What I learned this week

(Elder Cummings)

This week taught me a lot.

 I was with Elder Jones for a few hours working Chowchilla Tuesday morning.  He is a fairly new missionary.  Yesterday was his last day of training. I felt magnified in front of my stewardship. I could feel that I was going beyond my own power and mind and the Lord was instructing Elder Jones through me. One specific example is that we conducted a member lesson using the points outlined in chapter 9 of Preach My Gospel. That alone was instructive to him, but what stuck the most was that after the lesson, after we started driving away I was compelled to go back to their door with the thought "Elder Jones didn't share his testimony." We knocked again, and Elder Jones bore a sweet testimony that invited a very strong Spirit. He felt it. He committed himself after we were back in the truck to ALWAYS bare his testimony!  God teaches us through the examples of our leaders.  Being on the other side of that has confirmed this truth to me.

Tuesday night we were on exchanges with the assistants.  I was with Elder Perkins for the evening.  I love and miss him.  The mission office has been good to him.  He stays well fed down there.  Mom, you might want to skip this next part.  As part of the exchange we were trying to get in touch with a potential investigator who Elder Perkins and Elder Olsen had invited to church in a street contact and they came, but left before they could talk to her.  As we were walking down the street talking to some of the people outside at 8 at night (it is already completely dark by then in Fresno) a police officer pulled Elder Perkins aside.  He told him that there had, just minutes before, been two shootings on that street and it was anticipated that there would be more.  The officer asked how we could be walking around in a neighborhood like this wearing slacks and neckties.  Elder Perkins gave a very instructive reply, "to be honest officer, I feel very protected with what I do."  I feel the exact same way.  I have never not felt safe as a missionary.  No matter where I have been or when I have been there I have never been afraid of the people or the environment.  That peace comes through the Holy Spirit, and the protection comes as a result of our calling.  We continued about our business as planned.  God protects His missionaries.

The next morning after a great exchange with Elder Perkins (I love and miss him) I had ANOTHER great spirit of ministering in my studies. I read part of "Rise to Your Call" by President Eyring and part of "Ask in Faith" by Elder Bednar and came to a deeper understanding of the need to obtain revelation to uplift, inspire, and bless my stewardship. I spent much of that personal study in prayer, following a pattern Elder Bednar outlines. The direction came, and throughout the week I have acted on them in an organized manner. From what companionships have said so far this week, it sounds like there has been an increase in productivity zone wide. I feel that is a direct result of the mindset change. I plan on repeating the process week by week.

When transfer alerts came Saturday night I felt peaceful. It then started to weigh upon me that the experiences of serving as an assistant would never be mine in my lifetime. I felt feelings of failure, and that I had disappointed God. I was not anticipating a call to serve as an assistant.  Other circumstances made it clear that I will be needed to train new Hmong missionaries in six weeks, something an assistant can't do.  Despite all this, I felt that I had come up short.  Recognizing the source of these feelings, I had a lengthy prayer that night to find out the how my Father really feels about me. He told me, which is always a great feeling. I was then instructed by the Spirit about interpretations of the Parable of the Talents and the Parable of the Pounds that applied directly to leadership in the church. In the Parable of the Talents, both those given five and two talents are equally faithful to their assignment and receive the same reward. They both would have learned different lessons with the different levels of responsibility, and the end result of the lessons learned was that they were qualified to "enter into the rest of the Lord." I had the overwhelming feeling that at this time in my life I didn't need the five talent lesson. There were two talent lessons, like this one, that I needed to know and understand in order to "enter into the rest of the Lord." The Parable of the Pounds taught me that we are all given an equal responsibility regardless of calling or assignment: to represent the Lord, to receive revelation and act on it. The only thing that limits my personal growth in any calling or assignment will be my personal commitment to do exactly that. I can experience a tenfold increase in any position anywhere if I am committed to doing the will of the Lord and hold nothing back.  I plan on doing just that.

