What can I say? April 25, 2016

Welp... I think I am barely starting to realize that I won´t be a missionary forever... BUT!!! I STILL HAVE ONE WEEK!!! So it is still not time to write my nos vemos ahorita letter. :) But can I just say that I am happy. :) I feel like my testimony has grown into a good sized tree. :) I feel like I can be satisfied with my service. Even though things may have not gone as I have wanted. I feel like the Lord has shaped me, and molded me. I now know more than ever that Jesus Christ is my saviour, and I know I still have so much to learn. But I feel like my mission has been a great boost for my desire and my comprension about him. I love him so much. I have seen him change lives, and I have seen the Joy that comes into someones life when we accept him. One of the men that helped me a ton in my mission is name Brother Camarrillo. And he asked me what makes the best missionary? And I said diligence, love, baptisms, and so on. And he said that the best missionary is the one that keeps progressing after he ends his mission. So I guess I will have to see if I have been a good missionary. :) I have really learned my weaknesses, from the mission. But I am thankful to know what I need to work on. I love you all so much. And well. I will be a finisher. :) Work hard till the end. :) By the way. Just in these five weeks, Fransisco has read all of the Book of Mormon, principles of the Gospel, and right now he is in Jacob again... Ya he is going to get baptized. And we decided that we want to get them more time to try and save the family, and she wants time to know if she wants to get married. So he won´t be baptized with me... But I am happy! :) I love you all! :) Elder Slade Oh ya, for those who want to know about the dog fight... :) I will tell you in person, but mom everyone left alive and are now doing great. :) Love ya!

Perros April 18, 2016

Hey my family and friends! Today I am visiting converts. So I dont have much time. But this week was epic! I was debating on telling you but I figured that it is fine. Basically on Tuesday at night I heard some kids screaming. And I found them being bitten/eaten by a big... I think pit bull. But I feel it was bigger. Anyways to save time. I ended up a couple minutes later with 26 stiches. AWESOME mission story I will tell you better in person. I was getting worried that I was going to finish without any cool story. Anyways eveything is going good!! Our investigators are awesome!! Love you guys a lot!!! Elder Slade

A Gran hello de Monterrey to my amigos y family!‏ April 11, 2016

So!!!! since Wednesday I don´t have a whole super lot to say! :) Just that I still feel great! Working hard. We found 14 new people this week so I am pretty stinkin excited. A couple of them are families. Fransisco is still doing super amazingly awesome! I am excited for him. As for our other families, well there is a lot of opposition. Which doesn´t surprise me. But we have been praying a ton for them so I feel like we shall see some great miracles. Today we were able to have our zone activity. We planned awesome water balloon volleyball and some epic CARNE ASADA! Which was oh so very delicious. :) I love the food here. Man it is great. But my body is craving FRUITS AND VEGETABLES!!! I should probably go and find some! Haha we just don´t eat a lot of that here. Jarom 3 Behold, it is expedient that much should be done among this people, because of the hardness of their hearts, and the deafness of their ears, and the blindness of their minds, and the stiffness of their necks; nevertheless, God is exceedingly merciful unto them, and has not as yet swept them off from the face of the land. 4 And there are many among us who have many revelations, for they are not all stiff necked. And as many as are not stiff necked and have faith, have communion with the Holy Spirit, which maketh manifest unto the children of men, according to their faith. I know that sometimes we feel that our efforts to share the Gospel doesn´t always go well. But the Lord is merciful with us. And if everybody is still here it means that they CAN still repent. I hope that we can all help them see the truthness of the Gospel, and the happiness as well! Thanks for everything! Love you all! Elder Slade

I LOVE THE PROPHETS! April 6, 2016

Man! What weekend oh so very amazing! Listening to all of those excellent talks! I just love conference more and more everytime! when I was younger, I never would have thought that in the future, I would be sad for conference to end!!! But that is how it is for me, haha. But where do I start? Alright, with investigators. So Fransisco is doing awesome! He has two weeks with the Book of Mormon and he is in like Alma 30... So he is doing very awesome! The only thing that we have to do that will be hard is get them married! But we should be able to do that! With a lot of Faith! And work. Fransisco wants to but his pareja might not want to, so we will see. But he loved conference! He went to two of the sessions with us, and it was awesome because in those sessions it talked about the roles of the parents, and basically how to have a successful happy family which is the WHOLE reason that he is listening, and he loved it. Those sessions were perfect for them. And then the awesome talk from Elder Bednar about baptism didn´t hurt us at all. ;) Haha So we are excited with Fransisco. Angelica also went and enjoyed it. But unfortunately we went to our next appointment and we will just say that she was in the hospital. For something she did, so please pray for her. So that she can FEEL the LOVE of our Heavenly Father. We also have two more families but we just need to see how they go in these days. Pray for Eva, and for the Familia Villanueva! They have a lot of potential! :) So woot woot! working hard, loving life, and feeling normal. :) So I think that for me the award for awesome talks goes to President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. WOW!!!! I just loved all of what he said! He had some great jokes as well. :) But I loved his experience about his childhood. And his example with the reconstructed building. Sorry my notes are in spanish, I will do my best. I love when he says ¨There doesn´t exist a live that is so destroyed that it can´t be rescued but the Savior.¨ I loved that! it really shows that it is in INFINITE atonement. And We can help all of those people! I loved it so much! If i had time I would write something about ALL of the talks. Also the one from Bonnie L Oscarson. We all know it, but when it really comes down to it, do we believe it? What great food for thought no? I really am planning on re studying this conference. And lets do what Elder Holland said. Lets not forget how we have felt! :) And lets get better! :) I love you guys so much! HAve a great week! Elder Slade!

