6 Months Out

Yes in fact she did! But it was only an itty bitty blond stripe that is really the exact color of my hair in the summer =D My wonderful and beautiful companion Sister Avaemai was really really wanting to color her hair but did not want to do it alone. After much pleading I finally gave in to the little childish dream I have had for years and years. Why is my rebellious stripe coming out on my mission? Just ask my companion =D

So besides looking just a little bit like Anna from Frozen, life is pretty wonderful here in le groupe de Hochelaga. We just received the news last Saturday that Sister Avaemai and I will be staying together in the area! I couldn't help but smile. The assignment was a direct answer to a prayer.

Its crazy to think that in just eighteen days it will be my six month mark. There is no way that I am almost a third done with my mission. It is impossible! Yesterday was just the fourth of July at the MTC! And now we just celebrated American Thanksgiving last week in the not so balmy weather of Montréal!

What wonderful miracles we have seen this week! Particularly what I have seen in myself! I am not who I was when I left June 25th 2014. Nor will I be the same right now as I will be on December 22nd 2015. A mission is very much a time where I am being changed. And right now all of these changes are for the best.

In life it sometimes seems that we are in the refiners fire. That no matter what we do something always goes wrong. We are in an uncomfortable place where we feel there is no hope. But here is a little something. There is ALWAYS hope. We are ALWAYS loved. And we will ALWAYS make it through. In those moments that we feel in the refiners fire we should pause and just be grateful to be in the light rather than the darkness. We should rejoice to be in the warmth rather than the cold. And we should sing at the opportunity to be in the masters hand.

I am so grateful to be on a mission. I get to talk to people everyday and tell them that they have a chance at eternal life no matter what they have done. I encourage everyone who is debating on going on a mission to earnestly pray. I can tell you that it has helped me so much and I look forever to the future. I love this world. I love Québec and I love the Lord. I say these things in his holy name, Jesus Christ, Amen

Lots of Lessons

Dear Friends and Family:

How great a pleasure it is to come before all of you this week. My name is Elder Slade, I will be conducting this email. I will also be presiding.

Elder Hunt and I had a terrific week. We were able to work much more closely with the members, and this week we had 9 member present lessons! As well, two of our investigators came to sacrament meeting yesterday. Both of them have dates to be baptized this week. (One on Saturday, the other on Sunday.)

We had several miracles this week that I am really excited about. One time, while Elder Hunt was on exchanges in Fort Lauderdale South's area, Elder Chartrand and I were harvesting and we found two old ladies, a mother and a daughter. We prayed with them, and invited both to be baptized. Both rejected because they had already been baptized, but we testified that God really had sent us to them to invite them to be baptized again in Jesus Christ's church. We invited them to pray and ask God, to receive a confirmation for themselves that this was true. Gertrude, the daughter, (herself about 60 years old), started praying. Halfway through the prayer, she received her answer, stopped praying, and told us she wanted to be baptized. It was incredible!

Elder Hunt and I are very excited this week to go to the Christmas conference. The mission only gets together one time every year, unless a special occasion comes up (such as a visiting general authority). That one time is the Christmas conference, at the beginning of December. As part of the festivities, there is a talent show, a while elephant gift exchange, a meal, and we also receive training from President Richardson on how to be better missionaries. It'll be fun :D

As well, we have zone training tomorrow. We have big plans already on how we can make this week even better, and apply what we learn tomorrow and on Wednesday.

Thanks for all of the updates on what's going on at home. It's really nice to hear from all of you, and to be a part of your lives. I'm happy to hear that Britney got home safely (no longer Sister Slade) and I can't wait to see her and Becky and Jeremy and Thomas and Claire for Christmas!

Thanks,

Elder Slade

A Miracle a Day

It feels like it was only yesterday that I was watching the fireworks at the fourth of July at the MTC. I am feeling ancient. I have looked forward to a mission for what? How long? At least ten years. At Least. And now here I am almost an entire third of the way through! I don't want this to end! This Saturday we receive our transfer calls to see if either Sister Avaemai or I will be transferred. Honestly I am hoping and praying that neither of us go. But I guess wherever I am asked to go I will go willingly.

