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 49: You can have these... paperweights?

Yo yo yo greetings from Coventry! Gotta say, this week has been jam packed full of fun.

We got to go on exchange with the beautiful sisters in Westcotes,  I got to go with Sister Stewart!  Man I felt like I brought bad luck for them seeing as we spent the first hour and a half trying to fix her bike, but we did learn how to fix a flat and put the tire back on and how to adjust the brakes all by ourselves! We also had to go and ask their 6 year old neighbor for a bike pump, and it  was a miracle that it worked. Pretty exciting. That night we did get to eat some nice sushi though. We also got to teach a young guy named Jim, and he seemed pretty excited to learn about the gospel, so that was cool. Oh. And we got to bike everywhere!!! Have I mentioned that I miss biking? I miss biking. The bike I got to ride was amazing. Riding through the rain, riding up and down hills, oh it was glorious. 

On Wednesday we got a surprise call telling everyone that the rumors could go to rest, and that everyone would be receiving iPad mini's the next day. Wait... what? Yes. The apple product called the iPad mini has entered the England Birmingham mission. What this really meant was that we had to get up early the next day and drive to the mission home to have 2 hours of training on how to set up an ipad, and then set up our own, and then take the rest of the mission's ipads and distribute them to each little band of missionaries throughout the mission. 

Sister Thomson and I took our little stack of iPad's and traveled around to 3 more two hour meetings where we gave the the training of how to use and set up the iPad. It was awesome to be able to go around and teach people about it, but it was a long day full of staring at iPad screens and such. That might sound like a great addition into the mission, except for now everyone has them, and we haven't gotten permission from Salt Lake to use them yet. Essentially, we now have some nice ipad shaped paperweights lying around, because we can't even turn them on until we get the green light from the big cheese. Crazy, right?

Another miracle! We taught our friend Tony about the word of wisdom, and when he learned about not drinking tea he told us "oh dear, I have to go call my mom and tell her about this!" He is so cool. He just absorbs the gospel like a sponge. We also met this lady named Sabine from the Congo. we met her walking to our car for dinner. We stopped and chatted, and at first she wanted to just walk away, but after talking a bit about our families and her family and the role Jesus Christ has in them she became more open. It was amazing to hear her own testimony about Jesus Christ. She eventually felt like she would enjoy having us over, so we set up an appointment with her this week. We are pumped!

 We have had so many miracles happen. I think one of my favorite miracles was on Saturday. We were finding in city center, and it was time for us to head back for an appointment. We kept seeing this guy walking back and forth, and he looked like one of our investigators named Obi, who is from Nigeria. Eventually, I call his name and he looks around and we wave him down and go to talk to him. "Don't you remember us?" we asked, but he said no. Then looking more closely, I realize that it's not Obi. We start talking and it turns out that his name is actually Obi, and he is from Nigeria and he was willing to listen. So we taught him the restoration right there and after we said a prayer he wanted our number. It was awesome. We exchanged information and then he told us "you know, the only reason I stopped today was because this morning I wrote my name and address on something online, and it told me that I would receive a gospel message today. That's the only reason I stopped. Thank you." God definitely puts people in our path that are prepared! Our minds were spinning after that. Good thing his name was actually Obi, otherwise it would have been kinda awkward chasing him down.

OH. Also Sister Thomson and I need your prayers, we got our provisional licenses to learn to drive in the UK, and we have about 3 weeks to pass 2 tests and get our actual UK license. Hooray for studying about driving in a different country.. It'll be great. The only scary thing is that like everyone fails the first couple of times. One lady in the ward failed the test 13 times, so that's encouraging. It can be done! We'll let ya know how it goes :) 

Also, transfers are this week, but we should both be staying (hopefully), so I'll let ya know!

Much love,

Sister Slack

 Exchange with Sister Stewart

We got our provisional licenses! Watch out GB, we're gonna be professional.

Our lovely paperweights (ipads without use)

 District selfie during ipad distribution

car times

 and sometimes we chill on the couch in our pj's

Week 44: Best surprise EVER

Here we are again. Another transfer has come and gone, and Sister Urbani is on her way to London right now and then off to France! Where does that leave me? With a new companion! Here is the story of what happened when I found out what was going on: "Sister Slack you will be getting Sister Thomson as your new companion" 3 seconds of silence, then jumping around with joy and singing some songs about happiness. 

Yeah, I couldn't believe it! Sister Thomson and I get to serve together in Coventry now. We were in the MTC together 10 months ago, and had a few adventures together over in Wales, and now it is just going to be a party every day together. We are so excited to go to work and see miracles happen all the time. Yup. Best surprise EVER. 

But what else happened this week? ON Tuesday I headed over to De Montfort for exchange with Sister Monnapula, and it was so fun. We were walking down the street talking to some people, and every person we met so far had said "This is too personal." or "Not a chance." It was going kinda rough, when suddenly we run into this girl named Chloe. Turns out she had met missionaries before on the street, and she had given them her number but they never called her. She really wanted to meet with them and now they have an appointment for this week. MIRACLE. It was awesome. 

Also, yet another week of working with Grace has past. As we keep talking with her about baptism, she is slowly but surely getting over her fears about it and will take the step eventually. She knows that it is right, but she is so afraid of making a promise. But, on the bright side we have an amazing girl we are working with named Joyce. She is christian, and she came to church for the first time this last week. We talked about what her favorite part of church was, and she explained how she loved applying the scriptures to herself. That's what we all need to do in life, apply the things we learn. That's really the whole reason we have the scriptures, is to see what we can change in our own lives. 

Anyway, we've gotta get going. But just know that this week is going to be amazing! 

Love you all,

Sister Slack

 Sister Monnapula and I on exchange

The district

Trio Exchange with Sister Stone and Sister Pickett

Sister Thomson and I!