"...I interviewed a lovely couple from Thailand for baptism."

Dearest family,
Isn't it just cool that I'm in Scotland right now?
Sometimes I just get so used to it that I forget how cool it is. Listening to Scottish folk music helps me to appreciate it.
So last week was full and exciting.
Tuesday we had Zone Development--mentioned before, but basically a super-p-day with the entire zone. Sports, food, games, socializing, etc.
This time, they surprised us by telling us to meet at Glasgow Green, a big park here, and when we arrived we were surprised to see the Paisley Zone there too!
They organized a HUGE capture the flag game, zone vs. zone, and a yoga-football (playing soccer with a big exercise ball) game, and it was crazy fun.
Then we had food and a few other little games back at the church. It was fun to be with all the zone.
Then the next day was a zone CONFERENCE! It was very uplifting and gave me a good boost to work real hard these last couple months. The next day I went on exchange with the zone leaders. So much zone stuff this week!
The exchange helped me a lot with giving it my best...sometimes it's easy to think that just because we're out walking to a destination or whatever that we are being good hard workers...but I was reminded and learned by example that I need to talk to EVERYONE!
Sure, it makes it so the trip back home for lunch takes two hours instead of 30 minutes, but we had a lot of good conversations and planted some Books of Mormons and such. Nothing has come of it YET but it just felt good and satisfying by the end of the day.
Also we found a hive of American university students near the church.
There's a student accommodation place where tons of study abroad students live while going to Glasgow University.
We actually gave Books of Mormon to two of them, from New Jersey. It's weird to hear the american accent from a non-missionary.
I also exchanged with Elder Gibson, the new Chinese-speaking missionary in our district. He's real good--21 years old, decided to serve a mission right before he was about to apply to medical school! He sacrificed a lot, especially when he says his friends were mostly home when he left. It shows how dedicated he is, and you can see it too.
Saturday we went to football and had a good time. Sunday we went to church.
We found two new people to teach, one black guy from Guyana named Prince. He said he would never leave his church, but of course we wouldn't expect him to until he's had a taste of something different.
Also a guy named Colin. We knocked on his door, he asked who it was, we told him, he opened up and said "Come in!" He is very spiritual, he's seen a vision of a wolf talking to him when he was doing a 40 day fast with nothing but water, and the wolf talked to him.
He has tons of books in his flat--the Torah, different translations of the Bible, Hinduism and Buddhism books, "Sutras", magic books, and tons of others.
He'd heard a bit of the story of the Book of Mormon, and we cleared up a bit and he said he'd like to give reading it a shot. He understood the importance of praying to know if it's true as well, so he committed to do it. And he even asked us to pray for him to get an answer when we said the closing prayer.
He seems a bit skeptical on the Joseph Smith story though, so it may be a bit harder to get an answer contrary to what he already believes...but it's possible of course! It just requires "faith in Christ, with real intent."
Oh and yesterday I interviewed a lovely couple from Thailand for baptism. They are so great!
They love talking about how the church is like a big family, and in a prayer, the husband even thanked God for letting him be part of "the Mormon family, and learn the scripture." They are so humble and great.
Too bad many Scots are already hardened against all religion or else dead set in their own. Oh well, just gotta find the few who ARE ready for it!
Love you all and I shall talk to you next Monday.
Cheerio!
Elder Burt

Photos:
Today we visited the Glasgow City Chambers as a district. Pretty cool.

"...so many missionaries love the words "apostasy/apostate" and "rebuke." I don't really think it's that cool..."

