Fight me, delta variant!

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey, everyone!

It's been another week!  And this week I realized that it has officially been 1 year since I received my mission call, and I've been out 9 months!

Also, I forgot from last week, but I cut my hair a little, just a trim, and also, because of the delta variant that's going around (I don't know much as I don't have access to the news), Washington State has required us to mask up again in public places and for large meetings. Just when we got used to not having to wear them!

On Monday we celebrated Sister Hatton's 21st birthday.  Our district had a barbecue and cheesecake to celebrate💓

On Wednesday we helped a lady move into her new apartment within the ward boundaries, and that was fun.

Thursday we had Zone conference and also started exchanges.  Sister Crookston came to our area, and Sister Hatton went to Harbour Pointe's area with Sister Bertasso.  The last few transfers we've been doing overnight exchanges, which didn't happen for the first while in my mission.

On Saturday we went to the adult session of stake conference, and afterward, President Daybell, the stake president, came up to us and said "lpl hey, are you ready to speak tomorrow?" And we were like "lol yeah totally" and thought nothing of it.

Well on Sunday, we were at the general session of stake conference, the speakers were all finished and President Daybell got up and started talking about missionary work and then called us as well as the elders up and had us talk a little about missionary wor.  Then he invited the stake to invite the missionaries into their homes, so we are hoping more members will be willing to set up lessons with us.

Love you all!!

Sister Alyssa Putnam

S8 E6: Hurricane Ida

 (Elder Cummings)

I'm sure y'all know and have heard about Hurricane Ida and her terror the last couple days, please keep the greater New Orleans area and the surrounding areas in your prayers. As of this morning, about a third of Louisiana were without power.

Do not fret, we were evacuated way before things got crazy. Things just got crazy in a different way. Me and 13 Elders have been crammed into the Farmerville Elders apartment since Friday night. We have been safe the entire time and only got some rain showers today.

This week has been crazy, and we didn't have a lot of time to proselytize cause it's the end of the transfer, plus there was a hurricane…

For transfers(which have now been delayed a week) I'll be moved from the Denham 2nd Ward to the Denham 1st Ward! Not much of a change, same church building, same apartment, but new area and new companion!! My new companion will be Elder Smith. I've been living with him for the last month and a half and there are only a few people I love more than him. I was overjoyed when I heard I'd be serving with him.

Anyway, hope y'all are doing well and been having good times. I wish I had some crazy stories and miracles but the fact of the matter is the miracle is that out of 200 missionaries, all are safe. As well as the 14 of us in one apartment aren't at each others throats yet. And that we've been getting fed like kings.

This email has been all over the place mostly cause so is my brain. But I do know that the Lord is in control, that nothing comes by surprise to him, and he has a plan and a way for the Louisiana and Mississippi areas devastated by the storm. He is aware of them. Please pray for their safety and recovery.

Have a blessed one y'all, keep on keeping on!

Elder Cummings

Photos:

Birthday dinner with some of my favorite Elders

Sleeping arrangements. Yes. I'm in a tanning bed. No. It doesn't work. Yes. It's for decoration. Yes. It's cool.

The Denham Springs Zone. Enough Said.

Big manly teddy bear!

 (Elder Slade)

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

Justin got baptized this week!! It was an amazing baptism, and I felt great joy in seeing him take that step. If you remember, Juston is the man who has talked with missionaries for the past 5 years or so, yet has never pulled the trigger on baptism. He just recently made the decision to be baptized. The title comes from someone who gave a talk at the baptism. Justin is a big man, that looks pretty intimidating, but really he is just a lovable teddy bear! 😂

We had another miracle this week, as we were able to find two new kids to teach named Mousey and Aiden. Mousey lives basketball, and we started teaching him by shooting some hoops with him, and Elder Thomas connected with him over Naruto, and then we started talking with him about the gospel, and he got really excited! He ran in side, came out with his wallet, and showed us a picture of Jesus Christ on the bag. He told us that he wanted to start being taught, and has recently been thinking about baptism!! Later we found his brother as well! Pretty exciting things!

We also had zone conference this week! A man named Chris Mabrey from Pennsylvania spoke to us, and he told us how the gospel is a party! He referred to the parable of the lost sheep, and shared Luke 15:6 "And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost." I feel joy every day because I get to help bring in these lost sheep, and I know that Heavenly Father rejoices when any one of us is found and brought back into His loving fold. I know He loves us, and is active in our lives!

