Pressing Forward

(Elder Cummings)

So much has happened this week.  It has been a blast. Elder Knapton and I have just walked into so many great opportunities and had so many chances to become more immersed in the Hmong culture.  We were invited to watch a traditional "soul calling" (ua neeb) and kept running into shamans as we were talking with people throughout the week.  It is so cool to learn about.  One of the shamans we met let us take pictures with the spirit-sword that they use to protect themselves as they ride through the spirit world to find the dab, the evil-spirit who stole one of the many spirits that they believe we all have.  They typically sacrifice a chicken and either a pig or a cow when they are doing the ritual.  The chicken spirit guides the shaman through the spirit world and the pig/cow spirit is brought along as ransom to exchange for the human's spirit.  Way cool.

This Sunday we had the amazing opportunity to listen to an apostle speak in a multi-stake broadcast.  It was neat.  Elder Renlund gave a great talk about respecting other's beliefs and still bearing testimony in the process.  Elder Knapton translated for him, an experience most missionaries never have!  I translated for one of the seventy who spoke.  I guess technically it is interpretation and not translation since it is on the spot, so I interpreted for one of the seventy who spoke, and Elder Knapton interpreted for Elder Renlund.

We were also offered a job and six-figure salary this week to invest in a company and start working for them rather than finish our missionary service.  That was...interesting...but didn't phase us.  We remembered the teachings of that Savior.  "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33). We had been having a slow week up to that point, and once we declined the offer and went away we quickly were blessed to find four new investigators and all in all this week we met two new families who want to learn the gospel! 

Sadly, through all of this, Vicky sent us a text last night and told us she can't meet with us.  Her family situation is a little more complicated than we originally realized.  We know she is well prepared for the gospel.  I am glad that we have done our part to help her receive that.  Some day in the future she will have the chance again, and this time nothing will hold her back.

The bishop baptized his father this Saturday!  That was an amazing, spiritual experience.  He was SO happy when he came out of the water.  He is more than excited to start a christian life.  The gospel is for everyone, regardless of age, sex, race, or cultural background.  There is no more fulfilling work than building up the kingdom of God.

I know that Jesus Christ lives and is my Savior.  I am exhilarated by this opportunity that I have to represent Him to the Hmong people in Fresno, California!

With love,

Elder Cummings

There isn't a lot of meat on these little guys, so to keep as much as they can they burn off it all and cook them whole.  This is right after the burning phase.

Zong Gua Vang's baptism

Happy Valentine's Day

We had permission to take this one, this is a normal sized one, but from the things that are on it you can tell that he is an experienced one.

The Most Beautiful City in Italy

(Anziano Wilkinson)

So after only a week of being here in Verona I have already fallen in love with the city! I heard from everyone before I came here that the city was beautiful, but I had no idea just how right they were. Verona is a picturesque city, the kind you'd expect to see in a movie, and it's full of amazing people! The members here are very nice and super helpful for the missionaries; we have had no shortage of their assistance while I have been here.

This P-day I went to go visit the famous tourist trap, Juliet's balcony, where allegedly the original Juliet talked to the original Romeo (however, sadly, the story of Romeo and Juliet was completely made up by Shakespeare). The site is nonetheless pretty cool and total worth seeing as it is free of charge (aka a missionary's dream)!

My new companion, Anziano Skinner, is a really good kid and he and I are getting along well. He is from Utah and he loves motocross racing, country music, and the outdoors. I'm excited to serve with him and learn from him and make this transfer a great one. This week he and I made a big effort to seek for service opportunities and now we have found some potential organizations that we are trying to sign up for. We're hoping to be able to find new people to teach more effectively through these opportunities rather than conventional methods of stopping people on the streets. The idea is that we will be able to build the trust of these people before we invite them to learn about what we believe. And at the very minimum we will help many people out though our volunteering, even if no one takes interest in what we want to share with them!

Well, have a great week y'all and look for opportunities to serve in your lives!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

God Prepares His Children

(Elder Cummings)

It has been another fantastic week in Fresno!  It is starting to warm up again.  Today it was up in the 70s.  It really is a beautiful day, so Elder Knapton and I decided to make to most of our preparation time and went to the zoo.  I've never thought of zoos as a place to go for spiritual enlightenment, but today I found out that they could be.  Seeing all the different animals, all the diversity, from all over the globe just left me in awe of how great our Father is.  All of these things, the elephants, the cobras, the chimpanzees, and cockatoos, testify to me that there is a God.  He is real.  He does have a plan for us.

Elder Knapton and I have been continuing with an incredible streak for finding new investigators.  This week we met six more people who welcomed us into their homes and learn about the message of the Restoration.  Two of them agreed enthusiastically to be baptized and were only a little disappointed when we told them we couldn't do it that weekend. 

