Fighting Hard for Baptisms

March 21, 2011

Dear Dad,

Well it’s been quite the week. We fought super hard just to get one baptism for the week. Unfortunately our investigator didn’t show up for his interview. We now figure that he just couldn’t stop smoking. Everyone in the zone worked hard looking for baptisms. We had 4 planned but all fell through, so we went another week without a baptism. Our zone goal for the month of March was 22. So far we haven’t been able to baptize even one. Even though we didn’t get a baptism, it was still a week of growth for the zone of 33. I was quite concerned how all this would affect my changes. I spoke with President DaSilva last Monday night and he told me straight up how it really was. Right now my zone isn’t helping the mission at all. We are the only zone in the mission without a baptism. He told me they could remove the entire zone of 33 from the mission and we wouldn’t even feel the effects of it. To me it wasn’t really a negative conversation, but was able to motivate me. We were then able to use it to motivate the rest of the zone. In the end, I feel like we did all in our power this week. Because of that, we did see great spiritual growth in everyone who gave it their all.

Once again last night, I realized how much God loves me as I got my change call. I will be staying a fourth change here in 33 as a zone leader. My new companion is Elder Powell from Oregon. Elder Powell lived with me for two changes in Minas and was trained by my old friend Elder Haws. We’re actually like super, super good friends and when I found out, I was shocked. I’m soooo excited because Elder Powell is the most charitable missionary in the mission and is well known for being so. While in the MTC, Elder Powell was in a companionship with two other missionaries, Elder Thornton and Elder Young. Both of them have already been my companions. Strange huh?

My new zone looks great too. We are getting the old assistant Elder Bullock as one of my new district leaders and we are even opening a new area. We will now have 14 Elders in our zone. From what I hear, we will be receiving Elder and Hermana Davidson (a couple missionary) in a short time also. They will be on a special assignment from President Arnold (our area Seventies President) to reactivate and give us a big helping hand. I actually met the two of them a few weeks ago in a conference and they’re from Texas. They served as mission presidents in Mexico and so yeah, they’re pretty awesome people. We are really going to make this place a stake!!!!

I love you all so very much and I am looking forward to seeing you soon...

Love, Your Son
Elder Sluder