Community Service and Apostolic Callings

This week has been a fantastic one.  That seems to be the trend.  While it was not our biggest week for teaching lessons it was definitely one heavy with service hours.  Thursday, Friday, and Saturday my companion and I spent most of our days helping to translate English to Hmong and Hmong to English at a free dental care clinic. 

The clinic was an experience!  I have been working at this language for three months now and it was a fun stretch of my abilities to talk to people about their medical history and dental procedures.  My companion, Elder Ballard, did help me a lot.  It was really pretty incredible to see this clinic.  There were several hundred dentists on the floor of an enormous convention center doing everything from routine cleanings to pulling wisdom teeth for no charge.  We had people come from over three hundred miles to get this free service.  It was an incredible community event.

The only downside of that was that I missed most of General Conference on Saturday (Mission President approved, no worries).  I may not have raised my hand with the rest of the Church to sustain the three new Apostles, Elders Ronald A. Rasband, Gary E. Stevenson, and Dale G. Renlund, but I do know that they have been called of God to fulfill this sacred calling.  They're charge is just as the original twelve, to "teach all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:19).

God really does speak today.  I find that fact miraculous.

This next week is looking to be a great one.  I love you all.  Have a great day!

-Elder Cummings

Dental Clinic

The Miracle of Sacrifice

(Sister Cummings)

This week has been full of miracles! First off our investigator is still on track to be baptized on the 10th of October which is this Saturday. Though I have been a part of baptisms this is kind of the first one that I am actually taking a part in organizing. But our ward is very loving and supportive therefore we have been able to delegate and focus on the important part. That being preparing Vanessa.

As part of this week we decided to teach the word of wisdom to her. It was a little scary honestly for us, even though it shouldn't have been. Because we had seen the signs of alcohol everywhere. But we pressed forward with the prompting that we needed to and did it. Turns out she had no problem with the stuff. All the bottles that we saw around the apartment were alcohol free ever since it was stated in passing about a month before that we don't drink alcohol. So there is miracle number one, miracle number two I find is way better. It turned out that she did have a problem with coffee. In fact she kind of was a little frustrated to realize that in order to be baptized she had to try not to drink it. However after teaching the doctrine of sacrifice there was a complete change of heart and our investigator threw open every single cupboard and gave us all of her coffee that she owned to throw away. The faith this woman showed was amazing!

As a part of a goal I find myself reading the bible and particularly the story of Abraham. As we know Abraham was a righteous man whom in order to show his faith, God asked him to sacrifice his only son. Which is after God has promised that his posterity shall be numbered as the sand on the sea. That would take quite the faith to even think about doing such a thing and yet Abraham continues in faith up until he is given commandment otherwise with the sacrificial knife suspended above the head of his son.

Sacrifice is a fact of life. In order to live happily we must sacrifice those things that only make us happy in the moment. For example the sacrifice of food for a fast. The sacrifice I and many others are currently making in choosing to leave home and family to serve a mission. All sacrifice is a strife of faith but which sacrifice will bring even farther blessings.

I love you all and I pray for you!

love

Sister Cummings

Pictures from Fresno

The mandatory hair part.

An acquaintance had a stroke, so to help them mend we came across these three chopping up yard waste!  The two older women are bad shammans apparently--they joked about how they still pray to God when they are scared, and invited us back to hear our message!

Best thing ever.  I highly recommend it.

This week we went to an investigator's house to help them with some farm work.  Rice farming is their source of income for the year and they were happy to get some extra hands.

We went rice farming for service.  I had a cool flower print hat, but we didn't get a picture.  These are some pictures of what a Hmong farm looks like.

A man we've seen a couple of times who isn't all there, but is a mechanical wiz.

Pictures!

Drum Roll Please

(Sister Cummings)
And just like that the transfer is over... We received our transfer calls just before the general woman's conference. Imagine this, three sisters calmly eating their cold cut sandwiches suddenly turn into Black Friday-esk Mad women as the phone begins to ring. Well the result of this mad dash turned out to be that Sister Rowlings and I will be losing our little Sister Meldrum as she will be busing down to Ottawa come Wednesday. It will be really sad, after all our little band of the three nephites was quite fun and effective and now we must rediscover what it means to be in a duo again. However it may be nice in some cases because now our itty bitty apartment may be in some cases relieved and I will no longer be sleeping with my feet in the dreaming face of Sister Rowlings.

As Always miracles have happened this week. We are still meeting with Vanessa and she continues to astound us at every opportunity. Keep her in your prayers as usual.

I wished to share a little of what I have learned of Divine Nature and Potential. As we know we are all children of God. The people we walk with on the streets no matter their outlook chose to follow their older brother Jesus Christ in the pre-existence. Just like a Sheppard knows his sheep the Lord God knows all his children. In one of my first district meetings there was a discussion on charity and an Elder stated the following "How would He introduce them." Often when we are looking outward at those around us are we not prone to judge? Do we not compare ourselves to others?

When we look on our brethren do we see them as they actually are. As Children of God and our brothers and sisters, future Kings and Queens of a heavenly stewardship. Next time a judging thought comes into your mind think upon the words that this Elder shared. How would God introduce this person whom I have been so quick to judge.

