Dear Friends and Family:
My new area is Fort Lauderdale, East. We cover part of the
Fort Lauderdale 2nd Ward in English, and all of it in Creole. We have a car. It
looks like an awesome area.
My new companion is Elder Kwon. He's awesome as well. This
is only his fifth transfer, but he is already such a great missionary. He had
everything prepared when I came into the area.
It has been a great week. We're trying to get the area up
and running again at the moment, because Elder Jackson had a problem with his
knee and so couldn't do much work in the area. But we should be able to get the
area to a healthy state in another week or so.
Yesterday was probably the most chaotic Sunday I've ever had
on my mission. The most bizarre part occurred after general conference
finished. We had a meal appointment with a part-member family at 6:30. Then, we
found out that the meal appointment was actually a surprise birthday party for
one of the members of the family. This should have sent warning bells ringing
through our heads, but we trusted that we could still get in and out in an
hour.
The party was delayed, as we were waiting for all of the
guests and then the birthday boy (55-year-old Frè Michel) to arrive.
Eventually, we had a brilliant idea to invite an investigator to come over to
the party with us, because it was at the church and so we could give him a
chapel tour afterwards. We got permission from the hosts of the party and then
we went off in search of some guests.
The first family we tried declined, because they had to wait
for another family member to return home first. So we continued inviting other
people. One family decided to come. So we returned to the church with them and
introduced them to the actually party guests. They started eating and talking.
Then... the first family we invited showed up as well. As well as another
member of the family who had decided to come, who came towing several
neighborhood friends with him as well. All in all, our guests almost numbered
more than the actual guests.
Then we had to do a chapel tour, so we invited Frè Michel to
come and do it with us. He was fantastic, and helped many of our guests become
more familiar with the church. Then the night ended.
It was so crazy. We literally crashed the party. On
accident.
Our biggest potential baptism for this Sunday is Marie
Eugene, who is a part of a part-member family who is looking forward to being
baptized. She is the last member of the family who has not yet been baptized.
They all came to general conference with us for one of the sessions.
As always, I loved general conference. It has meant much
more to me on my mission than at any time before. The more effort we put into
spiritually preparing for conference, the more we can get out of it; and I was
able to get much more out of it this time around than ever before as well.
Unfortunately, I realized that I only have one more general conference on my
mission; when the next October general conference comes around, I will have
been home for about a month. It's sad, but I am still resolved to use the rest
of my time on my mission as wisely and as effectively as I can.
I'm sorry to hear about the bedbug problem you are all
having, my dear family. I feel like I can empathize, though. There are bedbugs
in my new apartment. I think I may be allergic to bedbugs, however, because all
of the bites I've gotten so far have swollen up a massive amount as well. Have
you tried to use a steamer to kill the bugs in your mattresses? That is what
they have us doing here in Florida. It seems to work decently well.
I'm sorry to hear about Rick Reidhead. I'm glad he's getting
married, but I'm less than happy to hear about the rest.
In terms of things that I need at the moment, the short
answer is I don't. I'm good for now, I'll let you know if I think of anything
in the meantime.
Thanks for everything,
Elder Slade
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