Week 69: MIRACLES on MIRACLES

Welcome to the weekly update with Sister Slack! Surprise, it's Monday. Every week I tell myself that I'll be better at thinking about what I want to put in an email, but every week my mind goes totally blank, so we'll see how this works out. 

Last Monday I crashed on my bike for the very first time on my mission. I wish I could say it was epic, but really what happened was it had been raining all morning and I tried to go up the curb and my tire slipped... and I was thrown onto the road. Luckily, I was unharmed! I do have a sweet bruise on the back of my leg, but that's it. Turns out that this was just the beginning to all of our bike problems in the week. Tuesday we made the mistake of lending our bikes to the elders, and they came back and Sister Grant's back tire was messed up, and my front tire was flat. Poor kids had to walk them back to the church for us, but hey! No one got hurt. We have an extra bike at the flat, and we managed to bring the wheel down to try and fix it, but really all that happened was that our wrench broke. Exciting stuff. 

This week Coventry got to see the return of Sister Slack! Yes, I got to go on exchange back to my old area. I was with Sister Sorensen, and it was kinda funny because when I was in Coventry, she came there with me on exchange. We got to run around like mad women (literally.. we were 10 minutes late and needed to get there!) and teach lots of people and I got to see some old friends. We got to see Uche, and I reminded him that reading the Book of Mormon is the best thing he can do! I also got to see Grace (remember Grace? Baptised back in may). She has come back from China and she is amazing!!! We got to sit down with her and talk about how she's been applying the gospel. As we were speaking, I was just so filled with love for all of the people I've taught. It is such a blessing that we get to see the gospel change lives. She also gave us chocolate, so that's always nice. 

(Back to Nuneaton) We also got to see the less active named Catherine again, and she is just amazing. She read 5 chapters of the Book of Mormon and had marked them. She is so sweet, and she is just taking all the right steps to come back to church. Kerry (another less active) came to church again this week! She is so brave and she is doing so good. She loves learning about the gospel and being reminded of everything she was taught as a kid. She has decided she wants to give up smoking, and wants to help her family have the best life possible. The members just love seeing her at church! Also, our ginger (ginger power!) friend we are teaching came to church! His name is Darren. He takes a while to absorb the things we teach, but he definitely is determined to learn. He has had a rough life, but he is so full of hope. 

The biggest miracle of the week happened on Sunday. The whole Coventry zone was fasting this last sunday for us all to be able to see success. It seems things have been rough over the last few weeks, and this definitely was there to boost us up. I was pondering all day of who we could teach or focus on to help them see the gospel in their lives. Really, we are constantly looking for new people to teach. We have seemed to have quite a few people meet with us once, but just never show up again. After church we went into town and started talking to people, and literally everyone rejected us until we met this nice guy named Kyle. Turns out his best friend's brother is a Mormon, and they are both interested to learn what it's all about! Yay! But things get better, Sister Brown (a member) later picked us up for a dinner appointment and it was lovely, and then dropped us off at our flat. We were about to walk inside when the lady that lives below us came up to us and asked "What is it that you do?" She explained that she had once seen the inside of our flat due to water leaking into hers, and she saw all of the copies of the Book of Mormon. She has been wondering for ages. We explained that we were missionaries and that we teach people about God and Jesus Christ all the time. She then told us, "I knew you were. I really need you in my life right now." Pretty sure my heart stopped. With tears in her eyes she told us she has had a crazy past, and that about a year ago she cleaned up her life and found God. She explained that she really needs good people in her life, and a good church. Her name is Sabrina.

God literally dropped her into our laps. We set up a time to come and see her this week, and we are so excited. As we walked into our flat, Sister Grant and I were so grateful that we had fasted that day, and that God loves each one of His children so much! I know that there is nothing better in the world than our own personal relationship with God, and seeing it being built in other peoples lives.

I hope you all enjoy the sunshine and rain this week! I know I will :) 

Much love,

Sister Slack

Grace!

"Cheeeeese"!

Me and Sister Sorensen

Chili Pepper that caused the red face....HOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

Week 54: I can't think of a subject right now

HEY everyone! So this week was awesome. Brilliant. Fabulous. Fantastic. All of that. Pretty much amazing because I made Gluten free cupcakes!!! YAY! And it was also amazing because of some other reasons.

