Fight me, delta variant!

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey, everyone!

It's been another week!  And this week I realized that it has officially been 1 year since I received my mission call, and I've been out 9 months!

Also, I forgot from last week, but I cut my hair a little, just a trim, and also, because of the delta variant that's going around (I don't know much as I don't have access to the news), Washington State has required us to mask up again in public places and for large meetings. Just when we got used to not having to wear them!

On Monday we celebrated Sister Hatton's 21st birthday.  Our district had a barbecue and cheesecake to celebrate💓

On Wednesday we helped a lady move into her new apartment within the ward boundaries, and that was fun.

Thursday we had Zone conference and also started exchanges.  Sister Crookston came to our area, and Sister Hatton went to Harbour Pointe's area with Sister Bertasso.  The last few transfers we've been doing overnight exchanges, which didn't happen for the first while in my mission.

On Saturday we went to the adult session of stake conference, and afterward, President Daybell, the stake president, came up to us and said "lpl hey, are you ready to speak tomorrow?" And we were like "lol yeah totally" and thought nothing of it.

Well on Sunday, we were at the general session of stake conference, the speakers were all finished and President Daybell got up and started talking about missionary work and then called us as well as the elders up and had us talk a little about missionary wor.  Then he invited the stake to invite the missionaries into their homes, so we are hoping more members will be willing to set up lessons with us.

Love you all!!

Sister Alyssa Putnam

S8 E6: Hurricane Ida

 (Elder Cummings)

I'm sure y'all know and have heard about Hurricane Ida and her terror the last couple days, please keep the greater New Orleans area and the surrounding areas in your prayers. As of this morning, about a third of Louisiana were without power.

Do not fret, we were evacuated way before things got crazy. Things just got crazy in a different way. Me and 13 Elders have been crammed into the Farmerville Elders apartment since Friday night. We have been safe the entire time and only got some rain showers today.

This week has been crazy, and we didn't have a lot of time to proselytize cause it's the end of the transfer, plus there was a hurricane…

For transfers(which have now been delayed a week) I'll be moved from the Denham 2nd Ward to the Denham 1st Ward! Not much of a change, same church building, same apartment, but new area and new companion!! My new companion will be Elder Smith. I've been living with him for the last month and a half and there are only a few people I love more than him. I was overjoyed when I heard I'd be serving with him.

Anyway, hope y'all are doing well and been having good times. I wish I had some crazy stories and miracles but the fact of the matter is the miracle is that out of 200 missionaries, all are safe. As well as the 14 of us in one apartment aren't at each others throats yet. And that we've been getting fed like kings.

This email has been all over the place mostly cause so is my brain. But I do know that the Lord is in control, that nothing comes by surprise to him, and he has a plan and a way for the Louisiana and Mississippi areas devastated by the storm. He is aware of them. Please pray for their safety and recovery.

Have a blessed one y'all, keep on keeping on!

Elder Cummings

Photos:

Birthday dinner with some of my favorite Elders

Sleeping arrangements. Yes. I'm in a tanning bed. No. It doesn't work. Yes. It's for decoration. Yes. It's cool.

The Denham Springs Zone. Enough Said.

Big manly teddy bear!

 (Elder Slade)

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

Justin got baptized this week!! It was an amazing baptism, and I felt great joy in seeing him take that step. If you remember, Juston is the man who has talked with missionaries for the past 5 years or so, yet has never pulled the trigger on baptism. He just recently made the decision to be baptized. The title comes from someone who gave a talk at the baptism. Justin is a big man, that looks pretty intimidating, but really he is just a lovable teddy bear! 😂

We had another miracle this week, as we were able to find two new kids to teach named Mousey and Aiden. Mousey lives basketball, and we started teaching him by shooting some hoops with him, and Elder Thomas connected with him over Naruto, and then we started talking with him about the gospel, and he got really excited! He ran in side, came out with his wallet, and showed us a picture of Jesus Christ on the bag. He told us that he wanted to start being taught, and has recently been thinking about baptism!! Later we found his brother as well! Pretty exciting things!

