Christmas in the Hospital

Christmas was amazing! I am so so so so so so so so happy I was able to see my family. Even if my brothers are now taller than me and Jared is growing a beard... Anyways We spent the holiday visiting families and spreading the holiday spirit! So you may be wondering why I have titled this email as such. Well part of spreading the holiday spirit was passing a soccer ball while waiting for one of the members of the family to drive us to our next appointment. And Sister Avaemai is too good at soccer, so good that the ball couldn't even keep up! This being the case she twisted her ankle in a rather morbid manner which resulted in us attending a two hour long edition of Canada Healthcare: Christmas Emergency Room Edition. The result of which was a nurse informing us that we could pay eight hundred dollars and treat it tonight or eighty and treat it the next day. So we chose the latter and spent the very next day attending the second season running at four hours of Canada Healthcare: Boxing Day Emergency Room Clinic Edition. Oh ya! Had no idea what Boxing day was until I got to Canada, its like Black Friday for Christmas. Anyways the doctor informed us that her ankle wasn't broken it was just severely sprained. It was after this that Sister Avaemai informed me that her name in French actually means "Bad Feet." Isn't that ironic =D

Anyways after many hours of resting and icing her foot Sister Avaemai was able to jump back into the life of the missionary, well not literally. Anyways that brings me to this week’s miracle. We were in the process of traveling which here in our area takes about an hour to get anywhere by no matter which form of transportation (bus, metro, and walking.) So we had just gotten off one bus when we realized our next bus was just about to take off. At that moment God gave Sister Avaemai's ankle strength, we both can testify. She came from barely able to walk to sprinting faster than I and being able to get on that bus. We got onto the bus and both of us were a little shocked that we made it but then we realized why. Sister Avaemai immediately recognized a man who had been one of our investigators but who we had lost contact with when he had traveled to Haiti for a family problem. It turns out yet again we were in the right spot at the right time, for this man had just lost his Sister. We were able to talk about the Plan of Salvation and later on that night the Elders gave him a priesthood blessing.

For it seems the third week in a row the Lord has showed me that he sends his servants where they need to be and prepares them to do what they need to do. In school we are taught about how a plot line works in reference to stories, how there's the build up, the climax and the exposition. I have come to realize that every moment in our lives is its own separate plot line. Every moment we are prepared to handle, whether it be hard or easy. The Lord prepares his servants to fulfill his work, and I am so blessed to see this. It has been already six months that I have been on my mission and the thought of leaving my mission fills me with a bittersweet feeling. I don't want to leave this life, being a missionary has filled me with such joy that I cannot even start to explain it. I am so glad that I still have a year to experience more. I know that my Father in Heaven loves me and I see everyday that he loves everyone. I say these things in the Name of Jesus Christ

Craziest Week

Dear friends and family:

This may have been the craziest week I have had in my mission. It started off slow, for the first few days before Christmas. In general people were less and less willing to open their doors to missionaries because of the business of the season, but we saw many miracles despite that.

On Christmas Eve, we had two meal appointments. The first one unexpectedly turned into a service project because the members forgot to mention they wanted us to stay afterward to do something, but luckily we could cancel all of our appointments and we had a fun time. Later that night, we ate over at Hma Posas' house. (A mi me gusta las baliadas!) Then we slept over at the AP's house so that we could spend Christmas morning together. (I may or may not have opened all of my presents over the last few weeks due to impatience. Regardless, it was fun.) Thank you all for your packages and letters and everything you have and continue to do for me!

Another member offered to feed us all breakfast on Christmas day. (She feeds us at least once a week, sometimes more.) It was delicious. Later that day, we skyped with our families. I saw Britney for the first time in more than 2 years, and Becky and Jeremy and Thomas and Claire for the first time since I left in September a little more than a year ago. It was really fun.

This is where things get really crazy. I haven't mentioned it before, but Elder Hunt has a medical problem that has been bugging him for a while. We had an appointment with President Richardson to talk about it on Saturday. The conclusion that they came to was that it would be better for Elder Hunt to return home for a few months, resolve the problem, and then return and complete his mission later. President made a few calls, set up a flight on Sunday morning, and we were obliged to spend the rest of Saturday packing so that he would be ready to leave on time. Now, Elder Hunt is gone. My area is temporarily combined with Fort Lauderdale South, a Spanish area. We'll be a tri-companionship for the rest of the transfer. (All of January and into February.) My new companions are Elder Allen and Elder Reno.

Surprised? Me too.

Another thing that happened this week, in a galaxy far, far away, is that my family went to the temple and was sealed together again because we adopted Nathan a while ago. I forgot which day it was exactly, so I couldn't celebrate at the same time, but I'm just as happy as all of you!

Wow, typing emails takes a long time. I'm about out of time, until next week.

Thanks, Elder Slade

Christmas

Dear Friends and Family:

Elder Hunt and I are so excited to be working and preaching the gospel here in Florida for this Christmas season! We don't miss the snow even a little bit!

As far as we can tell, we will start Skyping around 2 or 2:30 PM (our time). But it's still up in the air a little, so if this doesn't work for all of you and you are online when I send this, respond quickly so I can try to work out a better time. Otherwise, I'll talk to you this Thursday!

We're really excited to go out and find Christmas week miracles! I remember last Christmas being slightly odd for me. Christmas came really suddenly, and it really just felt like any other day, other than getting to talk to all of you. This Christmas will be different. I have a personal goal to be happy and cheerful and to be excited about and help other people be excited about the birth of our Savior! (Not that it actually occurred in December, but that's OK.)

This last week was a little rough for Elder Hunt and me. We went out and worked, and we had several people who committed to come to church, who seemed to have a genuine desire and commitment to come. Even our most promising investigator, Johnesha, had a last minute emergency and... slept in too late. None of our investigators came. We were discouraged and upset, and we finished the day worn out unhappy. But this morning during studies and as we have been preparing for this week we have been able to raise our spirits a lot and raise our visions for the potential miracles and blessings this season can bring.

One of the strengths we had this week was, again, our member work. We exceeded standards in member-present lessons, and we had a member out with us almost every day. One of the things that we have decided to do to improve is to be more consistent with our work ethic and motivation each day, so that we can use every day to its fullest potential.

In other news, I was accepted into BYU-Idaho a few days ago. I just found out today. I'm still waiting on finding out if I am accepted into BYU, which I probably won't know until some time in February. And my mission still doesn't end until September 3rd. But it's comforting to know that at least one of the plans I made for after my mission is working out.

Thanks, Elder Slade

Joyeux Noel

This is Sister Cummings from the frozen tundras of the North saying "Joyeux Noël!" This is a wonderful time of year full of gift giving and singing, I can`t think of any better way to spend it than in Santa Claus`s mission doing the work of the Lord. I`m not joking though, did you know the Canada Montreal Mission includes the north pole in its borders? Well it does and after I realized that I sort of felt the irony. In our society we have grown to see that Christmas is all about gumdrops, rain deer, Santa, gifts, shopping etc etc etc you name it and you can see that our Christmas is very much a commercial dream. And it is important that as we live in this that we keep in mind what is the real meaning of Christmas.

