Back in Miami Shores!

Chè fanmi ak zanmi mwen yo:

I'm back in Miami Shores Creole! I never thought it would happen, it's pretty rare to go back to an area where you've served before. I started my mission here, I left for six months, and now I'm back! Hopefully I'll get a few more transfers here, it really is a great place. The people are all great, you get to speak Creole almost all the time, I've already had four Haitian meals (two of which included griot! Delicious!) and, I'm back in one of the only two Haitian Creole areas in the mission that includes a Krispy Kreme!

Unfortunately, the Krispy Kreme wall has been taken down, as of a few months ago, but the wall itself isn't as important as the donuts.

Also, I love my new companion. His name is Elder Felkins. He came out a transfer before I did,

Elder Felkins and I are getting along really well. Not quite as well as Elder Van Wagenen and I did originally, but still very well. It's a relief that we already have such a great relationship, with little or no tension. We're already teaching together pretty well, and we'll keep working on it as well until we either become perfect teachers or until we are no longer companions.

I'm getting pretty close to finishing the Book of Mormon again. The chapters in Ether have always been some of my favorite chapters, because it shows patterns very clearly that are harder to spot in some of the rest of the Book of Mormon. Mormon even explicitly points some of them out. I love it.

This week, we saw many miracles. One of them was a family that we found while harvesting. The mom's desires are to live a better life, and to do what God wants her to do; and she and her family are both excited to prepare to be baptized. Unfortunately, she got violently sick on Saturday night, so they could not come to church, but they still are excited to prepare to be baptized so we'll keep working with them.

For the record, I didn't know where I transferred to or who my new companion was until Wednesday. I couldn't have told any of you where I went before that.

I realized that I didn't tell you much about my new mission president. That's because I don't really know much about him. I've only seen him in person once so far, we're not getting interviews with him until the 25th of this month.

It's exciting to see the house changing, even though I only ever lived there for about two weeks. Were you going to put carpet up in the loft? I don't exactly know how to install carpet, what the process is or how expensive it can get.

Also, I found out that my release date was pushed back a week. Now it is September 3rd, not September 10th.

Scripture of the day: Ether 14:18: "And there went a fear of Shiz throughout all the land; yea, a cry went forth throughtout the land—Who can stand before the army of Siz? Behold, he sweepeth the earth before him!"

Mèsi anpil, mwen renmen nou,

Elder Slade

Great Week

Dear family,

Another great week! Germany won the world cup, which almost brought Sister Bartsch to tears. I love that girl so much. I still remember that one time when I was on my mission and the Broncos won the Superbowl... that was so great. :) We're singing "Come Thou Fount" or I should say "Komm Du Quelle" in German in Sacrament meeting next week. We'll be practicing every morning!

The highlight of this week was definitely seeing member missionary work in action! On Saturday we saw Hayley 3 times, once in the morning for a lesson, in the middle of the day when she came to tour a new church building at the open house we were asked to help with, and once at night when the recent convert we had dinner with invited her to come. This member, Amelia, invited us over for smores and hot dogs around their fire pit, along with Hayley, a less active that she visit teaches, and another recent convert. Partway through dinner without any hesitation she opened the conversation up to talking about the gospel and her conversion, and the spirit was so strong! The less active really opened up about why she had been scared to come back to church, and it was all because Amelia helped her and everyone else there feel so loved.

Hayley is progressing amazingly. She truly is one of those "Are you real? Where did you even come from?" investigators. She is already so well integrated into the ward, you can hardly tell she's not already a member, and in fact she told us that when she was little she used to tell people she was Mormon, even though it wasn't true. She's always wondered why she did that. Hayley's family is not happy at all about her decision to be baptized, please pray for her to continue to have the strength that she needs.

Unfortunately we weren't able to meet with a few of our investigators this week because of them being out of town, overtime at work, etc... This next week they should be back on track though and we have some potentials that should turn into new investigators too!

Love you all!

