Welcome to Elder Cowley...fresh from the factory :)

     This Week can only be described in two words... Gong Show...yep that pretty much sums it up of how today went. So, Tuesday and Wednesday I was with the YSA Zone Leaders because I had to wait until Thursday to go pick up my new companion in Richmond. So those two days were pretty interesting and a lot of driving because we had to go pick people up from the ferries a couple of times then finally on Wednesday night I ferried to Richmond by myself again but this time when I got off the Ferry no one was there to pick me up so it was pretty interesting when I got there but luckily a few minutes later one of the senior couples that works in the office showed up to pick me up thankfully and so that night I stayed with like 3 other Elders that were training too. 

     On Thursday I finally got to figure out who my new companion would be. Just because I am really lucky I was the last name to be called to say who my new companion would be so I guess that Heavenly Father is trying to teach me patience but my new companion is Elder Cowley and he is from Orem, Utah. Members think it's really funny when a missionary comes from Utah and always call it the Factory so Elder Cowley has gotten quite a bit of that. Another amazing thing that happened at Transfer Meeting was that we finally got a Car!! So no more buses, well not all the time because we still have bus passes but a car will make it a lot more convenient to get to places and we do not always have to rely on the not so reliable BC Transit. After Transfer Meeting it was just really crazy because we had to take 3 boxes of supplies and mail and a vacuum and Elder Cowleys bags with us to Victoria in the car so after some really intense tetris we got everything to fit in our little Cruze but then we had to figure out how to get to the Ferries in rush hour traffic with was pretty interesting; took for ever and we got to the ferries 20 minutes before it left and got on so we were pretty lucky so we did not get back to Victoria till 6:45.

     So, needless to say we did not do too much teaching this week.We were able to see our investigator Mike who has been taught by missionaries for about six months now and the only thing that is holding him back is that he is living with his girlfriend and can't find a place to move to. Elder Ringheim had been praying for a place to open up that he could move to and found out that it would be a miracle if he found another place in lower Victoria so that is what we prayed for for a long time and then...We had a miracle happen on Friday, we found out that one of our members is moving to Vancouver and wants to sublet her apartment out to someone from the church so we have been getting the info and told Mike about it and found out its only 10 minutes from where he lives now and the price is the same as what he pays for his current place and it's bigger! So it sounds really promising and like it could really happen!!! It was a huge testimony builder that Heavenly Father does answer prayers and that he does not do it in our time table but he does it when it needs to happen. We are really excited to get this moving forward and we have a really good member couple helping us out with it who really want to help Mike get baptized too! 

   

   This week has been really good and it shows me just like every other week why I am serving a mission and why I want to continue to serve and serve even after I leave BC. This work is so true and it is real and Heavenly Father really does lead it and it will succeed as we do what he asks! It helps us just as much as it helps those that we are working with!

Love Elder Slack

Will and his new companion Elder Cowley

New missionaries and their trainers luncheon

{Nov 23, 2015} We have been doing a lot of knocking on doors and talking to people on the streets

So this week has been like the last 4 weeks pretty crazy and never what we plan or expect. We have been able to see a few people but one of our investigators Sheila formered her self because her son is on the run from the cops and she has a lot of family troubles right now so she decided to take a break for now so we have been doing a lot of knocking on doors and talking to people on the streets. 

  Yesterday we found some unique service. We where driving down a street when the car in front of us at a light put its hazards on and some one got out waving us by so we went by and pulled over and came back to help push this car so we pushed it through a red light, luckily no one hit us or it would have been a really bad day, and we had to push it up a hill to get to a side street and then run back to our car and go back to jump it. Needless to say it was a lot of work and dress pants and shoes are not ment for that but luckily we where able to help them out and they where really grateful for it. You know  Mosiah 2:17 must be true because when ever we get to help some out I feel really good and we get to help some of Gods children and maybe hopefully get to soften their hearts. This transfer has been really crazy and kind of hard but it has taught me a lot and has helped me grow as a person. I am so grateful for this experince that Ihave been able to have here in the great white north.Well I dont have too much time right now so I have to go

 

Love Elder Slack

Who would have thought that you could get so much out of a book.

This few weeks has been crazy! We finally got our bed bug problem fixed for good on Friday and we got new mattresses which was awesome because my last one was pretty much a board or that's what it felt like and Elder Mattingley's box spring was broken so his bed looked like a U, well kind of.

  Then there was a huge wind storm in the Lower Mainland and it knock out most of the power here in Langley except for downtown which is luckily where we live so we had power but most of our ward did not so it was pretty crazy! There was a ton of trees that fell down on to the roads and a huge tree fell pretty close to the church. So we spent sometime raking up leaves and helping people fix up the mess. Because of the power outage we had Sacrament in the dark, skipped Sunday school and combined Priesthood and Relief society outside. It was pretty cool and a lot of fun.

