Transferring out of Miami Shores

Transfer calls happened last night. As it turns out, I am leaving Miami Shores again. I've been there for two transfers now, which makes four total because I was there for two when I started my mission. I still don't know where I'm going and I still don't know who my new companion will be.

I am sad but resolved as I prepare to leave Miami Shores, Creole for the second time. I had wanted to stay, but I had expected to leave. Now I am busy packing, but my companion and I are also resolved have the area in a very good condition when my replacement comes in to work with Elder Fisher. We'll make sure the Area Book is completely up to date, and we'll keep working hard tonight to find more solid investigators and keep our current ones solid.

In Miami, our two most solid investigators are still Pauline M. and her fiancée. They are working towards being married and then baptized. They have already met with Brother Acevedo to take his marriage counseling class, now the thing that is holding them back is that they don't feel ready to be married. They feel like they have to prepare and plan a lot before they can be married. Elder Fisher and his new companion will keep working with them to build more urgency and to get them focused less on the preparations for their marriage and more on the temple.

I enjoyed specialized training a lot this past week as well. We had to drive 50 miles up to Boynton Beach for the training and then back, which puts us in a bad spot for miles today (on the last day of the month), but I really loved President Richardson's training on repentance and baptism. I feel like I understand more what investigators need to do before they can be prepared and ready to make the step of baptism. In addition, it helped me to understand more fully what promises I made at my baptism and I learned several things that I can be doing to improve and to more fully keep those promises.

Unfortunately we did not receive iPads at this specialized training. It looks like there are technical difficulties in other places in the world which are preventing new missions from receiving iPads. As far as we know, our mission won't be getting them until January or February of next year. They pushed back their plans while they resolve those problems. Sad face.

For those of this email's recipients who are not in my immediate family: it looks like my family will get to adopt my new sister, Liv. If only I had ever once even seen her...!

For those who are in my immediate family: I might have to mention that Liv is a much better name than Olivia. Liv means book in Haitian Creole, but Olivia makes me think of olives, especially the dried out kind that you can sometimes find sitting out on our table because I forgot to put it in the fridge the night before after I finished eating. Heh heh. Liv is clearly the better name.

For those of you who are serving in the FFLM, or who at one point have: you may be interested to know that the Miami Shores (Creole) elders now are in a two-man apartment. Our roommates moved out just yesterday to a new apartment, to live with the Miami Beach (Creole) elders. So last night, we slept alone in our apartment. It was a relatively quiet night. And now I'm moving out anyway, so I only have the two days to spend in a two-man apartment.

Thanks,

Elder Slade