Swag

Well this area in the most simplest of terms is pretty "Swag". We have a heated garage, my companion is not only Haitian but a cook with plans to open her own restaurant after her mission. We have dinner appointments every night almost. And the ward!! OH MY GOODNESS! They spent the entirety of ward council talking of missionary efforts! I felt like a kid in a candy store! You know when you’re a missionary when... Anyways so in short. Wonderful area, AMAZINGLY LOVING companion, and I am seeing miracles. Not just your everyday little missionary miracle. This week I saw a man get healed from extreme fatigued by a priesthood blessing uttered by an Elder who did not speak French up until a month ago.

But first, the build up. We have been meeting with a man named William and his girlfriend for a while now. Leonie, his girlfriend, is an investigator however William is a convert who had gotten baptized fourteen years ago in the Congo, but due to the wars and violence over there lost complete contact with the church and the missionaries. He moved to Canada and ended up living a three minutes walk from the LeMoyne church building. One of Leonie's friends had referred them to us, not knowing before of this situation, so when we knocked onto their door they knew exactly who we were and had since been attending church and reading the scriptures.

Well for the first time in a month William didn't come to church. We decided to swing by that night, where we found that our beloved returning member was nearly crippled with a fatigue. We didn't know where it came from but only that he was so tired he could barely walk. We were asking him how he was and I felt impressed to ask him if he would like a priesthood blessing. After explaining what would come to pass, as he had not yet received a blessing other than the confirmation of the Holy Ghost, he very heartily agreed. We called the Elders but were not able to get in contact with them. We continued with the lesson and just as we were finishing we received a call from the Elders. They said they were on their way, and when they arrived they said that right after they had received our message they were beginning to discuss whether to come to give the blessing or to continue to another appointment that they had felt impressed to make that morning. As they discussed the man they were going to go and meet called and canceled their appointment. Taking that as a sign they hurried over.

The Elders described more in detail what would happen and mentioned that all could be accomplished by faith. At that moment William gave the most beautiful testimony. In it he told us that he had the faith to be healed. He chose who would give the blessing, which was an Elder Shumway who's French is, in the most lovingly way, not the best in the world. However while giving the blessing the spirit was with him. He spoke a French better than I had ever heard him speak before. The Spirit was so strong and everyone could feel it. It was almost as if there was a pulling and then suddenly a release. The blessing was finished and William with tears in his eyes sat up. He stood up. He smiled. The symptoms he had been feeling were gone. He had God given strength

I am so grateful that I was trusted enough by God to see this miracle happen. I have a feeling many events will happen in this area if I am willing to work and be obedient. I now know for a surety that God's power is on this Earth and through it I have been able to see this miracle. I love being a missionary and to have opportunities for this. Please keep me in your prayers as I continue to work and improve. I love you all!

Weird Week

Dear friends and family:

We had a really weird week. One of our strengths was that we had nine lessons with recent converts and less-active members, and we had ten lessons taught with a member-present. One of our weaknesses is that we had only two new investigators. So we're praying that we will be able to find the people we need to find quickly, so that we can teach them and get a good start for the month of February.

We still have a few different potentials to be baptized this Sunday. They all have baptismal dates for this Sunday, but they all have different things that might prevent them. We'll be praying and working for the best, and hopefully we'll be able to see all of them baptized this Sunday. That is: Mike, Mary and Ghandi, and Jacquito and Marie.

Life in a trio is so fun. It's still hard to stay focused, but we have been blessed because of it. We were able to go on splits two times last week, and we'll be doing it again tonight.

My mission is completely different than it was at the beginning of it. And there's still a lot of time for it to continue to change.

A big change that just recently took place: the Fort Meyers stake was added to our mission, including 30 missionaries, 8 of which are Haitian Creole speaking. They came from the Tampa mission, which had iPads already. When they transferred missions, their iPads were confiscated. (Sad face.)

In other news, we just received another noncommittal confirmation from a general authority that iPads are coming to our mission! ...soon. The keyword is noncommittal.

I really don't know what to do about colleges. The more I think about it, the less I feel like I actually have a solid direction to go.

Here are a few deciding factors:

- I will not be released early to go to school, there is a new mission policy in regards to that, so if the semester starts before I get home or too soon after it won't be a possibility.

