Missions are Weird

Dear friends and family:

Missions are such weird things.

We had three investigators in sacrament this last week. They all have completely different backgrounds and desires, but they are all preparing to be baptized in Jesus Christ's church.

One of our investigators who came to church is a man named Matt B. He is from Laos, but he lived in Utah for about 15 years and then moved here, and has been living here for about ten. He speaks English with a definite accent and does not have much of a Christian background, but when the Spanish sisters knocked on his door he accepted a prayer and has since been studying and preparing to be baptized. Because our area changed this transfer, he is in our new English area, and so we have been teaching him. We had a chapel tour with him on Friday, and then he came to church on Sunday. After church we had the opportunity to go over and teach him again, with the help of one of the members in the Fort Lauderdale ward who speaks Thai. We skyped him using Matt's phone and we had a wonderful lesson.

Lillian came to church for the second time this week. She was baptized in some other church a long time ago, and it's hard to meet with her throughout the week, but she has an ex-significant other who is a member and he has been helping her to have a desire to come to church and to recommit herself to Jesus Christ by being baptized again.

Thamous is the daughter of one of our recent converts, named Deliverence. She is only going to be here for about a week, but we're excited to get her to conference and get her pumped to continue learning more with the other missionaries in Cape Coral when she moves back there with her aunt next Monday.

We're extremely pumped up for general conference this weekend. We'll make sure we work really hard, and we'll get tons of people there.

I only have about five more months to serve a mission, and due to the fact that I live so far from the mission office, there's not much chance that I will be transferred to a new area before the end of my mission. Areas that are far away typically stay for longer, for some reason.

As for college, I have definite word that I was accepted into BYU, BYU-Idaho, and the University of Utah. I have not yet been officially accepted to Neumont University. If I am accepted and receive a presidential scholarship, then I will almost certainly go to Neumont and get my degree in the next three years. Otherwise, it's most likely that I'll go to BYU. Scholarships still pending on the others, of course, which might make them more feasable.

Due to odd restrictions on our schedule today, my companion and I don't have even a full hour to email, so sorry this is so short.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Is that a grey hair?

I am turning into an old fogey. This week I hit my halfway mark… It is really funny how mission life is really similar to real life. You have a birth, your teenage years, your mid-life crisis, and… well lets not talk about that last one.

I can tell you that I hit a moment where I looked back on my entire "life" and I found I had grown a testimony. This testimony being that God puts us in the exact situations that we need to grow. He puts in our paths large blocks that seem to be impassable but as we climb them we grow stronger. For example, as my family and close friends can attest to, I very very strongly dislike driving. To the point where every morning to go to seminary my brother would drive. And not only driving in general but driving in snow! Oh the horror! But god has helped me a lot in this aspect. Ironically my first area my lovely Mexican companion had not gotten her drivers license. My second area was originally a car free area but once my lovely Tahitian companion sprained her ankle we were given a car. And now being a senior companion it is I who drives the car. Mind you this is all in CANADA. With all of its ICE and SNOW. It is almost as if God said, "get over yourself Sister Cummings and drive." But hey look at me now! I no longer have a fear of driving on ice and snow, granted the snow tires help.

Speaking of weather, the sun and warmth has melted so much! Now we only have a foot and a half of snow! *fist pump* However it is currently snowing right now so…not sure how long that will last…

I just wanted to give a quick message regarding General Conference and Easter. We are approaching one of the my most treasured weekends. A priority that I did not realize until I came on my mission. I have grown up watching General Conference and occasionally I would hear something that would touch me but generally I would just colour and draw during all of the sessions. However being a missionary, particularly a missionary teaching in a second language, we must teach the simple truths in order for our investigators to understand. And as I taught I started to understand these truths about General Conference. That we are privileged to hear the words of the only presiding Prophet on the Earth who speaks to us about a God who loves us and how to accomplish his plan to return and live with him.

Not only do we get to listen to inspired men and women but it is all during Easter! I cannot imagine a better way to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The prophet has seen fit to initiate a program involving the video "Because He Lives." Which can be accessed through the church website at lds.org. It is one of the most beautiful videos I have seen as of yet and I encourage you to watch it if you have not had the chance to and to share it with your friends. In this time of Easter we missionaries see the most miracles as members reach out to their friends to share the message that because God lives death has no sting. That we may all live with our families for forever even after this life. As missionaries we have been going around and doing Easter Caroling, and this is one of the choruses of one of the songs that we sing, Sorry it is in French.

