Travel, Training, and St. Patrick's Day!

I'm afraid this Email is going to be a super short one because I ran out of time again! This week was completely wild; I’ll just throw in some of the most important bits. 

On Monday I took a plane from Dublin to Edinburgh. I kinda forgot how airports work and almost missed my plane.... but did some praying and God saved my bacon! It was a small plane but I loved it! The landing was pretty scary though, I thought I was about to die for a minute the way this pilot put her down! 

I spent the night in Edinburgh, and then after a few training meetings I got my son Elder Summersgill!! He is a complete Champ from the London England! I'm stoked to be serving with him and know we will do some solid work and learning together! 

Wednesday was a full long day of traveling... The ferry back over to Ireland was the only fun part; the rest was just painfully long bus rides. We missed one bus and ended up stranded in Belfast Northern Ireland for a while, so when we finally got to Dublin we had to spend the night. We didn't get back to our flat till Thursday morning! 

Friday was a blast! Everyone goes buck wild in Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day! The only thing that matters to anyone on St. Patrick’s Day over here is long parades full of patriotic Irish farmers, and lots and lots of beer. I love watching drunks! Especially ones with deep Irish accents, it could entertain me for days! Seeing throw up all over the streets the morning after was a little less fun... All in all it was a fantastic week!  Oh yeah, and I met my all time favorite Irish Goat! I named him Paddy :)

Enjoy this motivational quote from my mission president :)

“A goal without a plan is like fish without chips”. If you want to be a successful missionary, you cannot wander through each day of your mission without holding yourself accountable to a reasonable set of goals, and with a plan on how to achieve them. If we are not very careful we might idle away precious hours. “Don’t give up what you want most, for what you want now”. I understand that each of us are keen to please those that lead us. So, it is not unusual when you report to me or another leader to give a little fluff, when you hold yourself accountable however, we get honest results. The honest result being the salvation of a human soul.”  

Love you!! 

-Elder Brycen Cluster

Moves Call, New Assignment, & "Stuff"

What a week! In just a few minutes I’ll be hopping in the car and driving down to Dublin to catch a plane to Edinburgh Scotland. On Saturday Elder Schmidt and I receive our moves call. President gave us the news that Elder Schmidt was moving down to Finglas Dublin to be a new District Leader and I’ve been called as a trainer. Apart from AP this is the only position I haven't filled yet on my mission, so I'm pretty stoked! I remember it just like it was yesterday that I had a deep conversation with my Trainer (Elder Clawson) that training would be the absolute best way to end a mission. What a blessing! I'll be paired up with my new Baby boy tomorrow then bring him back home to Mullingar on Wednesday night. I can’t wait for all of the new opportunities I’ll have to serve. Please pray for the new lad, the first little while of the mission can be rough!!

 On a funnier note (It wasn't funny at the time!) my comp and I were teaching a lesson, and he was sitting across the table from me. Just when things started getting serious in our lesson my companion lets out this massive sneeze. What happened next took me about 30 seconds to process. When he sneezed a big blob of snot got launched all the way across the table, and landed straight onto my lip!!! I slowly reached for a roll of toilet paper which I happened to be right beside me. (WHAT A BLESSING!) I wiped it off and carried on with the lesson as casually as I possibly could. The moment we got back to the car I took out my handy hand sanitizer and rubbed it all of my lips and face.... 

 Anyhow, I love you all and I'm so grateful you're a part of my life! I want you all to know that sometimes in life we get snot thrown at our face. Don't let that get you down!! God loves you and will help you through all your sticky moments He is always reaching out with a roll of toilet paper to help our clean up our lives, or our faces. And get back on the straight and narrow!  

 Love, Elder Brycen Cluster

Charlotte's Baptism!!

I hate to say it, but I just spent the last two hours wondering around Dublin trying to find a place that we could email, so this week is going to be a short one!  We spent the night here last night and are having P-day today with a lot of other missionaries. We are going to do some sports so I am praying that it doesn't rain on us!

 I will just tell you about the highlight of the week…  Charlotte's Baptism!!!!  After years and years of learning about the church and being married to a member (Gary) Charlotte through many spiritual experiences made the decision to come unto Christ through the waters of baptism on March 4th 2017. Apart from the freezing cold water due to water heater braking at the church, it was absolutely perfect! The spirit filled the room so strongly as Gary brought her gently down under the water. Even the face of their sweet baby Rosie lit up! We sang the song "Families Can Be Together Forever" My testimony of Eternal Families grew even deeper that evening. It is a perfect plan from our Heavenly Father that will bring us Eternal Happiness. 

