"I think we can learn a lot from new converts."

So the moves call came in, and I am staying in Glasgow with Elder Schmidt. 

So I'm assuming I'll probably get another companion in six weeks, be with him for two transfers, and "die" in Glasgow. Scary thought. But ya never know, it seems our mission president has been moving missionaries for their last transfer increasingly lately.

So we had a pretty good week. 

On Monday after P-day was over, we went to Family Home Evening at the church with a recently re-activated guy named David. It's a YSA activity technically, and he is not exactly YSA (at least mid-30) but the YSA missionary couple said that if we think it will benefit him then he is welcome. 

And he loved it. He doesn't have many friends, so it was very good for him. He liked it a lot. 

I was on exchange with Elder Davis, our zone leader. Usually they do exchanges from Tuesday morning - Wednesday morning, but they decided to do Monday evening - Tuesday evening instead. 

We had a fun exchange; I found we taught really well together. We taught a guy named Paul, who has had a rough past, but he is SO excited to learn about the gospel. As we left his apartment, he said to us, "Thanks for coming over, and I really mean that, thanks." It felt good. 

We had a teaching appointment a few days later with his next-door neighbor, and we took Pierre a recent convert that the sisters taught, but unfortunately the lady wasn't home. 

But we knocked on Paul's door just to say hi, and Pierre related really well to him, being a new convert. Paul talked about how he really wants to come to church; that it "just seems like the right thing." Pierre said his thoughts were exactly the same. 

I've kinda realized that solid investigators, and even solid converts, take a while to form a sure testimony and understanding of the Restoration. I always assumed that that was why people joined the church, because they believed it truly was Christ's church and they agreed with the doctrine. 

But I've increasingly realized that most converts come to church, get baptized, and keep coming, because they feel good, and they feel the spirit. The knowledge of doctrine comes with time. 

And I think that's good for us to apply as well--just be simple. Sure, we probably all know the church is true, and we agree with the doctrine, but we need to recognize that if the spirit's there, and if we feel good, then it is good. And it's a lot more simple that way. I think we can learn a lot from new converts.

Also with Elder Davis we went to Buchanan Street, a super busy place where people are hustling and bustling all over. It can be frustrating, but fun too. 

We decided to split up and just stay within sight and sound of each other, so we could contact as many people as possible. 

While I was talking to a nice, polite guy from N. Ireland, four young adults approached Elder Davis and started asking a bunch of questions. After a few minutes, they told him that they were returned missionaries, three from Aberdeen and one from Canada, and they had served in Birmingham England. I wish I had seen it!

Oh also on our way from District Meeting to lunch in the City Centre, I saw the back of a guy's T-shirt on the bus said New Hampshire Fire Dept. or something like that. 

I was just about to stand up and move over to him to ask if he was from there, when an old lady got on the bus and I got up to offer her my seat. Perfect! 

So I went to the spot where passengers stand, and it was right in front of him. So I asked, and he said yes. He and his wife live in Nashua, and they were over here visiting family and sight seeing. 

He was originally from Boston, and he had a VERY strong Boston accent...such a cool accent. It makes me want to go visit the East Coast someday. 

I told them that although I hardly remember anything about it, I lived in Penacook as a child. We had a good conversation. When we got off I gave them each a mormon.org card. Seed planted: check. 

On Friday we were finally able to teach Sabrina, a YSA age investigator who is half African half Italian. She has been taught since last fall, and she has a pretty good knowledge and I would even say a good testimony, but she is super busy with work which makes it hard to meet with her and for her to come to church, and she has family that are dead against her getting baptized. It was nice to finally see her, we'd been trying to for five weeks. 

On Saturday, there were THIRTY people at the stake football morning!!! 

The last few weeks there have been maybe 16-18. But we brought Noel, an 18 year old from France who has mad football skills (he's a member) and the sister missionaries came with two of their recent converts. 

Some people are fairly chill and not that good, but some of the members are really intense and good. It's a lot of fun. 

We played 15 on 15, which made it even more fun because there wasn't as much space to cover (didn't have to run as much!) Since I'm staying here at least another six Saturdays, or probably 12 or 17, I might buy some turf cleats if I can find a good deal. 

