Transferring again

Dear friends and family:

I'm astonished that I am transferring again. I had resolved myself to serve in Fort Myers for the last four transfers of my mission, but I guess that's not where the Lord wants me to be at this time. Elder Parker and I are both determined to leave the area in a good condition, so the new missionaries can come in and take up where we left off. We're cleaning everything really well, making notes about weekly meetings and future appointments, which members are available usually to come out teaching, and other such information.

The Fort Myers stake has been trying to focus on contacting prospective elders - members who have the Aaronic priesthood, and who have been members for a long time, but who have never received the Melchizedek priesthood. That has been a large part of our efforts this week, and we have seen a few miracles from that. One of them we saw when we tried to visit an inactive member who is married to a nonmember, both of whom lived in Utah for several years. They let us come in to their gated community, which is surprising because as they told us, they rejected missionaries every time we tried to come over for several years. They allowed us to share a quick message from the scriptures, which brought in the spirit. He is not ready to come back just yet, but that gave us the opportunity for God to work in their hearts.

Elando was unfortunately unable to come to church this week, because he was in Bonita. But Jorkens, a 19-year-old Haitian investigator who just moved here from Haiti, came to church and can't wait to be baptized! He's a little hard to get in contact with, because he is still in High School and he is going to college almost every night in order to learn English, but it's a blessing that we were able to work with him and we will miss him a lot, even though we will not be here to see him baptized.

I don't know exactly what time I will be skyping on Mother's day, because I don't know exactly where I will be. But it most likely be in the early afternoon for me, which means late morning for you. What time is church in Rye? Also, which skype account will you be using?

I'm excited to hear about all of my cousins receiving their mission calls. Yes, Austin is in the Milan, Italy mission as well.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Being a Missionary is Pretty Amazing

You know? Being a missionary is pretty amazing. It is as if you are always watching from the treasured court side seats and one of the most holy, miraculous and unforgettable basketball games known to man. In a nutshell? Beautiful. I get to see daily as the healing and loving hand of the savior in peoples lives and the comfort that it brings. One of the most amazing evidences of this love is the fact that we hold the holy power of God and it is always just a touch away, ready to be used.

We had a rather large scare this week that has strengthened my testimony on the importance of members in missionary work and miraculous power of the priesthood.

It had started off with asking a member to join us for a lesson with a less practicing member of our ward that we have worked with for a long time. Sometimes as missionaries we find that we are using the exact same members to join us for lessons and rarely use others, recognizing this my companion Sister Ford and I had chosen to pray and find someone "out of the ordinary." We found that we were set on a certain sister in our ward. We called her up and sure enough she was able to join us. A couple of days later we met her at the apartment of the less active member and went into the lesson.

The man was sick. So sick that he had not eaten in over three days. He was still wanting us to teach so we shared a short scripture and our testimonies. However one of the more amazing parts of the lesson was when our member asked if this man wanted to go to the hospital and offered him a ride. Very few other members would have offered to take someone to a Canadian emergency room where the wait is longer than any known marathon race. We "just happened" to have the right one with us.

After taking him to the hospital the doctors were able to take care of him and diagnose him in almost record time. However the following day he was still feeling the same symptoms with no improvement, and had asked for a priesthood blessing. The Elders were able to come immediately to give the blessing. The spirit was in the room so strongly that there was no dry eye, and the difference in the man before and after the blessing was miraculous.

I know that we had been inspired to bring a member to the lesson, and specifically to bring that member. I know that our member was inspired to offer her services to the sickly man. I know that God guided his servants in the giving of the priesthood blessing and that he comforted and healed the man through this holy power. I know that God loves each and every one of us here on this Earth and helps and inspires people to guide us and lift us in our lives. I know that he is with us at every moment in our lives. I know these things and I say these things in name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love,

Sister Cummings

Le Cabin a Sucre

The official Canadian Sugar Rush translates pretty much to french as le cabin a sucre. Or more literally the sugar shack. This is where all quebecois, both old and young, rejoice together of the miracles known as MAPLE SYRUP! I have included a couple of pictures as I had the opportunity to attend such an event. Pretty much what this sugar shack is, is an all you can eat of anything maple, mapley, mapled, or mapled on. Including the most delicious thing in the world called tire, pronounced tear. Which is a maple syrup taffy that when hot is put, traditionally, on a wooden log full of snow. Then the consumer may stick a stick into the gooey now hardening deliciousness and consume of its glory as one may consume a lolly pop. I have included a picture of the making of this delicacy. One depicting a true Quebecois with their true Quebecer platter drowning in syrup. My new companion Sister Ford and I participating in the event. And yours truly posing with a chicken. You just can't go wrong with those chicken poses.