As a missionary we contact many people using cards, and this season the church has instructed us to use a special card referring people to the "He is the Gift" video that the church has directed to remind people what the real meaning of Christmas is, I highly highly recommend watching it if you haven`t done so already. Anyways there was one day while my companion and I were on the metro heading home after a long day that something happened. I was so tired and we had already contacted what seemed to be a million people that I was ready to just quit. But I remember having a feeling to look up at the corner of the metro and I saw a woman there with a broken arm who looked just so sad. Something inside told me to give this woman a card, I shook it off but every metro stop that the woman didn`t get off the thought came back, give this woman a card. I said a little prayer and said if she were to get off at the Jean-talon stop then I would give her a card. Lo and behold she did. And lo and behold I again pushed the feeling to give a card, making the excuse that my companion was already far ahead and that I needed to be with my companion. Again the thought came, I said another prayer, God if I am suppose to give this woman a card, my companion is going to turn around right now. And at that exact moment that I thought the word "now" my companion turned around. Without thinking I turned around and went to the lady. I believe I said something along the lines of Merry Christmas as much as my awkward mumbled French could take and gave her the card. She smiled took the card and said thank you, when I looked into her eyes they started to tear up. And that was it. All of that struggle for that simple moment of giving a woman a piece of paper.

Except it wasn`t just a piece of paper. On it was a picture of Christ and in large words "he is the gift." I know that I was guided by the spirit to give that simple message to this woman, and not only was I guided but in my stubbornness God knew how important it was for her to receive that simple card that he allowed me multiple attempts. This Christmas think about others. Think about a simple baby who thousands of years ago was born under the humblest of circumstances. It is my testimony that I know Jesus Christ lived  and died and lives again. Merry Christmas to all.

Love,
Kayla

Dear Friends and Family:

Thank you all for the letters and packages! For those of you who are not part of my family, one of the traditions we do each year is we find a nativity set and we deliver a piece each day for 12 days before Christmas, ending with Jesus Christ on Christmas Eve. This year, one of the things that my parents sent me was a pre-prepared set for the 12 days of Christmas. Elder Hunt and I decided to do it for a new convert in our ward named Tony, who otherwise is doing nothing this Christmas. If any of you are in a position to contact him, please refrain from letting him know who is leaving the Christmas gifts each night. Today is day 4, he hasn't caught us yet!

We had a pretty good week. We did not have any baptisms, but Elder Hunt and I were very excited to be consistent with the number of investigators we had in sacrament meeting. We had two investigators come early enough to see the sacrament being blessed, and both are preparing to be baptized this weekend as well. Both of them are struggling with one thing - one with the Word of Wisdom, and the other with finding somewhere else to live or getting married so that she can live the Law of Chastity, but both of them are solid potentials and both of them are very happy to be preparing to be baptized.

We found Anteniqua about three weeks ago, but she couldn't come to church because at the time she was on house arrest. But last Monday she went to court and had everything cleared up, so she was able to come to church and had a wonderful time. I don't think I've told the story of how we found her, so I'll tell it now. We were going through the ward directory, trying to make contact with as many people who we didn't know as possible. We tried to visit an inactive member who lived in Anteniqua's house, only to find that he had moved out long ago. But we said a prayer with Anteniqua, and she accepted baptism, church, and everything. We found out later that she had been praying earlier that day for God to send someone to come and knock on her door. We then, unwittingly, showed up and answered her prayer. :)

We found Johnesha around the same time as we found Anteniqua, three weeks ago, but each week something else came up that prevented her from coming to church. We were very close to dropping her, but we decided to go back one last time and ask if she had read the scriptures that day. We did so, found out that she had, and we kept seeing her. Two days ago she came to church with her three daughters for the first time, and loved it. She is doing so well. We're so excited to watch her progression!

Two other investigators came to church about 30 minutes late. They left an hour early as well, and they caused a little contention in the Haitian Creole Sunday school class, but they are still interested in hearing the message and preparing for baptism, so we are going to keep going back and try to work around the rough edges. It should be fun.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

PS. We are not allowed to go to the temple. I've only been to the temple once since leaving the MTC, and that was a special occasion when the entire mission went to the temple together about a month after the Fort Lauderdale temple was dedicated. It was an amazing experience, but it seems like I will have to wait until the day I fly home to go to the temple again.

PPS. Our call to our family will be no more than 30 minutes, we don't know when it will happen, and it will only be over skype if we can find a member who is willing to let us come over and use their devices for a while. It's still up in the air, but we will call for 2 minutes on Thursday morning just to tell you all what time we are getting on.

Flash Mob

Thats right everyone Sister Cummings was part of a flash mob! It actually happened last week but I had forgotten to include it in the weekly email. As an effort to contest the arrival of the Book of Mormon the Musical that has come to Montreal, the Montreal stake launched a large publicity plan and part of it was a flash mob. We all went to one of the biggest malls on the island (obviously arriving at different times) and began walking around and talking to people and contacting. And then suddenly you hear the beautiful voice of Miss Lambert (I forgot her first name but she is a very popular LDS Opera star here on the Island) singing "Angels we have heard on high" however in French so it was even more gorgeous. Everyone is looking around trying to find her and then you see her coming down an escalator. A couple of others on mikes started singing the other parts and then everyone slowly joins in singing the First Noel and Far Far away in Judea's Land. I have never felt so strongly the Christmas spirit. While we were singing it made me think of How the Grinch stole Christmas particularly the scene where in the darkness there is one light and one voice that grows and grows until the whole place was light. What a marvelous feeling of Joy and Happiness!

Okay enough about last week, onto the recent things. I have survived my first blizzard as a missionary, with about a foot and a half of snow which results to hip high piles of snow on the side of the road. But hey! Good News! Canada spends the majority of its budget in providing means to clear roads and sidewalks so those hip high hills disappeared within two days and were brought from one place by truck to pretty much a dump for snow on the outskirts of the city.

 Have you ever had those moments that you feel you are in the right place at the right time? As missionaries we feel that more often than most. I would say more often than I get a craving for Mcdonalds (aka way too often.) We are taught at the beginning that we need to follow the spirit to know where and when we need to be to talk about what God needs that we talk about. For example my companion and I had just finished our lesson with a recent convert and found ourselves free after an unexpected cancellation. So we called a member and asked if we could drop by and give a lesson. With this member we generally would meet at the McDonalds just down the street from her house as she didn't feel comfortable taking the lessons in her house. However this time we were inspired to ask that we meet at her house. Which she graciously agreed to. Neither of us really knew why until we were walking to her house and saw a girl crying two houses down. We went up and asked her what had happened. She explained through tears what had happened and how she had found herself outside of her house with her things in a bag. She was at that moment waiting for help in the freezing cold with only a coat to protect her. We offered to stay with her until help arrived and mentioned that there was a warm house not too far away that she would be welcomed to come to. She surrendered and came with us to the lesson. The Spirit was so strong and the young woman that came with us felt the peace and the love. Not too long afterwards help arrived and our new friend had to leave. We gave her our number and hugs and said goodbye. We do not know what has happened with her but the spirit has told both Sister Avaemai and I that we had worked directly as tools as God comforted his daughter in heaven.

Not only missionaries can receive these promptings, they come to everyone in different ways and it isn't until later that we realize what had happened. Imagine what could have happened if my companion and I had not chosen to meet with this sister and give the effort to walk all the way to her house. I know that God loves his children and protects them from danger. I am so grateful to be a missionary here at this time. Thank you to all who keep me and my companion in your prayers. I love you all! And Merry Christmas!  

6 Months Out

Yes in fact she did! But it was only an itty bitty blond stripe that is really the exact color of my hair in the summer =D My wonderful and beautiful companion Sister Avaemai was really really wanting to color her hair but did not want to do it alone. After much pleading I finally gave in to the little childish dream I have had for years and years. Why is my rebellious stripe coming out on my mission? Just ask my companion =D

So besides looking just a little bit like Anna from Frozen, life is pretty wonderful here in le groupe de Hochelaga. We just received the news last Saturday that Sister Avaemai and I will be staying together in the area! I couldn't help but smile. The assignment was a direct answer to a prayer.

