Elder Spencer Burt: "I suddenly felt a tiny stinging in my finger...it gave me a good fright."

Well this week was fun, I got bit by a fish and got told to shove the Bible up my [bum]...sideways! We'll get to those later.

Tuesday I had my first district meeting. I didn't plan it that well, and there was not much participation, so it went by really fast. I decided to play some churchy games, because I feel like I'm sort of a robot district leader and our district doesn't talk much. So we played "PMG chase" where one person reads a random bit from Preach My Gospel and the first one to shout out what page number it's on got to go next. And also some Book of Mormon character hangman. It was fun. But tomorrow it's all business, no fun and games.

That day also I went on an exchange with Elder Lesuma, the zone leaders' trainee. He's really cool. From Utah but his mom is Fijian. Really nice and sincere and humble guy. While tracting we ran into two very very Christian old guys, who happened to live across the street from each other, who told us they disagree with us because of our view of the Godhead, and because we don't think that our Jesus can't save us. Interesting, because Elder Lesuma says he's gotten a ton of people saying stuff like that to him these first few weeks, but I've only had a few of those my whole mission. I guess the Lord is just trying him in different ways, preparing him for maybe some difficult things up ahead.

Overall things are good with Elder Winn and me. Still real quiet sometimes, but we have a good laugh occasionally and that makes the difference to me. I do want to get along with him well, so I can proudly say "I trained Dixon Winn" when he grows up to be a championship bull-rider. (Did I tell you he did that back home? Apparently he won a few thousand dollars in a competition just a few months ago.)

Awesome thing happened Tuesday, a girl we met self-committed herself to baptism, basically. I might have mentioned her last week, but this girl Melissa who lives across the street from the church seemed quite interested in the church and YSA, so we made an appointment to go teach her and invite her out to institute the next night.

She forgot about it and so we had a brief chat on her porch, but it was awesome; she said she had put some serious thought into reading a bit of the Book of Mormon and some pamphlets we gave her, and she said she thinks she'll probably become a Mormon someday. We were amazed! She even said specifically, she thinks she'll come to church sometime and probably get baptised in the end. Pretty cool, especially since we hadn't even mentioned the word "baptism" to her before that. Unfortunately though she hasn't been home lately for us to actually follow up and teach her, but I'm sure we will. Lots of potential.

We started teaching another lady this week, named Julie. She fell off a ferris wheel when she was a kid, and she miraculously survived. Has to walk around with two canes now, but she seems really grateful to still be here. However she also didn't keep the second appointment we made with her...but then we chapped a few doors around hers and met a guy who let us in. So really, miracles are happening out here, we are finding a lot of people who are interested. Some trials of our faith keep happening of course though. We'll see how these people end up this week!

By the way, Jimmy got confirmed yesterday. Super spiritual being part of the circle. (Jon the Baptist confirmed him.)

So now the stories I mentioned at the beginning of the email.

We were tracting a bit around our neighbourhood, and this guy told us to come in and check out his fish. He told us they were trained to take fish food out of your fingers gently. I felt like there was something "fishy" about it all, but I did it anyway to please him. Of course when I tried to feed them a bit of fish food, I suddenly felt a tiny stinging in my finger. Didn't actually hurt, but it gave me a good fright. I felt a bit stupid, but at the same time it gave him a good laugh so now we have basically a friendship, and he said we could come back another day and teach him. So it's for the best.

Then yesterday we stopped a guy on the street, he told us he knows a lot about our church...bad things. So I asked him what exactly he'd heard, and then he got a bit angry and asked why we stick our nose in other people's business so much...I told him I try not to but I'm sorry if someone of our church ever offended him.

He got even angrier and told us we deserve every criticism in the world, and said, "Shove the bible up your [bum], SIDEWAYS!" So I said have a nice day and we walked away. He said the exact same thing again, followed by "[flip] off, leave me alone!" I had a good laugh once he was out of earshot. Stuff like that doesn't phase me, I just think it's funny. Makes for good stories to write home about.

Well anyway, that's our week. Scotland is great, ken?

Have a fantastic week of 26 August - 1 September, and hopefully your key indicators are continually improving.

Love,

Spencer Elder Burt

Photos: I took a few this week, but I left my camera cord at the flat. So here are these ones that President Brown emailed us. Enjoy.

7 August arrivals, formal