The middle of nowhere

(Sister Slade)

Sometimes I can't believe how much happens in a week. I don't really remember what happened on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, but Friday and Saturday were wild.

On Friday we drove up to Lead Hill. It's a small town about 20 miles North of Harrison. We had 3 lessons that day which is pretty exciting in itself. At one of them I was able to play and sing Peace in Christ for them. I could feel the Spirit so strongly as I bore my testimony to them through music. Then we drove out to Yellville from there which is about 25 miles East of Harrison. Some members who live there were feeding us, but they live in the middle of nowhere. The dirt road they live on could barely pass as a road. (We actually got a flat tire driving up their drive way).This family has very little electricity, no running water, and they use a bucket for their bathroom. But the crazy part is that they choose to live like that! They love being out in nature on their farm without the distractions of the world. They were some of the most humble and faithful people I've ever met. On the fun side of things, we got to hold some of their piglets and milk their goat. It was really fun.

On Saturday we did a ton of service. At a thrift store we volunteer at one of the other volunteers said that he had been curious about us for a long time. He said that there was a light around us that he's never seen in anyone else and he's wanted to ask about it for a couple of weeks. It was so cool! He asked us a ton of questions and he wants to know more! Then that evening we had another service opportunity at the House of Hope fundraiser. We talked to 20+ people there and probably half of them asked about our name tags and what we do. We had 2 really good conversations where they walked away saying that they had changed their mind about the "mormons" because of our good examples. Service works!!!!

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes!

God is Good!

Sister Slade

Pictures (we have a lot this week!)

1. I got to see Sister Allison (my MTC companion) for the first time in 9 months last week at zone conference

2. A fun mural

3. Me holding a piglet

4. Me milking a goat

5. Sister Brown milking a goat

6. Pretty picture
7. We got stuck behind a tractor going home on Friday night

8. This note was on our door when we got home Friday night

9. A nasty looking spider outside our door

10. The nail that the tire shop pulled out of our tire when they fixed it on Saturday

New Companion

(Hermana Ellsworth)

Just Kidding I still have Hermana Paredes as my companion :)  But here is a picture of a cute little girl in our ward.

The primary had a lesson about missionary work at church and so all the little kids had name tags that said "Future Missionary" (in English 😂) but they were all so excited to be missionaries and they asked to take pictures with us because they were missionaries too. This is what it must had felt like with the missionary age change in 2012. I still feel like I am this 6 yr old girl trying to figure life out. One of the primary kids told me "when I am 30 years old like you I want to be a missionary!!!!!' I wanted to tell him, "Don't look now but as soon as you are in primary you are on a mission! Life is going by way too fast."

The work in Puerto Rico is going well we are getting rained on a lot and so my hair is always a little frizzy but I love it. It's the island life ;)  I have been learning a lot about patience and the agency of others. I think being on a mission really gave me a better eternal perspective. We are out here doing the best that we can and then there is nothing we can do when someone uses their agency in their own way. The members are doing their best to help us out but once again we are all imperfect people. which reminds me of a good talk by President Russell M. Nelson called Perfection Pending ----https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1995/10/perfection-pending?lang=eng ---- There is nothing like a good mission to make you realized that we are all SOOOO imperfect and we have SOO much to do. But thankfully and I will be Eternally grateful that we have the Atonement of Jesus Christ to help us return to our Heavenly Father.

Everyone that we are teaching is doing well. We have a baptism scheduled for this Sunday after church for Rafael :) he is doing so well and it has been a journey to get him to accept a baptismal date and to quite smoking but he is doing well and I am really proud of him :)

We had someone read us Anti-Church literature in one of our lessons and it talked about some really weird things that "we worship 6 main Gods" an that "morminism believes Jesus Married 3 women" but the part that they couldnt get over was that it said Joseph Smith was 18 when he saw the vision and not 14. Somehow that was the part that really got them that we "got the age wrong when we explained the first vision" We asked them if they read the Book of Mormon and they said no because it was not inspired by God....... But they really loved this other book and they read it 6 times in the week that we last saw them!!!!! 

Anyways, I know the Book of Mormon is inspired by God and is evidence that the Church of Jesus Christ was restored on the earth. I love Jesus Christ with all my heart and I am SO grateful that I have this opportunity to share what I know and to learn more than I ever thought possible :) Please take the time to read from the Book of Mormon and ask God if it is true. Please don't be these people who took HOURS to read something that invited hate and conflict.

I LOVE YOU ALL!! PLEASE DO GOOD THINGS :)

They accidentally played an R rated horror movie.

