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.

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

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

{7/11/16} Final Farewell to Elder Kelly

This week has been really different from most in Victoria but still really good! Saturday was transfer calls and both Elder Cowley and I are staying here in Victoria. Which I am really excited about because we have some really good Investigators that we are working with and I really did not want to leave. We were not able to teach as many of our investigators this week but we where able to set up quite a bit of lessons for next week.

  Ryan is still doing really well and is progressing towards his Baptism in July! He came to church yesterday and brought one of his friends with him so it was really sweet! He is already doing missionary work even before his Baptism. We also had a lesson in priesthood about the Temple and about how important is is and we told Ryan a little more about the temple because he was pretty confused and we told him that our hope is and what we want to prepare him for is to not only to get baptized but to also go to the temple and he told us how he wanted to make that a goal to go to the temple after he is baptized! He is so awesome and has changed so much since when I first met him. The Gospel has truly changed him for the better and has seen how much joy it has brought him! I am really excited to be here for his baptism and it is going to be so Cool!

  We also have found some new investigators that we are working with and we have a lesson with a family that Elder Cowley and I found at the beginning of last month but they went out of town for the month and just got back so we are going to be seeing them this week and they are really cool! We met that dad and his name is Kyle and when we first met him he told us how he was really interested in what we believed and they just started to go to a new church but are not too sure if they want to stay there so we hopefully can get them to come to ours! We also have a guy named Doug that has met with Missionaries a few years ago and we just re connected with him and since we first saw him a couple of weeks ago he has read all of first and second Nephi and told us how much he has enjoyed reading the Book of Mormon and feels that he has received an Answer that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God! It was really cool and he is really been prepared since the last time that he met missionaries!

  The last eventful thing that is happening is the Elder Kelly is going home! This is his last couple of days in the Canada Vancouver Mission. If you do not know, Elder Kelly was my trainer and we were together 21 months ago! It is crazy to think that it has been that long since I got to Canada! It has been Amazing and I am really glad that I still have 3 months left to serve the people here in BC!

Elder Kelly and Will

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

Coolest experience of my mission to see how big of a help members are to this work

     This week has been really amazing and as you can see by the subject line, which I usually never use, but I felt it was appropriate for this occasion. So I will start this story with last Sunday. So we went to visit a couple, The Merretts, and we followed up on someone that they had talked about at a cottage meeting we had my first Sunday here where they talked about a guy in their building named Peter. They told us how they had been talking to Peter and had told him a little about the church; about how they just returned from a mission in England. As we were talking to them and how they could help Peter more they told us how they had planned to have us over for dinner the next Sunday; so they told us that they would invite Peter to come as well and they did!! On Sunday we went over for dinner and Peter and his wife came and we were able to talk a lot about the church and what we believe and what we, as missionaries, do and it was great! At the end of the meeting Brother Merrett asked if we could come visit them again and they said yes so we got their phone number and are going to be seeing them this week or next week! It was one of the coolest experience that I have had on my mission and to see how big of a help members are to this work because they know people and talk to people that we never could as missionaries and people can see members and see how they are just normal people. It also helped me see that I need to do that when I get home, to continue to be a missionary even though I do not have the nametag anymore.

      We have also been working with a guy named Ryan and we have seen him four or five times and he has been coming to church and is really solid! We saw him on Thursday and we had planned to teach him about the word of wisdom and before we started to do anything he asked about the word of wisdom because he had heard about it a little bit at church and from members so we were able to teach him the word of wisdom and he took it so well! He told us how the blessings that come from the word of wisdom are exactly what he wants and he has already been trying to cut down on smoking and in the last 2 weeks he has gone from forty cigarettes a day to ten a day which is amazing especially for not even knowing about the word of wisdom! It was so amazing to see how prepared he is and how much he has changed by himself because he is reading the Book of Mormon daily and comes to church almost every week! He has changed so much since we have been meeting with him and it mostly has come from himself applying what he has been learning, which is something that we should all be doing. He has told us that he does want to be baptized and that he feels that this is where Gods is telling him to be and he has such a good testimony of the Book of Mormon so once he quits smoking he wants to be baptized! Also he was member referral from someone in the YSA so yeah member work is the way to go!

        We were able to teach quite a bit this week and have been seeing a lot of success and a lot of progression from the people that we are working with! Being on a mission has been a pretty amazing experience and I am very grateful that I still have some time to be here in Canada eh! I have really learned that as we share the Gospel our testimony grows and as we learn more about the gospel and apply it our desire to share the Gospel will increase!

Love Elder Slack

Sometimes we like to just have some poutine :)

Elder Ringheim is a pretty great cook! 

Look at our sweet new Car! runs pretty good:)

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

Miracles still do exist as long as we have faith

Well, this week was really good and a lot less stressful than last week because I am finally starting to figure out the bus system here and District Meeting went well and our investigators are starting to get back to us so this week which was really good! 

         To start off the week we got to see Khaled on Monday and teach him more about the Book of Mormon and then we got to see him on Thursday and give him a church tour and show him the restoration and while we were teaching him we asked him why he continues to meet with us, because he does read a little bit but he never seems to be fully engaged in the few lessons that we have had with him. He told us that he is trying to make friends since he is new to Victoria. So, sadly it turns out that he is not very interested in learning more but just wants to meet new people and make friends so we invited him to some of the activities that the church is putting on but we probably will not be teaching him anymore. 

         We had a really cool miracle happen this week too! While the sisters in our ward where contacting in a park they met this guy Tim, who they were prompted to go talk to, and as they did they told him as missionaries that we teach people lessons and so he told them that he would be interested in hearing one of their lessons. So they taught him the restoration in the park and gave him a Book of Mormon! That night they gave us his number and we called him the next day and were able to see him that day! We gave him a church tour and shared more about the Book of Mormon. It was such a good lesson and he told us how recently he has felt like there was something missing in his life and very recently he has felt that thing is God so he was thinking about getting God more in his life and then the sisters met him and he believes that was a sign that he should look into this path to see if it is the right one. He told us how if we would have met him just a couple months ago he probably would have never met with us but because of what has happened in his life it has prepared him to be open and willing to search for God! It was such a good lesson and it is amazing to see how God prepares his children to hear the restored Gospel and how he softens people’s hearts!

         We were also able to go see a part member family where the two boys in the family are baptized but their mom is not because she has not been able to give up smoking. They used to be pretty regular at church but for the last while they have not been coming so we went and saw them on Saturday night and they came to church on Sunday! We also had a less active member, Matti, come to church with his son Cameron and they came all by their self. It was awesome because Cameron is 10 and has not been baptized so we have been trying to get in to meet with them and they just randomly showed up to church! So Miracles still do exist as long as we have faith.

  This week has been really good and we have been able to see a lot of great things happen in our area! It also does not help that Victoria is beautiful and the weather here is amazing! Especially with the breeze off the Ocean! Pretty amazing place to be in the summer!

Love Elder Slack

Last look of Kelowna before leaving for Victoria

Will in Kelowna

Will & Elder Frye before Will leaves for Victoria

Legislative Building in Victoria (capitol of BC)

Will & his new companion Elder Ringheim in front of the Legislative Bldg in Victoria

Views from James Bay