Job 14:14

(Aldste Cummings)

Hey everybody!

This week was quite the party. Partly because we actually threw a party.

So we have this group chat with all the moms in the ward because like they love us and we play innebandy with their kids every other week. A couple weeks ago we suggested that we should have a little Halloween snack after innebandy on Tuesday the 30th and the moms thought it was an awesome idea and they did what moms do best and blew it up into an awesome party. Families came and decorated rooms with candy and activities for children to participate in and the young men made a haunted house in the basement to scare little kiddies and it was so fun. There must have been more than 100 people there including a good amount of nonmembers.

We also did a lot of normal proselyting activities this week I promise.

So in Sweden they can't seem to get the idea that a holiday on a specific date is to be celebrated on that day. Holidays like Easter, Christmas, etc are like week long events. They've started to adapt Halloween over the last 20 years or so and it's the same way. They know that Halloween is on the 31st but still go trick-or-treating before and after. Huh.

Anyway, so the day after Halloween is called Alla Helgons Dag (All Saints Day). It exists in America too but isn't observed as much. Here in Sweden, families go out and light candles by the graves of their loved ones who have passed away. On Saturday--technically after All Saints Day but as I already mentioned, Swedish people don't seem to care--we went out and walked around one of the bigger cemeteries in Gothenburg. It was only 17:30 but it was already pitch black except for thousands of little lights strewn across rolling hills and no one was saying a word.

It was a very powerful experience that makes you reflect on the meaning of life. As Macbeth very appropriately describes it, our lives are but a "brief candle."(Sorry, I don't know the citation but you can trust me on this one). It was surreal to look upon all the candles and ponder on the comparatively small impact each individual had made upon the world.

It was enough to feel a little discouraged concerning the reality of mortality except for the unshakeable feeling that those of us who looked upon the graves that night were not alone. Those people who had died were yet alive in the world to come and we all will too. Though we are mortal, this life is not the only one we have yet to live. Each of us will have the opportunity to live forever because of the eternal nature of our spirits and the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

So yes, Job. If a man die, he will live again.

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. "Halloween is always October 31st and no other day. Thanks!" Finally, someone gets it.

2. We made some pizza for the kiddos at the party. Spooky.

3. Elder Nelson and I decided to dress up a little.

4. Cemetery on Alla Helgons Dag

5. That's right, I live here (pt 16).

6. When missionaries decide to make a jack-o-lantern.

It has been a week...since I last emailed

(Sister Slade)

Hi everyone!

This week has been great! On Tuesday, we got a referral from salt lake for a woman named Alice who requested a book of Mormon. We stopped by and talked with her for a little bit and she said she wants to be taught the lessons. Our teaching pool just doubled! It was a huge miracle for us.

On Saturday, Jerry texted us and asked us if we could come over and give him a lesson. He then spent the entire lesson telling us his concerns for baptism. This was huge because he's been taught for the last 17 months and anytime someone mentions baptism, he shuts down and won't talk. So him bringing up baptism and specifically his concerns was a miracle. We're optimistically hopeful for Jerry. Keep your fingers crossed.

Here's an update on my headaches. We've found out that my headaches are caused by nerves in my head bumping into blood vessels which sends a shock through my brain. It's probably something I'll have to deal with my entire life, but it's not serious or life threatening. Also, 3 weeks ago, my family held a fast. Leading up to the fast, the headaches were getting worse and more frequent. The day before the fast, I had 20 of these "ice-pick" headaches. The day after the fast, I had 3. Since then, they've decreased in frequency even more. Coincidence? I think not. Thank you for all your prayers!

Love you!

