Mana Dziesma

(Elder Putnam)

ITs been a bit since I last wrote an email. So I'll do a quick summary

Elder Bastow got a concussion and then he got a neck massage and stim therapy. The doctor let me try it on my arm too. It was pretty cool. Elder Beebe's mom has sent us sourdough bread which was delicious. We got to try some garlic cheddar and orange cranberry loaves as well.

I've been taught all the grammar principles I need to know (for the most part) now it’s just about using them correctly and on the fly with fluency of speech.

If you’ve ever watched Liken, the dude who plays Alma in Alma and King Noah's Court was there and I got a picture.

I’m singing in Conference, so look for me in the Saturday Afternoon session (sorry to people in Saudi for whom it will be the middle of the night)

When we aren't able to squeeze in a workout time during the day, Elder Bastow and I do pushup challenges. He's a lot better at them than I am, but I'm also on a cut, so the weight drop should help. I decided to cut for the first week and a half of my last 2 weeks (I'm just gonna eat like crazy those last few days) since I haven't ever, and they offer chicken and rice daily with goodddd milk.

Scripture of the Week:1 Nephi 16:7-8,

7. And it came to pass that I, Nephi, took one of the daughters of Ishmael to wife...

8. And thus my father had fulfilled all the commandments of the Lord which had been given unto him. And I, Nephi, had been blessed exceedingly.

Ok so there is some speculation on this one, but several chapters earlier, Lehi promises that Nephi, Sam, Laman, and Lemuel will be blessed for returning to Jerusalem, but Nephi will be exceedingly blessed for not complaining. So I think this scripture is just Nephi bragging about his wife, saying he got the best one or something like that. idk. On that note, I've been doing all I can to complain as little as possible about the hard things about my mission. One day I will say, "And I, Caleb, have been blessed exceedingly." You Feel Me???

Conference Talk of the Week: The Greatest Possession | Elder Holland

"-to love God wholeheartedly, without reservation or compromise, that is, with all our heart, might, mind, and strength. This love of God is the first great commandment in the universe. But the first great truth in the universe is that God loves us exactly that way.-- wholeheartedly, without reservation or compromise, with all His heart, might, mind, and strength. "

Isn't it so powerful to know that we are Heavenly Father's children and He loves each of us in a way so pure that we can't comprehend. He loves us as we are, even when we make mistakes. Because He loves us this way, He wants everyone, no matter where they are, to come to Him and become clean again. Repentance is a gift from Him completely step away from sin. It makes us better people as we learn from the mistake we've made, but are forgiven from God (if we utilize the Atonement).

Latvian Word of the Week: Luk; translation: behold (in imperative form)

Used in a sentence: Lūk Elder, svētais kebaba tirgus ir tur.

Behold, Elder, the Holy Kebaba store is there.

Pictures:

1. I'm posted up with Alma

2. Elder Bastow's prescribed neck massage

3. Bralis Hiltons is always flexing

4. I got to watch the BYU game (from T4)

Most recent weeks:

My pronunciation has gotten significantly better and I'm pausing after commas, which is apparently very helpful as far as understanding goes. That’s a result of reading from the BoM daily in Latvian; Mormona Gramata. We have a new teacher named Brother Bastian and he's straight out of the mission field so his accent is the best. We were practicing contacting and I talked with him about Kristaps Porzingis for a bit and gave him a card for sports night. Less goooo.

We listened to some Latvian songs, favorite of which is Mana Dziesma, which translates to My Song. Definitely give it a listen. Mes Esam Latvija is also pretty good.

We are meeting with representatives from Azerbaijan, UAE, Mongolia, and a few others and they're gonna watch us as we learn our languages. It'll all be in Estonian, so we won't understand it, but We'll then answer questions about languages and whatnot.

There is an Elder in our branch that speaks pretty fluent Arabic so I've been asking him about all sorts of Arabic questions. He lived in the UAE for the past 4 years and that’s how he picked it up since he's from California.

Elder Schmidt is one of the funniest guys I know. He's from Germany and he got here 3 weeks ago. He's learning Polish and the rest of his district got here last week. We got back from getting haircuts and asked who has the worst cut. He looked at me and straight up said: You look funny haha. I did look funny and I will also attach a picture. My mom says I look handsome, but I think that’s just her obligation to say that.

