Week 36: Half-way through September

Sep 18, 2017

Hey guys, so this week has been surprisingly pretty dry. It has hardly rained at all this week which has been nice. We were on exchanges quite a bit this week. We were in Airdrie for exchanges with the district leader, Elder Baklan on Wednesday, and were in Glasgow on exchanges with the zone leaders on Friday. It is interesting to be in a different area even if it is only for a day. Airdrie is a smaller town. It's about 35,000 people. The ward there is about 60-80 though every Sunday. Glasgow however is just huge. It is a pretty big city. There are endless places to find. I was with Elder Wang for the day. He is a convert from Beijing. They have quite a few Chinese speaking Elders in Glasgow because there are a lot of people who come over to university here. They also have two wards in Glasgow and they are both good sized.

We also taught John and Gordon this week. We had a really good lesson with Gordon. We essentially came in and sat down and listened to his concerns and within five minutes he had solved them himself. At the end of the lesson, he said that he knew that the church was true and that he should probably start attending regularly. That was a really cool moment because he has been waffling back and forth between attending a born again church in Glasgow and the church here in Cumbernauld.

So yesterday, I had to give a last minute talk on family home evening. Because it was last minute, I mainly just shared a lot of personal experiences. I realized that I have some pretty good experiences of FHE.

Wow, I can't believe that you guys fly over the pond on Friday. It's a long flight.   That's interesting that the French seem to dress nicer than Americans. I would say that Scotland and Ireland dress about the same as back home.

So the Scottish word for the week is 'ken'. Instead of saying know most people just say ken. For example instead of saying I don't know they would say 'I donnae ken'.

By the way the new shoes are holding up. They are water proof and definitely should survive the wet weather. So usually for zone conference all of the missionaries in Scotland will gather together so it’s about an hundred missionaries. I would say about 8-10 missionaries get together in Glasgow on P-days though. I haven't gotten called to play piano at church yet in Cumbernauld and when it comes to zone conferences, there is always someone else who is assigned to do it.

By the way, every Saturday we always go and do service in this garden with John and some other elderly people. I thought I would include a picture of it.

We did talk to a lot of Chinese people. Sadly, that Chinese class I took in middle school didn't help at all. We've been better at exercising this week. . Hope you have a great week too!

Well, I hope you guys have a safe trip. I love you guys.

Elder Calley

Week 35: Week 3 of Transfer

Sept. 11, 2017

Wow well it sounds like you definitely had a lot of driving this week! It's good to hear that Tyler is doing good at BYUI.

This week has been bipolar weather wise, with most days raining all day and some sunny parts. We met with John quite a bit this week. He is definitely getting close to baptism. He fed us three times last week though which is a lot. We tried to meet with the other John this week but we weren't able to get a hold of him. You guys seem to not be the only people on holiday this week. Some of the other people we are seeing were out of town this week. We did go over to the McGregors this week. Brother McGregor is a big Ranger supporter. He was a Protestant before he joined the church some years ago. The McGregors are a great family, they are really funny. They love to go and hike hills around Scotland.

I don't have too much else to say about this week except we were chapping Monday or Tuesday evening, we had just tried by someone who didn't answer, and a guy in his twenties came up to us and asked us if we were the Mormon missionaries. We said yeah and he asked us if we could go and knock on his moms door because she had just moved in and he said she was looking for a church. So we knocked on her door and she wasn't in but we tried by later in the week and we had a brief lesson with her (Teresa) and her son Ryan. They are both born again Christians but are open to meeting with us. Hopefully we are seeing them tomorrow. It's amazing how we can see the hand of the Lord in our lives when we experience a disappointment or a challenge.

So here is the Scottish saying this week: chuffed. I'm pretty sure that I haven't told you about this one yet. Chuff basically means like you are happy/proud about what happened. Like for example someone might say, I'm feeling chuff from that football game win.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy your week. Thanks for your emails. They are awesome!

Love,

Elder Calley

Week 34: Wow! Only 2 Days left!

Sep 4, 2017

Well it sounds like you guys are pretty busy with projects and packing! I still can't believe that this is Tyler's last week before he leaves for BYUI.

This week has been good. We had quite a bit of sun this week which was great but unusual. We have continued to meet with John and Gordon. John is progressing little by little which is good. We also met with a guy named David this week. We chapped him last week and he told us to come back. So we did and we found out that his wife is a less active member and that they had a granddaughter go on a mission to Hong Kong. They have a lot of their family that are members. We are hoping to meet with them this week before they go on holiday for two months. We also sent out a text to everyone in the phone this week inviting them to come to church and there was another guy named David who had met with missionaries about 5 years ago that decided to come to church. He enjoyed it even though he was only able to stay for sacrament meeting and we are going to meet up with him later this week.

We have also done quite a bit of finding this week. I don't think I have told you this but football (soccer) over here is quite religious. There is a team called the Rangers and another team called the Celtics. All the people who consider themselves protestants cheer for the Rangers and hate the Celtics. And everyone who considers themselves catholic is a Celtic fan and hates the Rangers. It's ironic because while the rivalry runs deep between the two teams, no one on either side really goes to church often. So the reason I'm telling you this is because we sometimes have people come to the door and say Rangers  or Celtics and then close the door.