So on a mission, General Conference is pretty much the highlight.
Practically the whole zone comes together, we listen to the spiritual giants that we all look up to, and it's just great.
Unfortunately none of our investigators or even less-active members came to the church, but some committed to watch it on their own online. It's a great opportunity for the brethren (and sisters too) to teach our investigators for us!
Honestly not much else eventful happened this week other than meeting Ben, the brother of Jennie, the wife of Sam, the friend of Ali.
He joined in on the last minute of our discussion in the university cafeteria, where we teach them. He actually said the closing prayer, and it was awesome!
The first 10-15 seconds he just talked to God about how great it was to be able to pray. He said "We are so thankful that we can communicate with you, and we should never cease to be amazed that that is an option." I felt the spirit pretty strongly.
They'd be great additions to the ward here. If they would just get a witness of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith!!!!
After our lesson I had a vision, or probably just an imagination, of Ali, Sam, and Ben all sitting on the stand as a bishopric of the Glasgow Ward. How cool would that be?
Ok so since not much else happened let me talk about what I liked from conference!
I suppose it was good that David, a guy who recently returned to church activity, and who we've been visiting, came to two sessions and liked it a lot.
So the first session, the Saturday Morning or 5pm in Scotland, was very good.
All the missionaries seemed to love when one speaker said that trying to lower God's standards to fit the world's "is apostasy."
It's weird how so many missionaries love the words "apostasy/apostate" and "rebuke." I don't really think it's that cool but hey whatever.
We were really excited when Chi Hong Wong from Hong Kong spoke in Cantonese! Especially because Elder Yip, who is just two months out, is from there and speaks Cantonese.
It was disappointing when they just dubbed an English translation over his voice instead of doing subtitles! IT would have been cool to hear it all in his language.
And the Spanish guy too...You could say this was a momentous conference, the first time they address us in non-English!
In the priesthood session they had a missionary choir from the MTC.
I scanned for anyone I know, but no luck. Except for a guy from Airdrie (In the Glasgow stake!) who was the soloist for "Ye Elders of Israel!" I never met him, but he spoke at stake conference the week before he left for the MTC.
The missionaries and members from his ward were super excited to see him front and centre.
Apparently he's a big deal; he was a main character in the British Pageant last year, and he went to Nauvoo to perform in that pageant as well. He's probably the next famous Mormon or something.
I found it very interesting how Elder Anderson (I think) said to record ourselves reading the Testimony of Joseph Smith, and listen to it. If I remember, he said that it would help us to receive a witness of his calling, and of the Book of Mormon. I suppose it could help to strengthen it for those of us who already know, or to re-affirm for those who may doubt. I might give it a shot...why not?
There were a few talks on helping to poor and needy, but also it seemed to be a lot about self-responsibility and such.
Jeffrey R. Holland's was really good, talking about how we need to help the poor and such...but toward the end he said how he still believes in responsibility and such, and seemed like he said something negative about panhandling.
So now I'm not sure--do we give to beggars or not??? Either way, it was a very good talk about helping others. I just kind of got mixed messages from it.
Well that is it for this week. We have zone conference this week, but next week for district meeting we're gonna watch the last session of conference, the Sunday afternoon session or in Scotland, 9-11pm.
I think we can all get more out of listening to that and seeking revelation for our work, investigators and proselyting areas than we could from me conducting a district meeting. It will be great!
Well I love you all and I hope you all have a great week.
Love, Elder Burt

"I have never taught so simply in my life...I love the gospel basics."

Dear Family,
So it's been an interesting week.
As usual moves week was a bit different; A fair bit of time spent with Elder Schmidt packing, a bit of saying goodbye to members, and ya know all sorts of new experiences.
Wednesday was fun; Elder Schmidt had to leave at 8:30 to head off to Ireland, and Elder Zander came from Ireland, so I was with a few other missionaries in the same situation for several hours, just kickin it around Glasgow! It was fun.
We visited the Glasgow Cathedral which was HUGE, we went to "the lighthouse" where there is a tower in the middle of the City Centre where we could see all around, and we walked around shops and such.
As far as our current investigators, or as some missionaries like to refer to them as "friends," we had a few good lessons with them but no huge changes.
We have a few new people we're teaching: two 30-something year old friends named Adel and Bobby, both from Africa. They have separate houses but they hang out together all the time.
Adel speaks VERY VERY limited English. I have never taught so simply in my life, and it actually felt really good. I love the gospel basics. Elder Zander didn't talk much during the lesson...he says he gets frustrated.
So I basically just taught Adel about who God is, who Jesus Christ is, what a prophet is, and that the Book of Mormon was translated by a prophet and how it helps us to understand and know Christ. It was fun.
Honestly that's the only memorable thing that happened. Can't really think of anything significant to tell you! It's been a stressful past few days. But I'm doing ok.
Welllll I love you all and I will write to you again next week!
Elder Burt

Photos:
Big spiral stair case we had to climb to get to the top of the tower.

Me and Elder Dewsbery on top of the tower. Fun having him in the same zone!

"...it would have been so cool to have been here when it happened; when Scotland became an independent country."

