I GOT ESCORTED OUT OF MY RESIDENCE IN MY ROBE!! - 7/16/18

This week was crazy! Lot's of things happening over here at the MTC!

The first item of business is that my district is now the oldest district! We get a new set of Mandarin missionaries this week (including some old friends!) it is exciting and I can't wait to meet all of them and get to know them! As a result of the oldest district leaving we got new Zone Leaders and District Leaders and all of that jazz. I am fortunate enough to be able to be assigned as my district's District Leader! I am excited to serve and help my district in any way I can!

Like I mentioned before the oldest district left this morning. Most of them are going to reassignment areas until they get their visas for Taiwan. It was sad to say goodbye because I have spent the last 6 weeks getting to know them and loving them. Lot's of good memories for sure. A lot of them are going to BYU so I will see them after! It isn't goodbye! Only see you later :)

So now the reason for my clickbait. We were walking back from exercise time on Thursday and they were doing a test drill so we had to wait outside to get cleared and we finally did and so I went to get in the shower so I could get ready for the day. Then all of the sudden, as I'm cleaning up, the alarm goes off again! I think it's a drill so I continue showering but pick up the pace a little then before you know it a security person walks in and yells, "IF YOU'RE IN THE SHOWER GET OUT!!" So I have time to put on my compression shorts and my robe and then I had to get out of there! So that's why I have a picture of me in my robe outside *facepalm*.

We have learned that Elder Wolthius is a pro harmonica player and he can play it with no hands!!

Not much else happened this week but I did finish the Book of Mormon so I hit my goal! It was so nice to read it all the way through again. You still have three weeks left if you are behind!

My last point is about the accident I had two years ago. The anniversary of that was this past week (if I remember properly) and so I took some time to think about it this week. I came within millimeters of dying, but I didn't. The situation could have been much worse, but it wasn't. I know I was saved to help fulfill God's plan on the Earth. One of those things being serving a mission! I am so happy to still be alive and I am so happy to get to give my life to the Lord for this time! He knows us and he cares about us! Nothing is impossible if he is on our side!

I love you all so much!
Elder Ciminski

23 MONTHS LEFT TO GRIND! - 7/9/18

This week was another great week for the books! It is crazy that I have already been out for over a month! Time flies when you're serving the Lord I guess! That also means I have 23 months left to grind and work my hardest so it's time to refocus and recenter and get back to work!

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

Me!

WE HAD A RAVE AT THE MTC!! - 7/2/18

ni hao wo de jiating! Hello my family, hope this email finds you all well! This week is a little less exciting but I'll try my best!

To start with, I have learned the celestial language and about the celestial instrument. Mandarin is the celestial language (obviously) but the celestial instrument is the harp! At our Tuesday devotional, we had a special harp music number and it was incredible. So that cemented my suspicions about the harp being the most beautiful instrument. If only I had musical talents besides a half decent singing voice. I think going to the MTC choir is helping me, but who knows. One last thought about music. For some reason, I am really wanting to listen to Frank Sinatra but obviously, I can't. But I'll still sing his songs under my breath. However, on the computers, we can listen to the MoTab from the website and I found the broadway section (Alex Boye does The Circle of Life, go check it out). LOL gotta do what you gotta do I guess.

The next thing probably isn't surprising but I am probably the youngest person at the MTC. I have yet to meet an Elder who is younger than me. So I have that going for me at least! Just that one claim to fame but I'll take what I can get.

Up next. TOMMY BONNER IS IN AN LDS.ORG VIDEO!! He is in a video under the missionary work section under the LDS.org media library! So we know a celebrity now! I saw the video and was freaking out. It was such a cool coincidence!

My district got to host this week! We got to help some of the 450+ new missionaries that came to the MTC this week. It was super hot here and so carrying the luggage kinda sucked but serving was fun! A lot of Spanish speaking missionaries came in and I only had to deal with one emotional family! This whole experience reminded me of when I reported only 3.5 weeks ago. It seems like so long ago but that's the mission life is I guess. The days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days! That saying is so true, I doubted it at first, but it's so true.

And part of the 450+ new missionaries was 8 new Elders for our newest district. So that means I am in the middle district now! No more being a baby! One of the new Elders is from Parker! Small world. They seem cool. They kinda stay in their rooms, but I think this week they will start socializing more. I hope so because hanging out as a zone is so much fun!

