McMurray Scotland-Ireland Mission Blog

 What a Week To End 2023 Having our daughter, Michelle, visit us for 8 days, is the best Christmas gift we could receive. And having Christmas dinner with she and our Sister missionaries was the first hi-lite of the week. Sister Larkin and Gwynn are amazing - intelligent, fun, sincere, generous, talented. I could go on. They have a new companion (Sister Beers) who isn't in the photo - she was in another room making that all-important phone call home to her family. We are just getting to know her. She's getting to know us too. Sister McMurray was feeling 'under the weather' but still put together a wonderful Christmas dinner. It seems that one of our Christmas traditions is to assemble a jig-saw puzzle, or two. Tina was worried that she might pass on her sore throat and cough to us if she handled the pieces so it was left to Michelle and I to tackle 'Light Up The Night' Christmas in a village scene. After watching a Christmas movie like ' White Christmas ...

HAPPY CHRISTMAS - from Scotland Something that the young missionaries look forward to each year that they are in the mission field at Christmas, is receiving Christmas packages from home. Parents and their families are asked to send these to the Mission Home, then the Assistants to the President load up the mission van and deliver them to each of the Zones, including to Belfast, Northern Ireland and Dublin, Republic of Ireland. They make sure that everyone has something under the tree Christmas morning. Elder Petrovay on the far left is smiling extra wide - he told me that the Temple previously announced for Birmingham, England will be built in his suburb of Sutton-Coldfield, about a 10 minute walk from his parent's home. It is also very close to our daughter, Michelle, who lives in Lichfield.  Elder Petersen, Elder Bangerter, and Elder Aina all got to play Santa.  Elder Aina is one of our very special missionaries with whom we have shared much of our 15 months in Ireland and ...