"...so we told her that God would be happy as long as she was happy. So that was nice."

Hey family,

Sorry about the bad attitude toward moves last week. I've gotten over it, in fact I've seen the benefits that it may bring to the area.

So yeah this week went quite well. Some fun adventures.

First off: Seamus. We found him while tracting. He seemed very happy to see us, said that some of us had come by years ago, and they were gonna bring him a bible. We figure he meant the Book of Mormon, or else some Jehovah's Witnesses came by and he confused us. That happens a lot. 

Sometimes people say "Hey Jehovahs" as we walk by. Usually we just carry on, but recently I've been stoppiing and saying, "No, Mormons!" and then it leads to a fun little conversation. 

But anyway, we gave Seamus a Book of Mormon, and he seeemed real excited to hear from us again. When we stopped by he asked if we wanted the book back. We told him to keep it, but he said he'd already taken a look through it. We asked him what he liked, he said the pictures. 

We asked if we could maybe take a few minutes to tell him where the book comes from and stuff, and he says "Sure, but let me see if my parents will let me." Keep in mind this man is late 40s looking, with graying hair. He peeks his head into the living room, says "Hey mom, do you want these people in your house? No? Oh ok." He said this all super fast, and we didn't hear a response. So we're pretty sure he lives alone and used the weirdest excuse I've heard so far. He's probably a bit loopy. But we'll stop by some other time maybe; he's fun to talk to and he has a very thick Northern Irish accent.

Also, our recent convert, Dil, dropped us. Sort of. He is being discharged from the hospital, and he is going to Belfast as soon as he gets out. We asked if we could maybe stop by to say good bye before he left, and he starts ranting about how the Lorenzo Snow book talks about focusing on priorities, and that our priority should be knocking on doors rather than visiting him. So that was kind of a bummer. Oh well.

We helped out at the Lee's house again. This time Sister Lee's brother was there from Belfast. We weren't sure if he was a member, and if he was active. But then he started asking us about the elders and sisters in Belfast and stuff, and was complimenting and praising us for our work. It's so nice to talk to members! We dont get much of that in our small town with 40 ish members.

Gertie is doing great; Her husband is leaving her! Woo hoo! This is a good thing. She actually prayed that it would happen, since he has been downright awful to her for years. Meeting with us has given her the courage to stand up to him. She is so innocent too; when she told us this, she was super worried that God would be angry with her for not trying to keep their marriage together. It sounded like she had done her best to work out disagreements, but in the end he was rotten and disrespectful, so we told her that God would be happy as long as she was happy. So that was nice. 

Her scheduled baptismal date is May 4th (Star Wars day), so if she comes to church the next two weeks she should be able to make that. Getting to church might also be easier for her now that he is gone. Can't wait!!!

We met a guy named James this week. He is exactly like Brendan Bradley, a guy who we haven't talked to in about two months. He's a Catholic, bus driver, 70s, widower, and he calls us by our first names. They are both the SAME. It's kinda weird. Anyway, he seemed very familiar with the church. He said we wouldn't be converting him, but he seemed to disagree with the Catholic church's teachings and seemed to believe in Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and such. So we'll see. 

Also, we talked a lot about evolution. He told us that he believed in evolution, and that the Garden of Eden was actually just a period of time before man had evolved. Kinda weird. But my personal opinions are fairly similar (not the Adam and Eve thing). I don't see why God/Jesus couldn't have created the earth THROUGH science/evolution. It would make perfect sense. I convinced Elder Holm that this could be the case; he loves quoting that talk about an "explosion in a printing shop" or something like that. I can't stand that talk. I convinced him that it is possible that God created the universe THROUGH the Big Bang, but we don't know for sure. So yeah, it was good. 

Church yesterday was lovely, as was the dinner at Tom's. We also helped the YW/YM come up with ideas for a video they need to make for an All-Ireland youth activity. 

