"...I cannae wait to go to the temple again."

Hello!
So good news, our friends are all on their way to baptism, December 7th. They have stopped smoking--they have only had two or three cigarettes each since last Monday.
Nicky and Shaz (that's what she goes by) are getting married on the 5th, just a quick official one and they will have a big celebration wedding later on when they have the money and get all prepared. Although the more they talk about it, they might have a little party anyway cause their family all seems really excited!
They are just so great, all three of them.
In addition to them, can you pray for all of the people that the missionaries in the ward and district are preparing for baptism:
November 30:
Lizzy (Chinatown 1)
Michael (Knightswood Sisters)
Nicky and Shaz/Sharon
Kayleigh
Xu (pronounced "shu") aka "Will" (Chinatown 1)
Iris (Chinatown 1)
Amir and Sally (Chinatown 2)
Seven baptisms on the 7th! And our ward mission leader was baptised on 07/07/07 at 7:00pm...so he has a good feeling that they will all happen as planned!
Other than focusing on those three people, not much else has happened that seems significant.
I went on exchange in Chinatown, which is always fun. They do a lot of street contacting at the university which I enjoy.
We helped Nicky and Shaz get the papers filled out and turned in for their wedding.
They are getting married by the bishop at the church, but they needed to get a marriage license or something. But it's all done, we just have to wait till the 5th. And keep teaching them as well!
Nicky asked us if we had to wear special underwear, cause his mom told him that. So we showed him the new video on the Church website about Garments. It was perfect.
Led to us talking a bit about temples, and we showed them the pictures of the Preston and London temples. Cool.
BTW, I cannae wait to go to the temple again.
We visited a few members, helped some clean the church, played football, taught our group of Christians (Sam, Jennie, Ali) and tried to resolve some of Sam's concerns about the Book of Mormon...like why it is written in King James Language when that's not how they spoke in the 1800's...why some phrases are identical to the New Testament, even thought the New Testament hadn't been written yet...etc.
We just need to bring Jim, the ex-Catholic school teacher who has an awesome conversion story. But we just can't seem to align all three of our schedules yet! But we will.
As usual, the members, investigators, converts, missionaries, etc. are all pretty great here in the Glasgow Ward. I am enjoying my time with them. It feels good when they are sad that I am leaving.
Well I love you all...excited to see you...hopefully I don't miss being on a mission too much when I get home.
But it will be great to see you all and share stories and catch up on life and go places...and it will be great to just be alone sometimes! haha.
Elder Zander and I are getting along pretty well though, don't worry. Lots of laughs, but it can be exhausting.
Have a great week!
Elder Spencer Burt

Photos: Nicky, Shaz, and the nice cake they made us! :)

"I love the missionaries...the members...and even the often grumpy and uninterested Scots..."

Hey everybody!
So, this week has been flipping awesome...so remember our investigators? Well they are set to be baptised on December 7th!
There are some hurdles to clear for them, such as word of wisdom and gaining a stronger testimony, but they really want to.
And in our lesson they invited their friend to join us, and she loved it. She committed to get baptised the same day!
And they all came to church on Sunday. It was the primary program...so they just loved it of course!
And you know what's even crazier? The week before that (Nov. 30) there are two other baptisms from other missionaries in our ward...one from the Chinese elders, and one from the sisters. Then on Dec. 7th, there are FOUR other people! Three Chinese and one Iranian! Amazing.
We didn't plan it out that way, but it just so happened. If it all goes through, it will be great...SEVEN people being baptised on the same day!
Please, please, please pray for them, ESPECIALLY our people (Nicky and Sharon, and their friend Kayleigh)
I want to be confident and sure that they will get baptised on that day, but I worry a lot and I sometimes assume that something will go wrong.
But I so badly want it to all go right!!! It would be an amazing way to finish the mish.
In other news, I went on exchange with Elder Yip, the lovely wee elder from Hong Kong. He's so funny and nice and sincere.
Our Christian investigators are kinda dropping off...not really, but we feel we're a bit at the end of what we can do to help them.
We taught Sam and his wife and his friend about how the Book of Mormon and the Bible go hand in hand and support each other.
He was skeptical...at the end I testified: "I know the Book of Mormon is true, and I know that you can know it too."
His response, "Well, I don't want to sound contentious, but...I know it's not true, and I know that you can know it too."
Flip! Preach My Gospel tells us all the time to testify often...but it never told me that they would just testify right back! Oh well.
This week he said he'll share his concerns as to why he thinks it's not, cause we ran out of time last time. We'll bring a super solid convert who used to teach in a Catholic school when he joined the church 30 years ago, Jim Loftus. He's our only hope I feel.
Other than that, just good ol missionary work.
I love the missionaries in my district, the members in the ward, and even the often grumpy and uninterested Scots we see everyday.
Gonna be weird to leave it all. But I am eager to return. Glad I'm still here though.
Love you all!
Elder Spencer Burt

photos:
FOOTBALL (a few weeks old)

