5 Baptisms!

Dear friends and family:

This week, Edwin K. was confirmed! It was a great blessing. Brother Yorke gave it. After sacrament meeting, Ed said that he felt happy. He has been very excited to be a member, and he has been telling people that he was LDS for several weeks now. I'm glad that he found the church and has finally received the gift of the Holy Ghost!

In other news, Charles was baptized! His Mom, Nardine, was able to get work off this one Sunday, to come to church for the first time in about 8 years, and to be there for his baptism. It was a temporary solution, and it won't work again for a while, but Nardine is upset that she isn't coming to church and she is trying to find a more permanent solution that will allow her to come every week. Charles, however, is very excited about his baptism yesterday, and he's excited to be confirmed next week as well. After he was baptized and changed back, he bore his testimony to the audience. It was a very powerful testimony.

More good news: Lornise, Nislade, Erlanda, and Ketty were baptized yesterday as well. They were happy to be baptized as well. We had the baptism in the evening, at 7, so that their parents and grandparents would be able to come. Disappointingly, none of the parents came at that time anyway, so there was no parental support at the baptism itself. They all want to be baptized, and they are happy that their children are making that step, but they have their priorities skewed a little. The four who were baptized are getting a lot of support from the young women in the ward, and we are going to put a large effort into raising the parents' desires as well.

We had a member referral this week, a woman named Kaitlyn. Brother and Sister Yorke tipped us off about her and told us that she was coming to church on Sunday. After sacrament meeting, we walked over to talk with her and asked about church. She enjoyed it. We asked her if she would be baptized next Sunday; she enthusiastically agreed. We'll be teaching her for the first time tonight, and we can't wait to see her.

This week, we again struggled with finding. We didn't neglect finding or harvesting, we just haven't been able to add to our teaching pool that much. But God has blessed us to find in other ways, and we will focus on finding this week so that we can continue to have a healthy teaching pool.

Fact of the day: Mozilla Firefox is better than Google Chrome, and especially Internet Explorer.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Transfers Next Week

Hello family,

I was so excited to see the pictures of the baptisms that Elder Slade had last weekend! It feels good to hear from other missionaries, because they are the only ones that really 100% understand the ups and downs to the mission. Love ya, Elder Slade! The work really is hastening!

Sister Goode and I are preparing for the baptism of Melissa C. this weekend and we couldn't be more excited for her! It's coincidentally panned out that most of Melissa's lessons have been when Sister Goode stayed in our area and I was on exchange in a different area, so I feel a little bit jipped that I haven't had the chance to create as deep of a bond as I have with other investigators in the past. I sure love her though, she is so prepared and it feels like every time we are at her apartment she is the one teaching us!

Recently I had the chance to go on exchanges with a Sister Bartsch from Germany and Sister Martinez-Velez from Mexico. The church is true wherever ya go! My favorite exchange this week was with Sister Davis. She has been struggling a lot recently with confidence and feeling like she is good enough to be able to be used by the Lord. It was such a great experience to be able to point out to her all of the strengths that I had seen in her and share with her all of the things that I have been learning about the atonement in the last few weeks.

We were able to find a few new investigators at the college this week. One of them is a guy named Jesse who has been in a wheelchair for a long time because of his battle with cancer. When he shared his testimony with us of how Christ had "carried him" throughout his struggles the spirit was so strong! I wish that you could all meet these people and hear them share their stories, Emails don't do people justice! Unfortunately we found out that he lives in the Silverlake boundaries, so we'll have to do a pass-off lesson. :/

Bry is doing really well. We taught him the Word of Wisdom and he has been working really really hard to kick some of his past habits. He went really strong for about a week and a half then unfortunately caved into temptation this week. Thank goodness for the atonement. It looks like his baptism date will be pushed back to next month, but he is working so hard and he wants so bad to turn his life around. Keep him in your prayers!

Anthony, our favorite Christian rapper, also affectionately referred to as G-White, came to vball and the cottage meeting and loved it! He is loving the Book of Mormon too. Unfortunately he flaked on church again this week, and we're not sure why.

Gabriel is doing well. Lans asked him to join us for hobo dinners and s'mores for lunch earlier this week. While Gabriel is still going strong coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon, he reminds me of what happened with Sandra. He realizes just how important baptism is, and because he knows its a commitment and because he knows he has made so many mistakes in the past, he is afraid. We've talked about it a lot, and we're hoping that in the right timing, when he receives his own spiritual witness of repentance and the atonement, he will be strong like Sandra. I have developed a ton of love for Gabriel as we have watched him struggle and progress since we started teaching him. I am learning through investigators experiences and through my own that when it comes to the atonement it is one thing to think it and believe it but its another thing entirely to feel it and apply it.

Transfers are next Tuesday, so we'll find out if anything is changing on Monday! Could I stay a fourth transfer in Halls Lake? I'm really hoping that I get to stay an STL. I have been learning so much and I love getting to know the sisters better so much. I know that whatever happens is according tot he Lord's will though. Any guesses?

