A taste of Africa

(Anziano Wilkinson)

This week went by unusually fast, which is ironic because the days that count down to Christmas usually tick by very slowly in anticipation of that glorious day haha. Unfortunately I won't be having a white Christmas this year since it nearly never snows in Tuscany, in fact, we we'd be lucky if we even need out coats that day; we rarely use them as it is!

This last week was the first of our new transfer and we are beginning it with a newly Awakened Force... Okay, lame Star Wars pun. But really, we are working harder than ever and making successes everyday! One of our investigators, named Jonathan, is a fantastic man from Nigeria and has been making great progress lately. He is only just beginning to come to a full view of the beauty of the gospel and each week he draws closer to our Heavenly Father! He had us over for lunch last Sunday and we had some traditional Nigerian food, eat in the traditional Nigerian way: no plates. Apparently, they place the serving dish in the center just eat from the same dish, which sounds gross, but in reality it's not as bad as it sounds. I'll put some pictures of us eating with him and his friend Alfred.

This week, I was struck by the thirtieth chapter of 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon, which is only two verses long. It's very short but it packs a lot of power into the few words that are said. Basically, in writing this chapter, Mormon digresses form his abridging of the history of the Nephites and takes a moment to pour his heart out to us, the future readers of his work. He feels earnestly to warn us of what we are going to face in our time and to warn us not to do as his own people did. He urges us, in pleading words, to repentance and to cast from ourselves any ungodliness and beckons us to follow the example of our loving Heavenly Father.

These words were truly meant for us, written hundreds of years in advance. These are the words of a prophet who witnessed the complete distraction of his own people and wished with all of his heart that it might not happen again in a future generation. He pleads with us to lay aside sin and take up righteousness, knowing that it is too late for his own people and hoping with all his heart that his words will reach our ears in time for us to act upon them. I stand by his words and likewise invite everyone to repent and taste of the goodness that is gospel of Jesus Christ! Especially now this Christmas season, I invite everyone to listen to and act upon the words of Mormon, the ancient prophet, "that ye may be numbered with [God's] people". What a great joy that would be!

Have a great week everyone, hear from you next week!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

Welcome to the Covenants

(Elder Cummings)
Less than twenty-four hours ago I had the fantastic privilege to witness Pieter J. follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by one holding the proper authority from God.  It made me unbelievably happy!  Normally my preparation days are accompanied by a pinch of homesickness, but not today!  Today I am beaming.  I am so happy for Pieter!

Seeing Pieter baptized got me thinking about Johnny, one of my good friends from my congregation back at home.  I love Johnny!  He has such a firm testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He believes with a passion that Joseph Smith did see God the Father and Jesus Christ and that the Book of Mormon is God's word on the earth.  I met Johnny around two years ago at a Stake Conference.  His mom was a returning less active member and Johnny was coming to church with her.  He had never been baptized, but one of the first things he said to me was that he wanted to serve a mission someday!

Johnny was taught the missionary lessons and he was baptized not long after I met him.  You should have seen the smile on his face!  He was filled with joy!  He had promised with God that he would do all he could to live according to Christ's commandments, to be a witness of Christ in all places, and to always remember the sacrifice of his Savior.  The next Sunday he was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and received the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, exactly as we read the Apostle Paul doing it in Acts 19:2-6.  He now has the constant companionship of a member of the Godhead to protect him and teach him the truth.  Pieter will be receiving the same blessing on the 20th of this month (the same day three more Hmong investigators will be getting baptized).  I am so happy for Pieter!  Having seen the joy the gospel has brought Johnny and to myself I know that Pieter will have the same lasting peace and happiness.  God wants so badly to bless all of His children!

Baptism is essential the beginning of the path that leads us back to God.  It is the first covenant that prepares us to make other covenants in God's holy temples.  Helping people receive these covenants, to come into the fold of Christ is infinitely rewarding!  I am so happy to be a missionary!

In a few days my older sister will be returning home to conclude her missionary service.  For the last eighteen months she has been preaching the gospel in Montreal, Canada.  She sent her last email home today and testified of the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  I bear witness with her that what she testified of is true.  Jesus makes possible all progression along the path of righteousness.  Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer.  He came to the earth to so that the world in sin and error pining could rejoice in the new and glorious morn.  With Him we will stand at the last day.  Before him we will all stand to be judged according to our actions and the desires of our hearts.  He is the Only Begotten of the Father.  Is is the light, the life and the hope of the world who rules today at the right hand of His Father.  I echo wholeheartedly the testimony the living Apostles.  God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son!

