"...it was not cancer. So we just gave an overall blessing of health and comfort."

Hello!
Well being in the UK, football (soccer) is a big deal. Everyone watches the World Cup. Everyone talks about it. So I'm trying to make the most out of it.
We're not allowed to watch TV, but sometimes if we go to a member's house and they have a World Cup match on
I'll watch for a tiny wee bit :) sue me!
It's quite easy to follow; I just have to ask any member for the day's scores and they almost always know.
Spain, the defending World Cup champions, are already out of the competition. As is England. But USA is doing very well! I figured out that if we win or draw against Germany, we'll be through to the next round. And even if we lose, we still have a chance at getting through!
I've been filling out a little results chart I got from a member. Lots of fun being surrounded by football fans and talking about it, while my all-American companion has no idea what's going on.
Let's see, what else.
After we emailed last Monday, we went and played basketball at an outdoor court with the Portadown elders, and Jason and Robert Howse (members) it was super hot!
I think I got a bit of heat exhaustion, but I got over it after taking a shower, drinking water and Gatorade, eating some fruit, and laying down in shorts and a t-shirt before we went out to proselyte in the evening.
Elder Spackman's lasted longer; he was feeling quite out of it when we went to a dinner appointment at the Howses' at 6.
I was on exchange with Elder McDonald on Tuesday. He served in Lisburn about a year ago, and he is going home in two weeks, so we spent most of the time going to visit members he had known and loved.
It was very fun; I need to do more visiting of active members. Sometimes I get into the trap of just wanting to find and teach investigators and less-actives and shun anything that doesn't directly contribute to that. But members are essential. And they are fun!
When Elder Spackman got back from his exchange the next day, he was sick to his stomach. And he has been practically all week.
There's been tons of sickness between us for the past two transfers. It's probably been one of my least productive times so far in my mission.
Oh well. I'm hoping for a new area, just to have a fresh start to give it my all for the last quarter of my mission.
Later in the week we gave a priesthood blessing to an investigator's daughter.
She had a tumor removed recently that they thought might be cancerous, so David (who has investigated on and off for YEARS and his siblings all joined the church and moved to USA and Canada) wanted us to give her a blessing.
But when we got there on the day he scheduled, they had just gotten the results that it was not cancer. So we just gave an overall blessing of health and comfort.
Hopefully she and her mom and dad all felt the spirit and it sparks something.
I think if his family took an interest in the church, he'd be able to get over his fear of going to church if he had someone to go with. The daughter (20's) did ask a lot of questions, and she seemed interested so we'll see if we can teach her as well in the future.
We had an appointment with Silvana on Saturday. We confirmed it the night before, and arranged a man from the ward (Joint Teach) to come with us. And she didn't answer. We knocked three times, called her phone, and could hear it ringing inside the house, and no answer.
She called us about an hour later, after our Joint Teach had gone home and Elder Spackman had gone to bed to try and recover from his sickness.
She was drunk, and angrily asked why we didn't come. I told her we did, and she said we were liars and we didn't knock on her door, but her neighbor's. It was definitely hers though. Oh well. We'll see how she ends up this week.
Mom and dad, I know you say I'm very patient and Christlike for teaching alcoholics but I'm starting to lose my patience with her!
So that's this week. Lots of time spent in our flat. I took little naps, cooked, cleaned, and read Ensigns while Elder Spackman was sick in bed. It will be weird to go back to a solid 10am-9pm hard-working day after this spell of sickness.
Thanks for the love, prayers, and support dear family!
Love,
Spencer Ashcraft Burt
Elder for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Scotland/Ireland Mission
51 Spylaw Road
Edinburgh EH10 5BP
Scotland
United Kingdom

Photo:
2 Nephi 12:2

Jason and Robert Howse, and their pet snake

"It's inspiring how humble and receptive she is."

