That excitement and spirit that comes from the Book of Mormon

     Well, this week everything should start to get back to normal! Except we got transfer calls on Saturday and I found out that I am going to be training a new missionary for my last transfer so this week is still going to be pretty crazy but this transfer should be a lot of fun!!  This week was really good though. It was just Elder Flood and I because Elder Evans had to go up to Sidney to be with another missionary because his companion finished his mission a week early so that he could go to school so this week was not any less crazy than the last two and it looks like this one will not be either but it should be fun none the less!

  

      We were able to meet with James again and he is doing so good! He is still working on his smoking but it looks like he is going to be on track for his baptismal date and he has been reading to Book of Mormon like crazy and it is really cool because he tells us that it all just makes sense and he is understanding it very well! He is so prepared and has been prepared to hear and accept the restored Gospel! He is just a miracle and he pretty much is just trying to follow Jesus Christ the best he can and says he can feel his faith growing since he started meeting with us and coming to church! 

      The Book of Mormon reading that we have been doing as a mission has been so awesome and has helped me regain that excitement and spirit that comes from the Book of Mormon. I feel like I did at the beginning of my mission when I first started to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover and how excited i was as I read and all the things that I learned from it and I have found out again that no matter how many times you read the Book of Mormon you will always get something new out of it and something new always sticks out to me that I had not learned of seen before and it has been really nice to start off everyday with reading the Book of Mormon and just going out with that spirit that it brings. It is something that I want to do everyday when I get back home so that I can always have that spirit with me. There is nothing like reading the Book of Mormon and all that it holds with it. The Book of Mormon has helped me to gain so much understanding even about the restoration because it is the fruit of the prophet Joseph Smith and is the way that we can truly know if all that he taught and saw was real. All we really need to do is read ponder and pray about the Book of Mormon. If we have already gained that witness or never have or did but are not sure anymore I would strongly invite you to read the Book of Mormon and to pray to know if it is true. If you have questions about anythings else I know that the Book of Mormon is there specifically for us to help us with things in out day and can help us receive answers to our prayers! My mission and life have been changed by this book and it has blessed me so much in my life! It can do that for anyone.

Love Elder Slack

The Book of Mormon will change your life

     This week has just been the usual Gong Show like the last 22 months especially the last 2 weeks! Being in a tri has been a lot of fun and Elder Flood and Elder Evans have been great but sadly the tri was disbanded today because Elder Evans is going up to Sydney to replace an Elder who is going home a week early for school so it is just Elder Flood and I covering two areas so this week should be interesting but finally next week I should have another companion and hopefully I will still be here in Victoria. 

     We has a really good week! We saw James on Saturday and we taught him about the Word of Wisdom and we were a little worried because he smokes but we taught him it and asked if it would be problem and he said no and that he has quit before but just needed some motivation to quit again and when he came to church the next day he told us that he hadnt smoked any! It was such a miracle and he is so prepared! 

     We also saw Ryan and he has been doing good. He set his own date for him to be baptized and it will be sometime in September. He is so close and so ready so we are really focusing on helping motivate him so that he can quit but he is really working hard and he has been doing really good on everything else especially on reading the Book of Mormon. 

    There has been a lot of stuff that happened this week that I forgot about until just now so as a mission we are reading the Book of Mormon and it has only been two days but it has been Awesome! I have been able to get something out of every time we read and I did not know how fun it would be but I realized that I actually really like reading the Book of Mormon. I would invite everyone who reads this regardless of  if you have read it 100 times or never to start and see how the Book of Mormon will change your life because I can promise it will because it has for me. Also another really awesome thing that happened is that we had a special John Bytheway fireside on Thursday and it was Amazing! He just talked about the Book of Mormon and it was so cool and it got me even more excited to start reading the Book of Mormon again and since we have started I have remembered how powerful it is and how much I enjoyed reading it at the beginning of my mission!

