Building the Kingdom

(Elder Cummings)
Pahoua's baptism this last Saturday was great.  She was so happy and on Sunday she received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, completing the covenant.  She is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints along with her three brothers and sister who have all been baptized in the last few months.  We are going by their house tonight to share a lesson with them and invite their parents to begin investigating the Church.  The mom has been reading from the Book of Mormon, without any missionaries suggesting it, since as far back as October, but we haven't been able to sit down with her and talk about it.

It is so wonderful when people make the decision to follow Jesus Christ!  Conversion brings absolutely lasting joy.  In the Book of Mormon the prophet Lehi sees a vision where the gospel likened to the fruit of a tree.  In sharing this experience with his family he says "that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was desirable to make one happy" (1 Nephi 8:10).  He hadn't even tasted of the fruit yet and he knew that it was something worth striving for.  Everyday missionaries meet people who know, like Lehi, that the gospel will bless them and will bless their families. 

One woman we just started teaching is just like that.  We met her at the Hmong New Years and the Holy Ghost touched her and she knew what kind of fruit we have to offer.  She took a copy of the Book of Mormon from us and when we went back to meet her again later she already had received a witness that this is the direction the Lord wants her to go with her life.  We have been visiting her and her family since then and it is amazing how the Lord is preparing people.

This week we also reconnected with a former investigator who has read the Book of Mormon FOUR TIMES and wants so badly to be baptized.  She knows the doctrine of Christ, and she understands why she must be baptized, but she is a minor and cannot be baptized without parental approval.  I don't know how soon that will come, but her siblings are now interested in learning too.  With many prayers and patience she will have her opportunity too.

It has been a crazy fun week and I am excited to see what the next seven days have in store for Elder Knapton and I.  This gospel is so true!  God really does lead this work!

With love,

Elder Jared Cummings

P.S. Our mission president's wife has a birthday coming up, so all the missionaries are taking pictures doing really obedient things to make her day.  Elder Knapton and I decided to take a picture of our "language study" to send in.  We are both getting pretty good at Hmong, but Elder Knapton's reformed Egyptian is taking leaps and bounds.

Found a Jawa out proselyting

Ferocious Finding

(Elder Cummings)
This week Elder Knapton and I have had the best week for finding investigators of my mission to date.  We found eight new investigators.  As we have been working together to strengthen our faith that the Lord will lead us to those He has prepared to receive the missionaries or He will lead them to us.  Both of those happened this week.

Last Monday night is a great example of a miracle.  The three appointments we had set all fell through, so in discussing what was the next best thing to do, the Spirit told us.  We were to go visit our Bishop's non-member father.  We did and that night he emphatically agreed to prepare himself to be baptized on February 6.

All week long things like this were happening!  I know that God directs this work.  Without His love and mercy no missionary ever could find, teach, or baptize.  It is so miraculous that God chooses the small and weak things of the earth to aide in bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

This Saturday we will be having a baptism for Pahoua Vang.  I am so excited for her!  Her family has been eating the gospel up.  She has asked me to be the one to baptize her.  I am so grateful to be blessed by to have this fantastic opportunity!  The gospel is true for everyone.  It blesses us all to know it better.

I hope you all have an amazing week and continue to find ways to build your faith in Christ!

With love,

Elder Jared Cummings

Im Dreaming of A White Pisa

(Anziano Wilkinson)

This week we have a seen the first real cold in Pisa! It got below freezing for the first time while I've been here and for a few days there was even a risk of snow! The cold has not been holding us back though; we've had the chance to do a few events with members of the church here to find more people to teach. For the most part we have focused on the family as the center of our finding efforts and it has been really great being able to connect with people on that topic, since nearly everyone cares about their family!

This Wednesday we also had the privilege of watching the first live worldwide broadcast for all the missionaries around the world. It was really a cool experience to receive that special training from the leaders of our church and it answered a lot of questions that my comp and I had! We're hoping to get a lot more work done here in Pisa in the next few weeks with the instructions we received from this conference!

I also got to do an exchange in La Spezia with my old companion Anziano Jensen. We had a fantastically busy day full of service and amazing people and I rode the train home quite exhausted. We got to do service for a group that is specifically for people with mental and social problems and it was a really cool experience. I had the strong impression while I was there that Heavenly Father truly loves all of his children, no matter their condition physically, mentally, or spiritually. All we did really was play cards with some of them, but it was a very fulfilling service, even despite fact that they were much better than me at the game we were playing! Busy days are the best!

I know that we have a father in heaven who loves us and cares about us. He wants us to succeed. He created a plan and provided a way for us to achieve his highest goals for us: our happiness. I know that the way he provided for us is the only way, which is though the gospel of Jesus Christ and his redeeming power. The love that he has for us is beyond measure!

