Pictures of Washington

Companionship motto!

In Washington!

Goodness, so much has happened that I have no idea where to start.

Well I'm in Washington! The plane ride entering Washington was absolutely gorgeous- we flew right past Mt. Rainier, and it's huge and covered in snow. I'll try to attach a picture! The weather here in Washington has been absolutely beautiful, and it hasn't rained once. A few people who live here have been telling me that I'm supposed to write home and way over exaggerate the rain. They say that that's what everyone else does so that they can discourage people from coming so that everyone won't find out that this is the best state and want to move here. :)

It is so green, and there are huge trees everywhere! We found out something interesting when we got to the Mission Office- apparently in July our mission will be splitting so that 4 of the 9 stakes will become part of the Seattle mission. Whichever area President Wilson put us in for our first area would be the mission we would be in, so I wasn't sure if I would be in the Everett or Seattle mission! I kept feeling like I was supposed to be in the Everett mission, but I prayed that President Wilson would be inspired to know which mission had the people I am meant to find and teach.

President Wilson decided to keep me in the Everett Mission! My first area is Oak Harbor, on Whidbey Island!! I'm spoiled! My companion and I live a block away from the beach, where we go for a run every morning. We had to cross this huge bridge called Deception Pass to get to the island!

My companion is Sister Turley from Mesa, Arizona. She has been out a grand total of...6 weeks! :) She is a little bit quiet at first, but not in a shy kind of way. She is one of those people that you just respect immediately because you can see the depth to her spirit, especially when she smiles and you look in her eyes. She has been through some hard things. Her mom died suddenly about 4 years ago, just 9 days after she found out that she had cancer. Sister Turley has a testimony of the Savior, and you can feel it when she teaches.

I haven't even been here for a week yet, but already the best thing about being here is the the people. There really is something special about being on a mission that allows you to be given this gift to feel so much love for people. Absolutely everyone I meet I feel so much love for! It's been weird to me that even when I have run into people who are rude or want nothing to do with us, it really hasn't offended me. You feel sorry that they aren't ready to hear your message, but then you put a smile on and move on.

Probably my favorite is when you knock on a door and someone comes to look through the glass. We wave at them, then they look at our nametags and we smile at them, then their eyes get really big, and they just walk away and even though we've seen them they don't bother opening the door! What can I say, I'm a pretty intimidating person. I guess I can't blame them either...after all, if they're not careful I might tell them that God loves them and that I love them... :)

There's no way I'll have time to write about everyone that I have met, but I'll try to tell you about a few of them.

Sandra and Alex Smith- Sandra and her 15 year old son Alex are on date for baptism on May 22nd! Sandra is the very definition of golden. She is so solid!!! Sister Turley and her last companion Sister Cromar found Sandra. When they went up to meet her she said, "I'm so glad to see you two! I've been thinking, and I've decided that it's time." Everything we teach Sandra and Alex they just soak up- when we go to teach she tells us that she not only read what we asked her to, but she actually has been reading for hours and hours every day because she can't get enough of it. Sandra and Alex came to church yesterday, and Sandra wept all throughout the sacrament and during Gospel Doctrine class when Sister Turley and I taught about baptism. Sandra's brother has been a member for about 40 years, and he will be flying here to perform the baptism. How cool is that!?

Bennett Harris- I've been thinking and praying nonstop about Bennett ever since we met him. He is another investigator that I can feel has been prepared! We met him tracting on my first day here. He is an African American man who I would guess is in his mid-50's. We had a great conversation there on the doorstep, where he asked some incredible questions about the origins of good and evil, and why God doesn't talk directly to his children. (Golden, right!?) We gave him a Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment. Our first lesson with him was without a doubt guided by the spirit. His questions are outstanding, and while I was teaching I thought of new ways to express truths of the gospel that I had never thought of before. Bennett says he's been studying the Bible for years, and he's been thinking about these questions for as long as he can remember, but He can't quite understand them. It was cool to hear Bennett explain his questions, and answer his own questions using gospel principles without even realizing it! Bennett is intrigued with the restoration, as well as the concept of pre-Earth life, and wants us to come back. Problem is, the next time He is available for us to meet is not for another 3 weeks. That's plenty of time for the Lord to perform miracles in his life, but it's also time for Satan to work really hard on him. Keep him in your prayers!!

