{Aug 24} Did you say bed bugs?

     This week was great except for the fact that our apartment had bed bugs!! Yeah I said we had bed bugs. Apparently our apartment had that problem before and so we had to go to Willoughbys apartment for a day while they fumigated ours and it was good because I have gotten bitten like 100 times and Elder Mattingley never did so I guess they have favorites. 

      Besides that we were able to see Sheila and read the Book of Mormon with her and to help her learn the things that she already knew before and helping her rebuild her testimony and prepare her to get baptized! This week has been really good and we have been teaching more this week and have had some really good lessons with our investigators and mostly we have been reading the Book of Mormon with them so we can get them into that habit and because the Book of Mormon is the most powerful thing that we have to help people find the truth besides the spirit obviously. It has really helped the people that we are teaching to gain a testimony!

Sorry this one is really short but we have been really busy so see ya. 

Love Elder Slack

I'll send you some pictures next week

{Aug 17} Canada has been so awesome!

     Well this week was great! Elder Mattingley is so cool. He is from Layton, Utah. Brookswood has been really good but is a lot different than Surrey. Mostly because it not as big and we do a lot more tracting here and the area is a lot nicer than Surrey.

     We did a lot of service this week, well we did a lot of moving. We also were finally able to see one of our investigators Shelia who has been out of town. Sheila was meeting with missionaries like 20 years ago and was about to be baptized but someone told her she couldn't get baptized or something like that but anyways the missionaries got back in contact with her a couple months ago and she is so cool and knows that the church is true! We are just teaching her the things that she was taught before and she has forgotten and helping her quit drinking coffee but she is really solid and could definitely get baptized this transfer. So we are really trying to work hard to help her get to the point where she is ready and worthy to get baptized. She also owns a farm and gave us some fruit from it and it was really good!

     Speaking of food, in the Brookswood ward we literally get fed every night. Since I have gotten here every night for dinner we go to a members house. It's so cool except for the fact that I have had to start running again so I don't get fat! It is really cool though because the members here are so cool and really are missionary minded which is awesome! The ward here has been really good about helping us with anything we need especially coming out to lessons with us.

 

     Some other cool things that happened this week while finding were on Friday I was on exchanges with Elder Haase, (who is in the other ward in Langley and just got to the mission field), we were out contacting at the bus loop and started talking to a lady named Amanda and she started asking a lot of questions about things that she had heard about Mormons and we talked to her and told her what we really believed and it was really cool because at first she told us she didn't really want to talk to us because she "knew what we where about" so we asked her "what were we about"? so she started to tell us random things and we taught her what we really believe in and the truth about Mormons. By the end she was really interested and very curious about what we teach but sadly Satan is a big jerk and right in the middle of talking to her, her bus showed up early and she had to run to catch so we didn't get any contact info but hopefully we will run in to her again.

     This week has been really good and Elder Mattingley and I have been working on trying to build up our teaching pool and finding more people to teach. It has been going good and has really helped me remember that we need to rely on the Lord in everything and never think that we can do it our selves. Canada has been so awesome! Even though they are having their hottest summer in 25 years. I love it here! Well I gotta go.

Love Elder Slack

{August 3 & 10, 2015} On to Brookswood after a fond farewell to some great friends

     These last few weeks have been awesome! One of our investigators came to church yesterday; he loved it. We went and saw him later that day and he told us how he feels like our church is the one he wants to join! So that was pretty cool to hear but he missed church this week and has been really busy but we are going to see him today so that should be good and hopefully he will continue to progress. 

  

     Well, we got transfer calls on Saturday and found out that I am leaving again to go to Brookswood, which is in Langley, and my new companion will be Elder Matingly and he has been out 6 weeks. Elder McCown is going to be training a new missionary here in Surrey. I am pretty sad to leave here but it has been good and I am excited to go to Brookswood. For some reason I can't stay in an area for more than 3 months or keep a companion for more than 6 weeks but I guess there is a plan!

Elder Matingly's sweet flag

     So the last few weeks have been pretty similar and we have been continuing to meet with our investigators. Valentino is the one that told us he wants to join our church and he is really cool. He has come to church 3 times and is reading the Book of Mormon like crazy! He loves it and really enjoys meeting with us. 

      Another one of our awesome investigators is Sonny. He has been doing really good. He has been reading the Book of Mormon a lot and it has really changed him. He was not too happy last night when we went and told him one of us was leaving. 

Elder McCown, Sonny and Will

He is so awesome and has really shown me that the Book of Mormon can change lives drastically! We have been working with quite a few other people too. One of the coolest lessons we had this week was on Sunday when we met with a guy we met at Surrey Central named Egor. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and he really liked it. He told us that he was going to come to church and really wanted to read the Book of Mormon to learn for himself. It was so cool because it was all the spirit that taught him and he is someone that has definitely been prepared!

