"If we love Him enough, we'll make the right choices."

Why hello family! 

I'd like to begin by sharing an introspective insight I experienced last week. 

Whilst on my mission I've learned that many of the Old Testament prophets were "slow of speech" or not powerful in speaking, which I had no idea of before. 

Moses and Enoch are two examples I've heard who were this way. And hearing this has always stuck out to me; I think because I can relate. 

God called them to do crazy difficult stuff, and they were able to do it anyway. As most of us know, I'm not the most confident when it comes to speaking to groups of people, or even people on their own, especially in a new situation. 

But as I've relied on the spirit, I've been able to accomplish lots of stuff that I wouldn't be able to do on my own, even if it does scare me to death while I'm doing so. 

Also, I've noticed that some of my favorite scriptures while I've been out are in D&C when the Lord assures missionaries that they just need to study His word, seek the spirit, and open their mouths, and they'll be able to say what they have been called to say. I can say I've seen that in my life these past 14 months. Pretty cool I'd say.

So, last Tuesday we had the Scotland West Conference, where the Glasgow and Paisley zones met up at the Glasgow stake centre to hear President and Sister Brown, the AP's, and Elder Herbertson of the Quorum of the Seventy speak to us. 

It was very inspirational; I filled up several pages with notes of things I thought were brilliant. But toward the end I almost felt overwhelmed; I thought I could never apply ALL these things, especially in the short term. 

Luckily Elder Herbertson had a Q/A session the last half hour or so. After a bunch of other questions that just added to my feeling of overwhelmment (word?), I decided to ask him what he felt the MOST important message we should take away from the meeting, and apply immediately. 

He said "Love the Lord and Serve the Lord." So I've been trying to focus on that. If we love Him enough, we'll make the right choices. Sweet.

Other stuff that happened this week. We had a "missionary fireside", also known as "Fill the Font" night. It used to be a regular tradition; from what it sounds like, the branch would pretend to have a baptism, so they'd have talks, music, they'd fill the font up half way and open the doors, but the only thing missing was the baptism. 

Sounded weird to me at first, but apparently it was really nice and spiritual. 

The branch is sparking it back up again, but a bit different; instead they're just having a fun/spiritual thing every month, and calling it Fill the Font still. 

So last week they had both of us give short talks, then we watched a talk by John Bytheway that President Wilde had on DVD. It was pretty good. Mostly funny. But also inspirational. So I think they're doing that once a month, with a church movie or something each time.

We visited TONS of less-active members this week, which I thoroughly enjoyed. But in a way, we could be using our time better. I think sometimes we try to avoid tracting at all costs, so when we have free time we try to contact people; members, less active members, investigators, potential investigators, etc.

I don't mind tracting, but it seems most of my comps don't like it. Which makes it hard to have the spirit or have fun when one of us is bored or miserable. 

Anyway...we haven't seen Jim Craig in over two weeks...when we go by he doesn't answer, and his door is locked. (He usually tells us to just come in so he doesn't have to get up and come to the door haha.) So he is either out of town for some reason, or he's dead. Hopefully he is not dead. 

Have I mentioned Susan before? She's an 80-year old widow who is semi-active. She's been on the border of active and less-active my whole time in Greenock, but she is so funny and so fun to visit! 

She gives us Irn Bru and chocolate every week when we go to visit her, and she tells the same stories about her kids, grandkids, and husband over and over, but in a very entertaining way. We keep telling her to write a book, but she hasn't yet. We get to meet some interesting and fun people.

On Friday we went to teach Joe (of the F4) and he said he had no food and no money, and couldn't get any until Wednesday. 

We checked, and it was true...so we being nice and merciful told him we'd bring by some cans and a spare loaf of bread from our flat to last him a couple days. But of course, when we got to his flat with the food, he had borrowed £20 pound from a friend, so we didn't feel quite as heroic as we would have if he had truly been relying on our donation. Oh well. He's coming along, slowly but surely.

Yesterday I gave a talk, on...missionary work of course. I encouraged members to "do missionary work", and gave tips and experiences that I thought would help them. 