Love you all!

Sister Slade

Happy "Unbirthday" Dinner with Mamma Meg

Baptism

First of all, Edwin K. was baptized last night at 7:30. It was an amazing spiritual experience. All of the stress of the day just went away during the calm/contentment of the service. Ed was very happy to be baptized, and I know he's just as excited to keep going to church and to be confirmed and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost next week. (Brother Ramos has pictures, but he hasn't sent them to us yet so I can't send them to you.)

Charles was not baptized, because he missed his ride to church. It was unfortunate, but he and his mother came to the baptism for Ed, and they felt the spirit a lot. He was regretful that he could not be baptized at the same time, and he is on date for next week.

This week has been a good week. All weeks are good weeks as long as you are trying, I think. I still have to work on many things, as always, but one thing I realized is that God doesn't punish you for not doing enough. He always blesses you for what you do do, and I have received so many blessings on my mission. I can't wait to keep going!

That being said, one things that we needed to work on this week as a companionship was that we had very few new investigators. Our teaching pool is starting to stagnate. So that will be a much larger focus this week than it has been in the past. This week we've committed to 1. improve the quality of our harvest blessings, 2. make sure that we get one hour and three blessings each day, and to 3. follow up within 48 hours of the harvest blessing.

Elder McMullen (our district leader) came with me into my area for an exchange this week. The exchange was great. It helped me realize that plans are malleable, and they don't have to be followed just for the sake of following them. You can be more productive if you are flexible throughout the day.

I can't wait to meet Liv! I loved the picture of Nathan smiling with her. Also, one of you said that you would send pictures of Nathan playing in the snow, but I haven't received them yet. :l

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Our newest member, Edwin.

We all went into create breakfast on Saturday.

Heavenly Father Loves Us

Dear family,

All is well in the WEM! This last week I had my "hump day" where I officially reached my 9 month mark on the mission! I thought about either taking a picture with a pillow on my back looking like a camel or a picture with a pillow stuffed up my shirt so that I looked like a pregnant woman but…. Sister Goode and I forgot. haha get it?? :) I am loving every minute of my mission! It is so hard and so tiring and it makes you grow in so many ways. In case you were wondering, missions aren't for pansies! It is so wonderful though. I'm scared the end is going to come way too soon and I'm trying so hard to make every moment of every day count so that I can look back and know I gave it my all. I really related to what Elder Slade said in his last email about how all weeks are good as long as you're trying. I had a really overwhelming experience in a special conference this week where I thought about what the Lord would say to me if I had an interview with Him on the last day of my mission, and the words that came very powerfully to me were "I didn't say you had to be perfect on your mission. I only wanted you to try your very best, and I accept what you have done for me. Thank you."

Last night we had a cottage meeting, which is basically where missionaries can take investigators to the mission home and everyone gathers to hear the testimonies of recent converts. It was the first cottage meeting I've been able to attend on my mission, and it was amazing! Anthony and Bry were both able to attend and they loved it.

Sister Goode and I have been struggling to find new investigators these past two weeks. Please pray that we can continue to add people to our teaching pool. One way that we have been very blessed is that we have an unusual amount of "golden" investigators that we are seeing progressing wonderfully! Normally it's exciting to be able to teach one golden, but we have 4 different individuals progressing right now that makes us so happy! Gabriel, Melissa, Anthony, and Bry all have very strong testimonies and are working towards baptism. Unfortunately the adversary knows that the more of an asset to the Lord an individual will be, the harder he will have to work to dissuade them. We have seen crazy and very real opposition come into the lives of these individuals these week, and it has been so amazing to me to see the ways that they are fighting back and continuing to progress despite the obstacles. Please, please, please pray for these individuals by name! It is so obvious to me that the work is hastening, but that means that Satan is working harder too. You may not know these individuals, but they are your brothers and sisters, and these people need your faith and help!

This week in my study I loved reading Jacob 5. This story is not just about trees, it's about how much our Heavenly Father loves us. And it's not just about the House of Israel- it's about how much He loves me individually, as one of the trees in His vineyard. Sometimes when we're being pruned and dunged and our branches are being taken and new ones are being put in, it can be a very painful process. Sometimes we may feel like because Heavenly Father is giving us so much change and working so hard to perfect us, it means that we are inherently bad, or without worth. Actually, the Lord wouldn't bother to prune and dung and dig if He didn't see that our worth is limitless and we just need a little help sometimes in order to tap into that potential. I think that this is why I have been able to serve as an STL this transfer. (And I hope next transfer too) I have learned so much more from the sisters that I have been exchanging with then I'm sure they've been learning from me. It's hard to focus on yourself when you are focusing on others. President knew i needed a few extra souls to serve in order to completely learn that lesson.

Love ya!

Sister Slade

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