Overall it was a good week. I thought it would drag on and on but it flew by. I think it's for the best that Elder Holmes (all the locals call him Elder Holmes) and I are staying together. 

Have a great week, and stuff.

Love,

Spencer

Pictures: My history of planners, and the various ways I have personalized them. Enjoy.

"We taught her how to pray, and that it doesn't have to be recited or out loud, but that it can be anytime, anywhere."

CONFERENCE!!!!
Conference was great. We spent lots of time handing out invitations to people last week. Brian Johnston (the dairy farmer) and his partner Mary came to the Saturday morning (5:00 pm for us) session! And Vera Duncan came to the priesthood session, I guess we didn't tell her that it was directed toward men. It turned out ok, because there were some great talks there that could be applied to everyone. She took a lot of notes, which is good.
Did you guys hear Sister Dalton's talk about the Scotland mission home, and the "Act Well Thy Part" saying? I felt so cool, because that same saying is on my mission tie. And she was talking about MY mission home. I hope yous were all so proud.
Conference was really amazing overall though. I like it a LOT more when I'm out here; the two hours flew by each time. I took tons of good notes, both on the things that were said by speakers and the thoughts and impressions the spirit gave me.
That was the highlight of the week. There was a low though: We got moves call last night. Elder Holm and I are both staying in Omagh. I was really hoping to stay in Omagh, but I want to lead out the area, be able to make most of the plans and decisions and such for the first wee while. I LOVE Omagh!
I'm sure i'll eventually get over it. Other than this it was a real good week!
So real quick, to catch you all up on last week...
We actually DID see Gertie, last-last Tuesday  (13 days ago.) Elder Maughan was on an exchange here from Letterkenny. We actually taught her in Tom Henry's house. MUCH better environment than the cafe. It was a good lesson. We were planning to teach her the basic overview of commandments, but we taught her mostly about prayer. We taught her how to pray, and that it doesn't have to be recited or out loud, but that it can be anytime, anywhere.
Also she asked some questions like "what is love?" It sounds like she hasn't been loved by her family very much. Tom talked about what love really was, like caring for people and helping them, and she cried a bit. Very spiritual. So really a good lesson. Just waiting on her to tell her family about the church so she can make it on Sundays.  Also we are seeing her tomorrow, so that should be good.
I told yous about Dil right? Our friend in the psych ward? Well it turns out he is doing missionary work in the hospital! He has given a Teachings of Joseph Smith book to a nurse, talked to other patients about the Book of Mormon, and other awesome stuff. Also, the doctor let him come to general conference on Sunday  He was so happy to get out there.
Last-last week, the McKees came into town. They are an American family; the dad served his mission here. I guess he is super rich, and is in the process of buying out Waterford Crystal. I've never heard of it but I guess it's a big deal. We heard they would be coming that week, but we were surprised when we were walking and a car pulls up beside us and he says, "Hey, are you guys elders?" We weren't expecting that! So he gave us a ride home and we got to meet him and his family at church a few days later. They are back in Utah now (Provo area) but I think they're coming back in June for a few months.
Last-last-Saturday we collected money for the local charity shop, which gives money to a Kenyan orphanage. We just stood outside stores with buckets labeled "Malaika Kenyan Orphanage", and lots of people put in loose change. It was actually fun, we got to be friendly with people on the sidewalks instead of proselyting. Everyone was real nice, except one lady who was about to donate, then she saw my badge and walked away. hahaha.
We've done a lot of other service lately. We've helped the Lees out with their grandma's house two or three times, stripping wall paper and painting. Then on Saturday we helped Alan and Nigel in their house. They wanted to replace the carpet with wood-looking linoleum, so we took everything out of the living room and ripped out the carpet, and set down the linoleum. They didn't secure it down or anything, so we'll see how well it's working for them in a few days. Good fun though.
This past Thursday there was a "Days Gone By" party at the church, hosted by the YW. It was fun. We all had to dress up in old style clothes, and they showed pictures of all the members when they were younger  Even me and Elder Holm! Thanks mom for sending the classy picture of little me in a tie, instead of an embarrassing one!
Ian and Vera, the less-actives we visit multiple times a week, seem to be having a falling out. Usually he is always at her house, all day. But lately when we've gone over they are both in their own houses, Vera just watching TV alone and Ian usually has his sister over. So we'll see. It's sad. We need to re-kindle their friendship.
Well, other than last night it was a great week.
Love,
Spencer

