Light your face

(Sister Slade)

Hey y'all! Can you believe that it's almost 2019!?

It was a really good week. I loved talking to my family on Christmas. It really made me think about why I am here in Arkansas. I'm here because I love my savior and I know how much happiness can be found in the gospel and I want to share that with others. The joy that I feel is so incredible and I know it will bless the life of anyone who is willing to listen to me and "experiment on the word."

It's amazing how much I can love the people here. I don't know them and all they do is reject the good news that I have to share, but I love them! Even the lady that yelled at us that she was a "lifelong lutheran" and to "never come back" and then slammed the door. I love her because she is my sister and I know that my Heavenly Father loves her too. I love my companions and the ward members. And I love all of you. Thank you for all of your support and prayers. They are very needed. 

This week, while at service at a food pantry, the person in charge asked us if we could test an escape room he designed. Because of the circumstances, we couldn't say no. The escape room was completely centered on the Savior's resurrection. All of the clues were scriptures that we had to interpret based off of the doctrine of Christ. It was really cool and powerful to experience and we were able to have a lot of amazing gospel discussions afterwards.

At a dinner lesson, we were teaching about the 4th week of light the world and one of the kids said, "I know that one, it's light your face!" It was really funny. This week we also happened to stop by some members who were trying to organize their garage and they enlisted our help and we ended up building one shelf and demolishing another (both of which were really fun).

Happy New Years! I'll talk to you next year. ;)

~Sister Slade

Pictures (there's a lot):

1. Sister boyack made me these for Christmas

2. Christmas morning

3. Me opening gifts

4. A pillow case my family made me

5. Gingerbread house.

6. Our awesome Christmas outfits.

7. Our matching Hogwarts pajamas

8. All the food we collected can tracting. It's a lot

2 Corinthians 5:17

(Aldste Cummings)

Gott Nytt År!

This P-day is a little different and crazy like last week so I don't have a lot of time.

Quick updates from the week:

-Spent Christmas day with a nice Chinese family and ended up watching the first half of Incredibles 2 all in chinese with no subtitles. Definitely one of those what-had-to-happen-in-my-life-to-get-me-here kind of moments. Super memorable and really really fun.

-Skyped my family back home. It was so fun to see them again and talk to them i love and miss them.

-Lots of studying about Jesus Christ (I'll likely talk more about that later)

-Ate surströmming (rotten fish that even most Swedish people avoid like the plague 😷) for the first time. Honestly, after all the hype, it was a far more pleasant experience than I had anticipated.

I hope you've all had a great year. This year will be the only calendar year I will have been a full-time missionary. It's been quite the adventure. Undoubtedly the hardest year of my life but also the most fulfilling and rewarding. I have learned so much and grown to know and love my Savior more than I could possibly have imagined. Through Christ's Atonement, change is possible and we can become "new creatures." But that change is a life-long process, not an event. Take advantage of this coming year and all the challenges it is bound to bring to be refined and renewed through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Happy New Year!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

(Sorry these might get out of order when I send them)

1. Fire and Ice.

2. Ja. Ja. Men. San.

3. Elder Cummings' Declassified Boden Survival Guide Tip 2: John Deere Leather Snow Boots. The warmest, most durable snow boots I've ever had.

4. Christmas party.

I love when plans fall through

(Sister Slade)

Merry Christmas! I hope you all have been having a great season and that you can feel the spirit of Christ in your life.

This week was amazing. We focused on member visits for light the world. The whole week was very powerful to me because literally every lesson we taught was focused on the savior. When we got to the special sacrament meeting on Sunday that was also focused on Him, it was amazing.

Unfortunately every single one of our appointments for this week canceled and so we did even more tracting than we normally do! Have I ever told you how much I love tracting? It's my favorite.

The funny moment for the week was when we knocked on the wrong door. Bentonville is one of the fastest growing cities in the US so there are new roads and houses being built all the time. Our area book map doesn't update as fast as it should and sometimes takes us to the wrong address. We had dinner at with a new family that moved into our ward and because they were new, neither of us would recognize them. Long story short, the map took us to the wrong house and we totally talked to a random lady named Tanya like she was a member and had invited us over for dinner. It was really awkward, but also really funny.

I hope you have a fantastic Christmas tomorrow!

~Sister Slade

Pictures

1. A picture from when president strong went crazy

2. A lady had signed up to feed us tonight but had a meeting so she made us mac and cheese and ribs
3. When everyone cancels and you have to replan your day

4. Something we saw outside a house

Isaiah 9:2, JOhn 1:4-5

(Aldste Cummings)

God Jul!

Sorry, I don't have a lot of time today so I won't send a full email or pictures. I apologize as well for not having a scripture of the week last week, that's my bad. I'll compensate with two scriptures this week.

Jesus Christ is the light of the world. He lights the way before us and chases away the darkness that would otherwise surround us in His absence. Here in Boden at this time of year it's pretty easy to relate with the whole light in contrast to darkness metaphor. It's so beautiful how just a little light can make so much of a difference. Learn about Christ and let His light permeate your lives.

Merry Christmas!

Love,
Äldste Cummings

Update

(Aldste Cummings)

Hej på er!

This was quite the blast. Really fun time.