Now I don't have much time today but I would like to share with you a miracle. Wow kind of hard to think of just one! Sister Avaemai and I have gotten into the habit of writing down one miracle per day. Which has brought so many blessings for us. But here is a really amazing thing that I saw this week. There was one day this week that was so overly freezing and my companion had forgotten her warm winter coat at home that we were just praying for a miracle that we would not have to walk all the way over to a lesson we had that night. Our prayers were answered and a member calls us out of the blue asking if he could come to a lesson with us. He ended up being free that night and he and his wife gave us a ride in their nice warm car! Golly that was amazing!

We also found a new investigator who called us Sunday morning asking us how to get to the church building! Wow! It had ended up that this past Sunday was the Primary Program and all the little children got up and talked about how the gospel has blessed their families. Our investigator was so impressed at the feeling of unity in the building that he told us he would come back every Sunday. Through the mouth of babes he felt the spirit so strongly. Which made me think. God gives his light and his spirit to everyone, no matter the age. Everyone has the potential to give Gods love. So why not everyone receive Gods love. We are getting into the Christmas time and as your friend, sister, daughter, niece, etc. etc. on her mission I ask you to just look around you and give your love to those who may not even know that they need it. I love you all! A la Prochain!

PS- tune in next week to see if Sister Cummings has dyed her hair or not ;D

Finding a Miracle

Dear Family and Friends:

I'm so excited that Britney is going home! Unfortunately, I still have to wait a while before I can see her. Britney: make sure you let me know your new email address when you get home.

In other news, the church is doing something very big for Christmas this year. To learn more, and to watch a fantastic video about Jesus Christ, go to christmas.mormon.org. Watch it as a family, or with everyone else you live with. Then share it with everyone you know!

This week has been a great one for us. At the start of the week, we decided to pray that we would find a miracle - someone to be baptized that Sunday, although we had no obvious potentials and we couldn't think of any way to do it, short of other missionaries teaching an investigator who then conveniently moved into our area, all ready to be baptized. Every time we prayed to start a study, or before we went out to harvest, we included this in the prayer. By the end of the week, the prayers had paid off.

Throughout the week, we found no one; but on Sunday, half-way through church, someone just walked into church. He had been walking past the church building to go to church somewhere else, and he just felt like he should go there instead. We believe that our faith and our prayers were what led him to feel the spirit and to walk in. We'll be meeting with him tonight at 8.

Our goal for the month of December is 6 baptisms. After we prayed to know what our goal should be, I felt that that was the number we should shoot for, but I was hesitant to voice it because I didn't want Elder Hunt to feel like I was making the choice. So I waited for him to speak, and he felt that we should shoot for six as well. It was a testimony builder for me to know that it really is God's work, and he will guide us when we sincerely ask for it. And as well: we can and will have six baptisms in this month, through the grace of God.

Someone asked about iPads. We don't have too many details, they've been pushing them back for a while now, but there's a rumor going around that we're supposed to get them in January. We'll find out, I guess :) I've also heard a lot of conflicting information about how much it will be and other details, but I think the most common consensus is that it will be $300, that we will be getting iPad minis instead of regular iPads, and that we will keep them after our missions. (Like our bikes - paid for with our own funds, and then we have them afterwards.)

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Dear Friends and Family:

Elder Hunt is doing amazing. He and I have been struggling a lot this week just to find people to teach. This is the same problem that we have had this last week as well, so we are both seriously introspecting to find out what we can do differently to always have people to go to teach. This week we felt that one of our strengths was being diligent throughout the week, and not ignoring the elephant in the middle of the room. We were constantly throughout the week looking for ways to get new investigators and we were constantly trying to contact the investigators that we had.

We came to a few conclusions on things that we can do to improve this week. For one thing, we are going to study the Holy Ghost this week, and focus on being guided and directed by the spirit as we plan and as we go out to work. We feel that this will show greater faith that we will receive guidance, and so God will bless us with the revelation that we need to continue each day. As well, we will restart seeing a recent convert/less active member every day so we can keep focused on our purpose even when we don't have too many investigators to teach.

We didn't have anybody come to church this week, but our zone leaders extended a challenge that every area in our zone baptize this week. They also promised that as we make plans and work diligently, God will make it possible for us to do it. So we are going to focus on finding someone ready to be baptized this very Sunday, and we are going to help them get to the font!

