65 lbs of flour, 5 lbs of butter, 10 lbs of honey, and 5 jars of yeast

(Sister Slade)

Hey! So now I can explain why we made 90 loaves of bread. Sister Boyack and I decided to make a valentine  for each of the families in our ward. It was super fun! It was ana amazing experience to be able to show love to that many people. We were very specific that we didn't want to ask for anything while we were there and we've already seen miracles come from it. What if love was our only motivation?

This week was really good. Yesterday we were trying to contact potentials and stopped at one house. The person who lived there doesn't live there anymore but we met Raj. He was super cool and wants to learn more about Jesus Christ. New person being taught! Yay!

We also taught a member referral last night. Last week we were at a members house and were teaching them about the ward mission plan, Love, Lift,  Include, and Invite. So we were like, "how can you love, lift, include, and invite?" And they were like, "we can invite our work friend to take the lessons from the missionaries." And we were like, "okay!" So we taught him last night. His name is Rohit. It was a really interesting lesson because he knew nothing about Jesus Christ. The prayers he says are memorized and in a dead language that he doesn't know the meaning of. He said he really likes how personal our prayers are. Have you ever thought about how special a gift it is to be able to speak directly to our Heavenly Father? I'm so grateful that I can talk to my Father and that He can talk back to me.

What do you think of the adjustment to missionary standard about communicating to family? It's pretty crazy that I can call home every week if I need to. It's so amazing that we have a prophet to lead and guide the church today.

I love you!

~Sister Slade

Pictures:

1-11 the bread adventure

12. A valentine's rose from my dad

D & C 123:12

(Aldste Cummings)

Hej allihopa!

Well, I just got off a video call with my parents. It was awesome but felt kinda weird. We said more in 15 minutes than we could have emailed in 4 weeks.

For those of you who don't know, there was a recent change in missionary communication abilities. We now can call our families any given Monday rather than specifically Christmas and Mothers' Day. Unfortunately, this applies to only our families so most of you still have to wait to see my radiant smile until we meet again.

This week we visited a member family that is recently beginning to come back to church. They have a 9 year-old son who hasn't been baptized yet and they like having us over to teach him about the Gospel. Last week we figured out that the key to the kid's heart was English. He was a little shy at first but soon enough we got him chatting and joking with us in English. His English is actually incredibly impressive. In our conversation the other day he used the word "aggressive." Again, incredibly impressive.

Anyway, we invited him to be baptized this week and his only complaint was that we set the date too far in the future. We had to convince him that he needed the time in order to be ready but we appreciated the enthusiasm!

It's been really warm the past week. Some of the snow even started to melt! I still haven't seen the grass though. I don't think I ever will see the grass in Boden.

Due to the warmth, the usually powdery snow was wet and moldable. This led to Elder Mathias and I playing Obiwan v. Anakin as he stood at the bottom of a MASSIVE snow pile in snow up to his waist and tried to fight his way up while I stood at the top and pelted him with snowballs while repeatedly verbally affirming my possession of the high ground. We took a video. Good content.

We had a cool experience this week while knocking doors. A woman opened to us and immediately said she wasn't interested in what we had to say. Elder Mathias boldly asked her a question or two more to keep the conversation alive which gave us an opportunity to explain what it was we were doing. In response to her assertion that she's not interested because she's a "normal" Christian, we testified of the joy of the Restored Gospel and how it helps us strengthen our faith in Christ. We then said to her, "Now that you understand our purpose a little better, could we come back another day and share our message with you?" To which she smiled kindly and responded with "Yes, actually. That sounds very nice."

Some people are afraid or reject what we have because they don't know anything about it. They kling to what they think they know without opening up to experience it for themselves. But the more they open their hearts to learn, the more they will find that the message of the Restored Gospel is anything but fearsome or worthy of rejection.

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

(Sorry, no pictures this week)

VIDEO CALLING!

(Hermana Ellsworth)

What a fuuun week! THE BIGGEST THING IS Being able to video call my family. THIS HAS BEEN SUCH A BIG BLESSING. I have been sick for most of this week and that has been hard but I feel so much better. I have used all my time face-timing my family so I am sorry for the really short email. I love my family soo much!!!. Valentines day was kind of depressing. We called it friendship day instead haha got to love the ccm.  My companion and I got to heart attack our district for the holiday though. The lab is full of people who are facetiming.