One more Scripture of the Week: Moses 7:28-33, 37

Quick summary: Enoch, an ancient prophet of the Old Testament is taken up into a vision where he talks with God. God shows him the people on the Earth in our day. Enoch is surprised to see Heavenly Father weeping. Enoch asks God, how can you cry, you are powerful and merciful and kind forever, peace is the habitation of your throne. heavenly Father says "Behold, these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands... and also I [have given unto them] a commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but they are without affection, and they hate their own blood...Wherefore, should not the heavens weep, seeing these shall suffer?"

This scripture tells us a lot about the character of Heavenly Father, especially about his love for us. We are created by Him, and He loves us. He loves you and your siblings, and your friends, and those that don't like you, and those that you don't like. He sorrows in our unkindness towards other people because when we hurt or offend our neighbor, we offend Heavenly Father. But "when [we] are in the service of [our] fellow beings, we are [also] in the service of our God. This week, try to be kind to everyone, especially those who aren't particularly kind to you.

More Pictures:

1. Jess the Celebrity (That’s how she introduced herself, so I decided to call her that)

2. Fairlifeeee. It brings me joy

3. :)

4. Elder Bastow got a shot so he picked out two lollipops, and 4 stickers to go along with a coloring book he found.

Thats all I have for the past 3 weeks.

We'll see if I can email next week

Elder Putnam

My comp ate a Carolina Reaper

 (Elder Putnam)

Whats good??

Ok So we got some Elders on our floor who brought a Carolina Reaper to the MTC. Elder Bastow decides he'll eat it. What a silly guy.

Imma start making these a lot shorter since I got a lot more stuff to do on pdays now. I met a dude from Saudi who’s going Persian speaking. He was in Riyadh tho so we only went to one youth conference together.

The sisters are dope. I feel like I should specify that I don’t actually and never had disliked them, I’m just a funny guy. I met a dude from my first EFY which was dope. Shoutout to Elder Brooks. We got a devotional where Elder Uchtdorf spoke to us and it was powerful. Hope of Israel is a good hype up song but How Firm a Foundation is better. We tried playing it during my peak set on chest day but the dude monitoring the gyms shot it down. what a fool. The Starši (Slovak Elders) have been so good to us and we’ve played soccer with them several times. We found out that Elder Beebe is the goat of soccer. Mans scored 4 goals on the Starši last time we played.

I’m very likely to be a zone leader since elder Beebe and I are the only eligible for the position. Which means Ill have 2 less hours on P-day to help the early arrivals. We spent an entire class the other day just talking about stuff that happens in Latvia, mission lore, food places, pday activities. It was a good day, not productive, but good. I feel like I can say anything I want to in Latvian now, it just takes me 5 minutes to put it all together. Also my vocab is trash. I have good grammar essentially. I played in Sacrament meeting on Sunday and basically had the congregation rapping the first verse cause I was playing so fast.

I’m not really sure what else to say so I might add in some additional notes later. HMU Id love to hear what yall have to say.

Latvian word of the week: bruņurupucis (broo-nyoo-roo-poo-tsis), meaning: turtle,

used in a sentence: man ir bruņurupuča kaklasaite, I have a turtle tie.

Scripture of the week: Alma 17:2-5

"...for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God."

This is taken from my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon. I have studied the scriptures significantly more since being on my mission. There is so much truth contained in the Book of Mormon and the Bible. The Bible explains so much the character of Christ and establishes Him as the best example for us to follow. The Book of Mormon does the same. I know that the Book of Mormon and the Bible are the word of God. I have obtained a knowledge of it for myself.

 

General Conference Talk of the Week: The Greatest Possession | Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

"To love God with all our heart, might, mind, and strength is the First Great Commandment. But the first great truth of the universe is that God loves us in that exact way."

Lots of people misunderstand our relationship with God. He is our Heavenly Father. He created us and he wants us to return to Him. How can He not love us. He has provided a wonderful opportunity for us to become clean from sin, not just once, through baptism, but over and over again through worthily partaking of the sacrament. Dieter F. Uchtdorf once said, "God loves us just as much when we struggle as when we have success." Just because you have wandered off the covenant path a little, or even a lot, doesn’t mean you cant come back. At the same time, it doesn’t mean coming back is easy. But relying entirely on Christ is not easy. I can only promise that it makes it easier.

Pictures:

1. Mane bruņurupuča kaklasaite

2. Me with Elder Brooks, friend from first efy like 5 years ago

3. Brother Trout visiting us before bedtime

4. The companionship in front of the Paul mural on our floor.

Ok So if You Were in a Room, Roughly the Size of your School Cafeteria, and The Room was Filled like a Maze With Those Walls like in Lasertag, How Long Could You Survive Assuming There's a 400 lb Silverback Gorilla that's trying to kill you?