Its crazy to think that in just eighteen days it will be my six month mark. There is no way that I am almost a third done with my mission. It is impossible! Yesterday was just the fourth of July at the MTC! And now we just celebrated American Thanksgiving last week in the not so balmy weather of Montréal!

What wonderful miracles we have seen this week! Particularly what I have seen in myself! I am not who I was when I left June 25th 2014. Nor will I be the same right now as I will be on December 22nd 2015. A mission is very much a time where I am being changed. And right now all of these changes are for the best.

In life it sometimes seems that we are in the refiners fire. That no matter what we do something always goes wrong. We are in an uncomfortable place where we feel there is no hope. But here is a little something. There is ALWAYS hope. We are ALWAYS loved. And we will ALWAYS make it through. In those moments that we feel in the refiners fire we should pause and just be grateful to be in the light rather than the darkness. We should rejoice to be in the warmth rather than the cold. And we should sing at the opportunity to be in the masters hand.

I am so grateful to be on a mission. I get to talk to people everyday and tell them that they have a chance at eternal life no matter what they have done. I encourage everyone who is debating on going on a mission to earnestly pray. I can tell you that it has helped me so much and I look forever to the future. I love this world. I love Québec and I love the Lord. I say these things in his holy name, Jesus Christ, Amen

Lots of Lessons

Dear Friends and Family:

How great a pleasure it is to come before all of you this week. My name is Elder Slade, I will be conducting this email. I will also be presiding.

Elder Hunt and I had a terrific week. We were able to work much more closely with the members, and this week we had 9 member present lessons! As well, two of our investigators came to sacrament meeting yesterday. Both of them have dates to be baptized this week. (One on Saturday, the other on Sunday.)

We had several miracles this week that I am really excited about. One time, while Elder Hunt was on exchanges in Fort Lauderdale South's area, Elder Chartrand and I were harvesting and we found two old ladies, a mother and a daughter. We prayed with them, and invited both to be baptized. Both rejected because they had already been baptized, but we testified that God really had sent us to them to invite them to be baptized again in Jesus Christ's church. We invited them to pray and ask God, to receive a confirmation for themselves that this was true. Gertrude, the daughter, (herself about 60 years old), started praying. Halfway through the prayer, she received her answer, stopped praying, and told us she wanted to be baptized. It was incredible!

Elder Hunt and I are very excited this week to go to the Christmas conference. The mission only gets together one time every year, unless a special occasion comes up (such as a visiting general authority). That one time is the Christmas conference, at the beginning of December. As part of the festivities, there is a talent show, a while elephant gift exchange, a meal, and we also receive training from President Richardson on how to be better missionaries. It'll be fun :D

As well, we have zone training tomorrow. We have big plans already on how we can make this week even better, and apply what we learn tomorrow and on Wednesday.

Thanks for all of the updates on what's going on at home. It's really nice to hear from all of you, and to be a part of your lives. I'm happy to hear that Britney got home safely (no longer Sister Slade) and I can't wait to see her and Becky and Jeremy and Thomas and Claire for Christmas!

Thanks,

Elder Slade

A Miracle a Day

It feels like it was only yesterday that I was watching the fireworks at the fourth of July at the MTC. I am feeling ancient. I have looked forward to a mission for what? How long? At least ten years. At Least. And now here I am almost an entire third of the way through! I don't want this to end! This Saturday we receive our transfer calls to see if either Sister Avaemai or I will be transferred. Honestly I am hoping and praying that neither of us go. But I guess wherever I am asked to go I will go willingly.

Now I don't have much time today but I would like to share with you a miracle. Wow kind of hard to think of just one! Sister Avaemai and I have gotten into the habit of writing down one miracle per day. Which has brought so many blessings for us. But here is a really amazing thing that I saw this week. There was one day this week that was so overly freezing and my companion had forgotten her warm winter coat at home that we were just praying for a miracle that we would not have to walk all the way over to a lesson we had that night. Our prayers were answered and a member calls us out of the blue asking if he could come to a lesson with us. He ended up being free that night and he and his wife gave us a ride in their nice warm car! Golly that was amazing!

We also found a new investigator who called us Sunday morning asking us how to get to the church building! Wow! It had ended up that this past Sunday was the Primary Program and all the little children got up and talked about how the gospel has blessed their families. Our investigator was so impressed at the feeling of unity in the building that he told us he would come back every Sunday. Through the mouth of babes he felt the spirit so strongly. Which made me think. God gives his light and his spirit to everyone, no matter the age. Everyone has the potential to give Gods love. So why not everyone receive Gods love. We are getting into the Christmas time and as your friend, sister, daughter, niece, etc. etc. on her mission I ask you to just look around you and give your love to those who may not even know that they need it. I love you all! A la Prochain!

PS- tune in next week to see if Sister Cummings has dyed her hair or not ;D

Finding a Miracle

Dear Family and Friends:

I'm so excited that Britney is going home! Unfortunately, I still have to wait a while before I can see her. Britney: make sure you let me know your new email address when you get home.

In other news, the church is doing something very big for Christmas this year. To learn more, and to watch a fantastic video about Jesus Christ, go to christmas.mormon.org. Watch it as a family, or with everyone else you live with. Then share it with everyone you know!

This week has been a great one for us. At the start of the week, we decided to pray that we would find a miracle - someone to be baptized that Sunday, although we had no obvious potentials and we couldn't think of any way to do it, short of other missionaries teaching an investigator who then conveniently moved into our area, all ready to be baptized. Every time we prayed to start a study, or before we went out to harvest, we included this in the prayer. By the end of the week, the prayers had paid off.

Throughout the week, we found no one; but on Sunday, half-way through church, someone just walked into church. He had been walking past the church building to go to church somewhere else, and he just felt like he should go there instead. We believe that our faith and our prayers were what led him to feel the spirit and to walk in. We'll be meeting with him tonight at 8.

Our goal for the month of December is 6 baptisms. After we prayed to know what our goal should be, I felt that that was the number we should shoot for, but I was hesitant to voice it because I didn't want Elder Hunt to feel like I was making the choice. So I waited for him to speak, and he felt that we should shoot for six as well. It was a testimony builder for me to know that it really is God's work, and he will guide us when we sincerely ask for it. And as well: we can and will have six baptisms in this month, through the grace of God.

Someone asked about iPads. We don't have too many details, they've been pushing them back for a while now, but there's a rumor going around that we're supposed to get them in January. We'll find out, I guess :) I've also heard a lot of conflicting information about how much it will be and other details, but I think the most common consensus is that it will be $300, that we will be getting iPad minis instead of regular iPads, and that we will keep them after our missions. (Like our bikes - paid for with our own funds, and then we have them afterwards.)

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Dear Friends and Family:

Elder Hunt is doing amazing. He and I have been struggling a lot this week just to find people to teach. This is the same problem that we have had this last week as well, so we are both seriously introspecting to find out what we can do differently to always have people to go to teach. This week we felt that one of our strengths was being diligent throughout the week, and not ignoring the elephant in the middle of the room. We were constantly throughout the week looking for ways to get new investigators and we were constantly trying to contact the investigators that we had.

We came to a few conclusions on things that we can do to improve this week. For one thing, we are going to study the Holy Ghost this week, and focus on being guided and directed by the spirit as we plan and as we go out to work. We feel that this will show greater faith that we will receive guidance, and so God will bless us with the revelation that we need to continue each day. As well, we will restart seeing a recent convert/less active member every day so we can keep focused on our purpose even when we don't have too many investigators to teach.