Il vit, et parce qu'il vit

La mort n'aura plus de victoire

Grace a lui

Nous pouvons prendre

un nouveau départ.

The message of this song is exactly as the chorus says. He lives and because he lives the grave has no victory, thanks to him we can have a new beginning.

Help your friends and your families to discover this beginning. This Joy. In the knowledge that God has died and lives for us to be able to live with our families together forever. Invite them to watch the video. To watch General Conference. And even better meet with the missionaries.

I love you all and thank you for the love and prayers you have sent to me and other missionaries.

Soeur Cummings

Fort Myers North

Dear friends and family:

Transfer meeting happened on Wednesday, and I was a little surprised by it. My new area if Fort Myers North (Creole), which is about a 2.5 hour drive from the mission office. It is one of the farthest areas. In fact, the Fort Myers Stake was not a part of our mission until a few months ago, so there are many missionaries still in Fort Myers who are used to doing things the way they did it in Tampa. For example, they were allowed to take videos; they already had iPads, and they did everything on them; and their areas weren't by language, they had several companionships covering the same ward, and they taught whoever they found, rather than teaching according to the language or which part of the ward they live in.

My new companion is Elder Parker, who is one of those Tampa missionaries. He is a really hard worker, but it is still odd to see the things that Tampa missionaries do that weren't really a part of the Fort Lauderdale Mission's culture beforehand.

I've had a wonderful five days in Fort Myers, and I'm excited to keep going. The ward seems to be amazing, especially the Elder's Quorum president and the ward mission leader.

We were able to see a lot of success together. One of our top investigators is named Lilian J.; her husband is a member, but they haven't been together for a while. And she came to church for the first time yesterday. She softened a lot after coming to church this one time, and she accepted a date for the 31st of March. We made a plan and we are going to make this month #MiracleMarch!

We had two other investigators who came to church, but one is a youth and so can't be baptized until the 18th of April, and the other came too late to see the sacrament and so can't be baptized until the 11th. As well, we had one investigator who tried to come but his GPS died and he got lost, so he never made it. But we'll keep working with all of them as long as they keep progressing and putting forth that willing effort. We'll make our #MiracleMarch extend into april as well. :D

Tomorrow we have a specialized training about the church's upcoming "Because He Lives" Easter initiative. We're excited for this conference, and for the opportunity to share what we learn with the world. And we also can't wait for general conference on Easter weekend! Unfortunately, it will be the last general conference that I will spend on my mission. That snuck up fast!

Also, I forgot to mention, in my previous email - last Monday, Elder Allen, Elder Peterson, Elder Miller, and I all went and attended a Catholic mass. It was a very interesting experience. But because it was on a Monday morning, there were not very many people there. After I return, I'll have to go again, in the evening, at a time where there will be more people attending.

I don't have any more updates on colleges or things like that.

Thanks for everything,

Elder Slade

Signs of the Second Cummings

It starts with a boy saying a prayer, followed with the filling in of an application and then the sending of said application off to Utah to receive weeks later a reply with where the mentioned boy will be spending the next two years of his life.

Thats right everyone! Jared Cummings my beloved younger brother, the second of us Cummings clan of New Jersey, received his mission call! He will be leaving July 8th to serve his mission in Fresno, California speaking Hmong!

Sorry for the quite dramatic and doomsday declaring subject title I just had to take the wonderful opportunity to make yet another joke using our family name. I just love doing that so much! I am sorry if that is one of my many short-Cummings. Bu dum chh!

Anyways now that I have gotten my wiggles out I just have take a moment and marvel at the way the lord works. But more exactly how simply the Lord works. He loves us. Which is a truth all principles are based on. And because of this simplicity Sister Blanc and I were able to teach a woman, in Swahili.

Thats right. Swahili. As in Africa.

Here in Lemoyne we teach many immigrants who come from many different countries in Africa who have been driven to Canada from the various wars and turmoils of the region. These immigrants don't always speak French but have a desire to learn of the things we teach of. After saying many prayers as to how we could help these people we found a preach my gospel that had been lying in our apartment gathering dust for more than two years. Through studying it and comparing it to the english one. We were able to teach a woman in her native language.

I know that the Gift of Tongues is given to missionaries as I have seen it almost everyday out here trying to learn French. I know this church is true and that God loves us and answers our prayers. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Mungu Awabaliki, May God bless you

Sister Cummings

Leaving Fort Lauderdale East

Dear friends and family:

I've already sent the big news, I'm leaving Fort Lauderdale East. That means that so far, I have spent exactly four transfers in each of my three previous areas, leaving exactly four transfers for my (assumably) last area, whatever it may be.

