Week 53: One year older and wiser too!

Wow what another amazing week. It has brought on a lot of reflection and eating of chocolate sweets and gluten free pastries and pizza. It  was a little over exactly a year ago that I hopped on a plane in Salt  Lake City to begin the adventure of learning a bit of the British  culture. At the time, all I knew was how to fake a posh British  accent, and I didn't even know what the word posh meant. Now I can do about 4-6 different british accents, and I even know what posh means! Wow. What great lessons I have learned on my mission.

Well it's been crazy. Where to start... Tuesday I headed on down to Westcotes to spend the day with one of my favourite sisters, Sister Leiss! She's so awesome. She's from Germany, and we had a blast. We cleaned out a hoarders house (well, only a part of it), taught the cutest hindu family, found an awesome Zimbabwe couple, and a really cool girl named Rachel. We got to bike around in the sun and I got this mental sunburn on the back of my neck! What that was about, I don't know.

The next day we had someone come and fix my shower, so that was really nice now I can have a normal shower every day. We also taught Jessica about families and stuff, and it was pretty dang exciting. She is amazing. And she is totally getting baptised this Saturday at 6 pm, so if any of you happen to be in Coventry then, feel free to come.

We also went on exchange with the sisters in Nuneaton and I was with Sister Anderson. She is so awesome! She's from the good ol USA and we had a blast. We met some incredible people and tried to clear out a jungle for a service project. Definitely a blast with her!

One evening we went to dinner with Jessica, Sarah (a member), Kristina, and Tish (member). I think it was one of the best times I've had at dinner so far! They are all hilarious, and it was so fun to have some girl time and eat delicious food. They are incredible people.

Miracle that I am thinking of at the moment: We taught Jessica about the law of tithing this week, and she has been setting aside money for it. She's been having a hard time seeing how things will work out financially. She'd been praying and praying all day, and as she went out of her flat to go to work, she put her hand in her back pocket and found 50 pounds (about $75). God always takes care of us when we put him first, no matter what.

I love this church so much, and honestly I have learned sooo much over the past year. I think one thing I've learned the most is how to love people more. It's amazing to know what little things can make a difference, and as Elder Holland put it "love given is not love divided, but multiplied."

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Slack

Flowers outside our apartment

exchange with the westcotes sisters!

at the castle

caaastle

 bear!

and Jessica!

Week 52: hop on a zebra and pick raspberries

Well people, it's that time again. Email time! Buuuut this morning we went to a castle, Warwick Castle, and we have nooo time to email. SO hopefully I can fit everything in!

What an incredible week it has been. The week started off great, Sister Thomson and I had a party as we both had driving tests this week. She had the written one, and I had the driving one. During her test I wasn't allowed to be in the building (government stuff or something like that) and so during that time I had to wait I think car by myself for about an hour and a half. I got to make a bajillion phone calls and leave some voicemails, which resulted in receiving lots of gluten free cookies. It was like magic! Ask and ye shall receive. It works. Oh, and she passed! Yay! The next day we drove down to Warwick for my driving test, and basically they make you drive around making sure you know how not to crash, and make sure you can reverse (like into a parking spot or parallel). Now to kill the suspense, I passed! Even after I hit a curb and everything. Prayers = answered!

Of course this week we've been teaching our awesome friend Jessica. Basically, she's the best. And hilarious. She came to a baptismal service we had on Saturday wearing a super cute dress, and is pumped to get baptised. We love her. 

We also went on exchanges with the sisters in Peterborough this week, I was with Sister Alexandroia there, and it was awesome. I ate some pretty amazing brazilian food there, and she nearly got eaten by a dog, but in the end it was a pretty nice exchange. I found peanut butter on sale for 59p!!! It was amazing.

And the highlight of this week was on Thursday. Why? 7 syllables: Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. It was incredible. Sister Thomson and I were determined to get there early to get a good seat. We were the first ones there, and we sat literally on the front row. We were only 3 hours early. WORTH IT. When he finally arrived, we took a picture with him, and then he had us all get up and shake his hand one by one. It was amazing. You could feel the power of that man. The whole conference was incredible, and words here cannot describe everything that I learned or felt. What I can say though, is that my testimony of this restored gospel grew so much. As he spoke, you could just feel the words sink in. I knew everything he was saying was true. I know it. He stood at the pulpit, and explained to us that he was going to talk about the atonement. He explained that we had to have Adam and Eve start the whole thing, they had to leave the garden of eden (where we can all run around hopping on zebras and go to pick raspberries) and provide a way for all of us to eventually get to this earth and for Jesus Christ to pave the way to salvation. Overall? Amazing. 

My favorite part of the whole conference wasn't getting to shake his hand, wasn't getting to sit on the front row, wasn't getting to see everyone in the whole mission, but it was when he got up to leave. Wait... what? Let me explain. After the closing prayer was said, he got up to leave and we all stood for him to walk out of the building. As he was walking down the aisle he said to us "I love you." and blew us all a kiss, and then added "Work hard." As soon as those words came out of his mouth I was hit with the Spirit. It was like a warm feeling gushed into my soul and I could hardly hold back the tears. It was at that moment, as we were all standing silently as he walked away, that my whole being felt and knew that God's power is on the earth today. God's church is here, and it is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. How do I know that? Because I felt it. God's truths are amazing. 

