Miracles on Miracles!

 (Elder Slade)

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

This was one of the best weeks of my mission! First of all, Genesea got baptized! It was such a great baptism! Genesea has been a joy to teach, as she just absorbs everything you teach her and has a great sense of humor. Later that afternoon, we also had the opportunity to take the Villanueava family who was baptized last year to the temple to do baptisms for the dead! It was a really neat experience!

Then Sunday was a day filled with miracles! It started in the afternoon when we got on our knees and prayed with a girl named Jazzy, who we've been teaching, that her parents would allow her to be baptized. The spirit was so strong and it was one of the best lessons I've had! One of the coolest moments on my mission!! Then we went to our dinner appointment, and committed one of the kids to ask her friend to be taught. We got a text later that night that said she reached out, and she wants to be taught the discussions!! Then later we had a lesson with a previously taught person. In the past he's been too nervous to get baptized. But he's been starting to come to church again, and he said he wants to be baptized, and so we put him on date for the next few weeks! His sister wants to be baptized as well and we are planning on putting her on date the next lesson we have!

I know that miracles are real! And God has the power to perform miracles in our lives! 2 Nephi 27:23 says:

For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith.

As we exercise our faith, God has the power to perform miracles in our behalf and move the mountains and challenges in our lives! Turn to Him and He will help you in your life!

Love you all! I appreciate all of your love and support!

1-2. Us at the temple with the Villanueavas

3. Filling up the font

4. Genesea's baptism!!

5. Elder Coates and I on exchanges

6. Our zone at a zone council this week

7. Random picture of me!

PresenTATION!

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey everyone!!

This week we had the presentation at the Senior Center. We only had three nonmembers show up, and the other twelve people who came were members. We presented about the Restoration and afterward, one woman spoke with me about how we are all children of God and took a copy of the Book of Mormon. Hopefully it'll make a positive difference in the perspective of those who came.

At district council the Zone Leaders came and taught us how to tract via role-playing, since only one elder in our district was around before covid shut everything down. It was really fascinating.

On Saturday we helped a new family move in and it was supposed to take an hour and it took only about 10 minutes because of the amount of people who showed up, so that was a miracle brought about by selflessness!

We also helped a family move out too and that was fun, and we'll miss them.

We also have set up weekly lessons with Eseta's family (Ruby's aunt) so hopefully that will happen and help their family.

Love you all!!

(The sunshine rock I think is credited to Sister zinn)

Iona Days!

 (Elder Slade)

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

The Lord keeps blessing us! Some weeks are rougher than others, but no matter the week, we've still seen miracles and the Lord's hand in this work!

One of the people we found a week or two ago named Jazzy, is breazing through the Book of Mormon! We met with her yesterday and she's loved what she's read so far. She's going to finish 2 Nephi this week!

We went on two exchanges this week. I went with an Elder Romig and Elder Smith. They are beasts of missionaries and I learned a lot from them!

We also helped out with a community celebration in Iona called Iona Days! This  included walking in a parade, helping with a dunk tank, and manning a missionary booth. It was pretty sweet!

Love you all!

1. Elder Smith, my fearless District Leader, and I

2. Elder Romig and I

3. Elder Vorwaller wanted to trade for my frisbee

4. Us walking in the parade

S8 E1: Welcome to Dingum Sprangs

 (Elder Cummings)

你們好！

This week was transfers, so in the process of all the missionaries involved going to their new areas meeting in Hammond, I was able to say bye to many of the 27 Elders going home this transfer whom I love and respect. The whole mission is different now, it's super whack.

Other than that, Denham Springs is really different than Alexandria. It's where the mission office and the mission home is like 20 minutes away. It's completely different than what I've had in the past too. Geographically speaking, the Alexandria area covers about the areas of 12 missionaries in this zone. It's a lot more cramped.

