I always exercise sometimes

(Sister Slade)

Today's title comes from a four year old boy named Taym. He was showing us his mom's gym and said, "I always exercise sometimes."

Okay. It was a crazy week. One of the sisters in a nearby ward went home and her companion was emergency transferred into Central Park with us. So we have been in a trio all week with Sister Fretwell. She has only been out one and a half transfers so we are finishing her training. We also got transfer calls on Saturday night. Sisters Boyack and Fretwell will be leaving and I will be staying...again. my companion is going to be sister Davis. She is one of the Nauvoo sisters so she will be leaving midway through this transfer which means that I will be in another trio for the last two weeks of next transfer as well. That also means that I will have to stay in Central Park for another transfer after that. 9 months in Central Park!

This week we found 2 new people! The first one is an 85 year old man named Jim. We serve at a senior center and 2 weeks ago be asked us if we could explain the difference between "mormons" and "latter day saints." He wants to learn more! The other person we found is a 24 year old homeless man named James. One of our lessons canceled so we we were walking around and felt prompted to talk to the man sitting on the bench. We gave him a book of Mormon and set up an appointment for last night at the McDonalds. It was an amazing lesson. We taught him how much his Heavenly Father loves him and how he can find hope and stability in jesus Christ. We also taught him about prayer. He's never really prayed before, but we invited him to say the closing prayer. It was the most humble and powerful prayer I've ever heard. In it he said, "Sir, I don't really know how to pray but I want to learn and I am going to need your help." After the prayer, he told us that before it he was really scared but that as he prayed he could feel something warm right here, pointing at his heart.  Then with tears in his eyes, he said, "It's still there." Who knew that a McDonalds could become a holy place?

We also had a lot of really cool things fall into place for us. One of the crazy ideas our mission president gave us was to try to get a meeting with the Walmart Distribution Center manager because the Walmart DC is in our area. We were at a dinner with a member when we found out that he knows the manager and can set up an appointment with him for next week. The whole thing with the trio was also a testimony to us that the Lord is in control. When we rearranged a couple weeks ago, both Sister Boyack and I thought independently of each other that we could fit a trio in our apartment now. Lo and behold, now we have a trio.

I love being a missionary! I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for me over the next year.

I love you!

~Sister Slade

Pictures:

1. I saw this outside a Walmart

2. The trio!

3. Sister Boyack with her Chewbaca cup

4. I really don't know what happened here or how sister Boyack convinced us to put those on our heads

5. Us right after finding James

6. Sister Boyack trying to put her shirt on over a bowl on her head

7. Sister Tausinga's goodbye

8. Sister Boyack singing

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.