With my love,

Elder A. Jared Cummings

Final Words

(Sister Cummings)

Dearest Family and Friends,

The time has come. The moment I have both looked forward to and avoided is now at the door. This is my last email as a missionary. This Wednesday I will be relieved of my proselyting duties, Thursday my family will come pick me up and on Saturday I will be released as a missionary. It all seems to be happening so fast. It’s like when you have been waiting in line for  a waterslide and you get all excited when it finally comes but then it is just as the slide starts tipping downward you wish you had never gotten on it and want to climb back up. I am finding more and more that I do not want my mission to end, but yet I am excited for the future. Just like the waterslide. First you want to crawl back but then you realize how fun and exhilarating it is. I am grateful for my mission and excited for the future.

For the past 18 months I have been "anxiously engaged in a good cause" (D&C 58:27) I have served with all my "Heart, mind, might and strength" (D&C 4) as a representative of Jesus Christ, here in Quebec. Much like the province slogan, "Je me souviens," I will always remember my time here.

It certainly was not easy. With one of the strictest schedules of my lie, the initiative to talk to everyone in a language not my own, having to stay 24/7 with a companion of a different culture or traditions. Not to mention how many times a door has been slammed in my face, that I have been yelled at, and cursed at, and once spat at. I cannot imagine a happier moment than I have witnessed here. I have seen so many miracles. I have witnessed as the spirit touched the lives of many people in bringing them to the joy of the fullness of the gospel, as they become converted to the Lord. The most breathtakingly beautiful thing however is that as I have been helping my fellow brothers and sisters here I myself have changed.

A scripture found in Alma 29:10 often comes to mind as I have gone about serving the Lord. "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 cannot say it as well as Alma, but as I have seen the Lord's precious children become enfolded in his arms of mercy through their efforts to come closer to him, I myself have come to realize all that God has done for me.

If I was ever able to tell you the most important thing I have learned from serving a mission it would be that I have finally come to an understanding of the grandeur of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Why he went forth "suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind" and took upon him "the pains and the sicknesses of his people" (Alma 7:11) It is because he loves us. A truth that I knew of but did not know the extent of this love. he has gone before my face. He has been on my right hand and on my left with his angels round about me to bear me up (D&C 84:88) When I have stumbled he has lifted me. When I was weak he has made me strong. Wherever I have been he is always there with his arms of mercy extended towards me. (Alma 5:33-34)

During this Christmas season I have reflected on the words of a well loved song. "Oh Holy Night" depicts through poetry and music the evening of the saviours birth. I had the opportunity of performing it in place of my final testimony as a missionary I asked to sing.

"Oh holy night

The stars are brightly shining

it is the night of the dear Saviour's birth."

It then talks about why the saviour was needed.

"Long lay the world in sin and error pining

Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth"

Without the Saviour the world would forever be in sin and sadness. We would have no chance of fulfilling the goal we so longingly desired for. This being living with our Father in Heaven once more. For "there cannot any unclean thing enter into the kingdom of God." (1 Nephi 15:34) A spiritual darkness surrounded the earth until the Saviour was born.

"A thrill of hope the weary soul rejoices

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn"

And I find that the words translated from the French version are far more descriptive than the English

"People to your knees

hear your deliverance

Noel, Noel

Here is your redeemer

Noel, Noel

Here is your redeemer"

How beautiful it would have been to be there at his birth. Where a hope was given once more to us to return to our father in heaven. He is our Redeemer and the Saviour of our souls. Salvation is a lot better than anything Santa Claus can give.

In closing these final thoughts I wished to share something that have learned recently. In the bible there comes a moment when the children of Israel are corned by the fast approaching wave of the Philistine Army. The Israelites plead unto Samuel, the prophet at the time, saying "Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us. That he will save us out of the hand of the philistines" (1 Samuel 7:8) Samuel prays on their behalf and the Lord sends a thunder that confuses the Philistines are the Israelites are able to win. After the battle Samuel took a stone and made a memorial, which he named Ebenezer meaning "stone of help." Saying "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." In reading this story another song came to mind. That of "Come thou fount of every blessing" In one of the verses it states

"Here I raise my Ebenezer

Hither by thy help I come

And I hope by thy good pleasure

Safely to arrive at home"

Here, Quebec I raise my Ebenezer. I have come to be who I am through my service here. And I hope that through Gods grace that I may continue to progress so that I may be able to arrive home to my Father in Heaven.

I know that He lives. I know that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can be saved from all heartache, sorrow or malediction. I know that this Church and its gospels and doctrine are true. I know all these things and I testify that we have a God who loves us and he wants us to be happy and through His plan he makes this so. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Day is Soon Cummings

(Sister Cummings)

Well everyone I have hit a rather remarkable and pretty bittersweet moment yesterday when I realized that I could count the amount of days that I have left on my mission using only my two hands.... Yikes.... I literally have spent 540 days of the roughly 550 days it takes to serve a mission. Boy. Crazy.

