Area Changes

Dear Friends and Family:

Elder Felkins transferred and trained, but at transfer meeting we found out that that meant that our area was splitting. He now has the south part of the Miami Shores Creole area - his new area is called Miami Beach Creole. Me and my new companion, Elder Fisher, are still in Miami Shores Creole, although our own boundaries have changed a lot and so now it's not even close to the way that it was when I started my mission here.

Our area now covers just the ward, not the branch. This is unfortunate, because all of our current investigators had been in the branch. So, I don't know what has been happening with Steve and Gasner, who we were teaching before the area split. And Elder Fisher and I have been working hard to try to find new investigators.

Our area also expanded more to the north. We now cover all of the new Fort Lauderdale Stake, although we only attend the Miami Shores Ward, which is the new Haitian Creole magnet ward for the stake. This means that our area now includes the temple! Yay! And our area still includes the Krispy Kreme on 6th avenue and 167th street! Yay again!

At the moment, we have two progressing investigators who we are very excited for. We found both of them this week.

First of all, Raymond F. Two days ago, we were knocking, and we knocked into a member's apartment. Viola F. was baptized in Haiti, but she hadn't been to church for several years. After she went inactive, she married her husband, and only recently they moved to America together. They have one baby boy, who keeps vomiting when they try to feed him, and who cries almost constantly when he is not sleeping, and the doctors have no idea what is wrong with him. Viola Francois was praying for help when we knocked on her door. We prayed with the family, and we invited them to come to church. She took this as a sign that God wanted her to start going to church again, and she and her husband came to church yesterday! (They were there late, and we didn't see them come in, so they missed our ward's sacrament, but somehow they were herded into the Spanish ward's sacrament after going to Sunday school, and so they saw the sacrament!) Raymond Francois is excited to be baptized. He has a soft date for this Sunday.

Also, Jean P. came to church, but he was too late to see the sacrament, and we didn't think about trying to sit with him in the Spanish ward's sacrament meeting, so he didn't see the sacrament but he's still very excited to work towards being baptized on the 7th. The sisters knocked into him, and he called us asking for us to come over and teach him. We were happy to oblige.

As for my new companion: I love Elder Fisher a lot, and I am excited to keep working with him. He is a very good influence, and he makes me want to keep working harder and to see more and more incredible miracles. He was born in Canada, but he moved to California when he was five, so at this point he's probably more Californian than he is Canadian. He likes to collect bugs, freeze them to kill them, and then stick needles through them to make them form a pose until they dry up, at which point he takes most of the needles out and he has a dried up trophy. Yesterday, while we were waiting for my food to cook in the oven, he went and caught a huge banana spider in our back yard, and he is keeping it in a large jar on his desk. It's still alive, for the moment.

Thanks,

Bonjour Tout le Monde!

Golly the time keeps going faster and faster! My beautiful cousin Brittany *cough* I mean Sister Slade was completely right! I heard this phrase often in the mission but I'm not sure if its a quote from something but its "The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days." I don't think you could get more accurate.

This past week the ward here hosted a blood drive. I have been struggling with allergies and so when I was asked if I am feeling healthy I had to say no. Therefore failing the first question and not being able to give blood. But it is my promise that once I return from my mission I will give blood. (Hear that Mom and Dad? I'm getting over my fear of needles! Your little girl is growing up!) It was especially amazing to see my wonderful companion, Sister Munive, give blood. She having an even greater fear of needles than I. Through a lot of guilt-tripping she started to think "what if I gave blood?" this escalated to the point of her getting her finger pricked. She was so nervous and in my heart I said a prayer that she receive the courage to donate the blood. When the time came she didn't even cry. I am so proud of my missionary Mama! She is such an example to me through everything she does.

Here's a little funny moment. We were cleaning the car and found a Classical music CD that had been left by sisters who had used the car before us. Sister Munive and I, both realizing that we loved classical music, popped it into the player and listened to it. We were on the road heading to one of our appointments when the track switched and started playing the Wedding march by Felix Mendelssohn. We stopped our conversation mid sentence, looked at each other, and realizing we had the same image of a white dress, bursted into laughter. It wasn't until we had driven two blocks that we stopped laughing.

