Flour Fight!

 (Elder Slade)

To the best friends and family a person could hope for,

A quick rundown of the highlights:

We had a 5 pound bag of flour that we've been pulling pranks with. One evening we started playing hot potato with the bag of flour. A few tosses later, the bag broke and flour got everywhere. Then we started throwing handfuls of it at each other. A week later we are still finding flour in places we did not expect. We also found a huge crawl space, with a lot of spiders under our apartment. So naturally we went underneath it and explored it. It was fun!

We had a family we were teaching, names being Chava, Gordo, and Angel, move which we are really sad about. We will hopefully be able to do a pass off lesson with the new Elders that cover that area, but we are sad to see them go. We also learned last night about Transfers. Elder Snow will be leaving us! Another thing to be sad about. But, "all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things." I know that good things will come and we will see miracles.

This week we also did a service for 4 hours at Albertsons standing outside collecting food for a food drive. In honor of Halloween, one of us hid in the barrel, covered in bags if cereal. Then when ever someone came to put food in, we kicked the barrel and a hand came out and grabbed the food. We scared some people pretty good. It was fun!

Interesting fact, the sweet potato belongs in the same family as morning glories while the white potato belongs to the same group as tomatoes, tobacco, chile pepper, eggplant and the petunia. Love you all!

Pictures:

1. A picture of us today returning the shopping cart we "borrowed" for groceries

2-3. The service

4-5. We did some impromptu service for someone, and raked their yard. Then we jumped in it!

6-7. The flour fight

Season 1 Episode 2: The Hurrication

 (Elder Cummings)

Hey y'all!

This week has been kind of crazy! Thanks to Hurricane Delta slamming right through Louisiana the whole mission got evacuated on Thursday to Gulfport, Mississippi! All 120 Elders stayed 3 nights at the Gulfport stake center (a church building) hence the title name: Hurrication (hurricane vacation). In all seriousness, it wasn't much of a vacation because it wasn't meant to be. Since a lot of missionary work nowadays is done online, we kept having some lessons over zoom and Facebook. Technology is such a blessing! Me and a guy from South Africa started having a really good conversation on Facebook Messenger and has agreed to meet with us and talk more about Jesus and God's plan for us! That would never have been available to missionaries just 10 years ago.

Anyway, while staying overnight with a bunch guys, our mission president had some mandatory recreation so we all didn't go crazy. So I played a lot of ball and spikeball, so much fun. It was awesome to meet all these experienced missionaries who love and know the gospel. So many of them are an example to me.

So for 3 nights, I slept in a room with 20 other stinky young men(they made showers for us in the parking lot with 2x4's, tarps, pvc pipes and a hose but obviously not ideal), all on air mattresses and pads, and it was still a spiritually uplifting experience. If that isn't a testament of the truthfulness of the gospel I don't know what is. We're all so different but we all have the same purpose. We all try to see each other as children of a Heavenly Father. That is why I believe we were so united and had such a great time. It doesn't matter what our race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, political affiliation, social class, family situation, interests, dislikes, opinions, experience, knowledge....the list goes on and on. Literally ANYTHING that makes us different goes in that list. We are Children of God. Children of a Loving Heavenly Father that wants what is best for us, wants us to have joy. When we know that we know each other.

This week was awesome as you can tell but the highlight was last night when we called a couple we're teaching named Reginald and Gwen. We use to call each other every night and share a scripture with them but recently they haven't been answering our calls, so we gave them space and stopped calling them for a couple days. On Saturday Gwen called and was like "boys, why haven't yall been calling us? Reggie wants to talk to you guys!" After that they committed to call with us at 8 every night. Anyway, we called them yesterday night and Reginald started talking about the last scripture we invited them to study about a week and a half ago. They used to not be very good on their commitments but Reginald goes off just talking about the scripture about baptism and the disciples and how we really do need to be baptized. Me and Elder Christensen were just overjoyed. That’s just a glimpse believe of what God feels when we obey His commandments. He gives commandments because He knows that through obedience we can have joy beyond anything else. He wants what is best for us, I believe it.

