"...we told him what we can do to help him, and what he can do to help himself."

Hey everybody!

So as you may have heard, Monday was a "bank holiday." They have a lot of those here. Not sure if it's a whole UK thing, or just N.Ireland. But anyway, you guys should try to find a list of all bank holidays in the future, so you'll know which weeks the emails will be delayed. Usually we email on Wednesday, because Tuesday is our day for district or zone meetings, so we use the less-productive morning time on Wednesdays to email. So yeah.

So now I have a week and a half to catch you up on! 

Last Monday we went to Derry! This was an interesting day. Very fun! 

We went bowling with our district. (Elders Mills and Eastham from Derry, Elders Dustin and Kinnard from Letterkenny.) 

Elder Holm thought it would be better to wear our white shirts and ties to bowl instead of casual clothes. I disagreed, but he insisted. When we get there, the other four elders have jeans and t-shirts on! Oh well...It seems Elder Holmes has changed a lot since becoming district leader...more strict, which is sometimes good, but sometimes unnecessarily so. 

Anyway, we had a real good time. Elder Mills (probably my favorite one to hang out with) and I played some skee-ball and some wack-a-shark at the arcade at the bowling alley. We got some tickets for doing so and got some wee prizes -- a rubber duck and bouncy ball! 

Elder Holm was very disappointed in us. He told me that night that it was very inappropriate, and even at district meeting the next day he subtly called us out by talking about how we are called as representatives of Jesus Christ's church at all times. He's kinda right in a way, but at the same time he made a huge deal out of it when it really wasn't that big of a deal in my opinion. Oh well. 

I also bought some cool Ireland stuff at the Derry/Londonderry visitors' centre! I'll send some home. Probably in like two or three weeks.

Tuesday I went on exchange with Elder Dustin to L'kenny. We taught this guy named Peter. He's had a rough past, but he seems like he really wants to learn about the church. He has a five year old son who is a cute chubby lil ball of energy. He's crazy! 

Then we taught Janis, a Latvian guy. I actually met him a while back, on my first exchange to Letterkenny with Elder Neilson (first district leader). 

He hadn't really been reading or anything, but at the end of our visit he seemed spiritually uplifted. We promised him that if he sets aside the time to read, putting it at the TOP of the priority list, everything will work out. 

I've actually promised that a lot to people lately, when they say they don't have time to read. I can promise that, because I know it's true. I definitely saw that in my pre-mish time.

Wednesday we saw Emma, and this time her mom was also there (Joan). Joan was raised Catholic, but hated it and didn't raise her kids with any religion really. 

Emma seems really prepared to accept the gospel. Joan seems like she'll take more work. Emma said she'd come to church, but she didn't...however they invited us over for dinner tomorrow! Pretty rare for us to get dinner appointments with investigators.

Thursday: Alan and Nigel. We had some extra time, so we decided to tract around their wee town, Lack. 

We met a few older ladies who said they were happy with their church, but they both accepted Book of Mormons and said they'd read. 

We're trying to do that lately--when we go to appointments outside of Omagh, we tract at least a little bit, because these people probably haven't seen missionaries very much, if ever. So far they are a bit more receptive, so it's nice.

Thursday we went to Pramod's house with the primary (four kids) the primary president (a girl about our age) and President Nelson. 

We had the idea a few weeks ago to give Pramod's girls, Simran and Priya (nine and five years old) a Book of Mormon Stories book. (The big one with simple words and pictures.) 

We finally got everyone together to do it, and it was a success! Hopefully the girls will be a good influence on Pramod, because they LOVE primary and singing, and he is just kinda on the fence. Good step hopefully.

Friday: We went to Vera Duncan's. Our plan was to watch the Book of Mormon DVD with her (Not the Book of Mormon movie, but a DVD they give us to give to people). 

It has Jefferey R. Holland talking about what the Book of Mormon is, then a Jamaican Bishop in London talking about his conversion, and then a snippet from Elder Holland's talk "Safety for the Soul." 

If you haven't' seen it, watch it. He basically yells at the viewer that Joseph Smith was a true prophet, in a way that you cannot possibly deny. We watched it with Vera, and she enjoyed it. Wasn't instantly converted as we hoped, but it had a bit of an impact we think.

