2 Kings 5:13-14

(Aldste Cummings)

Tjabba tjabba mina damer och herrar

This week was tons of fun. On Wednesday I had to part ways with Elder Jordan as he caught a plane down to southern Sweden. While I waited in the airport for my new companion, Elder Mathias, two members of the ward that are retired kept me company for a couple hours. It was really enjoyable, actually. Old Swedish people are really fun to talk to.

There's this thing up here called a "spark" which translates to "kick" but it's like this seat on a long pair of skates. You stand on the skates on the back and kick off the ground while kids or anything you're carrying sits on the seat. It honestly looks incredibly comical and doesn't seem real but people use them all the time when they need to walk the dog or take out the trash or something. Pics to come.

This week was full of miracles. First off, we had two lessons cancel on us on Thursday so we ended up knocking doors instead and the third house we knocked had an American flag on the porch and so we asked a little bit about it and turns out it was a man and his American, super pregnant wife. They let us in and we got to teach them all about the Restoration of the Gospel and they took a Book of Mormon and we'll be back this week. The funny thing is as we were leaving, we commented on the flag again and she said "Yeah, I just put that out today for some reason." 🤔

The next day we were out tracting again and this man opened the door and we said hi to him and told him that we talk about Jesus and he swore and said that we should come in so we sat and talked with him a little bit and he really genuinely enjoyed our chat and he wants us to come back. He said that he never lets people in and attributes the timing of our visit and his willingess to let us in to God. 🤔

I woke up a couple days ago with a really uncomfortable imbalance in my head because one of my ears was refusing to pop. It lasted for a couple hours and in the shower I was getting kinda light-headed and all. We had quite a full day ahead of us so I said a quick prayer to ask the Lord to heal my ear. Then after my prayer, I saw my Vick's VapoRub and had the thought to put some in my ear. I thought, "um, wut." But I figured that maybe it would work but it definitely couldn't hurt so I gave it a shot and within a minute my ear was completely back to normal. 🤔

I don't really know if the VapoRub actually made a difference or if it was the Lord's way of testing to see how well I was listening to the Holy Ghost and my willingness to follow its counsel. Kinda like when Elisha told Naaman to bathe seven times in the River Jordan to heal his leprosy. The water didn't heal him, but it was his obedience to the counsel given by a prophet of the Lord that effected the miracle.

I learned a couple things from this experience. 1). Miracles happen. Even VapoRub naturally rebalanced unpopped ears, I definitely didn't come up with that thought myself. 2) God cares about us so much that he was willing to heal my ear so I didn't have to be uncomfortable all day. and 3). As we listen to the guidance we receive from the Lord, whether through the Holy Ghost or the counsel of His prophets, we are blessed.

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. My glasses started freezing.

2. She colddddd. (-26 degrees Farenheit)

3. Another good example of the Weird Swedish Door©. Front door with doorbell on the other side of sliding glass patio door.

4. Elder Mathias getting a nice, cold welcome to Boden.

5. Call me.

Mark 12:34

(Aldste Cummings)

Halloj!

This week was awesome. We had some really good lessons and met some really cool people. I'm excited to continue to teach and get to know them.

A couple weeks ago, a young man who was baptized here in February who married a member who lived here and then moved to Stockholm was visiting his mother-in-law with his 14 year old little brother. We were able to spend a lot of time with them and last week the 14 year-old even went out to knock doors with us! He loved it. Anyway, this week he traveled back home, but not before he told us that he wants to have contact with the missionaries who live near his home in Stockholm so we sent them his contact information. It was tons of fun, he's a good kid.

We also got transfer calls this week. Elder Jordan will be transferring down south to a town called Halmstad. It was a fun transfer, he will be missed. The newcomer will be Elder Mathias, a rather young missionary. I'm looking forward to the next six weeks!

This week, we talked with so many people in lessons or at their door who had such good and strong faith and intentions. There were so many times this week when I wanted to say, as the Savior did to the scribe who asked him which commandment was the greatest, "Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God." There are so many good people out there in the world, but by the Bible and the Book of Mormon, we know that simply being a good person is not enough to enjoy eternal life.

That may sound like a rather depressing thought, but why should it be? The Savior commands us to come unto Him. Why should we ever determine that we've come "close enough." We must always come closer and grow closer to Him. That's the purpose in our lives. To become complacent with our progress is to jeopardize it. May we all find ways every day to strengthen our faith in, knowledge of, and love for the Savior Jesus Christ.

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. Knocked on someone's door and while they were giving their dog a bath and it ran out and jumped on me 🙃

2. Perfect example of the Weird Swedish Door©. Front door in an unlocked fully enclosed  patio with the doorbell on the outside separated from the walkway by about 5 feet with about a foot and a half of snow on the ground.

3. Beautiful picture of the moon--at 2:24 PM.

4. Companionship pic ft. tie awkwardly buckling over my bobby-pin tie-bar.

The Door with the darking Bog

(Sister Slade)

We got transfer calls this week. Both Sister Boyack and I will be staying in Central Park. This means that I will hit my 6 month mark here and it's only my first area. In addition to working in our area, President Strong has given Sister Boyack and I an assignment for this transfer. He gave us a book to read called "Quiet, the Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking." Missionary work is inherently an extrovert activity and a lot of people believe that introverts can't do missionary work because of that. So president has told us to read that book and create a seminar/workshop for the rest of the mission. Sister Boyack is an extrovert and I am definitely an introvert, so we're thinking about focusing on the strengths of introverts in missionary work (listening, sensitivity, quiet confidence, comfort, etc) and how extroverts can work with introverts to let them use their talents. The book is actually really interesting, and i would recommend it to everyone, even if you consider yourself an extrovert.

