Spring Came

And then it left…

Seriously for a good three days we had weather in around the tens and teens! We finally had positive degree weather! (Celsius mind you) All the snow and ice that was on the roads melted away and for the first time I saw the parking lines in the church parking lot here! The four or five foot tundras here melted to be around three feet! Look at that! We could finally see the address numbers from our car again! So we hung up our thick winter coats and switched them over to our fall coats for those wonderful three days of warmth! We went to sleep that night with only two blankets on and then woke up still beaming with the excitement of spring! And then made it to the window opened the blinds to let the sun in! And! (record scratch)…It had snowed a foot over night….

Canada gave a psych out…well played… well played…

So besides the weather a lot has happened this week! We have seen so many beautiful answers to our prayers and to others. And one of the most amazing stories is this that I want to share with you.

Just before a lesson my companion and I had had a minor disagreement on where to place the plastic tray that holds our winter boots. We had gotten into the car and headed to the lesson politely saying nothing. Before saying our traditional prayer before exiting the car we both turned to each other and realized in those minutes we had been annoyed that we had lost the companionship of the spirit. It was just a simple and small disagreement but we had lost it. So realizing this we searched to fix it. We talked it out. Gave our apologies and then said the prayer, inviting the spirit back into our companionship and asked that he may help us to be guided during the lesson.

We then left the car in a much better place than we were when we had gotten into it. Our lesson was with a less active who had not been to church in over two years. We had prepared a lesson but when we left the car we realized we were needing to teach a different lesson. Not knowing exactly what we went into the lesson and started with a prayer. We sang a hymn and then everything just flowed. During the lesson a question came to my mind that I felt impressed to ask. So I followed the spirit and asked the man, "Est-ce que vous pouvez doubter qu'il y a une creator supreme?" Can you doubt that there is a supreme creator. Which afterwards for the first time in two years the man gave his testimony of how he knew the church was true.

I know that this church is true and that Heavenly Father really answers prayers. He has answered so many of mine. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen

Thank you for all your prayers

SIster Cummings

Miracles

Dear friends and family:

First I'll summarize the missionary work that's been going on here:

Despite great effort on our part throughout the week to find people to get to church, we still saw the typical Sunday-morning dropoff of investigators. Some of them were called in to work, some of them were unable to overcome social anxiety, some of them didn't really have a good reason not to come. But despite being yet another week without having investigators in sacrament meeting, I'm still happy for two main reasons:

First, we had a miracle investigator show up to church. One of our recent converts showed up with his nonmember wife, who just moved here from Haiti. They came in just a little bit too late to see the sacrament in the chapel itself, but they walked in afterwards and she loved it - as well as the Haitian Creole Sunday school class afterwards. We'll be seeing them again tonight, and we're excited to help her be baptized on the 28th.

Second, we found a miracle on Friday. We knocked into Robert, who had recently had a rough divorce, and who had recently been contemplating suicide. After the prayer, he testified that he knew that God sent us to him, and he immediately accepted baptism. On Sunday morning, he was called in to work. He tried to call his boss to get permission to leave work for Sacrament meeting and then to come back, but he was told that if he left he would be fired. At the end of his shift, he felt terrible, and he told his boss that he couldn't work on Sundays any more. He said that his relationship with God was more important to him than his relationship with his work. He told him and us afterwards that there is no way he would ever miss church again. We are so glad to have found Robert, and to work with him. He is so prepared to hear the gospel!

It sounds like you just had a wonderful youth missionary experience there in Rye. How big was the event? Was it just our ward, or was it several wards put together?

You'll have to tell me how the concert goes this weekend.

A quick note: transfers are next week, so I will be emailing on Tuesday, not Monday. My guess: I'll transfer, Elder Peterson will stay, but I have no idea who will come or where I will go.