To start off, I drove the car! I hadn't driven since early July of 2017 so it's been nearly a year and a half. That enough would have made things a little sketchy but the sketchiness was compounded by the darkness, the snow-covered roads (they don't salt things here so there's snow and ice all over the roads), the non-reflective paint they use on the street, and a handful of weird traffic laws I had yet to familiarize myself with. Luckily, no accidents were caused and nothing was hurt except my pride.

Knocking doors in -24 degrees Celsius is quite the experience although Sunday morning was colder with the coldest temperature yet this season: -27 (that's -17 for all of you following along in Farenheit). Today and yesterday are a little warmer and honestly, -17°C (1°F) feels quite balmy after spending a couple days in the minus twenties.

This week, we were also able to go to a Santa Lucia concert which was a really cool experience. I was in Sweden last year too, but we didn't have an opportunity to go unfortunately. Basically, it's a Christmas concert in a church and the choir stands behind a young girl who has a ring of candles on her head. They sing some traditional songs but also assorted Christmas carols. Apparently the tradition dates back to one Saint Lucia who would bring food to Christians hiding in catacombs and she would light the way with a wreath of candles. I think she was martyred as a result. Really sad, but it's really quite heartwarming how much the Swedish Christmas season is so centered on light.

Christ really is the light of the world. He lights our lives like nothing else can when we let him in and learn to know Him. We were talking to a man at his door yesterday who wasn't religious. He spent a couple minutes--in which he unwittingly paraphrased the words of the Savior in the New Testament at least twice--talking about how he's a good person and how treats people kindly and how he doesn't steal or abuse his wife and kids or anything and asked us why it wasn't enough for him to be a good person.

Just because we have a couple candles throughout the room does not mean electric ceiling lights would not light it better. I was really thankful that I had the personal experience necessary to be able to stand at his door and testify that Jesus Christ adds far more to life than can be gained by simply being a good person. A personal relationship with the Savior fills every nook and cranny of an otherwise dark world.

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. Met this kid while volunteering at the Red Cross. Made my day.

2. When what you thought were the hymn numbers are actually the digits to their Venmo number for accepting donations.

3. "This girl is on fire" -Alicia Keys

4. My breath froze to my name-tag 

5. This is one angry icicle.

President has gone crazy!

(Sister Slade)

It's been a good week!

We had our zone conference/Christmas party on Thursday. The spiritual part of it was amazing! Sister Strong taught us about remembering and invited us to remember Christ. We then had a 2 hour testimony meeting on remembering Christ. It was the strongest I've felt the spirit while on my mission and I didn't want it to end.

For the party part of the day, we had a bunch of games going, one of which was a cup stacking competition. Sister Boyack took 2nd place with the fastest time in the mission of 13 seconds. I placed 4th. I bet you didn't know I was so talented at cup stacking. :) I also played Kites at the talent show that they had. The best part of the evening though was when President Strong dressed up like a fox and danced to "What does the fox say?" It was quite entertaining.

We had lessons with Jason and Nancy and both of them want us to read the Book of Mormon with them. In Nancy's lesson we also read the Christmas story. I was able to bear my testimony about what the "good news" of the Savior's birth meant to me.

I didn't have a chance to bear my testimony at zone conference, but I want to do it here. My favorite scripture on the atonement is 1 Nephi 3:7 in connection with 3 Nephi 12:48; "...the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." And  "therefore I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect." It means so much to me that the Savior has provided the way and is the way that I can accomplish the commandment he has given to be perfect. I am painfully aware of how imperfect I am. On my own I could never be more than I am. It's only through the Savior that I can become as He is. There are so many things that Jesus Christ is to me. He is my friend. He is my brother. He is my example. He is my teacher. He is my healer. He is my leader. He is my protector. He is my Savior and my Redeemer. I love him. It's a privilege for me to serve Him to try to show Him how much I love Him.

Who is the Savior to you? What does the "good news" of the gospel mean to you?

I love you all! Thank you for your support and prayers! They are much needed.

Pictures!

1. President strong with his back up dancers

2. There's a pond in our area and I took this picture
3. Sister Boyack and I took a picture with a cow

4. We taught a 7 year old girl that wants to be baptized and her mom took a picture of us

5. The cup stacking competition (I'm trying to find the video from someone,but no luck so far. Believe me it was epic).

6. Me playing piano at zone conference

7. Zone conference lunch

Sister Yackity Yack

(Sister Slade)

The last couple days were crazy. Transfers were on Thursday and I had to say goodbye to Sister Mueller. I also met my new companion, Sister Boyack. She's crazy (in the best way possible)! She said that one of her nicknames on her mission is Sister Yackity yack. she says it's on account of both her name and her tendency to talk a lot. :) We get along pretty well, though it's definitely an adjustment to be with a complete stranger 24/7 when you're used to one way of life and missionary work.

We had several miracles this past weekend. Both Sister Boyack and I felt like we needed to fast on Sunday to be able to find someone to teach. We walked into church on Sunday afternoon and lo and behold, one of the members had brought a friend to church who brought one of her friends to church. We taught them the first lesson during second hour and they wanted to learn more! I can now say I've taught the restoration twice.

Also, while we were tracting on Friday, we had 5 people say we could come back to share a Christmas message. We're not sure how many of them will keep the appointment, but it was exciting! We also have been serving a lady named Nancy for a couple of months, and she told us she wants us to share a Christmas message with her after we finished helping her to put up her Christmas tree.

It was a pretty amazing couple of days!
Have a good week!