We also had zone conference this week! A man named Chris Mabrey from Pennsylvania spoke to us, and he told us how the gospel is a party! He referred to the parable of the lost sheep, and shared Luke 15:6 "And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost." I feel joy every day because I get to help bring in these lost sheep, and I know that Heavenly Father rejoices when any one of us is found and brought back into His loving fold. I know He loves us, and is active in our lives!

Love yall!

Pictures:

1-2. Justin's baptism!

3. Random pic Elder Thomas and I took.

Street Contacting? Who's she?

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey everyone!

So last Monday after shopping we played soccer with the district. I ended up with a toe injury that made walking difficult for the next two days but I'm good now lol. Soccer was fun too, I hadn't played in awhile and it felt good!

On Tuesday Sister Hatton showed me a game lesson that Sister Branch hat taught her, called the Remembering game. Someone in the room closes their eyes and everyone asks them questions about what is in the room to see how much they remember, and I personally related it to being in the world. When we shut the world out it is easier to forget the things of the world and listen to the guidance of the Spirit. For those of us with photographic or semi-photographic memories, remembering the room was easier. Likewise, some people have weaknesses that make it harder to detach from the world and it is important to keep what distance we can between us and the world in order to maintain the presence of the Spirit in our lives.

On Wednesday at district council we set a goal to hand out 20 pass along cards per companionship this week.

(Here's a big paragraph. It's long, but trust me, if you stick with it, it'll be worth it!) On Thursday we went Street Contacting at Martha Lake in an effort to achieve our pass along card goals.

     Now this was my first time Street Contacting, as I came out on my mission when we were still in lockdown and not even allowed to go inside people's houses. Sister Hatton knew more than I did, but this was still fairly new to both of us. So I had zero clue what I was doing going into this.  Anyway, on our way there we stopped by a family who was unloading a moving van, and we offered help and asked where they were moving from, and they said Texas, so we made a connection there, as Sister Hatton & I both grew up in Southeast Texas, and we left them with a pass along card with our number and told them to let us know if they need help with anything.

     We ran into one guy from India who asked what country we were from, and we spoke with him for a bit, and then we talked to another couple also from India, who are expecting their first child. We talked to a couple of girls who looked our age and were sitting at a picnic table, and all of those were awesome, and we decided to head back to the apartment.

     When we were almost there, I saw a woman in a hijab pushing a double stroller with her kids, just beyond the entrance to our apartment complex, & I wanted to compliment her outfit since I really loved it, so I said to Sister Hatton, "what if we go and talk to them?" And she agreed.  So, we went & talked to them & found out that the mother doesn't speak much English but that the 7-year-old daughter, named Uzmah, did.

     We spoke for awhile, and then Omah, the mother, invited us to come over to her house for tea, and we felt like we should and our schedule was flexible for the rest of the night, so we agreed, and we went over.  She offered us food, and gave us water (instead of tea) and we talked to her through Uzmah (Uzmah, being 7, got sidetracked frequently while she was translating 😂), and she thanked us for coming over and making her family happy.  We shared a verse from the Book of Mormon how God loves all people, and that He is aware of them. Omah also asked if we could help her learn English, and we said yes, and agreed to come back to her house on Friday to try to practice English.

   Well get this! On our way back home, we ran into Anna, a woman who we have been trying to meet with who lives in our apartment complex and haven't been able to. If we hadn't gone to Omah's house, we wouldnt have seen Anna. She invited us in and so I got to meet her for the first time, and she is INCREDIBLE!! And we set a time to come over to her place for dinner on Friday, and she also asked for a simpler version of the Book of Mormon because she wants to understand it.

    All of that might not have happened had we not followed that simple inspiration to talk to Omah!

Friday, We went over to Omah's and tried to practice English with her, and it was difficult because we didn't have many resources, but we did leave her with a sticky note with the link for EnglishConnect for her husband, Sam, to help her sign up later, since he speaks fluent English. Then we went to Anna's and talked to her and she is just a wonderful woman, and so humble and so fun!!

We also had a lot of service this week so that was fun!!

Miracles are real and God is in the details!!

🪄What inspiration have you seen this week?🪄

Love you all!!!

Sister Alyssa Putnam

Attacked by a dog!

