LDS or Lacking doughnut syndrome

(Elder Slade)

To the best Friends and Family a person could hope for, 

Well, it's been quite the week. In just the past week, I've been in three different companionships. Thursday night, there was a companionship exchange that the MTC presidency thought was for the best because of certain circumstances with another companionship in my district. So for three days, my companion was Elder Dansie. Things were eventually figured out, and we went back to our original companionships, and I was back with Elder Lavold. However, just yesterday, Elder Lavold woke up pretty sick. We went to the clinic, and discovered he had Influenza, and he had to be quarantined, or as they put it, put in "isolation". This resulted in me being in a tri-companionship with Elder Dansie and Elder Robinson. Moral of the story: be ready for anything, and just try to have a good attitude!

Other than that, I've been loving it at the MTC! It is snowing so much (I love snow!). I've been learning so much, and I think I've grown a lot just being here. I am getting so excited to get out in the field and teach the gospel. We've had several lessons with people and it is amazing to me to see how people are touched by the message we teach. I've realized how blessed I am (and we all are) to be able to teach people and use the Book of Mormon to change lives.

The title comes from Elder Dansie just yesterday, when his parents mailed him two boxes of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, the best kind of doughnuts. I was so excited!! Any day is a good day when you have Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Elder Dansie is awesome, aside from the fact that he drinks fermented milk (it smells nasty). He's also an incredibly talented piano player, and he's really smart! We get along really well.

I am leaving the MTC next Wednesday, so my next P-day will probably be on the following Monday in the field, so it'll be about a week and a half until I can talk again, but know that you are all in my prayers and I love you!

Pictures:

1. The Elders in our district

2. Me in my trio (Elder Dansie is on the left, Edler Robinson is in the middle)

3. They served us Subway one day. Yay. My favorite. (That was sarcasm if you couldn't tell)

4. Me and Elder Lavold at the temple last Thursday

5. Elder Dansie and I

6. Our district at the temple

7. There's a stray cat hanging around the MTC. Elder Lavold loves cats, he has two cats at home named Mowglie and Pepper!

I can't believe I forgot a potato joke!! What am I thinking? I'll repent now though...

What do you call a long, curved potato with a monetized video channel?

A professional U-tuber!

Hehe, lol.

Pictures!

(Hermana Ellsworth)

You should date my son!

(Sister Slade)

It was a weird week. It was one of those weeks where every day you wake up and are confused about what day it is. This week's title comes from the family that fed us last night. They have a son that gets home from his mission 10 days before I go home. They kept telling me I should take him on a date when we both go back to BYU. At one point someone said that our personalities would go really well together and everyone got really quiet and just looked at me. Then they nodded in agreement. It was only a little bit awkward.

On Wednesday we had our extra pday. President Strong also had us watch a movie called Free Solo for district council. He wanted us to see it with the view that we can overcome what seems impossible to most people or even ourselves. It was a good movie.

Nothing else too exciting happened until Saturday. A young woman in our ward really likes us for some weird reason and invited us to her birthday party. So we went skating with a bunch of 13 year olds. It was actually pretty neat because her dad is less active and her grandpa isn't a member and we were able to talk to them quite a bit. Her dad even came to church the next day. Yay!

Also on Saturday was a baptism. My first transfer in Harrison we found a man named Gene. He dropped us at one point but we felt prompted to keep going by. Eventually he started reading the Book of Mormon (has since finished the Book of Mormon) and decided to be baptized. President strong gave sister Jelderks and I permission to Skype in for the baptism. It was a really spiritual experience. I'm glad I was able to be a part of his conversion.

God is good!

Sister Slade

Pictures:

1. We played pool for pday last week

2. Sister Jelderks missed the whipped cream challenge

3-4. we found a baby hammer

5-8. what you think a car share is going to be like

9-10. What a car share is actually like

11-12. At the party

13-14. GENE'S BAPTISM

Feb 6 2020

(Elder Petersen)

So this last week started really well with 5 non-member lessons set up within the week. One of them was with a non-member whose name is Hannah it went really well. We talked about what she already knew about the gospel of Jesus Christ and what mad the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints different from any other church. It went really well and I feel that she truly wants to follow God and Jesus Christ to the best of her ability. Another of the non-member lessons was with a man named Juan, we are really excited about him because he is married to a recently reactivated member and had been going to church with his wife since December. The rest of this week was pretty boring compared to what we had been doing previously, mainly due to the fact that a lot of the appointments that we had set up for the week canceled on us. We did get to go to the temple today however which was awesome. We get to go through the temple about once a quarter so whenever we get that chance we count it as the blessing that it is. Because I know that we are blessed to have a temple in our mission that we are able to go to so regularly.