We didn't have anybody come to church this week, but our zone leaders extended a challenge that every area in our zone baptize this week. They also promised that as we make plans and work diligently, God will make it possible for us to do it. So we are going to focus on finding someone ready to be baptized this very Sunday, and we are going to help them get to the font!

Parents: How did you like the Griot and the other food? Also, the picture you sent me didn't show up in the email. Could you send it again? Maybe you could attach it, instead of embedding it in the email itself. Thanks!

I'm excited that Britney is almost going home. It's really weird to think about, it seems like such a short time ago that I opened my mission call and she left a few days later.

I know Elder Mason. I never got to serve in the same apartment as him, but he was trained a few transfers ago by Elder Burgoyne, who I spent 4 transfers with. (In the same apartment, even if we were never companions.) I didn't know he was related to anyone in our ward!

How bad has the snow been this year?

Thanks,

Elder Slade

The Field is White

First before the weekly report, a little summary of the weather. It has snowed everyday this week until last night where it all magically melted and dried up. I am currently sitting here with only a light spring jacket on...I am kind of feeling like I am in the eye of the storm. Danger is on the horizon.

I am LOVING this area! As I mentioned before we have a lot of Haitian foods here...I mean people... And there isn`t anything better than learning how to make these delicious foods...through obviously these amazing people. Anyways I learned how to make rizcollé this week which is basically a type of fried rice and beans. Which is also known as heaven in a bowl. Literally can`t get enough of it. We`re making it again after we finish emails today.

I have seen so many miracles this week! A less active that we have begun meeting with has started to overcome challenges and attended church with her daughter yesterday! Our area used to be part of a giant ward that covered all of Eastern Montréal that would meet in a building in the South East portion of the Island, until about a year or so ago the stake decided to form a group in the North. They had realized that many members became inactive just from being so far away from the church building. So most of our work out here is rounding up the less actives. This being said we work so much with these people that we don`t generally teach investigators as much as I did in Mascouche. However this week something changed. We had a day where we were both feeling really sick and maybe a little down trodden when we decided to hitch up our skirts and head out the door. In just three hours we were able to find two new investigators and teach five lessons! Talk about reaping the benefits.

Sometimes we feel as if we are maybe a little bit better than the rules or that we don`t need to accomplish the things we are asked to do because we feel justified. Its at these times that we have a choice, we can give in to the justifications or we can travel through the hard times. Its at those moments that God blesses us the most after we have proven to ourselves and to him that we are strong enough to be worthy of his gifts. It is only then that we can not only receive the blessings he gives us and recognize the blessings he gives us. I know that our Father in Heaven loves us and I know that I am in the right place that I need to be to learn these things. I know that through the Prophet Joseph Smith that God Restored his church on this Earth. I know that this is the only true church. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Je suis un Bonhomme de Neige

This directly translates to I am a good man of snow, which of course in French means snowman. Because here is the news this week ladies and gentlemen. We have snow. And I don't mean just no flurries. I'm talking up to ankle high snow. Which means Sister Cummings has officially broken out the winter boots.

 Don't get me wrong, I love looking at snow but some of the magic is kind of lost when you realize you have to actually walk through the "magic" for hours on end. The magic is not lost though on my beautiful Tahitian companion, who has now officially played with snow for the first time.

We have had three baptisms this week into our beautiful little group of Hochelaga, each one had the opportunity to share their testimonies of how they found the church and the first moment they knew the church to be true. Which made me think of when I received my first testimony. As a tradition in our family we receive a pair of scriptures on our eighth birthday. I had received mine but it wasn't until my younger brother Jared had received his that I really began to read them. If any of you know my brother he is really good about making a goal and achieving said goal. At the age of eight he made the goal that he would read a chapter a day of the scriptures. So as any competitive older sister I made the same goal. Admittedly I didn't follow through nearly as much as he did but there was one scripture that everything changed. I read the scripture in 1 Nephi 22:30 which is where Nephi gives his testimony. It was at that moment when I was ten years old that I got down on my knees and asked if the Book of Mormon was true. I will never forget the feeling of comfort that I felt at that moment. That was my answer. And every time after that I pray to know the truth I receive the same feelings. That this church is true. That this gospel is true. And that through divine guidance the Prophet Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon so that we can be able to read and know the truth for ourselves. This week I ask you to pray once more to know the truth of the Book of Mormon. Even if you already know for yourself, feel of his love again.

I love you all!

Kayla

Photos from the week

Staying in Fort Lauderdale

Dear Friends and Family:

I wanted to include a lot this week, because I didn't email last week, but there's someone waiting for the computer. Sorry!

The news: I stayed and trained. Elder Kwon left. This means that I will be in Fort Lauderdale east for the next three months, over Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years.

My new companion and trainee - Elder Hunt - is amazing! He already teaches better than I do after a year in my mission, and he has an incredibly strong testimony. He and I have been getting along really well, through our ups and downs in the area. And he's also working diligently to improve his Creole.

This week an unfortunate thing happened with our investigators. All of them decided to drop off of the map or lose their fire to be baptized at the same time. Elder Hunt is taking the low point like a champ, and we are both resolved to find many, many amazing miracles this next week as we work hard and apply the training we will receive in zone conference.

We are in particular working to improve by being more personable together, and by improving our baptismal invite so that those we talk to have the best possible opportunity to feel and accept the spirit in their lives.

Sorry I don't have more time to email, especially after last week.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Crazy Week

Dear family,

We had a crazy week that absolutely flew by. Tuesday we had zone conference, Thursday we had Mission Leadership Council, Friday we had an exchange, and Sunday we had cottage meeting. Lots of sharing testimony and lots of very spiritual experiences. I'm so grateful for my mission! I really don't know where the week went to.

The highlight of my week was that the exchange on Friday was with the Halls Lake sisters. Sister Smith stayed in our area and I was able to go back to my old area with Sister Stringfellow! We saw so many miracles and so many people that I used to work with from those transfers. By the end of the day I felt like Heavenly Father was reassuring me by saying, "You have done enough. Your sacrifice has been acceptable to me, just look what a difference you have made!" It was exactly what I needed.

The sisters have an investigator named Brandon who I met Thursday night at volleyball. Brandon is preparing for baptism in December. When I introduced myself he looked at my name tag and said, "Wait a second, are you the only missionary named Sister Slade?" I told him that I was and he proceeded to tell me that almost a year ago some sisters had knocked at his door and he had wanted to listen, but he knew that his roommates would be rude, so he didn't invite them in. He said, "I have no idea why, but I've always remembered the name Slade. You don't happen to have been here around that time?" I can't count all of the doors that Sister Glancy and I must have knocked when we first whitewashed into Halls Lake a year ago. I don't remember Brandon, but it was so amazing to see where he's at now and to see that somehow he remembered that I knocked at his door. We never know the impact that we may be having even when we obediently do all of the small, seemingly insignificant things!

The other highlight from the exchange was that I got to see Melissa! I lost her email so I haven't had contact with her since her baptism and wedding 8 months ago. I got to talk to her and Randy and it was so rewarding to hear that they are both 100% active, loving everything about the gospel, and preparing to go to the temple in a few months! Not only that, but she just found out that she's pregnant with TWINS! Too much joy to contain!

Still excitedly looking forward to Heathers baptism! She meets with President one more time this week, and if he feels that she is ready he will officially write the First Presidency and everything should be clear for the 22nd. Please keep her in your prayers this week.

