We helped out the Howse family with a "Coffee Morning" for a charity that raises money for the parents of premature and stillborn babies.
They organized the whole thing, and they said we could come and help if we wanted to. We figured we'd be helping set up tables and chairs and cleaning up and stuff, but when we got there they needed someone to sell coffee, tea and scones.
It felt kind of ironic, but we did it anyway because they seemed really stressed out trying to get everything worked out.
Part of me felt like we shouldn't be doing it, but in the end it was for a good cause, we weren't drinking it, and we got to interact and talk to a lot of people and who knows what seeds were sown.
Also during the charity event, I got to wear a full Mickey Mouse costume! Only for a few minutes. It was really hot in there and hard to see.
A few kids got scared of course, but the cutest thing ever was when I went up to a little guy in a stroller to give him a high five, and he just grabbed my gloved hand and just hugged it for like 30 seconds. It was adorable.
We were out in Ballynahinch to do an AUF thingy.
We rarely find the person we're looking for, and if we do, they are never interested and sometimes have no clue why their name is on our records. But when we tracted the area surrounding it, we had some funny experiences.
We placed one Book of Mormon with a young Baptist guy. Then the next door neighbor was a very born-again Christian guy who had researched more deep doctrine of our church than most members.
He told us that some prophets and apostles in the past said that God LITERALLY made a baby with Mary, and that's where we believe Jesus came from.
I wondered for a bit, but then just let it slide. Not really important.
I think it was Bruce R. McConkie who said it. He says a lot of things.
The guy has a website called "Take Heed" that he invited us to check out, basically it just denounces our church. I didn't bother.
Sometimes I think that if my testimony is strong enough then I should be able to read other points of view even if they attack The Church, but then I remember that that's just the devil, and I already have a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and that's all that matters in the end.
Then we asked a lady for directions to find another AUF's house, and she ended up telling us she was baptised in Glasgow about 18 years ago.
She still remembers the elders who taught her, and she says she has one of the missionary's scriptures he gave to her.
She hasn't been to church since living in N. Ireland, but she said we could come visit her. I think that's "lost sheep" #4 I've met in this area! Crazy. Tons of born-agains, and tons of lost sheep.
On Sunday we didn't have any of our investigators or less-actives come to church.
But we did have four visitors: a couple from Sydney Australia who knew the family of Elder Meyer and Elder Hobby (from the MTC, serving in England) so that was kind of cool.
The other couple was from Cache Valley! He is the head coach of Mountain Crest football, so we had a good conversation. He was telling me about kids who were freshmen or sophomores when I was a senior going off to play college football, and it made me feel old.
He served his mission in the Glasgow mission, which used to cover the west of Scotland and N. Ireland, but not the Republic of Ireland. Interesting how things change. And how small of a world it is.
Those were the highlights of the week. A bit more concise than my usual emails...I'm trying to work on that! My wrists are usually quite sore by the time I'm done but not today :)
Hope all is well in Zion. By the way, my 18 month mark is this Friday!
Much love,
Elder Spencer Ashcraft Burt
No comments:
Post a Comment