Amy's Big Week!

What a beautiful and exciting week this week was. And spring break is over which makes it even better!

                We saw Amy almost everyday this week cause SHE IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS WEEK! What? I just love her so much. Anyway. She had her baptismal interview, and passed with flying colors. And on that same night the missionaries had a cheesecake cook off. We ate sooo much cheesecake but I would have to say, Sister Springers pumpkin one was bomb. She is the winner.

        We had exchanges this week. Yay! I went with Sister Wagstaff.J I LOVE HER SO MUCH! Seriously. She is the cutest. I went on an exchange with her when I was only 3 months old in the mission field. Time flies! We partied. We are both just girly girls and totally get each other. We also got frozen hot chocolate which was a plus! Almost as good as Serendipity’s.. almost.J We stayed up till like 12 o clock pillow talking. haha. Its like a sleep over. She also cut my hair as well.. no worries. Just a little trim! I made sure of it. haha! But exchanges are so fun cause even though you totally love your companion.. it is good to get a small break from them sometimes!  On our exchange we taught Gibson. It was so cute in his prayer he was like “I am grateful for Sister Slater and this other Sister and Sister Love.. and hopefully I will one day see her again.” Hahaha he is a cutie. Oooo also on the exchange we went to the Union and there was free popcorn, a free photo booth, free t- shirts, free chocolate.. just a bunch of free stuff! It is for this random company but it was fun! Sister Wagstaff and I got some cute pics.

          Saturday though was the best day of the week! Amy looked to adorable. She was glowing! The baptism was perfection. She was so excited. Gretchen and Sister Springer gave talks. The spirit was so strong and Amy cried! She asked us to come back with her when she got baptized so we just stood on the side of the font. Her sister and her friend came! How amazing is that? Such great support. Anyway, when Amy stepped into the water she looked back at us and was like “ITS HOT!! Haha oh no.. this is why we don’t trust Elders to fill up the font! All was well though.J They pronounced her name wrong the first time she was baptized so she got dunked again.. haha she said the whole experience is a story to tell her kids. But really, she was glowing! Afterwards she was shaking of happiness. She looked so pure, and I could just feel the love Heavenly Father has for her. She can finally now return home to him now that she has made this covenant. She just now must endure to the end and make other covenants. She said she felt so clean. Baptism is just amazing. Later that day we went to dinner with Amy and her sister and Amy was still beaming. She was just so happy. Then.. we watched the womens conference all together! Wow! After watching that I felt such a strong love for my family. I love you all so much! It is crazy how much they focused on that. The family is the first thing Satan tries to tear apart. I am grateful that he has not torn my little family apart. I love you so much! Amy said President Eyring is just adorable!

      SUNDAY SHE WAS CONFIRMED! It was beautiful. This is what I remember most from her blessing.. “no matter what always remember, you are His daughter.” Amy said at one point she knew it wasn’t Chris talking anymore giving the blessing, she knew it was Heavenly Father talking to her. She was so happy. It is such a blessing that I have the opportunity to bring others closer to Christ. I would be rejected by 1000 more people if it meant I got to find someone like Amy again and help them on their path to salvation. I have never felt so much joy in my life. I am grateful for this gospel, and for my Savior. Without Him none of this would be possible!

Have a good week everyone!

 Frozen Hot Chocolate!

 Amy and her Sister Sarah:)

I love this girl more than words can say. I am grateful I have had the opportunity to stand in the Lord's place and to help her come closer to him. What a blessing this gospel is! 

Ohana :)

     I wish I could say something crazy cool happened this week! But I can’t.. because NO ONE WAS ON CAMPUS! Haha happy spring break.  It was a fun week though! We started the week off by going to Easton! AHH! Ok.. best mall I have ever been to. They have every store you could ever dream of. Including Tiffany’s of course!J And, yes of course I went in and tried stuff on. Man, I just love it! They also had an American Girl Doll store! I felt like a kid in a candy shop!:) It was a really fun day.  Thanks Sister Springer for taking us!

        But really, this week we would walk around for like 2 hours and not talk to anyone. haha. Sister Love and I for sure bonded and told lots of stories.  It was nice though! The weather on Monday was like 70 degrees then the rest of the week was like 45-50.. so that was cool haha.