So this week seemed kind of uneventful.
I'm still congested and allergy pills don't seem to make a difference, but it's definitely not a cold...mission president's wife told me to go to the pharmacist first to see if they have any over the counter stuff to help, and if not then I'll get checked out by a doctor to see what's up.
It's just my nose, the rest of me feels ok. But nevertheless it was a good week.
A few cool things did happen though.
A funny and feel-good experience was when I was waiting in line at the ATM to pull out money, the lady in front of me was in a real hurry and when she finished her transaction she just pulled her card out and started walking away, and two seconds later about £50 popped out!
I grabbed it, tried to yell at her, and she didn't hear, so I ran up and said "Ma'am, I think you forgot your money!"
She was real surprised. Probably a bit shocked that she almost forgot to grab her money from the ATM, and probably very thankful that a missionary was standing behind her, not a thief.
It's probably what any good person would do, so I'm not trying to sound like a hero, but it felt good to be honest, ya know?
We found a new investigator this week.
We were walking to a less-active member's house with a member, and as we walked past Silvana's house she yelled at us to come back. We talked to her over her fence for a few minutes.
She thought we were undertakers at first haha! But she said she is a Christian, and also an alcoholic.
The member with us took the charge and asked her if she'd like us to come back and teach her about the church and also about the Addiction Recovery Program. I've never actually taught it, so we'll see how it goes.
But we scheduled an appointment with her, but were unable to get a Joint Teach. So we taught her out on her back patio.
She was drunk both the first time we met her and when we showed up for the appointment, so we were very surprised that she remembered we were coming. It was a bit of an off-topic discussion, but it was good in the end.
She said the closing prayer and promised God she would read the Book of Mormon, so that was really good! We'll see if the Gospel can change her life.
You might remember Billy and Kim, the members who are just so sweet and feed us every week. Well, this week we watched a Church History dvd with them.
Kim, a recent convert of about six months, is just so spiritually receptive. While we were watching it, she says "This is brilliant," and her eyes are fixed on the screen.
She did the same thing when we watched The Restoration with her too. It's inspiring how humble and receptive she is.
Yesterday at church, we had four less-active members come because their dad, who is a super solid member, told them that that was the only father's day gift he wanted. It was really cool!
I bet it had a big impact on the kids to see how much priority he places on the Church, and hopefully they'll realize why soon.
We visit one of his sons every week, and we're trying to start working with the others as well.
We did some weeding for a member, our zone had interviews with the mission president, we tracted some streets...the usual.
So yeah that's my wonderful week. Hope you all had a good one too.
Love,
Elder Spencer A. Burttttt

Photos:
Eating a dead crab on the beach in Newcastle

Pallets stacked in preparation for the 12th of July Bonfires!

"...he just grabbed my gloved hand and just hugged it for like 30 seconds."

Highlights of last week:
We helped out the Howse family with a "Coffee Morning" for a charity that raises money for the parents of premature and stillborn babies.
They organized the whole thing, and they said we could come and help if we wanted to. We figured we'd be helping set up tables and chairs and cleaning up and stuff, but when we got there they needed someone to sell coffee, tea and scones.
It felt kind of ironic, but we did it anyway because they seemed really stressed out trying to get everything worked out.
Part of me felt like we shouldn't be doing it, but in the end it was for a good cause, we weren't drinking it, and we got to interact and talk to a lot of people and who knows what seeds were sown.
Also during the charity event, I got to wear a full Mickey Mouse costume! Only for a few minutes. It was really hot in there and hard to see.
A few kids got scared of course, but the cutest thing ever was when I went up to a little guy in a stroller to give him a high five, and he just grabbed my gloved hand and just hugged it for like 30 seconds. It was adorable.
We were out in Ballynahinch to do an AUF thingy.
We rarely find the person we're looking for, and if we do, they are never interested and sometimes have no clue why their name is on our records. But when we tracted the area surrounding it, we had some funny experiences.
We placed one Book of Mormon with a young Baptist guy. Then the next door neighbor was a very born-again Christian guy who had researched more deep doctrine of our church than most members.
He told us that some prophets and apostles in the past said that God LITERALLY made a baby with Mary, and that's where we believe Jesus came from.
I wondered for a bit, but then just let it slide. Not really important.
I think it was Bruce R. McConkie who said it. He says a lot of things.
The guy has a website called "Take Heed" that he invited us to check out, basically it just denounces our church. I didn't bother.
Sometimes I think that if my testimony is strong enough then I should be able to read other points of view even if they attack The Church, but then I remember that that's just the devil, and I already have a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and that's all that matters in the end.
Then we asked a lady for directions to find another AUF's house, and she ended up telling us she was baptised in Glasgow about 18 years ago.
She still remembers the elders who taught her, and she says she has one of the missionary's scriptures he gave to her.
She hasn't been to church since living in N. Ireland, but she said we could come visit her. I think that's "lost sheep" #4 I've met in this area! Crazy. Tons of born-agains, and tons of lost sheep.
On Sunday we didn't have any of our investigators or less-actives come to church.
But we did have four visitors: a couple from Sydney Australia who knew the family of Elder Meyer and Elder Hobby (from the MTC, serving in England) so that was kind of cool.
The other couple was from Cache Valley! He is the head coach of Mountain Crest football, so we had a good conversation. He was telling me about kids who were freshmen or sophomores when I was a senior going off to play college football, and it made me feel old.
He served his mission in the Glasgow mission, which used to cover the west of Scotland and N. Ireland, but not the Republic of Ireland. Interesting how things change. And how small of a world it is.
Those were the highlights of the week. A bit more concise than my usual emails...I'm trying to work on that! My wrists are usually quite sore by the time I'm done but not today :)
Hope all is well in Zion. By the way, my 18 month mark is this Friday!
Much love,
Elder Spencer Ashcraft Burt

