Week 17: Mother's Day Week

May 8, 2017

Hey guys, its so good to here from you!

This week seems to have began so long ago. So our Zone Conference in Dublin was fantastic. There were some great devotionals and talks given. I also did happen to take some pictures.

Doors to the Guiness factoryInline

 

Statue of someone in front of a building

 

Spire in Dublin City Centre

 

So the rest of this week has been good. We were able to meet up with Dinesh again this week and he has a date set for May 27th. He is really good. He seems to have a lot of interest but he does not have a Christian background. This week we went to Sister Porter's again to help her clean up her backyard and garden. The rest of this week has been a lot of finding. Speaking of finding we had an interesting conversation. We were at this one corner and out of the blue this elderly lady approaches us and asks if we were Jewish. We told her no, we are Christians, to which she then asks what monetary system we use and wanted us to teach her about capitalism. As the conversation goes on she turned out to be pretty crazy. We had to use the fake call function on our phone to get away. The funny part about this conversation is that behind the lady there was a car parked that was behind the lady and facing us. They were trying to mime to us about what this lady was talking about. They stuck around to listen to the conversation and seemed to get a good kick out of it. That was the weirdest part of my week this week.

That's so cool that Brandon is going to Paris!!! Wow! I'm sure that will be awesome for him!

That's cool that the Self-Reliance program is going on back home. We have had that over here for a while, or at least since I came to Waterford.  It seems like a really good program. It is something they have put some stress on over here.

So, I do not have any new Irish words but I did learn from my companion of a Scottish word, Minghim, (not sure if I spelt that right) that it means gross or dirty.

Hope everything is going good back home. Things here in Waterford are going great.

Love,

Elder Calley

Week 16: May Day

May 1, 2017

Hey guys!

So today is May Day here in Ireland. I guess they do celebrate it here in Ireland because it is a bank holiday today. That is basically the equivalent of a national holiday back home. None of the municipal places are open, such as the library, and many businesses are closed for the day. So I'm emailing from an internet cafe today.

This week seems to have gone by quickly but not much has happened this week. We got a hold of Dinesh this week. (I think I have mentioned him before, he is from India and came to one of the branch activities we had). He seems interested in learning what the church is, what we as missionaries do and what we talk with people about. We also went to Sister Porter's house this past Friday to help her clean up her backyard a little bit. She is very kind and sweet. She invited over one of the less actives in the ward and he came over pretty drunk. However, we did have a good discussion with him on how the Savior can help him and that he has people who care about him. It made me think about how the Savior can help each and everyone of us and how each of us have others who care about us. No matter what we do, He is always there with open arms waiting for us to turn to Him.

This Tuesday is All-Ireland Zone Conference in Dublin. So I will try to take some pictures of Dublin to send to you guys next week. Later today we are going to Carlow to visit the Gibbons. Brother Gibbons is one of the counsellors in the branch presidency.

It's hard to believe that I have been in Waterford for about three months now. I feel like I have gotten to know it pretty well. The one thing we have not done that we probably should do as a pday activity is visit the Waterford Crystal factory. I'm sure we could tour it if we wanted to but we have not had an opportunity and I do not know how much it costs. They do have a shop that we can visit though. There are actually a lot of tour groups that visit Waterford Crystal. Often times we bump into members from America that just finished their tour which is great.

They have at least two golf courses here in Waterford and I have heard that there are a lot of golf courses here in southern Ireland. They also have something called a pitch and putt here which is like a really small golf course where you get a pitcher and a putter and play a few really short holes.

Some things that we typically do on our p-days is we almost always play soccer in some form. Last week we played "chair football" at the church. Everyone has a chair and if it gets hit with a soccer ball then they are out.

I apologize for not being very good at taking many pictures this week, so I took a picture of me emailing you guys. I know not very exciting but oh well.

Hope you guys have a good week. I love you guys a lot and look forward to talking to you in two weeks.

Love,

Elder Calley

I do have a Scottish vocab word to share, it’s called a blether. It basically means you had a good chat. Ex: we have had a lot of good blether the week with people on the street. The weather out here is still pretty cool. In the 50's still. The spring weather is pretty similar to Minnesota.

Week 15: Beginning of Transfer 3

April 24, 2017

Hey guys!

