Tuesday May 6

"...we tried SO hard to find and baptise someone in Omagh, and finally it happened!"

So I'm gonna go backwards this week.
Yesterday was so, so, so fun!
Zone Development is a new thing our mission is doing, where once every transfer we have a whole P-day dedicated to having fun together as a zone.
So yesterday was the first one, and basically the entire Belfast Zone (all the missionaries in N. Ireland, about 30) met up at the Stake Centre and we played sports pretty much all day.
Soccer, frisbee, a talent show, (I juggled while Elder Spackman attempted to play a set of miniature bagpipes he got as a gift, it was funny) dinner, and then soccer with a huge yoga ball, with added rules that you can hit it with your hands but can't hold on to it. It was crazy fun.
My legs are pretty sore, but it was worth it. And now we get time to email and shop and stuff. Hopefully President Brown continues to carry on this tradition every transfer. We all love it.
Sunday, we had Ward Council and then church.
Our new ward mission leader is brilliant; he is trying to implement this idea where members of the ward go and put leaflets in letterboxes, and then we elders will go and tract the area a few days later.
1) It helps the members to get involved without having to start a gospel conversation with someone.
2) It gives us something to follow up on when we tract.
3) If and when we do find someone solid, it will get people excited about the process, especially the member who did that street!
So I think it's a great idea. And when he brought it up to the ward council, one of the ladies said that some, including her, might even knock the door while they're at it! So we'll see how that goes.
Church was good. Kathleen Graham (Ashley's mum, Nelson's "wife") came, along with her daughter-in-law who was visiting from England.
We tried to get her daughter-in-law's address so we could send her name as a referral to the missionaries in her area...she said she's too busy right now but maybe we'll get it someday.
Then after church we went to Newcastle with the James family. Nicole (the mom) drove us to some of the awesome scenic spots there, and it was a beautiful day so we saw some great sights and got some good photos.
Saturday Elder Spackman had a terrible migraine...and it just so happened that our appointment in the afternoon cancelled on us. So I let him rest for a wee while.
Then we visited the Grahams (Nelson, Kathleen, Ashley, and his kids Joshua and Zack) and had a good lesson, then had dinner with Jim, one of the members who feeds us weekly.
We did "service" for him by putting photos from his camera onto his facebook page because he didn't know how.
Friday we had a bunch of our plans fall through, and so the day seemed to drag on and on...but then we ended with a D.A. (dinner appointment) at one of the awesome members' houses, a young married couple with a hilarious wee baby boy.
The dad's brother was there too, they're both in their late 20's and they love talking about their missions and they're hilarious.
Thursday we had another D.A. at the Johnson's house...a family with an Irish mom and an American dad. They met at BYU, lived in Utah for a few years, and now they're here to stay.
It's kind of odd to meet Americans out here who AREN'T missionaries.
Like last week at Subway I met an American who was doing study abroad in Glasgow and decided to come to Belfast for the day. Their accents stick out like a sore thumb, so I'm sure mine does too when the locals hear me talk.
Wednesday was way fun. We volunteered at the British Heart Foundation charity shop, then we went to the park near our flat and met up with Rachel and Noah. They are recent converts from Omagh!
Elder Spackman served there just a few months ago, and he found and taught them, and baptised Noah. He is Rachel's son, 8 years old.
So they came to Lisburn to visit Elder Spackman, and we had a lot of fun. Noah loves to play, and run around the playground yelling and screaming.
They're way nice, and I was especially happy to see them because we tried SO hard to find and baptise someone in Omagh, and finally it happened!
Tuesday we had district meeting, visited and had dinner with Ian, a nice member who can't come to church because his daughter visits him on Sundays and the mom won't let her go to church. Lame. But he's way nice, and he loves talking about American Football.
Well, a lot of these members I've told you about are ones I've seen already, but we just had loads and loads of member dinner appointments this week so I figured I'd give a wee background story on each one.
It was a fast yet slow week, if that makes sense.
Well, as usual, my hands hurt from typing so much. I better go. Love you all!
Oh wait one more thing. When do you want me to SKYPE on Mother's Day? Less than two weeks away! (It is on the 11th, right?) We have a solid member who will let us do it whenever suits yous. So let me know by next Monday if possible.
Love you all! Have a nice week!

Photos:
Taken near Newcastle, Northern Ireland

"Well, that's why we keep coming back." And she quietly said "thank you."

