"...when we work hard, people are put in our path."

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

View of Dundee from the Tay Rail Bridge

Views of the River Tay from the bridge

Me and Elder Meyer

The McCormack family

Heather and Dode (super funny couple)

"We had a fun encounter with a ton of either current or recovering drug addicts."

These last six weeks have flown by haven't they? I got called to train a new missionary last night, so on Wednesday I'll go to Edinburgh to pick him up and we will dominate Dundee. Elder Meyer is going to Terenure, near Dublin.

On Friday the zone leaders came and interviewed us. The one I talked to helped encourage me to be a better companion/district leader and how to motivate them, and the other zl really helped motivate Elder Meyer. It was really good.

Even the night before actually, I was getting frustrated because all of our things were falling through, Jimmy wanted to postpone his baptism, we hadn't been able to contact Kris and Chelsea in over a week, and stuff. But he helped me get over it, and then even the next morning Elder Meyer woke up at 6;30, we did a bit of exercise, and we did a full study for the first time in ages. 

It was great; he told me how great he felt after studying, and I could tell it did so as well. Since then it's been pretty good. He is being sent to work with a really good experienced elder who I bet can help motivate him even more so I'm excited for him. 

And I'm real excited to be a trainer! I'm gonna make the trainee shine my shoes and iron my shirts and do push-ups while I sit on his back and stuff like that. (joke)

So yeah...as I previously mentioned this week was just ok. Jimmy told us on Wednesday that he wanted to postpone the baptism till the next week, because he had to do a lot of tidying and stuff at his new flat. We tried to help him understand that the baptism will only be two hours or less, and that he'll have plenty of time to clean, but he preferred to postpone anyway. So hopefully it's next week. Maybe two weeks, because apparently he drank a wee bit of tea recently, without telling the zone leader who interviewed him...so we need to help him understand the covenant he is making and understand true repentance. So yeah, I guess when I send a picture of us in white then you'll know it happened.

Kris and Chelsea hadn't answered our calls or the door...but yesterday they came to church and everything was ok again.

We had a fun encounter with a ton of either current or recovering drug addicts. This guy called Kevin who I guess was taught by Elder Meyer and his last companion, but moved to BIngham Ward, so is being taught by the sisters there...we saw him in town and talked with him for like an hour. 

He's also on methadone. But he's been taught off and on for years, so he basically knows everything. He'd be a great missionary...but he is 28 years old and has a kid. And he can't be baptized for probably like another year when he's off the methadone. 

But yeah, a bunch of his friends came up and talked to us as well...it was just crazy, about five different people just walked up or shouted to Kevin from across the street...I guess the drug world is a very tight community. 

We might start teaching one of them called Barry. Hopefully it helps him make a change like we've seen in Kris and Chelsea. They've been talking about getting married and having a kid, in that order, so it's pretty great.

We've been talking to people a lot about family history...I've grown to like it a lot more. I've found it is only good with old people, and we see a lot of them on the bus we usually ride. So I finally have gotten the courage to talk to people on the bus about family history! Next step: gospel.

Other than those things, kinda uneventful week. But good overall, because Elder Meyer is recovering from his premature trunkiness. 

Also it was a good week because Jesus loves me and there is always sunshine in my soul.

Amen.

Love, Elder Burt

"Didn't take long for it to become clear that he wanted to destroy my faith."

The Scottish summer weather has been real hot-like, most of the time. Rained a few times as well. Not as hot as Utah's desert summers, but still there were several days where short sleeve shirts were preferable.

Anyway...this week was just ok. I haven't mentioned it yet, but this whole transfer so far has been full of "disobedience" of sorts...mostly with the schedule. 

I'm trying my best, but Elder Meyer's previous companion went home, and the trunkiness and lack of drive left a big impact on him. He is always too tired to get up at 6:30...which in turn makes it hard for ME to get up on time as well. I usually just get up on my own, sometimes exercise, shower etc...study, plan lessons, and it's usually time to leave the flat by the time my comp is dressed and ready to go. 

I don't like being forceful...turns out there's other stuff stressing him out in addition. So I've tried my best not to be forceful but to just be an example...but it's hard to keep to the strict missionary schedule all on my own. 

We're trying our best, but definitely seeing the impact the decrease of effective personal and comp study have had on our work. Yes, we are baptising Jimmy this Sunday, but other than that things keep falling through, and I feel like we're being very unproductive in general. 

