Alma 56:48

(Aldste Cummings)

Hejsan!

This week was fantastic! Summer has come early and it is GORGEOUS here in Karlskrona. I wish I could show you guys what it's really like just to walk around out here but I guess I'll just have to send pictures and brag about it incessantly instead. Maybe then you'll understand how truly beautiful it is.

We had the opportunity to teach our investigator Kristoffer a couple times this week. On Tuesday he taught us how to make some absolutely incredible vegetarian food. Pictures are attached.

I also got to call my family and talk with them! It was so great to see them. It's been a fat stund since I had the opportunity to really be with them and I'm thankful for even just the small opportunity I had to talk to them on Sunday.

In light of Mothers' Day, I thought I would share a few words about my own mother.

For all of you who know my mom, you already know that she is an incredibly hard-working, diligent, and faithful woman who touches and blesses the lives of everyone she meets. She has taught me so much not only through word, but by example.

I am eternally grateful for who my mom is and the sacrifices she has made to raise me and my siblings. I wish words could express my gratitude and love. She truly is a woman of God.

I love you, Mom.

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. Mhmm

2. Kristoffer and us at our little brunch

3. pt 2. Would not recommend.

4. That's right, I live here (pt 3).

Luke 11: 11-13

(Aldste Cummings)

Hejsan!

This week was great! We were able to see some good progress in some of our investigators as well as had time to do some classic finding work. I love being a missionary and love talking with people about Christ's restored gospel! It brings so much joy.

This week, all the Swedish high school students in their last year celebrated graduation by putting on white caps and parading through town while screaming and whistling. That was a sight to see. I definitely didn't get to do that when I graduated high school.

This week was the last week of the transfer, but because I'm training Elder Burns, we'll be staying together for at least 6 weeks more while we finish up training. I'm looking forward to spending some more time in this beautiful city as summertime comes around!

I've thought about this scripture a lot this week. The Savior teaches us here that the Lord will always answer our prayers by using the analogy that any rational, loving father would never give his son a stone when he asks for bread. What I've learned in my admittedly short life is that God does really answer our prayers and would never give us a stone if we needed bread.

However, sometimes we ask for cake when the Lord knows that what we need is the nourishment that comes from a loaf of bread. We may not receive what we ask for, but if we ask in faith, the God will surely bless us with what we need. The question is then, how do we react when we receive the bread we need instead of the cake we wanted?

I know that our Heavenly Father is conscious of us--our wants and our needs. I know that an active faith in Him will lead to the joy, comfort, and confidence that we need in this life.

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. The parade

2. Our boy was a little late to the party

3. This Persian guy was rocking the rollerskates

4. This was super fun

Alma 32:21

(Aldste Cummings)

Tjena!

This week was great! As usual, we worked hard. But it wouldn't be a great week if we didn't! We were able to spend a lot of time finding, teaching, and serving this week. And it feels great to be able to work as the Lord's servant in this little corner of His vineyard.

One of the people we met on the street this week showed up at church on Sunday! He loved it and is excited to have us come over and teach him more an we're more than excited to come over and teach him more.

This week was also the Swedish holiday called Valborg. To celebrate, one builds a giant pile of wood and then burns it. It symbolizes burning away winter and welcoming the spring. It's so raw, primeval, and Scandinavian. I love it.

Elder Renlund, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles--one of the highest governing bodies of the church--came to Sweden this week to speak to the members and the missionaries. It was fantastic. He's Swedish too so he gave his talk in Swedish! The members were so happy and proud, it was adorable. He spoke a lot about faith and what it means to hold on and act in faith. It was a very inspiring and inspired message tailored for the people of Sweden.

Again, I cite Alma 32. One of the best discourses ever written and perhaps my favorite chapter in all of scripture. Faith does not mean we know everything and it never will. That's made clear by this verse. But something else we learn by this verse that I think is very meaningful is that faith is a hope. Belief without hope is not and cannot be true faith. Faith is inspiring and motivating. The hope our faith brings us motivates us to act and it is then that our faith grows and testimony as well as blessings are received.

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

Alma 18:24-28

(Aldste Cummings)

Hey all!

This week was tons of fun! Unfortunately, nearly all of our appointments we had scheduled were all REscheduled and we weren't able to meet very many people this week, but we saw tons of small miracles as we patiently pressed forward!

For example, after an appointment was canceled rather unexpectedly, Elder Burns and I filled up the vacant time by going downtown to talk to people on the street. While we were there, we ran into a girl Elder Harris and I had talked to over a month ago who was very interested in learning more but that we couldn't get in contact with. After a short conversation with her, she expressed her strong desire to learn more about the Book of Mormon and we set up a lesson with her for this week! We rescheduled with the person we were going to meet and now we will have lessons with both! It's incredible how the Lord leads us to where we need to be even if we thought something or someone else was more important as long as we patiently follow His plan and His timing.

This week, I chose the scripture where Ammon teaches the King about the nature of God by first helping him realize that he already believed in God. I chose this because of an experience Elder Burns and I had last night while we were tracting. We talked to this man and after a short, casual conversation, we asked him if he believed in God.

He responded that didn't, but that he might believe in some impersonal higher power (classic Swede). We then--following the direction of our mission president to ask inspired, probing questions--asked him if he believed there is a life after death, if the higher power he believes in is directly involved in that life after death, if he believes the higher power can actively make choices, if the higher power cares about him personally, and if the higher power is all knowing and knows what is best for him, and if he would trust the higher power if it commanded him to do something. To all of these questions, he answered affirmatively.