Alianza Real! March 28, 2016

So this place is awesome. I am doing awesome with this bike. It is pretty fun, but it makes you sore if you know what I mean. And I am with Elder Bishop. He is super cool. We are working hard. And loving life. So this is my first branch in the mission. It is crazy. More people go to this branch than all of the wards in my mission. We squeeze in like more than 100 into what is like our basement. Haha It is fun! :) But his week we had a cool experience. We found a guy named Fransisco. He wants to get to know God. Know if he is real. For the sake of his son. And we taught him about the restoration. So on Wednesday we gave him a Book of Mormon. And on Friday we went back. And he was in 2 Nephi 18!!! And he remembered like all of it more than I do! He made like all of the connections. Like the profecy about The prophets name of the restoration would be Joseph. And everything. And it is funny because he doesn´t look like a smart guy. he dresses like a skater with really long hair But he is incredibly smart. And in church. The Gospel Principles teacher was like dumming things down for him, and he just smiled and said ya I think I understand... Haha I was laughing on the inside. :) But he accepted baptism. So we are working with him. We have more people but he is the star of the week. So this week I was reading in Alma 24. About the Anti nephi lehies. And we were making the connection with our lives. They sacrificed their weapons of war. That was something that they liked. But they made a vow to NEVER take them about again. Alma 24 16 And now, my brethren, if our brethren seek to destroy us, behold, we will hide away our swords, yea, even we will bury them deep in the earth, that they may be kept bright, as a testimony that we have never used them, at the last day; and if our brethren destroy us, behold, we shallgo to our God and shall be saved. 17 And now it came to pass that when the king had made an end of these sayings, and all the people were assembled together, they took their swords, and all the weapons which were used for the shedding of man’s blood, and they did bury them up deep in the earth. 18 And this they did, it being in their view a testimony to God, and also to men, that they never would use weapons again for the shedding of man’s blood; and this they did, vouching and covenanting with God, that rather than shed the blood of their brethren they would give up their own lives; and rather than take away from a brother they would give unto him; and rather than spend their days in idleness they would labor abundantly with their hands. When we take the sacrament, let us think of what weapon we will bury this week. Maybe it is pride, or a change of language, but if we can do this every week. Imagine how good we could be at the end of our lives. I love you all so very much! Elder Slade

TOPO CHIDO?‏ March 21, 2016

SOOOO! As always when I get an awesome companion it lasts for only a change. :) But I have had a super great time with him. And I am leaving some families progressing so I feel pretty happy. :) The cool thing is that I am going to have another AWESOME companion. I already know him. His name is Elder Bishop and I have went on divisions with him. So I am super excited. And the other cool thing is that I am going to finish in my first ward. :) It will be cool to be able to understand all the people. That I couldn`t understand when I got here. :) Haha and we will be on bikes so it will be pretty cool. :) It has been really fun to be with Elder garner though. Every easter they give us a new thing of cards. for the video that they release. and it is really funny because this card says #aleluya :) so when we contact people. Well my comp is like a walking musical. and so he just bursts out in song to the people. AAAAALELUYA!!! And So I join and we sing them all of the Aleluya songs that there are. :) And sometimes it is awkward but most of the time the kids start laughing and it breaks the ice. :) Haha We also had a pretty cool experience this week. On wednesday we started out and we were both just feeling super tired. And rejected. and so we were walking and I said a prayer in my heart. I prayed to find someone to get baptized. And we just walked and walked into an area that we don`t work in very much and so it was pretty steep and we were both just hiking up. Then we both at the same time just stopped, and turned to a house. and BOOM! Family waiting for us. She said that she never ever lets people into her house, but this time she felt different and let us in. And well it was just a great experience, we have taught them a couple of times! So I am sad to leave them but I still love finding, just as much as baptizing! :) This is my spiritual experience of the week. Love you all! Elder Sladers

Hey Guys! March 14, 2016

So this week was awesome! We found a ton of new people with a ton of potential! :) It was awesome! There is a new family that went to church and are super interested! I got to give a talk in church which is awesome, and I did it on getting out of our comfort zone #COACHALLEN and it was awesome. I talked about running and I said that I love to run like Forest Gump, and it might have been a bad idea because the ward now calls me Elder Gump... NI MODO!!! Anyways the family loved the church, and then after church we found a kid that is SUPER interested and his dad that I have actually talked about before (The one with a TON OF BOOKS) had a ukulele and I played it! AWESOME! And anyways he wants more peace. So he should progress very well. Then after that we found another family and they are awesome as well. So we have some good investigadors. I can`t complain. It is really hot already and I am dying again but it is worth it. I don`t know. I love missionary work. It is awesome. Anyways I also have a cool story which helped me realize that I have a lot of time in the mission. Do you guys remember the shoes that you sent me? they were pretty good. But they are broken. and it was super funny because we were walking pretty fast trying to get to an appointment., when my broken shoe, it has kind of a hook on it, went right into the hole on my left pant leg and I fell on my face... :) I was like MAN!!! That just should not happen! But I laughed a lot. :) Lovin the mission life! :) Alright so I was going to share an awesome scripture but the computer isn`t working that well so I will just send you to it. (Mosiah 3: 13) Let us all meditate about what we want the Lord to answer us in this conference that is coming. I know that we will all get a lot out of it if we do our part to think about it before hand. I love you guys so much! Elder Slade