Sister Slade

Red Marker - White Floor

Time is passing way too fast here. According to my amazing cousins Sister Britney Slade, it will continue to do so. Not sure how I feel about that. Already I'm dreading the day that I have to take off my missionary name tag, there will be many tears shed then. Anyways the MTC is great! The only beef I have besides it being short is the fact that my body has readily dispensed pounds of food via horrific gas and bowel movement... Don't worry though I'm not going to die of overpooping. Sister Jeter's brother has saved us after he sent literally fifteen pounds of fruit snacks to her. We now eat like Kings! Or toddlers depending on your definitions of the two.

We have just received twenty new missionaries in our zone this past Wednesday, eight of which are sisters. We may or may not have used our assignment as Sister Training Leaders as a way to convert them all to playing soccer at gym time... but hey the white handbook (book with all of the rules) encourages us to take exercising seriously. And lets be honest. Volleyball in the sand is fun but not the kind of workout we as sisters in the MTC need. We play soccer every day of the week that we have gym time, and apparently I'm pretty good. I dribble the right direction and even score sometimes! If anybody would like to inform me as to what a hat trick is apparently I'm pretty good at that too... Either way I think I am working out far more than I did at home! Granted I was semi comatose for about a month #rollerbladingaccident.

Sister Jeter, Sister Hill and I have decided that this seasons new "hashtag" is "parce que" which literally means because in French. You will often hear us say "Parce que Utah" or "Parce que missionaries," we're pretty creative with our Franglais. Elder Sorenson in our Zone has an amazing ability at franglais, he will often approach you and ask something along the lines of "How the ça va are ya?!" which translates to how are you. French is going very well for me, being a sister training leader makes it so everyone thinks that you actually know something, so I am often asked questions about French that I actually have to go out of my way to learn. So ya, I'm getting loads of practice.

In the way of seeing people, boy do I have a story. For one thing I saw Micah Putnam in the Cafeteria on Saturday! We didn't get to eat together parce que I had to PVL (Parler votre langue or speak your language) at lunch so I had to sit with French speakers, it was great seeing him though! Also I had just finished showering and was going down the hall to the water fountain in my residents when I turn the corner and meet a familiar face! Emily Teuscher is living on the same floor as me! She and I were good friends when I was taking piano lessons with her mother for I believe 2nd grade to 4th grade. I could be wrong though. We talked about Normal, Illinois and how our families were doing. It made me realize how much I miss Illinois! Don't get me wrong I miss New Jersey but sort of only because my family is there... Illinois is where my memories are.

Now is the time for my heroic story. *clears throat* Once upon a time my district and I were asked to clean the temple. My companions and I were assigned to clean the chandeliers in some of the rooms. Which is a very painstakingly long process of taking out these crystals one by one, washing them, and then replacing them. The Provo temple was closed these past two weeks for maintenance and resurfacing purposes, one of the projects that had been done was replacing the majority of carpeting in some of the rooms. Our room just happened to be one of the rooms that had gotten the carpeting replaced. After taking out all of the crystals in the big chandelier we were marking the dead light bulbs with, of course, a giant bright red marker in a completely white room. A sister was marking one of the light bulbs and suddenly the marker fell out of her hands! It sailed down towards the recently replaced pure white carpet and almost would have made it. Except somehow I was able to catch the marker before it hit the floor, I guess all those years of color guard certainly are helping out. So yes people I'm a hero, there isn't even a mark to show it! ;D

This past week our district also got to help out with moving in the senior companions. They are just the cutest people on the campus! Which may or may not have anything to do with the fact that they get to hold hands with each other all around campus, I may or may not be jealous of that little fact (granted who would I hold hands with.) I have learned so much from their example too. They frequently come up to talk to us about how our studies are going, and are so warm and inviting I can feel the charity radiating off of them. It is a beautiful thing. And it makes me realize just how much I want to grow my charity so I can help others feel how I feel around those wonderful elders and sisters.