    ~Sister Slade

Pictures

1. Sister Mueller did my hair and makeup

2. The changing seasons

3. Me holding Jerry's cat. His name is Suggly. It stands for so ugly.

Stuck in the Promised Land of Central Park in Bentonville

(Sister Slade)

Hey y'all! (I'm picking up on some of the local slang)

This week was transfers. Can you believe it? I've already been out for more than 2 months! Sister Mueller and I are still together for this transfer and we're still in the Central Park area. Sister Mueller was assigned to be the transfer point leader and so we had to be at the stake center all day on Thursday to make sure everyone got where they needed to be. It wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been raining all day. :)

Yesterday at church was the primary program. It's always fun to see the kids sing. The primary sang a song called "I will be what I believe." I think you could find it on youtube, and I would highly recommend you go watch it. The ward that I'm serving in is a little bit diverse in that there is a family whose kids don't speak much English, so the primary children all learned a verse from "I am a Child of God" in Spanish so that their kids could participate. There was also a little boy that can only communicate through sign language, so they learned "A Child's Prayer" in sign language as well. There's a reason why Jesus tells us to become as little children. They are some of the best ministers in the church and their hearts are so pure.

Since our last P-day was on Wednesday, I don't have much else to tell you all. Have a great week!

~Sister Slade

Pictures:

1. My district

2. Sister Mueller took this sneaky picture of me

3. Sister Mueller and I celebrating my mom's birthday. Happy birthday mom!

4. Bentonville-opoly. How's that for a mission souvenir?

You Slade It

(Sister Slade)

Sorry! This is the email from last week. For some reason it didn't send.

So my name has become a joke in our zone. If some one does something awesome, they say "you Slade it." And then they glance furtively at me to make sure I got the joke. It was only funny the first 13749204857 times. :)

This week almost every single one of our investigators dropped us. It was quite depressing. BUT. We had some amazing miracles.

A recent convert who has been less active and avoiding members responded to us. He was glad we reached out to him and wants to have dinner with his family.

We went to visit another potential and his family and they remembered the treats we had brought the last time we visited them (luckily we brought more treats this time). They were very open and friendly compared to the last time we talked with them and they invited us to come back.

Another miracle is that the MRI and cerebral angiogram results came back normal. The doctors still can't figure out what's going on, but it's not anything serious enough to send me home. Another small miracle is that the medicine that the doctor prescribed as a guess drastically reduced the effects of the headaches.

If you haven't already, go back and read the talks from General conference. There's so much good in them! Studying the words of the prophets can help you. I promise!

God is good!

      ~Sister Slade

Pictures

1. I could start a news section on things you would only see in Arkansas

2. We had a mission wide apartment cleaning day and we found this. I don't know how we missed that before.

3. A family from our ward took this

4. We went to the Wal-Mart museum for p-day

John 10:10

(Aldste Cummings)

Hey everyone!

This week has been a fun one. It started with saying goodbye to Elder Dumas 😥. I'll miss that man. It was a wild 12 weeks. Sanna bröder skicka det tillsammans.

I stayed two days with the elders in the northern side of Gothenburg as we waited for my new companion, Elder Nelson, to fly in. Two of the four elders up there were going home that next day so we got to help them get ready and say goodbye to them at the train station. I've never been around a missionary on the day he ends his mission. It was an interesting feeling.

In came Elder Nelson and we immediately got to work. It's been really fun so far and the time has been flying by. The other day, we were knocking on doors and we had half a loaf of pumpkin bread that we had baked for a friend that we decided to try to give away to someone that night. So we talked to people the way we normally do, but at the end of the conversation would ask them if they wanted cake (Swedes make fun of us if we call it bread). That caught them off guard and started laughing when we explained the situation. Everyone said no, until this one nice man accepted our pumpkin bread. Mission accomplished.

It snowed on Saturday and because of Daylight Savings Time the Sun sets before 5:30 so that's pretty fun.

The scripture I chose this week was brought to my attention by a talk given at General Conference by Elder Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles called "Believe, Love, Do." Really good talk, would highly recommend it. I was reminded of it when one of the people we were teaching mentioned that in the past couple of months as we had been teaching him and he had begun to gain faith in God and Jesus Christ that his life "feels like more."

He had a little bit of a difficult time describing what he meant by that, but he didn't need to. We knew what he was feeling because we had felt and do feel it ourselves. As we come to Christ and come to know Him, every facet of our lives is enriched in an indescribable yet powerfully noticeable way. As the Savior Himself so poetically stated, we "have [life] more abundantly."

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. Dragon Ball Z ft. Elder Dumas

2. Dumb and Dumber

3. First snow of the season.

4. Well hello there.

2 Nephi 29:8

(Aldste Cummings)

Hello everybody!

