Monday March 31, 2014

Hello from Dublin

This past week was very interesting,

On Monday for P-day, we went to the old part of Dublin and learnt a little bit about the history and culture. There was a cool exhibit called Dublinia. Dublinia showed a history of the vikings as well as Medieval Dublin. We got to learn and try on viking clothing and see where they lived, artifacts of the area, learn more of the history and take lots of pictures. It was nice because a few of the different companionships got to see each other. Me and my friend Elder Boswell, took lots of pictures and  read everything. He is my canadian splits companion. After we went to Dublinia, we went to visit a hungarian potential and when we went to his house we taught 10 Romanians and they kept asking us for money and food and shelter. I was terrified but remembered the importance of teaching the poor. Here in Dublin there are a lot of people from Brazil, Romanian, Hungary, Mexico and Venezuelan. It was nice experience but fairly frightening.

On Tuesday, we had district meeting and spoke about recognizing the holy ghost, and acting on it's promptings, which was really cool because I have been focusing on it lately. We had lots of lessons throughout this day, and were focusing on trying to build relationships more with the members to get them to offer referrals.

On Wednesday I was given the chance to plan for the day to practice planning and planning things. As usual we went up north to about Balbriggan. We got to meet with one less active and I was able to really help him by reading 2 Nephi 4 with him which he seemed to get alot from and gave me experience teaching.

On Friday, one of the members was having a difficult time with things so we went over to his house for dinner and the message Elder McCarthy prepared for him, helped him out so much. He was so greatful, for us being there with him that evening. It is great as well because everybody who invites us for dinner wants me to eat as much as I can, and as everyone knows, I love to eat.

This Saturday we got a new investigator from Brazil, she speaks portuguese and has very strong faith and is willing to come to watch some of conference it is always great to see people willing to try but also one of our investigators was reading online, and found some information about the church, which threw her off and it is really hard because she has limited english. But we will work on it. 

Here there is no YSA ward but twice a year they have a YSA Sunday and they go all out for it. They have dinner and parties , all the time and the YSA all know eachother. They do a very good job eventhough they aren't a ward or branch yet but they had about 60 + people yesterday which was nice. At church I was asked to speak on The work of salvation and then my companion and I taught part of the lesson with our ward mission leader in priesthood. One cool experience we had was in the evening a member called us to ask us how she can become more involved in this work. Last night while heading to our dinner appointment, I was talking to a lady about mothers day and mentioning how my mother was far away and the lady in front had bright pink lipstick on and tried to kiss me and say she'd be my seregate mother for the day. I recoiled so fast and offered a handshake it was hilarious according to my companion.

One thing that I have come to know is the Lord is hastening his work in this day, but one thing also is that the adversary is hastening his work as well and it is our duties as latter day saints to strengthen, empower and build each other up. do not allow for destruction in our words, they should be all righteous and to build all others up even those who aren't of our faith.

We have been called at this time to build the kingdom of God on the earth. 

Today we are going to see Glendalock.

Comasatatu :)

- Elder James Reece

Monday March 24, 2014 - St. Patty's Day & MUCH More!!

This week has been a pretty Interesting week. Pretty Eventful week.

So Last Monday was St. Patrick's day, we had to be in our apartment for 6pm. So we did alot of things. First of all we updated our area books, and came up with the idea to write down member's conversions so we know more about them and it is easier to see who fits with who when we get  new investigators. After we did all our work we watched Joseph: The prophet of the Restoration, and got a bit more incite about the Prophet Joseph smith and was able to help my testimony grow.

Tuesday was a fun day, On Tuesday I was in Dundalk on exchanges with my District Leader. We served in his area and went tracting in Drogheda, we found some nice people there and had a great time. Later in the evening we were able to teach a less active lady and an investigator, and during both I was able to help both of them. My district leader gave me alot of advice, to help me, and one of the things is to ask others what I can do to improve, it is hard to do but it does help. Throughout the lesson We were able to help them both feel the spirit quite abit and one of them shed a tear I didn't notice it but my district leader pointed it out to me. That evening he made Chicken Cord en Bleu and it was delicious.

Wednesday I was on exchanges with my District Leader's companion and was able to  learn alot from him as well, He is alot different then me and I got to learn how to do things in different ways and still be just as effective. We went tracting near their flat and found alot of people that were interested and wonder how they are doing. But I'll let you know if anything came of it. We are planning on having exchanges a second time this moves which will be nice because this time I will get to work in my own area and help them know about my investigators, It'll be a nice experience. That night we had Kebabs. It is like a donair/ gyro but way sweatier. It is cool though because they are massive for approximately 6 euros. So filling, but they are either destroyed by you or you are destroyed by them. 

Thursday we had to leave early to get to the stake centre which is the ward that we are in. We had Zone Interview Training and learnt alot about goal setting and planning to be more effective as missionaries. we learnt first from the Sister Training Leaders Sister Lowry and sister Clyde, and then from our zone leaders Elder Scott and Elder Lee. I was asked to bear testimony and it was interesting because of what I bore testimony on. All last week we were having  difficulties because I am not the greatest at listening to others. and my testimony was on how important listening to our leaders was. So that meant alot to me. On thursday afternoon we were given the priviledge to give a blessing to a lovely lady in the ward. There were three of us there and for some reason she chose me to do it. I do not know why but I am so honoured that she chose me, it was my first healing blessing I have ever given and first blessing I have ever given so it was a very nice experience and showed to me more the importance of the priesthood and why we must live according to the Lord's will to use it. That day was such a nice day. 

On Friday we went out to Donabate to help a member with doors, it was quite an interesting day we got lost and it was quite funny. But we had a good day none the less. My focus in study has been focusing on learning how the holy ghost speaks to us and how to allow to listen to it.

