Staying in Mascouche

This is a forewarning. Often when I am writing an email I write the most serious moment of my letter first and then start from the beginning. And here is the warning, the ending of this letter is a little intense. But to begin I'll explain this lovely picture that I have attached, feast your eyes on this photographic beauty I title "Terrebonne Sisters cleaning the car." This literally just happened minutes ago and am still laughing =D Transfers were this week and as I believe I mentioned, I'm staying in Mascouche. However the ever so lovely Sister Leano became a Mama! Any non-missionary probably wouldn't get that reference, when a missionary trains a greenie its there child. So my mother is Sister Munive, My grandmother is Sister Godfrey, and my great grandmother and great great grandmother have died (which is to say that they went home.) So Sister Leano became the proud Mama of Sister Willis who is from Hawaii and never ceases to make us crack up. I am LOVING living in an apartment with another companionship. I've learned to make tortillas this week and also how to make a Book of Mormon into a steering wheel using paper and cardboard (sadly I just realized I never got a picture of it...) eh C'est la Vie, it made some wonderful girl really happy.

This week Sister Munive and I learned about the importance of planning. Every morning as a missionary we have a companionship study time, well almost every morning, sometimes we have someone scheduled at that time. Either way for some reason we had not had our full time to plan for the lessons of our dear dear investigator Luna but we showed up with a rough idea that we wanted to teach repentance. We parked the car and go and knocked on her door, no answer, then called her phone, with no avail... knowingly we turned to each other. Sister Munive said the exact words that I was thinking "We need to plan." So we head back to the car said a prayer and then started searching for the scriptures that would be best to share in order for Luna to understand the principle of repentance. Sister Munive had just found the perfect scripture and was halfway through reading it when Lona called. Hmm coincidence, I think not! We went in ready to teach the amazing lesson we had just planned only to realize that we needed to teach a different lesson, one of prayers and answers. Afterwards we came out of the lesson feeling happy how the lesson went and also in a way a little chastised. Sister Munive put it perfectly "Sister we have been praying that Luna may be protected as she continues towards baptism. God was protecting her from our unpreparedness." The moment we had the lesson planned then he opened the door for us to see her. At the same time we learned that no matter the circumstances we need to plan and if we plan for one lesson he may guide us into teaching a lesson that the investigator needs. So this week I have learned my lesson and I'm sure Sister Munive has as well.

Thank you all that have prayed for Luna. She is progressing very very well! We have had the opportunity to see her five times this past week! Which is crazy to even have the time to focus on just her as a missionary, or more accurately its a miracle we have been able to see her so often. She has even given us a referral to her friend living in New York City, who gladly thanked us via phone in one of our first visits "thank you for teaching my future wife about Jesus Christ." So Sister Munive and I may or may not be "shipping" them, and may or may not be making plans to get them married in the temple, but thats a minor detail. Luna is feeling the Love of Christ and is continuing onward to her baptismal date.

And this is where things get a little more intense.

As always miracles have happened this week. As a missionary it seems to be a lot easier to see these miracles, no matter how small. Everything from finding a new investigator or finding a lost sock seems to happen at least every week, if not daily. I am truly loving it here. I am truly loving being a missionary. Until this moment I didn't really seem to know why I am serving a mission. I just knew that I needed to and had no other reason beside that. Now I know. I was reading my notes from a beautiful talk given at the MTC on the 4th of July, I've began to just write what my thoughts are in my notes and when reading them something stood out that I had written. And when I read it I had no recollection of writing it, but this is what it said,

"One day I will be someone's hero, I will help lift them up out of the dark mist of sorrows and through the grace of the Almighty God, bring them to the Everlasting Gospel."

When I read that everything clicked. I am realizing how much of a blessing it is to work, no matter how oxymoronic that phrase may be, everyday I have the authority to spread the gospel abroad and to brighten peoples days. I have the power to share the gospel and to promise as a representative of Christ numerous blessings. This is my Testimony. My true and honest testimony. That no matter the trial, no matter the sin, and no matter the action, there is always a Father in heaven willing and waiting to help, all you must do is pray. Pray with a sincere heart, and I promise that God will respond. This I do in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sincerely,

Sister Cummings

Trying Week

Dear friends and family:

This week was a trying week for me and my companion. Because of accomplishing standards last week, we were all geared up to work with all of the awesome people we had in church last Sunday. But, as the week went on, all of them had things come up that caused them to not want to go to church again or even to see us again, in some cases. It was a struggle to keep our spirits high as all of these things were happening. On Saturday morning, it was looking bleak. We didn't have anyone committed to come to church.