       We taught Amy over the phone twice! We taught her tithing, keeping the Sabbath day holy, etc.  This was her comment “all these things you are asking me to do make sense. They aren’t hard.” Haha uh.. ok you are amazing! Tithing is hard for me! She helps me grow my testimony. (This is for Wes) J Her baptism is Saturday March 28th at 1 o'clock at the New Albany building. We could not be more excited!  Keep her in your prayers! Satan has a tricky way with people to get them to not get baptized. But we know Amy is so strong and wants this so bad!

       We did a lot of family history this week. So there is this website called Find My Relatives and we have a group where we can see everyone in the mission we are related to. It is super fun!! I am like 11^th cousins with Sister Love so that is a good time! Also.. I AM RELATED TO WALT DISNEY!! AH! 8^th cousins 4 times removed baby! Hey, that counts right?:) I am pretty much a Disney! haha

          We have a Gibson quote of the week! He grabs a pastry and it was frozen so we were like “Gibson those may not be good cause they are frozen.” And he goes “not to degrade Elsa or anything but.. the cold never bothered me anyway.” Hahah! Man! I just adore him!:)

        It’s a few weeks late but shout out to Teysia and Jefferson!:) Cutest newly weds ever!!:) And also a big shout out to Parker! Welcome home!:)

        Overall it was a fun week! Sunday was the best though! We had another missionary devotional but this one was about Easter!:) We watched the video “Because He Lives”. Make sure you all check it out when it comes out March 28^th. It is amazing! It brings the Spirit, and it strengthened my testimony of the resurrection of Christ. I know He lives. I know He lives today. He loves me, and is always, always there for me. If he never came to earth, we would have no purpose in life, we wouldn’t be able to return to our Father. How grateful am I for our Savior, our Redeemer, our everlasting Maker. And what a blessing it is that I get to stand in his place, to say and do what he would say and do if he were personally ministering among the very people to whom he has sent me. I love you all! Have a great week.

 girls day:)

 MY FAVORITE PLACE EVER!!!

Easton

We had a large group of sisters at dinner.. haha

 

"Sister Slater do Ariel's face on this cookie." 

 The Stadium!!

My mom sent stuff to do a St. Patricks photo booth.. this is the result:

SPRING SPRING SPRING!

       The Lord truly does prepare people. It is so insane. Amy was prepared to learn the gospel. She is so amazing! AHH!!! Goodness. I just love her. I could brag about her forever. haha! But, here is Amy’s story: she was walking to class (which she was late for) but we stopped her so she decided to talk with us. I stopped her by saying “is that an FFA jacket?” haha. Anyway she said as she was talking with us a voice came into her head that said “go to the church. It will be ok, just go.” WHAT?? Oh my goodness! The spirit told her to accept our message! This girl is incredible. She has had a family search for like 4 years. She is obsessed with family history! She has no problems with the word of wisdom, and just pretty much is already a Mormon. I cannot get over her. Anyway stay tuned for her baptism in two weeks. J

        This week felt pretty long.. yet it went fast! Haha. I don’t know how to explain it. We had dinner at the restaurant called Mad Mex. It is the closest thing I have had to Café Rio in Ohio so far.  Anyway we got this ice cream burrito. Get this; a fried burrito with a brownie and ice cream on the inside. MMM so good!J Haha. Guess I have given up on lent.  Oops!!

        TUESDAY WAS TEMPLE DAY! WAS IT AMAZING? YES! I love the temple so much. It is so peaceful. I wish I could go everyday but once every 6 months is still ok.  But really, how blessed are we to have temples in these modern days? They are so beautiful and we are so close to the Lord when there. AH! Such a blessing. The Columbus Temple is so cute.J It is pocket sized. I just love it! We went to all these sketchy stores on P-Day. haha! We just wanted to explore and we found all these stripper stores. Super fun, haha! Yeah, It was a sketchy part of campus and I got splashed with water by a bus! Like what happens in movies! I love Columbus.

         We went on exchanges this week and I went with Sister Taysom! It was super fun! I love her. I got to train her too cause she is a new missionary! Always a good time. We also got donuts from the little donut shop on high street. So that was fun!

         OUR LESSON WITH AMY WAS AMAZING! Of course! We taught the word of wisdom and watched the John Tanner story while eating chocolate cake. She told us she is so excited to be baptized. Love her! Then we got to go shopping with her to find a cute baptism dress. So fun! My mom is so sweet and bought her one and it is perfect! It is just this cute white dress with a collar. You will see pictures soon. She looked adorable and felt like a million bucks. Thanks mom!J She was so grateful.

         Spring break starts Monday here on campus so pretty much Saturday on was a ghost town, haha! So we watched the ducks in the pond for a bit.. spring is here!! YAY! I haven’t worn tights all week. It has been FANTASTIC!!

