The Gospel Blesses Families

(Elder Cummings)

The gospel blesses families!  It absolutely does!  This week we have been visiting families and helping them come closer to Christ.

Pete and his wife are saving their marriage!  We have been visiting them for just under two weeks and WOW his life has made a 180 turn.  He has sacrificed almost everything in his world outside of his family to come back to church and to bring them with him.  A sweet spirit has begun to rest in their home.  Pete has been the one of the greatest examples of forgiving and of sincere repentance I have ever met.  His oldest and his wife are progressing towards baptism, and soon will join him as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!

Vicky asked us to start teaching her daughter as well.  Her name is Janessa, and she accepted a date for baptism by our second visit with her.

Follow the guidance of the Spirit, we knocked on the door of a former, Loynelle.  Missionaries had suddenly lost contact with him about a month ago.  He was home this time!  He had been out of town for emergency medical procedures and finally had returned home.  The last lesson the missionaries taught him was the word of wisdom, and after a month of no missionary contact one of the first things he brought up with us was that he had been cutting back on his tea intake.  What more he still wants to be baptized!  He wants to bring his sons into the church with him!  Blessings are everywhere!

Foua is studying the Book of Mormon and all of her children have been looking forward to church week by week.  They love the Spirit they feel there!

Tawn is Ching's last son not baptized.  This week we taught him about the law of tithing and keeping the Sabbath day holy.  On both instances he cut in about halfway through the visit and started testifying of the blessings he has seen come from his mother's commitment to living those commandments.  He is excited for his upcoming baptism!

The Merced Zone as a whole is doing amazingly!  God is hastening His work!

-Elder Cummings

Transfers and Blessings

(Elder Cummings)

Hello all!

This week has been a blessing.  We have had so many great things happen in our lives and in the lives of our investigators.

We received a phone call from the assistants the other day checking to see how someone in our area is doing, Vicky.  We didn't know her, so we went by her address and met her.  Back when the elder who called us was serving here she had a baptismal date and had already been through all the lessons.  He left and she got offended by one of the missionaries who came in.  She has been more than happy to start studying again and is again working towards baptism.

A less active family in the Hmong branch just had two of their young nephews move in with them.  Both of them want to learn about Jesus Christ!  They have not been raised with any religion and have a great desire to learn!  This is helping the whole family come back to church!  What a tender mercy!  Over the last two years the weekly attendance in the branch has gone from high eighties to mid forties.  So many have moved out, but more are coming in!  The work is great!

Transfers are this week!  We were informed last night of where we are all heading.  It is different being more on the administrative side of transfers.  Elder Perkins and I will be staying together, still covering Merced 1st Ward and Merced 5th Branch.  We are doing great work and cannot come down!

Have a lovely week!  God is with you always!

With love,

Elder Cummings

The Man Behind the Curtain

(Elder Cummings)

I don't even know where to begin this week.  We have been busy with meetings, teaching appointments, and a temple trip this week.  In between it all we still found time to deep clean the car and the apartment.  There were two baptisms in the zone this week, one for Karen and the other for Alfonzo.  I find it so inspiring to see other missionaries working with zeal.

On Thursday we were able to go to the temple in Fresno and worship there.  It was a wonderful experience.  I love the house of the Lord!  I received direction and guidance for the work we do and for my personal life.  God will always speak to us if we are willing to listen!  Listening for the Lord's voice is an act of faith.

One woman we met this week, Barbara, had the faith to listen.  She had been introduced to the LDS church years ago by some friends in Las Vegas who met with missionaries, and eventually were baptized.  Barbara never studied the church and its teachings though.  She was born and raised Lutheran, and at the time she attended a baptist church, and didn't see the need to investigate.

Fast forward to last night, and she invited us into her home to share a message with her.  We chatted for a little bit, got to know her needs, concerns, and interests, and then started into the formal discussion.  We shared the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ with her.  Elder Perkins and I were teaching smoothly in tandem, and the Spirit of the Lord was present.  I had never taught the restoration the way we did---with such a strong emphasis on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ---which makes perfect sense.  I had never taught Barbara before.  As we unfolded the doctrines of prophetic dispensations, of priesthood keys and authority, and of the atonement of Christ she lit up noticeably.  After sharing with her the miraculous story of Joseph Smith's first vision she told us in hushed voice, "Now, I have seventy-two years in the back of my mind that don't want me to agree with what you two boys are telling me tonight.  This is asking for a big jump, and I am not too good at jumping anymore, but I want to know if this is true."  She wholeheartedly accepted the commitment to begin reading in the Book of Mormon and to study the pamphlet we also left with her.  Before we could bring up the topic, she volunteered the idea of being baptized once she learned for herself that the message we shared was true.  She closed the discussion with a prayer, and then coerced us into singing a slightly off-key rendition of one of the church's hymns.  The whole visit was a spiritual high.

