Week 56: Shottingham

Hello everybody! 

It's been a crazy week, to say the least. SO much has happened, I'll start with transfers. I moved to Nottingham! I've been transferred to the Nottingham 2nd ward, in the Nottingham zone. If any of you can remember about a year ago, I was in Eastwood, which also happens to be in the same stake. In my first transfer I went on exchange to the flat that I now live in. Pretty sweet. 

It was bitter sweet to get transferred. I'd been in Coventry for about 6 months, and Sister Thomson and I became best friends, it was sad to leave the people there. It's always exciting to go somewhere new and to a new ward, and my companion is now Sister Miller. She is from Germany and is so sweet! I'm excited I think we'll do great things together. We have already had some strange bonding moments haha. 

YUP and if you have packages to send, then send them to the mission home. Ask my mom for it she has it (thanks mom!) 

So pretty much it was the best week to transfer into Nottingham. I got here and guess what? They had planned a ward activity to go to the beach! So I got to go to the beach and enjoy the sun and fun because we had loads of people we're working with come. It was so awesome. We all took a coach and it took 2.5 hours to get there, and so on the way down one lady decided to start singing nursery rhymes with everyone. So there is this one kid who is obsessed with star wars, and he announced "I know the whole anthem! Can I sing it??" Go for it kid. So then he starts singing "Dum dum dum da dum da da dum" And that goes on for about two minutes and the lady at the front says "Oh thank you for that." And he shouts immediately "I'M NOT DONE YET!!" And continues faithfully singing his star wars song :) haha it was hilarious. 

We had some cool miracles happen from that beach trip. I was able to teach someone more about the Book of Mormon, and he has never been interested in reading it, and now suddenly he asked me "What chapter is this, can I read it?" And so mini miracle he wants to read the Book of Mormon and start learning more about Jesus Christ. YAY. 

Fun Fact about my area, it's one of the most dangerous places in the mission. Apparently people get stabbed here like once every fortnight, and so we aren't really allowed to work many places after dark. They sometimes call it Shottimgham here :) I always knew my karate skills from when I was like 8 would come in handy one day. But it's great. I love Nottingham. I am excited for everything that will happen! 

Before I moved to Nottingham on Wednesday, I got to say goodbye to a lot of people. It was sad but also really great to see everyone in one day. Our friend Tony even made us African food for lunch, it was delicious! Chicken and rice with loads of random spices. I'm now learning that people often smell like the food they cook, and it all makes sense now. 

Oh, we had a dinner appointment with a lady this week and she wont eat with us unless we eat with our hands. SO I decided to give it a try. We had curry for dinner, and somehow it worked out that I ate the whole meal with my bare right hand. I feel like I deserve a wilderness explorer badge or something. 

We also had a meeting with the mission president on Friday, and it was amazing. He is so inspired. It is incredible to recognize the help Heavenly Father gives him. He taught us all things that are changing the way we do missionary work for the better, and I know that God chooses those He knows are prepared. 

That's about it for now. 

Sorry I don't have many pictures..It's hard to attach them here.

Much love,

Sister Slack

(These pictures from email sent to me- meaning Lara's mom. Sorry there was not any info on what or who is in the pictures. Also, if you would like her address, please message me or FB me and I will be happy to share it).

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 48: "Oh, it was just heavy."

Hey hey hey everyone! What a wonderful week we have had. Miracles galore!

This week one of our favourite people, Grace, took of for holiday. Before she left, she took us out for lunch. It was amazing to talk about her journey with us and getting to know each other! She told me that when we first met and learned that I had come from Swansea, she was willing to go with me everywhere! God definitely is inspired to put us where we need to be in the right time. We also got to show her how to do family history. It was brilliant to see how excited she got and when she found out she could look through Chinese records, she was so excited! She got her temple recommend and plans to go there in the near future. She flies off to China today. 

Recently we have come back in contact with some investigators who have been scarce, and some of them came to church this week! It was amazing to see how the spirit can work on some people. Tony (remember him? We took his watch last week) met up with us again and it turns out life just got crazy last weekend. We gave him his watch back and in the closing prayer of his lesson he said "Father, please help me to wake up on time for church on Sunday, this is really important to me right now, and I need your help." It was so incredible to see his faith in the Lord in helping him wake up. Another one of our investigators, named Costa, turned down a job offer that would require him to work on Saturdays and Sundays so that he could be able to come to church. Who does that? People who have their priorities straight!

We also got to see our wonderful friend Kristina a few times this week. One evening we told her we would have to come later due to a dinner appointment. It was delicious and we were sooo full (as we usually are after eating at members homes) that we just wanted to lie down. We walk into Kristina's house and she says "oh I'll be with you in a minute, I'm cooking." We thought she meant just for herself, but then she asked if I could eat some of it. Oh no. 2 dinners right in a row is never good, so she was kind enough to pack it up for us (phew!). We didn't have to explode. We also got to watch some parts of General conference with her, and while we watched Elder Holland's talk from last conference she told us "He uses posh words, but the meaning is so simple." We talked about how she felt the spirit, overall it was amazing. 

We got to see our friend Joyce before she headed to Australia for a week and a half, and she showed us a picture of her holding a foal! Oh man it was the most adorable thing ever. When we asked her how it was, she said "Oh, it was just heavy." There ya go everyone. 

This week we had exchanges with the lovely sisters in Nuneaton! I got to go with Sister Mousley in Nuneaton, and it was pretty awesome. When we were walking to an appointment I saw this really tall guy, and I said to her "This guy needs the gospel." So here is how it went... we followed the guy for two minutes walking behind him just out of reach (his legs are long, ok) and then finally we run a little bit and catch up and say "Oh hey! We just feel like we should stop you." He was way nice and wasn't freaked out! So that's good. He was glad we stopped him, turns out he has been praying for God to guide him to a church. BOOM. We got his number and stuff, it was pretty chill. Miracle.

Everything is awesome over here in England!!

Love you all, have  an amazing week and keep on keeping on.

Love,

Sister Slack

 Last meal with Grace

 Teaching Kelly

teaching Joyce with Sister Randhawa

Exchange with Sister Mousley and Sister Scherf

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!