"One of the coolest things...was attending a Free Presbyterian Church service..."

Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Hello family, so today's email may be a bit short, as I have spent a good portion of my email time today making sure all my photos from SD cards are backed up on my flash drive.
I am sorry it's taken me AGES to send another card...I have three to send you!!!! And I AM sending them TODAY. Promise.
I was putting it off until I got them backed up...and recently I was procrastinating actually sending them thinking it will be better to include them with a package of random Scottish/Irish stuff...but I'll just send the cards today and you should get them in about a week.
I think I was in Omagh the last time I sent you a card, so you'll see all the pictures I've taken in Dundee, Greenock, and here in Lisburn so far.
So last week was pretty enjoyable.
We're still teaching the Graham family (Nelson, Kathleen, Ashley, and now his wife Kirsty) usually Ashley's wife Kirsty isn't home when we visit, or if she is she's in the other room.
Last time we went by their house she was there and we talked to her just about life etc.
We had given her a Book of Mormon several weeks ago, and we asked if she'd read any of it. She hadn't, which was understandable because we'd never had the chance to teach her what it's all about.
Since the house is a bit hectic and hard to actually teach, we popped in the Book of Mormon DVD, which has three Mormon Messages all explaining what the Book of Mormon is. She seemed to enjoy it a lot.
The former president of the London Temple is in our ward, Raymond Lowry, and he is one of the coolest old guys ever. Just so humble and spiritual and positive and happy.
He told us we can stop by his house for a quick visit whenever we want, so we did.
He and his wife told us how they are close friends with several apostles, he was very close with President Hinckley, and above all they gave us a ton of praise for the work we do. It was a really good pick-me-up, because sometimes it feels like we're not accomplishing that much good.
Sometimes when we go out finding, we face so much rejection and even if they are polite about it it sometimes feels like there's no point. And when we do teach people, it's stressful to know what to teach, how to teach it, etc.
But something President Lowry said was that we truly do bring a special spirit into homes we visit; they said they could feel it in theirs, and they said surely those who aren't members can feel it even more.
So even if we don't have a proper lesson, or even if we feel  like people aren't making any progress, something might someday click in their head that will bring out true desire.
So with our current investigators, right now I feel like none of them will get baptized anytime in the near future, but his inspiring and uplifiting words gave me hope.
I never was a fan of "dropping" investigators who aren't progressing, as many missionaries are. And with this added motivation from this super spiritual member, I'm even more determined to teach people as much as possible, and if THEY decide they don't want any more of it, then that's fine. But as for me and my house, we'll keep at it.
Oh another cool thing, so the Grahams have a bunch of grown-up kids, and one of them named Trevor used to meet with missionaries in England many years ago.
He was at the house once toward the beginning of our teaching, and didn't really seem too interested anymore. But last time, he was there again just visiting his parents, and out of the blue he asked us for our number, and said he might call us sometime. So that was kind of cool.
We're also working with a guy named Mark who just came back into church activity. It's inspiring to see his desire and his determination to please God by changing his life for the better and start living the gospel.
He has quit smoking for almost two weeks now, has come to church three weeks in a row, wants to get married to his long-time girlfriend, and work his way toward the priesthood. He really is a great guy and we're happy to help him out.
One of the coolest things this week was attending a Free Presbyterian Church service on Sunday evening.
There's this guy named Simon, I called him a "potential investigator" to be positive, but really he's a bit of an anti-Mormon.
He asked if we'd come to his church a few months ago, and we said we're open to that. So he told us the time and all, and we finally went this past Sunday.
We went with Brother Reid, who was formerly a member of that church. We almost expected to meet opposition there because surely the minister knew who we were. But they were nothing but welcoming, and I found the service quite enlightening.
My favorite parts were:
The preacher told a story of a guy who had cancer, and when asked why he wasn't sad about it, he said "This cancer is my Rolls Royce back to God's presence!" I thought it was a cool way to look at it.
We read from 2 Samuel about King David's fall, and when his son Absalom dies, David says "Oh my son Absalom, If God willed I would have died for thee, my son!" (not exactly but you get it)
And he talked about how Jesus did for us what David couldn't do for his son.
And then he told the story of Abraham Lincoln, what he stood for, and how he was killed. And he told of a black mother who told her son, "That man died so we could be free. That man died for us!"
And related it to Christ. Pretty cool.
Oh and as you may have guessed, yesterday was zone development!
It wasn't as fun as last time. We played a bit of "yoga football" and then we did a relay race which I didn't like, a white elephant thing which was fun, and then a three hour long "Murder Mystery game".
I was assigned to be the Sheriff, and it was stressful!
I had to find out who killed the victim and bring them to justice...with alll the other characters asking me for help with other stuff and stuff...it was just stressful!
Kind of fun, but I definitely preferred a day full of sports. Oh well, still fun.
Hope all is well with y'all, and I hope the SD cards arrive safely and soon!
Love,
Elder Spencer Burt

