June 19. 2017
Hey guys!
It's been very warm this week. Sunny almost everyday this
week. This week we went up to Dublin on Tuesday for Zone Conference. It was
really good as always. I guess you saw a picture of Elder Plewe and I with
Elder Flynn who got released three weeks ago. He served in Waterford for six
transfers (9 months) and came back to visit for the weekend. Elder Plewe and I
keep joking that I will be here for six transfers since that is a long time to
be in an area.
This week not too much else happened. We have continued to
teach Sean and Claire. Sean enjoys meeting with us but still hasn't been able
to come to church. Claire still enjoys meeting with us. We taught her about the
temple and callings. She was excited at the prospect of being able to have an
opportunity to serve through a calling. We also went over to the Gibbons this
last Friday. The Gibbons live up in Carlow, which is about an hour north of
Waterford. They are a really nice family to visit. Brother Gibbons is in the
Branch Presidency here in Waterford.
Yesterday during church in gospel principles, it was chapter
18 which is on faith and Elder Plewe was teaching the lesson. He gave a really
good example of faith. He explained that he was going chapping one day in
Northern Ireland and saw a guy cleaning his gutters. He said that they stopped
him and talked with him and got on the topic of faith. He said he wasn't
interested and didn't believe in faith and so Elder Plewe asked him why he was
cleaning his gutters and explained that he was cleaning his gutters because he
believed that he would need them when it rained. He then went on to say that
the guy had faith in cleaning his gutters. It was an interesting story because
sometimes we have doubts and don't think we have a lot of faith. And while our
faith is centered on Jesus Christ, we can have faith in a lot of smaller things
like praying everyday that can help build our faith in Christ. It reminded me
of Alma 32:26 where Alma is saying that even if you have the smallest drop of
hope you can use that and turn it into faith.
Anyways, the rest of my week has been good. Elder Plewe is a
really great companion. We don't go running together that much but we exercise
every morning inside the flat. The teaching pool is coming along. We have
gotten a few people who are willing to meet up with us everyday this week which
has been really great!
The computer keyboards
over here are a little bit different like some of the symbol keys are swapped
around but mostly everything is the same. As far as the Irish language goes, I
think it breaks more rules than English. The classic example is of a place
called Dún Laoghaire. No one can pronounce it right the first time. In English
its Dunleary which is a little bit easier to pronounce.
(We asked if they sold Lucky Charms
in Ireland and if he’s using a backpack now, which we noticed in some of his
pictures.) I sure wish they sold Lucky Charms here but they don't. I do
use a backpack some of the time because I can hold more stuff in it and
everyone here uses a backpack. It's one of the things that they say not to have
in the mission call but President Donaldson is okay with us using. I still use
my shoulder bag some of the time.
Well I am sorry that this email is a bit short but not much
happened this week. I'll have to remember to write down what happened more
often. The work here in Ireland is going good. I don't see a lot of rainbows
over here and most of my shirts are still mostly stain free.
Love you guys a lot,
Elder Calley
By the way it is very light here. The picture at the top was
taken at 9:30 at night while we were on the bus home from All-Ireland.
