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 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!