Dear family,
So here is the Haley miracle. A few days before our other
investigator Hayley was baptized, Sister Smith and I decided to go tract some
orange apartments in Mill Creek. Sister Bartsch and I had felt that we should
tract these for a while, and for whatever reason we were never able to quite
get around to it. Well, we went to tract these apartments and I'm not sure why
but we just kept walking towards the back of the complex then both stopped at
building G. The very first door we knocked on, Haley answered. Haley has been
going to Latter-Day Saint activities in Arlington with her friend for the past
2 years, and she says she always knew there was something different about the
Mormons. The first lesson we had with Haley we put her on date to be baptized
September 6th. What is crazy is that Haley has really severe anxiety, and she
told us in that first lesson that when we knocked on her door she was in the
middle of having a panic attack. When she saw that it was missionaries, she
felt instantly calmed and it stopped. Not only that, but we found out that
Haley moved here about 2 weeks ago, and turned 18 only 5 days ago. I don't
think I've ever taught an investigator as prepared as Haley is! She is pure
faith and obedience and has an amazing ability to feel the spirit. We feel so
blessed to have found her!
We also had a cool miracle when contacting at the college
this week. We stopped a guy named Max, who works as a physical trainer and EMT.
He is a super cool guy, with a lot of faith in Christ, but said he doesn't
really have time to talk right now. I was about to give him a mormon.org card
but then had the thought ha he had enough interest that I should give him a
restoration pamphlet. So I gave it to him, and he just stared at it in silence
with his mouth open for a few seconds. We asked if he had seen the pamphlet
before, and he told us that he had been searching for where the pamphlet came
from for years. A few yeas ago he got jumped outside a McDonalds in Everett
(kinda funny to picture because this was a BIG guy!) He was in and out of
consciousness, just enough to remember that someone picked him up and took him
to the hospital but he had no idea who it was. When he woke up in the hospital
3 days later, the only thing that the guy left with him was a restoration
pamphlet with a name and phone number. In the craziness of what had happened,
the pamphlet was lost, but since then Max remembers very clearly the picture of
Christ holding a lamb on the front of the restoration pamphlet, and he's
wondered what the source was. We got Max's phone number, and he walked away
flipping through the pamphlet, completely in shock.
This week I have been studying the principle of asking for
specific blessings or asking specific questions. Over and over in the
scriptures we read about how if we ask we will receive, but how often do we
actually take advantage of this promise, and take that leap of faith, fully
expecting Heavenly Father to give as He has promised to? Of course we know hat
God gives in His own timing, in His own way, and according to His will, but how
often to we ask to know His will, so that we might know exactly what it is we
should be asking for? Do we pray to know what we should be praying for? As
missionaries we always invite our investigators to ask a specific question in
their prayers to know if what we have been teaching them is true, the reason
being that if we ask specific questions, the Lord gives specific answers. I was
thinking to myself this week, why is it that I don' show more faith in my
heavenly Father, and ask those specific questions, or make those specific
requests, just as investigators are invited to do? My challenge for you this
week is the same challenge hat I have given to myself: pray to know what to
pray for, then stretch your faith by making that specific request to Heavenly
Father. Then show your faith by praying with "all the energy of
heart" and with persistence. Then act as if you already know that you will
receive, because you will!
Love you all!
Love, Sister Slade
There is a mission cottage meeting held at the mission home
every month where we invite our investigators to come listen to the testimonies
of recent converts. We went with some members in our ward, Krissy and Alayna,
and also our investigator Heather. The seatbelt on Krissy's car was stuck, so
since we wanted to protect my life we decided that we better double buckle me
with Alayna and Sister Smith's seatbelts. This picture doesn't quite show what
happened, but what followed was absolute chaos in the back seat. There were
shouts of "pull harder!" and "Are you sucking in!?" while I
just got squished. We were all laughing so hard we were all crying by the time
we got to the mission home. I think mostly we were all just way too tired :)
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