I'm a little apprehensive to leave Fort Lauderdale, I've been here for six months and I know I'm going to miss all of the members and everyone else here. But I'm still happy and I'm sure I'll love my next area just as much.

Now for the other news:

It's been a great last week of the transfer. None of the key indicator areas have been extremely fantastic, but we were able to balance our efforts better this week better than ever before. None of the key indicators suck! We finally managed to get a decent number of investigators in sacrament!

First of all I want to talk about Russel and Darcia. They are an unmarried couple who we found on Friday. They accepted baptism, because they want to get married and they believe baptism will help them cement their relationship together. They loved church, and they accepted a date for the 28th of March. I am going to miss them already! Their marriage would presumably be on the same day.

Next, we had a miracle come to church as well. He came because of a culmination of events. We met him on Saturday and invited him to come to church; he said that he might come, but he wasn't sure yet. But we continued and found other people on his street to teach. Then, unbeknownst to us, the West elders' investigator invited him to come to church with her. So on Sunday morning, we saw Richard with Rose; they were long-time friends, and Richard only came to church because he was again invited by his friend. We'll see him again tomorrow or on Thursday, and we'll get an opportunity to teach him the restoration. But he loved church as well, and it was a welcome miracle from God that he came!

I finished my application for Neumont University, and according to Mom, who has been in contact with the admissions staff, they have already as good as accepted it, although they haven't formalized the acceptance. From what research we have done, Neumont seems to be a very good possibility for a college for me. Some advantages are that I could get a bachelor's degree in just three years, instead of four, and that the entire college would be oriented on my chosen career field - computer science. Some disadvantages are that because it is a small private university, it could be quite expensive without a large scholarship or grant of some sort; and as well, because of the large work load, it would be very difficult to work during my school career.

They are currently considering me for the presidential scholarship, which would be 75% of tuition cost. If I receive the scholarship, odds are good that I will accept and start school at Neumont a month after I return, in October. If not, odds are that I will accept my entrance into BYU-Provo and I will start there a few months after I return home.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Spring Came

And then it left…

Seriously for a good three days we had weather in around the tens and teens! We finally had positive degree weather! (Celsius mind you) All the snow and ice that was on the roads melted away and for the first time I saw the parking lines in the church parking lot here! The four or five foot tundras here melted to be around three feet! Look at that! We could finally see the address numbers from our car again! So we hung up our thick winter coats and switched them over to our fall coats for those wonderful three days of warmth! We went to sleep that night with only two blankets on and then woke up still beaming with the excitement of spring! And then made it to the window opened the blinds to let the sun in! And! (record scratch)…It had snowed a foot over night….

Canada gave a psych out…well played… well played…

So besides the weather a lot has happened this week! We have seen so many beautiful answers to our prayers and to others. And one of the most amazing stories is this that I want to share with you.

Just before a lesson my companion and I had had a minor disagreement on where to place the plastic tray that holds our winter boots. We had gotten into the car and headed to the lesson politely saying nothing. Before saying our traditional prayer before exiting the car we both turned to each other and realized in those minutes we had been annoyed that we had lost the companionship of the spirit. It was just a simple and small disagreement but we had lost it. So realizing this we searched to fix it. We talked it out. Gave our apologies and then said the prayer, inviting the spirit back into our companionship and asked that he may help us to be guided during the lesson.

We then left the car in a much better place than we were when we had gotten into it. Our lesson was with a less active who had not been to church in over two years. We had prepared a lesson but when we left the car we realized we were needing to teach a different lesson. Not knowing exactly what we went into the lesson and started with a prayer. We sang a hymn and then everything just flowed. During the lesson a question came to my mind that I felt impressed to ask. So I followed the spirit and asked the man, "Est-ce que vous pouvez doubter qu'il y a une creator supreme?" Can you doubt that there is a supreme creator. Which afterwards for the first time in two years the man gave his testimony of how he knew the church was true.