One other Elder that reported this week is also famous. His name is Elder Troutner and he is a Nike Cross Nationals champion in cross country! Literally one of the best runners in the nation is here! His best time in the 5K is like 14:14 or something insane like that. It makes me want to run more.

Now that some of the more serious stuff is over with we can transition to the more fun stuff!

We made up a new activity called "residences races" where we race around our floor of the residence hall and see who can do it the fastest. I am in the top 5 with a time of 11.06 seconds. This is the type of stuff we do to keep from going crazy, but it's all within the rules too!

Elder Watts doing the Residence Races.

I changed my Chinese name this week to 宋 because in Asia, Si with any tone has a bad connotation because it means death. So I didn't want to risk it and changed it to my high school Chinese last name! Also, I found the literal translation of my first name because some people have the language study Bible and my name is in Luke 3 and so I learned that Heber is 希伯 (XiBo)! So that's super cool! Chinese is honestly such an awesome language and it makes so much more sense than English grammar-wise. Bless.

So the funniest story of the week comes from a few days ago. I am doing personal study and all the sudden I think I'm seeing double because two sisters are wearing the exact same dress. No joke. THE SAME DRESS and they had the same hair color and looked identical. I was laughing so hard because they were companions too! It was so hilarious.

One little thing before my conclusion topic. So I think Y'all know how I used to spin my pen around my thumb a bunch. Well during a Sunday night film I did it 117 times in a row! I felt so accomplished. It's the little things in life.

So my last topic is about the expansiveness of the Church. Here at the MTC, I have met so many people from all over the world! We have Elders in our residence from Samoa (they are so awesome I love the island culture so much!) and some from Tonga (don't get them and Samoa mixed up. It's not good!) and I even met a Sister from South Africa (which is actually one of my top three places I want to travel to when I'm older! So we had an awesome talk about it and she told me about some good places to visit when I eventually go there!)  I learned from her that tennis shoes are actually called "tacky's" totally weird but I love it! I love learning those types of things because it reminds me how diverse the church is and there is no one mold for how a member should be! We all have our unique things that make us, us.  We shouldn't lose that and we need to remember its okay to be unique! Anyways that's my thought of the week hope you liked it!

I love you all and hope you have a good week!

Elder Ciminski

PS I met a Sister Brown from Eagar! Totally small world because her bothers know Michael and Ben and so we had a good chat about that! She is going to Japan!

Our MTC rave celebrating Elder Cribbs' birthday!

JOSEPH SMITH WAS A TREASURE HUNTER!! *CONFIRMED* - 6/25/18

This week was wild!! But they just keep flying by so I'm just trying to hang on. At the beginning of this week I was thinking a lot about being positive and stuff and then it hit me, "missions are supposed to be fun!!" And in meeting with the branch presidency and other people they all mention how happy I am and they thank me for smiling a lot. I love that and hope that I can always keep that with me. Especially since Pres. Larsen mentioned in my setting apart to avoid negativity like the plague. Being happy is so much better than being sad or gloomy! How could you not be happy when you have this gospel in your life and people that love you!

This past week the oldest district here (leaving this week) got their visa reassignment missions. Taiwan is a hard place to get Visas for so almost all of the districts get reassigned until they receive theirs. Many are going to California but some are going to New York as well. There is a chance I will get reassigned too. There isn't anything I can do about it, but if the Lord needs me somewhere else for a time then so be it! Like Nephi said, "And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do." I am his tool for these two years so I don't care what happens!

So now for the explanation of this week's clickbait. The MTC choir director was telling us the story of Joseph Smith because we were singing Praise to the Man for devotional. He was telling us how Joseph went on a treasure hunt to look for gold with a group that hired him and tried to use his tools in that effort. While on their journey they stayed at the home of Isaac Hale. It was then that Joseph met Emma and soon got married! So Joseph never found the gold he was originally looking for, but he did find treasure in the form of his wife!

