General Conference & the week in review

(Elder Cummings)

Another week has flown by, capped off with General Conference.  It was wonderful to hear the words of living prophets teaching us God's word as it applies today.  Between sessions Elder Ostler and I were driving around Fresno confirming less-active addresses.  Overall an incredibly productive weekend for teaching and for hearing the good word of God.

The area is still burning hot.  We have six with a baptismal date for April, and we are hoping to set three for May tonight.  Despite all of the "success" that Elder Ostler and I are having, every day is still stretches us to do more and be more, and every nightly planning we plead with the Lord to show us how to use His time the next day.  No matter how hard we work there is still more we can do.  The Lord makes up the slack as we learn and grow.

Currently one of the people we are teaching is struggling with the Word of Wisdom.  As Elder Ostler and I have been praying and studying for how to help them, the direction we have been getting has been very real.  This is a prime opportunity to clearly teach the principle of repentance, and that is what the Lord would have us do.

This week we had an exchange with the assistants.  At a recent specialized training, Elder Ostler asked them if they could go on one with us so that we can improve our finding in our area.  We do pretty well finding together, but we are setting goals to become better in that area.  The exchange was a huge help.  I went into the assistants area, Shepard and Dry Creek wards, for a fun evening of talking with every person we saw!  I love opening my mouth to strangers who are no stranger to God.  The message of the restored gospel is universal.

We had an amazing lesson with a recent convert last night about the power of the priesthood.  He is making baby steps towards increased activity and more lasting conversion week-by-week.  It is so eyeopening to see just how many questions he has had since his baptism that have gone unasked.  We are working with him to get his own family-file names and take them to the temple.  The temple is a source of lasting conversion.

I hope you all have a wonderful Monday!  Thank you for the prayers and emails that you send my way!

With love,

Elder Cummings

There is a God!

(Elder Cummings)

This week, with more regularity, I have been asked questions such as "if there is a God, why do people suffer?"  "If there is a God, then why was my family taken from him?"  "If there is a God, why doesn't he help me?"

As we celebrated Easter this year and as I personally commemorated the life of Jesus Christ I thought a great deal about these questions.  In response to these questions I spent some time in the scriptures.

There is a God.  All things testify of Him!  The worlds, the plants, the starts, the order that in them are, testify that there is a God. 

We read in Romans 8:16 that "the Spirit itself beareth witness to our spirit, that we are the children of God."  That same being, who created worlds without number, is the literal father of our Spirits.

"He love us.  He weeps with us when we suffer and rejoice when we do what is right.  He wants to communicate with us, and we can communicate with Him through sincere prayer." (Preach My Gospel chapter 3, "God is Our Loving Heavenly Father"). 

Why a Father in Heaven who suffers when His children suffer would delight in or ignore the trials we go through is beyond me.  God our Father lives.  He knows your suffering, he knows what it does to you, and it is His hope and plan that we turn to the Savior Jesus Christ and use the power of the Atonement.

This life is hard.  It was meant to test us, to prove our worthiness as heirs to all our Father has.  We experience trials, temptations, and the consequences of our own sins and of others.

We read in the Doctrine and Covenants 122:8 that "The Son of Man hath descended bellow them all."  Jesus Christ knows the pain of every infirmity, He knows the weight of every sin on our soul, and to think that He does not know our situation in any walk of life, dealing with any kind of imperfections of body and soul, is to deny His teachings and the reality of His great atoning sacrifice.

I have a personal witness of the reality of Jesus Christ's life.  I know for myself that He lives.

If ever you have questions, if ever you don't know the answer, if you ever disagree with the teachings of the church, follow the example of Nephi and admit that "I know that [God] loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things."  A knowledge of that love will sustain you as you learn "line upon line, precept upon precept" (D&C 98:3).

Elder Ostler and I have had much success in teaching this week.  We have five people who are currently working towards specific dates for baptism, and several others who desire to be baptized, but have not yet taken the leap of faith to set a date.  Our actions show the desires of our hearts, and we are blessed, in a large measure, according to our desires.  I have seen miracles when people take the steps to meet with missionaries, to read from the Book of Mormon, to come to church, and to set a date for baptism.  Miracles come as the individuals progress.

I know this church is true.  I am so grateful to be in Fresno sharing the gospel with all the people the Lord puts in my path!

With love,

Elder Jared Cummings

Yeej zoo siab tshaj moo zoo!

(Elder Cummings)

Elder Ostler and I have been working very hard this week finding, teaching, and rolling egg rolls.  This week was the ward's annual egg roll fundraiser for the young men and young women and we made sure to go to support them.  Hmong egg rolls are the best.

This last Sunday was the best Sunday yet for having members at sacrament meeting.  We've been teaching several families lately and that has been blessing our work tremendously.  We have seen miracles this week.

