The Plague Continues

So in continuation from last week. I am all better from whatever bug I may have caught. However my lovely companion caught my little ball of fun... So we had an entire day of sitting and making calls. And because the Area Book had already been updated and the apartment cleaned to shining, I got the opportunity to make a scripture case, it isn't finished yet but I am so excited about it #bepreparedforpictures

Besides that we had a mini mission this week! Her name was Kayla, so it was really really strange to hear someone calling my name, my REAL name, so often. It kind of gave me a little glimpse at the awkward RM I am going to be... #foreverhandshaking

But besides the random points of trunkiness, Kayla helped me realize something quite vision changing. During the mini mission we had an opportunity to bring our third companion to a district meeting. Or the meeting where all the missionaries in our little area meet with to discuss the needs of our areas and learn from each other. Kayla was asked to give her testimony on how her mini mission was helping her, and what she said was so simple, but it really hit right home.

I have been on my mission for a good bit of time okay? No one can refute that fact. And just like with anything that we have been doing for a while, I have fallen into the habits and life of being a missionary. The things I do just don't always hit the same as they did a year ago. So when Kayla commented on how much it really touched her that we would listen to Mo Tab in the morning before studies, which we did every morning. It made me take a step back and look at what I have been doing out here on a mission. I have been doing and feeling so much good that I just don't see the difference anymore.

This past week my brother wrote about recognizing the spirit, in comparing it to a stop sign. I would like to add another analogy to that, which I discovered at the beginning of my mission and can now farther testify of it. Have you ever moved from one place to the next? I remember moving from Illinois to New Jersey and for the first solid month, we were searching for those moments when the New Jersey accent would appear. After a while the chwaclate and cwoffee turned into normal. Feeling the Holy Ghost is a lot like this. When we are put into a new environment and doing new things we recognize it so often. And then after extended exposure it becomes normal for us, and we don't recognize it until not too long afterwards someone points out to us that we are using this same accent in our own conversations.

I can testify that this is true. I saw it happen this week.

I love you all!!!

Have a wonderful week!

Strong Week

Dear friends and family:

Elder Storm and I are doing very well. We started off the week very strong, working well together and always looking for more things we can do to help our investigators and keep our area healthy. The hard work paid off, and by the end of the week it resulted in... ten investigators coming to sacrament meeting! That is one of the highest I have ever gotten on my mission. Church was a madhouse, we were so worried about getting each of the investigators to their proper classes and getting members to talk with them. In all of the people who came to church, we have...

Maxime. He came for the third time this week. He loves the church, and the only thing that is preventing him from getting baptized is that he isn't yet married with his significant other. They want to get married, but she doesn't want us to help out with it, because she feels like if we do it then we will use that as leverage to get her to come to church with us and to get baptized. (Neither of which are things that she wants to do.) But we'll keep working with them, hopefully she has a change of heart or some other miracle comes along so that he and his kids (and her as well, by preference) can all be baptized together.

Lucia and Jessica. Lucia is a member referral from her cousin, who lives in Canada. She and her daughter, Jessica, have come to church twice, and they have a date for this Saturday! What we're struggling with in helping her get baptized is that she works very late every day, so we have to see her at the end of the evening, so we don't have a lot of time to go over what we need to cover, and even then she isn't always home yet. But we're not complaining, she's great!

Christelle. We knocked into her several months ago, but never went back to see her because she wasn't committed to come to church and didn't have a very strong desire to be baptized. But she called us a few days ago and told us that she wanted to take us up on the offer to come to church. She came, loved it, and has a date for the 15th!

Livesta & her five siblings. We used to call her Abigail, because that's how she introduced herself originally, but apparently her first name is actually Livesta and she told us that that's what she prefers to be called. So... Livesta has been to church five times now. We were really trying to get a big push for her to be baptized last Saturday, but her parents aren't quite on board with it yet. They don't believe that she is mature enough to be baptized. (She's 16, by the way.) So we're going to try to work with them on that and show them that she is old and mature enough to make that decision for herself.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

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

Of Faith and Apostles

We had a really special guest speaker at the MTC this last Martedi (Tuesday), Elder Russel M Nelson, president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. His discorso (talk) was his first as president of that quorum and it was so cool to feel the spirit that he brought into the room and to hear his testimonianza del salvatore (testimony of the Savior). It was also extremely special to sing for him at the devotional.

This week has had an unspoken theme of faith for me personally. I'm come to realize that which is quite frankly obvious, that when we trust everything to the Lord, he will make everything work in the best way possible. For example, in lessons, we as fledgling Italian learners often are so worried about making cogent sentences that we try to plan them out in our heads before we say them. The only problem with this is that it's hard to sincerely listen to what your companion or investigator is saying when you're trying to think of what you're going to say next. But when you take the leap of faith to simply listen and sincerely try to understand the situation, the words are literally given to you to say. One of my favorite experiences with this so far happened during fast and testimony meeting this Sunday. I felt prompted that I needed to bare my testimony, but had absolutely no idea what I should say. So, remembering the principle of faith, I ceased giving the topic any thought and just listened. I stood up to bare my testimony and still have no idea what to say, but I just opened my mouth and inspiration flowed right though me.

