Transcribed letters from Brandon

Nov. 26:

Dear family:

I’m writing for a second week in a row because, miracle of miracles, I actually have a little free time.  (On P-day, of all the days.  Yeah, I’m as surprised as you all are!)

Missionary life is super busy but if allows me to meet tons of different types of people, and have tons of experiences that I wouldn’t normally have.  Maybe the greatest blessing for me is my testimony, which I feel like has tripled in size in the last two months.

I mentioned in my email that the way we proselyte here is called harvesting.  We are expected to harvest for at least an hour every day.  We knock on the door, ask them if we can say a special prayer with them, kneel down, ask what they want us to include in the prayer, and then say a priesthood blessing on the house and family.  I meet so many new people and personalities from doing this.

For example, one person asked for “destruction” in the prayer.  He was drunk.  Then he thought about it some more and clarified: destruction of the evil spirits in him.

One Haitian man let us finish our blessing then he immediately started to say his own pray.  After he was done, he started to sing a Haitian hymn at the top of his lungs.  I couldn’t keep a straight face.  I hope I didn’t insult him by that.

This week is Thanksgiving.  I’m going to go to a Haitian party and have Haitian food for it.  What are you doing for Thanksgiving?  I can probably imagine.  Tell me how close I am. You are all going to drive up to Grandma’s and Grandpa’s house where Grandma will be making tons of food.  A lot of the family will be there.  After dinner, everyone will gather for a testimony meeting and to say what they are grateful for.  All the attendant mothers will tear up, especially Grandma.  Maybe even a few of the fathers.  Afterwards, you will all drive back home, taking with you a large Tupperware full of Grandma’s leftover food.  So, am I right?

If this letter gets to you before Thanksgiving, tell the Putnam Clan that I am grateful for all of the candy!

It’s kind of funny.  Most of the missionaries here are 19-22, but I still have half a year before I turn 19.  They all think it’s weird.  I do too, I’m not cut out for this!  I don’t think anyone is!  But it’s slowly getting easier, I just have to get used to it.  Actually, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the traffic in Miami, but I’ll be more than skilled enough to drive in Pueblo when I get backJ

I’m getting really good at making a bowl of cereal (bol kon flaks) for a quick meal in the morning because there’s not enough time to do more. (except Sundays, because we don’t exercise on Sundays)

Sorry it’s so short again, it’s too hard to get everything down in the time we have on P-days.

Thanks,

Elder Brandon Slade

Dec 3:

Dear family (again)

I’m starting to get better at doing things quickly.  The mission is so slow, and yet so fast-paced at the same time! I am very grateful for all of your letters, and especially for the photo of all of you.  I hope you all have a great time on the cruise!  I don’t really remember the one that I went on, except that I remember that I was grumpy in the Bahamas and our driver gave me a dollar bill.  I hope none of you have that problem.  Actually, not that I think about it, you won’t receive this letter until after you return, so I hope none of you had that problem!

I have had some pretty bad luck with exchanges so far.  The district leader is supposed to go on exchanges with each elder in his district at least once each transfer, so I’ve been with him one day, and with his companion another while he went on exchanges with Elder Winslow.  The first time, we had to go to a doctors office and so we didn’t really end up doing any work; the second time, we were stuck at the church out of our area because the car was being worked on.  There’s a chance in the near future that we’ll be doing exchanges again, but I’ll be staying in the area while my companion leaves.  I’m not ready to take over the area, even for a day, so I’ve been getting worried.

Once the temple is completed in our area, we’ll be able to go once a transfer.  But first we have to wait for the temple.

There’s a good chance that the boundaries of our mission will change to include the Bahamas when we get a new mission president in July.  There are a lot of Haitians in the Bahamas.  Do you have to have a passport to go there?

Also, do you need to get special permission to bury someone on their own land?  How exactly do you go about doing that?

When did you take the photo that you printed and sent to me?

I had a really good discussion with a couple other elders during one of my exchanges about good books that we’ve read.  It was a fun night, we had a good time.

