S8 E4: The Miracle of the Wilson Basketball

 (Elder Cummings)

Alright y'all!

So we're at the miracle park. The same park at which we were invited to join the Carter Family Reunion, and the same park where we have been able to find 7 new people. It's the promised court people.

Anyway, we get there to meet and do a study with one of our friends and we realize we forgot our basketball. Rip. Devastating. Of course we don't need the ball to find but we figured it be good to have it. Elder Schugk and I have the bright idea to pray for the ball. We both believed that if we needed the ball to find someone, and if we had the faith, the Lord would provide a ball. As absurd as that divine teleportation might sound, anything is possible with God, plus President Nelson has invited us to do things that require more faith in order to grow our faith. So we're sitting in our RAV4 putting our whole hearts into it as we "waxed bold in mighty prayer"(2 Nephi 4:24). We end the prayer, walk confidently to the trunk and open the it…

And to our surprise, there was no ball...dang. Not enough faith I guess. Kidding kidding. Maybe. We then figure that we don't need the ball for what the Lord needs us to do that day. Maybe that's just us making an excuse for our lack of faith.

We end up having an awesome study with our friend Cam and it's cut short by some people saying there was shooting going on so we make like a tree and leaf. There wasnt, but we were being safe.

That evening we block out 2 hours to do some street contacting. We had this neighborhood planned out and everything, we were gonna find the elect guys. But as we were praying we felt to go knock on a ladies door in the complete opposite direction, there wouldn't be time to do both. We head to the ladies house. Knock 2x. No answer. Disappointed but not discouraged. But we were there for a reason, we knew it!!

We kept walking around and see a group of about 7 or 8 little kids balling up on a driveway, we talk and ball with them for a couple minutes and then the little ones go inside, we are chilling with our friend Matthew and Quindarius Deon Ross(i just had to say his full name, so cool). We tell them that if we block them each one more time then we get to share a scripture. They agree. Man I tried to stuff them so hard. I got Quindarius. Anyway, they end up winning and ask to hear the scripture anyway. We share 3 Nephi 11 from the Book of Mormon and discuss Christ's gospel for all of us. We end up having an amazing discussion and they're super interested and we'll be meeting with them this Friday before Matthew starts college at LSU. As we walk away, Elder Schugk looks at me and says, "hey, we got our ball". So good.

Of course you could say that was a coincidence. If it was, so what. All I know is that we were guided to the right place at the right time, we ended up being able to play basketball with some people who would listen to us when we had prayed for it earlier, and these people want to learn more about Christ's gospel. To me, prayer=answered.

I know God answers our prayers, and He will answer them according to His will and His timetable. But I also have a testimony that through prayer we can obtain blessings that are only made conditional on our asking for them. Our God is a Loving God, one invested in us.

Have a blessed week!

Elder Cummings

Photo: recognize this hat Stacey?

Do unicorns fly?!

 (Elder Slade)

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

Elder Thomas and I and all the missionaries in our zone have been having an intense debate about the title of this email. I am obviously on the side of no! Unicorns don't fly, they don't have wings! Their debate is that they have magic which allows them to fly, but if they did have magic, what says that their magic allows them to fly?! Anyways, I'd live to hear your answer!

This week was great! A kid we are teaching named Skyler got baptized Sunday!!! It was one of the most spiritual baptisms I've been to. After the baptism we talked with the family, and put his younger sister, Kambree on date for baptism as well! That family is awesome! They are working to go to the temple together soon!

This week the entire mission started a 40 day fast. It's not from food and water fortunately! But we each made lists of things we can give up to become more consecrated, and we've been praying about it every morning and night. I've loved it so far! I feel like I've come closer to Christ. I've discovered an important principle. The more we are willing to sacrifice for the Lord, the more we get in return. He pays us back 10 fold. We have already seen miracles this week! The Lord is good!

Love yall!

Pictures:

1. Skyler's Baptism!!!

2-3. We've been chef-ing it up recently making tacos and some ramen!

¡Yo sé que Dios te ama tanto!

 (Elder Slade)

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

Hey everyone! This week was good! We had 3 exchanges this week. One of them was in a spanish bilingual area. I don't know any Spanish! 😂 But in the morning I memorized my testimony in spanish, just in case I needed to! So you could basically say I am completely fluent in spanish. We ended up not having any lessons in spanish, but now I'm prepared for whenever I do. 😉

We got transfer news this morning, and Elder Thomas and I will be staying together! He's a beast! Such a good missionary!

This week a few of the people we're teaching let us down. We had about 8-10 people planned and confirmed to go to church, and then only 1 came. I really love these people, and I became really frustrated after that, because I knew how much it would bless their lives. Then I had a sobering experience. I had a clear thought that that's how God feels sometimes. He has such infinite love for us, and we make so many mistakes that it's ridiculous. Yet he continues to love us and have patience with us! This thougt helped me gain a better perspective, and I have a desire to just love and be patient with these people.