Also Friday we met with Brian Johnston, the dairy farmer. We gave him an Ensign, because he tells us every time that he won't read the Book of Mormon because he doesn't like books; he prefers newspapers. 

So we thought this would be a good way for him to read about the church and feel the spirit...and he loved it! He said he'll read it, and then pass it on to someone else...non-member Missionary haha!

Saturday we saw Tommy Reilly and Sister Deery, as usual. Tommy is deteriorating. He says he can't enjoy anything anymore. But every Sunday he is just fine and bright and cheerful. He's just lonely really. 

We met a deep catholic guy who we had a little lesson with...after teaching/semi-debating with him, we decided to just tell him to read and pray. He said he wouldn't; that would be against his religion. But he was very interesting. He said some weird stuff, such as "Jesus was a cool dude". We were very surprised at this, because this guy was like in his 50s and dressed in slacks and a plain white collared shirt. And when he said it he didn't even crack a smile. Weird. But funny. 

Then we met a girl named Lisa, who seems very prepared. She said she IS looking for something in life, and she seemed very interested in the message. She lives outta town in Castlederg, so we're going out there today to follow up and teach her all about Joe Smith and whatnot.

Sunday was nice. We went to the McKennas' house for dinner, tracted a bunch. Then we went to see Ian McConnel (the Ian who hangs out with Vera.) 

He was clearly drunk, and when we sat down and talked with him he started crying and said he needs to repent. It was a very spiritual experience; we told him what we can do to help him, and what he can do to help himself. He seemed very sincere. We were afraid that it was just the wine making him emotional, but we saw him last night and he was just as sincere, but sober. He really does want to change, and become active in the church again. We're so excited that he's taking the first step now!

Monday: P-day. We went to the Ulster-American Folk Park! It's a big deal here in Omagh; it has an indoor museum with exhibits on immigrants to America from N.Ireland. Very interesting. Took some good pictures. 

Also they had a bunch of replica cabins and stuff outside, and a ton of "rare breed" farm animals. 

Best part...we got to hold a lamb!!! (Pics attached). Unfortunately we weren't brave enough to ask if we could hold it on our shoulders, but we got some good pictures and we felt very Christ-like. That made it all worth it.

Yesterday we went to Belfast for a zone meeting. We had lunch at Boojum, basically the  Costa Vida of the UK/Ireland. Then a bunch of tractin', then dinner with the Cathcarts. Good day. Good week!

Other news: We've received several prank calls/texts from people these last few weeks. Twice we've woken up in the morning to voice-mails of drunk people saying "please call me back, I want to be a Mormon" or something like that. We always call them back, but they either don't answer or they hang up as soon as we tell them who we are. Also a few texts. 

We haven't' received a phone call from anyone who sincerely wants to learn more...not YET. Someday we will, and then all the hours we spent handing out pass along cards with our number on it will be worth it!

Also: You guys should watch the "I'm a Mormon" video for Jason Smyth on mormon.org. He's from Londonderry! He's a paralympic gold medalist. 

Watch it! Then you'll know what the N.Irish people sound like! He seems really cool. He is part of the push for the "UK Media initiative..." 

Not sure if I've mentioned it before, but the South Park creators' Book of Mormon musical is in London now, and so the church has done a big campaign with the mormon.org site. They actually made a new one --  mormon.org.uk, which places emphasis on the profiles of UK people. I think they're all English except for Jason. Very good video. Inspirational and stuff.

Also also: SKYPE! I think it would work best if we do it at 4pm here/9am there! That will work perfectly for us. We'll be at Tom Henry's house. Will one of you email me what username I called from last time? Just to make sure it works.

SUPER EXCITED TO TALK TO YOU ALL! 

Love yous, and see yous in four days!

Spencer

Photos: 

Bowling...in our white shirts

Gooo Grizzlies! (this is actually a black bear but close enough) at Folk Park

America!!! at Folk Park

AWWWWWWW at Folk Park

Full rainbow! No pot o' gold though

Rainbow with the Omagh Spires (Left: Catholic, right: Church of Ireland)

"...so we gave her a little push by going on a wee walk with her that day, and she felt loads better.."