Today is proving to be a very interesting day.  They were testing out the alarm system in the church while we played in the gym, so the fire alarm keeps going off.  And a lady knocked on the door halfway into a game and accused some of the sister missionaries of stealing her clothes.  The lady had been doing “surveillance” of the church (her own word) for the last few hours, and she said she spotted them wearing clothes that were stolen from her suitcase a while ago.  So we just searched the church building and we’ve been trying to get a hold of the sisters to have them come back, to try to find the mission suitcase (full of recently bought clothes) and to find out what happened to it.  Things are looking more and more like the sisters are innocent. (No surprise there.) Also, we had pizza for lunch, and I ate about 8 pieces myself, and I’m still hungry.  I know, I’m as surprised as all of you are. It just goes to show how much more energy I’m using compared to where I used to be.

I’ve been thinking for a while, and I decided that the best thing for me on my mission is if I am transferred to a different mission 6 months before the end, because then I would have a chance to see how other missions handle things, and I would have chance of serving with my old companions again.  That would be nice, but I don’t think it’s really likely.

P-day is nearing an end now.  I don’t have much more time left.  (in fact, I only have a few minutes.) So I just wanted to say: Thanks for everything, especially the family picture.  I’ll have to imagine myself and Britney in it at the same time.  (please don’t let Grandpa try to photoshop us in it, whatever you do!) My pile of send-home items is slowly getting bigger, but it’s still not big enough to be worth sending.

Lastly, I want to say that I am so grateful that I have this opportunity to serve a mission.  I have already been so blessed because of my choice to serve on, and I can’t imagine what I would be doing if I wasn’t serving a mission.  I know that this is the place where the Lord wants me, and consequently this is where I want to be.

Thanks,

Elder Brandon Slade

PS I am going through computer withdrawal.  I found myself typing on a fake keyboard on my desk yesterday.  It makes an interesting noise.

Baptism

I don't have a lot of time this week, again. But here's what I can fit in what little time I have:

Thank you, dear family, for the Christmas package! I can't wait to start opening them 12 days before Christmas and finding out what you have all sent! I really appreciate it, thank you so much.

We spent a ton of time this week (even outside of companionship studies) watching the district the last couple of days. And I'm excited for this week, we're going to be studying a lot of my favorite subjects, such as recognizing faith. I can definitely see a huge difference in myself now from 5 weeks ago, but I'm still not where I want to be. I can't wait to continue and to learn more and become better.

I've been taking notes and highlighting things that I felt could apply to me personally while I read the Book of Mormon. A couple things that I learned in the last week or so are that we should be fasting and praying with gratitude, not just to ask for things. (I knew this about the prayers, but I didn't about fasting.) Also, I've been to critical - just because there's a logical explanation in things doesn't mean that it's not also a blessing or a miracle from God. (For example, when the Lamanites lose, they say "we are not of your faith; we do not believe" and that the only reason they lost is because they didn't have armor like the Nephites did.) I also thought this scripture was interesting, describing what happens to people who choose evil works: "the spirit of the devil did enter into them, and take possession of their house". I related it to bad habits.

The best experience this week was probably when Lucy P. was confirmed just yesterday. The room was filled with peace, and she stated afterwards that it was her favorite part of church that day. Also, this last few days, I've started to get more excited about the work itself (teaching and spreading the gospel) instead of the results (key indicators and baptisms) and I've as a result started to feel much less stress and much more peace and confidence.

We haven't been doing our best this week, we've been trying to rely too much on ourselves, and we've been doing terrible jobs harvesting. Our teaching pool has been shallow. After much introspection this last few days, we've come up with some solutions and things that we're going to fix in order to make our harvest blessings and our days run more smoothly, in order to get our teaching pool up to where it needs to be. This next week and transfer will be better, I promise.

There's a couple of funny experiences that I wanted to share this week.

