We have been able to work really hard and to see some really good success here in Victoria!

    So, this week was pretty crazy being in a Tri but it has been really good! Elder Flood and Elder Evans are both really Awesome and I have known them both for a while. Elder Flood has been in Victoria since I got here and Elder Evans was in Abbotsford when I was there last so I knew them both and it has been a lot of fun being with them. We have been able to work really hard and to see some really good success here in Victoria!

     We saw Ryan as usual and he is doing so good right now! We were able to have a really good lesson with him and about the importance of baptism and how he could grow his faith to completely quit smoking and kick it so that he could get baptized. It was so good and the spirit was really strong and we were able to re-set his baptism date for August 27th and he is really committed to it so we are going to really be working with him to help him get there! 

   We also have a really cool new guy named James who has come to church the last two weeks and we where able to teach him about the plan of salvation this week and it was Awesome! He just soaked everything in so well and has been reading the Book of Mormon and he told us that he feels like his prayers have been answered since he has been reading it so it has been really cool to see the progression he has made even though it has only been two weeks!

     This past week has been really crazy because we do cover two areas but luckily they overlap but it looks like this week will be the same and then next week I am probably gonna get moved to another area for a week in Sidney with Elder Whitney who is actually from Gunison Utah!

Anyways I gotta go!

Love Elder Slack

Share the Gift

     This week has been a really good one! We have been working with Ryan and he is making some really good progress and he is continuing to move forward to his baptismal date of July 22nd. We were able to teach him the law of tithing and he told us how he did not like giving his money to churches but that this church is different and that he would live the law of tithing and that he wanted to pay his tithing from when he first started to come to church six weeks ago! We have seen so much progress with him and he is doing so well! He really is becoming converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is gaining a strong testimony of the restored Gospel! He is so solid and it is just another testimony of member work because he was brought to church by a friend and he had talked to missionaries before and they had invited him to church but he never came but since his friend brought him to church and it was someone he knew it was different and since then he has been progressing so much and has been doing so good!

      Elder Cowley and I have been able to do a lot of teaching this week and have been able to see some really cool miracles this week one with that referral from the Merretts and we were finally able to see him this week! His name is Peter and he is so Cool! He used to be a financier for the Canadian Government and used to travel all over the world with the Prime Minster and finance projects that they were doing. Anyways he has been retired for a few years because he is confined to a wheel chair and could not travel anymore but when we met with him he told us how he had met a lot of members of our church and he had always been impressed by how we live and how we seem to be good people. He really wanted to know why, so we told him about how we follow the example of Jesus Christ and believe in living what we preach and how we believe it is very important to live the life that we learn about. He is very interested because he grew up Catholic but left it because they told him how asking questions was bad and they would not answer the questions he had but he does still have that belief in Christ and God. He is very interested in learning more and finding out for himself. 

      It is really cool to see how people seem to notice what we do and how we as members do live our lives and that is definitely doing missionary work but if no one would have talked to Peter that work might not have yielded all the fruit it could have. I have seen a lot how important it is not only to live what we teach and doing our best because we will not be perfect and then talking to people and trying to share the Gospel in any way we can, not being crazy weird or pushy, but just sharing what we know has changed and blessed our lives, kind of like how we tell people about a good movie or a good place to eat!

  Well I gotta go so talk you next week!!

Love Elder Slack

It was so cool to see how Heavenly father does truly prepare his children to hear the restored Gospel!

 Well I do not have too much time today but this week has been great! We have been able to teach so much and have had a lot of success in finding too! We found three new people to teach this week by knocking on their door and them just letting us in! It was so legit!! We have seen so many miracles! One of the people that we knocked in to is Clark and we were able to teach him the restoration and when we got to the first vision and the Book of Mormon he was so shocked. He told us how he had never been taught that before and wondered why no one else taught about there being another prophet on the earth. It was so cool to see how Heavenly father does truly prepare his children to hear the restored Gospel!

