"I invited Traci to be baptised, she eagerly accepted!"

Dear family and friends, but mostly just family,

This week was quite interesting so it was! 

Fun fact: down here the Scottish people say "So it is" just like the N. Irish do, but in Dundee the only time I heard that phrase was when a Northern Irish guy was talking. So I guess the closer you get to Ireland the more you talk like them? Makes sense I guess.

Last Monday was super fun. We went to Paisley to have some fun n games with practically the whole zone. 

We planned on playing inside the church gym because it is usually rotten weather, but it wasn't too bad so we went to a nearby football pitch. 

However the field was still wet and muddy from the night before, so we played some mud-ultimate-frisbee! It was great. I think I hurt my tailbone from slipping and falling so much. Worth it though!

Then on Tuesday, we had a zone conference. Not sure if this was aimed at just our zone or if he did the same for all, but the first bit of instruction he gave was on p-day. He said that the P stands for Preparation, not Play. 

Yes, it's ok to have some fun when we have a bit of spare time that day, but the priority is to do those things we need to do so we can focus on the work the rest of the week, such as cleaning, shopping, relaxing, writing letters, etc. 

He said it was not good to ignore some of the more important tasks so we can have as much play time as possible. Also we need to stay in our area on p-day and not gather with big groups of missionaries. So basically, everything we did the day before, he said was inappropriate and shouldn't happen anymore. 

I think he said the same for the whole mission though because it's a widespread thing for missionaries to get together and do stuff. 

Elder Pallin was real bummed about it, because he was the one spearheading the whole thing on Monday, but I think it's nice that we will finally just relax on p-days, I think that will help us all de-stress more.

So remember the guy called Richard that we met last week? Well we taught him again on Monday, stopped by his house on Wednesday while we were in the area, and taught him again on Friday. 

The first two visits, we talked about baptism. The first time we brought it up he said "I'm an Aquarius, so I'm up for anything to do with water." Interesting guy. 

But the next visit he asked what he would have to do to be baptised, and he said he was seriously considering it. But then on Friday, he told us that his deep Catholic mother had threatened to disown him if he joined the church, even though he is 40 and lives on his own. 

He said he'd rather choose his mom over the church, which to me makes sense so I didn't argue with that. But we suggested that he took the next seven days for serious prayer and scripture study and hopefully God will help to soften his mom's heart. 

Also we told him that using tarot cards is a subtle way of inviting Satan into his life, so he agreed to stop using them and only communicate with God through prayer. So we'll see how that goes! We had/still have really high hopes for him.

Traci is doing Brilliant!!! 

On Wednesday we had two men from the ward volunteer to go out teaching with us, so myself and Prince Obike (from Nigeria) went to teach Traci and Elder Pallin and brother Gibson went and visited less actives/home teaching. 

I invited Traci to be baptised, she eagerly accepted! We told her that the soonest possible day would be the 30 of November, and she said she would love to be baptised that day! 

So it's less than two weeks away!!! Excited and nervous. But she is loving it. 

At church her mom was asking us if we thought it was too rushed, we said that it's up to Traci, and Traci said "it's just like...when you know it's true, you just KNOW." So that was good to hear! 

She always tells us that she feels like this has been what she's been searching for for a long time, and she hasn't felt like she belonged in a church until she met us. Awesome! 

She's a lot like Gertie, but a bit quieter, and her family is supportive so there shouldn't be any problem with that.

We did a bit of work in Largs again this week. Pretty cool town, I want to go there on a P-day sometime just to walk around and go in the shops and take pictures and what not.

We also went to Port Glasgow a couple times. We had an "AUF" (address unknown file, I think I've talked about these before) that we had to go try and contact. 

He lived on Robert Street, which was the dodgiest neighborhood I have ever been to! 

We knocked some doors near this man's house, and one guy who looked a bit scary himself told us to watch ourselves, "This is a bad area and there are a lot of alcoholics and heroin addicts here." 

We had the feeling too; there were broken windows everywhere and some doors were broken off the hinges and there was just junk inside the flats. Luckily it was daytime; if it was dark we would have just turned around and run, it was that dodgy.

We work with a lot of less-active people here, which I've mentioned before. Many of them have mental health problems of some sort, or addictions. So we have some interesting conversations. 

One man we were talking to was absolutely wasted, and he said "You know that big huge church in Utah City? Well I can go inside there because I'm baptized." It was pretty funny. 

Then another guy who is old and a bit slow, but SUPER nice and friendly...he has a huge flag collection! 

Mom, you would like it. There is literally no space on the wall; just flags. Many duplicate Scottish flags, the blue and white flag (I think it's called St. Andrew's Cross) and the yellow one with a red lion on it. In some places there are flags covering other flags because there just isn't enough room. 

While we tried to share a message with him, sometimes he'd randomly point to a flag and say "That one there is Jordan" and other ones that he was excited to tell us about. Next time we're there I'll try and get a picture or two!

Well that was a pretty long email and my hands are kinda sore from typing so fast. So I'll go now. Take care everybody! Have fun!

Oh, one more thing: President Brown has authorized an additional book for our study in addition to the scriptures, PMG, and other official church stuff..."The Power of everyday Missionaries" by Clayton Christensen. 

The zone leaders have it, and it is GENIUS! 

I urge you all to read it. Also, if possible, I would like one. The one chapter I read was just brilliant, with loads of helpful hints on how to invite our friends, and even non-friends, to hear the gospel in polite, effective, logical and practical ways.

Love yous all! Happy Thanksgiving! (Soon, right? We don't do that here...)

Love,

Elder Burt 

 

Photos: 

Upside down printed Book of Mormon! What a find!

Elder Pallin