 

  Last week Elder Johnson of the first Qumran of the seventy come and talked to all the ward councils and the missionaries about how to help the members remember that we are all full time missionaries. When we are Baptized we are commanded to preach the Gospel and whether we where a black name tag or not. The only difference between set apart missionaries and members is how we do the work. set apart missionaries go out and knock on doors and talk to people on the street and go to peoples homes to teach them but members can do it in a very similar way by talking to people and their friends. Not just about the gospel but about them. Elder Johnson talked about how if we just go and talk to people and to our friends and really get to know them and care about them we shouldn't worry about sharing the gospel or how we will tie the gospel into the conversation because it will just happen. It was a great meeting and it is really how us as missionaries with name tags are trying to do it as well by talking to people and getting to know them and to just wait for a time when the Lord will fill our mouths with what he wants us to say.

 This week was a little harder because lots of our investigators have been out of town or busy with things and we have not been able to see them but we were able to see Leaf this week and we had 2 really good lessons with him and we are trying to help him recognize the spirit and to help him receive and recognize the answers that God is giving him. He is very cool and is really wanting to know what God wants him to do. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying so we are really excited to see how he progresses and recognizes his answer. If there has been one thing I have learned it is that the Book of Mormon can change lives. I have seen it change my own life and the lives of others. That is the other thing, I finally finished the Book of Mormon! for the second time on my mission and it was awesome and I feel like every time I read it i get just as much out of it as I did the last time. The Book of Mormon is awesome and I never thought I would ever love it or enjoy reading it like I do now. Who would have thought that you could get so much out of a book? It's almost like it was inspired revelation from God sent here for us in this day!

Love Elder Slack

One of our investigators Sheila has a farm and we went out and picked some corn! And she let us keep it!

"Miracles do not produce Faith, Strong Faith is developed by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ"

     Well this week has been really uneventful mostly because we had to stay inside from Monday to Thursday because Elder Boehmer was sick and he got me sick to so we were not able to go out and work so it was really boring but we did get our apartment really clean and were able to contact a lot of former investigators and set up lessons with them so it was not a complete waste but we didn't get much done while we were in the apartment for most of the week. 

      On Friday we finally got out of our apartment and did something. We actually helped one of our members build a deck for a less active member so that was pretty awesome and it was a lot of fun. It was also really good to get out of the apartment and do something and then we went to Dairy Queen for dinner because we were tired of our apartment and Elder Boehmer bought an ice cream cake for no reason except he wanted one so that was really random and kind of funny. 

Then on Saturday we planned for our next week with our Zone Leaders and it was really good. Our planners are so full with what we are going to do this week and I am really excited to get out and have a full week again.

      While I was studying I was reading lesson 3 and reading about Faith so I went to the Bible Dictionary and read the definition on faith. One of the things that really stuck out to me was one line "Miracles do not produce Faith, Strong Faith is developed by obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ". This really stuck out to me because I have always wondered why people like Lamen and Lemual never became fully converted even though they had seen countless miracles. It is because seeing miracles will not build your faith only obedience to the things that we have been commanded to do will help us build our faith but the Bible Dictionary also said "True Faith brings Miracles,visions, dreams, healings, and all other gifts from God". It doesn't matter if we ever see a vision or see an angel because those things will not help us become converted members of the Gospel. Well, not much else has happend and we have to go.

Love Elder Slack

#realBCMissionaries

This Week has been crazy. We have done a ton of stuff except for Tuesday because it seemed like on Tuesday nothing went right. We had seven lessons planned and none of them worked out so Tuesday seemed to be a trial of our faith because it was rough. Then on Wednesday it got better and things started to work out. The best day of the week by far was Saturday. 

 On Saturday we had something called Social Media Splits day where all day we had a member with us taking pictures of us and posting them with the hash tag #realBCmissionaries. You have no idea how hard if was for me to do that. 

Social Media Saturday - ironically enough the member that was taking pictures of them is the nephew of the Bishop he served under in the Kamloops 2nd Ward (his wife sent me this picture)

Anyway we had a really good service project in the morning where we dug a ditch and put down some pipe and we got to feed some chickens and hold a baby goat and pet some other chickens and pet a turkey so you could say it was a pretty successful day but then it got even better because we pretty much had appointments all day and when one fell through our back up worked out. It was great! The coolest thing was we taught a family that me and Elder Moran found a few weeks ago while we were waiting for our new companions. So we went back and talked to them and taught them about the restoration and answered a lot of the questions they had about Mormons. What’s even cooler is they have five kids and they are Jamaican! Isn't that Sweet! Like a Jamaican family in BC. So it was a really great day and the member we took to that appointment really connected with them well so it was an amazing lesson. 

