Transfers!

Well friends and family this week we received transfer calls, and as you can probably guess I received the news that I will be leaving the beautiful land of Mascouche. I love the people of this land so very very much, and it is hard to think that I have only been here for three months. As sad as it seems there is good news! I will be leaving Mascouche but will be staying in the same stake and serving in Hochelaga East! Which is an area on the Island of Montreal! I'M GONNA BE LIVING IN A BIG CITY!! Ridin' Metros and Buses! My New companion is Sister Avaemai who comes from the tropical lands of Tahiti. That's right world I'm having a Tahitian companion, I will actually have to talk in French for the majority of my time.

As some may know but most don't, on the night of transfer calls all missionaries are required to go home an hour early to make sure they are in a good place to receive calls. As a result of this lovely thing my roommates/companion and I had a halloween party =D Don't worry world we took pictures =D

Hmm now as for this week's miracle? It's hard to pick just one! But I'll go ahead and start with this one. I was asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting...in French...in front of the congregation...who actually know French... As any good missionary I took the entire week to plan it out, day one- pray, day two- study preach my gospel, day three- pray etc. etc. until day six- write it. And it worked! I had prepared so much just for five minutes at the podium speaking a language that I have only begun to comprehend. This didn't stop me from being nervous to speak though... for those of you in the "know" you know what happened last time I gave a talk... So I did the one thing that I could right before, I prayed. I prayed with a fully sincere heart that I would be able to do this. I got up to the microphone and it felt like I was only as bystander. There were words that I used that at this moment I don't understand the meaning of. I felt at that moment that I was the Lord's mouth​piece as he filled my mouth with the words that others needed to hear. As for the talk I had written I only looked at it a total of six times. This was truly a miracle for me. God knew how much I needed his help and how much I was willing to accept it.

Throughout life we are given trials, we are given heartache and sadness, and many ask why this does happen? A loving father would not do this? But the answer is quite the contrary. Our so​le hope for this life is to learn the things of this world so that we may become li​k​e our father in heaven. He gives us those opportunities to learn. As I child I have many fond memories of my own father helping me as I struggled to learn what fractions were. At many moments I wanted to give up and let him do it, he had all the knowledge so why not let him? But he lovingly coaxed me through. Sitting quietly and making faces as I tried for myself and helping me when I got the answer wrong. Our Father in heaven is the same. He guides us through our hardest times, he will not relieve us though. As much as it felt I was a bystander during my talk I still had to put in the effort to get to that point. I had to write my talk and I had to stand at the microphone, only then did he help me even more fully. It is my testimony that we all have a loving Father in heaven. Who loves us and is waiting for us to only ask him and he will lovingly guide us. I know this to be true with all of my heart. Et je dit ces choses au nom de Jésus-Christ, sa fils, Amen

Meet the Mormons

Dear Friends and Family:

Our area is improving slowly but surely. Last week, we improved or were consistent in all but four key indicators. This week, we will improve or be consistent in all of them. This process will continue until the brightest day, when we again achieve the standards of excellence and stay consistent to them every week until the mission president is forced to increase them.

Speaking of the mission president, I am excited and very grateful for the chance we have this week to have interviews with him. I am doing my best to spiritually create and to think of good questions that will help me and our investigators the most.

At the start of the week, our most solid investigator was Christian. He was planning on being baptized yesterday, and had even already asked me to perform the baptism itself. We drove down to the temple grounds on Tuesday, along with the Spanish Elders and their investigators, Mary and Ghandi, in Brother Beale's car. We had a terrific, spiritual experience together. Unfortunately, we lost contact with Christian throughout the rest of the week, and he didn't come to church. We're not sure what happened to him, but we're praying and hoping for the best.

For this Sunday, our biggest candidate for baptism is Marie, the ex-wife of a recent convert, Abacu. She really wants to be baptized; all she and her ex-husband need to do are to go to the courthouse and take out a marriage license, so that the bishop can marry them legally, because at the moment they are living together without being married.

The bed bugs are mostly gone from our apartment, but we still get bitten consistently. We're doing our best to steam our mattresses every day, and that helps. The mission doesn't want us to use bug bombs or any sort of fumigation, but we'll get it figured out eventually.

Family specifically: thanks for the package that you said you sent! I can't wait!