         It has overall been a good week. Just preparing for Amy’s baptism and enjoying the warm weather. On Sunday Bishop Halley said something super sweet to the Relief Society. He sat in on our lesson and he said the only word that popped into his head the whole lesson was the word precious. We are so precious to our Heavenly Father, we don’t even know.  He loves us so much. I a lot of the time cannot even comprehend it, but I know he does. I am grateful to know that I am a daughter of Him. He is all powerful, he is just, he is merciful, he is my Father, and I love him.

        “First doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith”

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf

        Don’t ever let doubt get in the way of anything. Hold strong to the rod and to your testimony! I promise the Lord will bless you as you do so.

 Thank you so much for all the prayers! I love you!

 OSU SISTAS! :)

 I LOVE THE OSU DISTRICT!!

 The Springers took us to Outback this week and we got mac and cheese:) Best thing of my life. Thank you so much Elder and Sister Springer.

How we weekly plan.. crafts+popsicles. 

Everyday is another new adventure!!

Transfer week is the most stressful week ever. The anxiety is high until we get the call to know if we are staying or not haha. We will start with the beginning of the week.

        Monday was not P-day because of transfers so we did some things that day.. contacted etc. We needed to go to the public library to print something off though. We usually go to the library on campus. Anyway, we go there and there are so many homeless people in there.. it was pretty ghetto. I had the heebie jeebies for sure!  There were no computers open and while we were waiting Sister Love see’s creepy Craig. Haha! The guy we met there who thought we would marry him. She ran out so fast and I of course followed after. When we ran out the door there was this creepy guy starting to follow us who was like “hey you students? Lets hang out some time.” EW!! SO GROSS! Haha! I am never going back to that library again. Too many creepy people.J

        I got sick this week dang it! Haha of course I did. It started with a sore throat but turned into a bad cold. Needless to say I am thankful for the Springers. They are the senior couple serving on campus. They were my parents and got my all sorts of meds to help me.J I just love them! But yeah.. I was pretty out of it. haha! Colds just take everything out of you! Sweet Sister Love let me sleep in 15 min one morning. She is so nice. haha! Those 15 min made all the difference.

        Wednesday was P-day and it was so stressful! I hate waiting for the call! Literally every minute I was looking at the phone. Eventually we ran and found Elder Segle on the phone finding out the transfer news. Sister Love and I are staying!! YESS!! We were so happy!J After we were way excited we got to take the new missionaries out.J 5 new elders and 2 new sisters. We got to help them pass out a BOM on campus! It was funny though cause I introduced myself and the elders were like.. “slater..” And they run up to me and were like “oh my gosh!  Your sister was in our district at the MTC!!” WHAT? They shook Savannah's hand that morning ! haha SO crazy!J Glad she made it through the MTC.J But yeah I get to spend some more time on campus thank goodness!J

        We taught the cutest girl named Casey! AH! Love her.J We went to brunch and talked about Christ. What more could you need? She is so cute.J People are just so prepared it is crazy. Amy is doing great!J She says she is sooo excited to be baptized! Gibson decided he wants to learn some more before he is baptized which is totally fine! We understand completely. It made us a little sad though that we have to move his date.L It's all part of the plan though! The Lord knows what he is doing.J

        Miracle of the week! So we were teaching this girl named Tricena. She is adorable. Anyway, she told us she needs some time to think. She is Atheist and we think she is feeling the Spirit and it scares her. So, we hadn't talked to her for like 2 weeks. We figured she didn't want to meet anymore but she texted us and said she wants to learn more! WHAT?? She said she feels she is searching for God and she wants to learn more about the church! MIRACLES!! We taught her this week and she loved the Restoration. But, she had a lot of Plan of Salvation questions so we are excited to teach her that lesson next week.J Seriously though, the Spirit does touch people. Being a missionary is just the coolest. This week was my 6 month Anniversary! haha! Elder Loftus came out with me so we celebrated together! He got one of his ties and we both signed it then we burned it! It was pretty fun!J A nice little ceremony to celebrate our 6 months in Ohio. I can’t believe it has been that long! AHH!! I am a third done. So so crazy.