Last Monday, we were visiting potentials from our area book and we went to one house, but the person on the area book had moved a few months ago. BUT the person who lives there now took a Book of Mormon and was really interested and set up a return appointment for this week. The cool thing about this (at least to me) was that we only had the courage to go to this house to try to accomplish the mission's goal of talking to 11 people a day. This would have been our 3rd person we talk to that day and out of it we got a new person to be taught. The Lord doesn't count the numbers, but he makes the numbers count. Pray for Tommy that he will be a solid investigator!

We had a lesson with Nancy this week and last week we had invited her to read the introduction page. When we got there this week, she had read not only the introduction but everything up to 1 Nephi.

The email title is from when I was on exchanges with Sister Churchill on Thursday. We were tracting around an apartment complex and the door next to the one we knocked on had a REALLY big dog barking. Sister Churchill looked at me and accidentally said, "let's not knock on the door with the darking bog." It might only have been funny because both of us were really cold and might have been a little bit delirious.

I've had a lot of reflection on the New Year. I think it is really a representation of the Savior's atonement. We view New year's as a new beginning, but new beginnings are only possible because of the savior. I'm so grateful for the savior in making it possible for me to begin again every day (sometimes multiple times a day).

I love all of you!

~Sister Slade

pictures:

1. funny picture

2. We made a puzzle in our free time

3. another picture of the puzzle

4. my stake this transfer

Genesis 1:3 and the Lord said, "let them wear pants"

(Sister Slade)

That's right! I got pants! Sister strong took us shopping today and we found a few pairs.

This week we helped someone move. Even though we had to carry couches up 3 flights of stairs, it sure beat tracting for 5 hours. :)

We also had interviews with president this week and president told us that he is going to come out with us this week. Central park is struggling to make anything happen, and president wants to see what he can do about our area. Some possibilities he's told us about are dissolving the area boundaries for missionaries in Bentonville for finding or making our area a service area where all we would do is service.

We had a lesson with Jason this week where we talked about how both the bible and Book of Mormon teach about Jesus Christ. During that lesson, I kept thinking about how every aspect of missionary work points back to the Savior; tracting, rejection, exhaustion, etc. Everything we taught Jason had something I could relate to in my missionary work. It was a really humbling experience to think about the Savior's mission and comparing it to my experience.

I love being a missionary! I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.

I love you!

     ~Sister Slade

Pictures

1. We're wearing PANTS

2. It was 60° last Saturday so we walked

3. We found a buddy bench

4. I got to ride a members electric skateboard

5. Our new years celebration at 9:30

6. We had lunch with Jerry and he invited some of the members in our ward

2 Nephi 25-26

(Aldste Cummings)

Halloj halloj!

The past couple weeks have been incredibly fun. I haven't really been able to report them to you guys really well because of holidays coinciding with our P-day, but basically, we had a really good time.

New Year's Eve, we spent the day with a member family in a small town near Boden. Then, we went drove to Luleå to watch the fireworks at midnight. Our friend drove us to the wrong side of the city to watch the big fireworks show but Elder Jordan and I just stood out on the ice in the middle of the bay to watch all the smaller fireworks shows happening in other parts of the city. It was pretty cool and honestly more memorable than actually seeing the big fireworks we were intending to watch.

Speaking of ice, we drove on the ice bridge! It was super cool. It's just this river that freezes over during the winter. There's usually a ferry but when the ice is thick enough they just plow off the snow and open up the ice to thru traffic. It was pretty awesome.

On Saturday, we got a call from some members who live out in the middle of nowhere who needed help stacking firewood for their wood-burning stove. We drove out there--they live in the middle of the woods--and helped them out. On the way there we saw a moose just chilling in the middle of the road. It was incredible but it ran off before I could get a picture.

During the days in between Christmas and New Year's, our mission president challenged us to read all the entries and 57 subheadings under "Jesus Christ" in the Topical Guide to the LDS edition of the scriptures. It was a lot of reading, and I haven't even finished it yet, but it has been incredibly rewarding. The exercise has shown me that everything preached by the prophets since the beginning of time has had it's center in Jesus Christ and His atonement. Everything God does and commands us to do is centered in Him. As His representative, I am grateful for the opportunity I have to continuously invite others to learn of and follow Him.

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. Big Boi Burns surprised me in Stockholm when we were there a couple weeks ago. Love that kid.

2. "Ice, ice [bridge] dumdumdum dumdumdum dum" -Vanilla Ice

3. 10:00 sunrise aesthetic. vibes.

4. Service clothes baby mhm

4. Elder Cummings' Declassified Boden Survival Guide Tip 3: Wear a ski helmet liner under your stylish Norwegian wool hat. It adds increased warmth and heavily minimizes the itchiness factor as well as dry forehead skin.

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.