Update

(Sister Slade)

This week, we spent a lot of time tracting. President strong has created a new number to report every week. He wants us to have quality conversations with 22 people a day. Every week, the mission would talk to 10,000 all together if every companionship talked to 22 people a day. Apparently, sister Mueller and I are leading our stake/zone in that number, so yay for us. We've been doing a fun tracting approach where we write "I'm grateful for..." on a mini whiteboard and ask people to respond. It's been super effective and a lot of their answers can be brought back to the gospel. We've had answers from nyquil to Trump's term being almost over. I've had a lot of fun doing this. It's also interesting because President Strong gave us permission to try tracting in regular clothes with and without name tags. People are actually more receptive when we're in regular clothes.

I was trying to think about something else we did this week, but really that's all we did. Lots and lots of tracting. Oh yeah, we also taught one lady English and another math. We also helped one family from India sweep their leaves. Not take, sweep. It was quite fun.

And that's my week. Sorry it is such a boring read. :)

I love you!

     ~Sister Slade

Pictures!

1. A cat followed us around the block as we were tracting. She wouldn't leave us alone. Her name was Butters.

2. Some of the responses from tracting

Jacob 3:7

(Aldste Cummings)

Halloj!

This week has just flown by. We've been having a really fun time here in Gothenburg. I realized this week that I've fallen in love with the city itself. The ward members and the people we're working with are my favorite part of living here, but there's something about the city that's just so endearing.

One of the people we're teaching wrote a full-length musical in 1996 about an Nobel prize nominee oncologist who does tests on himself and spontaneously turns into a woman for a couple hours every once in a while. Apparently it's inspired by Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Show business in America is too conservative to risk putting it on but evidently Poland isn't afraid to take a chance. So if you're ever in Warsaw next spring and you're craving an exciting exploration of the sexes full of love, tension, and 90's showtunes, book some tickets for "High Voltage!"

We just went to buy Elder Nelson a new pair of glasses. I felt like a Swede in a candy store. Glasses stores give me so much life. Walking around and picking out glasses for him to try on was *almost* as fun as buying some for myself.

Saturday we had brunch with Pål and LIsa Hyldetoft and then had dinner that evening with Pål's parents Per and Rigmor Hyldetoft. It was Hyldetoft day. Such a party. Love that family. We ate soo much food that day. I ate like fluffy 10 pancakes that morning and then six bowls of soup in the evening with two bowls of rice pudding for desert. Blev mycket mat asså.

Earlier in the week I went on splits with Elder Wayment who was in my district in the MTC and it was so fun to see him again. He's a hardworking, dedicated, and competent missionary. It was a pleasure to be with him. While we were knocking that night, we met two families that wanted us to come back to teach them more about the gospel. One of them specifically was very positive and the mom scheduled a specific time for us to come back. It was an incredibly faith-building miracle.

I don't really know what it is about the Swedish people, but they aren't really interested faith or religion as youths but as they grow up, get married, and have families, they really aren't interested in faith or religion. But that doesn't make them bad people. Rather, they love each other and care for each other and are always the first priority. The sad thing really is that

they reject us because they don't know what we have. They don't know that the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ can enrich their lives and strengthen their family relationships. If they understood that--if everyone understood that--they'd take the chance and see the joy that comes from it. Happiness and success in the family is found in Jesus Christ.

Have a good week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. Onward, Christian soldiers.

2. "I'll take the picture," he said. "It won't be blurry," he said.

3. Well, uh, hello there.

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

5. Espen thought he was being funny. Love that kid.

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.