S11 E4: Chunky River

 (Elder Cummings)

Howdy y'all!

This week was all over the place I don't know what actually to talk about. I spent the weekend up in Meridian, Mississippi with my boy Elder Smith. We taught some crazy lessons, including putting an sweet ol lady on date!

We had a Trizone Christmas Conference and that was tons of fun seeing a lot of other missionaries I served around.

Thank y'all for your prayers for Katie, Lisa, and Chris, there have been some miracles.

We had an awesome Restoration lesson with Katie and the Ginn family and she was able to make it to church this week!

We did a church tour with our boy Chris and he ate it all up. The Spirit was so strong you could cut it with a knife as we testified of the sweet blessing of baptism by Christ's authority. He was like "I don't know what to say, I want to be baptized though". It was wonderful

Please continue to keep them in your prayers! Love yall and Merry Christmas!!

Elder Cummings

Some photos:

1. Some Dawgs

2. Only in Mississippi is LSU trash

3. Reuniting of the Covington boys selfies

4. Our boy Chris

A Christmas Miracle!

 (Elder Slade)

To the best friends and family a person could hope for!

It's been an awesome crazy week! Transfers happened Thursday, but two days before that, I got super sick, throwing up quite a bit. It was one of the most inconvenient times to get sick, right before transfers. My wonderful companions offered me a priesthood blessing though, and that afternoon I started feeling way better and the day after I was completely fine! It was a Christmas Miracle! 🎅🌌 It was a testimony to me, that God is very aware of us. If we turn to him, he will bless us!

The rest of the week has been great! I moved to my new area with my companion, Elder Auelua from Hawaii. It's been pretty great!  We've been walking a lot in the snow, and it's been so fun! We are looking forward to this week with Christmas. Christmas as a missionary is the best! 🎅🎉

Merry Christmas to you all! I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!

1-3. Different pictures together. We were in a trio for a little bit with Elder Stichart (he's a beast!) He is no longer with us, but it was awesome having him!

S11 E3: Deerburgers

 (Elder Cummings)

Hey y'all!

This one's gonna be pretty short. Afterall, I emailed just a couple days ago. We have had some fire lessons and the people we are teaching are progressing in a miraculous way. The ward is amazing and loves to work with us. Life is G O O D.

Our friend Lisa is on date for baptism!! We got a hold of her 2 weeks ago, she lives in the boonies so we have never been able to meet with her in person. But she joins sacrament via zoom and reads the Book of Mormon every day. We're just on the phone and she told she believes it's all true and wants to be a part of His Church. Miracles.

Our boy Chris. Chris is a legend. We met him last week, had some awesome lessons with a young man in our ward. He came to church, and said that he wants to be baptized just like that! There's a couple obstacles in the road for that but i have never met someone have so much desire to be close to God. Please please please be praying for Lisa, Chris, and Katie

Lastly, we got some ground deer meat from someone we're teaching. Unfortunately it is not the same deer from the picture last week but it was just as good. We made us some deer patty melts. Whataburger style. Very very good.

Again. Please pray for Lisa, Chris, and Katie. We need y'alls faith and prayers! All of them have very unique and hard situations, but any worthy desire they have can come about.

One last time. Pray for our people: Lisa, Chris, and Katie. They need it.

Love y'all have a blessed one

Elder Cummings

Christmas sweaters and transfer news

 (Elder Slade)

To the best friends and family a person could hope for!

This week was sweet! We had some ward Christmas parties we went to and we got to wear our Christmas sweaters!! 🎄 I had been lugging that sweater across my mission for the past year (I don't know why 🤦‍♂️) but I only get to wear it once or twice a year, so I got pretty excited! We also got some aloe-infused Christmas socks. It's pretty epic!

The Rick family has slowly started coming to church. First only Wally came, and then his mom came as well, and then his little sister McKenzie came for the first time this last week. It's amazing to see how the entire family is feeling the spirit drawing them closer to Christ one by one. And that's the way Christ did it, one by one.

Transfer news this week, and I'm getting transferred. For my last transfer I will be going to Shelley with Elder Auelua and Elder Fletcher. I only have 6 weeks left!! It's crazy!! I've loved every second of it! This last transfer I'm going to devote and consecrate to the savior and give it everything. Not one ounce of energy not given to Him!

Last thought: One of the talks in church asked an interesting question that I've been pondering. The question he asked: If the next gift you gave to your family would be your last, what gift would you give them? It made me think. What gift would I give? If you have any thoughts, let me know!

Love you all!

Pictures:

1. Wearing our Christmas Sweaters.

2. My mom sent me a 12 days of Christmas package, and today was day number 1! Thanks mom! You're the best!

3. We spent a night with Elder Romig, what a beast!

Christmas Christmas Christmas

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey, Everyone!!

