Week 77: Follow your heart!

Hey world! Another week has come and gone. This week was incredible for sure. It was one of those weeks where everything seems to go wrong at first, but in the end everything works out for the better.

Tuesday started out stressful. We had a few important lessons scheduled where we needed members to come with us. Of course, it also happened to be the day where no one would answer their phone. I think I literally called about 20 members before someone answered, and they said they were working. I was a little frustrated, but we decided to keep trying. We had a lesson to teach Rhys (turns out that's how you spell his name, it's not Reese hah) where he had read some dodgy stuff online, and we needed someone to come. We also had a lesson to teach to the Joseph family, where we also needed a member. Finally, we were able to get a Member called Melissa to come with us to Rhys last minute. We could not have brought a more perfect person to resolve his concerns. He was worried about being judged for different things, and Melissa had experiences to share for all of his concerns. The Spirit was so strong in the lesson!

Later that day we were about to make the journey to the Joseph family alone, when a member (Sister Booth) texted us back and said she could meet us there. Sister Booth was great at helping us teach the kids. She is a teacher and was able to help the kids focus on what was important. Kieran (he's 12) was unsure about getting baptised. He told us "I don't know.. My heart says yes but my mind says no." His enthusiastic little brother, Luke (he's 8), then shouted "FOLLOW YOUR HEART!! No matter what you do always follow your heart." What a good younger brother! Kieran thought for a second, and then said "yeah. I want to get baptised. I'm going to tell my mom." So he got up from the table and found his mom in the other room to tell her his decision. It was awesome. The Lord always knows who we need and when we need them, sometimes we just need to take a step back and trust things will work out.

I had Pizza Express for the first time this week. It was pretty tasty. One of the wonderful members took us there, and it was not bad. Not the best gluten free pizza I've ever had... I mean, they didn't have pineapple to put on my pizza, but I enjoyed it all the same. One of my favourite signs they had said "no matter what happens, there will
always be pizza."

Sunday was another one of those days. We started the day frantically trying to get people to church. The next few hours would pretty much be us stressing out over how people would get there, and if they were actually coming. Here is how the day went: 7 am- receive late text from a member saying he hasn't heard back from Rhys if he is coming, so he isn't picking him up. 8 am-Rhys texts us that he still wants to come, so we frantically call the member. The member doesn't pick up for the next hour (Rhys lives about half an hour away from the church) 9am- we walk to the library to walk to church with a guy named Christian. 9:15-Christian didn't show up and won't answer calls, so we walk to church without him. 9:20- we are still freaking out about what to do about Rhys. 9:30-the member texts us that he is going to get Rhys and that they will be about an hour late for church (much better than not coming at all! He was a hero) 9:45-A guy named Ghyrmay biked to church and found it all by himself!  9:50- part of the Joseph family arrived to church. 10am- church started.

Then we had a wonderful sacrament meeting, and finally at 11 am Rhys was there. Eye then proceeded to have the best gospel principles class in the history of the WORLD. It was all about faith in Jesus Christ, and it addressed all of Rhys' concerns perfectly. The Spirit was so strong. After church we asked him what he thought about it and he said "it was very uplifting." Wow, that's pretty amazing considering he previously didn't believe in God!

I know God is there and makes things happen just the way they are supposed to. In the end, we had 5 investigators show up to church. That was pretty awesome! We had 4 less actives come as well, and two of them bore their testimonies. People. The gospel is the best thing in the world. I hope you know that, and if you don't, that's ok. Because it's always the for us to find out.

I love being a missionary! I hope you all enjoy this Christmas season.

Much love,
Sister Slack

Ps not many pics because the computer is broken, and I didn't really
use my iPad.

Meeting Elder Holland

Week 14: "I find them quite nice.."

What do you know, it's Monday! Happy Monday!

This last week has been full of good stuff. Full of miracles, and full of happiness.

One of the highlights was when I got to go on exchange! Sister Lambert, a sister trainer leader, got to come hang out with me in Eastwood for about 24 hours. Once she got here, we got to teach our 14 yr old investigator, Wayne. We had planned to teach him the word of wisdom, but when we learned he hadn't really felt like he'd gotten an answer to any of his prayers our plans changed. We went through the process of helping him recognizing the spirit, and ended up with him praying then and there to know if the Book of Mormon is true. In the last few minutes, the spirit was so strong I had to concentrate to not let tears form! After he said his prayer, and we talked about how he felt, it was like a light bulb went on in his mind. He realized that God truly had been answering his prayers! It was definitely a privilege to be there during that lesson.