Picture: Us with Tom Henry

"She accepted the invitation to learn more about the church and also asked if we could help teach her English."

Hiya!
So yeah, it's Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday the library was closed, because of Easter I guess.
So guess what? This transfer ends in a week! This Saturday or Sunday we'll get "moves call," where President Brown calls everyone who is moving. Most likely I will stay in Omagh and Elder Holm will get moved somewhere else, but you never know.
Usually I have my planner with me to remind myself what the heck we did all week, but we came to the library straight from doing service at the Lees' house, so I didn't have my planner on me. Therefore this email might not have as many good stories as usual because the days really just blur together.
The main story that stands out is Josephine. She is a Hungarian woman that we met a few weeks ago, and we gave her a Book of Mormon in Hungarian. We stopped by last Thursday to see how she was doing, and she had read all of 1st Nephi! It was probably just nice for her to have something to read in her language. She accepted the invitation to learn more about the church/BoM, and also asked if we could help teach her English.
We said we could, because it's actually quite common for missionaries here to do that. We have a box of English teaching material in our flat, so we looked over that and taught her on Tuesday. It was hard! Its difficult to know where to start, and pretty much we went over basic nouns with pictures. We'll probably teach basic conversations, which she already knows a decent amount of. After that, I have no idea how to teach her. But it'll work out.
We weren't able to teach Gertie, or to see her at church, but we talked to her on the phone most every day. Still doing great, it's just amazing and such a pick-me-up to talk to her. We told her that she has to get her husband's permission to be baptised, so she's working on the courage to tell him and the rest of her family.
I can't really remember what else happened this week, so I'll work backwards.
Yesterday, we went to Belfast for a zone meeting. It was good. The district leaders all had a meeting afterward, so those of us who were the companions of district leaders went and talked to people on the street.
It was awesome, we met a great lady after talking to only a few people! She had questions about where we all go after we die, and she hoped that she'd see her family again. It was perfect. Non-religious people who still believe in God are the best people to meet, at least here in Northern Ireland.
We ended up teaching her a mix of everything, even the Word of Wisdom. She brought that one up, asking why Mormons couldn't drink tea or coffee. We explained it all to her, and she said, "I think I could live that, the tea would be tough though." So she basically committed herself to live the WoW without us even asking! The sad part is that we had to just give her address and phone number to the zone leaders because she wasn't in our area...oh well. It was a good experience.
After that I went on an exchange with Elder Gill, zone leader. He came to Omagh with me, and it went pretty well. He said that he was confident that I could lead out the area next transfer, so he said that's most likely what would happen.
Monday was still P-day (preparation day) even though email is today. We went out toward Cookstown to check out some stone circles! We saw a sign earlier in the week that pointed us in the direction, and this week we decided to go find them. They weren't too impressive; the stones weren't that big or anything. But we had a good adventure.
We also followed signs for some "court tombs" out there. We weren't even sure what they were, but we couldn't find them. We found the site of one, where there was a poorly written sign saying "This is closed due to health and safety". The gate was still open, so we went in. We couldn't see anything out of the ordinary, so we kept walking further, until we started sinking into the mud. I guess that was the reason it was closed. So we went back.
Sunday was Easter! I really miss coloring eggs!!! That was a great tradition.
Easter was nice. We had a dinner at the McKennas' house this week, instead of Tom's. We thought Tom would be lonely without us, but when people found out we weren't going to his house they invited him to theirs! It was good that he wasn't lonely. We're basically everything to him.
I really am loving the work, and the area. I really want to stay at least one more transfer!!!
I can't remember any other stories. Maybe next week I'll catch yous up if there's something I forgot. I'll also send pictures. I'm trying to find a way to back my photos up some way so that I can send you guys my SD card!!! It's not even full yet, but it's been a while. So yeah, I'll let you know.
Hope yous all have a great week, and I will talk to you again in just a few days! (Monday.)
Love,
Spencer