 (Elder Putnam)

I hate the Estonian Sisters

Let me give just a little backstory. Aight so one of the district goals is to eat meals together in the cafeteria. We’ve been pretty good about that but the conversations are pretty dry between the sisters and the elders. So I ask this gem of a question ^^. Sister House, may she be humbled, says she would whoop this whiny Gorillas booty. What a fool. Sister Reynolds says she could last 5 minutes... BY PRETENDING TO BE THE GORILLAs CHILD. She has until the end of Pday to figure out what a baby gorilla sounds like. Sister Wood (she’s from Australia) just sits there politely but obviously confused about the question. but she acts like I’m wack. Which is somewhat fair, but this is a good question. I discussed it for hours with my cousin like a year ago. Anyways give me your answer and how you intend to survive as long as possible against the gorilla. Anyways, sister House mocks me by asking my Latvian teacher this question. Like I shared that question in confidence what the actual heck.

Sister Chase is the only sister missionary in our district I’m on good terms with. I was asking the people at our table (for whatever reason I was like, you know what I just wanna make sure) if they had a secret twin and sister Reynolds was like oh my gosh I do. I felt incredible. I was like boom called it. That’s modern revelation. So she introduces us to her twin who’s serving somewhere in South America for his mission. I was so happy until she was like, yeah that’s not actually my twin. She led us all on for such a long time. I was at such an emotional high that plummeted so frickin hard. Now I have trust issues.

Sister Wood is Australian.

Ok so my companionship is so frickin great thoughhh. Elder Beebe is mad smart and corrects our grammar and stuff. I’m pretty quick and accurate at translating written sentences from English to Latvian and also recognizing Latvian words we know from like 1 Nephi and stuff where were reading from They’re both so funny in such different ways. They keep me entertained and sane. Were also pretty diligent about being reverent and obedient. So much so that now we have a teaching assignment from President Peterson, our Branch President. We’re getting along so great so far though. We’ve done basketball and weightlifting so far for exercise and that’s been pretty great.

It’s been a week since I last sent an email so I’ll give a quick rundown. also you may notice that I don’t use apostrophes. {Editor: apostrophes added through publishing program automatically) that’s cause I can soften letters using the apostrophe on a Latvian keyboard. Like this: lugšana, meaning prayer. ok anyways, Latvian is harddd. We’ve taught one lesson in Latvian to Olivia (basically our teacher after she put on a disguise) and it was a trainwreck. I literally just read a sentence from Preach my Gospel in Latvian and that was my whole spiel. It was a long sentence too though with a ton of grammar principals I didn’t understand. So I was not feeling great about that, but then Sunday rolled around changing my take on everything. At the MTC literally everything is elevated except the food. I felt the Spirit so strong on Sunday it was pretty great. Ever since then, Latvian has gotten easier. I’ve started my day with prayer and scripture study which helps a ton. Hopefully I don’t fall out of that habit. I saw Chloe (Sister Cloud)! I also saw that she didn’t mention seeing me in her weekly email. I’m a little pressed about that. I just feel the spirit so strong here it’s amazing. I’m trying to cultivate every good attribute before I can go into the field so that I can at least rely on God while I still suck at the language. I didn’t do much daily journaling so I don’t really know what else to say.

I’ll see yell next week I guess.

Scripture of the week: Ether 12:6,

"I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." You will go through trials. Everyone will. In fact most everyone is going through one in the very moment that you speak with them. We are promised a witness of Christ and His love for us after we complete our trial of faith. However, we must continue to be faithful to Him to be able to recognize this witness.

General Conference Talk of the Week: He Heals the Heavy Laden | Dallin H. Oaks

"The Atonement of Jesus Christ and the healing it offers do much more than provide an opportunity for repentance. The Atonement also gives us the strength to endure pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind because our Savior also took upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people." Everyone has challenges. During His ministry, Christ healed physical, mental, and spiritual ailments. He requested all those who were afflicted come to Him.