Hello family and friends,

This has been a real good week like. (Some people here say that...they add "like" to the end of a sentence.) Maybe I'll subconsciously say it in two weeks when we Skype!)

For real though, very good week. 

Before I move on, Gertie's baptism will take place on Saturday May 11th, instead of the 4th. She made it to church, but we felt like another week to prepare would be good, and she felt the same way. 

Also she had a cup of tea Sunday morning, so we literally had to reschedule. I guess we weren't clear that the Word of Wisdom was to abstain from tea, coffee, etc, not just to cut down the amount. She's good now though.

Tuesday we exchanged with Derry, so Elder Eastham and I stayed in Omagh. He played the trombone at Alta High School, so we chatted about band life for a good while on the drive back. 

That day we taught Beth, the 83 year old lady who loves to chat with us but says we won't convert her. A lot of people say that here. She's still good crac though, we'll continue to visit her occasionally.

We taught Brian J. this week as well. We talked about the principles/ordinances of the gospel. (faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost, endure to the end.) As soon as we mentioned baptism, he said "I'll not be baptized again." But we'll see... 

He came out to church this week and enjoyed it, so slowly but surely he's coming along. I think he likes attending our church over his Methodist church...I hear a lot of Protestant ministers preach about hell-fire and stuff like that, but our meetings are real chill compared to that. Plus they're funny. The 2nd counselor in the N.I. stake presidency came to our branch yesterday, and he told this joke:

There was a bishop of a ward who got a set of false teeth. That Sunday he only talked for eight minutes. The next, only 12. But the next week he talked for three hours. Some one asked why, and he said, "My teeth were so sore I could only talk for eight minutes. Then they were still sore so I could only speak for 12. But the third week I accidentally put in my wife's false teeth, and I couldn't stop talking."

Sexist but funny. Brian went up to him afterward and said "I loved the joke about the teeth...Hahaha!" So we have him hooked with our humour.

Thursday we had Zone interviews/training. Each of us got to meet with President one on one to discuss the work, our lives, and anything we needed to talk about. He's so great, his accent and his attitude and his spirit are so inspirational!

Also on Thursday we were invited to Youth night to watch their video that we all made. It was a success! Then they fed us chicken curry with rice and chips. (chips=fries, but specifically the wedge type fries.)

Saturday the Zone leaders came down from Bangor to interview Gertie! She passed, sort of. As I mentioned earlier, she didn't fully understand the tea thing. 

Then we blitzed Omagh with the zone leaders, which is when we swap companions for the day and literally double the work in the area. I enjoyed it. Our zone leaders are way cool...serious and spiritual when they need to be, but when we're walking around we have good fun!

Also on Saturday we visited Vera. I think I mentioned this before, but lately Ian hasn't been over at her house hardly at all. So she sits all day watching TV, but she doesn't even watch it! She just zones out, so she says. This is causing her to be depressed, which causes her to miss church. So we encouraged her to find something to do with her time. 

She said she used to go on walks around the neighborhood, so we gave her a little push by going on a wee walk with her that day, and she felt loads better. She came to church the next day! She was borderline "less-active" before that, so we're getting her back on track. Ian's still a case though...

Sunday was real good, seeing Gertie and Brian there was great. Gertie still hasn't told her family, other than her sister and mom who were fine with it. She's just scared to tell her daughter and son. So she still depends upon Tom for a lift to church. She lives in Dromore, which isn't THAT far away. It's working out though. Can't wait for the 11th!

Well that's our week. We're going to Derry/Londonderry to have a district P-day! We're gonna bowl, and do stuff around the city. Should be fun.

Love, Spencer.

Picture: The Omagh church building!!!

"She is learning quite quickly...gift of tongues I guess."

This week was full of excitement and whatnot.

Start with Monday. After p-day stuff and dinner with a few members, we went to try by this guy named Mickey. We met him on the street a few weeks ago, and he said something during our conversation like, "I'm into the rock and roll." We said that was cool, but he said no it's bad. So we think "rock" might be a name for crystal meth or something, and roll maybe drugs of other sorts. Charlotte, please verify. 

