the morning. We planned on going on exchanges since we had Zone Conference the next day.  It was easier to stay overnight and travel to Dublin the next day.

I went on exchanges with Elder Davis. We did a lot of finding. We did more tracting because we were not in a town with a lot of people.

After a long day of finding we got shamrock shakes and watched the Book of Mormon animated videos.

Wednesday:

We traveled to Zone Conference in Dublin.

We had some good instruction on Teaching simply and likening the scriptures to ourselves so we can use them more effectively in lessons.

After Zone Conference we had to hurry back to catch the last train to Sligo.

Thursday:

We taught our Polish friend Berta. We taught the Plan of Salvation. She really liked it and said it made more sense. I'm glad she was able to hear our message about God's plan for us.

After meeting with Berta, we spent the rest of the day finding.

Friday:

We taught our Congo friend Joshua. We taught the Plan of Salvation to him. He knows that we teach the truth. He said that he was starting a fast so that he can find out for himself if this is the truth. I know God has prepared him to find the truth. We also were able to get him a French Book of Mormon finally.

After meeting with Joshua, we did some service for a family in our branch, the Walsh's. Brother Walsh worked on the London Temple and was a professional designer. He spent the last 10 years building the house they have now, and he is still working on it. The house, I have to say, is so massive and designed really amazingly. We helped them get huge carpets from the bottom floor to their 3rd floor. We are going back this week to help him with his garage.

After we had Family home evening. We taught about Prophets and how God continues to call prophets.

Our Venezuelan investigators, Jesus and Loander, made us some Venezuelan hot dogs, they were really good. They had cheese, onions, mayo, mustard, and some other stuff on it.

Saturday:

We did finding most of the day. We were able to teach our Venezuelan Friends. We talked about the Bible and how we know the Book of Mormon is the Word of God. We hope that they can seek divine guidance to know if this is the truth.

Sunday:

We went to church. One of the members brought us some Cadbury chocolate Easter eggs. I got one that had the Cadbury Sponge candy bars inside. It was so good!. We had a good sacrament meeting. The branch president talked about the Atonement and how we are truly blessed to have it!

We watched a Conference talk on yielding to God’s way for Joint Priesthood and Relief Society.

After church we went finding which was hard because everyone was inside and when we tracted they did want to be bothered.

Monday:

Today Jesus, the Venezuelan, will be giving me a haircut so that will be interesting!

                                 Sligo Missionary District Trip to Dublin Zone Conference

I'm glad everyone had a great week

I love you all and miss you.

Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Joseph Udy

Sligo 3/21/2016

It’s been a beautiful week here in Sligo. It's been really sunny with no rain this whole week, so that was awesome.

Monday:

We taught Frank again.  This time, he wasn’t really listening to what we had to say. We explained why we need the Book of Mormon but he isn’t very understanding. We explained that the only way to find out is by sincere prayer and that desire to know. Hopefully he will try to pray about it.

Tuesday:

The Zone leaders picked us up at 8:00 am to go to District Meeting in Mullingar. The reason we had to go to Mullingar is because the Elders there had to stay because they were getting their car fixed.

It was a good district meeting. We talked about urgency and always the best task at the right time.

When we got back to Sligo we had a lesson with a man named Joshua (which we set up 15 minutes prior to meeting with him).

He told us after the prayer that that he was praying before we met to find the right church. He also told us that if we wouldn’t have said a prayer, he would not have wanted to meet again. Such a miracle! We taught a great lesson on the restoration. He was excited. He is from Congo so he speaks French. We even set him up with a Baptismal date for the 16th of April which I'm excited for because I know he will get there!

The rest of the night we spent tracting.

For our dinner hour we stopped by McDonalds because it was somewhat close to where we were tracting. We went there mainly to get Shamrock shakes. It was so good. I don’t think I've had one in a while.

Wednesday:

We taught a Polish woman named Berta. We taught her about the gospel and about faith. It’s something she asked for because she had been struggling. Hopefully she will want to meet with us again. She was very interested!

The rest of the day we spent street contacting and tracting because our other lessons fell through. Sometimes it’s hard to tract because people are too busy watching Soccer or Rugby.

Thursday: (Saint Patrick's Day/SIX MONTH MARK!)

The morning was hard to do finding because people were getting ready for the parade. We took some of our lunch hour to watch the parade. It was a great parade. Lots of Bagpipes and Irish singers.