Love yall!

Pictures:

1-2. Justin's baptism!

3. Random pic Elder Thomas and I took.

Street Contacting? Who's she?

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey everyone!

So last Monday after shopping we played soccer with the district. I ended up with a toe injury that made walking difficult for the next two days but I'm good now lol. Soccer was fun too, I hadn't played in awhile and it felt good!

On Tuesday Sister Hatton showed me a game lesson that Sister Branch hat taught her, called the Remembering game. Someone in the room closes their eyes and everyone asks them questions about what is in the room to see how much they remember, and I personally related it to being in the world. When we shut the world out it is easier to forget the things of the world and listen to the guidance of the Spirit. For those of us with photographic or semi-photographic memories, remembering the room was easier. Likewise, some people have weaknesses that make it harder to detach from the world and it is important to keep what distance we can between us and the world in order to maintain the presence of the Spirit in our lives.

On Wednesday at district council we set a goal to hand out 20 pass along cards per companionship this week.

(Here's a big paragraph. It's long, but trust me, if you stick with it, it'll be worth it!) On Thursday we went Street Contacting at Martha Lake in an effort to achieve our pass along card goals.

     Now this was my first time Street Contacting, as I came out on my mission when we were still in lockdown and not even allowed to go inside people's houses. Sister Hatton knew more than I did, but this was still fairly new to both of us. So I had zero clue what I was doing going into this.  Anyway, on our way there we stopped by a family who was unloading a moving van, and we offered help and asked where they were moving from, and they said Texas, so we made a connection there, as Sister Hatton & I both grew up in Southeast Texas, and we left them with a pass along card with our number and told them to let us know if they need help with anything.

     We ran into one guy from India who asked what country we were from, and we spoke with him for a bit, and then we talked to another couple also from India, who are expecting their first child. We talked to a couple of girls who looked our age and were sitting at a picnic table, and all of those were awesome, and we decided to head back to the apartment.

     When we were almost there, I saw a woman in a hijab pushing a double stroller with her kids, just beyond the entrance to our apartment complex, & I wanted to compliment her outfit since I really loved it, so I said to Sister Hatton, "what if we go and talk to them?" And she agreed.  So, we went & talked to them & found out that the mother doesn't speak much English but that the 7-year-old daughter, named Uzmah, did.

     We spoke for awhile, and then Omah, the mother, invited us to come over to her house for tea, and we felt like we should and our schedule was flexible for the rest of the night, so we agreed, and we went over.  She offered us food, and gave us water (instead of tea) and we talked to her through Uzmah (Uzmah, being 7, got sidetracked frequently while she was translating 😂), and she thanked us for coming over and making her family happy.  We shared a verse from the Book of Mormon how God loves all people, and that He is aware of them. Omah also asked if we could help her learn English, and we said yes, and agreed to come back to her house on Friday to try to practice English.

   Well get this! On our way back home, we ran into Anna, a woman who we have been trying to meet with who lives in our apartment complex and haven't been able to. If we hadn't gone to Omah's house, we wouldnt have seen Anna. She invited us in and so I got to meet her for the first time, and she is INCREDIBLE!! And we set a time to come over to her place for dinner on Friday, and she also asked for a simpler version of the Book of Mormon because she wants to understand it.

    All of that might not have happened had we not followed that simple inspiration to talk to Omah!

Friday, We went over to Omah's and tried to practice English with her, and it was difficult because we didn't have many resources, but we did leave her with a sticky note with the link for EnglishConnect for her husband, Sam, to help her sign up later, since he speaks fluent English. Then we went to Anna's and talked to her and she is just a wonderful woman, and so humble and so fun!!

We also had a lot of service this week so that was fun!!

Miracles are real and God is in the details!!

🪄What inspiration have you seen this week?🪄

Love you all!!!

Sister Alyssa Putnam

Attacked by a dog!