Lots of them came from my mission, one experience that I DIDN'T have (I kind of shared how I missed a lot of missionary work opportunities back home, especially with some of my acquaintances from the USU dorms...and encouraged them to seek out opportunities and act on them) and a lot of tips from the "Power of Everyday Missionaries" book. It's brilliant! 

But apparently I went over my allotted time, which I found out after I heard the branch president clear his throat behind me and I looked back and he pointed to his watch. I felt like I hadn't talked that long, but I guess I did! 

So I've officially reached the point in my life where instead of having to stretch out my talk to fill the time, I now have to be more concise and make sure my talk isn't too long. I guess that means I'm an adult now! 

Not to be prideful, but I felt like my talk was really good, both when I was preparing it and when I was speaking; but then I felt bad for talking too much afterward. 

But that's another hurdle cleared I guess, I usually feel like my talks are rubbish after I give them, and I feel weird when people tell me it was good after church...but this time I was just like, "Thanks, but I think I spoke a bit too long..." haha.

Also, this week we went to the Isle of Bute with the Cains to visit a member couple. It was a beautiful drive.

Welp, I think that's it for the week.

Thanks to you all for the emails. And if you are reading this blog and haven't emailed or written, it would be so cool if you did.

Cheeky eh?

Anyway, Have a great week family and friends. Love yous!

Elder Spencer Burt

PHOTOS!

This is Elder Carter...apparently he is a cousin of Trevor Burt, but on the other side? That's what grandma told me, so I got a picture with him at the conference. He said he heard he had a distant cousin in the mission but he didn't know it was me. So yeah. Family reunion of sorts?

Nice photo on the drive from Largs.

House.

"...Elder Smiler and I were roped into singing a duet..."

Hello family! 

Hope all is well in Utah. Things are going pretty good here in the United Kingdom. By the way, did you know that in the autumn of this year they are voting to decide if Scotland will remain part of the UK or become independent? Pretty exciting, I'm pretty sure I'll be around for that. 

Might be in Ireland, but it would be awesome to be in Scotland to witness the havoc that will ensue probably no matter what the results are. I'm hoping for some riots!

Anyway, I've had a pretty good week. I forgot to bring my planner so it will all be from memory...I might accidentally leave out a few things of significance that happened...hope the Spirit brings it to my remembrance.

Let's see...Tuesday we had our usual district meeting. Then Elder Maughan came on an exchange with me to Greenock. We had a lot of fun, and got work done. 

Hey, that would be a good mission motto: "Have fun, and get work done."

We taught two of the Fantastic 4 this week. Joe is the most solid of them all. We taught him about how to find out if the Book of Mormon is true (read and pray about it) and he was really excited about it. 

We talked vaguely and briefly about baptism...then a few days later he called us and said "I've been reading some of the book, and I think it's time for baptism." 

We are pretty excited for that, but it will be  a wee while till that can happen. But "baby steps" will eventually get him there. That would be a great success story!

Wednesday we had P.E.C. (Priesthood Executive Committee) and it was not bad. Ironically, while I've been on my mission I've looked forward to church meetings like PEC, ward council, etc. 

Well, not district meetings because I have to plan them out and conduct and instruct every week...but I suppose I'm learning a lot from being a district leader these past several transfers. 

I've sort of found myself lately being enthusiastic and excited about the work side of a mission, but ironically I feel like my testimony has been dwindling a bit...sort of like when I pray or testify or teach it's just like going through the motions that I've been doing for the past year +. Any suggestions?

I know, study and pray...but sometimes I feel like I'm going through the motions with those things as well. Any certain things you have studied or read or thought about that have strengthened your testimonies? I'm open to advice.

Thursday was the usual Thursday. Friday was a nice Friday. 

Saturday there was a baptism in the ward of a wee girl who turned eight. It was awesome; over 60 people attended! Tons of family and friends, many of whom are either non-members or less-active members. 

I had a few good conversations with a few of them and they seemed like they could be receptive, but of course I didn't go around asking people if they wanted to be taught. 

I figured I'd let them just bask in the spirit there and maybe have the member family follow up with them later or something. Baptisms are always fun.

Sunday Elder Smiler and I were roped into singing a duet in Sacrament meeting. 

The music director in the branch is not an easy person to say no to, and she asked us a few weeks ago if we could sing in sacrament meeting, singing a song of her choice and on a day of her choice. 

