I Am a Child of God

(Elder Cummings)

This is my last email from the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.  These nine weeks have gone by so fast.  It really blows my mind at how fast it has come and gone.  Elder LaRose, my companion, leaves tomorrow morning at 3:30, so I now have less than fifteen hours with him!  We have become great friends.  The MTC has been full of memories.  In 48 hours I will be in Fresno, California.  This is when the fun begins!

I have learned more about the California Fresno Mission this week.  For Hmong speakers there are two areas currently.  There is a chance that a third one could be opened if another Hmong Elder comes along in addition to me.  All the Hmong missionaries attend the same congregation for the entire duration of their mission, although they do switch apartments every so often.  Not a typical LDS missionary experience, but I am looking forward to it!

This week we had the opportunity to hear from another member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Dallin H. Oaks.  His address to us missionaries focused on the Plan of Salvation and its central purpose in the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The Living Christ, a document produced by the church in 2000, bears testimony of Christ's life, stating "He taught the truths of eternity, the reality of the premortal existence, the purpose of our life on earth, and the potential for sons and daughters of God in the life to come."  Everything we do in this life is intended to prepare us to RETURN to live with God.  All saving ordinances, all commandments, and all gospel principles are made with that purpose in mind.  As Elder Oaks said, "this life is the second act of a three act play."  Understanding our relationship with God is essential to our progression in the gospel.

And we are literal spirit children of an omnipotent God.

There is a children's hymn entitled "I am a Child of God" that teaches this truth.  Beginning in the first verse it states:

"I am a child of God,

And he has sent me here,

Has given me an earthly home

With parents kind and dear."

We are children of God.  He did send us here with the intent that we can learn and progress.  When we lived with God before we did not have bodies of flesh and blood like our Father.  We existed as merely spirits.  God loved us enough to give us the opportunity to have physical bodies.  Under the direction of the Father, Jesus Christ, the literal Firstborn of the Father, was the creator of the earth.  "All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:3).  God sent us to this earthly home through physical families, families modeled after the one we came from and the one we hope to return to.  The family is essential to God's plan for our mortality and our eternity.  The bodies we posses in mortality are imperfect, capable of sickness and death, but through the Atonement of the Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, we can be raised in perfect bodies like our Father and now our Savior have, for "he (Christ) breaketh the bands of death, that the grave shall have no victory" (Alma 22:14).

The song goes on:

"I am a child of God,

And so my needs are great;

Help me to understand his words

Before it grows too late."

We are children of God.  Our potential is limitless.  As C.S. Lewis once stated, "you have never met a mere mortal."  We have needs, spiritual needs, that need to be met if we are to live up to our divine potential.  These needs are met through the gospel of Jesus Christ, through "first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; thirs, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost" (Articles of Faith 1:4) And that is not the end!  As the prophet Nephi wrote "and now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold I, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.  Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.  Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life" (2 Nephi 31:19-20).  To have salvation we must do more than get on the path, more than standing behind the Savior.  We must continue on the path and follow His example.  Christ invites all to follow Him.  The invitation is extended to all who hear.  "Come and follow me" (Matthew 19:21).

In verse three we sing:

"I am a child of God.

Rich blessings are in store;

If I but learn to do his will

I'll live with him once more."

Rich blessings are in store!  God desires so much for us and all that He asks is that we "learn to do his will."  God "knoweth all things" (2 Nephi 2:24) and He "loveth his children" (1 Nephi 11:17).  We are His children!  He wants only the best for us.  His will is His will because that is the only path for us to have the full measure of happiness, the happiness that comes from living with Him once more.  God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance (Alma 45:16).  Why?  Because if He allowed sin He would be denying us the full measure of happiness that is available to us.  He loves us too much to allow that.  The gospel is a message that brings happiness.  It is a message that brings us again into the presence of our Father.  It is the path whereby we return.  It is the way for our families to be together forever.

Then there is the chorus:

"Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,

Help me find the way.

Teach me all that I must do

To live with him someday."

The Savior does lead us, He does guide us, He does walk beside us, and when the times get hard He does carry us.  He is always there to help us.  He has taught us all that we must do through the example of His matchless life and He continues to instruct us through prayers and the personal revelation that accompanies the Holy Ghost.  I bear solemn testimony that through the power of Jesus Christ's Atonement we will live again with Him.  We will again live with our Father.  We will again live with our Brother and Savior.  Our mortality has a purpose.  It is the second act in a three act play.

With love,

Elder A. Jared Cummings