Will, John Byetheway, Elder Flood, Elder Evans

     Okay so here is the last random story for today so on Friday Elder Evans and I where tracting in an area and our appointments fell through and we were not sure what to do so we decided to stay for a bit in the area and nothing was happening so we started to leave when a mom and her 4 kids walked by so we started to talk to her and taught her a little bit about the restoration and asked if we could come back and she told us to come back on  so we did a couple days later but when we got there her husband was working so we told her we would not be able to teach them but that we had some sisters in the area that could so we called them and them come over to teach this family so while we where waiting we entertained the kids by playing some baseball, which I am always in the mood for, and it was so fun it was only 10 minutes but they were really cool! They are from Ethiopia and apparently baseball is pretty big there so to wrap it up the sisters where able to teach them and they had a really good lesson so that was really cool!

    I know that this email has been all over the place but that has pretty much what this week has been so I guess it works! 

Love Elder Slack

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

Welcome to Elder Cowley...fresh from the factory :)

     This Week can only be described in two words... Gong Show...yep that pretty much sums it up of how today went. So, Tuesday and Wednesday I was with the YSA Zone Leaders because I had to wait until Thursday to go pick up my new companion in Richmond. So those two days were pretty interesting and a lot of driving because we had to go pick people up from the ferries a couple of times then finally on Wednesday night I ferried to Richmond by myself again but this time when I got off the Ferry no one was there to pick me up so it was pretty interesting when I got there but luckily a few minutes later one of the senior couples that works in the office showed up to pick me up thankfully and so that night I stayed with like 3 other Elders that were training too. 

     On Thursday I finally got to figure out who my new companion would be. Just because I am really lucky I was the last name to be called to say who my new companion would be so I guess that Heavenly Father is trying to teach me patience but my new companion is Elder Cowley and he is from Orem, Utah. Members think it's really funny when a missionary comes from Utah and always call it the Factory so Elder Cowley has gotten quite a bit of that. Another amazing thing that happened at Transfer Meeting was that we finally got a Car!! So no more buses, well not all the time because we still have bus passes but a car will make it a lot more convenient to get to places and we do not always have to rely on the not so reliable BC Transit. After Transfer Meeting it was just really crazy because we had to take 3 boxes of supplies and mail and a vacuum and Elder Cowleys bags with us to Victoria in the car so after some really intense tetris we got everything to fit in our little Cruze but then we had to figure out how to get to the Ferries in rush hour traffic with was pretty interesting; took for ever and we got to the ferries 20 minutes before it left and got on so we were pretty lucky so we did not get back to Victoria till 6:45.

     So, needless to say we did not do too much teaching this week.We were able to see our investigator Mike who has been taught by missionaries for about six months now and the only thing that is holding him back is that he is living with his girlfriend and can't find a place to move to. Elder Ringheim had been praying for a place to open up that he could move to and found out that it would be a miracle if he found another place in lower Victoria so that is what we prayed for for a long time and then...We had a miracle happen on Friday, we found out that one of our members is moving to Vancouver and wants to sublet her apartment out to someone from the church so we have been getting the info and told Mike about it and found out its only 10 minutes from where he lives now and the price is the same as what he pays for his current place and it's bigger! So it sounds really promising and like it could really happen!!! It was a huge testimony builder that Heavenly Father does answer prayers and that he does not do it in our time table but he does it when it needs to happen. We are really excited to get this moving forward and we have a really good member couple helping us out with it who really want to help Mike get baptized too! 

   

   This week has been really good and it shows me just like every other week why I am serving a mission and why I want to continue to serve and serve even after I leave BC. This work is so true and it is real and Heavenly Father really does lead it and it will succeed as we do what he asks! It helps us just as much as it helps those that we are working with!

Love Elder Slack

Will and his new companion Elder Cowley

New missionaries and their trainers luncheon

I just really like being a missionary even though it is easily the hardest thing that I have had to do

This week has been pretty crazy mostly because of transfers which always makes a normal week very unknown because of all the things that happen with transfers especially this week with what happened on Saturday which will actually affect this coming week more than last week. So we got transfer calls and found out that Elder Ringheim is going to Delta, which is right next to where I was when I was in Surrey, and that I am going to be training a new missionary. Which means I will have no companion for two days and have to ferry to Vancouver to go pick him up so I am not sure what this week is going to look like but it should be exciting!

