Member Missionary Work

How are you? It makes me so happy and a little bit sentimental to read about Brandon's mission preparations and everything that you all are doing too! It sounds like it was fun to have Grandma and Grandpa in town and spend that time with them. Tell Grandpa Putnam that I love him too and that He's in my prayers. I'll try to write him a letter later today so that he has something to read in the next week since I'm guessing he won't be able to move around much :)

This week felt slower than last because we had quite a few appointments fall through and we weren't able to get any more of our investigators progressing, but when we looked at the numbers and accounted last night, we saw that once more everything came together and we barely reached our goals. It's always amazing to me how that somehow always seems to happen! This means that this week’s goals are just a little bit higher again though. :)

I am so excited for Bennett and Verna's baptism on the 12th, I can hardly wait! I just feel so happy around those two, they are so special. I wish you all could meet them. Especially Grandpa Les and Becky, since they are very similar! The ward already loves them, if their name is brought up in ward council you hear a chorus of "we want them." :) Bennett and Verna attended one of 2nd ward's baptisms with us on Saturday, and they absolutely loved it. Afterwards Verna was telling us how she found herself humming earlier that day while she was cleaning which was weird to her because she normally hates cleaning. I told her that I thought it was probably because her spirit recognizes she has a lot to be grateful for. She laughed and said, "You know what I think it is?" and she got a little bit emotional and pointed to Sister Anderson and I. I'm so glad that Verna recognizes what a huge impact the gospel is having on her life. She and Bennett have been watching conference talks together for fun in their free time (SOLID investigator status.) They both attended church yesterday, and right before Sister Anderson and I taught the gospel principles lesson I heard Verna lean over to talk to Everett, and she asked him if he would be the one to baptize her. You should have seen Everett's face, it meant so much to him. Such a special moment!

We were also very excited to have one of the less-active women we have been working with attend church! Her name is Zola, and she is in her 80's but hasn't attended church in a long time because she was offended by someone a long time ago. She is such a sweetie. We found her a dress and a ride and she finally came to church yesterday. She said she absolutely loved it, and that she wants to come every week!

This afternoon is going to be crazy. The 2nd ward sisters have been living with us for a few weeks now, and this whole time we thought that it would be them that would be moving apartments, but we got a call this week and learned that it was actually Sister Anderson and I that would be moving apartments. Our apartment is only a block away from the other sisters though, so it will be nice to see them every now and then still :)

My testimony of the importance of member missionary work was reaffirmed this week. A few weeks back the 2nd ward elders gave us a referral for a man named Charles that they had taught a lesson to but who was in our area. Sister Turley and I went to see him and he answered the door speaking in third person saying, "Charles isn't here right now, and he's been really busy taking care of his parents so I don't think now is a good time for him to meet with missionaries, but I'll tell him to call you when he's ready to meet." Last week a woman in our ward named Augustina C. (SOLID member status.) told us that she was bringing a friend to church. She showed up at church and we were so surprised to see that her friend she had brought to church was Charles! Charles looked a little bit flustered when Augustina introduced him to me as Charles, but then we both just kinda laughed! We taught a lesson to Charles and also his parents this week, and it went very well! Oh- and his parents are pretty strong catholic and there's no way they would ever let us teach them if we had just come and knocked on their door. So the message to everyone this week is....go do missionary work!!!!! Maybe one out of a hundred people let strangers wearing skirts and ties into their homes, but if the invitation comes from a friend or neighbor that cares about them, that's a different story!

I love you all bunches. We had a zone meeting this week, and the zone leaders said that when they met with President Bonham this month he told them some amazing things. When President Bonham went to a meeting with President Monson and some of the apostles before he came into the field, President Monson told the mission presidents "The time for planting seeds has passed, now is the time to harvest." He told the mission presidents that he had recently met with some of the leaders in China, and in essence they were told that "We know your church is going to continue to grow here in our country and around the world, regardless of what we do, but we're going to do everything that we can to slow you down." We live in an amazing time in history! Don't forget that The Lord loves all of you, and he needs each and every one of us to play a greater role in "harvesting." Love you all!

Love, Sister Slade

P.S. Brother and Sister Hansink (SOLID member status.) took us to eat at an Asian buffet this week and the fortune that Sister Anderson and I got said, "You will soon receive a letter from a loved one."- no joke! Haha. We thought it was so funny, we taped it to our door! You wouldn't want to destroy my faith in fortune cookies, would you? :)