We'll just go chronologically this week.
Monday we spent a good bit of time packing, because usually the missionaries all move on Wednesday but apparently the ferry was already full-booked for Wednesday and so the office had to buy Tuesday tickets instead, which we didn't learn about until Monday around noon.
So Elder Dewsbery had hardly any time to say goodbye to people.
We visited the Grahams--Nelson was almost angry that Elder Dewsbery was leaving, and said that when I get moved he's not gonna go to church anymore because he likes us two and doesn't know how he'll get on with the new guys. But he already loves Elder Spackman so it's all good.
Then we had a fun dinner appointment with this young family, the highlight is their one year old son Rory who loves to Roar. All the time.
Then Tuesday we went to Belfast, Elder Dewsbery left, and I was with Elder Peterson for that day.
We had a good day together; we met two YSA girls that seemed really interested in learning more and both were excited to read the Book of Mormon we gave them.
We just hope they are legitimately interested in the gospel, not the young men walking around in nice suits, white shirts and ties haha!
Then another great dinner with another fun family with cute kids. This ward is full of them.
Then after that we visited David--the guy who was investigating for ages and we just got back in contact with. It can be silent and awkward a lot there, especially when we ask a question that he has to think about.
I'm not sure how Elder Spackman feels but I am willing to work slowly and surely with him, and teach him for ages till he finally finds a way "into the water."
Then Wednesday we went to Belfast again--lots of travel this week--and I got Elder Spackman. He's good, we seem to get along well.
We cleaned our flat because it was super dirty (I shoulda cleaned while Elder D packed, but I just lazed around...) then we went to visit a less active guy named Mark.
He's way solid; he wants to get back into activity, marry his girlfriend, and he said his dream was for her to be baptised and eventually get sealed!
He's one of those guys who you'd think he was fully active from the way he talks, but for some reason he doesn't come to church. We'll have to pinpoint the concern, probably hidden deep within his heart somewhere. That sounds weird, but oh well.
Thursday we went to visit Audrey Loverty, a sweet old lady who hasn't been to church in like 20 years.
Complicated story, but long story short we go and visit her because we KNOW that she feels something when we visit, teach, and pray.
She often admits to that, saying that she's not sure why but she is always drawn to the church for some reason. She reads the scriptures, Ensigns, watched conference on her iPad, etc.
Last week she seemed kind of negative, told us that she doesn't want us thinking we're gonna get her back to church, just giving us fair warning so we wouldn't waste our time.
I felt strongly prompted as we left to ask her right as I shook her hand, "Do you feel the spirit when we come over?" "Yes, I'd be lying if I said I didn't." "Well, that's why we keep coming back." And she quietly said "thank you." It was pretty spiritual.
We have a new Ward Mission Leader who seems like a great guy. The last one was good too, but he just didn't really want to be in that calling. We're excited to work with the new guy, he's essential to our helping the ward progress with member missionary work.
Friday was really good--we went to the church to help set up for a party later that night, then went to lunch with Billy and Kim (have I told you about them yet? If not, let me know...they're special.) and Jim as well.
Jim is the active member who feeds us every Saturday, and has been doing so for over 18 years, and now he's moving to Canada in a few weeks.
The party on Friday night was for him. It was pretty good; good music, good food, and fun. Lots of less-active members showed up, so of course we tried to talk to as many of them as possible. It was a good night.
Oh and earlier that day we met two solid guys: Mark and David. Mark we just stopped on the street and he was very excited to talk to us.
When we gave him a Book of Mormon, he said he would read it, and wanted his whole family to read it too. So we're planning on taking like four or five more copies to his house someday because he has a lot of kids.
And then David; we had already met him once, he's a relative of the Graham family and they told us to go visit him.
The first time he didn't seem interested, but then we were tracting his neighborhood and he was out gardening, and he sat down with us on his garden bench and asked tons of questions, we gave him a Book of Mormon, and he was really excited.
Big transformation from uninterested to very interested in just over a month, but I'm not complaining.
Two solid people we found in the same day!
I've been feeling a bit sick last week, and Saturday I just felt rotten. Mostly just a really really sore throat and coughing up lots of mucus.
So we took a half sick day...we studied and then I slept from 10am til 1 in the afternoon! It was a good three hour nap, helped my immune system catch up.
Sorry, you probably didn't care to hear all that.
After that, we met Chris (our 17 year old investigator) at the church, and watched The Restoration with him. He offered to say the prayer at the end which was awesome!
He's totally trying to find his faith.
Sunday was awesome--we had Easter dinner at the Jacksons' house.
They're a part-active family in the ward. The mom Gail is so nice, fed us a great dinner and is almost like a mom to us.
Her husband is hilarious--sometimes rude though. But Gail is always smiling no matter what.
Their son had his girlfriend over for dinner as well. Gail had already given her a Book of Mormon, so we decided to watch The Restoration with them as well.
She seemed to like it a lot, and Gail just seemed to be beaming afterward because from what her son said he still seems to have a good knowledge on the church's history, and she felt the joy of sharing the gospel as well.
The Graham family all wants to be baptised!
Not sure when it will be but we'll sort it all out!
Not sure why I kept that until the end of the email, it's pretty exciting!
Whew, my hands are tired from typing so much. I better go now.
Love you all! Have a fantastic week!
Spencer

Picture:
Playing ping pong on our last night together! (There's always been a ping pong table in the back room of our flat, where the landlord just kinda uses as a storage room...we'd been planning on clearing it off to play the whole transfer and so we finally did it before he left!)

