Stuck in the Promised Land of Central Park in Bentonville

(Sister Slade)

Hey y'all! (I'm picking up on some of the local slang)

This week was transfers. Can you believe it? I've already been out for more than 2 months! Sister Mueller and I are still together for this transfer and we're still in the Central Park area. Sister Mueller was assigned to be the transfer point leader and so we had to be at the stake center all day on Thursday to make sure everyone got where they needed to be. It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been raining all day. :)

Yesterday at church was the primary program. It's always fun to see the kids sing. The primary sang a song called "I will be what I believe." I think you could find it on youtube, and I would highly recommend you go watch it. The ward that I'm serving in is a little bit diverse in that there is a family whose kids don't speak much English, so the primary children all learned a verse from "I am a Child of God" in Spanish so that their kids could participate. There was also a little boy that can only communicate through sign language, so they learned "A Child's Prayer" in sign language as well. There's a reason why Jesus tells us to become as little children. They are some of the best ministers in the church and their hearts are so pure.

Since our last P-day was on Wednesday, I don't have much else to tell you all. Have a great week!

~Sister Slade

Pictures:

1. My district

2. Sister Mueller took this sneaky picture of me

3. Sister Mueller and I celebrating my mom's birthday. Happy birthday mom!

4. Bentonville-opoly. How's that for a mission souvenir?

You Slade It

(Sister Slade)

Sorry! This is the email from last week. For some reason it didn't send.

So my name has become a joke in our zone. If some one does something awesome, they say "you Slade it." And then they glance furtively at me to make sure I got the joke. It was only funny the first 13749204857 times. :)

This week almost every single one of our investigators dropped us. It was quite depressing. BUT. We had some amazing miracles.

A recent convert who has been less active and avoiding members responded to us. He was glad we reached out to him and wants to have dinner with his family.

We went to visit another potential and his family and they remembered the treats we had brought the last time we visited them (luckily we brought more treats this time). They were very open and friendly compared to the last time we talked with them and they invited us to come back.

Another miracle is that the MRI and cerebral angiogram results came back normal. The doctors still can't figure out what's going on, but it's not anything serious enough to send me home. Another small miracle is that the medicine that the doctor prescribed as a guess drastically reduced the effects of the headaches.

If you haven't already, go back and read the talks from General conference. There's so much good in them! Studying the words of the prophets can help you. I promise!

God is good!

      ~Sister Slade

Pictures

1. I could start a news section on things you would only see in Arkansas

2. We had a mission wide apartment cleaning day and we found this. I don't know how we missed that before.

3. A family from our ward took this

4. We went to the Wal-Mart museum for p-day

John 10:10

(Aldste Cummings)

Hey everyone!

This week has been a fun one. It started with saying goodbye to Elder Dumas 😥. I'll miss that man. It was a wild 12 weeks. Sanna bröder skicka det tillsammans.

I stayed two days with the elders in the northern side of Gothenburg as we waited for my new companion, Elder Nelson, to fly in. Two of the four elders up there were going home that next day so we got to help them get ready and say goodbye to them at the train station. I've never been around a missionary on the day he ends his mission. It was an interesting feeling.

In came Elder Nelson and we immediately got to work. It's been really fun so far and the time has been flying by. The other day, we were knocking on doors and we had half a loaf of pumpkin bread that we had baked for a friend that we decided to try to give away to someone that night. So we talked to people the way we normally do, but at the end of the conversation would ask them if they wanted cake (Swedes make fun of us if we call it bread). That caught them off guard and started laughing when we explained the situation. Everyone said no, until this one nice man accepted our pumpkin bread. Mission accomplished.

It snowed on Saturday and because of Daylight Savings Time the Sun sets before 5:30 so that's pretty fun.

The scripture I chose this week was brought to my attention by a talk given at General Conference by Elder Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles called "Believe, Love, Do." Really good talk, would highly recommend it. I was reminded of it when one of the people we were teaching mentioned that in the past couple of months as we had been teaching him and he had begun to gain faith in God and Jesus Christ that his life "feels like more."

He had a little bit of a difficult time describing what he meant by that, but he didn't need to. We knew what he was feeling because we had felt and do feel it ourselves. As we come to Christ and come to know Him, every facet of our lives is enriched in an indescribable yet powerfully noticeable way. As the Savior Himself so poetically stated, we "have [life] more abundantly."

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. Dragon Ball Z ft. Elder Dumas

2. Dumb and Dumber

3. First snow of the season.

4. Well hello there.

2 Nephi 29:8

(Aldste Cummings)

Hello everybody!