I leave you with the words of Paul I love you and I pray for all of you.

"Let brotherly love continue" Heb 13:1

Our Redeemer Lives

(Elder Cummings)

It has been another amazing week!  The time has flown by.  We had a Zone Conference conducted by Elder Mervyn B. Arnold of the First Quorum of the Seventy on Tuesday.  That was really a treat.  He taught us about effective planning, effective teaching, and how to work with members of the Church better to move the work of the Lord forward.  He had a lot to teach us.

During the lunch we had at the meeting Elder Arnold received a phone call from Salt Lake City to inform him that Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles had passed away.  Elder Arnold had a close relationship with Richard G. Scott and it was a tender moment to listen to him share the news with us.  I do not know any of the senior leaders in our Church personally, but from what I saw on Tuesday it is clear that their love for eachother and for the Lord is strong.  They are men called of God.  I can bear witness of that.  Following his announcement we listed to a soloist perform "I Know That My Redeemer Lives."  It was a very peaceful rendition and gave me time to think about what that means.  Do I know that my Redeemer lives?  I can say the words, but do I know what they mean?

As I have thought about that I have been taught many things by the Spirit.  If Christ lives then he is indeed the Great Jehovah, the Messiah, the immortal son of God.  If he lives then my faith is in a true and living God who has power over death.  If he lives then, as the song puts it "I shall conquer death" just as he has through his glorious Resurrection.  Through his Atonement and his Resurrection he prepared the way for us to return to live with God, clean and glorified in immortal bodies of flesh and bone.

That is something I have faith in.  To quote another hymn, I believe in Christ!  I "believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth" (Mosiah 4:9).  I know he is the only way for peace in this life and eternal life in the world to come.  I know that the message of his gospel and his sacrifice will bless all mankind.

I have seen it bless those we have taught this week.  There was one family that came over from Laos just shy of a year ago.  They speak beautiful Hmong, much better than the broken noise I crank out.  We taught them the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We bore testimony of the Book of Mormon.  Over the course of a forty five minute visit they were changed by what we taught and are eager to learn more.

There is the man Txhooj Lwm, TV for short, who teaches himself the truth of the gospel when we visit.  We confirm his growing testimony with ours as he reads verses from the Book of Mormon and teaches us the doctrinal implication of the statements.  This man had no Christian background prior to meeting with the LDS missionaries.

God loves his children and blesses them.  He does not let them slip through His fingers.  We went to an appointment yesterday which ended up falling through.  As we turned to leave we were invited to join a birthday party by a sister who had been less active in the Church for several years.  God did not let her slip through his fingers and sent us, two unsuspecting young men, to go and find her.

God lives.  Christ lives.  They love us and desire to bless us.  They are reaching out in love again through living prophets.  All that they ask of us is that we have the faith and patience to listen.  I encourage you all to open your ears and hearts to the great things our Father and Brother seek to teach you.  I know the blessings are real.

And now it is on to another glorious sunny day in Fresno!

With love,

Elder A. Jared Cummings

Bruised Thumbs

(Anziano Wilkinson)

So in light of my companion's concussion, we have had to take it easy

this week by staying inside a lot more than usual. So naturally I have

had a lot of time to study! Part of my studies have centered on Jesus

the Christ, from which I continue to grow in understanding of who our

Savior is as a person.

One chapter in the book is centered entirely on Christ's boyhood and

growth. One thing that Tallmadge emphasizes in this chapter is that

Christ, just like everyone else, learned line upon line, precept upon

precept. Nothing was ever simply handed to Him on account of His

divine sonship; He was required to attain wisdom and knowledge in

exactly the same way we are, by hard work and patience.

With this in mind it occurred to me that, while He was entirely

sinless and spiritually perfect, Christ was not perfect at all things

temporal. That is, He was not by default that best at everything He

ever did. In mortality, He probably wasn't as good at swimming as

Michael Phelps, or as good at Basketball (had it existed) as Michael

Jordan. He probably couldn't beat a world champion Chess player at a

game of Chess and, who knows, He may not have even been a straight A

student had he attended Harvard Medical School (although He was

clearly a very smart individual). Christ probably wasn't a perfect

carpenter when He began learning the trade and He probably had His

fair share of splinters and bruised thumbs.

Christ was perfectly sinless, there is no dispute about that, but that

doesn't mean he was a superhuman from planet Krypton. For me, thinking

about Christ in this light makes Him a lot more relatable. I think too

often we lose sight of the fact that Christ experienced life in just

the same way we do and that He wasn't arbitrarily lead through life or

given whatever He wanted without needing to put in sincere effort on

His end. He stands shoulder to shoulder with us in being able to

attest that life is not an easy experience.

Anyway, that is a bit of what I have learned this week, maybe it's

false doctrine, maybe it's not haha. In the end the important part is

that Christ was sinless and that because of this He was able to take

upon Himself our sins and pay the cost for them that we might not have

to if we came unto Him. I know this is true and I am so happy to have

the chance to share this truth full time for the next two years!

Have a great week everyone and don't forget to invite a friend to

conference this week!

-Anziano Wilkinson