"...whether or not Scotland will become independent! Exciting to be here at this exciting time."

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014
Hi all!
So we had a good week.
We started teaching two new people: A nice lady who might have some sort of mental disability, but not severe. She wants to serve a mission, but mostly to go to an exciting place and meet new people.
When we told her that we don't choose where to go, and that we pay our own way, and that she'd have to be in the church for one year before going, she didn't seem as eager.
But she is nice, and could really use the help of the relief society because she lives a bit of a sad lonely life it seems.
Thinking it might be better to give her to the sisters, because when we showed up for our appointment with her, and we had a member with us, she didn't let us in and we just taught on the doorstep.
I think she was scared of inviting three grown men into her small flat with her all alone. She's promising though.
The other is an alcoholic. When we came over for our appointment at 10:30 am he was already drunk, had been drinking since 2:00 am. Troubled past. But maybe the gospel will offer a better future.
We still teach our other investigators but not much progress.
The two YSA age guys from last week...they seem set in their ways but they are open to keep meeting with us.
One of them read 1 Nephi, Chapter 1, but he said he didn't feel like praying specifically to know if it's true; but just prayed to be led to the truth.
I was just thinking..."Well, He led you to us, so there you go!" They're the type of guys who the only thing that will convert them is the spirit, and the testimonies of fellow converts.
We had a fantastic stake conference with Elder Jose Reina, from Spain. He is amazing! So happy, and funny, and when he talked into the microphone it was super loud because he's just so enthusiastic.
He gave us some great advice on sharing the gospel:
If you only have 30 seconds, the most important things to share are:
1) We are Christians; we believe in Christ, we love Christ.
2) His true church has been restored!
3) Being a member of the church makes us happy!
And the most important thing is to always smile, because life is great, and life with the gospel is even greater. He was just so happy the whole time he talked. A genuine, hilarious, and humble guy.
We had some weird experiences with weird guys.
One super drunk guy around 8:00 pm one night was peeing in the corner of the bus stop when we got there.
Then he came and talked to us, asked about three times where we were headed, and yelled about how great Celtic (football club) are.
The other guy was on the bus, and he was just talking to himself the whole time. He was hilarious.
At first I thought he was talking to me, because as soon as I took my seat in front of him he said "Have you been to Norway?"
I turned around and he was looking at me, so I said no. Then he carried on rambling on about various topics from penguins to Brazil to cricket to football and even ended up talking to himself about Jesus.
Fun times in Glasgow.
Well, that's the exciting events from last week.
The next time I email, we will know whether or not Scotland will become independent!
Exciting to be here at this exciting time. I don't know what would actually be best, but I'd like it to become independent so I can say I was there on Scotland's Independence Day! The vote is this Thursday!
Love yous and have a great week
Elder Spencer Burt

Photo: Disobedience

Elder Spencer Ashcraft Burt
Scotland/Ireland Mission
51 Spylaw Road
Edinburgh EH10 5BP
Scotland

"Hanging out with Highland Cows"

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014
Hi everybody!
This email might be a bit short.
We had a fun P-day at Pollok Country Park with our district today, and we left emailing till the last, and now the library is a bit crowded and they are limiting how long we can stay on the computers.
Anyway.
This week was pretty good. The highlight was Wednesday, where we began teaching three new investigators!
One is an old guy named Marcus, whom the sisters handed over to us. I'm not sure why, maybe they were just feeling nice so they gave us an investigator!
But he is a nice guy. He likes to talk a lot about his past, and tell stories. We met with him once in his home and we are teaching him again next week.
He lives near a recent convert who loves helping us out, so maybe we will see if he'd like to host a cottage evening-sort of thing at his apartment, where it's a bit more comfortable.
The others are two guys in their twenties.
They both have finished their degrees at University, and they either work or volunteer with a Christian fellowship group for university students.
Elder Schmidt and Elder Liu met one of them two weeks ago, and we scheduled a time to meet up with him on campus.
He brought his friend along, who is also fairly interested.
I feel one might be a bit more receptive, I kinda get the feeling that the other already knows a lot about the church and is biased against it. He asked questions such as "Is this the only English edition published?" (I've had several anti-Mormon people criticise the fact that the 1830 version is slightly different than the current one in some spelling and punctuation) and he said he has a lot of questions.
So we're bringing another member with us this week when we meet with him, who joined the church in his twenties. Even though he's a bit older now, he should be able to relate to them. We're excited to start working with these guys!
The two active Christians seem like the type where if they received a testimony, they would be AMAZING solid members of the church. And although they would face loads of persecution from their Christian friends and ministers etc., I'm sure they'd be steadfast through it all. That is if they sincerely give it a chance and they get their answer.
We're still working with our other investigators...Paul, Alistair, and Sabrina. They are all coming along pretty well.
We are working with a newly found less-active guy named Scott, whom we met at a bus stop.
He is a bus driver, so he usually works on Sundays.
He's great though, he ALMOST came this past Sunday but he didn't answer his phone. He doesn't finish his driving shifts till like 2 or 3 in the morning, so I don't blame him for not waking up on time.
Let's see...On Saturday we played football with the collection of members, nonmembers and missionaries from around the stake, and we helped another member move. So yeah it was a good week.
We also had a few funny encounters with drunk people. Always fun.
Sorry for being so short with this email, but yeah I hope you all had a great week as well.
Love yous!
Elder Burt