We're not too fussy, so we did it. I'm not the best singer...I mean I can sing and hit the right notes as long as it's within my range, but I don't think I have the best soloing voice. 

But people came up afterward and said it was very good, which is nice. But I'm not that naive, I know that even if it was rubbish people would be nice and say it was good! 

Haha but i'm not too bothered either way, if it was good then that's good, but if it wasn't, then I might not be asked to sing at church again! :)

Sorry, not too many cool stories this week. If I recall any that I missed I'll share them in next week's email.

Until then, fare thee well.

Love, 

Elder Burt

Photos: 

Stumbled upon this old photo of me and the one and only Tom Henry! Man, I was skinny...I think I've put a few pounds back on since Elder Holm left me.

Taking more photos in kilts in our flat! Trying to look intense.

Viking statue made of plants and stuff in Largs.

"The branch organized a fantastic dinner and party...Piping in the Haggis..."

Dear Family,

Here's the cool stuff that happened this week:

We taught some of our drunk friends this week (we sometimes refer to them as "The Fantastic 4"; three investigators and one less-active member who is our source for meeting them all) a new one was added to the picture. A really nice guy who hangs out with that whole crowd, but he says he doesn't drink! 

Pretty awesome. He asked a lot of good questions. He seemed to enjoy our visit, although it was regularly interrupted by loud outbursts from one of their friends--He's not included in the Fantastic 4, he's not quite worthy. He was just loud and obnoxious and super drunk. I asked him to be quiet once while we tried to watch "The Lamb of God," but he got pretty mad. Dropping F-bombs the whole time, but it was great because the two present members of the F4 would always say "Hey man, don't swear!" 

It is always a fun experience with them...sometimes it can be really spiritual but sometimes it's very un-spiritual and I just have to appreciate the funny side of it. 

We are thinking of trying a method where we set up specific times with them twice a week, and have them promise to be sober for that short period of time, because most of them say that they can stop drinking and they've done it before, but it's just hard. 

So if we can get them in a super receptive state of mind without the alcohol interfering, then chain reaction hopefully will make them desire to feel that spiritual high all the time. 

Also I took some advice from an elder and a member in Beith who said that it's not bad to ask them to not smoke while we're there, because it does kind of distract from the spirit, and again, that one hour of resisting the urge to smoke will prepare them for hopefully someday living the word of wisdom 24/7. 

But that of course is in the distant future, but you know, step by step. 

A scripture somewhere says "By small and simple things, great things come to pass." Or maybe it's just the beginning of the Restoration DVD, which I have seen who knows how many times in the past year or so.

We had a brief visit with the flag-loving guy and his friend (also less-active, who practically lives with him but they are not a couple). Good fun. 

In the middle of a conversation about something totally different with the lady, the man randomly said "I have a flag of Azerbaijan." And did that several times throughout our visit, naming off random flags that he has. I think I've mentioned him in emails previous, right?

Another funny story: we were going around with the High Priest Group Leader, visiting people on the ward list that he and we have never met, trying to see if they would like to have home teachers come around in the future. 

One lady we went to lived in sort of an old folks' home by herself. (Side note: In almost every apartment building there is an intercom thingy where you have to press the button of the person you want to see, and they answer on this wee telephone-like thing and ask who it is, and if they choose to, they press a button that unlocks the outside door.) 

We buzzed her apartment, she answered and asked who it was, he said he was with the church, and she said something that we couldn't understand, but then we heard the door unlock so we went in. 

But as we approached her apartment she came out quite angrily, saying "Who are you?! I didn't let you in, who are you?!?!" 

The member told her who we were and she asked angrily for proof, so I took off my name badge and held it up, I felt like a cop. Then she said, "Well, I haven't been a part of your church in years and I don't want to be." 

But luckily, the spirit must have prompted our HPGL to be a little persistent, and he explained that we like to reach out to all the members of the church, and he noticed on her records that she had been a temple recommend holder in the years past, so he brought that up. 

She still was a bit defensive and said it was a long story and she didn't want to talk about it...but then two seconds later she just said, "Oh, why don't you just come in and I'll tell you." So we went in, ended up having a lovely visit. 