Anyways.... No daudling back to business...

Where was I? Oh that's right missionary work. This week has been pretty good. Although we, both Sister Blanc and I, had nice bought with a stomach virus we managed still to go out and see people. We actually got more lessons than the last two weeks combined. So quite a progress if I do say so myself. Honestly not sure how it happened, but I think part of it was God and the other part was people felt so sad for us that they just had to let us in. Either way it ended in our benefit, and we hope that this week may also be as effective or more.

I have had quite a few experiences this week. One happened just a few days ago. As a missionary soon to be returning to the real world...gulp... the First Presidency has started a training program to better help the transition. This training usually would take six weeks. But they literally just introduced it this week so I have to complete it in two weeks. A lot. But it is actually helping. The program focuses a lot on preparing, planning and setting goals for after the mission. So in fixing these goals I have had quite a bit of time to think about how my life will be. With a shockingly high less active rate of return missionaries you could say I was a little discouraged. I often find myself wondering if I will be able to surpass those bad habits before my mission when I return. What is going to happen. I had been saying a lot of prayers on the matter and I wasn't sure what to do.

With us both being sick we had a bit more time to study. A bit...more like a lot more time to study. One day I was reading ensigns and flipping through when I felt impressed to go pick up a Book of Mormon in English and read that. This Book of Mormon was very special. I had received it from my Sister, Camilla, around the time of Mother's Day this past year. She had decorated it and written her testimony in it. I thought it nice that if there were any English speakers that I taught I could share with them her testimony and favorite scripture. Sadly no one we have taught since then has been comfortable in English enough for me to give it to them. So I have held onto it. And it wasn't until about two weeks ago when I was going through and dejunking my desk that I found it again. Well this day I decided to read it. I open up to find that a page had one of the corners folded. Well that was interesting. Last time I checked there hadn't been any pages folded, so I decide to read it. It was 2 Nephi 4:18-19

18 I am encompassed about, because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily abeset me.

 19 And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I haveatrusted.

It may sound dark but I found actually that it said exactly what I was feeling. I was sad with the actions I had done before my mission, things like watching Netflix for hours instead of doing other more important things. ANd pretty soon I will be in a world less sheltered than missionary life where our only access to technology is a flip phone and emails once a week. Will I be able to keep the standards of diligence that I have learned from being sheltered while I am out encompassed about by temptation?

The Answer?

Yes because I know in whom I have trusted. Since this moment of opening up to a page that had a corner folded down that just happened to have the answer to my question (coincidence? I think Not!) the words of God speaking to the adversary in Moses 4:21 often come to mind."he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Power has only the power to bruise our heel. While inconvénient and annoying it is not debilitating expecially when we know that we, through Christ, shall bruise his head. In fact the Hebrew word used for bruise actually can also mean crush. So we have the power to Crush his head. We are never alone. We have a Father in Heaven who is so powerful that the whole of righteous humanity he calls his "little fold." He is always on our side and no matter the future we may continue in hope knowing with a surity that what ever the outcome may be for our benefit.

I love you all and I wish you one of the best christmas's ever. Have a wonderful week =)

Elder Bagley and The Week of Miracles

(Elder Cummings)

Before I get on with my letter for this week, I just want to share something with you that never fails to cheer me up.  One word: peanuts.  In Hmong this translates to "lub txiv laum huab xeeb," which translates back in English to "the fruit tickles pregnant cloud."  It makes sense to the native speakers, so I'm not going to question it.  I'll just keep smiling.

It has been a WONDERFUL week and Elder Ballard and I have welcomed our WONDERFUL new companion Elder Bagley who hails from Rexburg, Idaho.  This morning as we went shopping he bought a five pound bag of potatoes.  And so the old adage rings true, you can take the missionary out of Idaho, but you can't take the Idaho out of the missionary.  He has a real gift for the language.  After nine weeks in Utah he has come out knowing more words than I do after twelve additional weeks in the field.  I haven't been lazy with my time as a missionary and apparently neither has he!  He is a great missionary.  The three of us get along great and have done some great teaching together already!

A great example is our visit to Song Lu Xiong this week.  He and his wife are long time investigators and when we taught out of the Book of Mormon as a trio the Spirit was so thick and there was a tangible energy in the room.  Song Lu volunteered to begin praying to ask God if the LDS church has more truth than his.  He has been invited to do that several times over the last few years, and has always said no.  He and his wife have changed their hearts completely all because of the wonderful influence of the Spirit!