Britney specifically: sorry you've only got three or four weeks left. I'll try to write you one last letter in the next hour that I have and hope that I can get it off to you this week.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

P.S. Did you all go and see the new movie, Meet the Mormons? If you haven't, then go now! Before it's too late to see it in theaters! Missionaries aren't allowed to go to theaters, so I'll never get the opportunity to do that!

Family History

Did you know it gets cold in Canada? "What?" you say "what do you mean?" No seriously though. The struggle is real. It does not actually look like it is cold through the window and then you open the door and bone chilling air fills the room. This may or may not have to do with the fact that I may or may not be stubbornly avoiding my warm coats and tights, because people should not have to wear ear muffs in October. That is just a fact of life, that someone is not understanding. *cough* Canada *cough* *cough* The lowest temperatures are always at night, yet it is unbelievable how amazingly comfortable it is to sleep in zebra footy pajamas complete with a hood. And yes friends and family I do own them, and I am having no regrets whatsoever.

As I mentioned in last weeks letter I had the wonderful opportunity to go on a beautiful hike for Canadian Thanksgiving and as promised here are the wonderful pictures of just a small part of the beauty of Canada.

I don't have very much time this week but I want to share with you a miracle. For some time now we have been going over to an elderly woman's house to help her with finding her family history. This week we were finally able to find records of who her father was. It seems very insignificant to some I am sure, but we had been searching and searching everywhere for his records. When suddenly I clicked on the wrong name only to find that it was in fact her father. With this new found information we were able to put him into her family tree to find that someone was already doing her work. Her geneology went back to the thirteen hundreds at least! I couldn't imagine what that itty bitty mistake of clicking the wrong name could have lead to.

Before my mission, I will be honest, I did not see the merit in family history. Sure its fun to see where you come from but that only goes so far. However that opinion is in the past. I now have a testimony that continues to grow daily. I know how much Family History blesses people. I have been able to learn from the very few stories I have received about my family history so much. Brothers and Sisters, Family and Friends, you have the time now to research your family. You have the time now to bring others unto Christ and be a missionary by doing your genealogy. So why not do it?

I love you all! Happy Hunting =D

Sister Cummings

Missionary Stories

Dear family,

Today I wanted to share with you some of the amazing examples of member missionary work that we have seen this week, because we all know that when it comes to missionary work, the success rate for an individual accepting the gospel is about 10 billion times more when invited by a member than when invited by a missionary!

1. Hayley has been dating a guy from her work. They have had lots of gospel discussions, and this week she invited him to see Meet the Mormons with her! After the movie she invited Monroe to learn from us. It's interesting that Monroe told her that he won't meet with us, because he knows that if he meets with us he will join, and he is afraid of that because he knows his family would not approve. Hayley's family disowned her after her baptism and still haven't talked to her since then, so she can absolutely relate to what he is feeling. What I love about Hayley's missionary work is that she considers herself a success! She isn't a success because Monroe said yes or because he's now getting baptized, but shes a success because she INVITED! You succeed when you invite! Hayley celebrated her success by inviting Emma to go to the temple with her this Wednesday. There's nothing like hearing that your recent convert invited your other recent convert to go to the temple with her. :)

2. Heather's main fellowshipper has been a girl in our ward named Krissy. Lots of love for Krissy! This week Krissy invited her friend Marina to get pizza with her, and while there they got into a discussion about the plan of salvation. Krissy drew out the plan of salvation on a pizza box, and afterwards invited Marina to see Meet the Mormons with her. Just like Hayley did, Krissy invited Marina to take the missionary discussions afterwards! Marina said she wanted to think about it, and the next day she contacted Krissy and told her that she actually really would love to met with us! We're meeting Marina later this week. When Krissy told us about this experience she told us that she couldn't think of a time that she has felt greater joy.

3. We had dinner with the family of a girl in our ward last night- The Allens- who are amazing examples to me! They have two sons on missions, and they invite their  nonmember friends over for dinner every Sunday. Their family tradition is that they always do their family Book of Mormon reading right after dinner- before anyone gets up and before any dishes are done. What was amazing about this family's missionary work is that they were simply being themselves. There was no show, and no trying to shy away from having the gospel conversations that are a normal part of their lives. When it comes to sharing the gospel we need to be very direct and very loving. There is no need to wait to build up a friendship with someone or to "plant seeds" or to "prepare someone" to be asked to hear about the gospel. We simply share, and we share by making the gospel such an ingrained part of our lives that if we were to invite a nonmember to our home for dinner, they would see that the gospel is simply our way of life. I wish you all could enjoy dinner with the Allen's! There was such an incredible spirit in their home. I know that the friedn they had there felt it!