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Sincerely

Elder Petersen

P.S.

We have transfers this next week so we will see what happens!

One of the members that we had dinner with wanted to show us their collection so of course we had to get pictures with them!

Thats it! Pun-cakes is cancelled!

(Elder Slade)

To the best Friends and Family a person could hope for,

This has been a crazy week, and there's a lot I could tell you, but I'll try to keep it short. It feels like a month has gone by, not a week. So first, Thursday night last week I was called to be the district leader of our district in the MTC! It seems crazy, because I thought that if I ever became the district leader it would be when I had 6 months left on my mission or something like that, but my second day I was called. At times I feel a little overwhelmed, but the Lord is definitely helping support me at times. I love my district! We have 6 Elders and 4 Sisters. We have laughed so hard at times, and we learn so much from each other. It's crazy to me how in just one week you can get so close to a group of people.

Our days spent at the MTC are strictly scheduled with two 3 hour class periods in the morning and in the afternoon, along with workshops every other day or so, and lots of study time.In class we mainly focus on how to teach and the lesson material themselves. We also teach lessons every other day where we teach a nonmember, or a member who's an actor and pretends to be a nonmember. This week, Elder Lavold and I have been teaching a woman named Laura. We love teaching her! I love it at the MTC as well, and feels so good to know that I am going about doing the Lord's work!

My title comes from a breakfast where we had pancakes and Elder Lavold had the idea to do pun-cakes, where you try to think of as many puns as possible (I love Elder Lavold!). I thought it was a great idea, and gave a few puns. However when a sister in our district found out, Sister Hayes, she must have spouted 10-15 puns in a row, with almost no stop. Elder Lavold was speechless, and did not how to respond by this amazing display of wit and punnery. I guess you could say he was tongue-"tied" (you get it! Because we were wearing ties! Lol). Eventually he just said "That's it! Pun-cakes is cancelled!".

Anyways, thanks for your prayers and support. I unfortunately am not allowed to search things online, so my potato jokes will be pretty lame and a little bit familiar. but...

What do you call a potato that is trying to find inner peace?

A medi-tator!

Pictures:

1. The best district ever!!

2. A giant bag of sour patch kids Elder Lavold got. (What kind of person opens bags from the middle! You just can't do that! He claimed it was like opening a tissue box. *shaking my head*)

3. Elder Lavold and I in front of a beautiful mural (there's so much beautiful art in the MTC)

4. Us on the roof, with the temple in the background.

5. Me pointing at my mission.

To the best Friends and Family a person could hope for,

This has been a crazy week, and there's a lot I could tell you, but I'll try to keep it short. It feels like a month has gone by, not a week. So first, Thursday night last week I was called to be the district leader of our district in the MTC! It seems crazy, because I thought that if I ever became the district leader it would be when I had 6 months left on my mission or something like that, but my second day I was called. At times I feel a little overwhelmed, but the Lord is definitely helping support me at times. I love my district! We have 6 Elders and 4 Sisters. We have laughed so hard at times, and we learn so much from each other. It's crazy to me how in just one week you can get so close to a group of people.

Our days spent at the MTC are strictly scheduled with two 3 hour class periods in the morning and in the afternoon, along with workshops every other day or so, and lots of study time.In class we mainly focus on how to teach and the lesson material themselves. We also teach lessons every other day where we teach a nonmember, or a member who's an actor and pretends to be a nonmember. This week, Elder Lavold and I have been teaching a woman named Laura. We love teaching her! I love it at the MTC as well, and feels so good to know that I am going about doing the Lord's work!