      This week was kind of sad because Elder Lawlor and Elder Woolf are going home so we got to see them for the last time last night. It stunk because Elder Woolf has been around me for 6 months, 3 in Kamloops and 3 here, we became really good friends and Elder Lawlor has been here the whole time I have been here and he is going back to Japan so I probably won't see him for a while.

 I have loved Surrey and I am really sad to leave but I am really excited for Brookswood and to go where the Lord needs me!

Elders Nelson, McCown, Maloy, Kelly, Will and Elder Hall

Elder Hall, Will and Elder McCown at the Vancouver Temple. Their chapel is right by the temple. 

Janet (investigator) and her son who is a recent convert 

Will & Bro Brown (his mission president's uncle)

Love Elder Slack

So the Book of Mormon changes lives spiritually and physically!

   Well this week has been Crazy Awesome! One of the best things that happened this week was our landlords who are from Guatemala made us homemade Tacos on Thursday when we got home and they where amazing! The best Mexican food I have had since I came to Canada!  

Tacos made with love by the Rosales 

      We have also been meeting with one of our investigators named Gus who is very awesome and loves what we teach him and comes to church every week but has a problem with smoking that he can't seem to quit. He has been improving and is so close to quitting. He is so solid; he loves reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church. He volunteers at all the ward activities. So he practically is already a member just needs to work on his smoking and get baptized. We have been able to meet with him and to just continue to encourage and uplift him because he is so close to getting baptized and he wants to really bad so we have also been really focusing on thinking of ways that we could help him quit smoking.

       One of the more interesting lessons that we had this week was with a guy named Yaroon, he is Fijian and is also Muslim. He wants to learn about Christianity but is pretty stuck on what the Koran says and what he thinks the Bible says about Christ not dying on the cross and prophesying about another prophet and that prophet was Mohammed. So it is kind of hard to teach him because he is pretty stuck on the Koran and is not really willing to try to find out if what we are teaching him is true. So it was a bit frustrating but I never thought converting a Muslim would be easy.

      We were able to see Sonny this week and he is doing great! He has been reading the Book of Mormon a ton the last few weeks and it has really changed him. He has been progressing slowly but he has come a long way since we first started to meet with him and his life is going a lot better too. He finally found a job after months of looking for one too. So the Book of Mormon changes lives spiritually and physically!

      We where also able to get Valentino out to church yesterday and he loved it! He was crying during one of the talks and really enjoyed it. He felt the spirit so strong and he wants to come back so that’s pretty awesome and we are going to try to help him to work towards a baptismal date pretty soon.

      This week has been really hot, well not compared to Mesquite, but the humidity makes it worse. It has been a really rewarding week, we were able to see a lot of our investigators and to help a lot of them with things that they where struggling with and to help them progress.

 Love Elder Slack

P.S.

"In Surrey blackberry bushes grow wild every where so we pick a lot of them while we are walking around"

One last thing, so a week ago I went to get a hair cut and this is what I got! A hipster hair cut. I am not proud of it but we are all given challenges in life

So this is a Kinder Egg (see above). They only have them in Canada and its a hollow Chocolate egg with a toy inside (see below)

...apparently they buy a lot of Kinder eggs ;)

In response to the previous photo descriptions the following email came from Jacob (serving in the Mexico Cancun Mission):

Jacob Mikkelsen <jacob.mikkelsen@myldsmail.net>	Jul 20 (6 days ago)
to William, me, Henry, Tim, Nathan, Krista, Clay, Jace, THEFREERUNINGN.

Just sticking up for Mexico but we have them here too!!!! haha

Gotta love Jacob ;)

The Book of Mormon is so powerful and I have seen how it can change peoples lives

     Well this week was really good and very interesting, just like every other week in Surrey. We have been able to talk to a lot of people and we were able to see Sonny a few times this week and he has been reading the Book of Mormon and has had a lot of questions about it and about our beliefs. It was really good and he told us how he really likes to visit with us and how it really gives him a spiritual boost when we meet with him. He called us last night and told us some of the insights that he had while reading the Book of Mormon and studying the Plan of Salvation that we taught him yesterday and he told us how he was really grateful that we came and visited with him and are helping him come closer to God and to not give up on him. It was so cool to see how he has changed from the things that we have taught him and how grateful he is for it. The thing that really helped him was the Book of Mormon. When we first were meeting with him he was smoking and drinking but when we gave him the book of Mormon and he started reading & he has changed. He has not drank and he is working on quitting smoking.

  

      The Book of Mormon is so powerful and I have seen how it can change peoples lives and really does help everyone grow closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon also helps us overcome other things that we face in life like addiction and just trials that hit us in life with no fault of our own. How it does that is it helps us understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ better to know how we can overcome anything in this life and that is through Jesus Christ. Ultimately that is what the Book of Mormon is for, to testify of Christ and to help us gain a testimony of him and to also help us know that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God. 