   We also had some really good lessons with Ryan who is down to 2 cigarettes a day at the most! He had been coming to church every week and has been reading the Book of mormon like crazy! He even started to read the gospel principles book to and he is really loving it!

 Well I have to go but thanks to everyone for all the Birthday wishes!

Love Elder Slack


Yep, you read that right...it's this missionary's birthday! He's finally hit the big 2-0! Crazy! How did this boy...

Get to be so old, where has the time gone...but, just look at him now...a mom couldn't be prouder. What a wonderful young man he has become. 

I am always amazed at how many miracles and blessings we see as missionaries

This week has been really great! Elder Cowley and I are really getting into a good grove now with teaching! Elder Cowley is starting to get used to the schedule and everything now! We had some really good lessons! The weather here this week was pretty crazy which I have come to know is usual for Victoria. It was 33 degrees at the beginning of the week and by the end it was 19 so it fluctuated a lot and it can never seem to decide what it wants to do but overall it has been good and having a car makes a lot less important if the weather changes.

   We were able to have a few lessons this week with Ryan and Mike. We got the whole apartment thing figured out with Mike and we are going with Mike to check it out on Wednesday! Mike told us if it works out he will set a day to be baptized on then! So we are really hoping and praying that it does work out for him because this is something that he has been waiting for for a long time and now it is finally here so we will be focusing a lot on that this week to see if there is any way that we could help out and continue to support and motivate Mike! We also saw Ryan and he is doing so good! He came to church yesterday even though he got off work late and did not get to have any sleep but he told us that he really wanted to come so he did, even though he was tired. He has really been cutting down on his smoking and is down to 5 a day at the most! It has been so great to teach and work with him because he is someone that I have seen the Gospel change and he has been doing the change by himself! He is changing things as he learns with out reminding or telling him. He has just seen how the Gospel has changed him and how much it has helped him in his life! He is doing so good and is working hard to be baptized on July 22nd! We have seen some really cool miracles this transfer and a lot of good progression from those that we are working with!

 We also did some finding and on Wednesday we found a really cool family this week when we went by a referral who was not home so we decided to stay in the area and knock on some of the houses next to this referral and we talked to a guy named Kyle who just recently had a baby and he and his wife just started to go to a new church but he was really interested in what we were doing and why we were doing it so we talked about what we do and about the restoration and how we have come out to share this message with others because it has helped and changed our lives. We talked to him for a while and he told us to come by on Tuesday and gave us his number and told us to text him to confirm and we did last night and it is all set up! It was such a cool miracle to see that we went there for a reason! 

   I am always amazed at how many miracles and blessings we see as missionaries and how prevalent the hand of God is in our lives and I am sure that it was just a prevalent in my life before my mission but being on a mission has helped me to recognize it more! I have learned how much God does truly love all of us no matter where we have come from or what we have done he loves us no matter what that is the first great truth!

Love Elder Slack

I also know that he calls the weak and the simple to perform great things

     This week we were able to see a lot of success in teaching! We were able to do a lot more teaching this week and find some really good people that we are going to meet with this week.

     Monday, after P-Day, started off pretty slow because we were supposed to have a lesson with one of our investigators and then go to a FHE with a family in the ward but we were not able to get a hold of our investigator and the wife in the family fell and had to go to the Hospital on Monday so our evening opened up real quick! So Elder Ringheim and I decided to pray to know where we should go and so after we prayed we felt like we should go by a former investigator that we have been trying to contact so we bused over there and went by him and he did not answer so we decided that there must be a reason that we should be over there so we were walking down the street and I felt like we should go and knock the house on the end of the street and a lady answered and so we talked to her for a little bit and she did not seem too interested until we started to talk about the plan of salvation and she was really intrigued by it and told us that she would invite us in but she had plans later that evening and she was really busy that we but that we could come by next week! So we are going to go by this week and teach her more! Then we kept walking and Elder Ringheim felt like we should knock a house that was across the street and so we did and it turned out to be a lady who was visiting her parents from Mexico and we felt like we should talk about the Plan of Salvation and how it blesses our families and it turned out she had a little daughter and so we talked to her about how we believe that families can be together forever. She told us that she would like to learn more but she was going back to Mexico on Wednesday morning so we told her that there was missionaries in Tijuana where she lived and told her to contact the missionaries there and she told us she would!! So it was so amazing to see how the spirit guides even though our initial thought did not work out there was a reason why we where there!