(Sister Slade)

So this week was zone conference which was amazing. We talked about the Holy Ghost and how we can more fully leave a place for him in our life. It was a really neat workshop. Then President Strong announced that we were all going to the theaters to watch "The Other Side of Heaven 2." It was a surprise for everyone, but we were all really excited. They had rented out the theater for the missionaries, but the theater thought we were watching "The Other Side 2" which is an R rated horror movie. We were all freaking out a little bit. Luckily they got it figured out and we enjoyed the movie we were actually supposed to watch. :)

I can't remember if I've talked about the service test my mission is doing in my emails yet, so I'll talk about it here. So my mission is one of 10 in the whole world that has been asked by President Ballard to do a service test. What that means is that each companionship is required to do 10 hours of community service every week. The missionary department wants to know if service can positively impact the missionary's experience and view of their mission and if it helps with finding. We've been doing this test for the last 5 months or so and I would say YES to both of those. The service we do soften's people's hearts so much and I love seeing that I can make a difference in the community. Since they've started this test I've done a lot better in battling the discouragement and depression that comes from being a missionary. I can almost definitively say that I'm still on a mission because of the service I am doing here and the difference I see it make in someone's life. Please PLEASE look for opportunities to serve others. I promise it will make a difference in your life as well as theirs.

I love being a missionary! God is Good!

Sister Slade

Pictures:

1. Sister Brown had too much fun with the bag closer machine

2. Us at service at a food kitchen

3. I got to see sister Fretwell during zone conference!

4. She took this fun photo during our phone audits

Six Months!

(Hermana Ellsworth)

6 months down and a year to go! Time flies when you are doing the work of the Lord :) I am just going to give a little shout out to one of the recent converts named Talito :) Talito is such an amazing person. He does not have much in the way of the world but he has everything when it comes to God. I can imagine our Heavenly Father looking down at him and just being so proud of the person that he is. He shared a beautiful miracle that he has seen in his life. He suffers from a  lot of health issues and his body is old but his spirit is strong. Ever Sunday he drives 2 investigators and 2 recent converts to church and wakes up at 6 am to go and gather everyone. He has only been a member himself for 3 months but he does everything in his power to help others on Sunday mornings. During one of our lessons we were talking about tender mercies. He quietly talked about one of the tender mercies that he has seen. Every morning it is really hard for him to get out of bed. Not just because he is tired but because physically it is demanding. He then went on to account the goodness of God on the sabbath mornings. He spoke of the miracle that he receives every Sunday morning when he wakes up. He wakes up with out any pain and without any trouble every Sunday morning. He said that he knows if he keeps sacrificing his time, car, life to helping others to get to church then he will continue to have this tender mercy every morning. He is an amazing example of living the gospel and putting Christ first over our own personal comfort. But the one thing I love about this the most is that Heavenly Father knows that Talito needs this blessing in order to keep doing his work.

Tender Mercies are real I like what Nephi said once "And after I had traveled for the space of many hours in darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies. " There are so many tender mercies out there and sometimes we are just too blind to see them. Keep your eyes open to all of those mercies :) Thank you for reading this weeks email Grandma and Grandpa and my other 3 faithful followers ;) I looooooove you alllll

Talito and Mercedes took us out to eat "Chinese food"

Late night painting

Painting the pass-a-long cards

I LOVE TO SEE THE TEMPLE (painting)

"To love another person is to see the face of God."

(Hermana Ellsworth)

I really love being a missionary because It is a time to reach out to people and talk to people that I would not usually talk to. I have never felt so much concern and love for a random guy selling mangoes on the side of the street named Tortugita (little Turtle). I really do love the people here in Puerto Rico and I am loving their love for rice and beans for every meal.

This week was a week full of little miracles. I have been studying all of the conference talks that President Nelson has ever given and I know that he is a Prophet of God and that he is completing the work that the Lord has called him to do and is working the will of the our Savior for his church.

This week went by really fast and I don't have a lot to write about other than I gave my first sacrament talk in Spanish. a good 15 minutes long and I think people understood me. My companion is still amazing and here are some pictures.

1. Shawn was picked up by the bishop and the bishop had early morning meetings so Shawn had to come to the church at 7 am which was earlier than he usually wakes up.....

2. Charolette The daughter of Jeffery. She is an angel but during the most spiritual times of the lesson is when she decides to start screaming. LOVE HER!

3. For exercise we ended up just laying down in the street to watch a rainbow and the clouds.

I LOVE CORN!!!

(Sister Slade)

Hey everyone!

