LOCKDOWN- this is not a drill Mar 30

For those of you who were wondering yes I'm still in Ireland, and no I am not planning to go home anytime soon🤞🏼 (knock on wood)

Our mission president called us all the other night and told us that OUR AREA IS THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD WHO HASN'T SENT ALL THEIR NON NATIVE MISSIONARIES HOME🙌🏼🙌🏼 Now that is a cause for celebration. We are on the FRONT LINES of God's army and I could not be more excited.

Ireland went on COMPLETE lockdown at Midnight on Friday and boy did we find out the hard way... there's this cute lady in our ward that feeds us every Sunday but due to mission rules on isolation we haven't been over for the last few weeks. That of course does not stop her from providing us with a weeks supply of food.🙃 While we were on our way to pick it up Saturday morning we pulled out of our carpark and BOOM there's the garda (police) right outside stopping EVERY car asking all types of questions such as "What are you doing?" "Where are you going" etc. And when I told him he responded "Are you mad?!" Haha I guess... It was a struggle- luckily he let us go given the fact that our friend had already bought us food and it was the first day of lockdown, but we are definitely not doing that again. 

The rules for lockdown here are STRICT you can only go out to exercise or grocery shop and if you do either of those it needs to be within a 2km radius (approx. 1.2 miles) of your home.🙃

SO WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN for missionary work? Is there even a purpose of me still being here? YESSS!! This virus has actually been such a blessing for the work here in Dublin! It is softening the hearts and opening the schedules of many. Over the last few months that I've been here we have found hundreds of prepared people each day who never have time to meet due to work and school. Well guess what they don't have anymore...? WORK and SCHOOL!! Therefore they have nothing else to do except talk about Jesus Christ over Facebook messenger and watch hour long videos on how Jesus Christ's church has been restored. Nice try Covid-19 but "no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing"

I have been studying the restoration lately how it has affected my life. I also have been able to watch David Butler's 5 part restoration class. (You can find them on his Facebook page or YouTube) they were so good I encourage you all to watch them if you haven't already. I love how he emphasizes that the restoration is a story about a God who does not give up on his children. I know this to be true- even with all the craziness of Corona he is here through it all and I am so grateful for that. 

Have a great week! If you get bored in isolation shoot me an email! I can't respond until Monday but I can read them.😊

Cheers,

Sister Fotheringham 

1) we asked a lady to take our picture and she said no... (whoops almost forgot about Corona for a sec) we took a selfie instead

2) this is painted on the ground of a nearby park... social distancing my friends 

3, 4 and 5) just so you remember what I look like

6) online teaching at its finest👌🏼