Will you Slade into my DMs?

 (Elder Slade)

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

This week's title come from someone we're teaching named Autumn. We were texting her back and forth and she texted "Will you Slade into my dm's?" I thought it was pretty funny! This week wasn't too eventful, other than that, haha! We've been helping a less active family start come back to church, and this week they attended church over zoom! They are making progress, and hopefully we can get them to full activity soon. This week I also hit my year mark! It was pretty uneventful, but it feels weird that I am now on the downward slope of my mission. I'm looking forward to this coming year.

Elder Maunana also ate the calf liver this week! It was a nasty purple color and looked gross, and to Elder Maunana, tasted the same way it looked. Along with other exotic foods, we made some hamburgers made of Moose meat that someone gave us. It was surprisingly good! Would reccomend.

This week I was reading a talk by Elder Bednar about looking outwards, when one's natural instinct would be to turn inwards. Christ always turned outwards while he was going through suffering. Doing so allowed him to complete what His Father had asked him to do. When we are in suffering and we turn outwards to help others, it is a sign of a Christlike Character, and will allow us get through challenges in life with joy and love, a much better alternative to self-pity and sorrow. I'd invite you to try to turn outwards this week, even if you are suffering.

Love you all!

1. The parrot of Doug Grover, an older man we are teaching.

2. Elder Holmes and I eating our Moose burgers

3. Cool snow spikes on the trees

4. Elder Maunana beat Elder Uolmes by eating 76 gum balls.

5. The infamous calf liver.

S3 E6: Travel News!!

 (Elder Cummings)

That's right guys!! We got news this week...

I'm headed to a Spanish area! Kind of, not really. The real news is that Elder Pratt is leaving for South Korea in like 2 days and so I'll be a trio with the 2 Spanish Elders in our quad for the next week or so until transfers. We'll be working both of our areas so that'll be fun.

This week us two and Brother and Sister Palmer were headed to a lesson. After knocking on the wrong door twice... I decided to pull out Mekia's address. That was awkward, but I just was like "so THAT'S what tracting feels like". Anyway we get to her apartment and the doors open and she's just chowing down on some massive shrimp the way only a born-and-bred New Orleansite could, it was legendary. We walk in and she has a friend there too and we're pumped to teach some gospel. As soon as we start talking Mekia's friend, Susan, is like "Do y'all use the KJV bible?" And we answer in the affirmative. Then Brother Palmer straight up says "We also have another book of scripture called the Book of Mormon" and I almost choked. Please do not get me wrong, the Book of Mormon is powerful and one of our greatest tools in bringing people closer to Christ, but here in the Bible belt, people are very very very very very wary of accepting anything else as scripture so we have to be careful when we introduce it and I was just taken back.

However, Brother Palmer must've been inspired because Susan was like "Oh! I remember y'all now! I used to talk with you guys...John Smith right?"...Oh how I love John Smith. Anyway, we ended up talking a lot about the Restoration of the Gospel. And I felt the confirming witness again that the message we bring to the world is true. I stood there(there wasn't enough chairs) and testified the best way that I could that the heavens are open, that God speaks to His children now, and leads them now. God has given the world a prophet, and oh how we need a prophet today. Listen to him, follow him and you will Hear Him and be following Him.

Have a great week y'all!

1. Some Kachen food at Yawyaw's house(not kitchen, Kachen)

2. Us(elder roodbol) cleaning the car

3. Awesome chalk drawing of the Baton Rouge temple that I signed my name on the bottom and took a picture...then I erased my name don't worry, it was just for memes

Lotsa Things

 (Sister Putnam)

Monday: Golden Retriever!!

For Pday we went to WinCo & ran into a ton of other missionaries there, so we talked for a long time & then we went to the mall. On our way in we saw someone walking a golden retriever puppy so we got to pet the puppy and he was so cute! In the mall we got frozen hot chocolates from DQ and the guy at the cash register paid for mine, which was really nice!