Elder Cummings

Some pics:

1. Went to Whataburger in Gulfport, feels just like home

2. Played some Frisbee on the beach with the boys, ft Elder Christensen

The Instagram Challenge

 (Elder Slade)

To the best friends and family a person could ask for,

Let me tell you. This week we did not eat the healthiest. So many members gave us junk food and deserts. We got two members who gave us cinnamon rolls, one member gave us a box of Krispy Kreme (that was my favorite) and a ton of cookies! One of the days my companions ate so much, I was worried they would go into a sugar come. I'll tell you though, they crashed hard.

This week our mission started an Instagram page, called findingfaithinchrist. They havent given us Instagram yet, but they started a completion to see who could get the most followers for the page. I think we are in the lead with over 200 followers. Elder Snow and Elder Nabrotzky are so motivated to win it. I have never seen anyone else more competitive. They are devoting so much time to this. The winning companionship gets dinner at the mission home, and the winning zone gets a pizza party. The completion ends tonight at 6. I'll let you know next week if we won.

I loved General Conference this weekend! It was great to hear from our leaders. I loves what the prophet said about Letting God Prevail in our lives. It implies a humble submissiveness and a trust in God. I want that for my life, and in the lives of those I teach, because that's when they will be the happiest they can be.

I love you all! Thanks for all of you who wishes me happy birthday! I had a great birthday! Went to mod pizza, someone made me a cake, and some kid gave me 2 bucks! Also Potato harvest has been happening the past week or so, and I'm actually pretty sad I'm not in the country to help. I think it would be pretty fun! Perhaps next year!

1. A district picture because Elder Brooke left for England

2. Me opening up my presents. Confetti got everywhere!

The Season Premiere (the Grind actually just started)

 (Elder Cummings)

Hello everyone!!

I landed in Baton Rouge on Tuesday last week and it feels like forever ago. The first night was all us greeny missionaries staying the night at the mission presidents home. The next day we all met our trainer companions!

My companion's Elder Christensen, he's pretty dang cool. Hes about 5 foot 4, served in Chile until Coronavirus hit and was reassigned here. He's making it a lot of fun and already making me a better missionary. We live with two other elders, Elder Aldala and Elder Roodbol. They're all soooo funny and get the job done.

Because of coronavirus we do what my mission president refers to as "hybrid missionary work". Basically we do a good bit in person and a good bit through Facebook to find people and have discussions about Christ. Then we call all of our referrals and things like that.

My area is super cool. We're in the West Bank, south of New Orleans. Yeah I know there's not a lot south of New Orleans. My area is actually pretty big but only a small portion is covered by living area because most of the land is bayou and swampy or its not actually land but lakes and rivers and stuff. It can get sketchy the northern part of our area that includes downtown New Orleans but I've never felt unsafe and where our apartment is is a nice area.

This week a lot of lessons fell through but as missionaries thats expected, especially because many appts are with people we haven't actually met yet. But we're in the Bible Belt baby, the people LOVE Jesus and its amazing. Its so fun to talk to people who already have a deep faith and devotion to God and Christ, it provides a lot of connection and respect.

I'll tell you more about my friends and those we're teaching next week once I've met most of them, but they're all awesome I can assure you that.

My spiritual thought comes from two things: at the mission home the first night all the new missionaries were asked to share their testimony as pure as simple as possible and that made me think about what to say. Second, because this is the Bible Belt, sometimes people can be pretty contentious and seek to bible bash. What you have to do is close your book and bear testimony, bringing up scriptures to throw dirt on each other will never do anything but make everyone angry that they're dirty.

Anyway, I know Christ is my Savior and I know His Atonement works. I know His Atonement works because I've used it. It's as simple as that. Nothing is as personal and universal as the Saviors Atonement. I KNOW it works because I have USED it and no power on earth can convince me otherwise. I say that in His name, Jesus Christ, Amen.