One awesome guy that we're teaching is named Bruce Wang. And he speaks Mandarin!! We meet with him about 4 times a week. Thanks to Bruce, I have been able to use and practice my Mandarin finally! Our first meeting, I realized two things. How much I lost in my speaking skills. And I realized I forgot how much I love Chinese. But he is such an amazing person. He was born in mainland China, never heard the name Jesus Christ until he came to the US and now knows that he can truly, truly, be a better person because of Him. I am on the front line witnessing the changing and shaping effect faith in Jesus Christ has on an individual. And it's awesome.

Elder Cummings

Photo dump, don't got time to explain them!

S7 E6: 2 Hospitals, 1 Flood, 1 Broken Equinox

 (Elder Cummings)

Such a crazy week I couldn't pass up the subject title:

It all started with Elder Richards complaining of some chest pain...don't mess with the chest. We called Sister Amos and she had us go straight to the ER around 8pm. After running some tests for about 30 minutes they told us he wasn't having a heart attack. Phew. Then we had to sit another 5 hours for them to tell us he strained his chest and prescribed him some ibuprofen... Yeehaw! Much fun! We didn't get home until about 2am. However there were some fun parts. For example, we got to play Go Fish for about 2 hours. And I also got permission to drive by myself to pick up some McDonald's at 12am cause we were starving. Plus, Elder Richards is okay!

Alright. Hospital #2. This one we were just visiting, but like I said, it makes the email title so much cooler. We were able to minister to a sister in the ward and give her a blessing. She was an old lady and it was so tender. She was having some serious problems going on and she was just like "make sure my dog is ok, make sure he is ok". We made sure he was ok.

On the way back from this Hospital visit it is POURING. And if you've ever been in Louisiana, you know how it pours. Just a couple minutes and bam streets are flooding. We turn off the main road into the neighborhood where we live and BOOM we just hit a pool of water and suddenly it gets about a foot and a half deep...hehe. yeah not good. Very quickly, our engine shuts off and we are stopped. Seeing that the water is rising we take our shoes off, roll up our pants, and push our car onto a nearby driveway. If only our Chevy Equinox had a 6inch lift kit on it like the rest of the cars here do. We end up walking the next half mile home and leaving our car in that kind lady's car port. 

Then that night, we come by and start her up again. We drive about 50 feet and the engine shuts off again. Not good. We call Brother Carrillo and he tows us to our apartment. After much labor and investigation we had to send her to the Chevy dealership to get checked out. The engine is flooded. Really bad. So. We've been biking the whole week and will be for the next couple. Woo-hoo! I'll actually not have to deal with that though cause I'm getting transferred to Denham Springs! Haha sorry Elder Richards…

In all seriousness though. I learned a little bit more this week about the principle of how fun is only temporary and will never last. When we hit that flood zone and we were leaving wakes behind us it was fun. We were just some teenage boys again thinking this is dope. Then our car stops and we're like "oh shoot". But it gets fun again when we get to jump in the water and push the car out. And then it's fun waving at people while we walk home with no shoes and covered in mud and sweat, still wearing white shirts and ties. But then it is no longer fun when our Chevy stopped working and we could no longer drive it. It is no longer fun that we now have to bike EVERYWHERE. And it is especially no longer fun knowing we are costing the Church a whole great deal of tithing money and effort and time and now the Work in Alexandria is temporarily slowed because we can't do as much as we usually do each day. Fun is temporary. Joy is forever. Fun comes from temporary, fleeting things. Joy comes from the eternal things, it comes from our Eternal Father in Heaven. That doesn't mean fun is bad, because it's not. But joy is so much more deep and meaningful. Plus I personally think joy is truly what allows us to still have fun during hard times.

Have a blessed week y'all!

Elder Cummings

Zone Conference & Service

 (Sister Putnam)

This week we had zone conference.  We talked about the importance of building relationships with members and how eager many members are to participate in missionary work. Afterwards, we helped an elderly lady with setting up shelves in her house.  She told us about her mission experiences and we discussed the gospel.  She brought us to meet an inactive but returning member, who is regaining her testimony of Joseph Smith and the Restoration.  Both these ladies are incredible people.

