S10 E5: Drippy Spoon

 (Elder Cummings)

So we get a call from Brother Mike Johnston:

"Elders! I made some biscuits but I made way too much, do yall want some?" Affirmative. We skirt on over there as quickly as possible before the sun goes down so we can do some street contacting. We grab the biscuits, share a scripture and say a prayer with him and get on the streets. We turn right and boom there is a sweet old lady sitting on her porch just staring at us smiling like she was waiting for us to say something to her. We say hi, she says hi, her name is Willor. It turns out she met with the missionaries 20 years ago and they read the Bible with her. It was getting dark and she is 80 so we shared a couple verses of scripture and set to come by the next day.

The next day Willor begins asking us about the afterlife and if she will be with her family and if her family would even be her family. We pull out a picture of the Baton Rouge temple as we describe and testify of the sealing power of families and the priesthood of God. She just looks at it and says "Wow. That is beautiful. I need to go there…what do I need to do?". Boom. Jaw dropped.

She soon after accepts a goal to be baptized on December 18 as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. She wants it so bad but she is very worried about it, the last of her siblings alive are devout followers of another church and are dissuading her. She says she knows this church is true and she wants to be a part of it but is scared. Please pray for her, this was no accident that we ran into her. If Brother Johnston wouldn't have made a huge surplus of biscuits we wouldn't have been there. If Willor wasn't outside we wouldn't have seen her. Please pray for Willor.

Elder Cummings

Willor, Zone Conference photos, and then some

Sunday miracles!

 (Elder Slade)

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

We had a really cool miracle this Sunday! We had a goal to find someone new to teach this week, and we still hadn't found Sunday. Our two finding appointments fell through, and we just kept praying wexe be able to find someone new to teach. All through it, I just felt peace from God that He would make it happen. We showed up to our second to last lesson that evening, and the people we were teaching brought their younger daughter named Mackenzie! We taught about prayer, and now they are going to pray as a family! We are going back next Sunfay to teach them again!

I learned two things from this experience. 1) God answers prayers. He cares about His children and wants to bless us. 2) God cares about families. We've been slowly teaching one of the kids in this family, and God has been providing ways to teach the entire family. It's amazing to feel the love He has for this family, and all of His children.

Love you all!

1. Us with a bus full of missionaries. It was pretty fun!

2. Saying goodbye to Elder Smith, who went to his original assignment.

3. We took out Karsten out teaching with us. He is awesome!

S10 E4: The Bethel Reform Methodist Church

 (Elder Cummings)

Good morning y'all!

A little bit of context:

There's this park here called Reverend Peter Atkins Park, commonly known as Rev Atkins, or even The Rev. Just being here for about a month now, I don't know who this Reverend is or was, just that he was a pretty awesome guy and very well loved.

Then just yesterday we join someone the other Elders are teaching at their worship service. His name is John and he is 83 and he is so cool. He goes to the Bethel Reform Methodist Church just down the road from us. There's a lot of clapping and swaying and singing and praying and it was a great time. But turns out that Reverend Atkins was a pastor that started the Bethel Reform Church about 60 years ago that got killed when he was in in his 40s. The current pastor is his son, so that was super cool to meet him and figure out his story.

One of the cooler experiences of my mission though happened at this church. They were having a mini testimony meeting like we usually do the first Sunday but people would just stand up and bear it from there. When there was a pause I stood up and had an opportunity to bear pure testimony about Jesus Christ, His Atonement and the power it has in our lives to a congregation of at least 50 people of another faith. There was the occasional "Amen" or "praise Jesus" and I greatly appreciated the opportunity they gave me to do that. What made it even more cool was that a couple other people in the congregation stood and bore their testimonies about how they've seen us around on the bikes and love what we do and know we're doing the Work of the Lord and gave us a big shout out for His sake. Another bore her testimony about us helping her with hurricane clean up about a month back and how it was an answer to her and her sons' prayers. That was awesome. I love the South.

A cool thought that was shared with me this week comes from the story of Joseph Smith. Joseph was a young boy, worried about his salvation and wondering which of all churches and denominations was the one established by Jesus Christ. He knew that it was only through Christ that he could find mercy, but so many different preachers and leaders preached different means of salvation and definitions of salvation. God knew his concerns and his questions. He knew Joseph's desires and worries of his heart. He was also fully aware of Joseph's efforts to find answers. But it wasn't until Joseph knelt in prayer and ASKED for an answer from our Father in Heaven that an answer, and a miraculous one, was given. It just struck me the importance of asking. I believe God wanted Joseph to exercise his faith in prayer. When Christ teaches in Matthew "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you" not only is it a promise, but an invitation, even a commandment. There is power in asking our Father for help and answers. "The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them".

Have a blessed one!

Elder Cummings

Photos:

1. John and the quad. He's awesome

2. Tex Dr🔥

3. Nancy gave me her late husbands jacket because "it was doing no good staying in a closet". She's so sweet

4. We destroyed a shed

5. Ms. Pat

6. Dorothy and Wilmer stunting with their mowers

My shoes are like my life!