But then we had a miracle! We were finally able to meet with Pauline, one of the investigators who came to church last week. She wasn't interested in being baptized until after she and her fiancee were married next year. But we visited them together, taught the restoration, and then testified about baptism. They wanted to be baptized, but still not until after they were married. (They were not living together, so it shouldn't have been a problem.) So we changed strategy and helped them to realize that they could be legally married this week, and then baptized, and they could have a big celebration for both afterward. Next year, for all we care. They both thought this was a great idea, and so they met with Brother Acevedo for the marriage counseling class after church. They are still very excited to be married, and then to be baptized. If the bishop is available this week, they will be married and baptized this week. If not, then it will be next week.

This will be the first couple that I help to be married on my mission so that they can be baptized. Elder Fisher and I were very careful to emphasize the importance of being sealed in the temple a year after their baptism, and they are both looking forward to that too.

We, unfortunately, fell short of the standards of excellence this week. But we'll repent, and we'll get them this week instead! And then the week afterward! And on and on indefinitely!

Again, we can't wait for specialized conference this Wednesday. We're a little bit bummed that it's all the way in Boynton Beach, even though it would be much less of a drive to get to Miami Lakes the next day. We're going to have to be very careful with our miles these next ten days...

So, Grandma had amnesia temporarily? That doesn't sound like fun. How much of the day did she remember after prodding her memory?

And Gabe is going to NYC. I've always wanted to go to New York, all of you are so lucky!

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Good News!

Dear family,

So much good news to report this week! Darlene and Everett moved to Arizona a few months ago, and this week they went to the snowflake temple to get their endowments and to be sealed! Such a happy event for them and for me! I wish I could be there somehow, but I am so happy just to hear that they're doing so well! We also went to the cottage meeting at the mission home last night, and I got to see Jesse, the guy that I contacted at Edmonds Community College a few months back. I'm pretty sure I wrote about him in a few emails before we found out he lived in Silverlake YSA area so we had to pass him off. Right before I got transferred to Silverlake YSA Jesse moved to Marysville so he was then passed off to the Armar YSA sisters. Well, Jesse got baptized yesterday and he was absolutely beaming! I see such an amazing change in him! I asked Jesse if he remembered that first time I met him and him telling me that he doesn't agree with organized religion, and there's no way he would ever join the church, but he was willing to listen just to hear what we believe. Jesse laughed and told me that he did remember that.

Heather has officially been free from smoking for 8 days as of today! She successfully finished the 7-day stop smoking program and we are so proud of her! The first few days were extremely hard for her, but on day 6 she told us that she went out to take her dog Duders for a walk and she smelled someone smoking (not a big surprise when you're in north Everett) and she said that it absolutely disgusted her. The last few days have been easy! I have taught a lot of investigators on my mission that I have gotten very close to, and Heather is one of those that I will always have a very special love for.

A few weeks ago I mentioned that we are teaching a girl named Zahra who is muslim. This week President Bonham came to one of her lessons with us and we had a very powerful experience. We were reteaching the restoration, and we turned to the picture of the first vision in the pamphlet. Before we said anything Zahra looked up from the picture and said, "Does it make you want to cry?" and out of nowhere she completely broke down sobbing. The spirit was so strong. We let Zahra cry for a few minutes, then she expressed to us how she felt good and how she knows that this is the path that she wants to take, but she is terrified of what her family back in Gambia will think. They are muslim and she doesn't want to become a disgrace for the family if she gets baptized. This is something that she has been working through for a very long time, and I felt so much love and compassion for her as she shared her feelings. I told her that my heart went out to her for this hard decision that she has to make, but the reason we keep coming to teach her is because we love her and know that this gospel really is that important. We promised her that if she will do everything in her power to pray and read and come to church so that she can build her testimony, she will be given the strength that she needs to make the decision that is right for her. 2 days later she told us that she is going to read the Book of Mormon by one month from now, and 2 days after that she came to church and showed us that she had already read through 1 Nephi. :)

There is so much more I wanted to say about my studies and being a Sister Training Leader and other investigators but there never seems to be the time! Just know for now that I love you all! I am so grateful for the support and prayers that I feel from all of you!

Love, Sister Slade

Seeing Jesse Gilpatrick again at cottage meeting!

Tips and Tricks

This week is going to be a little short, I'm trying to switch off to writing more personal emails.

So here are a couple tips and tricks that I'm starting to understand.

1. How to keep a dry towel from molding.

     - You don't. Anybody have a better answer than that? If you do be sure to email me

2. How to tell someone about the weather

     - In the United States we generally talk about weather in reference to clothing "oh its shorts weather" or "oh its sweatshirt weather." Here I'm realizing is more accurate with food. "oh if you left food in your car be prepared for fried eggs", "You can leave that in there it’s like a refrigerator out there." Or "Beware of Popsicle." There isn't really any middle ground here...It's hot or its cold...And right now its cold, getting down to FOUR DEGREES! (don't worry that's just Celsius, I have no clue what it is in Fahrenheit but its pretty cold) I'm including a picture of Sister Munive and I.