Tuesday: Flamingo service

We went to bishop's storehouse & since it was Tuesday instead of Saturday, we were with Elders Wilkey and To'omalatai, and they are so fun! Brother Davis had me put a trivia question on the little whiteboard and so I put "Why do flamingoes stand with one leg up?" the answer, of course, was to conserve heat (and therefore energy). Well we decided to make the flamingo thing into a game (there were very few orders and we were getting really bored) so we tried to see who could stand on only one foot the longest. I honestly don't remember who won but it was pretty fun haha.

Wednesday: Fishy Exchanges!!!

On Wednesday we had exchanges and to begin, we all went to get sushi together, had district council, and we did Relatives Around Me on FamilySearch.  The closest I am related to anyone in that district is 9th cousins haha. Then we had a lesson with a ward member but they didn't show up.

Thursday: AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

We had a Bible study with a lady named Kristen again. She's in Washington, actually, just not in our mission. She wanted to learn more about the Book of Mormon and so we taught her about the Restoration. She said that she's also doing studies with some missionaries in California, and that they read a chapter of the Book of Mormon together and it was super powerful. Kristen said she knew ever since she was baptized into her church when she was a kid that always knew there was more than just the Bible. She said she already knew it was true without even having finished read the whole thing or prayed about it yet!!

Friday:

Friday, we had lots of texting lessons, and we dropped off cookies to new people in the ward who'd moved in.   Nobody was actually home when we dropped off the cookies, and we couldn't find the majority of the people we tried to go to, so that was kinda frustrating.

Saturday: Ghosted

It was Elder Wright's birthday so we & the Sister Training Leaders waited for him & Elder Iketau to be at the gym & then we all decorated his door with birthday cards & stuff, so that was awesome, and he liked that. We tried to contact Reba on Saturday, and I sent a text to the group message Sister Madsen and I had with her, and Reba just showed up as "Facebook User" so I went to go and DM her & she again showed up as Facebook user & it says she's not available on messenger. So, I went to look up her profile & there was nothing. She was showing up for Sister Madsen on Messenger but not on FB so later that night we asked Elder King to look her up & she didn't show up, so it appears she's deleted her Facebook account altogether. We're worried about her & we've been praying for her, & we hope she's okay.

I love you all, thank you so much to all of you who read through these emails, sorry they're so long haha

Sister Alyssa Putnam

S3 E5: Winter for a Week

 (Elder Cummings)

Yeah so this week was lot's of fun but man was it cold, it like dropped to the 30s all week and now it's back in the 70s. They say the only thing that's constant about New Orleans weather is that it's never constant.

This week included cleaning a rat infested shed, filling an 18 wheeler with goods for some Hondurans in need, eating the biggest plate of fried chicken, fried plantains, and lettuce in my life, a massive cow painting, 16 extra Wendy's nuggets, a Spanish baptism, a Branch Fish Fry and more.

The Spanish Elders had someone get accept baptism this Saturday! It was an amazing experience and Regina was able to join in. She knows Spanish as well so understood it and was more excited for her baptism than before. As for me, I was asked to play the hymns and me barely understanding any Spanish just sat there as they announced the closing hymn. After like 30 seconds Elder Garcia was like "Elder get to the piano we're waiting on you" It was at that point that I understood why the guy said the number 56 in what I thought was his testimony.

"Sometimes the very moments that overcome us with suffering, suffer us to overcome" Joseph B Wirthlin. God doesn't give us trials to stop us, but to grow us. He knows we'll only become what He needs us to be by going through the hard stuff. Just like diamonds, we'll need some intense heat and pressure to become something magnificent. As long as I follow His will over mine, and repent when I don't, I can find confidence in the fact that He is indeed molding me into what He desires from me. No matter the circumstance no matter the hardship. In other words, when we let God prevail in our lives we know we're on the right track, or at least can trust the path we're on is in the right direction.

Elder Cummings

PS. That's not my desk mom don't worry

Parrots, Ice, and 1 year!