Picture: Fun time at Stone Circles on Monday!

"...Super nice though. He isn't allowed to leave, so we visited him a few times this week and took the sacrament to him."

This week was pretty good. We had a few changes in the mission rules. We can now email friends in addition to family! This is nice, even though I was already emailing a few friends who had emailed me first. So I guess I'm not sinning anymore with that.
Also, we can text! Before, our phones could only call. So people would text us, and we would have to call them back.
A quick update on Gertie: her soonest possible baptism date would be the Saturday after general conference, because she hasn't made it to church yet. Mostly because she still hasn't told her family. The end of the transfer is the Wednesday after conference, so most likely one of us will be moved to a different area then. So unless she comes next week, and comes to the conference viewing at the church, and we get permission to baptize her on a Monday or Tuesday  one of us may not be able to witness it. Oh well, I guess it's when she is ready and her family is ready. She really wants this though, and we want it for her too.
So this week was pretty nice. We went to DUBLIN! Tuesday night we drove to Antrim, stayed the night there, and then drove us and the trio of Antrim elders to Dublin in the morning
We didn't really get to experience the city at all, just drove straight to the church building. But the multi-zone conference was good. Belfast Zone (us), Dublin Zone, and LImerick Zone were all there, and we heard Elder Kerr of the area 70 speak. He's Scottish, real funny, and real inspirational. We also heard from a few members of the local stake presidencies, and of course President Brown (mission president) and the assistants to the president. It was good, we came away with lots of stuff to motivate us and also things we want to implement in our work here.
On Thursday we helped out with Youth Night (mutual), because the whole UK is launching a new media initiative. The Book of Mormon musical is coming to London, so there is a lot of hype about it. But the Church is using it as an opportunity. They're buying advertising all over London for the mormon.org.uk website, and also web and TV advertisements. So they had our branch president inform us of this, and they wanted to have the youth get involved in member missionary work.
So we went in and helped them practice what to say if a friend asked about the church, and we also challenged them to invite a friend to the General Conference viewing at the church, or to Youth Night, or to church on a Sunday  So we'll follow up with them. Then we also decided to challenge all the adults in the branch on Sunday to give a Book of Mormon to a friend with a testimony written on the inside of it. Hopefully something great comes of all this, but if not, then at least the members did their part.
Oh yeah I almost forgot, here's a fun story:
Last week, we got a phone call from the Dublin Zone Leaders. One of the people Elder Holm baptized in Dublin got sent to a psychiatric ward in an Omagh hospital! So we went to visit him. He's in the intensive care unit, so probably some major stuff going on. I didn't pick up anything completely bonkers, but he is a bit weird. Super nice though. He isn't allowed to leave, so we visited him a few times this week and took the sacrament to him. So yeah, pretty crazy coincidence how he ended up here.
Now that we have a car, we have been traveling all over our area. Our area is HUGE. on Saturday we were invited to President Nelson's home for dinner, in Fivemiletown. So we decided to go to Enniskillen, which is (kind of) on the way. We tried by a few former investigators, who hadn't been taught since there were elders there, about five years ago. None of them were home, but we did visit a few less active members out there while we could.
So yeah, the car is a great advantage. Also we are teaching a lady named Vera Duncan, who lives out in Seskinore. We used to sometimes go over with the Chamberlains, but now we go there once a week at least, and she is getting close. She is actually from Brazil, but lived in England and N. Ireland for a good portion of her life. So her accent is a combination of all three, kind of cool.
Yesterday we tried by this AUF guy. AUF stands for "Address unknown file." I guess when someone, usually a member, moves away without the church's knowledge, they eventually find out where they live several years later and send the missionaries to check on them. So this man, Owen, came to the door and was not happy with us. He lives in Cookstown, which is split between our boundaries and the Antrim elders'. So I guess they had tried by him a few weeks back, and so when he saw us he got a bit mad. He then proceeded to insult elder Holm; told him he was acting too stiff, had a weird stance, and needed to loosen up and lighten up. He said I was ok though. Hahaha, it was pretty funny.
Today we helped Kieron, a member, move. His wife and kids are not members, and they appreciated the help. So hopefully we can use that as leverage to get into their home and teach a bit, maybe try to get him to bear his testimony to his family.
And that brings us to now.
I hope you all have a great week.
Love,
Spencer.
<3