  Back to this last week which was really good and we have been able to see a lot of progression in some of our investigators. Ryan who we have been meeting with for the last 4 weeks has been doing really good! He has gone from smoking 40 cigarettes a day to 5! which is amazing and he has been coming to church every week! He has been doing so good and told us he wants to be Baptized and he set a date for July 22 just so he has time to completely quit smoking and so he can be ready to be baptized and he is doing really great and he has been reading the Book of Mormon and has really been applying what he learns, like he started to cut down his smoking even before we taught him the Word of Wisdom because he felt that was something he needed to do before he is Baptized so he is Pretty Awesome!! We are also working with a guy named Lief. Lief, who we met a couple weeks ago and he is doing good he came to church for the first time last week and really liked it and when we met with him after he told us he feels like he should be baptized so we set a date with him as well for June 25th! He really wants to be baptized so he is progressing to it!

  Elder Ringheim and I have really been able to see a lot of cool miracles this transfer and I am really sad to see him leave but it has been a good time and I got to learn a little bit of Danish but I can not pronounce anything right so it probably will not be much help but it sounds cool! I am really excited to stay here in Victoria! The weather here is Amazing and the people we are working with are doing really good. I just really like being a missionary even though it is easily the hardest thing that I have had to do and it has made me change a lot but it has been a good change and that change really comes from applying the Gospel of Jesus Christ into our lives and seeing the miracles that can happen from it. Sometimes that change is really hard and is something that we do not think we can do and that's probably right if it was just us but its not we have Christ on our side and through Christ anything that we are asked to do can be done! I have learned that personally and am still learning it everyday that I have to go talk to people on the street in Downtown Victoria but some how each day I do it and it is because Christ is there every step of the way through anything!

Love Elder Slack

{4/24/16} I have been able to get out of my comfort zone a lot here

Well another crazy week on the Mish. It has been a pretty crazy week like it always is with transfers. Monday was pretty normal though. We got invited to an empty nesters FHE and had some really good food. I got to say good bye to quite a few of the members in Kelowna and then we went and saw Dez and taught him about the Book of Mormon and really emphasized him reading it to find out for himself and that was pretty much my last night in Kelowna. On Tuesday I left and flew down to Vancouver with Elder McCown, who also got transferred after only one transfer in Kelowna. So we flew down and I got picked up and driven to the ferry but I got there too early so I had to sit outside the ticket office for 20 minutes before I could buy a ticket and wait for the ferry to come and then I took the 2 hour ferry ride to Victoria by myself which was pretty boring but the ferry does have good poutine so that made it ok. It was a pretty uneventful ride except I got to see some killer whales while riding on it so that was pretty cool. Then I finally got to Victoria at 5pm and I met Elder Ringheim there with the Zone leaders and then we got dropped off at the church to go teach a lesson to a guy named Paul who Elder Ringheim has been teaching for the last couple weeks and he wants to be baptized and he comes to church a couple times but just needs to quit smoking which is easier said than done but we were able to make a plan with him so that he could over come it and begin the process to quit. 

   Victoria has been very different from other areas that I have served in, one big difference is that we do not have a car...we just have bus passes so that has made it a lot more interesting but luckily Elder Ringheim knows the bus system pretty good so I rely on him a lot to know what bus we need to catch and when it would get there so that has made it a lot of fun. Also Victoria is a pretty big city and we cover the down town so we get to meet a lot of interesting people here especially when we go to the down town. It has been really fun though a lot of people especially members have gotten a kick out of my last name. Most people think that it is pretty funny  but sometimes we meet people on the street who think that it is my first name so the are usually very confused why someone would name their son Slack but good because it is usually a good conversion starter.

   I have been able to learn a lot here and I have been able to get out of my comfort zone a lot here because everything here is very different than what I am used to and it has caused me to have to do things that I would not be comfortable doing but that is where that growth comes from and I am learning a lot here and relearning a lot here too. Victoria is also a very beautiful place and the weather here is amazing so I am pretty lucky that I got here right before summer! Also a really cool thing is that Elder Bonfield, one of my old companions ,lives in Victoria now so I get to see him quite a bit!

 Well I got to go but....Love you bye!