I Love Each and Every One Of You!! 

P-Day, Stake Conference, and Mini Missionaries

This week has been Top Notch! 

As you know, on Saturday of last week we got our mini missionaries, I was paired with Elder McCarthy from Cork. It was a major blessing serving with someone who is so new to the church and has such a desire to serve God. 

Our week together went something like this;

Sunday: We had Stake conference in good Ole Dublin and got to hear from Elder Mendosa of The Seventies from Spain. 

Monday: On Monday we traveled down to Sligo and had and amazing P-day inside and beautiful canon. We had a lot of fun swinging on vines; I was the spitting image of Tarzan! Later on we took a peaceful walk along the beach, wouldn't trade those times for anything! 

Tuesday: We had a great district meeting where we focused on these three questions. What lack I yet? What must I do? Or what am I willing to do?

Therefore what? I would recommend asking yourself these questions. It was something that really helped me to figure out where I am and where I want to be. Heavenly Father will show us the way to get there if we are genuine and willing to make a change. 

Wednesday: Wednesday was filled with classic chapping, and ended with a life changing visit to the chiropractor!

Thursday: We had a lot of really great lessons on Thursday; the first was with Gary and Charlotte. As always we had a wonderful time with them! On Thursday I had a lot fun playing with their cute little baby Rosie! she is the sweetest little babe in town! It made my heart melt. Charlotte is progressing so well and everything is looking good for her baptism this Saturday. We are actually going to go see them right away after this email! Later we had a heartbreaking lesson with a heroin addict. It was a very humbling experience to say the least. The state of this women was something I have seen only a very few times in my life, and something you would only expect to see in a scary movie. Yet I felt a fraction of the love our Heavenly Father has for her. I understood in that moment that every soul truly is precious in the eye's of God. His love is perfect, and every living thing can be healed through the atoning sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Friday: Friday was pretty stellar, for the first half of the way I went on splits with the other mini missionary Elder King, we had a grand time dancing up to people's doors while we were chapping!  

Saturday: On Saturday morning our two young lads were off, back to Dublin and Cork. They grow up so fast!! Later that day we traveled down to Athlone and had a lesson with Robert, then finished the night with a solid dinner appointment!

Sunday: Sunday we got an unbelievable amount of rain, but there was sunshine in my soul when Robert, Patrick, and Charlotte all joined us at church! We had a great sacrament meeting focused on Joseph Smith and the Restoration that I really enjoyed too! 

Well Folks, that about sums up my week. I love and miss each of you. Thank you for your love and prayers! 

Love, Elder Brycen Cluster

May we press forward with a steadfastness in Christ having a perfect brightness of hope, til our work is done! (2 Nephi 32:20

Mini Missionaries, Stake Conference, & Charlotte

This week was absolutely on point!! I've got a lot to tell you all, however we’ve got a couple other missionaries that need time on these computers this weeks, so I’ve gotta make it fast! 

P-day was sweet, Elder Schmidt and I went on a bit of a road trip and saw the ancient Book of Kell's. If you've never heard of it you should look up the movie "Book of Kells" on Netflix, it’s pretty exciting. We also explored the Castle of Trim, I loved it!

 

However, my absolute favorite part about this week was the lesson we had with Charlotte again. The spirit was so strong!! She expressed a few concerns to us, and with the help of God, we addressed them so well, that she asked to set a solid date of March 4th. Elder Schmidt and I had one of the hardest high fives I’ve ever had in my life after she said that. What a blessing!!

The other main event of the week was Saturday night when we received our fresh mini missionaries! Mine is named Elder McCarthy, He is from Cork and has been a member for about 9 months now. He is a complete champion! We are going to have an amazing week, and hopefully by the end of our companionship he will be even more ready and excited for the real deal. The number one struggle is probably trying to understand his strong southern Irish Accent! Things get interesting when you can't understand your own companion! I'll keep praying for the gift of tongues, and I'm sure I will get it down in no time! 

Sunday was Stake Conference down in Dublin. That was a power house meeting to say the least! The best part was having our three investigators join us!! The all had a great experience. Some of the speakers were, Sister Donaldson, President Donaldson, And Elder Mendosa, the Area Seventy from Spain. He was so amazingly humble yet spoke with great power and authority. There were many incredible testimonies shared in between their talks too! That’s really just scratching the surface, but I’d better give these other missionaries a chance to email their families. 