Michelle Lachman- A few days ago Sister Turley and I hadn't found anyone to teach all day, so we stopped and said a prayer. I told Heavenly Father that I knew that there was one person that He needed us to find that night, and please would He help us to find just one person. We went to a trailer part to knock on the door of a former investigator, but she wasn't home. Her neighbor had kids toys scattered throughout their yard, so I suggested that we try there. Michelle answered, and she was super friendly, but said that she wasn't interested at that time in hearing more about eternal families. I felt like I should keep talking to her, so I asked her more questions, and we found out that she is moving next month. My mouth just about fell open when she told us that she is moving to Colorado... Pueblo, Colorado. She is a single mom taking care of two young kids, working as an LPN and she is going back to school to get her RN. I was so excited, I told her about this great hospital I knew of that was usually hiring, and how I knew one of the women who could help with employment there because of the STEP program I did there... turns out, Michelle had just barely finished applying for a position at Parkview Medical Center! I told her that I had family in Pueblo and in a town very close by that I would love to help her contact the woman at the hospital, as well as help her move in next month when she comes to Pueblo.

Anyway, I'm just about out of time. My letters definitely won't be this long most of the time, but this time I just had so many exciting things to say! It gets a little bit lonely during the middle of the week, so I would love to get letters from all of you... :)

Love you all!

love, Sister Slade

MTC District Pictures

MTC

 I wasn't expecting to have a P-Day for a while, but turns out that P-Days for our district are on Fridays!

I am absolutely loving it here at the MTC! From the moment that I first got off the plane in Salt Lake this has been an incredible experience! It looked like missionaries had taken over the Salt Lake Airport. There were large groups of up to 30 missionaries in different parts of the airport, all heading off in masses to their different assigned areas. I ate shish kabobs and cheesecake with Jeanna and Tammy and their kids, then they dropped me off at the MTC. The initial drop-off was a lot less scary than I was expecting. There were missionaries there to help you with your luggage and show you where to go to get your name badge, meet you companion, etc... May 22nd was a significant report date for the MTC, because it was one of the few times in history that there have been more sister missionaries than elders reporting! The MTC was originally built with the expectation that there would never be more than 7% sister missionaries. Right now the MTC status is 45% sister missionaries. My companion and I sat with a senior missionary here at the MTC for lunch yesterday, and she was telling us that it used to be that when you walked into the MTC it just looked like a bunch of penguins walking around- there's quite a bit more color now that there are sisters. We met our branch presidency last night and they told us that the entire feel of the MTC has changed- there's more laughter, more smiles, just a completely new energy that the church leadership is amazed at! Something else they told us that really surprised me is that the MTC really isn't that crowded right now. They called us the "calm before the storm." There are 2500 missionaries here right now. By the end of the month there will be about 4000, and the number of missionaries will reach 7000 by the beginning of July!!! What an exciting time to live in!!!!!

My companion is Sister Cunningham. She is quirky, sweet, and has a way cute accent since she is from Alabama! I'm getting along well with her, especially since we're still getting to know each other and we're constantly together. One thing I'm realizing is that even if some of these people I'm with aren't people that I normally wouldn't be best friends with or connect with right off the bat, when you're learning the gospel with them and you have the same purpose, that just doesn't really matter. For the time that you are working with them, you just appreciate the things that make them unique and love them anyway. Sister Cunningham and I have our first "teaching appointment" tonight after we get back from the temple. We are teaching a woman named Kristine. She has one five year old daughter and her husband is a member, but he is inactive. The whole family attends a Lutheran church, but they aren't quite feeling "fulfilled" from their church so we are going to pay them a visit. Both Sister Cunningham and I are thinking we will teach Kristine the first lesson, because the lesson has a lot of principles that Kristine will be able to relate to (the gospel blesses families, she already believes in God and the Savior, etc...) but we also want to try to emphasize the restoration and the Book of Mormon in this first lesson. We are going to challenge her to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know that it is true.

The MTC is absolutely exhausting! I've gotten very little sleep in the last two days, and every day is a 16-hour day that is absolutely packed with different activities and workshops. It's so worth it though. There is so much power here. There's power in numbers, and there's power in the hearts of so many individuals all being turned toward Christ at the same time. There's power in prayers constantly being offered at every corner, and there's definitely power in hearing hundreds of missionaries sing "Called to Serve." Regardless of there being so many people, every single one of these missionaries matters individually. I love hearing the different reasons of why each missionary decided to serve a mission. There are multiple sister missionaries in our zone that had amazing spiritual experiences the night before the age change happened. They would have these experiences and be confused because they felt so strongly, without a doubt, that they were intended to go on a mission, but they knew that they weren't old enough. Then the overwhelming age change happened, and here they are! There are a surprising number of elders who are converts, or don't have family in the church, or have part-member families, yet here they are!

Anyways, I wish I could write more. There's just no way to explain everything that has been going on here. A few of the workshops and teaching experiences we have done just can't be put into words either- you just have to be here at the MTC experiencing it to understand. I wish you could come and meet Lawanna and George, and help us try to teach them. You would feel so much love for them if you were here!

I guess that’s about all for now. I can't wait to hear from you next Friday!

Love, love, love, Sister Slade

Welcome Sister Slade!

