to the world across, from Ireland to China, to Idaho, to everyone else...

This week has been busy busy! We had some great experiences, and I loved going on exchanges with Sister Cannon on Tuesday! We did some quality finding, even if it didn't result in any new people, it felt so good to be out, working really hard, inviting people to use their agency! I may not love finding, but I love how I feel afterward! She shared this awesome quote with me, that really helped me:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darknesses that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are ALL meant to shine as children do. We are born to make manifest the Glory of God that is within us. It is not just some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." (Nelson Mandela)

We had a great lesson experience with Hannah in Dierdre's home and we tried to help her see how she is inviting the Spirit into her life, and we asked her to pay attention to how she feels when she reads, prays, comes to Institute, etc., because she wasn't sure she had ever felt the Spirit (which she has, I was there!) Dierdre is one of the most solid Recent Converts I have ever met! She is awesomesauce diva. 

We had a great Zone Interview Training in Limerick, where we had a great training by the Assistants about applying the things we've learned into our finding, and I really learned how important it is to BE YOURSELF as a missionary! No robots here! 

We had a first and last lesson with the smartest 15-year-old out there. Colm was boss. One of the best lessons, only to have him diplomatically decline our offer to investigate further. Dang. He's great, and I know that we planted a HUGE seed in him! He's going to get baptized one day.

So, we went to find Alfonso, our Spanish man, only to find him moved out :( But we got to talk to one of his flat-mates, Phil, who we have a return appointment with. He wasn't sure why he was inviting us back, but I'm convinced it was the Spirit :) I have a good feeling about him! 

Cork and Ballincollig are becoming more and more magical with the Christmas season approaching! It makes things beautiful, even if the work is hard with everyone coming and going and everybody (us included) getting more and more busy! I'm hoping we can stay on top of everything! Sister Morrison and I have a goal of taking a photo next to every Christmas tree in Cork! Wish us luck!

I love you all, have a great Thanksgiving! 

Yours,

Sister Mary Ann Kirkpatrick

Christmas Choir

Mary received this email from the mission home on Nov. 10th.   She and her new companion are participating with a Christmas choir in Ireland.  She also took her flute and may have the opportunity to play it also.

Dear Elders and Sisters – 

You are invited to take part in the Christmas choir in Ireland.  Brother Ralph Jamieson who is a retired music teacher in the Montose Ward of the Dundee Stake will be the choir director. An initial rehearsal will be held on Thursday 13^th November at 10 am in Finglas Chapel, Dublin for most of that day.  We apologise for the short notice – it could not be finalised until after moves and other deliberations. If you have an instrument please bring it along (although it may not be needed).  Please co-ordinate travel and companionship cover through your zone leaders.  Be wise to minimise use of resources. 

The concerts will be held – Thursday 4^th December – St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin,  lunch time;  (visitors will pay the normal entry fee – choir entry is  already paid for)

Thursday 4^th December Finglas Road, Dublin at 7 pm

Friday 5^th December Limerick chapel 7 pm;

Sat 6^th December – Belfast Holywood Road.

Further rehearsals will be held from 3 pm Tuesday 2^nd December and all day Wednesday 3^rd December in Finglas Road, Dublin, and Thursday morning as necessary.   Posters will be going out to wards/branches today.

Love

Sister Brown

Pictures posted on Facebook

First Practice

Cork - Like!

Hello Hello! 

So this week has been full of highlights, and I wish I had enough time to tell you about all of them! We're doing our very best to spend as much time as possible with the members, gaining their trust and building relationships that we can help them grow in unity and love and invite their friends and family to meet with us! We are having awesome conversations about missionary work, and what it means to be an Everyday Missionary. If you haven't read Clayton M. Christensen's book, "The Power of Everyday Missionaries" you really really should. We as full-time missionaries rely on Preach My Gospel for our efforts, and everyone can and will benefit from studying PMG, but Everyday Missionary is an inspired effort to help members unadjusted to sharing the gospel daily to take on the stewardship the Brethren have invited them to embrace- FINDING! 