Not sure exactly why I'm telling you ALL this, and not sure exactly what my game plan is to change it, because I've been trying this whole time to improve myself and help him improve as well...I guess I'll just have to try harder? I dunno.

Well anyway, on to the good stuff! Jimmy is getting baptised this Sunday (they do them on Sundays here). The ward is getting involved really well. Yesterday we had a meeting with the ward mission leader to talk about who would give talks and stuff like that. The fact that there are a lot of young single adults in the ward really helps. A lot are returned missionaries too so they know how it works. We're super excited!

Kris and Chelsea have been cancelling or just not showing up to appointments a lot lately. Not sure what the deal is.

Paul is back on track! We went and visited him yesterday. We discussed the reasons behind his falling away, and he said he got bored and started looking on youtube about Mormonism. No good. So yeah, his only concern was that a verse in Jacob 2 says men should have only one wife, and polygamy completely contradicted that. So from that he came to the conclusion that the church was false. 

But a returned missionary from the ward showed me a scripture a few verses later that basically says that if God needs to raise up seed, he will command otherwise, or something like that. 

We read it with Paul, and just like that he was back. So now what we're trying to do is help him gain a stronger foundation and testimony so that when this happens again--which it will, apparently it's happened several times--he can get over the concerns even when we can't resolve them for him. So there we go.

Oh yeah, I got your package! Thanks. It was great. I love the CD's. Listening to Brett Raymond for some reason reminds me of sitting in the family room digging through our huge Lego bin while listening to him. I guess we did that a lot? Or maybe the first time I heard it I was playing with Legos. Dunny kin. (Can be said kin or ken, or a combo of both kind of like Mom's pin and pen. LOL.)

Funny--the day the package arrived, I received another package; this one full of Anti-Mormon material! Back story: on Wednesday we were at the church for an Elders Quorum BBQ, when we got a phone call from a man who said he has a few questions about the Book of Mormon and wants to learn. So of course we said yes, (well, I said yes. Elder Meyer doesn't like talking on the phone so I took the call) hoping this would be a good teaching opportunity for someone who wants to learn. 

But the first question he asks, after asking my first name and trying to get all friendly, is "in the 1830 version of the Book of Mormon, it says in the front 'Joseph Smith, Author and Proprietor.' What does this mean to you?" So of course I knew from that moment that it wasn't the miracle I had expected. 

Didn't take long for it to become clear that he wanted to destroy my faith. His arguments were stupid, and it didn't even phase me. So it was a waste of both our time. Not sure how he even got our number, but if he knows ours then he probably has been attempting to do the same to other missionaries. 

Then two days later, addressed to me was a package from this man, opening it up I found a bunch of anti-Mormon articles and pamphlets and stuff. Took one look at it, tore it up, threw it away. 

He gave me a note with it, with his address and phone number and email etc. I am planning on giving the info to President Brown, and maybe one day he and the London, London South, Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds mission presidents will show up on his door step and swiftly rebuke him. That would be cool. Or maybe they'll just not do anything because he probably loves attention. We'll see.

Another fun fact: Did you know that the "Church of Christ" is the name of an LDS branch-off? There's one on 200 North in Logan I think. I always thought it was funny, because the sign looked similar to ours. If you want you could go check it out. Apparently they believe that Joseph Smith WAS a prophet and that the first vision and Book of Mormon are true, but that he became a "fallen prophet" after a while. Their church is lead by 12 apostles, no prophet. They have a temple too. We learned all this from a member who went on a Church history tour in the Eastern U.S. a few years ago, and she was showing us the brochures and stuff that talked about the reformed churches. Interesting.

Let's see...Also this week I changed a tire for Billy Connelly, a new-ish member...went to Edinburgh for an all-Scotland conference, where I saw a bunch of elders from my MTC group that I haven't seen in forever, and also listened to Elder Jose Texiera speak (Europe Area President). And that's the noteworthy stuff for this week. Pretty dang exciting.

Next week I'll attach some pictures. for now though, cheerio.

Love yous!

Elder Spencer A. Burt

"...the members are great, they feed us all the time..."

Hello wonderful family!

Well, this week was interesting. Particularly yesterday. We thought our excommunicated friend who wants to come back had been murdered, but it turns out he just "dropped" us. More on that later.

Last Monday was fun. We went to Broughty Ferry, where there is a beach and an old castle. Unfortunately the castle has been turned into a boring old museum. But the outside is still cool. 