Haha I forgot to write last week

Well, this week has been awesome! Kathy and Eric came to church last week and this week they brought the kids! It was a huge miracle because they've been inactive for the last few years!

Ben chose a Baptismal date for February!! We are super excited for him but really sad that we probably won't be there since transfers are coming up in a week :(

Denise texted us today saying she found an apartment! We are so happy because now she shouldn't be so busy and we will be able to meet with her!!

Please pray for Kathy and Eric to keep wanting to come to church, and for Ben to keep progressing, and for Denise to the able to meet with us, and pray for me too because I am sick!!

Love you all!!

Sister Alyssa Putnam

S11 E2: Elder Stanfill and a Skinned deer

 (Elder Cummings)

Howdy y'all!

Yes, today is my pday. This week we had the Area President tour the mission and so the whole mission's pday was moved to today. These last almost two weeks have been a blur, but I'll start with the skinned deer:

Here we are, it's already dark out, and we're knocking on this families' door that we've trying to get in contact with. No one ends up answering the door but we look over to our right and there is this man tying up a dead deer to a hanger that connects on the hitch of his truck. As we walk up, he's like "Hey Elders!" as he pulls out a knife and just starts slicing away. In the matter of about 5 minutes he has almost completely skinned it and we talk to him. He knows the missionaries, and is best friends with a member in our ward, and invited us to try some venison with him once he makes some this coming weekend. We asked him where he got it and he was like "about 15 minutes ago in my backyard". That's Mississippi for you. Best part is: his name is Dan. Picture included below.

We had to drive up to Jackson for the devotional with Elder Stanfill and there ended up being 14 missionaries in one apartment just sleeping on the ground. It was so awesome. Slept so bad, but it was awesome.

The best part was the devotional though. I wish I could convey the Spirit that was in the chapel as we listened to Elder Stanfill declare pure and powerful doctrine. The one thing that really hit me is "the more you become a disciple of Jesus Christ, the less it becomes about you" When we take ourselves out of the picture, our decisions become easier. The hardest decision is taking ourselves out of the picture. In the end, we just gotta let God prevail.

Elder Cummings

Christmastime is the best!

 (Elder Slade)

To the best friends and family a person could hope for!

Another great week! The first week of December has brought the excitement of Christmas and I am so excited! Christmas music has been playing, Christmas lights are up and spirits are high! Christmas time as a missionary is literally the best because everything fits with your purpose: service, love, the focus on Christ. It's awesome!! 🎅🎁😄

We have been using SO many miracles across the mission. The Lord has really blessed us. We have 100 less missionaries than we did last year, but we are seeing more success than we were then. It's nothing we are doing, it's all the Lord and the wonderful members working here. It's fitting to be a miracle filled Christmas.

This week we committed our friend Ezra to be baptized. He is praying about it this week, so please keep that in your prayers that he may have that desire. We love him so much, and have really seen him grow these past several weeks we've been teaching him.

Pictures"

1-2. We set some Christmas lights up for Christmas. They spell out 500! That is our goal for baptisms as a mission for this year and we are SO close! One or the pictures I'm with Elder Carillo, one I'm with Elder Quigley.

3. Saying goodbye to Elder Bird.

4. Elder Clark and I in Rigby.

5. Beautiful Sunset one evening.

S11 E1: Chum and Spoon take Mississippi (continued...)

 (Elder Cummings)

Howdy y'all!

Elder Weatherston and I officially made it to the greater Hattiesburg area Wednesday night. We had some great Thanksgiving feasts and got to work. This area has been kind of dead when it comes to missionary work so we're hoping get things rolling soon enough.

Quick highlight from the week:

We were making some calls to people in our records and set up a lesson with a nice lady named Patrice. She pulls up to the church building and is just all about Jesus it is so awesome. We get talking and turns out that she was baptized 22 years ago in this miraculous literally life saving event with the missionaries. We have a good long talk about her story and we talk about the temple and show her a picture of the rededicated Baton Rouge temple and she starts crying and telling us how she has always wanted to make it there. It was a very real and cool experience and Patrice is a legend. Enough said.

Anyway, I had a great week, a lot of work, a lot of help from the Lord.

Have a blessed week y'all

Elder Cummings

Thanksgiving!

 (Elder Slade)

To the best friends and family a person could hope for!

Let me tell you, being a missionary in Idaho on Thanksgiving is the way to go! We had like 3 dinners! I felt so bloated that evening! I promised I was only going to grab a little bit of food at each place, but then when I got there, it just looked too good, so I filled my plate. It was pretty great.

Miracles happened this weeks, of which I wont be able to mention all. But it is amazing to me about how when we are thankful, and truly recognize that all things that we have and are, are from God, then He blesses us even more. I've been so blessed my life, more than I deserve. God is good! He loves us and cares about us!