Turns out we mostly just scared her by buzzing her apartment intercom sort of late at night (it was around 8:30) and that's why she was kind of defensive. 

Turns out she had been sealed in the temple, her kids are active members in other wards around Scotland and England, and she just hasn't been out in years for some reason. 

So what started out as a bit of a scary and contentious encounter ended up being a nice visit, and she said we're welcome back any time. People are interesting.

We went out to Dunoon again for our weekly correlation meeting. This time they drove us around to try and contact some of the inactive members who lived out there. 

One of them, who didn't even live IN Dunoon, but several miles outside of it in a wee village, let us in and had a good discussion. 

Not really interested at first when we knocked on his door, but then, again, he let us in and opened up a lot more about his past with the church and what not. Pretty cool.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST:

Saturday night was the Greenock Branch Burns' Supper! January 25th is Burns' Night here in Scotland. 

Robert Burns, aka "Rabbie Burns" was a famous Scottish poet. So every year Scots take a night to commemorate his life by being as Scottish as possible basically. 

The branch organized a fantastic dinner and party in the building; loads of non-members and less-active members came out, and everyone loved it. 

Brother Gibson let me borrow one of his son's old kilts that didn't fit him anymore, as well as a kilt jacket and a sporran (that's the awesome black purse looking thing around my waist). 

He lent Elder Smiler one as well, but he decided not to wear it, but instead he just wore the kilt jacket, which was kind of cool because it made him look like a mariachi guy. 

But anyway the party was super fun; we ate haggis, neeps and tatties (mashed turnips and mashed potatoes), some members recited some famous Burns poetry, lots of good music by the branch president and his family, and a few other members. 

There's this tradition where one member carried a haggis on a plate into the hall, and marched around with it while President Wilde played the bagpipes. 

Apparently this is known as "Piping in the Haggis." And then it is set down, and someone else "Addresses the Haggis," where they basically talk to the haggis in a crazy thick Scottish accent and some words that I have never heard before...and then he cuts it open. 

Really different but fun. Almost like an animal sacrifice, except it's a haggis. Anyway it was a fun night. 

The best part was wearing the whole kilt get-up. Best part: Brother Gibson said that the kilt looks so good on me that he might let me keep it! But not the accessories. 

Still, that's pretty awesome! I might have me own kilt soon! 

Traci, Kenny, and their kids Marc and Ollie came as well. Kenny and Ollie wore kilts, as did the Gibsons' son who "Addressed the Haggis". Nobody else though! 

Most others did wear something tartan, like tartan trousers, ties, etc... Really fun night.

Sunday was good as well, as usual. Our branch president made a change so that our meetings now last between 2.5-3 hours, which is nice but kind of seems long because I'm used to just two hours! 

But it's for the best, because everywhere else is three hours, no reason why we can't do it as well.

So yeah, overall, it was a real fun week! Hope you all had a good one too.

Oh yeah, and a fun quote that Kenny told me to say if someone calls your kilt a skirt: "You know why it's called a kilt? Because the last person who called it a skirt got kilt." 

Ooh, intense. Can't wait to use that when I get home and wear my kilt everywhere I go.

Love yous all!!!

Elder Spencer Ashcraft Burt

Photos:
Bagpipes!!!

Ollie in his cute wee kilt

Me, Elder Smiler, Ollie, Kenny (Elder Smiler ruined it with his un-kilted-ness, but Kenny told him to get in the picture with us so I had no choice...)

Me and the Gibson family

Kilt!

"...they say the closing prayer and their words are amazing..."

Dear Family,

Well first things first, Elder Smiler and I will be staying in Greenock for another six weeks. (That transfer flew by! they all do...)

Pretty excited. Some things we need to work out...we both need to work on being more obedient and diligent...I feel like I have slacked a bit when I got to Greenock for some reason. Cant' let that happen, YOSAFTMO! (You only serve a full-time mission once)

Can't leave thinking I could have done more. But sometimes it is really hard.

Anyway, this week has been pretty good and great. 

So you know how we have to take ferries like once or twice a week to visit members/less active members/etc? Well there's one more. The Isle of Bute. 

We have a couple of members who live out there, and we've been planning to go out there for a while now but just never got around to it. 

