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!

62: Back to Biking

It's Monday again!

Well, in the beginning of the week I was in Nottingham, and things were getting crazy. Sister Miller and I got to help a member move, but the people who were supposed to move all of her stuff bailed. Being the super hero missionaries we are, we drove to the rescue and moved everything out of her house! Wow. People have a lot of stuff when you go through all of it. I think the scariest part of it was when we moved the table cloth, and this nasty earwig beetle thing was crawling around, and the member just SMASHED it with her hand! We found some nice big spiders as well. 

Wednesday rolled along, and all my stuff was packed up and ready to go (lots of moving this week). I hopped in the car for the last time, and we drove to the mission home! Sister Miller dropped me off, and I went inside the church nearby and we all awaited for our new greenies to arrive (did I mention that I'm training?). Here is a little bit of how things went:

I arrive, go inside, surrounded by pizza I cannot eat. Talk to other missionaries, drink some water, talk some more, and eventually somehow we had a Britain's got talent thing going on, where everyone performed for us at our request. Then, someone brought me a salad (how nice), and then we waited some more... and FINALLY we get called outside to see all of the new missionaries. There are 26 of them! 98% of them are all from Utah. One of the sisters is from New Zealand. A thought popped into my head "hey, she should be my companion". 

Long story short, Sister Grant is my new companion! She is from Hamilton, New Zealand, and she is amazing. She has been a real champ biking around and figuring out Nuneaton with me. The people here are a little interesting, I've noticed. One evening we were biking home and I saw this nice old lady, and I decided to stop and talk to her. I jump off my bike, say hello, and the lady greets me. Suddenly, she jumps towards the street and starts screaming at us and swearing and tries to flag down a car... so we biked away. All we wanted was to share a happy message!

Our flat also happens to be right next to a pub, things got interesting Saturday evening as we were getting ready for bed around 10pm. Some people outside were fighting over who should drive home, and the music was blasting from the doors of the place. Thankfully we have a fan, so most of the noise was flushed out by that. What a wonderful place to live!

On a more spiritual note, we did see some cool miracles. We were out finding late Friday night, and there was literally NO ONE outside to talk to. We decided to head towards this park, and there was a group of girls sitting down in the grass. So, since no one else was around, we went up to them. They had a couple of bottles of alcohol around (great) and none of them looked happy. Two of the three ignored us, but one of them gave us her number and set up a return appointment! You never know who is willing to listen. After we met them, we also met another group of really nice girls who all want to see us again. 

I love Nuneaton. The ward members are amazing, and I can already tell that they care so much about the missionaries. Another reason I love them? They have gluten free sacrament bread! MIRACLE. And so many people in the ward are gluten free. I think I'll fit right in here. Also, earlier in my mission I gave my bike (which I got for free from a member) to another sister who needed it. Coming here was stressful because I had no idea what we'd do to get around. Turns out that the stake bought bikes for the sisters living in Nuneaton, and neither of us need to buy bikes. God takes care of His children. ALWAYS. 

Miracles are waiting for us in Nuneaton, and I know that there is a jackpot waiting around the corner. People are prepared, but we just need to find them. 

I love all of you, have an amazing week, and keep it real :) 

Love,

Sister Slack

We love Nuneaton!

And the bike got us dirty...

An investigator has an African land snail!

Me and Sister Grant with the African land snail