S12 E2: Some great salisbury steaks, and an even better week

 (Elder Cummings)

So our legends, Steven and Morgan(who are the father and daughter who just started attending church completely on their own two weeks ago) came again yesterday. Super awesome.

We were making our way over to talk to them when we saw that our Bishop was already sitting in the pew chatting up a storm until sacrament meeting starts. In the middle of the meeting we just get a text from Bishop Solouki: "So I just talked with Morgan and Steven, and they asked if they could keep coming and asked how they can become members of the ward..."

We were just floored. We had only gotten a chance to say hi to these guys for like 2 minutes last week. We were able to catch them again after sacrament meeting and turns out that Morgan is a national champion for golfing and will be out of town the next weeks but wants us to come over and teach them everything they need to know and do to get baptized. It doesn't get better than that. Please keep them in your prayers. Please pray for Lavette, Ricky, and Nikkia as well!

Anyway, some food for thought that I heard this week: "Christ leads and is at the head of this Work" but also "Christ is in the middle of this Work". Hm. Ponder.

Have a blessed one!

Elder Cummings

One of the most amazing lessons ever

 (Elder Slade)

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

We had an amazing experience with someone we are teaching this week! We are teaching a couple from China that has had almost NO experience with Christianity. It's crazy. They have almost no understanding shout God. We taught him God's plan for him, and taught him how to pray. In the lesson we prayed first to show him how to pray, and then we asked him to say a prayer. He said his first prayer he had ever said, and it was one of th most sincere amazing prayers I've ever heard. The spirit was so strong! It was amazing!!

It has been crazy busy though combining two areas. It's been great being in a trio though. We've just been having a ton of fun, working hard and seeing miracles. Our third companion is Elder Swartz who is such a smart guy. He's fun to be around.

Love you all! Keep being amazing!

Pictures (sorry, don't have too many)

1. Just a picture waiting at the stop light for like 10 min for the train which was just sitting there.

S12 E1: WHO DAT NATION

 (Elder Cummings)

Howdy y'all!

First week in New Orleans and it's just as crazy as it was. The first day I was here we walked by a car who's engine had literally blown up and there was once melted car metal just all over the street. Kinda crazy.

My new companion is Elder Jacob Smith and he's a Texan so we got that going for us. We've been working hard to revive this area and find people to teach and there is so much potential here. Literally people everywhere, it's so awesome.

Other than that, there has been so many little mini miracles:

1)some Elder texting us asking if he had to be at this stake meeting(when he didn't) but we did have to be there and we had no idea until he reminded us

2)us running into a guy who said he is just having the worst time in his life right now

3)there was a nonmember family who attended church last week with a visiting family. This week the visiting family is gone, but the nonmember family came this week cause they loved it so much and now we're teaching them. They really just planted seeds and dipped

4)We get to drive the night before for MLC so we can ball up with everyone at 6am tomorrow which is hype

5)I'll be able to go to the temple with my companion this week too!

Anyway, I'll leave it at that, but it was a good week, just like always. Love yall have a good one

Elder Cummings

Snow Storm!

 (Elder Slade)

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

It's been a great week! It's been snowing for an entire week straight! It's been in the negatives as well. Pretty epic! I've been loving it, my companion Elder Auelua, from Hawaii, not as much. 🤣 The snow have made the roads pretty atrocious and I have been all together too tempted to drift everywhere. Don't fear, I have restrained myself. Mostly. 😉

The Lord has still been blessing us with many miracles. We started teaching a couple from China this week who have a lot of questions. We also started teaching a new couple named Victoria and Samuel. They are amazing! It's been amazing despite the business of the season how God has still been blessing us.

This next few weeks just got a lot busier though. Due to an emergency transfer, there will be two areas in Shelley combined. So for the next few weeks we will be covering 2 areas. It'll be exciting! I'm looking forward to this new year though. It'll be a time of change, and hope, and happiness, if we make it that way. I'd invite you to think what you can do to make that happen. For me, I will continue to build my foundation on Christ. He has brought me so much happiness in my life!

