November 10 and November 17, 2014

Hello Hello mi familia y amigos! :D What is up! Things here are going good! Loving the work and working hard! First announcement... I just finished El Libro de Mormon in Spanish and I just feel good with the language. :) It isn’t perfect but I can do my job :) Elder Brown and I are doing so great! He is so stinkin’ funny, and really fun to be with. I am just doing great! Oh and I don't think that I have a parasite. It was for a week, when my skin was doing something really weird, and they thought I had one, but since then I have been normal. So I think I am still good :) Thank goodness. But I still have a lot to survive so please keep praying for me. :) So my whole mission until now I have heard of one food called Menudo. And it is cow stomach. And I finally had it this week. :) I won’t say that it is my favorite food (if you can call it food) but I ate it. And it wasn't bad. :) It is just like chewing gum... but a lot of it and from a cow :) Haha ok ok I am sorry that was gross. But man you just gotta love the mission ya know? Also this week was like the coldest that I have been! Haha ok maybe not the coldest ever, but it was pretty close. And I happen to be in a new area, and a new house that still doesn´t have a heater so the nights are just intense beans! Haha and it is a super weird cold. It is like a humid, wet cold, so it doesn’t really matter how many clothes I put on, it just goes right through! haha But no I am doing great! We will have a heater this week so I am happy! So in my free time I have been reading books with deep doctrine. Well, not super deep but like about The Atonement and mysteries of heaven. And I am just sooooo stinking interested about deep doctrine. And it is so true that we can know the mysteries of heaven. I have read and prayed about a lot of things. And my testimony has just grown in an incredible way. And not only deep doctrine, but church history. For example, Joseph Smith came to a perfect knowledge before he died. And he read the Bible in 5 different languages and German is the most correct out of all of them. This kind of stuff is just blowing my mind. And it is just like a huge puzzle that just fits together and makes sense! This mission is just blessing my life in so many ways! It is just so fun to learn and live! So right now we have one super solid investigator named Martina! And she came to church and it was just so sweet! She loved it and I believe she is going all the way! We feel really good about it. Oh, and then we contacted this kid that was 16. And we were talking and then he was just like, “Actually I am from California so we can speak English...” And I was like, “What the heck man! I am sitting here trying to talk to you and you can speak English!!!” Haha it was funny but ya we are going to teach him, and maybe play basketball in the mornings. :) I am stoked to try to teach in English. We will see how it goes! :) Welp, that is what is up here! I love ya guys! -Elder Aussy

November 17, 2014 Hello peoples! I am glad to hear that things are good back there! Things here are good! This week was a little bit rougher than last week, but ya know. What ya gonna do, haha. So this week we worked so hard. We had a lot more lessons, people, and success with numbers. But not the success that counts ya know? But it is all good. our President of the mission told us a story that is really cool that helped me feel good. Because we are in an area that is famous for being hard, and we will just say that the ward needs lots of work. And the work is just struggling right now. But he told us this super cool story. So there was this huge boulder in the middle of the room. And The Lord says to this man, ¨I want you to push the rock as hard as you can to move it to the side of the room.¨ And so the man starts pushing. And he pushed as hard as he could for months. And finally he just gets upset and exclaims ¨I have been pushing this rock for months! And it hasn't moved!¨ and the Lord says ¨I never said you would move it, but now your are stronger because of it.¨ And so that is how it is right now. Just talking, contacting, talking, contacting, trying to find more ways to find people, and just the same thing! But we are getting better, and stronger because of it. :) So it is all good. haha But I think we actually might be getting the rock to move, because there is one person that was a super old investigator that we found that might have potential. So we shall see! :) Haha Anyways, as usual, I am loving the mission. Great experiences all the time. I just found out that my comp was with some disobedient missionaries and he just couldn't deal with it any more. Like he just had a bunch that way. And so President put him with me. And I still think that it is still hard for him but on the other side of the spectrum, because I am so... Uptight I guess you should call it. I think I really am a hard companion to have sometimes because I really push exact obedience, and hit times with appointments and things like that. I think it is because of the stinkin Army. But ya, sometimes my comps don't like that, and I don't know whether I should ease up or not! haha But anyways. It is just a fun experience, I love it! Anyways! I love you guys! Thanks mom for updating me on Kendal! I am still praying for her! I love you guys so much! Elder Sladers