Elder Slack

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

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

It was really cool because he answered my prayer from a long time ago

Well, this week has been really crazy! A lot because of transfers. Elder Hunter is getting transferred to Powell River and yep that's right, I am getting transferred too, to Kelowna 1st ward. They are going to bring in two new missionaries to replace us so we have had to write a ton of things down that the Elder staying usually knows and it has been really crazy and kind of stressful over the last day. We told the ward council that we were both leaving and they were so shocked that we were both leaving because they have had a ton of missionary changes in the last 6 months so it was a pretty sad day yesterday but everyone was joking that I will be back in a few months so I hope that comes true! So, we spent most of the day yesterday telling people that we were leaving so when the new missionaries come and try to go teach them they won't be confused when two new missionaries come by. I am really sad to have to say good bye to Abbotsford again but lots of the members were telling me that they would see me in a few months so maybe I'll come back before I go home. 

   

   Anyways besides transfers. We were able to stop by to see a former Investigator named Carlos and we set up a time to come by the next day and when we went by he told us he was still a little busy right then so we just talked to him for a minute at his door and told him about the restoration and how that is what we like to share with people and then he invited us in to tell him more and we were able to teach him about the restoration and while I was quoting the first vision he started to cry and after he told us how he felt something and how he wants to start to change his life and to follow Jesus Christ. So we set a baptismal Date with him for March 26th and we told him about the Book of Mormon and he told us how we wanted to buy it and we told him that we would give it to him for free and he told us how he really wanted to read it. It was amazing! It was one of the coolest lessons that I have ever had. It was so cool and we went and stopped by last night and talked to him again and he has been reading a little bit of the Book of Mormon and he said it has helped him especially to overcome some of the challenges he is having.

  This week has been really weird because I really felt like we were both going to leave but earlier this week I was looking at my planner I had right after I left Abby for the first time and I wrote down areas that I wanted to serve in and I wrote down Abbotsford 2nd and I remembered right after I left here the first time I prayed and asked if I could come back here before I went home. It was really crazy because I totally forgot about that and It was really cool because he answered my prayer from a long time ago and I am really glad he did because I have learned so much since I came back here. It has really helped me to grow and to change more into who I need to become. I know this sounds really cheesy but it has really helped me to come back here so I am not just saying this to look cute but this is real! Well, I have to go and pack and clean up our apartment and do some other "fun" stuff.

Love Elder Slack

It is a lot easier to do the hard things that are required of us from our Father in Heaven when we truly love the Lord and love the people that we are serving

This week has been really good! The weather is finally starting to get better, it has been raining less and not as hard so I have been enjoying walking around a lot more than the last couple of weeks. Our teaching pool has been shrinking a little bit just because people are not progressing right now and some of our investigators are out of town for a while and a bunch of other reasons so we have really been trying to focus on find new people to teach and to really share the Gospel with people because we love them and because it truly is something that we love and cherish and something that will help others in their lives. I have found that when I really talk to people and share this unique message that we have out of love and because I love the Lord and the Gospel and want others to have the Joy that I have had come from it that people. It is a lot easier to do the hard things that are required of us from our Father in Heaven when we truly love the Lord and love the people that we are serving. 

   We have had some really cool miracles that happened is that we got some really good referrals from our members! One of our members called us and asked if we had a dinner appointment and invited us over for dinner and one of their friends that just moved into their basement was talking to one of the people that she works with and she was telling him about the church and what she does there and he was asking her why she was so happy and she told him it was because of what she believed and he is really looking for something in his life so she told him about us and how we love to share a message of happiness and she asked if we could come over to tell him more about it and he said we could. So we went over there yesterday and told him about the Atonement and Repentance and how he can find that happiness in his life. We invited him to read the Book of Mormon and he was very eager to read and to see if this is something that can help him in his life. It was so cool and he is someone who is definatly prepared by the Lord to hear the Gospel. His name is Dan.

  Then we got another awesome referral that we are going to see this week. The family that gave it to us, the Adams, told us how they met RJ and he actually came up to them and asked if they where religious because he noticed that they were different and he told them that he is looking for a church and can't seem to find the right one and he wants to learn more about what we believe. 