 This transfer has been really great and Elder Boehmer and I have been doing awesome even though he is Canadian and I’m American we still get along.

Will wearing Elder Boehmer's glasses

Care package from Elder Boehmer's grandma -- yeah, they're not starving ;)

 Sorry I didn’t manage my time very well to day so I am going to have to cut it short so sorry!

Love Elder Slack

Crazy but awesome!

This week has been crazy and really awesome! So we got transfer calls last Sunday and got told that Elder Johnson was going to Burns Lake , which is way up North and that I was staying in Clearbrook and Elder Boehmer was going to be my new companion. 

 On Wednesday the Zone Leaders came and picked up Elder Johnson to take him to the Vancouver airport to fly up and they dropped off Elder Moran, who was also waiting for his companion to come in. So, we had a pretty normal day but we did meet a guy named Greg who is from Haiti and we taught him the restoration and he was really interested and had a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon and where it came from. So we had a really good lesson with him. Then later that night we went and meet up with the Zone Leaders who had Elder Moran's new companion who is Elder Jang! (refer back to the old MTC photos)  Elder Jang came out with me and he is really awesome. So it was really cool to see him again! Then we went to Langley to pick up Elder Boehmer at the greyhound station. Elder Boehmer is awesome! He's from Calgary and came out a transfer after me so he has been out 4 1/2 months and the craziest thing is that we have the exact same Birthday!! 

  The coolest thing that happened this week was on Saturday night after the Priesthood session we where on exchanges with the Zone leaders and I was with Elder Mahabeer at some lessons and Elder Boehmer and Elder Camp went store contacting at the mall next to our house and they met a lady named Katrina and invited her to conference and she came to the afternoon session and she said she really enjoyed it especially all the talks about families. She said she was really interested in learning more and really likes it so far. So that was a miracle! She is super solid and is very interested and has a desire to learn.

 Conference was amazing also but really different as a missionary especially with all the talks about families and getting married which were really good but slightly awkward because I am a missionary but I think my favorite talks were Elder Hollands and Elder Nielsons talk. Elder Nelson actually came and spoke when I was in the MTC. I really liked his talk about how we need to sometimes just wait and love people back into the gospel. I feel this spoke to me a lot more as a missionary than it would have before I was a missionary because I actaully know what that is like and how sometimes it is really hard to just wait for people. Sometimes I have felt like dragging people to church and trying to force them to feel the spirit but that is impossible and is taking away one of the greatest gifts God has given us, Agency.

  Conference was so awesome! Just remember what Elder Nielson said " What will you do with what you have learned over the past 2 days?"

Love, Elder Slack

Cousins by birth...friends by choice :)

So proud of this young man's decision to serve a mission. This is Will's cousin Whitley. They are only 8

months apart in age and were quite the little buddies growing up. Even when our families moved apart every time they got together it was as if they'd spent no time apart. I have loved watching them grow up together. I wasn't sure if Whitley was going to go on a mission. For a long time he talked about joining the Army just like his older brother and grandpa before him. After returning back to Vernal after coming down to Will's farewell I got a text from Whit saying he couldn't find Will's phone number. After giving it to him he shared with me why he needed it. He said that Will had set a great example for him and after hearing him speak that morning he knew what he needed to do...serve a mission. He was going to contact his Bishop that next Sunday and start getting ready. He would've been a great soldier but I'm so glad he decided to wait on that for a short while to sacrifice his time and serve a mission. My heart is so full right now as I watch this video over and over again crying each time. Oklahoma is a very lucky and blessed place to have the future Elder Peterson amongst them. Can't wait to hear his sweet stories as well. Congratulations Whitley!!

Oklahoma baby!

Posted by Kim Patterson Anderton on Friday, April 3, 2015

New transfer...new companion...new adventures ahead and it's going to be Awesome!!

Man this week has been Crazy! We where supposed to get transfer calls on Monday night but we didn't so we thought we were in the clear until like 7:30 in the morning on Tuesday when we got a call and I was told that I was leaving and going to Clearbrook, which is in Abbotsford. I was kind of surprised because I felt like I was going to stay but I guess I was needed somewhere else.

Will and his old Zone Leader, Elder Anderson

Saying goodbye to the Mortensons

   At first I was really sad because I didn't want to leave Kamloops because I had been there for a while and knew all of the members and the town really well. I was really comfortable there but I think that is why I left because we don't grow or progress as much when we are comfortable so I guess the change was needed. When we got that call it meant I had to be packed and ready to go by that night, which at first I didn't think would be a problem. I didn't think I had that much stuff. So we decided to go do some service and visit some members until 3:30 and then I would pack until 5. 

