Staying in Silverlake

Hello family!

You shouldn't have sent me those beautiful adoption pictures because now I'm in tears in the middle of the library! I am so happy for so many blessings in my life! Be sure to have a big group hug after the adoption, and imagine me there with you! I'm sending lots of love your way!!!

We just found out about transfers, and Sister Bartsch and I are both staying another transfer together in Silverlake! It definitely feels right. We are so excited! President Bonham and Assistant Largent said something to us at a baptism last weekend that made us think they might be considering taking us both out, so we've been wondering all week what would happen. The college got out this last week, so we won't be able to contact there anymore, and we were thinking they might just leave the zone leaders in Silverlake and have only one set of missionaries in the ward since YSA wards can't always support 2 sets during the summer. We're determined to work hard and show the Lord that Silverlake can support two sets, and we are so excited to see many more miracles this coming transfer!

We have been teaching an investigator named Hayley the last few weeks, and she is so excited to be baptized next month! When we watched the restoration video with her and asked her what she thought of it she told us that Joseph Smith reminded her of herself. She came to a baptism on Saturday, and told us that she had told her boss earlier this week that she can't work Sundays anymore because she's "working on becoming a Mormon." These people amaze me! There really are so many people out there who are ready and willing to change everything in their lives in order to be closer to the Savior. Any why wouldn't they? Living according to the teachings of Christ just makes sense.

Miracle story! A few days ago I felt like we should tract a complex of an investigator that we passed off to the Silverlake sisters back when I was in Halls Lake (We had met the investigator at the college and didn't realize at the time that he lived out of area.) So during our nightly planning we planned to tract this complex, and Sister Bartsch woke up the next morning and said, "I don't know why, but we need to tract buildings E and F." Well, we did, and had absolutely no success, until the very last door we knocked on a guy in the Navy named Logan answered. We testified of Christ's love for him, and almost in tears, he told us that he is currently going through a divorce. He used to have a faith in Christ, but it's been years since he lost it. He told us "I think it's a sign that you're here right now." We testified to him that we were there not by coincidence, but because God was aware of him and wanted us there at that time. He came to church on Sunday and loved it. We got cleared with the zone leaders to teach him even though he's not single since this is a special circumstance, and we're starting the lessons on tuesday :)

Osh is engaged! She was seriously dating a guy at college back in Alabama, and 3 days after Osh's baptism he asked her family if he could marry her. So now he's taking the missionary discussions, and coming up next month to marry her. (Melissa from Halls Lake went and got married on April Fools day 3 days after her baptism.) I guess even in the singles ward I can't baptize singles. Maybe God just really does want families? :)

Love, Sister Slade

Elder and Sister Slade get new brother!

Welcome Nathan Slade!

So Many Miracles

Dear Friends and Family:

First of all, we are adopting our brother, Nathan, today! From today on, he will officially be Nathan Slade. I'm not yet sure when the plans are for the sealing. I love that guy!

We have seen so many miracles this week. First of all, we have had a nightmare trying to keep contact with Shelly S. and Claricia D., who were baptized this last Sunday. We kept trying to call or stop by, but they were never there, and we were worried that they might have found some anti material. But, we were finally able to meet with them on Saturday, and they are just as cool as ever. They were confirmed yesterday, they'll be coming teaching with us this week, and to top it all off, they're making griot for us tomorrow!

Dylan E.n is still very excited for his baptism, but a few things came up this week with his family, and so he wasn't able to come to church or be baptized. He still can't wait for next week, though.

Also, next week Linda H. will be baptized. She was a miracle, she came to church in the wrong ward, and the zone leaders passed her to us. She had been taught by some missionaries in the past, but she had not been ready at the time. Now she is ready, and she can't wait to be baptized on the 22nd.

I can't wait to come to the temple on Friday! It's been so long since I've been there, I've almost forgotten what it's like. :( But that doesn't matter, because I get to come this week! :)

President Anderson is leaving the mission in about two weeks, and then our new mission president, President Richardson, is coming in to take over. It's going to be a very odd couple of weeks, I don't know what to expect.

It's sad to hear that Sè Peggy Williams just died. She's been sending me letters, every few weeks, for a while. Thanks for telling me.

Also, Bishop Golly sounds like he's had a ton of injuries, all over the place, from the way you described him. Tell him I love him and am praying for him. :l

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Harvest Blessings

Dear friends and family:

It's been a great week for both of us! We've been able to improve in almost every key indicator this week from last week, with the exception of recent convert/less active lessons and new investigators. This week we're going to be focusing on improving our harvest blessings, so that they lead to more new investigators.

Our Sunday was one of the busiest Sundays of my mission, and my life. We had six investigators in Sacrament, two of which were baptized!

