Transfers and Blessings

(Elder Cummings)

Hello all!

This week has been a blessing.  We have had so many great things happen in our lives and in the lives of our investigators.

We received a phone call from the assistants the other day checking to see how someone in our area is doing, Vicky.  We didn't know her, so we went by her address and met her.  Back when the elder who called us was serving here she had a baptismal date and had already been through all the lessons.  He left and she got offended by one of the missionaries who came in.  She has been more than happy to start studying again and is again working towards baptism.

A less active family in the Hmong branch just had two of their young nephews move in with them.  Both of them want to learn about Jesus Christ!  They have not been raised with any religion and have a great desire to learn!  This is helping the whole family come back to church!  What a tender mercy!  Over the last two years the weekly attendance in the branch has gone from high eighties to mid forties.  So many have moved out, but more are coming in!  The work is great!

Transfers are this week!  We were informed last night of where we are all heading.  It is different being more on the administrative side of transfers.  Elder Perkins and I will be staying together, still covering Merced 1st Ward and Merced 5th Branch.  We are doing great work and cannot come down!

Have a lovely week!  God is with you always!

With love,

Elder Cummings

Life in Ancona

(Anziano Wilkinson)

We've been having a great time in Ancona recently! Today we went and visited yet another castle up in the mountains, not San Marino this time, but a small place called Gradara. This castle was much bigger than any I have seen in Italy and so much more full of life. It was like a little medieval town on the outside of the castle and the whole experience was a blast from the past. There was medieval music playing, people dressed up in old costumes, and decorations to make the ambiance look like we had basically walked into a magical city haha. It was definitely worth the trip!

Meanwhile, back in a Ancona we have been seeing great things happen. Miracle after miracle keeps coming to us just as we think it can't get any better. But instead of just talking about it, I'll share a few of them!

So on Sunday we ended up having our evening plans fall through at the last minute and so we decided we'd call some people up to see if we couldn't set up an appointment. We ended up calling one of the people we teach and asking if we could pass by him, he told us he had some time and that we could find him at a park where he was hanging out with some friends. So we showed up and to our surprise, what turned out to be "some friends" was more like thirty people, some playing soccer, others just sitting on benches chatting. We spent a while getting to know many of them and in no time we were all laughing and joking together. After a while we asked if we could share a spiritual thought and we ended up teaching the plan of salvation to a huge portion of these people. It was an amazing experience to be able to stand and testify to so many people of the plan of happiness our Father in Heaven has made for us. They invited us to come back this next Sunday as well because I guess they gather like this every Sunday evening. In one night the number of potential people we have to teach easily doubled. Teaching so many people at once made us feel a little bit like the original twelve apostles must have when they taught large crowds of people in the streets of the ancient Roman Empire. It was definitely an experience to be remembered.

Another miracle happened a little bit earlier in the week when my companion had to be present at a district leader meeting. The it works in our mission is that every district leader in the mission and our president in essence signs on to a virtual skype-based chat room and participates via internet. I was not a part of it so I did not have really anything extremely productive to do. Not long after we had gotten to the church in order to get wifi for this video conference, we heard the doorbell buzz. I answered the door to find a woman who had seemingly randomly showed up to ask if she could come in to warm herself (yes, it was cold that day, and rainy, I'm really not sure how that happened in the middle of summer, but hey, it happened). I talked with this lady while my companion participated in his video conference and got to know a little about who she was. It became very clear to me that she had experienced a lot of hardships in her life. We had the chance to talk about the healing power of our Savior Jesus Christ and about how she could access that power just as easily as anyone. One could tell that she found hope in the words I shared with her and she gladly accepted the invitation to learn more about what we believe and about how she could more effectively access the power of the Atonement. I don't know how the video conference my companion needed to attend happened to fall on the only cold day in August and how this lady, chilled by the cold, happened to be in the right place at the right time to find our church at one of the few times when people were there not on a Sunday, but to me it was no coincidence. This woman (whose name is Magdalena) needed to hear the message we shared with her. Our Father in Heaven set things in place so that she could find us when she needed it most.

The list of miracle we saw this week does not end with these two; there are many many more that we have been a part of! The work of the a lord is moving forward here in Ancona and all thanks to the faith of everyone involved. It has been humbling to have been a part of these amazing experiences and I hope to continue to see more as we keep working hard and seeking the guidance of the spirit in our daily lives. If anything can be learned from these experiences, it's that God has a plan for his children in a Ancona and loves them, just as He does for all of us.