Have a great week everyone and know that there is a god in heaven who cares about you!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

A Wonderful Week

(Elder Cummings)
I don't have words for the miracles we have seen this week.  My new companion, Elder Knapton/ Tub txib Ntaj neeb Lauj is a powerful missionary.  He teaches with the Spirit and the power and authority in his words are clear.  We are on fire together.

It is now post-Hmong New Years so we are now doing post-Hmong New Years work!  That is knocking on several hundred doors of those who signed up at the New Years and experiencing quite a bit of rejection.  Elder Knapton and I weren't having too much fun with this.  We were having no success, so we spent some time thinking and studying the next morning.

We decided to change our approach.  We had previously been introducing ourselves as "The missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint," and we realized where that fell short.  We aren't really representatives of a church.  We are representatives of Christ.  We are servants of God.  So, with that increased understanding we began to introduce ourselves as servants of God, sent by God to them to teach repentance and baptism for a remission of sins.  The work took off.

In two days we found five new investigators, one already has a date to be baptized on January 30th.  People can feel the power behind our testimonies in a much more powerful way now.  One older lady who believes the Hmong spiritualism jumped when we pronounced who we were and immediately changed from disinterested and stand-offish to inviting us to come back and talk with her son.  We are seeing miracles!

A large part of that is coming from an increased faith in Christ.  Last week I wrote about grace and this week I realized that grace applies in missionary work.  It is a common thing for missionaries to hear that "exact obedience brings miracles."  A big emphasis on that truth is made in all missions around the globe.  The equivalent doctrine of that is that "a sinless life brings salvation."  Equally true!  It is not, however, possible for us.  That is why we need grace, and as I wrote last week, we access that through the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End).  For missionaries none of us are or ever will be exactly obedient.  We all fall short in so many ways, from staying out to late, to eating lunch too long, to breaking the laws of the land and speeding.  We all fall short of exact obedience.  As we focus our lives on the Savior we still can receive all the blessings God promises us.  We missionaries can still work miracles as we have true faith in Christ and real intent in our actions.  We are not perfect, but through Jesus Christ we can work as if we were.

Elder Knapton and I have done this this week.  Our shortcomings are being noticed and of our faults we are well aware, but we know in whom we have trusted.  Jesus Christ will qualify us as we earnestly seek to chose the right.  It is empowering to know the plan.

Let us all press forward, drawing nearer to our Savior each day.  He loves us.  He watches over us.  I know that He lives.

With love,

Elder A. Jared Cummings

Happy New Year!

(Anziano Wilkinson) 

The past few weeks have been very busy for us. First of all, we survived the end of the year, the crazy Italians who shoot fireworks out their windows (which apparently is not that uncommon of a sight, I'll post a picture below), and the seemingly endless rain which followed for the entire week after.

We have seen a lot of progress in the people we are working with and have added several people to our teaching pool! One of those new is named Harish and he comes from India! He is getting his doctorate in mathematics at the University of Pisa and speaks fantastic English, but little Italian haha. However, apparently his courses are in English so his schooling is going just fine. He is fantastic and has made sure to teach Anziano Mattson and I how to properly eat Indian food. Who knew I'd learn the basics behind Indian cuisine while serving a mission in Italy!

While teaching him about the plan of salvation we asked him a question about what he believes happens after we die. He said he didn't have one anymore, but when he was younger he believed in the common Hindu belief of reincarnation. He said he stopped believing in reincarnation when he came up with a mathematical proof that proved it couldn't be true. Then he excitedly proceeded to tell us his proof. He's a funny guy for sure, but (although I'm not an expert on the subject) his proof seemed to make a lot of sense haha.

This week I've been thinking a lot about how I'm going to make this year better than any before (a hard task, considering how blessed I really am!). I think too often we think of New Years resolutions as things that apply to ourselves and thus we forget to think outwardly when we set goals for the new year. I think this may be part of the reason why basically 99% of New Years resolutions are not kept for longer than a month: they fail to see beyond ourselves and are thus too shallow! As I have been thinking, my thoughts have been turning constantly back to service. This year I want to serve more selflessly and seek actively for chances to help others; chances both big and small!

There is a verse in the Book of Mormon in Mosiah 2:17, which reads, "And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." This concept is such a profound one and tells us many things, among which is that God truly does love us! He rejoices when we are served by others and when we serve others because he knows that service brings gratitude and happiness to both the server and the served. In fact, the wording of this verse would seem to imply that he gets just as much joy from our service as the recipient!