We can't swim, but we kicked a football around on the sand and waded a few feet out into the water. Happy days. 

That night we had dinner at our Ward Mission Leader's house. He has a collection of like 300 pairs of pristine Nike shoes. It was impressive but weird.

The next day was my second district meeting. Decent at best. Exchanged with Elder Donaldson. We went and saw Paul...he's not really keeping the word of wisdom like he promised. He says he's smoking and drinking, but just in smaller amounts now. Oh well. 

Then while walking around we met this really nice taxi driver who is a less-active member in the Montrose branch, but works in Dundee...he says his biggest issue with the church is the Three Nephites. He says he can't believe that they could live 2,000 years. He says he's studied and prayed and talked to a lot of people to resolve his concern, but to no avail. Interesting, I never really thought much of the whole Three Nephite thing, but apparently little things can cause big problems for people.

The first time I wrote Tyler Bird (Latvia) he said to look for Jordan Lynch, a Scottish guy who served in Latvia. I figured there was very little chance of meeting him, seeing as there are lots of different areas in Scotland...but on Wednesday I met him! 

Jordan had actually gone back to Latvia to visit, and said he hung out with Elder Bird for a bit. It probably sounds dumb, but I was super excited to meet someone living in my mission who served in my friend's mission.

On Friday we went and taught Cameron (The 15 year old who was baptized in February). It seems like lately he's been getting bored with our lessons...so we tried an object lesson. 

It's a really good one: you take a bowl of water, put pepper in it, dip your finger in and show how it gets covered in pepper, which represents the evil in the world. But if you rub liquid dish soap on your finger and dip it in, the pepper suddenly shoots to the edge of the bowl, and your finger is totally protected. 

When we did this, Vicky (Cameron's mom) was so amazed! And Cameron seemed to enjoy it a little bit more than usual. So I saw it as a success.

On Wednesday and Saturday we went to the City Centre with the Bingham elders and sisters and did family history finding. President Brown has urged us to use family history to find people to teach, so we basically just went up to people and asked if they were into family history, rather than opening with gospel stuff. 

I honestly think its a waste of time...we had 0 success. One lady said she'd maybe call us to set up a time to go to the Family History Centre. But I guess if President Brown is inspired or whatever, we better keep on trying it. But I dunny like it.

By the way: "Dunny" means "don't"  and "ken" means "know." So people here say "I dunny ken..." or they add "ken" to the end of a sentence, kind of like "ya know." So that's fun.

Jimmy is progressing toward August 4th. The only thing stopping him is his girlfriend's mom. She keeps saying "He's not ready for baptism" and stuff...both on the phone to us and when we're in the same room with him! But he's flipping ready. 

We decided that from here on out, we'll only teach him at his own house, or his girlfriend's gran's house (Heather--a super sweet older lady in the ward).

So yeah, yesterday. Our friend Paul, (ex-member, wants to come back) didn't come to church, which was concerning because he promised he would the night before and he's been coming regularly for several weeks. Didn't think too much of it...until a member came up and asked if Paul was ok, because they heard on the news that there was a murder in Elders' Court (his housing complex). 

We were pretty worried. Called him later that night, no answer, over and over, but finally he called us back. Good news and bad news. 

Good news is that he wasn't dead. Bad news is that he got into some anti-Mormon stuff. (Again.) He said he was reading D&C in the section about plural marriage, and then in Jacob 2 where it says you should only have one wife. Understandable to have a little stumbling block about that, but he said he won't be seeing us anymore and he can't be involved in the church because it's like lying to God or something like that...

He'll be back though, apparently he's done the same thing in the past. Sad though. 

He's real sincere, I think he is just easily swayed because when we teach him, he is super excited about the gospel, saying that he wants to receive the priesthood and be like us someday, wants to get a big portrait of Jesus and Joseph Smith on his wall, then literally the next day he is anti. Oh well.

That's the week for yous. 

Overall it was ok...the members are great, they feed us all the time, our investigators have cancelled on several appointments but for valid reasons, Jimmy's getting baptized in 13 days, some people we are teaching are planning on being off methadone in January, and life is good overall I guess. 

Sounds like Logan Life (and Salt Lake...) is good too. 

Go to the temple a lot! Because you don't have to make a five hour journey (from Dundee) or a two hour drive, a two hour ferry--three hour drive (from Omagh) to get there.