P-day

 (Elder Putnam)

Aright mama, I know your stressing out right now, so imma just explain how being able to communicate with people works. I'm allowed to open any message from anyone throughout the week (I don't have Instagram downloaded) on Facebook or email. I'm not allowed to react to them though until pday... if they are immediate family or unless its like an emergency or something i guess. I'm not allowed to FB Messenger anyone outside of my immediate family. All communication with friends needs to be through email on p days. So if you want to get in touch with me email is the way to go. I can message a person's Instagram through fb but that just doesn't make much sense cause I'm not likely allowed to text them anyways. I'll write the rest of my email later today. Imma ft mama right now

Elder Putnam

Ivo the Satanic Worshipper and Bralis Hiltons likes kids MTC week 1

 (Elder Putnam)

Hey guys,

 

Today marks my third day in the MTC and my first P-day. So far I'm loving it! There's a lot going on so I'll break down each day one at a time.

Monday:

I met my companions. I have two since we are the only Latvian speaking Elders in the MTC at the moment. Apparently there’s also a trio of Lithuania Sisters, an Estonian Elder, and a Russian Elder that will be in my mission, but they are in person for the first two weeks for whatever reason. Elders Bastovs (Elder Bastow) just finished up his first year at Southern Virginia University where he was on the track and field team which is dope and he's from Baltimore. He's made some lifting references which has me pretty hyped up. Big fan of him. Elders Bibijs (Elder Beebe) is from Salt Lake City and has a wide variety of instruments and languages under his belt. Our very first meeting, he gave the prayer entirely in Latvian which was a little scary to me and Elders Bastovs.

There are a ton of people starting online MTC this week (540+) and in our first meeting they told us that this was the largest Online International MTC Meeting they've had this year. I thought that sounded like an ESPN Next Gen Stat. In our second class of the day Bralis Hiltons shared a talk by Elder Holland from 2012 called "The First Great Commandment." It was about how when Christ was crucified, all the apostles went back to their old jobs, Peter going fishing. When Jesus beckons them back to shore, he asks Peter 3 times, "lovest thou me?" To which Peter responds "Lord... thou knowest that I love thee." Elder Holland extrapolates that Jesus likely said something along the lines of "Then why are you here?... Isn't it obvious that if I want fish, I can get fish? What I need, Peter, are disciples-- and I need them forever." Ok that was a lot. I gleaned two things from this:

1. This calling as a missionary isn't just for the next two years. It's for the rest of my life.

2. I tell people that I love basketball, I love music, I love my friends and family. But I honestly can't recall a time when I said the words "I love The Lord." I believe in Him, and I have a testimony of Him and His gospel but I've never said I love Him. That was humbling. However, in my prayers on Monday night (after a feeble attempt to pray in Latvian) I asked to gain a love for Heavenly Father and for His work. I felt the spirit before getting into bed and I know that although it will take time, over the course of my mission, I will develop a love for Heavenly Father.

Tuesday:

A lot happened on Tuesday. I woke up earlier than usual to work out at the Rec Center (I got permission first) and then I came back and had scrambled eggs which were delicious. In our morning Lesson, Bralis Hiltons invited us to share a scripture with someone and I felt prompted to share some with a few people. I've been left on read by one person, one person accepted my challenge, one person said they'd check out the scripture I shared, but I haven't heard back from them (You know who you are, and don't even try to say you're busy I've seen you posting your dunks). Anyways, I'm not that mad. I’m expecting to see a lot more rejection on my mission. I did realize that sleep is gonna be a big problem for me when I drifted off at the end of Language study, but I'm taking steps to make sure I'm awake without the use of caffeine. Before I fell asleep, we were working on cases for Latvian (cases are the equivalent to conjugation for nouns) and Bralis Hiltons used the example "I like children" before switching to a different example. We all laughed and imma give him a hard time about it going forward.

In class on Tuesday we found out that we'll be doing TRC or practicing giving lessons to actors. The first person we'll be teaching will be acting as Ivo, who we "met" outside of the University and know nothing about. Bralis Hiltons said Ivo could be an inactive member, a devout Christian of another faith, an atheist, or he could be a Satan worshipper. I like the last one cause it promotes a bit more of a challenge for me and my companions. Besides I think Ivo the Satanic Ritualist has a nice ring to it.

It was Alyssa's birthday so we had steak and cake and watched the Chosen which was fun.

Wednesday: P-Day

Let’s see, I went to the gym again which was good. I got lots of people asking about my missionary tag so that was fun. not a ton else has happened today, but Companion study is going pretty well. were all very enthusiastic about our coming meeting with Ivo so that’s hype. they seem to be a bit more well read and knowledgeable about the gospel than me but I’ll get there. During P-day we went and ran errands and stuff to grab last minute stuff. It’s got me more excited for getting into the field, but I’m also nervous about the first few months where I won’t understand much.