"We told him the address and time, and he came! He loved it and wants to come back every week."

Hello family and friends and associates,

Last week was kind of a bummer as far as missionary work for the most part. 

Appointments kept falling through, I had to take some time to look at USU classes, I had to meet with the zone leaders to discuss some challenges and issues in our district, and etc. Just a weird week. But a few cool things:

On Wednesday night, a new member (about six  months) named Pierre invited us all over for a surprise farewell party for one of the sister missionaries that is moving to a new area. 

She had been here since just after his baptism, and had helped him out a lot during his process so he threw her a little surprise party to thank her. It also happened to be Guy Fawkes Night (5th of November), and here there are lots of fireworks lit off to celebrate. 

His flat, in one of those high-rise towers that are so abundant here, overlooked a big firework display that the city put on. It was a fun night, with a few other members and a few other missionaries. 

Next--____ and ____! 

We have been teaching them about two weeks, and they want to be baptized! They accepted a date of December 7th--just before I go home. The only problem is that they need to get married and stop smoking by then. But perhaps they will! 

I am kinda on the fence but I may even tell them straight up that I want to be there when they are baptized, so they should TRY to get ready by then. If not, oh well. I think they'll still be baptised even if it's not in my time. 

They are great though, non-Christian background but they love everything we teach. Lots of deep questions, like where did God come from, and stuff like that. 

They are very solid. Almost came to church, but she always has to look after her ill grandma and she wasn't able to get someone to care for her while she went to church. 

But they really want to, and I think they'll be pleasantly surprised...when we told them that they'd meet the Bishop they were amazed! "You want us to meet the BISHOP? Oh I'm kind of nervous..." But then we explained that our bishops aren't typical bishops. 

They're gonna love the way our church services are, I just know it. 

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday and for once felt good about it. I made some good jokes that worked well with the crowd, had some good stuff to talk about, and delivered it well. I was asked to talk on "Why I served a mission". It was fun, but it's weird that it's coming to an end soon.

Miracle story: 

We were tracting, and as we knocked this one door, the man who lived there walked up, asked who we were a bit suspiciously, but then when we told him he told us he was baptised in the Mormon church in Dundee about 15 years ago as a teenager. 

He let us in and we got to know him, gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon to start reading again, and he asked us where the church is in Glasgow. 

We told him the address and time, and he came! 

He loved it and wants to come back every week. 

Elder Zander was prompted to lead us to that area to tract. It was a cool experience and a miracle!

Another Chinese lady was baptized yesterday. It was a good experience. 

However, I would love to get a Scot baptised before I go--the ward here hasn't seen much success with native Glaswegians in the past few years. We'll see!

Until next week,

Elder Spencer Ashcraft Burt

Photos:

Me wearing Pierre's Scotland onesie and Guy Fawkes mask.

5th of November fireworks.

The group of us at Pierre's. Great people.

My strange companion.

A high-flat being demolished.

"I like finding lost sheep...Almost as good as finding someone that gets baptized."

