Field Trip

Once again it has been another amazing week here at the MTC.  Elder LaRose and I got roommates on Wednesday and that has been a change.  For the first bit it was just us in the room and that was great.  We double stacked the mattresses and kept it all nice and clean.  With four people in a room it is a little harder to do that.  The new missionaries are Korean speaking, so we have completely different schedules.  We only see them when we get up in the morning and when we go down at night.

Another exciting thing that happened Saturday night was that we got to go off campus to the hospital!  Elder LaRose has some kind of infection in his finger so the MTC drove us to the hospital to get a diagnosis.  That was actually a lot of fun.  Missionaries at the MTC are just about never allowed to leave.  After the visit with the doctor we went over to Walgreen to fill a prescription...and maybe to buy some candy too.  I now have an enormous bag of Reeses and an occasional stomach ache.  His finger is doing great.

The topic of our sacrament meeting this Sunday was "recognizing the spirit."  As such, I spent a lot of time pondering this topic.  After a while two things occurred to me.  Number One: as with all things in the gospel, we grow "line upon line, precept upon precept" (D&C 98:12) in learning to recognize the Holy Ghost.  Just as with faith, humility, charity, and obedience, there are no profound moments of revelation that whip us around 180 and cause lasting change.  We grow step by step.  Recognizing the Spirit is the same way.  It is a process that can take a lifetime or more to master.  Number Two: recognition comes from consistently repeated actions and observations.  Just like a stop sign the Holy Ghost is a real thing.  I think it is safe to say that we don't remember the first time we saw a stop sign or when we understood what it meant, but over time we learned to recognize the stop signs and the behavior that is appropriate in response to one.  Recognizing the Holy Ghost is the same way.  We must always be watching for it.  Just like with stop signs, even if you know what they are you can still miss them if you don't pay attention.  Learning to recognize the Spirit comes from trying to recognize it.  Preach My Gospel has a (by no means all inclusive) list of 28 different ways the Spirit can be felt on pages 95 and 96.  In the past I have spent days consciously watching for these 28 ways and I have never once had a day that all 28 were not felt at some point.

As promised I am sending a picture this week.  This is the district of Hmong missionaries in front of the Provo Temple.  My companion is the one behind me in the pink tie.  On the top row (left to right) we've got Elder Keisker, Elder Thomas, Elder LaRose, Elder Ferguson, and Elder Davis.  On the bottom is Elder Bauer, Elder Harper, me, Elder Vang, and Elder Vang.  Those two are both native speakers and are leaving us for the mission field this week.  We are going to miss them.  Having someone who knows the language in class helps a lot.  We are the largest group of Hmong to come through the MTC by six.

Email time is up this week.  I love you all.  Thank you for the emails and letters you've been sending me!

-Elder Jared Cummings