"...she hadn't seen her mom smile so much in a long time. It felt great! That's what missionary work is all about."

Hiya what's the craic with yous? Hope the craic is good. (Only the Irish say that; it's pronounced like crack.)

This week was grand, so it was. 

Starting off with last Monday, we were going to get some kebabs, but unfortunately they don't sell the right ones during the day. But we went to a chippy (fish n chip shop) where I got a deep fried haggis with chips (fries). It was pure mingin'! 

Mingin' means disgusting, not sure where it comes from. I've also heard boggin' to mean the same thing. Pure mingin' just means "really gross". I powered through it, just to say that I ate a mingin' haggis from a chippy in bonnie Scotland.

That was my Scottish experience for the week. 

Monday was a really good day in a few other ways:

A few lessons fell through, so we decided to borrow some garden clippers from our landlady/neighbour, and did some community service by trimming a tree with branches hanging down over the sidewalk, that we and other people walking past have to either duck under or walk in the street to avoid. 

We got permission from the owner and did it, so it was great because it benefited other people AND us, because we walk past that tree all the time. And maybe some people driving by on the fairly busy road saw us in our white shirts doing service and thought, "Hey, they are good people. I want to join their church."

Best part of Monday: June and Melissa. I've mentioned Melissa before I think...she was the young lady who committed herself to baptism, but then we lost contact. We had a great lesson with her and her mom (June) on Monday. 

June suffered a stroke about a year ago, and she has a hard time expressing herself. But we could tell she was feeling the spirit as we taught, and afterward Melissa said that she hadn't seen her mom smile so much in a long time. It felt great! That's what missionary work is all about. 

They were both really excited to learn more and have a tour of the church the next day. But then when we showed up, Melissa wasn't home, and June didny ken where she was. And we haven't been able to contact them since. It's a bit slow going, but they are both really eager for the gospel so it will just take patience.

On Tuesday we taught Mark. He says he wants to come to church but he wants to save up and buy a suit first. We told him he can come in jeans and a polo shirt, but he said he wants to have a suit. Pretty sure he's mostly just nervous to meet new people, but again, it will just take patience. 

Tuesday Elder Mills (MY kebabtizer!), Elder Wilwand and I kebabtised Elder Winn. It was such a great experience. 

After that we were doing some tracting near the church after Melissa's church tour fell through, and this eight year old member gave us a few referrals, in a way. 

He was hanging out with his friend, and said, "Hey, we can go to his house and ask if his mum wants to join the church!" 

So we followed him, and the mum rejected us as soon as she opened the door. Then he asked another friend if he'd want to come to church and he said yes, so we went to his house to ask if he could come. The grandma was there, and said we'd have to ask his mum who wasn't home. 

So yeah, this kid is such a great member-missionary! He even told his friend that if you are a Mormon you come back to life. We cleared it up and told him that God loves all his children not just Mormons, and that everyone will come back to life, haha.

The 2nd set of Liff elders arrived Wednesday. 

On Thursday we went with them and tracted a bit near their flat to find them a teaching pool. Found a bit of success. We did splits for an hour or so, and I tracted with Elder Gomez. Then the bishop had us all over for dinner. Our bishop's way cool, just really laid back I've come to realize.

Funny moment from Friday: Fiona. So we had an appointment with a lady named Fiona, and a young dad in the ward named Jared came with us to teach. When he found out her name was Fiona, he put forth a challenge to see who could slip in a Shrek reference during the lesson. 

When we showed up, she answered and basically said she wasn't really interested, but she just couldn't say no because we looked really happy and friendly. Jared: "Well, we just smile a lot because it's no use going around like grumpy old ogres!" She just looked confused, and the three of us were fighting to hold in the laughter. Definitely the humour highlight of the week.

We finally had a lesson with Vikram, after weeks of him saying he'd call us when he's not busy. We just stopped by his house and he let us in. He definitely wants to be baptised someday, he said. Just trying to figure out when. But he said a really calm, spiritual prayer at the end of the lesson, it was amazing. I felt bad; I feel like my prayers are sometimes just praying to say that we prayed, but he was super sincere and calm and peaceful when he prayed. It was cool.

Later that day as we were walking down the road we met a lady who is truly searching for the gospel. Her husband died a while ago, and when we told her she could see him again, she was super excited. We have an appointment with her tonight, and we have it planned out really well to talk about eternal families. I felt like she was truly prepared.

Yesterday after church, we went and participated in this interfaith peace parade! 

The stake presidency encouraged as many members and missionaries to be there as possible. We basically just participated in carrying flags of EVERY country around the town square, and then each of us went up, said what country we were holding, and then the whole group (probably a few hundred) would say "May peace be in _____!" It was really cool. There were more flags there than people, so we all got to carry a few. Good mix of people there. Loads of Mormons!

Best end to the week: Kris and Chelsea are back on track! 

The Gilmours, a fantastic couple in the ward, went over to their house to find out if they were ok, because we hadn't been able to contact them for weeks. Apparently they felt a bit too pressured with everything, so they kinda took a break from going to church. So we had a laid-back lesson at the Gilmours' house last night, and we all really enjoyed it. 

So yeah, we'll try harder to not pressure them too much this time. 

Hard to discern, because lots of people need a good wee push, but others need their own time and their own pace.

So yeah, that's this week for ya. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! Because I did enjoy it, quite a lot. Very eventful and stuff. High hopes for this week being EVEN BETTER!

Love you all!

Spencer

Photos:
Peace parade! Pretty cool.