The more we serve, the more we make those around us and ourselves happy. The more we serve, the more we please our Father in Heaven and in turn we are all blessed more! Service brings happiness and is by nature selfless (because serving ourselves isn't really service). So on that note I invite you all to join me in setting a goal to serve more and do so more selflessly this year! I know that as we do this that we will all be blessed and will find ourselves very uplifted by the year's end, and everyone else too!

Have a great week everyone, happy New Year, and don't forget to look for opportunities to serve!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

A Roman candle being shot out of a window.

We found a Chevy.  And it was a pickup truck no less!

Fresno YSA

(Elder Cummings)
Tuesday morning during personal study I got a phone call from the assistants...I was being transferred that night out of Hmong work to go be a zone leader in the Fresno Stake YSA ward until further notice.  Alright!  My bags were packed before companionship study got underway and the rest of the day flew by and I fell asleep that night in an apartment I had never been to with a companion I had never met before.

One thing that stood out to me right off the bat: white American single eighteen to thirty years olds laugh at different jokes than old Hmong women.  I was not funny to anyone.  I've never considered myself super-funny to begin with, but I was not the conversation killer.  I was pretty good at it too!  I didn't think the Hmong culture had effected me so much, but it did.  I'm a little weird now.  Now worries though, by now I'm back to being "normal."

Another thing: most people don't expect to cry because of spice when they eat dinner. I was actually a little surprised about that and even more surprised when I actually MISSED that!  It has been a week now without any crazy spicy peppers and I am actually craving them.

Third thing: being a missionary in a YSA ward is exhausting.  In the Fresno Mission YSA missionaries have a bedtime of 11:30 as opposed to the normal 10:30 for missionaries.  They do not, however, have the privilege of getting up an hour later than normal.  I had no idea how much of a difference one little hour of sleep could make.  I have been completely dead this week and one of my New Years resolutions, to be up by 6:00 every morning to have time for meaningful morning prayer, is already out the window, for now at least.  That will just be my vision for the end of the year instead of my demand for the beginning of it.

Perks of being a YSA missionary/zone leader include the pickup truck that we drive around town, a much more comfortable approach to teaching and finding, and a seemingly endless supply of Jamba Juice, Starbucks hot chocolate, and In and Out that the college aged people we visit dump on us.

The teaching is so strange.  It feels like more organized member missionary work.  We do really schedule "teaching appointments" per say, we text and see if we can "hang out and talk about Jesus."  There is a reason that works better for my generation.  Anyways, it has been a lot of fun to talk to people my age again.  It has been hard not to be around Hmong people and not be speaking Hmong, but since my companion, Elder Whitfield, is actually a Spanish missionary we have still been able to do language study.

The normally scheduled transfers are this coming Tuesday.  Saturday night we got the call outs for who was going where and I'm heading to a new area again.  I had just become comfortable with a whole different style of missionary work and now I am heading to who-knows-where with another new companion and I am just excited to go on another adventure!  I may have only been in this new area for a week, but I have done the work God needed me to do here.  I have been able to share my testimony with many who I never would have met.  My determination to be obedient to the commandments and missionary rules has increased.  I am so full of the Spirit and I love it!  I know that God has a specific plan for me and I am excited to see where it takes me!

This week in my scripture study has had the theme of the Grace of Jesus Christ.  This is a doctrine I do not understand thoroughly and for the most part I have never spent any time seriously pondering it.  As latter-day saints we have a tendency to focus on the "good works" part of living a Christian life to make it clear that we do not believe that salvation comes from accepting Christ as your Savior alone.  This leads many to believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes in salvation by works.  We absolutely don't.  There is no salvation without grace.  Despite our best efforts we all will ALWAYS fall short of the perfection necessary to return to live with God.  This is what the prophet Nephi is getting at when he says that "it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do." (2 Nephi 25:23).  We will never be able to qualify ourselves by our own merits alone and so it will never be by something we do alone that we are actually saved.

The function of grace is to bring the imperfect sinner to become clean and perfect so as to live with God again, "for no unclean thing can dwell there" (Moses 6:57).  Grace enables us to change who we are.  It doesn't force us to become something we aren't.  Grace, freely given, makes repentance possible!  That is so wonderful!  That we can progress to become someone worthy to live with our Father again!  The most wonderful thing about grace is that we can use it in our life TODAY to make those changes.  It is accessible NOW through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.  All of that is using grace to change us.  All of that is what we must go through to return to live with God again.  We use grace to change, and once we have become a completely new creature perfected in Christ then we receive Salvation.  No grace, no salvation.  No works, the grace goes unused and the salvation made possible is not received.  Were it not for the Atonement of Christ we would be hopelessly lost.

