(Elder Cummings)
Hey y'all!!
This week was probably my first "normal" week. We
have the car back, there's no impending hurricane, our dryers almost working
again, etc. It's been good. Some days we're stacked with appts and busy the
entire day, and some days we gotta fight to be productive and spend time.
Missionaries no longer go tracting(knocking door to door). And thats not a
Covid thing, we just don't do that anymore so now when we have open time we
gotta find other efficient and effective ways to reach out to people and
contact.
We played Settlers of Catan this morning and I finally won,
just had to say that.
We had zone conference this weekend! About 30ish
missionaries in the New Orleans area got together and listened to messages from
the mission president and others. We talked a lot about the importance of members
in missionary work and it was awesome. In the end, the missionaries are only as
effective as the members in their unit. We will only be around for a couple
months and then we are transferred, but members stay there and can be real
friends and provide lasting support and love far longer than we can. On top of
this, too often people we find to teach see us as preachers not teachers, and
salesman not ministers. Members are immediately another "normal"
person those we teach can talk to and connect to. If any of you are wondering
how you can best help the missionaries...join them in lessons, trust them with
your friends who you know need the gospel, do what you can to help them
teach...and then feed them🤣. The food y'all cook us
only brings so much happiness, even if its the vegetarian curry that I had last
week(actually so good). But the happiness the gospel of Jesus Christ brings
into our lives is greater than anything else.
We went to New Orleans today and walked around, entered a
Cathedral there, which was super pretty. What was awesome is we passed this
massage place and their ads were in Chinese and I was like "oh cool".
As we walked by the two guys were speaking Mandarin to each other but I didn't
much of it until my companion was like "is that Chinese?" And then
told me I had to go talk to them. Not having spoken Mandarin in about 3 weeks
besides to myself I was super nervous but I asked if they spoke Mandarin and
told them that I was a missionary and I was learning Chinese. We talked for a
bit and then a young girl came out, probably one of the guy's daughters and
said she could teach me Chinese! Whats even better is that she said she was a
Christian and asked for the address for our church! We gave it to her and gave
her our number and then made sure we were friends on Facebook. (Almost all in
Chinese! I could NOT have done that without God's help) It was so awesome. God
puts people in your path but of you don't open your mouth you're not gonna meet
them. I'm grateful for my companion that told me to go back
Brother Palmquist shared something awesome during church
this week. He shared that no matter what kind of God we believe in, what
characteristics we believe He has, or what His doctrine is, when we pray we are
all praying to the same God. We all understand Him differently but that does
not change the need we have for Him, the trust we have in Him, and the love we
have for Him. Nor does it change the love He has for us. God's love is real. It
is real.
Elder Cummings
Fotos:
1. On the way to an English class for some Spanish speakers
we met...yes...I know I dont speak a lick of Spanish but thats what makes it
fun.
2. Louisiana sunsets, picture doesn't do it justice, it was
literally a rainbow sunset. I don't even know how that works
3. Standing by some sign, don't know what the 300 means
though
4. The Catholic Cathedral we went into. It had some super
cool ceiling murals that I would've taken a picture of but I wasn't supposed to
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