Week 37: Coventry is my Kingdom

Greetings from Coventry. Yes I am still alive and well, yes it is still pretty cold, and yes I ate a lot of chocolate this week. I mean, you are only in England once. #YOEO

This week was crazy and incredible. As usual. So we'll start with last week. We received a text from our investigator friend Grace telling us that she was a little drunk and that she didn't want to learn about the gospel anymore. Naturally, we were devastated. We had become good pals and enjoyed many love shakes together. We waited a while to respond, and when we did we asked if we could meet with her to talk about it. Thankfully, she said yes. We met up with her and were able to talk about what happened, and it turns out she didn't even remember sending the text (she had a little too crazy of a weekend). She felt so horrible about sending that message, that two days before we met with her, she said a prayer hoping we would forgive her. Seeing as she didn't believe in God, this was huge. After she was done praying she just felt so strongly that everything would be ok. She knew things would go alright-and they did! Grace is back on track. We showed her the video called Because of Him, and she loved it and decided to work towards being baptized. She's so awesome. 

Also, every day this week we have been able to see Candy. She is progressing so well! She just takes everything to heart and has felt the truth that this is Jesus Christ's church. In meeting with her this past week, we felt strongly that we should move her baptismal date a week earlier. When we asked her about it, she felt so honored! It was adorable. She will be baptized this Saturday (March 7). We told her she could invite people to church, and she brought two of them to church with her this week. During sacrament meeting she asked me "What's a mission?" and I explained that it is what I'm doing and when people share the gospel. She then asked "So, how do I become a missionary?" WOW she's not even a member of the church yet and she wants to spread the gospel like wildfire. 

On Thursday we had dinner with the Basset family. They have 3 kids- ages 11, 8, and 5. While we were eating, they were all teasing each other about having boyfriends and girlfriends. The youngest boy (5 years old) said to his 8 year old brother "You have lots of girlfriends!" The 8 year old responded with "Well if he (pointing to the 5 year old) has any more girlfriends he'll be known as the next King Henry VIII!" Yup. Pretty smart kids.

We also got to go on exchange this week with the sisters from Demontfort. Sister Monnapula came to Coventry with me, and we had a blast. She is from South Africa, and she has a powerful testimony. While we were outside finding people, we stopped this one lady who told us "Well I would meet with you, but I live in Leicester (the next city over)" And Sister Monnapula told her that's where she lives. The lady asked what part of Leicester, and we told her that Sister Monnapula lives in Demontfort. The lady answered with "Oh, really? That's where I live!" Miracles people. We got her information and they are going to see her this week. 

For those of you that know me well, you know that burping has never been a problem for me - to put it lightly. We had dinner at a members home with Candy. While we were sitting on the couch next to each other, I could feel a burp coming on. I couldn't hold it down, and so a tiny little sound came out of my mouth. Candy was so surprised,and then we both just started to laugh. Then, about 5 minutes later, I hear a tiny little sound come out of her mouth! She just burped! We decided not to tell the other people in the room what happened, so they were pretty confused. But hey, bonding moments. 

That's pretty much it for this last week! Keep crackalackin everyone. 

Much Love,

Sister Slack

 Exchange last week with the Loughborough sisters

Our friend failed his driving test, so we left some gifts

 The marathon on Sunday

 Exchange with demontfort! Left to right- Me, Sister Urbani, Sister Weisner, Sister Monnapula

Crazy half the district pic

 Mustaches on the way to zone conference last week

 More mustaches

Week 36: Pretty much I love being a missionary!

Well well well. This week has been full of great things, as always. Yes, there were more love shakes eaten, the greatest milkshakes in all of Coventry. Of course, we got to work with some incredible people as well.

So, as we are lucky enough to have a car, my companion Sister Urbani would have to learn to drive it, right? She had her first driving lesson for an hour on Monday, and I think I only thought I was going to die 3 times. Not too bad for her first time driving around on the road! I said many silent prayers, and we survived. It's probably how my parents felt when teaching me how to drive, but maybe not because I am their favourite daughter. 

The next day we went on exchange with the sisters in Loughborough. So we swapped and I brought Sister Ronspies back to Coventry with me! It was a lot of fun, she's awesome. We found some pretty cool people, including a 6 ft 6 Nigerian man named Tony who had totally heard of BYU before! It was exciting. We even got love shakes together (see picture below). 

This week we had zone conference, where we had 3 of the zones get together to meet with President. It was AMAZING. President Rasmussen is so inspired. He focused on how we use our time effectively. How that doesn't mean we go outside and work more hours, but that we use those hours the way God wants us to. He also spoke about Joseph Smith, and testified of how he really did see God and Jesus Christ. As he was speaking, the spirit was so strong. It wasn't the fact that the words he used were super eloquent or fancy, but the fact that he knew with all of his heart that it was true. The spirit then reminded me of my own testimony that I had of the restoration of Jesus Christ's gospel. Plus, I got to see so many of my missionary friends that day! It was so exciting to see friends from the MTC and past areas. Missionaries love a good get together. 

So for a few days in the week I hadn't been feeling very well. I had woken up a few days in a row with a sore throat and a stuffed nose, and by Friday I was just feeling terrible. I decided to ask the Elders for a blessing. They came over, and as they spoke I didn't feel instantly better physically, but mentally I felt healed. I had been having a rough time staying positive this week, and it was the little extra boost that I needed. The priesthood power that Joseph Smith restored to the earth is real, and it is here to help God's children. It is amazing how God is involved in the small details of our lives, and of how He wants to take care of each of us all the time. His power isn't something I will ever understand, but it is something that I have felt over and over and I know that it is real. 

Later that day, we were in town and decided to take lunch. Because we were in town, we talked about staying to eat there. However, I hadn't been feeling so well, I wanted to go home for it. We decided going home was probably smart. On our way back to the car, we saw in front of us one of our investigators that we had lost contact with for over two weeks. We had previously stopped by many times, and she wouldn't open the door or answer her phone. She ran towards us and was so excited to see us! We talked with her, and she explained her situation, and she told us to come over to her home on Monday. It really was a miracle to be able to see her. We had been praying so hard to understand when we should try and contact her, to know what was going on, or if we should just move on. God answers prayers. I guess He needed me to be sick for that moment to be able to go that direction.

Pretty much I love being a missionary! We also met a new girl named Candy. She is from China, and is Christian. She just loves the feelings she has towards Him and loves to pray. We were able to see her for 3 days in a row last week, which is a lot for a student busy with studies. She loved church, even though she fell asleep in Relief Society haha. We get to work with some amazing people!!

That's about it for this week. Until next time!

Much love,

Sister Slack

Sunglasses with Sister Urbani

and some more sunglasses

 Love Shakes with Sister Ronspies

Outside the flat

Elder Gibbs and Elder Ashcraft--both friends from Swansea!

 Sister Thomson, Sister Caffrey, and I (MTC pals)

Sister Powley and I at Zone Conference