As missionaries we teach many many lessons about the gospel and about Jesus Christ. Each missionary has a different way of teaching, which makes being in a companionship the best thing that can happen. We have an investigator Maria-Claude who is Baptist and attends her church every week, each week taking notes so that she may fully understand what her pastor is talking about. Sister Munive and I realized that she didn't really understand the importance of the book of Mormon. I had no idea how to really get through to her, but thankfully my companion did. She drew out two circles, labeling them as the Bible and the Book of Mormon. She then drew a picture of God on one side of the paper. She explained that churches who believe only the bible have trouble following all the true principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, She named off a few major branches of churches in today's world, each time she drew a line threw the circle labeled "Bible". Each time the line would miss God, it would grow close to God but it would miss it. There was only one line that was able to be drawn to God and that was through the Book of Mormon. When you only have one nail in a piece of wood, that wood would be able to move everywhere, it would not be able to stay in one spot. However when you add a second nail the piece of wood cannot move. This is the same with the Book of Mormon and Bible. Without one, the wood or the line moves making it difficult to find Christ. But together they provide a straight and narrow path to God that cannot be changed. When Sister Munive taught this the spirit was so strong. We asked her what she was studying right now in her church. She replied with Nehemiah 1 (warning my spelling may be off.) The next day for Companionship study we discussed how we could relate this story to the Book of Mormon. After saying a prayer we immeadiatly realized how similar Nehemiah was to Enos in the Book of Mormon. We returned with a lesson to Maria-Claude relaying our findings from our study. And yet again the spirit was so strong. To those unfamiliar with Nehemiah 1 it is the story of a prophet grieving for his people through prayer and asking questions. Enos went through a similar situation, in fact he poses many of the same questions and demands as Nehemiah, however unlike Nehemiah, Enos wrote down the responses of the Lord for us to read in this day. This experienced increased my testimony in the truthfulness of these wonderful scriptures who through divine power teach together all of God's word. I am so glad I was able to experience that.

I love hearing from you! I don't get much time but know that I read every email.

Je vous aime

Soeur Cummings

Staying in Miami

Dear Friends and Family:

I'm staying in Miami! My companion, Elder Felkins, is transferring somewhere else and training!

Before anyone gets upset at me for not giving more details, I have to say... I have none! I won't find out who my new companion is or where Elder Felkins is going until tomorrow, and I won't be able to give an update until next Monday because next Monday is my next P-Day!

But, this week was very interesting in the mission. The five stakes just barely split all together, in order to form another. Now there are six stakes. We are expecting HUGE changes in the mission structure to accommodate for the new stake boundaries, but again, we won't find out what happens until tomorrow so you all will be informed about what exactly happens almost a week after it actually happens. Sorry!

This last week of the transfer has been amazing. I was so grateful to be able to come back to Miami this last transfer, and now that the transfer is over (what?) I am still very grateful to be staying in Miami. I will miss Elder Felkins, this has been one of my favorite transfers on my mission so far.

Our one investigator in Sacrament meeting this week was, again, Steve. Steve is an interesting character. He wants to be baptized, but he is one of the most hesitant people I have ever met as far as committing to an actual date. He has already read through first Nephi, and he loves church, he just feels like he should wait to commit because of other experiences he's had in his life where he jumped into something and then fluttered away like a butterfly. He's still a potential for this weekend, but he's not currently on date for it.

Another one of our investigators, Gasner, was again not able to come to church because he was at work and someone didn't show up for the next shift, so he had to work it instead.

In my personal study, I have been reading a little bit of Jesus The Christ every day for a few weeks now, with a goal of understanding the atonement better, as well as being able to understand Jesus' teachings better. I am almost done. In about three more days, I'll reach the end. It is interesting to me how illegal and lopsided his trial and crucifixion were. And also, it was interesting how everything that happened was predicted and in some cases prefigured by earlier symbols. It makes me wonder a bit how much that is going on today, in preparation for the second coming...

In the introduction to the Book of Mormon, it says that the church is "preparatory to the Second Coming of the Messiah." By extension, this is the intended function of missionary work. This is one of the things I have learned this week in my studies. It has really helped my increase my vision and perspective and to understand my purpose more.

