Great Week

Dear Friends and Family:

This week has been a great week for me and my companion. One of the biggest strengths that we feel we have had is our diligence, especially in member work. We have had many members come out teaching with us this week, and we went on two splits to get more work done with them. We're planning to keep that up, and to continue to get members to come out with us, and to continue to go on splits as many times as possible this next week. They can make half-days feel like full days, and full-days feel like day-and-a-half days.

For example, on Wednesday, we had splits. I went with Brother Milton to help a new family move into the ward (just a father, actually, but he speaks French so we can't wait to take him out with us!). My companion went with Brother Archie to teach some investigators. We had five lessons total that day, and all of them were amazing, spirit-filled and spirit-led lessons. This Wednesday may have been one of the best days on my mission so far, nothing really bad happened at all, and things just seemed to work out.

On Sunday, we skyped at a member's house, and we had a great time. It was really good to see you all, chè fanmi mwen an!

I can't wait for zone conference tomorrow, especially so that we can learn what we as a mission will be allowed to do in the temple. I can't wait to go back again, especially to the FFL temple, considering how much effort we have put in to get people to go there and to prepare for it.

Inspirational quote of the day:

"And now, is not this grievous to be borne? And is not this, our affliction, great? Now behold, how great reason we have to mourn.

"Yea, I say unto you, great are the reasons which we have to mourn; for behold how many of our brethren have been slain, and their blood has been spilt in vain" (Mosiah 7:13-14, Book of Mormon)

Starting about a week and a half ago, I have decided to memorize a scripture a day for the rest of my life. I've managed to do it every day so far. Wish me luck!

Thanks,

Elder Slade

P.S.: Transfers are not next week, they'll be the week after that. I got it wrong while I was skyping!

Kisa lamou ye? Bebe pa blese m! Pa blese m! Ankò!

Dear friends and family:

We will be able to Skype, but we have no idea at what time, so I'll just write down the skype account you want me to call. We were thinking we will call some time around 5:30 (our time), but we will call briefly earlier in the day to iron out the details.

We have had a great week! We're a little disappointed that we were not able to get any investigators in sacrament, but I can't say I'm surprised. The dedication of the temple was a worthy alternative.

Part way through the week, we found a really awesome family through harvesting. We met the father, and we asked him to leave a blessing on his home and family, and he agreed immediately. He and his wife and their six kids (except for one who was still returning from School) all lined up for the prayer. They told us that they had been praying for someone to come and bless their house. They had tried to get people from other churches to come and do it, but without any success. The family accepted baptism, church, and a return appointment.

It was a great miracle, one of the best highlights from this week. Unfortunately, we have been unable to meet with them again.

Going to the cultural celebration was another great event from this week. I am very grateful that we were able to go and to watch and participate. The online video doesn't show much of it, but every missionary in the mission was there, sitting all together. We came down in the second to last song and joined in for the third verse, then we helped sing the finale as well. It felt like a vacation, more than anything. We sat back and watched the show for the most part, and we had the opportunity to "socialize" and to talk with our previous companions for an hour or so before the show started. It was really fun!

But the best event was, of course, the dedication the next day. I was curious to see how they are done, and I feel like I learned a lot from the talks and from the experience as a whole. I especially loved the talk in the second session, by Elder Christofferson. He really laid a lot of things down in a way that helped me to understand the purpose of the temple, and our purpose in life.

Our area and companionship have several investigators who are progressing with a date. We will be focusing on them, and getting them to continue reading in the Book of Mormon, and to come to church. And of course we will keep up our efforts to find others.

Fact of the day: "Print Screen" does not capture the mouse cursor. For example, see the attached image.​

Thanks,

Elder Slade

“Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves" -James Barrie

Dear family,

We just got the transfer news a few minutes ago, and it looks like I will be saying goodbye to the amazing people in the Halls Lake YSA area and leaving for a new adventure tomorrow afternoon. Lots of mixed emotions. It has felt like it is time for me to experience the next thing that Heavenly Father has in store for me, but it is always very hard to say goodbye. I will miss people like Bry and Carla and Gabriel and Minami. And I can't even start on the ward members! I am so grateful to know that because of Jesus Christ there is no such thing as a permanent goodbye!