 It has been such a good week but transfers are next week and we get calls this Saturday so hopefully I can stay in Abby for another transfer. I guess I'll find out this week.

Love Elder Slack

Round 2

Well, this week has been crazy and really weird mostly because I got transferred back to Abbotsford 2nd Ward and they had their Christmas party on Friday so I got to see all the members again and they all kept asking me if there was a reason I was back or if we were on splits or something but I had to tell them that I had been transferred back. They were all saying that I should just call this place home from now on. 

 

  Something else really crazy happened on Friday. So, there were 2 sets of Elders in the Abby 2nd ward and I served in the other one first and one of the other Elders in the other area was supposed to train a new missionary but the new missionary went home in the MTC so that Elder got sent up to Prince George and they closed his area and we took over their area so we are taking care of both areas until next transfer when they re-open the other area. So, I am in exactly the same area I was in 7 months ago. We have been teaching quite a bit and have been seeing a lot of success in the last few days and have been crazy busy trying to combine the two areas. So we have twice as many people to teach right now so it was kind of a blessing to us because our area was pretty slow when I got here but now we are crazy busy.

  I am really glad to be somewhere that I actually know because I really did not want to get transferred 3 weeks before Christmas but it's ok because I got transferred to one of my old areas! One of my favorite areas! This area is so amazing and really takes care of us. It is really crazy because when I left Abbotsford I always wanted to finish my mission here or in Kamloops 2nd and I didn't get to finish my mission but I did get to come back to Abby 2nd Ward so God does really answer prayers and I really can't believe that I got to come back.

 

Well gotta go Love ya Bye!

Love Elder Slack

{Dec 7, 2015} A Night in Bethlehem

Well this was an interesting week with a lot of very funny moments, like yesterday we got to church and figured out that Elder Harris grabbed the wrong suit jacket so he was high priesting it to all of our meetings and to church which was pretty funny at least for me. Lately we have been talking to a lot of people that say they are not religious but they always say Merry Christmas. So, we were at one door and Elder Harris was talking to a lady and she told us that she was not religious even though she had a ton of Christmas decorations on her house and so he went to give her a card and said "we have a really cool video on this website all about Christmas and you don't have to love Jesus to love Christmas" and after the lady shut the door. I just about died laughing so hard but that is how the world seems to be now, that Christmas is just an event and not about anything more than presents and a big man in a red suit.

 

   Besides that we were able to have a really good week. Ken, the guy that Elder Mattingley and I Baptized received the Priesthood and we took him out to a lesson for the first time so that was Awesome! I has been really great to see how much he has grown and changed from this gospel! He is almost a completely different person that when I first met him. We also were able to see our investigators Sabas, who is from Mexico, and we brought a member that speaks Spanish and we taught him about the Book of Mormon. He does not speak very good English but he told our member that he does not understand everything that we say but that he does feel good. We had a very good lesson and our member was able to talk to him a lot about the Book of Mormon and what it was about. He was very excited to read it but he is going back to Mexico for a month and will not be back until January 15th so hopefully Elder Harris will be able to reconnect with him when he gets back.

   Also we got transfer calls on Saturday and I am getting transferred to Abbotsford 2nd ward or I guess I should say I am getting transferred back to the Abbotsford 2nd ward because they have 2 sets of Elders in that ward now. So, I served in Clearbrook and now I am going to the other set of Elders, but they both cover the same area and the same ward so it should be pretty awesome because that ward is really cool and I really like it there.

  This week our ward also had a Christmas activity called A Night in Bethlehem and it was so cool! They decorated the gym to look like Bethlehem with little tents with shops and activities and they had a play of the nativity and it was awesome. It was way better than the standard dinner and it was really centered on Christ and what Christmas is Really about!

Well I have to go Love ya Bye

Love Elder Slack

Mastering the Public Transit System

     Well this week has been a mess! Pretty much all of the people that we are teaching went MIA and we were not able to contact any of them. So, we have been doing a lot of finding to get new people to teach. We spent sometime this week calling through people that previous missionaries  had already talked to and the people gave their number. So we have been calling through  them and have been able to set up quite a few appointments so hopefully this week goes better. 