There is no greater joy than can be found from sharing the gospel! I know that as you pray for the strength to be brave, and as you open your mouths to invite EVERYONE you will see miracles happen not just in the lives of those you shared the gospel with but in yours as well. Your testimony is not yours until you share it, and you cannot enjoy the full blessings and joy of the gospel until you give it to someone else. Our Heavenly Father's work will go forth with or without our help, but I certainly don't want to miss out on the joy of being an instrument in His hands, and I can promise that you won't want to miss out on that either.

Lots of love!

Sister Slade

P.S. I can't wait to hear about all of your missionary experiences! You're running out of time to write me, so if I haven't head from you so far... don't procrastinate the day of your repentance. Better get on that :)

Good Week

Dear Friends and Family:

We had a good week again. We're still working on getting the area up and running, but we've got a few solid investigators we're working with now. They were both miracles in how we found them. I'll explain that a little later.

All three investigators that we had in sacrament were miracle people that we weren't expecting. Two of them are kids, one of which is in a part-member family. We're trying to meet with the parents/guardians for them to get them coming to church and preparing for baptism.

And the third person in church in a man named Christian. He seemed like a member at first, and apparently he has been going to church on and off for the last five years, but he had never been baptized. We invited him to be baptized this next week, and he accepted. We're going to go tour the temple tonight with him, and we'll probably have the baptismal interview tomorrow. But he's already decided who he wants to perform the baptism, and who he wants to perform and stand in on the confirmation. He was a miracle, but I've never before had a miracle that has required so little maintenance. We've already gone over the baptism interview questions in a mock interview, and he pretty much doesn't have a problem with anything.

Another person that I want to talk about, even though he didn't come to church, is Hayward W. Elder Kwon and Elder Reno found him together while on exchanges. They both said it was the most "perfect" harvest blessing they have ever had, like it was scripted. He didn't come to church because of a miscommunication on our part. We've had two lessons so far, but he has been one of the most elect investigators I've ever taught as well.

God is providing so many people for us to teach. I can't wait to keep working and finding and teaching more and more! And I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve now in Fort Lauderdale.

I'm excited to hear about all of the changes to the house. I don't really remember what it looked like, for the most part, so it was going to look pretty new to me too.

Have any of you seen Meet the Mormons? You should go and see it. I can't, because it's in theaters and we're not allowed to go. But I've heard it's amazing.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Staying in Silverlake!

Dear family,

Heather got up in Sacrament meeting yesterday to share her testimony of the atonement and how Christ brings forgiveness of sins. She got a little bit emotional. I may have gotten a little bit emotional too.

LJ is doing great. We were a little bit concerned at our second lesson because it seemed that feeling the spirit so powerfully in our first lesson had scared him. Heather felt that he was backing off a little bit because he recognized that a witness from the spirit meant accountability which meant change. LJ is native american, and very connected to his culture. He has expressed concerns about how he is the chief pipe carrier for his tribe. Whenever someone in the family dies he does some sort of ceremony with smoking his chinoopa. He says he wouldn't want to ever give up the tobacco, simply because of how closely it connects him to his family and culture. In our third lesson we talked about the Book of Mormon and he seemed to have opened up again though! Please keep him in your prayers!

Zahra is still bravely preparing for baptism on November 2nd! We talked about temples and family history a lot this week and she is excited to take her family names, including her dads name, to the temple to have their work be done. I love when truly converted investigators develop an instant fascination with the temple! It's because they feel the spirit and they recognize how good and true it is! Zahra invited her teacher to her baptism and gave her a Book of Mormon this week!

We have a few other investigators that aren't progressing as rapidly but they'll get there. We spend a ton of time finding. I think it comes with being a missionary, but that's especially the case in YSA. This week in weekly planning we felt like we received revelation for some new and interesting ways we can find this week, so we'll see what happens as we implement them this week.

