One of the craziest experiences of my mission

 (Elder Slade)

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

This week was amazing! We found two new people to teach. One of them named Will, has a lot of potential. He is amazing at drawing, and we were able to go to a swap meet where he was selling some of his drawings, and taught him the plan of salvation. A swap meet is a weird place to have a lesson and feel the spirit, but it was pretty amazing as we taught him and as we answered his questions. We're super excited for him!

A miracle as well happened for our safety this week!! Sunday evening, we were a little late to an appointment as our dinner arrived late. We quickly drove to our appointment after shoveling the food in our mouths, and 100 ft to our destination, a police car zooms past and parks in front of the house we were going to. We pulled over, and 10 other police cars zoomed past, and a fire truck and ambulance blocked the street behind us. We watched in amazement as the police men pulled out their guns, surrounded, and then barged inside of the house, arresting two of the people we were going to visit. It was one of the craziest experiences of my mission!! It's crazy to think that if our dinner wasn't late or if we hadn't taken the time to pray before the leaving the apartment, we'd have been stuck in the middle of that situation. It's a miracle and tender mercy that we were able to stay out of it and safe!

That evening I prayed in gratitude that God kept us safe. He loves us and I am grateful for the many prayers from all of you for my safety and happiness. I know God is answering them.

Love you all! Shout out to my amazing sister Eliza who gave birth this morning to a beautiful little boy named Easton! I'm so excited for her!

Pictures:

1-3. Elder Bowen and I on exchanges. We helped clean out one women's garage.

4. Elder Snow with one of Will's pictures we bought from him at the swap meet. It's a picture of Cthulu

5. All the police cars lined up

S7 E2: Miracle Time at Logan's Roadhouse

 (Elder Cummings)

Hey y'all! This one's gonna be short so I'll go into story time with Elder Cummings:

*disclaimer* this is one of my favorite moments of my mission:

So. Brother Joe Udy. Legend. Super Stud. Simply the Best. He takes Elder Richards and I to Logan's Roadhouse for dinner. We have a grand old time, the rolls are like butter covered balloons, the steak...was like really really good steak.

So we start our little message with him and just chat for a sec about our spiritual habits like regular prayer, scripture study, coming to church etc. And he opens up and talks about how he doesn't really pray. He has a prayer in his heart and prays for his family throughout the day and things like that but he doesn’t have personal prayers. He felt that God has given him so much and he's so happy he doesn't feel like he could ask God for more. We completely scratch our initial message plan and Elder Richards pulls out his favorite scripture D&C 64:33, "Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great."

Elder Richards then says something about praying is a simple thing that brings great things or something like that. I don't know exactly what, but I remember being reminded of the Bible Dictionary definition of prayer that says at one point, "The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them". I immediately pull it up and have Brother Udy read it. He reads literally the first four words and starts choking up and crying. He sits there tearing up and trying to collect himself for no joke 5 minutes. He couldn't even read the rest of the definition outloud. I still don't know what he was thinking or feeling exactly but the Spirit was strong and he was experiencing it. In a split second, God reached out to a grown man, with us, and through the Spirit. I have never seen the Spirit work so abruptly and boldly in a person's soul. I wish I can explain what happened better. All I know is that a Loving Father spoke to one of His children and I was able to witness it.

Love y'all, sorry if I never got a chance to respond to your emails today, today was insane. This week was insane. My life is insane. Insanely awesome. Have a blessed week!

Elder Cummings

1. Service at the Food Bank with Aaron and Specialist Hill!

2. Carrillos. Amazing family

3.Sleeping arrangements in Baton Rouge for a meeting next morning

4. Joe Udy himself

5. Sleeping arrangements in Monroe for another meeting

Sleepover???

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey, everyone!

So this week was pretty fun. We had a district council prepared by elder Triplett centered around how God is our Heavenly father Heavenly how much he loves us and is willing to do for us.

On friday we did some service for our nextdoor neighbor, Joel, who has a massive garden.

We had overnight exchanges for the first time in our missions. They were overnight before covid happened but now they're back, and so I went with Sister Anderson to Bellingham and Sister Durham came to our area with Sister Israelsen. In bellingham we did a lot of service and I got to pet a fluffy dog. We helped a lady do some garden work and then we dropped off mail to some other people around the zone. It was actually a lot of fun and Sister Anderson is incredible.

Okay, love you all!

Sister Alyssa Putnam

Elder Jaggi and fun debates

 (Elder Slade)

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

This week was amazing!! We were visited by Elder Jaggi of the seventy, and it was so great! One of the great things I learned from him was the importance of being dependent on God. It's not a weak thing, it's a humble strength that comes from knowing who we are. Elder Jaggi invites us to give our will to God. I love my Savior and will happily give my life, energy, and everything to Him.

Apart from that, we helped at a ward Hawaiian party. We helped serve food, but they gave us some sweet flower necklaces to wear. As a district, we have also been recently been having debate brackets about random things. We did a 32 man bracket for cereal, candy, and scripture prophets. Reese's puffs, Reese's egg, and Adam won. It's been pretty fun as we debate.

I love you all! Make it a great week!

Pictures:

1. A picture we took and sent to someone to hype them up about church

2. Elder Barron and I reuniting at the mission tour

3. A picture from a while ago of our zone.

Radiator Springs

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey, everyone!!

