Elder Spencer Burt: 2013-08-11

Hello everybody!

So first off, this week was good because Jimmy got baptized! It was a great thing to witness.

Jonathan, one of the YSA (young single adults) that Jimmy really looks up to, did the honors. I was one of the witnesses, gave a testimony and a prayer.

I couldn't tell because I was sitting behind Jimmy, but all the speakers commented on how he was just smiling the whole time. It was a great experience, spirit was strong and stuff.

Training! It's a different experience than I expected. My trainee's name is Elder Dixon Winn, from Nephi Utah. Total cowboy. Went to college in Oklahoma on a rodeo scholarship. Worked on a ranch. Talks in a bit of an accent. He's almost 21, so sometimes he's a bit more mature than me. Already seems to know what he's doing, so a lot of the time I don't feel like I'm really training him. But more just acquainting him with the area. He'll probably be fit to train after I'm done training him. He's a lot more confident and stuff than I was my first few days.

So the beginning of this week was a lot of good-byes from Elder Meyer...he was really, really sad to leave the area. Everyone was sad to see him go. But they like Elder Winn a lot, a few of the YSA have been asking tons of questions about the cowboy lifestyle.

So we finally worked really hard these past few days. I've sort of missed tracting, which was something I avoided doing with Elder Meyer because he got really frustrated doing it. But we've found some good potential people to teach...nobody let us in but several of them made return appointments with us.

I've found that when we work hard, people are put in our path. We either happen to talk to them, or they stop and talk to us, which has happened a few times this week and never the previous six weeks.

We were having a real bummer day on Saturday for quite a while...we were tracting, trying to contact a bunch of former investigators, and nothing came of it. As we were walking away we stopped this guy to chat with him, turns out he was one of the guys we were looking for and he wants us to come by tomorrow. So little things like that made the work more rewarding.

It was fun going to Edinburgh and climbing up Arthur's Seat/Pratt's Hill again. Each time the new missionaries and trainers sing "High on the Mountain Top" while on the top of the hill.

When I was there the first time there were few other people on top, and our group was in our casual clothes, and only 20 of us in total. But this time, we all wore our white shirts and ties, there were a ton of other people on the hill, and there were probably 50 missionaries! So when we sang, everyone was watching us, and they applauded when we were done. It was pretty cool.

A few gung-ho elders went up to people up there and talked to them, not sure if anything came from it but it would be cool if it did.

I have been wanting to try "singing-finding" in the Dundee City Centre, with all the other missionaries together singing hymns, and see people's reactions, and if people come up and listen we can start a conversation with them. I think it would be really good, because music carries the spirit very strongly with it. It would be terrifying though, but still I think it would be a really cool experience. We'll see.

Not much else happened this week...the first few days of training I was a bit stressed out and the days dragged on and on...maybe it was because it brought me back to the days when I was being trained. Hopefully I get less stressed.

Oh one update; district leader-wise, the zone leaders are now a part of MY district, because they have a trainee so he needs to be part of a district. So now I am the zone leaders' district leader, and I will go on exchanges with them and gather their numbers at the end of the week and what not. It's kind of funny.

Welp, that's this week for yous, it was good hearing from all of you and I hope all is swell!

Love, Spencer

Photos:

Me, Jimmy, Jonathan aka "Jon the Baptist" and Elder Winn