I do have a new Scottish phrase though. So over here if you are talking about a child you would instead use the word bairn. Like for example, "back when you were a wee bairn", back when you were a little kid.

Here's a picture of me and Elder Bain.

We don't usually help with the Self-Reliance here in Scotland mainly because the class isn't up and running at the moment but it's something that we invite our investigators to attend and can go if they go. It seems like it is just as big of a program in Scotland as it is in Ireland. I think the Self-reliance course is starting at the end of this month.

So we use pounds here in Scotland. So things in Scotland appear cheaper but because the pound is more expensive than the euro to the dollar, everything is about the same price. One thing that is very expensive to do here is to eat out. It is not cheap like it is back home. We don't do it very often though which is probably good for us. Elder Bain is a great companion. We do have some of the same interests such as we both like sports. I would also say that we both have a strong desire to work hard which is fantastic.

So we went back to the same museum last p-day since Elder Bain had not been there. This time I got my picture in front of the billboard though.

It is sure great to hear from you guys! I hope your busy week goes well!

Love,

Elder Calley

Week 33: Wow! Sounds like a lot is going on!

Aug 28, 2017

Hey guys,

Well your week sounds like it has been really busy. Probably a little bit more busy than over here in Cumbernauld. So to bring you up to speed on my new companion. His name is Elder Bain. He is from Bountiful, Utah. He has been out for a year and is a huge U of U fan. He is a fantastic missionary though. He works very hard. Which is really great to have in a companion.

Anyway, this week has been good. We were able to visit with John again this week. We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a very good lesson. He seemed to learn a lot and felt the Spirit. We have also been chapping quite a bit. Which reminds me, there was this one lady who we chapped, her name is Caroline, and we told her who we are as missionaries and the message that we are sharing and she was amazed that as missionaries we go out for two whole years to a foreign country to be missionaries. She then told us that we must miss home and gave us a bag of chocolate biscuits and crisps (biscuits over here are similar to twix bars). She was a very kind lady. She wasn't that interested in our message but told us to come back if we needed anything. ( Don't worry Mom I am not too homesick. Cumbernauld reminds me of northern Minnesota a lot which is kind of close to home.)

It was very cool to hear that you were able to see the solar eclipse. If there was one in Cumbernauld I don't think anyone would notice. Haha.

So I do not really have a new Scottish phrase that I learned this week but the accent is getting easier to understand. Hopefully I'll pick one up next week. However, hardly anyone says 'yes' over here. Almost everyone just says 'aye'.

Well I know you had a few questions for me so I will try to answer them as best I can.

I haven't rode bikes in Scotland yet. Elder Bain and I take a bus or walk everywhere. I did ride bikes in Waterford with Elder Plewe. We would ride them to go to the church or to go chapping somewhere that was a ways away. There are bicycle lanes in the street like the ones back home which is nice. There are some areas that have bikes, like Waterford, but Cumbernauld has a very weird layout. I've heard it is one of the weirdest layouts in the mission. So it isn't as easy to ride bikes here. It's better to walk or take the bus. I will try to get a selfie for next week.

Both Elder Bain and I take turns cooking. There is no junior/senior companionship in the mission. President Donaldson likes having everyone special assignment so each missionary has the same responsibility in the companionship.

A typical p-day consists of us shopping at 8am, emailing, and then going to Glasgow or staying in Cumbernauld. We do not always go to Glasgow but we go there quite a bit because there is not much to do in Cumbernauld.

So in Cumbernauld we get fed anywhere from about one to three dinner appointments a week.

 Well, it has been great reading your emails and getting to email you .

Love,

Elder Calley

I took a picture of this building last p-day from a museum and thought it was interesting but true

Week 32: Staying in Cumbernauld

Hey guys!

So this week was Elder Udy's last week and he went to the mission home last Saturday to say good bye to the mission president and flies home this morning for Texas. I am staying with some elders in Glasgow until I pick up my companion Elder Bain later today. I think he is from Utah but I am not entirely sure. He's a good missionary though and I'm sure we'll get along great.

This week has been very interesting since Elder Udy went home on Saturday. Because he went home on Saturday, I was in Glasgow for church on Sunday which was neat. So I wasn't at church in Cumbernauld but John still came to church. He just came back from a trip to Hungary so we didn't have an opportunity to meet with him this past week but we should be able to this week. The rest of this week has been filled with some more finding and packing. Elder Udy had a lot of stuff to take home so it took some time to pack it all. We also met with Gordon again this week. He still has a few doubts about the church but we're trying to continue to get him to come to church.

So the Scottish word of the week is neds. Ned stands for Non-Educated-Delinquents. It is mainly to describe teenagers who don't know any better. I know it can sound kind of mean but it is a common phrase over here.

 I know you had a few questions for me as well so I'll try to answer them. There isn't really a car that I see the most often. Or maybe I just haven't picked up on it yet. Most of the missionaries that drive here in Scotland drive a car called a mereva. I forget which company makes it but it is either an English or French company. A typical work day for a Scotsman would be from 9-5 or maybe till six. Nothing over here is open 24 hours. Everything is generally closed by six.

So before I came to the library to email because it opens at 10 we went to see a cathedral. Here's a few pictures.

It was great to read your emails this morning. Thank you for your testimonies!

Love,

Elder Calley