Photos:
The former LDS meetinghouse in Drumchapel

Hanging out with Highland Cows (Scots: Highland Coo's)

"...but it feels good to help him out in the here and now."

Hello family and friends!
So we have had a pretty good week. We did a lot of service.
We helped a guy in the ward move a super heavy marble fireplace from his daughter's house into her garage. She and her husband are remodeling a house they just bought that is really big and nice but old.
When he told us he needed help moving the fireplace we thought it would be easy, but even with me, Elder Schmidt, and two of the Chinatown elders and the man, it was difficult.
We ended up using old torn out carpet to slide it along the floor, out the door, and across the garage floor to its resting place. Apparently the member is taking it to his house once he gets a van rented, so who knows maybe he will need help again when that day comes.
We also helped an investigator clean his apartment. We asked him beforehand if we could come and help him clean, and he said it was ok. So we went in our service clothes, bought some latex gloves, and went to work.
We just focused on his living room, where he usually is and where we teach him. It was practically nothing but old receipts, bus tickets, and newspapers. We threw away probably eight grocery bags full of newspapers.
Once the clutter was all off the ground, Elder Housley (exchanges that day) vacuumed the carpet. It looked AMAZING! I wish I could have taken before and after photos, but I felt like that would be a bit insulting. So you'll just have to imagine it and take my word for it.
We suggested that we come over two times a week; one to teach, and one to clean. Because his kitchen and his other rooms could use some cleaning.
Yeah, we know it may just end up in the same state after a month or two...but it feels good to help him out in the here and now.
I can't remember if I told you about Zone Development that we had last Monday...we played a lot of sports, such as "yoga football" (soccer with a yoga ball, and you can hit it with hands too) capture the flag, dodgeball, chair football, and had some dinner and a few silly games at the church. Fun time.
We had zone interviews & training last week as well. That's where President Brown comes and interviews us all to check up on us and give personal advice, while the zone leaders and the assistant to the presidents and Sister Brown give training. Good stuff.
Now the racism story. We were visiting an old and hilarious less-active lady. She lived in South Africa for a good few years, and that combined with the fact that she is old make her a bit racist, and we can't really do anything about it.
She usually says something negative about blacks or Arabs, etc. But last week she told us a story about how a black carer/nurse-type lady came up to her flat (she lives in an assisted living centre) to give her medication or something. Somehow they started arguing, and our lady told us that she told the black lady, "Well, I'm white, what colour are you?" It was terrible! But funny how senile she is. We like visiting her.
We had a stake activity on Saturday: Cultures and Cuisines of the World.
Every ward was assigned a country to do a 10 minute presentation and a small taste of the food. Our ward had China, because we have lots of Chinese members. It was fun.
There were also rooms for Scotland, Brasil, USA, India, Italy, Spain, and Ecuador.
The Chinese families in our ward out-did everybody else in food and decorations and even a traditional Chinese dance. It was awesome.
Well, these are the noteworthy experiences that occurred this week.
Of course we taught a few other investigators, tracted, street contacted, visited members and less-active members, all of which are important as well. But you know, nothing exciting to report back.
Hope you all have a super week!
(I know it's a bit late, but I want to try and share a scripture or a quote every week that is nice or inspirational or applies to missionary work of some sort. I shoulda started 1.5 years ago, but as Uchtdorf says, "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is NOW!")
Mosiah 26:20
"Thou art my servant; and I covenant with thee that thou shalt have eternal life; and thou shalt serve me and go forth in my name, and shalt gather together my sheep."
Love you all!
Elder Spencer Burt

Photos:
Chinese decorations at the stake activity

Feeding honeycomb to Jesus (yes, I still have some left! It's like eating pure honey haha)

"...ended on good terms, and he only accused us of false beliefs like twice."