Picture: Super artsy photo of my scriptures and my badge.

"Kebabtism is a tradition in this mission, when an elder eats his first kebab."

Hey family!

Before I tell you about the week, I have a joke. A little background info first. Northern Ireland has always been a place of great religious disagreement. Irish people are mostly Catholic, but British are mostly Protestant. So N.I. is mostly split half and half, and a while back they used to have "the troubles", where actual fighting happened between

Protestants and Catholics. It's better now. But still some weird little things.

For example, Derry is the city where we have our district meetings every week. But its name is actually Derry/Londonderry. The Catholics/Irish call it Derry, and the Protestants/British call it Londonderry. And that part is necessary to understand this joke:

What does a lactose-intolerant Protestant say? "I don't drink London-dairy."

HAHA! I came up with that all myself. Haven't had the chance to say it to any other people, but I think it's flippin hilarious.

Well, on to the usual emailing stuff.

Last Tuesday was our first district meeting with our new district. Everyone seems pretty cool. Then afterward, we had an exchange. Elder Mills came with me to Omagh, and Elder Holm stayed in Londondairy with Elder South. Elder Mills is super fun. Just a goof. Example: He "Kebabtized" me!

Kebabtism is a tradition in this mission, when an elder eats his first kebab. Kebabs are a super common food over here. I think it's Indian  but lots of takeaway restaurants or "chippy's" sell them. It's lamb meat, with salad and a variety of sauces on naan bread. Super good! Elder Holm despises them. He's never had one, but he just talks about how bad they are for you and how disgusting they look. I don't care, it was delicious! So yeah, I am officially kebabtised.

Wednesday was my three month mark! Woohoo.

We tried a new finding method this week. Our mobile (cell phone) has a ton of former investigators that we have never heard of, so we decided to call them all. Some of them were not interested, some had moved and we gave their number to the zone leaders, but some accepted an appointment sometime later, or at least for us to call back at a better time. It was a genius idea! (Mine of course.)

Saturday was very productive as well. We drove to most of our investigators' houses, and taught two of them on the spot lessons and invited them to church. We even gave a blessing to one of the ladies we are teaching, and she had a great experience and cried a little. We also figured out their concerns with the church, and their intentions for learning about it. We told them both that we believe this IS the right path for them to follow. So it was good. Neither one came to church the next day though...

Sunday was St. Patrick's Day! But they held the "bank holiday" on Monday  which basically meant that all the festivities were Monday and everyone had work off Monday  This is why I'm emailing you Tuesday  the library was closed yesterday!

But St. Patrick's day was a pretty big deal. On Sunday night, we saw TONS of people out on the town, heading into bars and such. Monday, there was a huge parade and an outdoor concert, which we saw part of. We watched several bagpipe bands play throughout the day. Luckily it was p-day, so we got to experience it. I bought a big Irish flag for 3 pounds too. But the best part...we rode carnival rides!

