Back to the basics

(Elder Cummings)

Last Monday we woke up in Fresno, took care of needed chores, cleaned up from the New Years, had a choir practice for mission conference with a member of the Quorum of the Twelve (the actual date of the visit will be the 28th of this month) and we then drove up to Merced just in time to run the transferly zone meeting.  We then jumped right back into traditional missionary work.

One of the highlights of the week was exchanges with the McKee elders.  I spent the day working with Elder Petit mostly in Atwater (a smaller town about twenty minutes north west of Merced), but we made it down to Merced for the evening.  Elder Petit is a fantastic missionary with a fantastic testimony of the Atonement.  He taught very powerfully to every less-active member we saw that day (that is where most of our work in the branch is, less-actives).  He is a very humble missionary, and in spite of that sometimes he still reminds me of myself earlier in my missionary service.  He came straight out of high school, just like I did.  Missions make you grow up fast.

One of the miracles we saw when we were working together came at 9:20pm, ten minutes before we had to be home since we weren't in a lesson (Zone leaders in the California Fresno Mission we sleep a little less and teach a little more).  Following a prompting we knocked on a strangers door.  He opened it, and willingly took a copy of the Book of Mormon.  The man said he needed more good in his life, and thanked us for coming by.  It was a contact that was meant to happen.  We handed him off as a referral to the elders who cover the Yosemite ward.

God has so many prepared children.  Most of them are prepared earlier in the day than that man was.  They need the peace and happiness that comes from living and knowing the restored gospel.

We will be having a baptism this Friday for Saint and Stephen Xiong.  The miracles keep coming.

With love,

Elder Cummings

P.S. An update on that missionary who was going to go home for medical reasons, they have determined to stay out with the goal to finish their mission.  President and Sister Clark are making sure they get the care they need and that they can now still reach their life-long goal of having served all of full-time mission.  I know that this course of action was selected in response to revelation from God to His authorized leaders, in the case of a medical release that is a General Authority Seventy with a special assignment and delegated keys from God's living prophet, Thomas S. Monson.  God truly does guide the work, and He truly does guide our lives..