I know that this church is true and that Heavenly Father really answers prayers. He has answered so many of mine. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen

Thank you for all your prayers

SIster Cummings

Miracles

Dear friends and family:

First I'll summarize the missionary work that's been going on here:

Despite great effort on our part throughout the week to find people to get to church, we still saw the typical Sunday-morning dropoff of investigators. Some of them were called in to work, some of them were unable to overcome social anxiety, some of them didn't really have a good reason not to come. But despite being yet another week without having investigators in sacrament meeting, I'm still happy for two main reasons:

First, we had a miracle investigator show up to church. One of our recent converts showed up with his nonmember wife, who just moved here from Haiti. They came in just a little bit too late to see the sacrament in the chapel itself, but they walked in afterwards and she loved it - as well as the Haitian Creole Sunday school class afterwards. We'll be seeing them again tonight, and we're excited to help her be baptized on the 28th.

Second, we found a miracle on Friday. We knocked into Robert, who had recently had a rough divorce, and who had recently been contemplating suicide. After the prayer, he testified that he knew that God sent us to him, and he immediately accepted baptism. On Sunday morning, he was called in to work. He tried to call his boss to get permission to leave work for Sacrament meeting and then to come back, but he was told that if he left he would be fired. At the end of his shift, he felt terrible, and he told his boss that he couldn't work on Sundays any more. He said that his relationship with God was more important to him than his relationship with his work. He told him and us afterwards that there is no way he would ever miss church again. We are so glad to have found Robert, and to work with him. He is so prepared to hear the gospel!

It sounds like you just had a wonderful youth missionary experience there in Rye. How big was the event? Was it just our ward, or was it several wards put together?

You'll have to tell me how the concert goes this weekend.

A quick note: transfers are next week, so I will be emailing on Tuesday, not Monday. My guess: I'll transfer, Elder Peterson will stay, but I have no idea who will come or where I will go.

Thanks for everything,

Elder Slade

Update

There are so so so many things that I can talk about that I am having trouble just picking one! Seriously though! There has been so much that has happened this week. A woman we have been teaching actually remembered what we had talked about the lesson before! A member was able to join us at last minute to teach one of the most beautiful and non-awkward lessons of the law of Chastity. We had a visit from Elder Kacher (I think that is how you spell his name) but he is in the presidency of the seventy and he visited Montreal!! He didn't have the time to speak to the missionaries but we were able to still hear him during a meeting he held for less actives, recent converts and investigators. Gah! So much has happened!! And that is only a small percentage! We are seeing so many miracles here!

But I am going to talk about one that seemed to be the main miracle.

As missionaries we plan everyday to try to achieve certain goals which are called "key indicators." Which are goals focused on teaching investigators and less active members. So as usual we had planned an entire day full of lessons, it was foreseen to be one of our most productive days so far. We started the day with singing at a nursing home, a practice that we do every week. It was as usual full of funny quebecois songs and awkward moments where a drinking song comes in and all the missionaries try to look like they are suddenly busy. Anyways we had finished with that and were on our way home to eat lunch. On the way we received a phone call from a woman. She said that her mother was dying and that she was within her last twenty-four hours. She asked if we would be able to come over and sing hymns and say a prayer with her, to help her mother feel as comfortable as she could. We asked if she would like the elders to come over and give her a blessing. She said that would be wonderful. We were not able to catch her name but she gave us an address and a time to come. So we went. We called up the Elders and they were completely by chance free at that exact time. We get to the apartment to find that it is one of our neighbors whom we had talked to only a handful of times. We gladly sing a handful of hymns and say a prayer. Then the Elders gave her a blessing. It was so beautiful. Full of comfort. You could see in the dying woman almost as if a weight was lifted off of her, the same as in her family. The spirit was so strong and by the time the Elders lifted their hands off the suffering woman she was peacefully sleeping with a smile on her face. The family was so grateful for the small time we were able to give them.

After this touching moment with this family we went home and Sister Blanc made some killer soup for "linner." But she made so much that we had no room for it in our fridge. So with the excess we were able to package four rather large tuber wares of delicious soup. Just as we were wondering who to give these to we got a call from one of the people we were planning on seeing saying that she was sick. Followed by another call from another investigator saying that she was sick. And then another. And finally a fourth. Literally all within fifteen minutes. It felt like our uber successful day was going down the drain! But then we realized, four sick people, four bowls of soup. Hmm. Needless to say it didn't take long, so we jumped into the car and went to deliver the soup. In two of the houses we were able to do some small services like doing the dishes or taking down the trash. Which we were more than happy to do. Finally we went to drop off the last soup to a woman who lived alone. We were able to do her dishes and share a scripture. She said that it was the most beautiful thing she had heard and that she was willing to go to church. On the way out she asked us if we could get a tub of butter that was in her car. So we went down to go look for her car which she described as a red Hyundai. We exit the building to find that there are THREE red hyundai's! And none of the keys work form them! So in avoidance of an awkward moment. We said a quick prayer and then Sister Blanc had an idea to go and look just behind a dumpster. Don't ask me why anyone would put a parking spot behind a dumpster but the car was there and we were able to get the butter for her. Once we had gotten home we stopped to think about our day. At first we were really sad because we had not reached really any of our goals. Out of six lessons we had planned we had only taught one and half. But then we stopped and really thought about it. We had spent absolutely every moment of our day in the service of others.

