Pretty busy week!

 (Elder Slade)

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

This week had been pretty great! Though every week is great as a missionary. We did some service cleaning out a garage and walked and biked (a LOT) in the wind and rain. We helped build a fence. We also had a great lesson yesterday with Abby who we found last week. She seems pretty open and we have high hopes for her!

Yesterday we gave talks in church about service. On thing that stuck out to me as I was preparing is how our love for Christ leads us to want to love and serve others. The famous scripture John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son". My hope and joy is that I so love the Son that I give of my self to serve the world. I love my Savior, and am great ful for what He has done for me, and am greatful to serve God's children here in Idaho.

This coming week we have the blessing of being able to have zone conference and a mission zoom call with an apostle. It should be a spiritually uplifting week! Love you all! Be of good cheer, and know that God loves you!

Pictures:

1. Elder Clove surrounded by cats. He LOVES cats!

2-3. Cooking and serving 30 eggs for Elder Iketau. We were going to have him eat 60 eggs, but he ended up backing out. He only ended up eating about 20 or so, which I was impressed with!

S5 E6: AP for a week?

 (Elder Cummings)

Not actually, but I was a trio with them for most of the week. Super crazy:

Tuesday: We drive down 2.5 hours to BR and stop by LSU to eat with Elder Roderick’s member friends that he got to know when he served there. Then we head to the AP's apartment

Wednesday: we wake up at 4am to drop off Elder Roderick at the airport so he can go to San Fran and get visa stuff done for his call to Portugal.

Thursday: I get to be a bag of meat following the AP's around as they are preparing for the end of the transfer and doing a ton of stuff. It was hectic and crazy but a LOT of fun.

Friday: do some more stuff with the AP's and then stay up late to pick up Elder Roderick from the airport, who's flight got delayed till 12:30am so we stay up a little later and it's ends up getting cancelled. He straight up has to sleep in the airport, but all is well, he is home

Saturday: wake up early to make it down to a landscaping service project spreading gravel and mulch. Then go straight to the airport in sweat and dirt to pick up Elder Roderick. We shower and get ready and then drive the 2.5 hours back to Alexandria with just enough time to have dinner, have Elder Roderick pack late into the night because he's getting transfered😥.

Sunday: went to church, then drove the 2.5 hours back to BR(not even 15 hours later than when we got back to Alex). On the way we saved a turtle from the middle of the road, put him in the car and drove for another 1.5 hours to drop him off at the LSU lake. We named him Muse cause that was the closest sign when we found him in the middle of nowhere. We took him to go sight seeing on the campus cause we had a little bit of time.

Monday(Today): went to the BR Zone Conference, not even in my zone, then left early to be dropped off at the airport to head to an undisclosed location to work on some Taiwan visa stuff. Super exciting! Don't get too excited though, it's not as close as you think. Got to play some video games with a 5 year old that sat next to me cause his sister was asleep and wanted to play with me. That was fun. Now I'm here for the night, getting some tests done and flying back tomorrow!

Needless to say, not a normal week, but despite it all miracles are still afoot and the Work continues on. With a week of a lot of stress and change, I've better realized how the Holy Ghost is truly the Comforter and that we can always feel the fruits of his presence as we live worthy of it; "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance"(Gal 5: 22-23)

Elder Cummings

Photos!

1.Elder Angilau and me at the service project

2. When we found Muse in the middle of the road

3. Muse and Mike meet

4. Muse at his new home

Full Mission Conference and other rare occurances

 (Sister Putnam)

Monday we got together as a district and did volleyball at a park and that was fun.

 Tuesday was interviews with president.  They were in person this time! That's never happened before during my mission, so it was something new to me.

 Wednesday we had district council and then we had a lesson with Reba and Shae.  We taught them about the Book of Mormon and that they can feel nearer to God by abiding by its precepts than by any other book.  Afterwards Reba texted us and said thank you for the lesson, and that the lesson made her feel better than she had in a long time. It was really awesome, and we hope to help her see the impact that the gospel can have in her life.

