MTC Really Stands For Marine Training Center

(Sister Slade)

Hello family and friends!

Holy cow! This week has been crazy. It's been the longest and shortest, best and craziest week of my life. I can't believe that I've been in the MTC for a full 10 days, but at the same time it feels like I've been here for a life time. I feel so ready to actually be out in the mission field. Before I start on my week, a couple of house keeping items. :) First of all, because my mission is a device mission, I can receive and read emails any time of the week, I just can't respond. So feel free to email me at any time. It makes my day to hear from everyone. Also, I guess there was still some problems with the pictures from last week. Was everyone able to view them? If not, just email me anytime today before 6 and I will try to fix that. Another thing is that the MTC is changing my P-day to Tuesday next week, so I'll have another P-day in 4 days, but I probably won't have another one until I'm actually in the field. Last thing, to my family (siblings and parents) how are you doing on my challenge? If you've forgotten about it, that's okay because you still have 3 more days to work on it! But I do expect an email on Monday night from each of you with an update!

Here at the MTC, we have this thing called TRC where we contact people who agree to come and be taught by the missionaries. Some of them are non members who want to learn more about the gospel. Basically, we go and contact them on the "street" and then we set up an appointment to meet with them again. Then we teach them 2 or 3 times. Sister Allison and I talked to a guy named Ethan. He's from the UK and had an amazing accent. We only got to teach him twice, because the third time would have been today, but it's our P-day. Both times we've taught him, I've felt the spirit guiding my words and help me to teach him and not the lesson we had prepared. We're 94.7% sure that he is a member of the church, but who knows? Tomorrow, we'll have another contacting activity, where we will meet a new person to teach next week.

I love my district! I feel like I gained 8 brothers (some of which are older brothers, and some are younger) and a sister. The lord knew that I can't handle immature people, and so he placed me with people that (for the most part) aren't immature. Seriously though, it's very obvious that some of the Elders here are 18 years old, but with my district, they all act older than their age.

For the first 5 days that I was here, I was looking for Sister Marks, because I knew she was leaving on Monday, and I was terrified that I would miss her. She's was the only person that I knew was in the MTC. I was feeling discouraged that I wouldn't see a familiar face for another 18 months, so I said a prayer that I would be able to fine Sister Marks. Not 10 minutes later, we quite literally ran into each other. This was Saturday night. Then on Sunday, we ran into each other 5 more times. It was a testimony to me that Heavenly Father really does hear and answer prayers. 

I had a life changing moment on Sunday Night. We watched a devotional that Elder Bednar gave to the Provo MTC in 2012 called the Character of Christ. Supposedly you can only find it in the MTC, but I would encourage each of you to at least look for it. If you can't find it, read Elder Bednar's book One by One, it sort of touches on the same thing. It was absolutely incredible though! I can't even describe how powerful his words though. He talked about becoming converted unto the lord, and the way we do that is to develop the character of Christ, which is to turn outwards when the natural man in each of us would turn inwards. I can't begin to express how deeply his words touched me. He mentioned specifically that this mission is not about me, but I think that was to general. This life is not about me. We should not be asking "What can I get out of this life?" but "What can I give?"

I decided to be a part of the MTC which turned out to be the best decision ever. We practice on Sunday and Tuesday nights, and then perform for the devotional on Tuesday night. This week, we were singing an incredible arrangement of I Know That My Redeemer Lives by T. Chemain Evans called Testimony. I would encourage all of you to look up a performance of it, preferably by the missionary choir. Before you do that, look up the story of Samuel Medley (the person that originally wrote the song). When we sang this on Tuesday, the words were my testimony. "Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives! I know that my Redeemer Lives!"

Also at the devotional, the opening hymn was Called to Serve. I will never forget that experience. There is something incredibly powerful about 2000 missionaries all singing "Called to serve our king!" The whole time, I felt like I was on angel's wings.