After that it got even harder. Everyone started going to the pubs. We went finding outside the city near a park. We actually found some nice people and there was a nice view of the mountains from there.

The night was harder to talk to people because most of the people were drunk (I guess that's what they really do here on holidays). We did our weekly planning at night because it was just not effective talking to people because no one was listening.

Friday:

We visited Ed, the less active and his girlfriend Caroline. Caroline is really nice because she always gives us food when we come over. She made us sandwiches this time and gave us a Cadbury bar. We talked about Prayer because we know it can help them as they try to come closer to Christ.

After our appointment with Ed and Caroline did basically a whole day of finding (What we call Beast mode). At night we had family home evening. We talked about the importance of scripture study. One of the members cooked a nice meal with turkey, fish and soup.

Saturday:

We taught a man named Richard in the morning. He is from Africa. He seemed very interested when we taught the Restoration. He was very open and wanted to know more.

After that, we basically had another day of finding. It was hard during the night because the Sligo City soccer team was playing so most people were going to that.

Sunday:

The Dublin Stake president, President O' Ferrell, came for branch conference. It was interesting because it seemed like we had a buffet during all of church. The members brought a ton of food and set it out for people to eat through-out the three hours of church.

President O'Ferrell shared with us that the Heavenly Father is only going to give us more members here in Sligo if we take care of the members we already have (Retention). It was a good meeting.

The rest of the day we spent tracting. We found a lot of nice families that we are going to teach on Saturday.

I say it was a good week. It was very tiring but rewarding.

The missionary work here in Sligo is going very well and the members are so nice.

FYI

We mostly cook pasta and rice in the apartment.  Nothing really interesting to mention.

Our apartment is really nice.  We have heated floors.  The living room and kitchen are on the second floor.  We have a washer and dryer at our apartment which makes it nice. We also have a nice TV to watch church videos on. 

Most people in Sligo work in the Electronics industry or in retail shops.  Most foreigners come to Sligo in order to learn English.  There is a famous poet named Y. B. Yates that is from Sligo.

                                                   Saint Patrick's Day Parade in Sligo

                                                    View From A Park Outside Sligo

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Joseph Udy

Sligo 3/14/2016

Monday:

We taught a man Frank that I stopped one of my first days in Sligo. He was very interested in learning why we need the Book of Mormon. He asked if the Gospel (The Bible) isn’t enough. We testified that The Book of Mormon was given to us to testify of Jesus Christ and clarify truth from the Bible. So many people understand the Bible differently but with the Book of Mormon, we can understand with one clear way.

Frank was very friendly and never disagreed with the doctrine we taught. We were so blessed to be able to teach him. We are teaching him again today (14th of March) and will invite him to baptism.

Tuesday:

The Mulligar Elders drove up for District Meeting. We have the Zone leaders in our district but since they visit every district we just have the 4 of us. It’s nice having a small district because it feels more unified. We talked about using the Book of Mormon in our teaching. I shared that it is important to study the scriptures and liken them to ourselves because then we can testify personally of the scripture instead of just reading it.

After district meeting, I went on exchanges with Elder Davis while Elder Vasvary and Elder Watson went to go visit a potential investigator outside of Sligo.

It was fun going on exchanges with Elder Davis, we have never been finding together so it was great!

The rest of the day, Elder Vasvary and I, we spent finding. We usually tract during the night since there are not many people on the streets then.

Wednesday:

We spent the morning street contacting which was fun.

Later we taught our Venezuelan friends. We talked about how you need to be baptized by the power of God. It was hard for them to understand that but hopefully the spirit can testify that the Priesthood has been restored.

Later, we rushed to the Train station to catch the last train to Mulligar. We needed to stay there overnight because we need to be in Dublin the next day in order to use the car the missionaries there have.

Thursday:

We drove over to Dublin for the All Ireland Leadership training. While Elder Vasvary was in the training, I went out with some others to going finding in the Dublin City center. It was fun. It was bigger than Cork and was very crowded.

One thing I forgot to tell you is that Elder Stevens, who is a district leader in Waterford, told me that he lived in Katy Texas when he was little. He lives in England now. I thought that was cool. He was in the Nottingham Country Ward.

The rest of the day was spent traveling back, which was a pain but we got to do some planning on the train.

