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Monday July 1st SCOTLAND!

"Well, I certainly will miss Omagh terribly. Especially Tom...and all the other members. And Gertie..."

Hey,

I'm going to Scotland! 

I'll be serving in Dundee in the Liff Ward...as district leader?!
Almost died when President Brown told me that. I don't feel ready. But oh well, we'll see how it goes. 

I'll be going to Edinburgh on Wednesday for training on how to be a district leader. My new companion will be Elder Meyer, from Australia. 

So I'll be the least experienced elder in the district, attempting to train them and help them improve their work...very nervous! Advice?

Anyway, this week was grand so it was. (I'm gonna miss N. Ireland!) 

Last Monday after a bit of missionary work we drove to Derry and stayed the night again, then drove to Belfast for a zone meeting. 

Then we exchanged--I went with Elder Kinnard--then drove back to Derry then back to Omagh. 

We have a "Sat Nav" (GPS) in our car, and we decided to take a scenic route home from Derry...only added a few minutes to our travel time, and it was super beautiful like. 

Had a decent day after that of just tracting and stuff.

Wednesday the same, except we saw Alan and Nigel and went to the Lee's. It was Elder Gomez's first time there, and when he told his love/conversion story, Sister Lee started making gagging noises and stuff. It was hilarious, because that's how I feel every time he tells it. It's so sappy. 

Couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or for real, but she would groan whenever he would say a ridiculously cheesy line about his girlfriend/fiance. 

Sister Lee: "Why don't you carry a picture of her around with you to show people?" Elder Gomez: "I don't need a picture because she is always in my heart." "Uuuggghh please stop it!!!" hahaha I was dying. 

He says he doesn't care when people make fun of him for it, because he knows she's the one for him and that's all he cares about. But nonetheless, I will miss my crazy Spaniard companion.

This week I wanted to try to contact a bunch of former investigators, who had been taught (the missionary lessons) between 1-6 years ago and we still have their records. 

I had a good feeling about it, particularly one lady who seemed promising and I thought for sure we would find her and she would be prepared from the foundations of the world to receive the gospel...but nope. She moved. Dunno where to. Same with most of the others...either moved away or not interested anymore. Oh well.

We went to Enniskillen as well to visit the members out there with Tom. The G8 craziness had all cleared up unfortunately. Apparently they had 2,000 cops from all over the UK supervising it.

Our friend Lisa, the super quiet, innocent, sincere 18 year old girl who has mild special needs we think, texted us to say she can't continue meeting with us. We think it might have been the parents forcing her to. But oh well. Elder Gomez was devastated; he was under the impression that she will not receive celestial glory now. I told him that wasn't true, but he insisted that it was doctrine that if someone rejects our message they can't achieve exaltation. Rubbish. 

I told him that, but he insisted and so I just let him think that. I couldn't be bothered arguing.

Saturday was interesting. There was a pipe band competition, so we saw men walking around all day in kilts all over town, walking to the competition. I'll probably see a lot more of that in a few days. 

Also we (I) decided to go apologize to Sandra for being negative about her church last time we saw her...she said she wasn't offended but she was touched to see that we cared. Boom, seed planted.

Brian Johnston, the first investigator I taught, has been avoiding us lately, saying he's busy this week and to save our visit for later. But we were determined to see him one more time: to teach the law of chastity. 

The whole time I've been here, he has a photo of a naked woman on his wall that we have to turn our backs to. It doesn't bother us, because once you know it's there you can avoid it. But we decided to tell him that pornography is bad. 

He understood the whole law of chastity, even pornography, but he didn't consider it to be breaking the law because it was a rare collectors item. (Apparently it's a calendar from Pirelli tires, and only two people in N. Ireland have them...) 

We gave him a picture of Jesus, which he loved, and we asked if he would replace the bad picture with a picture of the Savior. He kinda laughed...told us he would surely hang up the Jesus picture but he kept giving excuses, like how the other picture looked better on the wall, that the Jesus picture would be too small of a frame for that particular wall...etc...but he said maybe he will. So we'll see. 

Well, I won't see, because I'm leaving, but hopefully elders in the future will help him to repent even if he doesn't join the church.

Well, I certainly will miss Omagh terribly. Especially Tom...and all the other members. And Gertie...and some of our other people. 

