Everyone is Crazy

First of all, I want to make something clear. As of a few months ago, they changed the rules for emailing. I am now allowed to email everyone, regardless of gender/relationship, as long as they are not girls who live in the boundaries of my mission. This confusion occurred because the change happened while I was in the MTC, so for the first few months of my mission I was under the impression that it was still in effect. But since that is no longer the case, everybody can contact me at:

brandon.slade@myldsmail.net

On to other matters.

Transfer information: we found out last night, neither Elder Van Wagenen or I are transferring. As a matter of fact, only two people in the entire zone are leaving (one of them is dying, in fact) which is completely unheard of. Usually 35-45% of missionaries change every transfer in this mission. It is unusual to have the same companion for more than one transfer, other than your trainer. But I am very grateful for the chance to serve with Elder Van Wagenen for another six weeks. We haven't had enough fun yet!

New family member: I'm excited to hear about baby Liv! I love her name. In Creole, 'liv' means 'book'. (But it's pronounced 'leave', not 'live', which is how I'm guessing you pronounce 'Liv'.)

Fact of the day: God lives in a gated community.

Fact of the latter-days: everybody is crazy!

I thought I'd talk about the two investigators that I'm most excited about.

First is Charles, the son of a less active member. He came to church two days ago, and he is excited to be baptized this Sunday. He speaks Haitian Creole and English. He's awesome.

Next is Ed. He has been an investigator for a while, but for the last two weeks he has been unable to come to church because of health issues. He was even put in the hospital last Saturday. He's seen missionaries in the past, but for some reason he is ready to accept the gospel this time. He tells everybody he meets that he is LDS, and he has been very excited to read in the Book of Mormon. He always comes prepared to lessons with favorite scriptures and things that he learned. He's awesome.

An inactive member named Gregory L. came to church last week. We found out that it was the first time he was coming to church in several years, and we set up a time to come and pray with him. (A harvest blessing. They are for members as well, not just nonmembers. We just focus on member missionary work as opposed to baptism.) We came and we said the blessing. We all felt the spirit very strongly, and he said that it was the strongest he had felt it in his entire adult life. Since then, we have started teaching him the missionary lessons.

The first time we went to teach about the restoration, an interesting story came out. Two weeks ago, his brother read a scripture which reminded him of something he asked in a prayer a long time ago: he asked God to show him what his life would be like without God. Now that he had lived for most of his life outside of the church, he decided to find out what life would be like with God. That's why he came to church that first time, and he met us, and we scheduled that prayer.

It really was a miracle. Not just that part, but also that if we had had an investigator come to church that week, then we would have been in a different classroom for Sunday School, and we would never have met him. I can imagine he would have come to church that one time, and then given up, and the opportunity would be lost. But God knows what he's doing!

Thanks,

Elder Slade

"We are not earning heaven, we are learning heaven, preparing for it, practicing for it."

Dear family,

Last week Brother Donaldson from the Mission Department came to tour our mission and give special training to the mission leaders on a new inspired method of teaching that they want us to implement. We attended a special all-day conference and it was a huge spiritual high for me! Basically we will be teaching 7 minute lessons using the pictures in the pamphlets. The investigator does most of the talking. Our role is to ask them questions about the pictures and their understanding of the gospel such as "How does this make you feel?" or "What do you see here?" I wish you could all see it in action! It's simple, but it's not easy. The new method is all about the missionaries getting out of the way so that the spirit can testify, and already we have seen so many miracles come from it!

A few days ago we taught a Gospel of Jesus Christ pamphlet lesson to Anthony and the first few minutes seemed a little bit rocky because he had some questions that were a little bit off topic and he didn't completely understand the importance of baptism yet. But we continued to ask him what he felt when he saw the pictures, and once we were done we told him that we were all going to be silent after he finished and pay attention to our thoughts, feelings, and impressions, and that when he felt ready he could speak again. After Anthony prayed it was silent for a good minute before he spoke. Finally he told us with tears in his eyes, "I feel good. I feel really good" We invited him right then to be baptized, and he immediately accepted a baptism date of March 29th.