I'm very happy to be on my mission, and I'm very grateful for all of your support!

Thanks,

Elder Slade

P.S.: Nathan, the Jews are our friends.

Out of time

Dear family,

I'm out of time so I'm going to copy and paste what I wrote President Bonham again:

I am still doing well and still loving Silverlake! I love Sister Smith, and I love the investigators that we have been able to find. Sister Smith and I have been able to meet standards twice this transfer, and we plan on making it the "norm" in this area!

Neither Sister Smith or I were feeling very well this week so we had to take some time to rest, but it was cool to see how even though we weren't able to give this week what our "best" has been in past weeks, the Lord took what was our "best" this week and still magnified it. At the beginning of my mission I had this mindset or "Go, go, go!" to the point that I would experience anxiety if I or a companion had to stay in the apartment. It was a good mindset to have, because it was almost like I physically couldn't handle being in the apartment when I knew God wanted me to be out talking to people, but it also wore me down to the point that I finally crashed, partly from exhaustion from things on my mission, and partly from things from before my mission. I've learned a few things in the past months. I won't wishfully say "If I knew then what I know now," because I know that the mission is a growing process and it's a good thing that I am a completely different missionary and person than I was my first transfer in the mission! This week I felt guided to study about the Garden of Gethsemane. This is what I learned:

The atonement of Christ not only gives us the strength to keep going when we are exhausted, but it also gives us the ability to rest when we have begun to "run faster than we have strength." or when "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." We should never take advantage of the atonement to shirk our labors, but we do need to recognize that Jesus Christ died for us because He already knew that there would be times when we would be weak and that He would need to make up for what we are not able to give after we truly have given our all. If we try to give more than we're able to, or if we try to be perfect right now, all by ourselves, then we are not allowing ourselves to use the strength AND the rest that the atonement of Jesus Christ provides. it hurt me to read about the disciples sleeping while Christ was only a stones throw away, suffering for the sins of the world. How could they do that when their calling was to give 100% of their heart, might, mind, and strength? Then I realized that as much as the Savior wanted them to watch with Him, he knew the extent of their abilities as humans. Then in Mark 14:41 he very tenderly and very mercifully says, "sleep on now, and take your rest. It is enough." did He mean that the sacrifice that He had just performed was enough to make up for their weaknesses? I still don't understand completely yet, but I did feel very strongly in my studies this week that there is no greater illustration of love than through our Savior Jesus Christ.

Haley is doing well! Her grandma who passed away came to her in a dream the night before we taught her the plan of salvation and told her she was on the right path. Haley described waking up feeling very warm and in tears. In one of our lessons this week she handed us a homemade baptism invite that she had made for us. Apparently she's made some for others that she has already met in the ward, and she created an event on facebook that she invited all of her family to. Those stories about those super crazy prepared people being led to prepared people that you hear about in Sacrament meetings... they're not just stories, they are real.

Emma is excited to be baptized on the 30th! We had an amazing lesson with her last week where she got emotional, telling her how badly she wants to go to the temple. She can't explain why, because she doesn't feel like she knows much about it, but she feels this very strong urge that she needs to go! Hayley that was just baptized has expressed the same feelings recently, so we're going to help them both find family names in the family history center the next few weeks!

Something that I have learned over and over again on my mission is how absolutely vital members are in order for the work to progress at all like it should. I've been thinking about this a lot in the last few weeks, and I'm planning on writing and sending out a "YOU can be a member missionary NOW!" letter to everyone in the family soon. So stay tuned! It's going to be epic!

Love you all!

Sister Slade

Salut!!!

So much has happened this week! I had my first splits! I learned a bit of Spanish! And I ate Poutine!...again... I'm planning on having an entire month without eating poutine, and then perhaps I can be healthy...er