This week has been pretty good. I had a good birthday. We got taken out to lunch by some members from Virginia that were touring Ireland, which was really nice of them. It's funny because whenever there are tourists from America they always run into Elder Watson and I. We're the two American Elders and the other two are from England and Germany. We also had red velvet cake in the evening at the other Elder's flat. I got sung to and it was good. I got your guys package yesterday. It is fantastic! I didn't know that it took that long to get here. Thank you guys so much for all the treats and sweets.  The cards were really nice as well. Thank you guys so much!

This week we have visited quite a few members. On Monday we went to Sister Mackey's. She is really nice and is a great cook. Last Thursday we went to Dungarvan to visit Sister Porter and a less active that she invited over. She makes really good potato and pasta dishes. Then on Friday we went to do some service for Brother Moylan. He needed some of his firewood cut up. It was really fun to help him cut firewood, we got to use an axe, saw, and a hatchet.

Sadly, we haven't been able to meet with many of our investigators this week. Many of them go to the I.T. here in Waterford and the end of the term was last week and part of this week so many of them have had exams to study and prepare for and haven't really been able to meet with us. We will be able to meet with some of them this week though.

This week in my scripture study I have been reading in 3 Nephi, when the Savior visits the Americas. It is interesting to read about the 12 apostles that were called and all the works that they did. They seemed to never cease in proclaiming the gospel to others. It reminds me of Elder Hales talk from this last conference. He talks about how disciples of Christ have His attributes woven into their beings and how we can always continue to strive to become better disciples of Jesus Christ.

. Sister Ryan took a picture of me yesterday when I was playing prelude. I still get asked to play every week which is good. It helps me to get better at the hymns.

It's been great to here from you guys. Hope that you have a great week.

Here are some of the photos from when we went to the Moylans. Brother Moylan has a bunch of sword and gun replicas as well as costumes. He goes around with them and presents at schools and other places about history.

Greek warrior

American Revolutionary War soldier

Love,

Elder Calley

 

Week 14: Still in Waterford! Whohooo

April 17, 2017

here's a picture of the district here in Waterford.

 

 So, I am still in Waterford. I have survived another moves call. Haha. However, this transfer is the last transfer I will be with Elder Watson because he is dying this transfer. So I am killing my trainer.

Hope you guys had a happy Easter! Last Saturday there was a branch cultural event. It was really neat. We all got to learn a little bit about other cultures. Irish songs were sung and there was even a presentation on China. We invited a friend of one of the members to it, his name is Dinesh by the way, he is Indian. He seemed really interested in what the church is like and what we do as missionaries. We hope to meet up with him within the next few days. As far as our other investigators go, we are still in touch with some of them like Abi, (he's from Kosovo and is more of a less active Muslim) but we are still mainly looking for other people to teach. The biggest issue here in Waterford with finding people to teach is getting people to pick up the phone. Haha.

Last Friday we went over to the Moylan's house. Brother Moylan makes replicas of guns and swords and is really into history, so we got to dress up as a bunch of different soldiers throughout history. It was really awesome. Sadly I do not have any of the pictures with me, they were taken on Elder Watson's camera so if I do not send them today, I will definitely send them next week.

Easter Sunday was really fantastic. Easter seems to be a bigger holiday here than back home. Everything closes down from Friday through today. There were some great talks given on the Atonement and life of the Savior in church and there was a great priesthood lesson given on how we can better study our scriptures by identifying the principles in a given passage, understand the concepts or definitions of each principle, and then think of examples of how that principle has worked in your life. Studying the scriptures definitely makes a difference. It really helps to brighten my day.

So today for P-day we are planning to go to the beach so sorry if this email is a bit short. I will try to take more pictures, I will promise to send more this next week. Hope you had a fantastic birthday Dad!

I hope everything back in Minnesota is going well. Waterford just keeps getting better and better. Hope you guys have a good week.

Love you guys,

Elder Calley

So we were meeting a less active in the park last Wednesday and I climbed a tree.

Week 13: You’ve Got Mission Mail

April 10, 2017

Hey how's it going!

This week has gone by fast. We have had a lot of opportunities to find. We went to help an elderly Sister in Dungarvan this week to help her with her yard. It was good craic (fun). A lot of our investigators have been out of town this week so we haven't been able to meet with them lately. We hope to catch them this week though. Another saying that the Irish tend to use is "so I did" or "so they did" at the end of the sentence. We run into a lot of people from Poland and Brazil when finding, so we do. It's always interesting who we talk to each day. There are people from all over, here in Ireland, so they are. The sun and the warmth have been sticking around this week. Hopefully that means that there will be no rain for a little while, knock on wood. Haha

I have been reading in the beginning of 3 Nephi this week. I really find it interesting when the Gadianton robbers are trying to destroy the Nephites, however, the Nephites turn to the Lord and because of that they are saved. Sometimes it might feel like we are surrounded by Gadianton robbers but if we turn to Christ, He will always help us. I am so grateful that I can help others turn to Christ as well as continuing to remind myself.