Love this quote from Gary E. Stevenson: "I express my utmost confidence in your abilities. You have the Savior of the world on your side. If you seek His help and follow His directions, how can you fail?" I hope you all have a week full of feeling the Saviors love for you and lots and lots of successes!

Love all of you!

Love, Sister Slade

People of Montreal

Its official world. It has snowed here. And I have broken out the winter coat, as well as half of Montréal.

Speaking of which many people have asked me to tell any funny stories, so in keeping with the oncoming winter I'm going to tell this one. My companion and I were waiting in line to receive some medication when a rather large woman (I mean large as in tall and well built not as in «woah that girls has eaten way to many poutines») An elderly oriental gentleman, who was standing behind me in the line, flinched and gasped as she walked by. Of course, me being the onlooker, made eye contact with the gentleman. He told me in French «That woman scared me,» He asked me why I was here (obviously asking for what need I was in the pharmacy) and I took the opportunity to say I'm a missionary. After determining I was from the United States and that I had never felt a winter as hard as those in Montreal the conversation quickly turned to ancient Chinese medical practices. After instructing me to put onions on my feet for a cold he told me he knew how to never get sick in the winter and that he wanted to show us. Well after we had received what we were waiting for the man led us over to a wall and promptly instructed us how to get rid of winter sickness. This took the form of the man slamming his head against the wall seven times while not breathing. If any would like to try this it is seven times for a man and nine for a woman. I had to try so hard not to laugh at the fact that this man was slamming his head on a wall in a Pharmaprix in the middle of Montreal Canada.

Well considering the conversation above was in full French I believe I am growing in the language. I have been mistaken twice as someone from France and told four times that I do not have an American accent. *Fist pump* I seem to have mastered understanding the Quebecois accent and now I need to understand the Haitian accent. The area we are working in has a high Haitian population (say that five times fast) and therefore a high possibility of eating Haitian food every night. And as I am sure my wonderful cousin in the south can attest that Haitian food is heavenly.

Good news! I got all moved in!

This weeks miracle is this. We visit with a woman in the group that is young woman age, but since there is no young woman`s program in our little almost branchist thing we help her with her personal progress. We were doing so one day and we noticed that there was something bothering her. Afterwards we were talking about the lesson, my companion decided to call her up and ask her if she would like a blessing. Something about Sister Avemai is that she has such a testimony in the priesthood that she never stops seeking for the opportunity to share it with others. The sister said yes and we scheduled a time with the Elders so that they could give the blessing. The change in this sixteen year old girl from before and after the blessing was instant. She felt the love from the blessing and you could tell that a huge burden had been lifted off of her shoulders. We do not know what was the thing that burdened her so much but I can honestly say that I have never before been in a lesson that the spirit has been so strong. I know that this church is true and I know it holds the true authority from God to give priesthood blessings such as this. I love this Gospel and I love these people. And I know Montreal will forever have a place in my heart.

Married

Dear Friends and Family:

First of all, Marie E. and Abacu G. were married this Saturday. The next day, Abacu was able to baptize Marie G. (after a little struggle. we didn't go over the process enough beforehand.) We've been working with them for quite a few weeks now to get that going, but we are very excited that they were able to do that. It was the first marriage that I helped organize on my mission so that they could be baptized.

The marriage itself was particularly fun. It was one of the most awkward things I have ever been through in my life, in many ways. It started with the bride and groom getting there 45 minutes late. Well, technically the groom was only 30 minutes late. Then, after the marriage came the reception. The people who were bringing the food for the marriage were even later than the bride and groom, but at least we had plenty of plates and napkins! They came on time!

Once those kinks were worked out, the marriage was really fun. It's the only marriage I have ever attended. I've been to a few marriage receptions before, but only visiting briefly, and they were much larger affairs for the most part. Part way through the reception, Marie's brother stood up and started offering a French toast. I was glad that I understood almost all of it. He concluded his speech by leading everybody in a recited prayer that all of the Haitians knew and everybody else listened to awkwardly. It was a very interesting experience.

This week, we struggled quite a bit to find new investigators. It really started last week, but it came to a climax this week when we dropped most of our investigators because they weren't progressing and realized that we only had one or two people that we were working with. It was a trial of our faith to go through with that, but God blessed us as we continued to work and we had several amazing miracles as the week progressed.

A few things that we have decided to do to continue to improve: we are continuing to study how to teach better during our companionship studies, and we are going to do more roleplays throughout the week. As well, we are going to teach about and give copies of the Book of Mormon during our first lesson. This is something that we haven't been very good about doing recently, but we're repenting and becoming better. :)

Dear family: Thanks for the amazing Halloween package! I especially enjoyed all of the little pieces of confetti. We had fun with that.

On Halloween, we had to stop knocking doors by 5, and we had to be home by 7. That left an extra two hours that we usually don't have at night. It was just enough time to have a Halloween party. We started off by playing don't eat Pete, after which we played various other games, and we finished the night by watching "Our Heavenly Father's Plan" (while we were steaming our mattresses and preparing for bed.)

Thanks,

Elder Slade

P.S. Next week is transfers, but the mission is trying something new, so we will find out who is transferring on Sunday night, P-day will still be on Monday, and then the change will happen and we find out who our new companions are on Tuesday. (In the past, We have found out on Monday night, have P-day on Tuesday, and then have transfer meeting on Wednesday.)

The Island of Life

This is not in reference to a tropical island as much as I wish it to be so...It is really quite chilly... But hey the Island that I am talking about is Montreal! (did you know it was an island? Took me a month of my mission to find that out...) I am LOVING it here! Walking! Buses! Metros! Golly!! This is really quite fun! I get to actually talk to people! And generally they are first language English speakers completely by chance! Or is it? *insert dramatic music here*

The area I am serving in is called Hochelaga Groupe. Which pretty much covers the Northwest side of the Island. This area used to be part of the large Hochelaga ward, but because the church building was so far away the stake decided to develop a group that would meet in the North. This group isn't even big enough to be a branch just yet but we have sent in the application to become a branch and should be finding out around the beginning of next year.

My companion is AMAZING! She is so talented! When she plays the guitar I just want to cry its so beautiful! And I'm not going to even talk about her AMAZING ability to play the Ukelele too! Oh! I'm just dying just thinking about it! Also Sister Avaemai is one of the best cooks on this side of the border. I don't think I have loved pasta more than at the moments she has made it for me!

Each transfer I like to make a theme, and this transfers theme is *insert drum-role* Trusting in God. In life we are put into situations that we really do not know what the outcome will be. Sometimes it feels like we are in one of those corn mazes that I would do as a kid. You can't climb or check where you are and you just run around until you have no idea where even the entrance is. But there is always someone there willing to guide you and who knows exactly what will happen in the end. That is our loving Heavenly Father. God has a plan for us, he has prepared a way for us, it is just our choice to use that path or make our own. He is always there when we need him and through a prayer we can ask him for his help. And he always gives it. In his own time. I love the Savior and everything that he does for me. Although the road gets rough he is always there to guide us. And it is my testimony that he does this through sending his restored gospel to the Earth once more, through the teachings of this the true Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know these things to be true with all of my heart. And these things I say in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Soeur Kayla Mae Cummings

470 Rue Gilford Ste 300

Montreal, QC H2J 1N3

CANADA

Love you Bunches

Dear family,

I started to write my email last week and then realized that I never actually sent it! Whoops. Is anyone else having a hard time believing that it's November already?