      Then our week just kept getting better! We were able to see Ryan a guy that the YSA elders passed to us and he is very prepared and he was telling us how since he has been reading the Book of Mormon it has really helped him, especially with his patience at work and he told us how his friends have told him that he has really changed over the last month that he has been meeting with missionaries and coming to church! He has been very prepared and is a very sincere and humble guy. He has been having great experiences with the Book of Mormon and has prayed about it and he has felt that he received an answer that it is true! I have seen so many times how the Book of Mormon changes people and it really is that way that people can come to know if Jesus Christ has restored his Church and brought the fullness of his Gospel back to the Earth! 

      We also had a great Lesson with Matti Lott and his kids and him and his son have come to church the last two weeks! We had dinner with them on Wednesday and were able to teach the Plan of Salvation and it was a really great lesson and Cameron was very interactive and asking a lot of questions so we hope that we can continue to work with them! Hopefully we can help them become fully active and help Cameron get Baptized!

       Then we had a Zone Meeting on Friday which was really good and we talked a lot about conversion but it was a little nerve racking for me because I had to give a training on Conversion in front of 25 people which was very interesting but it went well. I have seen on my mission how as we put in our effort to prepare, the spirit will guide us and help us to accomplish whatever the Lord has asked of us. I have also seen how since I have been on my mission that I have been able to overcome my fears more and put more trust in the Lord to help guide me because I don't think I could have given a training in front of a group that big at the beginning of my mission. I have been able to trust in the Lord and in myself more. 

     A lot of the things that we talked about were about conversion and about why we do things. Do we do it out of obligation or out of a love for the Lord and his Gospel? As we become converted to Christ and his Gospel our desires will be pure and righteous. As we do things out of a love for the Lord we will do them better because we have a pure motivation and the Lord will bless us for that and help us even more. I have been able to think about why I do the things I do and I would invite everyone to do that. I also learned that if we are doing this out of duty and obligation that it's much better than not doing it and God does not expect us to change right this second be he does expect us to be progressing. It is about eternal progression not instant perfection! So it is ok if we are not perfect yet God does not expect us to be but he does ask us to get a little closer everyday and to just get a little better than we were before and that is how we will become more converted!

     I am very grateful for the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that he would love us enough to give his life for us! I know this Gospel is true and that this is His church restored to the earth once again! I also know that he calls the weak and the simple to perform great things and that we can accomplish anything that he gives us as we follow Him and our Saviour! Life was meant to be enjoyed and happy so make it that way and Pure Eternal Joy comes through our Saviour Jesus Chris so "look unto him in every thought. Doubt not fear not!" D&C 6:36

Love Elder Slack

Beautiful sunset in Victoria

Healthy living in Victoria

Peacocks in the park

{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

A mission is definitely not what I expected or anticipated but it has been exactly what I needed

This week was good. It has been a little hard because lots of our investigators stopped meeting with us but we have really been blessed with some new people to teach. We were able to find a family this week and they are really cool. Their names are Troy and Joslynn and they have four kids. They are a really cool family that we tracted into and they let us in and we talked to them for 30 minutes and went over what we do as missionaries and went over how that message that we share is meant to bless families and how important the family is and they told us how they used to go to church but they felt like God was being taken out of church and that people were not living what they were preaching and they told us that the church they used to go to did not feel right and that something was missing. We told them a lot about our church and how we feel the spirit there. It is a place that we go to worship and fellowship. They really liked it and told us that we could come back after spring break because they would be really busy. It was such a great experience! We talked to them about how that spirit that is missing in other churches is in our church and that we believe that the church that Jesus Christ established is the same church that we attend now and it has been restored to the earth. It was really great to meet them because we have been doing a lot of tracting and going by people that met missionaries before and we have not had too much success but we met this family who have really been prepared to hear the Restored  Gospel. They have been missing something and This Gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ in its fullness. We have been able to set up some lessons with other people that we met and with some people that met missionaries before so the work has been a lot better here and it is going good. 