This week's title is from my dear companion, Sister Brown. Yesterday as we were making lunch I remembered that we had gotten corn on Monday. So I said something along the lines of, "Oh yeah, we have corn." And she throws her arms up and says, "OH MY GOODNESS!!! I LOVE CORN!!!!!" It was really funny because the fact that we had corn made her day and she was a lot more awake the rest of the day.

Anyway, this week was really good. I had to spend a lot of time working on the magazine and it made me feel really bad for Sister Brown. Any time that we could have spent finding or talking to people we had to work on the magazine. Even though we spent a lot of time on computers, I kept praying that we would find people to teach. We ended up finding 3 new people to teach even though we talked to half as many people as we normally do. It was a tender mercy to me. It also was a testimony builder that Heavenly Father really is preparing people to receive the gospel.

We had a kind of sad experience with some members this week. There's an old less active couple that the missionaries have visited for years. This week they told us that the reason they don't come back to church is because no one cares about them. They haven't been to church for a lot of years, and it's because no one from the church, besides the missionaries, have come to visit them in all of those years. It made me think about all the people whether they're a member or not feel unloved or like they don't matter and it made me really sad. Everyone deserves to feel like and know that someone cares for them. If nothing else, they need to know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love them. I read a scripture this week that reminded me of this. 1 Nephi 21:14 "But, behold, Zion hath said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me- but he will show that he hath not." The chapter goes on to say that the Savior hasn't and can't forget us because he has "graven us on the palms of his hands." I know that no matter how alone or forgotten you feel, there is someone who cares about you infinitely. You matter. You are loved. That's why I'm on a mission. So that I can share this message of Love with those who need to hear it.

God is good!

Sister Slade

pictures:

1. Random picture of sister brown during comp study. She loves comp study

2. We got ice cream at a gas station because it was a really hot day.

3. Another puzzle that I did.

The weekly struggle - I mean email.

(Sister Slade)

You guys seriously don't know how hard it is to write a weekly email. First you have to think about what happened in the last week. Then you can't remember what happened last week. Then after you do remember what happened last week, you have to decide what you want to share from last week. And then you actually have to write the email all the while trying to make it entertaining for the people you send it to because you know they're just going to look at the pictures anyway. and then you wonder why am I writing the email. This is the weekly struggle.

I seriously don't even know what happened this week. We did a lot of service at thrift stores, food pantry's, and soup kitchens. We talked to a lot of people. District council was on Wednesday. Even the 4th of July was kind of boring. We went to the square to talk to people during the activities and ceremonies they have down there that morning and then we got caught in the rain. Unfortunately we had walked down to the square so we were a little bit stuck. It was a good memory though.

Other than that it was a fairly standard busy missionary week. Sorry I don't have more to give you.

God is Good!

Sister Slade

Pictures:

1. We have some capes and masks at our house so we had to model them

2. We sat in the back of our truck to watch some fireworks on the 4th

3. We got ice cream and I drew a self portrait in it

4. An awesome rainbow we saw

5. Area book had a glitch

Transfers! :)

(Hermana Ellsworth)

First a Congratulations to by dear mother who got married this week :) She is wonderful :) Thank you for being an example in my life.

We also had transfers this week and I will be staying in Toa Baja with Hermana Paredes from Peru :) She has been an amazing companion and we have been through some good ups and downs together and I cannot wait to continue working with her. :)

I wanted to write about President Russell M. Nelson's talk from the 2018 October woman's conference and the role of women in the Gathering of Israel. President Nelson said "My dear sisters, you have special spiritual gifts and propensities. Tonight I urge you, with all the hope of my heart, to pray to understand your spiritual gifts—to cultivate, use, and expand them, even more than you ever have. You will change the world as you do so."

As women we have a responsibility to share the gospel just as much as the men in the church do. We can touch hearts in different ways and we have a power to use this gifts that we have been given to support priesthood leaders and to move the work of the Lord forward.

In 2015 President Russell M. Nelson gave a talk called "A plea to women" he said "Thirty-six years ago, in 1979, President Spencer W. Kimball made a profound prophecy about the impact that covenant-keeping women would have on the future of the Lord’s Church. He prophesied: “Much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world … will be drawn to the Church in large numbers. This will happen to the degree that the women of the Church reflect righteousness and articulateness in their lives and to the degree that the women of the Church are seen as distinct and different—in happy ways—from the women of the world.”

My dear sisters, you who are our vital associates during this winding-up scene, the day that President Kimball foresaw is today. You are the women he foresaw! Your virtue, light, love, knowledge, courage, character, faith, and righteous lives will draw good women of the world, along with their families, to the Church in unprecedented numbers!"  