Have a fantastic week and look for the miracles!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

The Man Behind the Curtain

(Elder Cummings)

I don't even know where to begin this week.  We have been busy with meetings, teaching appointments, and a temple trip this week.  In between it all we still found time to deep clean the car and the apartment.  There were two baptisms in the zone this week, one for Karen and the other for Alfonzo.  I find it so inspiring to see other missionaries working with zeal.

On Thursday we were able to go to the temple in Fresno and worship there.  It was a wonderful experience.  I love the house of the Lord!  I received direction and guidance for the work we do and for my personal life.  God will always speak to us if we are willing to listen!  Listening for the Lord's voice is an act of faith.

One woman we met this week, Barbara, had the faith to listen.  She had been introduced to the LDS church years ago by some friends in Las Vegas who met with missionaries, and eventually were baptized.  Barbara never studied the church and its teachings though.  She was born and raised Lutheran, and at the time she attended a baptist church, and didn't see the need to investigate.

Fast forward to last night, and she invited us into her home to share a message with her.  We chatted for a little bit, got to know her needs, concerns, and interests, and then started into the formal discussion.  We shared the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ with her.  Elder Perkins and I were teaching smoothly in tandem, and the Spirit of the Lord was present.  I had never taught the restoration the way we did---with such a strong emphasis on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ---which makes perfect sense.  I had never taught Barbara before.  As we unfolded the doctrines of prophetic dispensations, of priesthood keys and authority, and of the atonement of Christ she lit up noticeably.  After sharing with her the miraculous story of Joseph Smith's first vision she told us in hushed voice, "Now, I have seventy-two years in the back of my mind that don't want me to agree with what you two boys are telling me tonight.  This is asking for a big jump, and I am not too good at jumping anymore, but I want to know if this is true."  She wholeheartedly accepted the commitment to begin reading in the Book of Mormon and to study the pamphlet we also left with her.  Before we could bring up the topic, she volunteered the idea of being baptized once she learned for herself that the message we shared was true.  She closed the discussion with a prayer, and then coerced us into singing a slightly off-key rendition of one of the church's hymns.  The whole visit was a spiritual high.

The experience got me thinking about God's love for all of His children.  It may be redundant to say, but God has sent us into mortality to have experiences that optimize our opportunity for exaltation.  Here was Barbara, who was unashamedly searching for absolute truth, and her entire life had led up to that point last night when she first heard the message of the restoration in its fullness.  On a micro-scale everyone's lives are oriented in this way.  On a macro-scale all world history since the life of Christ has been in preparation for the restoration.  God is absolutely in the details!  He knows our needs better than we do, and he ministers to His numberless children and invites them to come unto His Son, Jesus Christ, and be saved.  We can live lives full of light because we know who is behind the curtain.  Our Heavenly Father loves us!  We don't need to know all things to know this! (1 Nephi 11:17).

Live the abundant life this week!  Keep the commandments!  Come unto Christ!

With love,

Elder A. Jared Cummings

First Week in Portugal!

(Sister Ellsworth)

Ola de Portugal!

Wow... it has been one crazy week! I don't even know where to begin. First, on Tuesday we went to the temple for the last time really early in the morning. I met a lady who had a daughter out on a mission and I gave her a good long hug. I also got the opportunity to sit in the temple by myself for twenty minutes which was so perfect. Afterwards we quickly finished packing, cleaned our room, and dashed off to the buses by 830 am. We were loaded onto a bus and dropped off at the airport. I was able to call my family and have Cafe Rio for the last time! Unfortunately our plane was delayed about 10 hours in Salt Lake due to some parts needing replaced. Our group of 10 missionaries met and talked to everyone on our flight! We also met a lot of missionaries coming home, going to MTC's, and headed out to the fields.

The flight to the Netherlands was great, I tried to sleep for most of it. We landed in the Netherlands in the afternoon and since our first flight was delayed for so long, we had to be rebooked. They split our group up onto two airplanes and I was in the group that would fly from the Netherlands to Porto, and then Porto to Lisbon. We had to run to catch our Porto flight, which was delayed after we got there, and then we had to run to our Lisbon flight, barely making it onto this tiny plane with pretty sketchy looking propellers but tudo bem! I talked to the gentleman next to me a tiny bit in Portuguese but then he told me that he spoke English. I left a Book of Mormon with him!