One thing that I really wanted to share is that Elder Cook and Elder Soares are amazing speakers. They are apostles of God. I know that Christ lives and that He loves each and every one of us. I have felt so much help as I learn the language and study the gospel. I love learning about how much God loves each and everyone of us. I was able to testify of this to a volunteer member who came into the CCM and even though my spanish is hard I was able to say what I needed to say. I love speaking spanish and I love speaking to the investigators because that is when I am able to speak my best spanish.

I LOOOVEEE YOOOU BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE! MISSIONS ARE AMAZING

By the end of my mission I will be an extrovert

(Sister Slade)

This is going to be short because sister Boyack and I are making 90 loaves of bread.

This week we saw a lot of miracles. We were walking and met a guy who said we could come back and also that his neighbor was interested in meeting with us. On Saturday night, we got permission from our mission president to go to the Northwest Arkansas Symphonic Orchestra concert with some members and someone we're teaching. First of all, it was AMAZING! It made me realize how much I miss playing in bands. When we were leaving, we saw someone who lives near us and she was super excited to see us. She introduced us to her friend, and gave us her number because she wants us to come over on Tuesday. It was super cool. Sister Boyack and I were asked last minute to give talks in sacrament meeting yesterday. I don't know how mine went, but sister Boyack did a great job!

While we were at a member's house they were telling me that I've come out of my shell a lot since I first got here. They made the joke that if I continued to open up at the same rate, that I'll almost be an introvert by the end of my mission.

Just so you all know, all missionary emails are changing to end in @missionary.org starting tomorrow. So my new email will be anna.slade@missionary.org.

Sorry it's so short! Happy Valentines day!

~Sister Slade

Pictures

1. It was really cold so we got hot chocolate

2. More hot chocolate pictures

3. Sister boyack

4. I saw this car while tracting the other day

5. We went to a trampoline park last week for pday

Donde were you Hermana

(Hermana Ellsworth)

What an amazing week! This week has been full of strange quotes, haircuts, and spanish. A little stressful at times but I have loved all of it! A little more about my companion, she is one of the weirdest most beautiful people I have ever met. I have never seen someone laugh so hard and have so much joy. She is so amazing! We are both going to Puerto Rico and are both so excited! The weather out here is to die for. Though I am still a white/red ginger with no tan. Elder Cook is coming tonight for a devotional and I have never seen a campus SO CLEAN! these people go all out for Elder Cook and making sure it is perfect. Everything has been power-washed and repainted. EVERYTHING. This is the most beautiful MTC. I have an unbiased opinion and therefore it is correct.

Also, Being at the CCM where everyday is beautiful and we do the same things everyday is really messing with my mind. I feel like I am in a strange limbo state. We play a game in my district where we try and remember what day it is and what happened on what day. It is hard to explain but I feel like I am reliving the same day. I am just getting better and understanding what happens everyday. 

 On another note, In one of the lessons I taught I was asked why people got through hard things. This is one thing that is hard to explain. The scripture that came to my mind during this moment was D&C 98.3 ``THEREFORE, HE GIVETH THIS PROMISE UNTO YOU, WITH AN IMMUTABLE COVENANT THAT THEY SHALL BE FULFILLED; AND ALL THINGS WHEREWITH YOU HAVE BEEN AFFLICTED SHALL WORK TOGETHER FOR YOUR GOOD, AND TO MY NAME´S GLORY, SAITH THE LORD.. I dont feel like I ever really read that scripture before and it was really comforting to know that we go through hard things for our own benefit. Spanish is hard, I already know it is better than english, but I get to go through hard things to become better and to add to the glory of God. Thats pretty neat.

I love you all!! have a great week!!!

3 Nephi 27:27

(Aldste Cummings)

Halloj

This week was quite fun. We had a lot of good experiences.

We do volunteer work at the Red Cross's thrift store twice a week and this week one of the women we work with invited us over sometime when we're knocking doors in her area! Not bad for not being allowed to proselyte or even wear our nametags while we're there.

Also we met the newest member of the Boden Red Cross Gang: a 23 year-old Swedish kid who loves memes and video games. He wasn't very talkative at first but on day two, we--being the persistently chatty missionaries we are--got him to open up a good bit and now we're good friends. We asked him how he ended up at the Red Cross and he said "Community service." To which Elder Mathias responded "That's funny cause in the US, you get assigned to do community service when you, you know--" then a grin spread across the young man's face "Yeah it's the same here." Haha it was so funny. He's so cool.

On Saturday, one of the sisters' friends was baptized and was then confirmed yesterday. It was so beautiful to see. He was going to get baptized last year but had a stroke and was more or less paralyzed but he has fought valiantly to train his body to be able to function properly again until he could again begin to investigate and come to church and prepare for baptism again. This weekend he was the happiest I've ever seen him. It's incredible what joy Christ brings into life.

