Best Week

Dear friends and family:

Elder Storm and I had one of the best weeks we have had together. Our key indicators were well-rounded, without huge imbalances. One of the things we were happy that we were able to do was to get standards in member-present lessons and new investigators.

Our district leader, Elder Chiparro, has been pretty sick for the last week or so, and so on Thursday we went on a quick exchange with them so that his companion could go out and work their area a little bit. The next day, on Friday, we had apartment inspections. (We passed, don't worry.)

This Sunday, we had several families committed to come to church. One is a part-member family. Mikerlange was baptized over a year and a half ago, when I first came into the area. Since then she has gone inactive. Now, she has a nine-year-old daughter who has never been baptized. When we went to visit her, we discovered this and are now working to help her be baptized. Mikerda, her daughter who is preparing for baptism, is extremely intelligent. We committed her to read the introduction in the Book of Mormon. When we came back and asked her about it, she proceeded to describe in great detail what went on the first six chapters, going into a lot of detail. Unfortunately, she and her family were not able to come to church due to their ride falling through. (Our fault, not theirs.)

As well, we were able to help Lusane and Jonal come to church. We stopped by their apartment complex and had Jonal follow us in their own car. They loved sacrament meeting, but unfortunately had to leave afterwards because Lusane had to go to work.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Good week

Dear friends and family:

We had a pretty good week this past week. We struggled a little bit at the start of the week, but by the end of the week we were able to get one of our new investigators, Stephadina, to come to church. She enjoyed it a lot, and she has a date to be baptized on the 6th. We also have two other investigators who have a date to be baptized on the 13th. It was a miracle that we found them.

The miracle happened because our ward had a barbeque/picnic last Saturday. It was in a park, but unfortunately there was a fee to get into the part on weekends and holidays. Nobody had been told about the fee. When we pulled into the park for the first time, we found out about it and called the bishop to see if there was anything we could do to prevent any investigators/members from being charged to come to the ward activity. He asked us to go and talk with the people manning the entrance and ask them if they could count the number of cars entering the park to go to the ward activity. When we went to talk with them, we found out that one of them was a less-active member who had not been to church for several years because of her job, but who still loved the church and wished she could go back. She was baptized in New York and had even gone to the temple and received her endowments. Her friend, who was there with her, was looking for ways to come closer to God and to develop her faith. She gratefully accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon, and asked us to come and teach her and her husband. They accepted a date for the 13th, and we are excited to work with them more.

Elder Storm and I have been doing well. We had a quick fire exchange with the zone leaders yesterday, after district training, and we were able to learn a lot about knocking doors and being simple but powerful.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Leaving Fort Lauderdale East

Dear friends and family:

I've already sent the big news, I'm leaving Fort Lauderdale East. That means that so far, I have spent exactly four transfers in each of my three previous areas, leaving exactly four transfers for my (assumably) last area, whatever it may be.

I'm a little apprehensive to leave Fort Lauderdale, I've been here for six months and I know I'm going to miss all of the members and everyone else here. But I'm still happy and I'm sure I'll love my next area just as much.

Now for the other news:

It's been a great last week of the transfer. None of the key indicator areas have been extremely fantastic, but we were able to balance our efforts better this week better than ever before. None of the key indicators suck! We finally managed to get a decent number of investigators in sacrament!

First of all I want to talk about Russel and Darcia. They are an unmarried couple who we found on Friday. They accepted baptism, because they want to get married and they believe baptism will help them cement their relationship together. They loved church, and they accepted a date for the 28th of March. I am going to miss them already! Their marriage would presumably be on the same day.

Next, we had a miracle come to church as well. He came because of a culmination of events. We met him on Saturday and invited him to come to church; he said that he might come, but he wasn't sure yet. But we continued and found other people on his street to teach. Then, unbeknownst to us, the West elders' investigator invited him to come to church with her. So on Sunday morning, we saw Richard with Rose; they were long-time friends, and Richard only came to church because he was again invited by his friend. We'll see him again tomorrow or on Thursday, and we'll get an opportunity to teach him the restoration. But he loved church as well, and it was a welcome miracle from God that he came!