And yesterday we had church, which was good. I gave a talk. And as usual, I was super nervous and felt like I was a nervous wreck at the pulpit. 

But as usual everyone said "Oh I enjoyed your talk!" and apparently they actually meant it because one lady said that people referred to it in both relief society and Sunday school. 

So I guess my subject matter was good, but my delivery could use improvement. Maybe I should take a public speaking class at USU, I've actually heard there is one and it's really beneficial.

So yeah, that's the week. Just over four months till I will be on an airplane! 

It's weird, I literally get a bit more excited when I see an airplane, which is common because many planes fly over the areas we proselyte in to land at the Glasgow airport. 

Maybe just because my first time on a flight (that I can remember) was on my way here, and so this will only be my 3rd plane ride so the excitement and novelty is still kind of there.

Anyway, I love you all and I am grateful for your example, and for bringing me up in the church and in the gospel!

Love, Elder Burt

Here are the photos from District Meting that was held on 5 Aug 14. Enjoy!

"We saw Prince Harry, Prince William, and Duchess Kate there!"

Alright!
So last week started off with some boxing! It was pretty intense.
Most of  the matches were on the light-weight side, but some were more heavy, so the hits were harder and more intense. It was pretty fun!
It was just me, Elder Schmidt, and two elders from the other ward in Glasgow (Springboig Ward).
Sometimes when the lightweights were boxing I was kinda bored, but the good matches made up for it. And guess what else?
We saw Prince Harry, Prince William, and Duchess Kate there!
They walked in and took their seats across the arena from us. We heard some people sitting in front of us get all excited and talk about it, and that's how we noticed.
I got a couple blurry pictures from across the arena, and a couple of the Jumbotron when it showed them sitting there.
So yeah I was in the same room as royalty. Even if the boxing had been total crap it would be worth the £15 to say I was there with them. We didn't get to meet them or teach them about the gospel or anything but it was still cool.
The crowd all went crazy when boxers from Scotland, England, Wales, and N. Ireland boxed.
It seemed like the boxer in blue almost always won, and they were always the favourite.
Alright...now the rest of the week.
We met a lady on the street and talked with her for a few minutes, and then she started looking at me real closely and said I look exactly like someone she knows. The way I smile, laugh, talk, look, the hair, the eyes, and eyebrows, she said it was scarily similar. It was interesting.
I've only had that happen once before; a Mexican guy on one of the service trips I went on said I was the spitting image of one of his friends. Maybe someday I'll meet my doppelganger or see a photo.
I exchanged with Elder Jones who is a Mandarin-speaking missionary. It was cool; he taught one lesson to a lady in all Chinese! I just sat there in awe. It was really cool.
Apparently they teach a ton of students, who have never been able to learn about the gospel in China, and then they return home to China and hopefully spread the gospel to their friends there.
We're still teaching Alistair, and he's coming along...he has a very very good memory, sometimes he'll throw out answers to questions that involve very specific words from the lessons, and it's surprising that he remembers so much.
Sometimes he even says stuff that is spot on and we haven't taught him yet, and we're quite sure the past elders didn't either because they only taught him one lesson. Interesting guy.
Thursday we got bashed by Freddy again. Luckily it was just him, not his friend. The scriptures he read and related to the Godhead made sense, and I'd never heard them used before...but in the end, I KNOW Joseph Smith saw TWO personages and that's all that matters in the end!
Saturday we played football, then did some City Centre finding to take advantage of the Games atmosphere. We met some interesting people.
One guy who was wearing a kilt, and he says he wears it every day. We were interrupted mid-conversation by a drunk and/or high guy who was just asking random religious questions... "so...God so loved the world, right?...." "um...yes...?" "....." He would say random scripture references but they didn't make any sense. It was funny.
Then we were talking to an Indian-looking guy from England who is half Sikh and half Christian. He gave us a DVD on the life of Christ, and it's a bit old and cheesy.
My favourite part is when Jesus approaches John the Baptist, they shake hands, and then Jesus just lays down in the water, basically baptising himself.
We were interrupted in this conversation as well by a Slovakian guy who lives in the Highlands somewhere, telling us that he met two elders in his town and they never came to visit him. We talked for a little while, and by the end he said our conversation had cheered him up significantly.
We also met a squash player for the Lesotho team, and he accepted a Book of Mormon as soon as I held it out, but he didn't say much else. It's a seed, I spose.
Oh and I approached a young guy probably in his twenties, and he just stopped, looked at me angrily, and said "I know all about your church already. You're a cult! Get out of here! Go back to America!" It was quite funny.
I think my short time working at the call center helped me to face rejection with a good attitude on my mission; it's never really bothered me, I just find it entertaining sometimes.
Church was good. One of our long-term investigators came. She enjoyed it. Also it seems like every week there is at least one visitor who is here from America on business or holiday or something. It's interesting.
So yeah, that's my week. Hope all of yous's weeks were nice as well.
Love you!
Elder Spencer Burt

