Accountability.

So… I am currently writing this email on my alpha smart in the dark. Haha the power went out in our whole apartment complex so that is fun! J Thank goodness my mom sent me a flash light! J It is saving our life! We don’t know how long it will be out for.. haha mission adventures.

Can I just explain how cold it was this week? It was FREEZING! Literally. We had many days in the negatives yet, we still went out and worked! Funny thing is people still talked to us on campus. haha! I just love it here! We could only stay outside for periods of 20-30 min though or else our faces would start to get frost bite. Gotta love OhioJ But really, I love it here. The weather said this exactly “we won’t see another day above freezing until March!” haha Yay…

       We had zone conference this week.. and oh boy was it amazing! The theme was urgency, and accountability. President had us set goals as a companionship and we had 36 hours to complete the goals then come back and report. We told our goals in front of everyone so we were accountable for them. Scary! So we made goals for member presents, new investigators, and other things. Even though the next day was one of the coldest days of the week we still went out and worked because we knew we would have to report back to President, and report back in front of all the other missionaries. That was a sense of urgency I felt. To reach those goals we set. And we knew we would be accountable if we did or didn't reach those goals. Luckily, Sister Love and I did reach our goals! We were happy to report back to President that we did well. But the Spirit spoke to me super strong. Why was I so urgent to reach these goals for this 36 hour period when I set goals every week and I am not very urgent about it. Every night I should be reporting back to Heavenly Father and feeling accountable for the work I put in that day. Man the Spirit totally slapped me in the face! I came to realize that if I am not that urgent for my goals here on the mission then will I even be that urgent with my goals in my life? Seriously, a mission is changing me. It is preparing me for life! I just love it.

       We taught the cutest girls this week named Tara and Erika. They were so sincere with their questions and they were super interested. I wish all were like that.. we stopped this atheist kid on the street and started talking with him.. that was fun. You know it is funny, as a missionary you kind of gain a heart of stone. You have to! When people reject you it's like whatever haha! But, when people start bagging on the church and saying all these crazy things about Joseph Smith, it hurts. It hurts so bad. I always want to fight back but we just sit there and take it, cause fighting back will do nothing. But, every time I am hurt by something someone says about the church it just strengthens my testimony to know it is true. If I didn’t know it were true, it wouldn’t hurt so  bad.

       I scratched my eye ball this week. haha! So I had to sit there with my eye shut with this ointment stuff in it for an hour or so. haha!  It was so funny everyone was coming up and talking to me and I would open my eye and Sister Love would yell at me to shut it! Man, I love our companionship.

       On Saturday it snowed ALL DAY! It is the most snow Columbus has gotten at a single time in like 137 years or something like that. Of course it happens the winter I am here. haha! It was like Utah snow though. Oh it was perfect. But people in Columbus are babies and are afraid to go anywhere when it is snowing. haha! School has been cancelled like 3 times this week. But, anyway we watched this frat party across the street from the institute. It was super fun to watch. haha! Our whole district was just chillin and watching these really stupid college kids! J

        Sunday was sooo good!:) We did 6 hours of church once again.. and Gibson and Amy came to church! Gibson said they funniest comment, I just love him!J They were asking him how he came in contact with us missionaries and he said “on the street, and now they have me hooked.” Haha! You got that right Gibson!J Amy came to all 3 hours today! Usually she only comes to one hour. J I just love her! She came to the missionary fireside Sunday night too. It was about the Life of Christ.J It was amazing. I cannot tell you how blessed I am for my Savior. The life he lived was incredible, and even more incredible was the sacrifice He made. Our mission is doing BOM challenge where we have to highlight every time it says a name for Christ, every time he speaks, etc etc. It is so incredible. I can feel myself growing closer to Him. I have been writing down all the names He is called in my BOM and my favorite one is my Maker. He is our Maker, he is our Savior. I hope you all take the time to remember Him in our daily lives.J I LOVE YOU!!

 look at her look at me lovingly haha

 Our awkward companionship:) 

 GRETCHEN! She is a member and I love her:)

haha the power went out but do we still have hot chocolate? Yes. 



Love is in the Air! :)

Happy week of LOVE everyone!

It is literally my companions holiday! Sister Love.. Holiday of Love.. haha I think I am funny. 