The experience got me thinking about God's love for all of His children.  It may be redundant to say, but God has sent us into mortality to have experiences that optimize our opportunity for exaltation.  Here was Barbara, who was unashamedly searching for absolute truth, and her entire life had led up to that point last night when she first heard the message of the restoration in its fullness.  On a micro-scale everyone's lives are oriented in this way.  On a macro-scale all world history since the life of Christ has been in preparation for the restoration.  God is absolutely in the details!  He knows our needs better than we do, and he ministers to His numberless children and invites them to come unto His Son, Jesus Christ, and be saved.  We can live lives full of light because we know who is behind the curtain.  Our Heavenly Father loves us!  We don't need to know all things to know this! (1 Nephi 11:17).

Live the abundant life this week!  Keep the commandments!  Come unto Christ!

With love,

Elder A. Jared Cummings

Where are we?

(Elder Cummings)

This week has been a blur.  It has been seven days and seven nights, but it is one in my memory.  My new companion, Elder Perkins, and I have been incredibly busy together.

I am still serving in Merced.  That hasn't changed.  I still cover the Merced 5th Hmong Branch.  That hasn't changed either.  I still get up every morning and run, study the gospel individually and as a companionship, and I even still have time to study Hmong!

I am now also covering the Merced 1st Ward!  With the transfer Elder Perkins and I have had to smash our two areas into one.  It has been an almost chaotic experience.  Beginning at zone conference on Tuesday we have officially been companions.  After the meeting we spent some time cleaning out the Hmong apartment, and moved to the new place.  I have now gone from the smallest apartment in the mission to the second largest.  This hasn't really changed anything.  The big difference is that I can lose track of things now.  I will miss the small second story studio.  It has a piece of my heart.

As a result of this transfer I have continued to develop a talent of getting lost.  No one does it quite as well as me.  Fortunately, we never stay that way for too long.  The question "where are we?"  is heard often.

Wonderful week!  We have an enormous teaching pool, enough for four missionaries, and I feel it every night when my head hits the pillow.  I have never slept so soundly so consistently.

We are working hard and serving with no regrets!  I am so happy to be living the gospel and sharing it with those around us!  We have had some amazing lessons together.  Elder Perkins knows the doctrines of the gospel solidly.  I am looking forward to the rest of our time together!

I am short on time again today.  We took a trip out to Yosemite and went hiking.  It was beautiful.  God has given us such a beautiful planet!

Have a wonderful week!

Elder Cummings

Ten Minutes

(Elder Cummings)
This will have to be extremely short.  I have ten minutes.

This week has been incredible!  I was blessed to see four of the people I have taught and loved enter the waters of baptism!  Brent, Bruce, Heidi, and Meng.  All four of them have been cleansed from sin, all made possible through our Savior, Jesus Christ.  That blessing will continue to reside with them as they continue to endure faithfully in service to the Lord.  A remission of sins is a blessing we receive as a result of a covenant.  We don't keep it when we are not doing our part.

My companionship with Elder Bagley ends tomorrow the same way it did the first time: an emergency transfer to be a zone leader.  I am going to dearly miss Elder Bagley. This is the second time I have been his companion, and the second time our companionship has ended with me being emergency transferred into a zone leader companionship. He just makes the best out of me! I really do love him.

The Lord has a plan for all of us!  I know it!  Christ is absolutely on our side!  He loves us!

With love,

Elder Cummings

God's purpose and plan for us

Over the last few weeks I have started making an emphasis on becoming a more effective teacher of the gospel.  Preach My Gospel has some fantastic insights, and I have been able to get good direction on how to go about this.  There is one insight from what I have learned recently that I would like to share with you all.