Saturday we had lunch with our investigator and she told us how she felt about the church and hads already recieved a witness, it's crazy how prepared some people are. So that was great then we were running late and had to get a train an hour away to balbriggan but we had just missed one so had to wait forty minutes so we decided to go out and contact outside and we ran into a man from Brazil and Portugal, and then we ran into another man from Brazil we contacted several days later  and he asked if we could meet with him, the first time we met him he was in a rush and as he checked the website he had a desire to meet with us. It's incredible how white the field is to harvest out here. One thing though was we were calling to check up on one of our investigators and she had been hit by a car so after church we stopped by to visit her in her home to help her feel better.

Church was great, we continue to get to meet with lots of members which is nice because our relationships with them is building and you can see their confidence in themselves is growing. 

Well that is everything from this week, have a great week.

- Elder James Reece

Monday March 17 - Update from Dublin

As you all know today is St. Patrick's day, and being that it is Monday and P-day we were able to attend the parade here. the parade was so cool and the streets were lined with so much people definately a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

Well My past week was great. On Tuesday we got our first Investigator, it was awesome and we realized that all things happened for a reason, our investigator was late to get to the lesson but because he was later we got to meet several new potentials and set up appointments with them. We meet with him on tuesday and then meet with them on Thursday. It was an awesome experience. 

As days go on it seems to get easier and easier talking about the gospel, people aren't receptive but bringing it back to correspond with the gospel is getting easier. My goal at the moment is to find out how to talk to those with religious backgrounds, since everyone here is Catholic predominately. My studies have been going quite well. On Wednesday we went to get Garda cards and they took FOREVER. We arrived at 8am and got out around 12:30pm. Wednesday we also got to do our first real session of Weekly planning which was very nice and very great experience. My companion has such knowledge in so much and it is great learning from him.

This week has been focused largely on planning on how to work better with members and figure out efficient finding. We have been talking about it lots and devised a master plan to outline all aspects of what we do to meet these goals. We have also been figuring out the area and managing relationships. It is a really good experience.

Exchanges were on friday with the Zone leaders, I was with Elder Scott in Clonsilla ward, and we got to teach two of their investigators which was fun they have quite a few who are golden and are getting baptised shortly. It's crazy to see how many people are prepared for this gospel.

On Saturday we switched back then took a train for an hour to Balbriggan and went to pass by less actives. It was a good experience then one of the families fed us and gave us a cheesecake to take home We have only eaten about a quarter of it if that.

And yesterday was great, my first  Sunday was magnificient I got to meet a lot of people and build relationships with them. Then we had two appointments last night and they both lended up feeding us so that was fun.  

Well hope you are all doing well, Happy st. patricks day and be safe. I know for us we have to be back in our flats at 6pm, because it gets dangerous here.  

My address if any of you want to write letters is  

14 Annesley Bridge Road,

Fairview, Dublin 3
Ireland. 
 
I can't recall what address to use to send packages but if you want to just send them to the mission home which is 

51 Spylaw Rd,

Edinburgh, Scotland
EH10 5BP

I would love to hear from you all.

- Elder James Reece

First PDay of First Area! Monday March 10, 2014

Dear Everyone:

I am officially in my first Area, it is called Baldoyle area and it is in Dublin Ireland, I am told Ireland is alot more difficult then Scotland and I am hoping that, that is the case. I was assigned my first companion and he is my trainer. His name is Elder McCarthy and he is from Colorado. He is really awesome I am learning quite abit about the work from him and he is going home in 2 transfers. This work is difficult, It really is it is a lot of hard work. The Lord has called all of us to this work and I am so greatful that I was assigned in this area I know it will teach me alot of crucial skills and I know that there are people that are prepared to hear the message from me. It is difficult getting used to the area for sure, My companion and I were selected to white wash the area. and as we do so we are focusing mainly on working with the members and seeing how well that goes. I just feel like we aren't getting that much done. We currently don't have any teaching pool, we have attempted to call and contact several people but no success really. 

On other notes the area is very different, very pretty and it doesn't fall below 0, in the past week on Tuesday at the MTC we did in field training all day which was alot of help. On wednesday we woke up at 4:45 and left the MTC at 6am to head to the mission home in Scotland. The journey was long but nice. When we arrived we met all the missionaries and the president. It was really nice to meet him and to be able to talk with him. after that we climbed Pratt's hill and were told why us latter day saints call it Pratt's hill and heard of the story, then we were given time to talk with the lord and set expectations of our own with him there. Afterwards we returned back and heard some housekeeping tips and recieved the things we needed to be safe on the mission and then had supper. After that we found out our companions. My first companion is Elder McCarthy as illustrated above, and I got told I was going to Dublin Ireland mission. The travel here was long it wasalmost a whole afternoon. We left the mission home at 6:45am and landed in Dublin at half 5.Then the Mc Kendricks picked us up and allowed us to get groceries and showed us around the area.

We have met a few memebers of the ward but we have some of them. We have two appointments this evening, two lessons tomorrow, a dinner appointment and district meeting. 

Well I love you, Continue the work you are doing

Good Luck

- Elder James Reece

March 4, 2014 - End of week 2, and into the Field!

Hey:

Today we enter into the field. We depart from the MTC to the mission home in Edinburgh at 6am - so around 1am your time. This two weeks have been great in the MTC. Unfortunately, I don't have much time this morning so can't do a whole update on everything that has transpired. Well just wanted you to know I am heading into the field and our P-days will be Mondays as well. So on P-day I will respond back.

Love you all,

Have a great week,

- Elder James Reece