Anyway, hope you all had a good Valentines day! I know I sure did! This year I took a different approach on it. Instead of sitting at home eating chocolate cause I don’t have anyone to celebrate with (which we did eat a lot of chocolate anyway) I tried to focus a lot on the love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ has for us! In 2 Nephi 1:15 it says “I am encircled about eternally in the arms of His love”. And what a true statement that is! We are always encircled in that love. So truthfully Valentines day is the Lords holiday...because he loves us so so so so much! :) And we can everyday remember that we are encircled in the arms of His love!:)

We taught Jose this week and we extended baptism! He accepted and got really emotional over it. I cried a little. He just expressed how he truly does want to follow Jesus Christs example! Man, I could feel the love God has for Jose. He is so ready. We haven’t extended a date yet but no worries we will soon. :) Jose is so amazing. He truly has that desire to follow the Lord, he loves him a lot.

So we were walking to the bus stop and a bus driver pulls up to the stop and tells us to come talk to him in the bus.. haha we were like ok. He pulls out a Subway gift card and says “here is your lunch for today. I am Brother Teeter I am in another ward.” What a sweetheart! I love members so much, always looking out for us missionaries. We never know when we will meet one from another ward. He was so nice!:) We taught Arica that day (a recent convert) and she is getting her recommend to do baptisms! Yay! We are excited and we get to go with!:) I feel so blessed any time I get to go into the temple. It is one of my favorite places on earth. :)

I got to go on an exchange with Sister Huang! She is such a cutie! She is a temple square missionary. When they are half way through their mission they get to go to another mission to be a “real missionary” as Sister Huang would say haha. She is from China and her English is seriously amazing. She is fluent! And she is the cutest thing. No one can say no to her on campus. We just love her! She has taught us a lot of Chinese and showed me some Asians she thought were cute on campus! haha (there are so many Asians!!!) She feels right at home! The exchange was super fun!

We are teaching this autistic boy named Gibson. He is so sincere. He came to church last week and he just wants to find God so bad, and he is on his way. He is so smart! He understands the doctrine so much better than most. We brought this member named Mike who talked about how important the gospel is to him and Gibson realized that this church is really important! He came to church this Sunday and loved it! He had to leave early though cause he works. But he really enjoys church and learning more about Christ.

FRIDAY WAS SUCH A WEIRD DAY! So...we go to the library to do family history and all of the sudden this girl group starts singing...pitch perfect style. I of course was freaking out! AN ACAPELLA GROUP WHAT?! I felt like I was in high school musical or something. Long story short this girl had them sing to her boyfriend. We were all excited to see his reaction at the end when she walked up to him but all he did was awkwardly hug her.. haha so lame. But it was cool! They were super good! Then some guy gave us a Valentine that had a pic of Kayne West on it haha no thanks dude. When we were walking out of the library this guy named Chuck stopped me and was like “my friend thinks your cute.” All of the sudden this guy starts talking to me! He introduces himself as Wes,weird I know. Wes is a popular name here I guess haha. And I introduce myself as Sister Slater. He freaked out for a second and was like “sister?” hahahah I knew he would stop trying to hit on me at this point! But it was cool cause he started to ask all these questions about the church! We got his number and he said he was going to Utah and wanted to see the temple and stuff. It was a good finding opportunity but so weird haha at least he didn't hit on me. Meanwhile Sister Love was talking to this creepy weird guy named Chuck, he wasn't interested at all. haha! It was just a weird day. Not to mention the sketch outfits we saw on campus that night.  Those ladies are sure dedicated to wear those clothes in 10 degree weather. haha!

Saturday was a BLIZZARD! Legit, it was a white out. Happy Valentines Day to us!:) They told missionaries not to drive and stuff so pretty much we were snowed in. :) Even though we don’t have a car. We did walk to Buckeye Donuts though! MMM SO GOOD! They were worth it! On the walk back though the snow was so bad I was drenched. Haha always a lot of fun. We ate a lot of candy that day, taught 3 lessons, and called some people. Overall it was a fun Valentines day! It was just way too cold to go anywhere. I came home to some presents though! Thanks you Jamie. Grandma Cookie and Grandma Sue for the cards they were so sweet! And thank you Morgan and Heidi for the package! AH! The socks are sooo cute I love them! AND THANK YOU MOMMY FOR GETTING ME M&M'S WITH MY FACE ON THEM! Legit!!! My face is on my favorite candy! I love my parents! Thanks mom and dad! Sister Love and I ended the night with a photo shoot! Like I do every holiday! I just love her!:)

Sunday was 1 degree most the day... no joke. The news told everyone to stay inside. I love OHIO!! :) Good thing we go to 6 hours of church.. yeah it is long haha. Since there are 2 singles wards and we cover both we go to both churches! AH! It gets long but I am grateful we were able to stay inside all day, and Happy Anniversary to my incredible parents!:)

I can’t believe my older sister wemt to the MTC this week. I thought of her all week. She is going to kill it as a missionary! How could anyone not love her? She is adorable!:) You were in my prayers sissy! I am so excited for you to experience the joy of serving!