I finished my application for Neumont University, and according to Mom, who has been in contact with the admissions staff, they have already as good as accepted it, although they haven't formalized the acceptance. From what research we have done, Neumont seems to be a very good possibility for a college for me. Some advantages are that I could get a bachelor's degree in just three years, instead of four, and that the entire college would be oriented on my chosen career field - computer science. Some disadvantages are that because it is a small private university, it could be quite expensive without a large scholarship or grant of some sort; and as well, because of the large work load, it would be very difficult to work during my school career.

They are currently considering me for the presidential scholarship, which would be 75% of tuition cost. If I receive the scholarship, odds are good that I will accept and start school at Neumont a month after I return, in October. If not, odds are that I will accept my entrance into BYU-Provo and I will start there a few months after I return home.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Miracles

Dear friends and family:

First I'll summarize the missionary work that's been going on here:

Despite great effort on our part throughout the week to find people to get to church, we still saw the typical Sunday-morning dropoff of investigators. Some of them were called in to work, some of them were unable to overcome social anxiety, some of them didn't really have a good reason not to come. But despite being yet another week without having investigators in sacrament meeting, I'm still happy for two main reasons:

First, we had a miracle investigator show up to church. One of our recent converts showed up with his nonmember wife, who just moved here from Haiti. They came in just a little bit too late to see the sacrament in the chapel itself, but they walked in afterwards and she loved it - as well as the Haitian Creole Sunday school class afterwards. We'll be seeing them again tonight, and we're excited to help her be baptized on the 28th.

Second, we found a miracle on Friday. We knocked into Robert, who had recently had a rough divorce, and who had recently been contemplating suicide. After the prayer, he testified that he knew that God sent us to him, and he immediately accepted baptism. On Sunday morning, he was called in to work. He tried to call his boss to get permission to leave work for Sacrament meeting and then to come back, but he was told that if he left he would be fired. At the end of his shift, he felt terrible, and he told his boss that he couldn't work on Sundays any more. He said that his relationship with God was more important to him than his relationship with his work. He told him and us afterwards that there is no way he would ever miss church again. We are so glad to have found Robert, and to work with him. He is so prepared to hear the gospel!

It sounds like you just had a wonderful youth missionary experience there in Rye. How big was the event? Was it just our ward, or was it several wards put together?

You'll have to tell me how the concert goes this weekend.

A quick note: transfers are next week, so I will be emailing on Tuesday, not Monday. My guess: I'll transfer, Elder Peterson will stay, but I have no idea who will come or where I will go.

Thanks for everything,

Elder Slade

Choices

Dear friends and family:

We have been having a great time this week working. Elder Peterson is as diligent as ever, and together we managed to apply zone conference and get more new investigators than we have any other week we have had together. We had five NI by Wednesday, and seven by Sunday. We're still working on refining our approach and getting members out with us more so that our investigators progress and come to church, but we have been having a lot more success finding the investigators to teach in the first place.

We have two investigators from last week who we consider to be progressing. One is Marie. The only thing that stopped her from coming to church was her son getting sick the night before. The other is Justice, who was all prepared to come to church and then her parents left instead and had her babysit her siblings instead. It was really frustrating, but we know that if we can get members over there to visit them and Justice's parents we can get both of them (and their families!) to come to church next week. We are also going to keep our focus on finding people to be baptized, and we'll repeat what happened last week... only better.

We went on exchanges with Elder Allen and Elder Miller on Sunday after church, so that Elder Allen could come into our area and so that Elder Miller could learn from taking over the area again. It was a good exchange. We got a lot done but did not find anyone for our own area, but Elder Peterson and Elder Miller had a miracle find who they're going back to see tonight.

Update on college: I was accepted to BYU-Provo! This is great, because I still have the option to go there, but it's also frustrating because now I have a much bigger choice to make. The four biggest colleges I am still looking at are BYU-I, BYU, UofU, and Neumont.

I was thinking about the next few months, and I realized that general conference is only a month away. That's right, my fourth general conference on my mission. (You only get four. Then you die.) Tomorrow is my 6-months to home mark.

What ended up happening with Kayla and everything else we were fasting for as a family?

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Zone Conference

Dear Friends and Family:

Elder Peterson and I have been putting forth a lot of effort into finding new investigators this week. Even so, unfortunately we didn't see any real results until Friday, when we had an exchange with Elder Allen and Elder Miller. That day was the day we started seeing a lot of results and miracles. We found several amazing people who we followed up with the next day. A few of them put in a strong effort to come to church yesterday, but were not able to due to their siblings/friends bailing at the last moment and so they had no ride to come to church. But they are excited to come next week, and we are excited to keep working with them.

