*cue Prince of Egypt Song*

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey, everyone! This week was incredibly busy but a lot of miracles happened!!

A child misread my name tag and called me Sister Platform. The most common mispronounciation is Putman, but on my mission (not even in Saudi, the foreign country where I grew up) is where my last name has been mispronounced the most. I've had people say Putman, Pootnam, Platinum, and now Platform. The list will likely continue.

Also, last week I hit 11 month as a missionary!

A lot of our friends have stopped responding to us and our area was kinda dying, so we were feeling kinda down.  But this week, a guy referred himself to us and his first language is Spanish and he wants to practice his Englis.  He's wanting to meet with us and the Hermanas and see what we believe and see if he really wants to attend church with us so that's fun! We had a phone call lesson with him and the Hermanas and they taught him the Restoration in Spanish!!

Also, the sisters up in Eastmont found someone near us who is interested in Bible studies! She also was in need of a bed and so we were looking for a bed everywhere. We  found one in 2 days on a local free stuff group on Facebook. It was just a huge miracle!

This week was full of so many miracles and it was just awesome! Love you all, I love hearing from you!!

Love you all!!!

Pictures!!

1: us getting panda

2: Sith Putnam

Sister Alyssa Putnam

First snow!

 (Elder Slade)

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

It snowed last Monday! We walked out of a lesson that evening, and it looked like a blizzard! It was crazy! ❄ Today it's sunny and warm! That's Idaho for you! I'm looking forward to this winter because I heard it's supposed to Snow a lot. Last Monday, we also had a bake off with another companionship where we baked cookies. They undoubtedly won, but it was fun!

We went on a 3 exchanges this week, and I learned so much from each Elder. God truly loves each of us individualy and has given us each talents and gifts important to our divine identity as children of God. He loves all of His children.

Love you all!

Pictures:

1. Elder Andersen and I

2. Trying to fit an Elk through a door while moving some people in.

3. Our bake off presentation

4. Elder Carillo and I

Some of the coolest miracles of my mission (and racoons)

 (Elder Slade)

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

I had some of the coolest miracles of my mission so far this week! We randomly got a call out to the blue Tuesday night from a woman named Sandy. We didn't know about her at all, but she just went off for about 30 minutes talking about how she loved General Conference! She had watched it for the past 6 and a half years, but this one touched her alot! She said she was 80% LDS, just not baptized! 😂 We set up a lesson for the next day, and had such a spiritual lesson! It was amazing to hear her experience of the Lord preparing her to get to this point. We asked her if she would be willing to be baptized, and she said she wanted to go to church for a few weeks, and then we can work on that! It was an amazing miracle!

We had another miracle at the airport this week! We were picking up a missionary that got sent out, and a random guy stopped us as we were heading back to the car. He jumped out of his car and said, "Hey! I just picked up my girlfriend from the airport and she's a nonmember of the church. I'd like to get married in the temple sometime, and I need someone to help teach her! Could we exchange numbers and you could come teach her?" It was amazing! God has just been placing people in our path to teach! The miracles have been insane!!!

I know all of these blessing are coming from the Lord! This work is His, and I hope to just be an instrument in His hands. As we make His will our will, he can use us to accomplish His great purposes. There's nothing more than I want, than to be His tool here to bless the lives of others. He is in charge, and I consider it an honor to be a part of it.

Love you all!

Pictures:

1. Went on amazing exchange with Elder Skousen. What a beast!

2-5. I was walking out of my closet, turned the corner, and I stopped as I saw something staring at me outside the window well. It just happened to be a Racoon! We called our mission president, and he had a huge fishing net. We ran and grabbed that and a dog kennel, and went on a raccoon hunt. He was not happy, but we caught it, and drove it out to a canal in the country and released it! It was a pretty crazy experience! 🦝

S9 E5: Season Finale with Bruce

 (Elder Cummings)

Afternoon y'all!

We're sitting at the church with Bruce and asking him how praying and pondering about baptism went. He's like "Brothers...um...I'm not sure". We start talking for a long while about where he is at spiritually. He knew that Jesus died for him, knows that he can be clean only after baptism, and it was something he wanted to do. So we're like "Bruce, let's make a goal. Will you plan to be baptized on November 20th?". He sits there for a minute looking down at the table, smiles and says "yes brother, let's try".