I realized that it's been a while since I've given a good detailed update on some of the main investigators that we've been teaching. We have a few investigators that we have stopped teaching for various reasons, I'm not going to go into detail about all of their stories, because I know that it's not the end until it's the end! And I feel confident that it's not the end. One of them is Zahra. We have lost contact with Zahra over the past few weeks. She has been avoiding us, and we think that she got scared again. I really can't blame her. Zahra has one of the strongest testimonies of anyone I have met, but she also has one of the hardest backround situations of anyone I have ever taught. Baptism for her would mean a lot of hate towards her and her mom from all of their extended family, to the point that converting to Christianity would mean not being able to go see any of them ever again.

I've thought a lot about success on my mission, and how much I have grown to love people like Steve, Jana, Gabriel, Bry, Zahra, Haley, and the list goes on and on. If I were to measure the success of my mission based on how many "almost baptisms" have happened than my understanding of my purpose as a missionary would be very skewed. I succeed when I invite. I succeed when I love unconditionally. I feel at peace with knowing that there comes a point where you know that you have done everything in you power, and when it comes down to it the rest is in the hands of the loved one and our Heavenly father and His perfect timing. It is always hard when someone you love chooses a path that you know isn't what will make them happiest. It's in these moments that my testimony of the Plan of Salvation is strengthened so much. The Plan of Salvation is tipped in our favor in every possible way. There really is not one soul on this Earth who Heavenly father has not devised very specific plans and means to save. He is a God of a million chances. He is perfectly just yet perfectly merciful. He provided a Savior in the case that we would no follow the "ideal" plan He has set for us. (which is the position all of us are in if you think about it.) Words cannot express how grateful I am for my brother Jesus Christ and everything that he has done for you and for me!

Despite the disappointments, there are so many golden moments that far outweigh the rest. People like Everet and Darlene, Bennett and Verna, Sandra, Melissa, Alexandra, Alvaro, Osh, Hayley and Emma! And the list goes on and on! The worth of one soul is so great!!!!!!

Heather and LJ are both progressing wonderfully! Heather is working towards baptism on November 22nd, and the ways she has blossomed have been astounding. LJ, the man who for months claimed to want nothing to do with organized religion, has softened so much and feels the spirit on a regular basis! He has now been to church 3 times- imagine our surprise when yesterday during sacrament meeting he got up to share his testimony! It wasn't a thankimony or a travelogue. LJ bore pure testimony of the Savior, of our Heavenly Fathe's plan for us, and of his hopes that the Book of Mormon will make him a better man. The spirit was so strong!

The other miracle from last week was that Kent came to church! Kent is the son of our old bishop. He's 27 and he stopped going to church when he was in 7th grade. We've seen him a few times, but not at all in the last 2 transfers. Last week we were on our way to tract a street the Eastmont Elders had asked us to tract when I had the feeling that we should stop by. I was a little bit nervous because he has an interesting situation, and we were on exchange that day, but the feeling kept coming so we went. Turns out, Kent has finally reached that low point and the last few weeks he has been thinking about coming to church but always gets cold feet on Saturday. We had a very powerful lesson with him, and he was at church yesterday! It took so much courage for Kent to be there. Sitting next to Kent in the back was one of those moments on my mission where I felt so much inexpressible joy over that one soul, that I felt like I couldn't contain it all!

A quick reminder from President Hinckley: "The best antidote I know for worry is work. The best medicine for despair is service. the best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired."

By the way, November is gratitude month! please read President Uchtdorf's talk from 2 conferences ago, and practice fostering a spirit of gratitude!

Love you all bunches!

Love Sister Slade

Language Skills

Dear Friends and Family:

We were able to do very well this week. God blessed us with nine member present lessons, and we almost achieved standards in member blessings and RCLAs. We'll keep working on them and make our strengths into... bigger strengths.

Marie E., the only nonmember in her family, went to the courthouse on Thursday to get the marriage license for her and Abacu. They are planning on being married on Saturday, and she is planning to be baptized on Sunday the day after. This will be Elder Kwon's and my first time helping investigators be married so that they can be baptized. They are both excited to go to the temple in a year to be sealed; we went down there for a temple tour with them on Tuesday night.

I've decided that the Fort Lauderdale temple is prettier than the Denver temple, or any others that I have ever been in before.

My language skills are coming along really well. At the beginning of my mission, I had wanted to be 100% fluent in every aspect of the language by the end. I've let up on those expectations since then. Here's a fancy chart showing where I feel my language skills are:

Language  Prof.   | Fluent                            | Native

English   --------------------------------------------|

H. Creole ----------|

Spanish   ---|

French    -|

Others    |

As part of our battle to get rid of bed bugs, we've moved all of the beds to one room so we can combine our efforts to eradicate them; and today, while Elder Kwon and I were waiting our turn to use the computers to email, we cleaned out our old bedroom thoroughly. It's now just our study room, and it looks fantastic. It's the cleanest I've ever seen a room in a missionary apartment. Now we'll see how long it stays that way.

To my loving family who just sent me a Halloween package: thank you so much, I can't wait to eat all of the candy that must be waiting inside. On Halloween, we have to stop knocking doors at five, and we have to be at home at seven. So we'll have plenty of time to go through whatever you sent. Thanks again!

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Transfers!

Well friends and family this week we received transfer calls, and as you can probably guess I received the news that I will be leaving the beautiful land of Mascouche. I love the people of this land so very very much, and it is hard to think that I have only been here for three months. As sad as it seems there is good news! I will be leaving Mascouche but will be staying in the same stake and serving in Hochelaga East! Which is an area on the Island of Montreal! I'M GONNA BE LIVING IN A BIG CITY!! Ridin' Metros and Buses! My New companion is Sister Avaemai who comes from the tropical lands of Tahiti. That's right world I'm having a Tahitian companion, I will actually have to talk in French for the majority of my time.

As some may know but most don't, on the night of transfer calls all missionaries are required to go home an hour early to make sure they are in a good place to receive calls. As a result of this lovely thing my roommates/companion and I had a halloween party =D Don't worry world we took pictures =D

Hmm now as for this week's miracle? It's hard to pick just one! But I'll go ahead and start with this one. I was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting...in French...in front of the congregation...who actually know French... As any good missionary I took the entire week to plan it out, day one- pray, day two- study preach my gospel, day three- pray etc. etc. until day six- write it. And it worked! I had prepared so much just for five minutes at the podium speaking a language that I have only begun to comprehend. This didn't stop me from being nervous to speak though... for those of you in the "know" you know what happened last time I gave a talk... So I did the one thing that I could right before, I prayed. I prayed with a fully sincere heart that I would be able to do this. I got up to the microphone and it felt like I was only as bystander. There were words that I used that at this moment I don't understand the meaning of. I felt at that moment that I was the Lord's mouth​piece as he filled my mouth with the words that others needed to hear. As for the talk I had written I only looked at it a total of six times. This was truly a miracle for me. God knew how much I needed his help and how much I was willing to accept it.

Throughout life we are given trials, we are given heartache and sadness, and many ask why this does happen? A loving father would not do this? But the answer is quite the contrary. Our so​le hope for this life is to learn the things of this world so that we may become li​k​e our father in heaven. He gives us those opportunities to learn. As I child I have many fond memories of my own father helping me as I struggled to learn what fractions were. At many moments I wanted to give up and let him do it, he had all the knowledge so why not let him? But he lovingly coaxed me through. Sitting quietly and making faces as I tried for myself and helping me when I got the answer wrong. Our Father in heaven is the same. He guides us through our hardest times, he will not relieve us though. As much as it felt I was a bystander during my talk I still had to put in the effort to get to that point. I had to write my talk and I had to stand at the microphone, only then did he help me even more fully. It is my testimony that we all have a loving Father in heaven. Who loves us and is waiting for us to only ask him and he will lovingly guide us. I know this to be true with all of my heart. Et je dit ces choses au nom de Jésus-Christ, sa fils, Amen

Meet the Mormons

Dear Friends and Family:

Our area is improving slowly but surely. Last week, we improved or were consistent in all but four key indicators. This week, we will improve or be consistent in all of them. This process will continue until the brightest day, when we again achieve the standards of excellence and stay consistent to them every week until the mission president is forced to increase them.