   A mission is definitely not what I expected or anticipated but it has been exactly what I needed and I am very grateful that I still have some time to learn some more and to continue to share this Gospel that has blessed my life so much. Crazy thing is I didn't understand, and I am not sure that I still do completely, how much it has impacted my life and blessed me until I came on my mission. I have seen how it has changed others lives as well and given them that hope that it has given me. I have come to learn how real the Gospel is and how much it does help us with and how much Christ helps me with everyday, even things that are not directly related to the Gospel or things I thought were not related to the Gospel. I have also learned that life is not meant to be easy and it will never be easy. Something that President Burt says a lot is that there is not much growth in a comfort zone and there is not much comfort in a growing zone, that is a butchered paraphrasing but basically it means that hard things help us grow and learn and mold us into who God needs us to be.

Love Elder Slack

I finally got to Kelowna and it has been great!

This week has been really crazy. To start off with transfers and on Monday Elder Hunter and I had to pack and clean the whole apartment because two new Elders were coming in that week and then we had to write what felt like a thousand notes so that they knew what was going on in the area with our investigators and all the info about the area so that they could pick up right where we left off. So Monday was really hectic, then we were told that we needed to stay with the Abby 1st Elders on Monday night so that Elder Hunter could leave with Elder Evans, who is in Abby 1st, early in the morning and catch their flights at the Airport in Vancouver and some Elders from Chiliwack were staying the night at the same place so needless to say we did not sleep very good that night. Then Elder Hunter had to leave at 5am so he got up at 4:15 and him and Elder Evans were not the quietest people so they woke everyone up but once they left it was all normal until 10 then Elder Sharp, one of the Elders in Chiliwack, and I had to drive to Vancouver airport to go pick up some other missionaries and we had no idea where we were going and we ended up at a private airport in Vancouver but eventually we found it and it turned out that the Elders flight was delayed for almost an hour so we were waiting there for a while then they finally got in and we had to drive them back to the Mission Office and we were supposed to stay there until some other missionaries came and picked us up to take us back to the Airport but while we were there President Burt showed up and told Elder Sharp that he should go get a hair cut so we had to go get Elder Sharp a haircut and then finally we got picked up at 3:30 and got to airport but I had to wait for 3 hours at the airport by myself until my flight at 6:30 and then my flight was delayed until 6:50 so I did not get to Kelowna until 8:15 so it was a pretty crazy day. 

  Then finally I got to Kelowna and it has been great! The weather here has been awesome. So hopefully I do not have to see much more rain for the rest of my mission. We had some really good lessons this week with some recent converts and some less actives that are coming back to church. We have also had a lot of investigators tell us that they do not want to meet with us anymore so it has been a really interesting week with a lot of trials and it has been kind of hard but I was studying this morning and I was going to look up something in the topical guide and I came across refine and refinement and so I read the scriptures and most of them were on how the Lord refines us for good and everything that he does is for our good. I came across the story of Alma the older and his people in Mosiah 24 and how they were persecuted and they were told if they prayed out loud they would be killed and so they prayed in their hearts and it talks about how the Lord did not take their trials away but that he strengthened them to make their burdens light so that they were able to bear the trials that they were given and eventually God did remove them from their trials. It taught me a lot about how a lot of times God does not take challenges away but he will make them manageable as long as we rely on him because if we are not obedient to him and his commandments then he can not help us to make our burdens light but as we live the gospel and do what we are supposed to all the trials with be for our good because just like Nephi says the Lord gives no commandment save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them and it is the same for our trials too. As we trust in God he will help us and support us in everything that we do.

