January 8, 2018
Hey guys so this week has been good. It hasn't been as cold as negative 15 but it's about 0 Celsius here right now. It's also sunny today for a change which is nice.
So this week Francis came to church. He took an hour break from his work just to come to church for part of sacrament meeting and gospel principles. Gospel principles was on charity. There was a lot of love in that class and the Spirit was there as well. Elder Derry and I usually teach the class but Francis was eager to join in and add comments. The branch here in Sligo is extremely friendly and is also quite diverse as well. We're hoping to visit some more with Francis later this week.
We also taught a few lessons this week but they didn't really go the way we had planned. We taught a nice man from Nigeria who we're pretty sure was a born again Christian and didn't understand why we would need another book of scripture beside the Bible. We tried a lot of different ways of explaining it including how God is the same yesterday today and forever, but it didn't seem to click for him. We also taught a Muslim man who was really kind to us but seemed to be quite set as sticking with his beliefs. We were able to focus a lot on the similarities of our beliefs and about how a belief in God is better than no belief in God.
I was sad to here that President Monson passed away this week as well. He had a great sense of humor and he also told a lot of good stories. One of my favorites is the one when he was in the Navy and the Seargent told everyone to go to church but the Mormons hadn't been called to go some place to meet so he stood there and felt like he was all alone but when he answered the Seargent he then realised that he was never alone. I will definitely miss all the stories he told but I am grateful for his service.
Well on a happier note, this morning Elder Derry and I decided to hike Knocknarea, which is a mountain near Sligo that is supposedly supposed to have an ancient Queen buried at the top but I think it might just be a tall tale. I took a lot of pictures so there's a lot of them attached below. The hike took about 45 minutes up and about 30 minutes down but the view was quite stunning. 
So Mom, I didn't know that we have ancestry from Ballyshannon and Roscommon. I believe both of them are in my area. And the funny part is, the Sligo's branch mission leader's last name is Tiernan and I think he's from Roscommon so I'll ask him at coordination if he's related to a Patrick or Catherine Tiernan.
Well, not much else happened this week. On Wednesday we have All-Ireland in Dublin so generally whenever we have to go to Dublin we drive to Mullingar the night before and then drive the remaining hour the day of. We do a lot of driving if we have to go outside of Sligo.
I love you guys a lot,
Elder Calley
So as far as I know when we go to Mullingar on Tuesdays we generally just leave at 7:10am to get to Mullingar by 9:30am for district meeting but we haven't had a district meeting this transfer yet due to Christmas, New Year's and All-Ireland this week.