Thanks for everything,

Elder Slade

Update

There are so so so many things that I can talk about that I am having trouble just picking one! Seriously though! There has been so much that has happened this week. A woman we have been teaching actually remembered what we had talked about the lesson before! A member was able to join us at last minute to teach one of the most beautiful and non-awkward lessons of the law of Chastity. We had a visit from Elder Kacher (I think that is how you spell his name) but he is in the presidency of the seventy and he visited Montreal!! He didn't have the time to speak to the missionaries but we were able to still hear him during a meeting he held for less actives, recent converts and investigators. Gah! So much has happened!! And that is only a small percentage! We are seeing so many miracles here!

But I am going to talk about one that seemed to be the main miracle.

As missionaries we plan everyday to try to achieve certain goals which are called "key indicators." Which are goals focused on teaching investigators and less active members. So as usual we had planned an entire day full of lessons, it was foreseen to be one of our most productive days so far. We started the day with singing at a nursing home, a practice that we do every week. It was as usual full of funny quebecois songs and awkward moments where a drinking song comes in and all the missionaries try to look like they are suddenly busy. Anyways we had finished with that and were on our way home to eat lunch. On the way we received a phone call from a woman. She said that her mother was dying and that she was within her last twenty-four hours. She asked if we would be able to come over and sing hymns and say a prayer with her, to help her mother feel as comfortable as she could. We asked if she would like the elders to come over and give her a blessing. She said that would be wonderful. We were not able to catch her name but she gave us an address and a time to come. So we went. We called up the Elders and they were completely by chance free at that exact time. We get to the apartment to find that it is one of our neighbors whom we had talked to only a handful of times. We gladly sing a handful of hymns and say a prayer. Then the Elders gave her a blessing. It was so beautiful. Full of comfort. You could see in the dying woman almost as if a weight was lifted off of her, the same as in her family. The spirit was so strong and by the time the Elders lifted their hands off the suffering woman she was peacefully sleeping with a smile on her face. The family was so grateful for the small time we were able to give them.

After this touching moment with this family we went home and Sister Blanc made some killer soup for "linner." But she made so much that we had no room for it in our fridge. So with the excess we were able to package four rather large tuber wares of delicious soup. Just as we were wondering who to give these to we got a call from one of the people we were planning on seeing saying that she was sick. Followed by another call from another investigator saying that she was sick. And then another. And finally a fourth. Literally all within fifteen minutes. It felt like our uber successful day was going down the drain! But then we realized, four sick people, four bowls of soup. Hmm. Needless to say it didn't take long, so we jumped into the car and went to deliver the soup. In two of the houses we were able to do some small services like doing the dishes or taking down the trash. Which we were more than happy to do. Finally we went to drop off the last soup to a woman who lived alone. We were able to do her dishes and share a scripture. She said that it was the most beautiful thing she had heard and that she was willing to go to church. On the way out she asked us if we could get a tub of butter that was in her car. So we went down to go look for her car which she described as a red Hyundai. We exit the building to find that there are THREE red hyundai's! And none of the keys work form them! So in avoidance of an awkward moment. We said a quick prayer and then Sister Blanc had an idea to go and look just behind a dumpster. Don't ask me why anyone would put a parking spot behind a dumpster but the car was there and we were able to get the butter for her. Once we had gotten home we stopped to think about our day. At first we were really sad because we had not reached really any of our goals. Out of six lessons we had planned we had only taught one and half. But then we stopped and really thought about it. We had spent absolutely every moment of our day in the service of others.

Sometimes in life we plan for certain things to happen. We plan to accomplish certain goals by doing certain things. But I can tell you what I learned that day was that it does not matter what we plan for because there was already a plan placed just for us at the beginning of time. And we said that we wanted to follow it. So God helps us. Sometimes the things we plan for that we think are right are not what we really need to do. God helps us by putting us in the situations that we need to be in. I am so grateful to be here as a missionary serving the lord with all the heart that I can give. I am so grateful for this gospel and these truths that we are privileged to share with the world. I love you all and am so grateful for the prayers that you send my way and to other missionaries. Thank you so much.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

Sister Cummings

Choices

Dear friends and family:

We have been having a great time this week working. Elder Peterson is as diligent as ever, and together we managed to apply zone conference and get more new investigators than we have any other week we have had together. We had five NI by Wednesday, and seven by Sunday. We're still working on refining our approach and getting members out with us more so that our investigators progress and come to church, but we have been having a lot more success finding the investigators to teach in the first place.