First of all, Shelly and Claricia, who we found on Wednesday of last week, were finally baptized. They are very excited to continue to come to church, and to learn and grow in the gospel. They will be receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost next Sunday. They only speak Haitian Creole, so I have been teaching them pretty much on my own, other than asking Elder Baily questions in English and then translating his responses.

Dylan is another one of our investigators, who's preparing to be baptized next week. The Delray South sisters met him last Saturday as they were doing a chapel tour. He had been watching BYUTV and the Sunday devotionals, and he really likes Thomas S. Monson, and so he showed up to the church looking for someone to talk to, and one of the first things he asked was "when can I get baptized?" The answer was the 15th, and that's what he's working for. We can't wait for him to get dunked this next Sunday!

Marie G. is a lady that was harvested by the Zone Leaders, and she lived in our area. She accepted baptism on the 15th, and she came to church yesterday. She only speaks Haitian Creole, but we'll help her get more support from the ward and she's also preparing to be baptized on the 15th.

Jarmel and Tamika are two people that we found on accident. It was a miracle that we found them, because we were trying to find someone else but we knocked on the wrong door. They accepted baptism, and they came to church for the first time yesterday. They are on date for next week, but they have to get married first, and so we'll be praying that we have a marriage on the 14th.

I had the opportunity to translate for an interview for the first time this week. It was an eye-opening experience to see how the interviews are conducted, and to see more clearly the repentance that goes into getting baptized. I was very glad to have that opportunity.

I'm also very excited to go to the temple for the first time since the MTC on the 20th!

Also, I can't wait for Nathan's baptism on the 16th! It will be a P-Day, so I'll certainly wear the adoption shirt. It's sad that Liv is going. :( I hope I'll get to meet her after my mission.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Adoption shirt

 Shelly & Claricia

Update from Sis Slade

Dear family,

I think that this week sharing the email that I sent to my mission president will suffice.

President Bonham,

As I was thinking this morning about I wanted you to know for this week, I decided that your week is probably pretty busy and mission presidents probably have a lot on their minds, so this week I just want to share with you how happy I am to have so many blessings in my life! Here are 5 things that I am so grateful for this week:

1. Sister Bartsch. She is so amazing! She stretches me to reach a fuller potential than I have ever reached up to this point in my mission. She is like a ray of sunshine. She builds me up and makes me feel so loved. I would say that she needs to be transferred every 2 weeks so that every missionary gets to have "Sister Bartsch time," but I would never tell the mission president that because that would mean that I wouldn't have her anymore... :)

2. The adoption hearing for my little brother, Nathan, is this coming week! T-Minus 10 days until Nathan is officially a Slade! After that my family is going to the Denver temple to be sealed, just like we got to do a few years ago when my sister Eliza was adopted. I love my family!!!! I get to be with them for forever and ever and ever.

3. So much member missionary work in our ward this week! The highlight for me was when our member-present for our church tour showed up with her nonmember friend without telling us and we ended up giving the church tour to two not-yet-members.

4. I was thinking at the cottage meeting last night how grateful I am for a mission president who shows his testimony by example. I've heard you share your testimony of the Savior over and over again, but I realized it's not through your shared testimonies that I know that you know He is your Savior. I know that you know that He is your Savior because you are here in Washington serving as our mission president.

5. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior too. I make so many mistakes and sometimes overwhelm myself worrying about everything that I do wrong and feeling like I'm still only a half-completed project. But it's in those quiet moments when I can feel the Saviors love for me so powerfully that I know that He is the one who will make me whole. I really know that he loves me! I feel His love for me and everyone around me every day, and it's because of Him that we have a purpose in going out every day and sharing his role and His work in the lives of each and every one of us.

love, Sister Slade

I am doing well. We continue to see miracles every day. If you get the chance this week, please take a moment to write me a letter about the things that you are most grateful for in your lives!

Happy Father's Day!

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-002-earthly-father-heavenly-father?lang=eng

Love ya!

Sister Slade

Elder Bailey

Dear Friends and Family:

As you know, I stayed in Boynton Beach North. But you may not have known that Elder Van Wagenen was transfered to the Coconut Creek ward, and that my new companion is Elder Bailey. He's an english missionary, and he's really awesome from the few days we've had together so far.

Boynton Beach North is an all-bike area. However, Elder Bailey has been instructed by a doctor to stay off of a bike for the next two months. Is there a contradiction? No. Because, for at least the next two months, this area has a car! (With unlimited medical miles!) Hooray!

Elder Bailey is very tall. He is 6'7". He likes to play basketball, and he likes to read, and to exercise, and to be outside. He's not quite as happy as I am that he can't use a bike for a while. I'm just counting my many blessings. He's also a very hard worker, and a great teacher. We have seen so many miracles in these days that we have been together.