So we finally did on Saturday and we met a lovely couple who have been members for 20 years or so, they were sealed in the Temple two years ago, and because it's kind of expensive to buy a ferry ticket each week they haven't been out to church for a looong time. 

But we are going to talk with the branch president and hopefully find a way to get them out, they are so solid! Still reading their scriptures, still have pictures of Jesus and temples all over their walls. Really felt good to find "lost sheep."

Tuesday we had a pretty good district meeting. Afterward I went on exchange with Elder Howie in Beith. It's a bit smaller than Greenock, a bit less rainy but still flippin wet all the time. 

We met some great people; one investigator who loves martial arts and fighting, who told us loads of stories about him getting in fights as a bouncer. Which was pretty cool because he's pretty small; shorter than me, and looks quite skinny. 

But apparently that gives him a big advantage because the big guys just underestimate him and then *BANG!* Kind of scary at the same time, because if he wanted to he could knock us out cold.

It was fun seeing a new area.

We had a district leader council on Wednesday. The instruction was brilliant; we talked about how it is our duty as leaders to "correct" missionaries' conduct when necessary. 

We watched one of the Bible Videos on Mormon Channel, where Jesus basically calls Peter Satan after something he said that was insignificant. 

At first I was taken aback, didn't expect Jesus to do something so rash, but then we discussed and our zone leaders explained that sometimes correction is very harsh and sharp and clear, but it is necessary. 

For example, when Christ corrected Peter harshly, it was because it would mold him into the person he wanted him to become. Jesus knew that Peter would be the head apostle/President of His church after he was crucified, so when he saw Peter do something that would perhaps lead him away from that path, he needed to be put back into place. 

They informed us that as missionary leaders we have the duty to help others reach their full potential; If we believe someone has potential to become a district leader or to train a new missionary, we must make sure they stay on that path, and give correction if necessary. 

Kind of a scary thing for me...Sorry for my soapbox about that, it's probably boring and inapplicable to you all, but it finally clicked with me that day WHY we are expected to correct other missionaries. I've been sort of reluctant about it my whole time being a district leader. 

But also, I need to try and "get the beam out of my own eye" if necessary, before I "pull the mote out" of another [missionary's] eye." I read that parable today...I definitely am not perfect, so if I am going to be correcting others I need to make sure I am doing my best as to not be as the Scribes and Pharisees; Hypocrites.

Wow, sorry about that whole paragraph... 

Let's see...what else happened this week...we visited a TON of less-active members. We seem to have a lot of them here, and we work with a lot of them. 

But I feel like we need to focus on one or two rather than spreading our efforts thinly to lots of them...help a few regain a solid testimony and become active, and then work on them one at a time. 

This branch would definitely be a ward if all of the less-active members were active, but I suppose that's the same for anywhere.

Oh yeah! On Thursday, Brother and Sister Cain took us out for dinner in Dunoon. It was to "The 51st State", an American-themed restaurant. Pretty cool! 

Had a classic American burger and a chocolate milk shake...I have been trying to eat better for a few weeks now but the members make it hard haha! Photos will be attached of me showing my American Pride.

I already mentioned the success we saw on Saturday...however after that we seemed to be quite unsuccessful. We had three lessons cancelled on us between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, and none of the people (investigators and less-active members) we were hoping to come to church were there.

I almost forgot; here's a pretty awesome and spiritual story. While teaching one of our drunk friends, he said an AMAZING prayer. 

When we first started teaching him, he would just kind of start praying when we invited him to..."Ok...I just want to thank you for sending the elders here...hope they have a good day..." etc. 

We never told him to pray our way or anything, but after a few visits he started following our example, and our last visit with him he said a really great prayer, if we hadn't known otherwise we would have thought he was a member! Crazy. 

I've actually seen that quite a bit here in Greenock. Sometimes in a lesson that's all jumbled and it feels like we didn't teach them anything and they didn't come away with anything, I've seen it twice with multiple people where they say the closing prayer and their words are amazing, and they sound like they really want to change their lives and often they talk about joining the church! It's crazy. 

They always say, "I don't know where those words came from!" And we say "well duh, it's the spirit!" (not really)

So that's the week. I feel like I typed a lot but didn't have that many cool stories. But I got a lot of cool pictures! Enjoy!

