Elder Slade

Dear Friends and Family:

We've improved on many key indicators this week. We are very excited because of that, but we still have a long way to go. We had three investigators come to church as well - China, and two of her sons, Gregory and Walkie. They are all three preparing to be baptized this Sunday. This is amazing, not only because we are baptizing China (the person, not the country. Her name is pronounced sheen-uh, not tchay-nuh) but also because we finally are baptizing in the Miami Beach 2nd Branch, which is really amazing. Yesterday we think we met or exceeded our previous record of people coming to the branch. We had about 95 to 100 people there.

Another exciting development: Marie's daughter, Sherdie, came home yesterday! That means that Marie can finally be baptized! We're going to shoot for this Thursday, and then for Sherdie we'll shoot for this Sunday. It will be awesome. They are in the ward, so this week we have five potential baptisms. Two in the ward, and three in the branch.

Speaking of our two church services... we split our efforts between the north and south parts of our area. It is very difficult at times to balance the two, and it's harder to avoid wasting miles. Elder Felkins and I both believe that our area would be better if it was split, so we had Miami Shores (Creole) and Miami Beach (Creole). Then both the branch and the ward would finally get the attention they deserve.

Just yesterday, we found two really cool people, Keith and Keionea Thornhill. We went in and prayed with them, and they accepted baptism immediately, despite the fact that they had already been baptized. We were really excited for them, because most for most Haitians that is a sticking point. Unfortunately, we had to pass them to the YSA elders, because they were just barely YSA age. Oh well. I was glad we could participate in finding them, anyway.

Also, we received confirmation: this mission is getting iPads by the end of the year! There's a rumor that our mission in particular will get them at the end of September, but we know for sure that all North-American missions will be getting them by January.

My shoes and pants and everything else are holding up fine for now. Everything is showing signs of wear, but not tear.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

P.S. There's a new member in the branch, who moved there from the Philippines. We had lunch with him. He made Chinese food. (Go figure.) He thought it was funny that I knew Mabaho ang kili-kili mo. (I have no idea if I spelled that right.) He taught me how to say Mahal kita. (Again, with the spelling.)

P.P.S. No, we never found out why the camera crew was there. We also never started making a Krispy Kreme wall again. It's probably a good thing, because we have less motivation to go and buy fatty doughnuts.

P.P.P.S. I've gained about 7-10 pounds on my mission so far. It's not so much that I'm eating a ton, but it's that as missionaries, we make it our job to binge-eat. I'm still decently skinny anyway.

Haitian Creole Song