District Leader

Dear friends and family:

This Tuesday I found out that I would be the new district leader for the last few weeks of my mission. I was shocked, but I did my best to give a good district training on Wednesday morning and to find out the needs of the district. I trained about accounting, and being responsible for our efforts, instead of being creatures of circumstances.

We started the week very enthusiastically. We were excited to work hard, and determined to have a turnaround from last week, and to help our investigators progress and be baptized. We had a goal of two baptisms this week, and we still have a goal of five baptisms this month. We fell short, and now our teaching pool is even worse than it was before. We stopped teaching almost all of our investigators, including the three who had been to church several times who could be baptized. (Lucia, Jessica, and Maxime.)

Elder Storm and I feel like the biggest mistake we made this week was that we were so focused on our goal of baptizing, that we didn't stop teaching investigators when their desires and priorities changed. They came to church, and kept some of the commitments we left with them, but ignored others and hung on to a few things in their lives that they didn't want to change. We loved our investigators too much, and so we kept teaching them and we didn't put forth the extra effort to find the remaining investigators who could be baptized at the end of this month.

We are both really bummed about the way that the week turned out. I hate to say it, but despite working hard, we put our efforts into the wrong thing, and we didn't seek the revelation from God that would have corrected us earlier in the week. We're a little discouraged because now we don't have the investigators that we need to meet our baptismal goal, but I'm not going to give up or slack for the last part of my mission.

I'm really excited to hear about the changes in my family, with a new sister, and another brother going off to college. Everything will be different when I finally come home and meet up with everyone again.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Drum Roll Please

So as it turned out everyone who emailed me guessed it... I have in fact been transferred... Which is pretty stinking hard. I have spent nearly an entire half of my mission in the amazing area of Lemoyne. I am so grateful for all the amazing people here but as it turns out I will be headed back North of the island and serving in Laval. Laval is still a French area but unlike other French areas there is no Spanish ward covering the area. So my mission call has changed a little bit and I am going to be teaching in Spanish. The Lord sure works in funny ways because by golly, I have never even taken a spanish class... But hey, apparently God needs me to be there.

Not going to lie my heart is kind of hurting in leaving Lemoyne. I have been in this area longer than I have ever been in New Jersey. So when I was asked to give my testimony instead I asked if I would be able to sing. It has always been easier for me to sing my testimony and I prayed for a good long while that I would be able to do it. So I ended up singing "Where can I turn for peace." The spirit was so strong and I was so grateful to have been able to at least leave one last thing for this ward that I have grown to love.

Don't get me wrong. I am going to love Laval. I will be in a trio for the second time on my mission, so I will be leaving my beloved Sister Ladd. *sigh* I am so grateful for everything that she has done for me. For the example that she has shown me.

There is a scripture that has really touched me so much. It is in Alma 29:10

"And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me."

I am so grateful for the wonderful examples these people have shown me as I watch them grow closer to God. They have shown me through their testimonies the way to grow mine. I am so glad that I have been granted a stay so long here and to learn so much. I love you all and I thank you for the prayers you send my way.

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

His Grace is Sufficient

This week my companion and I learned a lot about the importance of hard work to find spiritual answers. Even though we have such fantastic tools as the Bible Dictionary and the Topical Guide and a myriad of other tools to help us research topics, there are some concepts that require more than a few minutes to wrap your mind around and fully understand. This week my companion Anziano Blackwell and I found this to be very true as we prepared a lesson to give in our priesthood meeting this Sunday. The topic was the Atonement, but we wanted to make it a little deeper than the obvious and teach about how the Atonement can better fulfill our purpose as missionaries and better help the people we teach draw closer to Christ. We focused most of our lesson on the "enabling power of the Atonement" which is grace.

We spent a good few hours in total studying this topic and came to a much greater understanding of it and it's relevance to us and to really everyone. We found in the Bible Dictionary that grace is a "divine means of help or strength... to do good works that they would otherwise not be able to maintain if left to their own means." This really stuck out to us because it basically says that grace is the only way we can become better people and stay better people. Without grace, if left to ourselves, we cannot maintain good works, which means we cannot become like our Heavenly Father. This divine means of help and strength is the gift of a loving brother, even Jesus Christ and his Atonement. And the more good we do, the more we humble ourselves, the more we give our all to the Lord, the more grace He will bless us with. And this grace is necessary for our salvation and for our happiness in this life and in the next.