Once we landed in Lisbon, we were in the Airport for an extra few hours trying to find our bags, which had been lost. Only 3 of 7 had one or two bags show up. We met up with the second group and eventually decided to leave without our bags. Our Mission president picked us up and took us to the mission home and fed us lasagna and soup at 2 am. We showered after almost 36 hours of traveling and crashed hardcore. The next morning we met our companions! My new companion is Sister Williams! She speaks English and Portuguese and has been so patient with me and my jetlag and limited language.

The first week in Portugal was a lot of smiling and nodding but I did get to help teach a young man about the Plan of Salvation and taught a woman about how much Heavenly Father loves her. I am serving in Barreiro, which is right across the river from Lisbon. It's been so fun to get to know people and go to Church! The food is strange, but good. We made mini hotdogs and cinnamon biscuits which would have been cinnamon rolls except neither my companion or I knew how to say yeast in Portuguese.

Also apparently I speak Portuguese with an Australian accent! How neat haha. Also people here have a VERY hard time saying my last name. Like most can't even try! Half the sounds in my name don't exist in Portuguese so what comes out is something along the lines of el-sh-wohtch. Close enough I guess! I'll make a nickname for myself or something.

Loving every day more and more! Tudo Bem! I can't get pictures up right now but hopefully I'll send some later today!

Sister Ellsworth

San Marino

(Anziano Wilkinson)
I'm really short on time his week so I will just share some pictures of our adventure in San Marino this P-day. We got to explore some pretty sweet castles in the mountains.

Hope everything is great! Enjoy summer!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

Last day in the MTC!

(Sister Ellsworth)

Holy moly... This time tomorrow I'll be on a flight to Portugal! Whoop!

I'm so excited. This week went by so fast that I can barely remember what has happened! First we went to the in-field orientation which emphasized the importance of building relationships between Missionaries and members. I hadn't really realized how big of a difference it is when members are actively involved in missionary work! So my first challenge to all of you is to invite the missionaries over and introduce them to people! Anybody and everybody!

The second thing I've learned this week is the importance of family history work. I have a few stories of ancestors (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!)  and was able to explore my family tree and look up more stories and I felt like I already love those people so so much.

Thanks to everyone who wrote me or sent me a package! It seemed like our whole district received massive amounts of food. Saturday night we compiled everything, which was probably 50 pounds of junk food, and watched a marathon of Mormon Messages and played hangman in Portuguese. It was basically netflixing missionary style. :)

I was glad for the opportunity to go through the temple one last time before I headed out to Portugal. I'm so excited that the Lisbon temple is being built in my mission! I love the temple so much and I want the every person to know how

It was sad to say goodbye to the people in my district. We are closer than family! I'll also miss my teachers and my lovely companion. I'll probably miss American food but at the same time I'm excited to meet the people I've already fallen in love with.

I'd love to hear from you guys! For now my address for letters is

Apartado 40054

1500 Lisbon

Portugal

I'll update you with a new address as soon as possible! Love you all so much! Thank you for your love and support!

Muito amor,

Sister Ellsworth

Where are we?

(Elder Cummings)

This week has been a blur.  It has been seven days and seven nights, but it is one in my memory.  My new companion, Elder Perkins, and I have been incredibly busy together.

I am still serving in Merced.  That hasn't changed.  I still cover the Merced 5th Hmong Branch.  That hasn't changed either.  I still get up every morning and run, study the gospel individually and as a companionship, and I even still have time to study Hmong!

I am now also covering the Merced 1st Ward!  With the transfer Elder Perkins and I have had to smash our two areas into one.  It has been an almost chaotic experience.  Beginning at zone conference on Tuesday we have officially been companions.  After the meeting we spent some time cleaning out the Hmong apartment, and moved to the new place.  I have now gone from the smallest apartment in the mission to the second largest.  This hasn't really changed anything.  The big difference is that I can lose track of things now.  I will miss the small second story studio.  It has a piece of my heart.

As a result of this transfer I have continued to develop a talent of getting lost.  No one does it quite as well as me.  Fortunately, we never stay that way for too long.  The question "where are we?"  is heard often.

Wonderful week!  We have an enormous teaching pool, enough for four missionaries, and I feel it every night when my head hits the pillow.  I have never slept so soundly so consistently.

We are working hard and serving with no regrets!  I am so happy to be living the gospel and sharing it with those around us!  We have had some amazing lessons together.  Elder Perkins knows the doctrines of the gospel solidly.  I am looking forward to the rest of our time together!

I am short on time again today.  We took a trip out to Yosemite and went hiking.  It was beautiful.  God has given us such a beautiful planet!

Have a wonderful week!

Elder Cummings