A Flying Car is like Spork

 (Elder Slade)

To the best friends and family a person could hope for,

Yesterday was a pretty interesting day. Our churches have started now, and we planned on one of the people we're teaching to come. We had our fellowshipper for him go to pick him up, but he came back with a different person named John. John is deaf, and it's kind of hard for a deaf person to learn much in a meeting with out a translator. So about 10 minutes in, he stretched himself out across the pew, and started snoring! We're pretty sure everyone heard him. But, he asked us if we could come back later in the afternoon and visit with him.

So we came back and visited with him (he has a writing board that we communicated with). We learned that he believes in Judaism. He later gave us a book, The Tanakh, which is the Jewish bible, and asked us to start teaching from it, and giving people a choice to convert to Judaism. Being LDS missionaries, we probably shouldn’t try to teach Judaism, but he then motioned over two people (one of which was someone we were already teaching), and told us to practice. My companion, Elder Nabrotzky took the book and told the people, "I want to ask you a huge favor. I want you to smile and nod as I gesture to this book." They did that, and John got really excited. And then he left us, asking us to come back in a week. I don't know what we'll say at that time. He was a really nice man, and I'm glad we got to talk with him, but it doesn't exactly fit our calling as missionaries, to teach another religion.

The title comes the new Elder in our apartment, Elder Huang. He is hilarious! He likes all things transit and transportation. In fact he does transit trivia every night. One day we were talking about flying cars, and he mad the analogy to a spork. I agree with him.

There's a single phrase from a talk that i wished to mention. It was talking about Jesus Christ and His Atonement, and our responsibility to follow him with our whole heart. The phrase is "Our all, is a small repayment for his all."

Fun fact of the day, Potatoes are 80% water. It's pretty cool. Love you all!

Get away from me onion face!

 (Elder Slade)

To the best friends and family a person could hope for,

This week has been a great week! The Lord has blessed us by helping us put 3 people  on date. One of them we found just a week and a half ago, names Lacie. The other two are 11 year-old twins named Olivia and Carter, who like to roast each other. The title is from Olivia, who told that to her brother Carter in the middle of the lesson. It was an ultimate middle-school roast in my opinion! We have a few more potentials of people who are progressing that we're hoping to put on date soon. We've been getting along great as a companionship, and having been having fun. In a dinner appointment one night we got Elder Nabrotzky to fit 3 entire cornbread muffins in his mouth. Apparently he's done competitive eating before! I was very impressed.

Today's been kind of crazy. We learned that there will be two new missionaries in our apartment. Elder Holmes, who's in our district, and a new person he's training. This is a small apartment for 5 people, let me tell you. It's going to be interesting. Also, someone "reverse robbed" (as Elder Nabrotzky puts it) our apartment. They put streamers, candy, and compliments all over our apartment door. I'll include a picture. It was so kind of someone though!

We have recently been playing a game with members recently that show that nothing is as importing as Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice. Sometimes we may get distracted in the small meaningless things, but in the grand scheme of things, they don't matter. We won't take the things we have now with us when we die, so we need to spend our time working on things that will stay with us.

Potato harvesting is happening soon here in Idaho, so a fact about potatoes: In 2008, an estimated 300,000 acres of Idaho Potatoes were harvested - about 11 billion pounds of potatoes. That's enough potatoes to fill 500 NFL football fields. That's a lot of Potato!

Pictures:

1,4. Elder Nabrotzky eating da muffins (What a beast!)

2. A picture a member took

3,5. "Reverse robbed"

6,7. District pictures

The Grind Will Always Continue

 (Elder Cummings)

MTC. Done.

An update on the zoom calls Liang and I were able to have with some native Taiwanese people:

Penny and George are SO awesome! They're the couple that are interested in the church and were willing to practice Chinese with us. They hadn't met with the missionaries yet when we met them so that was stressful. I wasn't even stressed that much about them not being able to understand me(not because my Chinese is that good but because they're pretty dang good in English). I was the most worried about the impression we would leave on them, I wanted their experience with us to be memorable and encourage them to look more into the church. Liang and I said a very sincere prayer together beforehand and a couple minutes later we were talking to two natives(one from Mainland China and the other from Taiwan). My stellar companion quickly was able to turn it into a gospel discussion as we discussed all of our beliefs and all of our religious backgrounds and desires. Time FLEW. In about 30 minutes I think Liang and I both bore some kind of testimony about 5 times each. They had amazing questions for us and through the Holy Ghost our answers seemed to touch their hearts. It was a miracle, it really was.

