Faith Will Move Mountains

I cannot believe it has already been another week!  Time flies so fast here.  We have taught more lessons, learned more Hmong, and we sent off one of our roommates to Korea and one of the Elders in our zone to Wisconsin.  It has been a great week.  I am so happy to be here serving my Creator with all my heart, might, mind, and strength.

In the Book of Mormon there is a passing reference to a prophet named Mahonri Moriancumer (referred to as "the brother of Jared" for short, sadly no relation) moving a mountain by his faith.  I have spent some time thinking about this verse and the applications it has for our lives today.  Moving mountains in our own lives--whether they by literal, financial, health related, spiritual, or otherwise--takes faith.  No one ever approaches an issue unless that have a belief that there will be a resolution.  Do they have proof that there will be a resolution?  No.  That is called faith.  The prophet Alma described faith as a "hope for things which are not seen, which are true" (Alma 32:21).

So how does faith move mountains?  The brother of Jared's story is not the only reference to faith to move mountains.  What I have found is that the scriptures do not consistently specify 1) the rate at which mountains are moved and 2) the amount of people moving the mountain.  We move mountains shovel-full by shovel-full and shoulder to shoulder--that is the pattern God has set.  None of us can move a mountain, and we really shouldn't even try to move a mountain, on our own.  We aught to work together in faith and labor until the work is done.  As we press forward and endure to the end I know that we will overcome any and all obstacles that block our path and slow our progress.  I know that we all posses that faith, that faith to work miracles.  The greatest miracle of all, that of the Atonement of Christ, was not even realized until after its completion.  Is it reasonable then to expect to recognize all the lesser miracles that occur in our lives before they come or as they occur?  No.  Look back on your lives.  Mountains have been moved.  Miracles have been wrought.  God's hand has always been in your life and it always will.

As I prepare to head out to Fresno in five more weeks I am impressed by the gravity of the work young LDS missionaries across the globe are called upon to do.  We are called to go forth to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people proclaiming that the truth of Christ's gospel is once again available in its fullness.  There are a lot of people in this world.  Missionary work truly is a mountain.  I have absolute confidence that as the efforts to grow Christ's kingdom and prepare the earth for his return continue, as hundreds of thousands young men and women work shoulder to shoulder in faith, in time that mountain will be moved.  In time scattered Israel will be gathered.  The message of the Restoration continues to roll forth.  It will not be long before it fills the earth.  It will not be long until Christ returns to rule and reign forever.  I am so humbled that I have been called to serve a mission.  I am so grateful that I have been called to move this mountain.

This week we watched this video in one of my classes that I loved immediately.  It is an explanation of the Book of Mormon by a living apostle named Jeffery R. Holland.  Elder Holland, like the apostles of old, has been called to to bear a special witness of Christ's divinity.  I would encourage you all to watch it.  https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2009-07-29-gods-words-never-cease?lang=eng

I would like to close this letter with my testimony of the Book of Mormon.  I may not be as eloquent or wise as Elder Holland, but I do know for myself that the Book of Mormon is in fact scripture, as is the Bible.  I know that it truly does teach men the way to follow their Savior, as does the Bible.  What sets the Book of Mormon apart from the Bible is that if the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith was truly a prophet called of God.  If Joseph Smith truly was a prophet called of God then we can know that God speaks today through a prophet, Thomas S. Monson, that God does live, that He loves us, that His son loves us.  We can know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on the earth, the only church with true authority to baptize unto salvation.  I know all these things to be true because I have prayed to know.  I went straight to the source and asked God.  I have never been content with taking the opinions and persuasions of others as fact.  I encourage you not to either, but rather to go straight to the source, to pray to know what is truth.  I bear witness that as you do so in humility and faith, by the power of the Holy Ghost you can know the truth of all things, even the truth of the Book of Mormon.

I love you all.  Thank you for supporting me in this mission.

-Elder Cummings