Love ya!

1-4. A few pictures from another snow cave we made today as a zone!

3. Zone activity playing a game called Secret Hitler!

S11 E6: Going back to my roots

 (Elder Cummings)

I got some transfer news this week that I'll be getting transferred to Metairie, Louisiana on Wednesday. That means I will have been in 6 different areas the last 6 transfers of my mission. All I know is that I am either part of the problem or the solution.

The cool thing is that I'll be 10 minutes from New Orleans, where I started my mission. I left New Orleans almost a years ago, so i guess it's about time I go back.

I could've sworn I sent an email titled "A Cajun Christmas" but I don't know what happened to it. Either way. I had a great Christmas and I hope yall did too.

Anyway story time:

Elder Weatherston and I hurry out of church to get to a lesson with our man James. Elder W and I met him the first couple days we were in Oak Grove and hadn't had much success with getting in contact with him. We knew he didn't didn't on Sundays and that the football games started at noon so we has to hurry. 

We knock on his door 3x, call him, go to his side door and knock and we get nothing. We see his truck in the driveway and start walking away when he opens the door and gladly let's us in. 

We sit down and one of the first things he says is "My Christmas was terrible. On Christmas day my auntie passed away and my nephew was found dead in his apartment". We just sit there and listen to him to a while and then share our testimony of the Atonement and Resurrection of our Savior and His Wonderful Plan of Salvation. Afterwards he just sits there and is like "I wasn't gonna let y'all in at first, but I'm glad that I did". We had a wonderful oppurtunity to point out that he was feeling the Holy Spirit and what he was learning was of God. He's a stud. Pray for him.

Have a blessed one

Elder Cummings 

 (Sister Putnam)

Feliz Navidad, everyone!!

Wow, so a year ago I never would have thought that my second Christmas in the field I would be serving in a Spanish Branch. But looking at my track record for the last 7 years.... *looks back on moving to Saudi Arabia for 5 years, then my first year of college which was switched to online cause of Covid for the last part, my online MTC experience, and the first 6 months of my mission which were mostly in quarantine* I have absolutely no reason to expect my life to actually stay on the logically expected course, and that includes my mission 😂

This week people mostly ghosted us or cancelled for lessons so that's great...we will be knocking their doors to see what's up this week.

Aside from that we got to attend Zone Conference which was awesome, we had a full day conference center to celebrate Christmas together as two zones and that was super fun! Hermana Shupe did a lovely Christmas rendition of Hallelujah that she posted on her profile, you should definitely check it out! 😉😉All the Spanish missionaries sang silent night in Spanish and all the Sisters sang the Nativity Song from the children's songbook and we all had a good Christmas dinner together.

Today we had a pday and celebrated Christmas and called the fam, we had a christmas dinner at around noon and will go to another one at 6, its all super fun 😀

I love you all!!

Hermana Alyssa Putnam

Merry Christmas!

 (Elder Slade)

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

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you had a fantastic holiday! This week was an awesome week. We spent Christmas and Christmas Eve visiting families and caroling to them. We got some people to make 60 plates of cookies for us to deliver as we carol! It was amazing!

We had some amazing Miracles this week! While we were caroling to one family with some other missionaries, they let us in and we shared a Christmas message with them. After the message, the mom said that she wanted to work towards baptism! The other Elders are now working with them. Another miracle we came as we visited a recent convert family, and they had invited one of their friends. We started teaching her as well, and she now wants to work towards baptism as well!

These were some real Tender Mercies the Lord had given us. None of which surpass the feeling of joy and peace I felt as I realized that I was able to serve my Savior Jesus Christ, during the season where we think about him the most! I truly want to give my entire life to Him! That's my gift for him, in response to all that he has done for me.

Love you all! I wish you a happy new year!

1. Some Christmas pajamas some members made for us! People are so kind here! It's overwhelming.

2-4. We made an igloo today with all of the snow we got! It was SO fun! We made a fire as well, and it gets pretty toasty in there. I'll send some more pictures next week!