We have two investigators from last week who we consider to be progressing. One is Marie. The only thing that stopped her from coming to church was her son getting sick the night before. The other is Justice, who was all prepared to come to church and then her parents left instead and had her babysit her siblings instead. It was really frustrating, but we know that if we can get members over there to visit them and Justice's parents we can get both of them (and their families!) to come to church next week. We are also going to keep our focus on finding people to be baptized, and we'll repeat what happened last week... only better.

We went on exchanges with Elder Allen and Elder Miller on Sunday after church, so that Elder Allen could come into our area and so that Elder Miller could learn from taking over the area again. It was a good exchange. We got a lot done but did not find anyone for our own area, but Elder Peterson and Elder Miller had a miracle find who they're going back to see tonight.

Update on college: I was accepted to BYU-Provo! This is great, because I still have the option to go there, but it's also frustrating because now I have a much bigger choice to make. The four biggest colleges I am still looking at are BYU-I, BYU, UofU, and Neumont.

I was thinking about the next few months, and I realized that general conference is only a month away. That's right, my fourth general conference on my mission. (You only get four. Then you die.) Tomorrow is my 6-months to home mark.

What ended up happening with Kayla and everything else we were fasting for as a family?

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Staying in LaMoyne

It seems like every week there is another person that I need to write and just having this hour to do so takes a lot of pulling on those 98 words per minute I had in 7th grade. Ya I am still pretty proud of that and have literally no idea how I managed to do so. Maybe it was because I didn't really have to think about the things I would actually write. Oh before I forget, we received transfer calls and with it the news that I and Soeur Blanc will be staying in Lemoyne for the next 6 weeks at least. *and there was much rejoicing*

Well anyways this weeks addition to the Canadian menu. Maple Leaf cookies. They are at the level of Oreos. Aka a delicious hard cookie sandwich with maple frosting in the middle. I can already feel myself loving maple syrup and am currently debating if I should let my growing instinct to say  "eh!" to finally come out. After all Preach My Gospel advises us to embrace the culture.

This week was amazing! We were able to organize a mini mission with a wonderful sister in the ward by the name of Sister Alvarenga. It was her who introduced us to the magical cookies afore mentioned. We became quick friends. She is just about to finish her missionary papers which is wonderful!  But she pointed something out at the end of the three day mini mission that she understood how the best missionaries are members. And its true. Our temporary companion helped us so much. Her testimony of how the gospel had blessed her opened up so many of our investigators into understanding more of what the gospel can do.

Its a simple truth that missionaries need members. It has also been a subject I have written so much about but it is a truth nonetheless and therefore should be shared. Please talk with the missionaries. Ask if there is anything you can help with. Or even better invite friends to meet with them. Ask them to help you practice to invite your friends. Ask them to help serve a friend who needs a driveway shoveled. you won't regret it in the long run. Just ask the missionaries.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Zone Conference

Dear Friends and Family:

Elder Peterson and I have been putting forth a lot of effort into finding new investigators this week. Even so, unfortunately we didn't see any real results until Friday, when we had an exchange with Elder Allen and Elder Miller. That day was the day we started seeing a lot of results and miracles. We found several amazing people who we followed up with the next day. A few of them put in a strong effort to come to church yesterday, but were not able to due to their siblings/friends bailing at the last moment and so they had no ride to come to church. But they are excited to come next week, and we are excited to keep working with them.