On Wednesday we had a lesson with Rafael, and we were talking about how God speaks to us in our own figurative language; so many of us see parallels between gospel principles and the things we do in our individual every activities. I'll provide an example:  At one point I was writing a story, and I would post one page of it at a time. Because of this, I got to see readers' reactions. Sometimes, when there was conflict in the story, they would react with "oh no!" type responses. Well, one girl gave that reaction, and I told her, "Hey, it's okay, it's a happy ending!" And she said, "how do you know?" I replied said, "Because I'm the one writing it. Of course I know!" And it made me think, that's how God must see us sometimes. And the fact that I find things just like that example almost everywhere, shows me that the Lord is reaching out to us so much and that He wants us to see how much he loves us.

We also began planning a presentation that we and the elders will do on the Restoration in a week at a Community Senior center here in Lynden. We're hoping it will help the work to pick up in Lynden and also that the people here will see that we are good people.

We also worked on a hiking trail, working to make it more hikeable, and it was awesome to see the people excited to help just strangers to enjoy hikes more, people that they'd never even meet. We worked on clearing out blackberry bushes from this lady's yard, and there are blackberry thorns in the bottom of my shoe now lol.

We also painted some rocks and hid them at the famous Rock Cubby in Lynden, where people like to go to take rocks to be hidden all throughout Lynden. Each rock has a symbol and a message that we hope will lift someone when they find it.

Love you all!!

Sister Alyssa Putnam

S7 E5: Be Bold Baby

 (Elder Cummings)

Good morning y'all!

So this transfer is almost over and the focus our zone has had this last 5 weeks is all about being bold. Christ is the perfect example of this. He boldly invited Peter and Andrew to drop all and follow Him(Matthew 4:19). He boldly invited the young rich ruler to do the same, give all he had to the poor and follow him(Matthew 19:16-22). He boldly commanded the woman caught in adultery to “go, and sin no more”(John 8:11). And he boldly commands each of us to come unto Him, repent, and be baptized in His name(3 Nephi 11:31-33). We have seen miracles throughout the zone as we have striven to be more bold. As we are bold, we are more capable instruments in the Lord’s hands. When we are bold and extending invitations and commitments, we can have confidence that it isn’t our invitation, but the Lord’s we are extending.

Anyway, great week. Elder Richards and I are teaching a man named Danny. He is so awesome. We were over at his place earlier this week discussing what he has learned the last 2 weeks we have talked with him. He went off about the Book of Mormon and how it has helped him understand passages in the Bible better and how he feels he is closer to God and knows more about him etc. His 15 year old son was sitting in with us and we asked him what differences he had seen in Danny since we started coming over and Dakota started talking about Danny is more patient, always on his phone(reading and listening to the Book of Mormon haha) and talks to his family about God wayyyy more. Danny was about to cry. His greatest desire is to be a good father for his children and he was overjoyed to see the difference in himself.

Danny then talks about this “glow” Elder Richards and I have about us haha. He says that he can tell that we truly are happy to be out here and excited to talk with him. We were straight up with him and said, “Danny, that is the Spirit. It is the same Spirit you feel when you meet with us and read in the scriptures. The only way you can have that same “glow” is by being baptized and given the Gift of the Holy Ghost by someone holding the authority of Jesus Christ, in His Church”. He smiles and says, “alright when can I do that”. So legendary. He’ll be getting baptized August 7th!!

Again, I have seen miracles happen left and right as Elder Richards and I and the Alexandria zone have stretched our faith in being bold with our friends. With the sister missionaries in our ward, we currently have 5 friends on date for baptism in the ward and we had one baptism yesterday! Being bold allows the Spirit to testify strongly the truth of what we teach, it causes both the missionary and the friend to exercise their faith as they both progress down the covenant path where they are at. I love the Lord and I love this Work.

Elder Cummings

Be Bold Baby

Pics

1. Johnathon Corely and I. I love Johnathon, I was able to ordain him to an elder on Sunday. He just makes you happy

2-3. Dallas! We got to go to our friend Dallas' play. It was so funny and so good

4. Danny in his element. Enough said

5. Some juicy burgers

6. Exchange selfie with Elder Owens!!

7. Big corn taking me back to my Illinois roots