Yesterday, after church, we had another amazing miracle happen. There was a child of record baptism at 5, so after church we had a little time to contact all of our investigators and try to get them to come and see the baptism, even though they didn't come to church. We had no success, due to the lateness of the invitation, until we stopped by to invite Christopher to come to the baptism. We didn't have much hope, because it was 4:40 at this time, and he had to depend on other people to give him rides. But we stopped by, and we met his roommate for the first time, Freddy. Freddy hadn't been there the last few times we had stopped by due to a new job at IHOP he had just received, but this time he was there and excited to see us. He knew a lot about missionaries but had not been to church since he was a little child. When we invited him to come and see the baptism, he stopped for a second, and then agreed.

He followed us to the church, and we watched the baptism together. Afterward, he had several questions about the service. He didn't know what baptism was, for instance, and he didn't know what the Holy Ghost was. We have a return appointment with him tomorrow. We can't wait to help him prepare to be baptized himself!

Tomorrow we have Zone Conference, which is a large conference with the mission president and about a third of the mission. (Probably about 70-80 missionaries.) The presidents' assistants serve in our ward as well, but they have been very good at keeping secrets from us and not letting out what will happen there. We're very excited to go and to learn tomorrow!

I still have no idea what I'm going to do for college. I haven't received a confirmation or rejection from BYU-Provo, but from what I understand the last date that they can tell me if I am accepted or not is this Saturday, so that will help me determine what I will be doing.

I'm sorry to hear that KaraLynne is in the hospital. I'll be praying for her. Is there any news on Sister Kayla Cummings yet?

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Rough Week

Dear friends and family:

Our week was a little rough. Our main focus this week was finding many new people to teach, because we baptized our teaching pool last week. We were able to get quite a few investigators and potential investigators, but unfortunately because of this focus we were lax on getting members out to teach with us, and as a result none of the new investigators we found came to church and many of them have lost the fire that they had when we first found them. We'll definitely be repenting this week, and making sure that we have members out with us at every possible opportunity.

Elder Peterson and I are still getting along great, and we're working together really well. One thing about him is that he almost always has a very high desire and motivation to work. He doesn't get distracted easily, and it's obvious that he is extremely converted to the gospel and to his purpose. And he's been really helpful to me with the goals that I have been working on to try to be a better missionary as well.

We've been able to have a lot of great spiritual experiences this week. We have had many miracles as we talk to people and leave prayers with them. Many of them have shared their testimony afterwards that they know that God sent us to them, and God knew that they needed a prayer because they've been going through a hard time in life. Even if they didn't come to church and they ultimately grew cold, it feels good to know that God was able to use me and my companion to help others feel how much he loves them.

I'm sorry to hear about the trouble that Sister Cummins is going through. I'll be praying for her.

I'm low on time to email today. Sorry!

Thanks for everything,

Elder Slade

Baptisms

Dear friends and family:

We've had a great week. We had two baptisms on Saturday, for Jacquito P-L. and his wife, Marie. They, along with Olriche G. (who was baptized last week) were confirmed yesterday. Elder Peterson and I are thrilled to have had so much success this last week, and we're excited to make this transfer the best one we've ever had.

Elder Peterson is a really great missionary. He isn't afraid to go and talk to anybody, and he gets along with everyone. We have slightly different styles of tracting when we knock on doors, but we'll work out the rough edges in another week or so. Elder Peterson loves computers, and worked in IT before his mission, so we have a lot of things in common. (Although, he doesn't program. I'll convert him if we have enough time together. :D)

One of the things that we are still struggling with is finding new investigators. This is especially a problem now, because after we split from a tricompanionship again, each area had half as many investigators in the first place. And now we have baptized all of our investigators, leaving only a few follow up appointments as a source of new investigators. But we made a goal of 5 baptisms in this month, and we still have all of this week to find the last two people, so they can come to church for two Sundays, and then be baptized on the 28th (the last day of the month, but still in February. :) ).

We have zone training tomorrow, for which we are very excited, and we're bien animados to have a wonderful month of February!

News on the bed bugs: they haven't really been biting that much over the last month or so. Occasionally we get one or two bites, but the problem seems to have been temporarily eradicated. What about you, my beloved family? Do you still have bed bugs?