Boxing photos!!

"Scots are good at being bold, blunt, and straightforward."

So first off, we are going to watch BOXING today at the Commonwealth Games!
It's at 1:00 pm and so I may not have as much time as usual for emailing. But it's worth it! And maybe if it's televised in America you can watch it with me!
Last week didn't seem to eventful, but it seems like most weeks I say that I end up thinking of cool things that happen as I type. So here we go.
We did a bit of service--painting--for a couple that the sister missionaries are teaching. It was kind of fun I guess.
We're still teaching Alistair. Hard to tell if he understands what we teach.
Also Frank (the guy who had cops at his house)...he was high during our appointment. We're pretty sure he smokes a lot of weeeeed.
We had a guy from the ward come with us, and he was straight up with him. He basically said "you need to repent of your sins, come to church, and get baptized.
It seemed a bit harsh, but at the same time perfect because the guy was raised in the same area of Glasgow (kind of a rough area) and he knows how these people think.
Scots are good at being bold, blunt, and straightforward. But yeah, Frank was straight up as well and said he can't desert his Catholic faith, even if he got an answer that our church is true. So we'll see where we go with him.
We keep finding more and more good potential investigators, and some end up being too "busy" or avoiding us or just never home...but eventually we'll find someone golden!
On the 24th of July we had dinner at the McKenzies' house. The mom is a member from Utah, and her husband is a non-member from Scotland. They invited us and all the other missionaries from the ward over for a Pioneer Day celebration. We had burgers and such. It was a lot of fun.
We played some football again on Saturday.
The stake president organizes it every Saturday, unless there's not enough people planning to go. It was fun, but I injured my NECK doing a throw in!
I guess I threw it too hard and it felt like I pulled a muscle. For the day it was very painful to move my neck, but when I woke up yesterday it was not as bad and now it's good as new.
We started teaching a guy from Sudan who is Muslim. He kept saying "Prophet Jesus" so we told him that if he reads the Book of Mormon he can gain a testimony of Jesus as more than a prophet, but also the Saviour. That is one of the purposes on the Title Page of the book, so we'll see if it works with him.
I heard of a Jewish lady who had such an experience last year somewhere in our mission...the Book of Mormon convinced her that Jesus is the Christ. Pretty cool.
Last night we were knocking some doors, and an African guy answered. After a couple minutes on the doorstep, he invited us in. He, his wife, and a friend of theirs were all there and seemed happy to see us. I was very hopeful, because it seems like a lot of missionaries in our mission have great success teaching African families.
The man who let us in, Freddy, offered to say an opening prayer. And it sounded exactly like the way we pray. And then he started talking about how he believes in Prophets, and that he would like there to be a prophet today who God could speak through.
He went on about this for about five minutes, and then said he would like us to tell him about Joseph Smith. He already knew the name, and they all three said they had a copy of the Book of Mormon from past encounters with missionaries.
So I kinda had a suspicious feeling that he wasn't as genuinely searching for the truth as he said he was, because if he really was then he would have embraced it when he first learned of the Restoration.
So yeah he asked us to tell the account of Joseph Smith, and immediately this led to a lengthy discussion/debate about the nature of the Godhead. It ended up a bit frustrating.
He and his friend were quoting scriptures off by heart, and then when it was almost 9:00 he went to get his Bible. I told him no, we don't have time for that, because I know from experience that once the Bible comes out, it will be hard to leave.
They were insistent that they share a few scriptures "just for 10 minutes!" but of course it went longer.
So we told them that we don't have time, but to be polite we said if they want we can come back another day. They wanted us to (so they could teach US) so we're going back later this week.
I feel like just lending them my copy of "A Marvelous Work and a Wonder" and telling them that we are called to teach people who are seeking the truth, not to argue or to be taught. We'll see how that goes.
It would be nice to bring Prince, a member from Greenock, who would be well-matched with them. Although Bible-bashing is sometimes fun, it never works because we all have different interpretations of the same verse, and there are verses that support both arguments. Every time.
Oh one cool thing.
We were going down this semi-busy street GQing (street contacting). We stopped a young man and young woman about our age to talk with them.
They were really friendly, and once I asked if they were familiar with our church, the girl said she had been to Utah, had toured Temple Square, had Mormon friends she met there, etc.
She said she worked at a scout camp at Bear Lake. I said "Camp Hunt?" And she was excited and said yes! So of course she knew Logan, she loved Bear Lake, and she said she went to a church service and loved it!
But she said she was too busy to meet with us, and wouldn't give us her contact info to teach her. Dang it!
But she has our number, and maybe she'll contact us. It was a fun conversation though...It's a small world after all!
Alright well that was my week. I guess it wasn't too boring after all. Now time to go watch some men beat each other up!
Have a great week. Love you all!
Spencer