 First things first, our investigator Jessica got BAPTISED. She is amazing, I can't even describe how awesome she is. She's hilarious, down to earth, and she's even British. Teaching her for the last 3 weeks has been amazing, and she has progressed so fast. She always checked with God as to what He wanted for her, and it led her to be baptised. It was definitely one great moment of my mission to see her go into the font. Everything was flawless. We love Jessica. And everyone else does too :)

MIRACLE STORY pay attention. Sooo Sister Thomson and I have been stopping by some members and dropping off notes to them. We stopped by this younger couple and left a note (they were not home. sad day) and then decided to try this one house I thought a recent convert lived in. So we knock the door, and BOOM she was there! Her name is Jolene. She was baptised about a year ago in a place called Newcastle. She told us as we introduced ourselves "I actually really wanted to come back to church this week, I just feel it and I don't know why." Amazing. BUT it doesn't end there! She came to church the next day and brought a friend named Michael, he's pretty cool. During it she felt the spirit so strong, and asked us "Do you think Heavenly Father sent you to my door?" The answer is YES.

 After church we had a munch and mingle (where people bring food and then we chow after church) and I'm talking to Jolene and she is looking to see if her friend Michael is ok. "He's over there talking to Elder Tsai," I told her. She immediately looks at me "Tsai??" Turns out Elder Tsai's brother served in Newcastle a year ago and baptised Jolene! It was amazing to see all of the connections fall into place. I still can't get over this.. it's so crazy.

2 Exchanges this week! First with Sister Crowley in Glenfield, and it was awesome. We taught so many people with the cutest babies. Too bad missionaries aren't able to hold them.. Sigh.. It's ok.

Later, Sister Sorensen from De Montfort came to Coventry with me, and she is so amazing! Wow she just loves missionary work. We had a really great time together. I love getting to know all of the sisters, it's definitely been one of my favourite parts of the last few transfers.  ANNND yup that's the big moments.

Oh, and we taught a guy named Obinna who gave us about a 10 minute lecture on modesty. It was interesting, seeing as he is a 25 year old guy studying at university telling us what dress is appropriate or not. Well pal, good news, missionaries always dress appropriately! Yay! +1 us. 

Overall, I love missionary work. Things are amazing. Sister Thomson and I love each other, and it's a blast in Coventry. We get a new mission president next week, so that will be interesting but awesome to see what happens. 

I love you all!
-Sister Slack

CUPCAKES

Jessica got Baptised!

 Exchange with De Montfort!

And our friend Tony! He's 6 foot 6 and pro at playing basketball. 

FHE last monday

More of Jessica

Jessica got Baaaaaaptiiiiiiiiiiised! In case you just skipped the email and went to the pictures

Week 47: Happy post mothers day!

Hello Everyone! 

Well, first things first, happy late mothers day, mom! We had the opportunity to skype our families yesterday for mothers day, and it was amazing. Families are the best thing in this world. I found out as well that my lovely brother Stockton got his mission call to Argentina, the Buenos Aires South mission. Being a missionary is the best thing in the world!

Chicken feet

This week we had lots of meetings again, but also lots of miracles. On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to make (more like watch) chinese food with Candy and her flat mate, Muse. It was so fun to see everything they do to prepare it all. We saw this pot of something that looked like claws, and we asked what it was and Candy told us "Chicken feet". It had honestly never crossed my mind that chicken feet had any meat on them or we edible or anything.. but they didn't taste too bad. The only problem was that you could see the little toe nails of the chicken foot, and so I was only able to manage 2 of them. Afterwards I felt a little sick because I kept thinking about it, but everything else we had was pretty tasty. So it is all good. After we had made the food, we sat down and started to talk to Muse about her beliefs. It turns out that when she traveled to singapore, her friends took her to church. Ever since she had gone, she went and bought a bible and has had so many questions about it, but no one could answer them. (Can you feel how excited we were getting? She is gold) We told her about how that is pretty much what we do all day every day. We asked if we could teach her, and she responded with an enthusiastic "Yes!" We are excited to teach her again this week.

We also got to go on exchange with the Glenfield sisters. I got to bring Sister Alexandroia to Coventry. It was so fun, we got to see a lot of people, and we met some incredible people as well. We got to teach our friend Joyce about how the church is organized, and we eventually started talking about baptism again. We asked her how she felt about it, and she said "Actually, I think I am more ready for it now." She is travelling to Australia for a week, but she should be baptised once she comes back. We are so excited. With Sister Alexandroia, we were eating lunch and we had about 20 minutes left before we had to go. I asked her what she wanted to do, and she said "McDonalds." Say no more, we leaped into the car and sped (at the speed limit) on over to MD and got some delicious Mcflurry's. So delicious.

