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

Normal and different at the same time

       Well this week has been pretty, um, I don't know what this week has been like. It has been kind of normal and different at the same time. One of the things that I really love about the Kamloops 2nd ward is they feed us a ton! I know that sounds selfish but honestly if it wasn't for member visits I probably would not get nearly as much healthy food because healthy food is expensive and in Canada everything is even more expensive than normal. We have some really cool members who feed us all the time and it is so nice!

        One of my favorite members is the Brooks Family who are a really old couple but they always give us a ton of food every month and they give us bacon!! which is Amazing!! When we go over there we always have really awesome lessons because Brother Brooks knows a ton and always teaches me something and probably more than we teach him.

        This week has been kind of different because we have been doing a ton of tracting, like 4 to 6 hours a day at least, because we don't have a lot of people to teach but we have found some really cool people that we will be going by to see this week. Our tripanionship has been going a lot better. At first me and Elder Persson did not get along very well but now we are getting on the same page and we are getting along a lot better than we were and we are seeing more success since that. Well, I have to go so, I hope everyone has a great week and that everyone stays warm because its cold here!

Love Elder Slack

"I've also become a chef in the last 4 months as you can see"

Study area (I don't see a picture of his mother anywhere...)

Will and Elder Tolman (apparently Elder Persson doesn't like his picture taken) 

Tracting in Chase

"I'm still an American"

Another "interesting" week in Kamloops

Well, this week has been very interesting. The first few days where normal get stuff on Monday and knocking on D's teaching people and meeting with members, you know, the usual. On New Years Eve we had to be in by 6 and weekly plan until 9. That was really different and we had one of our Zone Leaders Elder Smith with us. 

         Then we had exchanges on Friday.  Elder Tolman and me went with Elder Woolf, who is in Kamloops First ward. This was the beginning of a very different week because in Kamloops first area they have downtown Kamloops and so they go street contacting, which is when you go on a busy street and you just go talk to people basically what you do on the door step except you are walking with them down the street. This is very different from what I am used to because in our area we have no places to go street contacting so we just knock on D's. Street contacting is a whole different animal in that you have less time to teach and to testify so it took some getting used to but eventually I got some what comfortable with it and it was actually pretty successful in that we got quite a few potential investigators from it. Then that day it started to snow and it wasn’t too bad maybe an inch at the most. So exchanges were really good and Elder Woolf is really cool.

         On Saturday we exchanged back and we went and tracted up in a new subdivision and we literally had to hike up a mountain to get there but Elder Kelly insisted on tracting up there so we did and it was pretty cool but the people there where pretty prideful and didn’t want to listen to us. It was stinking cold and windy. 

Tracting in the freezing cold

We found a rooster

We did a lot of service on Saturday for members. We where kind of stuck in at night and had to have members drive us to places after 7 because the roads where so slick. 

         This is where it gets really interesting. On Sunday is was pretty cold and kind of snowy but during church it snowed a ton and we had to go shovel the sidewalks twice because it was snowing so much and then we had to go the hospital to give someone a blessing and it took us almost 40 minutes to get to the hospital and we got stuck like 6 times trying to get up there and had to back up a road because it was too steep for us to get up it. So, after that we got members to drive us everywhere and we walked a little bit but driving was out of the question and the members we went and visited that night told us that it was going to snow until Tuesday and they weren’t lying because when we got up there was 11 inches of snow on the ground and we spent our whole companion study getting the snow off our car. 

Well I have to go because we have to go shopping and one of our members is taking us so we can actually get there. Bye!

Love Elder Slack