Love Elder Slack

And the miracles keep coming

 Sorry that I did not send an email last week. I wrote it but I actually never sent it so I am just going to write this one.

   So this week was great! We have seen a lot of success this week. We were finally able to see a part member family that we are working with, the Swensons, this week and had a really good lesson about the Plan of Salvation and what was even more of a miracle was their son Calvin was very calm through the whole lesson and we were able to teach everything that we wanted and the spirit was so strong and it was awesome then we were supposed to see them later that week but when we went by Ron, the father, was not there so we just talked to Jeanie, who is the member, and we invited them to a primary activity on Saturday and to church on Sunday but they were not able to make it to the activity and we where waiting for them at church but they were not there when it started so we went and sat down but 20 minutes into the meeting they showed up and it was a miracle because we had a Multi stake Conference yesterday so church started an hour earlier than normal so they did not know but luckily a member who lives in the basement went up and asked if they knew so they were able to make it so it was pretty much a miracle! 

  We were also able to meet a bunch our other investigators and had some really good lessons we even had our investigator Luyi sing in the choir for the ward. We did not have much else happen this week but it was really good!

Love Elder Slack

I Love Abbotsford!

This week was so great! We were able to see most of our investigators and were also able to find a few new ones.

 We were able to see most of our investigators this week. We were able to see Luyi who is a home stay student and is staying with one of the families in our ward. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was really good. He asked a lot of questions about baptism and the need of authority and it went really well. He is really thinking about baptism right now but he wants to make sure that is what he should do so we will continue to teach him and to help him build his faith. 

We also got to see Gord who is doing really good. We were able to find a good member who was able to connect with him and we had a really good lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he committed to come to church and He came! We have been trying to get him to church all transfer and he came with his two kids and it was great! The kids really enjoyed primary and he really enjoyed church and finally started to read the Book of Mormon too. So he is doing really great! We have seen some good progress from the last couple weeks from him.

We have also been able to find some really cool people recently and we were able to see one of them last night after our specialized training. His name is Joel and he was really interested in the Book of Mormon so we were able to teach him about the Book of Mormon last night and it was really good. He really wants to change his life around and is trying to forgive himself for things that he has done in the past so we are helping him know how to do that. 

   We have seen a lot of success this last week and have been able to see a lot of people and to teach a ton! I Love Abbotsford and I am really glad that I got sent back here and got to spend some more time here. Hopefully I don't get sent somewhere else in a couple weeks when transfer comes again.

Yeah, it snows a lot here in Canada

   Well not too much else to report except it snowed here again! not much stayed and it is mostly slush now but it did stay for a little bit so I did get some snow in my last Christmas in Canada. Well I gotta go!

Love, Elder Slack

I know that I am just a 19 year old punk who probably does not know what he is talking about most of the time but this is something that I do know that this message that we carry as members of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints is true and is meant for everyone!

This Week has been really cold and when I say cold I mean like -2 Celsius which is a lot colder when you are walking around in it all day. It has not rained all week and it has been very sunny too but it has been very cold and we have had some bad luck in the cold, like on Saturday we did not drive our car so we took the bus to our dinner appointment in Cloverdale which is like 20 blocks from where we live and when left our appointment we ran to the bus stop because we thought we might miss it but we got there and we saw the Bus, but the bus just drove right past us and did not even stop so we had to wait for 30 minutes for the next one and so we went and knocked on doors and when we were heading back we decided to take a way we thought would be faster but it ended up not going anywhere so we were running back the way we came and we were 50 feet away when the bus drove by us so we had to walk home and it took like an hour so it was a pretty interesting night but we ended up getting back in time for an appointment we had at 8 with a less active. So there is the crazy story for the week.