 (Elder Slade)

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

Sorry I didn't email last week. We were a bit busy. But we have been seeing miracles! We've been finding several new people to teach and we've been able to see tender mercies if the lord. We've been helping reactivate a few people. One older man we are helping is named Doug, he's got the friendliest dog named Rosco (who also sheds more than any other dog I've seen) and has a pet parrot! It's been great to meet with him, because he is often very lonely. This reminds me of a parable Christ gave to his apostles, talking about a king telling his servants about how they had helped him and served him, fed him clothed him, and visited him, and they asked, when did we did this to thee? The king's response was: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." It seems so simple to visit an old man when he is lonely, but when we do it for others, we do it in a very real sense to Christ. I love me Savior and would do anything to help him, and that's one of the reasons I am out here serving.

Other important things that have been happening:

-Transfers came, and I'll be staying here another 6 weeks!

-Today I got Elder Maunana to buy calf liver! I think he has no idea what calf liver is. He asked if I knew how to cook it, and I said, "Of course I do! Just throw it in a skillet and fry it!"

-It has been incredibly slippery here. My impeccable balance has been tested nonstop. Never have I ever had so much adrenaline just walking down the street, ever step leading to my potential downfall. Haha! Elder Maunana and I have both fell a few times, but God has protected us from serious injuries. Just bruised butts.

-And.....This Friday I'll hit my 1 year mark! It's crazy to me that I've been out a year. Time seems to fly. This year definitely hasn't been the year I expected it to be. But it has been the year God wanted it to be, for me. As I've focused on humility and charity, and knowing what God would have be do, what God would have me be, I've been more rewarded and changed then I ever could have imagined. This last year has been the happiest of my life, and also the hardest year of my life. Never have I felt such love and joy for people, and such sorrow when some choose to live a life that prevents them from having God with them to guide and bless them. Never have I felt so alone, never have I felt so much love. I look to the next year of my mission with a little trepidation of what it could bring, but with 100% trust that as I align my will with God, that I will see more blessings than I could have ever expected.

I love you all! Thanks for the continual love and support. My prayers are out for you!

Pictures:

1.  A huskie followed us home one morning. We seriously debated keeping it.

2. Elder Maunana with Rosco the friendly dog.

3-5. Taking pictures in the snow

6. I convinced Elder Holmes to fit 75 small Gumballs in his mouth. I was seriously impressed with his jaw power.

Week 7??

 (Sister Putnam)

Hola a todos!

Monday: Pday

Typical pday stuff, we went and did laundry, went to get stuff for the next week, I called the fam, & we said goodbye to the people who were getting transferred.

Tuesday: New district? lol

On Tuesday we said goodbye to the sisters in the hotel who were leaving, & that was sad, & then my parents had sent me an online Walmart delivery for us, which was really nice of them! We also had a lesson with a lady in the ward named Kenda, & we discussed the importance of seeing others as children of God, & she also talked about how difficult it is to be away from family "and you're probably missing hugs from your mom right now" & that kinda hit me hard, so that was fun, I was a little emotional after that so that was great. Then we picked up Come, Follow Me manuals from a ward member so that we could drop them off to other ward members. Then we went to Cafe Rio to celebrate the fact that I've been out a transfer! We ran into bishop there, & a (temporary) trio of elders, so we all ate cafe rio together, then we came home & Sister Madsen & I also had Martinelli’s sparkling cider, also to celebrate being out a transfer! That night we got on the district call to see who the new people would be. Our district leader, elder Knapp was going to have a new companion, & one of the elders we split a ward with, Elders Kyner and Wilkey, were getting a new elder, and elder Kyner had been transferred. Elder Knapp was the only one on the call, just waiting for people to show up, & then we got on, wanting to meet Elder Knapp's new companion, & Elder Knapp's new companion is Elder Kyner! So that was awesome! And Elder Wilkey's new companion is Elder To'omalatai, so that's awesome!

Wednesday:

We had district council, & it was fun, we had the zone leaders there & they're really fun! For roleplays, Sister Madsen & I had to do them with the Zone leaders & they were really funny when we roleplayed us teaching them. And when they roleplayed teaching us they asked if we had any questions, so Sister Madsen & I improvised some & they actually came up with some really good answers on the spot, so that was really cool. We taught a girl named Jazmine, I'm not sure if I've mentioned her before, but she's 15, & she was baptized when she was 10, her mom is very unsupportive of her being in the church, but Jazmine wants to know if this is something she wants to have as a part of her life, so we've been teaching her Bible and Book of Mormon stories. We taught her about Jesus calming the storm while He & his disciples were on the boat in the sea of galilee, & she really liked that.