Elder Gray and I have been transferred, but will continue to live in the same house, drive the same car, and fulfill the same administrative responsibilities.  We have been taken out of the McKee ward.  The ward hit their unit goal the last Sunday of the transfer. 9 out of their 10 baptisms came in the second half of the year. 8 of them came within the last one hundred days. We did the work God needed us to do.  We worked hard, and the ward's vision has been raised and many people have come to receive the gospel.

Armando Garcia is the most recent!  He is Bertha's second son.  His baptism was a blessing.  He asked me to baptize him.  I laid him deep in the water, and he almost brought me down with him.  It was close.  It was the closest I have come to swimming in almost two years.  He bore a beautiful testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how it has changed his life.  He had been praying for a way to get onto the path of salvation that he felt he was not on.  The same week we met their family.  Armando has been a great example of faith to me.  After learning of the Word of Wisdom he stopped drinking coffee almost cold.

The transfer call felt right. Elder Gray and I are sad to leave the bustling McKee ward. I have learned A LOT from those priesthood leaders, especially about being faithful a faithful home-teacher. That lesson will guide my life quite a bit. I felt in prayer last night that I had made the Lord well pleased with how I had carried out the work in the ward.

It will be a good week.

With love,

Elder Cummings

The Book of Mormon

(Anziano Wilkinson)

Today Anziano Larsen and I went to Rimini to play soccer and beach volleyball (all indoors, of course haha) with the other missionaries in our area. It was pretty fun! My team was the winner of the volleyball tournament, naturally. I mean, with a benchwarmer like me you're bound to make it the top, right? But seriously, it was a lot of fun, especially since it's winter and usually you don't get to play sports like that at this time of year! Earlier this week I tried an experiment for one of the meals I cooked for lunch: stuffed bell peppers. Basically it's an Italian dish that I've heard about before and heard was good, but I'd never had one or even seen one before. So I decided to make up my own recipe! It turned out really good in the end and I was slightly surprised that they weren't terrible seeing as it was my first attempt haha. We ended up with a ton of leftovers though since I underestimated how filling they would be... oh well, more for later! I forgot to take a picture, so you'll just have to use your imagination until I make them again!

At the beginning of the year I set a goal to read the Italian Book of Mormon cover to cover before the year was over. At the beginning my progress was very slow, but as I kept reading and learning Italian my progress picked up rapidly. So now as the year is coming to a close I have officially finished reading! It was quite the task, but it was definitely worth it in the end! I've grown and learned so much in the process, both with regards to Italian and the Book of Mormon itself. The amazing thing though is that the Book of Mormon is just as powerful in Italian as it is in English! The voices of ancient inspired prophets still resonate in your heart as you read their teachings and testimonies, almost as if you were right there with them.

The Book of Mormon is a record of the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and was written by prophets for the purpose of "convincing [all men] that Jesus is the Christ". It was translated by the gift and power of God through his chosen prophet, Joseph Smith. In his own words, Joseph Smith says, "the Book of Mormon [is] the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." The Book of Mormon above all else is second witness of Christ, alongside the Bible. It's unique in part because it was written by a group of people that lived isolated from the influences of Eastern religious culture, yet it teaches the same truths and testifies very clearly and directly of the same Savior, Jesus Christ, that has been talked about since the beginning of time. The Book of Mormon also serves as the evidence of the reality of Joseph Smith's prophetic calling, because if he were not inspired by God then it would not have been possible for him, a man as young and uneducated as he was, to translate or write such a book. That's why he called it "the keystone of our religion" because if the Book of Mormon is truly inspired scripture from God, then the person through whom He brought it to light was truly an inspired man. That's why Moroni, the last prophet to write in the Book of Mormon, exhorts us to read it, meditate upon it's teachings, and then to ask God in prayer whether or not it is true. He promises that each who does so with sincerity and faith will receive a witness of its truth from God by the power of the Holy Ghost (Moroni 10:4-5). I've tried Moroni's promise for myself and I have felt the truth of the Book of Mormon confirmed in my heart by feelings that can only come from the Holy Ghost. Feelings of joy, love, and desire to live the precepts taught within the scriptures. Every time I read the Book of Mormon I feel those feelings rush back into my heart and they convince me that the Book of Mormon is true, that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and that the church he established is the church of Jesus Christ.