We met a really sweet less-active member yesterday, who has no intention of returning to activity anytime soon, but is living the commandments and reading her scriptures from time to time...and her 21 year old daughter seems quite interested in coming to church and learning what we believe. They are super nice, and I am sad that I just barely met them before leaving.

That's it for this week. I am very excited. And nervous. And a bit sad. Elder Holm told me that I'll cry when I leave my first area...not sure about that, but maybe when I get on the ferry to Scotland it will hit me. D'awww.

I love you all!

All the best.

Elder Burt

Photos:

Letterkenny district: Elders Dustin, Kinnard, Burt, Gomez-Castillo, Mills, Eastham. Sisters Ryan, Cardon, Moore.

Another Belfast mural.

March Against the G8!

Flippin beautiful scenic route from Derry to Omagh. (two photos)

"...simply share what we believe, invite them to find out for them self and let them choose! Easy peasy."

Hi family!

Well, this week has been grand overall.

Starting off with Monday: P-day activities in Derry! 

We met up with the Derry elders, we walked around the historic city walls, went around looking at some of the cool murals. 

Then we went to this fort on a hill called "Grainian Fort" I think. Very cool, and old. 

And then we went to this beach near Buncrana, about 20 minutes from Derry. Real cool. Elder Mills and I dug a hole and built up walls around it to keep out the incoming tide. Also we played with "hurling" sticks. 

Hurling is some sort of Irish sport, like lacrosse I think, but you use these deadly looking wooden sticks. 

Then we had dinner at the McKenna's house, because they live in Derry but are on assignment to the Omagh branch (congregation) and they wanted us over. 

We decided to kill three birds with one stone, we could do fun stuff in Derry, then have dinner there, then stay the night at the Derry elders' flat and then go to district meeting in the morning. It worked out perfectly.

Tuesday was great! We met with Gertie. We were finally able to meet with her. She at first was echoing the same doubts as the week before, but as we talked and taught and testified she was excited to be baptized.

August 10 is the date we set with her, hopefully giving her enough time to work out everything with her family. Hoping and praying for her. I don't mind if she gets baptized after I leave, as long as it happens. Someday.

Speaking of "after I leave..." moving day is next Wednesday, so I'll find out if I'm staying or going this Sunday. This transfer flew by!

Thursday was my six month mark! 

It's a tradition to burn a tie at six months, shirt at 12, slacks at 18, and jacket at 24. I decided I'll just do one tie every six months, because I found a bunch of old tattered ties in the flat that missionaries have left behind. So I don't feel bad burning them.

It was a rainy day on June 13th, but we burned the tie anyway. It wasn't catching at first, but Tom had the brilliant idea to dip it in oil and it ignited. I dropped it when the flames started climbing up the stick. It was fun.

This day also had major ups and downs. 

Ups: I realized how great Elder Gomez is. He's hilarious. Sometimes out of control, but always a good laugh. Bad part of the day: We taught Sandra, a devout Catholic who is still kinda interested in the church. For some reason Elder Gomez decided to go against the lesson we had planned, and started talking about infant baptism. Uh oh. Terrible idea. 

She agreed that it should be a person's choice to be baptized, and that a newborn baby will go straight to heaven if it dies, no matter if it's baptized or not. But Elder Gomez kept going in circles, discussing it over and over, and you could tell she was not enjoying it. 

I was trying to say things that were politically correct and respectful, but every time I said something he would interrupt and go back to the SAME subject. She didn't get angry, but I could tell she wasn't feeling the spirit at all. I wasn't either.

Lesson learned: Never go into a lesson trying to convince them that they are incorrect in their beliefs; simply share what we believe, invite them to find out for them self and let them choose! Easy peasy.

Enough of that, here's a funny part of the week:

Teaching Mickey is difficult, because he is usually drunk. We tried to read a passage out of the Book of Mormon with him. He got distracted by the pictures in the front of the Book of Mormon. 

He was super excited to see the pictures of Jesus. Then he looked at a picture of Lehi and his family and yelled, "That's Jesus!" We told him that was Lehi, and tried to teach him who Lehi was...but we were interrupted by "What's this man's name?" pointing at a random Nephite in the picture of Jesus appearing unto them. 

