This week my companion and I taught our two investigators (who are actually just our teachers role playing), their names are Timo and Zhang Jiemei (Jiemei is the word for Sister in mandarin). So teaching Timo this week we taught him about the Word of Wisdom and in his life he is trying to study English so he can go to England and study there at a university. So as we were teaching him the Word of Wisdom we learned he likes to drink coffee and tea. We taught him and used some scriptures to say that he couldn't drink these things because the prophets have commanded it and we follow the words of the prophets (all of this in Chinese by the way). One thing that hit me during our lesson was how much love I have for Timo. Even though he is my teacher pretending to be this person I still have so much love and want him to receive the gospel! At the end of the lesson, I got a prompting to promise him something. So, following the direction of the Spirit, I promised him that if he lived the Word of Wisdom he would be able to go to England to study. It seemed really bold to me but then I remembered that as a missionary I have every right to make those promises because I am doing the Lord's work and he has given me that power. All of this in a role-play scenario. Man, I can't wait to get to Taiwan and love the people out there that I teach and hopefully they will accept the gospel!
Another thing that happened this week was that some guys in our zone have gotten into these silly debates about frivolous things like dinosaurs and deep doctrine questions that have no real answers. I have tried to avoid these discussions because the Spirit isn't in it because it gets contentious with people taking sides and arguing about these things with no solid answers. As I was exiting one of these conversations I had a thought that even though I don't know everything, I have faith in God and his Plan of Happiness for us. Someday we will be able to receive all of the answers we want but for now, while we can't know everything, there is no point in bringing contention into any situation. Some people question things, but I have faith.
In one of my first emails home, I issued a challenge to read the Book of Mormon before August 8. How is everyone doing? I think reading this book is like a triathlon, 1 Nephi through Mosiah is the Swim portion, Alma is the bike portion, and then Helaman to Moroni is the run! Right now I am all the way through Helaman chapter 10, so I am in the run portion! Being able to read from this holy book every day has been such a blessing. I have learned a lot about defending myself, having my voice be heard, and also learning how to be a missionary from some of the best like Ammon and Alma and Amulek. I know that you can learn a lot from it too! This book was written for our day and every verse is included for a reason! So go find the reason and feel the Spirit! If you aren't on pace to finish it by August 8 don't worry about it! Read from it every day! It will help you so much.
In an effort to grow my spiritual knowledge I have begun to read old conference talks starting from the beginning in the Gospel Library app. So the beginning is April of 1971. And wow. Just wow. The messages ring as true today as they do in 1971. One of my favorites is from Spencer W. Kimball titled, "Voices of the Past, of the Present, of the Future". In this talk, he talks about how the voices of the world can get super loud and we need to use our own voices to be a light and a beacon! I am glad to be able to have my voice be heard in proclaiming the gospel! Another talk I enjoyed was from Bruce R. McConkie titled, "The Lord's People Receive Revelation" and in this one, he talks a lot about how religion is only received from revelation and we need to have revelation in our own lives. As our prophet has said, we are all entitled to receive revelation if we are on the covenant path and if we "be a good boy, be a good girl, remember and honor our covenants, and keep the commandments" (that's from Elder Bednar in one of his MTC Devotionals). There are so many more awesome talks and I haven't even finished 1972 yet so go take a look! (N. Eldon Tanner gave one about judging that was super good. That could be a starting point).
So every week on Wednesday during the evening class we see all of the EFY kids doing their Games Night and I will admit I get distracted sometimes because I used to be one of those kids, having great spiritual moments and making new friends. This week I realized that I don't want my mission to be like EFY. At EFY people go, return home motivated to be better, but almost always revert back to their old ways. I don't want my mission to be like that. This is going to be my Ebenezer. My reminder that I am a different person, a better person, one who is closer to Christ and having gained an even deeper conversion to the gospel!
This week is mostly just the spiritual lessons I have learned, but MTC life is good. The food is alright and the Zone is awesome, the new guys in the youngest district are awesome and one asked if I wanted to room with him at BYU when we get back! I am totally stoked for it because they are all rad. As well, this week the oldest districts got their visa reassignments, two are going to Orlando, two going to Ventura, CA and the fifth and final is going to Seattle. I am interested to see where I will be reassigned when the time comes! A lot of people don't like the idea of it but I am willing. The Lord knows all and if I get reassigned somewhere it is for a reason! This Sunday we get new leadership so thus far the only thing I have done is been the Branch Technology Specialist, so maybe I'll be Zone Leader or District Leader. Who knows? I just wanna serve and if it's in the tech area then so be it!
I think that is all for this week so I love you all and wish you the best! JIA YOU!!
Elder Ciminski
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