We received transfer calls yesterday! Unfortunately, my time with Elder Dumas has come to an end. He will be being transferred to Sundsvall which is up north. He's really excited and I'm excited for him. He will be replaced by one Elder Nelson who I've never met before so I'm looking forward to getting to know him over the next couple of weeks.

On Tuesday we saw this older gentleman painting his fence and before we could offer to help him, he asked us if we wanted to help him. We responded with an emphatic "jajamensan brorsan" and started walking over to help him out. He then told us that he actually wants to do it all by himself and refused to let us help him. Classic Swede. Swedish people are so kind and hate being intrusive that they honestly never accept help from anyone. Even if they ask for it themselves apparently.

Also on Tuesday we played innebandy again with the little kids. It was so fun. As usual. This time, I accidentally this four year-old girl in the face with the ball. Luckily it was just a wiffleball, but still. I'm sorry, Tuva. You're a tough one.

President told us yesterday that it was time to cut our hair. We all knew it was getting a little long. I hadn't cut it since March. Elder Dumas and I decided rather impulsively that we wanted to buzz our heads 1) so we wouldn't have to cut our hair for a longggg time and 2) just cause we kinda wanted to know what it was like and figured the mission was the optimal time to try it out since the people we actually care about impressing live in the United States and can't actually see us (@Morgan). So we buzzed our heads. It's only been a day and I'm already questioning whether or not it was worth it.

This week we were also able to teach one of our friends about the Book of Mormon and testify of its truth for him. He's been Christian his whole life so when we knocked on his door and started talking about another book, he was understandably rather closed to the concept. He said that the Bible was enough for him. I felt prompted to be a little bolder and more straightforward than I usually would be and--being inspired by 2 Nephi 29--asked him why he would complain about having an opportunity to learn more about and grow closer to God and His son Jesus Christ? If the Book of Mormon is true, that's exactly what it offers.

He was a little taken aback and thought about it a little. He asked us to come back and teach him and his wife more about the book which we did this week. They're excited to read and pray about it to receive the Holy Ghost's witness of its truthfulness. The Book of Mormon truly is the word of God. It will help you come closer to Jesus Christ if you begin a serious and prayerful study of it. Even if you're already Christian, take a chance on it and see how much more you can receive in your life.

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. Rocking the afro.

2. I tried to go down the slide on my feet. Didn't work.

3. This may be the most Swedish thing I've ever eaten: Ice cream with edible leaves and petals in the middle of October.

4. Twinning is winning.

Quick trip to the ER

(Sister Slade)

It has been a week! I can't say if it's been a good or a bad week, it's just been a week.

The most exciting part of the week was last Tuesday when I went to the ER. About a week and a half ago, I started having these headaches with really weird symptoms. I did get them 5-9 times a day but they would only last 20 seconds- 2 minutes. Then they would go away. The problem was that when I got these headaches, they were almost paralyzing because they hurt so much. After calling the mission nurse, who called Salt Lake, who called the church's neurologist, we were told to head in to the ER immediaty. They were concerned I had an aneurysm. The good news is that they didn't find anything alarming in the tests. We didn't get home from the ER until 1:30 that morning, and the next day was very long.

They referred me to a neurologist who we saw on Friday who said I am having a rare form of headache called a trigeminal angio- something or other. I didn't catch the rest of what he said. He still wants to do an MRI and a cerebral angiogram which are scheduled for this week to figure out what is causing the headaches and how to stop them. It's all very ironic to me that we had to go see a neurologist when my major is neuroscience. :)

It was all very exciting and exhausting! Sister Mueller has been absolutely amazing through all of this, and has been very supportive. She's become one of my best friends, and I could not have gotten through this week without her.

I'm sure there were other things that happened this week, but I can't seem to recall what they were. In the middle of all of this, I read alma 7:11-13. I love my Savior. I'm so grateful for his sacrifice which makes it possible for me to be "succored according to my infirmities." I know he lives. That knowledge is one of my greatest possessions.

God is good!

      ~Sister Slade

Pictures

1. Proof that I was in the ER

D&C 19:23-24

(Aldste Cummings)

Tjabba grabbar

What a week! We started it off by knocking on a tipsy German concert pianists door. He let us in and I played a little of what I remember from "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen" and he gave me all of the sheet music for Edvard Grieg's piano solo's in a complete set. That was pretty awesome. He also wants to come to church some time which is more awesome.

On Wednesday we had dinner with a member family here and for our message we had each person pair up with another and gave them thirty seconds to draw each other without looking at the paper they were drawing on. The results were hilarious. Then we had them draw each other in 1 minute by being able to look at both the person and the paper. The results were (still hilarious but) much better.