God b with u till we meet again.

Love,

Spencer

  

Photos:
Beach

Castle

The Liff Ward guys hanging out on a cannon (the 3rd guy is Elliot, we met him there along with his friend from Dunfermline)

"I got to ride a bike! It was rubbish though..."

Hey y'all! 

This was a good Scottish culture week. I ate haggis yesterday!...tasted pretty much like meatloaf. The Keogh family cooked it special occasion, because they were feeding us and also an American family staying in Dundee who came to our ward for a few weeks. So yeah, I've had haggis. 

OH! And speaking of the Keogh's...their son Matthew served in Santiago Chile mission, and he said he remembers Elder Cannon when I asked him! He said, "Yeah, I remember him...he would rap all the time, and went by the name "Drizzle Drip" when he rapped." He even remembered that they were called the "Horses". So yeah, you guys should tell Ryan that I met Elder Keogh, if he remembers him.

Also last Monday we went into a tartan shop and looked at kilts and tartan ties. Kilts are super expensive. I don't think I'll buy one. Unless there's a member who makes them and could give me a deal...but at this particular shop she said just the kilt would be £300, and an extra 400 for the special jacket, socks, shirt, vest, and other stuff that I don't even know. Not worth it, probably.

I've seen two guys in kilts so far; one out in City Centre playing the bagpipes for money, and another guy with a kilt, a Guns N' Roses tank top, a mohawk and huge gauged ears. It made me laugh, on the inside. But at weddings, ALL the guys wear kilts. But they usually just rent one, kinda like how we rent tuxedos in America. Maybe I'll end up buying one before I return. Prob not. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Anyway...

Last week I went on an exchange to Perth. I got to ride a bike! It was rubbish though, the chain fell off and got stuck in the gears, so we had to walk them home and take the whole wheel off to fix it. I'll stick to walking and buses.

On Tuesday we went up to the top of "Dundee Law," which is a big hill in the middle of the city. We had dinner at a members' house, who agreed to come with us to teach our friend Cameron...afterward we had no appointments, and he asked if he could take us up the Law...we could have gone and knocked a few doors for the next half hour or so, but instead we thought it was more considerate to accept his invitation.

It was a super nice view. Maybe sometime we'll spend more time there and I'll take some awesome pictures. (I got a few decent ones, will attach.)

I also went on an exchange with the zone leaders. They live with the Bingham elders. It was super fun being in a 4-man flat!

Saturday we did City Centre finding, where we just go talk to people on the street. I didn't like it. 

I wasn't used to being in a crowded area trying to talk about the gospel. Almost everyone we tried to stop was in a hurry. I think I just need to build up my confidence in this area though, so I can do it more better like.

Kris and Chelsea are still doing good. They LOVE the church. Can't wait till they are baptized...even though I probably won't be here. Vikram is alright too...he came to church the past two weeks, but said he's not quite ready for baptism. We still have plenty of stuff to teach him so that's ok. Jimmy is ready to be baptised this Sunday...(here they do the baptism on Sunday, and the confirmation the NEXT Sunday). 

Talking with the zone leaders though we kinda thought we should post pone one week...because we forgot to announce it to the ward, and we want to make sure there's a good amount of support there. We'll see how Jimmy feels; I feel like delaying it one week will make it a more special experience for him if he has his ward family there.

That's basically my week for yous...we're away to Broughty Ferry to see a castle and hang out on the beach! All the Dundee missionaries are meeting up there. Should be fun.

Hope you have a great week. Endure to the end. Read your scriptures. Pray. Give the missionaries tons of referrals. Peace.

Elder Burt

Photos:

View from Dundee Law

The monument on top of the hill

View of the Dundee FC and Dundee United FC stadiums (rivals)

Whilst waiting for a bus, Jimmy and Siobhan came walking up. We chatted for a while, then noticed the fence behind us was all destroyed, so we picked up the pieces and put them roughly back into place. We felt cool. Jimmy is wearing elder Meyer's badge for some reason.

"...I'm doing my first exchange as a district leader..."

Yoyoyoyo!

Did you guys hear about Andy Murray?! Wimbledon CHAMPION! And even better...SCOTTISH! 

It was a huge deal over here. We didn't watch any of the matches...on purpose at least. We were, however, in a few homes for dinner where the family insisted that they watch it, so rather than running out of the room covering our ears, we watched for a bit. Some missionaries might think it was wrong to do, but I didn't mind. Spent quality time with the members, and they saw that we are normal people that enjoy normal things.