Bruce is a beast! This man did not know who Jesus was 6 months ago and now is planning to make a covenant to follow Him for the rest of his life. There are still a lot of things to go through and help him with to get there. So please keep him in your prayers. I'm grateful for everyone who prayed for him this week!

Now for the rough news. I'm getting transferred this week to Covington and won't be able to be there for his baptism. I don't know what God has planned for me or Bruce but I know it's for our best.

I'll be training a new missionary again! Which means that besides Elder Richards, I will have had a new companion every transfer my entire mission so far.

Anyway, hope y'all have a blessed week!

Elder Cummings

General Conference!

 (Elder Slade)

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

Another week of miracles! This week God helped us put two people on date for baptism! Lisa is getting baptized on Oct 16. She is an awesome woman who has had a rough life. Neveah is getting baptized the 26th, and she is one of the easiest girls you'll meet. We are excited for both of them! There have been several awesome miracles that have led them to where they are, allowing them to enter the covenant of baptism, and take that next step towards Christ!

General Conference was also this week! It was SO good! I loved all of the speakers! Onf of my favorite was by Marcus B. Nash about sharing the gospel. He listed a few of the blessings of the gospel:

-Sharing the gospel brings joy and hope in both the giver and the reciever!

-Sharing the gospel brings power into our lives!

-Sharing the gospel brings protection from temptation!

-Sharing the gospel brings healing!

I have felt the truthfulness of these blessings as I have served for the past 20 months! Sharing the gospel has brought me so much joy, and above all else, it has brought me closer to my Savior Jesus Christ! I love this work! I love my mission! I wouldn't want to trade it for anything!

Love yall!

Pictures:

1. A picture we sent to Lisa hyping her up for her baptism!

2. I went on an exchange with Elder Johnson, who was my first District Leader in the mission. Pretty exciting!

3-4. Went on a hike early this morning, and it was beautiful!

5. We went to Kneaders for breakfast Saturday morning before general conference and got the unlimited French toast! To die for! Elder Rollins has also been with us for  a few days. His flight to his original mission, Brazil, got cancelled, so he stayed with us for a few days until they flew him out. He is an amazing missionary!

S9 E4: "Yes, I believe in Jesus"

 (Elder Cummings)

What's up y'all!!

         So we have a friend named Bruce. He's from mainland China right. The missionaries have been teaching him English and the Gospel of Jesus Christ for about 6 months now. This man is awesome. We meet with him 4x a week to help him and he is always coming with more and different "Bruce-snacks"(Chinese snacks ranging from a sponge cake that could outlast a Twinkie by at least a century to vacuum packaged spicy tofu). Then on his off days on Tuesday he always invites us over to cook us an authentic Chinese meal. He's so awesome.

          It's been so cool working with him though. Just last week he was talking about how being a Christian is hard back in China. He said, "if someone ask me 'Bruce, are you Christian?' it is difficult to tell them but deep down, my first thought is "Yes. I believe in Jesus. Yes, I believe in Jesus".

           This week we asked him. "Bruce, is baptism your goal?" And he said "yes brothers, it is very hard for me, but yes I want it". Please please please pray for Bruce. If there is anything you get from this email it's PRAY FOR BRUCE. This is a man who 6 months ago couldn't tell you anything about Jesus Christ besides that he was a leader and now he has faith in Him unto repentance and believes that it is through Him that he can be truly happy, and ultimately be saved. For reasons we can't fully understand because of the language and culture barrier, this is a very hard decision for him. Please pray for him. He needs strength and faith beyond his own.

We're fixing to have a great week y'all. Looking forward to tell y'all about it!

Elder Cummings

Rain and Rescheduling and conference

 (Sister Putnam)

Hello, everyone!!

Well, the rain has officially started back up in Washington, and it's super cold now!

General conference was wonderful this weekend! We watched the Saturday evening session with our friend Anna. She said loved it and enjoyed Sister Eubanks talk about the church's humanitarian aid. She also really loves that we believe in living prophets and it's so cool to see her testimony grow!

Amy was still sick this week but we hope to give her a baptismal date on Wednesday so pray for Amy!!

Sister Alyssa Putnam