Harvesting

First of all, thanks for all of the letters and packages! They mean a lot to me. Especially thanks for the 12 days of Christmas package. I opened day 11 on day 1, and I'll open day 1 on day 11. Thanks for everything!

This week from my study in the Book of Mormon I have been reading in Alma, near the end. It's a bunch of war chapters. One thing that I noticed that I am going to try to apply to my own life is that the 2000 stripling warriors are obedient because they have faith: "according to their faith it was done unto them." So even though it's hard to be 100% obedient in everything, I know that if I have faith and rely on the Lord he will help me do it. Also, in the same chapter, it states that faith is a gift from God, and if we pray and sincerely ask for it, then he will bless us with an increased testimony and greater faith.

Probably the greatest spiritual experience I had this week was on Monday. We were harvesting after helping install a printer for a member, and we were both doing our best to make the harvest session meaningful. We only received two blessings, but I felt the spirit very strongly and I want to do my best to have the same sort of experiences every time we harvest. Another time this week, we harvested into a husband and wife - the husband was stuck in bed because of a car accident, and the wife had to work to provide for the two of them. That blessing was another spiritual experience, and it really increased my faith that the miracle of healing can happen through faith.

Transfers are this week, that's why my P-Day is a Tuesday. My companion and I are both staying, but we live with the zone leaders and one of them is going home this week. The other is returning at the end of this next transfer. So I'll find out who the next zone leader is tomorrow, who I'll be living with.

The ward I'm serving in is going to split at the end of this year. When it does, we will be going to both the ward and the branch that is splitting off. So each Sunday we will have 6-7 hours of church. Add in our 3 hours of studies somewhere, an hour of harvesting, an hour of round up, and an hour between the two meetings, and that's our day. Busy, busy.

The language is coming slowly, but it is coming. I understand much more today than I did a month ago, but I still have a long way to go before I can actually speak Haitian Creole fluently.

A funny harvesting experience: this week after we said the prayer, we all stood up and the person we were praying with ripped his pants while he was standing. That was awkward.

We had another exchange this week. The difference is that I took over the area, while my companion went somewhere else. I drove for the first time in Miami. I was terrified, but I didn't crash and I didn't make any huge mistakes. I was more than ready for that transfer to end - I wasn't sure what to do at any given time.

We biked a while yesterday because we've used a lot of miles this month. Then we locked the keys to our car in the car's trunk, and the car was locked. A senior missionary had to drive down from the mission office in order to unlock it for us. That was fun.

Now I'm out of time.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Tracting Lots

Hey family,

It feels like so much happens during the week and then I sit down to write an email and I really don't know what to say. It was so great to hear about the cruise that you guys went on! And I LOVED the pictures! Hopefully I'll get more personal accounts of the trip from all the siblings soon... :)

The highlight of this week was teaching Jose again. He is our only solid investigator in our very shallow teaching pool, and we are very grateful for him! In our lesson on Tuesday he asked us if baptism is important (What a golden question!) and he agreed to a soft commit for baptism. :) Unfortunately he got sick this weekend so we had to cancel our lesson on Saturday and he wasn't able to make it to church yesterday, but hopefully this next week! We also have a few other potential investigators that we have lessons scheduled with, so pray that some if not all of them will follow through!

Being in this area and feeling like we are starting from ground zero has really been making me stretch, and I absolutely love it. I don't think I've ever worked so hard in my life. I feel absolutely exhausted all of the time, and every morning that we fall out of bed I have to pray for a while just begging Heavenly Father to give me the energy and desire I need to give my all that day. He always pulls through for me. In Oak Harbor Sister Anderson and I had built up the area to the point that we had some days we were teaching back-to-back lessons. We thought that we were exhausted from that, but Sister Glancy and I are finding (mostly tracting) all day long and that's definitely harder. It's started to get really cold, which makes it harder because nobody wants their door open, even if they're polite, for more than 10 seconds. As a result of this, Sister Glancy and I have started to get creative. We've sung hymns at doors a few times, we've asked people what they think Santa's favorite kind of cookie is, and we've started carrying a stocking around with us and asking people to write on a sticky note their gift to the Savior for the coming year and put it inside the stocking. It always makes us happy when people agree to participate! ( Side note from my personal study this week- God the Father and Jesus Christ are both creators of circumstances, not creatures of circumstances. I have learned that creativity is a Godlike attribute.)