Here's a few photos of that weird hill thing on Plean Street!

"Is it weird that I kind of WANT to get punched in the face..."

OK got a bit more time so here's a quick rundown of the week!
I saw a guy with a "Glasgow Smile." Basically it's like the scars that the Joker has on Batman, but real life.
Apparently it's pretty common in the Glasgow drug/gang scene. It wasn't fresh, but I could see scars running from his mouth to his ears. It was kinda scary.
One of our investigators has a past with police confrontations and illegal stuff. We taught him last week, and right after we finished the Restoration DVD with him, the police knocked on his door.
He went to answer it, and they just wanted to ask him a few questions about someone he knew that got arrested. But he was being difficult with them, kept his foot against the door and wouldn't open it more than two inches.
We listened from the other room for a couple minutes and decided we should leave. He was kind of using us as an excuse to not let the cops in, saying that he's in the middle of discussing with us and can't be interrupted. So we decided we better leave. As we did, the cops kind of let themselves in thru the doorway. It was an interesting experience...
We started teaching this other guy. He's a bit of a hoarder, but a nice guy. He investigated about a year ago, so we decided to go by. He seems receptive, but a bit of something isn't quite right in his head.
We met a solid (so we thought) guy named Anthony while tracting. We were knocking his door as he walked up, and he said "that's my house" so we talked to him outside for a few minutes, and he invited us in.
We taught the first lesson, and he was one of the most agreeing, positive, receptive, and even "prepared" people I've found. He said it all made sense, more than any other church he's ever heard of.
He was super excited to come to church; we set a place to meet so we could show him to the church because it's a bit tucked away. We waited at the destination for a while, called him, his phone was off, waited some more, and then decided he wasn't coming. We've tried a few times since to call and he hasn't answered. So hopefully we'll find out what's up.
We met another interesting guy outside.
He says he believes in Jesus Christ, but can't possibly believe that Mary had a child without [procreation]. He was a bit drunk when we met him, but he asked legit questions, and seemed to want to know.
We set up a time to teach him the next morning. He said he lived in a little camp trailer in front of his grandparents' house.
He gave us the address, we went there, and sure enough, there was a trailer (or "caravan" they'd say here) we knocked on it, no answer. Knocked the house door, and his grandma said he wasn't there; he'd gone to stay the night at a friend's house. So we'll see what happens with him as well.
We played a bit of football with some members and investigators from around the stake on Saturday. It was fun. I didn't play too well but it was fun nonetheless.
Oh funny story: as we were walking down the road around 8:45 heading back in for the night, we saw this teenage couple on the other side of the street.
The girl looked like she was crying...and I guess I "stared" just to figure out what was going on. The guy just stood there glaring back at us, and then he yelled at me, "What are you actually looking at?"
I said sorry, looked down and kinda smiled, because I've learned on my mission that when someone gets mad, it's no use to get mad and by now I find it kinda funny.
But I guess he thought I was laughing at them, and then he got a bit more angry, "What the **** are you laughin at?!" He started walking across the street, saying some choice words to me, but his girlfriend grabbed him and pulled him back.
He was a bit crazy. Anger management needed. Is it weird that I kind of WANT to get punched in the face by a crazy angry guy sometime, especially on my mission? It would just make for a good story to tell my kids in the future.
Got the package this week, thanks bunches to all those who contributed items, effort, etc. I loved it!
Have a great week bretheren and sisters!
Love, Elder Burt