     We also got to see Gus this week and we watched the movie On the Lords Errand. It's about Thomas S Monson and his life; because Gus wanted to know more about the current Prophet. The movie is so awesome and powerful. It shows how great of an example President Monson is of someone who devotes his life to the Lord. I love watching it because when I watch it the spirit testifies to me that Thomas S Monson is a Prophet of God and a follower of Christ. I am so grateful to be apart of this church and to have this Gospel in my life  and for the Book of Mormon and how it has changed me and helps me to become the Disciple that God needs and wants me to be.

Love Elder Slack

Another crazy week in Surrey

     Well this week was pretty awesome and pretty crazy. Last Monday Elder Lawlor and Elder Samis got really sick and were just throwing up like crazy and so they spent half of the week inside dying but one good thing about it was that Elder McCown and I got Elder Tolman with us for 3 days, which was a blast!

      Monday was pretty crazy though because after p-day ended we spent almost 2 hours driving around picking up stuff for Elder Lawlor and Elder Samis so that they had some medicine and food to eat while they where at home. Then we went to Surrey Central and just talked to people and that’s always interesting because there are always crazy people at Surrey Central and they always tell us really weird things. Like one Guy called me a racist because I was religious and how when I die I am going to look at Jesus and the he is going to tell me that I was wrong and that old man was right. Needless to say there are some really weird people at Surrey Central. 

      Then Tuesday was pretty crazy. In the morning we walked around and Elder Tolman, when he is walking, waves at cars so Elder McCown and I started to do it too and we got a lot of people to wave back and it was actually pretty fun and made finding people a little different so it didn't feel like we were doing the same thing that we always do. Then in the evening from 5 to 9 we has lessons with investigators set up so we were literally running from appointment to appointment. It was so crazy and we were so busy that we didn't even have time to eat dinner. It was really good because we got to see Gus and he was doing really good and he hasn't smoked in a week! Which is awesome because that was like the only thing keeping him from being baptized so that was really cool to hear. Then we met a guy named Rudy, he is from Haiti, and is trying to figure out which church he should join. He is looking for the right Christian church. He is pretty cool and we talked to him about the restoration and he really wants to find the truth. Then we saw Sonny, who is East Indian and is really cool and he loves meeting with us but he has had a lot of problems in the past with drugs and depression and he just wants to over come all of that and follow Jesus Christ and then we saw Janet and her son Scott. Scott is a recent convert and Janet is investigating but Scott has autism and he always tells us stories of how he tried to ask a bunch of girls out on dates and just random stuff and its so funny. His stories are hilarious. We saw them last night too and he told us how he wanted to get tattoos and piercings but he still believes in the church but doesn’t agree with that part so we talked to him and convinced him to not get them and to remember how ugly they would look when he got older. 

       Then on Wednesday we found a really cool investigator named Dillon and he is 15. He is living in a care home and he has gone through a lot in his life and he has a lot of questions of why do bad things happen to good and innocent people. He has read a lot of the bible and is super prepared and so solid. We got to see him twice this week and he is really cool!

       On Friday Elder Kelly and I where reunited and got to go on an exchange! It was so fun to be with Elder Kelly again even though we weren't in Kamloops. We went and talked to a ton of people all day and had a few lessons too. It was just fun to reminisce about Kamloops and what's happened over the last 6 months. I forgot how well me and Elder Kelly got along because we basically spent the whole time laughing when we were not sleeping or teaching.

  Overall this week was great and a ton of Fun!

Love Elder Slack

This week has been so busy but the good busy

     Well this week has been really awesome! I got Elder McCown on Wednesday and we pretty much just drove missionaries around all day to their new areas so it was a pretty boring day. For the rest of the week we were really busy teaching a lot of lessons.

      We met with Gus and talked to him about his smoking and he set the day to quit for July 1st and he told us after he quits smoking he wants to get baptized so that’s really awesome and we are really excited for him because he is a very cool guy and he loves the church. We also were able to see Janet again and she came to stake conference and she told us she was 97% ready to be baptized so she is so close and very ready. On Sunday morning, an hour before church we were told that an investigator from Whitehorse, which is in the Yukon, had come to our area and that he wanted to come to church. So we found him a ride and he came! His name is Ram and he is so cool. We set up a lesson with him for later that night and taught him the restoration and about baptism. He told us how he wants to be baptized so we set a date with him for July 19th but sadly we won’t get to teach him anymore because he is YSA age and will be taught by the YSA Elders but he is so prepared and ready to be baptized.

     This week has been so busy but the good busy. We have been teaching a ton and have a lot of really amazing people that we are teaching. It was also really cool because yesterday the Trio got back together! Elder Kelly, Elder Tolman and me. It was so good to see them both because it’s been forever since I was in Kamloops with both of them. Elder McCown is from Tuscan Arizona and he is really cool! We get along really well. We came out together and he was born like a month before me so we are practically the same age and from the same area, kind of. Well I have to go. See YA!

Love Elder Slack