I do wish to apologize for all whom I inadvertently lied too when I stated that "I will never like maple syrup even if I live in Canada!" For it was a false statement.

Anywhoo. Now on to the spiritual stuff.

I would like to take what little time I have to testify of daily scripture study. A little over a month ago I made it a goal to study the Book of Mormon everyday. For those who are not familiar with this book it is another testament of Jesus Christ, and is very comparable to the bible though its writings stem from the inhabitants of the ancient Americas rather than that of the Middle East. However not only had I made this goal, I had decided to read it in French. Through that my language abilities have grown immensely. And if only that were the soul outcome of this goal. Through reading and studying the Book of Mormon everyday I have been able to learn and apply the words of the Lord. Daily. Through reading the book of Mormon daily I have been able to recognize the hand of the lord. Daily. I am growing in my testimony of the restored gospel. Daily.

There are so many other benefits that I have found from reading the book of Mormon...bet you can't guess what I am going to write...DAILY. I can testify of the redeeming love that Jesus Christ has for me and for all his children and through this love he allowed us to receive a divine translation of these scriptures that allow us to see more fully of his wondrous and mighty miracles. I can testify these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

I love you all and have a wonderful week!

Fantastic Week

Dear friends and family:

This week was a fantastic week. As you know, last week was a struggle for both me and Elder Parker. But this week, we rebounded about as fast as I've ever seen it done. Usually, when an area is struggling, it takes a few weeks to get it into a healthy state again. But this week, despite the fact that things sucked last week, we saw huge miracles all week long.

The largest miracles that we saw happened after church on Sunday. We were adamant that we would achieve our goal for member-present lessons, and so we brainstormed and resolved to call our recent convert to get him to come out teaching with us. He came, and we had several incredible lessons with him.

After he taught with us, we returned him to his house, and then knocked in the neighborhood around his house. We had a miracle when we found one neighbor who had just moved back to Fort Myers from New York. He had been attending church in New York for several months now, and he really loved it. He wanted to get baptized. We set him with a date to be baptized on May 9th.

Later in the evening, we followed up with a referral from the English missionaries in our area. We had tried to see him on many occasions already, and we had little faith that he would be home, but we stopped by and found another elect soul, completely ready to hear and to accept the gospel. He had been preparing to be baptized in Haiti, when the US immigration process was completed, and so he was flown in to live with his family here, and his plans to be baptized were foiled. But he is still a deeply spiritual person, and he has been feeling the need to be baptized as well. He also has a date, also for the ninth of May.

One other investigator is worth mentioning: we have been teaching Elando, a young man who wants to be baptized but who doesn't feel ready to do it. He came to church with us yesterday, and then in the evening, he went down to Bonita to a youth fireside about trek. He's hesitant to accept a date, but we'll keep working with him. He could be baptized as early as May 2nd, but we haven't decided if that's the best thing for him yet. (We want his parents to have more participation in it as well, and he has to be converted to his own baptism date.)

Finally, another miracle happened this last Friday. After reviewing appeal letters, the scholarship board at Neumont University decided to award me with the Presidential Scholarship, which amounts to about 75% of tuition costs for the three years that it requires to get a bachelor's degree there. So, I'm withdrawing my housing agreement and application for BYU, and I'll be preparing to go to Neumont University, starting about two weeks after I return home from my mission.

All of the college stress is gone! Now the biggest choice I have to make is to decide which degree to pursue. And that choice doesn't have to be made until about eight months into my college career, so I'm fine for another 14-16 months!

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Staying in LeMoyne

Well first off we received our transfer calls. I will be staying in Lemoyne! However my beautifully amazing Haitian companion will be leaving to go even farther North to a branch just outside of Quebec City. I will miss her loads but I know she will do amazingly. She also was very careful in teaching me how to make rizcolle the way she does so I can still eat it even while we are separated.

This week's title may sound a little dramatic but what I experienced this week I would say was very dramatic. This week I was asked to sing at a funeral, of a man with a wonderful story.