Photos
Glasgow conehead statue

Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014 sculpture thing

Half Birthday celebration

"...walked with my arm around his shoulder, his around mine. He smelled quite bad of alcohol."

Hello family!
So this has been an interesting week.
The things that stand out to me are the drunk people we met. The first one was outside of Tesco, the UK-wide grocery store.
We had to grab a quick something during the week that we forgot on p-day. As we left, a lady called out to us. So we went over. She asked if we help people with alcohol problems.
She wasn't super drunk, but we could tell her husband was, about 10 feet away talking to another guy. We said yes, and she agreed for us to come over the next day to teach her and her husband about the Church, and also about the Addiction Recovery Program.
Then as we walked to our destination, just two minutes later, a very very drunk guy called us over to where he was sitting on a bench. He asked if we could help him walk over to the other side of the street, where there was a fence he could hold onto as he walked home. So I walked with my arm around his shoulder, his around mine. He smelled quite bad of alcohol. But it was a good experience I guess. Then yesterday as we came out of an apartment complex after visiting a less-active member, a drunk lady kinda stumbled through the front door, looked at us, and asked if she could take a picture with us. We obliged. Her friend took the picture, and then they left. Interesting.
We had four appointments with either current investigators or seemingly good potentials; but they all cancelled or just didn't answer the door. Sad. One of them was with the alcoholic lady outside Tesco.
We had a zone meeting where I was re-united with Elder Dewsbery and a few other missionaries that I like. It was fun.
We were in Drumchapel visiting a less-active lady, and apparently there is an old LDS church that used to be a ward, but people moved away from the area and they had to close it down.
They sold it to some other church or organization, who shut down as well. So it's just an abandoned former LDS church. interesting sight.
I could kind of tell it was one, although the buyers painted some parts of it blue which looked a bit weird. It's on Kinfauns Drive; maybe you can find it on google street view!
We were doing a bunch of street contacting in the City Centre on Saturday.
As we did so, some organization called Free Palestine was setting up a tent/canopy/booth thing. As time went on, we saw more and more people gathering, with Palestine flags, shirts, etc. By the time we left, they were basically having a rally or demonstration of some sort, so it was probably not good for us to be there anyway.
So I guess in a way it wasn't too eventful of a week as far as missionary work goes; everything seemed to fall through. But I always enjoy interesting/weird experiences, like drunk people, "GQing" near a Palestinian rally, etc.
Thanks to everyone who writes and emails! I always look forward to reading your emails, definitely more so than I enjoy writing them.
Have a great week!
Elder Burt

Photos:
The Mascot of the Glasgow Commonwealth games: A thistle.

My new planner cover, taken from a water-damaged Book of Mormon. Also my american flag and my tartan-covered scriptures.

"We were glad to have a lock and bolt on our door."