Love you all!

Spencer

  

Loads of photos: 

Me with American stuff!

UTAH!

Trying to teach about the Book of Mormon to a stone wall/door thing.

Me on a ferry coming back from Rothesay (that's the name of the main town on the Island of Bute)

Me standing in front of the ferry in Rothesay

Me standing in front of the water

The Rothesay coast/esplanade

ALMA TERRACE! In a town that has two or three members in it.

"...he was about to get into a fight, but...remembered...about "casting the first stone" and he decided to not fight."

Good afternoon/morning/evening/night! Depending on where you are.

It's been a fun week. Finally some solid missionary work without being interrupted by a holiday! Although I did have my birthday, which was fun, it was still full of missionary work...or "missionary fun". (I think some apostle said that.) 

Funniest experience: Tuesday for district meeting, we held a joint-district meeting in the Paisley elders' flat. Story: we all got to the Paisley church, where we meet for district meeting (Greenock and Beith only) and then the Paisley district consisting of Paisley, and two sets of elders from Pollok. 

However, the family history guy who without fail has been there every Tuesday to let us into the building, didn't show up. The Paisley elders made loads of phone calls to see if we could get someone to open it up for us, but to no avail. 

So our only option was to either go to another ward building, which would have been like an hour bus ride away, or just go to the paisley flat, just around the corner! So we did, and we had a joint district meeting, with 10 missionaries all crowded into their living room. 

The other district leader and I sort of changed our plans and combined to have a twice as awesome district meeting. Quite a funny experience. Photos to follow.

Then we went to Largs and Millport on Tuesday. 

We had dinner with the Gibsons, an awesome member family that takes a ferry and drives 30 minutes to get to church from their wee isle of Cumbrae. 

Whilst there, Brother Gibson let us try on kilts for the upcoming Burn's Supper! (In honour of Robert Burns, a famous Scottish poet.) Photos of that to come as well.

Then on Wednesday we had a crazy birthday party! No, not really, I just opened up packages from yous and also Gam. Fun stuff! I made our tree into a birthday tree of course. 

I was on exchange with Elder Jones that day in Greenock, which was super fun. We had some good laughs and also got a lot of good work done. 

Went out on splits with the Branch President and his 2nd counselor, and visited a number of active and inactive folks. 

Elder Jones sang me a birthday song on the guitar. And the Cains gave me a card the following day, so that was nice! Good quiet laid back birthday.

Thursday we went to Dunoon for our usual dinner and "correlation meeting" with our Ward Mission Leader. We also did some tracting around the area. 

We had some guy who asked, "What if Joseph Smith was a false prophet and you're actually following the Devil, not Jesus?...Not saying he IS, but what if?" So that was kind of weird. 

We tried to tell him, "Well, we know he's not, and you can know for yourself too if you read and pray about the Book of Mormon..." but he didn't really give us much of a chance to speak. Kind of a crazy guy. Good fun!

We met with a few of our drunk investigators last week. Once on their own in their own flats, and once when two were together drinking. 

When they are on their own, they are really humble and sincere, but when together they are really cheeky and loud and funny. 

One of them LOVES the "Finding Faith in Christ" DVD, and he says he watches it every night before bed. He told a story of how he was about to get into a fight, but then he remembered a quote from the movie about "casting the first stone" and he decided to not fight. So that was pretty cool.

We met a new guy this week, someone that some sister missionaries in Glasgow ran into and referred him to us. We taught him and he was really sincere, and he sent us a text basically saying that he believes this is the true Church of Jesus Christ and he wants to unite with it, but he's moving soon down to England so we need to make sure there is a smooth transition to the missionaries wherever he is going.

Well that's about it for this week. 

Apologies; this week's email session seemed to FLY by. I Promise I will send letters home soon!

Love you all!

Elder Spencer A. Burt

Photos:

Joint district meeting in the living room!

Kilts and special kilt-jacket things

Taken from the train in the morning

Birthday tree

I love Irn Bru. ("iron brew") a classic Scottish drink

"...they are THE golden family that every missionary dreams of finding, teaching, and baptizing!"

