TWO More Letters: August 8, 2012

This is the snail-mail letter that he sent the first day in the CTM.  It had a Salt Lake City postmark and U.S. postage, so it obviously was sent back via pouch and then mailed from the States.

1 August 2012

Dear Mom and Dad…and Jason

Today was such a long and brutal day.  First off I almost missed my flight in Dallas, but luckily I made it in time, unlike one unfortunate Elder who didn’t and had to go on 2 additional flights and didn’t show up until after 1:00 today.  The MTC or CTM is such a blast!  My companion for the next 9 weeks (we are in the CTM for 9 weeks now) is super legit!  His name is Elder S. He went to BYU also and he is like Salmon only 2 years older, and check this:  Of the 9 elders who entered the MTC or CTM this week he is also going to Londrina!!!  We have a pretty awesome district overall.

You should see the view from our room.  We are on the 6^th floor out of 7 (108 steps up) and the view is amazing!!!  I took some pictures and will send them to you at a later time. 

There is really no rest here.  You hit the ground sprinting!  We had our first Portuguese lesson today and on Friday we have to be prepared to give a 25-minute discussion entirely in Portuguese!  Yikes!  We can do it though, my companion is really good and we work great and have lots of fun!  I am so excited and have such a long way to go.

I’ll still email you guys on my normal P-day (which will probably come before this letter) once I find out what day my P-day is.  It will either be Tuesday or Wednesday.

Gotta go, need to write in my journal still and lights out is coming up fast. 

Lots of Love,

Elder Cummings

This is the e-mail letter that we got about an hour after the scanned letter and picture arrived.

Hi Guys!!!

Yeah I got the mission ties letter and that works great because then I can read your letters when I have some free time and then I can make drafts of letters back so that way I can write more to you guys!!  So all the other missionaries were so jealous that I got a letter on the second day!!  No one else got anything until Monday! 

So I was the only missionary on my flight from SeaTac to Dallas, and I almost missed my flight in Dallas cause my gates were on the opposite ends of the airport! But I made it just in time.  There were 3 other missionaries on the flight from Dallas to São Paulo. One of them is now my companion and his name is Elder S.  He also went to BYU (he lived in Heritage).  We are the only American missionaries going to Londrina in the whole CTM.  It is just us and one Sister and 2 South American missionaries going to Londrina.  Elder S. is a great companion.  We get along very well and get a lot of work done!  He is like my best friend here at the CTM.  Oh!  Elder T. (son of Eldon's mission president) is right next door to us so we get to see him almost every day which is cool.  He speaks pretty good English so it is good to be able to talk to him about Londrina.

The food here is actually really good!  It is like home cooked Brazilian meals and today on p-day one of our instructors Irmao C. took us to this place that is like Tucanos only way better and like half the cost. Everything in São Paulo is so expensive but it is supposed to be really cheap once we get out into the field. But right now everything is about 1.5 to 2 times the cost of what it is in the United States.

The weather has been great it has been in the 70s like every day and clear all but yesterday it was a little bit cloudy. The view from our room is so amazing!! We look right towards downtown São Paulo!  It is amazing and we never get tired of looking out of our window. That is when we have time to look out our window.

You asked me what a typical day looks like here in the CTM so here it is:

7-8                Personal Study

8-8:30           Breakfast

8:30-9:30      companionship study

9:30-10:30    LAB (computer language program study time)

10:30-12       GYM

12-1              language study on our own

1-1:45           Lunch

1:45-3:30      language classes

3:30-5:15      lesson prep/teaching lessons in Portuguese

5:15-6           Dinner

6-9:15           language classes/more lessons/planning

9:15-9:30      snack

9:30-10         planning/getting ready for bed

10:30            lights out

This first week has been so busy! I fall asleep as soon as I hit the pillow at night, but it is the most fun I have ever had as well!  Portuguese is coming really fast and our district after one week knows more Portuguese than most districts do after 3 weeks!!  So we are a really good dedicated group of guys!!  Our district is I think the best about working hard the whole time and not skipping study time and for it I think we have the most fun here out of any district as well.

This Sunday I was made district leader for my district!  Big surprise and I didn’t really want the job but I know that I am supposed to be the DL and know that the Lord will help me in this task. I am in District 31-A because we were the first district to arrive on the 31st week of the year.  Our mailing box is box 35!!!

Some miscellaneous thing that happened this week:

• Our bathroom has been out of toilet paper for the past 3 days so we have to hunt around for a bathroom that isn't completely out.  Tonight me and Elder S. are going on a toilet paper raid to get a stockpile in our room.
• We have two really cool Portuguese roommates and two really cool American elders as well. Our district really is amazing!!! The Portuguese elders only are at the CTM for 3 weeks so they are not in our district but they are really nice and a blast!! Oh and just in case you didn't know I will be in the CTM for 9 weeks so I have 8 more weeks to go before I go out into the field (Thank goodness!!!)
• Missionaries are not allowed to play soccer because they have had too many injuries and fights amongst missionaries so for Gym I work out with Elder E. who is one of the guys in my district and is also in the same room.  He is a diver for the U.S. Army and is really fit! I am so sore from our workout yesterday.

So on p-day we are allowed to roam around the streets within like 5 blocks of the CTM but there really isn't much to do.  But it is nice to be able to take a nap or do laundry and write letters.

My testimony has grown so much this week! I have come to rely on the Lord so much! Especially in my language study! I know that I would not be even near as far as I am without the Lord's help. I know that this is the work that I am supposed to be doing. This week flew by in ways and crawled in others. This is going to be the hardest two years of my life but they will be the most rewarding of my life also.

Can't wait to get your next letter! (oh and if people ask they are free to send me letters it just may take a while for me to respond because as you can see we don't get much free time).

Again, love you guys!!

Elder Cummings!!  :)