Thank you for all of your letters of encouragement and your effort on my behalf. It's nice to hear from you and to see how you are doing. I have a few questions, for all of my siblings who are in school; what classes are you taking? What class is your favorite, and why? Your least favorite, and why? And... how do you feel about Britney being engaged? That was a surprise. I didn't see it coming at all.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

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

No transfers

Dear friends and family:

First off, transfers were not last week. We had P-Day on Tuesday because of MLK Jr. day on Monday. Transfers will be next week, we will find out who will be leaving on Monday night, we will pack and email on Tuesday, and then we will find out who our new companions are and actually transfer on Wednesday. I am almost certainly splitting back into Fort Lauderdale East, and getting a new companion, but not actually transferring anywhere. Oh well, we'll see what happens.

We had a great week again. We increased or were consistent in every key indicator except for referrals; and one of the biggest strengths we had this week was working more with the members. Our ward has had many families and individuals move in over the last few weeks or so, and we are very excited to work with them and work through them to help the work of Salvation grow.

We haven't been doing a really good job of working both areas over the last week or so. We mostly knocked in Fort Lauderdale South's area. We'll have to be better about covering both areas so that when we split up again in a week and a half, neither of the areas will have to be whitewashed.

This Saturday, we had an amazing miracle. We were struggling to find new investigators, and we were a little disheartened that it was Saturday and we had no potentials to follow up with. But after we finished studying and eating, we received a call from a member who had just moved to Florida from Haiti. He wanted to come to church the next day, and asked us to come by and see him. So we went over immediately, and were excited to find out that the member had moved in with two nonmember friends. One of them had been visiting the church for several weeks with the member in Haiti, and said that he wanted to become a member. We shared a message about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and helped them find a ride to church. We know that this miracle came directly from God, and it would not have happened if we hadn't followed the spirit and dropped what we were going to do to go and see the member when he called us. Currently he is preparing to be baptized on the 7th of February.

This week my personal studies have been unusually erratic. I have been trying to focus on gaining a stronger testimony of the restoration, but I have also felt like I should be working to better understand the Plan of Salvation, as well as reading the Book of Mormon straight through to better understand it. I feel like I learned a lot about all of them, but not as much as I could have if I had focused more intensely on a single subject.

Mom and Becky: I hope that both of you make it onto the Amazing race. But if you do, you have to promise not to watch it until I get home. :)

Britney: How is starting up college again? What classes are you taking?

Paul, Anna, Gabe, Eliza: How are your grades? What books have you read recently?

Paul: Did you work in the ER over the summer? Does Matt still work there?

Nathan, Liv: What are your favorite things to say? Can you work technology better than most adults yet?

Dad: Is the ward growing, or staying the same size? I'm trying to remember how many people came to church each week, or even who came to church, and I can't think of it. How is working at Piano Marvel? Do they still want to hire me when I get back? Are you still in contact with David Heath?

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Weird Week

Dear friends and family:

We had a really weird week. One of our strengths was that we had nine lessons with recent converts and less-active members, and we had ten lessons taught with a member-present. One of our weaknesses is that we had only two new investigators. So we're praying that we will be able to find the people we need to find quickly, so that we can teach them and get a good start for the month of February.

We still have a few different potentials to be baptized this Sunday. They all have baptismal dates for this Sunday, but they all have different things that might prevent them. We'll be praying and working for the best, and hopefully we'll be able to see all of them baptized this Sunday. That is: Mike, Mary and Ghandi, and Jacquito and Marie.

Life in a trio is so fun. It's still hard to stay focused, but we have been blessed because of it. We were able to go on splits two times last week, and we'll be doing it again tonight.

My mission is completely different than it was at the beginning of it. And there's still a lot of time for it to continue to change.

A big change that just recently took place: the Fort Meyers stake was added to our mission, including 30 missionaries, 8 of which are Haitian Creole speaking. They came from the Tampa mission, which had iPads already. When they transferred missions, their iPads were confiscated. (Sad face.)

In other news, we just received another noncommittal confirmation from a general authority that iPads are coming to our mission! ...soon. The keyword is noncommittal.

I really don't know what to do about colleges. The more I think about it, the less I feel like I actually have a solid direction to go.

Here are a few deciding factors:

- I will not be released early to go to school, there is a new mission policy in regards to that, so if the semester starts before I get home or too soon after it won't be a possibility.