Thursday: Elder Hangnail

We had a bible study with a girl named Kristen, she's really awesome! We talked about the prodigal son, & she talked a lot about her experiences with toxic relationships & not living God's way, & how she realized how important it was to live God's way. She's really cool, & hopefully we'll have a bible study with her again sometime. We had a lesson scheduled with a ward member & she didn't show up on the zoom link, so we went on a walk, & she texted, asking to reschedule. We had a lesson with Sister Akers, & then we talked to Elders Wilkey and To'omalatai (in our ward), & gave them some copies to pass out of the Restoration Proclamation, the Family Proclamation, & the 13 Articles of faith, that our ward mission leader gave us to hand out to people in our ward who need them. At one point Elder Wilkey mentioned an Elder Lundquist, but Elder To'omalatai misheard him & said "Elder Thumbquist?" & it turned into 'elder thumbnail?' & then 'elder hangnail?' & for some reason we found that really funny. Then we went home & got on the district call & there were a lot of funny things that happened. Elder Knapp was standing behind Elder Kyner & they were reverse-synchronizing their arms & it was really funny. At one point Elder Kyner stole Elder Knapp's phone & started running around the apartment & elder Knapp could be seen running behind Kyner "give it back give it back give it back give it back give it back" & then at one point Elder Kyner had the phone & he was just spinning. Somehow it was just really funny.

Friday: POTATO

We had the mission devotional, & also for lunch I made the scalloped potatoes & that makes me a little bit more of a real adult! We also did weekly planning & then we went for a walk & that was awesome! We had a lesson with Sister Belgum in our ward. She has a cat named Bro, I'm not even kidding, it's kinda hilarious! Also, someone knocked on our door & we went to answer it & nobody was there, & we were like "um okay." And a ward member gave us dinner, so we went to pick it up, & then on the way back to our room we ran into a guy we saw in the laundry room a couple weeks ago & he was on the phone, saw us, hung up, & came over to us, & introduced us to his friend, Alex, & said "we would like a bible study, if that's okay." Now these guys work night shifts, so they're like "how about 7am tomorrow?" So we were like "okay" & since it was to guys & two sisters, we had to get another companionship, so we got the STLs to come & we got permission from the Assistants to the President to change our morning schedule. Then we heard another knock at our door, & we were determined to figure out who it was so we ran out really fast & turned the corner & the elders from down the hall jumped out & scared us & at that point we realized we locked ourselves out & didn't have masks. So we hung out & talked with the elders for a bit, & apparently the area they're covering is actually getting dissolved (they were splitting a ward) & they're getting moved somewhere else, so that was sad. Then, one of the elders gave us some disposable masks & we went to the front desk to get a new key to our room & so we weren't locked out anymore, & we talked to them a bit more before going to bed.

Saturday: It's like 7:15 and so I'll read a book (Luke :)

We had our 7am lesson with the STLs, The guy we ran into, Q, and Alex. The STLs told us afterwards (they showed up a few minutes before us) that Alex had emphasized like 3 times that he was single & he also called us beautiful a thousand times (we were wearing masks, he hadn't seen the bottom halves of our faces...) Then we discussed the prodigal son again, & both Q and Alex said they felt they could relate, & talked about how much God loves us & is willing to forgive us no matter what. Afterwards Alex offered to take us to Starbucks as a thank you & we were like "haha it's okay, thanks though" & he was like "Okay, I'll pray for you, it'll be spiritual Starbucks." Then we went to bishop's storehouse & filled orders, & we dropped off Come, follow me manuals to people, & then we helped the elders down the hall load things into their car & chatted with the STLs.

Sunday:

We had Church, and Reba came via zoom! She said she liked it a lot, & that was awesome! She also said she expected it to last longer haha. We had district Come, Follow Me, over zoom, since everyone in the district had in-person church so they had a chance to take the sacrament. We got dinner from the Gatherum family, it was really good! Also, Brother Morrison, in our ward, texted us asking if we could stop by sometime this evening for a small lesson, so we went over, & we sat in his backyard in a bubble (apparently they're really popular because of Covid now) with him & his daughters & just chatted & had cookies. We talked about a lot of different things, they're a really fun family!