 (Elder Slade)

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

This week I got bit by a dog. We turned the corner from walking behind a parked car, and a huge pitbull came out of nowhere and ran towards us! The dog ended up getting my shoe, and it now has a few teeth marks in it. I didn't realize it at the time, but a woman was holding the dog on their leash, so I was able to escape! I'm alright, but it definitely surprised me. What made it better was that we learned after that the dog's name was Chaos! I thought it was an appropriate name!

This experience ended up being a miracle though. We started talking with them, and they let us in to share a message. We learned that she is a member that wants to start coming back to church, and that she had a son who is not baptized. We talked a little about baptism, and are going to put him on date for baptism this week!

The Lord has been blessing us immensely! We met another kid who calls himself "Mousey" and he really like basketball, so we shot a few hoops with him, and he said he asked his mom if he could get baptized, and he said he would love to have us teach him!

It reminds me of a verse I read recently, Helaman 3:25 "And so great was the prosperity of the church, and so many the blessings which were poured out upon the people, that even the high priests and the teachers were themselves astonished beyond measure." I have truly been astonished by all the blessings God has bestowed upon us, both now and my entire life. God is good, and I am humbled by the love he has for his children.

I love you all! Thanks for taking the time each week to read my email!

Pictures:

1-2. Pictures from exchanges this week!

S8 E5: Car Shows and Huskies

 (Elder Cummings)

This week was a good one y’all! And we’re fixing to have an even better one this time round. Welcome to story time with Elder Cummings, the part of the week where Elder Cummings shares a story:

So Elder Schugk and I are street contacting, we’ve been out about an hour and we’re gonna have to be getting back to the apartment soon. Haven’t had much success at all. We turn left and start walking back to the car disappointed but not discouraged! Elder Schugk turns to me and points back to where we came from and asks, “have we gone that way?”. Me, not thinking anything of it cause Elder Schugk is surprisingly bad with directions, says, “Elder we just came from there”. Confused he says, “oh, okay”. We walk for about 5 more seconds when he turns around and says, “No. We need to go this way”. Trusting this isn’t just Elder Schugk’s lack of directional awareness now, I gladly follow him.

We’re walking and walking (but we don’t knock down their wall! Kidding joke joke) and we don’t see anyone...until a couple walking two Huskies turns onto our street! Duh, duh duhhhhhh. They have nowhere to go, nowhere to turn, it’s just them and the Mission Mormonaries.

In all seriousness we are now convinced that these are the people we need to talk to because our car is just another 40 ft past them and we needed to leave. We stop and get to know Branch and Michelle for a good bit. Turns out they had seen us about 30 minutes earlier and Michelle had the thought to come talk to us but she didn’t want her dogs to bother us(nicest dogs ever by the way) so they turned down a different road. Now here we are, talking with them, only because Elder Schugk had the prompting to go back the long way, the way we just came. Turns out Branch and Michelle have 7 kids, and are super interested in what we believe in as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We had a wonderful opportunity to testify of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and eternal families and we were all convinced in the end that we needed to meet them and they needed to meet us. 

It is my testimony that we need to be constantly putting ourselves to receive revelation or we are missing chances to hear Him. We need to be living worthily of His Spirit as well as actively seek it. The scriptures says “and he that seeketh, shall find”, it doesn’t say “and he that slacketh shall find”. I am grateful that my companion was actively seeking guidance and revelation from the Lord. It is a blessing to me, Branch and Michelle, and the Lord.

Have a blessed week y’all!

Elder Cummings

Photo DUMP:

-there was a classic car show here in town so we used it as an opportunity to go talk with people, met some cool people and saw some cool cars!

-pretty cool sunset

-the Aucoins("Oh-Quons") a legit Cajun family in Zachary. All those selfies are from inside Brother Aucoins' shed where he cooks all his Cajun food. So hype

 

9 Months!

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey, everyone!

So this week we had transfers!! Sister Bishop and I were both transferred out of Lynden and now I am back in Lynnwood.  I am with Sister Hatton, another sister who is newer to the mission, one transfer in. She is awesome, and we are serving in Alderwood!!

We met with a recent convert here and had an awesome new convert lesson with him, so that was awesome!