As many have heard I am sure but this week is the annual New Mission President Seminar held at the Provo MTC! That means that all the new mission presidents going out this summer and their wives come and learn from the First Presidency and Quorum of the 12! My new mission president is here and I got to meet him! He is a very nice man and he served in the Taichung mission in Taiwan so now he can experience Taipei (Fun fact: The new Taichung president served in Taipei, so they pulled a little switch-a-roo). He talked to us about obedience and how we will be using the white handbook and Preach My Gospel as the standard for our rules. I love that! Others are worried he is going to be super strict, but I didn't go on a mission for me. I went for the people of Taiwan and whatever he says I am sure will be so we can help those beautiful saints in Taiwan! "I will go and do" is how I feel right now in a nutshell. After his brief remarks to us he and his wife went around and shook all the missionaries hands and talked with us for a brief moment. When he shook my hand I said it was nice to meet him and I am Elder Ciminski. He then put his arm on my shoulder and said "You will be a great missionary. I can tell." and smiled then walked off. Talk about pressure!  I am going to go and make the days count and serve the people! I think it was Elder Holland that said nobody could say that they worked harder on their mission than him. Well, I am going to try and beat Elder Holland and work harder than him! Let the games begin.

One side note about the mission presidents. One of them is named President Guthrie and he is going to Houston South. What is so significant about him you might ask? Well no big deal but HE PITCHED TWO GAMES OF THE 2014 WORLD SERIES. Yeah, no big deal but he was a pro baseball player. How cool is that! In the World Series, he pitched for the Royals and they played the Giants. Not only do I like the Giants but 2 other Elders in our zone are big fans too! Some got to meet him but I wasn't with them. Bummer.

My last story is from this last Saturday. My companion and I were about to teach our PI (our teacher pretending to be an investigator) and we were saying a prayer in the hallway and during the prayer, we hear a bunch of footsteps coming down the hallway and so I say amen real quick and we both look up and it's Elder Uchtdorf! He walked right by us! He smiled and said hello to me and my companion and we both said hello back. It was crazy. We were both a little distracted during the lesson but we got over it and taught the Jiu'en Jihua (Plan of Salvation) really well!

I think that's it for this week! I love you all!!

Si Zhanglao (Elder Ciminski)
司長老

WE FOUND THIS IN THE AIR VENTS!!!! - 6/18/18

So this week was pretty crazy. My first full week in the MTC!! I have lots to write about from this week so if this letter jumps around I'm a little sorry.

First things first. I am actually exercising! We have an hour every day and this week I started running a mile right at the start and then doing whatever sport I felt like. We have a few other ex-cross country runners and so we all started doing it together. One of the Elders has a fastest 5k time of 16:30!! That's insane! Anyways, the track we run on is inside and 10 laps equals one mile. We all start together and then around halfway through they all start to slow down but I feel so good I take off (I try not to think of it like a race but I can't help it, I have to win!). One guy times us and he said I was around 6:25 for my first mile ever at the MTC. Then the next day I went low 6! I'm not sure how accurate it is, but either way I feel great! We have also started doing they Rey L. Pratt 90X (Rey Pratt is the name of our residence hall and some Elder made a whole workout). It is so hard but I like doing it because I don't feel as bad eating the food.

The next big headline was our Tuesday night devotional. It was from K. Brett Nattress of the Seventy who some of you might know as the old Gilbert Arizona Mission President. He and his wife spoke and did their trademark podium sharing technique. It was a good message. We also had our devotional last night from President and Sister Gilbert from the MTC Presidency. It was like a big Primary program and the Spirit was super strong. It was awesome! Speaking of singing, I am in the MTC choir and the Branch choir! I didn't think I would be but they said even if you have a song in your heart, not your mouth, you should still come. And obviously, since I love music I decided to go. We have sung Nearer my God to Thee and Praise to the Man as an MTC Choir and for the Branch we are singing Come Thou Fount (MY FAVORITE!!) I have learned how much music can bring the Spirit into a meeting. It's awesome!

The next item of business is the reason for this week's clickbait title. We had heard rumors of past missionaries hiding things in the air vents as time capsules of sorts. So we checked ours one night and there was actually stuff in there!! It is over a year old, but it is super cool. There is just random stuff in it, but it's awesome! We are trying to figure out what we want to add as our contribution before we leave. But we have some time so we will find the most unique thing yet.

The Chinese are at war with the Koreans. That is, the Mandarin speakers are at war with the Korean speakers. Right near the cafeteria entrance is the bookshelf with copies of the Book of Mormon in all different languages. If you haven't guessed by now we always want the Mandarin one to be front and center but the Koreans feel the same way. Hence the war. This past week we hid the Korean copy on top of the shelf thinking they would never find it, but sure enough next meal there it was front and center. So an Elder in our zone took the Mandarin one, swapped it out, and put the Korean one inside the frame of the big map that hangs in the same hallway (The one that all the missionaries take pics in front of). As of now, no copy is front and center because the Koreans took ours and are apparently super mad. So I think that is a sign that we should cut it out. haha.

