Mission Adventures in England Birmingham: Week 3: "What religion do you belong to?"

Hey family and friends!!!

First of all, I love all of you. You are pretty much #1. Yeah.

I am now in my first area, where I am born into the mission, which is Eastwood! It's a suburb of Nottingham, and it's pretty cool. The members here all LOVE the missionaries. They love feeding us, and I can't complain about that! We have a dinner appointment almost every day, and the members that can't have us over donate money and then a lady buys us groceries every month. It's great!

Turns out that my mission is one of the top finding missions in the world. We figured out that on average we do 4-5 hours of finding! So here in this area, there isn't really a place to street contact anyone (like where you just see them and then talk to them) or a GQ area. There is like 1 street we walk down every day, so we walk down it then go tracting. So many doors. Just picture England in your mind, and that's probably what it actually looks like. I was surprised at how much this area looks like some classic movie. Houses packed together like nobodies business, and lots of dogs. Not just little ones, they like their big dogs. And they're everywhere.

Quick story about our finding the other day. So we were tracting down a place called North Queens street, and after knocking an old lady answers the door and we start talking. She claims she has her own religion already, so obviously I had to ask "What religion do you belong to?" and then she said "I belong to the.... um... the.... oh what church... *15 second pause*... The Church of England!!" Uh huh.. sure lady. We totally believe you (heavy sarcasm right there). If you didn't wanna come to church with us you didn't have to fake yourself into another religion! We laughed about it.

Later on that same street we actually got invited in by a lady named Margaret. She was old, and it wasn't even her house, but she listened. We did a micro lesson on the restoration, and gave her a Book of Mormon and planned to meet her tomorrow. So pray that she will have the desire to learn more about the gospel! We couldn't tell if she was all there mentally.. so hopefully she remembers us. But it was cool to actually have someone listen! That doesn't happen too often.

OH ALSO I have a companion. Her name is Sis. Heikki, and she's from Sweden. She's super cool. When I first got to the mission home last Wednesday and was interviewed by my mission president, he asked what I wanted in a companion and I told him I wanted someone that can have fun but also work hard, and someone who was chill and laid back but not lazy. Well. I got exactly what I asked for! She's cool, and we get along pretty well. She also doesn't waste time, which is great.

In my district it's just us and a pair of elders, so it's kinda fun. We see them a lot because they live down the street from us, and ya know. We're just a small district! Holla.

So being a missionary has been a little different than what I expected, but it's intense. I love study time, and one of my fav things to study is all the talks from last session. It's so good! All of those talks are brilliant (English words). And one of my favourite quotes was from President Thomas S Monsons talk: "As we arise each morning, let us determine to respond with love and kindness to whatever might come our way."

I love that quote because everything goes better when you love all your investigators and companions, no matter what. Also, there is some weird ward drama going on in the relief society, which could totally be solved if they just loved each other! Love is the answer to everything people.

A thing about English people: apparently it's a thing to greet someone by saying "You alright?" all the time. Which always throws me off because I think of it to be used when someone is potentially injured or something. Also, in this area old people call you "Duck." so sometimes they'll say "You alright, duck?" and it's just a confusing sentence all together.. But I'm learning. And my British accent is a work in progress, but everyone here pronounces their T's so clearly, I don't know if I'll ever be able to get out of my Utahn habits.

Anyway, I love you all! And if you didn't read this whole thing... read.. the paragraphs with a little bit of boldness! Because reading is fun.. yo. Or send me a letter!

You are all in my prayers and I love you!

Love,

Sister Slack

ALSO send me mail!!!

Sister Slack

Flat 7 Elevation Place

Nottingham Road

Eastwood

NG16 3GL

England