 

Last P-day Elder Watson made an amazing breakfast for us. It was fantastic. This is the second to last week of the transfer. So it is moves week next Monday. I am pretty sure that I will be staying in Waterford though.

 

 

I did not take that many other pictures this week but I have a few of just around Waterford.

 

 

Everything in Waterford is going good, so it is. Have fun getting back into the routine of things. Love you guys. I promise I will send more pictures and a longer email next week. Talk to you next week.

 

Love,

Elder Calley

Week 12 of Mission Week 3 of Transfer 2

Apr 3, 2017   

This week has been awesome! It was so great to hear General Conference! I got to watch every session except for the Sunday Afternoon Session. (I think we will watch that tonight.) We watched the Saturday Morning session, Saturday evening, and then watched the Priesthood session, Saturday Afternoon, and Sunday Morning yesterday at the church. There were so many good talks given with little technological interferences. I really liked Elder Bednar's talk in the Priesthood Session about being called to serve and assigned to labor. Elder Holland and President Monson both gave great talks as well. We didn't have rootbeer floats afterwards but I did make fudge for Conference and that was really good. Thanks for sending all the ingredients. We were also able to get some of our investigators out to the Saturday Morning Session! There were many great talks on the plan of salvation and strong testimonies given in that session.

This week we were going around finding and we said hi to a guy on the street and he replied hi elders. We asked him, (his name is Devin by the way), how he knew about Mormon missionaries and he said he had attended church a few times as an investigator when he lived in England and said he was interested in coming back. We hope to meet with him sometime this week. It is great to know that the Lord has His hand in His work.

Over here in Ireland there are not too many Americans but most of them we meet are members. This has been the second week that we have ran into members from the States. It is great to see how the church is everywhere. Who knows maybe we will be three for three this week. Haha.

Love you guys a lot,

Elder Calley

Week 11 of Mission

Week 11 of Mission Week 2 of Transfer 2  

March 27

Hey guys! Sounds like everything is going well back home.

This week there was a zone conference at the stake center in Dublin this last Tuesday.  We went to Dublin and came back in the same day. It is about a 2 and a half hour bus ride one way. So we spent a lot of time on the bus. The bus drops us off right across the street from the Stake center so we just walked there.  It was really awesome. There was a lot of good instruction given. I also saw a few of the missionaries that I was in the MTC with. Our zone had interviews with President Donaldson at zone conference. It was really good. He is an amazing Mission President!

Dublin is much bigger than Waterford. I did not really see much of it because most of it was spent at the stake center but I did see the huge spire that they have in Dublin.

This week we went to the Condemi's again. They are such an amazing family.. I still have not been given anything unusual to eat yet. The Condemi's are really good cooks.

We also taught someone from Mexico this week. Her name is Melina. She goes to the I.T. here in Waterford and was interested in what we did as missionaries. We are hoping to teach her again this week.  She was the first person from Mexico that Elder Watson or I had talked to on our missions.

We also taught a guy named Themba. He's from Africa and we met him about a month ago and he was not really that interested but we ran into him this week and asked if he wanted to talk with us and he said would. It's amazing to see how people's hearts can change, even if only a little bit.

Its hard to believe that this week is General Conference! It'll be a little bit different over here due to the time difference but I should be able to see every session of conference. I think the Saturday Morning Session we watch at 5 pm and the rest of the sessions besides the Sunday Evening session we watch on Sunday. We will be watching conference at the church/office building because we got put in charge of being technical support for it. I am really looking forward to conference this week!

Things over here in Waterford have been going great. I am grateful to be over here sharing the gospel with others and helping them draw closer to our Savior and Redeemer.

Over here in Ireland they do tend to have better chocolate here than back home but the gum they have over here is not as good. I do not have many pictures this week. However, there is a place in Dublin called Star Pizza. A lot of missionaries eat out there after zone conference because it is one of the cheapest places in Ireland to eat out at.

I hope everything is going well back home and hope you guys have a fun spring break. Love,

Elder Calley