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

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