"..."my mom's pretending she's not home!" It was hilarious."

Hello all! 

So first off, this is moves week...already! Elder Winn and I are staying, as expected. However, an extra set of elders is being assigned to Liff ward as well. A trio, including Elder Farnsworth (the elder who I left SLC with), and elder Gomez-Castillo! So they will be part of my district. And Perth is no longer under my stewardship, because there is another set of elders in Perth as well, and they will form their own district. 

So yeah, exciting things are happening. I'm not so sure about having two sets of missionaries in our ward. It means less dinner appointments and less investigator appointments for us, and almost every night we struggle to come up with meaningful activities to do during the next day, so now it will be even harder. But I guess it will be sort of fun. We'll see.

Last week we did a bit of tracting in this neighbourhood near our flat. Pretty classy neighbourhood, well at least compared to some of the places we go. 

At one house there was this super cute wee girl, she answered the door and said, "my mom's pretending she's not home!" It was hilarious. The mom came to the door after that of course, we found out her mom is a member of Bingham ward. Then the little girl followed us around on her bike for the next five houses or so. Real funny. Then we met this lady who I thought was totally prepared to hear the gospel. Non religious, but wonders if there is more. HOPES there is more, and was intrigued by the thought of eternal families. 

When we returned the next day, her husband answered and said that they are atheists. But I want to go by sometime when she is only home and find out if she is interested. We get a lot of that, "No, she's not interested." Agency, people!

On Tuesday we taught our friend Mark again. So hard to stay on-topic. But he's making progress. We started teaching a new guy called Brian. He's had a bit of a rough past, but seems to want to change. 

Cool story we heard from Lee Thomson (ward mission leader). Apparently these two Scottish rappers went down to London to try and make it, but were shut down. Then they decided to put on American accents, and come up with a whole back story as to where they are from, and they made it big! (In England) Just recently after several years of performing and recording, they announced that they're not American, but Scottish. Apparently there is going to be a movie made about it. Cool story, eh?

On Wednesday I experienced a good Ward Council argument! I was just a bystander, but it was still pretty awkward. Our bishop said this to us afterward, "I guess it's a good thing that people love the ward so much that they will get angry at someone else for it...that's the only good thing I could come up with about that." Haha, our bishop is pretty laid back, but still a great bishop.

As I am getting used to, we met a lot of people in the street or while tracting who had good potential, but then they were not there when we showed up for a return appointment. I am trying to master the art of "teach now, not later" where you just start teaching there and then so the person will feel the spirit and have a greater desire to meet with you in the future. It's a genius idea, but it's hard!

We decided to try talking to people on the Dundee University campus, since this was the first week of classes. People seemed a lot more open and friendly than the usual street contacting, but they were in a rush. I really want to try again, maybe at a time when the students are just walking around campus not going to class. It made me a bit trunky [thinking of home] though, I want to go back to that good ol college life! But this life is better.

Part of training a new missionary we're supposed to do an extra hour of companion study together, including watching The District clips, reading Preach My Gospel together, and doing role-plays. I haven't been putting a very high priority on it for most of the time, but lately I've felt like we need to do more so when we have something going on that causes us to miss the extra hour, we'll do it later in the day when we have nothing going on. Sometimes it's frustrating staying at home instead of going out and doing work, but Elder Tinsley our fearless zone leader told me that the training is THE MOST productive thing you can do, and it will affect the rest of a missionary's mission. 

So yeah, we've been doing a lot more. That's maybe why this week feels like it's been a bit slow and uneventful,. other than a few cool stories here and there. Well, that's about it for me. We are probably gonna go Kebabtize Elder Winn now!

Love,

Elder S. Burt

 

Photos: 

Logan Crescent! 

Our district! zig zag from top left: Elders Tinsley, Donaldson, Lesuma, Winn, Burt, Allison.

This painting is in a member's house...I asked to take a picture of it because I thought the signature said "Burty", but apparently it's Bunty. It looks like Burty though.

"I like doing this, hoping that they are "lost sheep" that we can bring back."

Hiya fellow Americans,

This week was quite good. Best part was a fantastic zone meeting dedicated to companionship unity. We went away feeling real unified, and we enjoy our companionship quite a bit more now. So it's good, makes the work a lot more enjoyable.

The following are the events that transpired this week, in chronological order:

Monday we had a nice p-day, Elder Mills gave me a haircut, I look really good. We played a bit of tennis, but only a wee bit because the buses and the emails and the shopping and the haircut all took a while. 

Then we had dinner at the Hann's house. Did I tell you about them yet? 12 kids. Age 2-21. They had a BBC kids documentary about them. You could probably find it if you google "Hann family Mormon Scotland Dundee" or something like that. Their little kids are the funniest. Tons of funny stuff they say...can't remember any but I'll have to write them down in the future so I can swap Sunbeam stories with Mum. 