3. How to know what language someone speaks

     - Begin with (Allo!) which is pretty universal. For English speakers it just sounds like someone speaking English with an accent. For French speakers it sounds like English speakers trying to speak French, and for Spanish...honestly I have no clue...

4. Tim Hortons

    - Still haven't eaten there, but it is a huge part of Canada. You see them more often then Mickey D's here

5. Bike rides

    - You really get to appreciate them here. We live right next to a river so we got some pretty epic pictures, such as this lovely one.

A little spiritual summary of the week

LUNA IS GETTING BAPTISED! We committed her to a baptismal date! Whoo sorry had to get that out there, my greeniness is tingling inside (greenie: a new missionary, which I am.) She will be baptized in the upcoming weeks and I will probably be singing at her baptism. The members of the ward have discovered that I'm fairly good at singing. On many occasions my vocal training has blessed me immensely. Even more so, God has blessed me immensely. Just yesterday we were sitting in the chapel waiting for Sacrament meeting to start when the Mission Ward Leader comes up and asks me to sing "I like to look for Rainbows" in three hours at his grandchild’s baptism... I found myself smiling and nodding. Surprisingly I was not nervous until about three seconds after he left I realized that I wouldn't be singing "I like to look for Rainbows" I would be singing "Le Jour de mon Bapteme" because it is in French...As a solo... I quickly memorized as much as I could before the baptism and then performed it. I'm not sure how good it was technique-wise but I feel like I was able to touch people’s hearts, which is all that counts as a missionary.

Well that’s all the time for today! Je t'aime beaucoup!

Soeur Cummings

Only one year left!

Dear Friends and Family:

This week, we achieved standards in all key indicators! Yay! This is the first time in my mission that I have done it. I've come close one other week when I was with Elder Bailey, but I fell short on a few of them.

On Sunday, we needed three more member present lessons and a member blessing, and it seemed like we weren't going to be able to get them. None of the members we called were able to come out with us, and we were getting close to the time that we had to go out to a lesson. Then, the last person we called finally said he could come out teaching with us! So we went and picked him up, and we started going to visit all of our investigators. But we literally visited ten or so homes, finding out that none of them were there, before we actually had a lesson! We just barely achieved standards for MPLs, but God blessed us for working hard to get the member out with us and we had three excellent lessons with him!

Elder Fisher and I are getting along well. Much better than we did at the start of the transfer, and we are getting a lot of amazing work done. We had 8 people in sacrament meeting yesterday, from a family of five, and two individuals from part-member families, and one other individual. We are excited to have six baptisms next week!

Our ward just got a new Ward Mission Leader, Brother Giullian, so we are excited to work with him and to have closer unity with the ward.

In one of my studies this week or last, I started making a list of my recent converts and trying to see patterns. One thing I noticed is that almost all of my recent converts have neither 1. come teaching with us, or 2. gone to the temple. So that is one thing I really need to repent of and be better at. I'm going to place more of a focus on missionary work and on the temple in our lessons, and especially after these people are baptized, I'm not going to just let them go inactive without ever visiting the temple.

If any of you have sent me letters that have been returned home to you from the mission office, be rest assured, it's happening to everyone. For some reason, none of the packages or letters that are arriving in the mission office are being forwarded to the right places. They are all being returned to the sender. This is mission-wide, and the senior missionaries are doing their best to find out why this is happening and to fix the problem so that we junior missionaries can receive all of your letters and love-in-a-box. Thanks for your patience!

Unfortunately, as some of you have already remarked, this past week I hit my half-way mark on my mission. The week before I hit my year-to-home mark, and this upcoming week I'll hit my year mark. I know, it's sad, but really, I still have a year left! If you don't count the MTC, I've still got a few weeks until I even hit my half-way mark. So you probably don't have to bring it up for another 11 months or so...

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Fasting

Funny things have happened this week. When I say funny I don't mean laughing out loud funny, I mean slightly out of ordinary funny that ends up going very well. I believe I have gained a complete testimony of Fasting.

But first some stories. I bet you didn't know that there are a few words in English that when said with a French accent are really Really REALLY bad curse words in Quebec, Canada. Note to self the word for sacrament is in fact "saint-cene" and not "sacrement"...

Another thing about Canada is that they have these amazing signs in all the neighborhoods. I'm not sure what the literal translation is but I attached a photo of it. The gist of it is "be wary of children for they could be yours" with a lovely drawing of a dead child. Golly I'm loving Canada!