- I want to have a good education for my chosen field, but I also want to be able to use my mission language. This means learning French, probably, because it's really close to Haitian Creole and it's an awesome language besides.

- I want to be close to my family, and I want to be in close contact with many of my mission friends as well.

- I want it to be cheap...

I'm about out of time, so I'll send this as it is.

Thanks for everything,

Elder Slade

Twiddles Thumbs Aimlessly

Well I know you all are wondering, what happened on Saturday night at 8:45 when we received our transfer calls. I'm sure the suspense is killing you like it was killing me. In fact I resorted to sleeping with my frisbee as a little girl would sleep with a teddy bear. (Thats right mother I managed to smuggle my frisbee onto my mission. No regrets =D) Surprisingly it helped a lot. Well anyways it was a dark and stormy night...<insert really long narrative> Okay I'm just kidding. The news is that Sister Avaemai will be staying in Hochelaga Groupe de Nord and will be receiving her best friend since childhood, aka the only other Tahitian sister in the mission Sister Tehaamatai. While yours truly will be traveling a little farther south for the winter and serving in LeMoyne with a Sister Blanc, who is Haitian. Thats right! Rizcolle for life!! So this is my third French speaking area.

Another bit of news, I got to take part in my first baptism! Actually more like first three baptisms. Linda, Lulu and Zach took upon them the name of Christ this past Saturday afternoon in the beautiful form of baptism by immersion. After the deed was done Linda, the mother, told me how she found the church. And I wish to share it. She said

"I worked at a hospital as a nurse and we had fun every break talking all sorts of nonsense that you don`t want children to be hearing. After a while one of our coworkers stopped hanging out with us and seemed to prefer more the quiet corner of the cafeteria. One day I went over to him and was very direct, "hey why don't you talk with us anymore, are you too cool for us?" in return he was very direct. "No actually, I've been meeting with some friends and they gave me this book to read and I cannot put it down." Sure enough my friend was talking about the missionaries and the book in his hands was in fact the Book of Mormon. Now I had studied for many years before with different branches of religion. I had prayed with the Jehovah's Witnesses, I had taken part of Ramada with the Muslims, you name it I had done it. But I had never heard of this religion. So I asked him about it. He answered all my questions as best that he could. Then the break bell rang and we parted ways. After then I had many restless nights where I could not stop thinking about what he had told me. Finally I gave into it and googled the thing. It led me to a page where I could ask for a book of Mormon. The word FREE really got my attention. A couple of days later two children dressed up as penguins came to my door and introduced themselves as missionaries. I thought it strange that they had the same name of Elder. Now in any normal circumstances I would not have let them in. But I did. They came in, started talking to me about the gospel. They asked me how I had heard about this, I told them about my friend. Turns out these two gentlemen were in fact the two friends of my friend and that he was to be baptized this weekend. So I attended the baptism of my friend, I met these two Sister Missionaries who started coming over and teaching my daughter and I more and more. And now my hair is wet and I have God`s name taken upon me."

Gorden B. Hinkley once said "Every Member a Missionary." And as a full time missionary I can tell you we would never have one baptism is we didn`t have the love and support of members. And not only do these efforts bless us, they bless your own families. I myself have seen the change. Before I left for college my family took part in the Hill Camorah Pageant which includes a lot of testifying on the part of the cast. After I left for college my family continued to practice those missionary efforts they had learned about that summer. By the time I got back there was something different in everyone of my family. It felt like I was missing out! I came to know that my brothers had given out enough book of mormons at school that they could have made a book club. Missionaries had tracted into multiple people who recognized who they were because of my siblings. My brother Jared had accompanied the missionaries on multiple occasions and was given the opportunity to baptize someone and then go to prom the night after. There was a love and a unity in my family that I didn`t understand until I got here and I realized what it was. My family had been blessed as they helped bless others.