And now, it's officially Christmas time! The second Thanksgiving dinner ended, we were all about Christmas! 🎅 I am SO excited!!! As we jump into this Christmas season, ponder on what you can do to make this season special. What can you do to serve you family and friends and make it the most meaningful time of your life?

I love you all! I'm grateful for you. Hope you're doing well!

1. Elder Beal and I! His first and middle name are Auto and Mo.

2. Elder Strong and I! 💪He's pretty swol!

3.Elder Brown and I!

4. A snow man we made! He's a missionary snowman!

5. Elder Tasker and I! Funny story: in the middle of the afternoon he strd feeling sick, so we went to the church building, and while we were walking in, he just blacked out and collapsed! I thought he was a goner! He ended up recovering and working the entire night. What a beast!

Thanksgiving!

 (Sister Putnam)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!

This past week and a half has been crazy!!

After going to the gym on Tuesday, we accidentally left the gym without our keys, locking ourselves out of both the gym and our apartment.  I  hopped the fence to the pool area, where there was a door to the gym and discovered it was locked.  We finally had go enlist someone's help from outside. This guy let us in and we got our keys and thanked him and he said, "If you hadn't gone to the gym, this wouldn't have happened. Moral of the story: Don't work out." Thank you, random citizen!

We also met with Emily and taught her a part of hte plan of salvation.  Then we went and met with Ben and Kathie and taught Ben about the Restoration and invited him to church. Kathie asked us about when we decided to follow God and our personal conversion stories, so the 3 of us shared our experiences.

On Wednesday we had a service project that lasted the better part of the day, and this lady had ducks and chickens and I caught a duck. He was quacking so angrily when I caught him lol.  We also went to Katy and Addy's house and taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  During the middle of it, I felt impressed to ask a particular question to Katy instead of do what we originally planned, and - without going into too much detail - we ended up learning a lot more than we would have otherwise, and have more insight as to how to help them both! Follow the small spiritual impressions yall, they aren't really so small!

On Friday and Saturday we went to the Stake Musical to be ushers and we also got to see how talented everyone in our stake was.  It was awesome! Lol Saturday night we had district council and night district council everyone is tired and so funny things are like 10 times as funnyb

On Sunday Ben came to church, and so did Sara and she brought her boyfriend, Ace! Sara is a neighbor girl that Sister Hatton and I started talking to in the parking lot of our complex one day. Sister Rice and I got ice cream with her and we invited her to the primary program last week but she was out of town but wanted to come this week. She said she and Ace loved it and that they want to come again!! We had a departing dinner for Sister Caldwell with President and Sister Auna, and the Senior couples and then we had a lesson with Sister Johnson's friend Nick!

Monday morning Sister Caldwell was picked up by President and Sister Auna to go to the airport. We miss her ;)

Tuesday night we got pizza and went to Sara's apartment to do a paint and pizza night and we talked a lot with her about so many things!!! She's so cool! She is super willing to share things about herself and so we asked her about what she believes about where we go when we die.   We were amazed to find out that she believes nearly the same thing taught in the plan of salvation! She was excited to find that out too! We love Sara and are planning on doing a nails night next time we meet with her!!

Yesterday we had district council and a service project with Opa and a Burn the Bird Zumba workout to compensate for how much we are gonna eat today so that was fun.

Love you all!!

Sister Alyssa Putnam

Light the world!

 (Elder Slade)

To the best friends and family a person could hope for!

There were SO many miracles this week! Ezra came to church for this first time this week, and he loved it! He said he loved singing and wants to come again this next week! Tracy came to Church as well, and she loved it! What was great about them coming to church was that it all was all because of the members. They helped invite them, and sat by them and just loved them! Pretty amazing! Another miracle happened later that day. After a series of promptings, we found ourselves driving down the road and pulled a uturn to talk to this guy on his lunch braless outside a restaurant. We parked and started talking to him. His name was Austen and bore testimony of God's love and set up another time to teach him! It was a pretty cool miracle!

It was also zone conference week! Part of zone conference introduced the new Christmas Light The World initiative the church is doing. Jesus Christ is the light of the world! Let's try to light the world by doing what He did! Here's the link if you want to check it out! https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist

Love you all! Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving! 🦃

Pictures:

1. We brought Elder Dodge to the airport 5o go to Argentina.

2. Did some doordash with a Book of Mormon for a member who wanted it.

3. We went to a massage chair place that was amazing! Here's our sad face before hand.

S10 E6: Chum and Spoon take on Mississippi

 (Elder Cummings)

We have got the transfer news…

Elder Weatherston and I will both be leaving Covington and headed to Oak Grove, Mississippi where we'll finish his training! Honestly, I'm really excited. Besides for exchanges I've never served in Mississippi the first 16 months of my mission, kind of crazy. Ive also never got transferred WITH my companion so that's so much fun. I'm so grateful to be with him for another transfer though, he's a legend, let me paint this picture…