I love each and every one of you. Thank you for all of your love, support, and prayers!

Love, Elder Brycen Cluster

A New and Exciting Assignment

This will be another shorter email because I want to go explore Ireland :) But this week has been mighty fine! There were two pretty big and exciting things that happened this week that I’d like to focus on for this email. 

First was another lesson we had with Charlotte. Charlotte has been going to church and learning about the gospel for quite some time now, but every time we have tried to get her to commit to something she always takes a step back. We have been constantly fasting and praying for her that she would commit to a baptismal date. As Elder Schmidt and I drove out to their home in the countryside we carried that prayer in our hearts and into our lesson. Right from the start the gift of the spirit was strong, we could all (Even Charlotte) Recognize it. We went over the gospel of Jesus Christ over and over again, this time focusing on repentance. We were all filled with joy as we testified of the love and mercy that God has for each of us. We know that we can be forgiven of all of our mistakes. With this knowledge and the guidance of the Holy Ghost we invited Charlotte to be baptized once again. This time she accepted and agreed to working towards a date near the beginning of March! God as a plan and a purpose for each of us! We just have to let him guide the way. 

The other big new we got this week came in a phone call from President. He said that he had an assignment for Elder Schmidt and me. He continued to speak of two lads down in Cork who wanted to go on a mini mission to see if it was for them. Starting on Saturday it will be our job to show them the ways of missionary life in a four man flat in Mullingar. It's going to be a great learning experience for all of us, and hopefully by the time they are done with us they will want to go and do the real deal! I'm sure we will have a lot of fun. Please pray for these new fellas, that they have a good and uplifting experience! 

Thank you for your love and prayers. I love you!

Love, Elder Brycen Cluster 

I Believe in Christ. He is my Savior and Redeemer.

It’s been another exciting and eventful week in the vineyard of the Lord.

The main events were:

P-day: We mostly just slept this time. We really needed it. It was probably the best three hour nap of my life.

Tuesday we did some solid work then drove up with the Sligo Elder's and spent the night in Dublin with a couple of my missionary buddies from back in the good old days in Aberdeen.

Wednesday morning we were off to the Stake Centre for an All Ireland Conference with Elder Johnson on the Seventy's. The main focus of the conference was learning how to become most effective with the new changes in the Missionary Schedule and Key Indicators. I'm pretty sure He was just winging it with the spirit most of the time but that made it even better! One of my favorite parts was a musical number given by a senior couple named the Angels. I'm not sure what song they even did but that brought in spirit in strong. We are sure blessed with some amazing leaders in this mission. After our conference I witnessed a little miracle. There in the parking lot of the stake centre and a new Hyundai with our name on it just like President promised! You should have seen the smile on my face when I hopped behind the wheel of that lush swaggin' waggin. Driving through the traffic of Dublin during rush hour was a little less exciting, but we arrived to our flat safe and sound just in time for me to make my Garda appointment. (The Garda is the Irish Police) I had to sign up for what we call a Garda Card so that I don't get deported. That asked me lots of questions and took my fingerprints and what not, It was pretty fun and exciting! I passed!

Some other big hits of this week were service and a lesson with Gary and Charlotte. The lesson went really well too, she's really coming along! Our service was taking down some trees. That was fun!  Now that we have a car we should be able to start seeing that twice a week too, that's going to make a huge difference!

And then of course you have testimony meeting Sunday. There may not be many members in our little branch in Mullingar, but the members we do have, sure have a solid testimony! There wasn't more than a couple of second of silence where someone wasn't bearing powerful testimony. I contributed my testimony with those of Mullingar Ireland. I Believe in Christ. He is my Savior and Redeemer. Through His Atonement I will live with my Father in Heaven along with my friends and family for all Eternity in a state of never ending happiness. How grateful I am for this knowledge and the opportunity I have to serve God by sharing it with others. 

I close with words from the Doctrine and Covenants: “Call upon the Lord, that his kingdom may go forth upon the earth, that the inhabitants thereof may receive it, and be prepared for the days to come, in the which the Son of Man shall come down [from] heaven, clothed in the brightness of his glory, to meet the kingdom of God … on the earth.”

With love and gratitude to each one of you,
Elder Brycen Cluster