So here's a miracle story from this week! Washington people are crazy. A few nights ago Sister Goode and I woke up at 2 in the morning because the neighbors below us were shouting profanities and blasting music and banging on their ceiling (our floor). These neighbors have been pretty rowdy before, but never anything close to this bad, and it was obvious that they were really ridiculously drunk. The walls were shaking and it was actually pretty scary. We started to feel really dark and nervous. We weren't sure what to do, so finally we decided to call our Zone Leaders. We talked about a few different options, including calling the police, but finally we decided to start with just saying a prayer. Sister Goode and I knelt in our living room, and I'm sure the Elders did the same, and Elder Caruso said one of the most inspired prayers I've ever heard. He prayed that our neighbors would be stilled even thought they had "given their agency to a bottle," and he prayed that we would feel the angels that would stay the night with us. Instantly after Elder Caruso finished his prayer the screaming and noise that had been going on for forever stopped, and it was quiet after that for the rest of the night. We ended up getting like 4 hours of sleep that night, so the next day was definitely a long one, but it was a powerful experience to have that prayer answered so quickly!

I have learned lots from my study this last week, but I particularly loved reading in Alma 5: I LOVED verse 38. Rather than share my insights on this verse, this week I want to hear what this verse means to all of you! Remember that letters are a great way to show a missionary love!!!!

Love, Sister Slade

P.S. I don't remember if I told you about our investigator Jesse or not, but a few weeks ago I contacted this Irish guy in a wheelchair at the college. We had a very powerful first lesson with him, where he told us about all of the struggles he has been through in his life and how his faith in Christ has helped him. Unfortunately we weren't able to keep teaching him since we found out that he lived in Silverlake YSA's boundaries. We did a pass-off lesson, and I just found out that he is on date to be baptized!! So exciting! Hearing things like that gives me the hope that the investigators here that I won't be able to see continue to progress will be taken care of. In the Lord's timing I guess!

Trust in His word

Dear friends and family:

"The Fort Lauderdale Temple dedication marks the first time that the Church is broadcasting a cultural celebration live and on the internet. This means that anyone with a computer or device with internet access can watch and enjoy the cultural celebration next Saturday. Make sure your families and investigators have an opportunity to watch it.

Next Saturday, May 3, 2014 at 7:00 pm EST (be thoughtful of the time difference), the cultural celebration will be broadcast live on the internet at:

www.lds.org/broadcasts/languages/florida-cultural-celebration/2014/04." (President Anderson)

"Mothers Day is in two weeks, Sunday, the 11th of May. You will have permission to call home that day with a 30 minute time limit. You may use Skype if it is not an inconvenience to members. [...] Please organize this appropriately with your family." (President Anderson) I have no idea what time we will be calling or skyping.

Elder Van Wagenen and I are very excited for the temple dedication and everything that will be happening in the near future! We have had a great week. We received many new great investigators, and we are very excited to keep teaching them and finding new people to teach.

Unfortunately, all of the people we are teaching didn't show up at church. It was very anticlimactic, considering that we were expecting 8+ people to come. But as it turns out, most of our investigators had good reasons they didn't come, so they're still cool, and they're still preparing to be baptized on the 18th. For example, Yoline (who we found on Wednesday, and who is very excited to read and to come to church) was kidnapped by her family the night before, because they didn't want her to come. There was a lot of miscommunication with other investigators as well. We'll make sure we do better in the future with getting everything prepared and cleared up long beforehand.

I have a hard time believing that we'll get a lot of investigators in sacrament meeting this week. The biggest reason I feel this way is that we won't even have church this week. We'll have the dedication!

This week, we had a pretty funny experience. It seems trivial, but you can learn an important lesson from it.