"...I got punched by a crazy drunk old man!"

So first off, this is moves week, and I'm staying.
However, Elder Dewsbery is leaving. Which I wish was not so, because I WANTED to stay another transfer with this companionship.
My new comp is Elder Spackman. I've met him before, and he seems really cool so hopefully next transfer will be just as good. I'm sure it'll be fine, but I wish we'd had another transfer together.
Holy cow, this past week has been full of so many crazy experiences.
First off: I got punched by a crazy drunk old man! I'm ok though. He was just standing on the sidewalk and we walked up to him to try and initiate a gospel conversation.
As soon as we did, he yelled "F*** OFF!!!" and brought his fist back ready to swing.
Luckily he was really slow, so I dodged it and he only hit my shoulder a little bit. The adrenaline rush that came from it was crazy though!
The next moment I realized that I was on my toes, ready to defend myself. Then I backed away.
As we walked away we saw him yelling at and flipping off cars driving by, so I didn't take it personally.
On Tuesday after District Meeting about six of us from our district did some "City Centre finding" in Belfast, just split off and talked to everyone we could.
When we congregated back together, and we were about to go back to Lisburn, a group of like eight teenage girls came up to us silently.
They asked us what we were doing, and we told them...apparently they were doing a similar thing, they were from a youth group from their church, doing a "prayer walk" where they just pray with people they meet.
Then one girl who we could tell was sort of the leader of the group, started asking us the typical questions that some Christians tend to ask, trying to find fault.
Things such as "Do you believe we're saved through grace or works?" "Why do you need the Book of Mormon?" "Why don't you think the Bible is enough?"
It was a bit crazy, since we were in a group, so like four of us trying to answer her questions, and a few other groups had split off for separate discussions. In the end I think we answered her questions adequately, and testified to her.
The best part: The sisters in the Holywood Ward have this investigator named Robert, and he happened to come up to us right before the girls did, and during the whole thing he testified that the Book of Mormon has opened up his eyes a lot, and he knows it's a true book.
Apparently he's "been saved" for about a year now (that's what a lot of born-again Christians say), so he was able to relate to them because a) he's local and b) has a similar background, and recent, relevant experience with discovering the Book of Mormon and the Church and we could tell his testimony impacted them probably more than all of ours combined.
The guy's awesome--doing non-member missionary work!
Then there was this guy named David in our Former Investigator binder that we decided to try and contact. He said he just picked up the Book of Mormon a few weeks ago and started reading again, and then sure enough we come to his door.
He took it as a sign. He is the epitome of a "dry Mormon" (someone who knows tons about the Church, knows it's all true, but is not baptised.)
He's never been baptised because he is afraid of people, like deathly afraid, and he will not come to church.
But we plan on teaching him as much as we can and hope something we teach or something he reads will make a difference. Seriously though, he knows so much and has a great testimony.
Now let me tell you about the two crazy Simons that we know.
The first is the one who is very devout Christian, hates The Church of Jesus Christ, and calls us "Kolobites."
We met him again, and he gave us his typed out conversion story, which was pretty good. Just needs to have the same experience in reading the Book of Mormon as he did when he prayed for Jesus to save him from his sins. But fat chance at that, because he is so very biased against everything we believe.
Then there's the actual crazy Simon.
We were in a cafe eating lunch with a few members on Friday, and he walks in, sits by us, and just starts talking.
We've met him a few times, and he always just asks question after question without waiting for an answer.
Loves asking about America and talking about different places in America and asking if we've been there and what we think of the weather and what a Mormon is, etc.
So we knew what was coming, but the members and the employees didn't know what the heck was going on!
And every time, he ends up asking for money, saying that if we're Christians then we'll help him out. He's just crazy and hilarious.
We met him on the way to the library this morning again. At first he asked if we could give him £2 to buy a coffee, then later in the conversation he asked if he could have £10 because he has no food at his place.
We went to try and contact an AUF ("lost sheep" sort of thing) who lived in a nursing home.
The staff was friendly, and brought us to her in the lounge where she and a bunch of other old ladies were sitting in their chairs quietly.
Her face lit up when she saw us, and she said she was so happy to see us when we told her who we were.
We went with her to a quieter part of the home, sat down, and then she asked us what church we were from.
We told her, asked her questions, and turns out she doesn't remember being baptised. But she doesn't remember a lot of other things...she definitely has Alzheimer's or dementia of some sort.
She seemed to almost think she was a young woman still. We asked what she likes to do, and she said she's kept real busy with work and she just got married, so life is very busy for her.
We asked if she had any kids, and she said "Not yet!"
So yeah, we decided to just talk with her because we could tell it made her happy.
We might go back sometime if the staff will let us, just to talk to the oldies and brighten their days. They all seemed really happy to see us, and loved to come shake our hands and start telling us about their life. It was kind of sweet.
And now we'll finish with a miracle story:
We were walking through a park, and two 18-19 year old girls shouted at us to come talk to them. They asked if we were Mormons, and told us they wanted to "be converted"...we both thought, "What?! This doesn't happen. Ever."
But they were sincere. They told us their story, that one had investigated back in Scotland and they both wanted something more in life and they'd heard good things about our church.
We were so excited that we didn't think very logically...we should have just taught them right there on the spot, and even invited them to be baptised, but for some reason we asked if we could meet at their house or the church another day and share our message.
They said they'd come to church Sunday and we'd teach them there. Unfortunately however, they did not show on Sunday, and the phone number they gave us doesn't seem to work.
So now we're a bit unsure on it...but I have confidence that our paths will cross again and we'll be able to figure things out.
It was amazing though, after we left we knew we had witnessed a miracle! Oh well, I pray we'll meet again.
Well I think that's plenty of cool stories for this week.
Sad for the moves status, but I'll get over it.
Love you all! Keep the faith!
<3 Elder Burt