      Well it has been a fun week and sooo warm! 35 degrees! Man, I was’t even wearing a coat I was sweating! Haha. I love Ohio so much and I love being a missionary!!  Shout out to my sweet sweet cousin Gabby! I love you Gabby! I am glad you are finally home! You were an amazing missionary! Also shout out to my sister to is now in Nebraska holla! I am sure she is killin it already!J Anyway, Love you all!:)  

 Our tie burning ceremony. I was holding the lighter. It was really fun:)

 And a big event! Haha look at all the cameras

 Yup, that is my MTC District Leader.  In reality the tie burning was a fail, haha, but it looked cool!

 YAY 6 MONTHS!!

 Sister Huang:) I LOVE ASIANS!!

BEST MORMONAD EVER! But really, haha!

"As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." - Proverbs 25:25

#Lent

Whats up family?:) What a grand week it was here in the great Ohio Columbus MissionJ Was it cold? Yes. Did it snow? Oh yes. But that is just all apart of the Ohio experience. And guess what? I love it!J

      Guess who is has a date to be baptized?:) GIBSON!! And… AMY!!:) AHHH! They are both scheduled for March 28^th yay yay yay!J Man, being a missionary is just so exciting!J I love it so much!J We taught the restoration to Gibson and we asked him what he thought and he said “So, God hasn’t left us? His work is still on the earth?” Haha exactly Gibson! Man, he is just so smart!J And when we asked Amy how she feels about being baptized she said she has been praying a lot about it and she feels so much comfort about it! Man, the Lord prepares people thats for sure.J

       We didn’t have a lot of lessons this week so we did a lot of contacting which is always fun!! We did have zone meeting though and they brought donuts. L Which I didn’t eat since we are doing Lent (haha not eating any treats till Easter). Which is a catholic thing to do but we are calling it Lent anyway!:) I don’t know why I always put myself through these withdrawals! But it will be worth it.J We did teach this man named Christian this week though. The spirit totally guided the lesson. He is a professor so we knew we had to give him up to other missionaries but we were excited to get to teach him once! I have never seen someone want to be a better person so much before.. He was telling us how he just feels empty. And he looks at religious people and he wants that. He said the moment he saw Sister Love’s and my face he could tell there was something different. That we truly loved this gospel, and Christ and that he wanted what we have! WHAT?! The light of Christ is real.J

      On OSU we have this thing called new missionary training when all the new missionaries for the transfer come and we have a meeting with President then us OSU missionaries get to take them out contacting! So fun! I took Sister Gusthavenson out. She is so cute.J She did amazing! I wish I was as confident as her when I was a new missionary geez! Haha. Other missionaries teach me so much everyday.J But, at the meeting President called me a Jesus freak! Haha I am well aware of what I sound/look like in my tv debut.J Thanks President haha!!J

       HAPPY HALF BIRTHDAY TO ME THIS WEEK! I am 19 and a half.J Legit the fastest 6 months of my life. Holy smokes! Anyway we celebrated by having a movie day with Amy.J We watched Prophet of the Restoration and we also curled her hair for her date that night.J She is such a cutie.J She said she got so many chills during the movie and she knows that it is the Spirit testifying of truth! She also told her mom she is getting baptized and her mom is so excited for her! AHHH! I am excited for her! I love seeing the change in people.J

       On Sunday it snowed a ton and church got cancelled like everywhere. We only had sacrament meeting then they cancelled the rest of church. hah!. Ohio is so dumb. J But anyway we were having a deep doctrine conversation with the district and we talked about something that really stood out to me. We talked about progressing, whether it is on this earth or in the next life and Elder Loftus said this, “The only way to progress is to be selfless.” That statement spoke to me. We need strive to be selfless, just like our Savior who was the most selfless person on this earth. We will go no where if we only think of ourselves. If we ever want to progress in this life and the next, we have to serve others. And when you serve others is when you feel true joy. And that is the joy I am feeling everyday. Can I work on being more selfless? Oh yeah. But with the help of my Savior I can achieve that and progress in this life so I can be prepared for the next life.

     The Church is true. That is all I have to say. It has blessed my life and I can see it blessing so many other lives every single day. What a blessing it is to have Christ’s original church on the earth today!:)

                I LOVE YOU! HAVE A GOOD WEEK!

 we had matching skirts!!! slash we bought them together so this was planned haha:) 

 AMY!! Isn't she cute? I just love her:) Hair courtesy of Sister Love and I:)

 BIGGEST PIZZA EVER! It was bigger than me!

 So Sister Huang said that in China they do this to be cute in pictures. haha gotta love those Asians:)

Her hair looked like Sailor Moon. So we took a Sailor scout pic:) Excuse how un-flattering this pic is of both of us. I promise I haven't gained that much weight! haha:) love you:)