Elder Statler Slade's LDS Mission to Ghana: 2/27/2012

Well hello again my wonderful family and people! ha Its good to hear that all is well. Tell Malorie that going in a plane is very scary and that she will prob cry. Not really but its pretty lame and boring. like a bus. Before I forget can you update my address on my fb and the blog and in the church program thing to the one i told you to use last week or the week before? it gets here the fastest and u can send packages and letters through it.

Anways this week has been kinda a rough week for Elder Gagne' and I. We both kinda are the same, as in always thinking we're right and stuff so ya sometimes that clashes haha but we have been teaching way powerfully lately and for me at least I know the spirit helps me sooo much in lessons! Sometimes I just get a thought and I just open my mouth and start talking haha its way awesome. It has been a slow week though. Everyone has canceled on us pretty much and we only had 3 lessons the whole week up to Sat! So elder Gagne and I were pretty down. Saturday was way awesome though, and quite possibly was the best day on my mission for me so far! I really feel like I am a missionary now and I am no longer just following behind my companion. I am every part of our success now as elder Gagne is, it's awesome! So all you know now, I have broke through the wall and am officially a legit missionary! ha So more about Saturday, we have an investigator named Bridgett who we met on the street one day when I felt prompted to talk to her. Our first lesson with her was way bad and she didn't pay attention at all then she closed the lesson for us with some crazy praise Jesus prayer and we were like uh ya this lady is crazy, we shouldn't teach her anymore so we didn't. A couple days later I felt like we should teach her again so we set up an appointment and taught her. The 2nd lesson was way better and she actually listened and participated so we were like ok cool well teach her again. So sat we taught her again. It was too dang cool. We just went straight by the spirit and didn't even teach a lesson really, just talked about what we felt like we should teach her. She ended up saying that a week before we first talked to her she saw us and wondered what we were doing and why we wouldn't come talk to her. I told her that a week later I was prompted to come up and talk to her and we felt like she needed the gospel. Then she just looked at us in like amazement and the turned away and started bawling. It was really cool to see the spirit touch her like that. We told her that we always follow the spirit to people who need the gospel and that it probably wasn't just a coincidence that we stopped to talk to her. Now she is definitely a long ways away from being baptized or even coming to church for that matter, but it was just awesome to witness what following the spirit can do. I think she kinda knows that our church might be true, but her husband really doesn't like us and won't let us teach him, he is a pastor for another church. Hopefully God will prepare a way for her so that everything else can work out.

We also taught 2 other new people on Saturday the restoration and it was the best that we have ever taught it. The spirit was totally there and it makes all the difference when it is because the people are so much more interested and serious. We have also started telling our new investigators that if they want us to keep teaching them that they need to keep their commitments that we give them and stuff like that. So hopefully that works. (Elder gagne says it won't, but whatevs.) ha well see!

I also have noticed that I have been and continue to be extremely blessed! Here is how. So every morning when I wake up it is THE worst. As you know I'm not a morning person to say the least. haha I am always grumpy and sore and tired cause I never sleep good at all on the crappy beds, and I also always feel terrible, like sick in the morn. But I have noticed that no matter how bad I feel and all that other stuff that I feel, that when I start my personal study and calm down and have the spirit I don't feel as sick. Then when we leave for the day to go out, I feel completely awesome and rejuvinated and just excited and ready to go, not sick or sore at all once I start walking! I have faith that if I continue to do what I am supposed to and be obedient that I will be ok, at least while I am out proselyting and stuff cause then when I come home at the end of the day it all comes back. haha As long as I can always do what is asked and required of me out here Im just fine with that.

Sunday was also a pretty sweet day. We were able to teach Iseh, our way solid investigator, and we
taught him the WOW and law of chastity. I taught him the WOW. It went really good as usual with him, and its sweet that we teach the lessons like 50 50 now! We then went to go visit Kader and Selina who were supposed to be baptized 2 weeks ago but couldn't get their marriage done. Kader is an awesome dude. He knows so much and he is doing missionary work! ha. We then went and taught a recent convert family and just read from the scriptures small. We ended the week with 8 lessons, which still blows but its way better than we thought it would be on Fri.

I grew alot this week though so it was a success. We have 6 people who will hopefully be baptized March 18. Ok well I love you all and cant wait to hear from you again! You could send some more food stuff like mashed potatoes and stuff. :)

Elder Slade

A short video of Statler taken by Elder Zoll