God works in mysterious ways

     Well this week has been really awesome!! Some really crazy things have happened this week like on Thursday night we just got done with our correlation meeting at the church and when we are just about to leave these 4 East Indian foreign exchange university students walk in and ask if they can have a church tour, so we said of course and we showed them around and gave them our number and they said they would call us back. Then on Friday we were out and we dropped by a person who had told previous missionaries that they could come back and so we went and knocked on the house and the lady that answered said that the person we were looking for moved but then told us we could come back because she was interested in learning about our church because her biological family was Mormon, so we set up a time to come back later that day and had a really awesome lesson. So needless to say we saw some pretty awesome Miracles this week!

     One of the people that we have been working with is Garry and we have been seeing him a lot this transfer. We have really been trying to help him to progress and quit smoking because he has told us several times that he wants to get baptized but he can’t because he still smokes but over the last few weeks he has been really cutting back. So yesterday I fasted that he would be able to over come his smoking addiction and last night we went over to see him and he told us that he had tried smoking but only smoked half a cigarette because it was making him sick. You know what they say God works in mysteries ways. It was so awesome to see him and he is truly progressing and has a strong desire to get baptized. So we set a date for him to be baptized on June 6th and it really looks like he is going to make it.

     One of the other really solid people that we have been working with is Katrina. We met Katrina at the beginning of the transfer and invited her to General Conference and she came but right after that her mom passed away and she was really busy planning the funeral and had a lot on her plate but a few weeks ago she texted us out of the blue and asked when church was so we told her and she came last week! At church yesterday she told us how she found a Book of Mormon 30 day study challenge. So that is insane! She is so awesome and has been prepared by the Lord to hear the Gospel. 

      One of the things that I have really learned on my mission is that it’s not me and my companion that convert people, it’s not us that prepare people but it’s the Lord. Yes, we do teach people and we do help prepare people but it’s someone much bigger than us that brings people to the Gospel. I have loved my mission and have really learned a lot and am really excited to continue on and learn a lot more. 

      I am so grateful for this gospel and for what it has done for me. I am extremely grateful my Savior for giving me the opportunity to share his gospel with others and for giving me the opportunity to choose to live with God again. I know he lives and I know that he is always there for us no matter what we are going through. I know he loves all of us. 

Love Elder Slack

This week has been awesome!

So I don't have a lot of time to write but this Week has been Awesome and has felt a lot easier than the first few days. Mostly we have been meeting with a lot of members to build that relationship of trust with them because apparently the missionaries of a few months ago didn't have a very good relationship with the members and offended them so we have been really  trying to build that relationship that the members have with the missionaries. It has been really great and the ward here really loves Elder Kelly and a lot of the members really like him since he has been here and so it has been really awesome in Kamloops. Except the weather has been getting really cold the last few days and I have been freezing so I am always wearing a jacket and when we go to members homes they always say how nice the weather is and I'm there freezing and thinking how cold it is and whats even worse is that they are saying that it is really warm for this time of year so that means its going to get even colder and its been like 1-3 degrees celsius and tops 5-6 and they say it usually  gets to around -10 to -20 degrees celsius so hopefully I can stay warm and not die, but overall it has been great. We have been teaching a lot of investigators and we have one with a baptismal date on the 15th of November and one other who is just about ready to set a day and then we have a few others who are progressing but not far enough to think about that yet and then we have a few who are not progressing at all. I actually got to go on splits with one of the members of the elders quorum and to teach a investigator named Jason. I was pretty nervous because I had to take the lead, but it was so awesome. We read Ether 12 with him (if your reading this and havent read Ether 12 in a while READ IT!!) It was really awesome and we talked about faith and how we don't need to have that perfect knowledge of things but that we need to have faith in Christ and he will give us that knowledge of what we want to know after the trial of our faith. He really seemed interested. We had the Zone leaders with us on Saturday and our Zone leaders are way cool! Elder Smith and Elder Kennedy - Elder Smith is from Alpine Utah and Elder Kennedy is from Holiday Utah and he has a full ride scholarship to BYU for basketball, but what's really funny about them is Elder Kennedy is 6'10" and Elder Smith is 5'9" so they are very different and look very different but they are really cool and very funny. We went out on Saturday and went and raked peoples yards to try to find new investigators with Elder Smith and the Sisters- Sister Black and Sister Ditto, but it went really good, people seemed to be more receptive to listening when we were doing yard work for them. One thing that I have found out is really Awesome is the Book of Mormon and the New Testament and Jesus the Christ. Since we have an hour study time I have had the opportunity to read all of these and I always seem to find new things that can help me and apply to what I am going through. One thing I realized and gaind a testimony of is fasting, because before, even a few days ago I did not really like to fast but after I read in Mathew about Jesus fasting and why he fasted, how he need to become closer to his Father in Heaven and he was perfect in every way and he still needed to fast to get closer to God; how important is it that we fast and how we need to get closer to God because we obviously are not perfect or even close to what Christ was then it just shows how much more important it is for us to fast and with a purpose and to do it happily. I also realized how much I took my Family for granted and how much I miss them when we watched the primary program and it was all about family and how important they are and maybe not even blood family or relatives but even friends and our church family that they are given and ordained by God to bless and help us over come trials and difficulties of life. I Know that the Book of Mormon is the Keystone of our religion and that it does testify of Christ and how important he is in our lives and how he will help us overcome anything and I have seen that since I have been out here how he does what D&C 84:85 promises us. One of my favorite quotes ( this my not be the exact quote of if its even a quote at allo) To Christ we are nothing (??) but with Christ we are everything. We can do anything if we have faith in Christ and if we build our foundation on Christ we can not be moved  ( Helaman 5:12) Well I have to go hope everything is going well.

Love Elder Slack