I am kind of sad to say good bye to Kelowna especially since I have only been here for 7 weeks. It has been great here and even though its getting warm I have really loved it!

Well this week has been crazy mostly with what has happened the last few days. Saturday was transfer call day and Elder Frye and I went through the whole day with out getting a call and we even finished nightly planning at 9:30 and still had not gotten a call and while we were talking about how we thought that we where going to stay and that it was too late to get a call but while we were talking we got a call from the Assistants and they told Elder Frye that he was staying and his new companion was Elder Kohl and that I was getting transferred to Victoria 1st ward and my new companion is Elder Ringheim and I will be the District Leader there. Elder Ringheim is from Denmark and has been out for 3 months. 

  So that was pretty crazy especially since I have only been here for 1 transfer. Most of the members thought that if anyone left is would be Elder Frye so everyone was pretty surprised to hear that I was leaving. It should be nice because Kelowna has been getting pretty warm, not as warm as Mesquite but still warm and it's not the funnest to walk all day in but I have heard that Victoria is really nice because it is on Vancouver Island and is right next to the ocean that it is way cooler than the Oakanagan so it should be nice!

  This week we have been doing a lot of less active work, actually since I got to Kelowna we have been doing a lot of less active work. We have been meeting with a lady named Donna and she has been coming to church consistently for the last little while like 4 months but has been struggling with some addictions but she has been clean for almost 2 months and had a relaps two weeks ago with smoking but it has been almost a week and a half now since that and she is doing really good! She has been preparing to go do Baptisms for the dead at the end of April and she is going to take out her endowments in June! We are also seeing Lilian who was baptized a week before I got here and she has been doing really well except she tore her ACL while at work at the hospital so besides that she is doing really well. I am kind of sad to say good bye to Kelowna especially since I have only been here for 7 weeks. It has been great here and even though its getting warm I have really loved it!

  This week I have really been studying about Christ and his life and while I was studying this morning I was looking up examples of His humility and it took me to when he was suffering the Atonement and he did the will of the Father and later on I came to the story of when Christ fasted for 40 days and 40 nights and then was tempted by Satan and not only did Christ never forget which way he faced in not succumbing to the temptation of Satan but after it says in the bible how angels came and ministered unto him but in the JST it says that Christ knowing that John was cast into prison sent angels to minister unto him. So even in one of his weakest moments he was thinking of others and always helping others. Humility is not thinking about your self less but less about your self and that is exactly what Christ did his whole life even in times when all of us would have turned inward he always turned outward to help others! Christ is a pretty good example to us all obviously! One thing I have been trying to do is study the life of Christ more to help me and it has been really cool! Well, I gotta go and get ready to leave!

Love Elder Slack

{4/11/16} "The Lord Blesses those who want to improve"

These last few weeks have been pretty crazy. It has gotten a lot warmer here in Kelowna and is normally around 18-25 degrees everyday so it is getting pretty warm and I have been working on my farmer tan but I don't think it will turn out too good because once I take my collar off it looks pretty weird. 

  Kelowna has been really good! The members in the First ward give us so much food and its really nice. The work here has been a little slow but it has been good. We were able to teach a lady this week named Lorene and she is really solid and she really wants to find a church to join. She told us how she has been looking for a while and she has been to some but does not feel the spirit there and some she kind of does but they still do not feel right. She is very truth seeking and wants to find a right church. The only thing that she is hung up on right now is that women can not receive the priesthood but we do not think that she fully understands what the priesthood entails because she asked us if women can share the gospel since they do not have the priesthood so we'll have to clear that up for her but overall she is really awesome! We also taught a guy named Dez and he is a very interesting guy. He believes in reincarnation but in the fact that we come back as people until we get it right so he has some really interesting views and beliefs so we are not sure how far he is going to go.

  I was reviewing my conference notes this week and one of the things that really stuck out to me is something that Elder Holland said. He said  "The Lord Blesses those who want to improve" I have thought about this a lot because we are not perfect and I don't know about you but sometimes I just dont quite measure up to those things that the Lord asks us to do all the time but that is ok because the Lord will bless us if we have that desire to do better and to follow the example of our saviour Jesus  Christ and change just a little bit every time and he will bless us and empower us with the ability to do better. We can as we rely on Jesus Christ and his Atonement, not just the cleansing power but the enabling power.

