James was baptized!

     This week was just full of miracles! Well James Goheen was baptized this Friday and was confirmed this Sunday. So that was amazing! I am so grateful that I was able to stay here in Victoria and finish my mission especially so that I could see James get baptized. He has been so solid! The day after his baptism he went and helped the ward weed the church and is going to help a move this Saturday! So he is pretty much become one of the members! He also get interviewed to receive the priesthood yesterday so he is doing pretty awesome!

       I have never noticed, before my mission, how much the Gospel can change someone's life and how powerful it can be. Being a missionary you see that a lot and you make the Gospel the center of your life because all you do is preach the Gospel and everything is focused on that. I guess that is how life should be more or less, in the sense that the Gospel should be the center of our lives. I have seen how when people make it the center how much it changes them and how much joy it brings into their life! I have seen that in my life as well over the past two years and how much the joy the Gospel has brought me and how much it has changed me and molded me more into the disciple that Heavenly Father needs me to be. Now, don't get me wrong I still have a long way to go but the Gospel has helped me so much in my life. I have seen first hand how if you put the Lord first everything else will work out for the better and he will provide a way for all things that we need and will bring joy into our lives. That is what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is meant to do. Bring Joy into our lives that will last forever.  It is not meant to restrict us or make life more difficult but to allow us to have the best experience while we are here preparing to meet God.

  

      I can testify that this Gospel is the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and that this is the way to lasting happiness in anyone's life. I have felt this for myself and have helped others who have been able to experience it as well. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and will strengthen our testimonies of our Saviour and help us to grow closer to him and to learn of what His will is for us. I know that because I have felt and seen it in my own life! 

Love Elder Slack

ps I don't know if I will be able to email next week so this might be the last one, which is kind of sad but it is part of the Plan.

James has really been a miracle in my life and my time here in Victoria!

      Well this week has been really crazy! So James had his baptismal interview on Saturday and passed!!! He is getting baptized this Friday evening!!! So this week has been pretty amazing besides the fact that we still do not have a car and are still waiting on the insurance so that we can take it in to get fixed but we have been able to use the busses here and has reminded me of when I was with Elder Ringheim and we only had bus passes so it has been interesting!

 

     James has been doing really good! He has been clean of smoking for almost two weeks and he has really been changing and seeing the blessings from not smoking. He has been progressing so much and has changed a lot since we started teaching him a couple months ago. We were able to teach him about the priesthood and how he would be able to receive it after his baptism and we brought Bro Miehe and he bore a really powerful testimony of the power of the priesthood and some of the ways that it has blessed him in his life and it was very powerful to see that. I am really grateful for the way that the Victoria 1st ward has been so friendly to the people that we bring to church and really make them feel welcome and from a lot of the investigators that I have taught that is something that many of them have said is they really love the fellowship that our church has and how lots of people in the church seem to be really good friends and are very welcoming of new people. That is huge for someone that is coming to a new place for the first time and have people come up and welcome you and introduce themselves to you it huge! When James first came to church that is the one thing that he said that he liked the most and something that he has not found in other churches that he has been to. James has really been a miracle in my life and my time here in Victoria! It is meeting people like him and being able to teach him that really make everything worth it and really show that all the hard things that we have to do dont really matter and that miracles will come as we do our best and as we just keep pushing forward and do what the Lord asks and expects of us!

      I just want to share something that really stuck out to me in my reading this week! it is in Jarom 1:9 the phrase that really stuck out to me was"inasmuch as ye will keep my commandments ye will prosper in the land" That is a promise that we WILL prosper not that we might or probably but that we will. We do not know when the prosper will come or how it will come but it will come in the exact way that we needed it. I have truly learned that the Lord is mindful of each and everyone of us and are unique situations and will be there to help us prosper in the land as we keep his commandments and do all that he has asked of us!

Love Elder Slack

I know with out a doubt that It has been because of my Saviour that I have been able to accomplish all that he has called me to do

   Well, this week has pretty much been full of Miracles! We were able to see so much progress with the people that we are teaching this week especially James and Ryan. Elder Chirstiansen and I have been working really hard and have seen so many miracles this last week!

   So, we texted Ryan on Wednesday to follow up and see how his smoking was and he told us that he quit on Monday and I just about jumped through the car roof! It was such a miracle and he has been doing so good with it sense and is working towards the 25th of this month to be baptized and he is doing so good! Then James has been doing so good as well he quite this week and is also preparing for the 25th of September to be baptized as well and it looks like it is going to be a double baptism that week! We have been able to see the miracle of the Gospel and how much it can change peoples lives! Especially Ryan who is pretty much a different person that when I first met him 4 months ago and it has been such a testimony to me of how powerful the Gospel and how we can truly change completely because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and it can be instant as well we do not need to wait a specified time for the Atonement to kick in but it can be instant and eternal! 

     That is something that I will never forget is how much the Atonement can help us if we allow it to. I never knew that it could help me talk to people and overcome that fear I had. It has not been easy but I know with out a doubt that It has been because of my Saviour that I have been able to accomplish all that he has called me to do here in British Columbia.

Love Elder Slack

I have been able to learn so much from the Book of Mormon and it is something that has changed my life forever

    Well, the weather has taken a turn for the wetter and it has cooled off a lot. It has been any where from 16-21 degrees (Celsius) all week! This week has also been a lot of fun too! Elder Christiansen and I really get along well and have been having a lot of fun together but still do get missionary work done. We were able to teach Axcel who is 15 and his mom is a member but he was never Baptized so we have been working with him over the last 4 weeks and he has come to church the last 3 weeks and he has made some good friends in the young mens too. We went over to have dinner with them this last Tuesday and had a really good lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we were able to set a baptismal date with him for October 8th and it was so good because since he has been coming to church and the young men have befriended him he has liked coming to church a lot more.  He is one of the only people that we are teaching that does not have a commandment problem so we are really trying to focus on helping him to read and pray daily  to help strengthen his testimony.

     We were also able to teach James a couple times this week and he is doing so good! He is not going to get baptized this weekend but on the 25th he will be! He quit smoking and we are going to help him prepare to be baptized and he is doing so well! He has been reading from the Book of Mormon every day and has been coming to church every week so he is way solid and is really progressing a ton and has really been a miracle!

     We have also been able to see a lot of our other investigators and Elder Chirstiansen has been picking up everything really good. One thing he is still holding on to is that he really likes to use puns, and not very good ones at that ;),  so we'll see if that goes but for now he is still going strong. This week has been really good and reading the Book of Mormon has been awesome! I am even learning things from the Isaiah Chapters which I usually never do. One thing that really stuck out to me is in 2 Nephi 16:8-12. It is like a conversation Isaiah has with the Lord and the Lord asks who he will send to go for him and Isaiah responds to send him and so the Lord tells him essentially to preach the Gospel and then Isaiah ask how long he wants him to do it for and the Lord tells him to do it until the cities waste away which I think is like his way of saying forever. It really hit me because I will not be a missionary forever but I have been called and we all have and it does not end when the badge is off or the church clothes are hung up but we are called forever and always to share the Gospel. I have been able to learn so much from the Book of Mormon and it is something that has changed my life forever and I hope I will continue to let it do that forever!

Love Elder Slack

The Missionary Power of Music

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