I am not alone in bearing witness of these things, there are already millions of others who have personally found these things to be true by the same power. I want to invite everyone to take the chance to read the Book of Mormon and ask God if it's true! As Joseph Smith said, "a man [will] get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." There is joy in living the teachings of the Book of Mormon, as with all inspired scripture, and truly it's an amazing gift that our Heavenly Father would provide us this convincing evidence of the truth and of his love for us. So read it! Pray about it! And ask God if it's true! He will answer every sincere and faith-filled prayer that you ask him! That's no small thing; the God of the universe is anxiously waiting for each of us to ask Him to answer our prayers. If you don't have a copy of the Book of Mormon you can order one for free from Mormon.org or you can download the app for free on the App Store.

I hope you all have a great week and that winter break treats you all well! Happy reading!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

Transfers, Rafa, and More Rain

(Sister Ellsworth)

Ola gente!

So transfers rolled around again and guess what....!! I'm staying in Barreiro with Sister Oliver for another 6 weeks!! WOOOOT! This place is my kingdom. I know all the members now as well as the recent converts, less actives, ex-investigators, and their birds. (More people have birds than dogs.) I'm so excited to be here for Christmas and New Years' Eve. We have done a lot of work here and I would have been devastated to leave.

One of the people we are working with is Rafa, who is a 21 year old kid and the best friend of a recently returned missionary in our branch. He is so cool. When we first met him he didn't know about the 10 commandments or Christ but now he texts or calls us every day to tell us about the scripture he read or the prayer he said. He absolutely loved the lesson about the Plan of Salvation and has been studying it vigorously. He always has great questions and a desire to learn more. We are so excited for him!! I think my favorite moment since I met Rafa was the first prayer he said, which was so innocent and humble. He really made me think about how the gospel is so simple that a young child can understand that they are a Child of God but at the same time you can study each principle for the rest of your life and still learn something.

We are also teaching Nelita, who is from Argentina. She's a teacher who works a lot just to get by and the gospel has changed her life too. She's been a great support and example for us and we absolutely love her endless love and charity for us. We've cried together, laughed together, and have become best friends.

It's still raining. The streets flood every day and you just kinda get used to being wet all the time.

 rain clouds... all the time... :)

picture of the main street after about 2 hours of downpour

Love all of you guys!!

Sister Ellsworth

A God of Miracles

(Elder Cummings)

It has been ANOTHER fast week.  A week is not very long.  I have already lived through over 1000 of them.  I don't know why that always surprises me.

Monday at family home evening for the YSA group in the Hmong branch Natasha and Krystle brought two of their friends!  Natasha and Krystle returned to activity earlier this year and they are on fire with missionary work!  They are sharing the joy that is back in their lives with all of their loved ones.  Xyla and Marissa (their friends) both want to start taking the lessons!  Marissa is already talking to Krystle about baptism.  God is gathering together everyone who will listen!

We visited with Jason, a returning less-active in the McKee ward, and shared a brief message with him about the Book of Mormon.  His girlfriend has been reading quite a bit lately.  She wants us to come and teach her the restored gospel!  We will be going over there tonight for another lesson with them.  She wants to get baptized too!  They are planning on getting married soon.  This is great for their family!

As a mission we are seeing many miracles right now as we emphasize faith--faith that God is preparing people to hear the message of the restoration and to accept it.  A story that Elder Anderson shared in a recent mission president seminar is a good example of the kinds of things that have been happening.  Elder Anderson is quoting the story of another man:

“Years ago as a missionary in Philadelphia I (this was told by a Stake Presidency member) was transferred to an area that hadn’t had any baptisms for many months. The mission president instructed us to ‘break the curse’ and find and baptize someone. So my companion and I set a goal of trying to find and baptize just one person in one month. We worked hard, exercised our faith, fasted, and prayed and within a week had found a few good families to teach—one was exceptional and was progressing well. . . . With one week to go before the end of the month we went to their house to have a family home evening with them, only to find a note on the door that read, ‘Elders, please do not ever come back!’ That didn’t stop us, and we knocked on their door many different times on many different days, but no one ever answered the door. Our other investigators weren’t progressing very fast and so we continued to talk to everyone to try to find someone. Sunday was the last day of the month, and by Saturday it wasn’t looking good and my faith was struggling. “Saturday night we had gone to bed when the phone rang about 11:00. The person calling said that he had just transferred to the naval base in south Philly and that he had been taking the discussions and was going to be baptized on Sunday and he was wondering if he could still be baptized. That experience changed my life forever.” Miracles do change lives. I have experienced these miracles myself, and I have witnessed them hundreds of times in the lives of obedient missionaries, their spirits burning with faith in Christ. Let us always protect this precious flame of faith. “For eaglets, the thrill of soaring begins with the fear of falling.”

That story is motivating!  Just last week some of the elders farther north in Atwater experienced the same kind of thing.  They had been working hard, but had been dropped by all the people they had been teaching.  The second to last Sunday of the month their bishop pulled them into his office where a mother and daughter were waiting.  The bishop introduced the missionaries to them.  They were making an effort to come back to church.  The daughter wanted to be baptized the very next Sunday, her ninth birthday.  The baptism happened.  Faith brings miracles.

Keep your faith burning bright this week!  Expect miracles!  Our Heavenly Father has always been a god of miracles!

With love,

Elder Cummings

Thanksgiving, Rain, and Someone Thought I was Native

(Sister Ellsworth)

Howdy yall!

This week was one of those weeks where I have no idea what happened. It was Monday like yesterday... Anyway, on Monday we had a very chill Pday and we watching a few movies like Meet the Mormons, and went to an all you can eat sushi bar for lunch. On Tuesday we had the best conference of our zone ever! It was one of those meetings where every word was meant for you. They challenged us to reorganize our areas and we've spent a good chunk of our free time sorting through our area book to make it easier for the next sisters that come in. On Wednesday we had divisions in Mem Martins with the Sisters there and I learned so much! We did two divisions in one day and by the end of the day I collapsed on the floor in the hallway and fell asleep immediately.  My companion had to wake me up so I could take five step to get to bed. On Thursday we had a super long day where all of our appointments fell through until our last one in which we taught this family of 5 for the first time. Turns out they had the lessons from Sisters in Cape Verde and are interested in hearing more so keep in tune! On Friday we had the craziest day where we ran from appointment to appointment the whole day. We met Rafa, who is the best friend of a member and marked him for baptism just before Christmas. Rafa has been through a lot but he believes that it was just preparation for that appointment where we all cried and testified of the power of the atonement. Saturday and Sunday we ran around chasing investigators and contacting like crazy. It's definitely been a busy week. I blinked and it was over!

Our Thanksgiving was spent at a member's house with the rest of the missionaries in our district. I think I've forgotten what American food tastes like.... But the Portuguese food is amazing :) I think I'll keep it! They love their salad, fish, chicken, and soups! I do too!

It rained. A lot.

And someone thought I was native! Haha. They said "I've never seen a real Portuguese redhead!" That was probably the best moment of the week. I reached 5 months last week so I'm glad to be making some progress! I've still got a long way to go but hey, progress is progress. I wouldn't say i'm fluent yet but it's close. Hopefully I'll serve with a native Portuguese companion! I think that will help a lot!

Love all of you!

Sister Ellsworth

Thankful for the Holy Ghost

 (Elder Cummings)

Thanksgiving week came and went.  That is the direction everything seems to go.  On Thanksgiving we were told not to proselyte, which interrupted some of Elder Gray's and my plans.  We had busy, busy days Monday to Wednesday, Thanksgiving, then busy days Friday to Sunday.

On Thanksgiving itself we went golfing with Bishop Castleton and his sons.  Elder Gray is pretty good at golf, and this was my first time ever.  We played scramble, fortunately.  Preston, Bishop's oldest, told me that I swing like someone from a driving competition, and that except for actually hitting the ball, I had a pretty good stroke.  It was a fun time.  I enjoyed myself.  Following that we ate more than our fill at dinner, and by the time we got back to our apartment at 5:30 we had nothing to do.  I have not had that feeling for a year and a half.  What did we do?  We watched two of the five approved videos, "Emma Smith: My Story" and "On the Lord's Errand" about Thomas S. Monson's life.  In the second movie it talked about how frequently President Monson has experienced being led by the Spirit to a home for a reason unknown to him at the time, only to hear people say things like "how did you know it was the anniversary of our daughter's death?" or "how did you know it was my birthday?" as they answer the door.  God loves all of His children and keeps track of them.