This morning I was giving some deep thought to the doctrines taught in the section of the Plan of Salvation lesson entitled "Pre-Earth Life: God's Purpose and Plan for Us."  In this section I found a truth in a line that I have read dozens of times before: "God's whole purpose---His work and His glory---is to enable each of us to enjoy all His blessings."  I have always thought of God's purpose as ensuring that we would receive all His blessings.  It is not quite that.  His purpose is to make receiving the blessings possible, and they to allow us to exercise our ability to chose, called moral agency, to live in a way that we can receive those eternal and sacred blessings.  God's purpose, as stated in Moses 1:39, is "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."  He has brought them to pass!  They can be ours, if we will accept them by how we lead our lives!

Reading on, we find the truths that, "He has provided a perfect plan to accomplish His purpose...Through His Atonement, Jesus Christ fulfilled His Father's purpose and made it possible for each of us to enjoy immortality and eternal life."  Again, the theme making blessings possible comes up.  We find another gem in here as well, the plan that allowed for the purpose of God to be accomplished is the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ's sacrifice is God's plan for our salvation.  The blessings we received pre-mortally, are receiving mortally, and will receive post-mortally are dependent on the degree to which we accept that glorious Plan into our lives.  The more we are filled with that eternal light the stronger our determination to act in accordance with God's commandments will be.

"Agency, or the ability to choose, is one of God's greatest gifts to His children.  Our eternal progression depends on how we use this gift." (Preach My Gospel, Pre-Earth Life: God's Purpose and Plan for Us).

I have been so blessed to see the blessings of this plan in the lives of many during my service as a missionary for our Savior Jesus Christ---now half over.  Elder Balgley and I have seen a wonderful change occurring in Mai Neng, Tawn, Meng, Danny, Jordan, Mai See, Foua, Leng, Kia, and Michael this last week.  They are all sincere in their search for truth.  They are all children of God, and they seek Him.  I feel so blessed to be witnessing the miracle of conversion in their lives!

It has been a week of blessings!  God's hand is working in the world!  Of this I bear witness.

With love,

Elder Jared Cummings

The Gosepl is a beautiful thing!

(Elder Cummings)

 There is not a lot of time this week for writing.  Even if there was I do not think that I could write even a fraction of the miracles I have seen this week!  The hand of God is, in a very literal way, preparing the hearts of the people here for the gospel.  It is a wonder to witness!

We began teaching a very kind older woman this last week.  Her name is Kia, and she is the sweetest little Hmong lady you could ever find!  She is going blind slowly, and still full of energy!  She has attended a church in town for a while (doesn't know the name of it, she gets a ride with neighbors), but has not yet learned anything from the scriptures.  She loves it when we open up the Bible and the Book of Mormon and read to her the teaching of our Savior.  She has such great faith!  On Thursday we were talking with her about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  She gasped and said very happily, and in Hmong, "Isn't that wonderful!  He did that for us!"  I love her very personal take on the gospel.  It is always a pleasure to visit with her.

Last night we were watching the talk given by Bishop Gerald Causse in the April 2015 General Conference with a recent convert.  His talk, entitled "Is It Still Wonderful to You?"  is a powerful call for all believers everywhere never to take the gospel for granted.  It was great for her!  She will be moving to Utah in August for school, and it was just what she needed to here.  Elder Bagley followed the Spirit on the fly in playing the talk for her.  He is such a wonderful missionary!

One of my favorite things about being a missionary is that we get to spend so much time, hours upon hours, in the scriptures studying the basics over, and over, and over again.  I have been a member of this church my whole life.  For nearly half my life I have diligently studied the scriptures, but there are still new truths that God desires to teach me.  Truths that I had never before supposed! (Moses 1:10).  A month ago I finished the Book of Mormon once again, and someone keeps adding to it!  Every time I read it I find more!  There are always verses that get me thinking that I had never noticed.  There is so much truth to learn!

I know that the fulness of the gospel can be made known to all who ask in sincere faith.  God is our Father, Jesus is our Exemplar, and the Holy Ghost is our beloved Teacher.  I testify of a very real resurrection and of a Savior with a very literal body.  I know that He lives.

Let this next week be a great one!  Remember God in all you do and you will find true peace!  (Proverbs 3:5-6).