One thing that I am learning over and over again, is that this work absolutely without a doubt cannot move forward without the members. Some days we knock doors all day long with visibly no success and very few people who even give us the chance to testify, and that's frustrating. If you trust the missionaries in your wards, please please please please PLEASE invite your friends to learn from the missionaries! Invite them to come to church! Invite them to attend your family home evenings! Invite like crazy! You succeed when you invite, whether they say yes or no, and if you are inviting because you care about someone, the invitation will never be taken the wrong way. Can you imagine what would happen if ever member of the church invited one of their friends to learn from the missionaries before Christmas? I can't wait to hear about all of your missionary experiences- both the ones that resulted in a yes and the ones that resulted in a no! In the words of my old District Leader, "GO, GO, BAPTIZE!!"

This week my study has been focused a lot on the theme of how God always keeps his promises. The scriptures are filled with "IF-THEN" promises that are absolutely incredible. Some of the scriptures I have found have been so powerful to me that Sister Glancy and I have turned our door into a "promise door" where we can look at sticky notes that have promises written on them whenever we leave the apartment each day. How about this one: "If ye are faithful, then ye shall be laden with many sheaves." Sounds pretty straight forward to me. I can't wait until Heavenly Father rewards our hard work by giving us more investigators than we can handle ourselves.

Later today Sister Glancy and I are going thrift shopping to see if we can find any ugly Christmas sweaters for the ward Christmas party this Saturday. I think I'm also going to see if I can find some more tights, I've been tripling up on tights and I'm still freezing. We've had a few close calls where Sister Glancy almost had to amputate my toes.

Love, Sister Slade

P.S. We've been trying to come up with a name for our GPS, and so far it's a tie between "Lost" and "Sister Garmin" What are your thoughts?

Lots of Updates

Hey family!

We didn't get to write yesterday because of Veterans day, so we have very little time to write today, but I'll try to see what I can do in the next 20 minutes. (This may be slightly scrambled!)

This last week was definitely one of the busiest of my mission, we taught so many lessons it was ridiculous! Hopefully this week shapes up to be the same. I am exhausted. So exhausted that yesterday morning both Sister Anderson and I slept right through the alarm clock, something that neither of us have ever done before! Luckily Sister Anderson woke up at 7:10 and realized what had happened and we both jumped out of bed (Or more like flopped out of bed.) I'm not sure how much longer I can do this kind of schedule, it is so draining in every way. It's funny though, because I can't exactly pray for fewer people to teach, I can only pray for more strength. He is blessing us too much!!!!!!!

Tina and Earl Blackmer are on date to be baptized December 14th!!! So funny story. Weeks and weeks ago we were going to contact a potential, and the potentials neighbor was just getting out of her car and called to us, asking if we were the mormon missionaries. She told us that she was a less active member who was baptized years and years ago in Oregon, but she felt very pushed into her baptism, so she didn't really understand and she wanted us to come back and reteach her the lessons. We've been teaching them for a few weeks now, all the while trying to figure out why we couldn't get their records. Last week they met with the bishop and found out that their daughter who is very opposed to the church had forged a letter asking to have their names removed, so they are no longer members. Tina and Earl told the Bishop that their faith has been renewed in recent weeks. It took having their records removed and hearing the lessons again to make them appreciate what a blessing it is to be a member of the church, and they are now preparing for baptism! Tina came to church on Sunday, and Earl is coming with her next Sunday! The Lord works in mysterious ways sometimes. :)

Jana has come to church 3 times now, and is loving it! It sounds like she feels that she may not be ready for a committment yet, even though she has told us that she believes Joseph Smith was a prophet, she believes the Book of Mormon is true, and has committed to keep all the commandments that we have taught her so far. Not sure what the disconnect is there, so hopefully we can figure that out when we see her later this week.

Steve is now on date for December 28. We decided that he needs more time for preparation and understanding. He didn't make it to church again :( He has a real desire to be baptized, and has expressed some very personal things to us regarding that decision on a few occasions, so we're still working to figure out what the disconnect is there too. The adversary works overtime on the strong, is what I'm thinking.

I think December is that best time to be baptized, because not only do you get to give the Savior a really excellent gift, but you get to start the new year fresh.

Scripture of the week: Alma 26:37. No explanation necessary. What does this scripture mean to all of you?

We got permission for Sister Bonham to do Jillian Michaels workouts in the mornings, so if I come home and you're wondering why I'm so ripped and toned, that would be why... :) If the Tillamook Mudslide ice cream in our freezer doesn't interfere, that is. :)

Love you all!