We shared that just looking at the face was like just going to church. We learn about the Gospel but if we aren't applying it in our home life then we aren't looking at our pen while we draw. By learning about the Gospel both at church and at home, we 1) have more time to learn and internalize teachings, and 2) can see how we're actually living our lives and how we need to change and improve. As a result, we draw a clearer and more accurate picture.

We had zone conference on Thursday which was really good and really needed. We talked a lot about how we teach repentance to people. Repentance is more than just praying, reading your scriptures, and going to church. Repentance needs to be a constant refining process and stem from a self-motivated desire to improve and come closer to God in all respects.

On Friday, we and the sister missionaries held a youth fireside in a member family's home. After the opening festivities which included a rousing round of Kahoot--you know what they say: A Kahoot a day keeps the doktor away--we blindfolded the participants and had them pass around objects without speaking while we played some music.

We passed around letters that spelled "JESUS" while they listened to lyrics such as "I'm trying to be like Jesus" and "Be gentle and loving in deed and in thought, for these are the things Jesus taught."

Then they had the opportunity to feel a small star, a manger and other nativity related items while listening quietly to Silent Night. This then transitioned to objects representing the Lord's mortal ministry while a powerful and uplifting rendition of Amazing Grace played.

Things got a little heavier as we began to pass around a rope, a wooden post, a crown of thorns, and finally a metal tent stake while the Tabernacle Choir sung "I tremble to know that for me He was crucified. That for me a sinner, He suffered, He bled and died."

The music stopped. For a moment, everything was still. The silence was broken by the slow pounding of a hammer on solid metal. Then silence again.

The participants were led one at a time out into the dark outside and each stood alone and cold while pondering, among others, the following lyrics: "Did your heart break? Does your heart break now?" and "I cannot see you. I'm alone. Can the blind have sight?"

The tune changes to a hopeful one: "Learn to feel. Learn to begin again. Open our eyes again." "I want to see the love all around you." One by one, the youth were led back into the warm house and received a hug from the father of the household. He then placed gently placed his hands on the side of their head with his thumbs over their eyes while one of the missionaries undid the blindfold from behind. As the blindfold fell, the first thing each participant saw was a large picture of the Savior on the television.

We let them sit there and ponder on their own before we opened it up for a discussion and bore our testimonies of the reality and divinity of Jesus Christ and encouraged each of them to choose a scripture or song that reminds them of the Savior and then read that scripture or listen to that song every day for at least a week to strengthen their love for Christ. I would encourage each of you to do the same thing. As we learn of Him and follow Him, we find the peace we need.

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. That's right, I live here. (pt. 15)

2. I got a lot of material to practice.

3. I tried drawing Joseph without looking. I titled it "Jag heter Joseph."

4. Their four year-old was assigned to draw his dad. This was his attempt while he was allowed to look at both his dad and his paper.

5. Shark or upside down talking chin 🤔?

Im allergic to Arkansas

(Sister Slade)

Hello everyone! I hope you had an amazing week!

Sister Mueller has decided that I'm allergic to Arkansas. My chiggers bites are finally healed, which means that round two of chiggers had to start. The giant mosquito bite from last week is also pretty common for me. The mission nurse saw one of those bites and told me that I actually am having an allergic reaction to the mosquitoes. Also, I had a rash on my face that we found out was from airborne poison ivy. (Airborne poison ivy! isn't that just sick and wrong?) Despite all of this, I love Arkansas. It's a beautiful place, and the people and members here are the best of the best. This mission is just neighboring to Independence Missouri, so the members in Bentonville call this mission the Great Value Zion. (That's funny in more ways than one if you consider what Bentonville is famous for).

Anyway, how did everyone enjoy conference? I thought it was amazing! There were so many good talks, that I can't choose just one as my favorite. The women's session was really good. I also really liked Elder Hollands, and President Nelson's. President nelson really is the prophet of god on earth today. He leads and guides the church under the direction of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful that we have his guidance in these latter days. General conference weekend was also nice because with today, it feels like 3 P-days in a row. :) The only disappointment from conference is that Arkansas didn't get a temple. The members in Bentonville are part of the 15% of the church membership that doesn't have a temple within 200 miles pf where they live.