This week my mind was wandering and I made a connection I hadn't thought of before. A couple years ago one of my friends was serving on his mission and he wrote in his weekly email about how charity is a universal solvent.  It protects us from sin and from the hurtful actions of others. Elder Bednar gave a talk in I think 2008 or 2006 about taking offense, and how our reaction to the offensive and hurtful actions of others are a reflection of our own spiritual maturity.  So, putting those two together, I found that as we increase in charity we also increase in spiritual maturity.

On Tuesday we had service at the local salvation army food bank, and then interviews with President Auna, and we were maskless. Washington right now is like Saul: on the road to De-mask-us.

Also, idk if I've mentioned this before but downtown Lynden looks like Radiator Springs.

On Wednesday at district council, Elder Triplett bore his testimony on how we are children of God, and he challenged us to ask Heavenly Father to tell us who we are to him, so I thought I'd also extend that invitation to you. If you do, God will tell you.

On Saturday we helped make a hiking trail more travelable (is that even a word? Probably not. Whatever, you know what I'm trying to say) and that was fun and then we had a couple stake conference meetings!

Okay, love you all!!

Sister Alyssa Putnam

S7 E1: Divine Intervention at Schlotzsky's

 (Elder Cummings)

Good morning y'all!

This week was the first of the transfer, I'm staying put in Alexandria and I'll still have the blessing of working with Elder Richards! So really, nothing changed. But because this is my second transfer with him, that makes him the first companion I've had for more than a transfer since training back in October.

I love miracles, and I love being able to be a part of them. It's something else when you can look back and see that you were an instrument in the Lord's hands. Miracle time:

Thursday morning we drive out to help a member in the ward move a big ol bed and dressers onto his trailer and he tries to hand me $30. I refuse and he gets real real serious with me in his Louisiana accent, "Nah son, you take this here cash n git y'allself summin good to eat tonight er I'm fixin to beat yer companions head in". Needless to say, we accepted his money.

Then lunch time rolls around, our friend John bought us Schlotzsky's but asked us if we could pick it up and meet him at the church cause he was running late. So we head over to Schlotzsky's and the lady at the register says, "Oh hey y'all I was done baptized a Mormon when I was 11" And we were able to talk with her for a while. Turns out she remembers and loved Young Women's, the missionaries, her bishop, etc! She just moved and lost contact with the Church. We were able to get her number and give it to the Marksville Elders! Then we have to pay for the food...and we don't have enough money. But then I reach into my pocket and feel the $30 Brother LaCaze made us take and we have just enough to pay for our food! I truly do believe that we needed to be at that Schlotzsky's so we could talk with Sister Mary at the register and get her back in contact with missionaries. Because of that, God prepared a way. I don't think John being late and asking us to go pick up the food was a coincidence and I sure don't believe that the money Brother LaCaze made us take was a coincidence either.

God is aware of each of us. He is not just aware of our struggles and feelings, but He is simply aware of our lives and who we are as His beloved children. He is aware of and cares about each of our needs and concerns, even if we aren't fully aware of them ourselves. Remember King Benjamin's cousel, "Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend" (Mosiah 4:9).

We can't understand everything God does, but we can still trust Him

-Elder Cummings

1. Weird looking grasshopper

2. Some pretty faces and some pretty flowers

3. Another Tank picture

S6 E6: Bible Booths and Buffalo Wild Wings

 (Elder Cummings)

Good morning y'all!!

This week started with an amazing lesson with Jeremy. He reached out to us a couple weeks back but then he switched phones and we could never get a hold of him. But we finally get his number from a sister in the ward that knows him and head over to his place this week. It was one of the best lessons I've ever been a part of. Not because of anything we said or did, we said nothing super special and powerful but we all felt something super special and powerful. It was Jeremy's humility and desire for change that allowed the Spirit to be there so strongly. He held a Book of Mormon in his hands as we testified of eternal families and he whispered through tears, "this is was I need, this is what I need". I love Jeremy!

Then we topped off the whole thing when Elder Richards and I stopped by the only(and brand new) Whataburger in Alexandria and all of Central Louisiana for that matter. That Honey Buttter Chicken Strip Sandwich on Texas Toast hit the spot.

On Saturday we did a booth with the sisters at the mall. We had Bibles, Book of Mormons, Jesus pictures, pamphlets etc. We stood and sat there for 4 hours talking to people about Jesus, we gave away so much stuff(all with our number on it hehe). The best part wasn't even the booth it was the two people we met on the way to the bathroom. I just needed to go and we were stopped by two different guys that want to meet with us! We love Fred and Michael!

Then that night Elder Richards' dad, the wonderful Gary Richards wanted to sponsor us and pay for our meal. So we go to Buffalo Wild Wings. Miracles happen when you carry a Book of Mormon in hand fellas. We walk in there and our waitress was like "I was fixin to grab the drink menu but then I saw y'alls Book of Mormon, right this way boys" then we chat about the gospel for a good but with her. Then later another guy comes up and thanks us, he served a mission long ago and said he has tons of respect for us. He didn't give his name because he didn't want nothing to do with the Church no more, but came and expressed his love and respect for missionaries. We go ask for the check a while later and turns out that this man paid for all our wings! We love that guy! I just pray for him and hope that we and the Spirit reminded him of what his mission was like.

That's all folks! Have a blessed week!

Elder Cummings

Photos:

Whataburger and exchange pics!