The last big item is from my teaching experiences we have been having. We have been teaching lessons since day 3 and last Monday we had to teach a lesson. So as my companion and I went in we had a plan but it went a little off when our mudaoyou (investigator) asked us why Joseph Smith prayed and why God came to him. Me and Elder Engel were caught off guard and took a moment to think. In that moment, I heard a voice tell me, "Open your mouth." And so I did and as soon as I did I went on to explain how Yuesi Simi (Joseph Smith) had a question and he read James 1:5 and Shen (God) and Yesu Jidu (Jesus Christ) came to answer his question and tell him none of the churches were right. ALL IN CHINESE!!! I couldn't believe it it was so awesome. But I know it was Heavenly Father giving me the Gift of Tongues when I needed it. Every time I think about it I still am shocked and my testimony has grown so much because of it.

The last thing today is in honor of yesterday being Father's Day. I am so grateful for my Dad and all he's done for me. Setting an example I can only hope to emulate someday. For being a spiritual giant and showing me an awesome example of faith and humility. I love you Dad hope you had an amazing day!

I love you all,

司长老 （My Chinese name is Si Zhanglao, Si means "take charge of, control, manage; officer" and Zhanglao means Elder!)

WAR UPDATE!
We have now signed a treaty and are fighting the Japanese now. They have three copies on the shelf so let the games begin.

Me at the temple.

My whole zone at our temple walk.

My wall right above my head in bed. Just a little self-motivation!

 

The time capsule!

I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS HAPPENED TO ME!!! - 6/11/18

Hello family, friends, and anyone else who ends up reading this email! These first 6 days have been so amazing! And so many more are ahead of me!

The classes here are long but rewarding. Our classes are almost all in zhongwen (Chinese) and I can safely say that I have learned more in the last 5 days than I have in the last 5 years. I have been praying for yuyandeenci (The Gift of Tongues) and I feel that I have been receiving it so I am very happy about it. Though I know that I won't know everything before I embark to Taiwan I am putting a lot of effort into learning what I can.

My district is awesome, we have Elder Cribbs from Oregon, Elder Parker from Australia, Elder Griffin from Utah, Elder Watts from Australia, Sister Bennion from Utah, Sister Johnson from Utah, and my companion is from Pennsylvania. His name is Elder Engel and he is a rockstar! We are getting along really well and really connecting, feichanghao (Really good)! Only Elder Engel and I are going to Taiwan though. A lot of us have previous zhongwen experience and so we can help each other out a bunch which is rad.

Every day is classes, studying, and then food breaks. But lots of learning and not a lot of downtime. Needless to say, I am not having any trouble sleeping I am out like a light every day. The only downtime we have is when we are back in the residence halls at 9 PM until 10:30. But I am not here to relax I am out here to work every day to prepare to teach the fuyin (gospel)! I just need to get used to it.

We had an awesome devotional last night from some people in the District Presidency here at the MTC, the Pridays. They focused a lot on following promptings and heeding revelation and the Book of Mormon. Which leads me to one of my new goals while here at the MTC! I am going to read the
WHOLE mo'ermenjing (Book of Mormon) before I leave for Taiwan (August 8) and I would invite you all to join me on this adventure! I plan on starting today so please join!

For P-Day we went and got X-Rays with some other elders who are going to Taiwan and then we got to go to the temple! I have now done 4 sessions in the temple in 4 different temples! It was awesome  being with our whole zone all together. Other than that we are just doing laundry and other things like that until 6 PM then we have class tonight. Which leads me to a PSA, we can read emails every day on our devices but we can only reply on Mondays. And I can email from the time I wake up until 6 PM.

I think that's about it for this week!! I hope you all are doing well! 我爱你们!

Elder Ciminski

PS here are some photos I was able to get off of my camera!

WOW - 6/6/18

Hello family! It's been almost an hour since you all said goodbye so I am writing just to let you all know that I have made it safely. When I got here I was immediately whisked off to get all set up. I got all of my name tags and materials for my 10-week stay here. I went to my room and set my stuff down (since I was the first one here I got the bottom bunk, YAY!)

They took me to my class and the teachers (老师）all started speaking Mandarin to me and my 5 years didn't do me hardly any good haha. But like I said I am here to learn it for real so I am ready to get started.

Since this email is only to let you know that I made it safely I don't have much else to say so I will sign off!

再见，
Elder Ciminski