Hey everybody.
Email time is a bit short cause the library computers have been freezing up on me and stuff. So here's a quick rundown of last week!
Monday we played BUBBLE FOOTBALL. It was the funnest thing in the world. Seriously. I'll attach some photos or videos if I can.
Basically you play soccer while inside these bubble things, and everyone just forgets about the ball and hits each other. And you can get rocked super hard and feel no pain! It's so cool.
The guys that run it said they have a facebook page, so google it or something and  maybe you'll see how it works. Awesome.
We started teaching a guy named Ben. He's the brother of Jennie, who is the wife of Sam, who is the friend of Ali, whom we originally started teaching a couple months ago. Cool how young people bring their friends along and you end up meeting lots.
We taught him in a member named Darren's house. They're both from N. Ireland, I think that's why Darren was excited and offered up his home for us to teach him.
It went ok, he's a bit skeptical on the Book of Mormon because he was raised with the Bible. But anyone can change!
Sam and Jennie actually came to church yesterday, and it was really good! Lots of good testimonies, a confirmation done in Chinese, and yeah I felt the spirit quite strong, which I don't always at sacrament meeting. So I hope they felt it too.
It was hard to tell if they are just curious as to how we worship, or sincerely wanting to find out if it's the path for them, or if they are just returning the favour of us going to their church a few weeks ago. We'll talk more with them at our lesson this week.
We helped a member's friend move, and the sisters were in the car with her (non-member) and they asked if she'd like missionaries to come over, and she said yes!
Once she is all moved in. Score! She lives in the other ward, so we won't teach her, but the other sisters in Glasgow's other ward (Springboig Ward) will teach her.
Thursday, in fact every Thursday recently if I haven't mentioned, is "Reach-out night" in the ward. A great idea the bishop had, where we and whatever members want to meet up at the church and go visit less-active or others who are struggling in some way or another.
It's a really good thing.
Sometimes the numbers are off and there are more missionary companionships that turn up than members, but it's a good program.
We found a less-active lady while tracting, which was fun. I love when that happens.
It goes like: "Hello, we're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ--" "Oh, I already know...I'm a Mormon." "Really? That's great!" "Yeah...I haven't been to church in a while. But I probably should."
And then she said we could come back later, and we agreed to have the sisters go by instead just cause she lives alone and that makes it easier.
I like finding lost sheep. It's especially cool when they actually come to church because of it. Almost as good as finding someone that gets baptized.
Friday we had to stay inside from 6 pm onwards.
But we saw some kids and adults going around in costumes throughout the day, and even on Saturday. They celebrate it here, but not as big as in America.
Saturday we played football with the stake.
Then after a quick lunch and shower we went to the City Centre and did a little family history activity, where we asked people to take a short survey on their opinions on family and religion.
It's something the family history missionary couple asked us to to; and apparently it's an actual survey that some BYU group is doing, so I guess we're helping with a research project with an ulterior motive to make the people we meet feel the spirit of Elijah and get baptized.
It didn't work...yet. Met some nice people though.
We might do Saturday City Centre finding regularly, with a table and literature and such. It's fun.
We received a referral from some missionaries in Massachusetts...they called us and apparently had been teaching a Pakistani in Glasgow over facebook. And he almost came to church, but something came up and he'll come next week. We've talked to him on the phone but haven't met him yet. Kind of a cool thing though.
Oh and also we visited a Freemason temple just for fun. We noticed it a couple weeks ago, and thought, "Hey why not!"
So we went in, asked the friendly guy who was there a few questions, and yeah. It was interesting.
Funnily enough, I didn't feel the spirit leave as soon as we entered, which I don't know why but I kind of expected it to from what I heard from that anti-Freemason guy named Colin.
However I do feel it leave when we walk past his door--in fact I felt that way when we first went there but I ignored it and knocked on his door anyway. Quite interesting. Still learning how to recognize and follow the promptings, even though it's been almost 14 years.
And last but not least Elder Zander and I are staying together for my last transfer. Enduring to the end at this point.
Love you all!
Spencer

Mason temple

...don't ask.

Me and Elder Dewsbery at Saturday morning football.

"...we could dress up, as long as we were still dignified...you tell me if this fits..."