There was this one called The Booster, which I'll send a picture of. We walked past the grounds for like three days straight before the festivities while they were setting up, and we were so excited to ride it. We also rode another one that was kind of like the Samurai but less intense. Pretty fun!

We also met a sweet old lady named Angela, who was not interested in leaving the Roman Catholic church, but she told us how great young boys we were, and how much she admired and respected us. It was nice.

So yeah, it was a pretty great week. Nice warm flat, fun times, and good spiritual stuff too.

This week should be good; we're going to Dublin on Wednesday for an all-Ireland zone conference. Then on Sunday I am giving a talk on why I decided to serve a mission. We/the branch council are focusing on this kid who just turned 18 in the branch, who will either serve a mission in the next few months or go to University. It's harder to leave school and come back two years later here than it is in Utah, so they're really trying to get him to go sooner than later. So I'll try to do my best to convince him, but subtly, to serve a mission.

Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Spencer

Pictures:

A self-pic in the new flat, with my nice parted hair.

Me on Monday, with my green tie, Irish flag, and a real shamrock boutonniere that Tom Henry made for us!

The Booster 

"We brought him some canned food and a jug of water, and tried to find somewhere for him to stay."

Hey family!

First off: New Flat! We got the keys and checked it out today. It is super posh.

The address is:

Flat F

2 Hospital Road

Omagh BT79 0AN

Co. Tyrone

N. Ireland

 

So there we go. Send whatever you want to that address. Or the mission home, unless it's a package. Then send it to the new address.

 

So this week was really good! We'll begin at the end. Sunday was amazing. Gertie was finally able to come to church. She is just so amazing. When we asked how she liked the services, she couldn't put it into words. She always tells us that we're her wee angels, and that we are called by God, and given a special gift. If all goes well, she should be baptized on March 30!

Also, Ian came to church as well! He's the one that we visit three times a week at Vera's house. Apparently he hasn't been out for about six months, and that was because the new building was being dedicated. Basically we just called him on Sunday morning to remind him, and encourage him, and made sure someone was there to pick him up. Hopefully he gets into the routine and it becomes habitual to go every week.

Also, Happy Birthday Joey!

Other highlights from the week:

On Tuesday we came across a man named Peter, from Bulgaria. He was sitting on a park bench looking sad, and had a duffel bag next to him. We went over and asked if everything was ok. He started crying, and told us his wife left him and he had no where to stay. We brought him some canned food and a jug of water, and tried to find somewhere for him to stay. 

There were no homeless shelters in Omagh, so we told him to go to the hospital or the police station and they could help him. He didn't seem like he was going to go, so we called the police later on to see if someone could go check on him. We haven't seen him since, so we hope he got help.

Also, one day we were tracting and we met this old guy. He seemed fairly good at first, but then he started rambling about Anti-American stuff. Told us that Americans try to force their ideals on other people. He talked about Vietnam for a while, and seemed to get quite angry. It was very weird. So we gave him a Book of Mormon.

We met this super sweet old lady a few weeks ago, Beth Henderson. Whenever we're in the area, we stop by to at least say hi. Her husband doesn't like us at all. When he opens the door, he just rolls his eyes and goes to get her. Haha.

One day we went to follow up at a guy's house who we met in the street one day. The neighborhood is called Strathroy. It seemed fine at first, but the further we went into the neighborhood, we saw an Irish flag and a street sign with a guy holding a gun painted on it. So I guess it's the I.R.A. neighborhood. Quite the adventure.

We also taught a new investigator named Paul. He is Pramod's friend. He was born in India, but has lived in N. Ireland and England for most of his life. He is super intellectual, philosophical, and spiritual all at the same time. He asks a lot of deep questions.

So overall, it was a great week. We met some other good people, taught a few other good lessons, and walked and drove many miles.

Until next Monday,

Elder Burt

Picture:

This awesome sculpture thing is in Belfast. I call it the Belfast Ball, but I'm not sure what its official name is.