The first one is an experience with harvesting. We knocked into a lady's house. She only spoke Haitian Creole, which I still can't really understand that much when other people speak it, even though I am definitely getting better. We introduced ourselves, asked to say a prayer, entered and blessed her and her house, testified of the spirit, invited her to be baptized... she said no. And then she and Elder Winslow started having a conversation in Creole. I couldn't understand it at all, so I was blissfully unaware when she said something along the lines of "you guys seem to be nice. You shouldn't be here, there are people here like me who want nothing more than to eat you." Sometimes Creole doesn't translate nicely into English.

The second one was while we were following up on a media referral. (Which are super rare for Creole elders, It is my companion's first as well, and he's been out for a year.) The lady who accepted the DVD was introducing her daughters to us, but was speaking too fast for me to understand. She told one of her daughters to "greet us", and so the daughter leaned in in order to kiss me on the cheek. I had no idea what was happening. I made the whole situation really awkward by leaning away from her. My companion was struggling not to laugh. The lady's daughter was extremely embarrassed, she retreated fast.

A couple answers to questions:

I'm not driving, which is a good thing, but Elder Winslow is a reckless daredevil, just like everybody else who has been driving in Miami for a while, which is a bad thing.

I do miss my old MTC companions, but I still get email updates from them, so I get to talk and find out how they're doing.

I don't know my Christmas schedule yet, sorry.

And... now I'm out of time.

Thanks,

Eldè Slade

Chè family and friends:

Yesterday we had a baptism! Her name is Lucy P., and she is amazing. She has an incredible work ethic, and she practically prayed us to the door. She quit her job in order to go to church on Sundays. Pictures will be arriving in separate emails.

We continue to meet interesting people while we harvest. For example, we met one person who said that she was Catholic but also Hindu. Don't ask me how that works, I don't know. We met one person and tried to give him a pass-along card with a picture of Jesus on it. He refused to accept it, because he insisted that it was "fake" because he knew that Jesus was black. But my absolute favorite person what I met so far this week I met while I was doing exchanges with Elder Tesch. She was an older woman, but she was very religious. She had learned several languages and she was in the process of learning Hebrew. She had studied all kinds of religious texts, for any kind of religion, trying to find a church. We harvested into her, said the prayer, and then she in turn said a prayer for us. She prayed that we would become millionaires for Jesus, earning lots of money in order to buy bibles for other people. Then she bore her testimony that when she was very poor, and only had a few dollars but still had to provide for her family, the Holy Ghost told her to go and buy a lottery card and she ended up winning a thousand dollars. I wasn't really sure what to say.

I think the most important thing that I learned while I was reading the Book of Mormon this week is about the nature of God. I was thinking about some verses about mercy in Alma, and about how Jesus Christ will plead to the Father for us, and I was thinking that Heavenly Father must have a lot of mercy as well. After all, he did send his son, even if Jesus was the one who actually atoned for our sins. And then I thought about my own parents, and how while I was working before I came on my mission I didn't have to worry about pretty much anything because if there were any problems then I could always just call my parents and they would help me get it sorted out. And then I realized a little bit more about just how much God loves us, and how much he cares for us and wants us to succeed, just like my own physical parents. And I realized that whatever happens, I always have the ability to call on him, and I can have the assurance that he will always help me. Personal studies are still my absolute favorite part of each day.

Besides this spiritual experience, this whole week has been great. Yesterday I had my first baptism, for Lucy P. The baptism was a little bare of participants, nothing compared to the number of family that showed up to witness my own, but it was still a very, very precious time. I remember distinctly the feeling of peace that was there for the entire baptism. It was a great feeling, and I know that Lucy felt the spirit just as much as I did. Other than that, I have also felt the spirit a lot in various different lessons throughout the week.

I haven't been able to see any beaches yet, but that's really not at the top of my list right now. There are so many other beautiful things in Miami that we see every day. (Too bad there are so many ugly and depressing things as well. If only everybody had the gospel.)

