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 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

We have seen so much success this week

Well This week has been awesome! We have seen so much success this week because Elder Mattingley & I have been trying to improve some things that we are not that good at like using our phone to call people and set up lessons with our investigators and it has worked really well. We have been able set up a lot more lessons this week and have been able to make some really good progress with some of our investigators. 

 

  We were able to see Sheila a few times this week and had some really good lessons with her about the Plan of Savation and about the importance of Church. She came to church this week!! Our lesson that we taught about the Plan of Salvation was awesome! She had her sister and it was very good. She is very close to being baptized because she has learned everything already but we are just trying to help her feel the spirit and regularly read the book of Mormon. 

 

 We also found a new investigator named Ken and he is really cool. He has had a lot of stuggles in his life but he told us how he has met missionaries before and gave them his info but they never showed up again. So it was really cool to see how prepared he is and how he just absorbs info. It was also really cool because one of the things that he really likes was that we can trace our authority back to Christ.

 

 Sorry I don't have a lot of time but this week has been really good.

 

Love Elder Slack

Have a very merry CHRISTmas and remember what CHRISTmas is really about!

This week was pretty sweet and a little disappointing when I found out that my sister got an iPhone 5 when I specifically asked for her not to get one until she was 16 so I have really realized how unfair life is this week because of that ;)

           Besides that this week was really awesome! Monday was pretty hectic because we had to go to about a million different stores to buy things and to get Christmas presents for people so it was petty crazy but we finally got everything done and went to a dinner appointment with Bishop S’s family and unexpectedly Blaine, the bishops son, had his girlfriend over, who is not a member, and so we had a really awesome lesson with her and the family. Overall we have been really blessed with lessons and having members at the lessons. This week we had 11 lessons with investigators and had members with us which is the most I have ever had and at least 4 of those were unexpected, like, we just went to a members house for a visit and they had a non member there. We have had a lot of unexpected blessing come to us.

           Actually we went out on Tuesday night to go visit some investigators and the lessons fell through so we just quickly went to another investigators house, Joey if anyone remembers Joey, and we really haven’t visited with Joey too much after he told us he didn’t want to be baptized and felt he didn't really need to meet with us anymore. We went over there and taught a really good lesson about the Book of Mormon and he told us that he has really felt lost recently so we taught how the Book of Mormon and prayer are amazing ways to find answers and to help us with difficult decisions in our lives. He seemed to be really open to meeting with us again and we committed him to start reading the Book of Mormon.

           Probably the coolest thing that happened this week was on Thursday morning. We went to the Church to weekly plan. When we got there the parking lot was full of cars and we couldn’t figure out why until Elder Kelly asked what was going on and we found out that there was a Christmas Concert going on at the school across the street. So we went inside and Elder Kelly received divine revelation that we should go buy hot chocolate and make it then we should hand out hot chocolate to the people when the concert is over so that is what we did. We called the Kamloops 1^st Elders to help us and they came over and we went ant talked to a bunch of people as they where going back to their car and handed out a ton of cards and pamphlets to people but sadly not many people took the hot chocolate so he have like 3 gallons of hot chocolate left in our Fridge but that doesn’t matter because we talked to a lot of people and that is all we really wanted to accomplish. It was really cool and pretty successful. Then on Friday we got a referral!! From someone who went to Mormon.org and requested us to come over and visit them and sadly we have not gotten over there yet but it is so cool to actually get someone to come to us and tell us they want us to come to them. 

           One thing I have really seen this last week is how The Lord is hastening his work and it’s going to happened whether we do anything or not. There are people who are out there who are ready to hear the gospel and they are waiting for us. They may not be waiting for 2 teenage boys to knock on their door but they may be waiting for their friend to talk to them. It is not just missionaries who are helping them hasten His work but it is the members who are also a huge part of it. Even though missionaries do it full time for 2 years, there are people who won’t listen to missionaries but they will listen to their friends. So have a very merry CHRISTmas and remember what CHRISTmas is really about.

If you didn’t know I actually get to Skype home on Christmas because our mission president is Awesome!! We don’t have to be old school and call which is Awesome!! Anyways...

Love Elder Slack

​Elder Kelly's sister sent us some really "fresh" pillow cases

One of our Christmas trees with our presents

Our sweet District!!

Me Elder Woolf, Hawkes, Walker, Tolman, Esrich,and Kelly!

​My "fresh" (I see a pattern here...new word??) new hat. I feel I have really adapted to Canada very well.