John 8:58

(Aldste Cummings)

Hej hej!

This week was a mixture of very rewarding and pretty frustrating. A lot of our appointments fell through and had to be rescheduled for next week, but it's all good.

We taught a man from Ethiopia who had gone through so much in his life and had the strongest, most passionate faith in Jesus Christ. It was incredible. He was imprisoned and harassed for his religion in Libya, and had seen his closest friends executed for refusing to deny their beliefs and he never gave up the faith. Truly an inspiring story. He was so excited to meet us and even began to cry when we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon in his native language.

Therese was baptized on Saturday! Literally our entire congregation from church was there to support her and we had a big party afterwards. She said the following day in church that it was the best day of her life and she is so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This week I want to talk a little about what I think is one of the most powerful and even poetic verses in the King James Bible. On the surface it's very simple. If you just read over it, you'll probably just notice that the grammar at the end seems a little funny and move on. But it's so much more than that.

In John 8, Jesus begins a pretty relentless and unapologetic criticism of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They continually fail to grasp the full import of his words and insist that they are blessed and holy because they are the children of Abraham and heirs to the Abrahamic covenant. Finally, Christ says these words: "Before Abraham was, I am."

The use of "I am" here in the original Greek is the same as the usage in the Greek Septuagint version of the Old Testament in Exodus 3:14. Thus, in one single sentence, Jesus confounds their argument, and not only associates himself with--which alone would be considered blasphemy--but even identifies himself as their Lord, even Jehovah. The Creator of the World, the Voice in the Burning Bush, the Architect of the Exodus, the very Hand that wrote the Law they profess to keep, and now, the Savior of Mankind. The rabbis fully understood the significance of what he said, and immediately began to pick up rocks to stone him to death.

So powerful a statement, in so beautiful and simple a phrase. I know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and our Savior. I know that through Him and his sacrifice, we can find forgiveness, peace, strength, and, ultimately, be perfected. I love Him, and I know He loves us all.

Love,

Äldste Cummings

Transfers, Service Projects, and being in the right place at the right time.

(Sister Ellsworth)

Alô!

​

​This week we went to Sintra andI got to see Sister Ribeiro! She's one of my best friends from the Algarve. We got some cool souvenirs. On Tuesday we had the "funeral" for three of our elders that are going home this week. We made brownies, cookies, drinks, and salsa! Afterwards we found a lady named Olinda, this older lady who has been through lots of hard times in the past. When she opened the door she said that she didn't want to talk to use because she believed that God was punished her and she was in the middle of a 40 year long silent treatment since her 3 children and husband died leaving her alone. We were able to kind of talk our way in and she sat down to listen about how the Atonement of Christ can help her overcome the bitterness that she feels. She gave us a little twinge of a smile and I know she felt something there.

This week I also found a little thing of Crab Salad... If you know me you know I really LOVE crab salad. I got so excited and I bought it. We got home for lunch and I opened it and you know what it was? It was freaking coleslaw. Sigh. Some days you just can't win. Haha

We also went to a members' house for dinner and their two year old threw up all over. Awkward. But we put our hair up and helped clean up while the little boy got tossed into the bath.

I hit 15 months this week too. Whoa.

On Saturday we spent 5 hours cleaning a house that had been growing mold for the past ten years. It had mold about an inch thick 

And Transfers are here! I'll be going back to the other side of the river to Coasta da Caparica to serve with............ *drumroll*

SISTER SELMAN!!! I served with her last transfer here in Póvoa! Haha it's going to be awesome!!

​

Until next week,

Sister Ellsworth

AGUINHA!!!

(Sister Ellsworth)

This week our cute little friend Elsa was baptized! It's been kind of an adventure with her. It seems like all of us passed through tests of faith this week. Elsa talked to the missionaries last year for a few months and then the Sisters were whitewashed and Elsa thought the Church had closed. We were walking through the area and she saw us and got all excited. We talked to her and she was ready to be baptized!  But we had so many problems with her work schedule and the schedules for the bishopric that the only day that worked for her and us and everyone else was a Tuesday night at 8:45pm. Here in Portugal we have to be home at 9:30 or 10:00 at the latest so we ran to her baptism and dunked her faster than a major league baseball player at a dunk tank.

We also went to Sintra for Pday! You can't come to Portugal without seeing Sintra and I had to take my baby there for the last Pday of the transfer.

While we were there we met up with one of my best friends here on the mission, Sister Ribeiro. She's going home next week so we hung out and messed around. Here's a picture of her being sacrificed by her greenie in a mock Isaac and Abraham thing. It was actually raining a ton so all of us got soaking wet.

​cute little Portuguese veranda... oh i love this place so much!!!

Have a great week!

Sister Ellsworth

Mosiah 4:9

(Aldste Cummings)

This week has been pretty wild.

Our teaching pool has grown quite significantly in just these past couple days and two people we have been teaching have committed to be baptized next month! Everything is just rolling along. At this rate, a couple weeks down the road we might have so much to do we won't actually be able to do it all with just the two of us. It's Skövdelicious.

