Monday, March 4, 2013

"Turns out he's been through a lot, and has gotten through it all by having faith in God and Jesus Christ."

Hey family, 
First off, in the library right now there is a wee class for old people using facebook. It's funny.
Alright so the highlight of the week is: Drunk Nigel.
I've told a bit about Nigel before, but just a review...he and his friend Alan are special needs adults who live together. They are great, very fun to visit them and they love singing and talking about the gospel. When we went there this week, Nigel was super drunk. He was talking the whole time, and laughing loudly at everything. Usually he is really quiet, and doesn't say much unless we ask him to read a scripture. But this time, he was just talking and talking. 
I probably should have felt sad for him, but to be honest drunk Nigel was hilarious. He told us he loved us, and that if anyone tried to hurt us he would fight them. The funniest thing he said was, just out of the blue: "I LOVE the Mormon Church! 
When we went to sing our closing songs, he wouldn't stop. We had sung three or four already, and told him it was our last. Then he wanted to do one more, so he sang Silent Night by himself loudly and enthusiastically. Really was a fun visit. It just so happened that the lesson we picked out from a past Ensign was about a recovering drug addict who could only get over it by asking God for help. So it actually turned out spiritual.
Yesterday we drove past, and I said, "There's the Mormon Church! I Love the Mormon Church! I love the Elders, I love the Chamberlains, I love Glen [branch president], or the vice president  or whatever you call him, I love everyone!" It was hilarious. 
In other news, we picked up our car last week! It's a Vauxhall Meriva, fairly new. Since last week was moves week, they moved p-day to Wednesday, but still let us email on Monday.
So on Wednesday we took the car out on some adventures! We went to the Gortin Glen Forest Park, a few miles out of town. It was amazing, tons of mossy trees. Some of it reminded me of Lord of the Rings. 
Then we went and checked out the Ulster-American history park, which is the main tourist attraction in Omagh. 
We thought it would be like the American West Heritage Center in Logan, so we didn't want to go. But we decided to stop by and see how much it cost and what it included. Turns out it is pretty cool. We didn't have much time left, so we'll go another p-day. It looked like there was a lot of Titanic stuff. The Titanic was built in Belfast, which I didn't know before.
Then on Thursday I spent the day in Portadown. Elder Holm went to Edinburgh with Elder Waite, the new district leader in Portadown, and I was with Elder Johnson for the day. It was a nice wee change of pace.
We also taught a part-member family this week, and we invited them to hold a family prayer every night. We thought it would be more of a reminder, but they said that no one had ever told them that before. So that was good, hopefully it will help them progress.
Another highlight was this guy we met on Saturday. As we were walking to Ian and Vera's (we still walk places that are reasonable, to exercise and to save on petrol), this guy stops his car, and runs to us and asks if we're LDS. He said he was a Christian, and asked if we could exchange pamphlets. So we did, and talked to him for a bit. 
Turns out he's been through a lot, and has gotten through it all by having faith in God and Jesus Christ. He's had a gay orientation his whole life, but has lived a celibate life in order to be closer to God. Pretty neat. He'd be a great member. Very enthusiastic and happy about talking about the Savior.
It was a pretty good week overall with some good adventures. 
HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY! This upcoming Sunday is Mother's Day for UK and Ireland. We'll skype on American Mother's Day though.
Love yous all,
Spencer

Pictures:
Stonehenge. I forgot to tell yous about this. This was at the Ulster History Museum, which we saw on our way to the Forest and decided to stop. Turns out it's not open to the public, but only for field trips and stuff. But luckily I at least got one picture.
Close up of the deer at Gortin Glen Forest Park. Yeah, they were real deer. In a wee enclosure though. I think they were Sika Deer.
Rockin' my deer sweater, while standing in front of some deer at Gortin Glen Forest Park.
Gortin Glen Forest Park trees.