Now for the fun/funny things that have happened. On Monday night's, the MTC is catered to by a local food place. This week it was Subway. It was quite possibly the worst meal I've had since being here at the MTC, which is saying a lot because the food here is not the best. Working at Subway for 3 years kind of ruins my appetite for their food. Also on Monday, Sister Allison started to trot up the stairs to our room and she yelled, "I'm a horse!" We laughed so hard, mostly because we were so exhausted. Last night, our entire district was very slap happy. I felt bad for our teacher, because we would laugh at something really stupid every 5 minutes or so. We were all ready for P-day today. The subject for this email can't really be explained because there's a lot to it. But the joke started, because one day our entire district was falling asleep in class, so our teacher made us do jumping jacks, wall sits, and a lap around the floor to wake us up. If you can picture 10 missionaries doing all of this in suits and dresses, then you are beginning to understand why I chose that as the subject line.

Final thought. 2 days ago, Sister Allison and I were talking about our lesson plan for Ethan, and she said, "We did the best that we could with the time that I had." This hit me really hard, because that's what I want to be able to say at the end of my mission, or even my life. "I did the best that I could with the time that I had." So now that is my goal for my mission.

I love all of you!

--

Sister Slade

pictures

1. See mom, I am eating healthy ; )

2. Sister Marks and I

3. Emma, this one's for you

4. Funny picture because why not?

5. My district. From left to right, Elder Cahoon, Elder Spilsburry, Sister Allison and I, Elder Walters, Elder Corbridge, Elder Felt and Elder Oxenden. In the front are Elder Horne and Elder

Helser

6. Sister Allison and I during study time  

Moroni 10:8

(Aldste Cummings)

Hey everyone!

Sorry, it's probably a little weird that I'm sending this late but we had to do some regular missionary things on P-day and didn't get enough time to email so had to move around the time a little.

Anyway, we had a great week. It went by so fast I can't even remember everything. It's all going by like a blur. It's crazy.

It's just as well that I can't remember everything because I don't have a lot of time to write anyway, but basically, it's been a great week and I love Västra Frölunda! This place is amazing.

We had a cool experience where we came back to swing-by a young guy who seemed rather lukewarm concerning our message at first but said we could come back. We started talking to him at the door again and learned that he does a some sleight of hand tricks. We, of course, asked him to show us and it was pretty cool. We started talking about what he was studying in school and he invited us in to check out some of his latin textbooks and we got talking about my interest in studying artificial intelligence in college and he asked about how I rationalize it with my faith and I gave my personal feelings about how my love for science supports my faith. He thought it was super cool. He shared how he had his own preconceptions of missionaries as fundamentalists who don't support anything other than what is said in the Bible and he thought it was really inspiring that I could also have such a passion for something that apparently seems contradictory to some. We're coming back to teach him for real on Friday!

We all have gifts that will touch people in different ways. There are people in your path that you can uniquely help. However, it may require that you bring your talents to bear and be willing to make yourself a tool in the Lord's hands. Give yourself to Him, and He will lead you those who need the spiritual gifts only you have.

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. A friend of ours gave us a big ol' Swedish bible. See 2 Nephi 29:3

2. When your comp thinks you're studying the scriptures but you actually knitting

3. I knit that.

8000002 Alarm Clocks

(Sister Slade)

Hello Friends!

I can hardly believe it! I'm a missionary! I decided that I wanted to serve a mission when I was 13, and now here I am 6 years later! It still hasn't hit me full force yet. It's kind of hard for me to believe. I apologize in advance for how disorganized this email may seem. So much has happened that I don't really know where this letter is going to go. To explain the subject, every morning everyone's alarm goes off at 6:30. because the walls are thin, we can hear pretty much every single person's alarm clock go off every morning. It is quite the wake up call.

Anyway, the last two days have been absolutely crazy! On my flight to Utah, there were 4 other missionaries headed to the Missionary Training Center. I sat next to an Elder Oxenden who is assigned to labor in Washington. When I checked into the MTC later that day, we were both surprised  to learn that we would be in the same district.

When I emailed all of you on Wednesday to let you know that I had made it here safely, I had met my companion Sister Allison literally 2 minutes before. At that point, I hadn't even been in the MTC for half an hour. I absolutely love Sister Allison!!! She's from Arizona and is also headed to Bentonville Arkansas. In our district there are 5 companionships, but Sister Allison and I are the only set of sisters. All of the elders in our district are going to either Washington or Oregon, and then there are Sister Allison and I. We know of 4 others headed to Arkansas, but they're basically in a different world from us because they're not in our district or zone.

