Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots!

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey everyone!!!

So they just started letting us do District Council Dinners/Lunches again, so after district council we were eating outside and a lady drives her car up to the parking lot, rolls down the window, and is like "hey, do any of you want the Pfizer vaccine? We have a ton of extras at such-and-such place, and we're gonna throw them away" so we were like "well, what are we waiting for?" So our whole district got the first dose together and we go back in a couple weeks to get the second dose! so there’s the explanation for the title of my email lol

On Friday we had a lesson with our friend from Africa, his name is James, and he committed to baptism! So we're getting in contact with the missionaries where he is!

And Reba reached out to us, she said she wants another bible study, so that's exciting!!

Okay love you all!!

Sister Alyssa Putnam

The Storms of Life

( Elder Slade)

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

It was a good week! Then again, every week as a missionary is a good week! :) Yesterday we taught a man named Lewie that is in his 80's, and he's practically deaf. Since we have to wear these masks, we taught him through screaming. My voice was beat at the end of that lesson, let me tell you. It's a whole other experience yelling your testimony at the top of your lungs in a lesson.

This week was transfers and we're both staying here, but we found out that we now cover another ward! We started teaching a new person in that ward named Chelsie, and we have high hopes for her. She is a devoted Christian and loves learning about the gospel. It's been great to teach her!

Lastly, the weather here has been atrocious! Particularly the wind. It is so hard to bike in wind, let me tell you. There have been some sketchy moments as we've biked on the streets. The wind has been reminding me of a verse in the Book of Mormon:

Helaman 5:12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Though the winds have been heavy, and the storms have been strong, I'm built on Christ! Love you all! Don't let the winds of life beat you down too hard!

Pictures:

1-2. Laticia the schizophrenic person we teach likes coloring and showed us her impressive master pieces. (On a side note, she sometimes forgets to take her meds, and she goes full on Golem mode. It's pretty epic, but hard to teach her in that state of mind!)

3. Elder Clove with a Rabbit named Loki

4. We walked outside, and some girl had parked her bike next to ours. I tried to get Elder Clove to ride it. He said no.

S5 E4: Miracles up in Many

 (Elder Cummings)

Hey y’all! This week was crazy. We had multiple exchanges so I’ve been a good bit around Central Louisiana last week and have more to go this week. Louisiana as some weird names let me tell you: this week I drove through Atchafalaya, Robeline(robe-uh-lean), had some lessons in Anacoco and Zwolle(zoo-wall-ee), spent a night in Many(Manny), and right now I'm on my way to Natchitoches(Nack-uh-dish).

I gotta be quick so: we were praying on our knees and we were like "were not getting up until we feel confident where we need to go" after a bit I look at Elder Mast and he says "Dollar Tree, right now". On the way we run into two different families that the Many Elders haven't been able to get in contact with and set up a time the next day to come over.

Next day, before we leave the apartment we prayed specifically that we'd be seen by those who need to see us. We then go to the Many mayor's office. (Many is a tiny town, we can do that). We walk in and start chatting and get some service opportunities. It was awesome. We walk outside and start walking back. In just a couple seconds we get a call from a guy called Kaden, a recent covert that the Many Elders couldn't get in contact with either. He's like "hey y'all I'm across the street" we turn and see him across the street waving at us. We go up and chat and set up a time to meet later that night!

I know miracles are real. I know faith is a principle of action and power. When we act in faith, we receive power and can do all things the Lord desires for us.

Elder Cummings

3 Packing in the Promised Land

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey everyone!

So I transferred with Sister Madsen again, and this time we are in a 3 pack! The fact that we are still together is insane but I guess it means I still have things to learn from her! This also means I'll have been her longest companion out on the mission! Our other companion is Sister Zinn, and shes a very creative sister, and shes excellent at taking the lead in lessons.

We are in Bellingham, which is supposedly the Promised land of the mission. It's kinda a farmland and the 'town'part of it reminds me of Radiator Springs from Cars lol.

Hope you're doing well, I love you all!

