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 Lord promises to bless us and take care of us as we put him first and show our faith!

    Well, this has been a pretty eventful week with a lot of up's and some down's but to just let everyone know I have two new companions now - Elder Flood and Elder Evans because Elder Cowley went home. Not anything that he did wrong or anything he did not clear up before his mission but he was really struggling with his anxiety and it was really starting to effect him in the work and all aspects so he decided to go home to sort it out and plans on coming back. So, it has been an interesting last couple days sorting everything out and figuring out what I am going to be doing for the last 3 weeks of the transfer but it looks like I will be staying in Victoria with YSA Elders who pretty much cover the same area as me so it should work out good!

    

     So this week has been a little crazy to say the least but I am glad that we can just get back to a normal week! We did have some really cool things happen this week though! We found a new investigator named Jasem, he is from Iran, he has been here for a couple years and is a neuro scientist I think I talked about how we found him last week so if you remember back that far you will remember how awesome Jasem is! We were able to teach him a couple of times this week and it was really good but very different because he has no knowledge of Christianity at all so we have had to keep it pretty basic with him but he is very interested in it because he did not agree with many of the teachings that he grew up with and really wanted to learn more about Christ and then he ran into us so pretty much a miracle! We had some really good questions and things that he was wondering if we believed and pretty much everything he asked can be answered by the lessons we teach as missionaries. So he is doing really well and the rest of his family is moving over to Victoria this week so he wants us to meet his wife too! so that was pretty cool! We also found a couple this week too, named Farie and Fahrac (fa-rock) who are Ba hi but are really open to learning and listening and they have met missionaries before so they new a little bit but we where able to teach the restoration to them and they actually knew quite a bit of it and  want to learn more so we will see how that goes.

    Victoria has been amazing and it looks pretty likely that I will be finishing my mission here which I am not upset with at all! I have been able to learn a lot here just all of my areas but here in Victoria I have realized how little time we truly have our missions and how as we put Heavenly Father and what he has asked us to do first then everything will all workout and I guess it is a little easier on a mission but that is a principal that is applicable to everyone. What ever assignment we have been given. The Lord promises to bless us and take care of us as we put him first and show our faith! As we truly trust and Believe what we know to be true. As we believe the Lord when he says "I am bound when you do what I say but when you do not what I say ye have no promise" He is bound to bless us as we are obedient and fulfill and magnify our callings. He has to do it because he is bound to do what he says or he would cease to be God so its a pretty safe bet that he hold his end of the bargain as we do ours. I know, Believe and can testify that this is true that the Lord wants us to be blessed. He wants nothing more than to see us full of joy and happiness and that will happen as we put him first and do the things that will not only bless us but others as well through our service!

Love Elder Slack

The X Men Castle - it is the castle they used in the Xmen movie The new Squad!

New Companions Elder Flood and Elder Evans - a tripanionship once more

We did not even plan to be downtown at that time but we felt that we should go there

   This week was not quite the same as the previous. We where not able to see many of our investigators this week but we where still able to see Ryan and he is doing so good! We were also able to find some really cool potentials that we are going to be teaching this week!

    Ryan is still doing amazing and is still changing a ton! He set a goal to be fully clean by Sunday so we are really praying for him that he can do it! We had a really good lesson this week with him and we taught him about the temple and how we want to not only to be baptized but to also continue on and prepare to go to the temple and it was such a good lesson and he told us how he wants to do that and make it a goal and how he wants to be married and sealed there! It was so Legit!!! He has such a good testimony of the Gospel and how it can change peoples lives! He even brought his cousin to church yesterday! He is pretty much doing everything a member does except he is not baptized but he is a great missionary and pretty much the coolest thing since sliced bread. He is preparing to be baptized in August so I hope that I am still here when he does!

  We also went on an exchange with the YSA Elders this week and I was with Elder Evans in their area and We were in Downtown Victoria and while I was talking to someone another guy came up behind me and just stood there until I finished my conversation and then he just asked me what I was doing so I told him how I was a missionary and how we share a message of Jesus Chirst and then he told me how he wanted to learn more about Jesus Christ and that he had tried to contact a Catholic priest but he never got back to him and then someone told him that "those guys who walk around downtown in white shirts and ties teach people". He said that he did not believe the guy that told him it so he came to see if we really do that and once he saw that is what we were doing he came up and started to talk to me. It was so cool because before this we had been walking around for 35 minutes and had no luck and we did not even plan to be downtown at that time but we felt that we should go there and it was a Miracle! His name is Jasam and he is from Iran and we are going to see him tonight!

Well that is all the time I have but Victoria is about the most beautiful place in BC and I am really loving it here sooo talk to you next week!

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

Share the Gift

     This week has been a really good one! We have been working with Ryan and he is making some really good progress and he is continuing to move forward to his baptismal date of July 22nd. We were able to teach him the law of tithing and he told us how he did not like giving his money to churches but that this church is different and that he would live the law of tithing and that he wanted to pay his tithing from when he first started to come to church six weeks ago! We have seen so much progress with him and he is doing so well! He really is becoming converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is gaining a strong testimony of the restored Gospel! He is so solid and it is just another testimony of member work because he was brought to church by a friend and he had talked to missionaries before and they had invited him to church but he never came but since his friend brought him to church and it was someone he knew it was different and since then he has been progressing so much and has been doing so good!

      Elder Cowley and I have been able to do a lot of teaching this week and have been able to see some really cool miracles this week one with that referral from the Merretts and we were finally able to see him this week! His name is Peter and he is so Cool! He used to be a financier for the Canadian Government and used to travel all over the world with the Prime Minster and finance projects that they were doing. Anyways he has been retired for a few years because he is confined to a wheel chair and could not travel anymore but when we met with him he told us how he had met a lot of members of our church and he had always been impressed by how we live and how we seem to be good people. He really wanted to know why, so we told him about how we follow the example of Jesus Christ and believe in living what we preach and how we believe it is very important to live the life that we learn about. He is very interested because he grew up Catholic but left it because they told him how asking questions was bad and they would not answer the questions he had but he does still have that belief in Christ and God. He is very interested in learning more and finding out for himself. 

      It is really cool to see how people seem to notice what we do and how we as members do live our lives and that is definitely doing missionary work but if no one would have talked to Peter that work might not have yielded all the fruit it could have. I have seen a lot how important it is not only to live what we teach and doing our best because we will not be perfect and then talking to people and trying to share the Gospel in any way we can, not being crazy weird or pushy, but just sharing what we know has changed and blessed our lives, kind of like how we tell people about a good movie or a good place to eat!

  Well I gotta go so talk you next week!!

Love Elder Slack