A few of our investigators, and also a recently re-activated member here struggle with addictions, mostly with smoking, and also gambling. The member is the only one who openly admits it and wants to change, but he has a hard time.
We may try the 12-step stop smoking program, which I found a few copies of in our flat.
We also encouraged him to pay tithing before anything else as soon as he gets paid, and the Lord will help him manage the rest of his money. Perhaps that means his temptation to gamble will be less, perhaps one of those classic tithing miracle stories will happen. Who knows.
It's interesting, here in the UK, on practically every street corner, they have "Bookies" short for Bookmaker. Basically it's where people go to bet on horse races, football matches, etc. But they are also like a miniature casino, with slot machines and roulettes and such.
They are almost as common as convenience stores. And even in the convenience stores they have Lottery scratch-cards for sale. So there is a lot of opportunity for gambling, therefore if someone has a gambling addiction, they can hardly leave the house without a huge temptation to gamble. It's difficult.
We're trying to help these guys with their addictions, but it is hard to relate to them. Perhaps I will vow to give up chocolate if they give up one of their things...one of the sister missionaries in the ward is doing that for her investigator and maybe I'll give it a shot. It would be good for me AND them!
A funny quote from a lady we stopped to talk to on the street: "I'm a lesbian beyond saving." Oh well, we tried.
Last week we helped a member move. She was just swapping houses with a guy who lived down the street, because hers was just a small one-bedroom apartment with no stairs, and the old guy she is swapping with was having trouble with the stairs in his house, and with maintaining the garden.
So we went to help her move her stuff from her house to the new one. And while we were there, we helped the old guy's family help move his stuff as well. And apparently they were quite surprised; they originally thought we were college students or something, but we told them we were on our missions and told them a bit about it, and they seemed a bit intrigued.
At church on Sunday, the member said that the old guy's daughters who were taking care of his move were so surprised and grateful that we helped them move as well, even though we just met them! So I guess that's a seed planted. Yes!!
On Saturday we played football with the big group of missionaries and members from the stake. It was fun.
Later that evening, we did splits with the elders from the Springboig Ward, basically who cover the other half of Glasgow. We met in City Centre and changed companions for an hour or so.
We met some interesting people; one homeless Albanian guy who had a big toy dinosaur on his shoulder. He let me pet it.
We gave away 3 Books of Mormons, one to an interested YSA-age girl, one to a Catholic, one to a Muslim from the Middle East.
Then we walked past a born-again Christian gathering, where one guy was giving a speech into a microphone and a few other volunteers were passing out small pamphlets. We stood and listened for a few minutes, and one guy approached us. He said, "Mormons? So you're actually NOT Christians."
So we quickly jumped to the defense, and I guess we did ok because he changed the subject to why we believe in Joseph Smith. We talked a bit about grace and works, the Godhead, and a few other things.
Toward the end, he seemed to be asking more questions of actual interest, rather than accusing and condemning questions. It almost sounded like he was beginning to question his belief of the 3-in-1 Trinity.
We ended on good terms, and he only accused us of false beliefs like twice. I guess you could say it was a friendly wee bash session. Fun times.
Then as we were about to head back home, we got mobbed by a bunch of retired couples, who were on a bus tour of Scotland. They were all LDS, and apparently the rest of the bus was as well because it was a Utah-based tour group. It was fun!
Church was good on Sunday as well. Paul came, and it was his first time! Although he was a bit confused by the order of the verses in the hymnbook, he got used to it and said he liked it a lot and he'll come next week to.
I like sitting by investigators on their first day at church. Just to kind of experience the new-ness and excitement with them.
Alright that's all folks, talk to yous next week!
Love,
Elder Burt

By the way, I'd suggest you ALL watch this Mormon Message. It's the best one I have ever seen. Everyone should watch it, member or non-member. It's amazing.