On Thursday we had a full mission conference. You've gotta understand that President Auna almost never does things like that. Usually the biggest mission conference we'd have was a half mission conference twice a year, and the biggest mission conference I'd ever been to in my mission wasnt even a Zone Conference but a Half Zone conference due to covid restrictions. So this full mission conference was a huge deal! I got to see all the people I'd met, minus those who had gone back to their original assignments or gone home, and it was way cool! I didnt realize how many people I hadn't met. We talked about growing our faith and that was awesome. Afterwards we went to the tulip festival.  The flowers were so pretty.

 On Friday we had a lesson with a family in the ward that lasted like 3 hours, and the whole time they didn't shove politics down our throats! You have to understand, we've had several member lessons where they only. talk. politics. to. us. So the fact that we had a lesson that lasted THREE HOURS and there was no mention of politics was incredible! And so relieving!!

Oh and on Sunday the elders decided to prank us and harmlessly vandalize our car before they were at church so I'll include pictures!

Okay love you all!!!

Sister Alyssa Putnam

S5 E5: The keys to the ministering of porcelain angels!

 (Elder Cummings)

This week was again crazy. It always seems like they are. I was up in Natchitoches until Thursday afternoon but the couple days I was here in Alexandria were jam packed.

Let me run y’all down with some of the miracles:

Wednesday morning, Elder Roderick(my comp) and Elder Leonard prayed to know how they should use technology to further the work. Actually let me preface this. About a month ago a lady we’re teaching gave us like 20 porcelain china decorative angels that we have no idea what to do with. She wanted us to give them to charities or toss them. Alright back to the miracle. Elder Roderick remembers these angels and thinks to put them on Facebook Marketplace for free. He does so, and by the end of the day all 22 of them are claimed by people.

Fast forward to Thursday. We go and give a lady 2 angels she requested and she just about falls into tears. Apparently every year she gives her sister a decorative angel on her birthday but this year her budget was really tight and she didn’t know what she was gonna do. She was worrying and praying and the next day she saw our ad for the free angels and we were able to give her some.

Another miracle is that we put up a free service ad on Facebook as well and had a service opportunity lined up for a lady the next morning. We get to Beverly’s house and clean her big yard up, cutting limbs, making burn piles, etc(see pictures) and we get done and she is also in tears. She’s an old lady with a big yard that she can’t keep up with. The tree limbs kept falling and she couldn’t trim them anymore either and she was really stressed out about it. She said a prayer Wednesday night for a miracle and right after saw our ad for free service.

I know God is aware of each of us and each of our needs. If we come to him in prayer and faith, He will support us and strengthen us. He truly is our Father. Let Him take control in your life, let Him prevail and you will be able to be an instrument in His hands to lift and help others of His children.

Elder Cummings

Pics!

1)These pictures don't do it justice. That pile is massive👨‍🌾

2)the man, Jonathon 💪

3) some more crawfish 😋

Eggs-celent!

 (Elder Slade)

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

This week was great! We found three new people to teach. We found those people by asking who else could join us at the beginning of some lesson with less active members. They were just in the back room, and they said they want to be taught! The Lord is blessing us immensely! The Lord is good and blesses us as we serve Him.

Not much else happened this week. Went on an exchange with an Elder Iketau who is a 330 pound Polynesian beast who normally pounds 12 eggs in an entire sitting. He said he could do 60 if he tried. We are going to buy him 60 eggs this next week for him to try. But we had a great exchange and I learned a lot from him. You might even say the exchange was eggs-celent!

Love yall!

Pictures:

1-2. Beautiful Sunset yesterday

3. Elder Clove and I riding bikes

4. We've been feeding the squirrels in our back yard. They are getting chunky! The one we named Chonkersgrabbed an entire twinkie and starting going ham on that thing.

Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots!

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey everyone!!!