I tried pigs feet this Friday. It didn't really taste that bad, it was just... chewy fat. I ate it all and pretended that I liked it. I honestly didn't think that I would have to eat anything like that on my mission, but I guess I was wrong. Oh well, here's to hoping I never have to do it again!

There has been some very good food so far. My favorite Haitian food is Griot, which is fried pork that tastes absolutely amazing, when it's cooked right. And we ate Thanksgiving last Thursday at a Haitian party (too crowed for my taste, but the food was great) and then at a member family's house. The dinner at that house was amazing. It was just the mom and dad and a nonmember brother, and three kids, and my companion and I. I loved how small and happy everything was. I can imagine that Grandma threw a giant family get-together party for Thanksgiving last week. I wish I was there, but at the same time I would have been overwhelmed by so many people, and I'm grateful that I got to spend it here and to see how other families celebrate Thanksgiving.

After church on Sunday we helped a family move out who had received a 24 hour eviction notice on their door. It was depressing, but I was impressed at how grateful the family was in the midst of their problems. They were cheerful and laughing as we packed up everything for them and moved it into a storage area, because they don't have another place to go yet.

The Ft. Lauderdale temple isn't done for a while, but we pray for it as a mission each day, so hopefully we'll be able to see it completed soon.

Thanks,

Eldè Slade

P.S. Have fun on your cruise, Mom and Dad and Paul and Anna and Gabe and Eliza and Nathan and Evie and other relatives which I will not at this time enumerate!

P.P.S. Britney: we live with the zone leaders, who are in charge of this stake's YSA ward. They bring home some funny stories. And I can also relate to you in that we also have to do a lot of tracting, and we also pass a lot of referrals, and we also depend on other people to pass referrals. We only teach Haitians. (Oddly, we teach all Haitian people - even if they speak English perfectly, and they don't speak a lick of Haitian Creole.)

Getting Shot At

Dear family: Thank you so much for the amazing care package! I estimate that I now have enough candy that, if carefully rationed, will last me my whole mission! I especially liked how you didn't include any letter, and instead you put a bunch of stamps in an envelope. I got the message, loud and clear. :D Also, I was wondering if any of you could send a few more physical pictures of the family, and Evie and Nathan, and all of us together. Thanks!

We had our first two investigators who attended church yesterday. (The last two Sundays they all said they would but none of them did.) It was a real blessing. It made me pay attention in church much more, and care about what was being said. (Not that I didn't before, it's just that when you're worrying about how an investigator will view it it adds a whole new level.) It was a great spiritual experience to me and it helped teach me the importance of missionary work. It was great to see them in church, and it was great to talk about church with them afterwards and during the meetings.

The two investigators who came to Sacrament meeting are Lucy P. and Eva B.

Lucy hadn't been to church in a year, because she has a job that forces her to work every Sunday. So we committed her to ask for Sundays off or to quit her job in order for her to go to Church, and she did it. She'll be baptized next Sunday. It'll be great!

Eva's husband didn't come, even though they both said that they would. They are both hung up with wanting to know everything about the church before they are baptized again into it, but we are struggling to get them to test it out and find out for themselves that the church is true. Eva could be baptized next Sunday, but because her husband didn't come to church yesterday he will have to wait until the 8th of December.

Florida rains like crazy. I'm not kidding, the rainy season ended several weeks ago, but that doesn't mean that it's stopped raining! It's really amazing that Florida doesn't flood. I can definitely see why it's classified as swampland, and why so many exotic plants and trees grow here. It's beautiful, when it's not trying to wash everything away.

I'm going through Alma currently, and trying to relate all of the chapters and experiences in them to myself. In particular, I thought it was interesting what it says that Ammon and Aaron taught to King Lamoni and his father. There's a pretty close association between the missionary discussions and what they taught. (Exception: the restoration.) They also place a strong emphasis on teaching from the scriptures.