Speaking of the mission president, I am excited and very grateful for the chance we have this week to have interviews with him. I am doing my best to spiritually create and to think of good questions that will help me and our investigators the most.

At the start of the week, our most solid investigator was Christian. He was planning on being baptized yesterday, and had even already asked me to perform the baptism itself. We drove down to the temple grounds on Tuesday, along with the Spanish Elders and their investigators, Mary and Ghandi, in Brother Beale's car. We had a terrific, spiritual experience together. Unfortunately, we lost contact with Christian throughout the rest of the week, and he didn't come to church. We're not sure what happened to him, but we're praying and hoping for the best.

For this Sunday, our biggest candidate for baptism is Marie, the ex-wife of a recent convert, Abacu. She really wants to be baptized; all she and her ex-husband need to do are to go to the courthouse and take out a marriage license, so that the bishop can marry them legally, because at the moment they are living together without being married.

The bed bugs are mostly gone from our apartment, but we still get bitten consistently. We're doing our best to steam our mattresses every day, and that helps. The mission doesn't want us to use bug bombs or any sort of fumigation, but we'll get it figured out eventually.

Family specifically: thanks for the package that you said you sent! I can't wait!

Britney specifically: sorry you've only got three or four weeks left. I'll try to write you one last letter in the next hour that I have and hope that I can get it off to you this week.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

P.S. Did you all go and see the new movie, Meet the Mormons? If you haven't, then go now! Before it's too late to see it in theaters! Missionaries aren't allowed to go to theaters, so I'll never get the opportunity to do that!

Family History

Did you know it gets cold in Canada? "What?" you say "what do you mean?" No seriously though. The struggle is real. It does not actually look like it is cold through the window and then you open the door and bone chilling air fills the room. This may or may not have to do with the fact that I may or may not be stubbornly avoiding my warm coats and tights, because people should not have to wear ear muffs in October. That is just a fact of life, that someone is not understanding. *cough* Canada *cough* *cough* The lowest temperatures are always at night, yet it is unbelievable how amazingly comfortable it is to sleep in zebra footy pajamas complete with a hood. And yes friends and family I do own them, and I am having no regrets whatsoever.

As I mentioned in last weeks letter I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a beautiful hike for Canadian Thanksgiving and as promised here are the wonderful pictures of just a small part of the beauty of Canada.

I don't have very much time this week but I want to share with you a miracle. For some time now we have been going over to an elderly woman's house to help her with finding her family history. This week we were finally able to find records of who her father was. It seems very insignificant to some I am sure, but we had been searching and searching everywhere for his records. When suddenly I clicked on the wrong name only to find that it was in fact her father. With this new found information we were able to put him into her family tree to find that someone was already doing her work. Her geneology went back to the thirteen hundreds at least! I couldn't imagine what that itty bitty mistake of clicking the wrong name could have lead to.

Before my mission, I will be honest, I did not see the merit in family history. Sure its fun to see where you come from but that only goes so far. However that opinion is in the past. I now have a testimony that continues to grow daily. I know how much Family History blesses people. I have been able to learn from the very few stories I have received about my family history so much. Brothers and Sisters, Family and Friends, you have the time now to research your family. You have the time now to bring others unto Christ and be a missionary by doing your genealogy. So why not do it?

I love you all! Happy Hunting =D

Sister Cummings

Missionary Stories

Dear family,

Today I wanted to share with you some of the amazing examples of member missionary work that we have seen this week, because we all know that when it comes to missionary work, the success rate for an individual accepting the gospel is about 10 billion times more when invited by a member than when invited by a missionary!

1. Hayley has been dating a guy from her work. They have had lots of gospel discussions, and this week she invited him to see Meet the Mormons with her! After the movie she invited Monroe to learn from us. It's interesting that Monroe told her that he won't meet with us, because he knows that if he meets with us he will join, and he is afraid of that because he knows his family would not approve. Hayley's family disowned her after her baptism and still haven't talked to her since then, so she can absolutely relate to what he is feeling. What I love about Hayley's missionary work is that she considers herself a success! She isn't a success because Monroe said yes or because he's now getting baptized, but shes a success because she INVITED! You succeed when you invite! Hayley celebrated her success by inviting Emma to go to the temple with her this Wednesday. There's nothing like hearing that your recent convert invited your other recent convert to go to the temple with her. :)

2. Heather's main fellowshipper has been a girl in our ward named Krissy. Lots of love for Krissy! This week Krissy invited her friend Marina to get pizza with her, and while there they got into a discussion about the plan of salvation. Krissy drew out the plan of salvation on a pizza box, and afterwards invited Marina to see Meet the Mormons with her. Just like Hayley did, Krissy invited Marina to take the missionary discussions afterwards! Marina said she wanted to think about it, and the next day she contacted Krissy and told her that she actually really would love to met with us! We're meeting Marina later this week. When Krissy told us about this experience she told us that she couldn't think of a time that she has felt greater joy.

3. We had dinner with the family of a girl in our ward last night- The Allens- who are amazing examples to me! They have two sons on missions, and they invite their  nonmember friends over for dinner every Sunday. Their family tradition is that they always do their family Book of Mormon reading right after dinner- before anyone gets up and before any dishes are done. What was amazing about this family's missionary work is that they were simply being themselves. There was no show, and no trying to shy away from having the gospel conversations that are a normal part of their lives. When it comes to sharing the gospel we need to be very direct and very loving. There is no need to wait to build up a friendship with someone or to "plant seeds" or to "prepare someone" to be asked to hear about the gospel. We simply share, and we share by making the gospel such an ingrained part of our lives that if we were to invite a nonmember to our home for dinner, they would see that the gospel is simply our way of life. I wish you all could enjoy dinner with the Allen's! There was such an incredible spirit in their home. I know that the friedn they had there felt it!

There is no greater joy than can be found from sharing the gospel! I know that as you pray for the strength to be brave, and as you open your mouths to invite EVERYONE you will see miracles happen not just in the lives of those you shared the gospel with but in yours as well. Your testimony is not yours until you share it, and you cannot enjoy the full blessings and joy of the gospel until you give it to someone else. Our Heavenly Father's work will go forth with or without our help, but I certainly don't want to miss out on the joy of being an instrument in His hands, and I can promise that you won't want to miss out on that either.

Lots of love!

Sister Slade

P.S. I can't wait to hear about all of your missionary experiences! You're running out of time to write me, so if I haven't head from you so far... don't procrastinate the day of your repentance. Better get on that :)

Good Week

Dear Friends and Family:

We had a good week again. We're still working on getting the area up and running, but we've got a few solid investigators we're working with now. They were both miracles in how we found them. I'll explain that a little later.

All three investigators that we had in sacrament were miracle people that we weren't expecting. Two of them are kids, one of which is in a part-member family. We're trying to meet with the parents/guardians for them to get them coming to church and preparing for baptism.