This has also been a week of giving gifts. It was my companion's year mark as well as Sister Leano who is another sister we live with. She kept "subtly" hinting that she wanted a balloon for her year mark. So as a suprise we gave her one. She squealed and continued to bounce around for about two hours and then slept with it on her wrist. I have a video but it is too large to send. You are just going to have to trust me that it was hilarious. I did attach a picture of her the morning afterwards still very very content with her balloon named "Lo Lo Bo Bo." We also may or may not have filled their car with a bunch of balloons with inspirational messages written on them...

Remember that wonderful amazing sister we are teaching to ride a bike? Well she is taking the lessons! And not only that she came to church! Oh my goodness what a story! Okay. Story time with Sister Cummings. Its time to get serious.

<lights dim>

*note read the following in Thomas S. Monson's Voice

It was fast Sunday, and I had decided to fast for our investigators that they might find answers to their prayers and know the truthfulness of this gospel. My companion and I arrived at church three hours before the meeting started, and we waited for our investigator to arrive. But she did not come. In our saddened state we shuffled to the chapel and the meeting began. We were still quite sad when the Sacrament had been passed and nobody showed up. And then suddenly the door opened. And I swear I could hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Handle's Hallelujah Chorus, for there stood our wonderful and loved Luna. Much happier now Sister Munive and I became fully engaged in what was happening around us. It was a Fast Sunday so as per tradition we had a testimony meeting. And oh how beautiful were those testimonies. I have no idea what was being said but the feelings that were whispered by the spirit were so beautiful. As we came to the close of the meeting and the congretation was waiting for just one more speaker to finish it off nicely, our own Luna stood up. Sister Munive turned to each other in confusion, believing that she was leaving the chapel for some reason unknown to us. However we soon realized what was happening as Luna walked to the microphone. The smiles on our faces were so large my cheeks felt sore for hours afterwards. She talked about her family and how she had been searching for the good word and searching but she could not find it. She had said a prayer that she might find the right church. This was when she met the missionaries. She then stood at the pulpit on her very first moment of being in church and after only know of the gospel for a week and proudly declared "Je sais que ce c'est le bon parole." Which translates to "I know that this is the good word." She closes her testimony and I look around. Many members are crying including myself and Sister Munive. I know that this was an answer to my fast and what a beautiful answer it is.

We are receiving transfer calls this weekend, although it is very very unlikely that I will be transferred because I have not had the opportunity to finish my training. It still is a possibility that I may leave Mascouche. I'll keep you posted!

Je vous aime!!

Soeur Cummings

Heather

Dear family,

Today I wanted to share about one of my favorite people in the whole wide world. Heather has been investigating the church for about 5 years, and very seriously for the last 2 years. She has wanted to be baptized for a very long time, but because of some things that happened in her past, Heather has to have special permission from the first presidency to be baptized. We've been teaching Heather since I came here (and many missionaries companionships before me) and her lessons have been some of the most sacred experiences of my mission. I haven't shared about them partly because of how sacred they are to me, and partly because of how sensitive her situation is. Heather has been through the ringer, and in the last few years she has overcome every type of sin and every sorrow you can think of. Because of this, Heather is the atonement in action. Very few times in my life have I felt the love of Jesus Christ as strongly as I have when I have talked with Heather, because for Heather the atonement is as real as it gets. Last week Heather finished meeting with her counselor and he called President Bonham and told him that although Heather will have to stay in the singles ward for life, he sees no reason why she shouldn't be able to get baptized. What we didn't realize is that this was finally the last step in the process, and all that's left is for President Bonham to contact Salt Lake and get the approval for baptism. We talked to President Bonham at zone conference and he told us that he feels confident enough that the first presidency will approve Heather being baptized, that he gave us permission to set a date for baptism, as long as it's far enough away that he can be confident she is 100% prepared. When we invited Heather to be baptized on November 22nd she was completely in shock. It was an emotional experience for all of us. The whole process of teaching Heather has been an emotional experience for me. I love Heather so much. The last thing Heather has to overcome is smoking, and she started the program last night. Please please keep her in your prayers this week!!!

We got transfer calls and I'm super happy to report that both Sister Smith and I are going to be staying in Silverlake YSA!!! We have also been asked to serve as Sister Training Leaders for the nearby zones in this area, which we are excited but a little overwhelmed about as well. It's going to be another transfer filled with miracles!

Love you all!

Love, Sister Slade

We told Heather to show us her baptism "victory pose"

 Us and our grossness after completely cleaning and sanitizing Heather's apartment to prepare for her to start the stop smoking program

 She starts the stop smoking program today. We spend a million years cleaning her apartment so that it's completely smoke free! Oh. And we made her promise that she would wear this sign whenever she leaves the apartment this week. Keep her in your prayers!!!