I quickly realized that I did not know how to pack all my things into 2 bags and that I had accumulated quite a few things since I got to Kamloops and I needed to fit it into 2 suitcases both under 50 pounds, which doesn't sound hard but weight builds up fast with coats, scriptures, books and a bunch of other junk that I need to take so I had to leave a few things back in Kamloops; Nothing big, just some shirts, hangers and a sweater that another missionary gave me. So it wasn't too bad but I ended up playing Tetris for 2 hours trying to get everything in and under weight.

  Finally I got everything done and we went and did normal missionary stuff and stopped by a few more members’ homes before I had to leave in the morning. It was sad to leave. It almost felt like I was leaving home again because that was my home and I was never transferred before so I had no idea what to expect. The next morning we left to Kelowna to catch the greyhound and to pick up Elder Persson and Tolman’s new companion. When we got their new companion they dropped me off. Then Elder Woolf, Maurer and I took a 5 ½ hour greyhound down to Langley and we didn't get there till 8:30 because we were running behind schedule. It was so long and boring! So I pretty much did no missionary work the whole day but I did get to catch up on my sleep; but it was a pretty boring day.

The tripanionship's last photo together

Kamloops Elders last group photo (L to R) Tolman, Persson, Woolf, Will, Hawkes

   My new area is really awesome and my new companion is sweet. His name is Elder Johnson and he is from Ephraim, UT and he has been out a little over a year. We have a few really awesome investigators that came to church yesterday. Theresa and her son Daniel came for the first time yesterday! They seemed to really like it and Gary came too but it was his 5^th time. They are really cool and are progressing towards baptism so I'm really excited for this new transfer. It’s going to be awesome!! I am really excited to see what happens this transfer.

The Sikh Temple across the street from the church

Well I have to go see ya next week!

Love Elder Slack

Oh yeah One thing that I forgot because i was in Kamloops so long is how funny people think my last name is. I got so many jokes it was crazy! and it was really funny how many people came up to me and told me not to slack off.

"Even if what you had planned doesn't work out God will bless you"

Man This week has been Crazy!! P day was pretty normal but on Tuesday we drove to Merritt  to go on Exchange with Elder Walker and it reminded me of old times because Merritt didn't have a car so me and Elder Walker walked everywhere in Merritt but luckily Merritt is pretty small and not as big a Kamloops but it was still stinking cold so I was dying but it was really good we went and taught a potential investigator named Dan the Bearman and him and his roommate are stinking CRAZY!! Dan was telling us how we where put here by aliens and how the wise men where guided by a spaceship to Jesus and then his roommate went outside and cussed out a dog across the street and the weirdest thing is this is typical Merritt but it was really Awesome to because we set a baptismal date with one of their investigators so that was pretty sweet! then we had to get picked up the next day to go to District Meeting and then we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and I went with Elder Anderson to Vernon which was pretty Crazy because Elder Anderson just got to Vernon last Transfer so he doesn't know where anything is and we got lost and went to Salmon Arm which is luckily on a half hour away from Vernon and then all our our appointments fell through for the night and so we went tracting and we tracted into an Active member! Yeah an Active member and they invited is in so we had an unexpected member visit which was pretty Awesome! Even though it was kind of embarrassing because we should know where active members live but it was cool and Elder Anderson is way Awesome! Then the next day we went tracting and ran to a guy on the street named Shaun an talked to him for about 20 minutes and he told us have he is an alcoholic and was sober for 17 years and just started drinking again and was looking for a way to over come it and to get sober again. So we talked to him for a while and set up a return appointment and it was really sweet. It just shows that if you are doing what you are supposed to be doing  and even if what you had planned doesn't work out God will bless you if you just keep doing what your supposed to do. After we exchanged back on Thursday we weekly planned and had correlation meeting and talked about an open house that we will be doing in February just as something to get non members to come to the church and see what it is about. Then on Friday we pretty much just tracted the whole day and apparently we tracted some where the JW's just tracted because people where not happy with us. I knocked on one door and the guy threatened to call the police on us for trespassing so it was pretty interesting but then we went to sister Collingridges house for dinner and it was so good but then we had a really Awesome lesson about the Book of Mormanand how important it is in our lives and how important it is to continually receive a personal witness that it is true. It was a really good lesson and the spirit was so strong it just felt Awesome! Nothing to interesting happened the rest of the week except on Sunday our plans fell through after church until dinner so we went tracting and we found 6 people who invited us to come back and we could tell them more. So that was just another testimony builder that if we just keep doing what we are supposed to be doing even if things don't work out how we wanted them to God will bless us and will help us over come what ever is placed in front of us, 1 Nephi 3:7. Hope Everyone has a great week.

Love Elder Slack

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