Our job as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is to prepare those around us for the gathering of Isreal. It is our duty to share with the world the gospel of Jesus Christ and his Atonement. There are people you walk past everyday who do not know that they have a Father in Heaven who loves them, nor do they know that there is someone who has taken the weight of the world on his shoulders so that they don`t have to. You have the secrets to eternal life. Why would you want to hold that back? I encourage you to branch out and find those people who are prepared for the gospel. And if they aren`t prepared, thats not a big deal, prepare them. We have been promised by multiple apostles and I repeat this promise as a representative of God that there is someone in your life who is prepared to know these truths. Invite them to dinner, introduce them to the missionaries, show them the light that you have and lead them to it. Maybe while reading this or hearing this a name has come to your mind. Write it down. It is there by inspiration.

I love you all and I thank you so much for your prayers I have felt them everyday of my life out here, I love you so much.

Avec Amour,

Soeur Cummings

Many Many Miracles

Wow this week has been crazy! For one thing, due to my lovely companion's injury, We have a car! Just in time for the freezing rain, slush, and snowy combo! It has really been quite the event to try to not only drive the car but park the car in a snowy big city. But I guess all those times of my father pulling the emergency brake so I would know what to do in the event of a fishtail has actually paid off.

So we are now enjoying the luxuries of being able to feel our toes in -31 degrees Celsius. Which has only happened once so far. But Ironically this happened to be the one day that somehow our balcony door was pushed open, we're blaming Alfred our friend pigeon. So after a long day of rushing around to the four corners of West Montreal we get home to a freezing cold apartment. Insanely cold actually. We had to break the ice in the toilet to be able to actually use the thing and then had to pour hot water down so the pipes would unfreeze...which was probably not smart to do so in that order but hey it worked. =D All four of us in the apartment put on a million layers of clothings and slept with hand warmers in our slippers. It was cold, and ironically one line from "Let it Go" was stuck in my head. "The cold never bothered me anyway". But hey! I've heard that I can now become a Canadian Citizen after passing this trial by ice. =D

There have been so many miracles this week. With members so willing to give more than half of the contents of their cabinets to a family in need. Answers to prayers right and left and not only that but being able to be safe.

I realized recently that I have written about many of our lessons that we have out here in Hochelaga so here is a miracle that happened just yesterday. We were headed off to the Wedding reception hall that our group meets in and it was locked. So our meeting was closed and we found ourselves over at a family’s house. While Sister Avaemai helped the mother cook lunch I helped her daughter work on her Personal Progress. Lulu is an amazing young woman who is getting baptized on Saturday along with the rest of her family, and we have been helping her get into personal progress. Before we started we said a prayer and discussed any questions that she had. She admitted that she was having concerns. That she wasn't sure she was making the right choice about being baptized. We talked about it a little bit and then I felt encouraged to speak to her about faith, which as many know is part of the personal progress program. We started reading Alma chapter 32 and stopped every once in a while to discuss about it. However after reading verse 31 she stopped. And started crying. Through sobs she said she had finally received her answer, this fourteen year old girl described her feelings as if she had a weight taken off her shoulders and that she could finally breath and not only that but she could fly. The spirit was with us and with her as she was able to find the answer to her prayers

I know that God loves us and he hears every one of our prayers. Please keep this wonderful family in your prayers this week as they prepare for baptism. Satan works his hardest with those who are growing. I love you all and thank you for your prayers that have kept me safe.

Love,

Sister Cummings

Great Week

Dear Friends and Family:

We had another great week. It's really fun being in a trio with Elder Reno and Elder Allen, and we've been learning a lot from each other over the last couple of weeks. This last Thursday I had the amazing opportunity to go back to Boynton Beach to hear from Elder Zwick, from the quorum of the 70. We had zone conference in the morning until 4, and then another meeting with all of the members of each ward council for about 3 stakes at 7 PM. Between the two meetings, I had the opportunity to drive around and visit a few of my recent converts, and try to help them come to church and progress in the gospel. I was really grateful to see them again and also to learn from Elder Zwick.

Here's a brief overview of the most promising of our current investigators:

Mary and Ghandi are still excited to be baptized, and we are still waiting on their paperwork to be completed and sent over from the Martial Islands. They will be married as soon as they get it, and then they will be baptized.

Mike is preparing to be baptized, but he is still struggling to overcome coffee. We'll work with him and try to get him ready for baptism this Sunday, which is what he wants to aim for as well.

Jacquito and Marie are still more interested in the church as more of a learning opportunity, and they don't feel ready to be baptized, but they have both agreed to be baptized this Sunday if God helps them to feel ready and as they come to know that it is true.