Sister Slade

P.S. Next tuesday is transfers. Eek!

Hey family!

Drum roll please... my companion and I have been asked to serve in the HALLS LAKE YSA ward!!! I am so excited! It's pretty crazy because prior to finding out our assignment I had been feeling like I was going to be put in a bike area, possibly in one of the smaller northern towns in the mission. I couldn't have been further away from the truth. I'm convinced that President purposely put me in the assignment that would scare me the most. He has a way of doing that. Our area basically covers suburban Seattle up to suburban Everett. YSA covers the whole stake, and half of our area is actually in the Seattle mission. I can relate to Elder Slade's comments about driving in Miami, because after being in Oak Harbor for so long, I am not used to the traffic and being smack dab in the middle of a big city. Because we work only with YSA ages 18-30, the work involves a ton of tracting, and a lot of giving referrals and hoping to receive them in return.

My companion is Sister Glancy, from Roosevelt, Utah. I LOVE her!! Basically we are the same person. It's so funny. She is so compassionate and gentle. She is tenderhearted and loving and already she has been such a good example to me! It's funny because after President paired us together she told me that when I had come up to meet her and the other new missionaries a few hours earlier, she had gotten a very distinct feeling that I was going to be her trainer, and what do you know! Sister Anderson told me the same thing when I was paired with her 2 transfers ago. President truly is inspired. Sister Glancy and I have this thing, I'm not even sure how it started, it just happened, where for our spiritual thought that we share with members we sing a hymn for them. I love it! (In case you were wondering, having dinner with members in a YSA ward consists of camping out on the living room floor eating Dominos pizza. :))

Being in a YSA ward is so different. But I've heard that once you go YSA, you never want to go back! You spend a ton of time with the members, which doesn't fully seem like missionary work. I feel like I'm back at BYU in some ways, but not. It's the weirdest thing. For example, every Thursday night we go to the church and play volleyball. Monday nights we have F.H.E., and on Wednesdays we can attend institute. This first week has been a little bit bumpy, especially since our first few days in the area we didn't have a map or organized area book or supplies or anything else. But somehow we've gotten through, and I know that this is going to be an amazing experience! We will be splitting the area with the Lynnwood Zone Leaders, Elder Combe and Elder Caruso. They have been a huge help to us. Elder Combe was my zone leader when I was born into Oak Harbor, and from what I've heard, He and Elder Caruso have been leading the mission. They are really excellent missionaries, and Sister Glancy and I are looking forward to learning more from them about how to develop our faith and love for the people! Tomorrow the Elders are going to show us how to contact at Edmonds Community College. Sister Glancy and I are strongly considering soap boxin it up. We figure, if it scares us, we should probably do it. WOO HOO!!!!

Elder Bednar came and spoke to all the missionaries in our mission on Saturday and it was amazing! We basically had a question-and-answer type meeting and the spirit was so strong! I learned a lot. I feel like writing about it doesn't do it justice, there was just so much! One thing that was emphasized is that President Monson has stated that the time for planting seeds is long past, and the time for harvesting is here. As exciting as this was to me, at the same time it made me feel a little bit sad too. I don't want it to be time yet when there are still hundreds that say no every week. The number of people we meet here who claim to be atheists is staggering to me, even more so than in Oak Harbor, and sometimes I walk away from a door feeling completely sick to my stomach with sadness for the lack of faith and hope that we see. Elder Bednar brought a much needed boost to my spiritual stamina after a crazy week filled with lots of change!

I'm about out of time. We only have an hour to email today, since our P-Day was moved to thanksgiving, But to close I just want to express how incredibly grateful I am for everything that the Lord has given me in my life. I feel overwhelmed pretty much all the time here when I think, "How did I ever get to be so blessed?" I am so grateful for family and friends and for a Heavenly Father who love me. I wouldn't be here is if it weren't for them. I am thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ which truly is the only way to find happiness. I am thankful for all of the tender mercies that we see every day, which are too numerous to count.

Thank you all for all of your prayers. Keep up that DAILY scripture study and prayer, even when your life feels too busy. In the words of Elder Bednar, "You make time for the things that matter most. If you're not making time then obviously it doesn't mean that much to you." Can't argue with a General Authority!

