A daughter and a baptism!

So. I don't even know where to start. This has been the craziest, longest, most roller-coaster stressful week of my mission! Last Monday feels like a lifetime ago.

I guess I'll start by telling you that I'm going to be a mom! Let me explain. So we have our own special "mission language." Someone’s first area is where they are "born" their last area is where they "die," if you leave an area then come back you are "resurrected," etc... So Sister Turley is my "mom" since she is my trainer, and Sister Cromar is "grandma" since she trained Sister Turley. Leadership calls were on Thursday, and both Sister Turley and I are going to be training new missionaries!

We've known for a few weeks that they had 19 sisters coming in tomorrow, so I've known that quite a few sisters would be training and that it was likely that some of the sisters in the group that came in with me would be asked to train too. I've been a little bit stressed thinking about it all week and always having it in the back of my mind. More like a lot stressed, to the point of feeling sick to my stomach whenever I dwell on it. When Thursday came around we had quite a few lessons scheduled, but I couldn't focus very well, and when the phone started to ring at 9:30 Thursday night I was sweating bullets!

I'm feeling very inadequate. Even though I've learned a lot in the last few weeks, I still don't know what I'm doing. Going to Trainer's Training on Friday helped a little bit. President Bonham talked with us about the process he went through to decide who would train and where everyone would go (They're opening up 10 new areas for sisters). He said that he organized his board the way that made the most sense, then he prayed and to his surprise didn't feel right, then he would rearrange and pray again, then rearrange and pray again. He said that when he finally felt at peace over what he had decided, he knew that each of us were supposed to train for a reason and that "Whom the Lord calls He qualifies." This brought me a lot of comfort, but I'm still scared. At the same time, I'm really excited because I know that this is going to be a big learning experience. Already in the last few days I've seen a big change in how much I rely on the Lord- there's something that changes about your prayers when you're really pleading because you realize that you need 10 times as much help as you realized.

So anyway. We'll be going to Mill Creek for transfers tomorrow. Ahhhh! I'm so nervous. Oh! And Penn Cove ward is getting a 2nd set of sister missionaries, but the mission office hasn't been able to find an apartment in their area, so there are now 4 beds set up in our apartment and we're gonna be 4-packing it for a while. I guess it's not a real 4-pack because they're covering a different area, but it's going to be interesting living with 3 other girls instead of just my new companion.

Darlene's baptism was absolutely beautiful. Everett performed the baptism, and I had the chance to talk with Darlene a lot afterwards since I was her escort. She said that she had had tingles all day, and they had just been building and building. I can't even tell you what beautiful, wonderful people Darlene and Everett S. are. Yesterday they gave us both the most beautiful letters of gratitude and love they had written for us, and I feel like I can't even share what they wrote because it was just so special. We're all looking forward to going to the temple for them to be sealed in a year!

I wish I had more time to write about investigators and the lessons we had this week, because there were some significant (and not so significant) ones, but that might have to wait until next week since we have a lot to get done today so we're trying to cut our emailing time short. But I love you all!

Love, Sister Slade

P.S. Really quick I just remembered that I have to tell you about the most hilarious thing that happened this week- so yesterday the ward knew that one of us was going to be leaving (we're still waiting for the call to find out which of us it is any hour now) so everyone was saying goodbyes and that sort of thing at the linger longer, and Brother Hansink (sassiest, most hilarious old man you will ever meet) comes up behind us, puts an arm around each of our shoulders and says, "Now listen, I don't care what the book says, I'm gonna do it anyway," and he gave each of us a kiss on the cheek. Sister Turley and I were laughing so hard. We teased him that sister Hansink isn't doing her job of keeping an eye on him. So I guess now I can say that I was kissed on my mission... ;)