Bry and Melissa are both so solid and are still progressing towards baptism wonderfully! They are both so prepared! Bry surprised everyone when he got up to share his testimony of the Book of Mormon in church on Sunday- proud mama moment!!!

Gabriel also loved church on Sunday, as always, and he is still loving reading the Book of Mormon. Bishop invited him and us over for dinner yesterday and the spirit was strong as Bishop and Gabriel both shared their personal conversion stories. Gabriel is every bit as converted as Bennett and Verna and Darlene were. He makes me cry when he shares his testimony. He is going through some really hard times right now. He has received some anti from his family and they are telling him that he isn't prepared for baptism yet. While Gabriel still wants to be baptized, some personal and family struggles have postponed his baptism for now. Please keep him in your prayers!

I am LOVING being an STL! These sisters are so amazing! I love seeing each of the sisters different strengths and seeing how Heavenly Father has given each of us something different to offer. This last week one of my exchanges was with Sister Sinclair, who I was good friends with in the MTC. We had a great time together- probably my favorite exchange I have gone on so far! Sister Sinclair is kinda like a YSA prodigy because she has been in YSA her entire mission- crazy! I went to Silverlake YSA, and we had a day filled with miracles! We both agreed on numerous occasions that I was meant to be in that area with her on that day. There were way too many amazing "coincidences" to not know that it was meant to be.

One of the biggest miracles of that exchange was that I needed Sister Sinclair that day. This has been the best worst week. Earlier this week I was really struggling with a lot of feelings of depression and worthlessness. It's been a while since I've felt that low. There are a couple of reasons I can think of for what happened, but for the most part there didn't seem to be any obvious reason for why I was feeling the way I was. Satan was working very very hard on me. I think he knew that Sister Goode and I have the potential to accomplish so much good in this area, especially with the new teaching method that is going to bring so many people to Christ. I was praying all week that I would simply be able to feel loved, and there have been so many simple tender mercies that have come. Sacrament Meeting yesterday was overwhelming. It was one of the most powerful testimony meetings I have ever been in, and I doubt there was one person in the congregation who didn't feel the overwhelming amount of love from the spirit in that chapel. On top of that, the elders investigators plus our investigators plus a friend that a member brought to church all totaled 8 nonmembers in our congregation!! I remember the first Sunday that I was in this ward it caught me off guard how small the congregation was since I was used to being in a family ward. During the sacrament I closed my eyes and pictured what it would be like to walk into that chapel packed with people, and I prayed that Sister Glancy and I would be able to help the ward to grow. Well on Sunday we saved the third and fourth row before the meeting as the "investigator rows." During the sacrament yesterday they were completely filled up with investigators and their fellowshippers, plus an overflow into the fifth row in the chapel. What an amazing feeling!

This week Heavenly Father wanted me to understand that the things that I teach investigators and less actives apply to me too. He loves me. I know it. The atonement is for ME, and the atonement is for YOU. I hope that the Lord blesses you with that knowledge this week too, and that you experience his love just as overwhelmingly as I have!

Love Sister Slade

 Sister Goode is on the left, and Sister Kennedy is one of the sisters that three-packed it with us this week while her companion was home for some medical tests. So much fun!

 Lans surprised us by taking Sister Glancy and I out to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch the day of transfers. He didn't end up making us try the flaming hot challenge... he said we could just try one, and boy was it hot! He was a good sport and even wore the T-shirt we made for him! :)

Alexandra invited us over for a smokin hot date (aka dinner) on Valentines day

New Investigators

Dear friends and family:

This week has been a good week for Elder Van Wagenen and I. We had four solid investigators commit to come to church, but none of them came. It has been a struggle for me my whole mission to get people to come to church. My companion and I always find good people, who look so ready and willing to progress, and then the trial comes and they fail to come to church. It was the same this week.

