With bags packed and lunches prepared the night before, Roan and Sigfred Ducusin begin their 12-hour journey from the North West town of Sligo, Ireland, to the closest temple in Preston, England, at 3:45 a.m. on Oct. 14.
“We leave here at 3:45 a.m. and arrive at the Preston England Temple around 3 or 4 p.m.,” said Roan Ducusin.
The Ducusins, natives of the Philippines, moved to Ireland for work and to study English. Roan Ducusin came first in 2002 and Sigfred Ducusin followed in 2003. In the Philippines, they lived fairly close to a temple, so traveling such a distance has been an adjustment.
They drive three hours from Sligo to Dublin, Ireland, picking up a few branch members along the way. They then board a ferry for three hours to Holyhead, Wales. Once at the port, they load back into their car for another drive of three to four hours, depending on traffic and stops.
After the long journey, they finally arrive at the Preston England Temple and make their way to the patron housing. Upon entering, Roan Ducusin acknowledged a sense of peace and belonging.
“On the day we travel, we already feel at home,” said Roan Ducusin. “You can hear noise in [the temple accommodations], but it’s the noises of happy children playing that just came out of the temple or elders that are so happy or youth that are giggling. The noise is safe, happy noise. It differs from the noise outside.”
The Ducusins, along with the other members of the Sligo Branch, worship in the temple for three days and make the long journey back to Ireland.
In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Roan Ducusin gathered loads of names to perform proxy ordinances for. Ever since then, she and Sigfred Ducusin have worked steadily through the names, doing as many names as their circumstances allow.
The Ducusins make it to the temple at least twice a year.
“We don’t take breaks in the temple,” said Roan Ducusin.
Their only pauses are brief, just enough to refresh and sleep through the night. With loads of ordinances to perform, The Ducusins participate in every session they have available while in the temple for those three days.
“We have felt the hastening of the work of salvation of God,” said Roan Ducusin. “Our physical limitations do not stop us from performing the work of the Lord.”
Roan Ducusin says the 12 congregations and more than 4,200 Church members across the Republic of Ireland are seeing the hastening of the work for both the living and the dead.
Charlotte Tiernan, a member of the Sligo Branch, was baptized in a partially finished font in 1971. At that time, members were working to construct the first chapel in the South of Ireland. In 1972, the first chapel in the Republic of Ireland was completed. The Church continues to grow with six wards and six branches.
On Oct. 6, 2024, President Russell M. Nelson announced plans for the Dublin Ireland Temple. For members in Ireland, this highly anticipated announcement caused a lot of emotion.
“We heard the temple announced and I was shouting,” said Tiernan. “I helped with the first chapel built in Dublin, Ireland, and now I am looking forward to working in the first temple in Dublin, Ireland.”
Tiernan and her husband are current temple workers in the Preston England Temple. Despite the long travels, they have committed to working one week each month.
With a temple in Dublin, their worship won’t change much, but their travel to the temple will.
“My temple worship will still be the same as it is now,” Tiernan said. “I will always want to serve in the Lord’s House and be the best that I can. We are training now to serve in Ireland, but I will continue to serve in England and think myself blessed to serve and work in the house of the Lord.”
Donal Cunnane, a former Sligo Branch president, said that traveling a long distance to get to the temple strengthens his testimony, as “extra effort brings extra appreciation of any temple attendance.”
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has 382 temples in total worldwide, including those dedicated, under construction, announced and in the planning stage.