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=3701964025001

Photos all from the Kelvingrove Museum last week.

"After we helped him walk across the street he gave us a hug."

Dear everybody,
Here were the funny, strange, spiritual, and overall memorable experiences I've had this past week.
First one was when we were tracting (always the best way to find interesting people). This guy opened the door, and when we told him who we were and what we were sharing, he said "Do you know what opium is?" "Yeah I think so..." "That's what religion is like. This is a Marxist and Leninist household." So that was different.
But a few doors down we met a nice Indian lady, who seemed very quiet and shy, but seemed interested to learn more about God's plan. She said we could come by later that week and teach her and her husband.
We did, and they were both very nice, they said they would read the Book of Mormon a bit but couldn't see themselves going further with it. They were so nice though and I had a good feeling about them after our conversation with the wife! Oh well, that's life.
While tracting in a different area, we met one guy whose late mother was a member in Dumbarton Ward, and he has a Book of Mormon and had gone to church quite a lot in the past, and he even remembers the elders' names that used to teach his family as a kid.
So I was very hopeful that we could maybe teach him again, and perhaps re-ignite a spark that was once there! But when we asked if we could come back and visit sometime, he declined.
Flip! Sometimes people are just SO close and they "slip through the net," as another lady said about herself.
She answered her mom's door when we were trying to contact people in the ward [local congregation], and her mom was on the list. She was very friendly, and said she does wonder if ours is the true church, but didn't get an answer...yet.
We encouraged her to keep trying, and that the best way to know of course is through the Book of Mormon. So maybe we'll see her again, maybe not. At least we have her mom's address and we can follow up sometime.
Another guy we met tracting was really friendly, and when we asked him if he was religious, he pointed to the Rangers jersey he was wearing and said, "I'm Protestant, obviously." (Celtic=Catholic and Rangers=Protestant. I guess Mormons have to choose Real Salt Lake)
He said we could come by another day, because the Rangers lost the night before and he was "mourning" because of that. He actually said that. People are very die-hard with their football here. It's fun.
The sister missionaries and their recent convert, Pierre, organized a small Family Home Evening type thing late in the week at his house. We brought a recently reactivated guy with us, and it was a lot of fun. We watched a few Mormon Messages and then played Pictionary.
One of the happy surprises this week was when we decided to knock on a nice Slovakian lady's door, who we met several weeks ago.
We had an appointment with her, but she cancelled. We'd tried to call and text many times since, and we just assumed she lost interest because she never answered or returned our calls.
But she was happy to see us, and said her baby had been super sick for weeks and that's why she couldn't respond. We offered to bring her a Book of Mormon in Slovakian or Czech for her to read while she is sorta housebound with they baby. She said she'd be happy to have us over for a visit in a month or so when the baby is better. So that was nice!
On our way home on Friday night, we saw this guy kinda stumbling down the sidewalk, and he looked like he was wasted. As we walked past he started hitting his head on a brick wall. Not super hard but still, not good. We asked him if he was ok.
Turns out he was on some sort of hallucinogen drug and was seeing stuff and hearing stuff.
But as we talked to him he cheered up quite a lot, although he was dozing off mid-sentence and then twitching back awake allll the time.  After we helped him walk across the street he gave us a hug.
And those are the eventful events of last week. Always so many interesting people to meet.
Hope all is well in the Promised Land. Until next week,
Elder Spencer A. Burt

Photos:
First day of college at Glasgow University! JK, just going to a museum. But that's what the photo looks like.

Other photos on the Glasgow University campus

I found Waldo Street.

"I think we can learn a lot from new converts."

So the moves call came in, and I am staying in Glasgow with Elder Schmidt. 

So I'm assuming I'll probably get another companion in six weeks, be with him for two transfers, and "die" in Glasgow. Scary thought. But ya never know, it seems our mission president has been moving missionaries for their last transfer increasingly lately.

So we had a pretty good week. 

On Monday after P-day was over, we went to Family Home Evening at the church with a recently re-activated guy named David. It's a YSA activity technically, and he is not exactly YSA (at least mid-30) but the YSA missionary couple said that if we think it will benefit him then he is welcome. 