Photos:
From the zone development Murder Mystery thing (old western theme)

"...how much trust members and nonmembers have for us as missionaries."

So guess what? I'm emailing from an iPad right now!!!
Lol, another false alarm...we're just emailing from the Collins' house because the library is closed today. Typing on here is slower than on a computer, but I'm sure I'll manage.
So on Tuesday last week we got a lot done.
We both felt well so we could go out all day and see a lot of people. One was David, a kinda crazy less-active guy. He just talks and talks for hours if we'd let him.
We kinda figured he wasn't going to return to church..but he said that he was actually considering it last Sunday! But he said his wife probably wouldn't be too happy if she found out he took their kids to church.
Then we taught Chris the Plan of Salvation...He was real quiet the whole time, but when we asked he said he had no questions an it made pretty good sense.
On Thursday he came to young men's activity and really liked it. We played indoor football at the church and although Chris said before that he's not really into football or sports of any sort, he was really good!
It's good to see him enjoy himself with worthwhile activities because he says he really doesn't do much with his life. So yeah the gospel and the church are changing him bit by bit for the better.
We did a lot of service this week.
On Wednesday after a dinner appointment we mowed the family's back yard for them.
Then the next day we went to another member's house and helped repair a barbed wire fence, because they are bringing two of their horses to the small pasture next to their house.
They had a small sidewalk at the back of the house that was covered in thick dirt and mud over the years, so we took shovels and cleared it off for them.
And we did a bit of time at the British Heart Foundation charity shop. So yeah lots of service.
Since last week was moves week, we had our Preparation Day on Wednesday.
We went to Belfast and just walked around the city. A bit of shopping.
I bought a monkey "onesie" for just £3! They're quite popular here. I'll have to take a photo of me in it and sent it to yous.
We went out with  Brother Edwards, a solid old member in our ward and also the stake patriarch, to visit an old lady who can't come to church because of health.
We gave her a blessing, and to my surprise she asked him to do the anointing and ME to do the blessing. I was a bit shocked...I assumed she would choose him. Just a reminder to me of how much trust members and nonmembers have for us as missionaries. Sometimes I forget that because I'm just so used to being a missionary.
After that Patriarch Edwards came with us to visit the Graham family.
It was funny, Nelson told us that we chose the wrong time in their lives to start teaching them, because their brains aren't as able to think and understand as well as they used to, and they're "on the way out." Haha! It was hilarious just how blunt they were about it.
On Saturday Billy and Kim (the members who just moved into Jim's house, who moved to Canada) had us over for dinner, and they invited two nonmember friends!
We taught the restoration, and while the lady friend was very firm in her current faith and insisted that Jesus was the last prophet and there will be no more, and that all we need is the Bible and nothing more...the guy however, Maurice, (pronounced like Morris over here) was very receptive and he said he'd be willing to meet with us again. I can see a lot of potential with him.
We went to church yesterday, unfortunately no investigators were able to come but it was a good Sunday nonetheless.
So that's my week, thanks for reading, and writing. And to any blog readers, If you're reading this and not writing you should write!
Thanks for everything! I love y'all so flipping much.
Love,
Elder Spencer Ashcraft Burt.
Mosiah 2:41 (I'm gonna try to send a nice scripture or quote every week. Hope it brightens your day!)