So I was practically a "Chinatown" elder this week.
I went on two exchanges with the Mandarin speaking elders in the district this week. It was fun. They still do a lot of teaching and talking to people in English, but sometimes it's just pure Chinese.
One time we were teaching an investigator (well, I wasn't teaching, I was just observing because I don't speak Chinese.) at a member's house.
They both had their wives and kids there too, four kids under the age of five. And it was just crazy! Little kids running around, yelling in Chinese, while the other elder tried to teach the investigator in Chinese, and they fed us some...interesting food, and it was just fun.
It's like being in a totally different mission, except for one Scottish investigator that one companionship teaches.
I got to be there for a lesson with him, and it was great. The spirit was very strong. And I usually don't say that about lessons.
This lesson the spirit was very very strong, I could feel it almost the whole time we taught him. Probably because we really just asked him questions, and helped him to find an answer.
He's atheist, but sooo open to our teachings, and he loves the Church and said he would LOVE to get an answer telling him it's true!
And he prayed out loud and you would've thought he was an active member. So I think he'll come around. His name is Thomas btw.
There was a Halloween party on Saturday, combined with the other ward who meets in our building. It was a lot of fun.
At first we were told to not dress up, then the day of the party we were informed that we could dress up, as long as we were still dignified and recognized as missionaries. So you tell me if this fits (photos attached). I'm a monkey missionary.
Our Christian investigators Sam and Jennie came along, and they seemed to have a good time.
It was their first time in the church building...I wish we'd been able to show them around the church to see the paintings and chapel and classrooms and baptismal font and such...but it was a bit hectic and exciting. It was a good time.
On Halloween night we have to stay inside from 6-9pm, and do weekly planning. Fun!
Maybe we'll knock on doors on Thursday or maybe Friday during the day, and say "Trick or Treat!...just kidding." and then teach people and baptize them. Maybe call it "Trick or Tracting"
So that's all the exciting things that happened last week...doesn't seem all that eventful. But it was a fun week, nice to see a new area, new people, and have a change of companions.
I love you all and have a fantastic week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Elder Burt

Photos--
Wizard duel with Sister Cannon last p-day, at Glasgow/Hogwarts University

Halloween. Me and Elder Zander

"Then we went to Sam's church!...It was fun, and kind of spiritual."

Dear Family,
It's been a good week.
Started off with watching General Conference for district meeting, since none of us saw the final session. It was good.
Then I exchanged with Elder Yip, from Hong Kong. We were in his area, Glasgow Chinatown.
It was a fun experience--we go to the City Centre or near the university and street contact only Asians!
We start in English, and if they seem confused or their English is broken, we ask where they're from and if they say China then Elder Yip will just start speaking Mandarin. It's great fun.
Sometimes we get people who look Chinese but they have a Scottish accent because they were born here.
It was a fun experience, pretty much walking down the street, getting an Asian family in our sights and making a beeline to them.
Later in the week we got thrown out of an investigator's house--the first time on my mission!
It was a bad one though--the lesson was with a homosexual lady to whom I had already explained the Church's stance on the matter...although she didn't like it the first time she accepted that that's the way it is and that we still loved everyone.
But we had a member with us, who started arguing back with her this time...telling her she was too stubborn to see the truth, and about 30 minutes later of this he started making personal attacks against her and gays in general.
So she said to him "I'm gonna have to ask you to leave." SO although she wasn't mad at us, we had to leave too because he was our joint teach.
We went back a couple days later and apologized, especially because she was moving the next day to England to live with her partner and we didn't want her leaving with a bad taste of the Church. She was kind about it, but she said straight out that she did not like the guy we brought with us.
She accepted that our beliefs are what they are, but we all agreed that our member didn't handle it in a very loving way.
We also had a three hour lesson with a guy who I mentioned last week. (He is CRAZY) part Jehovah's Witness, part Buddhist, part Hindu, or so it seems.
This was our second lesson with him...and it wasn't a lesson.
It was just him rambling (and sometimes yelling) about how Joseph Smith was a Freemason and we cannae trust him and how some church leaders are even questioning his integrity and how the Book of Mormon was changed and how the Joseph Smith story was changed in 1960 and how Masons worship Satan and how he used to be a Mason and he left it cause it was evil and his super rich and powerful family disowned him because he left it and our temples are just like Masonic temples and the Salt Lake temple is white just like all Freemason temples are white and how Jeffrey R Holland is a Freemason and he's met him and he's a Freemason and Freemasons use the King James Version of the bible and the Freemasons go two by two and can't be alone with another person just like our companionship and Joseph Smith is a liar and how I just convinced myself that I received a witness that it's all true and yeah it was just a CRAZY stressful 3 hours.
We couldn't escape.
The next day he called us to tell how he had no money or food or electricity and asked if we could help him.
So we told him to come to church and ask the bishop and he yelled at me saying, "Do you understand how humiliating that is?!" and when we told him that that's just the way it works he hung up on us, and then phoned back 10 minutes later and said to never come to his door again.
Phew!
We tracted a bunch in some high-rise apartment buildings (high-flats) throughout our area...found some cool people.
We played football on Saturday and it was fun.
I finally scored after blowing like three chances by panicking and trying to one-time a shot on goal rather than control it first. Hoping to get into intramurals at USU.
After church on Sunday we stayed after to see the baptism of a super nice Thai couple. It was great. Then we went to Sam's church! He's the Christian that we teach, who is very active in his church and in a Christian student ministry group. It was fun, and kind of spiritual.
It was like being at a Christian Rock concert, which was awesome. The sermon was kinda boring though.
Lots of really nice people though--a few weird looks when we came in our suits and ties and everyone else just wore casual clothes. Not sure if they were thinking "What are the Mormon missionaries doing here?" or "Those guys must have thought this was a fancy dressed church or something"
I dunno but it was a good experience. Not really any false doctrine that was taught, just not the fulness. Oh well! Now Sam hopefully feels obligated to come to ours. :)
Well that's my week. It was a good one. Thank you all for everything. Love yous!
Elder Spencer Burt, District Leader.

