Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Week 10: German tanks and coconuts

Hey people, 
so first of all im writing this from a tv with some funky remote.. so thats why it'll probably be shorter and wit weird mistakes. 

BUT this week was jam packed full of fun. last pday i decided to buy a coconut to eat, figuring that it'd be easy to open. we brought it home and we tried EVERYTHING to open it. we tried a knife, smashingit with a pan, burning it, shaving it, biting it... but nothing happened but a little dent. Later that night we went to a lady from cuba, and she told us the proper way to open it. Carve out the 3 holes then smash it on the ground... so we did that and it worked! Hallelujah. I was able to eat coconut. 

Later in the week we did some gardening for an older couple, and the brother was telling us about some world war II facts. My favorite quote of that afternoon "Of course i love watching german tanks getting blown to smitherines, they were bombing our chip shops!!" yes. they love their chip shops here in england.

Over the week we were able to meet wit an investigator who had some concerns.. as we talked with her and were able to address them, she was able to realize that through Christ, we cannot fail. This eternal truth is essential to understand! He is there for us always and we should never forget that.

Anyways i love you all and have a good week!!

-sister slack

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Week 9: Teaching and Stuff that a Missionary does

Hey people in the world that I love!!!!

Wow! Well I guess it's that time again.. even though time on a mission doesn't make sense.

Hmm.. Let's see. Well the transfer ended this last week, so now I am in transfer 2! We got a new Elder in our district from Highland, Utah. So now in our wee little district of 4, three of us are from Utah. Crazy! But I guess it's not really that surprising.

We were able to teach many lessons this week, and it was awesome to be able to do that. But for some reason people weren't as focused this week and so it was a little more difficult to stay on task. On one occasion, our 8 year old investigator sort of had an anger attack so we just talked with his family instead. His sister Lola then told us about how her neighbour had some cats and she named them Mary and Joseph, and told us "if they had a baby boy I'd name it Jesus." She knows what's up.

We were also able to visit a lady who was baptized a year ago who just had her mom pass away. We got to sit and talk with her in her 200 year old home and speak about how the gospel has been such a rock through this hard time. She turns to the scriptures for comfort, and prays constantly. She met the missionaries when they knocked on her door, which I always think is so awesome because that's how we find people to teach! Some people are just more prepared than others.

Hmmm.. Sorry this email is kind of sporadic there are two lovely ginger children playing a game about a turtle crossing the water, and they keep yelling about it. Also, my planner from last week is not with me! But hey. It's chill.

OH. Last night Sister Heikki and I were able to build a massive fort made from blankets and scarves and flags. It was all held together with loom bands, and we got to watch Mr. Kreugar's Christmas and eat our dinner inside :)

Well I'll just share a cool quote from Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf: 

"As we extend our hands and hearts towards each other in Christlike love, something wonderful happens to us. Our own spirits become healed, more refined, and stronger."

Nothing is better than just loving everyone. I promise you that Christlike love makes us and others happier.

Well till next week,

Sister Slack


 Llama llama shopping Drama. A book that I must acquire later in life

We bike and it's FUN

On the inside of a beautiful English house

A few members of the Marina's family. We eat there a lot and they are super into missionary work and it's awesome. So here they are clipping hair extensions into Bill's hair and then ripping hair off of his arm with tape (Gotta say I couldn't stop laughing)


The massive fort
Poking my head out of the massive fort


Sister Heikki and I inside our massive fort

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Week 8: All is good in Eastwood (It rhymes ok)

Hello World!

Well it is that time again, and boy was it a wonderful week!!! This upcoming week just so happens to be the end of this transfer. I can't believe that I've been here 6 weeks! In some ways it feels like I've been in Eastwood for ages, but others it feels like I just got here! Time is such a weird thing...

Well anyway, let's get down to what you all wanna know... THE WEEK. Just kidding you all wanna know everything, but here is basically what my brain does when I try and think of everything that has happened:  DOFIEUJe;hfa;ie]p'.;.1231#'/#;sespanol902ujdfwsfood?/./,sdfj.  No, not swearing, but just kind of explodes. Pretty much we went from 1 investigator to 4 where they have pretty close baptismal dates, so we have been teaching all the time. And I love teaching!!! It is so fun.