So they just started letting us do District Council Dinners/Lunches again, so after district council we were eating outside and a lady drives her car up to the parking lot, rolls down the window, and is like "hey, do any of you want the Pfizer vaccine? We have a ton of extras at such-and-such place, and we're gonna throw them away" so we were like "well, what are we waiting for?" So our whole district got the first dose together and we go back in a couple weeks to get the second dose! so there’s the explanation for the title of my email lol

On Friday we had a lesson with our friend from Africa, his name is James, and he committed to baptism! So we're getting in contact with the missionaries where he is!

And Reba reached out to us, she said she wants another bible study, so that's exciting!!

Okay love you all!!

Sister Alyssa Putnam

The Storms of Life

( Elder Slade)

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

It was a good week! Then again, every week as a missionary is a good week! :) Yesterday we taught a man named Lewie that is in his 80's, and he's practically deaf. Since we have to wear these masks, we taught him through screaming. My voice was beat at the end of that lesson, let me tell you. It's a whole other experience yelling your testimony at the top of your lungs in a lesson.

This week was transfers and we're both staying here, but we found out that we now cover another ward! We started teaching a new person in that ward named Chelsie, and we have high hopes for her. She is a devoted Christian and loves learning about the gospel. It's been great to teach her!

Lastly, the weather here has been atrocious! Particularly the wind. It is so hard to bike in wind, let me tell you. There have been some sketchy moments as we've biked on the streets. The wind has been reminding me of a verse in the Book of Mormon:

Helaman 5:12 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.

Though the winds have been heavy, and the storms have been strong, I'm built on Christ! Love you all! Don't let the winds of life beat you down too hard!

Pictures:

1-2. Laticia the schizophrenic person we teach likes coloring and showed us her impressive master pieces. (On a side note, she sometimes forgets to take her meds, and she goes full on Golem mode. It's pretty epic, but hard to teach her in that state of mind!)

3. Elder Clove with a Rabbit named Loki

4. We walked outside, and some girl had parked her bike next to ours. I tried to get Elder Clove to ride it. He said no.

S5 E4: Miracles up in Many

 (Elder Cummings)

Hey y’all! This week was crazy. We had multiple exchanges so I’ve been a good bit around Central Louisiana last week and have more to go this week. Louisiana as some weird names let me tell you: this week I drove through Atchafalaya, Robeline(robe-uh-lean), had some lessons in Anacoco and Zwolle(zoo-wall-ee), spent a night in Many(Manny), and right now I'm on my way to Natchitoches(Nack-uh-dish).

I gotta be quick so: we were praying on our knees and we were like "were not getting up until we feel confident where we need to go" after a bit I look at Elder Mast and he says "Dollar Tree, right now". On the way we run into two different families that the Many Elders haven't been able to get in contact with and set up a time the next day to come over.

Next day, before we leave the apartment we prayed specifically that we'd be seen by those who need to see us. We then go to the Many mayor's office. (Many is a tiny town, we can do that). We walk in and start chatting and get some service opportunities. It was awesome. We walk outside and start walking back. In just a couple seconds we get a call from a guy called Kaden, a recent covert that the Many Elders couldn't get in contact with either. He's like "hey y'all I'm across the street" we turn and see him across the street waving at us. We go up and chat and set up a time to meet later that night!

I know miracles are real. I know faith is a principle of action and power. When we act in faith, we receive power and can do all things the Lord desires for us.

Elder Cummings

3 Packing in the Promised Land

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey everyone!

So I transferred with Sister Madsen again, and this time we are in a 3 pack! The fact that we are still together is insane but I guess it means I still have things to learn from her! This also means I'll have been her longest companion out on the mission! Our other companion is Sister Zinn, and shes a very creative sister, and shes excellent at taking the lead in lessons.

We are in Bellingham, which is supposedly the Promised land of the mission. It's kinda a farmland and the 'town'part of it reminds me of Radiator Springs from Cars lol.

Hope you're doing well, I love you all!