Here's an update on the week of gratitude prayers. This has been the hardest week on my mission, but also the best. Satan really didn't want us to recognize the miracles, but Light always overpowers Darkness. The weather has been rainy, windy, and miserable, so biking was a million times harder. (Also, because a few people have asked, we bike an average of 12-15 miles a day. Sometimes we bike as much as 20). Some of the people we were teaching dropped us without notice. The Ward missionaries oppose the new way that president Strong is having us do missionary work. BUT, we've had so many miracles that I can't even list them all. A referral from several months ago contacted us and wants to meet with us again. Two different people who have been too busy to meet with us very often had their schedules open up so they can meet with us. We contacted 2 new potentials that we have appointments to teach next week. President Strong had an impression to call us after our most difficult afternoon and said exactly what we needed to hear. And the list goes on! If you didn't take my invitation to do a gratitude week, take it now! It was an amazing experience, and changed how I look at a lot of things.

God is Good!

Love,

     ~Sister Slade

Pictures!

1. The fridge at the mission home. Someone ordered too many hot dogs and donated the rest to the mission.

2. Sister Mueller and I going for a night time ride.

3. Another Arkansas sunset

4. Something you'll only see in Arkansas as a Halloween decoration.

Isaiah 29:19

(Aldste Cummings) 

Hello everybody!

This week was a party, let me tell ya.

Early in the week we went on splits with the Kungsbacka Elders which meant I spent the day with ELDER BIRD. Which, as always, was tons of fun. We actually got a lot done, too. Taught a lot of people and helped them come closer to Jesus Christ.

To top it all off, we had lunch at an American diner in the city that had an all-you-can-eat pancake challenge. The challenge was to see how many American pancakes you could eat in 45 minutes. The record is(was) 28. I partook just to enjoy as many pancakes as I wanted. It was a thoroughly pleasant experience.

ELDER BIRD's experience was markedly less pleasant. He was in it to win it and started scarfing down these pancakes. He had been preparing his stomach for the past two days and even started dipping the pancakes in water to eat them faster and more effectively. After a little bit, the cakes caught up to him. Unfortunately, ELDER BIRD had to tap out at 16. A worthy effort. Please give him a round of applause.

The same time we were there, a Swedish guy, Simon, was trying the challenge as well. When he had about 10 more minutes to go, he told us that he had eaten 15 pancakes. 10 minutes later, we saw that the waitress was erasing the whiteboard that had the previous record written on it and replacing it with the "new" "record" "set" by Simon: 29 pankakor.

ELDER BIRD and I were sitting right by the diner's griddle--for easy access to more pancakes förstås--and knew that the diner didn't even make 14 more pancakes in the last 10 minutes of the challenge. Either way, we congratulated Simon and expressed our amazement by his ability to eat  pancakes 16-29 in 10 minutes. We decided not to call him out on it to keep the peace. Simon, if you're reading this, I want you to know that Jesus knows how many pancakes you really ate.

On Saturday, we were on our way to grab fika with a man who wanted to hang out with us but wasn't really interested about learning about the Gospel. We ran into him on the way to the cafe and decided that instead of having fika in town, we'll just go to an outdoor zoo and walk around.

It was incredibly fun. We were just talking to him the whole time and seeing these animals in the beautiful Swedish forest. Honestly, Elder Dumas and I were almost more impressed by the rocky landscape than the animals. We also found this huge playground with a slide that was like 30 meters long and dropped like 10 or 15.

Anyway, we just had the time of our lives for about an hour but the conversation--as it inevitably does as missionaries--made its way over to the Gospel, and the joy that we find in a personal relationship to Jesus Christ. We were talking to Anders--Not to be confused with any previously mentioned Anders--about how much joy comes from Jesus Christ despite our circumstances and how that joy changes us and motivates us to become better people. In the middle of this conversation, we end up running into this family whose kids needed help with climbing a tree and hopping on a pogo stick and we just stopped and helped them out and talked to them for about 10 minutes. Anders was so impressed with the love and kindness we showed to these complete strangers that by the end of our little excursion, he was asking for us to teach him more about Jesus Christ.

If you watched General Conference this weekend, you would know that joy really does come from a love for and love from Jesus Christ. His light permeates us and our lives. A true understanding of Christ's live and love will transform your soul. I testify of that.

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. That's right, I live here (pt. 14)

2. Pancake #13

3.This rocks my world.

4. Very little explanation required here.

5. "[We] am the Lorax. [We] speak for the trees."

6. Come join the Baltimore Yacht Club!

7. Sunday, about 8:00 PM. That bucket was full of 2 kilograms of candy on Saturday at 6:00 PM.

Matthew 9:12

(Aldste Cummings)

Hey everybody!

What a week it's been. Welcome to yet another installment of "Ya boys in the 'burg." I hope you enjoy.

