Hey guess what? I finally bought some cool Scotland stuff for yous last Monday. I'll grab a few things more today and hopefully send it in the next couple days.
I thoroughly enjoyed this week; particularly Tuesday and Friday. Because I was on exchanges with some elders in my district, and we worked, taught, etc. in real good unity. I look forward to exchanges; sometimes probably too much. Oh well.
Highlights of this week: Fiona and Stewart.
Fiona was a nice young mother we met in the street. We made an appointment with her, but she was busy and said to come back the next day.
We did, with a member from the ward. He's a super good missionary; he talked more than us but I was totally ok with it. He related well to her, they had kids of similar ages, he is a convert to the church, he told his story, testified of the importance of families and how we can be together forever. It was really good.
Then the same guy came with us to a few other appointments, most of which fell through but it was awesome having him with us.
We met Stewart on Friday. He lives on floor 15 of a high rise building (aka "high flats" or "multi's").
We were a bit early to our appointment with our good friend Paul, so we decided to just chap as many doors as possible in shortest time possible. So we started on the top, planning to work our way down. But the first door we chapped, we met Stewart and he let us in.
He seems pretty solid for the most part. We shared a brief message with him, introduced the Book of Mormon, set a return appointment for the next day, and then had to dash to our next place.
Went back the next day, he had already read up to 1 Nephi, chapter 11 or something. He understood it quite well too.
He was a bit confused, because when we told him about Joseph Smith and the Gold Plates and stuff, he got a bit confused because he thought we were talking about Nephi and the Brass Plates. But we cleared it up.
After the lesson he insisted on showing us a clip from a DVD containing DMX's conversion story to Christianity...it was really weird.
He's really into the rap scene. He showed up to church on Sunday, wearing baggy khaki trousers and a matching jacket, with a big golden chain with a dollar sign medallion. Everyone complimented him on it.
He participated a lot in priesthood and Sunday school which was good, although it was mostly him trying to make jokes, and he did the same in sacrament meeting...(when they brought the bread around, he said "no thanks, I had toast this morning") haha, but he really enjoyed church.
He's been the first investigator to come to church in quite a while. It was good. Maybe we'll teach him about reverence or something this week.
Also we got a new bishop this week, Brother Keogh, the dad of the huge family that feeds us often, is the new bishop. Pretty exciting I guess. He'll be great, but we'll miss Bishop Murray a lot.
Cool update on our investigator Mark; turns out he is friends with a lady named Cheryl, and turns out she hasn't been to church in ages and wants to come back. She came to Mark's house with us, and she encouraged him to get baptised and said she'd love to be there if he does decide to.
Also she tried to convince him to come to church. She was set on coming yesterday, but for some reason she didn't show up. We'll find out today or tomorrow hopefully.
But I thought it was kind of a miracle; we met Mark while tracting, but then we later find out that his best friend and neighbour is a member, and the involvement of both of them in the lessons will increase the chances of her becoming active and also of him joining the church. No coincidence there that's for sure!
Overall the work is going great, I find joy even in the smallest of things like having a laugh with a random uninterested person on the street.
Ooh, that reminds me, another story. There's this group of teenagers who just hang around the City Centre every night. They used to give us hassle, like yelling "Hey Jesus guys!" every time they saw us, or saying "Jesus is stupid!" just to get a reaction...but as we keep seeing them, they've started asking questions, like what we actually do, why we do it, if we get paid, etc...
Then one night we saw one of the Bingham elders give a few of them Books of Mormons...my initial reaction was that they wold just throw them away or something...but we met the group last night and one of them said he's reading it and stuff, and we had a three minute conversation on life in general, and members of the church who he knows.
So, slowly we're converting a whole group of "chavs" or "neds" (punk teenagers). That would be so cool if all of a sudden we baptise 20 neds and quadruple the young men population of the ward, and change lives and stuff. Might be a long shot, but it would be super cool. Also I am still dreaming of bringing a family into the church...I think that would be soooo cool and fulfilling and spiritual!
Anyway, hope yous all have a great week. I might very well move to a different area in a week and a half, so look forward to the big news next week!
Love,
Spencer
