Christmas Miracles

     This week was crazy especially with Christmas. Most of our investigators that we are teaching told us to come back after Christmas so we did not have too many lessons this week but we were able to meet with someone that we met a couple weeks ago named Joes and it was a really good lesson. He has been really trying to change his life and to become better and he has been thinking about going back to church. He was a little skeptical about the Book of Mormon but we were able to explain it and told him how we just invite people to read it and to pray to ask God if it is true and he was very willing to find out for himself so it was a really good lesson!

     We were also able to meet with a guy names Matt that the YSA sisters found and he has been really prepared. He recently got into a really bad car accident and knew that he should not be alive but God saved him for some reason so he has recently quite drinking and smoking to change his life for the better and for his kids. It was such a great lesson and we had a great member there who was able to testify about how this message that we share will be able to help him change for the better and help him find true joy in his life. It was such a great lesson and our member gave him a ride and told him about church and Matt was really excited and wanted to come this Sunday! 

   This year we were also not allowed to visit with members all day on Christmas so Elder Hunter and I have some bikes so we took those out for most of the day and did a lot of finding and what was one of the Christmas Miracles was no one yelled at us for knocking on their door on Christmas which was awesome! We also dropped by a less active and he told us how he had called us a few hours ago and we never got a call but we just decided to drop by which was inspired! He told us how every time he needs the missionaries to come by we just show up! Then we were able to teach him and his wife, who is not a member, and had a really good lesson and what was even cooler about it was his wife normally does not sit in on the lesson and then after that we went to a dinner appointment and the member, The Gordon's, had their whole family, who are not members, there and we were able to share a great message about families and how important they are!

   This week has not been normal but has been really cool! Christmas is really different as a missionary but it is really great because all we do is teach about Christ even on Christmas!

Love Elder Slack

Time has come for new shoes

Had an interesting little chat with Will in regards to the 'ton' of snow they got in Abottsford

William Slack
to me

yep they fit really well though and are waterproof! which is nice because it snowed a ton here yesterday during church and when I say a ton I mean like 2-3 inches so not that much.

Christine Slack	Dec 28 (2 days ago)
to William

well, when you grow up in Mesquite, 2-3 inches is a ton

William Slack	Dec 28 (2 days ago)
to me

yeah I know that is why I thought it was a lot and no one else did!

God always blesses us as we do our best and do all that we can, not always in the way that we expect but he always does

 Well this week has been crazy! We have had a ton of people to go by. It snowed here on Thursday and lasted for like 4 hours so it felt like I was back home when we get snow. I was glad because last year the snow was just cold and I thought when I got sent to Abbotsford that I would be free and clear from it but it is also supposed to snow on Christmas Eve so hopefully its not too cold

  This week we went to see an investigator that they were teaching named Nancy and what is really crazy is I remember meeting Nancy when I was here the first time. We have also knocked a lot of places that I knocked when I was also here the first time. One thing that I have really learned is that it does not matter if people have been talked to before or if a street was already knocked, people will be prepared! We have found so many people in places that I have already been. 

  We also had a huge miracle happen on Sunday. We saw a family that we are teaching on Saturday night and they said they were coming to church but they never came but a former and her daughter randomly came to church out of no where. We are now going to start teaching them again! It was so cool because we were supposed to have 4 people come to church but none of the people we had confirmed to come came to church but Laura and her daughter came. God always blesses us as we do our best and do all that we can, not always in the way that we expect but he always does.

Our Christmas Tree

Me and Ross, A member in Brookswood that we would visit every week and read the Book of Mormon with

Me and Elder Haase

   I have really learned a lot on how the Lord works and how the Lord always hastens his work and he will do it through us if we let him!

   Have a Merry Chirstmas and Remember what Christmas is really about!

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

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

{Nov 23, 2015} We have been doing a lot of knocking on doors and talking to people on the streets

So this week has been like the last 4 weeks pretty crazy and never what we plan or expect. We have been able to see a few people but one of our investigators Sheila formered her self because her son is on the run from the cops and she has a lot of family troubles right now so she decided to take a break for now so we have been doing a lot of knocking on doors and talking to people on the streets. 

  Yesterday we found some unique service. We where driving down a street when the car in front of us at a light put its hazards on and some one got out waving us by so we went by and pulled over and came back to help push this car so we pushed it through a red light, luckily no one hit us or it would have been a really bad day, and we had to push it up a hill to get to a side street and then run back to our car and go back to jump it. Needless to say it was a lot of work and dress pants and shoes are not ment for that but luckily we where able to help them out and they where really grateful for it. You know  Mosiah 2:17 must be true because when ever we get to help some out I feel really good and we get to help some of Gods children and maybe hopefully get to soften their hearts. This transfer has been really crazy and kind of hard but it has taught me a lot and has helped me grow as a person. I am so grateful for this experince that Ihave been able to have here in the great white north.Well I dont have too much time right now so I have to go

 

Love Elder Slack

The Biggest Convert on Your Mission is Yourself

Well this week has been really crazy! We have still have been doing a lot of finding recently. One of the Sister missionaries in our ward had to go home because she was really sick and so the other Sister is with some sisters in another ward in Langley but they are covering both areas right now so they asked us if we could start seeing one of their investigators named Barry and he is really cool! He is preparing to be baptized on December 6th and when we were talking to him he told us how much he loved coming to church and the people there and how that was one of the things that he looked forward to the most during the week! It was really to be able to see him and to see how much it has changed his life.

  Before I came up here to BC I did not know how much the Gospel could change peoples lives or how a part of my life it was until I came here and started teaching people who did not have it in their life and seeing it become apart of their life and how much it changed them. I am really grateful for this Gospel and that I was able to come on a mission to really learn what this Gospel is about and how important it is. A great example is I did not know that the spirit could help you in school or that the Atonement not only helps us be forgiven for sins but that it is there to help us in hard times that are not caused by sin or to help us with things that we think are hard like talking to random people. They say that the biggest convert on your mission is your self and thats true. I have been able to learn so much and I have been able to grow my testimony. 

 

 Well I have to go, 

Love Elder Slack