I am so grateful to know my Savior.  He is the Son of the Most High God.  I know that He lives.  I know that He did suffer in agony for us so that we can be made free from the bonds of death and the chains of sin.  He is the Savior of all mankind.  He is my Lord and Redeemer.  He has a perfected body of flesh and blood and speaks to His living prophet today.  He is Alpha and Omega.  It will not be long before he reigns again triumphant on the earth.

I hope you all press forward this week and use the grace of Christ in your life to draw closer to God!

Lots of love,

Elder A. Jared Cummings

More Hmong New Years

(Elder Cummings)

It has been a while since I have had a preparation day (due to Hmong New Years), so sorry for not having sent anything last week and due to issues with the myldsmail server someone of you may not have gotten my email the week before.  No need to fear, I am still working hard in Fresno, and speaking better Hmong than ever.

So much has happened since I last wrote.  The world celebrated the birth of the Savior, the ward wished me a happy birthday, and the eight Hmong elders in the California Fresno Mission found 1,221 potential investigators in a week.  We are all absolutely exhausted, and just in time for the busiest time of the year for Hmong work.

Christmas in the mission field is something special.  I loved it.  Having your whole life, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week dedicated on the Savior has given me a more completely perspective on just what Christmas is.  Jesus Christ came into the world to give his life for our sins, to give us strength to overcome our weaknesses, and to "take upon him [our] infirmities...that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people" (Alma 7:12).  Jesus Christ, the Savior of all mankind, the God of Israel, the God of the whole earth, began his humble sojourn in the flesh in a humble manger in the small town of Bethlehem.  Christmas marks the coming of our Salvation.  Christmas is His day.

A birthday in the mission field is less "exciting."  We went to church, and then booked it straight over to the Big Fresno Fairgrounds to proselyte until the sun went down.  We ate dinner that night at a wonderful senior missionary couple's home.  Mom, we were all well fed for my birthday dinner.  We had salad, ribs, twice-baked potatoes and homemade apple pie.  I think I hit a real landmark of maturity that night.  Despite the ribs I did not get anything on my white shirt and tie.

Hmong New Years was an event unlike anything I have ever seen.  Thousands upon thousands of Hmong showed up to celebrate the end of the year from all over the world!  I talked with those from Massachusetts, Georgia, North and South Carolina, all over the west coast, all over California, Alaska, Canada, Arizona, Texas, Laos, Thailand,  and France.  Listening to someone speak Hmong with a french accent is a particular skill I have not quite developed, but the one I did meet asked for French speaking missionaries to come visit her at her home in a town just outside of Lyons, France.  All eight of the Hmong elders were there and we were working hard.  Elder Gray, one of the two newest additions found over 200 people through his own efforts! 

As part of the new year celebration the missionaries all dress up in Hmong clothes.  In the attached picture we have from left to right, me, in clothes designating me as a Thai-Hmong-American, Elder Gray in traditional White Hmong clothes, Elder Bagley also in White Hmong clothes, Elder Cunningham with a Green Hmong set plus a matching coin vest, Elder Richardson wearing traditional Americanized-Hmong clothes, Elder Pace eating an authentic Hmong churro, Elder Knapton wearing a White Hmong set with another matching coin vest and a pretty cool txoj siv (belt), and in the front we have Elder Ballard in his Green Hmong set.  The biggest difference between the difference clothing is the pants.  White Hmong is loose fitting, Green Hmong is essentially the original hammer pants, and Thai-Hmong which is pretty tight around the calves, and fit and look like a really cool pair of jogger pants.

And yes, that "temple" in the background is our booth.

I am very excited to press forward this next week and reconnect with the 169 potential investigators who live in the Fresno Hmong West area.  There are so many prepared people.  This is going to be fun!

It is 2016 now too.  2015 has left my life much changed.  I got into college, was struck with senioritis, had a miraculous post-graduation recovery, began my missionary service, left home, my older sister came home and I learned a second language.  The Lord has blessed me with so much and I am excited to see what he has in store for me this year.  I am excited to see what he has in store for all of you this year.

Thank you for you Christmas and birthday wishes! Make 2016 count!

Elder A. Jared Cummings

Me with General Vang Pao.  I've been telling Hmong people that he is my grandfather to much laughter.  In the Hmong culture when you respect someone you refer to their last name first, first name last.  Vang Pao is Pao Vang, and since I am a Vang we are related...somehow.

Tub Txib translates more directly to what the calling of a misisonary is, "son sent."  The one on the left is in Green Hmong and the one of the right is White Hmong.  On the name tag the change is subtle, but this was I can reach out to more of the people we teach by being more a part of their specific language culture. 

Walmart run with Elder Gray: This was a fun one, so many people were giving us funny looks, but we needed to get some water for all the thirsty missionaries back at the booth.

The booth - just before take down.  Kayla was a temple missionary, and I so was I...kind of.