I LOVE YOU ALL!! Have a good week!

Freaking out cause we got to go to Texas Roadhouse:) 

The girls:)

 Sister Huang and Sister Slater SLEEP OVER! Exchanges are so fun:)

 Brother Tender! He was such a good date:)

 I looove him:)

 and the photo  booth pics:) like every holiday:)

 haha. 

 awkward companion pics are the best. 

 notice her foot on her face haha.. my cute jammies are courtesy of my mommy:) 

spidey man and donkey kong haha:) Love this companion of mine:)





Helping Bring Others Closer to Christ :)

Man, the Lord is blessing us this week... so much! I feel so blessed! We got 10 new investigators this week... 10!! They are all so awesome. They all want to come closer to God. I know that they are on the right way that is for sure :) Such a blessing it is that I get to help bring others closer to Christ!:) This week really though has just been a bunch of teaching. But when I teach my testimony grows so much. That is what is so cool! You teach when you learn, and you learn when you teach. :)

But really, nothing too crazy happened this week except for just a bunch of teaching and meeting a lot of new people! So amazing! :) Man, I am not used to being this busy haha. We are teaching this one guy named Jose. He is super solid! Super nice guy! And he knows a member in the ward and didn’t even know he was Mormon! Haha Jose has known him since they were little! So crazy! Jose came to church and is just loving it :) This week Kai (a member) planned a movie night to watch Meet the Mormons! We brought Jose and he just loved it :) It was so fun we moved all the couches into the gym and we made popcorn and all the missionaries, investigators, and members just watched it all together. I love that movie :) The missionary mom story still makes me cry... haha you would think after 5 months I would be over it... But I of course still miss my family :)

We are teaching this girl who is studying to be a nun. She only meets with us to save us and to convert us. Things got pretty heated in our last discussion and I ended it with this “Look, we are not going to become Catholic and you are not going to become Mormon.” Haha all she said was “Fair.” Yeah I showed her haha :)

So yeah... pretty much all that happened this week except for the fact that it was 18 degrees one day then the next was 53... haha Ohio is so funny :)

I AM SO EXCITED FOR MY SISTER! I can’t believe she leaves Wednesday. Savannah, you will be an amazing missionary. I know people will be so drawn to you, because you are just the cutest :) I cannot wait for you to experience the joy of serving the Lord, there is truly nothing like it. You will never be happier in your whole life! I LOVE YOU!:)

I am loving it here on OSU so much. I become a bigger Buckeye fan everyday :) It is funny cause the institute building is right smack in between a bunch of sororities and fraternities. Haha we also see people partying from the comfort of the church building :) But I really do love going out everyday and talking to anyone and everyone. I love meeting all of God’s children and seeing how amazing they all are in their own special way :) Hope you all have a good week! BYE!:)

OSU! OSU! Notice the Michigan flag in the back... #ew.

We attempt to take cute spinny pics...

We also attempt to take jumping pics...

Haha my "I was on the news I am so famous don't talk to me" face slash this is my face every night :)

This is what movie night looked like :) Seriously so fun!

Well, this is it! Half of my heart is going to be in Nebraska! I love you Sister Slater :) You will kill it. P.S. I am trying to be a princess in the pic AKA a daughter of a King :)

No Pictures Please.

Hmm… craziest week ever? Yes. Haha. HELLO!! How is everyone?:) I am sure you all saw my debut on the news:) I am now known as freaky Jesus girl... but hey I will take it :) I am freaky Jesus girl. Haha but really this week has been NUTS! Lets start off with Monday...