With love,

Elder A. Jared Cummings

Learning By the Spirit

(Elder Cummings)

We got transfer calls last night and Elder Bagley and I will be staying together for at least six more weeks!  Our area has so much power in it!  The branch is cozy now in the summers with only around twenty making it out to sacrament meeting each week.  All of the members love the missionaries, and are very happy to help us in any way they can.  I absolutely love it here!  I can consistently find ways to grow and improve myself as a disciple of Christ.  Elder Bagley and I have started studying paj lug, literally translated to "flower words."  Paj lug are poetic couplet phrases and speech patterns that show the highest respect that can be given in Hmong culture.  Elder Bagley and I have been implementing them into our prayers.  It has been a wonderful experience to learn better how to address my Heavenly Father in love, in Hmong.

With over half of the branch out of town for the fourth of July, this week could have been a slower one in teaching, but we have powered through it.  We have been led by the Spirit to neighborhoods, and then to streets, and then to doors that have been ready to receive the message we share.  The Lord is so merciful to us.  He speaks to us "according to [our] language , unto [our] understanding" (2 Nephi 31:3).  He wants to be understood!  He wants to teach us!  

One of the people we have been teaching is preparing for baptism later this month.  Years ago he overcame cigarette addiction, and more recently he has conquered alcohol.  As we were visiting him this last week we began to talk about repentance.  As we discussed he was taught new truths by the Holy Ghost and became aware of additional steps he must take to be completely free from these past transgressions.  He had to pray for forgiveness!  The Spirit taught him as we talked.  God spoke to him through the still, small, voice.

I have felt that teaching influence all through my life.  It is an incredible blessing.  He will teach you all if you listen for it.  He will teach you as you attend church, as you pray, and as you study His holy words.  He will teach you in a way that you can understand!

I pray that you will all have a wonderful Fourth of July!  I love living in a nation where men and women are free to act and believe.  It is truly a blessing from God.

With love,

Elder A. Jared Cummings

The Gift of the Holy Ghost

Sorry for the late email today, Elder Bagley and I had to go down to Fresno earlier today (two hour round trip) which put us on a delay.

So many things happened this week!  Thanks to more effective planning Elder Bagley and I were able to greatly increase the amount of lessons we were able to teach with investigators this week.  One of the greatest fears I have felt as a missionary is the fear of having nothing to do.  We have been working on shaking of this fear and spending time in homes only as long as we are needed rather than staying until the time forces us to leave to be on time to our next plans.  It is much more energizing this way!  We are seeing positive changes in those we are visiting, as well as in our companionship, as a result.

This week also marked the end of a two month period of a massive scripture memorization project.  Elder Bagley and I, upon being challenged by the mission president's wife, memorized 114 scripture references--54 form the Bible and 60 from the Book of Mormon--and the over 150 verses that are associated with them in an effort to be more effective teachers out of the scriptures.  It has been hard work, but we, along with four other missionaries in the mission did it.  The reward has been a profoundly increased love for the Savior and His teachings through His holy prophets.  This whole experience has definitely taught be something: cognitive power can easily be increased with steady effort over a long period of time.  My memory has improved greatly as I have been a missionary.  While still in the MTC I would struggle to memorize a small handful of essential words daily, and after months of practice my capacity to memorize has easily quadrupled.  We are all capable of incredible things if we will set our minds to it!  So set your mind to something and stick with it!

Sou Saetern was baptized this last Saturday and confirmed on Sunday.  He asked me to perform the confirmation, so gratefully I did.  The confirmation is what truly completes the baptism.  It is when the gift of the Holy Ghost is bestowed.  Joseph Smith is quoted to have said that "baptism by water is but half a baptism, and is good for nothing without the other half--that is, the baptism of the Holy Ghost" (History of the Church, 5:499).  The reception of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands is both biblically founded and essential for salvation (see Acts 19:2-7).  Another Joseph Smith quote: "The baptism of water, without the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost attending it, is of no use; they are necessarily and inseparably connected" (History of the Church, 6:316).

Why is the Holy Ghost so important?  He is the Comforter sent forth by the Father to teach us all things, and to bring all things to our remembrance that Christ has taught (see John 14:26).  Learning truths of the gospel by the Holy Ghost is essential for our salvation, for "it is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance" (D&C 131:6).  God absolutely does reveal the truths of His kingdom to the common man who is an earnest and humble seeker.  Such was the case with Joseph Smith.