Yesterday, we were out harvesting. (A special technique for knocking on doors - you ask them to say a special prayer with you, then you go in their house, kneel down, and give a priesthood blessing on them and their house, they feel the spirit, and then you hit them with the kesyon batèm.) We had started a little late because of the rain and thunder, and because of that we weren't going to get a full hour in, so we were trying to make the most of our time. After we had knocked on a few doors, a car drove by and shot at us with paint balls. I wasn't hit, but Eldè Winslow was hit in the arm. At first we took the experience as a punishment for not being obedient and getting a full hour of harvesting in. (We're supposed to do at least a full hour each day.) Then we decided that whether or not it was a punishment, we still needed to improve in that way and others and we resolved to do that. If nothing else comes from the experience, at least I have a good story to tell.

I'm learning a ton each day, in the language and in how to be a missionary.

All of the members love the missionaries. It's kind of weird, everybody wants to shake your hand during church, and they all get in line to feed you. There's one member in particular who always, always, every single Sunday makes food for us and puts it in the fridge for us to pick up. Yesterday she even gave us a couple of slices of cheesecake. It was delicious!

Thanks,

Eldè Slade

My desk and bedroom, from a different angle. (Shared with Eldè Winslow, of course.)

 My companion, Eldè Winslow

 The Krispy Kreme wall. This looks bad. We don't have them that often, honest.

 My desk

My bike, which received one good day of use, and then was put back into the garage. I don't know when I'll use it again.

Florida!

(Transcribed by Nancy from a letter)

Che Slade family,

        I’m sorry I’m not writing individual letters, and I’m sorry I haven’t written in a while.  The problem is, there just isn’t enough time.  But I’ll try to do better about writing more often!

        First of all, I love all you guys!  I hope your last two months have been as full and exciting as mine have been.  I didn’t get to celebrate Halloween in any way, but I will be having Thanksgiving celebrations for sure.  We are having “fet de Kodenn” (party of turkey) dinner in a member’s house.  Immediately afterwards, we are going to a Haitian party where we’ll eat more food (Haitian food is delicious, by the way) and basically have a great time.  The day afterwards we’ll have a going away party for Elder Hoole, one of the zone leaders who is dying at the end of this transfer.  It will be a welcome relief.  Missionary work is hard!

        I love seeing pictures of all of you in my emails.  Thanks for sending them. I hope that we still have Evie when I return, it would be sad if I didn’t see her again.  And thanks to all of you for sending letters, I appreciate it.  (But you don’t have to stagger them and send them one at a time, postage is expensive and I wouldn’t mind reading them all at once and then waiting a while for the next letter.)

        Florida is not what I expected it to be.  The driving in Miami is terrifying.  And it feels like summer, it’s so hot.  I am not looking forward to the actual summer months…

        My ward is pretty small, and it’s much more diverse than I am used to.  It is half Haitian Creole and half English speaking, and we share the building with a Spanish ward.  (I lost all of my Spanish long ago, unfortunately).  My first Sunday my companion (Elder Winslow) translated the sacrament meeting for those people who didn’t speak English at all.  Yesterday I helped translate for a single member in priesthood meeting it was terrifying.

        I am not learning the language as fast as I would like to, unfortunately.  But it is still coming much faster than I had any right to hope, and I know that that is because God is helping me.  Paul, when you submit your mission papers, you should hope that you get to learn a new language.  It is much harder, but it is much more rewarding, and it really helps your understanding of the gospel, as well.

        I’m struggling with the rule that we’re only allowed to listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  It’s not the type of music that I normally listen to.  But I’m grateful I’m allowed to listen to it, this mission used to be a no-music mission!

        Haitian Creole areas are mostly driving areas, fortunately for me.  We ride bikes for a couple of miles occasionally, but for the most part the work is mental and spiritual, rather than physical (something I am immensely grateful for)

For all of you the book you should read is the Book of Mormon.  It is the most important book in the world. (There.  Preaching done for a while.)

        Mom and Dad:  Thank you both for everything.  You both mean a lot to me, and I can’t wait to Skype with you for Christmas. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to grow up in the gospel, and to go on a mission.  I love you both very much...

