The Family of God

(Elder Cummings)

I had an experience this week that has reminded me of God's love for his children.  The morning and afternoon had been semi-successful with contacting.  Walking back to the car I had the thought to go knock on a door in a neighboring apartment complex.  I knew who had given me that thought, the Holy Ghost.

I knocked on the designated door to find a family who had moved from a nearby town to Freso three years ago.  They were members of the church who had been very active where they had been living, but once they moved to Fresno they did not know how to recontact the church.  God knew how to recontact them.  We got them the address and time of the local congregation and passed their information to their bishop so that the ward could begin outreaching to them.

The Spirit taught me powerfully that God new this family and their struggles.  He never lost track of them.  He loves them.  He sent His son to die for them.  They are an essential part of God's family.

The words of a primary song that my little sister used to sing have been on my mind.

Our Father has a family. It’s me!

It’s you, all others too: we are His children.

He sent each one of us to earth, through birth,To live and learn here in fam’lies.

God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be—

This is how He shares His love, for the fam’ly is of God.

I know that our Heavenly Father lives.  He knows His children.  He knows you.  He loves you.

-Elder Cummings

Pictures!

(Anziano Wilkinson)

Monza park and Villa Reale, the vacation home of the once king of Italy!

Paul, Baptism, and Poems

(Anziano Wilkinson)

This week has really been a wonderful one for us in Muggiò! This Saturday we held a baptismal service of our dear friend Paul. It was a very spiritual experience for both him and for me and really everyone else as well. Even better was Sunday, when he received the gift of the Holy Ghost, completing his baptism and making him an official member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was just glowing afterward! The night before, without anyone asking him, he had even written out a short testimony about how much his life has been touched since meeting with the missionaries and bore it during that sacrament meeting, it was such a special moment for both him and the people present for it. He's had a lot of support from the church members and already feels like a part of the family!

When a person gets baptized in our church, they wear all-white clothing, to symbolize purity and the cleansing of sins that comes with a baptism performed with the proper authority. I was the one who performed the baptism and so he and I both wore all-white. When we looked at ourselves in the mirror for the first time, after having changed into the baptismal clothing, Paul said to me, "we look like angels; one black, one white" hahaha; he's such a fun guy!

I don't have very much time today, but I would like to share his poem that was shared in Zone Conference that I really liked! I hope you guys like it too!

Our Deepest Fear

Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness

That mist frightens us.

We ask ourselves,

Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking

So that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine,

As children do.

We were born to make manifest

The glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us;

It's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,

We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we're liberated from our own fear,

Our presence automatically liberates others.

Have a great week!

-Anziano Jake Wilkinson

Miracles and Faith

(Elder Cummings)

It has been another good week.  More miracles!

On Tuesday we called Ricky to confirm an appointment at the church building, and he canceled, saying that he had something come up and would get in touch with us when he was free.  We prayed to know what we should do, and acted on the prompting we received.  We texted Ricky saying that we would still be at the church at the set time, and if he changed his mind he could still come by.  He did!  We had a great lesson and he started to keep commitments after that.  Miracle!

Saturday night after a prayer we felt impressed to change our evening plans.  That led us to Leland, a freshman at one of the colleges in town her.  He knew almost nothing about any religion, but felt that he was at a juncture in life and was ready to see what is out there.  We taught him the Restoration and he said his very first prayer.  He was touched by the Spirit and is excited for our return appointment.

This week I have spent some time in personal study learning about the gifts of the Spirit that deal with teaching (Moroni 10:9-10).  I have been impressed by the connection made in the scriptures between the teacher's faith in Christ and the converting power of their teaching.

3 Nephi 7:17-18 makes this connection:

"...And Nephi did minister with power and with great authority.

"And it came to pass that they were angry with him, even because he had greater power than they, for it were not possible that they could disbelieve his words, for so great was his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ that angels did minister unto him daily."

Nephi was marked as a powerful teacher because of his great faith.  Later, in the Book of Ether, chapter 12, this same Nephi gets a shout out.  Verse 14 reads:

"Behold, it was the faith of Nephi and Lehi that wrought the change upon the Lamanites, that they were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost."

Our faith is Christ is a power that invites the converting power of the Spirit into our teaching.  Faith brings miracles into missionary work and into the lives of people all over the world.

With love,

Elder Cummings

Transfers!