On Saturday, when we exchanged back, Sister Thomson and I were talking to people on our way back to the car to pick up some supplies. We see this family, and we start talking to them. As we are speaking to them, I look across the road and see Tony! He is a guy we've been working with for a bit, but we haven't gotten a hold of him in over a month. We finish talking to the family and get their information, and then I look up and Tony is gone. I think I see him go into Iceland (a grocery store), and so we book it inside after him. We look around for a minute, and then, there he is. Right next to the frozen food section. We walk up to him and he is so surprised to see us, and then he enthusiastically tells us that he really wants to come to church. Here is how it went: "I need to come to church. I need to give you my shoe or something so that I can come and get it from you.. but I need my shoes, it's cold outside." And then Sister Thomson says: "Well we can take  your watch." And he says "OK". So we took his watch. 

The next day we are waiting for people to come to church. Did Tony come to get his watch? nope. We called him later that day only to find out that he left his phone at a friends house, so we had no way to find him. But hey, now we have a real nice and fancy watch on our hands. All we really want though is for people to come to church. 

Being a missionary is the best thing in the world. Yes, we are going full circle. I love knowing that I am doing God's work, and that this church is true. It is amazing to watch people's lives change, and to feel the spirit so much. Sunday after church there was a baptismal service for 2 chinese lads getting baptised. The first guy, poor thing, had to be dunked 6 times before they got it right. The next guy, 1 and done. It was great. Both Grace and Candy were able to speak and bear their testimonies at the service, and it was amazing to hear of how they felt the spirit. I know that everyone that was there was definitely impressed, and we all felt God's love.

That's about it for now. 'Till next time!

Love,

Sister Slack

 Elsa and Anna everyone

Making food with Candy and Muse

Beautiful Coventry

More coventry

Ice cream with Sister Alexandroia

 Everyone walking to Church

and my beautiful family!

Week 43: I don't have money in my pockets!

Hello dear family and friends!

Well once again, it's sort of the beginning of the month. You know what that means? Meetings! Yay. So many meetings. I almost died from meetings. No worries, I made it through it all. 

This week I got to go on exchange with Sister Schwendiman in Peterborough. It was pretty awesome, I don't think we talked to one person who spoke very well at all. Except for the members who fed us a 4 course meal for dinner. That's right 4 course. Too bad I couldn't eat two of them, due to gluten and late notice. 

When we were in Peterborough we were talking to some people on the street and we tried to stop these two guys. They were speaking in a different language, and once we spoke to them, it scared them and so they jumped back, they both put their hands up and one of them shouted "No! I have no money in my pockets, only drugs!" and then they ran away. You never know who you're gonna meet, I guess. Earlier that day a little kid also stabbed one of our bike seats, but that's another story. I guess you could say Peterborough is a little more sketch than Coventry.

I hope everyone has caught up on General Conference, because it was awesome! So awesome, in fact, that we wanted to show a specific talk with our investigator Grace. Grace has been going up and down with her journey through the gospel, from drunk texts sent our way to saying she would never believe in God, and then coming to church every week. Pretty much it's always unexpected. We decided to show her President Utchdorf's talk about grace with her (hah, get it?) because we thought it was super good and answered all her questions. Also because it was her name. 

We took her to the Thompson's home and taught her with a member named Dili. We were actually fasting that day for things to go well in the mission, because bad things have been happening all over the place. We started off by talking about it, and Dili bore a powerful testimony of how it has made such a difference in her life. It was a really great way to invite the spirit. We all got out a piece of paper and wrote down a question we all wanted answered, and we promised her that she would get an answer to it while she listened. She told us "But that's impossible to know!" We turned on the section of General Conference, and it was amazing.  I looked over at her while she was watching it, and she had tears in her eyes. After we turned it off, we sat in silence for a bit, and then I asked her what she thought. She told us "I definitely got an answer to my question, but I will need some time to accept it." We all got some answers to questions and prayers that day.

Fast forward to church yesterday. Grace talked to both me and Sister Urbani about baptism, and she told us "I want to be baptised soon. I know I need to be baptised." So everyone, miracles are real. She should be baptised this weekend if everything goes well. It's amazing. 

Anyway, time to go. OH. Also, next week PDay is moved to tuesday, because transfers are on Monday. So no emails til then :) 

Stay classy,

Sister Slack

 Outside the church

Crazy hair

We went to the park last pday

Pomegranate heads! 

 #becausehelives

 Peterborough cathedral

Sister Schwendiman!