- I want to have a good education for my chosen field, but I also want to be able to use my mission language. This means learning French, probably, because it's really close to Haitian Creole and it's an awesome language besides.

- I want to be close to my family, and I want to be in close contact with many of my mission friends as well.

- I want it to be cheap...

I'm about out of time, so I'll send this as it is.

Thanks for everything,

Elder Slade

Great Week

Dear Friends and Family:

We had another great week. It's really fun being in a trio with Elder Reno and Elder Allen, and we've been learning a lot from each other over the last couple of weeks. This last Thursday I had the amazing opportunity to go back to Boynton Beach to hear from Elder Zwick, from the quorum of the 70. We had zone conference in the morning until 4, and then another meeting with all of the members of each ward council for about 3 stakes at 7 PM. Between the two meetings, I had the opportunity to drive around and visit a few of my recent converts, and try to help them come to church and progress in the gospel. I was really grateful to see them again and also to learn from Elder Zwick.

Here's a brief overview of the most promising of our current investigators:

Mary and Ghandi are still excited to be baptized, and we are still waiting on their paperwork to be completed and sent over from the Martial Islands. They will be married as soon as they get it, and then they will be baptized.

Mike is preparing to be baptized, but he is still struggling to overcome coffee. We'll work with him and try to get him ready for baptism this Sunday, which is what he wants to aim for as well.

Jacquito and Marie are still more interested in the church as more of a learning opportunity, and they don't feel ready to be baptized, but they have both agreed to be baptized this Sunday if God helps them to feel ready and as they come to know that it is true.

William did not come to church because of work. He wants to keep coming and to learn more and come closer to God, but he is adamant that he has already been baptized and that we don't necessarily need the gift of the Holy Ghost. We're going to try to focus on the Book of Mormon as a way to come closer to God, and also to know that the church really has been restored and that it is Jesus Christ's true church.

Yesterday, after church, we received a miracle referral. A member who was feeding us invited one of her friends in the neighborhood to come over to eat with us. Her friend is excited to learn more and to come to church. We'll be meeting with them again tomorrow, after Zone Training.

So, what was the name you all decided to use for the new dog?

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Po-Fou

Dear friends and family:

We had a wonderful week. It was my first week together in a tricompanionship with the two Spanish missionaries in our ward. I've never been in a tricompanionship before, and I have to admit, it is much harder to teach coherently or to stay focused. There are many benefits - for example, we can go on splits and get twice as much work done with only one member, and it's much harder to fall into the rut of being rote when we meet new people because there's too much variable in who talks when. And all in all, we worked hard and accomplished standards! ... almost.

If we had had two more investigators in sacrament, two more lessons with recent converts or less active members, and just one more member blessing, then we would have accomplished standards. It was going to be my second week on my mission where we do it. We were so close! But no cigar. That's what this next week is for, I guess.

We had three people come to church early enough to see the sacrament.

First, there's William. He speaks English, and he's very intelligent. So intelligent, in fact, that he takes almost nothing we say at face value and insists on looking everything up. He's had a lot of experience with religious theory, and some of the issues he has right now are that he doesn't believe in modern-day prophets, and he doesn't believe in eternal marriage or families. But he's willing to listen, and he comes to church, so we're going to focus on the Book of Mormon and help him resolve his own questions and issues. He's very fun to talk to, but unfortunately just a little bit too fun.

Next are Jacquito P-L.  and his wife, Marie Margarette. They are friends of some Haitian members who just recently moved here from Haiti. (Jacquito's friend was the branch president over there, in fact.) They loved church, but Jacquito is still unsure about baptism because he doesn't like the idea of organized religion. We're going over to see them again tonight at 6:15.

Other than that, we have a few other people who we're working with who came late or had decently legitimate excuses not to come to church.

In other news, my family just got a new dog! They are trying to decide between Po and Lexie. I like Po, but I suggested Po-fou as a possible alternative because it means "crazy skin" in Haitian Creole.

I was accepted to BYU-Idaho, I still don't know about BYU-Provo, but either way I was looking at the courses that they offer and BYU-Provo has a more extensive computer science department from what I can tell. I'm going to try to get permission to look online for a few other colleges that I might try to apply to as well.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Craziest Week

Dear friends and family:

This may have been the craziest week I have had in my mission. It started off slow, for the first few days before Christmas. In general people were less and less willing to open their doors to missionaries because of the business of the season, but we saw many miracles despite that.