On Wednesday I hit my 9 months as a missionary! I'm halfway through, and honestly it's gone by so fast! And that sounds cliché and all but it really is the truth, and and its important to cherish and make the most of every moment and always grow from everything you experience!!

Okay, love you!!!

Sister Alyssa Putnam

S8 E4: The Miracle of the Wilson Basketball

 (Elder Cummings)

Alright y'all!

So we're at the miracle park. The same park at which we were invited to join the Carter Family Reunion, and the same park where we have been able to find 7 new people. It's the promised court people.

Anyway, we get there to meet and do a study with one of our friends and we realize we forgot our basketball. Rip. Devastating. Of course we don't need the ball to find but we figured it be good to have it. Elder Schugk and I have the bright idea to pray for the ball. We both believed that if we needed the ball to find someone, and if we had the faith, the Lord would provide a ball. As absurd as that divine teleportation might sound, anything is possible with God, plus President Nelson has invited us to do things that require more faith in order to grow our faith. So we're sitting in our RAV4 putting our whole hearts into it as we "waxed bold in mighty prayer"(2 Nephi 4:24). We end the prayer, walk confidently to the trunk and open the it…

And to our surprise, there was no ball...dang. Not enough faith I guess. Kidding kidding. Maybe. We then figure that we don't need the ball for what the Lord needs us to do that day. Maybe that's just us making an excuse for our lack of faith.

We end up having an awesome study with our friend Cam and it's cut short by some people saying there was shooting going on so we make like a tree and leaf. There wasnt, but we were being safe.

That evening we block out 2 hours to do some street contacting. We had this neighborhood planned out and everything, we were gonna find the elect guys. But as we were praying we felt to go knock on a ladies door in the complete opposite direction, there wouldn't be time to do both. We head to the ladies house. Knock 2x. No answer. Disappointed but not discouraged. But we were there for a reason, we knew it!!

We kept walking around and see a group of about 7 or 8 little kids balling up on a driveway, we talk and ball with them for a couple minutes and then the little ones go inside, we are chilling with our friend Matthew and Quindarius Deon Ross(i just had to say his full name, so cool). We tell them that if we block them each one more time then we get to share a scripture. They agree. Man I tried to stuff them so hard. I got Quindarius. Anyway, they end up winning and ask to hear the scripture anyway. We share 3 Nephi 11 from the Book of Mormon and discuss Christ's gospel for all of us. We end up having an amazing discussion and they're super interested and we'll be meeting with them this Friday before Matthew starts college at LSU. As we walk away, Elder Schugk looks at me and says, "hey, we got our ball". So good.

Of course you could say that was a coincidence. If it was, so what. All I know is that we were guided to the right place at the right time, we ended up being able to play basketball with some people who would listen to us when we had prayed for it earlier, and these people want to learn more about Christ's gospel. To me, prayer=answered.

I know God answers our prayers, and He will answer them according to His will and His timetable. But I also have a testimony that through prayer we can obtain blessings that are only made conditional on our asking for them. Our God is a Loving God, one invested in us.

Have a blessed week!

Elder Cummings

Photo: recognize this hat Stacey?

Do unicorns fly?!

 (Elder Slade)

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

Elder Thomas and I and all the missionaries in our zone have been having an intense debate about the title of this email. I am obviously on the side of no! Unicorns don't fly, they don't have wings! Their debate is that they have magic which allows them to fly, but if they did have magic, what says that their magic allows them to fly?! Anyways, I'd live to hear your answer!

This week was great! A kid we are teaching named Skyler got baptized Sunday!!! It was one of the most spiritual baptisms I've been to. After the baptism we talked with the family, and put his younger sister, Kambree on date for baptism as well! That family is awesome! They are working to go to the temple together soon!

This week the entire mission started a 40 day fast. It's not from food and water fortunately! But we each made lists of things we can give up to become more consecrated, and we've been praying about it every morning and night. I've loved it so far! I feel like I've come closer to Christ. I've discovered an important principle. The more we are willing to sacrifice for the Lord, the more we get in return. He pays us back 10 fold. We have already seen miracles this week! The Lord is good!

Love yall!

Pictures:

1. Skyler's Baptism!!!

2-3. We've been chef-ing it up recently making tacos and some ramen!