Ok so here are some cool things that happened this week.
A bit of backtracking...about a week and a half ago, BBC did a documentary sort of thing where they followed a missionary around for a few weeks with cameras and interviewed him occasionally. It was a missionary from England somewhere and he is serving in the Leeds mission.
We thought it would probably be a good bit of press for the church and for us serving in the UK, because loads of people were talking about it even before it happened; investigators, members, everyone.
We heard mixed opinions of it; apparently the lady who narrated/conducted interviews was super annoying. Kept asking awkward questions about the law of chastity, garments, why temples are secret, why she couldn't interview the missionary on his own, etc. and she just looked for the negative things.
We heard quite a bit, and we wanted to watch some...President Brown in his email to the mission said it would be a waste of time and we'd be better spending it out proselyting.
But we were at a less-active family's house on Monday saying goodbye and they had it recorded, so we figured we might as well watch a wee bit. It was stupid; the lady really just kept prying and wouldn't stop asking why she couldn't be in a room with the elder alone, without his companion. It was stupid. But I noticed that everything the missionaries or others from the church said on camera was just brilliant, and I could feel the spirit to a degree, and whenever she talked it went away and there was nothing but contention. So that was interesting. I wonder if you would be able to find it online...it's called "Meet The Mormons." So that was interesting, we had a few people ask us about it when we meet them in the street but not much more. Wow, that was a big paragraph all for a stupid tv show.
So the best thing ever was when we met up with Chris on Tuesday for me to say good bye...he was totally different!!!
He started off by saying that even though I'm leaving, he'll still take the lessons and come to church, and he's still up for baptism on August 23.
Took me by surprise, I didn't think he was THAT serious about it. Then as we discussed more he said he had a toothache over the weekend, like really bad, and so he prayed and asked God to comfort him. And he said he felt the holy ghost! And it basically changed everything for him.
Before that, he still didn't really believe in God, he was just trying to build up his faith. But he said after that he is definitely a believer! And then he said the most surprising thing ever, "So yeah, I hope to be with my Heavenly Father in the Celestial Kingdom someday! Not terrestrial or telestial, but celestial!"
We were just dumbfounded. I honestly didn't think he was that into it! I told him "Wow, you have a really good memory!" and he said "Well, I wasn't just sitting there not listening when yous taught me. I was taking it all in!"
He's a super smart  kid. Excited to hear how things go with him!
As I finished packing up Tuesday night, I realized my small statue of Christ was still out, and I had no way of packing it without a risk of it being broken, so I put it in an envelope with a note and told Elder Spackman to give it to Chris as a gift from me.
So Traci has one, Chris has one, and if I'm correct, I have one waiting for me at home!
Ok now the rest of the week.
The ferry was fun. I hung out with Elder Stewart and Elder Thomas mostly.
Friday was the 4th of July! It was kinda sucky; it rained allllll day.
But we had a lesson with a new investigator named Frank. It was funny; he is a devout Catholic and although he says he respects missionaries a lot and he wants to read the Book of Mormon, he won't change religions...but toward the end he said "Well, if I get an answer that the Book of Mormon is true, then I'm F***ed because it means I'm following a false church!"
It was great, because we just taught the restoration lesson pretty simply. So that was cool.
Then an American lady from the ward invited us over last-minute for dinner. So I got to spend the 4th with one American. We didn't do anything cool though. Although I did tape my small American flag up to the wall. So far only 30% of my companions have been Americans, isn't that weird?
On Saturday we met two true, genuine truth-seekers, and had good conversations with them, and in the end neither one wanted us to come teach them later!!! It was kind of frustrating.
I seriously felt like they were the sort of people we hear about from the early days of the Restoration, who had been searching for truth from church to church and couldn't find it. But for some reason neither of these people were interested in learning about our church. But they agreed to research on the website.
So the last few days I've been trying to pray and exercise faith that they WILL research it, that they WILL feel something, they WILL desire to learn more, and they WILL contact us through mormon.org.
I've never been good at that sort of thing; I sometimes feel like faith and prayer won't change anything, because if God's will is for something to happen, it will happen, and if it's not, then it won't.
I don't know if that's a false pretense or what, but recently I've been feeling impressed to have more faith and to believe that miracles happen, and to pray for specific things and I guess we'll see if it works. (Thoughts on this matter? I've always wondered about this...)
We also met an alcoholic guy who wants help, so we're gonna see him on Wednesday and hopefully teach him a bit and help him with his addiction.
He reminded me of our dear friend Joe, who we taught in Greenock, who passed away the day after Jim Craig and two days after Grandpa. They're probably all having a party up there!
Sunday we had church.
There are two wards in the same building here; it felt ALMOST like being in Utah! Except it's the only church building in the huge city which I guess that's where the difference lies.
It's interesting; there are lots of Chinese members, one Brazilian from Sao Paulo, one Mexican guy, and one Peruvian girl. And a few Africans. Very diverse! I never expected to meet Latin Americans in the UK, but here they are.
Apparently Glasgow has a bad reputation for crime and stuff, but I haven't seen anything dodgy yet.
Although on Saturday night we could hear a guy downstairs banging on the front door to our apartment block yelling curse words and such. He buzzed our buzzer, and everyone else's in the block to try and get into the hall, and I guess someone let him in.
Then we heard him pounding on the door of someone downstairs, and yelling and swearing a ton. We were glad to have a lock and bolt on our door.
Then he eventually left and about 15 minutes later the cops knocked on our door to ask if we heard anything. We told them what we heard, and they took our names and addresses. So that was an interesting first weekend in Glasgow!
Don't worry though (Mom), I've got God's protection to keep me safe. And a bit of common sense too, I hope.
Love you all!!!
Spencer

