Week 73: Mud and Service

Hey people I love!

This week has been full of adventure. It was one of those weeks where everything out of the ordinary happened. To start, it was a week full of rain. You're probably thinking "that's normal for England". That's probably true, but it finally hit the part of autumn where now it rains every day. This means there is a lot more mud on the roads, and that bike paths turn into little streams. Sister Grant and I didn't have mud guards on our bikes up to this point, and we figured we'd be fine and save ourselves £3.50. This attitude worked out until Thursday, when the heavens opened and water would not stop. We went to an area to stop by a recent convert and a few members. I looked at the map and noticed that there was a lovely bike path that seemed to take us directly to our next destination!

Great idea, right? Wrong. That bike path was literally all mud. We could only bike a few feet, and I turned around and asked "Sister Grant, should we just take the long way?" And she said, "nah." So we trudged on in the mud, and it turns out the path got smaller and smaller until it was literally just a line of mud surrounded by spiky plants, and it eventually led to a farm. It was good fun. The next day we went out and bought mud guards. 

We had the opportunity to do lots of service this week. We stopped by a less active we'd never met before, and she accepted our offer to come back and help her out! Her name is Jannette. We helped her clean her front room and fold all of her family's laundry. After we left from cleaning her house, we felt a bit awkward and weren't sure why. Later that same day we helped out a lovely less active clean all the mold off of her walls! Her name is Cherise. We destroyed the mold with lots of bleach, but it looked and felt soo much better after we had finished the job. After this service project, we felt happy and like we had done some good in the Nuneaton world!

After we left Cherise's flat, I pondered the difference between helping Jannette and Cherise. Why did we feel weird after Jannette, but not Cherise? I realized then it was because of gratitude. Cherise was so grateful for our help, and she made it known. She was so happy that we had helped her and she definitely felt relieved that we had gotten rid of the mold. Jannette's attitude was a bit different. She seemed slightly annoyed that we were helping, and then when we had to leave she expressed she felt we hadn't done very much. Now I'm not one to look for praise or to expect anything from someone when we help them out, but the difference in feelings was clear. I learned that an attitude of gratitude not only affects our own perspective on life, but also affects the feelings of those around us. I definitely felt like I understood a little bit more about the 10 lepers. We are always happy to help, and both Cherise and Jannette needed it. We were glad that we were able to make a small difference, even if we couldn't see all of the impact.

We got to see Sabrina again this week! She is incredible. We spoke about a little bit of everything, but the spirit was strong in the lesson. She had been reading from the Book of Mormon in random places, and it had just flipped open to Alma 36. This is the chapter where Alma the Younger tells his conversion story, and it really hit home with Sabrina. She was so excited to share with us what she learned and that she really felt it was meant for her. It is so cool to see the hand of God in other people's lives!

It was Bonfire Night on Thursday, and on Friday we got to go to a little bonfire party! Nothing like celebrating the death of Guy Fawkes. There were so many fireworks lit off over the weekend. We would bike home every night in the dark and it would scare us sometimes when these giant explosions would happen right behind us, but we also felt like we were in a movie. 

Darren came back from holiday this week! He is our ginger friend who is learning about the gospel, and he came to church this week. We taught him about the ten commandments. We teach them using hand signs so they are easy to remember, and the 8th commandment is "thou shalt not steal". The hand sign shows that they used to chop off your thumbs if you stole stuff in the old days. He said to us "well they can still do that today. I can just send a dog after people!" Watch out world. Darren might get a thumb eating dog.

That's it for now, but I love being a missionary!

Love,

Sister Slack 

Ginger power!

Last Pday we hung out at the Brown's

Walking through fields.. this was the easier bit with not as much mud

Week 71: Family History, we are doing it!

Hello people of the world!

This week has been one crazy adventure. So I'll start of with the awkward moment of the week. Thursday evening we had a dinner appointment at the Bishop's home. We got to their house about 5 minutes early, and their car wasn't in front of their house. "That's weird" I thought, so we decided to make some phone calls for those remaining minutes before we went inside. As we were sitting on a wall, the Bishop pulled up in the drive and then invited us inside. Phew! They didn't forget! I was relieved. So we walked in and sat down, and after about 5 minutes of awkward small talk they come in asking "So, what brings you here today?" Turns out they actually thought they were having us over the next week for dinner, not that night... and they didn't have any food for us! Awkward.. SO we biked out of there quickly to our flat to get some nice food :) 

This week we had a Nuneaton change in history! Sister Grant and I got a stand set up in the market on Wednesday for family history. The only bad side of it was that we had to get there by 8am, so we had to leave the flat by 7:30 to get there. We were good sports and biked in the rain, and got there and talked to people for the next 6 hours. It was awesome! I don't think I've ever gotten so many people to stop and talk to us in Nuneaton. It was so fun to connect to families, and to share with others about mine, and to have them connect it back to our Heavenly Father. As the stake president said, "Discover yourself, discover your family, and then discover the Father and the Son." We met some pretty interesting people, even some people who claim they "don't believe in families" but we still were nice to them and gave them some cards haha. 

Later that same day, we met with Sabrina. Yes, the miracle from two weeks ago. She is so wonderful. She has had such a rough life, but she realized that God is the only one who can help her, and that He truly does make everything better. She has the cutest 1year old son! She really is looking for ways to improve her life and to have the best life for her family.

We are still working with Kerry. She is so humble, and so teachable. We taught her about keeping the sabbath day holy, and she explained how she is trying so hard to live her life the right way. She is such a good example to us of diligence, and also of overcoming trials. Plus, she just got the cutest puppy named Rio. 7 weeks old, and tiny! He's adorable.

Sunday we got to teach Singing time to all the primary kids :) It was amazing to see the enthusiasm, and also how teachable they are. All of them want to do the right thing, and Sister Grant and I had a blast going through all of the primary songs. Of course we had to bring them candy, so I think we are on the good side of all the children now. 

Side note: Today I found a sweater for £1. And it is amazing. 

I love being here in England. The people are incredible, especially the members. Those that we get to work with really have been prepared by the Lord for great things. I thank my Heavenly Father every day that I get to be here. I am so glad we can have that two way communication with Him.

I love you all, thank you for being the best family and friends I could ask for :) 

Take care,

Sister Slack

Puppy!

missionaries

waiting for a lesson

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!