Last night we had a regular "Thomas S. Monson."  We left our dinner appointment and both felt impressed to change our evening plans so that we could attend a baptismal service at one of the chapels in town.  We did exactly that, arriving before the service started, much to the surprise of the elders who had planned the service.  As part of the service, immediately following the baptism a missionary message was planned during the time that those who baptized and were baptized changed out of their wet clothes.  The missionaries who had been asked to do this presentation did not show up, and gave no advance notice.  Elder Gray and I got up and filled in for them.  We delivered a powerful testimony of the restoration of the gospel.  We both felt strongly guided by the Spirit in what we were doing.  After we closed our message, we took our seats and enjoyed the rest of the service.  It was clear to both of us that we were in the right place at the right time because we had been led there by God.  It was neat.  The rest of that night went smoothly.  We taught the gospel that is in our hearts until returning to the apartment at 9:30.

With love,

Elder Cummings

P.S. The Christmas video for the year has been released!  I've been watching it since Halloween, but it is public now!  It is on the homepage of www.mormon.org.  Watch that video.  It is powerful.

#LIGHTtheWORLD

(Anziano Wilkinson)
This week we celebrated a little thanksgiving, nothing too special, but still really tasty! We decided to make a lasagna this year instead of a turkey, partially because we didn't know what we'd do with all the leftovers if we had and partially because we had no idea where to find one! I guess Italy is just not a huge turkey fan!

Anyway, we had a meeting in the morning on Thursday and after that was over we asked our Italian friend about how to make the best lasagna. He told me his recipe and my companion and I went home and immediately got to work cooking it (it was already lunchtime by this point). The lasagna turned out wonderfully! It took a good while to prepare, but as soon as we pulled it out of the oven we knew it was going to be good. And it was! It wasn't a turkey, but hey, when in Rome, do as the Romans, right? We also made a banana cream pie for desert which turned out a lot better than we were expecting for our first made-from-scratch pie! Here are some pictures of our accomplishments:

Now we begin the race towards Christmas! Anziano Larsen and I have already got out tree up and everything. Someone before us left it in our apartment I guess, with decorations and all! So that was pretty awesome. Here's a picture, don't laugh, our decorations were scarce haha:

Speaking of preparing for Christmas, there is an amazing Christmas campaign that they have begun on Mormon.org designed specifically to help us prepare for the Christmas season! The campaign is called #LightTheWorld (I actually like the title in Italian better, which is #SiiUnaLuce, which means "Be a Light", but it's all the same idea!). The concept is this. Christmas is a holiday for remembering our Savior, Jesus Christ. Before all the gift giving and the partying, Christmas is a time to reflect on His gift to the world: the atonement, which allows us to become better people each and every day. So in honor of Him and all that He has done for us, it only makes sense to give back in some small way. And the best way to do that is through service!

The whole idea of the campaign is to inspire as many people as possible to follow the savior in his example of selfless service. And it's easy, too! They have created an advent calendar with new ideas for every day of December up till Christmas, ideas to inspire us to serve more people more often. And not only that, they've created a really nice video to go along with it! So I invite everyone to go visit Mormon.org, watch the short little video (you can't miss it, it'll be quite conspicuous haha), and then check out the advent calendar and commit to serving everyday for the first 25 days of December in 25 different ways! The website outlines dozens of ways in which we can reach out and Light the World, many of which you may have never thought of before, so go check it out! I know that as we commit to serving others for these first 25 days of December, that we will make a difference in the lives of at least 25 different people. That's a lot of people with brighter Christmases! Now imagine if we all helped 25 people! We can truly make the world a brighter place, one act of service at a time.

I hope you have a wonderful week! Good luck Lighting the World!