  

  We have seen a lot of cool experiences lately like we were dropping by someone and decide to knock on a door and this really old man answered and let us in and we found out that he fought in World War 2 and was one of the first on the ground right after D Day and that he had just received a  metal of honor from the French government. We also knocked on a less active's door and his room mate answered and let us in and told us that the member had passed away a few days ago and then we found out that the guy we were talking to was also a less active member so we have been teaching him. 

  We have also been teaching Barry and he has been doing really good but he is just struggling with quitting smoking but he has been reading and has been consistantly coming to church so he has been doing good. Him and his wife are planning on moving in January so they probably will not be in our ward for much longer and will probably will get baptized in the ward they move into. 

 Not too much else has happened this week but I have been studying in Mosiah and about Abinadi. I don't know if you remember but last year when I was first out I had just learned about Abinadi and it blew my mind! and its doing it again. I love the Book of Mormon. When I was home I thought it was boring and I got nothing out if it but on my mission I think that has been what's changed me the most and what I have seen change others the most. The Book of Mormon is more than just another book or something that we have added to the Bible. It is revelation that our loving Father in Heaven has saved for us in this time so that we may know where to look for a remission of our sins, so that we can know that Jesus is the Christ and that Joseph Smith is a prophet that was called by God that that there is still a prophet on the Earth today and that God still speaks to his Children because he loves us so much. This Gospel is a gospel of Love and it was given to us because our Father in Heaven loves us and cares what happens to us and where we go. I am so grateful for this gospel and for what it has brought me. I don't want to sound cheesy but it is something that has changed me and it has changed many others! I know that I am just a 19 year old punk who probably does not know what he is talking about most of the time but this is something that I do know that this message that we carry as members of the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints is true and is meant for everyone! 

Love Elder Slack

{11/11/15} The Spirit is What Testifies of Truth

This week has been a ton better than the last! We were able to teach a lot more this week. We found a lot more people to teach this week and were able to contact some people that used to be taught by missionaries in the past.

  We actually went by a guy named Nick and the Elders in the past because he was really hard to contact but we went by and caught him home. We went in and started to talk to him and he told us how crazy his life has been and he actually asked us if we think going to church and reading the scriptures could help change his life for the better and we where shocked because no one ever asks us thoses types of questions and so we jumped on it and taught about how those things are ment to bring joy to our lives and how following the example of Jesus Christ and keeping his commandments helps us find the most joy in this life. We taught him the Restoration and about baptism and he told us how he feels like he needs to be baptized so we set a date for him to be baptized on December 13th. It was so cool to see how ready to hear the message we share and how he has been prepared to accept it now. 

  We also found 3 new investigators that are all from Central America. This week I really wished that I had taken that spanish class in high school more seriously because they all spoke english but not that great. One of the people we taught is Sabas, and he is from Mexico and he is up here for work. He comes up here every year for 6 months to work on a farm and we went out to where he lives and he lives in what looks like a group home but its just for all the workers on the farm and so we taught him the restoration and he was really attentive and I dont think he understood everything but he told us that next year when he comes back to BC he wants to come to our church and he wanted a book of mormon so he asked if we had one in spanish and so we are going to take one to him before he leaves back to mexico. We will probably not see him get baptized but the spirit in that lesson was really strong and he seemed really intersted like the he felt the spirit in the lesson and it was so cool. If only we spoke spanish. At least the spirit is universal!

  This week I have learned a lot about how important is to have the spirit in lessons and to always feel the spirit in our lives because it is how we stay strong in the gospel because the spirit is what testifies of truth and it is how we can and always will know that this Gospel is true and that this is the Church of Jesus Christ on the Earth today.

Love Elder Slack

"Even if ye can no more than desire to believe, let this desire work in you" -Alma 32

     Well, this week has been crazy busy! We have been teaching a lot more the last couple of weeks, which is awesome because I like teaching a lot more than anything else. It has been a really good week because we have been able to help a lot of our investigators progress and slowly change their lives; so it has been really awesome!