Pics:
1. This is David, the 18 year old member here who I think looks a ton like Aaron Rollins. (am I right or no?)

2. Elder Blaylock, Spackman, Cavallaro, Burt. Trying on ridiculous Ireland "snapbacks."

3. So at clothing stores here, they sell a lot of American t-shirts that say "LA" or "NYC" or San Francisco or Cali or whatever. I've even seen a few Idaho ones. But I finally found a Utah one! Considered buying it, but it was like £12 or £20 or something.

"He's the 4th Mormon Freemason I've met on my mission."

Hello family!
So the news is in and I'm staying in Lisburn with Elder Spackman for another transfer. I'm pretty content with it, mostly because it's a hassle to pack.
So this week was a bit boring. Elder Spackman has been feeling quite unwell...stomach problems, just feeling weak, etc...so I've been just kinda sitting around studying, cleaning, watching Church History dvd's, etc. while he sleeps. Or sometimes I sleep as well.
But now he's feeling better so we can work hard. But now I'm feeling kinda sick. Mostly just congestion. Can't tell if it's a cold or allergies. I think it's because I'm not eating many fruits and vegetables. I'll try to eat more of them this week and see if it helps.
When we were able to get out and work, we mostly tracted Monaville, the neighborhood where the members and us did the "pamphlet drop."
As far as finding investigators, quite unsuccessful. There were so many born-again Christians there who already had pre-conceived notions about our church, and we could have just stood there and bashed with so many of them. But nah.
However; we found two "lost sheep," or less-active members who are not on our records.
One was found by one of the members when she was delivering pamphlets...he saw her, came out to see what was up, and turns out he was baptised ages ago and used to be super active until he got married but he's willing to meet us for a discussion at the church since his wife is anti.
Also he is a Freemason, so maybe we'll have him take us to the Masonic Hall in Lisburn to see how that works. He's the 4th Mormon Freemason I've met on my mission. Pretty interesting.
The other lady we met was just out in her front yard. We asked if she read the pamphlet we delivered last week, and she said "Yeah, I think I read that quite a while ago when I was baptised." So that was cool.
She was going somewhere in a hurry so we didn't get to chat long, but we got her name and address so I'm convinced that these two people are the reason we were prompted to choose this neighborhood for the pamphlet drop activity.
The Johnson family invited us and Chris (investigator) to their house for dinner last week. It was really great of them.
We had a short lesson afterward about prophets, ancient and modern.
Brother Johnson, an American who served in the Phillipines and then met an Irish lady at BYU and married her and moved here, helped with our teaching quite a bit with his testimony and the way he explained it. So that was good.
Rachel and Noah, Elder Spackman's Omagh converts, came to visit again on Saturday.
We played at the park with Noah. It was fun. He's crazy fun.
Saturday there was a child of record baptism in the ward.
We had a few investigators say they'd come, but they didn't. We still enjoyed it though.
So that's pretty much the only eventful things this week. Kinda boring.
But still, happy to be on a mission. Glad to have a decent companion.
Love you all!!!
Spencer

Photos:
Noah laying on top of me

A secret wilderness pathway

My silly new haircut in the wilderness

"I'm not...big on "Dropping" investigators...it seems a bit un-Christlike and impatient."