Love Elder Slack

Conference was Awesome

Well Conference was Awesome. I wish I would watched Conference when I was home. There were a ton of Good Talks but my favorites were Elder Holland's and Elder Renlunds. All the talks were Awesome but those were my favorites. 

  Elder Renlund's talk that was all about how "He did it for me" The Atonement is so vast in that it covers everyone who has ever lived for all things that we have faced and will face but it is also so personal in that Christ knows how each and everyone of us feels in every moment of doubt, sorrow, pain and sin. He can comfort us in any situation that we are in because he has felt what we are feeling exactly. He loved us enough to do if for us so that we could experience the same joy as he has. As we grow closer to God we will realize how much we are unprofitable servants and see the love that he has for us and the more we will want to do. The more we will strive to follow him exactly.

 Then Elder Holland's talk was amazing on how we need to hold fast to the spirit and the impressions that we receive from it when we are at places like conference or the Temple or at church. But My favorite quote from his talk is " The Lord blesses those who want to improve" We do not need to be perfect to receive the blessings but just like it says in Alma 32 if we no more have a desire to believe also if we have a desire to do good the Lord will Bless us. Sorry I did not have much time today but i'll talk more about conference next week!

Love Elder Slack

{Mar 29 '16} God has truly helped us to bless the lives of others

These last two Weeks have been really good. The work here has picked up a lot and we finally have more people to teach so it is really looking up here in Kelowna. This last week we have been able to teach a lot more and have some really good people that we are working with. We have been working with Lillian's friend Rob, Lillian is a recent Convert of about a month, Rob is doing good he has a lot of good questions and really is seeking to know the truth and to find out. He tells us that he has a long way to go but we have had some really good lessons about the Atonement and the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they have been really good. Testifying of how Christ is there to help us no matter what situation we are in or where we are at in life. He seems to be doing good but he is taking it slow but Lillian is Awesome and is a very good true friend she has been talking to him a lot and helping him answer his questions. Then we had a former investigator come to church on Sunday! Her name is Radmila and she has really changed from how she used to be and has a strong desire to learn more and to continue to change and figure out how she can find more happiness in life because she told us that she has a big house and a really good paying job and a family but she just does not feel that happy so we were able to tell her what she is missing in life and it is obviously the Gospel so we are really excited to see where it goes with her.

   Another really Sweet Miracle that we saw this week was we decided to go out to this small town that we cover outside of Kelowna called Lake Country to do some finding because missionaries never go out there and we went to the street that we had planned and knocked on a few houses and it just did not feel right so we went to a back up street that we planned and the first door that we knocked on we talked to a Mom named Amy and we talked to her for about 20 minutes about families and how this gospel blesses families and how we believe that families can be together forever and it was such a good conversation and she told us that we could come back to teach her family more. Then the next door that we knock on we meet a Lady named Tina and talked to her and she told us that we should comeback to teach her and her family more. So we where pretty excited and thought that maybe we should go and end on a high note but we both felt like we should stay and so we kept knocking and the next 15 houses there was no luck but then we knocked on this house and we thought there was no one home but a little kid answered the door and his mom was right behind him and we were able to talk to the mom, Gale, and teach her about the Book of Mormon and she told us how she had always wanted to read it and find out what it is all about and she told us how she really admired missionaries on how we go around and teach people and offer to help people and she told us to come back and we could talk to her and her family more about the Book and where it came from! It was such an Awesome Day! We found three really cool solid families to teach. We have really seen a lot of Miracles this week which is really nice and has shown me that God really does have a plan and that he is always preparing his children to hear this Message because before this week we had not seen much success but this week it just did a 180 and is going really well. We have not been doing anything dramatically different but Elder Frye and I have been trying to make little changes in our lives to help us be more obedient  and God has truly helped us to bless the lives of others. 

  I really love my mission and what it has taught me about being a follower of Chirst and I am so grateful for all that I have learned and that I still need to learn but this week I have been able to see how as we just continue to do what the Lord has asked of us he will bless us. He is bound by his word to bless us!

Love Elder Slack