I have really been loving my studies recently! A while back Heather and I were both reading in 3rd Nephi so I challenged her to see which of us could finish the Book of Mormon first. I've never been so happy to have someone beat me! I did finish the Book of Mormon last week though, so this week I'm starting over and I'm trying something a little bit different. There was an elder we used to split the ward with that was writing the Book of Mormon as he read, so that he could gain a new appreciation for what it must have been like for them to etch words into gold plates. It takes me about half an hour per page, so I'm only in 1 Nephi Chapter 3, but it has been an amazing and unique experience so far! I'm finding that it forces me to slow down and think about each sentence and even word. Nephi feels so real to me! I think I've learned more about the first 3 chapters of the Book of Mormon in the past week than I've ever learned before! For example, this morning the words "thou and thy brothers" stood out to me in 1 Nephi 3:4. Lehi knew his sons. He knew how hardhearted they were, so he must have known how much trouble they would cause if he tried sending them back to Jerusalem to get the plates. So this morning I thought, why wouldn't Lehi just send Nephi and Sam? Wouldn't that have been so much easier? Why would he send Nephi's brothers as well? I think it's because even though he knew their hearts, he still wanted to give them the opportunity to choose right. How often does Heavenly Father do this for us, even those of us who aren't quite as stiffnecked as Laman and Lemuel were? Then I thought about how if God wanted he could put a giant mormon.org card in the sky and everyone would know that they need to be baptized and people would be lining up outside the font and everything would be so much simpler. But instead Heavenly Father chose me and you, as weak and inadequate as we are, to share the gospel. It's humbling to think that he would give us that kind of a mission. What does this one verse tell us about the way that we should be viewing ourselves and the way we should be viewing others? I'll leave the answer to that one to you all. :)

Transfer calls were today and it looks like my dying area will be............. Silverlake YSA! Sister Smith and I are also staying together for a third transfer which we are super excited about. Sister Smith taught me how to speak jibberish this week. We worked on it all day wednesday and I think I finally got it down! Heldagel Lodago, mydagy nadagame idagis Britagit Neydagey Sladagade. Apparently it's a "real" language, almost as widely used as pig latin... don't worry, I'll be sure to enlighten you all when I get back. :)

Love ya lots and lots!

Love, Sister Slade

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yup I'm serious. Canada celebrates their thanksgiving on the thirteenth of October this year. And how are we as missionaries celebrating? By hiking a million kilometres in the hills and vales of Quebec's countryside. I would send you pictures but I just realized I left my camera in the apartment. Just trust me that it was beautiful with amazing waterfalls and brilliantly colored leaves.

This week we traveled to Montreal twice and guess who drove in Montreal? Twice? THIS GIRL! Whoops I mean Sister... I think I might be able to take on New York City after my mission but right now that's still a big step. Anyways we had a wonderful time both days receiving training. Its strange to think that in only two weeks I will no longer be a greenie... and in only a week and a half that I would have completed 2/9ths of my mission. Yikes!! I don't want it to end! I want to forever be a missionary! Even with all the awkward moments it brings.

Speaking of awkward moments. Have you ever gone to a dance and been told you can't dance and have to speak another language? Not to mention that it is in fact a wedding... Here's the story, the bride is from this area and actually served her mission in Montreal. Its strange but that happens a lot here, probably having to do with how different a culture this is here than other places in the world. I mean it pretty much has its own language, anyways she was getting married and needed help decorating. Naturally us service-hungry missionaries stepped up to the plate and graciously helped decorate. We were then invited to the wedding where we awkwardly stood in the door for two seconds then ran to the kitchen to help put plates together for the dinner. We finish that and are pretty much herded into the hall. After about an hour of talking and fighting the urge to dance I get a tap on my shoulder. It is the father of the bride asking me if I could sing something for everyone. We had to leave in five minutes so I said no. And then magically our loving Mission President and his family walk into the hall, aka awkward moment got more awkward. Just as we were about to leave I get another tap on my shoulder, but this time its my mission president. He says "I understand you won't sing because you will be late. Well I give you permission to be late." Well shoot, that really translates to "you're singing." Luckily Sister Munive and I had been preparing to potentially sing in sacrament meeting so they rolled in the piano and I sang "C'est L'amour" which I forget how it translates to English but it is in the children's songbook just next to the song with a picture of the wheelchair. Our performance was yet again another spiritual moment. I love being a missionary in other ways than one. My voice was how I originally found my testimony and by sharing it with others it strengthens me so much in the realization of how much of a blessing God has given me to be able to sing and have others hear. I look forward to every opportunity I am given to sing.

A testimony isn't just a talk given at a pulpit every first Sunday of the month. A testimony can be shared in so many more ways than that. For me I have found it easiest through song, but I have seen others testimonies through poetry, through painting, and even just living their lives. Don't ever hold back a testimony. You may not know who but someone is always there to receive it.

I love you all with the wholeness of my heart,

Soeur Cummings