That pretty much is all that I can say has happened this week, I love you all! For those who have written me I'm writing you back in letter form. That means you too mother ;D I'll talk to you next week!

Soeur Cummings

Us bonding over popcorn.

Laughing together.

At the Provo Temple

Sealings!!

Dear family,

First things first, BENNETT AND VERNA HAVE AN OFFICIAL DATE FOR THEIR SEALING!!!!! The date is October 18th, in the Seattle temple. Because I was able to teach them before they were baptized, I should get permission to go to their sealing! I can hardly wait, it's been a year since I've been to the temple, and 8 months since I've seen either of my two favorite "instigators." (Gotta love Verna) I still think about them almost every day. October is a long time to wait but it'll be worth it!!

We had an amazing lesson with our investigator Elizabeth this week. We taught about the Book of Mormon, which she had already started reading, and before we even started the lesson she said, "I really believe that this is true!" Then she smiled really big and said "And you know, that makes me kind of nervous." She was just beaming. She explained how she knows that her knowledge of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon makes her accountable and that that would mean she would have to make some changes in her life that support her new knowledge. I love when the spirit testifies of truth and all of a sudden investigators just get it.

Recently in my study I was thinking about how the repentance process works in our daily lives, not just as a missionary, but in real life too. Every morning immediately after we rise we commit to the Lord that we will do everything that we can to follow Him. Every night before we go to bed we account to the Lord on the days activities. It's important that in this time we are very specific in our gratitude, requests, and apologies for the day. We mentally go through every activity of the day, from morning to night, so that Heavenly father knows how much we really do appreciate His hand in our lives and in the process of us becoming like Him. When we talk about enduring to the end, it means we follow this process for the rest of our lives: commit, account, reccommit, account, reccommit, account, and "so on and so forth and what have you" (shout out to Bennett Harris.)

Hayley and Lily are still progressing amazingly, and our investigator Colton is now preparing to be baptized on August 16th. He lives all the way in Maltby on a ranch with over 30 horses. It's killing our miles when we're not able to get member rides there, so Sister Bartsch and I decided we're going to borrow one of his horses and just ride to our appointments from now on :)

Love, Sister Slade

Transfers

Dear Friends and Family:

Transfer call information came in yesterday. Elder Slade: transfers. Elder Bailey... also transfers. They're whitewashing our area. Elder Harper is transferring across the hall, he's going to be taking over the area with some other, unknown missionary. And Elder Burgoyne is training this transfer. (He said that he's going to train by positive reinforcement - he'll keep a bunch of mints, and every time his trainee does something good, he'll give him a mint.)

Elder Bailey and I are both confused and surprised at what is happening this week at transfers. We were both expecting me to leave, but not that both of us would. So we're both packing up, and setting the area right for Elder Harper and whoever else comes in.

It's really hard to believe that I'm leaving Boynton Beach, I've been here 6 months already, and I've become friends with so many of the members and others in the area. But if God wants that, then I guess that's all right.

We had a terrific week. Matt Ellsworth, who also referred himself to us, was baptized on Sunday. He is here just for the summer, in order to go to medical school. He said that throughout his life, he has always felt that the church is true, and he has always wanted to be a member of the church because they have the spirit with them more. That was one of the reasons that he decided to be baptized. Also, he is excited to go to the temple, and to be baptized for the dead.

Daphne wasn't able to come to church because of food poisoning. Darn.

We had yet another miracle this week as we were harvesting. We found a member who was baptized in Haiti, who didn't know where the church was here. He hadn't been to church in a long time, and he wanted to come. We're so grateful that God gave us the opportunity to see that miracle and to be able to direct him back to church.

I'm sad that I'm missing everything that is happening at home. Seeing everyone grow up, seeing the house be changed around, seeing all of my siblings continue to go to school. I miss all of you!