Changes Baby! November 3, 2014

So I have a new comp!!! And he wants to work super hard!!! :) AND I AM ABSOLUTELY ECSTATIC! His name is Elder Brown, and he is from Arizona. And he is super super kind and is really helping me learn better Spanish. I feel like I pretty much understand everything, and can talk about anything in the gospel. It is just now random talk that I still need to work on haha. But he is helping me. And we just get along so well! I am so stoked. We have a great plan for our area and it is starting out slow. But we just put everything in the hands of the Lord. And we are super happy! That is all I want and to be able to give everything!!! Like I learned in running, when we give it all, we can look back with no regrets. When we don't give it all, well, we might have regrets. So, I am glad that we can just work work work. I am actually doing a lot better. I feel good and wasn't sick this week. I don't know if I still have something or not, but I am just going to enjoy feeling good haha. I read a talk this week about what is a consecrated missionary. There are good ones, there are great ones and then there are consecrated ones. I want to be a consecrated one. There aren't very many and it is hard to become one. But, I have thought a lot about how to become one and it takes everything! Your mind, your desires, everything! And then I thought, well this doesn't just apply to missionary work. This applies to everything we do. We can be good, great, or consecrated. In the church, our work, the family, and in everything. And I just have realized that there is not point to do anything, unless it is all in or nothing. Like Coachie´s talk on my farewell, jumping in with both feet. Not one foot at home, and one foot in the mission, but both feet! That is what we can focus on right now. Going all out in everything! Welp, I love ya guys! Thanks for the support back home and just for everything! Lo mas Chido misionero en todo Mexico, Elder SLADE!!! :)

October 27, 2014

October 27, 2014 Hey, how is it going! It’s going great here in the Fraustro! Lovin life! Kicken trash! Ok, so this week I am going to start off with a funny story. So, we were studying in the morning when somebody knocked on our door. We looked out the window and it was some Testigos, or Jehovahs Witnesses! My companion couldn't go to the door because he didn't have his shirt on, and was like “go go go!” So, I ran downstairs and prepared myself. I opened the door with a big smile on my face, with my plaque and all missionaried out. They were like “Well uh, hi, what’s your name?” and ya the conversation went. They started teaching me some profound doctrine in Revelations, and I just smiled and was like “Ya, I agree! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is amazing! Ya, that is really cool!” And then they left, haha. Man, their faces were just classic! Sometimes we knock on doors and a Catholic priest will come out and it is just like, oh dang. Haha, I love it! So! I bought my Christmas present! an MP3 player with a SUPER SICK speaker. But the speaker is an old diesel slugbug and it glows crazy colors! Haha, it is sweet! And, I stole a lot of other missionaries music. So ya! That is what is up! Spiritual story of this week! I don't know if you guys read this story in the Ensign or if it is in the Ensign. But, there is a story about some guy with depression and the story of The brother of Jared. I went through that story in the Book of Mormon and marked everything. Then, that afternoon we went to visit our recent in this new area. He was like, not wanting to talk, or anything. I eventually got it out of him that there was a lot of opposition at work, and things like that. I shared this story. I shared about how when we do what the Lord commands us to do, like build barges, or in our case, follow commandments, and be diligent, then we set sail in the sea because God has commanded us to do so. I likened this to baptism. We have trials. We have huge waves hammering us and winds shoving us in every direction. Sometimes the waves shove us down to the bottom of the sea but we still have light in our barges even though we are in the bottom of the sea. Eventually we will arrive at the Promised Land. But then think about this. What if there were no waves, or wind and the sea was just calm. Well, we wouldn't move anywhere. We would just be chillin’ at the beginning, not progressing. So, it is by these waves, trials, sadness, and challenges, that we arrive in the “land of promise” or our potential. Then I shared a story about my friend in the Army who was baptized. He asked me the next week, “Why am I sad? The week before my baptism I was filled with more joy than I ever have felt before. And now that I am baptized, I feel sad, and I have questions and challenges.” I explained to him, that it was because the Lord loves him, and wants him to progress. So, I shared all of this with Bro. Belen and he was like “Thanks, you guys give me the strength to move on.” The spirit was so strong and I was thinking, “That is what it is all about!” Anyways, I am doing good and not doing too bad physically this week. Tonight we have changes, so we will find out what happens to me and my companion. Just between you people in the states and me, I hope I get somebody that wants to work. PLEASE pray that I will get somebody with a desire! Haha, no Elder Tomala is cool, just not as a senior comp! :) Haha I love ya guys! Thanks for all of the strength and things that you guys do for me! I love you all so much! The Church is true! Love ya all! :)