Sister Alyssa Putnam

Crash & Burn, For now

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey everyone

So last Monday was fun, we hung out with the district. Our district leader really seemed to be having a tough time and being hard on himself so we decided to heart attack the elders' door. Well, while we were on our way there, the elders flipping called us for some reason I dont remember why. So we were on the phone with them on the way and being like "we gotta go bye" and them getting heart attacked right afterwards world be super sus and ruin the anonymity so we stayed on the phone with them super quietly while we put the stuff on their door (we could hear them through the door and on our phone it was trippy) and then we knocked and ran, and they were on the phone with us still and were like "oh theres a knock at the door" and we actually managed to not get caught putting stuff at their door while we were on the phone with them lol.

We did our last district council outside cause it was sunny. I got sunburned as a result lol.

We had conference with our district! Conference with other missionaries is so fun!! Also, reba and shae watched the morning session of general conference and reba seemed to really love it. She watched all the sessions actually. But she dropped us afterwards, and that's really upsetting, since she seemed so receptive.

Also transfers are coming and I'm transferring and idk who my new companion is going to be, and I'm terrified so pray for me please!!

Also I made conference memes!

 (Elder Slade)

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

Hey yall! Hope you had a great Easter! It was a great weekend. We got to hear from our leaders and prophets during general conference. One of the great messages I loved was President Nelson's message about how as we have faith in Christ, we can move the mountains in our lives. More than anything I just felt the spirit confirming how God loves us all, and out of that love he gives us prophets to guide us.

Other than that great spiritual highlight, a cool experience happened this week with someone we are teaching named Isaac. The day before our lesson on Wednesday, we texted him asking him if he had any friends that wanted to join us. He never texted back, but we showed up, and he had brighten 3 of his friends for us to teach! They had lots of questions, and we bore testimony of God's love, and we should be meeting again this week! God is good and keeps blessing us.

Love you all!

1. Our apartment watching conference together

2. Saw Johnathan in the mall today. He was a man that was being taught in my last district!

3. Zone picture

S5 E3: Conference and Crawfish (Again)

 (Elder Cummings)

That's right, I had the pleasure of another Crawfish Boil!! Man I love them so much. It's the beginning of Crawfish season here and one of the members had a fresh catch and had us over. These little guys we're HUGE! They said because of covid last year there weren't nearly as many boils as usual so some of the crawfish got growing nice and big.

Other than that, someone we're teaching straight up cooked up some Ribeye steaks for us this week🤣. We couldn't tell you why, but he did and he is so awesome. I've never been able to gain weight before but I wouldn't be surprised if I could put on some poundage while I'm here in Alec.

The Lord has been plopping people into our lap recently It's been crazy. We drove out to the boonies to visit a member one day and we finally get there and talk for a bit, walk around her property(absolutely beautiful by the way) , and then go sit on the porch to share a message when she turns to her electrician working on her house and is like "Greg(not his real name), take a break and come listen to these boys' message about Jesus". Greg doesn't really know what to do but knows he likes Jesus so agrees. What's crazy is we had planned this lesson for Sister Williams and her young grandkids who were gonna be there, but they weren't...it seemed like just out of no where they had to leave, each kid to something else. For some reason we both felt to keep the lesson the same.

 So we start talking about testimonies and read about nurturing that testimony with patience, faith and diligence from Alma 32. We then do our little Round Robin technique Elder Roderick and I do where everyone goes around and bears their testimony about something they've learned. It just happened that we ended with Greg's testimony. He bore the purest, simplest, sweetest testimony of how God is in his life. He's a recovering heroine addict, mentioned a ton of different miracles that led him here and just expressed deeply his desire to put God's will over his own. God has a plan for Greg and Greg is ready to follow it!!

God is invested in our lives. He has invested in our lives. He has given his Only Begotten to suffer and die so we can rejoice and live.

"He lives to grant me rich supply.

He lives to guide me with his eye.

He lives to comfort me when faint.

He lives to hear my soul’s complaint.

He lives to silence all my fears.

He lives to wipe away my tears.

He lives to calm my troubled heart.

He lives all blessings to impart.

Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:

“I know that my Redeemer lives!” "

(I Know That My Redeemer Lives)

Elder Cummings

Photos:

-John, the beast that cooked us Ribeye

-some tank pics. This tank just sits in front of a middle school

-some good ol crawfish, that was my third bin

-us showing off our green thumbs