SEPTEMBER 22, 2014
Hi everybody!
So the news is in, and I am staying here and Elder Schmidt is moving to Dublin. My new companion will be Elder Zander, also from Germany! I have heard they are very different from each other. So it will be a good balance I think. I'm excited.
Oh and I'm district leader. Not too psyched about that, I was happy to stay as senior companion or even junior, but hey I guess I'm needed in that position!
Ok so we had an interesting and highly varied week.
The first interesting thing was we got a call from the mission office saying we had a referral, and we already had an appointment with him. Whatever elders met him scheduled an appointment with him for us, which was probably not very smart in case we had something else to do, but luckily we were free.
So we went. And he wasn't there. But we decided, maybe there's another reason why we received this referral. Like someone else who was ready for us.
So we knocked the rest of his street, and the street next to it. We were about finished for the night, and right before we went home Elder Schmidt reminded me that we needed to follow up at a house where a teenage girl said that her mom was on the phone but that we could try later. So we did, and the mom was very receptive!
We didn't go in, seeing that it was a bit late and there was no man. But we set up a return appointment for two days later, and she seemed excited to meet with us. But then she called us the morning of the appointment, and said she had read our pamphlet we left and she felt happy with  her own beliefs.
It was frustrating; I honestly felt like she was ready, and felt the spirit!
Yeah, I've had many many appointments fall through or cancel or completely dropped by investigators, but for some reason I was really gutted (disappointed) when she cancelled.
Maybe we'll follow up in a few weeks or somethin.
We taught Ali and Sam, the Christian young adult guys, and when we met up at the university to teach, Sam's newly wedded wife Jennie was there as well. She was going to go somewhere else so we could have our lesson, but we invited her to stay and listen, and she was very happy to!
We taught the Plan of Salvation, and I was honestly surprised at how legitimately interested they seem.
They asked questions about it that sound like they really do want to know, not questions that will catch us saying something wrong, as I often have had and expect to have when I teach some active born-again Christians.
Sam has read up to 1 Nephi 8 already, and says he wants to keep reading. If they simply receive a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, they would be SUCH great members.
We taught a lady who is a lesbian. It was a bit awkward at first, because she started asking about the church's stance on homosexuality right at the start.
We told her, in a very kind way I felt, and it was a bit uncomfortable. I think we all felt uncomfortable at least for a good portion of it, but by the end she was very happy and thankful that we came, and said she felt uplifted and looked forward to our next appointment.
She called the next day to say that she has never felt so drawn to a specific church like she does to ours; that she admires and loves the way we do everything, how we just tell people what we believe and don't ask anything of them, and just praised how great we and the Church were for about 30 minutes.
She was set to come to church, and then something happened and she didn't come. We've been in contact with her for quite a while now, and she's been sorta up and down like this before.
So yeah it was a good week with I suppose a lot of high expectations and excitement, but sometimes the enthusiasm crashed and burned a wee bit when it came down to the wire.
Oh well, next time. Things are still going very well and I'm excited to stay and to have a new companion to work with.
Oh and the referendum.
As you probably know, it was a "No" vote. (The ballot was simply: "Should Scotland be an independent country?")
It was exciting to be a part of it leading up to the vote, and everyone talked about it and there were big and small "Yes" and "No thanks" signs and stickers everywhere, but I was honestly quite sad when we found out that 55% voted to stay in the UK.
Yeah, it's probably safer this way, and there is less risk of people losing their money or the government or economy crashing on its own or things like that...but it would have been so cool to have been here when it happened; when Scotland became an independent country. But now it's just like, well, I was here when nothing changed. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
Well, that's all folks. Looking forward to this week.
Thanks for all the support everybody. Only three more months, but I've been telling myself that I'm "always in the middle" (Uchtdorf) And I even wrote it on the front of my planner, where I usually write what number of transfer I'm on. And it's helped; I honestly don't feel too trunky most of the time! Till the work is done.
Love yous!
Elder Burt

Photos:
Scottish sunset

George Square in Glasgow, on Thursday night as the votes were being counted. Tons of "Yes" supporters flying the Scotland flag and having a fun time.

A "Yes" sticker on a bus window. These were everywhere the past month or so.

"...whether or not Scotland will become independent! Exciting to be here at this exciting time."