This week I'm going to talk about some of the cultural differences. *clears throat* First off, Quebecois love their poutine. Mmm poutine. Words cannot even descirbe it...*looks off into distance* I'll try though. You start with a plate of double fried potatoes, they can be any shape or size they just have to be double fried. Ain't nobody want squishy taters. You then cover this mountain of greasiness with a delicate brown gravy. (Let it be noted that this brown gravy is not just like any other gravy. This gravy involves the essence of the longest hair off the chin of a Quebecois Mountain-man, followed by the essence of the moose, followed by a touch of Queen Elizabeth II because she is everywhere here. Anyways the gravy is delicious and special to Quebec.) After a healthy amount of delicious gravy is added you top it off with any type or amount of cheese (personally I think I prefer mozzarella) and whichever kind or kinds of meat your heart desires.(the Philly steak meat is pretty good.) The best thing about this amazing dish is that it is literally sold everywhere. Let me name a few places. The local Pizzaria, the local Cosco, the local Mcdonalds, the local Wendy's, the local burger joint etc. etc. It is with no exaggeration at every restaurant in town. Its like trying to find pizza in New Jersey. Everywhere.

Another difference is they don't have milk like in the United States. The milk here comes in bags. Every self honoring Quebecois household has a special pitcher for their bagged milk, and trying to get them into said pitchers requires training by the best of the best. Oh and a lot of shaking. One last cultural difference that I was not really ready for is they do that side kissing thing that the French do that I have tried to spell a million times but can not for the life of me put it to a word... either way they do that. And it will take some getting used to. But hey you get to really get to know peoples perfumes!

I'm attaching pictures to this email, because I have finally been able to attach pictures! The first one is of my companion, Sister Munive, and I with our mission president and his wife. Followed by our lovely roommates the Terrebonne sisters, Sister Tribes and Sister Leano, in a poise they like to call (warning say the following in a Russian accent) "in my country." And then a picture of one of my Sister Training Leaders and I in Montreal after our splits.

On Wednesday we had splits with the Sister Training leaders. Meaning I went to Montreal with one sister and Sister Munive stayed with one here in Mascouche. Montreal is AMAZING! It has all the hustle and bustle of New York but all the shorter buildings of Bloomington. It almost feels like you have elbow room! The Sister Training leaders are assigned to the Montreal YSA branch, so they do a lot more texting than everyone else on the mission. I also got to use Facebook! Granted it was just updating the YSA page but still! It was strangely invigorating.

The Mascouche area is very French, or more likely Quebecois. What isn't French is Spanish. Which makes it a blessing to have a native Spanish speaker as a companion. And yes everyone. She does speak English Fluently. Being in this area has made me realize how I need to learn Spanish. So Sister Munive and I have worked out a study plan. Which mainly just involves my lovely companion teaching me Spanish through French so than we can both work and French and I can learn a language.

I Love you all! Je vous aime!

Soeur Cummings

Keeping Faith

Dear Friends and Family:

This week, China and her family were confirmed in the branch. Marie was confirmed last week, because her baptism was on Thursday, but Shirdie (her daughter) was not able to be confirmed yet because Marie was kept in late at work. Our bishop wants us to do it during this next week, we're going to do it on Thursday hopefully.

We had a great miracle this week. A few weeks ago, we received a referral from Elder Brockbank and Elder Passey in the Palm Beach zone. It was for a Haitian man who wanted to be baptized, but who was there on vacation. So we tried to stop by to see him but he was still away. And this week, we finally had the opportunity to meet with him. It had been almost three weeks since he had met with the other elders, but he still had great desires to come to church and to be baptized. It was a very good experience for me to sit down and teach him for the first time.

Unfortunately, he did not end up coming to church. We had contact with him two hours before church, and he was ready and excited to come, and then... we lost contact, he never came, and we still haven't heard from him. So we'll stop over again tonight and find out "sak te pase."

We had one investigator come to church yesterday. His name is George, and he's a completely white guy, without even a small drop of Haitian blood. It was the Sisters' investigator, but because of extraneous circumstances, we're teaching him anyway. It will be Elder Felkin's fourth white person he's ever taught. (One of the first three being Haitian anyway, because his parents moved to Haiti and then he grew up speaking Haitian Creole.) I served in Boynton Beach, which is a Haitian Creole and English area, so I have taught many, and I've baptized three already, but we are very excited to get Elder Felkins his first white convert!

One of the things we are going to work on this week is keeping faith, and continuously finding. We only had four new investigators this last week, and we need more to keep a strong pool going. So this week we're going to especially work on our harvest blessings, to bring the spirit more strongly into our first contacts with people.