Made my day. We told him we could bring him some pictures of Jesus to hang on his wall, and he was ecstatic. Maybe we'll use it as a bribe. "Mickey, focus and we will give you a Jesus picture." "Be sober for 24 hours and we'll give you two Jesus pictures." I think it's a good idea. 

Also, his friend Ronnie sat in on a lesson with us and was excited when we gave him his own Book of Mormon. So we'll see, maybe the reason we met Mickey is to teach and baptize Ronnie. Who knows.

Those are the good stories...other than that, some good tracting, and other missionary work stuff.

Also, I cut my hair. Thanks again for the clippers you sent me for Christmas. Haven't had to pay for a haircut once!

The G8 is in Enniskillen today! It's part of MY area!!!!! 

We knew about it for a while now, I kept forgetting to tell you guys so you could watch the news for it or whatever! Apparently there are over 2,000 policemen from all over the UK who are there and in the surrounding area. 

Part of me wanted to go to Enniskillen to do missionary work today, but the other day I read in the White Handbook: "Avoid areas that may have anti-American feelings." So we're staying in Omagh. 

Kind of cool though, that I'm an hour's drive away from President Obama right now!

Love you all!

Spencer

Pics:

My flat:

Derry:

Photo of a cannon, the Guildhall, and the Peace Bridge, all in one.

Artsy photo of a cannon on the historic Wall.

Cannon pointing at Bogside.

Photos of "Bogside", the heavily Catholic part of town, seen from the wall. "IRA" painted on the rooftops, and some cool murals too.

Protestant part of town:

British skeleton/soldier carrying a Union Jack, which if you look closely has been stabbed and  broken off in an Irish/Catholic soldier.

Apprentice boys of Derry, closing the gates.

(You guys should look at some history of Derry online or in books or something, really cool stuff.)

Far off picture of "Spencer Road"

The Fort!

The Beach!

Hurling sticks (knees muddy from building sand fortress)

Photos at Tom's house:

Us and Tom

Elder Gomez and Elder Burt

Burning a tie! Six month tradition!

"The smile on his face was enough, no greater reward."

Let's start off this email with the craziest experience so far on my mission.

I witnessed a man having a seizure. Scary.

So Mickey is epileptic, as he's told us quite a few times. He has seizures, or "epileptic fits" every few weeks. We went to see him on Thursday. He let us in, and he seemed happy to see us. 

But something was off we could tell. He couldn't really answer our questions. We'd ask him something, and he'd say "Well, you see, it's just...ya know...well..." and filler words like that, never actually responding. 

It was getting worrisome, so I asked him if he remembered his name. He did the same thing. So we knew something was up. This went on for about 10 or 15 minutes, with us trying to figure out what was wrong. 

I feel dumb in hindsight; I was saying a silent prayer to figure out what to do, and several times I had the feeling that maybe this was a sign leading up to his epilepsy. I felt like I should call 999 (911 equivalent) and tell them the situation, but I kept putting it off.

Then after about 15 minutes of us asking him questions and me shrugging off spiritual promptings, it started. 

He was sitting on the couch (luckily) and he started staring off into space and his lower lip began to twitch. As soon as that happened, I knew that my feelings were confirmed. His hands started to shake a few seconds later, and then his whole body started convulsing. Then he started yelling uncontrollably as if he was in some extreme pain. It was probably the scariest experience of my life. 

As soon as we knew what was going on I called 999. When the man picked up he was asking for the phone number and address where I was calling from, and a bunch of other questions. 

Panicked, I asked "This man just had a seizure, what do I need to do?!" He told me to just let it subside while the ambulance was on its way. 

Once the trembling had stopped, and he was breathing heavily, the operator guy told me to keep an eye on him, make sure he's breathing and let him know if anything changed. 

So basically we sat there on the phone watching Mickey breathe and cough until the paramedics arrived. They sorted everything out; gave him an oxygen mask, took his blood pressure, and eventually he came to. 

His eyes were open and he would look at whoever was talking, but just as before he wasn't saying anything. They took him to the hospital and we went our separate ways. 

Still gives me chills imagining the look on his face when it all started.

We went by his house on Saturday to see how he was doing. The paramedics told him what happened. Apparently he thought we looked in his window and saw him laying on the floor after the seizure, but we told him the whole story about how we were there and we saw the whole thing. 