"...we were in Belfast at the same time as The Queen!"

Hello!
So I am moving to  the "Clydeband" area, in the Glasgow Ward of the Glasgow Stake/Glasgow Zone. From what President Brown said, it is near the City Centre and I'll do a lot of contacting there.
He said the area wasn't doing too well and he needs some dedicated hard work. So I'm glad he trusts me to do that.
I've found I've always been good at FINDING people to teach, but then actually teaching them effectively and helping them progress is not my strongest point.
I'll be serving with Elder Schmidt, from Germany. So another foreigner! Looking forward to serving with my new companion :)
So let's see. This week we were in Belfast at the same time as The Queen!
We were driving to lunch with the zone leaders after district meeting, and we saw whole blocks lined with police cones and cars and tape, and then we saw like 10 black Land Rovers with undercover blue lights flashing.
We had no idea, until someone told us it was The Queen's entourage. So that was kind of cool.
Elder Spackman insists he saw HER, because he saw a woman get out of one of the cars. (He said she looked like Lady Gaga at first, until he heard it was The Queen and then he changed the story.)
On Tuesday I went on exchange with Elder Stoker (zone leader) here in Lisburn. It was a lot of fun; we used a "Restoration Board" in the City Centre (pictures).
It has been in our missionary flat for years, and I'm sure it took a lot of effort to create and I thought it would be nice to put it to use, both for our own finding efforts and also to honor the creator of the board, whoever it was.
Elder Spackman, nor any of the other elders I exchanged with the past two transfers, were down to use it. But Elder Stoker was.
So we propped it up against a lamppost on High Street, where there's no cars, only pedestrians, so it was perfect.
We just handed out "Truth Restored" passalong cards, and if people stopped, we talked to them.
The board honestly didn't do that much to help us as we expected, but our investigator Chris saw us and came up to chat. He read the board, and said "Oh cool, I see you've got Joseph Smith there" pointing at the First Vision painting, so that was good to see that he understands most of what we have been teaching him.
And one member with his girlfriend saw us and they looked at it. She's sort of investigating; she goes to church in a different ward every week but her parents don't want her baptised till she is 18. But she read it and asked a few questions.
I think we expected people to just come up and be intrigued by the board and read it, but in the end only people that we already knew looked at it.
Oh well, it was still a lot of fun and we got some good potential investigators. Next step: Soapbox Sermons! (maybe...)
Tom Henry came to visit us again. He's so nice. And funny. I recorded two of his HILARIOUS jokes (actually quite dumb but I love the way he tells them) on my camera. Unfortunately they're too big to send but you'll see them someday.
We did another "pamphlet drop" with the ward. Had a good turn out. It's a good way to involve members in missionary work in a non-threatening way.
We did some service for the Ballard family in the ward. It was fun. Then they invited us to join their family BBQ afterward. It was nice.
So there we go. That's my week. So excited for Glasgow! Just not excited to pack. I need to learn to throw things away. But it's hard.
Love you all!
Elder Burt

Pictures:
Restoration Board

This is what the Primary kids in Lisburn do after church is over. Seen here is the bishop underneath a bunch of them.