I heard that Elder Austin Bradley left on his mission. I am so excited to hear that! I'm guessing the language he will be learning is Italian? There's an awesome member here, in the Branch, who speaks Italian, English, and Spanish. Her name is Sister Dieste. As anyone who has ever met her will attest, her food is "da best"!

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Miracle Week

Dear family,

So here is the Haley miracle. A few days before our other investigator Hayley was baptized, Sister Smith and I decided to go tract some orange apartments in Mill Creek. Sister Bartsch and I had felt that we should tract these for a while, and for whatever reason we were never able to quite get around to it. Well, we went to tract these apartments and I'm not sure why but we just kept walking towards the back of the complex then both stopped at building G. The very first door we knocked on, Haley answered. Haley has been going to Latter-Day Saint activities in Arlington with her friend for the past 2 years, and she says she always knew there was something different about the Mormons. The first lesson we had with Haley we put her on date to be baptized September 6th. What is crazy is that Haley has really severe anxiety, and she told us in that first lesson that when we knocked on her door she was in the middle of having a panic attack. When she saw that it was missionaries, she felt instantly calmed and it stopped. Not only that, but we found out that Haley moved here about 2 weeks ago, and turned 18 only 5 days ago. I don't think I've ever taught an investigator as prepared as Haley is! She is pure faith and obedience and has an amazing ability to feel the spirit. We feel so blessed to have found her!

We also had a cool miracle when contacting at the college this week. We stopped a guy named Max, who works as a physical trainer and EMT. He is a super cool guy, with a lot of faith in Christ, but said he doesn't really have time to talk right now. I was about to give him a mormon.org card but then had the thought ha he had enough interest that I should give him a restoration pamphlet. So I gave it to him, and he just stared at it in silence with his mouth open for a few seconds. We asked if he had seen the pamphlet before, and he told us that he had been searching for where the pamphlet came from for years. A few yeas ago he got jumped outside a McDonalds in Everett (kinda funny to picture because this was a BIG guy!) He was in and out of consciousness, just enough to remember that someone picked him up and took him to the hospital but he had no idea who it was. When he woke up in the hospital 3 days later, the only thing that the guy left with him was a restoration pamphlet with a name and phone number. In the craziness of what had happened, the pamphlet was lost, but since then Max remembers very clearly the picture of Christ holding a lamb on the front of the restoration pamphlet, and he's wondered what the source was. We got Max's phone number, and he walked away flipping through the pamphlet, completely in shock.

This week I have been studying the principle of asking for specific blessings or asking specific questions. Over and over in the scriptures we read about how if we ask we will receive, but how often do we actually take advantage of this promise, and take that leap of faith, fully expecting Heavenly Father to give as He has promised to? Of course we know hat God gives in His own timing, in His own way, and according to His will, but how often to we ask to know His will, so that we might know exactly what it is we should be asking for? Do we pray to know what we should be praying for? As missionaries we always invite our investigators to ask a specific question in their prayers to know if what we have been teaching them is true, the reason being that if we ask specific questions, the Lord gives specific answers. I was thinking to myself this week, why is it that I don' show more faith in my heavenly Father, and ask those specific questions, or make those specific requests, just as investigators are invited to do? My challenge for you this week is the same challenge hat I have given to myself: pray to know what to pray for, then stretch your faith by making that specific request to Heavenly Father. Then show your faith by praying with "all the energy of heart" and with persistence. Then act as if you already know that you will receive, because you will!

Love you all!

Love, Sister Slade

There is a mission cottage meeting held at the mission home every month where we invite our investigators to come listen to the testimonies of recent converts. We went with some members in our ward, Krissy and Alayna, and also our investigator Heather. The seatbelt on Krissy's car was stuck, so since we wanted to protect my life we decided that we better double buckle me with Alayna and Sister Smith's seatbelts. This picture doesn't quite show what happened, but what followed was absolute chaos in the back seat. There were shouts of "pull harder!" and "Are you sucking in!?" while I just got squished. We were all laughing so hard we were all crying by the time we got to the mission home. I think mostly we were all just way too tired :)

 Are you in need of salvation or a little restoration? Ask a specialist. Or one of His representatives, that works too.

 Hayley's baptism