        Anyways, I am having all kinds of fun adventures here, even though I can’t read books.  For example, I’m meeting all kinds of strange people.  Don’t drink Verve...apparently it contains green tea.  And someone called the police on us for the first time a couple days ago! (my companion and I...) That’s always good...

        Can you guys send me some more physical pictures of yourselves/my family?  Not a lot, just something I can look at during the week.  I don’t have any pictures of Nathan or Evie yet, and I only have one of the rest of the family.  Thanks!

        Our investigators change too fast for me to write about them all.  I’ve taught and dropped about 30 gators (Florida lingo for investigators) in the last week and a half.  It’s depressing but President Anderson really puts an emphasis on teaching those who are already completely ready and prepared to be baptized.  It seems wrong, but you can’t argue with the numbers.

        In the MTC, I learned about a funny way of speaking.  It’s called Jargon, and Haitian kids learn it so that they can speak in front of their parents without their parents knowing what they are saying.  Basically you duplicate any vowel sound and insert a ‘g’ in between.  So “yes” becomes “yeges” and “no” becomes “nogo”, and “Merry Christmas” becomes “Megerreegee Chrigistmagas!”  It literally doubles the time it takes to speak, but it is very hard to decipher without practice, especially if you don’t know the keys.

        I’m just about out of time to write.  I love you all!

Thanks for everything, much love,

Elder Brandon Slade

Not Enough Time

Today marks exactly two months of my mission. It's kind of weird to think about, because two months seems like a long time, and two years seems like even longer, but it hasn't felt like two months at all.

I think the times when I've felt the spirit the most have been during personal study. Apart from that, I've also had some great experiences with different lessons. A couple of days ago we had a lesson with Bernard's wife, (because he wasn't home yet). We were all talking in Creole, so I was doing my best to keep up with the conversation. She kept having questions. Eventually Frè Tony (our member) started sharing his testimony on how he knew that the Book of Mormon was true because he had worked on translating it into Creole. I couldn't catch all of it, that's just what they told me happened after the fact, but I could still feel the spirit a lot and the whole meeting changed tones from there. Also, there have been many instances where I have felt the spirit in other circumstances.

There is never (never) enough time to get everything done throughout the day. It's so frustrating!

I think that one of the main things that I've learned (or at least, am learning) in the Book of Mormon is that the ancient prophets only wrote what they thought was important for us to know. They only write things that are important in an eternal perspective, even though logically back then there would have been just as many or more temporal things to distract them with. They spent a lot of time writing these things for our benefit, even though it was hard to write on plates, because they care about us and want us to learn from their mistakes. In other words, they were doing missionary work, to help us come unto Christ.

Haitians are kind of weird. They have a weird tradition where they talk in the middle of prayers. (Such as "Praise the lord!" "Hallelluja!" and "Yes, Jesus, yes."

We biked for the first time this week. It's terrifying to drive in Miami, let alone to bike next to/in between 6 lanes of traffic.

I have some funny experiences with investigators, but I am almost out of time to write, so I'll try to send them in letters or in next week's email. For now, just pray for Lucy, who is trying to get Sundays off so that she can be baptized on Dec. 1st.

I'm out of time.

Thanks,

Eldè Slade

Transfers

Here is the fate of your most favoritest missionary, Sister Slade:

I found out Thursday that I get to train again! Not only that but... I'm leaving Oak Harbor. So many mixed emotions there. I'm sad to leave these people that I love so so much, but I have been feeling that it's time. I'll be especially sad to leave the Seeley's and Harris'. They have become eternal friends for me. Because I’m training and leaving Oak Harbor that means... me and my comp are either going to be whitewashing an area or starting a new area! Eeeya! So many mixed emotions! I'm excited, but nervous too. I've decided that the definition for a mission is pretty much feeling inadequate and being stretched to your limit 100% of the time. Love-hate relationship. But mostly love :)