Picturesss
I rocked the middle part for a whole day...It was terrible.

A picture of our super-fun district.

April 7

"JESUS IS DEAD!" I immediately yelled back "No he's not!"

Well I have limited time for this mass email...I decided to spend a bit more quality personal time writing personal emails to family and friends. But I'm sure I'll be able to communicate what went down this week.
Yesterday was UK Mothers' Day! They had a special service in sacrament meeting. They gave all the mothers a nice rose or some flower, I don't know what type.
It was kinda messed up though because they ONLY gave them to the mothers...not the expectant moms, not the married wives, not the single ladies...so I'm sure some people felt left out.
Oh well, not my problem. I'm just there to bring more souls into the Kingdom here in Lisburn...which we did!
Our investigator Chris, who is 17 (mattress guy) decided to come. We had like four other people say they would probably show up too, but none did. But Chris came.
We almost expected him to leave after Sacrament, but he stayed and said he really enjoyed it! We've only been able to teach him one lesson, but we have another appointment with him this week.
We taught the Graham family (Nelson, Kathleen, Ashley) a couple times, and took different members with us each time. They get along really well with them.
We're not sure if they understand our purpose for visiting them, but they are willing to have us over whenever and to come to church...they've committed to all come together in three weeks. Not sure why, but we'll take it. Excited to see where they end up.
I went to Belfast on exchanges last Tuesday with Elder Kinnard. We walked a lot.
But we taught a young guy who probably listened more attentively than anyone I've ever taught, except maybe Traci.
Usually they're full of questions or objections or concerns or just random comments and going off topic...but this guy was dead on, just listening, nodding, answering our questions perfectly.
I feel like that's it for eventful things this week...not much funny stuff...
Well yesterday we were walking down a quiet street, and a car drove by and a guy around our age yelled out the window "JESUS IS DEAD!"
I immediately yelled back "No he's not!" as they drove away...But I've got a slight cold so my voice cracked really bad and Elder Dewsbery and I had a good laugh over that.
The past few weeks we've been wanting to go "street preaching" on a Saturday in the City Centre here, just like the early missionaries of the Restoration did in the UK.
We're both pretty excited, and telling ourselves we'll be ready for it and prepare what to say...and then by Saturday we just get way nervous and end up backing out.
We're not sure if it's even legal, but we'll do it someday before our companionship is over, we've promised ourselves.
It will be way scary but awesome to say that we did it. And maybe we'll get a member to come down and take pictures of us doing it.
Pretty nerve-wracking idea...but who knows, maybe we'll baptise entire villages just like they did back in the day?
Well, have a great week!
Enjoy General Conference! I wonder if anyone will mention the "Act Well Thy Part" stone this year. Or maybe the Blarney Stone instead to commemorate Ireland.
Love yous!
--Elder Spencer A. Burt

Photo: Moroni 10:4

"...having a gang of wee girls following us around asking for free stuff."