 (Elder Slade)

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

This week I got bit by a dog. We turned the corner from walking behind a parked car, and a huge pitbull came out of nowhere and ran towards us! The dog ended up getting my shoe, and it now has a few teeth marks in it. I didn't realize it at the time, but a woman was holding the dog on their leash, so I was able to escape! I'm alright, but it definitely surprised me. What made it better was that we learned after that the dog's name was Chaos! I thought it was an appropriate name!

This experience ended up being a miracle though. We started talking with them, and they let us in to share a message. We learned that she is a member that wants to start coming back to church, and that she had a son who is not baptized. We talked a little about baptism, and are going to put him on date for baptism this week!

The Lord has been blessing us immensely! We met another kid who calls himself "Mousey" and he really like basketball, so we shot a few hoops with him, and he said he asked his mom if he could get baptized, and he said he would love to have us teach him!

It reminds me of a verse I read recently, Helaman 3:25 "And so great was the prosperity of the church, and so many the blessings which were poured out upon the people, that even the high priests and the teachers were themselves astonished beyond measure." I have truly been astonished by all the blessings God has bestowed upon us, both now and my entire life. God is good, and I am humbled by the love he has for his children.

I love you all! Thanks for taking the time each week to read my email!

Pictures:

1-2. Pictures from exchanges this week!

S8 E5: Car Shows and Huskies

 (Elder Cummings)

This week was a good one y’all! And we’re fixing to have an even better one this time round. Welcome to story time with Elder Cummings, the part of the week where Elder Cummings shares a story:

So Elder Schugk and I are street contacting, we’ve been out about an hour and we’re gonna have to be getting back to the apartment soon. Haven’t had much success at all. We turn left and start walking back to the car disappointed but not discouraged! Elder Schugk turns to me and points back to where we came from and asks, “have we gone that way?”. Me, not thinking anything of it cause Elder Schugk is surprisingly bad with directions, says, “Elder we just came from there”. Confused he says, “oh, okay”. We walk for about 5 more seconds when he turns around and says, “No. We need to go this way”. Trusting this isn’t just Elder Schugk’s lack of directional awareness now, I gladly follow him.

We’re walking and walking (but we don’t knock down their wall! Kidding joke joke) and we don’t see anyone...until a couple walking two Huskies turns onto our street! Duh, duh duhhhhhh. They have nowhere to go, nowhere to turn, it’s just them and the Mission Mormonaries.

In all seriousness we are now convinced that these are the people we need to talk to because our car is just another 40 ft past them and we needed to leave. We stop and get to know Branch and Michelle for a good bit. Turns out they had seen us about 30 minutes earlier and Michelle had the thought to come talk to us but she didn’t want her dogs to bother us(nicest dogs ever by the way) so they turned down a different road. Now here we are, talking with them, only because Elder Schugk had the prompting to go back the long way, the way we just came. Turns out Branch and Michelle have 7 kids, and are super interested in what we believe in as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We had a wonderful opportunity to testify of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and eternal families and we were all convinced in the end that we needed to meet them and they needed to meet us. 

It is my testimony that we need to be constantly putting ourselves to receive revelation or we are missing chances to hear Him. We need to be living worthily of His Spirit as well as actively seek it. The scriptures says “and he that seeketh, shall find”, it doesn’t say “and he that slacketh shall find”. I am grateful that my companion was actively seeking guidance and revelation from the Lord. It is a blessing to me, Branch and Michelle, and the Lord.

Have a blessed week y’all!

Elder Cummings

Photo DUMP:

-there was a classic car show here in town so we used it as an opportunity to go talk with people, met some cool people and saw some cool cars!

-pretty cool sunset

-the Aucoins("Oh-Quons") a legit Cajun family in Zachary. All those selfies are from inside Brother Aucoins' shed where he cooks all his Cajun food. So hype

 

9 Months!

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey, everyone!

So this week we had transfers!! Sister Bishop and I were both transferred out of Lynden and now I am back in Lynnwood.  I am with Sister Hatton, another sister who is newer to the mission, one transfer in. She is awesome, and we are serving in Alderwood!!

We met with a recent convert here and had an awesome new convert lesson with him, so that was awesome!

On Wednesday I hit my 9 months as a missionary! I'm halfway through, and honestly it's gone by so fast! And that sounds cliché and all but it really is the truth, and and its important to cherish and make the most of every moment and always grow from everything you experience!!

Okay, love you!!!

Sister Alyssa Putnam