Ok so here are some cool things that happened this week.
A bit of backtracking...about a week and a half ago, BBC did a documentary sort of thing where they followed a missionary around for a few weeks with cameras and interviewed him occasionally. It was a missionary from England somewhere and he is serving in the Leeds mission.
We thought it would probably be a good bit of press for the church and for us serving in the UK, because loads of people were talking about it even before it happened; investigators, members, everyone.
We heard mixed opinions of it; apparently the lady who narrated/conducted interviews was super annoying. Kept asking awkward questions about the law of chastity, garments, why temples are secret, why she couldn't interview the missionary on his own, etc. and she just looked for the negative things.
We heard quite a bit, and we wanted to watch some...President Brown in his email to the mission said it would be a waste of time and we'd be better spending it out proselyting.
But we were at a less-active family's house on Monday saying goodbye and they had it recorded, so we figured we might as well watch a wee bit. It was stupid; the lady really just kept prying and wouldn't stop asking why she couldn't be in a room with the elder alone, without his companion. It was stupid. But I noticed that everything the missionaries or others from the church said on camera was just brilliant, and I could feel the spirit to a degree, and whenever she talked it went away and there was nothing but contention. So that was interesting. I wonder if you would be able to find it online...it's called "Meet The Mormons." So that was interesting, we had a few people ask us about it when we meet them in the street but not much more. Wow, that was a big paragraph all for a stupid tv show.
So the best thing ever was when we met up with Chris on Tuesday for me to say good bye...he was totally different!!!
He started off by saying that even though I'm leaving, he'll still take the lessons and come to church, and he's still up for baptism on August 23.
Took me by surprise, I didn't think he was THAT serious about it. Then as we discussed more he said he had a toothache over the weekend, like really bad, and so he prayed and asked God to comfort him. And he said he felt the holy ghost! And it basically changed everything for him.
Before that, he still didn't really believe in God, he was just trying to build up his faith. But he said after that he is definitely a believer! And then he said the most surprising thing ever, "So yeah, I hope to be with my Heavenly Father in the Celestial Kingdom someday! Not terrestrial or telestial, but celestial!"
We were just dumbfounded. I honestly didn't think he was that into it! I told him "Wow, you have a really good memory!" and he said "Well, I wasn't just sitting there not listening when yous taught me. I was taking it all in!"
He's a super smart kid. Excited to hear how things go with him!
As I finished packing up Tuesday night, I realized my small statue of Christ was still out, and I had no way of packing it without a risk of it being broken, so I put it in an envelope with a note and told Elder Spackman to give it to Chris as a gift from me.
So Traci has one, Chris has one, and if I'm correct, I have one waiting for me at home!
Ok now the rest of the week.
The ferry was fun. I hung out with Elder Stewart and Elder Thomas mostly.
Friday was the 4th of July! It was kinda sucky; it rained allllll day.
But we had a lesson with a new investigator named Frank. It was funny; he is a devout Catholic and although he says he respects missionaries a lot and he wants to read the Book of Mormon, he won't change religions...but toward the end he said "Well, if I get an answer that the Book of Mormon is true, then I'm F***ed because it means I'm following a false church!"
It was great, because we just taught the restoration lesson pretty simply. So that was cool.
Then an American lady from the ward invited us over last-minute for dinner. So I got to spend the 4th with one American. We didn't do anything cool though. Although I did tape my small American flag up to the wall. So far only 30% of my companions have been Americans, isn't that weird?
On Saturday we met two true, genuine truth-seekers, and had good conversations with them, and in the end neither one wanted us to come teach them later!!! It was kind of frustrating.
I seriously felt like they were the sort of people we hear about from the early days of the Restoration, who had been searching for truth from church to church and couldn't find it. But for some reason neither of these people were interested in learning about our church. But they agreed to research on the website.
So the last few days I've been trying to pray and exercise faith that they WILL research it, that they WILL feel something, they WILL desire to learn more, and they WILL contact us through mormon.org.
I've never been good at that sort of thing; I sometimes feel like faith and prayer won't change anything, because if God's will is for something to happen, it will happen, and if it's not, then it won't.
I don't know if that's a false pretense or what, but recently I've been feeling impressed to have more faith and to believe that miracles happen, and to pray for specific things and I guess we'll see if it works. (Thoughts on this matter? I've always wondered about this...)
We also met an alcoholic guy who wants help, so we're gonna see him on Wednesday and hopefully teach him a bit and help him with his addiction.
He reminded me of our dear friend Joe, who we taught in Greenock, who passed away the day after Jim Craig and two days after Grandpa. They're probably all having a party up there!
Sunday we had church.
There are two wards in the same building here; it felt ALMOST like being in Utah! Except it's the only church building in the huge city which I guess that's where the difference lies.
It's interesting; there are lots of Chinese members, one Brazilian from Sao Paulo, one Mexican guy, and one Peruvian girl. And a few Africans. Very diverse! I never expected to meet Latin Americans in the UK, but here they are.
Apparently Glasgow has a bad reputation for crime and stuff, but I haven't seen anything dodgy yet.
Although on Saturday night we could hear a guy downstairs banging on the front door to our apartment block yelling curse words and such. He buzzed our buzzer, and everyone else's in the block to try and get into the hall, and I guess someone let him in.
Then we heard him pounding on the door of someone downstairs, and yelling and swearing a ton. We were glad to have a lock and bolt on our door.
Then he eventually left and about 15 minutes later the cops knocked on our door to ask if we heard anything. We told them what we heard, and they took our names and addresses. So that was an interesting first weekend in Glasgow!
Don't worry though (Mom), I've got God's protection to keep me safe. And a bit of common sense too, I hope.
Love you all!!!
Spencer