Elder Hale did a training for us missionaries on how we can use it with members, and I am so excited for it! I have realized how Satan really works hard on all of us, even missionaries. He knows our weaknesses and he will use them to his advantage. But I think when we know our enemy, we can know how we can fight and defend. Like Captain Moroni, who I had the privilege to read about today in study (Alma 43) Satan doesn't want Cork to grow, causing Limerick District to become a stake, causing Ireland to be qualified for a temple here, so... he's working hard, but The Lord has already won. We're here to see it through! 

Taran is excited, because he will hopefully have a Hindi Book of Mormon to read in conjunction with the English one, so his understanding will increase :) I think we've figured out what mistakes we've made and how we can change and improve to help him progress, however slowly it takes!

We had a really positive lesson experience with our investigator Hannah this week, sharing about spiritual gifts, our divine potential, and how baptism is a tool to reach that potential. When I'm with Hannah, I feel the Spirit so strong, I feel her testimony deep inside, and I just want to help her find it! 

We took a train to Dublin Wednesday night, were picked up by Elder Austin and Elder Henrie, zone leaders there, and they took us Thursday morning to the chapel where we spent all day rehearsing for the special missionary choir that will be performing across Ireland, that Sister Morrison and I are both privileged to be participating in. So excited for the first week of December, however stressful it will be! 

We had "Christmas" dinner with the Peters family, which was a great taste of home yesterday. I love their family, they're all so funny, and the kids/grandkids are adorable :) Irish Christmas is wonderful, even if it isn't white :) 

I love you all, I know that Heavenly Father loves and cares so much! Stay strong! Keep the Faith!

Love always,

Sister Mary Ann Kirkpatrick

The Walls are there for a Reason

"The brick walls are there for a reason... they give us a chance to show how much we want something" (Randy Pausch)

Hello Loved Ones! 

It has been a CRAZY week for moves! We left Sunday night for Dublin, arrived just in time for my moves call from President, saying I'd be getting Sister Morrison on Thursday. 

I was out of my area Monday until Friday afternoon... DX death to numbers. 

But, I really enjoyed Dublin, even if it felt like Limbo. I was with Sister Henkel and Sister Riesen going between their two areas, Terenure and Clonsilla, respectively. All of our companions "died" and went home, leaving me to await Sister Morrison, Sister Henkel to await Sister Cannon, and Sister Riesen to fly to Edinburgh early Thursday morning to get her new trainee! 

Monday we did shopping and cleaning in Terenure and had a lesson with an investigator named Clare there, who was a quite interesting old lady :) It is definitely different teaching in a trio! 

Tuesday, traffic was TERRIBLE in Dublin, so even though we had the STL's car we were running late all day. I got to meet some great members, Babs, in Clonsilla ward who is great at brunch ;) and Sister Winters, from America who is so willing to help out! We taught some SOLID investigators, and it made me so excited to find someone like Jen or Mayara here. I had some really great spiritual experiences in our lessons this day! 

We went to Clonsilla Tuesday night and woke up the next morning to a clamped car.... There was a mistake in the text we sent to the apartment complex, so they didn't recognize the license plate number as a visitor, so we got clamped. Expensive mistake.  We were able to have a good day though, had an awesome lesson with Clonsilla's investigator James who is so ready and excited to get baptized in the next couple of weeks! It really built my faith to see that, and I really really want to find someone! 

The bus from Belfast was late, so we got into Cork Friday morning, and despite our best efforts, only had one lesson, but we saw Hannah and we have a game plan moving forward to gain the members' trust, work with Recent converts and less-actives and to find new people!! 

I'm so happy, even in the face of fear! This is what Heavenly Father is talking about!

Stay Strong, I love you all!

Sister Kirkpatricki

Transfer 4--end

Hello everyone! 

So we had some great experiences this week! We got to be in a lot of members homes for dinner, which was so good to get some personal time with them! 