Vicky and her daughter Angelina and incredibly prepared for the healing power of the Atonement.  The zone leaders had met Vicky and scheduled a hand-off lesson for Friday morning.  She came home from translating for her family members at the immigration office late, so it ended up just being Elder Knapton and I who were able to meet her.  For missionaries there is a rule that a companionship cannot go into a home without an adult of their same sex in the house.  This was going to be an issue with meeting Vicky, and as I was playing through alternatives in my mind the Spirit told me very directly to not worry and go into the house.  The lesson was incredibly guided by the Spirit and the entire visit felt like we were in an oven.  Vicky has been searching for a church and had almost given up on the whole search, but God was not even close to giving up on her.  Before we left she committed to be baptized with her daughter on the 21st of the month.  She came to church Sunday too.  She was telling us about how much she loved the sacrament and Relief Society and all the new friends she had made.  Some of the sisters had offered to teach her to read Hmong and Vicky herself had volunteered to give one of the members a ride to the Relief Society activity the next Tuesday night.

This week in my studies I have been focusing on chapter 9 of Preach My Gospel, "How Do I Find People to Teach?"  I love how many people Elder Knapton and I are meeting and I've been studying looking for ways to continue the way things are going.  One line that really hit me was "seek to strengthen your faith the God is preparing His children to receive the message of the Restoration" (Preach My Gospel p.167).  I can definitely say that my faith has been strengthened this week.  We found Vicky and I know there are more God would have us find.  As missionaries we represent the Good Shepherd, and it is the lost sheep that we are sent to find.

I know that the Lord God has a work for all of us to do.  He will tell us what that is and how He would have it done if we seek Him in prayer.

With love,

Elder A. Jared Cummings

On to Verona

(Anziano Wilkinson)

So only a few short days ago we got our transfer calls, which is when I found out I was leaving Pisa to go to Verona. Well, now I'm there and already enjoying serving with my new companion, Anziano Skinner. Verona, like Pisa, is another really popular city for tourists because is known to be one of the prettiest cities in Italy! Also, it is where Juliet's balcony is; aka, the balcony of the real Juliet that inspired the play. Appear antsy there is some pretty cool stuff around that too, which I'll definitely need to check out the next chance I get! (Don't worry, I'll send pictures!)

It's kind of strange to be out of Pisa and out of Tuscany in general. The weather is colder (I'm no longer so close to the Mediterranean and Verona is higher north). The city is much bigger and the dialect is slightly different too. And from what I hear the food is supposed to be pretty good as well! I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for me here and I'm excited to meet all the wonderful people that live in this great city! I'll give more insight next week when I have a better feel for the city, but so far I'm liking it.

As I was reading in the book of Romans this week, I was struck by many of the words of Paul as he taught the saints in Ancient Rome. In the parts of his discourse that I read, he talked a lot about how it is important to have the spirit of God with us always and that we should always yield up our carnal desires to make room in our hearts to follow the direction of His spirit. He mentions that "to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." The death being spoken of here is spiritual death, or in other words, alienation from God, and, by contrast, the life spoken of in this verse refers to just the opposite, closeness with God. Paul teaches that when we let our carnal minds lead our lives, we will naturally distance ourselves from God, but when we let the spirit lead our lives, we naturally grow closer to Him.

One of the great purposes of this life is to grow closer to God and His Son, Jesus Christ, for in so doing we become happier. And as Paul teaches, the way to receive that happiness is quite simply to be spiritually minded, or in other words, to consistently listen to and follow the suggestions of the spirit! This is such an amazing concept! Follow the spirit and you will be happy! And even more amazingly, the opportunity to enjoy the constant companionship of His spirit is the gift he joyfully and freely offers to all who will accept and live His gospel, which is faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and then continuing forever onward with a faithful and repentant heart!

Our loving Heavenly Father has prepared a way for us that we might be led through this life without having to blindly guess our way through it. He has given us the opportunity to be fully and completely "spiritually minded". Let us all take full advantage of this wonderful gift! Seek the guidance of the spirit in your life and then enjoy the happiness that naturally comes from following that guidance! God will never lead us to unhappiness, even if at times the path to get there passes through tribulation and struggle. I promise that no matter the situation, when we follow the promptings of the spirit, we find that happiness and peace are always near.

For any of you not of our church, I invite you to come and feel the spirit that is inherently present in our Sunday meetings and to enjoy the happiness that comes with it. There is none like it! And for everyone, again I invite you to seek and follow the spirit more in your lives, and to become more "spiritually minded" that you might receive the promised "life and peace". There are no substitutes to these: Peace in this life and happiness in the next.

Have a great week everyone and happy February!

-Anziano Wilkinson

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