On Christmas Eve, we had two meal appointments. The first one unexpectedly turned into a service project because the members forgot to mention they wanted us to stay afterward to do something, but luckily we could cancel all of our appointments and we had a fun time. Later that night, we ate over at Hma Posas' house. (A mi me gusta las baliadas!) Then we slept over at the AP's house so that we could spend Christmas morning together. (I may or may not have opened all of my presents over the last few weeks due to impatience. Regardless, it was fun.) Thank you all for your packages and letters and everything you have and continue to do for me!

Another member offered to feed us all breakfast on Christmas day. (She feeds us at least once a week, sometimes more.) It was delicious. Later that day, we skyped with our families. I saw Britney for the first time in more than 2 years, and Becky and Jeremy and Thomas and Claire for the first time since I left in September a little more than a year ago. It was really fun.

This is where things get really crazy. I haven't mentioned it before, but Elder Hunt has a medical problem that has been bugging him for a while. We had an appointment with President Richardson to talk about it on Saturday. The conclusion that they came to was that it would be better for Elder Hunt to return home for a few months, resolve the problem, and then return and complete his mission later. President made a few calls, set up a flight on Sunday morning, and we were obliged to spend the rest of Saturday packing so that he would be ready to leave on time. Now, Elder Hunt is gone. My area is temporarily combined with Fort Lauderdale South, a Spanish area. We'll be a tri-companionship for the rest of the transfer. (All of January and into February.) My new companions are Elder Allen and Elder Reno.

Surprised? Me too.

Another thing that happened this week, in a galaxy far, far away, is that my family went to the temple and was sealed together again because we adopted Nathan a while ago. I forgot which day it was exactly, so I couldn't celebrate at the same time, but I'm just as happy as all of you!

Wow, typing emails takes a long time. I'm about out of time, until next week.

Thanks, Elder Slade

Christmas

Dear Friends and Family:

Elder Hunt and I are so excited to be working and preaching the gospel here in Florida for this Christmas season! We don't miss the snow even a little bit!

As far as we can tell, we will start Skyping around 2 or 2:30 PM (our time). But it's still up in the air a little, so if this doesn't work for all of you and you are online when I send this, respond quickly so I can try to work out a better time. Otherwise, I'll talk to you this Thursday!

We're really excited to go out and find Christmas week miracles! I remember last Christmas being slightly odd for me. Christmas came really suddenly, and it really just felt like any other day, other than getting to talk to all of you. This Christmas will be different. I have a personal goal to be happy and cheerful and to be excited about and help other people be excited about the birth of our Savior! (Not that it actually occurred in December, but that's OK.)

This last week was a little rough for Elder Hunt and me. We went out and worked, and we had several people who committed to come to church, who seemed to have a genuine desire and commitment to come. Even our most promising investigator, Johnesha, had a last minute emergency and... slept in too late. None of our investigators came. We were discouraged and upset, and we finished the day worn out unhappy. But this morning during studies and as we have been preparing for this week we have been able to raise our spirits a lot and raise our visions for the potential miracles and blessings this season can bring.

One of the strengths we had this week was, again, our member work. We exceeded standards in member-present lessons, and we had a member out with us almost every day. One of the things that we have decided to do to improve is to be more consistent with our work ethic and motivation each day, so that we can use every day to its fullest potential.

In other news, I was accepted into BYU-Idaho a few days ago. I just found out today. I'm still waiting on finding out if I am accepted into BYU, which I probably won't know until some time in February. And my mission still doesn't end until September 3rd. But it's comforting to know that at least one of the plans I made for after my mission is working out.

Thanks, Elder Slade

Dear Friends and Family:

Thank you all for the letters and packages! For those of you who are not part of my family, one of the traditions we do each year is we find a nativity set and we deliver a piece each day for 12 days before Christmas, ending with Jesus Christ on Christmas Eve. This year, one of the things that my parents sent me was a pre-prepared set for the 12 days of Christmas. Elder Hunt and I decided to do it for a new convert in our ward named Tony, who otherwise is doing nothing this Christmas. If any of you are in a position to contact him, please refrain from letting him know who is leaving the Christmas gifts each night. Today is day 4, he hasn't caught us yet!