Hey y'all!
So it was awesome talking to you yesterday face to face. 0 more Skype sessions! Crazy isn't it?
I loved it, just chatting and talking, much more able to communicate that way than typing it all. If only we could do it every week. But it would probably negatively impact some missionaries (for example, my companion...he was just so trunky afterwards and he still has over a year left). Oh well. It was truly great!
So let's see, what did I not talk about yesterday...oh yeah, Mark. He's a new investigator we have.
We met him a few weeks ago on the street, gave him a Book of Mormon, and he was super excited.
We had been trying to set up appointments with him, but something would always come up.
But we finally met him in the park, and walked to the church (like two minutes away) and showed him around. He LOVED the baptismal font, he even said "I wish the Catholic church did this!" And even alluded to wanting to do it himself.
We didn't really have a proper lesson, we just kinda walked around the church showing him the classrooms and paintings and stuff, so we didn't directly invite him to be baptised, but I think he'll be ready quite soon.
We had a good discussion about Joseph Smith when he saw the First Vision painting.
He is very open minded, and although he's a Catholic he sometimes goes to other churches just to see what they're like. A real truth seeker, so we're excited to teach him more.
On Wednesday we helped Billy and Kim move some furniture out of their house. We took the couch, bed, and a mattress out and left it by the curb for garbage pickup. It was a good reminder to me that I'm not here for my own self, but to help others.
Thursday we did a "Pamphlet Drop!"
It was pretty cool; the young men, a few volunteers from priesthood and ourselves went to a neighborhood that Elder Spackman and I prayerfully chose, and we all just put Restoration pamphlets in the letterboxes. And we will go and tract the neighborhood this week and follow up, and see if anyone read it, and if anyone is interested.
It was a great idea brought up by our Ward Mission Leader, a way to get the members involved in the work but without the fear of having to approach people.
Afterward, the young men leaders had me (Elder Spackman and his temporary companion took longer than us) teach a bit about how to actually do a door approach. The leaders gave some insights from their missions as well, and they asked the young men what things they would talk about on the doorstep.
We have some solid, prepared young men in our ward who will be great missionaries some day.
I'm excited to see if we can find someone who is searching for truth in life from the pamphlet drop activity!
On Friday we went to Dublin for an All-Ireland conference. It was great to see some of the missionaries I haven't seen in ages, like Elder Elliott from the MTC, Elder Yates from Logan, Elder Meyer my companion in Dundee, and a few others.
The instruction was great too. Our stake president came down and addressed us all, and he reminded me how great a privilege it is to be on a mission, and inspired me to be more dedicated. Sometimes I forget that I AM one of those missionaries that I used to always look up to.
Once you get in the swing of it it just feels like ordinary life, but taking a step back, I'm just like, "Wow, I'm a missionary right now!"
We also had stake conference too, so the talks there were very good. All about hastening the work, as has been the usual the past year or so.
On Saturday there was a huge celebration in Lisburn. There was a pipe band competition, a parade, and loads of people in the park by our house.
We happened to be walking through it on our way to go tract a neighborhood, but we agreed that many people wouldn't be home because of all the festivities. So instead we hung around, watched the happenings, and tried to talk to some people while doing so.
We should have snuck into the parade and walked through passing out pamphlets and Books of Mormon and pass-along cards.
It was cool though, the pipe bands were all warming up at the same time so everywhere we looked there were guys and girls in kilts all playing the bagpipes, and it was awesome. Then it started raining really hard. Typical!
We're still working with the same investigators, making progress bit by bit...slowly but surely...Chris (17 year old), the Grahams (Nelson and Kathleen the oldies, and their son Ashley), David Curry (The "dry Mormon" who is afraid of crowds and new people) and yeah. I have a lot of hope for Mark, since he has a lot of fresh potential.
I'm not one who is big on "Dropping" investigators, because it seems a bit un-Christlike and impatient. So I usually hold on to them until THEY decide they don't want to be taught anymore.
Who knows what will happen if and when I leave the area. Which could be next week? We will find out Monday morning who stays and who goes. I'd like to go to be honest. I like Lisburn, but I'd like to experience a couple more areas before I head home.
Anyway, that was a bit shorter than usual, but I'm sure the Skype time yesterday made up for it sufficiently.
Love you all! Till we meet again! Till the work is done!
Elder Burt

On the road to Dublin for a conference

A painting by a local Northern Irish friend