Dear family and friends and blog readers, but mostly family.

So first off, remember Stewart, the hip-hop loving, chain wearing investigator in Dundee? Well he got baptised! We had a zone conference on Friday and Elder Tinsley, my Dundee zone leader who is now an AP told me that he was scheduled for Sunday. 

So last night I called the Liff elders' number to find out if it happened, and sure enough it did! So that's exciting. Even though I wasn't there for the baptism, I'm still super pumped because I found him and was part of the teaching process, kind of the opposite of how I wasn't there when Jimmy was found, but I was there for the teaching and baptizing. So yeah, that's three people baptised so far. Feels good.

So let's see. Since Thursday...we had zone conference on Friday (well really "zone interview training" where half the districts meet in the morning and the other half in the afternoon, and President Brown interviews each of us to make sure we're all doing superb, and the APs check our planners and area books to make sure we are doing all the right planning and record keeping. It's fun.) 

After ZIT I went on exchange with Elder Maughan, who was in our district my first two transfers. So this was my third time exchanging with him. 

We had fun. It's pretty funny, we both remember stuff that happened on our exchanges almost a year ago. Feels like it was just yesterday! Well, not really yesterday, but yous ken what I mean.

We went and taught Traci and Kenny, and we decided to talk about temples, 1) Because we felt like it might be a good way to help motivate Kenny to be baptised, and 2) One of Traci's friends told her that she would get special "Mormon Underwear" when she got baptised, so when she asked us a few weeks ago we told her that we'd explain at a later date. 

So yeah we talked about temples and what is so special, and what types of ordinances go on there. Then Kenny asked if that's what it meant when people at church would say "sealed" with their family? And we told him yes, and they both said they want to be sealed!!! 

So yeah they are THE golden family that every  missionary dreams of finding, teaching, and baptizing!

Saturday we taught the Jehovah's Witnesses that I mentioned last week. Well, we didn't do much teaching. They were definitely less contentious than the ones we taught a few weeks ago. 

This couple was more friendly, not trying to trip us up in our words, but just directing us to interesting scriptures in the Bible that kind of influenced their doctrine. 

But of course we were there to teach them as well, so Elder Smiler and I would be interested and then insert any bit of doctrine we could, and ask what they thought of the Book of Mormon. But they would sort of avoid it and change the subject. 

So it was a bit of a mess, I think what we'll do is propose to them that we alternate visits; one day they will get to teach us and lead the discussion, and then the next we will. Etc etc. 

Because I'll admit, they know their deep Old Testament doctrine better than us, and they can sort of justify their doctrine using verses in the Bible, but we just need to give them the chance to realize that the Bible can be interpreted in so many different ways, and that is why we need the Book of Mormon and modern revelation to help us know what the truth really is. 

They live on the coast of Wemyss Bay, which is absolutely beautiful.

We made our weekly trip to Dunoon to have dinner and a meeting with our branch mission leader. It's pretty expensive doing that every week. 

Of course it is reimbursable by the mission, but I wonder if we should start just meeting with him after church, so as to "care for the widow's mite," which I think I heard either someone in general conference or else our mission president say about wise use of church funds.

Sunday was good, we had branch council, the first of 2014 and the first one with our new branch president and the new callings he has issued. 

He proposed that we extend our church times. Usually we have 40 minutes for Priesthood/Relief Society, 40 for Sunday School, and 40 for Sacrament Meeting. 

Now he wants to extend the first two bits to about an hour but keep 40 minute Sacrament Meeting. Seems weird to me, because Sacrament Meeting is the most important, but still it will be nice to have longer class times. 

Then after that we went out with President Wilde (the branch president) and visited some members and less active people. 

So yes, it was a good week. Even though it was only four days, I managed to type up a super long email as usual. You're welcome!

Also a fun fact: about a month ago I bought some cheap juggling balls, and now when I need a break from study or planning or when we have some spare time in our flat, I juggle. 

I'm getting better already, so just imagine what sort of awesome juggling moves I'll be doing when I greet you at the airport in December!

Love you all! Have a super fantastical week.

Sincerely, 

Elder Spencer Ashcraft Burt, District Leader

PS The Amazon package came today! Seen here under the birthday tree, complete with the beautiful missionary ornament from Charlotte and Ryan.