¡Yo sé que Dios te ama tanto!

 (Elder Slade)

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

Hey everyone! This week was good! We had 3 exchanges this week. One of them was in a spanish bilingual area. I don't know any Spanish! 😂 But in the morning I memorized my testimony in spanish, just in case I needed to! So you could basically say I am completely fluent in spanish. We ended up not having any lessons in spanish, but now I'm prepared for whenever I do. 😉

We got transfer news this morning, and Elder Thomas and I will be staying together! He's a beast! Such a good missionary!

This week a few of the people we're teaching let us down. We had about 8-10 people planned and confirmed to go to church, and then only 1 came. I really love these people, and I became really frustrated after that, because I knew how much it would bless their lives. Then I had a sobering experience. I had a clear thought that that's how God feels sometimes. He has such infinite love for us, and we make so many mistakes that it's ridiculous. Yet he continues to love us and have patience with us! This thougt helped me gain a better perspective, and I have a desire to just love and be patient with these people.

Love you all!

1. Exchange with Elder Wills

2. Exchange with Elder Jarvis

3. Exchange with Elder Archer

4. We've been enjoying playing pickle ball as a district. We played for about 4 hours today!

S8 E3: Bruce's Authentic Chinese Cuisine

 (Elder Cummings)

This week started amazing. We head over to our friend Bruce's house for lunch. We get there and Bruce has cooked us 5 different dishes. He made some Spicy Chinese Fried Chicken, some Chinese Barbeque Pork, Spicy Beef, Squid salad, and a Pork Soup commonly made in his hometown.

Let's just say, it was one of the best meals I have ever had. Bruce loves to cook, but hates to cook for other people. Even his friends will ask him to have them over and he will say no. But somehow, he respects us so much that he will have us over every week and make us these amazing meals.

This week we were praying that we'd be able to help him feel the Spirit and help him recognize that. At the end of the lesson, I found myself testifying in Chinese. It wasn't anything magical, it's not like I was fluent or could say everything perfectly, but I meant every word I said. At the end we were like "Bruce do you feel that?" He said "Yes brothers, I feel that, thank you". The Spirit was so strong!!

Our man Thomas that waved us down last week and invited us into that family reunion came to church this Sunday! We texted him and he is super busy during the week and just said "what's y'alls church address and what time do y'all worship?". And BAM he came to church. Literally nothing we did. It was so cool. Turns out Thomas's cousin that was at the reunion with us plays for the Steelers and had us on his Instagram Live while we were dancing with everyone. That is just so awesome haha.  On top of that we were up in that neighborhood again this week and this man pulls over and is like "hey y'all were at the reunion! Y'all made my day, come by anytime! Imma stop and talk to yall when I'm not in a rush" and speeds away. SO cool. Hopefully we'll run into him soon.

Being an instrument of the Lord is the best thing about being on a mission. Being in a position for the Lord to use you for the betterment of His children is the most important thing. If you doubt God uses you, remember two things: 1)God can do anything with a humble and willing heart and 2) you're probably wrong.

Have a blessed week y'all!

Elder Cummings

S8 E2: The Carter Family Reunion

 (Elder Cummings)

So. Elder Schugk and I are at a park testifying to two 11 year olds of the power of the Holy Ghost and BOOM, thunder cracks and it starts to POUR. And I mean POUR. It was raining so hard you could consider it baptism by immersion. Before we could say anything our boys Kevion and Cam were on their bikes skirting away and we're standing in a rainstorm. So we start walking through the neighborhood seeing who else we could talk to. After running into a Hebrew Israelite, talking with a nice man frying and selling chicken in the rain, and getting soaked, we decide to head back towards the park and our car.

As we walk towards the car I think I hear a whistle through out all the rain. I look around and see no one. I hear it again and faintly see a man in a red shirt standing by the gymnasium waving us down. We sprint over and get to know Thomas. My man is like "I got something for y'all, come inside".

He opens the gymnasium door and it's like we enter a whole other realm. There's a disco ball, music bumping, and about 75 other people in red shirts as well. We follow Thomas and he reveals the buffet of the best, most delicious smelling home-cooked comfort food ever. Baked beans, potato salad, fried chicken, Jambalaya, ribs and green beans. We have unintentionally joined the Carters family reunion.