Wednesday was exhausting! So much happened, and there was so much new information to take in that I barely remember anything that happened. A couple things that I do remember though are the MTC presidency teaching us and the rain. When the MTC presidency welcomed us, they taught us about the 5 loaves and the 2 fishes. They said that even though our efforts may seem small, like the 5 loaves and 2 fishes seemed to the 5000, if we bring our all, then the lord will bless our efforts and it will fill all that need to partake of our efforts. Also on Wednesday, it decided to rain. Because none of the new missionaries had unpacked yet, none of us had umbrellas. The rain wasn't just a light sprinkle. It was pouring. At least it was pouring whenever we had to go outside. We would watch the rain, and whenever we were in class, it would stop raining, but as soon as we went outside, it decided to pick up again. So as a result, we appeared to every meal and class with dripping hair and shoulders.

In one of our classes yesterday, we talked about our missionary purpose which is to "invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end." The teacher told us that we can't really fulfill our purpose unless we love the people. He then said that that was the purpose of a missionary, but the best part of being a missionary is having a front row seat for watching the lord do his work.

I've decided that one of my favorite parts of having a companion is companionship study. Yesterday, Sister Allison and I decided to study Doctrine and Covenants section 4, specifically the line, "If ye have desires to serve God ye are called to the work." We talked about the word desire and looked it up in the topical guide. something that we learned was that in the scriptures, the word desire is synonym to purpose. Because we spend so much time talking about our purpose, and how to magnify it, this struck both of us really hard. So now, instead of saying, "My purpose is to invite..." we say, "My desire is to invite..." It makes the whole thing mean so much more to me now. Later that night, our branch presidency was teaching us more about our purpose. At the same time, Sister Allison and I turned to each other and whispered, "No, our desire." It was so unexpected and completely unplanned, that both of us started to laugh right there in the front row while our branch president was teaching. I don't think it would have been so funny if we weren't both so exhausted.

In the MTC, our branches and Zones are the same thing. Yesterday we had our first zone meeting where the presidency called missionaries to different callings in our branch. Sister Allison and I were called to be the branch music directors. Almost as soon as the calling was extended, I thought about the multiple blessings I've had that tell me that my musical gifts will bless others and help them come unto Christ no matter where I am. I think it's interesting that I am here in the MTC  for only three weeks, but I have the opportunity to share my testimony of the gospel through music.

Also last night in the zone meeting, President Dyck interviewed each of us separately. In my interview, he told me that he was prompted to tell me that I was one of the lord's miracle missionaries. He said that the lord loves all of his missionaries, but He can only trust a few and I was one of those. He said it was because I had an obedient spirit. This was amazing to me, because at this point, we had talked for a full 2 minutes, and he could tell that about me. I've never seen a need to rebel against rules or God's commandments. I like being obedient because it makes other choices so much easier because you don't have to deal with bad consequences from bad decisions before. He told me that obedience brings blessings, but exact obedience brings miracles. Then he told me again that I was one of the Lord's miracle missionaries and also that when I smile, it lights up the room. It basically made my day to be told that that's what the lord thinks of me.

Our district is going to the temple later this afternoon, and I'll be sure to get a picture of all of us so you can put faces to names in the following weeks as I mention everyone. I love all of you!

God is Good!

            Love,

                 Sister Slade

P.S. the chocolate milk here is the BEST.

Hebrews 12:9

(Aldste Cummings)

Hällå!

This week was great. Looking back on it, everything just feels like it was a blur. I can't even remember everything we did and when I can remember something, I don't know which day it was on. This whole week was wild.

We had our transfer-ly interviews with President Youngberg which was really good. He is so wise and very clearly inspired. The way he thinks and the logic he uses seems literally superhuman. The Lord definitely supports us in our callings and consecrates magnifies our efforts when we use them in His service.

We did tons of other fun things I promise but I can't remember anything.