My title comes from a breakfast where we had pancakes and Elder Lavold had the idea to do pun-cakes, where you try to think of as many puns as possible (I love Elder Lavold!). I thought it was a great idea, and gave a few puns. However when a sister in our district found out, Sister Hayes, she must have spouted 10-15 puns in a row, with almost no stop. Elder Lavold was speechless, and did not how to respond by this amazing display of wit and punnery. I guess you could say he was tongue-"tied" (you get it! Because we were wearing ties! Lol). Eventually he just said "That's it! Pun-cakes is cancelled!".

Anyways, thanks for your prayers and support. I unfortunately am not allowed to search things online, so my potato jokes will be pretty lame and a little bit familiar. but...

What do you call a potato that is trying to find inner peace?

A medi-tator!

Pictures:

1. The best district ever!!

2. A giant bag of sour patch kids Elder Lavold got. (What kind of person opens bags from the middle! You just can't do that! He claimed it was like opening a tissue box. *shaking my head*)

3. Elder Lavold and I in front of a beautiful mural (there's so much beautiful art in the MTC)

4. Us on the roof, with the temple in the background.

5. Me pointing at my mission.

Somebody done stole our ladders

(Elder Slade)

Hey everybody! I arrived at the MTC safely. My preparation day, when I'll be able to send emails, while in the MTC, is on Thursday. Yesterday was a little overwhelming, with lots of new information and rules about the MTC. However, I am loving it so far! I'm excited to be learning, and getting prepared for the field.

My companion is Elder Lavold, from Mesa Arizona. He's pretty cool! I'm excited to be able to work with him. The title is something I said last night, as when we got to our room, someone had "pranked" us by stacking all the chairs, and moving the ladders to the bunk bed to the room next door. It was pretty funny.

This morning, there was a devotional broadcasted from the Lima Peru MTC where Jeffrey R Holland, one of the 12 apostles in our church, spoke to us. His talk was soooo amazing! I felt invigorated and energized, which is a common side effect of his talks. Those who have heard him speak, probably know what I mean. He talked about what serving a mission faithfully can do for you the rest of your life, along with the importance of obedience and the Book of Mormon. During it, I just felt a strong gratitude and love for God for calling me on my mission, and being willing to serve. I feel so much joy from choosing to come here! God bless you, and stay fresh!

Someone told me that my joke last week was pretty cheesy, but let me just say, potatoes taste better with cheese in my opinion. ;)

Pictures:

MTC campus 

Beautiful of the mountains (The picture doesn't do it justice) 

Elder Lavold and I

MY NAME TAG!!! 

My Companion is going to kill me

(Sister Slade)

We got transfer calls on Saturday. Both Sister Jelderks and I are staying. So this is how I die. 3 areas, 13 transfers, 12 companions. As the little einsteins would say, "Start the countdown!" It's so weird to only have 6 weeks left. It feels like yesterday that I was in Central Park as baby Sister Slade.  

This week was a week of completed goals. At the beginning of my mission I had a goal to read the entire standard works studying the Gospel of Jesus Christ. On Thursday I accomplished my goal. It really is amazing to see how the Gospel ties into everything and really is the center of everything we believe. My testimony of the Gospel has grown so much as I've read the Old and New Testaments, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and The Pearl of Great Price. I also successfully went 21 days without sugar. Our mission was doing a fit challenge where if every missionary in our stake did the challenge for 20 days then we would get an extra pday. Everyone did it so we get an extra pday on wednesday. Yay! goals are a really interesting thing. I've come to learn that they are a reflection of our faith in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. When we have faith in Him we realize that we can become better so we set goals in the act of trying to be better. It doesn't matter so much if we reach the goal as long as we tried and improved. It's in the trying where the atonement makes up the difference.

Not too much happened this week. Either my weeks are super exciting or very boring. I wish they were more exciting for all of your sakes.

God is good!

Sister Slade

pictures:

1-2. At the restore they had about 50 shower curtains donated and we had to take them all to the back but didn't have a cart to use.

3-4. the member who came with us to Johana's lesson brought her little boy that is the same age as Johana's daughter and they were so cute together.

5-9. At the animal shelter there was a cat they had us work with that didn't like people. By the end of 1.5 hours she was taking a nap on me. The worker said they'd never had anyone be able to even touch her. I'm a cat whisperer.