The other day, we were walking across a field on a very narrow trail of packed snow that had been made by people walking single-file through the snow. After a little bit I look up to see two young men coming toward us on the same trail a good ways off. My Alpha Male instinct kicked in and I immediately started sizing them up and determining whether or not we could successfully assert our dominance by walking intimidatingly toward them until they step into the untouched snow off to the side. After about half a minute of debate, I thought to myself "What would Jesus do? What should I, as His representative, do?"

So, I swallowed my pride and drank the bitter cup as I stepped off the path into the snow that reached well above my knee--Elder Mathias followed suit--and allowed them to walk by on the beaten path. In my head, I was still grudgingly thinking "They probably think they're so cool now because they won our heated power struggle" but then I was sternly reprimanded as one of the young men smiled kindly and said as he walked by: "Thank you, that was manly."

Boom.

Oh how the turntables. The young man managed to both build and destroy my pride in the same moment. Ironically, in his sincere humility, he still managed to come out the intense mental melee as the bigger man.

It caught me by surprise, and I've been thinking a lot about it ever since. As you all know, men are so naturally prone to display their masculinity in prideful arrogance and competition. Who can punch harder? Who can pick up heavier things? Who can jump off of taller stuff? Who can spit the fattest loogie? Who can pee farther? Who can eat the most pancakes in 45 minutes in the middle of Gothenburg (you know who you are 👀)? And yet Christ, the perfect man and our exemplar, always acted with humility and meekness toward all. Thinking about this made me realize the truth of the statement in Preach My Gospel that reads: "Humility is not a sign of weakness; it is a sign of spiritual strength." It is a far greater man who can show humility in restraint rather than insecurity in juvenile contest.

May we all, including me, find ways this week to learn from our Lord and Savior and develop His divine attributes.

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. We calculated that it was more than three times faster for us to supplement the font with buckets with water from another faucet than it was to just let the font fill itself up. Still took three and a half hours though.

"yeah, the Elders might take my silence the wrong way."

(Sister Slade)

The title is a quote directly from me. At our zone conference lunch I was sitting with Sister Strong and a few other senior sisters and they were talking about how it's a good thing that the Elders and Sisters naturally segregate. Someone jokingly said, "Yeah, Sister Slade is pretty flirty." and I replied with, "Yeah, the Elders might take my silence the wrong way." It was really funny because up to that point I hadn't said that much. In fact, Sister Strong said that that was the funniest thing she's ever heard.

               This week has been wild! We were finally able to meet with our mission president one on one and it was very insightful. Basically, he told us that we have nothing to lose. This area hasn't had a baptism in 16 months and so we concluded that what we're doing is not working. He gave us a couple of crazy ideas to try like finding a reason to go to the Walmart Distribution Center, or creating a fundraiser and involving local businesses in it. He basically gave us permission to do whatever we want to try in this area because like he said, there's nothing to lose.

               This completely changed our mindset, so that night we decided to completely rearrange the apartment and then we got to work. We had so many miracles happen that it was impossible to ignore the hand of the Lord in the work. For example, yesterday we were out walking and saw someone moving in and asked if we could help. It turned out that the couple who was moving in were the only nonmembers in their whole family. They even had a niece on a mission. Their daughter who was helping them move said that their parents are very prepared for the gospel and they saw it as a miracle that we had met their parents on their first day in the area.

               Or when we were talking to a member we found out that she could get us into the Distribution Center with a little work. We found another member who can help us with an English class we're planning on teaching to the little India we have in our area. We had so many people placed in our path and for the first time we were able to reach the mission goal of having quality conversations with 11 people a day. The timing of everything that happened could not have been a coincidence. I don't believe in a God of coincidences. Everything was planned to happen by the Lord. It was an amazing week!

               We also had zone conference this week and I had to teach one of the workshops on conversion. It was terrifying and fortunately, the mission didn't blow up because of what I taught. In the other workshop, we wrote down the things that were holding us back from being fully committed on a paper boat and then we went into the church parking lot and burnt the boats. It was a lot of fun, but it was also super powerful to be able to have an action involved in giving our fears up.

I love you!

-- Sister Slade

pictures:

1. Sister Boyack while we were serving meals on wheels.
2. While cleaning, we found a bunch of  black mold along the window sill
3. The paper boats

4. While rearranging, we accidentally broke our bookshelf so we taped it to our lamp to keep it standing

5. We fixed our book shelf

6. Random picture of sister Boyack and I

7. All of our boats

8. Zone conference lunch

9. My zone