More park

Park park park

Parkour

Week 37: Coventry is my Kingdom

Greetings from Coventry. Yes I am still alive and well, yes it is still pretty cold, and yes I ate a lot of chocolate this week. I mean, you are only in England once. #YOEO

This week was crazy and incredible. As usual. So we'll start with last week. We received a text from our investigator friend Grace telling us that she was a little drunk and that she didn't want to learn about the gospel anymore. Naturally, we were devastated. We had become good pals and enjoyed many love shakes together. We waited a while to respond, and when we did we asked if we could meet with her to talk about it. Thankfully, she said yes. We met up with her and were able to talk about what happened, and it turns out she didn't even remember sending the text (she had a little too crazy of a weekend). She felt so horrible about sending that message, that two days before we met with her, she said a prayer hoping we would forgive her. Seeing as she didn't believe in God, this was huge. After she was done praying she just felt so strongly that everything would be ok. She knew things would go alright-and they did! Grace is back on track. We showed her the video called Because of Him, and she loved it and decided to work towards being baptized. She's so awesome. 

Also, every day this week we have been able to see Candy. She is progressing so well! She just takes everything to heart and has felt the truth that this is Jesus Christ's church. In meeting with her this past week, we felt strongly that we should move her baptismal date a week earlier. When we asked her about it, she felt so honored! It was adorable. She will be baptized this Saturday (March 7). We told her she could invite people to church, and she brought two of them to church with her this week. During sacrament meeting she asked me "What's a mission?" and I explained that it is what I'm doing and when people share the gospel. She then asked "So, how do I become a missionary?" WOW she's not even a member of the church yet and she wants to spread the gospel like wildfire. 

On Thursday we had dinner with the Basset family. They have 3 kids- ages 11, 8, and 5. While we were eating, they were all teasing each other about having boyfriends and girlfriends. The youngest boy (5 years old) said to his 8 year old brother "You have lots of girlfriends!" The 8 year old responded with "Well if he (pointing to the 5 year old) has any more girlfriends he'll be known as the next King Henry VIII!" Yup. Pretty smart kids.

We also got to go on exchange this week with the sisters from Demontfort. Sister Monnapula came to Coventry with me, and we had a blast. She is from South Africa, and she has a powerful testimony. While we were outside finding people, we stopped this one lady who told us "Well I would meet with you, but I live in Leicester (the next city over)" And Sister Monnapula told her that's where she lives. The lady asked what part of Leicester, and we told her that Sister Monnapula lives in Demontfort. The lady answered with "Oh, really? That's where I live!" Miracles people. We got her information and they are going to see her this week. 

For those of you that know me well, you know that burping has never been a problem for me - to put it lightly. We had dinner at a members home with Candy. While we were sitting on the couch next to each other, I could feel a burp coming on. I couldn't hold it down, and so a tiny little sound came out of my mouth. Candy was so surprised,and then we both just started to laugh. Then, about 5 minutes later, I hear a tiny little sound come out of her mouth! She just burped! We decided not to tell the other people in the room what happened, so they were pretty confused. But hey, bonding moments. 

That's pretty much it for this last week! Keep crackalackin everyone. 

Much Love,

Sister Slack

 Exchange last week with the Loughborough sisters

Our friend failed his driving test, so we left some gifts

 The marathon on Sunday

 Exchange with demontfort! Left to right- Me, Sister Urbani, Sister Weisner, Sister Monnapula

Crazy half the district pic

 Mustaches on the way to zone conference last week

 More mustaches

Week 36: Pretty much I love being a missionary!

Well well well. This week has been full of great things, as always. Yes, there were more love shakes eaten, the greatest milkshakes in all of Coventry. Of course, we got to work with some incredible people as well.

So, as we are lucky enough to have a car, my companion Sister Urbani would have to learn to drive it, right? She had her first driving lesson for an hour on Monday, and I think I only thought I was going to die 3 times. Not too bad for her first time driving around on the road! I said many silent prayers, and we survived. It's probably how my parents felt when teaching me how to drive, but maybe not because I am their favourite daughter. 

The next day we went on exchange with the sisters in Loughborough. So we swapped and I brought Sister Ronspies back to Coventry with me! It was a lot of fun, she's awesome. We found some pretty cool people, including a 6 ft 6 Nigerian man named Tony who had totally heard of BYU before! It was exciting. We even got love shakes together (see picture below). 

This week we had zone conference, where we had 3 of the zones get together to meet with President. It was AMAZING. President Rasmussen is so inspired. He focused on how we use our time effectively. How that doesn't mean we go outside and work more hours, but that we use those hours the way God wants us to. He also spoke about Joseph Smith, and testified of how he really did see God and Jesus Christ. As he was speaking, the spirit was so strong. It wasn't the fact that the words he used were super eloquent or fancy, but the fact that he knew with all of his heart that it was true. The spirit then reminded me of my own testimony that I had of the restoration of Jesus Christ's gospel. Plus, I got to see so many of my missionary friends that day! It was so exciting to see friends from the MTC and past areas. Missionaries love a good get together. 