Another great example is Dow Xiong, a woman in her late twenties we met last night (not literally related to Song Lu, but still his "cousin," there are only 18 Hmong last names).  Elder Bagley and I contacted her while Elder Ballard was busy with a phone call and she changed her mind about the need for a church completely over the course of a ten minute conversation.  She went from not interested to agreeing to be baptized on January ninth in just six hundred seconds!  We bore testimony and taught the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and now she will be following the example of Jesus Christ and uniting with His restored church!  The Spirit changes hearts.

There was Raquel, a less active member whose brother attends our Hmong congregation.  As we taught her by the promptings of the Holy Ghost we helped her to reconnect with God in a powerful way and offer her first prayer in years.  She is in the court proceedings of a messy divorce and the peace that the Gospel of Jesus Christ brings was just what she needed and it was just what the Lord wanted to give to her.

The Lord wants all of us to have that peace.  He wants to bless all of us, and He will bless us as we strive to live in accordance with His laws.  Get blessings!  Be obedient!

I love you all,

Elder Jared Cummings

Apparently you have already seen a picture of him, but here is Elder Bagley smiling, and winking, for the camera!  And could Dad send me the picture that President Clark sent?  If you have the one from when I came in that would be great!  I would love to keep them all in one place.

Christmas and Lights

(Anziano Wilkinson) 

So this transfer I get to stay in Pisa with Anziano Mattson! That means I get to spend Christmas here! I am counting down the the days till I get to call home and say Merry Christmas to my wonderful family! This week we have been having lots of success with showing the members the "A Savior is Born" (È Nato un Salvatore) campaign and inviting them to share it with everyone! This video, along with the opportunity to bear testimony about the savior, brings the spirit strongly every time! It is very uplifting and we hope also inspiring enough for the members to want to share that feeling/video :). This week we have been working with members a lot with this video and it had been great to visit them and help them become motivated to share it!

This week while I was reading in the Book of Mormon I found something that really stuck out to me. It was 3 Nephi 18:24, which begins "Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world." This is a concept that we are taught over and over and one that we should always be working towards every day, but sometimes we wonder what exactly we need to do to "hold up [our] light[s]". The next part of the verse explains perfectly that answer to that question when it says, "Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up--that which ye have seen me do." Basically, Christ is saying in this verse, that we hold up our lights by holding up his example, and he doesn't mean just telling other people about his example, he means living it, he means doing "that which [w]e have seen [him] do". This is such a wonderful concept! Christ's life and example was absolutely full of light; people would see his example and would want to "glorify [his] Father who is in heaven." We too should hold up the light that Christ did and we do so by mimicking the life he lived, because his life was perfectly full of light! This week, seek for ways to mimic the life of Christ so that you too can hold up the light that he held up. I promise that when you do, you will find greater joy each day and you will begin to feel the love and approval of our loving Heavenly Father in greater amounts. Imagine Christ in your shoes, imagine how he would act, then do it! It really is that simple and is more rewarding than we can even imagine.

Have a great week everyone, drink lots of egg nog for me, remember Christ this Christmas season, and hold up your lights a little higher, starting now :).

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

Hiking In December!

(Anziano Wilkinson)

The week we had a great time visiting the Cinque Terre and hiking on some of the most fun trials I've ever seen to some of the most beautiful coastal cities I've ever seen! It's absolutely gorgeous and I'm so glad I went and saw them! It is a bit strange though to be perfectly comfortable in just a T-shirt and Jeans in December, but I can't complain! I'll put some pictures at the end of this post.

This week we had some great success working with our members, especially now that the church has just brought out the new Christmas video "A Savior is Born". It's an amazing short little film that is a powerful recitation of the words of Isaiah prophesying the birth and mission of Christ. I highly recommend everyone check it out!

This transfer is only four weeks long because our mission president wanted to avoid having transfers fall so close to Christmas. Our next transfer will be eight weeks long, but it's just strange to think that this transfer is already ending so soon. Who knows, I could be on the other said of Italy in only a week! I'll be sure to keep you all updated

With the Christmas season nearing and with the coming of this new video, I have been thinking a lot about what it means me when I hear the words "A Savior is Born". That's an interesting phrase that is very unambiguous in meaning, yet it begs a lot of questions like, 'why would we need a savior?' What does it mean that we have a savior? For me that means we get to try again no matter how many times we mess up. It means that no matter how unfair life may get, we have the means to make things right, and even make them better than they were before. It means we have a perfect example and a friend that understands us perfectly, always. It means we are never alone.

A savior was born, and because of this, and because of what he did for us, we have the potential to become more than we could possibly make of ourselves. That's what it means to me that we have a savior! The Christmas season is about giving, and the best gift of all was Him. I invite everyone to visit the website for "A Savior is Born", think about what it means to you that we have a savior, then share it with everyone you know!

Have a great week, remember the savior, and enjoy some good old Christmas music for me!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson