The Season Premiere (the Grind actually just started)

 (Elder Cummings)

Hello everyone!!

I landed in Baton Rouge on Tuesday last week and it feels like forever ago. The first night was all us greeny missionaries staying the night at the mission presidents home. The next day we all met our trainer companions!

My companion's Elder Christensen, he's pretty dang cool. Hes about 5 foot 4, served in Chile until Coronavirus hit and was reassigned here. He's making it a lot of fun and already making me a better missionary. We live with two other elders, Elder Aldala and Elder Roodbol. They're all soooo funny and get the job done.

Because of coronavirus we do what my mission president refers to as "hybrid missionary work". Basically we do a good bit in person and a good bit through Facebook to find people and have discussions about Christ. Then we call all of our referrals and things like that.

My area is super cool. We're in the West Bank, south of New Orleans. Yeah I know there's not a lot south of New Orleans. My area is actually pretty big but only a small portion is covered by living area because most of the land is bayou and swampy or its not actually land but lakes and rivers and stuff. It can get sketchy the northern part of our area that includes downtown New Orleans but I've never felt unsafe and where our apartment is is a nice area.

This week a lot of lessons fell through but as missionaries thats expected, especially because many appts are with people we haven't actually met yet. But we're in the Bible Belt baby, the people LOVE Jesus and its amazing. Its so fun to talk to people who already have a deep faith and devotion to God and Christ, it provides a lot of connection and respect.

I'll tell you more about my friends and those we're teaching next week once I've met most of them, but they're all awesome I can assure you that.

My spiritual thought comes from two things: at the mission home the first night all the new missionaries were asked to share their testimony as pure as simple as possible and that made me think about what to say. Second, because this is the Bible Belt, sometimes people can be pretty contentious and seek to bible bash. What you have to do is close your book and bear testimony, bringing up scriptures to throw dirt on each other will never do anything but make everyone angry that they're dirty.

Anyway, I know Christ is my Savior and I know His Atonement works. I know His Atonement works because I've used it. It's as simple as that. Nothing is as personal and universal as the Saviors Atonement. I KNOW it works because I have USED it and no power on earth can convince me otherwise. I say that in His name, Jesus Christ, Amen.