So for a few days in the week I hadn't been feeling very well. I had woken up a few days in a row with a sore throat and a stuffed nose, and by Friday I was just feeling terrible. I decided to ask the Elders for a blessing. They came over, and as they spoke I didn't feel instantly better physically, but mentally I felt healed. I had been having a rough time staying positive this week, and it was the little extra boost that I needed. The priesthood power that Joseph Smith restored to the earth is real, and it is here to help God's children. It is amazing how God is involved in the small details of our lives, and of how He wants to take care of each of us all the time. His power isn't something I will ever understand, but it is something that I have felt over and over and I know that it is real. 

Later that day, we were in town and decided to take lunch. Because we were in town, we talked about staying to eat there. However, I hadn't been feeling so well, I wanted to go home for it. We decided going home was probably smart. On our way back to the car, we saw in front of us one of our investigators that we had lost contact with for over two weeks. We had previously stopped by many times, and she wouldn't open the door or answer her phone. She ran towards us and was so excited to see us! We talked with her, and she explained her situation, and she told us to come over to her home on Monday. It really was a miracle to be able to see her. We had been praying so hard to understand when we should try and contact her, to know what was going on, or if we should just move on. God answers prayers. I guess He needed me to be sick for that moment to be able to go that direction.

Pretty much I love being a missionary! We also met a new girl named Candy. She is from China, and is Christian. She just loves the feelings she has towards Him and loves to pray. We were able to see her for 3 days in a row last week, which is a lot for a student busy with studies. She loved church, even though she fell asleep in Relief Society haha. We get to work with some amazing people!!

That's about it for this week. Until next time!

Much love,

Sister Slack

Sunglasses with Sister Urbani

and some more sunglasses

 Love Shakes with Sister Ronspies

Outside the flat

Elder Gibbs and Elder Ashcraft--both friends from Swansea!

 Sister Thomson, Sister Caffrey, and I (MTC pals)

Sister Powley and I at Zone Conference

Week 35: Bible Bashed

Well well here we are again! This week has definitely been a great one. We've been working hard and I can tell that only good things are headed our way! 

We had the opportunity to go to lunch with one of our investigators this week, and we were talking about his life and he told us that he has gotten into martial arts. We asked if he was training at this place nearby in town, and he said "That place? No way, they couldn't handle me." Sister Urbani and I definitely busted up laughing. Too much to handle haha. 

This week I also got to be on exchange with Sister Rasmusson (From Sweden), who is serving in Peterborough. We came back to Coventry (a 2 hour drive in between)  and got to do some finding. As we were passing this one guy on the street, he stopped us and exclaimed "Sisters! Oh my come here!" He grabbed our arms and saw our name tags, and we saw that he was holding a bible. Then he took his bible and patted us each on the head with it and said "Oh may the Lord bless you and everything.." And a couple of other things we couldn't really understand. Gotta say we were more than a little bit confused. After he went on about how we all must believe in the bible for about 5 minutes and being told to avoid the Book of Mormon, we escaped only to realize that he literally had just Bible bashed us. He had hit us on the heads with a Bible! It was a first for the both of us haha.

I also got to go on Exchange with Sister Orro (from Australia), who is serving in Nuneaton-a town nearby Leicester. We got to go to a lovely dinner appointment with a sister who has traveled to Africa, and she had a didgeridoo in her front room. I had to play it. So, I grabbed it (with permission of course) and I got to play the didgeridoo! It was pretty dang exciting.

For the past two weeks we have been struggling to get people to church for some reason. We decided to really make things happen this week and do everything we could to get people to church. We asked all the members that we saw to pray for certain people to come to church. Specifically Grace and Dianne. Sunday morning comes along, and crossing our fingers and having prayers in our hearts, we made our way to church and both Grace and Dianne were able to come! It was amazing. They both loved it, and I know that especially Dianne felt the spirit. A member asked her if she was going to come again and she responded with "Definitely." It was incredible to see how our prayers were answered 100%. 

I know that the people in Coventry are definitely prepared to accept the gospel. It's amazing to be in a place where there are so many people and so many members and so many missionaries. It's an equation for miracles, and all we have to do is start it off by opening our mouths. 

I love being a missionary!

Keep it real, keep it classy everyone.

Much love,

Sister Slack

 Sunglasses swag

 Family home evening with everyone! Grace is the third one from the left.

Playing the Didgeridoo! 

 Love Shake time with Grace, Dianne, and Sister Orro

We had to ride the bus while the Elders took our car to the mission home.. it was an adventure!

 Exchange with Sister Rasmusson

 Valentines dinner. We put a candle on the table and everything!

Coventry life