We had a great lesson with the man I wrote about last week. We talked about how our love for God and understanding of our relationship to Him has filled our lives with so much happiness and meaning. He cut us off at one point and said, "I've never felt that. No one here even TALKS about that. How can I feel that?"

That was a little bit of an eye-opener. Having always been taught that God is my heavenly father has always given me a perspective on life that other's may not have even when I wasn't sure if I believed it or really felt it in my life. It's difficult to imagine what it must be like to not know that or have even heard that. This man expressed that his life had felt so empty and meaningless and he could recognize something in us that he had never felt. It was a testimony to me that God's love really is a living, edifying power in our lives. When we truly understand who He is and how we can strengthen our relationship to Him, it will change our lives forever.

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. I'm knitting and he's sewing. Companionship unity.

2. Playing with our boy Benjamin.

3. They see me rollin'.

4. Sent it.

Hällå!

This week was great. Looking back on it, everything just feels like it was a blur. I can't even remember everything we did and when I can remember something, I don't know which day it was on. This whole week was wild.

We had our transfer-ly interviews with President Youngberg which was really good. He is so wise and very clearly inspired. The way he thinks and the logic he uses seems literally superhuman. The Lord definitely supports us in our callings and consecrates magnifies our efforts when we use them in His service.

We did tons of other fun things I promise but I can't remember anything.

We had a great lesson with the man I wrote about last week. We talked about how our love for God and understanding of our relationship to Him has filled our lives with so much happiness and meaning. He cut us off at one point and said, "I've never felt that. No one here even TALKS about that. How can I feel that?"

That was a little bit of an eye-opener. Having always been taught that God is my heavenly father has always given me a perspective on life that other's may not have even when I wasn't sure if I believed it or really felt it in my life. It's difficult to imagine what it must be like to not know that or have even heard that. This man expressed that his life had felt so empty and meaningless and he could recognize something in us that he had never felt. It was a testimony to me that God's love really is a living, edifying power in our lives. When we truly understand who He is and how we can strengthen our relationship to Him, it will change our lives forever.

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. Sent it.

2. They see me rollin'.

3. I'm knitting and he's sewing. Companionship unity.

4. Playing with our boy Benjamin.

Alma 24:27

(Aldste Cummings)

Hej allesammans!

This week was so fun! So much happened, it was incredible.

On Wednesday to Thursday, I went on splits with my MTC companion Elder Bird  (he's the one who intentionally hits "Reply All" every once and a while) who is serving in the area south of us, Kungsbacka. It's been at least 7 months since I saw him so it was so fun catching up.

We helped move a piano from this weird yoga-cult up in the rocky ridges above Kungsbacka. It's just a group of men and women who all live together in this isolated cabin who have a creepy circular rock amphitheater thing they made complete with an altar with a bone on it (?¿). Super normal. But they were nice and were giving away a piano for free so it was cool.

We were gonna go visit this non-member family Elder Bird met because they had a slackline in their yard and Elder Bird does slackline but on the way there they had to cancel so we biked to visit a less active member instead.

The member and let us in and was really nice and one thing led to another, and Elder Bird took out his slackline (which he only had in his backpack because we were already on our way to the other family when they canceled) and another thing led to another and we spent like two hours with the man and his wife and his son's whole family (who had all actually written themselves out of the church a couple years back) and had tons of fun with them. Elder Bird and his companion will be going back to this former-member family to slackline more, learn to sing, and play tennis. It was an incredible experience and Elder Bird is an incredible missionary.

Elder Dumas and I saw this really cool teeter-totter thing that went like up and down and side to side and moved around in a circle and so we tried it out and I fell off but because I fell of we had this really nice twenty minute conversation with this Canadian woman who was nannying some kids in the neighborhood.

On Saturday it rained buckets and we had some minor flash-floods. Of course we were out knocking doors and such so we got soaked. At that point, we were already drenched so we figured we might as well enjoy ourselves a little. We had so much fun.