Hello!
It's been a pretty great week. I feel like it's flown by, but at the same time I feel like it was really long. That's the mission paradox it seems.
The highlight was that Nelson, the father of the family we've been teaching, came to church yesterday!
He is old and can't walk much at all, so it was a bit difficult finding someone to give him a lift to church...but in the end we figured it out ok!
He loved it; said that he already has more friends in our church than he did in the church he went to for 10 years. So that was great. Our ward is solid at fellowshipping new people.
He can't hear very well, in fact, we're not sure if he understood a word that was said during sacrament meeting or the lessons, but he said he really loved it, so he must have just felt the spirit and liked it. Pretty cool stuff.
His son Ashley, who we originally contacted on the street, said he doesn't want to come without a suit, even though we told him it was fine. He has a suit, but it's too small so he says he'll buy one before Easter and come to the service then.
His mum said she'd come as well, and who knows, maybe Ashley's wife and kids as well.
The kids are so funny, age two and five, and they just run around and love us being over at their house. It's just a great family overall and we're blessed to have found them!
Now some funny stories.
We were walking around the neighborhood where Ashley's family lives, and these three girls ages 6-8 came up to us and said "Hey, what are yous doing?"
We told them we're missionaries, and we talk to people about God and Jesus.
They saw we were carrying copies of the Book of Mormon, and they said "Can we have Bibles?" We said yes, because I think it's a good seed to plant...the kids will take them home and show their parents, who will maybe read it...who knows?
But we only had two Books of Mormon, so we gave them to two of the girls and to the other one we gave three pamphlets, and we told her that they were just as good, if not better, and she has three now.
So then they started trading books for pamphlets. Then they told us to go visit their parents' houses.
We did, and the parents were usually confused and uninterested. But oh well, it was a funny experience, having a gang of wee girls following us around asking for free stuff.
Then another day we were walking around the city just trying to talk to everyone we could, and we met two teenage girls around 17 or 18 years old.
They started asking us all these random questions, and then one asked "Hey, wanna take a selfie with us?!" So we did, and she put it on facebook saying she was "hanging out with Mormons."
We told them a bit about the church, but it was hard because they were easily distracted. But it was a way funny experience.
They asked our names and added us on facebook, so if there's a girl named Ellen who mysteriously adds me on facebook, go ahead and add her, and then maybe I'll convert her after my mission using facebook, if we don't' get the chance to while we're here in Lisburn. They said they'd come to church but they didn't.
Then while we were talking to them, two guys walked up carrying a brand new mattress. It was actually one of our investigators named Christ who we've taught a couple times, also an 18 year old.
He was carrying it to his house, so we offered to help. It was a big queen size mattress, and we could tell they were struggling to carry it quite a distance, and then when we all lifted together they were just so thankful because we got it to his house in about 30 minutes rather than probably an hour if they had to do it themselves.
So we are slowly building friendships with YSA, youth, and primary age people, and I think that's just as effective as it is to walk around talking to everyone about Jesus Christ and the message of the restored gospel.
Although that's great and everyone needs to hear it, most people just brush it off because they don't give themselves a chance to even hear it.
So yeah, it was a fun crazy night full of facebook selfies and carrying a mattress.
Other stuff...we had six dinner appointments last week which was pretty rad. All with really fun families in the church.
We volunteer once a week at the British Heart Foundation, a charity (thrift) shop, where we help organize and put price tags on donated clothes. Fun time.
We were through a park near our flat yesterday and tried to stop and talk to this man...I just said "Hello sir, how are you?"
He made eye contact, took off running past us, and then stopped running about 10 feet past and kept walking. We were just so confused...like, "What just happened?!" We've asked ourselves that same question with all the other random crazy things that have happened this week.
We approached another lady about to cross the street, and we said, "Hey, sorry we know you're going somewhere and you might be busy, but we're sharing a message about how families can be together forever. Would you be interested in learning more someday?"
She said, "Yes absolutely. Can I give you my address?" We eagerly took it, and we were impressed and both had a good feeling that she was very prepared and searching for truth in life.
But then when we went to her house another lady answered and said it was the wrong address. Such a downer, especially after we felt so excited that she wanted us to teach her quite badly. Oh well, we'll get over it.
That's my week.
As usual, very long, but I thought they were cool stories.
More funny and random than spiritual this time...maybe next week will be super spiritual.
Either way, missions are awesome and I'm loving it.
Love you all!
Elder Burt

Pictures:
Can you spot it?

Some memorial thing.