I then felt prompted by the Spirit to be a little bolder than I usually would be comfortable with and, with this scripture in mind, said to him: "This higher power you believe in sounds a lot like the god we believe in. My friend, you believe in God." We then invited him to learn more about the things that God has commanded him to do to be happy in this life and he graciously accepted.

This experience was evidence to me that most--if not all--people have an innate knowledge that God is there and that He loves them. Sometimes that knowledge is hidden in a dark corner of the heart that is intentionally ignored or overlooked; but it's there nonetheless.

I witness that God lives and loves us. He waits for us to turn to Him and is never turned away from us.

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. Majestic.

2. Your boys.

3. That's right. I live here.

4.That's right. I live here part 2.

Alma 32:34

(Aldste Cummings)

Hello!

This week has been quite exciting! Elder Burns and I have been putting in some good work into our beloved Karlskrona and we're seeing some great progress! It's also an incredible 70 degrees right know which feels downright awesome.

On Friday, we were walking around town talking to people about the gospel when a woman called us over from an outdoor cafe table where she was sitting with her husband. She proceeded to ask us genuine questions about what we believe in and after about a 15 minute discussion--which concluded with her saying "1000 years ago everyone laughed at the people who thought the world wasn't flat. Everyone laughs at the Mormons now, maybe we ought to give them a chance"--they invited us over for dinner for the following week!

That experience--along with a couple of others over the past couple of weeks--has made me very excited for the work we will have on our plate in the near future. The Lord is truly blessing us!

The verse I chose this week teaches a principle that I often discuss with people on the street. We meet a lot of people who don't believe in anything because they don't think about it and feel like they can get by without any sort of faith in anything. For these people who have no real religious background, we teach to their level and promise them that a faith in God makes a difference in our life. A difference that is noticeable and positive. Once someone has experienced that difference, they no longer have to believe that it makes a difference because they have literally experienced it themselves.

Each of us has had experiences in our lives that we base our thoughts, decisions, and quite frankly our entire lives on. Things that we know to be true and faithful because we have experienced them for ourselves. But we can't know something is true until we first exercise the faith necessary to try. I would encourage each of you to reflect on what those experiences are that are the building blocks of your life and make a goal to plant a new seed of faith to experiment with.

Gain a testimony of one more thing this week.

Love,

Elder Cummings

Amos 3:7

(Aldste Cummings)

Hello everybody!

I hope you all had a great week, because we sure did!

On Wednesday, I met my new companion and son, Elder Burns! He's a stud from Connecticut, so we have the East Coast thing in common which is super fun. He's a hard worker and loves learning the language and is already making great progress with it! On the train ride down, he was able to bear his testimony to potentially change the life of a man we sat with in the dining car. The man very quickly recognized us as servants of the Lord and revealed to us his most personal thoughts and feelings--feelings that he had never shared with anyone else.

The man was especially touched by the fire in Elder Burns' eyes and the strength of his spirit. He broke down in tears when he discovered that they both shared the same name: Anthony. The man gave us his number and we sent it along to the missionaries in his area where they will contact and try to help him come yet closer to Christ. Way to go, Elder Burns!

This week, we were privileged to hear from the Lord's Prophet, Apostles, and other ordained servants during the Church's semi-annual General Conference. What and experience it was to listen to them speak and receive the witness of the Spirit that this truly is the Lord's church and is led by living prophets. I testify that President Nelson is a Prophet of God who not only receives revelation for the Church, but also the entire world. I would encourage each and every one of you to listen to and obey the counsel he reveals from the Lord. After all, "surely the LORD GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets"(Amos 3:7).

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. Three generational photo. From left to right, Elder Martineau (My father, Elder Burns' grandfather), Me (Elder Martineau's son, Elder Burn's father), and Elder Burns (Elder Martineau's grandson, my son).

2.  No more ice on the sea!

3. Elder Burns and I in stan.

4. Kebab pizza.

5. Elder Burns and I as we point to our assigned proselyting area.

1 Nephi 2: 19-20

(Aldste Cummings)

Hey everyone!

This week was pretty exciting! As it turns out, I will be assigned to serve with a missionary coming directly from the MTC for the next twelve weeks! It will be pretty exciting seeing as he won't be able to speak practically any Swedish for a couple weeks and I'll have to handle nearly everything that goes on. In missionary-lingo, this means that I am becoming a "father" and my new companion will be my "son." I'm really excited to meet him on Wednesday!

With this new assignment, I got the opportunity to attend a training meeting in Stockholm and got to stay the night in the office there with a couple other elders. It was super fun. It is a 6 hour one-way trip though so that was a little "jobbigt" as Swedes say. I'll be making the trip there and back again this week to meet my new companion so I'll have a good amount of travel time this week as well.

The scripture I chose this week stuck out to me while I began to read the Book of Mormon again from the beginning. I liked it a lot, not only because of what it says, but also because of the context it gives when compared with the beginning of the next chapter. The Lord counsels Nephi to keep His commandments and comforts him with blessings he will receive in doing so. Then--as the scriptural record would seem to indicate--only minutes later, his father--prophet of God--relates to Nephi how the Lord had commanded him and his brothers to return to the land of Jerusalem and confront Laban in request for the genealogical records of the Jews.

Nephi immediately relied on the counsel he had just been given from the Lord to follow His commandments to the letter. This is an example to us of how the Lord not only prepares a way to follow His commandments, but also prepares us to receive them! I would encourage each of you to reflect on how you have been prepared by the Lord to accomplish His purposes.

Have a great week!

1. TU is the abbreviation we use for "Potential Investigator" in Swedish. We thought it was funny but you guys probably won't. I decided to send it anyway.

2. This is the biggest dog I have ever seen. You can't really tell because no one is standing next to it to reference to, but it's head reached well past my elbow.