Love you all and I love hearing from you!!

A Short Update

 (Elder Petersen)

Hey Everyone just wanted to give y'all a fast update. In the last couple of weeks our mission has gone through a few changes, in one of those changes our mission lost a few cars ours being one of them. We are teaching Khloe and McKinley they are both young girls in the age range of 11 to 13. We are teaching them separately and both are wanting to be baptized. Sorry for such a short email, I'll try and get a better one out next week.

S3 E4: Elders Moving Co. (we will move it more than a foot or two)

(Elder Cummings)

大家好！

This week was tons of fun, let me get down to it...

On Wednesday we helped a lady with quality checking for a bunch of her products for a business she's starting, afterwards we ended up hauling a couple couches around too and got 16 frozen chicken breasts out of it! We weren't doing all that for those but she wouldn't let us leave without them.

On our way to a lesson we biked passed a guy on crutches just trying to make his way on the sidewalk, so we stopped by and asked how we could help, next thing I know I got a guy with a bum foot sitting on my handlebars and I'm taking him down the terrible sidewalks of New Orleans. After taking him a little ways he said he was good(don't know if that was cause we had gotten to where he needed to go or cause his rear was hurting too much). We asked how else we could help him and he wanted some seeds and cattle, the guy was trying to start a farm. Unfortunately, we couldn't really help him with that so just said to say hi to us guys in white shirts and ties if he ever sees us again.

Lastly, the video Elder Pratt and I are working on is getting done! We recorded the audio and visuals for it and we're basically the Piano Guys...but in a much more real sense, we are nothing like the Piano Guys. But anyway, that required us to haul around two stand up electric pianos in the back of our Equinox. These aren't just some keyboards, but full on stand ups that we somehow got into our car. We lugged them around 3 different locations in the West Bank and got some good videos, be watching for those on Facebook.

Other than that, church got cancelled again cause of another gas leak, and again, we were there for a good portion of Saturday and we're completely ok...for real mom, we're okay. I don't know how but we're good.

With all the crazies this week remember the counsel Helaman gave to his sons Nephi and Lehi, during a time the world was much like ours, filled with hate and violence and pride:

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."(Helaman 5:12)

His mighty storms are beating us alright, but they will have NO power over us as long as we are built on Christ. Do the spiritual work necessary to have your foundation built on Christ.

Elder Cummings

Transfers!!

 (Sister Putnam)

Monday: L E G O  S T O R E

I called the fam, and they told me they were able to get flights back to Saudi!! We also met the rest of the district at the mall, & that was really fun. The elders are obsessed with the Lego Store, it's actually really funny. Sister Madsen & the other sisters & I got some sweaters (gotta love the clearance section!) And then Sister Madsen & I went to target & I got a skirt, thinking it was the right size because I looked at the size on the hanger & figured the size of the skirt would be the same because this isn't Saudi. Apparently that was not the case & I realized it after we had already gotten home so I'll either return it or exchange it for another skirt haha.

Tuesday: Filter? Who's she? Never heard of her

The washing machines & dryers at the hotel were completely occupied all day on Monday, so we had to do our laundry on Tuesday, but while we were down there, we saw a guy there & we talked to him a bit & then went back up to our room & realized we should have offered a happy message to him, so we were like 'dang it!' & so then when we went down to the laundry room again to transfer the laundry & the same guy was there, & we talked to him some more & asked him if he'd be interested in a happy message & he was like "okay, I guess" & we just talked about religion & stuff & he seemed somewhat open to getting lessons, but his work schedule is complicated & so he said "I'll pass, I don't want to waste your time..." soooooo yeaahhhh. The guy's name is Koui, & he seems pretty nice. Then we went to drop off a late Christmas present to a lady in our ward who is unique & we had the craziest conversation ever with her, one I won't forget, nor will I ever understand. This lady doesn't have a filter whatsoever... Here are some highlights from the conversation we had with her.