Friday:

We spent the morning finding in the city

Every Friday, we go to visit a less-active member named Ed, who is almost 60 years old. He is from the Bronx in New York, which is cool. His girlfriend was there so we got to teach her as well. We talked about the Atonement and read out of the Book of Mormon. They gave us these huge Cadbury chocolate eggs which was nice.

Later in the night we went to Family home evening at the church. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and by living it we can be blessed!  Some of the members brought KFC for the refreshments so that was cool.

Saturday:

We spent most of the Day finding.

At night we taught a woman named Imalda. She was searching for the truth and wanted to know if this was the right church. We shared about she could find out.

Sunday:

We went to church

We had a good lesson in Priesthood about the first vision. We talked about how the blessings of the Restoration. I love hearing and reading about the restoration.

Later on we taught a man named, Philipi. He had a lot of questions but we told him that the way to find out if this is true is by sincere prayer.

That was my crazy week

It will be interesting on Thursday for Saint Patrick’s Day. I can’t believe that on Thursday I will be out for 6 months!

FYI:

We do a lot of walking here in Sligo.  We do not have a car.  The bikes we have are broken.   Luckily, my shoes are holding up.

We usually teach the Gospel Principles and Priesthood lessons on Sundays.

I hope you all have a great week,

I love and miss you all

Love,

Elder Joseph Udy

                                                                        Wildlife in Sligo 

Sligo 3/7/16

Its been a very interesting week since it was moves week

Tuesday:

I spent most of the day packing because i thought i was leaving that night but turns out i was leaving in the morning on Wednesday. I didnt really enjoy packing because it took forever.

Elder Swenson and I went to go get the Car tested. I was with him because he just rested while i packed.

I met Lucas for the last time. He gave me his Brooklyn Nets hat, which was really nice. He works at a sporting store so he gets good deals. It was Sad to say goodbye because he was the first person i taught on my mission and in Cork. He was also the Last person i taught in Cork. Hopefully the Missionaries in Cork can help him out because he wants to know the Truth.

Wednesday:

We left at 10am to drive to Dublin. It was very sad because I grew to love Cork but i knew Change was going to be good.

We got to the Dublin Stake Center and waited for the Zone Leaders to get back. I met my new companion soon after. His name is Elder Vasvary, he is from Hungary.

We drove to Mulingar where we had to drop off the Mulingar Elders car and catch a train to Sligo. The cool thing is that Elder Davis is serving in Mulingar so i get to see him every week at District Meeting!

We took a 2 hour and a half train ride to sligo. Getting my stuff on the train was hard because it was heavy but it worked out.

The good thing was is that our flat is next to the Train station so it wasnt a pain to get them there.

Our flat is in a Apartment building. Its really nice and from the roof garden we have a nice view of the mountains.

Thursday:

We went shopping in the morning because we had no food. It was a 25 minute walk to store we shop at: Aldi/Lidil.

After shopping we went finding in the town. Its not very big so its a big change from Cork City.

One of the potentials, Elder Vasvary met last week, invited us to a Catholic mass so we went in the evening. It turned out to be a Prayer night so we sat there while the others were saying their prayers. It lasted about a hour. We got stuck there when they started their book club on Mother Theresa. They were really nice and welcoming! I have to say it was a interesting first day in Sligo.

In our flat we have a big screen TV and during meals we watch The district  or the old testament dvds. It is actually very relaxing.

Friday:

We went finding for most of the day.

During the night we went to a Family Home evening night at the church. We taught the Plan of Salvation. The members brought us pizza for the refreshments. Since there was not many members or investigators, we were given a lot. Elder Vasvary and I were very full after that.

Saturday:

We spent most of the day finding.

We visited some people at the refugee center and talked to them, which was cool.

Since there is not many people on the streets at night, we do alot of tracting.

Sunday:

We went to church. Its in a Office building. There are about 15-20 members that attend so its a change from cork. The people there are very friendly!

We talked about self-reliance in Combined meeting. We discussed how we can save money. One of the members said that he picks up coins on the sidewalk and gets alot from that. I Just thought of Dad when he says Don't pass by money.

The Rest of the day we went tracting. We tracted this creepy street and a transformer blew when we were walking by.

So that was my crazy week

Sligo is going well and I think its going to be a good transfer

I hope you all have a good week

I love and miss you all

Love,

Elder Joseph Udy

                                        A view of the mountains just outside our apartment

                                                                      Elder Vasvary