And he loved it. He doesn't have many friends, so it was very good for him. He liked it a lot. 

I was on exchange with Elder Davis, our zone leader. Usually they do exchanges from Tuesday morning - Wednesday morning, but they decided to do Monday evening - Tuesday evening instead. 

We had a fun exchange; I found we taught really well together. We taught a guy named Paul, who has had a rough past, but he is SO excited to learn about the gospel. As we left his apartment, he said to us, "Thanks for coming over, and I really mean that, thanks." It felt good. 

We had a teaching appointment a few days later with his next-door neighbor, and we took Pierre a recent convert that the sisters taught, but unfortunately the lady wasn't home. 

But we knocked on Paul's door just to say hi, and Pierre related really well to him, being a new convert. Paul talked about how he really wants to come to church; that it "just seems like the right thing." Pierre said his thoughts were exactly the same. 

I've kinda realized that solid investigators, and even solid converts, take a while to form a sure testimony and understanding of the Restoration. I always assumed that that was why people joined the church, because they believed it truly was Christ's church and they agreed with the doctrine. 

But I've increasingly realized that most converts come to church, get baptized, and keep coming, because they feel good, and they feel the spirit. The knowledge of doctrine comes with time. 

And I think that's good for us to apply as well--just be simple. Sure, we probably all know the church is true, and we agree with the doctrine, but we need to recognize that if the spirit's there, and if we feel good, then it is good. And it's a lot more simple that way. I think we can learn a lot from new converts.

Also with Elder Davis we went to Buchanan Street, a super busy place where people are hustling and bustling all over. It can be frustrating, but fun too. 

We decided to split up and just stay within sight and sound of each other, so we could contact as many people as possible. 

While I was talking to a nice, polite guy from N. Ireland, four young adults approached Elder Davis and started asking a bunch of questions. After a few minutes, they told him that they were returned missionaries, three from Aberdeen and one from Canada, and they had served in Birmingham England. I wish I had seen it!

Oh also on our way from District Meeting to lunch in the City Centre, I saw the back of a guy's T-shirt on the bus said New Hampshire Fire Dept. or something like that. 

I was just about to stand up and move over to him to ask if he was from there, when an old lady got on the bus and I got up to offer her my seat. Perfect! 

So I went to the spot where passengers stand, and it was right in front of him. So I asked, and he said yes. He and his wife live in Nashua, and they were over here visiting family and sight seeing. 

He was originally from Boston, and he had a VERY strong Boston accent...such a cool accent. It makes me want to go visit the East Coast someday. 

I told them that although I hardly remember anything about it, I lived in Penacook as a child. We had a good conversation. When we got off I gave them each a mormon.org card. Seed planted: check. 

On Friday we were finally able to teach Sabrina, a YSA age investigator who is half African half Italian. She has been taught since last fall, and she has a pretty good knowledge and I would even say a good testimony, but she is super busy with work which makes it hard to meet with her and for her to come to church, and she has family that are dead against her getting baptized. It was nice to finally see her, we'd been trying to for five weeks. 

On Saturday, there were THIRTY people at the stake football morning!!! 

The last few weeks there have been maybe 16-18. But we brought Noel, an 18 year old from France who has mad football skills (he's a member) and the sister missionaries came with two of their recent converts. 

Some people are fairly chill and not that good, but some of the members are really intense and good. It's a lot of fun. 

We played 15 on 15, which made it even more fun because there wasn't as much space to cover (didn't have to run as much!) Since I'm staying here at least another six Saturdays, or probably 12 or 17, I might buy some turf cleats if I can find a good deal. 

And yesterday we had church, which was good. I gave a talk. And as usual, I was super nervous and felt like I was a nervous wreck at the pulpit. 

But as usual everyone said "Oh I enjoyed your talk!" and apparently they actually meant it because one lady said that people referred to it in both relief society and Sunday school. 

So I guess my subject matter was good, but my delivery could use improvement. Maybe I should take a public speaking class at USU, I've actually heard there is one and it's really beneficial.

So yeah, that's the week. Just over four months till I will be on an airplane! 

It's weird, I literally get a bit more excited when I see an airplane, which is common because many planes fly over the areas we proselyte in to land at the Glasgow airport. 

