I Am a Child of God

(Elder Cummings)

This is my last email from the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.  These nine weeks have gone by so fast.  It really blows my mind at how fast it has come and gone.  Elder LaRose, my companion, leaves tomorrow morning at 3:30, so I now have less than fifteen hours with him!  We have become great friends.  The MTC has been full of memories.  In 48 hours I will be in Fresno, California.  This is when the fun begins!

I have learned more about the California Fresno Mission this week.  For Hmong speakers there are two areas currently.  There is a chance that a third one could be opened if another Hmong Elder comes along in addition to me.  All the Hmong missionaries attend the same congregation for the entire duration of their mission, although they do switch apartments every so often.  Not a typical LDS missionary experience, but I am looking forward to it!

This week we had the opportunity to hear from another member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Elder Dallin H. Oaks.  His address to us missionaries focused on the Plan of Salvation and its central purpose in the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The Living Christ, a document produced by the church in 2000, bears testimony of Christ's life, stating "He taught the truths of eternity, the reality of the premortal existence, the purpose of our life on earth, and the potential for sons and daughters of God in the life to come."  Everything we do in this life is intended to prepare us to RETURN to live with God.  All saving ordinances, all commandments, and all gospel principles are made with that purpose in mind.  As Elder Oaks said, "this life is the second act of a three act play."  Understanding our relationship with God is essential to our progression in the gospel.

And we are literal spirit children of an omnipotent God.

There is a children's hymn entitled "I am a Child of God" that teaches this truth.  Beginning in the first verse it states:

"I am a child of God,

And he has sent me here,

Has given me an earthly home

With parents kind and dear."

We are children of God.  He did send us here with the intent that we can learn and progress.  When we lived with God before we did not have bodies of flesh and blood like our Father.  We existed as merely spirits.  God loved us enough to give us the opportunity to have physical bodies.  Under the direction of the Father, Jesus Christ, the literal Firstborn of the Father, was the creator of the earth.  "All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:3).  God sent us to this earthly home through physical families, families modeled after the one we came from and the one we hope to return to.  The family is essential to God's plan for our mortality and our eternity.  The bodies we posses in mortality are imperfect, capable of sickness and death, but through the Atonement of the Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, we can be raised in perfect bodies like our Father and now our Savior have, for "he (Christ) breaketh the bands of death, that the grave shall have no victory" (Alma 22:14).

The song goes on:

"I am a child of God,

And so my needs are great;

Help me to understand his words

Before it grows too late."

We are children of God.  Our potential is limitless.  As C.S. Lewis once stated, "you have never met a mere mortal."  We have needs, spiritual needs, that need to be met if we are to live up to our divine potential.  These needs are met through the gospel of Jesus Christ, through "first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; thirs, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost" (Articles of Faith 1:4) And that is not the end!  As the prophet Nephi wrote "and now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold I, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.  Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men.  Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life" (2 Nephi 31:19-20).  To have salvation we must do more than get on the path, more than standing behind the Savior.  We must continue on the path and follow His example.  Christ invites all to follow Him.  The invitation is extended to all who hear.  "Come and follow me" (Matthew 19:21).

In verse three we sing:

"I am a child of God.

Rich blessings are in store;

If I but learn to do his will

I'll live with him once more."

Rich blessings are in store!  God desires so much for us and all that He asks is that we "learn to do his will."  God "knoweth all things" (2 Nephi 2:24) and He "loveth his children" (1 Nephi 11:17).  We are His children!  He wants only the best for us.  His will is His will because that is the only path for us to have the full measure of happiness, the happiness that comes from living with Him once more.  God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance (Alma 45:16).  Why?  Because if He allowed sin He would be denying us the full measure of happiness that is available to us.  He loves us too much to allow that.  The gospel is a message that brings happiness.  It is a message that brings us again into the presence of our Father.  It is the path whereby we return.  It is the way for our families to be together forever.

Then there is the chorus:

"Lead me, guide me, walk beside me,

Help me find the way.

Teach me all that I must do

To live with him someday."

The Savior does lead us, He does guide us, He does walk beside us, and when the times get hard He does carry us.  He is always there to help us.  He has taught us all that we must do through the example of His matchless life and He continues to instruct us through prayers and the personal revelation that accompanies the Holy Ghost.  I bear solemn testimony that through the power of Jesus Christ's Atonement we will live again with Him.  We will again live with our Father.  We will again live with our Brother and Savior.  Our mortality has a purpose.  It is the second act in a three act play.

With love,

Elder A. Jared Cummings

Repentance: An Open Invitation

(Elder Cummings)

This week has been a blast.  I have seen so many people I know which has actually been a little strange.  I saw both Elder Nick Alvarez from New Jersey and Elder Logan Maloy from Illinois just yesterday.  It is so nice to see people you love doing something that you know will make them happy.

We got our flight plans this last Friday.  All the Hmong Elders but me and one other leave the 8th before 4:00am.  Elder Ferguson and I leave the next day, he goes at 4:45 and I go at 6:00.  By the end of the day I will be in Fresno California where I will be for the next two years.  Wow.

The topic that has been on my mind this week is repentance.  As I have pondered the topic I have started to appreciate it a lot more.  As missionaries our purpose is to "invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end" (Preach My Gospel, p. 1).  Understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ is essential to serving as a missionary and repentance is an essential part of that gospel.

I have come to the conclusion that repentance is more than just being cleansed of sins through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  Repentance is an open invitation to rise up from our fallen state and develop celestial character.  In Mormon theology we believe that the purpose of our existence is to become like God.  We believe that God is the literal father of our souls.  Just as mortal fathers do not intend for their children to have it all worse off than they do, God does not want for us to have less than all He has.  In Matthew 7:11 we read "if ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"  Family relationships in this life are patterned after those we have in Heaven with our Father and Mother who are in Heaven.

To live with them again we have to become like them.  We have to have the character of Christ, we have to put off the natural man and become a saint through the Atonement of Jesus Christ the Lord (Mosiah 3:19).  Christ showed us by his example how we must live to return to live with God, and there to inherit all our Father has.  Christ made the way possible for us to become better people. For "all we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way" and in doing so we have turned away from God (Isaiah 53:5).  Because of this "it is expedient that an atonement should be made; for according to the great plan of the Eternal God there must be an atonement made, or else all mankind must unavoidably perish...except it be through the atonement which it is expedient should be made" (Alma 34:9).

Through the Atonement and through repentance we have to opportunity to be better each day, to become more like God each day.  Repentance is not just about cleaning up our actions, but it is "to change our thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors that are not in harmony with [God's] will" (Preach My Gospel p. 62).

I invite you all to look at your lives and make the decision to repent, or in other words, to make the decision to know God better.  Repentance necessitates learning better who God is and our relationship with Him as His literal spirit children.  I know and bear testimony that true happiness is found only in living in accordance with God's will.  Repentance is the process by which our will is brought in line with God's.  Repentance is the process by which we become more godlike.  When we repent we change from living in disobedience to obedience.  Obedience is the only way to receive blessings (D&C 130:20-21).  Blessings, as define by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, are "anything contributing to true happiness, well-being, or prosperity" (The Guide to the Scriptures; "Bless, Blessed, Blessing).  I invite you all to repent.  I invite you all to live happier lives.  I promise that you will.  The Lord's way is the only way to eternal joy.  If you do not yet know the Lord's way I invite you to learn.  It is the only way. 

The Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.  He is our brother and our friend.  I leave this testimony with you in His sacred name, amen.

- Elder Jared Cummings

Giving 100%

(Elder Cummings)

This has definitely been the fastest week yet.  Last Monday my companion and I were making jokes about how it was almost P-day and we were right.  Time flies.  Time flies FAST.  Two weeks from tomorrow Elder LaRose leaves for Milwaukee and I leave for Fresno the next morning.  It is strange to think that of all the companions I will have on my mission, he will be my companion for the shortest period of time.  Hmong Elders don't get transferred much.

I have been thinking a lot this week about what God expects of His children.  It is often said by missionaries that they haven't come on a mission to give less than 100%.  That is a great attitude, but it comes from the wrong mindset.  What is two years in the scope of eternity?  It doesn't matter how hard we work for two years if we don't continue to work for our whole lives.  A better way of looking at it that I am begging to appreciate this week is that we have not entered this mortality to give less than 100%.  We entered this mortality with the intent of returning to live with our Father in Heaven.  That is done when we surrender our whole soul, all the desires and intents of our hearts, to the will of the Father.  It is done when we give 100%.

In 3 Nephi 27 is one of my favorite chapters of the Book of Mormon.  In this chapter the disciples of Christ in the Americas are praying together asking what the name of the church should be called. Christ appears and teaches them.  Whenever I read this chapter I think about how it applies to me.  I substitute myself in for the church.  If I am Christ's I aught to act like it.  Specifically in verse thirteen Christ says "Behold I have given unto you my gospel, and this is the gospel which I have given unto you--that I came into the world to do the will of my Father, because my Father sent me."  At baptism we covenant to follow Christ's example and the example he has set is a perfect commitment to do God's will, not our own.  If we want to be saved, to return to live with God again, that is what we must do.  We must give all we are to do what God's will.  God loves us all and only desires our happiness.  Disobedience to God's commandments show that we don't really believe He is an all knowing God who want to best for us.  Our actions are an expression of our commitment and understanding.  If we want to understand more we need to be willing and actively trying to live better.

I know that God lives, I know that He loves us, I know that we are His children, and although I may not always live it I know that God wants what is best for us.  Obedience is the way for us to receive any and all promised blessings.  Obedience is how we come to know God.  Obedience brings us into His presence.  All through my mission and throughout my life I intend to be more obedient with every passing day, or in other words I want to know my God better.  I promise you all that if you commit to being more obedient to the will of the Father, if you give 100%, there will be blessings.  The windows of heaven will be open and there will not be room enough to receive them.

I love this work.  I love this church, and I love my God and King.

I hope you all have a great week!

     - Elder Jared Cummings

I am loving it!

It could definitely be said that Elder LaRose and I have the MTC down.  As of this morning the group that entered the MTC with us are the oldest missionaries in our branch.  We have been here all of six weeks.

This last Tuesday I got a surprise package in the mail from Fresno, California!  The Hmong Elders I will be serving with sent me a box full of Hmong candy and seaweed and some REALLY hot peppers.  Apparently the Hmong eat crazy spicy food with every meal.  The heat grows on you after a while.

To make the week more interesting, for our Sunday Evening Devotional yesterday the MTC invited the Nashville Tribute Band to come do a concert for all the missionaries.  They are an LDS Christian/country rock band.  The choir sang backup on three of their songs.  That is definitely unprecedented at the MTC.  It was neat to see how the Spirit was invited by the music they played, even though their music is not what is typically considered as spiritual in the Church.

Having the Spirit, also called the Holy Ghost, with us has been the topic of much of my thoughts and scripture study this week.  We believe that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three distinctly separate beings who are united in one purpose.  That purpose, as described in one of my favorite verses of scripture, is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39).  With that in mind, every time that the Holy Ghost influences our lives, or anyone's life, it is for the purpose of bringing us closer to God.  If we spend our entire lives turning inwards and focusing on our own needs then we will be prompted about things that help bring to pass our own immortality and eternal life.  If we spend our lives turning our focus outwards, to others, then the Holy Ghost can prompt us into action to help accomplish the work and will of the Father in bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of all those we come into contact with.  the influence of the Holy Ghost increases exponentially when we strive to serve others.  We will always be nearer to God as our attention moves farther from ourselves.

Elder Jake Wilkinson, my cousin, is leaving the MTC this week to serve in Milan, Italy.  He and I were born on the same day and we entered the MTC together on June 8.  We have seen each other around pretty regularly and that has never failed to brighten up my day.  We are the best of friends.  I love him and I know he will do great things with the Italian people.

He shared something with me yesterday that I want to share with all of you.  God has not called me to serve in Fresno, California because I know Hmong, will learn Hmong, or even can learn Hmong.  I have been called to serve in Fresno, Jake has been called to serve in Milan, and since the foundation of the church over one million missionaries have served in various missions all over the earth, and all of us have gone where we have because the Lord needed someone who could love the people the way the people needed to be loved.  Success as a missionary comes from the love you feel for all of God's children with whom you come in contact each day.  Learning to love others completely and liberally is one central purpose of our mortality.  I am grateful for the chance I have over the next two years and the rest of my life to apply this truth.

Three more weeks to Fresno!  I can't wait!

love,

Elder Jared Cummings

The Need for the Liahona

This week we passed the halfway point of our stay at the MTC.  That is hard for me to grasp.  As much progress as I have had with the language so far, I still don't think I'll be comfortable going out and speaking only Hmong to people in just another month.  It is going to come fast.

We sent off two more missionaries since I last wrote.  One was the other Korean roommate we have had and the other was one of the native Hmong elders.  We miss them both.  Class has definitely been more difficult without Elder Vang.  Of the eight Hmong Elders left, four will be joining him next month.  It really has been amazing at how well we have all meshed together.  Each Elder is different, but it works real well.  There haven't been any issues between any of the Elders.  We all get along great.

The topic of sacrament meeting yesterday was the Book of Mormon.  To prepare for it I spent a lot of time in the Book of Mormon, specifically 1 Nephi 16.  This is the chapter where Lehi finds the Liahona to guide them to the promised land and when Nephi breaks his bow and the family goes hungry for a while.  It occurred to me as I was reading it that this chapter is an extended metaphor for the need of continuing revelation.  I ended up taking a few pages of notes explaining all the symbolism and implications. 

The Liahona, a "ball of curious workmanship" (1 Nephi 16:10) that directs Lehi and his family to the promised land is symbolic of continuing revelation.  The pointers which gave direction "did work according to the faith and diligence and heed" that they gave to it (1 Nephi 16:28).  The writing that told them the word of the Lord was "plain to read" and "changed from time to time according to the faith and diligence which we gave unto it" (1 Nephi 16:29).  It is the same way with living prophets.  They speak for the Lord in our day today.  What they teach changes from time to time according to the needs and issues that face the world today.  Prophets teach plain and simple truths, inviting all to repent, believe in Christ, and come unto him through making sacred covenants.  We may not understand how they work, but we know that they are of God, and help us to go where we need to go, "keeping [us] in the more fertile parts of the wilderness" that we call mortality (1 Nephi 16:14).

Twice in this chapter Lehi and his family stop traveling for a time (1 Nephi 16:17, 33).  In both instances, what follows is starvation and an inability to access food, symbolic of the spiritual food we need that comes in a large part through prophets who speak in the same way that Moses, Abraham, Adam, and the prophets of old did.  When the family stopped traveling--stopped being guided by the continuing revelation of the Liahona--they were not literally physically nourished and symbolically they were not spiritually nourished either.  This separation from spiritual food through God's appointed way is referred to as apostasy.

We believe that following the death of Jesus Christ and his original twelve apostles the priesthood authority so often referenced in the New Testament as the power by which Christ and his apostles acted was lost from the earth for a time.  This period of time is called the Great Apostasy.  As Paul testified in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, speaking of Christ's Second Coming, "that day shall no come, except there come a falling away first."  The Great Apostasy is what he was speaking of.  This prophecy was known even in Old Testament times as we read in the Book of Amos that "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it."  So, for over one thousand years following Christ's death the truth was on the earth, but not accompanied by the authority to teach it and perform saving ordinances.  Many people, such as Martin Luther and William Tyndale, with good intents tried to reform the truths, but to bring back the authority a restoration was needed.

That restoration did come in the year 1820 through a young man named Joseph Smith because he asked in earnest prayer to know where he should go to obtain spiritual food, to know which Church was true.  He was told that the many churches then on the earth had many of the words of God, but that through Joseph the true church, with the same power and authority that Christ and his apostles exercised on this earth, would be restored.  Nephi, when his family, when all those around him were starving, asked his father, just as Joseph as his Father, "whither shall I go to obtain food?" (1 Nephi 16:23).  Nephi did obtain food for his family, and when he returned to those who suffered in famine, "how great was their joy!" (1 Nephi 16:32).  I know that this message, the message of the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ will bring joy.  It will end the thirst for the hearing the words of the Lord.  It will change lives.  It will heal the brokenhearted and raise up the downtrodden.  It does change lives.  I have seen it work miracles.  It is a message of happiness.  It is a message that proclaims that because God loves us he again speaks through prophets, he again gives guidance as in days of old.  The Lord has "bless[ed] us again with food" that we perish not (1 Nephi 16:39).  I am excited to share this gospel, this good news.  I know it is true.  I have seen its fruits, and know that they are good (Matthew 7:20).

With love,

Elder Jared Cummings

For more information on the Great Apostasy and the Restoration through Joseph Smith, visit http://www.mormon.org/beliefs/restoration

The Elders Vang

Faith Will Move Mountains

I cannot believe it has already been another week!  Time flies so fast here.  We have taught more lessons, learned more Hmong, and we sent off one of our roommates to Korea and one of the Elders in our zone to Wisconsin.  It has been a great week.  I am so happy to be here serving my Creator with all my heart, might, mind, and strength.

In the Book of Mormon there is a passing reference to a prophet named Mahonri Moriancumer (referred to as "the brother of Jared" for short, sadly no relation) moving a mountain by his faith.  I have spent some time thinking about this verse and the applications it has for our lives today.  Moving mountains in our own lives--whether they by literal, financial, health related, spiritual, or otherwise--takes faith.  No one ever approaches an issue unless that have a belief that there will be a resolution.  Do they have proof that there will be a resolution?  No.  That is called faith.  The prophet Alma described faith as a "hope for things which are not seen, which are true" (Alma 32:21).

So how does faith move mountains?  The brother of Jared's story is not the only reference to faith to move mountains.  What I have found is that the scriptures do not consistently specify 1) the rate at which mountains are moved and 2) the amount of people moving the mountain.  We move mountains shovel-full by shovel-full and shoulder to shoulder--that is the pattern God has set.  None of us can move a mountain, and we really shouldn't even try to move a mountain, on our own.  We aught to work together in faith and labor until the work is done.  As we press forward and endure to the end I know that we will overcome any and all obstacles that block our path and slow our progress.  I know that we all posses that faith, that faith to work miracles.  The greatest miracle of all, that of the Atonement of Christ, was not even realized until after its completion.  Is it reasonable then to expect to recognize all the lesser miracles that occur in our lives before they come or as they occur?  No.  Look back on your lives.  Mountains have been moved.  Miracles have been wrought.  God's hand has always been in your life and it always will.

As I prepare to head out to Fresno in five more weeks I am impressed by the gravity of the work young LDS missionaries across the globe are called upon to do.  We are called to go forth to all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people proclaiming that the truth of Christ's gospel is once again available in its fullness.  There are a lot of people in this world.  Missionary work truly is a mountain.  I have absolute confidence that as the efforts to grow Christ's kingdom and prepare the earth for his return continue, as hundreds of thousands young men and women work shoulder to shoulder in faith, in time that mountain will be moved.  In time scattered Israel will be gathered.  The message of the Restoration continues to roll forth.  It will not be long before it fills the earth.  It will not be long until Christ returns to rule and reign forever.  I am so humbled that I have been called to serve a mission.  I am so grateful that I have been called to move this mountain.

This week we watched this video in one of my classes that I loved immediately.  It is an explanation of the Book of Mormon by a living apostle named Jeffery R. Holland.  Elder Holland, like the apostles of old, has been called to to bear a special witness of Christ's divinity.  I would encourage you all to watch it.  https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2009-07-29-gods-words-never-cease?lang=eng

I would like to close this letter with my testimony of the Book of Mormon.  I may not be as eloquent or wise as Elder Holland, but I do know for myself that the Book of Mormon is in fact scripture, as is the Bible.  I know that it truly does teach men the way to follow their Savior, as does the Bible.  What sets the Book of Mormon apart from the Bible is that if the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith was truly a prophet called of God.  If Joseph Smith truly was a prophet called of God then we can know that God speaks today through a prophet, Thomas S. Monson, that God does live, that He loves us, that His son loves us.  We can know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on the earth, the only church with true authority to baptize unto salvation.  I know all these things to be true because I have prayed to know.  I went straight to the source and asked God.  I have never been content with taking the opinions and persuasions of others as fact.  I encourage you not to either, but rather to go straight to the source, to pray to know what is truth.  I bear witness that as you do so in humility and faith, by the power of the Holy Ghost you can know the truth of all things, even the truth of the Book of Mormon.

I love you all.  Thank you for supporting me in this mission.

-Elder Cummings

Field Trip

Once again it has been another amazing week here at the MTC.  Elder LaRose and I got roommates on Wednesday and that has been a change.  For the first bit it was just us in the room and that was great.  We double stacked the mattresses and kept it all nice and clean.  With four people in a room it is a little harder to do that.  The new missionaries are Korean speaking, so we have completely different schedules.  We only see them when we get up in the morning and when we go down at night.

Another exciting thing that happened Saturday night was that we got to go off campus to the hospital!  Elder LaRose has some kind of infection in his finger so the MTC drove us to the hospital to get a diagnosis.  That was actually a lot of fun.  Missionaries at the MTC are just about never allowed to leave.  After the visit with the doctor we went over to Walgreen to fill a prescription...and maybe to buy some candy too.  I now have an enormous bag of Reeses and an occasional stomach ache.  His finger is doing great.

The topic of our sacrament meeting this Sunday was "recognizing the spirit."  As such, I spent a lot of time pondering this topic.  After a while two things occurred to me.  Number One: as with all things in the gospel, we grow "line upon line, precept upon precept" (D&C 98:12) in learning to recognize the Holy Ghost.  Just as with faith, humility, charity, and obedience, there are no profound moments of revelation that whip us around 180 and cause lasting change.  We grow step by step.  Recognizing the Spirit is the same way.  It is a process that can take a lifetime or more to master.  Number Two: recognition comes from consistently repeated actions and observations.  Just like a stop sign the Holy Ghost is a real thing.  I think it is safe to say that we don't remember the first time we saw a stop sign or when we understood what it meant, but over time we learned to recognize the stop signs and the behavior that is appropriate in response to one.  Recognizing the Holy Ghost is the same way.  We must always be watching for it.  Just like with stop signs, even if you know what they are you can still miss them if you don't pay attention.  Learning to recognize the Spirit comes from trying to recognize it.  Preach My Gospel has a (by no means all inclusive) list of 28 different ways the Spirit can be felt on pages 95 and 96.  In the past I have spent days consciously watching for these 28 ways and I have never once had a day that all 28 were not felt at some point.

As promised I am sending a picture this week.  This is the district of Hmong missionaries in front of the Provo Temple.  My companion is the one behind me in the pink tie.  On the top row (left to right) we've got Elder Keisker, Elder Thomas, Elder LaRose, Elder Ferguson, and Elder Davis.  On the bottom is Elder Bauer, Elder Harper, me, Elder Vang, and Elder Vang.  Those two are both native speakers and are leaving us for the mission field this week.  We are going to miss them.  Having someone who knows the language in class helps a lot.  We are the largest group of Hmong to come through the MTC by six.

Email time is up this week.  I love you all.  Thank you for the emails and letters you've been sending me!

-Elder Jared Cummings

Week Two

Well, it is pretty hard for me to grasp, but I have already been here for twelve days!  Time has really been flying, I can tell you that much.  My Hmong is coming along great.  I am able to teach SIMPLE lessons with no notes or too much language preparation.  I really find it amazing how quickly I'm learning.  I don't know where I will be at the end of these nine weeks, but I want to say it will much better than I had reason to hope for when I entered the MTC.

This week didn't come with as many funny Hmong moments (I guess that is a good thing), but we did have some other "fun" things happen.  My companion and I were locked out of our dorm room for example and I officially have lost my first sock in the laundry.  Some fun mission experiences right there!

Two of the other Elders in my district (a group of missionaries learning the same language) are native Hmong speakers and we will be seeing them off next week.  It is sad to see such great walking dictionaries leave us, but it is for the best.  They are nervous to go out into the mission field though.  Most Hmong speakers cannot read and write their own language, and that goes for these guys too.  They have picked it up faster than the rest of us--as expected--but they still don't feel very strong with the written language. Here they do sacrament service speaking assignments here is they have all the missionaries in the zone (a group of districts) prepare a talk on the same topic and then in Sacrament Meeting they announce who the speakers will be.  They called both John Vangs to speak this last week, so we spent much of sacrament meeting listening to the Elders Vang teach and testify about baptism.  They both did a great job.  We are really going to miss them.

We got Paj Vmw to commit to be baptized this last week!  That was a neat experience.  We did it just in time too.  Our first "investigator" became another one of our language instructors the very next day.  We start teaching our second investigator today and our third investigator tomorrow.  I will definitely let you know how that goes.  Teaching in Hmong has been my favorite part of the MTC experience so far.  On a side note, we figured out that Paj Vwm translates to crazy flower.  That made all us Elders smile.  Paj Vwm really does not fit that description.

I've been pondering a few scriptures this week that I have found to be insightful.  I may not quote these right, I'm going off of memory, but two are from 1 Corinthians and I think the references are 6:20, "Wherefore you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's", and 7:23 "You have been bought with a price, be ye not the servants of men".  It has had be thinking about all the times I don't act to glorify God, all the times that I serve myself, me being very much a man.  How many times have I served the wrong master?  This has had me wanting to be more committed to getting outside myself and my own desires and really working on self mastery.

The next verses come from Mather 6:25-30.  I'm not going to quote all of these, but there is one verse that reads something along the lines of "Wherefore if God so clothes the grass of the fields which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he provide for you, of ye of little faith?"  This verse has given me peace when I have felt undue stress with the rate at which I have to learn here and just wondering if things will work out.  All it has taken is some thinking about "do I really believe this" and I have been back in a good peaceful mindset.

The last thing I want to share comes from the Old Testament.  I don't think I will get the reference right, so I will just give the background.  The verse I have in mind is from the story of Moses and the burning bush.  In this chapter God declares to Moses that his (Jehovah's) name is "I AM THAT I AM."  It took me a while to come to conclusions about why that was so significant.  There are four other references to that name, "I AM," one in the New Testament and three in the Doctrine and Covenants.  It occurred to me after a half-hour or so that Christ is the only one who can declare His existence by virtue of His existence.  All of us to not exist of our own power, only Christ does.  Only Christ was saved by His own power.  He is that He is and that is unique to Him. 

Well, I have to get going.  Thank you to all of you who wrote back to me!  It was nice to hear from you.  I promise that I (might) send some pictures next week so you can see what the other Hmong Elders look like.

love,

Elder Jared Cummings

Nyob Zoo!

Hey all!

I am officially done with my first week of missionary service and my first week at the Missionary Training Center!  Time has flown by very fast here. My companion and I are getting along great.  His name is Elder LaRose and he's from the Ogden area.  We are getting along very well and I'm expecting that to continue. 

Learning the language has been...not that bad!  We have already taught two twenty minute lessons in just Hmong.  I can bear testimony, pray, and nod like I understand everything that is said back to me.  There have definitely been some funny mistakes however.  Hmong is a tonal language (the last consonant, or lack thereof, indicates the tone) so even a slight change in pronunciation can change the sentence completely.  For example, in our first lesson we taught (here at the MTC we teach actors the missionary discussions for practice) my companion and I introduced ourselves as "the husband" or tus txiv instead of as "missionaries" tub txib.  Yes, we still got in the door.  The next night I was saying a prayer before the other Hmong Elders (Es Daws) and I split for the night.  I was actually doing a really good job, trying to stretch myself beyond the phrases we had been taught already and I ended up expressing gratitude for "Jesus Christ's Atonement dress" instead of "Jesus Christ's Atonement and..." (tiab versus thiab).  Another note on Hmong--the consonants aren't pronounced the same way that they are in English.  The "t" makes an English "d" and the "th" makes an English "t".  In all honesty though, I took Spanish for four years and in the span of four days I would say my Hmong is nearing the confidence of my Spanish.  I am astonished by how quickly I am learning the language.  I know that I am learning beyond my capacities.  The gift of tongues is real.

One thing that has been on my mind this week is humility.  That is something I struggle with.    Learning Hmong has definitely been a humbling process.  The instructors here haven't spoken any English to us since we arrived, and as much progress as I am making with the language, I still feel pretty lost when the native speakers rattle off answers in class.  Learning Hmong is teaching me that I am not the best.  As I have demonstrated frequently this week, I am not perfect at living life or speaking Hmong, but that hasn't been lost on me.  I am starting to appreciate that compared to Christ's infinity we are all zero.  No matter how good I may be at calculus or playing the piano I hopelessly fall short of perfection.

It has also dawned on me this week that you really have to love the people you teach.  Our "investigator" Paj Vwm can definitely frustrate my companion and I with his rapid fire Hmong. He does it to help us grow, but that doesn't mean it is fun, for us at least.  When I have allowed myself to really feel a love for him, even though he is just an actor, I have not only been better able to articulate myself better in a language I have four days of exposure to, but I have been able to understand his questions and comments correctly and without asking him to slow down.  The gift of tongues is real, and I would say it comes more from loving the people than from anything else.  Honestly though, my favorite moments from my mission so far have all been from those lessons.  We've been trying to teach him about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  To give you an idea of how much information that is to cover, this website gives a quick summary http://www.mormon.org/beliefs/restoration.  Trying to teach all that in Hmong...we bit off more than we could chew at first but it is coming along.  Hmong feels so natural to me.  I love it!

Week One is down!  Eight more to go before I arrive in California!  I am so excited to go teach.  I am so grateful for the opportunities and challenges this mission has already blessed me with!  I know that I am doing a great work, or rather that I am putting my best foot forward and God is accomplishing miracles.

- Elder Cummings (Es Daws Koob Meej)