We also got talking to this guy earlier in the week who didn't have any real faith and at first wasn't interested meeting up to talk more. Even though he rejected our invitation, we didn't stop talking to him, rather we just kept trying to get to know him. He was a cool guy and it was fun to talk and he ended up taking us on a little walk through the city on his way back home. At the end of it, he asked for OUR phone number and wants to meet up again and come to church activities! It was incredible to see how we were able to ultimately speak to him by just showing genuine love for him.

Sorry for the long email, we just did SO MUCH this week that I figured you all would like hearing about. So many people that we talked to through so many different methods. "Thus we see that the Lord worketh in many ways to the salvation of his people."

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

p.s. I have a ton of cool pictures but they're not uploading or anything so I'll have to send them some other time, sorry.

Enos 1:26

(Aldste Cummings)

Tjena!

This week has been pretty crazy.

Tuesday was my last day in Karlskrona. It was a sad day. It was so hard to say goodbye to the people I had grown so close with during my six months there. We had a real American picnic with Kristoffer and Siv. We drank root beer and ate PB&J sandwiches.

I guess root beer kind of tastes like a discontinued brand of swedish chewing gum and after we were all quiet after a little bit, Siv speaks up and says "It's a weird feeling to drink chewing gum." Elder Youngberg and I died.

On Wednesday, I took four trains to get here to Gothenburg. This city is so big compared to what I've been used to for the last year. The ward is also huge and it's so hard to remember all the names! I'm loving it though and I'm so excited to get to know everyone here.

It was tough to leave Karlskrona but it felt good knowing that I had put in as much work as I could have and the area was better because of it. It reminded me of this scripture. Obviously I'm not dying and I've still got some time left to preach the word but I'd imagine that I felt a little bit of the joy and satisfaction Enos felt as he closed off his writings.

This is a great work and it brings joy to all who listen with ears to hear. I can't wait to bring it to the people of Gothenburg!

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. Saying goodbye to Kristoffer and Siv.

2. That's right, I live(d) here. (pt 11)

3. Me and Elder Dumas.

4. Literally the biggest dog I have ever seen.

5. Saying goodbye to Karlskrona

6. That's right. I live(d) here. (pt 12)

1 Peter 1:3

(Aldste Cummings)

Hej hej hej hej hej

Usually people say "hej" or "hej hej" but every once in the while you meet that "gammal tant" (old lady) who hits you with the "hej hej hej hej hej."

Anyway, this week was tons of fun.

We received transfer calls! I will be being shipped off to Gothenburg to serve in the Västra Frölunda ward. It's a big city and a big ward which is not anything I have experienced yet having only served in Skövde and Karlskrona thus far.

Leaving Karlskrona will be tough. I've been here for about 6 months now and I've experienced so much. I've grown a ton and have seen so much happen in the lives of the people I have met and taught. I'm so thankful for my time and the people here in this beautiful city.

This week we began teaching a 25 year-old Swedish single mom. We met her when we stopped her in town on literally the exact same spot where we stopped Kristoffer all those months ago (Kristoffer by the way is doing really well. He's been blessing the sacrament every Sunday and gave an incredible talk last week). It was actually the second time I had talked to her on the street (I've been here a while, you start seeing the same people), but this time she was willing to meet and talk more about our message.

We ended up meeting her twice this week and she loved everything we had to say. She wasn't religious at all and she didn't know anything about Jesus except that he was crucified and resurrected and we were able to teach her about him by reading passages out of the Bible and Book of Mormon describing him and his life. It was maybe my favorite lesson of all time and felt so fulfilling as well. It was purely centered on teaching this woman who Christ was, what He did, and helping her develop a love for and a desire to follow Him.

That knowledge and closeness to our savior gives us what Peter described as a "lively hope." When you fill with love for Him, His love fills you and enables you to do, believe, and love more. Life receives meaning and joy beyond what you could have found yourself.

This morning we just happened to run into her on the street and talked to her a little bit. When we told her I was leaving, she shook my hand, looked me in the eyes and said the most genuine thank you I've ever received. I love being a missionary.

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. We learned how to knit this morning.

2. If anyone can tell me what kind of flower this is, that'd be great.

3. That's right, I live here. (pt. 10)

4. The Blacker the Berry (ft Elder Youngberg)