I'll start this off by saying that y'all should check out General Conference on Saturday and Sunday. It's going to be super inspiring. You can find information about it on lds.org.

This week we went with our friend Anders to a member's orchestra concert. It was so awesome. It wasn't just any orchestra. It was the official Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. A member in our ward plays the tuba in the orchestra and was able to get us into the final (and only) rehearsal the morning of the concert. It was so cool. The music was great and Anders--who writes music for video games--loved it.

On Saturday we went out to knock doors in the chilly autumn weather. It was really fun and we got to talk to talk to a lot of people who want us to come back some time to teach them more about our message. In the last 15 minutes of our knocking stint, a group of little kids called out to us and started talking to us. They were so adorable and funny. We gave them candy and talked about America and taught them some English words. So fun. When we got on the bus to leave, they all lined the bus stop and waved to us as the bus pulled away. Warmed my heart.

Church yesterday was SO GOOD. The young women in the ward held the entire meeting and gave talks and bore powerful testimonies and sang really moving musical numbers. It was phenomenal. The Spirit was tangible. Elder Dumas and I were both crying during parts of the program. Peng patted my back to comfort me. Thanks Peng. You can always count on Peng.

We had a couple of nonmember friends at church yesterday and each one of them were very moved by all the meetings. One who has been struggling with depression and dissociation from reality said that the Gospel Principles class helped them more than anything their doctors had said or prescribed. Another who had come from a broken family growing up, felt so much joy and hope seeing the young women bear their testimonies of Christ. Another who had recently moved here and feels as though they have no friends was comforted by the warm and inviting atmosphere and Christlike love of the members.

Christ is there for everyone. We all have things we struggle with in life. It may sound naive to some of you to say that there is something--or rather someone--that can take the pain away and lift you out of your trials. Christ walked on Earth and reigns in Heaven as the physician to the sick. Whatever your ailment, I promise that there is a balm in Gilead (see Jeremiah 8:22). Turn to Him and you will find peace to your soul.

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. Doing some yoga at a member's house.

2. Anders trying on a sousaphone.

3. Namaste.

4. Surprise birthday party for Pål!

5. A member made us nettle soup. This soup is basically just stinging nettle and water. Surprisingly tasty.

6. Elder Dumas got transferred. Tristan is my new companion.

7. Our send-off. Felt like I was leaving home all over again.

How do you say 8 in Spanish? Octo?

(Sister Slade)
Either the weeks are getting shorter or we went through a time warp. I seriously woke up this morning thinking it was only Wednesday. Nope. It's Monday. The subject line is a direct quote from Sister Mueller.

This week was amazing! For starters, JENNIFER IS GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!! On Thursday, we were teaching her. We were talking about eternal families, and I had the thought to invite her to be baptized. I did NOT want to, but something (the holy ghost) basically forced the words out of me. And she said yes! She actually got really excited and said that baptism is something she had been thinking about. It's amazing to me to see how she's changed. Missionaries have only been teaching her for as long as I've been here which is only 3 weeks. I'm so excited for her to be baptized hopefully on the 13th.

This week was also zone conference. I was the pianist for it, and Sister Mueller and I did a special musical number. One of the topics for the conference was diligence. If anyone wants an awesome study topic, study diligence. It means a lot more than what your first thought of it is.

We had another finding miracle this week. We had a member referral for the last 3 months that would never answer when we tried to contact her. We decided to try one last time on Tuesday. She answered and was super excited. She is looking for a church and viewed our call as an answer to prayer. We have an appointment with her this week. It was awesome.

Fun thing from this week, we had dinner with an awesome family last night. While we were there, we found out that the Sister went to college with my Aunt Wendy. They were in the relief society presidency together. It's a small world after all. (I'm sorry if that song is now stuck in your head.)

Don't forget the words of Elder Holland. the first great commandment is to love god with all of our heart, might, mind and strength. But the first great truth is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength. And I love you too!

God is Good!

~Sister Slade

P.S. Sister Mueller and I have decided that this week will be a gratitude week. We will only pray to thank Heavenly Father and we won't ask for anything. I'm challenging all of you to do the same. I predict that we will see miracles this week if we show our gratitude to Heavenly Father.

Pictures!
1. Check out this street name!
2. Another gross spider. remember how big these things are.
3. Sister Mueller and I being normal people instead of missionaries.
4-7. pictures of the chalkboard experiment. We have people write down their answer to a prompt. We did this in normal clothes and going by our first names. It was weird.
8. The biggest most painful mosquito bite ever. (No I have not scratched it...yet)