My Hush Puppies shoes from Kater Shop.

I went ahead and bought me a cheap pair at a post-Christmas sale--classy brown shoes, kind of pointy-toe-style that is common here in the UK. only £10!

"...they all loved it and felt the spirit and prayed together after it."

First time emailing in 2014!

Well, it was a good start to the year so far. Yesterday we went to Paisley and played some New Year's Day football, a tradition in the stake. We went down with the Cox family, the same ones who I Skyped from.
Unfortunately we were playing on a wet, muddy pitch, and I didn't have any cleats to wear, so I was slipping and sliding all around in my running shoes. It was fun though! Might consider getting myself a pair of boots if we end up playing regularly.

Then we went to the house of our super-friendly investigator and watched a couple movies, because A) No members invited us over ... and B) He didn't have anyone to spend the day with so it was a win win! 

We watched DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE! It was pretty funny. Now that I'm out here, it's easier to distinguish which of the actors have legitimate Irish accents and which ones are super fake. Good classic film. 

Then we watched Shrek The Third and Shrek Forever After, sort of a Shrek movie marathon. I thought they were both brilliant! 

Which is odd because I remember seeing Shrek 3 and thinking it was rubbish a few years ago, but maybe all movies seem really good because we aren't allowed to watch them ever out here. So far, it's a good 2014.

Other cool wee stories: 

We went to visit this one guy we met a couple weeks ago. When we first taught him he was drunk as a skunk, and the lesson wasn't that spiritual or promising. So we kind of had him at the back of our mind, but then we thought we should go visit him again and see how he was doing. 

Turns out, he had watched the Joy To The World DVD we left with him...multiple times, and he invited friends over to watch it with him, and they all loved it and felt the spirit and prayed together after it. 

So although they were all likely drunk at the time they watched it, they were still quite receptive. So we talked with him a bit, set up a time to come back the next day, and when we did his two friends were there. 

They were all drunk, with bottles of vodka and "cider" sitting on the floor, so at times they were yelling at each other to shut up but other times they were listening intently to what we had to say. Interesting, and yet spiritual experience. Drunks are always interesting.

We went to Wemyss Bay the other day (which looks like it would be BEAUTIFUL in the summer time) to try to contact an AUF. 

While tracting near his house, we knocked on this door where as soon as the lady answered she called for her husband and said, "I think you have some visitors!" Then he came to the door and warmly greeted us, said it's been a long time since he's seen any of us. 

We were wondering at first if it was another long lost member, or what, but turns out he's a Jehovah's Witness who used to have discussions with missionaries quite often. He says he has a copy of the Book of Mormon AND The Pearl of Great Price, and he reads them every so often. 

Which says a lot, because every other Jehovah's Witness we've met has accused the Church of being wrong for having additional scriptures. But apparently he's a bit more receptive. We didn't get much time to talk, but we're seeing him again this weekend. Should be fun.

Let's see...other stuff to tell you...Oh yeah so New Year's eve we were MEANT to be in bed at 10:30 as usual. Our plan was to be IN BED at that time, but stay up until midnight watching Animated Book of Mormon stories that Elder Smiler has on our wee dvd player. 

However the fun kept us up a bit late...and when I finally laid down in my bed I was totally knackered. We were laying down just talking for a while, then I started to drift off around 11:55, then woke up at 12:01. So I wasn't even conscious for the New Year! Oh well. That's missionary life for ya. Tired all the time.

No updates on Traci and her family, they have all been sick lately so we haven't had a chance to visit them and they weren't at church. 

So there ya go, that's my week for you all. Next email will be quite short; we will be back to Monday emails as far as I know, so only like four days until I email again. Have a good four days!

Love, Spencer

Photos:

Too many Christmas gifts to hold at once, so here are some select ones! Thanks again!

My very first district...REUNITED! 

L to R: Elder Neilsen the DL, Elder Maughan, Me, Elder Holm, Elder South. 

Only one missing is Elder Kelly and he is away home now. And the Chamberlains as well, also home. 

But it was great to see them all! (Elder Maughan is in my district now, and the other three were in the Missionary Christmas Choir a couple weeks ago.)