We received transfer calls yesterday! Unfortunately, my time with Elder Dumas has come to an end. He will be being transferred to Sundsvall which is up north. He's really excited and I'm excited for him. He will be replaced by one Elder Nelson who I've never met before so I'm looking forward to getting to know him over the next couple of weeks.

On Tuesday we saw this older gentleman painting his fence and before we could offer to help him, he asked us if we wanted to help him. We responded with an emphatic "jajamensan brorsan" and started walking over to help him out. He then told us that he actually wants to do it all by himself and refused to let us help him. Classic Swede. Swedish people are so kind and hate being intrusive that they honestly never accept help from anyone. Even if they ask for it themselves apparently.

Also on Tuesday we played innebandy again with the little kids. It was so fun. As usual. This time, I accidentally this four year-old girl in the face with the ball. Luckily it was just a wiffleball, but still. I'm sorry, Tuva. You're a tough one.

President told us yesterday that it was time to cut our hair. We all knew it was getting a little long. I hadn't cut it since March. Elder Dumas and I decided rather impulsively that we wanted to buzz our heads 1) so we wouldn't have to cut our hair for a longggg time and 2) just cause we kinda wanted to know what it was like and figured the mission was the optimal time to try it out since the people we actually care about impressing live in the United States and can't actually see us (@Morgan). So we buzzed our heads. It's only been a day and I'm already questioning whether or not it was worth it.

This week we were also able to teach one of our friends about the Book of Mormon and testify of its truth for him. He's been Christian his whole life so when we knocked on his door and started talking about another book, he was understandably rather closed to the concept. He said that the Bible was enough for him. I felt prompted to be a little bolder and more straightforward than I usually would be and--being inspired by 2 Nephi 29--asked him why he would complain about having an opportunity to learn more about and grow closer to God and His son Jesus Christ? If the Book of Mormon is true, that's exactly what it offers.

He was a little taken aback and thought about it a little. He asked us to come back and teach him and his wife more about the book which we did this week. They're excited to read and pray about it to receive the Holy Ghost's witness of its truthfulness. The Book of Mormon truly is the word of God. It will help you come closer to Jesus Christ if you begin a serious and prayerful study of it. Even if you're already Christian, take a chance on it and see how much more you can receive in your life.

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. Rocking the afro.

2. I tried to go down the slide on my feet. Didn't work.

3. This may be the most Swedish thing I've ever eaten: Ice cream with edible leaves and petals in the middle of October.

4. Twinning is winning.

Quick trip to the ER

(Sister Slade)

It has been a week! I can't say if it's been a good or a bad week, it's just been a week.

The most exciting part of the week was last Tuesday when I went to the ER. About a week and a half ago, I started having these headaches with really weird symptoms. I did get them 5-9 times a day but they would only last 20 seconds- 2 minutes. Then they would go away. The problem was that when I got these headaches, they were almost paralyzing because they hurt so much. After calling the mission nurse, who called Salt Lake, who called the church's neurologist, we were told to head in to the ER immediaty. They were concerned I had an aneurysm. The good news is that they didn't find anything alarming in the tests. We didn't get home from the ER until 1:30 that morning, and the next day was very long.

They referred me to a neurologist who we saw on Friday who said I am having a rare form of headache called a trigeminal angio- something or other. I didn't catch the rest of what he said. He still wants to do an MRI and a cerebral angiogram which are scheduled for this week to figure out what is causing the headaches and how to stop them. It's all very ironic to me that we had to go see a neurologist when my major is neuroscience. :)

It was all very exciting and exhausting! Sister Mueller has been absolutely amazing through all of this, and has been very supportive. She's become one of my best friends, and I could not have gotten through this week without her.

I'm sure there were other things that happened this week, but I can't seem to recall what they were. In the middle of all of this, I read alma 7:11-13. I love my Savior. I'm so grateful for his sacrifice which makes it possible for me to be "succored according to my infirmities." I know he lives. That knowledge is one of my greatest possessions.

God is good!

      ~Sister Slade

Pictures

1. Proof that I was in the ER