Not Leaving

Dear friends and family:

This week is transfers. The trio I am in with Elder Reno and Elder Allen is splitting up, but I'm staying in Fort Lauderdale East. I will meet my new companion tomorrow, and I'll tell all of you about him next Monday.

This transfer has been one of the most instructive that I have had on my mission so far. I learned a lot about dealing with personalities that are really not similar at all to my own, and about encouraging others and forcing myself to work, even when there are so many (perceived) reasons not to. I consider this transfer a huge success.

Two days ago, we had a baptism. His name was Georges Olriche. It was a miracle that it happened, really. It is the only eight-day baptism I have ever had on my mission. He had been attending church for several weeks in Haiti already, when he and his friend (the branch clerk) moved here to the United States, then contacted us for help getting to church again. So he came to church last week, and we had his interview on Saturday and his baptism just after Stake Conference on Sunday. Elder Allen was excited to baptize a Haitian, and to say the prayer in Haitian Creole. (You just might have to make him a Haitian Creole missionary if he keeps this up :D)

I'm excited to meet my new companion tomorrow, and to start to build up our area again. It's not in a terrible state, but it's only been worked about half of the time for the last five weeks, so I honestly don't have many investigators at the moment. Half of them are in Fort Laud South's area.

This week I have been trying to work on self-improvement and Christlike attributes more. This effort is because of a combination of trainings that we have received over the last few weeks, from Elder Zwick, President Current, and everyone at Stake Conference. What I resolved to do is to write out a 3x5 card every day during personal study with the answers to the following questions:

Where am I now?

Where do I want to be?

What will I do today to help me get there? (3-4 commitments that I can do throughout the day)

It hasn't been working very well so far, because I don't have a way to be accountable for it. So, this week I decided to ask my new companion to ask if I completed the card for that day. That way, I'll be more accountable and I also believe that it will help me build comp unity quickly.

In summary, the three of us are sad to be parting, but we'll get over it quickly when we see what else the Lord has in store for us.

Thanks,

Elder Slade