Then we did some service for a nice lady in the ward.

Tuesday: Zone meeting, exchange with Elder Donaldson in my area, four appointments fell through, but two unexpected people let us in to teach them. One was Paul, the one who flip flops all the time. He is back on track...at least he was that day. Haven't heard from him since Thursday.

Wednesday: Service at Baxter Park picking up litter. Service at a member's neighbour's house, gardening. Taught a less-active guy. Dinner at a nice family who is doing good member missionary work and is excited to start doing even more, agreed to invite her less-active sister and her non-member partner to the next time we come to dinner. Taught Mark a good, but off-topic, and LONG lesson, but good thing was we had a member called Julian come with us and they got along well.

Thursday: Weekly planning, watched "The Lamb of God" with Paul, he said it was an honor to watch it with us. Taught another less-active lady, tried to teach Kris and Chelsea...they have been missing appointments and not coming to church for the past three weeks. We are concerned.

Friday: Gave Mark a tour of the church to help him feel comfortable in the building before he comes to church. He enjoyed it, another member around his age drove us there, and bore a real good testimony to Mark in the chapel. Unfortunately Mark didn't come on Sunday, wasn't feeling well. 

Dinner at the Clancy's house, fun family similar in age to us Burts. Late-night (8pm) dinner at Mike Longmuir's house (another member), super spicy curry, fun visit and spiritual discussion.

Saturday: Street contacting in City Centre. Met a guy from Ghana called Eli, taught him a bit right there and then, taught a full sit down lesson at his flat on Sunday. 

Had a good lesson with Jimmy, cleared up some misunderstanding about the doctrine, hopefully helps him to continue in church activity.

Sunday: Church, Another good lesson with Jimmy following the service, knocked a few doors of people on the ward list who we've never met or heard of before. I like doing this, hoping that they are "lost sheep" that we can bring back. But often they aren't even aware they are members, and they are not interested. But I like it for some reason, trying to find out the story behind these names on the list. 

Taught Eli (previously mentioned). Tried to contact some former investigators, which I also find interesting, but often with similar results. 

Back to the flat, had dinner, did a bit of "training" where we read a bit of Preach my Gospel but mostly just watched The District videos. Good fun.

Monday: Woke up, did a few sit-ups, tried to do push-ups but couldn't be bothered, showered, ate cereal, studied, took a bus to the library, sat down, checked emails, wrote this email. 

After this we'll do some grocery shopping and then go play tennis. Again! which is good because we didn't get to play for long last week but I loved it so I am proper excited.

Sorry, this week's email wasn't as entertaining, I figured I'd try to be more organized and also I am behind on my journal entries which I usually use, and so I just have my planner for reference of last weeks' stuff. So yeah, next week will be better; stories not just events!

I like my mission a lot. Sometimes I feel like it would be easier and/or nicer to be just hanging out back home, but other times there's no other place in the world I'd rather be.

We found a few stores that sell loads of Scotland/Dundee souvenir stuff...what do yous want? Magnets? Pins? Pens? Stickers? Mini figurines of guys in kilts playing bagpipes? Flags? Calendars? Anything really. Think about it, pray about it, and let me know, or I might just buy a bunch of random stuff you may or may not like.

Have a great week erbody! Love yous

Spencer

 

PS: I had a letter all written and addressed last Monday, but had no stamps. So I will send it today. I PROMISE.

Photos: 

Me in the classy tie Char and Ryan sent me

My planners so far. (Six transfers! Nine month mark sometime this week! Crazy)

"When I read it I was literally speechless, just...whaaat?! Miracle."

Hey, I have a cold right now. I think I got it from Charlotte.

I'm gonna start with a brief recap of all the Scottish/Irish language I've learned so far.

They both say wee, yous, missionry/primry/testimny.

Scottish have a lot more it seems, although even people living in and raised in the same city have different styles. Those who grew up in a more rough area with a rough childhood seem to speak more "broad" whereas the more dignified people speak more "polite." 

Like saying "ken" instead of "know" like "Do you ken him?" "Nae paul I dunny ken him." (No pal, I don't know him.) 

I think Billy Connelly had the thickest "Dundonian" accent. When driving in the car with the window down, he'd say "y'alright with that windy doon?" Toon=town, doon=down, etc. Also they refer to kids as "wee'uns" but some Dundonians say "bee'un" and it kinda sounds like bean.

"I canny go 'e the toon today, my bee'un broke the windy ken" (I cannot go to the town today because my child broke the window, ya know?) I've never heard that sentence, but yeah that's most of the slang that comes to mind right now. 