Today is the 172nd anniversary of the day of his martyrdom.  He and his older brother, Hyrum "were shot in Carthage jail, on the 27th of June, 1844, about five o'clock p.m., by an armed mob--painted black--from 150 to 200 persons.  Hyrum was short first and fell calmly, exclaiming: I am a dead man! Joseph leaped from the window, and was shot dead in the attempt, exclaining: O Lord my God!  They were both shot after they were dead, in a brutal manner, and both received four balls" (D&C 135:1).  My testimony is that of the scriptures in saying that "Joseph Smith,  the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man that ever lived in it.  In the short space of twenty years, he has brought forth the Book of Mormon, which he translated by the gift and power of God, and has been the means of publishing it on two continents; has sent the fullness of the everlasting gospel, which it contained, to the four quarters of the earth; has brought forth the revelations and commandments which compose [the] book of Doctrine and Covenants, and many other wise documents and instructions for the benefit of the children of men; gathered many thousands of the Latter-day Saints, founded a great city, and left a fame and name that cannot be slain.  He lived great, and he died great in the eyes of God and his people; and like most of the Lord's anointed in ancient times, has sealed his mission and his works with his own blood" (D&C 135:3).

It has now been 172 years and approximately 3 hours since that day.  The work has not halted.  I know that Joseph was called by God.  I know that he did not set up his own church, but that he restored the Church of Jesus Christ to the earth.  I know that Christ continues to lead his church today through a living prophet, Thomas S. Monson.  I know these truths by the power of the Holy Ghost, and cannot deny them.  I am so grateful to share this message with all the world!

You all have a wonderful week!

With love,

Elder Jared Cummings.

Many miracles, many languages, many fun memories

(Elder Cummings)

Hello all!  This week has been full of amazing blessings and treasured experiences.  It has all flown by so fast.

As of yesterday, it has now been a year since I graduated high school.  Where has the time gone?  I cannot believe it has been that long already.  This time last year I still had no idea what Hmong really was, but my bags were getting packed ready to go find out.

I still don't really know what Hmong is, but I learn more every day.  Just this last Saturday I was trying to ask an older woman "what do you think about that?"  but instead informed her that "you are offended."  After assuring us that she wasn't offended by anything we had said I remembered an MTC instructor saying something about how he had made the same mistake on his mission.  Elder Bagley and I also volunteered to help a member of our ward tear down some chicken coops in his backyard.  The Hmong are a very resourceful people, and it was an enjoyable experience to take apart the coups and guess what the wood had come from.  I made war with black widows that night, and even got to hold my first rooster!

Sou will be getting baptized this Saturday!  The Hmong branch here in Merced covers the YSA aged Southeastern Asian population.  When we first met Sou he had no real comprehension of what Christianity is, and now he has a burning testimony of Jesus Christ, of His gospel, and of the restoration through Joseph Smith.  The change that has come into his life has been amazing to watch.

Elder Bagley and I have been so blessed to work together for these last few weeks.  We are having a great time being back together.  In the car we are either speaking English, White Hmong, Green Hmong, or broken Spanish together.  It is a great time.

Elder Bagley's Spanish is much better than mine.  Two weeks ago we checking up on less-active members when we ran into a hispanic woman, Maria, who was getting ready to move.  She had met missionaries in the past, and told us that she knew that we were messengers from God.  She was so grateful to have ran into missionaries.  Elder Bagley, who had been leading the conversation, said a prayer for her and we gave her information over to the Spanish elders.  Yesterday they told us that Maria will be getting baptized!  That was a tender mercy, to know that we played even a small part in helping her.

I hope you all told your dads that you loved them yesterday.  I wasn't able to due to mission rules, so I am going to take the opportunity now.  I love you Dad!

I hope you all are having a great summer!

With love,

Elder A. Jared Cummings

Small Things Show Forth Great Power

(Elder Cummings)

This week can be summarized very well in one of my favorite scriptures in holy writ, Ether 3:5.

Behold, O Lord, thou canst do this.  We know that thou art able to show forth great power, which looks small unto the understanding of men.

As Elder Balgey and I have been teaching, and contacting, and praying together for direction, this scripture has been on my mind.  So much of what the Lord does for his children looks so small to us from our mortal mindset.  In fact, one of the greatest manifestations of God's power, the quiet whispering of the Holy Ghost, is not even observable with the human eye.

One of our investigators, Sou, has been pushing through a lot of opposition from his family to continue meeting with us, and to prepare to be baptized.  We have been meeting him for several weeks, and he now knows God's desire is for him to be baptized.  He is still unsure of a date.  In addressing this concern, we invited him to select a date and to pray about it.  Following a prompting from the Spirit, I pulled out a card and wrote a date on it for him to pray about, not really knowing why.  The visit progressed, and when it was right, I gave him the card and the Spirit filled the room.  The date I had written was the same one he had been thinking about.  The Spirit had inspired me to act in a small way to confirm to Sou that the thoughts he had were inspired.

Another day, we knocked on the door of a less-active member who had not been contacted in a while.  While waiting for them to come to the door, an adult male pitbull turns the corner of the house and walks up to us, sniffs our legs, and sits down at our feet.  A small thing, but not the normal thing for that dog.  The family invited us in, and we had a wonderful visit.  They are happy to have us come back this next week.

One afternoon Elder Balgey and I were walking back to our car from contacting a referral and said hi to a pedestrian, and casually asked if he believed in Christ.  Not a very tactful approach for a street contact, but he said no, and said we could come by and meet him to help him understand Christianity and especially Mormonism.  So we did, and he is now is investigating the church and reading in the Book of Mormon.  He immigrated from Vietnam three years ago and has a curiosity to learn that he didn't know he had.

It really is the small things--the smallest things--that show forth God's greatest power.  We can come to know God best in some of the slowest times of our lives.  God is always there.

Have a wonderful week!

With love,

Elder Jared Cummings

Turning up the heat!

(Elder Cummings)

The work in Merced continues to build and the temperature continues to rise!  The hottest it got this week was 112.  Our apartment, despite our best efforts, stays in the 90s all night, so sleeping and showering have become uncomfortably relate-able experiences.  Nonetheless, we are having fun and working hard.

Our finding has been on point!  They were such a blessing!  Elder Balgey and I had fasted that we could find families to teach and we have been blessed.  We were able to meet a half dozen individuals who would be interested in learning more with their spouse and children present.  What a miracle!

This week has also brought with it my first interactions with the Hmong gangs!  They are much bigger down in Fresno and up north in Sacramento, Wisconsin, and Michigan, but we managed to run into them in Merced.  Only good things came from it, and we began visiting one of them who was baptized a member of the Church, but has since gone astray.  They have a strong desire to come back to church, but they want to take it slow.  Many changes will have to be made, and through Jesus Christ they can be made.

A lesson we had with this new friend was one of the most incredible experiences of my life.  As we talked I had a distinct memory of a few obscure verses in the Book of Revelations that talk about the war in heaven that occurred before this life that were first brought to my attention five years ago at an EFY (Especially For Youth) summer program but on by BYU.  I have seldom, if ever, thought about these verse since, with the exception of reading over them.  Because of an experience I had had five years previous, I knew those specific scriptures well enough to use them in a teaching situation that helped this less-active member feel the Spirit strongly and to reopen their heart to the message of the Restoration.  Despite what may seem like a wild introduction, the visit went smoothly into teaching about prophets and the Atonement.  They have began rereading the Book of Mormon and praying daily.  It was an incredible lesson for all who were present.  Our new friend even mentioned that Elder Bagley and I were the first missionaries that had been able to make learning the gospel fun!  It was an amazing experience.

God truly does prepare us for all we are called upon to do.  He guides our life to give us the experiences we need to accept his gospel.  I know that He lives.

With love,

Elder Jared Cummings

Born to grow, built for change

(Elder Cummings)

Hello friends!  Merced is treating me well!  Elder Bagley and I have been working hard all day every day.  This area has challenges for Hmong missionaries very different than Fresno.  We had only two appointments this week where we actually needed to speak Hmong.  If we are not making an effort to speak Hmong to each other then our language study time is often the only language exposure we get in the day.  We try hard to speak it as much as we can.  This last week was the first weekly planning of my mission that was conducted in my beautiful second language: Hmong.

Being in YSA work has opened my eyes again to what normal concerns of my peers are.  Last night we had a beautiful lesson with two amazing recent converts who recently went to the temple for their endowment in preparation for moving away and for missionary service.  They shared their conversion story with me as I had not yet heard it.  Something that struck me was how frequently they would express their gratitude for how complete the change in their life had been over the last year.

There is a lie being pervaded in society "by that old serpent, who is the devil, who is the father of lies" that seeks to persuade us that we are unchangeable (2 Nephi 2:18).   From this lie comes excuses that claim to say that change is not possible because "it is just the way I am" or because "I was born that way."  True, you may be that way now, and maybe you were born that way too, but there is no doctrine under heaven that states you must stay that way.