Meeting with Kevin was also a ton of fun. He was a coworker of my dad's when we lived in New Jersey and he's so funny and happy. We didn't have as much as a spiritual discussion with him but we discussed temples and why we have them. I also invited him that if he ever saw missionaries to say hi and talk with them. I told him I am so nervous to serve a mission, that many of them will be too, and that just talking with them and being kind will make their day and give them an opportunity to do their job as missionaries.(I didn'ts say it quite that eloquently, it was all in Mandarin, but he said he would!) Again an amazing opportunity to practice Mandarin while being able to talk with people about our church and our Savior Jesus Christ. These opportunities would not have been possible if we weren't having home MTC and for that I am grateful.

Like I said, the MTC is done. I love my district and my teachers but boy am I excited to go out into the field. This week was a ton of fun and I learned a lot from my teachers as we had chances to just ask them advice and questions about the mission and life in general. Who would've thought I could rely on college students in their early 20's to give me some life advice? That's what the mission does for you, and it's awesome.

Unrelated note: This week I decided with my good friend Ryan that when we get back and start attending BYU, we're gonna host breakfast taco Saturdays at our place, we're gonna go hiking and backpacking all the time, we're gonna be EMT's, and we're gonna have a pet ape who we're gonna teach sign language(yes he will help cook the tacos and drive the ambulance, but we're gonna teach him piano too so on Taco Saturday's he can please all in attendance with his melodic tunes) Good thing I don't have to worry about figuring the ape paperwork for another 2 years though, that'll be a nightmare.

Spiritual thought: After Christ's visitation to the America's, recorded in the Book of Mormon, in 4 Nephi 1:17 it says "There were...[not] any manner of -ites; but there were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God". Earlier this week my Papa asked my family how the Nephites did it and how we can do it in this time. He cited verse 15 of the same chapter, "there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people". So we learn that we need the love of God in our hearts, but how do we do that? I joked and said that the Nephites needed Christ to come to fix it, we'll have to wait for the Second Coming. However, as I discussed this with my good friend Ryan, his thoughts particularly struck me. I'll paraphrase and add some of my own thoughts:

While it is good and important to apply principles and lessons from scriptures to society and how we can be a better people we are also taught to "liken them unto ourselves". In the Book of Mormon, the risen Christ literally visited the Americas, established His church in the Americas as well as in the Holy Lands, and taught and gave authority to people. After his visitation is where we read that there was no contention and everyone's hearts were softened to each other. There was great peace for many many years. While we should learn how to apply this to our society where there is so much hate, prejudice, pride, jealousy and more, the answer comes from applying the principles to ourselves. "... the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people". No one can force you to take something to heart. It is an individual choice, one we have to make just like these people had to choose to have the love of God continually in their hearts. While Christ has not literally visited us in our lives, we all need to choose to have Christ come into our lives, into our hearts. We need to have Christ come into our hearts and make a change that He made caused in the Nephites. It is a personal conversion. We are already made equal.if we want to be treated equal, it starts with having Christ come into our hearts and planting the love of God. So allow that to happen. Allow yourself to make room for God's love. That love will work in you and change you as it did the Nephites. I strongly believe it will and say that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

PS There won't be another email next week! I don't leave for Baton Rouge until the 29th so there won't be much to talk about next week. But feel free to email me! I want to hear from y'all!

FOTOS:

1.       the last view from the MTC, pretty cool huh?

2.       First 10 minutes of Elder Liang and I meeting the other Mandarin Speaking district...(they came eventually don't worry)

3.       quick reunion with some of the best teachers ever! @mailaoshi @helaoshi

4.       Ready to go..

PPS. The ape is a joke don't worry(hopefully it's not a joke though, who else would play soul-searching melodies while we cook up some scrumptious tacos?)