Love you all!

1. Exchange with Elder Wills

2. Exchange with Elder Jarvis

3. Exchange with Elder Archer

4. We've been enjoying playing pickle ball as a district. We played for about 4 hours today!

S8 E3: Bruce's Authentic Chinese Cuisine

 (Elder Cummings)

This week started amazing. We head over to our friend Bruce's house for lunch. We get there and Bruce has cooked us 5 different dishes. He made some Spicy Chinese Fried Chicken, some Chinese Barbeque Pork, Spicy Beef, Squid salad, and a Pork Soup commonly made in his hometown.

Let's just say, it was one of the best meals I have ever had. Bruce loves to cook, but hates to cook for other people. Even his friends will ask him to have them over and he will say no. But somehow, he respects us so much that he will have us over every week and make us these amazing meals.

This week we were praying that we'd be able to help him feel the Spirit and help him recognize that. At the end of the lesson, I found myself testifying in Chinese. It wasn't anything magical, it's not like I was fluent or could say everything perfectly, but I meant every word I said. At the end we were like "Bruce do you feel that?" He said "Yes brothers, I feel that, thank you". The Spirit was so strong!!

Our man Thomas that waved us down last week and invited us into that family reunion came to church this Sunday! We texted him and he is super busy during the week and just said "what's y'alls church address and what time do y'all worship?". And BAM he came to church. Literally nothing we did. It was so cool. Turns out Thomas's cousin that was at the reunion with us plays for the Steelers and had us on his Instagram Live while we were dancing with everyone. That is just so awesome haha.  On top of that we were up in that neighborhood again this week and this man pulls over and is like "hey y'all were at the reunion! Y'all made my day, come by anytime! Imma stop and talk to yall when I'm not in a rush" and speeds away. SO cool. Hopefully we'll run into him soon.

Being an instrument of the Lord is the best thing about being on a mission. Being in a position for the Lord to use you for the betterment of His children is the most important thing. If you doubt God uses you, remember two things: 1)God can do anything with a humble and willing heart and 2) you're probably wrong.

Have a blessed week y'all!

Elder Cummings

S8 E2: The Carter Family Reunion

 (Elder Cummings)

So. Elder Schugk and I are at a park testifying to two 11 year olds of the power of the Holy Ghost and BOOM, thunder cracks and it starts to POUR. And I mean POUR. It was raining so hard you could consider it baptism by immersion. Before we could say anything our boys Kevion and Cam were on their bikes skirting away and we're standing in a rainstorm. So we start walking through the neighborhood seeing who else we could talk to. After running into a Hebrew Israelite, talking with a nice man frying and selling chicken in the rain, and getting soaked, we decide to head back towards the park and our car.

As we walk towards the car I think I hear a whistle through out all the rain. I look around and see no one. I hear it again and faintly see a man in a red shirt standing by the gymnasium waving us down. We sprint over and get to know Thomas. My man is like "I got something for y'all, come inside".

He opens the gymnasium door and it's like we enter a whole other realm. There's a disco ball, music bumping, and about 75 other people in red shirts as well. We follow Thomas and he reveals the buffet of the best, most delicious smelling home-cooked comfort food ever. Baked beans, potato salad, fried chicken, Jambalaya, ribs and green beans. We have unintentionally joined the Carters family reunion.

As Thomas compels us to eat and take as much food as possible, everyone is coming and saying hi to us. They couldn't lose us, not only were we in white shirts and ties, but we left a trail of water behind us as we walked. Anyway. We chow down and then the dancing starts.

Elder Schugk looks at me as it like "can you dance?" I say "no". He says "me either" and jumps into the crowd. My man starts doing the whitest dancing moves ever and everyone is LOVING it. They are hyping him up like nothing else. I'm talking to a nice old lady named Priscilla and she's like "you should get in there", before I could finish my protesting response she says "Mister. You need to get out there". So I go, and my North Stake Dance days flood back to me. I have Elder Schugk stand in the middle of the circle and I jump him and hit the Hungubungus. They pick me up and start carrying me as they chant my name.

Just kidding, just kidding. But I did jump over him and they hyped me up big time. Everybody was taking pictures with us and giving us the biggest amount of love ever.

A lady comes up to us and says "y'all are part of the family now!". Another guy asks us if we are on Tiktok lol. But what was awesome was the fact that we set up like 3 different studies with people and are joining their churches Bible study on Wednesday.

Now the best part was Thomas. The man that waved us down. As we said bye he looked at us and says "guys, when I saw y'all out in the rain I saw light. I need that. I HAVE needed that. I need y'alls light added to mine, please keep in touch with me".

The Lord has a plan for each of us. He is individually and acutely aware of our needs, wishes and desires. Thomas needed some light, and we were able to be instruments to help him see that God is aware of him. Tis good to be an instrument.

Elder Cummings

1. Combined District Council

2. Our boys Thomas and Robert

3. Wildlife ties at MLC

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)