Mission Blog #26

 Prayers For The Gardiners Please

In our last blog post, we talked alot about the Gardiners. 15 years ago they lived in Thousand Oaks, CA. Our son, Stephen, was a young missionary there and the Gardiners were welcoming and kind to he and his companions over about 9 months. We were sent to Ireland for our mission and within 2 weeks here in Dundalk, their daughter, Abby, was assigned to serve in our area. It was wonderful to get to know her and we marvelled at the coincidence (not) that brought us together. Abby's 18 month mission came to an end a few weeks ago and her parents, Craig and Kristi, and 2 siblings, Tim and Lucy, came over from Utah to pick Abby up and to tour around Ireland for a couple of weeks. We were able to meet them a few times and spend time getting to know them. They are a wonderful family.

A few days ago, while the family was in Tralee, Craig was taken to hospital where it was learned that he had suffered a stroke. He was taken to Cork to a larger hospital for brain surgery. He had bleeding and a clot, and I'm sure some other things that were effecting his speech and right side mobility. Thank you to all who have helped on the Go Fund Me. With many prayers and alot of faith, Kristi says that Craig's brain surgery went extremely well - miraculous was the word she used. We continue to include Craig in our prayers.

Herr's in Dundalk, Ireland?

This is a look at the back of the Blackstone Business Park, formerly the Blackstone Shoe Factory. It is where our Church leases space. As we drove in one day, we saw one of the businesses featured on the electronic notice board, 'Herr Engineering'. Herr is my mother, Loretta's, maiden name and is very uncommon. Great grand-father Herr was living in Copenhagen, Denmark when one day he came upon some missionaries singing in the town square. He went closer to them so that he could hear the words of that beautiful melody, 'O My Father' (LDS Hymns #292). He felt a wonderful spirit, and after more enquiry, he agreed to meet with the missionaries to learn more about their message, and about this restored Church of Christ that they spoke of. 

Great-grandpa (Rudolph) Herr joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a short time later on June 6, 1900. He did it under great opposition from his family and emigrated to Canada (Winnipeg), the following year.  He met my great-grandmother, and married her in 1907. She joined the church in 1909. That same year Rudolph received a letter from one of the missionaries they'd met in Winnipeg, Elder Parrish. He conveyed information about employment potential in Alberta, where he was from. They then moved to southern Alberta, settling first in Mountain View. 
 

In 1919 they moved to Cardston so Rudolph could assist in construction of the temple. On one day in October of 1920 great grandpa Rudolph Herr went to work, climbing scaffolding to the height of the celestial room ceiling, 3 stories up - and the scaffolding broke and he fell. He was seriously injured but began to recover after bones were set and so on. However he succumbed a short while later, after having severe headaches and being re-admitted to hospital. The nurses found him dead kneeling at his bedside after hearing him earlier singing the hymn, 'O My Father', the hymn that had brought him to his faith. He is the only fatality in the construction of the Alberta (Cardston) Temple. He left a large family in the care of my sweet great grandmother who later also raised my dear mother, Loretta. Great-grandpa Herr left us all a legacy of faith, and a special love for the Temple he helped build.

So, the long-story staying long - having seen the business name, Herr Engineering, I was compelled to investigate. It turned out that the engineering firm had closed, but a neighboring business operator said that there was another Herr (a brother), who was operating a different business in Dundalk. We'll investigate this further in coming days.

On To A Visit to the Preston England Temple

There is no temple in Ireland (yet) so we traveled by car and ferry to fill the best assignment we've received from our Mission President (McCruddent), namely to attend the Preston England Temple. Built in 1998, it is the largest temple in Europe. Tina's mother, Freda, accepted an invitation from us to attend the Open House prior to its dedication. Tina arranged for friends to include Freda in a tour, and she loved it. A fun fact is that Preston Temple was designed by a missionary Tina came to know while in Devon - Peter Trebilcock. 

We boarded at Dublin Port Terminal 2, then had a relaxing 3hr 15 minute voyage over the Irish Sea, to Holyhead Port, Wales.

First sight of Wales.

Here we go again with a language that hardly anyone else can speak. Give this one a try....

Conway Castle was a place we visited in 2002 with our whole family in tow. We decided to stop in again.

Built by a distant relative, Edward I, during his conquest of Wales between 1283 and 1287.