We met with Ashley May, who is less-active, but is making an effort to be active in YSA and start putting her toes back into church! We had a fun birthday dinner with her on Monday and she planned a YSA Halloween party for Wednesday that turned out really fun :) Her little brother even got baptized on Sunday, which she was there for! :) Her non-member friend Tanya has quickly become our friend too :) 

We had a really good district meeting this week, where we set new goals in faith, including 50 JT here in the Cork Branch in November! Please pray for this effort! We learned about stewardship w/ faith, hope, and charity, which was really motivating, and would be a great in-depth study! 

The Peters are a great families of BOYS. :) Its like being at home with my four brothers again ;) At home there is James, Dean, Jeffrey, and Jason, who range in ages 12 to 30. Its definitely a fun home :) And they have the FLUFFIEST dog, Jack! "IT'S SO FLUFFY I'M GOING TO DIE!" 

We had MIRACLES on Thursday! So one of our investigators, Tinyiko, has been in and out of contact with the Sisters for months, because of his busy business ventures, and he texted us Thursday morning asking where we were. We told him we were in the city, and we got on the phone with him and met up for a little bit, where we set a time later in the day to meet up. When the time came, we could only meet him at the church, but we didn't have a key or a joint teach, so we were going to sit outside and teach him spontaneously, with no lesson plan. When we get to the church and go to sit down, who should pull up but Sister Hale! She was there to pick up Elder Hale from some Branch Presidency business, but immediately volunteered to be a joint teach. We went inside and what unfolded was a conversation between Sister Hale and Tinyiko that was EXACTLY what was needed to get him to commit to meeting with us again, coming to church, and to be baptized on November 22!! Tinyiko is from South Africa, his brother is a member and he's been taught basically everything and attended church in SA and just happened to meet missionaries here in Ireland! He is SO prepared! He's been ready for baptism for a long time! If we would have called Sister Hale for an appointment that morning, she probably would have turned us down because she was busy, but God moves in mysterious ways! 

We had Hannah for dinner at the Kagari's again, which was awesome! The visiting teachers dropped in and shared the message, which was good, but it meant we didn't get to share a lesson ;P oh well, it was good for Hannah anyways. And we had s'mores! So good! 

Halloween day was pretty spontaneous, we did some service at a soup kitchen called Penny Dinners, which was so great. I could just feel the charity there, true concern for each other! I got a blister peeling turnips, and it was so worth it :)  We had dinner with the Hales at our flat, because we weren't supposed to go out, and it was like being at home, pizza, card games and pie :) 

Saturday we had a good missionary coordination meeting and got to meet the woman from Waterford, Kimberley who was being baptized! 

The Hales took Sister Oliphant and I for her nearly last supper at a carvery, which you pick your fresh meat and veg, hot from a line right in front of you. It was a pretty posh one. They are really great to us. 

We got to go to Kimberley's baptism afterwards, per her request, and it was so lovely :) members and missionaries from Cork and Waterford were there :) 

Then we had dinner with the Larssons, which was so great, and we had a great family lesson with them about listening for the Holy Ghost!

Sunday Tinyiko came to church, we had the baptism afterward, and then we went to Branch President Roy's home for dinner with the Elders and Tinyiko and had a great lesson about Tithing with him! Then Sister Roy took Sister Oliphant and I to the bus station where we got a bus to Dublin. When we arrived in Dublin 3 hours later, we got the call from the mission home informing me that my new companion will be Sister Morrison! She was trained by Sister Jones, my second companion, and if she's like her mum, its going to be GREAT! She's actually been in Scotland her whole mission so far, so she's excited to come to Ireland. :)

This morning Sister Oliphant left for the Mission Home and I will be out of my area most of this week, because of the late arrival of new missionaries this week, making moves day Thursday. I'll be in Dublin/Clonsilla with Sister Henkel and Sister Riesen, two Germans 8-) Should be fun! Hard, being out of my area, but fun! 

Love you all! Prayers are appreciated! Stay safe! 

Always,

Sister Mary Ann Kirkpatrick