Week 74: Find a penny and pick it up

Hey world!

It has been a wonderful week. Transfers happened this week, and Sister
Grant and I were separated, and I have been sent off to Derby! I am
now with Sister Nielsen, she has been on he mission only for 6 weeks
and she is a fireball! We already get along great and are having fun.
We are so unified that we already say the same things at the same time
haha. She is from Orem, Utah and she even went to BYU! My
expectations? We are going to dominate Derby.

Before I left Nuneaton, Sister Grant and I got to teach a guy named
Victor for the first time. He is from Pakistan, and he is Christian!
That is a miracle itself, and we got to teach him the restoration. At
the end of the lesson he told us "if I study this and I know it is
true, I will do all I can to follow it." He has so much faith, and it
was a nice reminder that we do need to be fully committed, not just
partially. 

Sister Grant and I also tried to make gluten free cookies that we
could give to people, and I learned that baking was not my strong
point.. They smelled nice, and they looked like cookies, but that's
about it. They tasted weird and fell apart. In the end it turned out
that we had made about 30+ cookies, and that was only half the
batter... When I got transferred I just left them for Sister Grant to
enjoy :)

In Derby we got to do some finding, and one day we met a ginger guy
pushing a bike. I stopped him and he said "whoa, you scared me, I was
watching to see if that lad was going to pick up that penny, because
find a penny pick it up, and all day you'll have good luck! And if he
didn't get it, I wanted to pick it up." We eventually moved up so he
could pick up the penny, and he was happy...a little too happy. Turns
out he had been smoking some weed and been wandering around. He was a
nice guy though, and I'm pretty sure he told us he belonged to his own
religion he made up on the spot.

Saturday, we had the incredible opportunity to meet Elder Ballard.
Yup, the apostle. It was amazing, I even got to ask him a question.
I'd tell you all about it, but alas the time has run short again. Next
time I'll share! Know that the spirit in the room was incredible, and
that Jesus Christ's church definitely is on the earth.

Love,
Sister Slack

(Comment from Sister Slack's mom: Sister Slack (Lara) didn't tell me who was in this picture. Sister Slack is wearing glasses and Sister Grant is on the far right- I will update when I know their names)

Week 50: JOYce to the world!

HEY everyone! 

This week is gonna be short and sweet because we don't have too much time and we still have to buy food for the week. Why is it short? In summary, we took a 3 hour road trip to take a 1 hour test to drive in England and get another license. Yeah it was exciting. 

HIGHLIGHTS:

I didn't get transferred! Sister Thomson and I are still together :) 

I passed my driving test! 

Joyce got baptised! Wait, let me back up. 

Our investigator Joyce got back from Australia this week. Before she left we went over the interview questions with her and she had some concerns about Joseph Smith and about a modern day prophet. We did our best to overcome her concerns before she left, but all we could do was pray that things would work out. When she came back we were able to meet with her, and we talked about her baptismal date. She responded "yes, it's on Sunday, right?" The only problem was.. it was planned for Saturday and we had already had everything worked out. We told her that, and she had scheduled to go out of town all day Saturday, but to return Sunday. Before we got all crazy on arranging things, we went back over the questions to see if she still had concerns. She aced everything. It was amazing. We walked out of there floating on air, and we had then moved her baptism for Friday at 6pm. 

Needless to say, the next few days preparing for everything must have looked like 2 mad Americans running around constantly on the phone with tissues in their hands because of the colds we have. Eventually, on Friday night, it was 6 pm and the member of the bishopric wasn't there yet, and neither was Joyce. She had apparently missed the bus, and then got off at the wrong stop, but eventually, around 6:40, there was an awesome baptismal service with lots of members there and the spirit was amazing.

We also got to go to a baptism for an 8 year old named Aniyah. She is part of the Randhawa family who we have been seeing a lot (they are all members of the church). It was so cool, so many people there, and we got invited over to a couple homes for dinner. Two of my favourite things involved: baptisms, and free food! 

Pretty much things are amazing here and we are pumped up for another transfer together in Coventry :) 

That's it for now! Oh, and our ipads are operational now!

Love,

Sister Slack

 Comp picture on the ipad

Joyce got baptised face!

saying bye for transfers

El Baptismo

and some cool cars here for the motofest

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!

Week 39: "Let me go into my library.."

Hello everyone! Here we are, sitting at the computer again. Last week was full of exciting moments, and even some sunshine! I was so excited for spring until this morning it started to hail.. I think this country is a bit confused about what season it is. But, I am grateful to have a nice warm coat and some gloves to keep me toasty while the sky is getting fixed.

This week was transfers, and SURPRISE! I get to stay in Coventry with Sister Urbani. It's not really a surprise, but hey those calls are never 100% predictable. Since this is Sister Urbani's last transfer, we are planning on working the hardest we ever have. So I am pretty excited for the transfer. Since we knew people were leaving, we all went to the transport museum last Monday and checked out some nice bikes and cars. Turns out the museum is undergoing some major renovations, so all we got to see was like a room full of bikes, and 2 rooms of cars. Good thing it was free! 

We also had a dinner appointment with the Russel family this week, and they are a fun and funky bunch. We were talking about mission stories, and they started talking about how one of their friends got shot in the leg on their mission. After that, it was nonstop fake shooting and killing from the kids. I don't think I've ever been shot more in my life, except for maybe the one and only time when I played call of duty. Of course, the evening wasn't complete until one of the children sprayed chocolate sauce all over the place after claiming "I don't even like chocolate!" Pretty exciting.

While we were teaching one of our investigators, Uche, this week we somehow came to the topic of alcohol. We explained that we didn't drink it, one of the reasons being that it is bad for you, and then he responded with "HAH, you are wrong, let me counter you with sources. Let me go into my library." He then puts his finger to his head, and I asked him if the library was in his mind. Where he said "Yes, a library in my head." Alright.. well he was unable to find his sources because his library "wasn't working". Too bad, really. I was looking forward to seeing how he worked with his mind powered library.

This week we were feeling pretty bold, so we had many experiences and miracles come from that. Specifically, one day we were with an investigator named Villa where he told us he would only come to church if he flipped a coin.  Heads-he would come, and tails he wouldn't. While he was flipping the coin, I decided that this was not ok. Leaving church and eternal salvation to a coin toss? I don't think so. So while the coin was flipping I grabbed it and told him that coming to church was too important to leave to chance, and that the only way to find out about God would be to come. Then we invited him again to church, and he immediately said yes! Sadly he didn't actually come to church on Sunday, because he got an email telling him that he had to go work or something.. but he gave us his Chinese word that he'd be there next week. So I'll keep you guys posted. 

We also had an amazing lesson with our friend Kristina. She has been meeting with missionaries for over a year, but has had a hard time setting a day to be baptised on. We brought two brethren with us, one being the stake patriarch (a leader in the church). We sat down, and began talking just about life in general, and then she starts to tell us about a dream that she had. We asked her what she thought it meant, and she said we've been talking about baptism for a while now, but I think it has something to do with that. YES. Then, Patriarch Peedle went on to tell her his conversion story, and the spirit we felt there was amazing. After he bore his testimony to her, we invited her to be baptised on a specific day, and she accepted. Miracles are real people.

Anyway, that's pretty much it for now, but keep on keeping it real!

Love,

Sister Slack

 transport museum

 BIKES

 A carrrr

More love shakes

Seeing Candy and the Elders

Transfers

 The Russels (Minus bro Russel)

District pic