I’ve been listening to conference talks during workouts which I enjoy. please let me know if there are any that yall would suggest.

as far as communication goes these are my rules while I’m in at home mtc:

I’m allowed to read and react to messages people send me on Instagram and fb messenger but I cant type out a response unless it’s an emergency. but I can respond to people on P-day it’s just preferred to email back and forth. the only exception to this is if I use one of these social media platforms to share the gospel.

Anyways, that’s all I got today. See yall in a week!!

Elders Putnams

S16 E6: Mission Accomplished!

 (Elder Cummings)

Yup. This is the last one.

This week was amazing.

The night before Alicia went on the high adventure with the young women to go to the temple, paintball, and rafting etc, we went over to their place and had a lesson with the whole family. It basically became a testimony meeting for Alicia as this 17 year old girl bore her testimony of her conversion, the power of the Spirit and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She said "I just felt warm and whole. It felt right".

Cristine, her mom, was stunned. The Spirit was so thick you could cut it with a butter knife. We look at her and ask if she wants that for her self. Through tears she told us that she needs to make some changes in her life before she could have it. We hadn't even taught her that. The Spirit simply bore witness to her the changes she needs to make to bring her life in closer harmony with God. She nows has a goal to be baptized August 27th.

Then on Saturday we drove down to BR with the ward to go to the temple. A month ago Elder Cannon baptized Brother Hossam Dalati. On Saturday, Brother Dalati baptized Elder Cannon in behalf of deceased ancestors. Then I got to baptize Elder O and Elder O got to baptize me. Super super cool. I love walking out of the temple back into the craziness of the world because I feel on top of the world. I just feel like I've I've uplifted and am one step better

I love this work. I love being a missionary. I have come to a greater understanding of Jesus Christ as my Savior. I have felt His love and His grace in my life as I have tried to be His instrument in His hands to help others to come unto Him. I have never been happier. I am grateful for everything I've experienced as a full time missionary. "And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain."(1 Cor 15:14) But "I know that my redeemer liveth" and that "he doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation"(Job 19:25, 2 Nephi 26:24). "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost"(Matthew 28:19).

See yall soon!!

Elder Cummings

S16 E5: Satan don't kick no dead dogs

 (Elder Cummings)

Man this last week was insane.

So we've been teaching our friend Alicia. She is so elect. Literally the pioneer of her entire family and she just turned 17. We had her baptism scheduled for this last Saturday July 23 at 6pm in Clinton because we don't actually meet in an actual church building.

So back up and explanation of the email title. I love the ability that Southern people have to simplify and relate principles and ideas. Somebody I used to teach once said that "Satan don't kick no dead dogs". Meaning, that Satan is not gonna work on someone he's already won over, or someone that's not doing anything. Satan goes after those want to do the most good, want to make the most change, and want to be the best they can.

So at about 4pm on Saturday. 2 hours before Alicia is to be a baptized. Cristine, Alicia's mother calls and says "I don't think Alicia should be baptized". Our hearts dropped. After talking with her learned that they had gotten into an argument over Alicia not doing the dishes and it escalated into her not being grateful for everything her mother does. Crisitine felt disrespected and Alicia being a teenager girl I'm sure didn't help with that. It was wild. We asked to talk with Alicia and she was like "I don't want to talk with nobody". Elder O worked his magic and asked "Do you want to talk to Elda O?" She was like "yeah". While Elder O talked with her I was praying so hard for everyone's heart to be softened. A minute later we found ourselves just listening to Alicia and Cristine have a very respectful and good conversation and Alicia is back on for tonight.

Not one hour later, Cristine gives us call and explains that she is not at the house and that her car broke down. And she lives 30 minutes away from us and 30 minutes from Clinton in different directions. We was like "uh oh, what we gonna do?" Elder O is great with cars and while he was on the phone asking her what was going on and explaining what she needed to do next, I was praying that a way would be made that they could make it(see a pattern here?). We end up coordinating with two different members to be ready to go pick them up and BOOM she calls us back saying that the car is running and they'll make it to Clinton. And they did. And she was baptized. And it was so absolutely amazing.

I know the Lord is in His work. Because that's what it is. It's His work. The advesary has power to bruise our heel, but with Christ we can crush his head. That wasn't even close to all the things that happened this week that put roadblocks in Alicia's baptism, but hey, she is now confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and is going to the Birmingham, Alabama temple with young women in the stake on Wednesday. God works. And God's work works. We just gotta work with Him

Have blessed one yall!!!

Elder Cummings