We had a pretty good week. We did not have any baptisms, but Elder Hunt and I were very excited to be consistent with the number of investigators we had in sacrament meeting. We had two investigators come early enough to see the sacrament being blessed, and both are preparing to be baptized this weekend as well. Both of them are struggling with one thing - one with the Word of Wisdom, and the other with finding somewhere else to live or getting married so that she can live the Law of Chastity, but both of them are solid potentials and both of them are very happy to be preparing to be baptized.

We found Anteniqua about three weeks ago, but she couldn't come to church because at the time she was on house arrest. But last Monday she went to court and had everything cleared up, so she was able to come to church and had a wonderful time. I don't think I've told the story of how we found her, so I'll tell it now. We were going through the ward directory, trying to make contact with as many people who we didn't know as possible. We tried to visit an inactive member who lived in Anteniqua's house, only to find that he had moved out long ago. But we said a prayer with Anteniqua, and she accepted baptism, church, and everything. We found out later that she had been praying earlier that day for God to send someone to come and knock on her door. We then, unwittingly, showed up and answered her prayer. :)

We found Johnesha around the same time as we found Anteniqua, three weeks ago, but each week something else came up that prevented her from coming to church. We were very close to dropping her, but we decided to go back one last time and ask if she had read the scriptures that day. We did so, found out that she had, and we kept seeing her. Two days ago she came to church with her three daughters for the first time, and loved it. She is doing so well. We're so excited to watch her progression!

Two other investigators came to church about 30 minutes late. They left an hour early as well, and they caused a little contention in the Haitian Creole Sunday school class, but they are still interested in hearing the message and preparing for baptism, so we are going to keep going back and try to work around the rough edges. It should be fun.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

PS. We are not allowed to go to the temple. I've only been to the temple once since leaving the MTC, and that was a special occasion when the entire mission went to the temple together about a month after the Fort Lauderdale temple was dedicated. It was an amazing experience, but it seems like I will have to wait until the day I fly home to go to the temple again.

PPS. Our call to our family will be no more than 30 minutes, we don't know when it will happen, and it will only be over skype if we can find a member who is willing to let us come over and use their devices for a while. It's still up in the air, but we will call for 2 minutes on Thursday morning just to tell you all what time we are getting on.

Lots of Lessons

Dear Friends and Family:

How great a pleasure it is to come before all of you this week. My name is Elder Slade, I will be conducting this email. I will also be presiding.

Elder Hunt and I had a terrific week. We were able to work much more closely with the members, and this week we had 9 member present lessons! As well, two of our investigators came to sacrament meeting yesterday. Both of them have dates to be baptized this week. (One on Saturday, the other on Sunday.)

We had several miracles this week that I am really excited about. One time, while Elder Hunt was on exchanges in Fort Lauderdale South's area, Elder Chartrand and I were harvesting and we found two old ladies, a mother and a daughter. We prayed with them, and invited both to be baptized. Both rejected because they had already been baptized, but we testified that God really had sent us to them to invite them to be baptized again in Jesus Christ's church. We invited them to pray and ask God, to receive a confirmation for themselves that this was true. Gertrude, the daughter, (herself about 60 years old), started praying. Halfway through the prayer, she received her answer, stopped praying, and told us she wanted to be baptized. It was incredible!

Elder Hunt and I are very excited this week to go to the Christmas conference. The mission only gets together one time every year, unless a special occasion comes up (such as a visiting general authority). That one time is the Christmas conference, at the beginning of December. As part of the festivities, there is a talent show, a while elephant gift exchange, a meal, and we also receive training from President Richardson on how to be better missionaries. It'll be fun :D

As well, we have zone training tomorrow. We have big plans already on how we can make this week even better, and apply what we learn tomorrow and on Wednesday.

Thanks for all of the updates on what's going on at home. It's really nice to hear from all of you, and to be a part of your lives. I'm happy to hear that Britney got home safely (no longer Sister Slade) and I can't wait to see her and Becky and Jeremy and Thomas and Claire for Christmas!

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Finding a Miracle

Dear Family and Friends:

I'm so excited that Britney is going home! Unfortunately, I still have to wait a while before I can see her. Britney: make sure you let me know your new email address when you get home.