Hope you all had a great 4th of July!!!! I sure did. We did our weekly planning, taught Jimmy, had dinner at a member's house, and went to Ward Council. It was awesome.

Last Monday I got hit in the head by a bird. Not by bird poop, but an actual bird. We were walking around City Centre, when I felt something hit my head. It felt like someone hit me with like a text book or something, but then I saw a big ol seagull land on the ground in front of me, pick up a piece of old food on the ground, and flew away. It was weird yo.

Did I tell you guys about the time a wee yappy dog bit the leg of my trousers (aka pants)? It was back in Omagh, quite a while ago. So yeah, if I don't get chased by a real dog whilst I'm out I'll at least have that story.

Tuesday was my first district meeting! It went alright. Our district is just me, Elder Meyer, and the elders in Perth. One of our zone leaders also sat in. They told me at lunch that it was a good meeting. So I'm happy with that. 

Tomorrow is zone meeting, so I can relax. But I'm doing my first exchange as a district leader, so that will be fun.

Other than those things, no big significant events. Overall though, we get dinner appointments an average of six days a week. The food is no different from that of America. 

We had fajitas at three of the six last week. The only difference I suppose would be that they have dessert after every meal...not sure if it's because they have guests over, or if they always do that. I guess we usually gave the missionaries dessert when they came to our house, right? 

Also, they drink lots of fake juice. (Here and in Omagh) They call it "Squash", "Dilutant Juice", or a few other names...basically it's a bottle of concentrated juice-type drink, usually orange or raspberry flavour. It's pretty good. Some of them think it's real juice. 

Oh! And also biscuits. Basically like thin, plain cookies. They have "rich tea" biscuits, "digestive" biscuits (sounds gross, but they're alright) and a few other types. The biscuits we eat in USA , like Red Lobster Biscuits or other buttery flaky type biscuits, they call them scones. At least in N.I. Probably the same over here. That's my little food update. Really not that much different.

Not sure if I've filled you in on our investigators. Here we go:

Jimmy. He's the boyfriend of Siobhan, a member of the ward. He really wants to get baptised. We're working with him, making sure it's for real, not just to impress his woman. He understands most of what we teach.

Vikram. Late 20s man from India. Currently living with a few other guys of similar age and nationality, and they are trying to design a video game. He says he's still Hindu, but says he believes the Book of Mormon is true, and that he feels the holy ghost when he sleeps (?). Trying to help him realize that if the Book is true, then Christ was the son of God and stuff like that. Doesn't open up too much. Dresses real classy too.

Kris and Chelsea. Unmarried couple, Kris' mom is a member in the Bingham ward. (Dundee is split between Bingham and Liff wards.) Both want to be baptised. Love coming to church, reading scriptures, having us over. They are super good; they have seen their lives completely change since meeting with the missionaries.

Paul. Excommunicated member who wants to return. Amazing guy; the first day I met him he was saying it would take a while for him to get off the drink and the smoke. But last week he committed to live the Word of Wisdom, and gave us all his cigarettes, tea and coffee. He had already thrown out his alcohol. Great man. Strong testimony. Real intent to come back.

Those are the only people we work with really. Much different from Omagh; there we had loads of investigators some who weren't really THAT interested. Here we only have a few, but they are all pretty committed. They are spread out all over the city, and traveling from our flat to their homes to members' homes takes a good chunk of time. 

We have little to no time for door knocking ("chapping" over here) or street contacting. I'm trying to muster up the courage to do "bus finding," but it's scary.

Overall, I like Scotland a lot. It's great, so it is. (there's a N. Irish man in the ward, I heard him say "So I did" yesterday and it made my day.)

Today we are going to a tartan shop. Basically they sell kilts, tartan fabric, tartan ties, and loads of other stuff. Let me know if you want some, there's loads of tartan here.

I love yous! Thanks 4 everything.

Spencer

Photos:

The extent of my July 4th celebrations

 Remnants of a recently demolished building

FREE MARIAN PRICE! (Taken on my last day driving through Belfast. Usually a sign of an IRA neighborhood.)

The view from Bingham ward's building. The River Tay, or the Firth of Tay...not sure which it's called.
BYE!

coming soon

Monday July 1st SCOTLAND!