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014
Hi all!
So we had a good week.
We started teaching two new people: A nice lady who might have some sort of mental disability, but not severe. She wants to serve a mission, but mostly to go to an exciting place and meet new people.
When we told her that we don't choose where to go, and that we pay our own way, and that she'd have to be in the church for one year before going, she didn't seem as eager.
But she is nice, and could really use the help of the relief society because she lives a bit of a sad lonely life it seems.
Thinking it might be better to give her to the sisters, because when we showed up for our appointment with her, and we had a member with us, she didn't let us in and we just taught on the doorstep.
I think she was scared of inviting three grown men into her small flat with her all alone. She's promising though.
The other is an alcoholic. When we came over for our appointment at 10:30 am he was already drunk, had been drinking since 2:00 am. Troubled past. But maybe the gospel will offer a better future.
We still teach our other investigators but not much progress.
The two YSA age guys from last week...they seem set in their ways but they are open to keep meeting with us.
One of them read 1 Nephi, Chapter 1, but he said he didn't feel like praying specifically to know if it's true; but just prayed to be led to the truth.
I was just thinking..."Well, He led you to us, so there you go!" They're the type of guys who the only thing that will convert them is the spirit, and the testimonies of fellow converts.
We had a fantastic stake conference with Elder Jose Reina, from Spain. He is amazing! So happy, and funny, and when he talked into the microphone it was super loud because he's just so enthusiastic.
He gave us some great advice on sharing the gospel:
If you only have 30 seconds, the most important things to share are:
1) We are Christians; we believe in Christ, we love Christ.
2) His true church has been restored!
3) Being a member of the church makes us happy!
And the most important thing is to always smile, because life is great, and life with the gospel is even greater. He was just so happy the whole time he talked. A genuine, hilarious, and humble guy.
We had some weird experiences with weird guys.
One super drunk guy around 8:00 pm one night was peeing in the corner of the bus stop when we got there.
Then he came and talked to us, asked about three times where we were headed, and yelled about how great Celtic (football club) are.
The other guy was on the bus, and he was just talking to himself the whole time. He was hilarious.
At first I thought he was talking to me, because as soon as I took my seat in front of him he said "Have you been to Norway?"
I turned around and he was looking at me, so I said no. Then he carried on rambling on about various topics from penguins to Brazil to cricket to football and even ended up talking to himself about Jesus.
Fun times in Glasgow.
Well, that's the exciting events from last week.
The next time I email, we will know whether or not Scotland will become independent!
Exciting to be here at this exciting time. I don't know what would actually be best, but I'd like it to become independent so I can say I was there on Scotland's Independence Day! The vote is this Thursday!
Love yous and have a great week
Elder Spencer Burt

Photo: Disobedience

Elder Spencer Ashcraft Burt
Scotland/Ireland Mission
51 Spylaw Road
Edinburgh EH10 5BP
Scotland

"Hanging out with Highland Cows"

SEPTEMBER 8, 2014
Hi everybody!
This email might be a bit short.
We had a fun P-day at Pollok Country Park with our district today, and we left emailing till the last, and now the library is a bit crowded and they are limiting how long we can stay on the computers.
Anyway.
This week was pretty good. The highlight was Wednesday, where we began teaching three new investigators!
One is an old guy named Marcus, whom the sisters handed over to us. I'm not sure why, maybe they were just feeling nice so they gave us an investigator!
But he is a nice guy. He likes to talk a lot about his past, and tell stories. We met with him once in his home and we are teaching him again next week.
He lives near a recent convert who loves helping us out, so maybe we will see if he'd like to host a cottage evening-sort of thing at his apartment, where it's a bit more comfortable.
The others are two guys in their twenties.
They both have finished their degrees at University, and they either work or volunteer with a Christian fellowship group for university students.
Elder Schmidt and Elder Liu met one of them two weeks ago, and we scheduled a time to meet up with him on campus.
He brought his friend along, who is also fairly interested.
I feel one might be a bit more receptive, I kinda get the feeling that the other already knows a lot about the church and is biased against it. He asked questions such as "Is this the only English edition published?" (I've had several anti-Mormon people criticise the fact that the 1830 version is slightly different than the current one in some spelling and punctuation) and he said he has a lot of questions.
So we're bringing another member with us this week when we meet with him, who joined the church in his twenties. Even though he's a bit older now, he should be able to relate to them. We're excited to start working with these guys!
The two active Christians seem like the type where if they received a testimony, they would be AMAZING solid members of the church. And although they would face loads of persecution from their Christian friends and ministers etc., I'm sure they'd be steadfast through it all. That is if they sincerely give it a chance and they get their answer.
We're still working with our other investigators...Paul, Alistair, and Sabrina. They are all coming along pretty well.
We are working with a newly found less-active guy named Scott, whom we met at a bus stop.
He is a bus driver, so he usually works on Sundays.
He's great though, he ALMOST came this past Sunday but he didn't answer his phone. He doesn't finish his driving shifts till like 2 or 3 in the morning, so I don't blame him for not waking up on time.
Let's see...On Saturday we played football with the collection of members, nonmembers and missionaries from around the stake, and we helped another member move. So yeah it was a good week.
We also had a few funny encounters with drunk people. Always fun.
Sorry for being so short with this email, but yeah I hope you all had a great week as well.
Love yous!
Elder Burt