Lady: What was the word that president Nelson said in General conference this October that started with the letter I?

Me (I might add that I'd just gotten my wisdom teeth out before General conference & was therefore drugged up & didn't remember much from conference): Um....I don't remember.

Sister Madsen: Israel!

Lady: *to sis. madsen* Good! *looks at me* You didn't remember?

Me: No...

Lady: *looks @ sis. madsen pointing at me* Does she have long hair?

Sis. Madsen: ...yes...

Lady: Good. Make sure she keeps it that way so you can pull her up from hell.

~

Lady: *talks about how ducks are annoying and mean*

Lady: *tells us how often to have children*

Lady: *tells us to buy jeggings so we can "look sexy"*

~

Lady: *to sister madsen* You're so skinny!

Sis. Madsen: sister putnam is skinny too!

Lady: *looks at me skeptically*

(I had my coat zipped up)

Lady: *to sis. madsen* you're so skinny, you should only carry one child at a time *to me* you could carry twins if you needed to

~

Yeah. Zero filter. We walked away from that conversation like "what the heck just happened!"

Anyway, then we went to work at bishops storehouse, & then we had a few lessons.

Wednesday

We had interviews with President Auna, & then we had institute & then we had District council, this was the last district council before transfers & we were all kinda slap happy so that was fun. We had a lesson after wards & then we had a service project for the youth! They did a spinoff of the great British bakeoff for mutual & we're the judges, so the youth leader brought us the finished product of no-bake cookies, all with code names to keep the no-bakers anonymous.

Thursday: H a r r y P o t t e r

We taste tested the cookies. The code names for the cookies were all Harry Potter themed names. If you think I made harry potter jokes for the video we sent in, well, congratulations, you know me well! Naturally, I did so! Then we went on a walk & filmed some things for the content calendar for this year. We had a Social Media training meeting, so hopefully finding people to teach on Facebook will be more successful in the future. We had a lesson with a guy in our ward & talked a lot about things that C.S. Lewis wrote & also we talked about the book Jesus, The Christ, & Sister Madsen & I decided we were going to start reading it this week. We had a service project set up for Saturday, to help clean up this one guy's yard, & he contacted us saying he had to cancel because something came up. Well, that freed up time on Saturday, so we needed to find service to do. Remember Melinda, the lady who we waited on for three hours last Saturday? We called her, and said we could help her move the stuff from her storage unit, & then we talked to the zone leaders & invited them & some other sets of elders to the service project because, again, she'd insisted that there be boys there.

Friday:

We had a mission devotional, & then we were going to do a bible study with this one girl & then she had to reschedule, & so that was disappointing. We had a lesson with a girl named Cherlyn who loves missionaries & that was fun, & we also did weekly planning.

Saturday: Maybe, possibly, inshallah

Remember the service project for Melinda? well she bailed on us! also, we talked to the other elders who were going to also help her move into her new house, & apparently, she's been bailing for like 3 months, & so yeah that's pretty great. So, we called the zone leaders & other elders we'd invited to the project & had to tell them the news, so that was sad, it was gonna be a fun service project, but then we all had to find service, or fill our time otherwise so that was fun. We had a lesson scheduled with a member in person in the lobby of our hotel that we were super excited for, but she forgot about it so we were bummed again, & then we went on a walk with Sisters Barker & Israelsen, & then we came home & gave a lesson to another lady in our ward.

Sunday:

Church is at 9am for our ward this year, so that's fun. Right after church, the same guy who provided us with Christmas dinner asked us to hand the new Come, Follow Me manuals out to people in the ward, & even specified a few, including the lady from Tuesday with no filter (after asking us to give one to her he was like "yeah...sorry" LOL). Then as we were driving out of the church parking lot he stopped by our car & asked us to roll down our window & then was like "is anyone feeding you for dinner?" & we were like "...no..." & he was like "y'all want a ham dinner?" "oh, you don't have to do that-" & he was like "ok, well we're doing it." so that was really nice.

we had come, follow me for the last time with our district, & it was really sad, because 4 elders are leaving, two of which were companions & were like brothers, & it was really sad. They all bore their testimonies to us & then afterwards we all signed their ties that they made together. then afterwards we picked up dinner & came back home & ate & it was so good & then we had a lesson with a lady in the ward & we discussed the importance of seeing others as children of God & she'd apparently been thinking a lot about it, so that was really cool! It's awesome how the Lord makes our insights & the lessons line up with other people's lives.