Yesterday, after church, we had another amazing miracle happen. There was a child of record baptism at 5, so after church we had a little time to contact all of our investigators and try to get them to come and see the baptism, even though they didn't come to church. We had no success, due to the lateness of the invitation, until we stopped by to invite Christopher to come to the baptism. We didn't have much hope, because it was 4:40 at this time, and he had to depend on other people to give him rides. But we stopped by, and we met his roommate for the first time, Freddy. Freddy hadn't been there the last few times we had stopped by due to a new job at IHOP he had just received, but this time he was there and excited to see us. He knew a lot about missionaries but had not been to church since he was a little child. When we invited him to come and see the baptism, he stopped for a second, and then agreed.

He followed us to the church, and we watched the baptism together. Afterward, he had several questions about the service. He didn't know what baptism was, for instance, and he didn't know what the Holy Ghost was. We have a return appointment with him tomorrow. We can't wait to help him prepare to be baptized himself!

Tomorrow we have Zone Conference, which is a large conference with the mission president and about a third of the mission. (Probably about 70-80 missionaries.) The presidents' assistants serve in our ward as well, but they have been very good at keeping secrets from us and not letting out what will happen there. We're very excited to go and to learn tomorrow!

I still have no idea what I'm going to do for college. I haven't received a confirmation or rejection from BYU-Provo, but from what I understand the last date that they can tell me if I am accepted or not is this Saturday, so that will help me determine what I will be doing.

I'm sorry to hear that KaraLynne is in the hospital. I'll be praying for her. Is there any news on Sister Kayla Cummings yet?

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Icy Windshields

First off thank you for all of the wonderful Birthday wishes! Thats right world. I am officially two decades old. By statistics I am a fourth of my way through life. I am an old fogey… Just kidding! By some sort of miracle I was able to receive my birthday package from my family just before my birthday even though we don't receive mail so often out here on the south shore. Here is a picture of me modelling off one of my all-time favourite parts of the present. My family knows me WAY too well. Also this Saturday is Transfer calls…again!… So I will keep you updated =D

Now I don't have much time today but I just wanted to share something that I learned this week.

There was a point this past week which, as is very common with missionaries, my companion and I hit a slump. Everything seemed to be going wrong. We had woken up, planned amazing lessons, and even had time to practice role plays with these lessons. We were so excited. And then the unforgettable happened. One by one our lessons cancelled, until we were left with only one lesson that we hadn't had the time nor the thought to really prepare for. So we spent our time making phone calls, passing by formers and potentials, you know, missionary life. We ran into one of the members of our church, a wonderful girl my age named Kelly. She invited us out to lunch when she realized Sister Blanc had yet to partake of the beauty named Tim Hortons. Well we were able to talk to her. She is planning on going on a mission and has almost finished her papers. It was really sweet to hear about her testimony of how she chose to go on a mission. Well we offered her to do a mini mission with us! Which means she would be a missionary for three days, joining us in our apartment and everything. She excitedly said yes and we organized it for this weekend! Later on the member we had called to join us for this one lesson that had managed to stand had called and said that she wasn't able to come… It was frustrating. But we were able to all another member at last minute who was more than willing to come and accompany us. Through the spirit and the questions that this wonderful sister brought we were able to find out the true problem of why this man, who was a member, was not attending church. It was really inspiring.

With our day finished we headed to car. Scraped off the best we could the sometimes crazy amount of ice and snow on our car and jumped in to head home. There were obviously some parts that we were not able to scrape off which made it difficult to see. Except while driving I noticed something. If I focused on where I was going I could see perfectly. But if I were to focus on that ice I wouldn't be able to see a thing. This brought to mind the seemingly no good very bad day that Sister Blanc and I were having. I recognized that it was only that way because I was focusing on the ice. On the bad parts of the day. But if I looked at what we had accomplished I was able to see the beauty of the day and all that we were able to accomplish in the future.

Sometimes we focus on the obstructions. On the trials and heartache that we see in life. However there is always at least one clear spot that makes it possible to see through the heartache into the beauty that we call life. It is my testimony that we are all capable of everything that we need to accomplish and face in our lives here on Earth. A loving God would not give us more than we can't handle. I ask you to look past the ice on the windshield and pray that you may have the strength to do so.

I love you all and thank you so much for the prayers that you send my way

Sister Cummings