Thanks, I love you,

Elder Slade

Independence Day at the MTC

Hello world! Greetings from this wonderful country known as the Missionary Training Center! Seriously though sometimes this place feels like it is a whole different world, you only see people in a certain culture and the time moves so strangely. Sister Hill has put it very well, "The days feel like weeks, but the weeks feel like days." There have been many a moment when we turn to each other and ask "remember a couple of days ago when sister Jeter got 13 letters" and it had just happened that morning. Speaking of Letters. I love you guys but I only have one hour to email, only one day out of the week, however I can receive and respond to letters every day of the week during my hour of free time before I head to bed. Please either snail mail me or Dear Elder me. Not only does it make things more efficient but then I get to feel that lovely feeling of being loved when a letter comes my way.

As many know it was Fourth of July this past Friday. We were dismissed from classes around three hours early and shepherded into the auditorium for a devotional, (I think this was just a tactic for us Elders and Sisters not to hear Carrie Underwood perform at the Stadium of Fire 400 metres away from the MTC.) It was the most lovely devotional I have ever experienced. The speaker spoke on how being a hero is not something just found through firefighting or police work. In fact we can all be heroes, the greatest hero was Jesus Christ, he suffered our sins for us in the garden of Gethsemane so that we could return to our Heavenly Father and still have our agency, or our ability to choose. After this beautiful talk we were surprised with a viewing of the amazing movie "17 Miracles" which is a beautiful story of LDS Pioneers trekking across the West to Utah. We were then conveinently let out after "Sister Underwood" had finished singing (President Nally, the MTC President, actually said this at the pulpit and you wouldn't believe how many Elders gasped with happiness at the idea that she had perhaps gotten baptised, but twas not so.) They gave us this beautiful thing called a Magnum ice cream bar and told us that we could watch the fireworks. So those of you in the Provo, Utah area. We were totes watching the same fireworks. I have never been more proud of my heritage than at that point in my life.

I have gotten to see Elder Garrett Hawkins, who got here last Wednesday, we share the same meal times and P-days and Gym time so I literally see him everywhere. And I have also been blessed on seeing Elder Taylor Graves every time the West campus MTC dwellers join us main campus dwellers. We enjoy giving each other high fives and see the other elder's and sister's reactions, little known fact, sisters and elders can't high five or fist bump. I know. Its sad. I've seen Micah a couple of times mostly though its out the window and I see him accidently trip over his feet as he walks to his car. For some reason he has yet to smuggle me in some pizza, I think he should work on that ;D

French sayings of the week. #lalutteestvrai (hashtage the struggle is real), "tous le temps chaque jours" (all day every day) and "comment osez-vous" (how dare you). The language is going very well. I have been able to carry on conversations at a quick pace, as well have been able to get off book for lessons (meaning I don't read the script I've written before hand and just teach with the spirit.) Sister Hill, Sister Jeter and I have taught six lessons. Five of which were to our investigator Em, who turned out to be our second French teacher. We sort of knew it would happen, but at the same time it was very very strange to see Frere Laguan in a suit and tie speaking English occasionally. My teachers are great as I said Frere Laguan is one of them, he is the most sassy French speaker I believe I have ever met. He also has one of the best testimonies I have ever heard, or at least from the parts I could translate to English. The teachers here are suppose to speak French the entire time, so then we can have a full immersion experience. Considering we are in our class rooms 11 hours of the day, compared to our 9 hours in our residents halls, this seems to be working quite well. I believe the class room my cousin Brandon Slade was in is in fact in our Zone, we have Haitian Creole speaking missionaries as well as Tahitian missionaries on our floor (the poor Tahitian missionaries have to learn 5 weeks of French and then 6 weeks of Tahitian. a.k.a 11 weeks in the MTC.)

I have only been here two weeks, which is really rather strange to think of that but its true. Sister Hill, Sister Jeter and I have been given the assignment of Sister Training Leaders. Our sister training leaders just left yesterday to serve in Lyon France. And we are in the quiet before the storm. Tomorrow the two French zones receive 47 new French missionaries, next week 6 international missionaries come in who only speak French (which should make interviewing interesting...) But hey this will be fun!