Sometimes in life we plan for certain things to happen. We plan to accomplish certain goals by doing certain things. But I can tell you what I learned that day was that it does not matter what we plan for because there was already a plan placed just for us at the beginning of time. And we said that we wanted to follow it. So God helps us. Sometimes the things we plan for that we think are right are not what we really need to do. God helps us by putting us in the situations that we need to be in. I am so grateful to be here as a missionary serving the lord with all the heart that I can give. I am so grateful for this gospel and these truths that we are privileged to share with the world. I love you all and am so grateful for the prayers that you send my way and to other missionaries. Thank you so much.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

Sister Cummings

Choices

Dear friends and family:

We have been having a great time this week working. Elder Peterson is as diligent as ever, and together we managed to apply zone conference and get more new investigators than we have any other week we have had together. We had five NI by Wednesday, and seven by Sunday. We're still working on refining our approach and getting members out with us more so that our investigators progress and come to church, but we have been having a lot more success finding the investigators to teach in the first place.

We have two investigators from last week who we consider to be progressing. One is Marie. The only thing that stopped her from coming to church was her son getting sick the night before. The other is Justice, who was all prepared to come to church and then her parents left instead and had her babysit her siblings instead. It was really frustrating, but we know that if we can get members over there to visit them and Justice's parents we can get both of them (and their families!) to come to church next week. We are also going to keep our focus on finding people to be baptized, and we'll repeat what happened last week... only better.

We went on exchanges with Elder Allen and Elder Miller on Sunday after church, so that Elder Allen could come into our area and so that Elder Miller could learn from taking over the area again. It was a good exchange. We got a lot done but did not find anyone for our own area, but Elder Peterson and Elder Miller had a miracle find who they're going back to see tonight.

Update on college: I was accepted to BYU-Provo! This is great, because I still have the option to go there, but it's also frustrating because now I have a much bigger choice to make. The four biggest colleges I am still looking at are BYU-I, BYU, UofU, and Neumont.

I was thinking about the next few months, and I realized that general conference is only a month away. That's right, my fourth general conference on my mission. (You only get four. Then you die.) Tomorrow is my 6-months to home mark.

What ended up happening with Kayla and everything else we were fasting for as a family?

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Staying in LaMoyne

It seems like every week there is another person that I need to write and just having this hour to do so takes a lot of pulling on those 98 words per minute I had in 7th grade. Ya I am still pretty proud of that and have literally no idea how I managed to do so. Maybe it was because I didn't really have to think about the things I would actually write. Oh before I forget, we received transfer calls and with it the news that I and Soeur Blanc will be staying in Lemoyne for the next 6 weeks at least. *and there was much rejoicing*

Well anyways this weeks addition to the Canadian menu. Maple Leaf cookies. They are at the level of Oreos. Aka a delicious hard cookie sandwich with maple frosting in the middle. I can already feel myself loving maple syrup and am currently debating if I should let my growing instinct to say  "eh!" to finally come out. After all Preach My Gospel advises us to embrace the culture.

This week was amazing! We were able to organize a mini mission with a wonderful sister in the ward by the name of Sister Alvarenga. It was her who introduced us to the magical cookies afore mentioned. We became quick friends. She is just about to finish her missionary papers which is wonderful!  But she pointed something out at the end of the three day mini mission that she understood how the best missionaries are members. And its true. Our temporary companion helped us so much. Her testimony of how the gospel had blessed her opened up so many of our investigators into understanding more of what the gospel can do.

Its a simple truth that missionaries need members. It has also been a subject I have written so much about but it is a truth nonetheless and therefore should be shared. Please talk with the missionaries. Ask if there is anything you can help with. Or even better invite friends to meet with them. Ask them to help you practice to invite your friends. Ask them to help serve a friend who needs a driveway shoveled. you won't regret it in the long run. Just ask the missionaries.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!