Okay, I love you all!

Christmas AND New Years

 (Sister Putnam)

Hello everyone! This week was pretty cool :)

Friday: Christmas!!

We video called our district & opened presents together, it was really cute, I love our district so much. We went over to the Harbour Pointe sisters' apartment & had breakfast together, which was creme Brule French toast, & that was amazing stuff. We called our families & stuff too, & wrote home & then we picked up the Christmas Dinner that one family in the ward provided us with, & another dinner that another family in the ward provided us with (one family provided dinner without signing up on the sheet & so the other family signed up & we couldn't say no to both of them) The first family gave us a dinner for 10 people, & we couldn't have an "organized" gathering, not even a funeral for a turkey, but if it was random & impromptu then we could do it lol. So, we went to the other missionaries' doors & discussed "what if we had too much Christmas dinner for ourselves" (wink wink) and "wouldn't it be so funny if we just left our door open so you could smell the food" (wink wink) and "what if you happened to walk past with plates in your hands & helped to relieve us of some of the food." (wink wink). And funnily enough those oddly specific things happened within 20 minutes. It was a great Christmas dinner. Because 2 families provided us with dinner, we had 2 giant Costco pumpkin pies. And they both gave us whipped cream. So, do we now have 2 canisters of whipped cream in our fridge? Haha, no. You see, the week before, I had bought a whipped cream. And later, Sister Madsen bought a whipped cream too. So, no we do not, in fact, have 2 canisters of whipped cream in our fridge. we have 4. Well, after we had Christmas dinner, we didn't have enough space in our fridge for the entirety of the leftovers. So we pulled everything out & put Christmas dinner in first & then there was one large tin of mashed potatoes that wouldn't fit, along with our other food that had been there before Christmas dinner. And nobody else had wanted any leftovers cause they were all full. Buuut the Spanish Elders had always been complaining about how "nobody feeds Spanish elders in the states" so we took that tin of mashed potatoes & put some turkey & stuffing in it as well, & a pumpkin pie, (but not a whipped cream or a cranberry ginger ale because it was like 11pm & our brains had said "byeeeeeeeee")  & we dropped it off at the elders' door, knocked, & ran, so they couldn't give it back to us. But here's the spiritual message with that: If our fridge represents someone's heart, & Christmas dinner represents Christ, it shows that we should first make room for Christ, then everything else will fit. And sometimes your fridge (heart) gets too full to contain all of Christmas dinner & we have to share it with someone who needs it.

Saturday

We did a service project this Saturday! A guy needed yard work done so we & the Beverly Park elders came & we helped do yard work. Afterwards we were exhausted & so Sister Madsen & I ate lunch & then took naps & then we went to target (if we live in a hotel we can go shopping 2x a week cause we have a smaller kitchen or something idk) I got watercolors!

Monday

We had a social media meeting, then we took apart the big 24 pound turkey so it wouldn't be taking up as much space in our fridge. We talked with a new friend, I don't know if I mentioned her in the last email but she's been through a lot & she's such a strong woman! We attempted to dropped off treats at a members house, but we didn't have the right address, so it was the wrong house, so that was awkward.

Tuesday: Intelligent advice

We did lots of texting lessons on Tuesday, taught Reba about how the gospel is revealed in every dispensation. We had another impromptu lunch with the people in our hotel, using the leftovers from Christmas. It really was impromptu this time haha. Also, we found out lady in our ward passed away, & we were going to do heart attacks to some people in the ward but decided to give them some time. We dropped off packages for Sister Madsen's family, we did laundry, & we also had a lesson with an adorable couple in our ward who told us how they met & it was a really cool story. On the district call, Elder Knapp at some point said "oh yeah my phone broke today, the screen cracked" & I said "can you send a screenshot?" & another Elder said "Just put it in rice & it'll be fine." We're pretty good at giving advice lol.