And the third person in church in a man named Christian. He seemed like a member at first, and apparently he has been going to church on and off for the last five years, but he had never been baptized. We invited him to be baptized this next week, and he accepted. We're going to go tour the temple tonight with him, and we'll probably have the baptismal interview tomorrow. But he's already decided who he wants to perform the baptism, and who he wants to perform and stand in on the confirmation. He was a miracle, but I've never before had a miracle that has required so little maintenance. We've already gone over the baptism interview questions in a mock interview, and he pretty much doesn't have a problem with anything.

Another person that I want to talk about, even though he didn't come to church, is Hayward W. Elder Kwon and Elder Reno found him together while on exchanges. They both said it was the most "perfect" harvest blessing they have ever had, like it was scripted. He didn't come to church because of a miscommunication on our part. We've had two lessons so far, but he has been one of the most elect investigators I've ever taught as well.

God is providing so many people for us to teach. I can't wait to keep working and finding and teaching more and more! And I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve now in Fort Lauderdale.

I'm excited to hear about all of the changes to the house. I don't really remember what it looked like, for the most part, so it was going to look pretty new to me too.

Have any of you seen Meet the Mormons? You should go and see it. I can't, because it's in theaters and we're not allowed to go. But I've heard it's amazing.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Staying in Silverlake!

Dear family,

Heather got up in Sacrament meeting yesterday to share her testimony of the atonement and how Christ brings forgiveness of sins. She got a little bit emotional. I may have gotten a little bit emotional too.

LJ is doing great. We were a little bit concerned at our second lesson because it seemed that feeling the spirit so powerfully in our first lesson had scared him. Heather felt that he was backing off a little bit because he recognized that a witness from the spirit meant accountability which meant change. LJ is native american, and very connected to his culture. He has expressed concerns about how he is the chief pipe carrier for his tribe. Whenever someone in the family dies he does some sort of ceremony with smoking his chinoopa. He says he wouldn't want to ever give up the tobacco, simply because of how closely it connects him to his family and culture. In our third lesson we talked about the Book of Mormon and he seemed to have opened up again though! Please keep him in your prayers!

Zahra is still bravely preparing for baptism on November 2nd! We talked about temples and family history a lot this week and she is excited to take her family names, including her dads name, to the temple to have their work be done. I love when truly converted investigators develop an instant fascination with the temple! It's because they feel the spirit and they recognize how good and true it is! Zahra invited her teacher to her baptism and gave her a Book of Mormon this week!

We have a few other investigators that aren't progressing as rapidly but they'll get there. We spend a ton of time finding. I think it comes with being a missionary, but that's especially the case in YSA. This week in weekly planning we felt like we received revelation for some new and interesting ways we can find this week, so we'll see what happens as we implement them this week.

I have really been loving my studies recently! A while back Heather and I were both reading in 3rd Nephi so I challenged her to see which of us could finish the Book of Mormon first. I've never been so happy to have someone beat me! I did finish the Book of Mormon last week though, so this week I'm starting over and I'm trying something a little bit different. There was an elder we used to split the ward with that was writing the Book of Mormon as he read, so that he could gain a new appreciation for what it must have been like for them to etch words into gold plates. It takes me about half an hour per page, so I'm only in 1 Nephi Chapter 3, but it has been an amazing and unique experience so far! I'm finding that it forces me to slow down and think about each sentence and even word. Nephi feels so real to me! I think I've learned more about the first 3 chapters of the Book of Mormon in the past week than I've ever learned before! For example, this morning the words "thou and thy brothers" stood out to me in 1 Nephi 3:4. Lehi knew his sons. He knew how hardhearted they were, so he must have known how much trouble they would cause if he tried sending them back to Jerusalem to get the plates. So this morning I thought, why wouldn't Lehi just send Nephi and Sam? Wouldn't that have been so much easier? Why would he send Nephi's brothers as well? I think it's because even though he knew their hearts, he still wanted to give them the opportunity to choose right. How often does Heavenly Father do this for us, even those of us who aren't quite as stiffnecked as Laman and Lemuel were? Then I thought about how if God wanted he could put a giant mormon.org card in the sky and everyone would know that they need to be baptized and people would be lining up outside the font and everything would be so much simpler. But instead Heavenly Father chose me and you, as weak and inadequate as we are, to share the gospel. It's humbling to think that he would give us that kind of a mission. What does this one verse tell us about the way that we should be viewing ourselves and the way we should be viewing others? I'll leave the answer to that one to you all. :)

Transfer calls were today and it looks like my dying area will be............. Silverlake YSA! Sister Smith and I are also staying together for a third transfer which we are super excited about. Sister Smith taught me how to speak jibberish this week. We worked on it all day wednesday and I think I finally got it down! Heldagel Lodago, mydagy nadagame idagis Britagit Neydagey Sladagade. Apparently it's a "real" language, almost as widely used as pig latin... don't worry, I'll be sure to enlighten you all when I get back. :)

Love ya lots and lots!

Love, Sister Slade

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yup I'm serious. Canada celebrates their thanksgiving on the thirteenth of October this year. And how are we as missionaries celebrating? By hiking a million kilometres in the hills and vales of Quebec's countryside. I would send you pictures but I just realized I left my camera in the apartment. Just trust me that it was beautiful with amazing waterfalls and brilliantly colored leaves.

This week we traveled to Montreal twice and guess who drove in Montreal? Twice? THIS GIRL! Whoops I mean Sister... I think I might be able to take on New York City after my mission but right now that's still a big step. Anyways we had a wonderful time both days receiving training. Its strange to think that in only two weeks I will no longer be a greenie... and in only a week and a half that I would have completed 2/9ths of my mission. Yikes!! I don't want it to end! I want to forever be a missionary! Even with all the awkward moments it brings.

Speaking of awkward moments. Have you ever gone to a dance and been told you can't dance and have to speak another language? Not to mention that it is in fact a wedding... Here's the story, the bride is from this area and actually served her mission in Montreal. Its strange but that happens a lot here, probably having to do with how different a culture this is here than other places in the world. I mean it pretty much has its own language, anyways she was getting married and needed help decorating. Naturally us service-hungry missionaries stepped up to the plate and graciously helped decorate. We were then invited to the wedding where we awkwardly stood in the door for two seconds then ran to the kitchen to help put plates together for the dinner. We finish that and are pretty much herded into the hall. After about an hour of talking and fighting the urge to dance I get a tap on my shoulder. It is the father of the bride asking me if I could sing something for everyone. We had to leave in five minutes so I said no. And then magically our loving Mission President and his family walk into the hall, aka awkward moment got more awkward. Just as we were about to leave I get another tap on my shoulder, but this time its my mission president. He says "I understand you won't sing because you will be late. Well I give you permission to be late." Well shoot, that really translates to "you're singing." Luckily Sister Munive and I had been preparing to potentially sing in sacrament meeting so they rolled in the piano and I sang "C'est L'amour" which I forget how it translates to English but it is in the children's songbook just next to the song with a picture of the wheelchair. Our performance was yet again another spiritual moment. I love being a missionary in other ways than one. My voice was how I originally found my testimony and by sharing it with others it strengthens me so much in the realization of how much of a blessing God has given me to be able to sing and have others hear. I look forward to every opportunity I am given to sing.

A testimony isn't just a talk given at a pulpit every first Sunday of the month. A testimony can be shared in so many more ways than that. For me I have found it easiest through song, but I have seen others testimonies through poetry, through painting, and even just living their lives. Don't ever hold back a testimony. You may not know who but someone is always there to receive it.

I love you all with the wholeness of my heart,

Soeur Cummings