Photos:
The former LDS meetinghouse in Drumchapel

Hanging out with Highland Cows (Scots: Highland Coo's)

"...but it feels good to help him out in the here and now."

Hello family and friends!
So we have had a pretty good week. We did a lot of service.
We helped a guy in the ward move a super heavy marble fireplace from his daughter's house into her garage. She and her husband are remodeling a house they just bought that is really big and nice but old.
When he told us he needed help moving the fireplace we thought it would be easy, but even with me, Elder Schmidt, and two of the Chinatown elders and the man, it was difficult.
We ended up using old torn out carpet to slide it along the floor, out the door, and across the garage floor to its resting place. Apparently the member is taking it to his house once he gets a van rented, so who knows maybe he will need help again when that day comes.
We also helped an investigator clean his apartment. We asked him beforehand if we could come and help him clean, and he said it was ok. So we went in our service clothes, bought some latex gloves, and went to work.
We just focused on his living room, where he usually is and where we teach him. It was practically nothing but old receipts, bus tickets, and newspapers. We threw away probably eight grocery bags full of newspapers.
Once the clutter was all off the ground, Elder Housley (exchanges that day) vacuumed the carpet. It looked AMAZING! I wish I could have taken before and after photos, but I felt like that would be a bit insulting. So you'll just have to imagine it and take my word for it.
We suggested that we come over two times a week; one to teach, and one to clean. Because his kitchen and his other rooms could use some cleaning.
Yeah, we know it may just end up in the same state after a month or two...but it feels good to help him out in the here and now.
I can't remember if I told you about Zone Development that we had last Monday...we played a lot of sports, such as "yoga football" (soccer with a yoga ball, and you can hit it with hands too) capture the flag, dodgeball, chair football, and had some dinner and a few silly games at the church. Fun time.
We had zone interviews & training last week as well. That's where President Brown comes and interviews us all to check up on us and give personal advice, while the zone leaders and the assistant to the presidents and Sister Brown give training. Good stuff.
Now the racism story. We were visiting an old and hilarious less-active lady. She lived in South Africa for a good few years, and that combined with the fact that she is old make her a bit racist, and we can't really do anything about it.
She usually says something negative about blacks or Arabs, etc. But last week she told us a story about how a black carer/nurse-type lady came up to her flat (she lives in an assisted living centre) to give her medication or something. Somehow they started arguing, and our lady told us that she told the black lady, "Well, I'm white, what colour are you?" It was terrible! But funny how senile she is. We like visiting her.
We had a stake activity on Saturday: Cultures and Cuisines of the World.
Every ward was assigned a country to do a 10 minute presentation and a small taste of the food. Our ward had China, because we have lots of Chinese members. It was fun.
There were also rooms for Scotland, Brasil, USA, India, Italy, Spain, and Ecuador.
The Chinese families in our ward out-did everybody else in food and decorations and even a traditional Chinese dance. It was awesome.
Well, these are the noteworthy experiences that occurred this week.
Of course we taught a few other investigators, tracted, street contacted, visited members and less-active members, all of which are important as well. But you know, nothing exciting to report back.
Hope you all have a super week!
(I know it's a bit late, but I want to try and share a scripture or a quote every week that is nice or inspirational or applies to missionary work of some sort. I shoulda started 1.5 years ago, but as Uchtdorf says, "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is NOW!")
Mosiah 26:20
"Thou art my servant; and I covenant with thee that thou shalt have eternal life; and thou shalt serve me and go forth in my name, and shalt gather together my sheep."
Love you all!
Elder Spencer Burt

Photos:
Chinese decorations at the stake activity

Feeding honeycomb to Jesus (yes, I still have some left! It's like eating pure honey haha)