Looks like that is all the time that I have for today, seriously people write me letters. I never thought I'd say this but goodness. Email is a hassle.

Until next week!

Souer Cummings

L'etoile de la ceil (The Ceiling Stars)

Guys its official. I'm a missionary. Come give me a handshake. Coming into the MTC was uneventful thank goodness, not including a rather treacherous sprint in a skirt in the O'hare airport that should have really been recognized for "most graceful run for your life while your plane has just landed and your connecting plane has two minutes left of boarding." On the plane I sat next to a guy from Ottawa which is in my mission! He filled me in on everything I needed to know about the area. AKA Hockey. Oh he also told me the fifty dollar bills in Canada actually smell like maple syrup. Which makes me really excited because that means that not only is Canadian money really bright like monopoly money but its like a scratch and sniff! CANADA IS AN AMUSEMENT PARK! At least in advertising ;D

Thank you all those family and friends who came to see me off, I love you guys! After I was dropped off at the curb and I had gotten my name tag, a Sister Smith (who is from, you guessed it, an hour outside Montreal) helped me take my gear up to my room. I was of course the first one into the apartment and as well as first into the classroom. Oh the classroom... I walked in and my teacher was speaking French...someone once decribed the first day, maybe even the first week, as trying to drink out of a firehose. You try to get as much water as you can into your mouth, but only end up hurting your face really badly. This is very very accurate, the teachers here are supposed to be speaking French 24/7 which is good because I am picking up the language quite well, or more likely remembering it well. It is only the sixth day and I have already taught three lessons in French, can say a prayer in French and have learned many useful phrases such as "Je peux pas meme" (I just can't even) "Je conduis la bus de la lutte" (I drive the struggle bus) and a particularly interesting Quebecois phrase "Bien oui en dont" pronounced as "ben way un dawn" which means You have got to be kidding me. THAT'S CRAZY! And yet at the same time I feel like I have been prepared for this moment my entire life.

I am in a Trio with Sister Hill and Sister Jeter. Sister Hill is from Las Vegas and has the most beautiful long hair you can think of, and she is so talented she can do fancy braids with it, without a mirror. Elle est un boss. Sister Jeter is from Texas although she doesn't sound like it, she also has this insane ability to just throw anything at the garbage can and it will go in. Which is ironic because her last name in French means "to throw away in the trash." Elle est un boss aussi. Our first night we were all so tired and our brains were in a condition that we have become to understand as "French Fried." We all got ready for bed, read our scriptures, wrote in our journals and then turned off the lights. It was only then that we saw the most beautiful thing we have seen yet. Some Sisters before us had put dozens and dozens of glow in the dark stars on the ceiling of our room. This is a little known fact but at the MTC you don't get to see the night sky. The buildings are too close together with covered walkways that blot out the sky, missionaries are also not allowed to be outside before it gets really dark. But every night since the first all three of us walk into the room do our nightly routine, and then turn off the lights and sigh. Sleeping under the stars has become a way to de-stress, a way to unwind, and a way to recognize just how close we are to God. He has left little miracles like this that have kept me up and running. Miracles such as seeing a friend everyday, we don't talk much but just being able to see them calms me down so that I can focus during the eleven hours of studying and classes I have daily.

Currently it feels like I am too busy to even worry about being homesick. I miss you guys don't worry. But as my cousin put it "I hope I miss you." There are moments when it hits me, moments of "Oh my goodness I am a missionary" or "Oh my goodness I only get to wear pants one day a week" or even "Oh my goodness I can't high five guys for an entire 18 months." Strangely enough those moments are when I feel most homesick. This is only remedied by receiving letters and even just sleeping under the stars. I love it here and I can't wait until I am out in the field. But for now I'm content with sleeping under the stars for five more weeks.

Sincerely,

Sister Cummings