After the lesson we had dinner at a Scottish member's home. She made us fish pie, and I came to find out that Sister Lambert doesn't like fish.. So being the good person I am, I had to shovel her food onto my plate while the member wasn't looking, and eat ALL of the fish pie! SO MUCH FISH PIE. We had to walk our bikes home after that, because I'm pretty sure I would have thrown up. But it was worth it! It actually did taste nice. Later that night on exchange, we stopped by a recent convert when Sister Lambert asked him how the missionaries found him, or how he found the missionaries. He responded by saying "I find the missionaries quite nice, and definitely helpful. I think they find me as a nutter." Yeah.. not exactly what she asked but hey, he likes the missionaries!

Oh, also on Sunday we had the opportunity to stop by a less active we've been trying to get a hold of for ages! We were talking to her and I asked her if she still read her scriptures and prayed and everything.. to which she told us she had stopped everything. She was still nice though, and gave us nice glasses of water. We talked a bit, and she explained that she left the church because of some things that had happened with some members. Pretty sad story actually. But as Sister Heikki and I talked about it afterwards, we realized that yes, we should be able to rely on leaders of the church, but they are still imperfect beings. There is truly only two beings that we can rely on 100% of the time, and they are God and Jesus Christ. We cannot put our faith in mortal beings, because we will eventually be disappointed. We must make sure that our faith is truly founded on Christ and His doctrine, otherwise we may end up in a place we don't want to be. Anyways, when we left the house we saw a quad (BoM,Bible,Pearl of Great Price, and D&C) sat on a table.. hmmm... we got the vibe that she secretly still reads them :) but who knows. Maybe she just likes the look of a fat leather religious book on her table.

I guess that's it till next week folks. Stay wonderful!

Love,

Sister Slack

PS Shout out to my mom for having a birthday!!! The big 45

The district. Me, Sister Heikki, Elder Hall, Elder Winder

 on our way to zone meeting on the bus

Me & Sister Lambert

And I decided to have a Christmas party.

Week 5: Some stuff you all should read

HELLO EVERYONE

I hope all of you have smiles on your faces because the sun is shining! Even if it's not shining.. Just picture a nice big sun. There you go.

Anyway. This week. Well it flew by! We were so busy this week it was fantastic. We had everything from going to Nottingham, exchanges, painting, service, and teaching lessons to keep us on our toes. Oh. And hot chocolate morning.

So in this ward they do a thing called hot chocolate morning with the relief society, and that day is the day I will always remember as "The day I learned to make the World's Best Hot Chocolate". I'd give all of you the recipe, but let's be honest there are more important things to talk about. But just imagine creamy goodness in your mouth. Mmm.

In this ward I have been so blessed, people feed me, and give me a bike, and stuff. So we rode bikes around a lot this week! On our first adventure out to Jacksdale (30 minute bike) I learned that Eastwood is the hilliest area in the entire mission. Nonstop up and down. Intense. To make the experience even better, I learned that the gear shift was broken. It was definitely one of the most tiring biking experiences ever, but I sang songs to myself to keep it exciting so don't worry.

So this week we were able to serve a family and help them paint a room in their house, it took pretty much half the day. However, now me and Sister Heikki have a reputation as good painters so now everyone is asking us to paint! So we get to do it again on Wednesday. I'm so excited to get to use my art skills inherited from my mom :)

I discovered this week that I love teaching. Teaching people about the gospel is really one of the coolest things. We now have 3 investigators, and they are all next door neighbors (2 sisters who live together, and then their neighbour). Jodie and her sister Tara are girls who love to party, but they like learning about Christ. We taught them how to pray, and it was one of the coolest things ever. They each said a personal prayer at the end of the lesson, and Jodie told us "I just feel so happy, and I don't know why!" THE SPIRIT PEOPLE. It works. It's real. Embrace it. Invite it. Use it.

One thing I've learned so far is that charity is so important. It's important in the ward, in our homes, in our families, in everything. I'd like to thank my home ward for being so loving and supportive. I am so lucky to have grown up with people that love each other! Yesterday we learned that a recent convert has slipped back into the clutches of addiction. At first I was so sad, and I couldn't understand. But then I came to realize how much our Heavenly Father and Brother Jesus Christ love each one of us. God loves this brother enough to still extend him the atonement, even after he promised to never do it again. He loves us enough to bring us up every time we fall, and then pull us up to his side. God doesn't think of us as lower than him, but he wants us to be able to live with Him again, even though we can make mistakes as big as the universe. Man. Isn't the gospel just so cool?!

Anyway, keep it real people.

Love,

Sister Slack

 After painting

Some cool graffiti we found

 Me, Sister Heikki, Sister Vance, Sister Lambert (Right after we all got done with exchange)

Classic "I'm in England" pose

 Sister Heikki and the name tag that looks like a constellation

The day it was so hot and I got sunburned.. HOT. (No worries Mom I'm buying sunscreen)

Chillin on a Bridge