      One thing that I have learned on my mission that really came to me this morning is how little I knew when I came out and how I had a pretty good testimony of a few things but just never really gained a strong testimony of a lot of things or studied the Gospel that much. Because of that I have really seen how real and true Alma 32:27-28 are. Just having that desire to believe, to have a testimony will grow and has help to gain of a lot of things and I still have a long way to go but learning the gospel and teaching the gospel has helped me a lot. I am so glad that I came on a mission and that I did not go home like I thought about on my first day in the field because I thought it was hard, which, it's hard but most things that are right are not easy. I have learned so much, especially about doubting doubts before doubting faith. I have ran into and talked to a lot of people who have told me that the church is a lie and false and that Joseph Smith is a liar and the Book of Mormon was written by the devil and people have even showed me anti to try to prove to me that the church is false. I am sure that most members have gone through this a few times, I have learned that I do not know everything but neither do the people that tell us these things. I only know of one person that does and that is our Father in Heaven and conveniently we can always ask him questions and he will help us answer them. Isn't that pretty sweet! What is even cooler is that he doesn't answer just some people but everyone! He loves us all and desperately wants to hear from us all no matter what we feel like or what we have done. His love is unconditional, we are never unworthy to pray or to receive answers.

       Enough about me ranting. We were able to see one of our newer investigators, Ken, and talked to him a lot about baptism and priesthood Authority and he accepted an invitation to be baptized on October 4th! He is very cool and really wants to learn and find out for him self so hopefully we can continue to help him to be ready for that day. We were also able to see Sheila and go help her at her farm which was pretty sweet and she gave us a bunch of food! Which was awesome! She is so close to getting baptized too and she should be baptized within this transfer. Oh, I forgot to tell you I am staying in Brookswood with Elder Mattingley until the end of October at least.

      Well, I have to go. We got our email time cut a half an hour because the library is really busy so I'll talk to you next week and send you some pics of the border...Yeah the US and Canada border because our area goes all way to the border and we went to a member's house who live like a mile from the border so we went and took pictures and saw freedom!

Love Elder Slack

We have seen so much success this week

Well This week has been awesome! We have seen so much success this week because Elder Mattingley & I have been trying to improve some things that we are not that good at like using our phone to call people and set up lessons with our investigators and it has worked really well. We have been able set up a lot more lessons this week and have been able to make some really good progress with some of our investigators. 

 

  We were able to see Sheila a few times this week and had some really good lessons with her about the Plan of Savation and about the importance of Church. She came to church this week!! Our lesson that we taught about the Plan of Salvation was awesome! She had her sister and it was very good. She is very close to being baptized because she has learned everything already but we are just trying to help her feel the spirit and regularly read the book of Mormon. 

 

 We also found a new investigator named Ken and he is really cool. He has had a lot of stuggles in his life but he told us how he has met missionaries before and gave them his info but they never showed up again. So it was really cool to see how prepared he is and how he just absorbs info. It was also really cool because one of the things that he really likes was that we can trace our authority back to Christ.

 

 Sorry I don't have a lot of time but this week has been really good.

 

Love Elder Slack

{Aug 17} Canada has been so awesome!

     Well this week was great! Elder Mattingley is so cool. He is from Layton, Utah. Brookswood has been really good but is a lot different than Surrey. Mostly because it not as big and we do a lot more tracting here and the area is a lot nicer than Surrey.

     We did a lot of service this week, well we did a lot of moving. We also were finally able to see one of our investigators Shelia who has been out of town. Sheila was meeting with missionaries like 20 years ago and was about to be baptized but someone told her she couldn't get baptized or something like that but anyways the missionaries got back in contact with her a couple months ago and she is so cool and knows that the church is true! We are just teaching her the things that she was taught before and she has forgotten and helping her quit drinking coffee but she is really solid and could definitely get baptized this transfer. So we are really trying to work hard to help her get to the point where she is ready and worthy to get baptized. She also owns a farm and gave us some fruit from it and it was really good!