Maybe just because my first time on a flight (that I can remember) was on my way here, and so this will only be my 3rd plane ride so the excitement and novelty is still kind of there.

Anyway, I love you all and I am grateful for your example, and for bringing me up in the church and in the gospel!

Love, Elder Burt

Here are the photos from District Meting that was held on 5 Aug 14. Enjoy!

"We saw Prince Harry, Prince William, and Duchess Kate there!"

Alright!
So last week started off with some boxing! It was pretty intense.
Most of  the matches were on the light-weight side, but some were more heavy, so the hits were harder and more intense. It was pretty fun!
It was just me, Elder Schmidt, and two elders from the other ward in Glasgow (Springboig Ward).
Sometimes when the lightweights were boxing I was kinda bored, but the good matches made up for it. And guess what else?
We saw Prince Harry, Prince William, and Duchess Kate there!
They walked in and took their seats across the arena from us. We heard some people sitting in front of us get all excited and talk about it, and that's how we noticed.
I got a couple blurry pictures from across the arena, and a couple of the Jumbotron when it showed them sitting there.
So yeah I was in the same room as royalty. Even if the boxing had been total crap it would be worth the £15 to say I was there with them. We didn't get to meet them or teach them about the gospel or anything but it was still cool.
The crowd all went crazy when boxers from Scotland, England, Wales, and N. Ireland boxed.
It seemed like the boxer in blue almost always won, and they were always the favourite.
Alright...now the rest of the week.
We met a lady on the street and talked with her for a few minutes, and then she started looking at me real closely and said I look exactly like someone she knows. The way I smile, laugh, talk, look, the hair, the eyes, and eyebrows, she said it was scarily similar. It was interesting.
I've only had that happen once before; a Mexican guy on one of the service trips I went on said I was the spitting image of one of his friends. Maybe someday I'll meet my doppelganger or see a photo.
I exchanged with Elder Jones who is a Mandarin-speaking missionary. It was cool; he taught one lesson to a lady in all Chinese! I just sat there in awe. It was really cool.
Apparently they teach a ton of students, who have never been able to learn about the gospel in China, and then they return home to China and hopefully spread the gospel to their friends there.
We're still teaching Alistair, and he's coming along...he has a very very good memory, sometimes he'll throw out answers to questions that involve very specific words from the lessons, and it's surprising that he remembers so much.
Sometimes he even says stuff that is spot on and we haven't taught him yet, and we're quite sure the past elders didn't either because they only taught him one lesson. Interesting guy.
Thursday we got bashed by Freddy again. Luckily it was just him, not his friend. The scriptures he read and related to the Godhead made sense, and I'd never heard them used before...but in the end, I KNOW Joseph Smith saw TWO personages and that's all that matters in the end!
Saturday we played football, then did some City Centre finding to take advantage of the Games atmosphere. We met some interesting people.
One guy who was wearing a kilt, and he says he wears it every day. We were interrupted mid-conversation by a drunk and/or high guy who was just asking random religious questions... "so...God so loved the world, right?...." "um...yes...?" "....." He would say random scripture references but they didn't make any sense. It was funny.
Then we were talking to an Indian-looking guy from England who is half Sikh and half Christian. He gave us a DVD on the life of Christ, and it's a bit old and cheesy.
My favourite part is when Jesus approaches John the Baptist, they shake hands, and then Jesus just lays down in the water, basically baptising himself.
We were interrupted in this conversation as well by a Slovakian guy who lives in the Highlands somewhere, telling us that he met two elders in his town and they never came to visit him. We talked for a little while, and by the end he said our conversation had cheered him up significantly.
We also met a squash player for the Lesotho team, and he accepted a Book of Mormon as soon as I held it out, but he didn't say much else. It's a seed, I spose.
Oh and I approached a young guy probably in his twenties, and he just stopped, looked at me angrily, and said "I know all about your church already. You're a cult! Get out of here! Go back to America!" It was quite funny.
I think my short time working at the call center helped me to face rejection with a good attitude on my mission; it's never really bothered me, I just find it entertaining sometimes.
Church was good. One of our long-term investigators came. She enjoyed it. Also it seems like every week there is at least one visitor who is here from America on business or holiday or something. It's interesting.
So yeah, that's my week. Hope all of yous's weeks were nice as well.
Love you!
Elder Spencer Burt

Boxing photos!!