So I'll just tell you 2 main stories of the week.. or maybe three. Anyway. So last Monday after P-day we had the opportunity to teach a recent converts (Sandra) whole family FHE (family home evening). She is the only baptized member in her family so far, and we had asked the rest of the family before (well Chingy, who is 8, and Paul, her husband.. they also have Lola who is 7) if they would also like to learn more, but they weren't ready about 6 weeks ago when we asked. But after we did the lesson for FHE, we both felt that someone else in that family needed to be baptized. So we first asked her husband, and he basically told us he would listen eventually, but not yet. And then we asked Chingy if he wanted to learn more and be baptized, and he said "Yeah, but I want to be 9." So he's getting baptized in about a month, 4 days after he will turn 9. He is such a smart little kid, who loves church and is always excited to read the scriptures. He is like a micro 60 lb sponge :) That family is going to be strong in the gospel.

Yesterday, we were teaching another one of our investigators and his Dad the stop smoking program. At the end we like to invite people to get a priesthood blessing for strength, but we could not get a priesthood holder to come with us that day. So we planned to tell them to just phone someone up, but at the end of the lesson, someone knocked on the door.. In my mind I was like... "ok who is intruding in on the lesson..." BUT it was the Bishop!! It couldn't have been planned more perfectly. God was so aware of their needs. He knew that they would need that blessing right away. God is the best!

Well, time is short and hopefully you're not bored already from reading this email. But you would never get bored ;) anyway. I was listening to a talk from last general conference, and here is a brilliant quote from it:

 " Individually we are strong, but together-with God- We are unstoppable."

Remember it. Love it. Live it.

I love all of you! I hope your week makes you so happy that you jump and dance around.
Love,
Sister Slack

 Being really tired on the bus
From a bench in England
Finding and havin FUN
So many lighters from one person... but fire is nice
Enjoying the floor of our flat

Monday, August 4, 2014

Week 7: Hello ducks

Dearest people that I love,
Hello from Nottingham! Today we are in the notts city center for district p-day, and also because people decided to book all of the computers in Eastwood!!... Jerks... Just kidding. They are children of God.

Anyways, this week has been pretty awesome and obviously flew by.. It's already Monday again! Whaaat! But one fun thing we got to do this last week was travel to Birmingham for a follow-up meeting for everyone that is being trained/training. It was so fun to see all of my MTC pals again and see how they are doing! We also learned from that meeting that we must always apply our personal study. Not just to learn, but do everything that we learn! Man. Sometimes my brain hurts trying to think about applying everything I'll learn on my mission..so much stuff... so now we'll move on.

One thing everyone has been asking us lately has been how they can even believe there is a God, when the world is so evil. So obviously, I studied up and figured it out! Pretty much, how can we not believe?? Time and time again in the Bible the world has been evil, but prophets are still there and God is trying to reach out and save His people. I think the most extreme example is the story of Noah. Literally the whole world was killed except for his family, but they were saved because they acted on their faith in God and followed him. I think sometimes people forget that all God wants to do is protect us from all of this evil, and He provides the way for us to do that with the gospel. But honestly, the world isn't evil. Think about it... how many evil people do you know? Like zero. So chin up because God is real and has filled the world with incredible people.

Back to this last week. It was legit! I think a highlight was definitely Saturday night and church on SundayOn Saturday we were trying to figure out if Louise (a less active who called for missionaries to teach her family after 14 yrs) was serious about coming back to church. We had kind of decided that she wasn't that interested, because she ditched our appointments 2ce last week, but then we called her. No answer... But then like 10 minutes later she texted us letting us know that she was definitely coming to church the next day with 2 of her kids AND bringing her niece who she thinks needs the gospel. Man. I was literally dancing around I was so stoked. I may or may not have made up a song about it also.

So then when they came on Sunday, everyone must have been seriously inspired. Everyone that bore their testimony in the meeting (like 10 people) spoke purely of doctrine and of Christ, and the lessons went well and the members welcomed them with open arms. Bam. Miracle. I love church.

Anyways, I have like 3 more minutes before i have to pay £1.20 to use this silly computer again.. So Untill next week ducks.

Love,
Sister Slack


district pic
# bomreadingonabench 
EASTWOOD
don't forget to be poshghetto 
squished mouse + sis heikki

beautiful England