Looking back on it, elder Gomez and I realized that the timing was perfect. Our weekly planning session took longer than expected, so we showed up at his house later than we planned. If we had showed up earlier, maybe he would have been mentally sound at the time and we could have left right before it got weird. 

Not sure if we saved his life by being in the right place at the right time, because I figure he's probably been on his own before and he's survived. But you never know. 

Luckily nothing bad came from my ignoring spiritual promptings. I was reminded of a story President Monson told about a similar situation with a man in a hospital. I can't imagine how I would feel if Mickey had died or been hurt because I ignored those thoughts. 

Whew. Really made me think.

Alright. So other things that happened this week:

Elliot Cathcart is putting in his mission papers!!!! So excited and so proud of him.

Gertie is struggling. We had an appointment to teach her at Tom's on Tuesday...but she didn't show up at the place where we always pick her up. And again, not answering phone calls. 

We drove out to her house on Friday, and she wasn't there...we knocked on the next door neighbor's house to find out if she is ok. The man, Tony, was super friendly. 

He told us that Gertie and he are really close, and she often goes to him in times of hardship with her family. He said that basically Gertie's kids, the husband, and her in-laws are all giving her hassle about the separation still. He said she told him about us/the church, and he told her that she can't really have two religions, which is quite true. Also he told her that if the family found out about the church and how she's investigating, they would blame the break-up on the church and maybe even US. So that was kinda scary. 

Finally she answered the phone Saturday, and practically broke my heart. She started talking about that sort of stuff, and how she can't be a Mormon because she was raised Catholic and her whole family is Catholic and they wouldn't be happy if she changed religions. 

She kept saying, "I respect, 100%, the Latterday Saints...but I don't think I could be one" and stuff like that. 

I was about to die! Luckily thanks to the spirit I resolved her concerns the best I could...convinced her to not put this off forever, but to just wait till things die down with her family troubles. She said she knows what we teach is true and that the Book of Mormon is true, but she can't change. 

But I talked with her about how if she knows this is the right path, what would God say if she didn't follow it? She took that well, and was more open to the idea of changing someday at the end of the conversation. I was SO scared!!!! We can't lose Gertie. That was a stressful hour or so on the phone with her. But hopefully it's resolved for now.

Other big part of the week: DUBLIN! 

We went down on Wednesday for an All-Ireland conference with President Brown. Good stuff, very inspirational. Beautiful drive too. Took the whole day though with travel, the conference, eating, taking elders to the bus/train stations. 

The Derry elders crashed at our flat Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Good fun.

New name for elder Gomez: Elder Gobaz. Ian McConnell, our hilarious and sometimes insensitive and profane less-active friend, was calling him "Elder Mexicano" and "Elder Gobaz" just to get a rise out of him on Tuesday. I was dying. I am so tempted to call him Elder Gobaz now, but I'm sure he wouldn't be happy with that.

On Friday Elder Dustin went on an exchange with me. Such a great leader, helped uplift me and gave me some tips on how to deal with companion trouble.

It's been super hot here, around 23 degrees C. Not sure what that is in F, but it's hot. Lots of guys around town just walk around shirtless. 

Funniest part: Tom Henry, who loves to work in his garden, was shirtless as well. And he's not a skinny man. 

We were near his house so we dropped by to say hello, and he was like "Oh, I wasn't expecting visitors!" all embarrassed. He's hilarious. 

Quote of the week from Tom: (referring to his baldness) "An empty house has no need for thatchin'!" Hahaha. Good crack so he is.

Another Mickey story: on Saturday when we went to check up on him, he told us basically that he had no food, and that he wouldn't get paid until Tuesday. 

He never actually asked, but he kept saying "I get paid 400 pound on Tuesday so I'll have NO problem paying ya back!" 

We told him we couldn't, but that we could bring him some food if he really needed it. He said yes, so we brought over a bag of cans and frozen food and stuff we didn't need, and gave it to him. 

The smile on his face was enough, no greater reward. 

We told him that to pay us back he could come to church with us and then we'd be even. He said definitely, but when we went to pick him up with Tom Sunday morning he said he had a bad headache. Darn it.

We actuallly had a good chat with Ian yesterday. As usual, he promised to come to church and didn't. 