He's a 160 lbs, 6' 5" ginger guy from Nampa Idaho that is going into fashion when he gets home to start his own clothing line. He got hit by a truck like one year ago and almost died and loves jazz music. Everyone just ends up calling him Weatherspoon so we lovingly called him Spoon now. He's basically the most interesting guy in the world

This week was so awesome though. We had a chance to visit New Orleans one day and it brought me way back to the beginning of my mission. It was really exciting though. We hit up some Cafe Du Monde, ate some beignets on the Mississippi River just like ol times, and then visited the Cathedral on Jackson Square. It's the oldest Cathedral in the United States that is still used. See pics for more, it's so pretty. Then we hit up the Superdome and Smoothie King Center where the Saints and Pelicans play.

On Sunday we had a baptism for Miss Evelyn Lott! She had mostly been taught by the other Elders but is an absolute legend. She's a sweet old black lady born and raised in Covington and is just the most fiery but loving person ever. Willor Bedford, another sweet old black lady that I mentioned last week planning to be baptized in December was able to make it to Evelyn's baptism and she was just on top of the world. Turns out they know each other and Willor was like "I gotta go give her a hug im so proud of her" and then they sat and talked for like 10 minutes while Evelyn taught Willor about how she is going to get baptized and the importance of it. As we walked out with Willor, she was just full of joy. She usually has trouble walking and was just like "Man, my legs are working great today! Thank you Lord! I feel so light and happy and welcome! Thank you God! I've never felt like this way before! Come here boys and help walk me to the car!" She's so so so so so awesome, I'm so sad that I will be gone for her baptism next month but alas the Lord has different plans.

Have a blessed one,

Elder Cummings

One year

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey, everyone!

Wow, a lot happened this week! There is a member in our ward whose daughter has chosen to not be baptized yet. So, we went over to her house to see what we can do to help her want to be baptized. She seems lonely and like she needs to spend enough time around the missionaries to realize that we aren't trying to force her into anything and that we really do care. Sister Johnson connected really well with Addy, and that was cool to see!

On Thursday we went over to visit with Anna so she could meet Sister Caldwell and Sister Johnson.  It was awesome to see how well Sister Johnson connected with Anna too! It's cool to see how changes like transfers are inspired!!

On Saturday we met with Emily at a donut place because it was wet and cold.  We tried to teach her about the atonement but it was a noisy environment so it was a learning experience! We'll try somewhere else next time!

We also went and dropped flowers off at Amy's house and sent her a text to let her know.  She responded saying she's been super busy and sick and that she hasn't stopped thinking about us and coming to church.  She mentioned her birthday was coming up on Sunda,y so we stopped by on Sunday and sang her happy birthday and let her know we don't ever forget her. Then we heart attacked her door.

Also, I've been a missionary for a whole year now, as of Thursday!!! As I look back on the last year I realize how much I've changed and grown and how many people I've met and had the opportunity to impact and learn from. It's made me realize how much potential there is in a year, in every minute of day and every month of each year, and how much power we have to make a difference in others lives!

I love you all!!

Sister Alyssa Putnam

"You guys are freaking angels!"

 (Elder Slade)

To the best friends and family a person could hope for!

We had a great week this week! The mission is FLYING by! We had 3 exchanges this week, and it's been sweet! We saw some really cool miracles. When I was in Balckfoot with Elder Vorwaller and Elder Cox, we felt impressed to drive this one way, and we saw some people moving boxes out of a U-haul. We immediately pulled over and started helping. One of the guys immediately said, "You guys are freaking angels!" He was SO grateful, as he had some health issues and was filling overwhelmed with all of the boxes. We helped him for 40 min or so, and then he said he was interested in going to church sometime with us! He said we could stop by the next day and visit him! It was a miracle!

Meanwhile, in my area Elder Quigley and Elder Thomas were seeing miracles as well! They felt impressed to visit this one lady we hadn't visited before, and upon visiting they met her 11 year old son named Ezra. He hadn't heard about Jesus Christ before, but the mom said that he could be taught! We taught him again yesterday, and he said his first prayer, and it was SO powerful! It was amazing!!

Both these experiences taught me a powerful lesson: miracles can happen any time, as we exercise faith, are humble, and seek God's will. I know that none of these miracles are coming of us, but coming of God. It is a joy just being able to see His hand!

Love you all! Thanks for all your support!

1-2. Elder Weber and I on exchanges.

3. Elder Bowen, Karsten (a youth preparing for a mission) and I confront of a guy gutting out an elk. Pretty epic!

4-6. Elder Vorwaller, Elder Cox and I

7. Elder Knowles and I