      Something that happened this last week that I didn't get to tell you was, to start off we are not allowed to drive our car on Saturday so on Saturday the 24th we decided to take a bus up to the church to go to the trunk or treat that they were having and it was quite an experience because I have never really taken public transit and Elder Harris is from Vernal Utah and started his mission in a little town called Smithers so neither of us knew how to use a bus. So we got on after finding the right bus and we were heading up to the church but we didnt know that you need to pull a cord to tell the driver that you want to get off at the next stop so we were waiting for our stop and when we were about to get there the bus just drove by and we ended up getting off at a stop 8 blocks away from the church and had to walk all the way there in the dark on a road that had no side walks; so needless to say that was an experience. But we redeemed ourselves this week when we successfully used the transit system to get to our dinner appointment this last Saturday. So we are pretty much experts at it now. 

       Not too much has happened this week because we have been doing a lot of finding. Oh, but one very unique experience we had on Friday was that we were teaching one of our investigators who lives in an assisted living home because he is paralyzed on his left side. So we where teaching him in a little common area when all the sudden some JW's come and start talking to us and one of them was an old lady and she called us the "devils that call ourselves saints". Elder Harris and I we so dumb founded that we did not know what to do so we said a prayer with him and left because they totally just killed the spirit that was in that lesson. It was crazy. I have never had that happen to me before.

       Anyways I have to go and I am going to say sorry right now because this computer does not have spell check so I don't know how many things I spelled wrong.

 

Love Elder Slack

Another great companion in Brookswood

So, this week has been really crazy and I do not have a lot of time but I got a new companion Elder Harris and he's like 6 foot 5 so I am pretty short compared to him. Brookswood has been really good. We have a few new people to teach this week and we were able to see both of them this week. Their names are Mike and Ray. I'll tell you more about them next week but today has been really crazy and our email time is getting cut short because the library is really busy.

 

The Brookswood Ward has been really awesome! I am really glad that I got to stay here because the ward here is so supportive of us here. Well I am out of time. sorry for the lame email.

Love Elder Slack

Another crazy week in Brookswood

Well we have had another Crazy Week! After Ken got Baptized our teaching pool went down after we reflected some people and some people said they did not want to meet anymore. So we did a ton of finding this week and we actually got 2 new really cool people to teach. One of them was a referral from a member and his name is Ray. He is an ex Jehovah witness and we are not sure why he is not a JW anymore but what really matters is that he wants to learn more about the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints so that is really awesome and he really wants to read the Book of Mormon and he actually has some roommates who are interested in Mormons too and would like to learn more so it looks like the spirit is a real thing and that it does really work on people and the God does really prepare his children, who would've guessed?!

  

  The other new person that we are teaching is Mike. He was given our number by some previous missionaries in Brookswood and he gave us a call a few weeks ago and we finally got to meet him last night and it was so cool. We honestly thought he was not going to be that interested and be one of those people that likes to argue and we were dead wrong. It was such a great lesson and he told us how a lot of things have gone bad in his life recently and how he is really trying to put his life back together and really wants to grow closer to God and it was a super good lesson and we talked a lot about the things that Christ has done for us and how the Gospel and the message we share is meant to bring joy to our lives and we invited him to be baptized and he accepted it!! It was so awesome and the spirit was so strong!

  So this week has been a little harder because we have not been able to do as much teaching, but meeting these two new friends it was all worth it and we are so glad the God has prepared people to accept the message of the restoration and to feel the Joy and happiness that comes from this gospel.

  In knowing that, this should not be a side note but Ken was confirmed yesterday and it was great. After the confirmation he had a huge smile on his face and was just really happy! It was great and Ken is even cooler because he loves baseball and he always tells me what is going on with the post season so I guess we are pretty good friends. 

  Oh and we got transfer calls and I am staying in Brookswood and Elder Mattingley is going to Powell River and my new Companion is Elder Harris and he has been out for 3 months. Well I gotta go so see ya!

Elder Slack

{10/13/15} 2 American missionaries and a Brazilian family celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving in Canada

Well this week was pretty good I guess not much happened except that Ken Got Baptized!! It was so cool and kind of funny because the font would only fill up to knee height so it was pretty interesting because he pretty much had to lay down and then get back up but hey it works. 