We go to the library to write and there is this guy there… we started talking to him and he freaked out when we found out we were Mormon! He was just so excited! He kept saying is today Christmas? Wow! This is the best day ever! So we got his number and set up an appointment to meet with him. He legit was ready to jump into the font. Sister Love and I were pumped about it. After he left he texted us saying.. “thinking of you two already.” Ok. Creepy. Then he said “I think the Lord has blessed me with sending me my two wives today... which one of you is not married cause I am IN LOVE!” OH MY GOODNESS! HE THINKS WE ARE POLIGAMIST! Hahahahaha. So I guess Sister Love and I are sister wives now. But really he was like 40. So gross. So that was really exciting :)

So one night this week we get a call at like midnight... I was like WHO THE HECK IS CALLING US! It was a private number so we didn’t answer... then at 12:30 they called again. It was the police! Before we knew it there was a huge pound on the door. I legit thought it was the people who stole my purse coming to get me. We open the door and it is the police and the first thing she said was “what’s your credit card number cause if it matches he is going to jail tonight.” Ok... at this point it was like almost one. We were standing there just like what…? Haha I don’t know my card number! The police lady told us they caught the robbers! The detective was questioning them so the police lady had to chill with us until the detective was done.. at one a.m. haha. It was so awkward… we tried to make small talk but she wasn’t having it. I cracked a joke about Twilight and she gave me the weirdest look. Whatever. It was awkward. Turns out the robbers were charged! Yay! Good job Columbus Police! But the story gets weirder… so the next day we are at Zone Meeting and I get a call from President. At this point I am like ok… I must be in huge trouble or something. But no. He just asked me if I wanted to be interviewed by the news. Haha what the heck! All that was stolen was gift cards! Why is this going to be on the news! I got my purse back! So funny. Anyway I was like why not. President told me to make it a good missionary opportunity... which is why in the video I am “freaky Jesus girl”. That is what everyone in the Singles Ward calls me. Haha whatever :) So yeah this whole purse thing was like never ending all week but hey… making good memories :)

This week was fun on campus! We contacted a lot of people and met some way cool people! We taught this guy named Philleano. He is just this huge black guy but he is so chill and quiet. He is cool though! We also taught Connor. He looks like Logen Fisher (haha Morgan will get that one). So I was pretty much brought back to my 12 year old days teaching him. Connor is cool! He bailed on church though! We will get him next time :) We are slowly building our teaching pool. Since the area is re-opening we are starting fro scratch but it is ok! It is fun to just get all new people to teach :)

This week we did the Sloopy’s challenge... oh my goodness. There is this diner on campus called Sloopy’s. At the diner they have these pancakes that are bigger than a plate! You can order 3 of them stacked, and on them and in them there is chocolate and peanut butter and it is just super sugary. So the missionaries here on campus have a contest to see who can a) finish it and b) in how much time they can finish it. EEEWWW. I was super nervous but I prepared my stomach that day and I felt ready. We saw this HUGE guy next to us who got it and could only eat like a fourth of it. The challenge it only a missionary thing but it is just so funny haha. It came out and it smelled pretty good. I was excited! I love pancakes, and peanut butter and chocolate! The timer started and we all just start shoving it in our mouths.. five bites in I couldn’t take it haha. It was SO DRY! I kept pouring syrup on it but it was just so sweet oh my goodness. I couldn’t do it. I gave up. But my sweet companion did it haha she was determined! She mushed it up and started pouring water on it to make it less dry! She legit turned purple. All 6 sisters went and did it together, only 3 finished.. but we were all so sick after. We waddled back to the institute. I kid you not, I never want to eat a pancake again. But it was fun to try it out :) Man, I love campus. There are so many people here prepared for the truth! Sister Love and I can’t wait to go out and find them!

I wanted to give a birthday shout out to LINSEY!!! YAY! 21 :) And also a shout out to my sweet sister who leaves on her mish soon. I know she will rock it. Who knew that the Slater sisters would go on missions at the same time? Haha. I am so glad I am here though. Ohio has my heart. I love it here. I love the people. And I love serving the Lord. I have never felt so much joy in my life. Yes this is soooo hard. And yes days are sooo long. But I do not regret the 5 months I have been here. And I am changing. The Lord is molding me into someone He wants me to be. I am so grateful for Him. I am so grateful for all of you too! Your prayers are felt! Those extra blessings get me through the day!:) THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU!

P.S. I had no idea Sunday was the Super Bowl until Saturday night... Go Patriots I guess haha :) Oh mission life.. you just have no idea with what is happening :)

Aw! My hair is so red... Ohio is changing me :) 

Bus selfies! I love the photobomb in the back :)

Love her!

Sister Huang said that in China they don't do duck faces... so we taught her how. Haha I would say that she is pretty dang good :)

I'm ready for my close up :) I prayed so good for those bad guys.

This makes me sick just looking at it... haha gotta love the Sloppy's challenge. IT IS HUGE! There is peanut butter and chocolate between too. 

What was left... I swear I ate a lot!

I was super sick... haha NEVER AGAIN!