The Truck Gives Perspective & Baptisms for the living and the Dead

(Elder Cummings)

This week was a landmark week.  After months of consistent effort I have finally hit double-digits for lessons taught with members present.  Before my mission I did not appreciate the value of members in missionary work.  I saw it as a way to prepare for a mission, not as a way to powerfully and effectively teach the gospel of Jesus Christ.  As full-time missionaries we do our best to teach with Christlike love, but it is the lay members of the church who come and teach with us that most effectively bring in a spirit of charity.  My vision of how the work of salvation progresses has been greatly enlarged by my mission experience.

We have a new truck...again.  This one is a better looking color, drives smoother, is newer, etc.  I have been with Elder Gray for three full weeks.  In that time we were driving a 2017 Chevy Malibu, then a 2016 Nissan Rouge, a 2014 Nissan Frontier, and now a 2015 Frontier.  This is not normal.  A long list of unforeseen events, none of them car crashes, had us changing cars every 5-6 days.  About six months ago I went from the smallest and most basic apartment in the mission to the largest with the most "luxury" features.  Within three weeks I went from holding no leadership position to overseeing all missionary efforts in 12 wards and branches, and the missionaries who served there.  Because of my leadership responsibilities I receive more money for food monthly (we are on the road a lot more, so this ends up getting spent up at McDonalds).  In summary I rapidly was given, as the world might define it, more money, more power, and more cool toys.  From almost none to almost having no room to get more.  I was reflecting on this as we drove up from Fresno on Wednesday.  All of these changes have not done anything to make me happier.  Happiness does not come from having more.  I am grateful for what really matters.  I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Bertha and Jessica were baptized this last Saturday!  It was a wonderful service!  Their friend who was going to baptize them was sick, so Elder Gray and I threw on our white pants, changed our ties, and performed the ordinances.  On Sunday they received the gift of the Holy Ghost.  They were beyond joy.  Armando, one of Bertha's sons, came to support them.  He hasn't drank coffee in two weeks, fueled by faith that God has commanded us not to partake of it in the Word of Wisdom.

The same morning of their baptism we were in the Fresno temple performing baptisms for the dead with some of the Hmong recent converts.  Saving ordinances for the living and the dead in the same day!  This trip was the first time that I heard Hmong names receiving their ordinances.  That was neat.  The Hmong have no written records earlier that the middle of last century.  Knowing your ancestry is not common.

It has been a great week.

With love,

Elder Cummings