Major flash floods

TERESA - Hiya Family!!

So this week started off kind of crazy with unexpected rains. Now in Ireland, this is not too much of a surprise but it rained hard for hours and hours. We were on a bus to go to our appointment with our recent converts, Brenda and Sean and as we looked out the bus windows it was shocking what we beheld! Major flash floods. The stuff you see on movies or the news but never do you actually live through it! The water was up to knee high and cars were being abandoned. The pipes were breaking up through the pavements and it just kept getting worse and worse! Then we realized that we needed to turn back because there would be NO way of getting back to our flat at the end of the night. So we literally "jumped ship" and headed back home. A lot of it was sloshing through the rain till we caught a bus back. But the saddest part was when we got back to our flat (we live in a 3 story flat, a basement, middle level, and then a top story. We live in the middle level.) Well the girl that lives below us was standing outside with all these bags. Apparently her flat was flooded up to her knees and she had to find a place to stay for the night. We felt extremely sorry for her and hope she'd be alright and that the flooding wouldn't reach our house! But we did help her carry her stuff to the bus stop. Wow, talk about a manic Monday! Haha

So this week has been really good! Filled with recent convert lessons, less active lessons, member lessons and investigator lessons! It's been way great! Nothing too crazy to report....let's see what can I tell you... Well we were waiting for the bus one day to go see Aoife for our lesson. When the bus pulled up it was early and we still had loads of time so Sister Weight and I felt impressed that we should just wait for another bus. So we did and then this random guy stops us and asks if we're Christians. We start talking to him and he's from a different country, Lithuania, his name is Mario. He had just gotten to Dublin and was homeless. He was so excited when we gave him a Book of Mormon and set up a time to meet with him at the church. Then we actually saw Aoife and took the bus with her and had our lesson. It went super well. We talked with her about opposition and how Satan's going to hit her hard especially before her baptism. But we saw Mario the next day and the lesson went so well! He was scheduled for the 19th of Nov and said he'd come to church this Sunday! At first he wasn't going to come to church because he had an appt. with this place to become a pastor. But we talked with him and said "It doesn't make sense to go be a pastor for another church that doesn't have the entire truth. You need come to our church because we have the WHOLE truth". And he said simply, "Yeah, ok!" We were so happy! And he was happy. He kept saying that he could feel the spirit there and wanted to feel it ALL the time! Good stuff!

We had dinner at the Troy's. The one's where the dad struggled to pay tithing. Well I gave him the paper with mom and dad's testimony on it and he LOVED it! He said he knew he was receiving blessings because he was paying Tithing. Then on Sunday he was ordained to the office of the Melchizedek Priesthood! I was SO happy!

We also taught a fun lesson on Missionary work to Brenda and Sean. We had one sweetie and said that that was Abinadi and his efforts as a missionary. But because of him one person listened (put another sweetie out) and then 450 people were baptized. Then we dumped out loads more sweeties. We told them that they can make a huge difference starting just with them. They responded so well to it and Sean wants to tell all his pals at school and Brenda took some pass-a-long cards to give out! It was great and they are moving along SO well!

Sunday was a good day. We had our Dublin Stake Conference and all the talks were wonderful. It was centered on eternal families. We had 3 investigators there and 2 of those are with a date for baptism! We had a lesson with Aoife that night and she just adores the thought of the temple! She is so excited to go do the work for her family that has passed on. Man she is the BEST. I love this girl! We did a fun lesson too. We read out Lehi's Vision of the Tree of life and we all drew it out as I read it. It was great! She loved it and she also loved the interpretation of it too! She drew a good picture :) I gave her my drawing and she gave me hers. On hers she wrote this and I almost cried when I read it! It said, "Dear Sister Kullick, Thank you for teaching me how to hold onto the iron rod. I love you millions! Aoife" Oh my goodness! I am so grateful for the opportunity to have met her and to have been a part of her conversion process! She has changed SO much! She has taught me that anybody can change and that it may be a slow process but it can happen, which actually is what our training with President was on this week. He taught us about being the 4th missionary (a sacred missionary) and about whom we want to become and what we're going to give up to become that. I LOVED it! It helped me see that I am still on this process of change even after my mission. It was such a lovely and spiritual training.

Thank you for everything you do for Rachie and I. I love being here and I love you all!
Love Always, Sister Teresa Ann Kullick