But anyway we stopped by, and when he opened the door his face was all covered in dry blood, and he had a bad cut above his eyebrow and a bunch of other bruises. He said he suffers from epileptic fits, but it looked like he got beat up. Bad. So we wonder if he is in the drug business of some sort, and maybe got into trouble with that. We're gonna try again soon to see how he is.

We also spent a fair bit of time with the branch youth, making their video for the Dublin All-Ireland seminary convention thing. It was pretty good. Haven't seen it yet, but I think they're showing it to us on Thursday and feeding us dinner at the church too or something.

We helped Josefine, the Hungarian lady, prepare for her English placement exam, which is later today. She is learning quite quickly...gift of tongues I guess. 

Also a fun thing we learned: her name is actually Ilona, but when she married Josef she became Josefine Kovacs, basically Mrs. Josef Kovacs. And she told us that Kovacs means Smith, so her husband is Josef Smith!!! I think she got the reference too, because I think she knows who J.S. is. When Elder Holm and I looked at each other in amazement after hearing this, she cracked up, so we think she gets the coincidence too.

Saturday we taught a lesson to a girl, about our age, named Emma. We had met her out walking the other week, and she said she was interested and gave us her address. She and her brother both listened to our message, and she agreed to read the Book of Mormon and seemed really excited about it. The brother had to go to work half way through the lesson, but I think he would have accepted as well. They both seem real solid!

We had some Enniskillen adventures as well. So there's this guy named Thomas, who the missionaries met in Manchester, who lives in Enniskillen. We've been in phone contact for a while, and we finally set an appointment with him. When we show up at his address, a lady answers and looks real confused. She says he was probably pulling our leg. She said he didn't live there, but then she helps us get to the bottom of it. She is friends with him, so she called him and asked why he sent us to her door. He denied it, and then she chewed him out. 

Apparently he does stuff like that all the time. She was angry, kept apologizing and saying that it wasn't a nice thing he did. But we thought it was very funny. (Probably because we don't pay for our petrol.) She gave us his actual address though, so maybe we'll show up at his REAL house unannounced and see his reaction.

Also in Enniskillen, we were driving through an area with a bunch of Irish flags on light poles, and some graffiti on a wall that said "Rot in Hell Thatcher, We remember 81". Apparently Margaret Thatcher, a former prime minister or something, died last week. We heard a lot about it. She was hated by a lot of people, especially the Irish  So there was probably something in 1981 that she did that was real bad. It's interesting being in the middle of all this and trying to stay neutral.

Yesterday was real good. Gertie was able to come to church. So far her marriage thing has gone well. She is in her house and her husband received a court order to leave. We went with Tom Henry to pick her up in Dromore, because no other members were able to take a 30 minute round trip drive to help her get to church. The last convert baptism was over two years ago. But it turned out ok, she will be baptized on May 4th as long as she makes it to church next week!!!! So excited.

Last story: last night we were tracting, and this guy invited us in. He said they were celebrating their daughter's "first communion", which is a big deal for Catholics. So we walked in, and there were about six other people dressed up in their church clothes, all drinking and celebrating their eight year old's special day. 

They asked us a ton of questions...about ourselves, about missions, about the church, about why we can't drink, etc. Very loud, and crazy with tons of people talking at the same time. Hilarious group of people. It was a fun experience, and I think they hopefully learned something from it as well.

Have I told you guys that EVERYONE who's not a member calls us by our first names?? Every time we say our names are Elder Burt and Elder Holm, they ask, "You have the same name?" Then we tell them it's just a title, another name for missionary. So then they always ask for our first names. 

Gertie calls us Hans and Spencer, Brendan Bradley used to (still not sure where he is...), and the Catholic party house all did as well, and same for everyone we meet in the street. Joey, Dad, Ryan, did you get this in your missions? It's weird haha.

Anyway, those are the stories for this week. No pictures to attach...but I SENT THE SD CARD IN THE MAIL ON WEDNESDAY so you should hopefully receive it soon. When you get the pictures copied, just send it back and I'll put pics/videos from my wee camcorder on and send it again. (it was 100% full!)

Love yous, and have a grrrrrrrreat week.

$pencer

"...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.