 (Elder Slade)

This week was a super busy week! And next week is going to be another busy week. I love it so much though! Every day I end up being exhausted, but feels great knowing I'm doing something that's worth it. It reminds me of a quote, "My shoes are like my life, to be worn in the service of God!" And let me tell you, my shoes are being worn out! I love my mission so much!

This week we had an awesome miracle where we felt impressed to visit the mom of this one kid we are teaching. We stopped by and talked with her, and just bore testimony about how this gospel would bless their family and asked her to join us for the lessons with her son. She said yes and agreed that God could really help them! We are so excited for that family as they progress in learning about Jesus Christ!

I got a new companion this week, Elder Quigley! He is such an amazing missionary and I am so exciting to be with him! Elder Gurney is done with his mission and is pretty sad. I learned SO much from him this transfer!

Love you all!

Picture(there's only 1 😥):

1. Me and my new companion, Elder Quigley!

There are no transfers in Ba Sing Se

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey, everyone!

Well, the dreaded T word has arrived!! Sister Rice and I got a call on Friday and President asked her to be STL, so we are sad we won't be comps anymore, but the next adventure is exciting! This transfer went by so fast though.

This week we finished up filming the video and Sister Rice, with her impressive editing skills, worked her magic and put the video together!

Our friend, Kathie Thomas, who wasnt responding to us for awhile, had contacted us last week saying her son, Ben, was interested in attending church with us. He had researched the church and wanted to know more, so he's been watching zoom church and he came to the Halloween party on Friday and he really enjoyed it!!

Also, we met with Dina and got to know her more, and she is getting ready to have a baby. She is interested to find a church that she would want to raise her child in, so she's interested to see our church and what church services are like. Please pray that we'll be able to help her to come to church so she can feel God's love for her!!

Also, please pray for Amy, we havent been able to get into contact with her, and Anna as well!!

Love you all!!

Pictures!!

Our pumpkins we carved! Sister Rice is the sunflower and mine is the other one (I'm not sure what to call it)

And some chickens at a service project!

Sister Alyssa Putnam

S10 E3: Halloween with the NAACP

 (Elder Cummings)

Howdy y'all!

To celebrate Halloween, for dinner the other Elders and I made an obscene amount of French toast and ate it all while we listened to "It's Christmas Everyday" by David Archuleta. Best Halloween ever.

This week was all over the place. Including having some goulash, meeting two wonderful ladies over 90 years old, a wonderful friend of ours Darlene accepting a date to be baptized, and shoveling river sand for a man who broke his back in 5 places after wrestling an alligator.

One of the coolest parts of this week was Halloween afternoon. We were sitting in a park doing our companionship study when we saw an older couple struggling to open a big tent canopy. So Elder Weatherston and I go help them set it up. Turns out they're with the NAACP and were putting off a free candy give away/carnival for the youth in the area so they could have a safe and happy Halloween. Cedric and Francis literally moved from Chicago to help build and strengthen the young black community here with sports tournaments, parties, classes, etc. We got to help them finish up all the decorations and talk with them about what they do and what we do. It was do much fun. We got to meet the leader of the NAACP in the county and he was super old guy sporting a Vietnam vet cap using one of those old hand radios that has a like a foot long antenna to listen to the Saints game. We even got the invitation to join one of their meetings coming up! We'll have lots of opportunities to serve and help there and share the light of Christ.

Have a blessed one!

Elder Cummings

Lights, camera, action!

 (Sister Putnam)

Hey everyone!

So this week we went to Young Women's to get to know the young women, and it was a lot of fun! We did a painting activity and it was awesome!!

Oh also, about 2 months ago, Sister Hatton & I were getting stuff into the car before leaving to go somewhere, and the girl who parks next to our car came out at the same time and started talking to us and we connected really well.  We gave her our number, and she texted us! Well we ran into her again a couple weeks later and I was like "Hey we should go get ice cream sometime!!".  Last week we set up a time to get ice cream and on Tuesday we met her at the mall and got ice cream and got to know her.  She asked a lot of questions about our church and beliefs. She said religions are really beautiful to her and she is interested in attending Christmas services, so that would be awesome!! Sister Rice connected pretty well with her, (Her name is Sara, lol forgot to point that out) and so that will hopefully be good when I most likely transfer in a week!

Last week we were enlisted to film a video to get the youth excited about serving a mission, featuring the missionaries in the stake and their talents, so we spent a lot of time filming those.  Hopefully I can get those to you guys once they're done! It took up the majority of our week though haha, so that's the explanation for my email subject line!

Also, remember the lady from last week who needed a bed? Well, her name is Dina, and we had another Bible study with her and Sister Israelsen & Sister Durham and we learned a lot about her life, what she's been through, and she is just an incredibly strong and humble woman! We hope to teach her more soon, and to find some fellowship!

Amy has still been sick, so pray for Amy so that Sister Rice can meet her before I leave, and so that we can schedule a baptismal date for her!

Also, on Friday my Uncle Mark & Aunt Rebecca came and visited us and took us to MOD Pizza, and it was wonderful to see them, they are incredible!!

Love you all!!!

Sister Alyssa Putnam