Brother Roy had been born and raised a Quebecois. He had met his wife while playing the guitar in a concert where she was singing. Many many years after their wedding Sister Roy was introduced to the church and was promptly baptized. However her husband would have nothing to do with these gospels up until he was sixty-nine and he found he had a change of heart. He suddenly started meeting with the missionaries and after forty years of waiting his wife saw him be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. There he had leaned over to one of his good friends and had said "I now know where I will be if I die, and I am ready." Promptly a year and a half later he was diagnosed with a very rapid cancer and died after a month of diagnoses.

One thinks that a family struck so suddenly by the loss of a beloved father and husband would be saddened beyond belief. But the results were quite the contrary. True the family was sad for the loss, they were also comforted in knowing that they would meet him once more and live as a family after this life.

Something that I have come to realize out here on my mission is the importance of an eternal vision. And as Elder L. Tom Perry shared, our church is the only church that makes the family an eternal element. Which was so evident in the service we attended.

Many testimonies were shared on this concept and also that though Brother Roy had left this life he was much much happier in the next. The family giving their last words to their father were full of smiles and thanks that he had chosen to be baptized and that they will live together again. The service finished with the choir singing "Plus Pres de toi Seigneur" or "Nearer my God to thee." In which I was given the opportunity to sing the third verse as a solo. With the piano and flute in the air there was scarce a dry eye in the assembly. And all were tears of thanks to a loving heavenly father and his redeeming love.

We are among the few who know the truth that we can live with our father in heaven again and live with those we have lost here on this life through the atonement of Christ. We hold this truth or this light and we must share it. There are many in the world who are in darkness or do not know the truths of the Plan of Salvation, or that we have once again the true power of God on the earth ready to be used to give blessings of comfort and healing. I have been blessed with being born into this knowledge and I can now testify with a fullness of heart that I know this church is true. I know with all my heart that through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can be saved and live with our families for eternity. I know that through the Prophet Joseph Smith we have been able to receive these revelations. I know these things and I do share them in the beloved name of Jesus Christ, our Saviour. Amen.

Sister Cummings

Trying week

Dear friends and family:

This week has been one of the most trying on my mission. Occasionally in missionary life you have a day where nothing works out, and the day comes and goes and you feel like you've done absolutely nothing. This week, for the first time in my mission, the same phenomenon occurred over the course of the whole week. I feel exhausted, almost all of our investigators are dropped... but I'm ready and excited to get up and work harder next week!

Lest you all think that because of that, we didn't have anything good happen or we didn't see any miracles, I'll include a few highlights. The week would be a success even if only one of the following miracles had happened:

1. A less-active member, who shied away from the church about four years ago and started smoking, came to church for the first time in forever. She is determined to quit her addiction and to become active again in the church. It was a miracle that we found her, at exactly the moment that she was again ready to receive the gospel, and it is a miracle that we can

2. We had a wonderful zone training on Wednesday, where we received additional instruction on how to be effective missionaries. The zone training was mostly focused on how to use the missionary pamphlets to teach each of the lessons simply and compactly, in a way that anyone could understand. We are excited to use the pamphlets more in finding and teaching, and we have already seen our lessons improve as we do this!

3. On Sunday, some time in the evening, we were knocking in a place that a member had referred to us as a place to knock, and we found a miracle. We found an educated Haitian man whose biggest problem with religion was that there were so many of them, and that all but a few of them seem to be built with the intention of getting gain or power. We taught the restoration simply, using the pamphlet, and committed him to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it. He is intrigued with the idea of Jesus Christ having a church, and he is excited to be baptized as he finds out for himself that it is true.

As far as college applications go, my first choice at this point is to go to Neumont University, but I am struggling to get the funding required to attend. I was accepted, but my circumstances will not allow me to afford it unless I receive the presidential scholarship, which they have already denied me. But they are allowing an appeal, which they will review on this Friday. Because of that, I have to type up a quick appeal letter explaining why they should permit me the scholarship regardless of their past decision. I have to send it in today. So I apologize if my letter to all of you is a little rushed, I don't have a lot of time and I need to make sure I get that done in my 1.5 hours today.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

P.S. About my mission and iPads: I am not sure what happened, why our mission never received iPads, even though it has been repeatedly scheduled to receive them over the last two or so years. I don't know when the mission is getting iPads, but I know they are doing another big push in May, and that currently my mission is not on their list of ~20 missions to receive them then.

This means, unfortunately, that unless something changes soon, the earliest my mission could receive iPads is in July, less than two months before the end of my mission. If that were to happen, I almost certainly would opt out and stick with paper material for the last six weeks of my mission to avoid wasting money. So, as far as I am concerned, I will never receive an iPad on my mission.