On Saturday, Elder Martineau and I ended up in a town called Hjo because of some travel shenaniganry. It's this really small town right on a lake and it was absolutely beautiful. It had a really weird Twin Peaks kind of vibe, though, and appeared to be peopled entirely by retirees. Everyone was just strolling around and no one seemed to have anything urgent or anything. Also, apparently there was no train station even though both of us distinctly remember stopping at a Hjo train station on our way to Jönköping. Weird. We both felt like we had entered the twilight zone or something. I don't think we could find that place again if we tried.

Something here in Sweden that I find very striking is how many people are truly very apathetic about any sort of religion. Granted, there are a Swedes out there who have faith, but they tend to be few and far between. The epitome of this attitude is exemplified by something a woman I met on the street told me: "It doesn't matter if God exists or not."

That's not athiesm, it's just complete apathy. An unwillingness to believe in anything. King Benjamin's exhortation to us to have faith in Mosiah 4:9 is something that has helped me in my life and my faith. His statement is not only that God exists, but that we can trust in Him. That He knows all things and is always there and can comfort us. Essentially, King Benjamin tries to show us that it does matter if God exists because in Him we can find a loving and all-knowing Father whose purpose it is to bring us back to him.

I love that. I know that God lives and I know that through His Son Jesus Christ we can find the comfort and peace we need to be reconciled with Him.

Love,

Äldste Cummings

Mosiah 2:34

(Aldste Cummings)

Hej hej!

Last week was kinda crazy, but this week is about to get even more busy. We had a couple meetings last week that fell through but were rescheduled for this week. On top of all the people last week that we met for the first time who we're scheduled to meet this week, it's a lot of people. If everything goes according to plan, we will start teaching 10 new people this week, not counting anyone we haven't met yet.

On Wednesday we went on splits (that means we switched companions for a day) and I was paired with Elder Grover from Borås. He's only been out 7 weeks and I had only been out 1 week. So that was interesting. We spent most of our time just talking to people on the street. I actually had a lot of fun though and it turned out to be one of the most fruitful contacting-stunds I've been a part of.

Also this week, we had a conference to attend in Göteborg. We stayed the night with the elders in Västra Förlunda, one of which is Elder Wolff from my congregation back home in New Jersey! That was really fun and reminded me of home a little bit.

One of the people we met tried to teach us, among other things, that the Bible teaches us that dinosaurs lived at the same time as humans. Again, I would explain, but it would just be more confusing.

The scripture I chose this week is something I came across in my personal study. The part of it that I appreciate the most is the part where King Benjamin encourages us to "render to [God] all that [we] have and are."

It is most important that we recognize how much we owe our Heavenly Father. we are "eternally indebted to [Him]." He has given us everything, not only that we have, but most importantly everything that we can have through the Atonement of Jesus Christ whom He gave us as well. We owe our life, salvation, and eternal life to God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. In return, it is only right and just that we devote everything to Him. Not only everything we have, but also everything we are. As we turn to Him and offer ourselves to Him, He will be able to make of us what He needs.

Enjoy your weeks, I love you all!

Äldste Cummings

Roubando Cigarros

(Sister Ellsworth)

Hey yall!

This week was fun. We ran around talking to people and having fun. I think one of my favorite moments was when our investigator, Antonio, gave us a huge handful of cigarettes. We have been working with him for nearly 4 months and finally he called us almost in tears saying that he was sick of being addicted and brought us these. I saw a man really come to his knees and plead for help. We taught him about the Atonement and before he left he managed a smile and promised to read.

Take that!!! Haha

The later at church we had all these cigarettes in my bag (i forgot to take them out) and in Gospel Principles I pulled out my scriptures and all of them came tumbling out. Then the Patriarch asked for all of them and took the filters off and handed me back the white part. I was like... why?? and apparently the filter stops cuts really well. LOL I love being in an area where all the members are converts!

Other than that it was pretty uneventful. The Church is still true!

Sister Ellsworth

D&C 31:3

(Aldste Cummings)

Tjena!

This week has been wild.

We woke up on Monday at 2:30 AM to arrive in Sweden at 6:00 AM Tuesday (Sweden time). I couldn't fall asleep on the plane and we didn't get to go to bed until 10:30 PM that night. So we had been up for 36 hours by the time we finally got some rest.

I have been assigned to serve in Skövde with Elder Martineau! It's a medium-sized college town near Göteborg. It's been pretty great. We have been working pretty hard and have been very busy. The congregation here is pretty small--around 30 members come to church on a good day--but they're hardworking and we are too. Together, we make a good team.

Weird experience of the week: A schizophrenic lady with no pants walked in on a lesson we were teaching and spent the next 15 minutes talking about how much she wanted to bear the children of the man we were teaching. I would explain more, but it would just make less sense.

I chose the verse above this week because it reminds me of how important this work is. Sometimes, you can get dragged down in how difficult it is and how often you get rejected or how tired you are, but the Lord councils us to rejoice in it. I am here to do His work and there is no greater call. I really could not be spending my time right now in a better way and I am so excited to keep going at it for the next two years.

I love this work. I know Christ lives and is our Savior.

Love,

Äldste Cummings