I'm sad to leave Jana. When she found out one of us was going to be leaving on Saturday she started to cry. It really surprised me, because I hadn't realized that she cared about us that much. Jana is such a sweetie. She is really struggling with finding an answer to know if she should continue to prepare for baptism, and she also has some extremely difficult changes to make in her life for her to be ready. Please pray for her. She came to church yesterday, and loved it as always. I think that some of the speakers said things that were exactly what she needed to hear. Funny how that happens :)

Steve came to church again yesterday with his two girls! He is solid. He texted us this week saying, "caffeine withdrawals are not fun." apparently he decided that he just needed to give up his coffee now. You know you love somebody when you get a little bit emotional over them giving up coffee. :) Our entire district helped him clean out a trailer that he has been preparing for them to live in, and it really meant a lot to him. I don't think I told you about this trailer, but it is the definition of biohazard. The old woman who used to live there was a major hoarder, and you couldn't even open the door it was packed to the ceiling with stuff that had been sitting there for years. Rat poop and dead mice and spilled food and spiders everywhere. Most disgusting service project of my life.

I'm really hoping I'll be able to find a ride back to Oak Harbor for the baptisms of all these wonderful people.

Well, love ya!

Sister Slade

We used to teach Skye the recent convert lessons, since she was an unbaptized child for a while. Love this family to death!

 The district.

 We still teach Chuck every now and then. Twice in a lesson I have felt inspired to tell Chuck that I know that he knows what we are saying is true, he just won't admit it to himself or to God. Both times he hasn't denied that it's true, he just gets a little bit emotional and avoids eye contact. I LOVE this family!! I'm definitely making my way back to Washington when he decides to be baptized.

 I wish I had a pocket-sized brother Rehaume. Aren't the people of Oak Harbor so wonderful!?

 Sister Cruz is one of my all time favorite people! She doesn't speak English super well, but she is a HUGE help at any of our lessons with people who speak Spanish, and every time we go to their house for dinner- REAL Mexican food! She calls me "Misseses Eslade" (Mrs. Slade) :)

MTC Tricks

Today is my last day in the MTC. In ~11 hours, I am going to be reporting to the travel office; in ~18 hours, I will be on my way to Florida.

So, my flight schedule is split into two flights. The first is from here to Texas, and the second is from Texas to FL-FTL. So I was thinking that in order to make it easier for you guys, I could call from the Texas airport instead, if I can't get any time on the phone in the morning. The problem is that I don't know if they adapt the times to the time zones of the places where you land, so I don't have any idea what time it would be for you. So I'll call in the morning, if there ends up being enough time, or I'll call it from the Texas airport anywhere from 9:00-12:00. Sorry if this doesn't work out, I just realized that there are going to be a lot more missionaries than pay phones tomorrow morning. I'll try my best.

I don't know if they would let us Skype together, or if I'll have the resources to do it, etc. Either way, Paul would be the one to ask, he's the one who actually used Skype.

Eldè Trockel left with the rest of my district last week. It turns out that they have no idea what's wrong with his liver, but he's not gluten intolerant. His liver has grade 1 liver damage, for some unknown reason. The doctor said (nonchalantly) that worst-case scenario, he has to have a liver transplant. No big deal. But for now they're just waiting to see if the problem gets worse.

My last week in the MTC has been chaotic, to say the least. Enough said.

Tonight, my temporary companions are planning to play a trick on one of the new districts in our zone. We bought a new alarm clock, and they are planning to hide it in their room, set to go off ~1:30 AM. (I will be staying up outside of our residence, because if I fell asleep then I would only get ~2 hours of sleep anyway, and then I would be groggy. I can sleep on the plane.) The alarm clock will be hidden behind a vent in the ceiling outside of their room. I'm going to do my best to pretend that I can't hear it, but I don't think I'll be able to keep a straight face.

Thanks for all the pictures! I don't have any for you! Sorry!

Thanks,

Eldè Slade