We are currently teaching some very awesome investigators. They are some of the most elect I have ever taught.

The two baptisms that are scheduled for this next Sunday are Shelly S. and Claricia D. They are two Haitian ladies who we found while we were harvesting on our first day together, after we got home from Wednesday's transfer meeting. They don't speak English, so as we went back to teach them I was the only one who could really participate in the lesson. They have been keeping every commitment that we have given them. Shelly, in particular, is always apologetic that she only read the assigned chapters once, and she has not yet reread them, so she says she still doesn't have a full understanding. But, she's the only investigator I've met so far who's had any idea what it is that she read, and who naturally applies it to herself. Claricia is less verbose, but she is just as excited about being baptized this Sunday.

We also found out that they know Boynton Beach Central's investigators who were just baptized yesterday. We're going to try to get them to come out teaching Shelly and Claricia with us.

There were so many other transfer day/transfer week miracles that we have seen. We've accidentally found the elect while we are going to teach a different investigator, we've taken out members to teach who, as it turns out, already knew and were friends with the investigators, we've seen our numbers for the week jump from almost 0 at the end of Wednesday to almost standards by the end... And now we have a car, so we can be even more effective with our time.

Last week, I forgot to mention: we found a less-active member by accident. It was a miracle that we did, he had moved without telling anyone where he was going. We were biking home for the night, and we stopped to give a guy a card. He told us that he used to go to our church, and over the next few minutes we found out that he was Michael LaForge, who was baptized over a year ago, and who had stopped going to church because he didn't have a ride.

Hurricane season started yesterday. I believe it'll last for about four months, until September.

Pray for Shelly and Claricia, so they will be able to be baptized this week; and pray for Jarmel, Tameka, and Myrlande, so that they will be able to be baptized the week after.

I love you all!

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Baptism

Dear family,

Osharrhea's baptism was absolutely amazing! I have developed a huge love for Osh and her family, just as has happened with all of the other investigators that I have had the chance to teach. Her brother Nick who was baptized with the rest of the family in February was the one to baptize her. The spirit was so strong, it was like a warm pressure literally filled the room from the very start of the baptismal service!

Sister Bartsch and I have found many new investigators recently, but we're struggling to find investigators that progress and that will keep future appointments. Help us pray for that! Nevertheless, we have seen so many small miracles- little tender mercies where things just seem to work out too perfectly throughout each day. Heavenly Father is the best secretary. Here are a few of those miracles:

Eric- A few days ago we had gone to talk to a former and we stopped on the way back to talk to a man who was working on his car. The man made it very clear that he was not interested, and in an effort to get rid of us he said, "Go talk to my neighbor, he's a 24 year old rich bachelor, go bother him." Thanks for the referral, Dennis! We were running late so we went back the next time we were in the area to talk to Eric. He just happened to be out on his porch enjoying the sunshine and drinking a glass of wine. At the start of our conversation with Eric he told us right off the bat all of the disagreements he had with our doctrine and why he wouldn't read the Book of Mormon, but for whatever reason both Sister Bartsch and I felt like we shouldn't quite leave yet so we continued talking to him even though he had said no. Partway through the conversation we found out that he's German and part Norwegian, which made Sister Bartsch's day! Sister Bartsch shared a really powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon, and by the end of the conversation he said he would take a Book of Mormon and just see what it was about. it was a complete turn around! We're going to go back in a few days and see what he thinks of the Book of Mormon so far :)

Ruben- Ruben took the missionary discussions a few months back, and we've been feeling like we should go see him this week. Ruben has been having a really hard time as he is dealing with repercussions of past mistakes he has made, and it is causing a lot of grief for his family. The first thing that his mom said to us in her broken English when she saw who was at the door was, "Last week I prayed for you to come again. Take Ruben to church." We're excited to start teaching Ruben again.

Rolando- We were walking back to our car after street contacting one afternoon, and we've been making more of an effort to make the gospel the constant focus of all of our conversations and thoughts. We were in the middle of a deep conversation about prayer when Rolando poked his head out from behind his car and stopped us. Rolando is 21 and moved here from Mexico a few years back, and he has so many questions about God and our purpose that he wants answered. Problem is, he feels frustrated and doesn't know if he even believes in God or not because he feels like he has tried praying over and over again and he feels that he has never received answers. Rolando began asking us all kinds of questions about prayer, and when I told him my testimony of how much prayer has changed my life his eyes got really big and he said, "You really believe that, huh?" He said we can come back to teach him more! :)

These are the little miracles that we see all the time!!! I feel so blessed to be at the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing! Missionary work is the greatest! Challenge for the week: look for all of the little tender mercies that the Lord orchestrates in your daily lives, and be amazed as you see that the more you look for them, the more there are.

Love, Sister Slade

The Lovely Osharrhea's baptism