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

June 23, 2015

This week was great! We met some interesting people! I don´t have a whole lot of time, but that is ok because I don´t really have a whole lot to say. Just that Braden Wall's wedding sounds like it was awesome! Man, I had many cool experiences this week, and some rough ones. We found so many nice people that just don´t want to commit. This week we will focus on that part...going to church! haha Yesterday was funny because we found a homeless guy outside of the church and we took him in. And he loved it. Needless to say, after church, we helped him. We got some food from the members and found a sister with clothes for him. And we have some couple missionaries that can teach him rehab classes. So we will see what happens with him. It's a very large process. But, we have hope for him! haha I just want to do something like that for EVERYBODY that i see... But can´t... ug haha But loving the mission life! I love ya guys! Have a great week! your Mexican Gringo Elder Slade

Eh aqui, mi hijo amado, escuchalo :)‏ June 1st, 2015

Hello my PEOPLES!!! I have some super awesome news!!! I am finally training a new missionary!!! I am so excited. Finally! :) He is great! his name is Elder Herrera. And is pretty cool. The hard part is that we got WHITE WASHED! That is when you go into an area where it is new for both of the missionaries. So I am training, without knowing anything of the area! But it is all good because we basically have been everywhere in the area now, and so I think I pretty much have things down. The sisters baptized them all and left nothing for us. So we have to start from the beginning. :) But that first day I was like shoot. Where does everybody live? Haha But this is going to be a little change. We were put into the sister´s area. So basically this area is SUPER RICH. and that makes it a little bit tougher. Because we contact there huge house, and they either come over there little camera speaker thing and say VAYANSE DE AQUI!!! O QUE QUIEREN!!! And its like, well I know you have a mercedes in your garage but we have a message that can bless your family! And make you even happier! Haha Ya I pretty much have to think of some way to contact this place better. Also there are TONS!!! Of privadas. Or places that are gated of with guards. I am thinking about going Jason Bourne status and jumping the walls and looking for people but the moment that somebody reports us, they will kick us out, and we can´t go back. Even yesterday we were just going to go eat with some members and somebody reported us just for walking the the flippin street! And I was like NO MANCHES!!! So basically the only way, is working through members. :) and getting them to take us there. Haha But the people here are also super duper worried about security. So NOBODY lets us in to there houses. And it was a little rough for my new companion. He was like, is it even possible to teach a lesson? and I was like, ummmm trust me. It is possible. Haha And after talking to a ton of people this week. One man accepted us, and listened. His name is Hector. This guy is super great! He was just chillin and when we taught him. He was just like I am Catholic since I was a baby, and we were just like, have you asked God if your church was true. And this was after he told us about a miracle answer to his prayer. And he was like.... um, no. And we challenged him to pray. And it was just super awesome, so after about 104ish rejections. Came the one. Haha It is always the last one isn´t it? But that was a great experience for my companion. And after I had been praying to be able to teach somebody with my new comp. God gave us the person. So we will see if this guy works out! :) Love ya so much my family and friends! :D Elder Slade