August 31, 2015

Hey! don´t even worry about it mom! Don´t feel bad haha There are Elders that hardly even get letters. Like once a month. I am lucky that you guys write me! Haha And everything is all good! I am super duper sad to hear about Josh. You bet that I will fast and pray for him. It is good to hear that he is still smiling. It doesn´t surprise me. Josh is like the strongest kid I know. And I know that if anyone can pass such a hard trial. It is him. I will keep him in my prayers. So this week was pretty good. It was a rough one but, in the beginning on Tuesday we found a lady in the park named Claudia. She is super duper ready. She accepted everything super awesome. She is living alone with two kids and her mother that is basically paralyzed. And we gave them both blessings. That spirit was so strong and I just have a feeling that she is giong to accept the gospel. The only thing is that our new President put a rule that before somebody is baptized, they have to go to church five times. Which means basically that if we find somebody it is very likely that other missionaries are going to baptize. Which is all good but that was kind of weird to me. Haha So she is going to be progressing, as well as Jacolyn, another sister that is the daughter of a member. And she is finally accepting the Gospel. So it is fun. Meanwhile we keep searching and searching. :) Haha Lovin it. I CAN¨T WAIT FOR HARRISON!!! :) You have to send me pics! Is that alright? I can´t wait to see my Nephew! :) Haha love you guys! I am going to write Josh this week ok? Love you guys! Elder Slade

August 25, 2015

So first off... I didn´t recieve an email. But I forgive you. :) No pasa nada. But I hope that all is well in that fam. Fuertes, Sanos , felizes. :) So I got a new comp. :) His name is Elder Mendoza. He got here to the mission the same time as me. So it is pretty cool to be with a brother of my generation. He is a great Elder! He's really calm and ready to work. So I thought that I was going to be able to lay low my whole mission but this change they called me as District Leader.... Sigh... I really thought that I was going to make it without that but ni modo. It´s alright, I am going to take advantage of the opportunity to better my teaching skills :) and to serve the other Elders. So it should be good. Pray for me to be able to help them! :) The funny part of this week was yesterday in church. Sister Blanca went again (the wife of Bro. Juan Antonio.) He was getting confirmed so, we went up on the stand to confirm him. It was awesome. He looked really really happy. But when we were walking back to the bench, he turned around to me and started singing "I FEEL GOOD! da na na na na na na" and I started laughing. It is so great to see the change in this family. Since we arrived, everything was super sad because of the death of his son and now being super funny and happy. Obviously still with their problems, But happy. :) #thegospelcures Anyways! Something that I want to share in this time of going back to school is something from the story of Nephi. Something that we would say if we got the opportunity to talk to him would be this. [ ¨Man Nephi I have a ton of respect for you. You always obeyed the Lord and your parents. And you never ever complained. I complain about my blessings and you never even complained about your problems. for example, being beaten, tied up for three days, hungry, through all of that you never complained.¨ And here I am Elder Slade, like man this sun is SUPER HOT! and man we are being super rejected today... Nevertheless the mission is a blessing beyond belief It could also be like I have to wake up sooo early for... whatever. Or I am SOOO Busy! with blessings. But BUSY! Haha Let us all remember that we have WAY TOO MANY BLESSINGS to be able to complain about them. And we should try to give thanks more. Turn our complaints into prayers of gratitude. IMAGINE how many more blessings we can receive! :) I love you guys! Have a great week! EVERYBODAY!!! Elder Slade

August 17,2015

Wow! SOOOO awesome of a week! We saw some miracles. So the councilor of the ward, told us that we should try to baptize Juan Antonio because he was already super ready, completing all of his commitments, but just needed the time in church. Which he missed a couple Sundays due to some extreme health issues. To my surprise, our president gave the call to the Bishop and he said yes! So, we got the opportunity to baptize Juan Antonio! :) which was just so special, after working the beans out of this area with little results. To be able to see the change in Juan Antonio and the happiness that he has, made EVERY SINGLE REJECT WORTH IT! It is just..... great. :) Haha He is the one that lost his son and let us go to his house to offer a prayer and ended up loving the message and church. And... Well got a testimony. :) AAAAND on top of that. His wife CAME TO CHURCH!!! For the first time. Which she didn´t want to go at first because she is catholic. And another kid that we found CAME TO CHURCH!!! and liked it. So we had some people this week. POR FIN!!! :D Our super awesome president left us another POEM AAAAND it is super awesome. Stick to your task till it sticks to you; Beginners are many, but enders are few. Honour, power, place, and praise Will come, in time, to the one who stays. Stick to your task till it sticks to you; Bend at it, sweat at it, smile at it too; For out of the bend and the sweat and the smile Will come life´s victories, after awhile Perseverar hasta el FIN!!! :D Love ya guys! Elder Slade