I know that faith is a true principle and that we do have a Father in Heaven who love us and wants the absolute best for us. I know that He sent His Son to take the burdens of our sins so that we could become perfected though Him. His Atonement is real and it is sufficient to cover us entirely, all we need to do is believe and try our best to follow his commandments. We were sent to this Earth quite simply to see if we loved our Father in Heaven enough to return back to him. And I am so glad that I get to help the people of Italy by pointing them in the right direction to return home.

One more realization that I had this week was the shear insignificance of my own desires. Who cares what I need or what I want? I have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my Life. And the Gospel of Jesus Christ is everything. There are people out there who do not have this. Who am I to be concerned about myself when there are people out there looking for the truth but are kept from it only because they no not where to find it? I have a Job to do, and it's not to satisfy myself, but to serve my God and his children with all my might mind and strength. Salvation is on the line. What else could be more direly important than that?

I hope you all are having a great week! I've only got 12 more days until I take off for Italian soil! I am really excited to say the least!

-Anziano Wilkinson

The Priesthood

Well this week was definitely interesting. This was the case because for the most part I found myself with a fever for three days straight. Not an insanely bad one, don't worry I am still alive. But my pillow and I did have a lot of time to get to know each other. But even with this I can still say that I learned so much and that this week was an absolutely amazing week.

Now I don't have too much time to share all the reasons why but I would like to share one story. But first a little doctrine.

Many ask what makes our church different from plenty other Christian churches. Many churches have the same teachings as you what makes yours more true. The factor is this, it is a question of authority in the doctrines that are shared. When a boy of fourteen asked the question "Which church do I join." Heavenly Father responded immediately in appearing to the boy with his son Jesus Christ and telling him that none of the churches on the Earth at that time held his authority. They taught some true doctrines but many others were lost or changed through a period called apostasy that started not too long after the 12 Apostles were killed and had continued all the way up to the 1820s. This lack of authority was in no fault their own, but because of this apostasy of the past they were rendered incapable of restoring all of the true doctrines that were originally taught and therefore unable to have God's authority. It was necessary that God reinstate the true doctrines and thus following, his authority. Which he did through calling, Joseph Smith, this young boy, to be his Prophet and to bring about the fullness of his gospel. This Restoration of the teachings included many things, such as Baptisms by immersions, which many churches at the time had begun to practice again. However the difference here was not only the act reinstated but the authority that made it a covenant was restored through the sending of John the Baptist, the same who baptized Jesus, to give the keys of the Aaronic Priesthood, or the power and authority of God needed to baptize to Joseph Smith, who then gave it to others. Which was then followed by a visit by Peter, James and John, of the twelve Apostles, conferring the Melchizedek Priesthood, which is what I would like to speak on today.

The Melchizedek Priesthood is the Power and Authority given by God to worthy men to give sacred ordinances, such as marriage for eternity, as well as the conferring of blessings to the sick and afflicted, whether in body or in spirit. I can testify with all my heart that this power is truly on this Earth. For this week I saw it in action. As I was lying sick for many hours my companion asked if I would like a blessing of this priesthood. I said yes and the Elders were able to come and give me a blessing. During which blessing I was promised that within a days time I would find all the strength I needed to continue to do the work I needed to. Immediately my fever broke and true to the words which had been blessed on my head I received all the strength I needed within a days time and was able to help a family in need pack away their belongings as they moved. I am so grateful for the wonderful moment I had to see and feel the reality of this authority that God once again gave to man. I am so grateful to be able to share these truths to those around me who are in need. Who's souls do hunger for God. I love this work that I am doing and am so grateful to be here testifying of it.

I love you all and I pray for each and every one of you. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

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

A good one

Dear friends and family:

This week has been a pretty good one. Elder Storm and I are still going strong. I'm trying not to focus on how soon I'm going home, but it gets harder and harder because almost every missionary I talk to mentions it. :) I'm trying to get as emotionally attached as possible to our new goal: five baptisms this transfer. We know that this goal is inspired of God, and nothing is going to stop us from accomplishing it!

Abigaile came to church again last week. That makes five times that she has come to church. This time, she brought her brother with her as well. Unfortunately, she had a terrible time at church, because she felt sick. She ended up going to the bathroom, throwing up there, and then going home. We stopped by later to talk with her, but she looked terrible. We're going to try to see her again tonight and get her set with a date for this Saturday.

Maxime and his sons did not come to church this morning, because of an unfortunate problem that he had with his car. But we stopped by in the evening to teach him and his family, and he's still excited to be baptized and to join the church. He told us, 'you can just consider that this is my church from now on. I'm not going to be going to any other churches.' Unfortunately, we also found out that he and his wife are not actually married, although they have been living together for the last nine years. So now we are trying to get them married so that he and their sons can be baptized. This is made more complicated by the fact that his wife doesn't really like us that much, but she is the one who wanted to get married all of those nine years so that she could be baptized into her own church. Now Maxime is changing his mind and he wants to be married, just so that he can be baptized. And to make matters worse, he is going out of town today again for work. He doesn't know when he'll be back, but it won't be for several more days.

Those are are two most solid investigators for right now. We have a few other, less-solid investigators we are working with, but they didn't come to church and so the ones that we haven't dropped are on probation until we can find out what happened and why they didn't come.

Thanks,

Elder Slade