William did not come to church because of work. He wants to keep coming and to learn more and come closer to God, but he is adamant that he has already been baptized and that we don't necessarily need the gift of the Holy Ghost. We're going to try to focus on the Book of Mormon as a way to come closer to God, and also to know that the church really has been restored and that it is Jesus Christ's true church.

Yesterday, after church, we received a miracle referral. A member who was feeding us invited one of her friends in the neighborhood to come over to eat with us. Her friend is excited to learn more and to come to church. We'll be meeting with them again tomorrow, after Zone Training.

So, what was the name you all decided to use for the new dog?

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Little time

I don`t have much time today but I would like to leave with you a little story.

One of the object lessons that my companion loves to use is one involving a dozen nails and a bottle cap. You poke one nail through the bottle cap so as to make a stand. The point is to put all the nails balanced on the one nail without touching the ground or the nail, only the nail head. After about five minutes of letting those we teach puzzle that out we explain more by asking, what is life? They members of the family share little things that they think is part of life, such as family, church, school etc. etc. and we stack the nails in a certain way. We then make the connection that this one nail that stands in the middle is Jesus Christ. After balancing the careful constructed apparatus on top of the nail, we explain further. We talk about how sometimes parts of our lives seem to fall apart, at this point one of us aggressively hits the table. Obviously the nails on top of the one nail fall, but not the one. Not the one that is Jesus Christ.

It happened one time when during the lesson it clicked. I realized something that I couldn`t believe I hadn`t seen before. Christ as we know was the only perfect being. Which got me thinking what would I do if I was perfect? Wouldn`t that mean that I could do everything perfectly? So what would be stopping me from taking over the world? Yet he didn`t. He was born in a stable. He came to minister not to be ministered unto. He came and let them take his life because he loved us. He loved us so much that he gave that one gift that is treasured above everything else. I know that my redeemer lives, I know that he gave his life so that we may  live with peace and comfort in this life and the one to come. I know these things with all my heart and I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to serve my God, the one who served me, to share this message with the people of Montreal. I love you all and I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen

Sister Cummings

Po-Fou

Dear friends and family:

We had a wonderful week. It was my first week together in a tricompanionship with the two Spanish missionaries in our ward. I've never been in a tricompanionship before, and I have to admit, it is much harder to teach coherently or to stay focused. There are many benefits - for example, we can go on splits and get twice as much work done with only one member, and it's much harder to fall into the rut of being rote when we meet new people because there's too much variable in who talks when. And all in all, we worked hard and accomplished standards! ... almost.

If we had had two more investigators in sacrament, two more lessons with recent converts or less active members, and just one more member blessing, then we would have accomplished standards. It was going to be my second week on my mission where we do it. We were so close! But no cigar. That's what this next week is for, I guess.

We had three people come to church early enough to see the sacrament.

First, there's William. He speaks English, and he's very intelligent. So intelligent, in fact, that he takes almost nothing we say at face value and insists on looking everything up. He's had a lot of experience with religious theory, and some of the issues he has right now are that he doesn't believe in modern-day prophets, and he doesn't believe in eternal marriage or families. But he's willing to listen, and he comes to church, so we're going to focus on the Book of Mormon and help him resolve his own questions and issues. He's very fun to talk to, but unfortunately just a little bit too fun.

Next are Jacquito P-L.  and his wife, Marie Margarette. They are friends of some Haitian members who just recently moved here from Haiti. (Jacquito's friend was the branch president over there, in fact.) They loved church, but Jacquito is still unsure about baptism because he doesn't like the idea of organized religion. We're going over to see them again tonight at 6:15.

Other than that, we have a few other people who we're working with who came late or had decently legitimate excuses not to come to church.

In other news, my family just got a new dog! They are trying to decide between Po and Lexie. I like Po, but I suggested Po-fou as a possible alternative because it means "crazy skin" in Haitian Creole.

I was accepted to BYU-Idaho, I still don't know about BYU-Provo, but either way I was looking at the courses that they offer and BYU-Provo has a more extensive computer science department from what I can tell. I'm going to try to get permission to look online for a few other colleges that I might try to apply to as well.

Thanks,

Elder Slade