August 10, 2015

HEY FAMILY! MY KEYBOARD IS BROKEN SO I AM JUST GOING TO WRITE IN ALL CAPS!. SOOOOO THIS WEEK WAS PRETTY GOOD. WELL, VERY TRYING. WE WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE A TON IN CHURCH THIS WEEK BUT, ONLY ONE WENT. JUAN ANTONIO GOT SUPER SICK AGAIN!!! THE STINKING ADVERSARY! BUT IT IS OK BECAUSE HE IS STILL PROGRESSING SUPER AWESOME! BUT NOW WE WON´T BE ABLE TO BAPTIZE HIM THIS CHANGE WITH MY SON... GOOD THING I HAVE AN AWESOME COMP THAT IS SUPER CALM AND OPTOMISTIC. BUT MAN THESE HAS BEEN SOME HARD CHANGES AND ON TOP OF THAT I AM PRETTY SURE IT IS LIKE 120 DEGREES. OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT... HAHA I ONLY KNOW IN CELCIUS. BUT, IT MAKES ME FEEL MORE AWESOME WHEN I OVERCOME ALL OF THE OPPOSITION. :) BUUUUUUT WE ARE GOING TO KEEP WORKING HARD. OUR ACTIVITY THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME. WE HAD LIKE 29 INVESTIGATORS GO AND ALL WERE CRYING... SUPER AWESOME! BUT ONLY 4 WERE IN OUR AREA. SO WE HAVE 4 MORE TO TEACH!!! WOOOPIIII! HAHA ANYWHO, THERE IS A BROTHER IN THE WARD THAT HAS TAUGHT ME SOOOO MUCH. HE WAS LIKE A SUPER HERO MISSIONARY IN HIS MISSION. HE READ THE BIBLE LIKE 17 TIMES BEFORE HIS MISSION... WOW!!! BUT HE IS VERY VERY SUPPORTIVE AND HE LIVES THE GOSPEL. BUT HE TAUGHT ME SOMETHING THAT I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH EVERYONE. HE TAUGHT ME THAT EVERYTHING NEGATIVE THAT WE HAVE TO SAY, WE SAY IT IN PAST TENSE, EVEN IF IT IS RIGHT NOW. BUT IF WE TALK ABOUT IT IN PAST TENSE WE BELIEVE IT. HE HELPS SOLVE OUR PROBLEMS. FOR EXAMPLE, THEY WERE TALKING ABOUT MY SPANISH AND I WAS LIKE YA BUT I CAN´T GET RID OF MY GRINGO ACCENT. HE WAS LIKE. YOU MEAN YOU COULDN´T. AND YA IT HAS HELPED A LITTLE BIT! SO I LEAVE YOU WITH THAT COMMITMENT. USE PAST TENSE WITH THE NEGATIVE! HAHA AAAAND A SCRIPTURE THAT I LOVE TO TOP OFF EVERYTHING. JUAN 14:27. :) REMEMBER THAT HE GIVES US PEACE THAT NOBODY ELSE CAN GIVE US. :) LOVE YOU ALL! ELDER SLADERS

July 27, 2015

So!!!! This was a really good week! Juan Antonio came to church again!!! And loved it again! :D And I was super excited again! Haha He is progressing super well! We are battling still with getting his wife to go to church and everything, and his daughters, BUT, they will come along!! Maybe not with me, but I am pretty sure that they will get baptized a little later! :D I just have to say that that is soooo cool what Jamie is doing! Helping out people in AFRICA!!! :D I also want to do some stuff like that! I have a cool sister :D And Mom even if I get some new soles for my shoes, the top is a little bit ripped up too... Don´t ask me how... but ya! :D So, I still have the other pair that I can wear out as well! :D This week was pretty good with the work. We found a couple more families that were really excited. But, when we called them to wake them up for church, nobody answered and soooo we were a little bit sad. But we STILL HAD JUAN, so we are all good. I think that with a little bit more help they can get to church. :D But ya. It was awesome because this area was the hardest, and is the hardest, but something that Sister Hailey Jones told me was this: ¨There is no such thing as hard areas. Just faithless missionaries.¨ I think that I already told you guys that, but really if we work hard, do our part, and have the faith, our area is ZION. The Lord provides. I mean obviously it isn´t always as much as we want, but it is true!!! :D Well, I just want to share one of my favorite scriptures! Just kidding! The computer isn´t working to paste it, BUT, IT is in Ether 12:6!! It is always after the trial of our faith. When we aren´t sure, if we continue, then we will see results, in all things, not just the missionary work. :D Anyways! I love you guys! Have a fantastic week! :D Elder Sladers

BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!‏ July 13, 2015

Thanks so much for the BIRTHDAY WISHES!!! :D The first thing that I would like to mention is that I can now buy PISTOLS and have a concealed weapons permit. :) Ha ha, just kidding, that isn´t why my birthday was awesome but I shall tell you why. SOOOO this week was awesome. We were looking super hard for people to teach right? My companion and I were white washed in a rich area and had been praying hard for a family to teach. Well, this week we were working and just decided that we were going to go over to the colony, Puerta de Hierro, which we never do because it is an area of privadas, and we can´t enter and search. If they leave we can catch them in the street. This is not very efficient but we went over there and found one guy in the street. We were like well... I guess we will contact him so, we contacted him. We talked about the gospel and asked him questions. He then told us that his son died on June 8th. We just tried to show as much empathy as we could and told him that we have a message for him. Well, we went and taught about eternal families and he was super happy. Then HE WENT TO CHURCH!!! MIRACLE!!! And LOVED IT!!! It was all about eternal families and temples. To make a long story short, he is going to get baptized. And well, his wife is super nice but very Catholic but when she learned about the Book of Mormon and how it tells us what happens after death, she was very interested. Well, l I feel that she will also accept the GOSPEL :) and well, their two daughters might. We still don´t know them but I am just so happy to feel like an instrument in the hands of the Lord. That is ALL I WANT!!! And it is just so true what the prophet Thomas S Monson says. The best feeling in the world is to feel a prompting, act on it, and find out that it was for somebody else´s good. :) He also shared with us that he never goes out to walk and he always takes a taxi but this day he decided to walk and we found him. We call those Diosidencias. That is God and Coincidence put together. :) Anyways my birthday was great! And thanks EVERYBODY for your birthday wishes! :D I feel like an old fart b all is well in Zion. :) HARRAH FOR ISRAEL!!! Please pray for the family De La CRUZ! :) Love you guys! The church is true! :) Elder Slade

REVELATION!!!‏ July 1, 2015

Alright... Soooo this has been a pretty dificult week. I hit a point of what in the world do we do now... Because we have a very little part of the members in our area. And we have asked every single one of the for references. multiple times. And the rich people don´t react very well to just contacting. So it was like... we need some revelation. And so we have been thinking what we could do. and BOOM an idea came. We are going to talk to the President of every single privada. Or the gated areas with guards. And see if we can teach english in the park. For service. And after the class, we are going to see who will accept us in their home to recieve the message of the Restoration. And in this way we can work in the privadas... Which is more than half of the area. SOOOO I AM EXCITED!!! haha Hopefully we will see some fruits of our labors! :) Also, something that I would like to share is something important that I learned this week. So in these last couple of weeks I have had the opportunity to talk to a lot more people, because a lot less accepted us into their houses. And as you know, being rejected a ton is a little bit frustrating. I found myself getting irritated a little more, and a lot easier. And I guess you could say, that I was fed up with the rude people. And I was finding myself not as receptive to the spirit. And I couldn´t tell why. This is before I recognized the reason. Why was I feeling more anxious than calm? And I brought it up with another missionary. And he just asked me. Elder? how is your love for the people. And it hit me. That maybe my loved had been weakened a little due to my frustration. So I was studying the next day when I found the scripture Mosiah 28:3 this was a good planch for me. This is when the sons of Mosiah wanted to go and preach to the Lamanites. And in this scripture they say, we cannot bear the thought of one soul being lost. i don´t know in english I am sorry. And it hit me. Do i have this love for the people? Unconditional? meaning that no matter what they do, I still have this feeling, of not being able to bear that one of them shall perish? And then I remembered what Moroni says: Pray with all the energy of heart. That you may be filled with his love. Something like that. I have again been filled with this love. And this is my committment to everyone. That we can pray with all the energy of heart to be filled with Charity, and that we can love each other unconditionally. Anyways, this was a great lesson for me. I love you guys! have a great week! :) Elder Slade