  So that was probably the best thing that happened this week and we also have been teaching a kid of a recent convert family that the parents were baptized in March and their son just turned 13 a month ago and they wanted us to teach him before he was baptized and help him understand the importance of baptism and he is going to be baptized next week so that is pretty cool.

  Also yesterday was Canadian Thanksgiving and it was my first because last year I was in the MTC for Thanksgiving. We went to a Brazilian families house for Thanksgiving which is kind of funny because it was 2 American missionaries and a Brazilian family celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving in Canada. 

Also, Next week is transfers and we are pretty sure that one of us will be moving but we don't know who so if I keep my streak going of staying in areas for 2 transfers it will be me but Elder Mattingley has been here for 3 so we don't know. I don't know what else to write because I left my planner at our dinner appointment last night so I can't remember what we did. I guess that's what happens when you get old right?

  Well I'm gonna go

   Love Elder slack

None of the work for salvation we do is about us...it's about helping others.

  Well this week has been a bit of a gong show. It has been really crazy because it has been kind of difficult to meet with some of our investigators; like Sheila and Leaf and Eric but we were able to see Sheila and Eric yesterday when we dropped by and we had a really good lesson with Sheila and figured out some of her concerns about being baptized and are really helping her through them so it was really good to see her again.

    The best thing that has been happening this week is probably that Ken is really progressing and is getting baptized this Sunday!! It has been so cool to see how much he has progressed in the last month since we found him. He came to Conference and really liked it! He is doing so good and really wants to be baptized and really wants to get the Holy Ghost so he can have it to help him in his life. Elder Mattingley and I are just really excited for him!!

  One thing we also figured out is that this transfer is going to be a shorter transfer than normal and will only be 5 weeks so on the 21st will be transfer day so we are not sure who will be leaving but it could be either one of us. Just a heads up. 

Well, I do not have a lot of time to talk about conference because the computer i am using only has 6 minutes on it before it shuts down so I am not sure what my favorite talk was but I really liked Elder Dale G Renlund's testimony and how he said something to the effect that this work is not about me it's about the Lord and Heavenly Fathers children. That really hit me because it's true. None of the work for salvation we do is about us; it's about helping others. That is what Christ did; none of the things he did were ever about him, the healings, the atonement, none of it; it was all for others.

well I have to go

Love Elder Slack

He seems a lot happier and it seems like he is feeling a lot more joy!

So this week has been crazy! Transfers were this week and neither of us got moved but we did have to take our car to the mission office so that we could swap our car with some Elders in Kelowna because we had a Subaru and they had a Cruze but in Kelowna it snows and it doesn't in Langley so they took the all wheel drive car to where it snows and the front wheel drive car where it doesn't snow. So we drove to Richmond on Wednesday and were there for 2 hours waiting for the car to get there and for it to get switched so they know were it is and everything so needless to say it was kind of a mess but it got done.

  So about a week and a half ago we went to the Canada US Border and it was pretty cool; no wall yet but that should be up right after Trump gets in office but for now it's just a ditch, trees and a piller because I guess it is not a big problem. 

We saw In-N-Out up in Canada but it was a 2 1/2 hour wait to get it so we didn't....it was really sad ;)

   Ken is Also is doing awesome! He came to church yesterday and loved it! He was able to meet a lot of members and had a really good time! He has changed so much since we first met him. He seems a lot happier and it seems like he is feeling a lot more joy! He is still on track to be baptized on October 4th still! He is so prepared and very willing to learn more. Sheila has also been doing well. We were able to give her a blessing yesterday because she has been sick for a week and it was really good because she said she felt a lot better. She is progressing really well and just needs to tell her family that she is getting baptized and then she will be baptized!! Another one of our investiagtors is Leaf and we have had a few really good lessons about the spirit and found out when he has felt it which was really good because he says he has never felt it but he has!

We found a free book thing on the side of the street so we put in a Book of Mormon and it was taken a few days later! So thats pretty cool.

Well I have to go love ya Bye!

Love Elder SLack