"Turns out he's been through a lot, and has gotten through it all by having faith in God and Jesus Christ."

Hey family, 

First off, in the library right now there is a wee class for old people using facebook. It's funny.

Alright so the highlight of the week is: Drunk Nigel.

I've told a bit about Nigel before, but just a review...he and his friend Alan are special needs adults who live together. They are great, very fun to visit them and they love singing and talking about the gospel. When we went there this week, Nigel was super drunk. He was talking the whole time, and laughing loudly at everything. Usually he is really quiet, and doesn't say much unless we ask him to read a scripture. But this time, he was just talking and talking. 

I probably should have felt sad for him, but to be honest drunk Nigel was hilarious. He told us he loved us, and that if anyone tried to hurt us he would fight them. The funniest thing he said was, just out of the blue: "I LOVE the Mormon Church! 

When we went to sing our closing songs, he wouldn't stop. We had sung three or four already, and told him it was our last. Then he wanted to do one more, so he sang Silent Night by himself loudly and enthusiastically. Really was a fun visit. It just so happened that the lesson we picked out from a past Ensign was about a recovering drug addict who could only get over it by asking God for help. So it actually turned out spiritual.

Yesterday we drove past, and I said, "There's the Mormon Church! I Love the Mormon Church! I love the Elders, I love the Chamberlains, I love Glen [branch president], or the vice president  or whatever you call him, I love everyone!" It was hilarious. 

In other news, we picked up our car last week! It's a Vauxhall Meriva, fairly new. Since last week was moves week, they moved p-day to Wednesday, but still let us email on Monday.

So on Wednesday we took the car out on some adventures! We went to the Gortin Glen Forest Park, a few miles out of town. It was amazing, tons of mossy trees. Some of it reminded me of Lord of the Rings. 

Then we went and checked out the Ulster-American history park, which is the main tourist attraction in Omagh. 

We thought it would be like the American West Heritage Center in Logan, so we didn't want to go. But we decided to stop by and see how much it cost and what it included. Turns out it is pretty cool. We didn't have much time left, so we'll go another p-day. It looked like there was a lot of Titanic stuff. The Titanic was built in Belfast, which I didn't know before.

Then on Thursday I spent the day in Portadown. Elder Holm went to Edinburgh with Elder Waite, the new district leader in Portadown, and I was with Elder Johnson for the day. It was a nice wee change of pace.

We also taught a part-member family this week, and we invited them to hold a family prayer every night. We thought it would be more of a reminder, but they said that no one had ever told them that before. So that was good, hopefully it will help them progress.

Another highlight was this guy we met on Saturday. As we were walking to Ian and Vera's (we still walk places that are reasonable, to exercise and to save on petrol), this guy stops his car, and runs to us and asks if we're LDS. He said he was a Christian, and asked if we could exchange pamphlets. So we did, and talked to him for a bit. 

Turns out he's been through a lot, and has gotten through it all by having faith in God and Jesus Christ. He's had a gay orientation his whole life, but has lived a celibate life in order to be closer to God. Pretty neat. He'd be a great member. Very enthusiastic and happy about talking about the Savior.

It was a pretty good week overall with some good adventures. 

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY! This upcoming Sunday is Mother's Day for UK and Ireland. We'll skype on American Mother's Day though.

Love yous all,

Spencer

Pictures:

Stonehenge. I forgot to tell yous about this. This was at the Ulster History Museum, which we saw on our way to the Forest and decided to stop. Turns out it's not open to the public, but only for field trips and stuff. But luckily I at least got one picture.

Close up of the deer at Gortin Glen Forest Park. Yeah, they were real deer. In a wee enclosure though. I think they were Sika Deer.

Rockin' my deer sweater, while standing in front of some deer at Gortin Glen Forest Park.

Gortin Glen Forest Park trees.