We went over with Tom to do hometeaching with them, and Ian was obviously drunk. 

We shared the little message and visited for a while. When we left, luckily Ian came out with us without Vera. 

Before I got in the car I put my hand on his shoulder and said, "Ian, what are you doing?" He says, "Oh, not much" I said, "No, what are you doing with your life? We can tell you're drunk." He admits, "A wee bit." 

So we, along with Tom, have a good talk with him about it. Finally. I was so sick of tiptoe-ing around it, but it felt good to be blunt with him. He knows what's true, he knows what's right, he knows what he needs to do. He just needs to DO it.

Well, that's it for this week. Crazy stories.

Love yous all!

Spencer

Photos: 

Chillin in a forest.

Oh yeah. 

We found clovers (shamrocks?) in Ireland! Not four leaf, but still.

"...it was just such a nice thing for her to say, and I felt like it was inspired."

It's June 3. Today marks five months in Omagh. Next Thursday will be six months. Wowzers.

This week was grand. Starting with Wednesday, after I emailed yous all:

We went to Castlederg to home teach the Bogle family with Tom. I think I've mentioned them before...the grandma is real old and suffers from memory loss of some sort. (dementia?) She is hilarious though. She couldn't understand a single word Elder Gomez said. She said to me, "Does he speak English?" I told her yes..."Well then we better be careful what we say!" hahahaha. Another funny thing: Tom Henry, who spends more time with us than any other member, can't pronounce the name. He says "Gormez Costello." And even when E.G.C spells it out and says it slowly, Tom says "Gormez." Makes me crack up every time.

Other interesting thing on Wednesday: After the Bogles we stopped to see Dominik. We had set an appointment with him for this time since we would be in the area. 

When we told Tom he said he thought he had been taught by elders in years past...same situation. Met in town, went out to the house once or twice, seemed a bit special, then never heard from him again. 

So we knocked on his door, no answer. Went again yesterday to give it one last shot. Knocked and rang the bell several times. Heard a TV on inside, so we even knocked on the window because we didn't want to waste a trip without speaking to him. Never answered. So we probably won't make a special trip just for him again. Bummed.

I think my favorite part of Wednesday was seeing Isabel. Isabel and Maurice Short are mother and son living together (about 90 and 50 years old respectively). Both super nice. 

The Chamberlains met them somehow a while back, and told us to go visit them. We've been seeing them occasionally these months, and the other week we found out that Isabel would be reading the Book of Mormon if the print was bigger. 

On Tuesday in the Derry Ward building we found a triple-combination that's HUGE, and the bishop said we could have it if we order another one in a few weeks time. When we took it to Isabel she was overjoyed!! Felt so good. She was just so thankful and happy. She's always that way, but this time was even more.

Thursday we saw Mickey B. Have I mentioned him before? Well, he's an alcoholic we met on the street one day. Oh yeah! He was the one who opened the door the first time and had blood all over his face. Remember him? Well we've been kind of teaching him. It's hard, because he's usually drunk. 

Luckily he's a crazy-happy drunk, not angry or violent. Although one time when my companion told him he needs to stop drinking he bent over and made a fart noise at him. Anyway, he's a character. A Proud Mancunion (someone from Manchester). Sort of wants to change his life, but at the same time not. But he is grateful to have us over, and we're trying to help him the best we can. It's a crazy new experience every time though.

We saw Vera Duncan last week. She is fluent in Spanish...so she and Elder Gomez chatted it up for hours! Literally. 

When we showed up Vera and her husband Ian were cooking food for us all, so we had dinner there. Super good. I wonder if Joey and Dad's dinners at members houses were that good? The Brazilian-Brazilians are poorer and the Brazilian-Irish are rich. By comparison. 

But it was good, Elder Gomez was super relieved to be able to express himself completely. He keeps telling me and everyone else that he wishes he could speak better so he could express his feelings the way he wants to. I can't imagine what that would be like because he never stops talking in the first place.

Friday was good. We went and saw Alan and Nigel. On the way, we took that Friend magazine (that Mom sent a while back--Thank you!) to our less-active friend Claire. Her daughter is about seven years old and likes primary. She'll come with her grandma Marion occasionally, so I decided it would be good for her. Claire was very appreciative. Even though she has no intentions of coming back to church any time soon, she was happy to give her daughter the magazine. 