We found a few people who really are awesome. I'll mention two of them:

Charles is a fifteen year old Haitian boy. I've mentioned him in one of my past emails. We prayed with him, and he accepted baptism. We later found out that he was living with his mom, who is a convert from a few years ago who went inactive because she always has to work on Sundays. But she knows that the church is true, and she was extremely glad to get back in contact with us missionaries. It was a miracle to find her, let alone her son.

Ed is really awesome as well. A few weeks ago, we found a man named Bill - we contacted him on the street and prayed with him there. He agreed to have us come back to talk with him about baptism and about the church. About five days ago, we finally managed to see him. He led us to a table in his back yard, and introduced us to Ed and said "I hope you don't mind, he wanted to join in as well." We didn't mind. We got to know them, and answered a few questions that they had. We testified about the Book of Mormon and gave them copies, and set up a return time two days from then. They were both excited for us to come back, but for some unknown reason Bill packed up and left before the next lesson. Nobody knows where he went, and he won't answer his phone. But Ed continues to progress very well, and we are also very grateful that we found him. We wouldn't have, if we hadn't found and talked to Bill first.

Our biggest weakness this week as a companionship is that we haven't been doing that much member work. We haven't been proactive in asking members to come out teaching with us, and we haven't been putting enough focus on teaching recent convert/less active lessons as well. So this week we are going to put more focus there. We will continue to find new people, and do our best to continually improve the health of our area.

Despite the fact that this area is not entirely Creole (we teach everybody in our area, not just Haitians), I have learned more creole from this area than I have from Miami. This is because Elder Van Wagenen and I speak to each other in Creole a lot, and we get a lot of practice while we are riding to or from places.

Elder Van Wagenen and I want to stay together for another transfer. Five weeks isn't enough time. Six weeks, maybe, but five weeks is pushing it. (This transfer is only five weeks long, because the schedule is a week off from the MTC's training schedule, and so they are cutting it short to make them match. That means that transfers are next week. P-day is next Tuesday.)

I'm excited to hear that Kayla is going French speaking. One of my MTC companions went to the same mission. I've been spending some time these last few weeks to try to learn a little bit of French, to help with my Creole pronunciation, but also because French really is an awesome language.

I realized in the MTC that because I return from my mission in September, and Paul's birthday is in May, there's a good chance that I won't be able to see him before he leaves, depending on when he puts in his papers and his availability date. That would mean that I wouldn't get to see him for four years, instead of just two. That made me sad. Sa te fè m tris, m te kriye yon ti kras. Translated: This made me sad, I was crying a little.

I'm also upset that I won't get to see Evie again.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Its Rainin' Investigators

Hello family!

My new companion is Sister Goode from Disney Land, oops, I mean, Anaheim, California. She is funny, genuine, and filled with the spirit! We are looking forward to tearin it up this next transfer in Halls Lake YSA! We cover 9 companionships of sisters together, so we will have 2-3 exchanges per week,  our first one being this Thursday. I'm very excited!

This week, despite all the crazy change and schedules, has been one of the most fulfilling, miracle-filled weeks of my mission! We're short on time to email today, but even if I had the full amount of time I couldn't tell you about all of the amazing miracles we have seen! We'll save that for after the mission :)

So here goes! We put our investigators John and Bry on date for baptism this week. Both are earnestly seeking, and we are so excited for them! John is a guy who Sister Glancy and I contacted at the college last week. He says that he knows that God exists because of feelings he used to have when he would go hiking with his family in Colorado (Hmm. That sounds familiar!) John came to FHE and loved it! Unfortunately he had to work so he wasn't able to come to church, but he is reading the Book of Mormon, asking limitless questions about how Jesus Christ can help him in his life, and progressing wonderfully! Bry was our member referral! His brother and sister-in-law were recently baptized into the Beverly Park ward recently. Bry s a pretty quirky guy. He happens to be pro bowler so that's pretty cool! His prayers are some of the most genuine I have ever heard out here, perhaps only second to Verna's prayers. March is looking to be a great month for us!