Photos:
Elder Gibson's kebabtism at the Chinatown four-man flat.

Mom, I have met Elder Penman a couple times and here's a photo of me and him at the bus station on moves day. He's being trained by zone leaders!

"...I interviewed a lovely couple from Thailand for baptism."

Dearest family,
Isn't it just cool that I'm in Scotland right now?
Sometimes I just get so used to it that I forget how cool it is. Listening to Scottish folk music helps me to appreciate it.
So last week was full and exciting.
Tuesday we had Zone Development--mentioned before, but basically a super-p-day with the entire zone. Sports, food, games, socializing, etc.
This time, they surprised us by telling us to meet at Glasgow Green, a big park here, and when we arrived we were surprised to see the Paisley Zone there too!
They organized a HUGE capture the flag game, zone vs. zone, and a yoga-football (playing soccer with a big exercise ball) game, and it was crazy fun.
Then we had food and a few other little games back at the church. It was fun to be with all the zone.
Then the next day was a zone CONFERENCE! It was very uplifting and gave me a good boost to work real hard these last couple months. The next day I went on exchange with the zone leaders. So much zone stuff this week!
The exchange helped me a lot with giving it my best...sometimes it's easy to think that just because we're out walking to a destination or whatever that we are being good hard workers...but I was reminded and learned by example that I need to talk to EVERYONE!
Sure, it makes it so the trip back home for lunch takes two hours instead of 30 minutes, but we had a lot of good conversations and planted some Books of Mormons and such. Nothing has come of it YET but it just felt good and satisfying by the end of the day.
Also we found a hive of American university students near the church.
There's a student accommodation place where tons of study abroad students live while going to Glasgow University.
We actually gave Books of Mormon to two of them, from New Jersey. It's weird to hear the american accent from a non-missionary.
I also exchanged with Elder Gibson, the new Chinese-speaking missionary in our district. He's real good--21 years old, decided to serve a mission right before he was about to apply to medical school! He sacrificed a lot, especially when he says his friends were mostly home when he left. It shows how dedicated he is, and you can see it too.
Saturday we went to football and had a good time. Sunday we went to church.
We found two new people to teach, one black guy from Guyana named Prince. He said he would never leave his church, but of course we wouldn't expect him to until he's had a taste of something different.
Also a guy named Colin. We knocked on his door, he asked who it was, we told him, he opened up and said "Come in!" He is very spiritual, he's seen a vision of a wolf talking to him when he was doing a 40 day fast with nothing but water, and the wolf talked to him.
He has tons of books in his flat--the Torah, different translations of the Bible, Hinduism and Buddhism books, "Sutras", magic books, and tons of others.
He'd heard a bit of the story of the Book of Mormon, and we cleared up a bit and he said he'd like to give reading it a shot. He understood the importance of praying to know if it's true as well, so he committed to do it. And he even asked us to pray for him to get an answer when we said the closing prayer.
He seems a bit skeptical on the Joseph Smith story though, so it may be a bit harder to get an answer contrary to what he already believes...but it's possible of course! It just requires "faith in Christ, with real intent."
Oh and yesterday I interviewed a lovely couple from Thailand for baptism. They are so great!
They love talking about how the church is like a big family, and in a prayer, the husband even thanked God for letting him be part of "the Mormon family, and learn the scripture." They are so humble and great.
Too bad many Scots are already hardened against all religion or else dead set in their own. Oh well, just gotta find the few who ARE ready for it!
Love you all and I shall talk to you next Monday.
Cheerio!
Elder Burt

Photos:
Today we visited the Glasgow City Chambers as a district. Pretty cool.