Anyway, gotta go and I love you! 

Love,

Sister Slack

nametagswag

chillin with joyce

before elder holland

annnd yeah

Week 51: nailed it.

Hello people from the outside world.

This week has been jam packed full of fun and action, as you could guess, because being a missionary is the best! We started off our week with a girl named Jessica. Let me tell you a little bit about Jessica:

Sister Urbani and I met her back in sometime like... March. And she was super cool, but nothing really happened with her. Long story short, we ran into her again and she told us she was going to Berlin! But only for a week. So when she got back from her trip (last Sunday) she texted us and we set up a meet. And basically, I've never met anyone more prepared for the gospel in my LIFE.

We started off with the restoration and she immediately went home and started to read the Book of Mormon. Two days later we taught her the Plan of Salvation, and at the end of the lesson she told us "Oh yeah, I already knew about all of this, I watched a video about it yesterday." She had already prayed about it, and feels like it is true. Amazing! She also has had some opposition from her mom, but she talked it over with her mom and told her to do some research, and as her mom did some research (searching for things wrong with the church) the only bad thing she could find out was that she wouldn't be able to drink tea, coffee, or alcohol anymore. We hadn't taught her about it yet, and so we switched our plans then to talk about it at our lesson at 4:30 that day. That night we had organized a sports night (6:30pm) and she wanted to come. Between our lesson with her and the sports night, she went home and poured out her alcohol down the drain, replaced her tea with herbal tea, and bought chocolate milk instead of coffee. She is so excited to be a part of this church, and keeps reminding us that she is ready for this life-long commitment. She is definitely our miracle of the week!

In the middle of the week we had a movie night with investigators and such, and we watched the Prophet of the Restoration. It was awesome, obviously, until we came outside and everyone had left and we come to find a GIGANTOR nail inside of our tire. Great. It was 8:40pm, and we need to be inside at 9pm. Naturally we are perfectly capable of taking off and putting on the other tire by ourselves. We were doing great, we got all the bolts off, except for one. Sadly, it needed some sort of adapter thingy. Eventually, we called the assistants to the president and they drove on down to help us out, because the manual instructions weren't helping out. Long story short we got into our flat by 10:50, and it was fine and dandy and we woke up nice and early the next morning to drive far away down to Leicester to give some excellent (if I do say so myself) training on being unified. Unity = key to happiness everyone. 

We also got to go on exchange with the sisters in Loughborough, and I took my good friend Sister Powley back to Coventry with me. We had a blast, we ate some Ben & Jerry's, we taught Jessica, played sports, and enjoyed life. I love going on exchange with these amazing sisters. They are the best. 

On Sunday, there was a Europe North broadcast with Elder Holland, and he spoke from Scotland. It was amazing, and his testimony is so powerful. It is such an honor to be a missionary of the Lord, and I am so grateful that I get to serve the people here in Coventry. 

Thanks for everything peoples, you are amazing!

Love,

Sister Slack

Me & President Rasmussen (MLC this week)

Professional

I can fit inside the car boot

Ice cream

We cut my hair yesterday.. Just a trim. OH, sister thomson has never cut hair before, but it worked out alright :) 

Week 50: JOYce to the world!

HEY everyone! 

This week is gonna be short and sweet because we don't have too much time and we still have to buy food for the week. Why is it short? In summary, we took a 3 hour road trip to take a 1 hour test to drive in England and get another license. Yeah it was exciting. 

HIGHLIGHTS:

I didn't get transferred! Sister Thomson and I are still together :) 

I passed my driving test! 

Joyce got baptised! Wait, let me back up. 

Our investigator Joyce got back from Australia this week. Before she left we went over the interview questions with her and she had some concerns about Joseph Smith and about a modern day prophet. We did our best to overcome her concerns before she left, but all we could do was pray that things would work out. When she came back we were able to meet with her, and we talked about her baptismal date. She responded "yes, it's on Sunday, right?" The only problem was.. it was planned for Saturday and we had already had everything worked out. We told her that, and she had scheduled to go out of town all day Saturday, but to return Sunday. Before we got all crazy on arranging things, we went back over the questions to see if she still had concerns. She aced everything. It was amazing. We walked out of there floating on air, and we had then moved her baptism for Friday at 6pm. 

Needless to say, the next few days preparing for everything must have looked like 2 mad Americans running around constantly on the phone with tissues in their hands because of the colds we have. Eventually, on Friday night, it was 6 pm and the member of the bishopric wasn't there yet, and neither was Joyce. She had apparently missed the bus, and then got off at the wrong stop, but eventually, around 6:40, there was an awesome baptismal service with lots of members there and the spirit was amazing.

We also got to go to a baptism for an 8 year old named Aniyah. She is part of the Randhawa family who we have been seeing a lot (they are all members of the church). It was so cool, so many people there, and we got invited over to a couple homes for dinner. Two of my favourite things involved: baptisms, and free food! 

Pretty much things are amazing here and we are pumped up for another transfer together in Coventry :) 

That's it for now! Oh, and our ipads are operational now!

Love,

Sister Slack

 Comp picture on the ipad

Joyce got baptised face!

saying bye for transfers

El Baptismo

and some cool cars here for the motofest