I know that the women of the church have a large responsibility to share the gospel and move the work forward. For the young women in my ward and my young cousins who read my emails, I ask that you prepare to do your part now to serve a mission. To prepare by reading the Book of Mormon and living in accordance to the covenants that you have made at baptism and the ones you will make one day in the House of the Lord. I am so grateful for the covenant living women in my life who have fulfilled prophecy and lived in a way that is not of this world but of the world to come. I am so grateful to be serving a mission and to be using my talents to move the work of the Lord forward. I know this is the true church of Jesus Christ and I am grateful to have had this gospel in my hands my whole life.

My companion Hermana Paredes is a wonderful example to me of a woman of faith, knowledge, and a covenant living woman. She does not use "buts" or tries to find a right way to do the wrong thing. She is a strong woman and will always be an example to me.

SHAWN WAS BAPTIZED!

(Hermana Ellsworth)

Hello friends, family, the young, and the old (looking at you Grandpa Bert 😉) I hope that all is well in your lives. This week was once again full of miracles. The largest one was that Shawn was baptized! He is 20 years old and has been doing so much to change his life. He faced a lot of opposition the week before his baptism and at one point we were going to postpone the baptism for another week. BUT SHAWN HAS MADE IT TO THE WATERS OF BAPTISM! This is something with eternal benefits and I could not be happier for him. He really pushed through some of the hard times and held true to the things that he did know. He knows the Book of Mormon is true and that this was a promise that he knew was needed and that he wanted. This is Shawn after his interview. It isnt the best picture but I like how happy he looks in it.

This is Shawn at his baptism he was baptized by Cesar who has been an amazing member to help Shawn get to where he is now. Being a missionary has helped me to realize the importance of members in the missionary work. There is so much that we need to do as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I encourage each of you  to fast for your own personal missionary opportunity and then to ACT on that opportunity. Ask yourself what you can do to move the work of the Lord Forward. (and how you can use the Book of Mormon to help you ((Thats why we have it)) )

A little more about Miguel and how he is doing. He received the Gift of the Holy Ghost this last Sunday and the blessing after was so pure and beautiful. The spirit was so strong and he sat in the chair and cried for a little bit afterwards. He is the most pure and humble man. MEEK he is a meek person. When we told him he couldn't drink coffee he said, "Is that a commandment?" we said "yes" and he said "Tambien I'll do it!" he has always been ready to keep the commandments but just wasn't sure what all of them were. He was really one of the people who were kept from the truth because they knew not where to find it. It is an honor to teach him and to see him grow as a child of God and to have his own spiritual moments.

MIYITO!!!!!!!!!!!! Miyito is doing as well as always he has been loving reading/watching the videos of the children’s Book of Mormon on the app and has been a wonderful member missionary. He comes and walks with us still and has introduced us to probably 20 of his cousins that live near him and is helping one of his cousins come to church next Sunday. The Gospel and Jesus Christ has really changed him and he is one of the happiest people I know now. It is again an honor to have him in this area. He is a really good missionary and calls us sometimes to remind us that we have appointments with some of his cousins for later that day.

Thank you for all your love and support and I hope that your lives are well. Keep on serving the Lord in your area of the world. Have a wonderful week and GO FIGHT WIN! The Church is still true, everywhere you go. I hope that you are able to find a way to share the gospel with your family and friends. GO TO THE TEMPLE! I really miss the temple and I am so excited that we will have one in Puerto Rico soon.

Reading Material for this week. Go read Recognizing the Spirit in Preach my Gospel. Article Link

Flippin', Arkansas!

(Sister Slade)

This week we went out to the far reaches of our area to have dinner with some members in our ward. They are both bus drivers for the Flippin Arkansas schools. They were telling us about the Flippin sheriff's office and the Flippin gas stations, and the Flippin church of God. It was really funny (and kind of unfortunate)!

I met my new companion this week. Her name is Sister Brown. She is from West Jordan Utah and is super sweet. Like I said last week, she is brand new and straight off the plane! It's kind of intimidating knowing that I need to teach her everything... like how to talk to people. It reminds me a lot of when I was training and then I feel bad for my trainer. Sorry Sister Mueller! I must have been horrible to train.

Gene came to church again! We didn't think he would come back because some family told him they didn't like that he was meeting with us. But when we saw him on Saturday, he told us that he would see us at church. Then when he was leaving on Sunday, he said he would be back next week. It was really cool to see how just the spirit of the Sacrament meeting can turn someone's heart.

I love being a missionary!

God is Good!

Sister Slade

P.S. Happy 4th of July!!!

pictures:

1. A goat in the middle of the road

2. Last picture with sister Elkins

3. A pretty creek

4. First picture with sister Brown