     Speaking of food, in the Brookswood ward we literally get fed every night. Since I have gotten here every night for dinner we go to a members house. It's so cool except for the fact that I have had to start running again so I don't get fat! It is really cool though because the members here are so cool and really are missionary minded which is awesome! The ward here has been really good about helping us with anything we need especially coming out to lessons with us.

 

     Some other cool things that happened this week while finding were on Friday I was on exchanges with Elder Haase, (who is in the other ward in Langley and just got to the mission field), we were out contacting at the bus loop and started talking to a lady named Amanda and she started asking a lot of questions about things that she had heard about Mormons and we talked to her and told her what we really believed and it was really cool because at first she told us she didn't really want to talk to us because she "knew what we where about" so we asked her "what were we about"? so she started to tell us random things and we taught her what we really believe in and the truth about Mormons. By the end she was really interested and very curious about what we teach but sadly Satan is a big jerk and right in the middle of talking to her, her bus showed up early and she had to run to catch so we didn't get any contact info but hopefully we will run in to her again.

     This week has been really good and Elder Mattingley and I have been working on trying to build up our teaching pool and finding more people to teach. It has been going good and has really helped me remember that we need to rely on the Lord in everything and never think that we can do it our selves. Canada has been so awesome! Even though they are having their hottest summer in 25 years. I love it here! Well I gotta go.

Love Elder Slack

{August 3 & 10, 2015} On to Brookswood after a fond farewell to some great friends

     These last few weeks have been awesome! One of our investigators came to church yesterday; he loved it. We went and saw him later that day and he told us how he feels like our church is the one he wants to join! So that was pretty cool to hear but he missed church this week and has been really busy but we are going to see him today so that should be good and hopefully he will continue to progress. 

  

     Well, we got transfer calls on Saturday and found out that I am leaving again to go to Brookswood, which is in Langley, and my new companion will be Elder Matingly and he has been out 6 weeks. Elder McCown is going to be training a new missionary here in Surrey. I am pretty sad to leave here but it has been good and I am excited to go to Brookswood. For some reason I can't stay in an area for more than 3 months or keep a companion for more than 6 weeks but I guess there is a plan!

Elder Matingly's sweet flag

     So the last few weeks have been pretty similar and we have been continuing to meet with our investigators. Valentino is the one that told us he wants to join our church and he is really cool. He has come to church 3 times and is reading the Book of Mormon like crazy! He loves it and really enjoys meeting with us. 

      Another one of our awesome investigators is Sonny. He has been doing really good. He has been reading the Book of Mormon a lot and it has really changed him. He was not too happy last night when we went and told him one of us was leaving. 

Elder McCown, Sonny and Will

He is so awesome and has really shown me that the Book of Mormon can change lives drastically! We have been working with quite a few other people too. One of the coolest lessons we had this week was on Sunday when we met with a guy we met at Surrey Central named Egor. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and he really liked it. He told us that he was going to come to church and really wanted to read the Book of Mormon to learn for himself. It was so cool because it was all the spirit that taught him and he is someone that has definitely been prepared!

      This week was kind of sad because Elder Lawlor and Elder Woolf are going home so we got to see them for the last time last night. It stunk because Elder Woolf has been around me for 6 months, 3 in Kamloops and 3 here, we became really good friends and Elder Lawlor has been here the whole time I have been here and he is going back to Japan so I probably won't see him for a while.

 I have loved Surrey and I am really sad to leave but I am really excited for Brookswood and to go where the Lord needs me!

Elders Nelson, McCown, Maloy, Kelly, Will and Elder Hall

Elder Hall, Will and Elder McCown at the Vancouver Temple. Their chapel is right by the temple. 

Janet (investigator) and her son who is a recent convert 

Will & Bro Brown (his mission president's uncle)

Love Elder Slack