If you know your castles, you should be able to count 13 toilets. Castle staff worked nearby and providing this number of facilities meant that the workers could get right back to work.

We enjoyed walking around the beautiful medieval town of Conway. So many great shops, and we benefited from a recommendation for the 'best fish 'n chips' in town at Arches Fish 'n Chips.

Being able to stay our first night on the Wirral peninsula with Tina's niece, Fliss, and husband Doug, and visiting with them and Fliss's mom Cyn and stepfather Derek was one of the hi-lites and benefits of this assignment.

Family is so important to us and it is a great blessing that during our mission so far, we have been able to strengthen family ties - visiting, playing games, going for dinner and just talking about our mission and what we do and also what's going on in their lives. They are always kind and respectful.

We made it to the Temple at about noon, and on time for our 1pm session appointment. 

Temple accommodation for visiting patrons is just a few hundred metres from the Temple, and is adjacent to the Preston Missionary Training Centre. The rooms were clean and comfortable, and very reasonable. Some married couples will book 2 weeks and travel and stay here so they can perform Temple ordinances for their family.

Our little Branch of the church here have organised a Temple trip in April. We'll be back!

We met one evening for dinner with another niece of Tina's, Kim, and her two awesome boys, Benjamin and Leo. We loved hearing about their football playoffs they have qualified for, and what Kim and Danny are doing.

We enjoyed 3 wonderful days performing ordinance work in the Preston Temple. The other patrons and ordinance workers were all very polite and helpful. It was a very uplifting time for us. Attending the temple is the foundation for the other half of our special Temple assignment. More on that in future posts.

Home Will Always Be Home.....

We took some time to make an afternoon trip to Kirkby, Lancashire, England to where Tina, and her siblings Eric, James, and Yvonne were raised by their wonderful mum, Freda.

It was a trip down memory lane for Tina. All the names of the old neighbors came flooding back and she pointed out schools, or sports fields that may have changed or been knocked down.

These nice folks let us talk to them about the neighborhood on Whitefield Drive and they helped in remembering and reminiscing about previous residents. And Tina explained she had grown up there and talked about what we're doing now, and where home is. 

Fun fact: Sporty Spice's grandmother, Mrs Chisholm, lived in one of the neighboring units to Tina's family.

This is where the 'sports stadium' used to be, across the street. This brand new estate has popped up, and no doubt, in a few years, the old home Tina grew up in will be replaced.

On our way from the Preston Temple, back to Holyhead Port, we made a slight detour to visit with our special friends, Sonny and Chris Donaldson who live in Prestatyn. It is a resort community in North Wales on the Irish Sea coast. They have a beautiful home, and showed us their love and hospitality.

They were the Mission Leaders in our Scotland-Ireland Mission 5 years ago. We think they have finally recovered after all that effort of managing 160-200 missionaries, and much travel; they just returned from a 2 week cruise in the Caribbean.

Beautiful garden to let all the grandkids gather.

The return voyage was a nighttime departure, 8:30pm. High winds (50mph) buffeted our little car as we drove to Holyhead, then it also made for a very rocky voyage; Tina was a little green around the gills (I'll spare you the details). Home by about 1am Saturday.

This is Elder Schneider, and Brother Kosak - both are from Germany. Brother Kosak is the Area representative for the Pathways education program and was here for a conference in Dublin. He has known Elder Schneider's family for many years.

He spoke in Church and talked about his life, growing up in communist East Germany then living through the change to 'freedom' as the wall came down. His grandfather met two missionaries in 1925 and joined the Church so he was raised with the gospel, but in small Branches, similar to Dundalk. He said kind words of encouragement to the Dundalk Branch members. Brother Kosak did not serve a mission as a young man as that was not possible due to mandatory military service, but he has served as Mission President with his wife for 3 years, in Bavaria and I'm sure that he was a loving and inspiring leader for those young missionaries.

An American family visited our Branch today, the Robinson's, who were on vacation (military leave for Brother Robinson), from their base in Germany. And another German connection, Sister Robinson served a mission in Germany several years ago.

Well, this was another long post. We hope you will find it worthwhile. We don't include all of the daily miracles and blessings that happen along the way, although we try and convey our joy in serving, and our love of the people that we meet. 

We are inspired by our family who have gone on before us and set wonderful examples, and in many ways made our lives now more enriched.

May God bless you and yours this coming week.

With love,

    Elder Eric and Sister Tina McMurray