Gabriel is still loving church and reading the Book of Mormon. He made me feel like a proud mama this week when he invited his stepbrother Alex to come to FHE and volleyball! Man oh man, this kid is an outstanding member missionary and he's not even a member yet! Gabriel was going to be moving to Texas but he told us this last Sunday that they decided to not move after all due to some things that happened in the family. God works in mysterious ways... perhaps Gabriel is meant to continue his progression including making the covenant of baptism, in this ward that he has grown to love so much? :)

This week we got a text message from a girl named Melissa basically saying "Hi, you knocked on my door last week, I want you to teach me the lessons." I didn't even remember who this girl Melissa was until we met her again. She was one of those "One last door" contacts, and Sister Glancy and I couldn't have talked to her for more than a minute last week before we had to run to our next appointment. Turns out Melissa has been dating a member and going to church with him in one of the family wards. When we came to visit her she told us that she has been reading the Book of Mormon the last few months, she knows it's true, and she wants to be baptized, she just needs to take the discussions. (Which she has already taught herself through reading the pamphlets that she found online, by the way.) Heavenly Father, did you seriously just drop an already-progressing investigator right into our laps? Well thank you!

As if all that wasn't enough, on Sunday Sister Goode and I realized that we were one new investigator away from meeting the Standards of Excellence this week- something that everyone says is unheard of in the YSA ward. I say, "All things are possible through Christ who strengthens me!" President has told us that he expects all STL's and Zone Leaders to meet Standards of Excellence weekly, so Sister Goode and I said a prayer after church and went to work. The girl we had an appointment with cancelled, so we went to see a potential/referral that we had received the night before in hopes that they would be our new investigator instead. Well we got there and had a good conversation but it didn't quite pan out. Right afterwards I remembered a former that lived nearby that Sister Glancy and I had gone to see 2 months ago, but I had totally forgotten about since then. (One of those ever so subtle "whisperings" that it's so easy to not recognize). Well we knocked at the door of this guy Anthony, and it looked like the house was dark and empty. Right as we were about to walk away the hall light came on, and Anthony answered the door. He pretty much stared at us then asked who had sent us. Apparently another missionary on the street had invited him to come to church the day before, and he was going to, but he accidentally slept in. He had been thinking about the Mormons a lot recently, and he had just been praying for direction when we knocked. Anthony came out and the three of us stood out in the rain talking about Jesus Christ and his role in the repentance process. One prayer and a return appointment later, we met standards at 8:00 Sunday night. Sister Goode and I jumped into a HUGE puddle to celebrate our "Victory week for the Lord" and since we had been soaking wet all evening anyway.

The miracles have simply continued this week, because Heavenly Father likes to make good on all of His promises. The missionary department is touring our mission this week, so Sister Bonham joined us for our lessons last night. With Sister Bonham we found a new investigator, and taught Anthony the first official lesson. The spirit in that lesson was so strong. He had already started reading the Book of Mormon the night before after we left, and he also bought us this huge pink and orange umbrella. Haha. So thoughtful! Partway through the lesson he said, "I feel like these things are true, everything makes sense. I think I need to pray to know if these things are true and if I need to be baptized." Sister Goode and I were both thinking "Uhhh... yeah, yeah it would be ok for you to do that! Good game plan!" :)

Through my personal study and the miracles that we saw this week, I have determined that there is no "secret" to missionary work. If we are simply striving to do what Heavenly Father wants us to do- working hard, loving everyone, being strictly obedient, and developing Christlike attributes, etc... Heavenly Father will literally "laden you with many sheaves." I feel overwhelmed with gratitude for everything that He has given me. Please pray that these miracles will continue. Thank you for your love and support!