In other news, the church is doing something very big for Christmas this year. To learn more, and to watch a fantastic video about Jesus Christ, go to christmas.mormon.org. Watch it as a family, or with everyone else you live with. Then share it with everyone you know!

This week has been a great one for us. At the start of the week, we decided to pray that we would find a miracle - someone to be baptized that Sunday, although we had no obvious potentials and we couldn't think of any way to do it, short of other missionaries teaching an investigator who then conveniently moved into our area, all ready to be baptized. Every time we prayed to start a study, or before we went out to harvest, we included this in the prayer. By the end of the week, the prayers had paid off.

Throughout the week, we found no one; but on Sunday, half-way through church, someone just walked into church. He had been walking past the church building to go to church somewhere else, and he just felt like he should go there instead. We believe that our faith and our prayers were what led him to feel the spirit and to walk in. We'll be meeting with him tonight at 8.

Our goal for the month of December is 6 baptisms. After we prayed to know what our goal should be, I felt that that was the number we should shoot for, but I was hesitant to voice it because I didn't want Elder Hunt to feel like I was making the choice. So I waited for him to speak, and he felt that we should shoot for six as well. It was a testimony builder for me to know that it really is God's work, and he will guide us when we sincerely ask for it. And as well: we can and will have six baptisms in this month, through the grace of God.

Someone asked about iPads. We don't have too many details, they've been pushing them back for a while now, but there's a rumor going around that we're supposed to get them in January. We'll find out, I guess :) I've also heard a lot of conflicting information about how much it will be and other details, but I think the most common consensus is that it will be $300, that we will be getting iPad minis instead of regular iPads, and that we will keep them after our missions. (Like our bikes - paid for with our own funds, and then we have them afterwards.)

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Dear Friends and Family:

Elder Hunt is doing amazing. He and I have been struggling a lot this week just to find people to teach. This is the same problem that we have had this last week as well, so we are both seriously introspecting to find out what we can do differently to always have people to go to teach. This week we felt that one of our strengths was being diligent throughout the week, and not ignoring the elephant in the middle of the room. We were constantly throughout the week looking for ways to get new investigators and we were constantly trying to contact the investigators that we had.

We came to a few conclusions on things that we can do to improve this week. For one thing, we are going to study the Holy Ghost this week, and focus on being guided and directed by the spirit as we plan and as we go out to work. We feel that this will show greater faith that we will receive guidance, and so God will bless us with the revelation that we need to continue each day. As well, we will restart seeing a recent convert/less active member every day so we can keep focused on our purpose even when we don't have too many investigators to teach.

We didn't have anybody come to church this week, but our zone leaders extended a challenge that every area in our zone baptize this week. They also promised that as we make plans and work diligently, God will make it possible for us to do it. So we are going to focus on finding someone ready to be baptized this very Sunday, and we are going to help them get to the font!

Parents: How did you like the Griot and the other food? Also, the picture you sent me didn't show up in the email. Could you send it again? Maybe you could attach it, instead of embedding it in the email itself. Thanks!

I'm excited that Britney is almost going home. It's really weird to think about, it seems like such a short time ago that I opened my mission call and she left a few days later.

I know Elder Mason. I never got to serve in the same apartment as him, but he was trained a few transfers ago by Elder Burgoyne, who I spent 4 transfers with. (In the same apartment, even if we were never companions.) I didn't know he was related to anyone in our ward!

How bad has the snow been this year?

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Staying in Fort Lauderdale

Dear Friends and Family:

I wanted to include a lot this week, because I didn't email last week, but there's someone waiting for the computer. Sorry!

The news: I stayed and trained. Elder Kwon left. This means that I will be in Fort Lauderdale east for the next three months, over Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years.

My new companion and trainee - Elder Hunt - is amazing! He already teaches better than I do after a year in my mission, and he has an incredibly strong testimony. He and I have been getting along really well, through our ups and downs in the area. And he's also working diligently to improve his Creole.

This week an unfortunate thing happened with our investigators. All of them decided to drop off of the map or lose their fire to be baptized at the same time. Elder Hunt is taking the low point like a champ, and we are both resolved to find many, many amazing miracles this next week as we work hard and apply the training we will receive in zone conference.

We are in particular working to improve by being more personable together, and by improving our baptismal invite so that those we talk to have the best possible opportunity to feel and accept the spirit in their lives.

Sorry I don't have more time to email, especially after last week.

Thanks,

Elder Slade