Meet the Mormons

Dear Friends and Family:

Our area is improving slowly but surely. Last week, we improved or were consistent in all but four key indicators. This week, we will improve or be consistent in all of them. This process will continue until the brightest day, when we again achieve the standards of excellence and stay consistent to them every week until the mission president is forced to increase them.

Speaking of the mission president, I am excited and very grateful for the chance we have this week to have interviews with him. I am doing my best to spiritually create and to think of good questions that will help me and our investigators the most.

At the start of the week, our most solid investigator was Christian. He was planning on being baptized yesterday, and had even already asked me to perform the baptism itself. We drove down to the temple grounds on Tuesday, along with the Spanish Elders and their investigators, Mary and Ghandi, in Brother Beale's car. We had a terrific, spiritual experience together. Unfortunately, we lost contact with Christian throughout the rest of the week, and he didn't come to church. We're not sure what happened to him, but we're praying and hoping for the best.

For this Sunday, our biggest candidate for baptism is Marie, the ex-wife of a recent convert, Abacu. She really wants to be baptized; all she and her ex-husband need to do are to go to the courthouse and take out a marriage license, so that the bishop can marry them legally, because at the moment they are living together without being married.

The bed bugs are mostly gone from our apartment, but we still get bitten consistently. We're doing our best to steam our mattresses every day, and that helps. The mission doesn't want us to use bug bombs or any sort of fumigation, but we'll get it figured out eventually.

Family specifically: thanks for the package that you said you sent! I can't wait!

Britney specifically: sorry you've only got three or four weeks left. I'll try to write you one last letter in the next hour that I have and hope that I can get it off to you this week.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

P.S. Did you all go and see the new movie, Meet the Mormons? If you haven't, then go now! Before it's too late to see it in theaters! Missionaries aren't allowed to go to theaters, so I'll never get the opportunity to do that!