Wednesday: Less-fake adults

Before district council, Sister Madsen & I learned how to check the oil in a car, so we checked that box & are slowly becoming real adults! A girl named Elise called us, she's a member, & her sisters' best friend is a convert but wants to talk to sister missionaries bc her parents aren't supportive. So we called this girl, Jasmine. She doesn't know bible stories well, so  we told her about Christ's baptism & when he went into the mountain & was tempted, & we related it to her, how Satan will try to make her question who she is & how she, like the savior, can resist temptation. She also asked where she could find a church building in the location where she moved! We had dinner with the Harbour Pointe sisters & then we visited an elderly man in the ward & dropped off cookies to him. We talked to a recent convert, Karrina, who we've been trying to get to take the new convert lessons, & she gave us cookies & fudge, & we brought up getting her patriarchal blessing & family history & she seemed interested & that was awesome! We hope that goes somewhere! We came home & did facebook finding, One guy we talked to kept changing the subject every time I brought up something that would lead into the gospel. He eventually asked me if I was married & I told him "I'm in a committed relationship with the Lord". As we kept talking to him, he just kept talking weird & Sister Madsen who knows social media better than I do, determined that he was a catfish so we blocked him lol. We tried though XD

I got several Christmas presents from people, and I loved them all so much, thank you so much!!

I love you all, and Happy New Year! May 2021 treat us better than 2020 ever did!

S3 E3: Miracles out the wazoo

 (Elder Cummings)

Hey y'all!

This week was crazy let me run it down for you with some of the many miracles:

1. We got fed 3 nights in a row by members from the Spanish branch and got to eat until I thought I would throw up all 3 times! SOOOOO much food. SOOOOOO good.

2. There was 6 nonmembers at sacrament meeting! 4 of them came together and we had never met them before. We just called one of them earlier in the week and let her know our services are at 11am now and she was like, "Is it ok if I bring my brother, sister-in-law, and neice?" They all loved it and want to come back next week

3. We're meeting with a family tonight who met with the missionaries once a year ago and are super duper pumped to see us and learn more!

4. New Years night we got a message from someone we've been trying to contact for a while now. Turns out it was his girlfriend who was messaging us through his facebook account and she was saing how she and him want to be married in the temple!!

5. Regina accepted baptism for January 30th! She is so excited for it and keeps texting us about how she won't miss it for the world. Please pray for her!

2020 is over y'all, that really doesn't mean our struggles are over. I think actually like every year since I can remember people are always like, "next year is gonna be better" or "man 20__ can't be worse than this year". So guess what, 2021 will probably not be that good, but only if you focus on those things that make it so bad. "The joy we feel as little to do with the circumstances of our life and everything to do with the focus of our lives". Focus on the blessings the Lord gives us and the hope his Restored Gospel offers us. Talk to y'all next week!

Elder Cummings

Photo:

Just this random picture of me cutting up some French bread with a steak knife, this mans needs some Cutco🔪

It looks wilderness

 (Elder Slade)

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

This week's been really good! We were able to find 3 new people to teach! We started teaching a kid named Luke, a woman named Crystal, and another woman named Autumn. Autumn is already progressing n bnb really fast. The Lord has blessed us a lot lately. We've also been doing a lot of service of shoveling snow.

On New Year's Eve we had a curfew of six oclock. We just played some games the rest of the night. Found out Elder Maunana is a pro at Jenga, that's pretty cool. This weeks title is from him. Whenever we go to a house that the lights are off he says. "It's darkness. It looks wilderness." It's hilarious. He is super funny!

The more I'm our here on my mission, the more I realize the ingrained kindness in people. Nobody is born bad or evil, and everyone has divine qualities within them because they are Children of God. I've met some super kind people out here on my mission, some of the most Christlike people I know. And I've realized that throughout my life, there has always been people like that around me. People th hat have shown me love, kindness, and patience. A lot of those people are on this email list. Thank you everybody for your love and support!

Pictures (Sorry, don't have many this week):

1. The expert Jenga player