irishmission

Elder Haller and I are now serving in the Scotland Ireland Mission and have been assigned to work in Omagh, Northern Ireland!

We are thrilled to be here! It's a direct answer to prayers for many years that we would be able to serve as a missionary couple

together in this wonderful mission, an extension of the Mission of Destiny! (Elder Haller served in the Ireland Dublin Mission at the

same time as me on our younger missions).

We will be here a month on St Paddy's day and have enjoyed Omagh so much so far. Our branch is very small, though it used to have the

most youth and children in the Belfast stake which we are a part of. President Noble who spoke to us last October is our stake

president and it was grand indeed to see him and his wife at a youth zone conference in Belfast a few weeks ago! He's a wonderful

leader who married one of the Ferguson daughters, one of the stalwart families in the early days of the church in Belfast, as I'm sure

you know.

President Noble told me the story of President Covey challenging Elder Sheffield to baptize the two young great couples (Lily and Peter Ferguson and Brian and June McCandless) who were investigating the church for a long while, and said if he didn't baptize them, he wouldn't send him home! haha! (Elder Sheffield was at the end of his mission). President Noble told me that apparently the husbands were the ones dragging their feet (probably because of severe social consequences if they joined the church in the early '60's), so the women decided they weren't going to wait for them and were going to go ahead and get baptized on a certain day. They showed up at the church ready to go and their husbands surprised them and announced they'd get baptized together after all! :) It was a "grand day altogether, sure it was!!" And Elder Sheffield was able to return home too!

I'm going to return to Belfast in a month or so (it's the 50th anniversary of the Belfast stake this year!), and I'll meet and visit Lily and Peter Ferguson (who are 83 and 84 now but still alive!), and also June McCandless who is in a rest home now (unfortunately Brian passed away).

I can't wait to see them again, and I'll greet and honor them for my parents and all of our Irish missionaries who knew and loved them!

You can't imagine how wonderful it was for me to be at the Holywood Road chapel where the zone conference was held. This was the

church that our family attended and it was there as a young girl, and I was baptized! I got my testimony in this wee ward. I found Dermot Shields (the son of the older Dermot Shields) in the gym, about to leave when I began speaking to him. What a joy to discover who he was and we talked about the early days and the courageous saints who joined the church first and became great leaders there in Holywood Road, and continued for decades. It meant so very much to me to be there--and it was so meaningful to walk around the church, in the classrooms where I went to primary, in the chapel where we had church and mission conferences, in the gym where we had socials with the missionaries and saints, and all throughout the church--it just had such a familiar spirit to me. I felt it deeply! This experience was a highlight of our mission

so far! I just wanted to share that with you and if you wanted to share it with the missionaries too.

So, I'm writing you about a James McCrudden because it's a great story the Irish missionaries will be inspired by. You probably already know the story, but I don't think many of our missionaries do. Brother McCrudden joined the church in Belfast in the early 80's and wanted to serve a mission soon after. He was called to the Washington Mission, and he paid for his mission himself for about 6 months, and then totally ran out of money, and so he appealed to the Shamrock Society who paid for the rest of his mission! This mission was transformative to him, and he became totally converted, through and through, serving with President Covey's nephew, John Covey (his brother's son) who was a great example to him. He returned with a great desire to serve in Belfast and help build the kingdom in Northern Ireland.

Among the callings he served in through the years was that of bishop, stake president, and then in 2021, he was called to be the president of the Scotland Ireland Mission! Wow! It has come full-circle! Now a missionary who was supported by the empowering Shamrock Society of which my father began in 1965, is now all grown up, Cindy Lou's mission president!! Double wow!! I'm sure both my parents are doing cart wheels in heaven and would want to say to the Shamrock Society, "look what your faith and your generous donations have produced!!"

It's just incredible!!

I wanted to pass this along to you and the Irish missionaries in time for the reunion. President McCrudden may email you as well, since he asked for your contact and told me this fabulous story I just related. He's very grateful to the Shamrock Society and wanted to express his thanks, so if he writes you, please read it from the pulpit! It will be a lovely testimony of gratitude, sure it will (and now I'm starting to get me Irish back, sure I am!) haha! It's contagious!!

Please email or call my sister Maria and see who of the Coveys are coming to the reunion in April. I'm sure one or two would love to

attend and represent our parents as we've been doing. It's a pleasure for us to be there with the missionaries President and Sister Covey

loved and admired with all their hearts.

Have a lovely time at the reunion, and I'll be back for the October one in 2025!

Love and blessings,

Sister Cynthia Covey Haller

PS I forgot to mention that our branch is SO tiny and consists mostly of older single women who are in the late 60's, many in their '70's and

older! The ones who attend (we usually average between 8- 20) are wonderful, faithful saints whose parents were the originals in the Omagh branch during President Covey's time.

Our challenge is, we have absolutely NO primary or youth at all, and only a few priesthood holders; only one Irish one, and a few Americans and our branch president is English. We have recently been blessed to have four Filipinos who have come here for work and are RM's which is so great, but they are here under hard circumstances. Some are trying to get visas to bring their families to join them which would be

wonderful and it would start a primary for us again. But others are only here 3-5 years on a contract and have left their families in the Philippines so they can make more money here, and then they send it home to them.

We are desperately trying to grow this branch and it's an absolute necessity because if we don't, it won't exist at all in 5 years or less, we're sure of it! As I mentioned, Omagh used to have the most youth in the Belfast stake, but all these stalwarts' children have grown up, gone away for college or jobs or more opportunities and have never come back (Omagh is a small farming community--just 20,000 people), and so there are no younger people). And many of them are less active now.

So we need new blood! There are two elders assigned to Omagh, and we are actively praying hard and looking for some young people,

young families, and more priesthood holders!! We have turned once again to the Irish Mission statement that brought all our missionaries

through triumphantly: "Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ begins when it can't be done!! We are relying on the Lord to bless and

help us grow this area of Northern Ireland once again!

My father went through Omagh on his first mission to Ireland and loved it! He said it was just how he envisioned Ireland to be. He also

attended branch and leadership meetings when he returned as mission president. Our family found a note my mother saved that showed

I gave a talk here on reverence with her when I was just 7 years old. Omagh is a special place, out in the middle of the countryside. If I could, I'd like to ask all our Irish missionaries to please remember this great need in Omagh for new young members and families in your prayers, in your fastings, in your hearts and minds.

We need to find the elect, the pure in heart, those who will not harden their hearts, and who are "searching for the truth, but don't know where to find it." We need good, younger people and good families to revive this branch and help it grow and expand. Please please pray for

Omagh, the missionaries and saints here, for baptisms specifically, so the gospel can thrive and attract stalwart saints once again! We need your prayers and are asking for your faith as well. We know the Lord can bless us and He already is; we can feel it and have a few good people we and the elders are teaching right now which is wonderful. We just need many more and we need them to become converted.

Thanks so much for relaying these messages to the Irish missionaries at the reunion, Tom. You're the best and have almost single-handedly kept the reunions and the Shamrock Society alive and well for decades! What blessing you are entitled to for this valiant service.

With love and admiration, Cynthia