Parents: How did you like the Griot and the other food? Also, the picture you sent me didn't show up in the email. Could you send it again? Maybe you could attach it, instead of embedding it in the email itself. Thanks!

I'm excited that Britney is almost going home. It's really weird to think about, it seems like such a short time ago that I opened my mission call and she left a few days later.

I know Elder Mason. I never got to serve in the same apartment as him, but he was trained a few transfers ago by Elder Burgoyne, who I spent 4 transfers with. (In the same apartment, even if we were never companions.) I didn't know he was related to anyone in our ward!

How bad has the snow been this year?

Thanks,

Elder Slade

The Field is White

First before the weekly report, a little summary of the weather. It has snowed everyday this week until last night where it all magically melted and dried up. I am currently sitting here with only a light spring jacket on...I am kind of feeling like I am in the eye of the storm. Danger is on the horizon.

I am LOVING this area! As I mentioned before we have a lot of Haitian foods here...I mean people... And there isn`t anything better than learning how to make these delicious foods...through obviously these amazing people. Anyways I learned how to make rizcollé this week which is basically a type of fried rice and beans. Which is also known as heaven in a bowl. Literally can`t get enough of it. We`re making it again after we finish emails today.

I have seen so many miracles this week! A less active that we have begun meeting with has started to overcome challenges and attended church with her daughter yesterday! Our area used to be part of a giant ward that covered all of Eastern Montréal that would meet in a building in the South East portion of the Island, until about a year or so ago the stake decided to form a group in the North. They had realized that many members became inactive just from being so far away from the church building. So most of our work out here is rounding up the less actives. This being said we work so much with these people that we don`t generally teach investigators as much as I did in Mascouche. However this week something changed. We had a day where we were both feeling really sick and maybe a little down trodden when we decided to hitch up our skirts and head out the door. In just three hours we were able to find two new investigators and teach five lessons! Talk about reaping the benefits.

Sometimes we feel as if we are maybe a little bit better than the rules or that we don`t need to accomplish the things we are asked to do because we feel justified. Its at these times that we have a choice, we can give in to the justifications or we can travel through the hard times. Its at those moments that God blesses us the most after we have proven to ourselves and to him that we are strong enough to be worthy of his gifts. It is only then that we can not only receive the blessings he gives us and recognize the blessings he gives us. I know that our Father in Heaven loves us and I know that I am in the right place that I need to be to learn these things. I know that through the Prophet Joseph Smith that God Restored his church on this Earth. I know that this is the only true church. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Je suis un Bonhomme de Neige

This directly translates to I am a good man of snow, which of course in French means snowman. Because here is the news this week ladies and gentlemen. We have snow. And I don't mean just no flurries. I'm talking up to ankle high snow. Which means Sister Cummings has officially broken out the winter boots.

 Don't get me wrong, I love looking at snow but some of the magic is kind of lost when you realize you have to actually walk through the "magic" for hours on end. The magic is not lost though on my beautiful Tahitian companion, who has now officially played with snow for the first time.

We have had three baptisms this week into our beautiful little group of Hochelaga, each one had the opportunity to share their testimonies of how they found the church and the first moment they knew the church to be true. Which made me think of when I received my first testimony. As a tradition in our family we receive a pair of scriptures on our eighth birthday. I had received mine but it wasn't until my younger brother Jared had received his that I really began to read them. If any of you know my brother he is really good about making a goal and achieving said goal. At the age of eight he made the goal that he would read a chapter a day of the scriptures. So as any competitive older sister I made the same goal. Admittedly I didn't follow through nearly as much as he did but there was one scripture that everything changed. I read the scripture in 1 Nephi 22:30 which is where Nephi gives his testimony. It was at that moment when I was ten years old that I got down on my knees and asked if the Book of Mormon was true. I will never forget the feeling of comfort that I felt at that moment. That was my answer. And every time after that I pray to know the truth I receive the same feelings. That this church is true. That this gospel is true. And that through divine guidance the Prophet Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon so that we can be able to read and know the truth for ourselves. This week I ask you to pray once more to know the truth of the Book of Mormon. Even if you already know for yourself, feel of his love again.

I love you all!

Kayla