We talked with a person and asked him if he wanted us to come and leave a blessing in his home. He agreed, and he gave us the address. The apartment number was 2317. The next day, we went to building 2, floor 3, and we started walking down the hall. We got to rooms 2311 and 2312, and we could see already that there were only four doors left. There wouldn't be a 2317. But we kept walking, trusting that that the man wouldn't have given us an address that doesn't exist. As it turns out, that apartment building skipped #2313. So #2317 was the very last room. We entered and left the blessing, and he and his wife are preparing to be baptized.

I compared that to our faith in Jesus Christ. Even when we look forward and think that there's no possible way for things to work out, we just need to continue and trust in his word. If we had turned around when we realized that he had given us a "fake address", we would never have seen them again, and we would have missed out on blessings!

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Apostasy starts in the sink!

Dear family,

Today starts week 6 of this transfer, and I feel like my time in Halls Lake might be dwindling. I will be very sad to leave, especially since there are still investigators like Bry and Gabriel that I would love to be able to help still. At the same time, it feels like it might be time to move forwards toward whatever else the Lord has in store for me. We'll see what happens next week!

I wanted to share an experience with you that I had this last Saturday morning. Sister Goode and I were staring down another very long day of tracting. We decided to kneel down and say a prayer to know which specific members we could go teach that morning. After we prayed and thought of the names, we made some calls and had appointments set up with two of the sisters in our ward. Basically we started by telling the sister that we were there to ask her for referrals so that she wouldn't be surprised. We then taught the restoration pamphlet lesson and afterwards had her say the prayer and sit quietly, the same way we do with investigators. Afterwards, instead of inviting her to be baptized, we asked for referrals. The first lesson went well, but it was when we went to the second members home that we had a truly amazing experience. Shanna had been reading the account of the first vision before we came, and as we talked the spirit was very strong. All three of us were in tears by the end, and after Shanna's prayer she had two names come to mind of people she felt would be good for us to visit. The first lesson went well, but I really believe that what made the second lesson so special was the fact that Shanna had prepared. Preparation is an eternal principle! The Lord knows He can trust us with spiritual experiences when we do the work that is necessary to prepare for them!

Love you all! I'm sending a giant hug your way!

Love, Sister Slade

P.S. In case any of you have trouble with dishes:

We were at volleyball and we asked Elder Rencher and Elder Caruso if elders ever fight over the dishes. Their response was that no, they don't, but they did have some very good advice for how to keep dishes under control. Elder Rencher started to explain how you have to empty the dishwasher right when it's finished so that dishes don't pile up, and Elder Caruso somewhat frantically exclaims, "Apostasy starts in the sink!" We now have an "Apostasy starts in the sink" sign hanging proudly in our kitchen :)

Big Events

Dear Friends and Family:

This Saturday, we had the opportunity as a mission to hear from Elder Quentin L. Cook. It was a terrific mission conference. We came early and took pictures - that part was very hot and uncomfortable, but it was probably worth it anyway.

Big events happening in the near future:

- May 3: The cultural celebration for the temple

- May 4: The dedication for the temple; doctrinally, the chapels become part of the temple for the dedication, and the dedication service is broadcast to them in several sessions throughout the day. Therefore, no nonmembers can enter the church, and so we will not be able to get investigators in church on this day

- May 9: My birthday

- May 11: A huge pile of baptisms (two weeks worth in a single day); also, mother's day, which means I get to call home. I have no details on when, or how long, but I'm hoping they'll have us do it on a different day because Sundays are always, always busy

- May 18: Haitian Flag Day

- May 21: Paul's birthday

- May 28: Another transfer meeting, which means (most likely) another companion and (potentially) another area

We had a very great experience just yesterday, while we were harvesting. It was especially meaningful to me for various reasons. This is what happened:

We had just finished harvesting for the day, and were riding back to be picked up at our apartment by our members. We noticed a man sitting down, smoking a cigarette behind his car. We stopped and offered to leave a blessing with him. He seemed very depressed and down, but he agreed. When we asked what he would like us to include in the prayer, the only thing he wanted was for God to help him get rid of cigarettes in his life. It was my turn to say the prayer, but before I started, he said, "Thanks for being obedient." I was confused at what he meant by that, but I said the prayer, we recognized the spirit, and invited him to be baptized. He agreed to a date on the 11th (mother's day). Before we left, I asked him why he had said that before. He told me that we had been obedient to the spirit by coming to pray with him. He said that he believed that many times, the things we think we do by ourselves are actually prompted by the spirit, and we would not have stopped to pray with him if we hadn't been obedient and willing to listen.