Sister Alyssa Putnam

Crash & Burn, For now

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey everyone

So last Monday was fun, we hung out with the district. Our district leader really seemed to be having a tough time and being hard on himself so we decided to heart attack the elders' door. Well, while we were on our way there, the elders flipping called us for some reason I dont remember why. So we were on the phone with them on the way and being like "we gotta go bye" and them getting heart attacked right afterwards world be super sus and ruin the anonymity so we stayed on the phone with them super quietly while we put the stuff on their door (we could hear them through the door and on our phone it was trippy) and then we knocked and ran, and they were on the phone with us still and were like "oh theres a knock at the door" and we actually managed to not get caught putting stuff at their door while we were on the phone with them lol.

We did our last district council outside cause it was sunny. I got sunburned as a result lol.

We had conference with our district! Conference with other missionaries is so fun!! Also, reba and shae watched the morning session of general conference and reba seemed to really love it. She watched all the sessions actually. But she dropped us afterwards, and that's really upsetting, since she seemed so receptive.

Also transfers are coming and I'm transferring and idk who my new companion is going to be, and I'm terrified so pray for me please!!

Also I made conference memes!

 (Elder Slade)

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

Hey yall! Hope you had a great Easter! It was a great weekend. We got to hear from our leaders and prophets during general conference. One of the great messages I loved was President Nelson's message about how as we have faith in Christ, we can move the mountains in our lives. More than anything I just felt the spirit confirming how God loves us all, and out of that love he gives us prophets to guide us.

Other than that great spiritual highlight, a cool experience happened this week with someone we are teaching named Isaac. The day before our lesson on Wednesday, we texted him asking him if he had any friends that wanted to join us. He never texted back, but we showed up, and he had brighten 3 of his friends for us to teach! They had lots of questions, and we bore testimony of God's love, and we should be meeting again this week! God is good and keeps blessing us.

Love you all!

1. Our apartment watching conference together

2. Saw Johnathan in the mall today. He was a man that was being taught in my last district!

3. Zone picture

S5 E3: Conference and Crawfish (Again)

 (Elder Cummings)

That's right, I had the pleasure of another Crawfish Boil!! Man I love them so much. It's the beginning of Crawfish season here and one of the members had a fresh catch and had us over. These little guys we're HUGE! They said because of covid last year there weren't nearly as many boils as usual so some of the crawfish got growing nice and big.

Other than that, someone we're teaching straight up cooked up some Ribeye steaks for us this week🤣. We couldn't tell you why, but he did and he is so awesome. I've never been able to gain weight before but I wouldn't be surprised if I could put on some poundage while I'm here in Alec.

The Lord has been plopping people into our lap recently It's been crazy. We drove out to the boonies to visit a member one day and we finally get there and talk for a bit, walk around her property(absolutely beautiful by the way) , and then go sit on the porch to share a message when she turns to her electrician working on her house and is like "Greg(not his real name), take a break and come listen to these boys' message about Jesus". Greg doesn't really know what to do but knows he likes Jesus so agrees. What's crazy is we had planned this lesson for Sister Williams and her young grandkids who were gonna be there, but they weren't...it seemed like just out of no where they had to leave, each kid to something else. For some reason we both felt to keep the lesson the same.

 So we start talking about testimonies and read about nurturing that testimony with patience, faith and diligence from Alma 32. We then do our little Round Robin technique Elder Roderick and I do where everyone goes around and bears their testimony about something they've learned. It just happened that we ended with Greg's testimony. He bore the purest, simplest, sweetest testimony of how God is in his life. He's a recovering heroine addict, mentioned a ton of different miracles that led him here and just expressed deeply his desire to put God's will over his own. God has a plan for Greg and Greg is ready to follow it!!

God is invested in our lives. He has invested in our lives. He has given his Only Begotten to suffer and die so we can rejoice and live.

"He lives to grant me rich supply.

He lives to guide me with his eye.

He lives to comfort me when faint.

He lives to hear my soul’s complaint.

He lives to silence all my fears.

He lives to wipe away my tears.

He lives to calm my troubled heart.

He lives all blessings to impart.

Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:

“I know that my Redeemer lives!” "

(I Know That My Redeemer Lives)

Elder Cummings

Photos:

-John, the beast that cooked us Ribeye

-some tank pics. This tank just sits in front of a middle school

-some good ol crawfish, that was my third bin

-us showing off our green thumbs