We started teaching an older woman, Houa Vang, this week who lost her husband in mid-February.  She has no Christian background, and is living in Kingsburg for a few more weeks before she goes back home to Seattle.  When we sat down with her Elder Ostler and I both experienced an outpouring of the gift of tongues as we taught together the most powerful lesson in Hmong on my mission to date.  We taught and testified of the nature of God and of Houa's own divine nature and taught her how to pray.  She started out unwilling to pray, but as we followed the impressions we were receiving we were able to help her to understand how the gospel and a relationship with God will bless her life.  Before we left she said one of the most humble prayers in Hmong I have heard, a prayer full of faith.  Elder Ostler and I are both so happy to be helping her come to know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ better in the few more weeks she will be in town.

Debbie is doing great too.  She admitted to having tried to avoid us lately, but that she couldn't deny that our random visits continued to answer her prayers.  We stopped by Sunday before church to re-invite her to come, and all of her children were begging to go.  So she did and loved the Spirit that was there.

The ward has been putting a big focus on less actives this year, so Elder Ostler and I have made visiting less active members a bigger priority.  We tried by Robert, someone who I worked with a few months ago when I was on west side, and he said that he was ready to come back.  A huge change!  A miracle in his life and in ours!  It made me so happy when I saw him in the back of the gospel principles class.

I love being a missionary!

With love,

Elder Cummings

The Gospel Blesses Families

(Elder Cummings) 

I love missionary work!  I love the joy that comes from it!  There has been nothing in my life so far that brings me the same kind of joy as sharing the gospel.  It is a universal message.  No matter what your walk of life may be, no matter what age you are, no matter the color of your skin, the size of your shoes, the bounce in your step or level of interest the gospel of Jesus Christ will resonate in your very soul when presented by the Spirit of God.

I have seen that miracle this week.  This week more than any other I have been being bold in sharing what I know with everyone I see.  While I haven't been perfect I know I am being blessed for my efforts.

The spiritual highlight of my week was when we contacted a man named Daniel in the parking lot of his apartment complex.  A father of three daughters living in humble circumstances, but most importantly a son of the true and living God living through this time of probation.  We talked with him of the joy of families, of God's plan for families, and of the Prophet Joseph Smith through whom we know such a marvelous truth!  After telling him that God intends for him and his children to be together as a family for eternity he turned to his daughter Sariah and asked "you don't really want to be with a mean old dad like me forever, do you?"  She looked up, looked him right in the eyes, and said with the voice of a four year old and the wisdom of a lifetime that "Yes, Dad.  I want to."  Daniel was visibly moved and agreed to allow missionaries to come by another day to share with him more of the truths that God has revealed through living prophets.

We have an amazing opportunity in this life to repent and to "prepare to meet God" (Alma 34:32).  We have an amazing opportunity to live with our families "for time and for all eternity" (132:18).  God does not intend for the greatest source of human happiness to end at a graveside.  His vision for His children is far more grand and glorious than we can presently comprehend.  The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the foundation of God's plan for us "to be successful in this life and to return to live in His presence" "(Preach My Gospel chapter 3, "God is Our Loving Heavenly Father").  I bear to you all my witness of His miraculous birth, His sinless life, and His eternal glory.  "There is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, the mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah" (2 Nephi 2:8).  Of this I testify in His sacred name, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

With love,

Elder A. Jared Cummings

P.S. I hope you all spend time reflecting on what the Savior has done for you this Easter season.  There is a wonderful video put out by the Church to help us remember His sacrifice.  I invite you all to check it out and to share it. FollowHim.mormon.org

The Book of Mormon Changes Lives

(Elder Cummings)

The Pioneer Park East area is taking off again!  We had a great week for finding, for teaching, for people coming to church, and the Spirit is with us!  Elder Ostler and I are doing great work together.

Yesterday I finished reading all the way through the Book of Mormon.  That brought me back to the first time I read it several years ago.  From then I have learned and progressed in my understanding of the gospel, but everything I have learned and can learn is built upon that foundation I gained in my youth.  I am so grateful for parents who taught me to love the scriptures early.

I love seeing the Book of Mormon change the lives of the people we teach.  It is so wonderful to watch as they gain hope and faith as days of diligent reading build upon each other, preparing the individual for baptism.  One of the people we saw this week, Debbie, is a wonderful example of this.  A single mother with a desire to know the truth.  As she has read the introductory pages she has felt the Holy Ghost bear testimony to her heart, and she has listened.

Mai Yang is another wonderful mother who's life has been impacted by the Book of Mormon.  She speaks fluent Hmong, but can only read Thai.  We were able to get her a copy that she could read and she has learned from her study the truth of the divine pattern of prophetic dispensations: that God works through living prophets, through all the generations of man (Amos 3:7).

Several of the other people we teach cannot read, so we read for them, and as they listen they feel the power of the words.  They too come closer to Christ.

I know for myself the truth of the message we missionaries teach.  I know it helps all men and women draw closer to Christ.  I have seen it in my own life, in the lives of my parents and sibling, and in the lives of the Hmong people of Fresno California.  The same blessings are available to all of us!

-Elder Jared Cummings