This blog will now be featuring the posts from Sister Britney Slade, another member of the Putnam family.  Sister Slade is serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  She is serving for the next 18 months in the Washington Everett Mission.

Last Post

I guess this is it.  This is the last time that I will send in a blog post to my most wonderful Aunt KaraLynne that has been gracious enough to post them for me.  I am grateful for everyone that has been a support for me and especially those who emailed and shared their time.

In regards to my mission I was thinking of describing word to describe it and this is what I have come up with: greatness, beauty, wonder, journey, shock, difficult, worth it, tropical, hot, humid, beaches, ocean, jungle, bestpeopleever, faithful, spiritual, Atonement, Jesus Christ.  All these words go to describe the best two years that I have ever had in my life.  I don’t think that I can overstate the magnitude of benefit this experience has had in my life.

Even though I am almost 15 lbs lighter than I was going out, I have a heavy load of experience and love that outweighs everything that I lost.  Two years of school?  Not a problem.  I can honestly say I have no regrets for going on a mission, and I never will.  I have a book of remembrance that I have passed around to all the people I care about and asked them to write a little and put a picture in it.  I fully intend to read it on the plane ride home.  The book is priceless just like so many of the picture, memories and experiences that I have had.  Would I do it all over again... maybe :)  It was hard!  I won’t sugar coat it, there were challenges along the way.  But the funny thing is, I can hardly remember any of the difficult stuff.  It fades away like a bruise on the knee, after a while, you can’t even remember which leg it was on.  But the happy moments, they're permanent, and difficult to forget.  What a blessing that is!

Words through an email fall short of what I really want to say.  I just hope you all are ready and willing to hear me rant about how great my mission was :).  Looking back I realized that many of my blog posts have left out things of a spiritual nature.  Perhaps that is because I have difficulty sharing them with white people, and maybe through the internet.  But, at any rate, just to make sure I am thorough this time I want to share an experience that has really made a great end to a great mission.

When I first got to Kota Kinabalu I was given the task of teaching a 35 year old lady that was just found the week before.  She was mean, angry, stubborn and confident.  Despite our best efforts, and those of the branch, she seemed set on being a loner.  When we taught her, she would argue.  When we told her we cared about her she didn’t believe us.  But, despite all of this, she continued to go to Church  meet with us, and read from the Book of Mormon.  For the longest time we were confused and unsure of the reasons why she wanted to learn.  Whenever we brought up baptism she  made no promises. We were ready to give up on her.  We thought to ourselves, we are busy and there are other people that need our time.  I’m not sure what changed in her, perhaps it was just the consistent visits or the wonderfully supportive members of the branch.  Regardless of what it was, this sister began to change.  She sounded different on the phone, she didn’t argue and best of all she accepted a baptismal invitation.  Everything was going great, we were so happy!  And then she asked me to baptize her.  And then I was even happier!

And now, I am happy to say that she was baptized just 2 days ago.  The last weekend in my mission and the last baptism in my mission.  It was such a happy day for her.  She bore her testimony afterwards and expressed a sincere and honest account of her conversion and believe in Christ.  I can think of no better end to a mission than to see her be baptized.

I am happy and content.  I hope with all my heart that everyone that is eligible to serve a mission do so.  You won’t regret it, you will be happy, I promise. I know that happiness can be eternal, just as our Heavenly Father's love is eternal.  I know we have a savior that lives and loves all of us, regardless of our faith or circumstances.  I also know that when our love towards Heavenly Father is but a fraction of his love towards us, the blessing are innumerable!  My love for my savior pales in comparison for the love he has for me, but he is merciful, and he still blesses my life.  I am grateful for the blessings he has poured into my life and will forever and ever be in his debt.  I hope this 2 year mission has been a small yet meaningful contribution to the great marvelous work of our Father.

 So, it is with heavy heart that I close this blog.  I love you all and can’t wait to see you!!!!!

Love Elder Putnam

Single Digits

Well the list of things to do never seems to get smaller as I reach the single digits of my mission.  I am not ready to write my dying email, so wait for next week.  I will say that things are not winding down as they say, but in fact moving at a lightning fast pace that has me exhausted. Next week we are planning a last fun trip to one of the more secluded islands off the coast of Kota Kinabalu.  It is called Pulau Gayana.  I will miss the ocean sooo much and jump for joy as I leave the humidity, then hit the ground hard as I realize that DC is just as bad.  Will I ever escape the humidity?!  Perhaps I will curse this blog post 6 months from now when I am in Provo braving the onset of winter.  But, as it is, I will not miss the heat. 

I have decided to give away almost all of my cloths to various people that need them.  It feels good to give away cloths that to me are trashed, but to others are very much still usable   I have also decided to give away most of my ties to each of the Priesthood holders in the branch.  These people mean so much to me and I just hope that I have made some sort of difference in their lives.

Well, have a great week, and wait for next week!