Florida!

(Transcribed by Nancy from a letter)

Che Slade family,

        I’m sorry I’m not writing individual letters, and I’m sorry I haven’t written in a while.  The problem is, there just isn’t enough time.  But I’ll try to do better about writing more often!

        First of all, I love all you guys!  I hope your last two months have been as full and exciting as mine have been.  I didn’t get to celebrate Halloween in any way, but I will be having Thanksgiving celebrations for sure.  We are having “fet de Kodenn” (party of turkey) dinner in a member’s house.  Immediately afterwards, we are going to a Haitian party where we’ll eat more food (Haitian food is delicious, by the way) and basically have a great time.  The day afterwards we’ll have a going away party for Elder Hoole, one of the zone leaders who is dying at the end of this transfer.  It will be a welcome relief.  Missionary work is hard!

        I love seeing pictures of all of you in my emails.  Thanks for sending them. I hope that we still have Evie when I return, it would be sad if I didn’t see her again.  And thanks to all of you for sending letters, I appreciate it.  (But you don’t have to stagger them and send them one at a time, postage is expensive and I wouldn’t mind reading them all at once and then waiting a while for the next letter.)

        Florida is not what I expected it to be.  The driving in Miami is terrifying.  And it feels like summer, it’s so hot.  I am not looking forward to the actual summer months…

        My ward is pretty small, and it’s much more diverse than I am used to.  It is half Haitian Creole and half English speaking, and we share the building with a Spanish ward.  (I lost all of my Spanish long ago, unfortunately).  My first Sunday my companion (Elder Winslow) translated the sacrament meeting for those people who didn’t speak English at all.  Yesterday I helped translate for a single member in priesthood meeting it was terrifying.

        I am not learning the language as fast as I would like to, unfortunately.  But it is still coming much faster than I had any right to hope, and I know that that is because God is helping me.  Paul, when you submit your mission papers, you should hope that you get to learn a new language.  It is much harder, but it is much more rewarding, and it really helps your understanding of the gospel, as well.

        I’m struggling with the rule that we’re only allowed to listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  It’s not the type of music that I normally listen to.  But I’m grateful I’m allowed to listen to it, this mission used to be a no-music mission!

        Haitian Creole areas are mostly driving areas, fortunately for me.  We ride bikes for a couple of miles occasionally, but for the most part the work is mental and spiritual, rather than physical (something I am immensely grateful for)

For all of you the book you should read is the Book of Mormon.  It is the most important book in the world. (There.  Preaching done for a while.)

        Mom and Dad:  Thank you both for everything.  You both mean a lot to me, and I can’t wait to Skype with you for Christmas. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to grow up in the gospel, and to go on a mission.  I love you both very much...

        Anyways, I am having all kinds of fun adventures here, even though I can’t read books.  For example, I’m meeting all kinds of strange people.  Don’t drink Verve...apparently it contains green tea.  And someone called the police on us for the first time a couple days ago! (my companion and I...) That’s always good...

        Can you guys send me some more physical pictures of yourselves/my family?  Not a lot, just something I can look at during the week.  I don’t have any pictures of Nathan or Evie yet, and I only have one of the rest of the family.  Thanks!

        Our investigators change too fast for me to write about them all.  I’ve taught and dropped about 30 gators (Florida lingo for investigators) in the last week and a half.  It’s depressing but President Anderson really puts an emphasis on teaching those who are already completely ready and prepared to be baptized.  It seems wrong, but you can’t argue with the numbers.

        In the MTC, I learned about a funny way of speaking.  It’s called Jargon, and Haitian kids learn it so that they can speak in front of their parents without their parents knowing what they are saying.  Basically you duplicate any vowel sound and insert a ‘g’ in between.  So “yes” becomes “yeges” and “no” becomes “nogo”, and “Merry Christmas” becomes “Megerreegee Chrigistmagas!”  It literally doubles the time it takes to speak, but it is very hard to decipher without practice, especially if you don’t know the keys.

        I’m just about out of time to write.  I love you all!

Thanks for everything, much love,

Elder Brandon Slade