(Sister Ellsworth)

Hey everyone!

This week was probably one of the busiest weeks of my mission. We found a lot of really cool people after a big leap of faith when we decided to stop teaching a lot of our eternigators (investigators that love being taught but never do anything). We found a Brazilian family who had had the lessons like 30 years ago until the missionaries in that area disappeared with a whitewash or something. We taught them and left them a Book of Mormon and the 17 year old son read half of it before we came back a few days later. They invited us over for dinner and we loved talking to them! We focused on the message that the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families. When we taught Maria, the mom, that she could be with her family forever she just started bawling. It was so special! We also met three young siblings who are friends of one of my favorite members here. They are 18, 16, and 13 years old. We taught them the about the restoration of the gospel and they accepted our invitations to  attend church with the other youth.

We also got news of transfers! I'm going to stay here in Portimão and serve with Sister Foster!! Whoo-hoo!! I know Sister Foster really well! She lived with me in Barreiro for 12 weeks! It's going to be such a great transfer! We're really excited to start working.

Here's a picture of Andre (Who is going to leave on his mission soon), me, Diogo, Beatriz, Roseana, Sister Aiono, and Sonia. They are a really cool group of jovens!

Our classic elevator picture in the morning

Part of the culture in Portugal is that you sit and wait while people make food for you. It's always super awkward. But hey... we do anything for food... XD

We had a great week! Love you guys!

Sister Ellsworth

Semana 5: Divisions, General Authorities, and Adventures

(Sister Ellsworth)

Hey everyone!!

We has a fun division with the Sisters from Olhão, Sister Gaidanov from Romania and Sister Baker, from Utah. I stayed with Sister Baker who has been on her mission for 5 weeks!  It was fun to remember how fun it was to be a greenie in a strange country. I also know Sister Gaidanov from the MTC! We were in the MTC together and we came to Portugal at the same time. It was awesome to see how much she has grown in the past 7 months.

We also had a conference with Ulysses S Soares, who is the President of the Seventy for our areas. He came to talk to us and tour the area. He talked about better organization and diligence in the work! We spent most of the day with him and the other missionaries in our zone.  We had pizza with him too!

On Saturday night we accidently locked our keys inside of our house.... And normally a member has spare keys but we accidently broke the original keys when they fell out the window of our 9 story apartment. (That is a long story..) So we were using our spares when they accidently got locked inside our house. So Sister Aiono has locked herself out a couple of times so she's learned how to open doors with our pass along cards. But after an hour of trying to open it, we decided to make some calls to our friends. We called a member who is a firefighter to ask for help. He brought this XRay sheet, folded it in half, and opened the door in 30 seconds. So. If you ever get locked out of your house... Just find an XRay!! Haha.

Also Jose was confirmed on Sunday! It's always so great to see when people accept such a great and special thing.

Thanks for all you support!

Sister Ellsworth

Sister Gaidanov, me, Sister Baker, and Sister Aiono

Heritage YSA - the first week

(Elder Cummings)

I am writing this from the Fresno North Stake center.  It has been nine months since I was om this zone.  The Hmong elders haven't changed much, but other than that there are all new faces.

Working in a YSA is a little different, but the fundamentals of missionary work are still the same.  We follow the Spirit to teach faith in Christ and repentance through him.  Teaching people who are my same age feels very natural.  That has made me happy.  Being a missionary this long hasn't made me weird.

Our teaching pool is progressing very well.  Elders Tongish, Sullivan, and I teach in unity very well.  All three of us love the scriptures, and we get into great discussions about living the gospel as we drive ALL OVER Fresno.  We drive in circles a little bit, but that is getting better.  We stay busy with appointments, that is for sure.

The Spirit has led us to more miracles.  One door we were impressed to knock was a waitress from Buffalo Wild Wings who Elder Tongish and Sullivan thought would be receptive to the gospel when they met her at the restaurant last week.  God directs His missionaries.  Another instance came after a prayer.  We looked at an apartment, and i felt impressed to tell the other two that there was an unmarried YSA-aged couple who lived there who would be receptive to the gospel.  There was.  We have a return appointment on Thursday when they are off work.

I want to make it clear, if I haven't already, that I know that Jesus Christ lives.  He has a resurrected body of flesh and bones.  He is our Savior and Redeemer.  I love Him, and I know that He loves all of God's children.

With love,

Elder Cummings