Love, Sister Slade

P.S. The scripture of the week is 1 Nephi 3:7. No matter how overwhelmed or how inadequate we may sometimes feel with the path that is placed before us in our lives, the Lord will never give us more than we can handle, and he will never leave us to do it on our own. I know that He lives! He is in the very details of our lives. He is in control, and he will never let us fail as long as we are willing to let Him catch us. Most of all, I KNOW that He loves us! Love you all!

Hello family!

I hope that you are enjoying your cruise! You are probably nice and warm and toasty right now, soak up that sunshine for me! The other day we were talking to a street contact and I started to compare faith to knowing that the sun will rise the next day just like in the primary song and then we all started laughing because we realized... wait a second... we're in Washington. Chances are, the sun probably won't shine tomorrow! haha

Whew! What a week! Sister Glancy and I had the chance to meet quite a few people from our ward in church yesterday, and that was great. (We had stake conference last week.) The YSA ward is so different, it reminds me of BYU in that they announced that everyone should "Come to the reception for Kristen and Tyler next weekend" in relief society, and one of the guys in our ward who got up on Sunday said that "I want to bare my testimony, that God has some of the best looking children out there in this ward." The greatest was in Missionary Correlation Meeting when we were discussing whether or not a girl the ward has been working with has officially been reactivated, and Bishop Knoblaugh said, "I happen to know from an inside source who shall remain anonymous that one of the guys in our ward took her on a date." There was a sudden chorus of "Oh yeah, she's reactivated! She's definitely reactivated!" and that was the end of the discussion. So funny!

I had to laugh at Elder Slade's picture last week of the Krispy Kreme donut boxes, because the apartment we moved into used to be the AP's, so it has been an Elder's apartment since the beginning of time, and let me tell you, the Elder's over the years have left some very interesting stuff there. The good news is we found a box of Christmas stuff in the closet! Last night Sister Glancy and I decorated and got really geared up for what is going to be the best Christmas of our lives! Every night until Christmas we put our Santa hats on, sit by the picture of Christ by the fireplace, turn on the Christmas lights, and we're taking turns choosing a Christmas hymn to sing. I'm still trying to decided what I'm going to put in Sister Glancy's stocking. It can be kinda hard to surprise someone when you're with them 24-7. :)

Sister Glancy and I were blessed to find a few new investigators this week, some more promising than others. One was a guy named Avery who we contacted at the college, but unfortunately when it came to keeping commitments he texted us and said, "Hey look, I'm not actually interested in becoming Mormon, I just think you guys are really cute. Can you come over again so I can get to know you better?" That was a huge bummer. Then there was the guy who said, "I don't care about your message, but I have to tell you, you are one smokin' hot religious lady." YSA missionary work is so different. We decided that our new game plan is to grow unibrows and proselyte in pajamas so that from now on we know if a guy really is an earnest seeker of truth.

We are excited about an investigator named Jose that we taught a first lesson to this week though! He was a referral from the Spanish sisters who have started teaching his mom who doesn't speak any English at all. Jose had already read all of the restoration pamphlet and started on the Book of Mormon when we went over, so he looks very promising!

We also started teaching an Indian guy named Ram who the Elders taught a while back. Ram is from India and there is definitely a language barrier there. It has given us good practice with teaching very simply and clearly. The elders told us to gauge his accountability by how well he keeps commitments. I don't think I mentioned this last week, but there is SO much diversity here! I love it! It's totally normal to see a woman walking down the street in a burqa, and last week we went into this Asian grocery store to use the restroom, and I swear the place was the size of a warehouse. It can be a little bit difficult because we've had quite a few instances where a language barrier has prevented us from being able to talk to someone, but it's been an experience.

Something that I came across in my study this week that I absolutely loved is Luke 9:62, which says "And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." I realized this morning that as of today I have exactly a year until I go home. It feels like a long time but it's really not. I had this overwhelming feeling come over me that I absolutely do not want to waste even one minute of my mission. I know that this is time that is consecrated to the Lord. When we give our all to the Lord, I know that He blesses us.

Well, love you all!

Mail is a missionaries favorite gift at Christmas time! :)

Love, Sister Slade

P.S. Please tell Paul that WE FOUND A CHIPOTLE! Tender mercies of the Lord. :)

P.P.S. Bennett sent me an email with a 19 page report he wrote entitled "My LDS Conversion" that was absolutely beautiful. Only Bennett would do something like that. It may or may not have made me cry, but knowing me, that's probably no surprise to you all. :)

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