Lundi Saint

So for some reason there is such thing as Good Monday here and it is in fact a holiday…And when Canadians have holidays they just kind of abandon everything. Luckily we found a place to do emails today and do groceries because pretty much everything else is closed. Do we have a celebration after Easter or is that just the Canadians?

Well this week, on top of the wonderfulness of general conference, Sister Blanc and I went on splits with our Sister Training Leaders. And for the first time in a about seven months I was the one who left the area and went to the area of the other sisters. It was probably one of the most amazing days ever. For one thing we woke up and the sun was actually shining! It was a whopping 14 degrees Celsius!!!! And we had everything planned. Every hour of our day was going to be taken up by a lesson with someone. We barely had time planned to eat! It was a missionaries dream! But As what seems to be the case we found ourselves knocking on soemones door who had forgotten we had an appointment and was not home. But we didn't let that take control of us. We went ahead and started walking to the car. On our way we saw a woman carrying a bunch of grocery bags. Well on instinct we asked her if she would like help. She warned us saying that she was walking a very long way. Not perturbed We lightened her load.

I wasn't able to find the scripture, but in the bible the Saviour teaches that if a man asketh you to walk one mile. Walk with him twain. Well we walked twain. The lady was not lying. It was really really far away. Luckily though a long walk makes for a long talk. We learned about this woman and how she was really struggling, with work, with family, you name it this woman was living it. We talked to her about the gospel and the happiness it has brought to us, we even gave her a Book of Mormon. After a long Long LONG time we finally made it to her house and helped her get everything in, she gave us a drink of water and we were on our way back to our car, talking and contacting people along the way. We do not know what will come of her, but I do know one thing, that God had put us in the way of that woman to help her and to be a comfort to her. Plus on top of it all I am pretty sure I got a bit of a tan on my wrists! The sun was actually shining!

And after having that wonderful day we finished the week with the wonderful moment to hear the prophet and apostles of God speak to us and comfort us. I for one am really grateful for the wonderful testimonies of Elder David A. Bednar, and Elder Wilford W. Anderson. It was so inspiring. I know that they are really set apart and chosen testifiers of Jesus Christ who really receive revelation from him.

I love you all and thank you for the wonderful prayers that you send my way, I pray for you too.

Sister Cummings

Unexpected Event

Dear friends and family:

I finally received the invitation to Britney's wedding a few days ago. It looks nice. I'll only regret not being able to be there.

I thoroughly enjoyed general conference this weekend. We watched all but one of the sessions at the church building. (I still watched the other one, just not at church.) I loved all of the talks. It seems to me that in general, most of the Saturday talks were about marriage and eternal families, and most of the Sunday talks were about staying active and how to love inactive family members (and Easter, of course.) My favorite talk was the "do you dance" talk as well, because it was funny and I most certainly do not dance.

Half-way through the Sunday afternoon session, however, we had a little unexpected event interrupt our gospel revelry. Somehow or other, the fire alarm went off inside of the church, although there was no fire. A fire truck was dispatched, and they came and checked around the building as we continued to watch conference. We lost some of our focus because of that, but it was a funny occurrence. We'll just learn from that talk when we get the ensigns instead.

One of the things that I am most excited about is the newly announced temple in Haiti. I don't know when it is likely to be completed, but I fully intend to be there for the dedication! (And open house, if I can swing it, but if I remember correctly the open house and dedication were separated by two weeks in the Fort Lauderdale temple, and I don't really look forward to spending 2.5 weeks in Haiti... but I'll worry about that in the future.)

For those of you who don't yet know, the church has a great new Easter initiative, similar to the Christmas one that they did last December. It's called "Because He Lives," and this one will continue for most of the rest of the year. New videos will come out in the initiative every few months, each focusing on the miracles and blessings that we receive because of Jesus Christ. You can find out more and watch the first video at HeLives.mormon.org.

This week we struggled a lot to find new investigators, but we are still hopeful for Matt, our investigator from Laos. He came to the priesthood session of General Conference and really enjoyed it. He now has a copy of the book of Mormon in Thai, which is supposedly really close to the language spoken in Laos.

I still don't have any news on Neumont University, although supposedly something is coming soon...

(Note from Mom: Brandon was accepted to Neumont University and was awarded an Achievement Scholarship of $15,000 as well!  This is not the Presidential Scholarship we were hoping for, but I will be researching what we need to do to appeal the decision and maybe still get awarded the Presidential...Yay, Brandon!)

Thanks for all of your help and support,

Elder Slade