N. Irish is mostly the same words, other than wee and aye and yous, but with just a sort of sing-song voice. I'll pay more attention and write down little things I hear each day and share more next week! Maybe I'll trick the Scots into saying something to my camera while I record them, so yous get the full effect ken?

So anyway this week was pretty ok. Had a few good dinners, we helped Billy and Jan Connelly pack up their moving van (they're away to England now...) Kris and Chelsea never answered their door for appointments, even on the rare occasion that they answered our calls and said to come at the specific time...Did some service for an older lady who lives next to a member, taught a good lesson to Cameron that got him excited and participating a lot more (but now we have big shoes to fill for the next lesson...) We met a few good people to teach, but overall the theme of last week was people cancelling on us or just not being there when we show up. This coming week we already have like a ton of appointments set up, so hopefully they all work out this time.

The ward took a huge step yesterday; the whole time while I've been here the ward mission leader has been talking about this grand idea of getting more people going out to teach with us. But the whole time we've basically just arranged stuff ourselves when we need someone to go with us. But yesterday Brother Thomson approached a bunch of elders/high priests in the ward and we have someone going out teaching with us five nights this week, whether we have a lesson or not. Awesome!

Good news and bad news about Melissa. We finally got in contact with her on Friday. She was just as excited to be taught, come to YSA, church, and get baptised. So we arranged an appointment for the next day, brought someone with us, and again she wasn't there. Weird. 

Also, we got a text from this guy we met a few weeks back who didn't seem that interested at first: "Hello it's Lawrence, I'm sorry for the late message but I find myself in need of guidance. if you would be so kind as to contact me I would welcome you and your conversation. If it helps I have good reason to have faith in our Lord, my mother has faith and I believe in her beyond all doubt. I have prayed to our Lord in my most pressing of times and I want to give thanks by accepting my brothers and the goodwill you bring. I am ready to accept Jesus into my life and I believe this is how I should start." 

When I read it I was literally speechless, just...whaaat?! Miracle. 

My enthusiasm was lessened a bit when we called and he hung up on us...but we are planning to stop by at his house today just to see if he is still as miraculously interested and prepared to receive the gospel. 

So yeah, we've seen a few wee/big miracles, but then when we get a bit disappointed when it doesn't work out as we hoped. We'll see...........

Everything is going pretty well. But dunny ken what President Brown and/or the Lord were thinking when they called me as district leader and trainer.

I'll end by explaining what Key Indicators are. Basically they are "the numbers" that we collect as district leader. How many lessons taught each week, how many new investigators, etc. They give an overall idea of how the work in the area is going, what needs to be emphasized more, etc. If you want to know more, ask Joey (or Ryan, if he was during the PMG days), or read Preach My Gospel chapter eight.

Love you all! I sent you a fun letter today, hopefully it gets there soonish.

Sincerely yours,

Elder Spencer Burt

Photos:

Me with Billy Connelly before he moved... :(

Drawing of me, done by Poppy (six years old)

Michelin Man! (I need to eat less sweets and go running more or I'll look like him...)

Wee plaque on a house that said "Omah"!!!

"I suddenly felt a tiny stinging in my finger...it gave me a good fright."

Well this week was fun, I got bit by a fish and got told to shove the Bible up my [bum]...sideways! We'll get to those later.

Tuesday I had my first district meeting. I didn't plan it that well, and there was not much participation, so it went by really fast. I decided to play some churchy games, because I feel like I'm sort of a robot district leader and our district doesn't talk much. So we played "PMG chase" where one person reads a random bit from Preach My Gospel and the first one to shout out what page number it's on got to go next. And also some Book of Mormon character hangman. It was fun. But tomorrow it's all business, no fun and games.

That day also I went on an exchange with Elder Lesuma, the zone leaders' trainee. He's really cool. From Utah but his mom is Fijian. Really nice and sincere and humble guy. While tracting we ran into two very very Christian old guys, who happened to live across the street from each other, who told us they disagree with us because of our view of the Godhead, and because we don't think that our Jesus can't save us. Interesting, because Elder Lesuma says he's gotten a ton of people saying stuff like that to him these first few weeks, but I've only had a few of those my whole mission. I guess the Lord is just trying him in different ways, preparing him for maybe some difficult things up ahead.

Overall things are good with Elder Winn and me. Still real quiet sometimes, but we have a good laugh occasionally and that makes the difference to me. I do want to get along with him well, so I can proudly say "I trained Dixon Winn" when he grows up to be a championship bull-rider. (Did I tell you he did that back home? Apparently he won a few thousand dollars in a competition just a few months ago.)

Awesome thing happened Tuesday, a girl we met self-committed herself to baptism, basically. I might have mentioned her last week, but this girl Melissa who lives across the street from the church seemed quite interested in the church and YSA, so we made an appointment to go teach her and invite her out to institute the next night. 