As Thomas compels us to eat and take as much food as possible, everyone is coming and saying hi to us. They couldn't lose us, not only were we in white shirts and ties, but we left a trail of water behind us as we walked. Anyway. We chow down and then the dancing starts.

Elder Schugk looks at me as it like "can you dance?" I say "no". He says "me either" and jumps into the crowd. My man starts doing the whitest dancing moves ever and everyone is LOVING it. They are hyping him up like nothing else. I'm talking to a nice old lady named Priscilla and she's like "you should get in there", before I could finish my protesting response she says "Mister. You need to get out there". So I go, and my North Stake Dance days flood back to me. I have Elder Schugk stand in the middle of the circle and I jump him and hit the Hungubungus. They pick me up and start carrying me as they chant my name.

Just kidding, just kidding. But I did jump over him and they hyped me up big time. Everybody was taking pictures with us and giving us the biggest amount of love ever.

A lady comes up to us and says "y'all are part of the family now!". Another guy asks us if we are on Tiktok lol. But what was awesome was the fact that we set up like 3 different studies with people and are joining their churches Bible study on Wednesday.

Now the best part was Thomas. The man that waved us down. As we said bye he looked at us and says "guys, when I saw y'all out in the rain I saw light. I need that. I HAVE needed that. I need y'alls light added to mine, please keep in touch with me".

The Lord has a plan for each of us. He is individually and acutely aware of our needs, wishes and desires. Thomas needed some light, and we were able to be instruments to help him see that God is aware of him. Tis good to be an instrument.

Elder Cummings

1. Combined District Council

2. Our boys Thomas and Robert

3. Wildlife ties at MLC

Miracles on Miracles!

 (Elder Slade)

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

This was one of the best weeks of my mission! First of all, Genesea got baptized! It was such a great baptism! Genesea has been a joy to teach, as she just absorbs everything you teach her and has a great sense of humor. Later that afternoon, we also had the opportunity to take the Villanueava family who was baptized last year to the temple to do baptisms for the dead! It was a really neat experience!

Then Sunday was a day filled with miracles! It started in the afternoon when we got on our knees and prayed with a girl named Jazzy, who we've been teaching, that her parents would allow her to be baptized. The spirit was so strong and it was one of the best lessons I've had! One of the coolest moments on my mission!! Then we went to our dinner appointment, and committed one of the kids to ask her friend to be taught. We got a text later that night that said she reached out, and she wants to be taught the discussions!! Then later we had a lesson with a previously taught person. In the past he's been too nervous to get baptized. But he's been starting to come to church again, and he said he wants to be baptized, and so we put him on date for the next few weeks! His sister wants to be baptized as well and we are planning on putting her on date the next lesson we have!

I know that miracles are real! And God has the power to perform miracles in our lives! 2 Nephi 27:23 says:

For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith.

As we exercise our faith, God has the power to perform miracles in our behalf and move the mountains and challenges in our lives! Turn to Him and He will help you in your life!

Love you all! I appreciate all of your love and support!

1-2. Us at the temple with the Villanueavas

3. Filling up the font

4. Genesea's baptism!!

5. Elder Coates and I on exchanges

6. Our zone at a zone council this week

7. Random picture of me!

PresenTATION!

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey everyone!!

This week we had the presentation at the Senior Center. We only had three nonmembers show up, and the other twelve people who came were members. We presented about the Restoration and afterward, one woman spoke with me about how we are all children of God and took a copy of the Book of Mormon. Hopefully it'll make a positive difference in the perspective of those who came.

At district council the Zone Leaders came and taught us how to tract via role-playing, since only one elder in our district was around before covid shut everything down. It was really fascinating.

On Saturday we helped a new family move in and it was supposed to take an hour and it took only about 10 minutes because of the amount of people who showed up, so that was a miracle brought about by selflessness!

We also helped a family move out too and that was fun, and we'll miss them.

We also have set up weekly lessons with Eseta's family (Ruby's aunt) so hopefully that will happen and help their family.

Love you all!!

(The sunshine rock I think is credited to Sister zinn)