Love, Sister Slade

Life Changed

I still don't have my camera. I'm waiting on my old companion from Miami for that.

Last Thursday, we had a zone conference where Elder and Sister Kopischke came to train our entire mission. It was a great experience, I learned a lot about the purpose and responsibilities of missionaries, and I'm in the process of applying what I learned. I attached two pictures from that zone conference.

This last week has been a good week for me and Elder Van Wagenen. We have been working hard, and we have a few investigators who we are really excited about. We have both learned a lot, especially from the zone conference.

We have seen many miracles while we have worked. Mostly they have been manifested in the people who we find. We have found many people this week, in miraculous ways.

For example, we found a man named Lenny N. - he came up to us and asked us to talk with him. He told us that he had tried to find the church once several months before, but he had the wrong address and so he couldn't get there. He says that he is interested in the church, but he doesn't know why. He has had doubts in the past that God exists, and he wants us to help overcome those doubts, and replace them with faith. We followed up with him yesterday, and we'll continue to teach him.

We also found a young man named Charles. He accepted baptism, but we were still wary to follow up or teach him because we hadn't met with his parents. But the next day, we were in the area and we decided to try to follow up and to gauge whether or not the parents would let him. As it turns out, he lived with his mother, who is an inactive member who was not in the ward records. She is inactive because of her job, but she knows that the LDS church is the only true church. She wholeheartedly agreed to his baptism, and Charles himself is excited to learn and to prepare to be baptized as well.

Elder Van Wagenen are still working on the outdated list of referrals, getting them all contacted and up to date. It'll probably take another week or two to get them down to a manageable size, but once we get it there then we will receive more of the blessings of being exactly obedient.

I wrote something for the Putnam Family Newsletter. You'll all be able to read it in that, but I thought I'd include it here as well:

My whole life changed a ton in the last twelve months. I graduated from high school, opened my mission call, prepared to leave on my mission, and then actually left on my mission. It's hard to believe that everything can change so fast, but at the same time it doesn't feel to me as if anything has really changed at all. Things just happen so slowly, it's hard to notice the water starting to boil until you are already dead.

The most important changes have come specifically because of my mission. For example, I feel the spirit much more in my life. I don't have as many distractions from the things that are really important. I'm surrounded each day with other missionaries, people who want to help me to learn and progress and become a better person.

I'm extremely grateful to you all for the examples that you have all set for me, and for the encouragement and support I continue to receive from all of you. Thank you all!

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Laborers in the Vineyard

This week, Elder Van Wagenen and I have been working much harder. The week before was a flop because of transfers but also because of a large degree of laziness. We have had a very, very shallow teaching pool for a while. This week we put a lot of effort into finding, and God blessed us with 11 new investigators. Some of them have since been dropped, but as we continue to work hard and trust in the Lord, I am confident that our teaching pool will increase and we will be able to improve the general health of our area.

One of the problems with the area from when I came in is that we have about 20 HQ referrals that have not been updated. Neither of us knows the current status of any of them. That is one thing that we will be working on this week, getting them all caught up. It's an investment - the time spent on them will help us to be obedient, and we will see direct and indirect results from our obedience.

Companionship unity is not really a problem with us two. We're getting along great. After only a few days, he was already one of my closest friends. In our free time (such as after nightly planning or on P-Days), we often talk about long-term projects that we want to work on together after we return from our missions. And we are being careful that those discussions do not interfere with our work or make us distracted.

The person who we are the most excited about for being baptized is named Segens. I forgot his last name. He is on date for next Sunday, we're looking forward to it.

We are also excited for a family of eight that we found last week. Many of them seem excited to read the Book of Mormon, and they seem to recognize that we are representatives of Jesus Christ. They are always glad to have us over, and they come to lessons prepared with a list of questions that they had from their reading assignments. They weren't able to come to church yesterday, unfortunately, but we'll give them another week because they seem to be progressing as a family.

