Week 32: Keep your eye on the doughnut!

Wow what a week it has been. I feel like it went by super speedy.. and some proper good things happened this week.

Where to start.. On Tuesday we had interviews with our mission president (which were amazing, just so you all know.. President Rasmussen is one of the most amazing men I've ever met!) and then I got to go on exchange with Sister Lamb (who was in the MTC with me) in Merthyr Tydfil! That's right, and she drives a car! Woot! It was nice to not have to walk around in the cold dark alley ways and getting to drive through them instead.

On exchange, we got to talk to this awesome family who all got baptized this last weekend! It was cool to have the opportunity to teach them just one lesson on exchange. God certainly prepares people, and has everything work out for them to progress in the gospel! We also were able to run into this intense metal dragon, as seen below.

Upon returning from exchange, we had a lovely day here in Swansea, and then we had a second exchange where I went to Rhiwbina (near Cardiff) and Sister Butler went off to Birmingham. I was in a trio with Sister Thomson (also was in the MTC with me) and Sister Galvez for the day, and it was so fun to get to see how other missionaries work. We saw the cutest 90 year old man who loved to sing, and I don't think I've ever met that many welsh baptists in one day. 

On Saturday we met with a Chinese girl for the first time named Lily. She is the cutest girl, she loves Beyonce and is so excited to learn about the gospel and when we talked about baptism she said "Oh yes I am very interested to do that" in her adorable accent. It was so fun to teach her. 

This Sunday was a good last Sunday in Swansea. In Relief Society they were talking about being positive and being unified. One sentence  a sister said pretty much summed it up: "Keep your eye on the doughnut, not on the hole." We've got to remember that there are so many good things in the world, and that we should not focus on the hole that sometimes seems to be at the centre of our attention. Remember to look at the doughnut! Plus, it is a tasty treat (as long as it is gluten free). 

ALSO, this week is transfers,  so my address will be changing this week. Just so you know. It's sad to say I'll be leaving Swansea, but I guess that is part of missionary life. I don't find out where I'll be going until late tonight, but I'll let you all know next week.

Cheers everyone!

Sister Slack

ps people use cheers here for everything.. mostly to say thank you and to say goodbye!

Dramatic poster inside debnahms 

companion photoooo

Dragon I found on exchange in Merthyr!

Week 31: Cake

Hello world! I am still here alive and well in Swansea. Yes, it has been raining. And yes, it does get cold here. As a matter of fact, it did hail a couple of times this last week! Luckily, Sister Butler and I were outside for a part of it and got to experience the nice feeling of hail hitting us in the face. Yes-that sentence was full of sarcasm. 

This week has been full of many things, one of which was cake! Sister Butler turned 20 this last Friday, so many members were kind enough to have us over and feed us to celebrate throughout the week. Yes- they even made them gluten free! While we would eat all of it and be stuffed to the brim at their homes, they would send us home with the left overs of the sweets. So now we have 4 cakes in our flat. Yum!

We also had the opportunity to teach some incredible people, and of course, some interesting people. One man we taught (the same guy who thought Americans were aliens) about the restoration, and it turns out that he truly believes that the world is flat and that churches are all run by magicians. Gotta say it was one of the most interesting conversations ever. 

We also got to have an incredible lesson with an investigator named Marshall. He had been struggling to keep commitments, but we brought a member named Sian and she bore her testimony to him about her baptism. It was incredible to see the spirit work with him in that room. At the end of the lesson, he committed to be baptized and we will be working with him towards that!

Well I'm outta time, sorry guys. But I love you! Thank you for everything!

Love,

Sister Slack

Shopping. Yes, it was cold outside. (That's me in the background, and Sister Butler in the front)

Finding the 1--yeah missionary work!

The ridiculous amounts of sweets that we have right now

Week 30: Much to his surprise, we are not aliens.

I don't even know how to explain this week. Basically, so many crazy things happened that if I wrote them down on tiny pieces of paper they wouldn't all fit in my house. 

Where to begin.. There we were, walking around the lovely Brynmill park when suddenly we see this older man walking towards us. He looks kind of familiar.. and as we get closer we realize that we have definitely stopped and talked to him twice before! The first time we met him, it was dark and he told us that he wouldn't invite us over, but that he would look at mormon.org. The second time we stopped him, we asked about the website, but he didn't actually check it out so we re-invited him then to look it up. So-then for the third time when we saw him he walked us over to a bench and told us he had looked it up and had been thinking a lot about it. He wanted to meet with us that day! We set up a time to go and see him at the local Costa Coffee shop. 

A few hours later we met him there, and he was kind enough to buy us smoothies, and even brought us a jar of his home collected honey from his beehives. We sat and talked about the restoration of the gospel. He was interested, he told us, but he didn't want to set another time to see us because he liked just running into us. Well.. We did our best and tried all we could to assure him that this was the best path-but in the end all we got was free smoothies and honey. So I guess I can't complain too much. 

Later in the week we were street contacting, and we met this guy who had heard of Americans and Mormons before! He told us all about how all Americans were aliens, and then asked us if all Mormons were aliens too. Much to his surprise, we are not aliens. But we had a great conversation and he ended up wanting to meet with us in the end. Hopefully he doesn't end up being an alien. 

Once again, there we were, in city centre, street contacting our little hearts away! It had been a longer day, raining all day and it was dark. We decided to start to head back towards our flat, when we saw an older lady and decided to stop her. Her name was Esmeralda and it turns out she was baptized into the church 5 years ago, and she had lost contact with the church! We met with her later on and she fed us some awesome Brazilian food (she's Brazilian) and now we are helping her come back to church

I love you all, and now I must go. But there was some other amazing miracles, as always. Keep it real!

Love, Sister Slack

 district pday nerf war!

Week 29: 2015 the year of the bear

Wow, I haven't done this since last year! *Badoom chaa* classic.

Well this week started off with some nice rain. And it turns out, it's still raining! Hooray. I don't have much time, but pretty much.. nothing too exciting happened. On new years day, we woke up and decided to light a nice candle, in the shape of a bear. It was nice to watch it, and then I wanted to eat some nice hot tamale sweets. So I poked one with a pen, and popped it over the fire, and it was an incredible experience. The flavors were so incredible, that you'll all have to try roasted hot tamales yourselves. 

So on new years eve, we were walking around talking to some lovely people in city center, when all of a sudden I saw it. That's right, a massive super fluffy bear sized husky dog. Naturally, I had to go and pet it. I walk up to the guy holding it on the leash, and as I start to ask if I can pet his dog, the bear jumped up onto me and licked my whole face! I honestly didn't know how to react, and I don't think the owner did either. So he ended up just walking away with me standing there with bear slobber and a disgusted look on my face. 

This week has been one of those weeks where you don't really know what happened, because it was kind of weird. I think my favorite day this week was Sunday (yesterday). It'd been hard emotionally I guess, and I was really hoping church would help us out. When we got there, the first lesson we had seemed to be directed all towards me. Questions I had about how to act with certain people were answered, and I nearly cried (no tears were there though..). Eventually, in sacrament, things were amazing, and those that got up and bore their testimony were so inspiring. Before I knew it, I was getting up to speak as well. I spoke about how I know that Jesus Christ is truly the saviour and redeemer of the world. He is the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings, and He knows us perfectly. I guess I felt the need to share that with everyone because it is something that I have rediscovered over the last little while. It's the truth, and I love it. 

Let's make this year the best!

Love,,

Sister Slack

This funky dog outside of the uni

Me and my pal the Lion

new years roasting hot tamales over pugsy the bear candle