2 Nephi 25:23 says, "For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." I love this verse because it is so true! If we labor diligently, then will his grace attend us. And through the grace of our Jesus Christ who loves us so dearly and wants the absolute best for us always, we can do anything we are called to do. Another great scripture on grace is Ether 12:27, which emphasizes the sheer importance and power of grace and says, "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." This scripture is one of my all-time favorites because it's message is so hopeful. I have lots of weak things, we all do, but we have no reason to despair about it, because I know that if we humble ourselves before the Lord and give Him all we've, got he will make our weak things strong! I know this is true. I have experienced grace in my life time and time again. It's one of the major reasons why I know our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ love us. It's so unbelievably uplifting to know that this divine means of help and strength is always there for us is we simply qualify for it. I know that it will only be through the grace of Christ that I will be able to accomplish anything on my mission. I know that I have been aided here at the MTC by His grace and that without it I would not be nearly as prepared as I am for this journey that I will embark on in only a few days.

I hope everyone at home is doing well! I send my best wishes and I'm praying for you always!

-Anziano Wilkinson

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

Dear friends and family:

Last week ended really well, with ten investigators at sacrament, and plenty of dates and new investigators. Starting the very next day, however, almost all of our investigators started dropping off the face of the map. It was like a magic trick, but it wasn't very fun to watch. The only two investigators that remained by the end of the week were Lucia and her daughter, Jessica. (And it took until Thursday to finally get in contact with them.) I'm sorry to report that thus sudden change of direction in our area caused more than a little discouragement between the two of us.

Lucia and her daughter have been to church three times now. They have a baptismal date for this Saturday, which we will do everything in our power to help them keep. Lucia feels like she needs to know more before her baptism, and she also confided in us that she doesn't feel like she has fully repented of everything she has done in the past. We're not going to push her, but we will help her with that process and encourage her to read the Book of Mormon and to pray. We have plans to have her interviewed early this week, to help her see that she is ready.

The other three investigators that came to church are new investigators from this week, that we found while knocking doors. It is a family: Ezekiel, and his two daughters, both of whom have names that I can never remember or pronounce for the life of me. (Someone else who lives in the same house has an interesting name, pronounced the way you would read "qui est la lune" in French, although it is not spelled that way. It means "who is the moon." Just... thought you ought to know :D) We gave them a tour of the chapel before church started, and they were really interested in the story of Joseph Smith. (We had only found them on Saturday, so we had not had a chance to teach it to them beforehand.) They also have soft dates, but their dates are for the 22nd.

Maxime didn't come to church. Apparently, his job required him to drive all throughout the weekend, because school is starting up so soon. We have stopped trying to see him, because he is almost never home and because he can't progress or be baptized unless his wife hops on the bandwagon and they decide to be married. It's sad, but we made the decision and we feel like it's the best thing to do.

Thanks,

Elder Slade

Amazing Quebec

Quebec is as usual amazing! All this week we have had such beautiful weather! With the sun shining during the day and insane thunderstorms at night. Sister Ladd and I have taken to planning our following day in the garage overlooking the lightening from a nice dry corner. It is breathtaking!

Anyways this week I would like to share one of my favourite scriptures. It is in Moroni 7, and it reads

 12 Wherefore, all things which are good cometh of God; and that which is evil cometh of the devil; for the devil is an enemy unto God, and fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to sin, and to do that which is evil continually.

 13 But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.

I love this scripture so much because the logic it presents is just so simple. Anything good that invites us to do good is of God. And anything that doesn't is not. However my absolute favourite scripture comes just a little bit later

15 For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night.

Something that we teach is the importance of free agency, which is the power to choose for ourselves. In French it translates to libre arbitre. Libre, meaning free. Arbitre meaning choice, but what is interesting is that this word, at least in Quebec, is the word used to describe the referee at soccer games. Isn't French so cool?? If we look at what a referee does it is there job to determine what follows the rules and what does not during a game. Thus judging from right and wrong. With this knowledge, agency also takes on a further meaning, the need to choose between good and bad. But we are not alone! That is the best part! The Lord gives us so many opportunities to check up to see what is right, much like a rule book, we are given the scriptures, priesthood blessings, but even more prayers! The Lord promises that if we but ask it will be given unto us. So that we may be able to know with a plain and a perfect knowledge between right and wrong just as we see the difference between the light of day and the darkness of night.

I love you all and I know that these things are true that if we just ask God that he will be able to help us know right and wrong. Often out here we ask others to pray to know if the book of Mormon is true, or that Joseph Smith was a Prophet. These are not vain demands. Each has a purpose. I myself have prayed and I can testify that I know that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God and it was literally translated by the Prophet Joseph Smith. I thank you for all the prayers that you send my way and know that I pray for you. Have a wonderful week!