The Grind won't stop in Baton Rouge

 (Elder Cummings)

That's right. I've been temporarily reassigned to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Louisiana Baton Rouge Mission! This is because of Covid restrictions that I won't start my mission in Taiwan. However, Taiwan's borders are open so it is only a matter of getting a Visa. What a tender mercy that is. Many missionaries have been reassigned not only because of Visa's but mainly because the countries they're going to have closed their borders in response to Covid. What a tender mercy Taiwan has dealt with Covid so well that they have had less than 500 cases the whole pandemic, despite being "across the pond" from China. I can't wait for my opportunity to serve and teach people in Taiwan. However, I am so excited to go to Louisiana in a couple weeks; it'll be a great opportunity for me to get better at teaching people interested in the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my native language, and then "transfer" my skills to Mandarin and not doing both at the same time.

This week has been fairly regular, many other missionaries in my district have gotten reassignments, from Washington, to Florida, to Texas, to DC, North Carolina, to Cali, etc. However, we're growing really close as a district and have a lot of fun together, even though it is over zoom and almost all the time we see each other is during a class. I've spent most of the week with my good friends Elder Vines and Elder Fagergren, just swapping whose house we spend the day on zoom and studying scriptures and our mission languages. Vines is learning French, Fagergren's learning Japanese, and I'm learning Mandarin, so it's a lot of fun.

The spiritual thought comes from something I learned for myself while preparing for a lesson Elder Liang and I had to teach. The person we were teaching had never believed in a God, and wasn't comfortable saying he believed in one. Because of that, we would eventually need to teach him about our Savior Jesus Christ and if there is a God, why do we need a Savior? I figured a question he had would be if God is all powerful, then why can't He just forgive us when we repent of our sins? Why does there need to be someone else in the middle? I really thought about it and asked my good friend Elder Fagergren, and also studied some scriptures. I didn't really have an answer for that question at first, and I still don't have a perfect answer but this is what I have thought and been taught on why we need a Savior...

God is perfect. God is just. Because God is both of these things, when we sin there must be a punishment. If there was no punishment for breaking the law there would be no justice. If God did not punish those who broke divine laws, He would not be just, He would not be perfect and "God would cease to be God" Alma 42:17-18...

17 Now, how could a man repent except he should sin? How could he sin if there was no law? How could there be a law save there was a punishment?

18 Now, there was a punishment affixed, and a just law given, which brought remorse of conscience unto man.

Because we sin, there is a punishment. If we repented and therefore received no punishment, that is not just either. There must be some remedy made for when we sin. That is why we need a Savior. Jesus Christ has taken that punishment. He has taken ALL the punishment for ALL our sins. "And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind...he will take upon him death...the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance"(Alma 7:11-13). Now I'm not saying we do not receive punishment when we sin, I'm saying when we REPENT we no longer suffer that punishment because our Savior already has. He willingly offered His life and willingly suffered everything, so we don't have to. Now I don't understand the divine mechanism that allows that to happen, but I do know it is through the Savior and His Atonement that we are made clean and that we have hope. I know it is through Christ and only through Christ, that we can be forgiven, obtain mercy, and no longer suffer the punishments and pains from our sins when we turn to Him and sincerely repent. In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

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Some photos...

This is my awesome looking Mandarin Bible

We were feeling a change of scenery, something a little more...exotic...welcome to Sabah Borneo, Malaysia everyone...