She forgot about it and so we had a brief chat on her porch, but it was awesome; she said she had put some serious thought into reading a bit of the Book of Mormon and some pamphlets we gave her, and she said she thinks she'll probably become a Mormon someday. We were amazed! She even said specifically, she thinks she'll come to church sometime and probably get baptised in the end. Pretty cool, especially since we hadn't even mentioned the word "baptism" to her before that. Unfortunately though she hasn't been home lately for us to actually follow up and teach her, but I'm sure we will. Lots of potential.

We started teaching another lady this week, named Julie. She fell off a ferris wheel when she was a kid, and she miraculously survived. Has to walk around with two canes now, but she seems really grateful to still be here. However she also didn't keep the second appointment we made with her...but then we chapped a few doors around hers and met a guy who let us in. So really, miracles are happening out here, we are finding a lot of people who are interested. Some trials of our faith keep happening of course though. We'll see how these people end up this week!

By the way, Jimmy got confirmed yesterday. Super spiritual being part of the circle. (Jon the Baptist confirmed him.)

So now the stories I mentioned at the beginning of the email. 

We were tracting a bit around our neighbourhood, and this guy told us to come in and check out his fish. He told us they were trained to take fish food out of your fingers gently. I felt like there was something "fishy" about it all, but I did it anyway to please him. Of course when I tried to feed them a bit of fish food, I suddenly felt a tiny stinging in my finger. Didn't actually hurt, but it gave me a good fright. I felt a bit stupid, but at the same time it gave him a good laugh so now we have basically a friendship, and he said we could come back another day and teach him. So it's for the best.

Then yesterday we stopped a guy on the street, he told us he knows a lot about our church...bad things. So I asked him what exactly he'd heard, and then he got a bit angry and asked why we stick our nose in other people's business so much...I told him I try not to but I'm sorry if someone of our church ever offended him. 

He got even angrier and told us we deserve every criticism in the world, and said, "Shove the bible up your [bum], SIDEWAYS!" So I said have a nice day and we walked away. He said the exact same thing again, followed by "[flip] off, leave me alone!" I had a good laugh once he was out of earshot. Stuff like that doesn't phase me, I just think it's funny. Makes for good stories to write home about.

Well anyway, that's our week. Scotland is great, ken?

Have a fantastic week of 26 August - 1 September, and hopefully your key indicators are continually improving.

Love,

Spencer Elder Burt

Photos: I took a few this week, but I left my camera cord at the flat. So here are these ones that President Brown emailed us. Enjoy.

7 August arrivals, formal 

7 August arrivals, goofy

Missionaries atop Pratt's Hill

All Scotland Conference with Elder Teixeira

"...I conducted my first baptismal interview..."

This week was pretty fun and adventurous.

Sorta. Coolest thing was I conducted my first baptismal interview, with one of the zone leaders' investigators. It was a good experience, we had a good discussion on the church overall and his testimony. He was baptised Sunday morning before church and confirmed in sacrament meeting.

Jimmy was supposed to get confirmed yesterday, but he and his girlfriend got head lice. Bishop told them they could still come just for the confirmation and then leave, but they wanted to stay home. 

This week was a bit frustrating with a lot of things falling through, like lessons and such. 

We met this fairly solid guy called Paul (he's now known as Paul #2). The Bingham sisters met him on the street and he lives in our ward. He is really open to learning what we teach, but we are not sure if he comprehends it all. A lot of just head nods and agreeing, and then when we ask a deeper question to check his retention he says he doesn't know. But he wanted to come to church....and then didn't show up. 

We did find a young lady with lots of potential. I might have mentioned before that our ward building is sort of the YSA (young single adult) headquarters for the stake. Each week an hour before institute we attend the YSA council meeting and talk about the missionary work in the stake, like which investigators are YSA and which YSA are coming out to teach with us. 

So on Wednesday, after the meeting and before institute started, we went across the street and invited this girl we met a few weeks ago to institute. She said she really wanted to, but couldn't that day, but she had read the material we gave her and parts of the Book of Mormon, and she felt really good about it. So we have an appointment tomorrow to go see her with a YSA returned missionary, and she says she'll go to institute the next day. We have high hopes.

That's probably the highlight as far as missionary work goes. Here's the update on being a leader. 

Another missionary in passing told me that a kid flipped him off, so he did it back...I was like, "Are you serious?" He said yeah, so I said don't do that. He said, "I dunno, it's whatever." I said "No, it's not whatever, don't do it ever again."

Overall I do love the work, hopefully this week is a bit better.

Thanks everybody, and I love yous bunches.

Elder Spencer Ashcraft Burt.

 

Sorry, I didn't take any photos this week...

"...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