My favorite quote this week:

"It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines."

-Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "The Laborers in the Vineyard"

I still don't have my camera, but Elder Winslow said he found it in the Miami apartment and he's trying to find a way to get it to me. I'll probably get it back before next P-Day.

Thank you, everyone, for writing to me. It's great to receive your letters. I'll just take a few minutes to answer questions and remark on them:

Mom: for the Elders, the harvest blessing is a priesthood blessing if we can kneel down in a reverent environment inside of the house itself. In any other situation, or for the Sisters, it's just a regular prayer, asking God for those blessings. The spirit can still be present, either way, but it's stronger when you kneel down in reverence in the house itself. (I wouldn't know how strong the spirit is for the Sister missionaries, I've never been one.)

I'm out of time, or else I would answer more questions.

Thanks for everything,

Elder Slade

Transfers?

Dear family,

This week has been quite the roller coaster! Transfers are tomorrow, and it's going to be a big one! President Bonham is really shaking things up in the mission this time around, and there are very few companionships that won't be changed, including our own. Thursday was leadership calls and Sister Glancy and I thought that we were off the hook until the zone leaders called at 11:00, right as we were almost asleep. I'm going to be a Sister Training Leader this next transfer! I have lots of mixed emotions. I'm very nervous but I'm also very excited. I think that this is going to be an amazing learning experience, and I'm so excited to get to know so many sisters in the mission! I already feel so much love for all of them. Depending on what zones my new companion and I will cover, we will probably end up going on about 2 or 3 exchanges a week. Sister Glancy and I are waiting impatiently for the text that should come any time now to find out which of us will be transferred. Gah the suspense is killing me!

We have found quite a few new investigators this week, some of which show a lot of promise! One was found at the college, two were referrals from other missionaries, and one of them was even our first member referral so we were so excited about that! I hope that I get to stay here so that I can teach some of these people, but even if I get transferred, please pray specifically for Anas, John, Bry, and Nate.

Also continue to pray for Gabriel, who will be moving to Texas next week. We want this to be a smooth transition and for him to bond with the ward and missionaries there as much as he has here.

Sister Glancy and I sang in Sacrament Meeting yesterday and I was terrified but Sister Glancy made me.  People said we did good afterwards, but that doesn't mean I'll ever do it again :) Or maybe I will. I've surprised myself a lot so far on my mission, almost as much as the Lord has surprised me.

This week in my study I have really enjoyed reading through the Book of Mormon and New Testament at the same time. It's amazing to see all of the parallels no matter where you're reading. They truly do support each other in witnessing to to the world that Jesus is the Savior for each and every one of us! A few verses that specifically stood out to me in the Book of Mormon this week were 2 Nephi 16:5-8. When President Monson first announced the age change, (Whew that feels like forever ago!) I was sitting in the tabernacle in Salt Lake for the afternoon session afterwards, thinking and praying, and the very distinct, very sudden words that came to my mind were "Here am I, send me." I knew that I was supposed to go on a mission, it was simply a matter of praying about when.

I feel overwhelmed, thinking about the amazing blessings, growth, and love that I have felt in my own life and in the lives of others since coming. I know that this is where I am supposed to be! This truly is the Lord's work. He is deeply involved in each of our lives. He has a plan and will do everything he can to help us if we will rely on Him. Thank you all for your support and for your love. Go out there and fearlessly share the gospel with everyone that you meet, then write me letters telling me all about how YOU are seeing an increase of the Lord's love in YOUR lives!

Love, Sister Slade

P.S. Congratulations Kayla on your call to Canada!!!  Feel free to teach and baptize a smokin hot frenchman for me to marry.... just kidding....but really. :)

P.P.S. We just barely got the much dreaded text... Sister Glancy is getting transferred, I am staying in Halls Lake YSA! :)

What is this green stuff all over the place?

 The church is true, the book is blue!

 Us with Gabriel