Also when she saw it she went "Aww" and looked like she was re-living memories of when she used to read the Friend as a kid. I might have imagined that part, but I dunno. Hopefully it makes a difference.

We then met a man named Darren. He is in his 30s, and knows the bible better than anyone I have ever talked to. But he doesn't belong to any church. We tracted into him, and we had a real good chat. 

We didn't really teach him much about the church, it was mostly answering his questions and hearing him out. But he promised us that he will be all ears next week when we meet with him, as long as we keep our end of the deal: If we put down the Book of Mormon for a week and only study the Bible. 

I told him that we couldn't guarantee complete abstinence from the Book of Mormon, because we teach with it and we read it together and at meetings etc...but I promised him I would dedicate my hour of personal study each morning to just the Bible, unless I NEED to read something from the Book of Mormon.

I figured it wouldn't hurt; I have been wanting to read more New Testament and Old Testament for a while but this gave me the drive to do it! 

He's super smart so I'm convinced that if he received a witness about the Book of Mormon then he would be baptized and never stray from the path. He's a stud.

On Saturday Elder Gomez and I had a HUGE row. It started of small, with something stupid, and then he told me to be open with him. I told him it was best if we just let it go, but he insisted. So I let him have it, and then he let me have it. The rest of our lunch break was silent and awkward, but then we resolved it before we went back out to work. It was no good, but it ended up fine in the end...

The rest of Saturday was good, just talking to a lot of people, tracting for a while...Ian and Vera....then I called Gertie to see how she is doing. One hour and 22 minutes later it was time for bed. Holy flip!

It was good though, at first she was being kinda weird, saying the sort of stuff I was talking about last week, but by the end she wanted to be baptized. Still no date set, but the desire is there. And she wants to bring her granddaughters to church, which would be a HUGE step in her deep Catholic family. 

I was exhausted by the end of the phone call, but I felt so good. She is really uplifting. I wrote down a quote from her in my journal that I loved for some reason: (Might not be 100% accurate) "Don't worry about your mum, don't worry about your dad, don't worry about your family back home. They're all ok. They're all happy. If they could talk to you right now, they would just say, 'I'm happy.'" 

It was so sweet. Not sure where it even came from, because we weren't even talking about my family during that time (sorry). But it was just such a nice thing for her to say, and I felt like it was inspired. Hope you are all ok, and happy.

To wrap it up, Sunday was good. I taught Primary. 

An adult female had to be present in the lesson, because they don't trust us men to be in Primary. But it was super fun. 

We talked about the book of Abraham, and also Moses and the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible. So I made some wee scrolls for each of the children, pictures attached. 

Maggie was kind enough to sit in on the lesson, which was good because she had that mother authority to tell the kids to behave when I'm not so good at that.

Ian, the less-active man we've been seeing three times a week for the past five months, had promised to come to church. But he didn't. His problem is drinking. 

We're quite sure he was drinking the night before...he had a friend coming over Saturday night who, according to Vera, is nothing but trouble, and they always drink when together. 

We called him in the morning before church, he answered and hung up with out saying anything. Then straight to voice-mail after that. 

We went to see him, to sort of interrogate and call him out, but at the same time offer support. He promised he wasn't drinking last night, but his semi-slurred speech said otherwise. 

I was really bold with him, felt like it was led by the spirit though. Basically told him that I don't want to leave Omagh in a month (maybe) thinking that the time we have spent with him is in vain. 

He says we're definitely helping him, and his goal is to go to the temple and do the work for his family, but I told him honestly that that goal is pretty far off right now and he just needs to go to church every week. 

I felt like I was being harsh at times, but he took it well. I really really really hope that something changes in him someday.

Anyway, wow that was a long email especially for being only five days worth. Jeepers.

Well, hope you all enjoyed the Irish/N.Irish stuff I sent!

Love yous.

Spencer

Photos: 

Scrolls for primary class. 

Me trying to look tough (impossible) with my County Tyrone flag. (I might send that home for yous to keep safe...but for now I'm keepin' it!)
The counties are quite a big deal out here; mainly with Gaelic Football. Each county in Ireland has a team and they are very proud of it.

Weds. May 29

May 20