What is the purpose of life if not to change?  The great missionary, Amulek, taught powerfully that "this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God" (Alma 34:32).  This preparation is not vacuuming the front room, or puffing up the pillows in preparation for company, nor is it the casual discipleship that many in today's world are prone to think it is.  "No unclean thing can dwell with God," and "all we like sheep have gone astray" and will continue to go that way unless we yield "to the enticing of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord" (1 Nephi 10:21, Isaiah 53:6, Mosiah 3:19). 

Change, also known as repentance is fundamental to our life on earth.  Through our faith we can change our desires and dispositions to be fully in line with the will of God.  We don't need to surrender control to natural appetites.  We are not unchangeable.  God is unchangeable.  We are not as God is, not yet.  That will come long after this life through our faith and diligence and through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.  Only then will we have the capacity to fulfill the comission he gave to "be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). 

Greek synonyms for "perfect" as is used in that verse include "complete," or "fully developed" (see footnotes in LDS edition of the Kings James Version of the Bible).  It is my hope with all whom I teach that someday they will reach their full potential and return to live with God on high.  In the words of the Apostle, John, "now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2).

I love this gospel!  I am so happy to fill my life with its truth and to be here in Merced, California, sharing that joy with all who will listen!

With my love,

Elder Jared Cummings

Emergency Transfer: Merced

(Elder Cummings)

Last Monday night we had a wonderful lesson with Mai Yang, John Her, their neighbor Nou Moua, and all of their children.  Elder Ostler and I taught powerfully in Hmong, from the scriptures.  The Hmong bible that we use is translated by a baptist church, so on occasion the translation does not follow the King James translation our church uses.  This leads to many conflicts of doctrine in lessons.  For example, the word "prophet," which is so important to the message that we missionaries share, is translated as "the pastors who carry God's words."  A very accurate translation for a baptism church, but not for the LDS understanding of what a prophet it.  Using the Bible in a teaching situation is a gamble if you have not read through the scriptures before.  It was miraculous that as we were teaching we were able to turn right to some scriptures that translated wonderfully, and other verses that we realized later were not as clear we were not able to find.  Another evidence that God directs his missionaries.

The lesson went wonderfully.  Mai started out the visit by telling us that she had dreamed a dream in which Christ himself told her to stop her search, that the church he had led her to would never lead her astray.  She then informed us, to her husband's surprise, that she had called her Mennonite minister earlier that day to tell him that their family would no longer be attending his congregation.  We carefully retaught the Restoration to ensure comprehension, and both families in attendance committed to be baptized.

They were all so happy and near the end of the lesson and showered Elder Ostler and I with gifts, trinkets and handmade little bags from Thailand.  Nou made me promise that I would not forget her family.  Her plea proved to be prophetic as the next night we were called and told that the Hmong language program would be transferring the next morning a week ahead of schedule due to a new missionary coming in a week early from the MTC.  I was informed I was going to Merced.   So, without having time to say I single goodbye, Wednesday morning I headed north.

I am now back with Elder Bagley.  I was in a trio with him about five months ago when he first came into the mission.  Being a Hmong speaking missionary it is common to have a companion more than once, sometimes even more than one companion more than once.  There are six of us in the mission now: Elders Knapton, Gray, Biggs, Ostler, Bagley, and me. 

Merced is a much different ball park. There is a branch here, not a ward, that has weekly attendance around fifty.  This branch covers the Hmong YSA, which is where most of the current missionary work is focused.  The apartment is one small attic room above a members garage measuring about 20x25.  I love it!  It is so cozy.  I have always liked smaller homes.

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Craig A. Cardon of the First Quorum of the Seventy came and toured our mission Thursday and Friday.  He had many wonderful insights and gave many suggestions for improvement.  Thanks to Elder Bagley's willingness of volunteer we were able to sit next to him and his wife at lunch and talk to them.  It is so wonderful to learn from others.  He truly taught us a lot.

Elder Cunningham, now known as Riley, came back to the mission to support a recent convert as she went to the temple for the first time.  He has a beard of four months now.  We knocked on the door of one of our set appointments and were very surprised when he answered the door.  It was good to see him again.

This has been an amazing week!  I love this work and I love the Lord.  I am so happy to be serving him now in the Merced 5th Branch.