We were not able to get any dates yesterday. Also, none of the people we found throughout the week came to church. We had a few miracle people come to church, but they disappeared halfway through and we were not able to talk to them. But we may still be able to contact them today or tomorrow, and we'll do our best to follow the spirit and help them have a desire to be baptized.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

"Who am I to be so blessed and so loved?"

Dear family,

This week I want to tell you just how grateful I am to have a Savior who loves me dearly. I feel like I don't have the words to describe what I have felt this week through my personal studies and as I have pondered on the Saviors atonement. I love those moments in our lives when we experience such overwhelming joy that we can't help but think, "Who am I to be so blessed and so loved? I didn't realize that it was possible for me to feel such an incredible amount of joy." I had several of those moments in sacrament meeting, with investigators, and during my studies this week. Sometimes in these moments there are no words, and you can't help but just weep. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and He is your Savior. I know that it is only through Jesus Christ that we can find lasting peace and hope. I know that He loves us. He loves us when we feel that we don't deserve to be loved. He doesn't need a reason to love us, and we don't need to earn His love, He simply loves. I know that when Mary Magdalene went to visit the tomb, it was empty. I cannot think of a moment in history more beautiful than this. This week I want to invite you to study the Savior's atonement, and think about and my favorite line from Preach My Gospel:  "As your understanding of the atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase." (PMG pg 2). I promise that simply setting aside time to study the atonement will be a very special experience and you will feel an overwhelming love from the Savior that will fill your life! I would love to hear some of your thoughts and experiences!

We had lots of fun activities this week that we were able to use to help investigators develop greater friendships in the ward and develop greater trust with the ward members. We had a campfire/BBQ at the beach on Saturday. Going to the beach in Washington is not like going to the beach in California, in case you were wondering. It's freezing. We watched Michael get pooped on by a Seagull, and one of the elders investigators decided to go for a swim. That was entertaining. Shout out to Aunt Jeanna and Aunt Tiffany- they just opened a Cafe Rio in our area! A member took us a few days ago, and it wasn't quite as good as Chipotle (Also in our area :)) but it was definitely a fun time! I'm pretty sure all the Mormons in Washington flocked to Cafe Rio that first week. Sister Goode and I decided to color Easter eggs one night this week and personalize them for each member of our district. For example, we colored Elder Oliphant's egg blue and wrote "We believe in being honest, true, chased by an Oliphant..." We made a sunset egg for SIster Millett since she is always so bright and happy. I colored Elder Rencher's egg yellow then dipped the top in Orange and drew a face with glasses on it and called it the "Ginger Egg." (Shout out to Garett. :)) We also decided to buy cheap plastic eggs and chocolate and hand them out when we contacted at the college. On the eggs we wrote things like "Mormon.org- come on, we gave you chocolate!" and "Mormon.org- make a Mormon smile!" It's amazing how the little things and being sure to have fun can make life so much more enjoyable!

Oh! So this is crazy! This week we found out that Melissa got married!! The week after her baptism we were a little bit concerned because we couldn't contact her and we weren't sure what happened. Turns out she was on her honeymoon. She and her boyfriend Randy, who we thought weren't getting married for quite a while, decided to get married on April Fools Day- 3 days after Melissa's baptism. That's Melissa for ya! We're really happy for them. They are very firm in their goal to be able to get married in the temple a year from now and they are happy as can be, although sad that they will have to leave the YSA ward. Less than 6 months to go before the sealing of Darlene and Everett, and just over 6 months for Bennett and Verna!!

Well, I love all of you! (Bunches and bunches.)

Love, Sister Slade