Getting in the Mood to Baptize: October 29, 2012

Hi Everyone!!

To answer your questions:

• Where do you meet for church?  We meet for church in this really big really new church building in the center of town. It is really nice!!
• How do you do your laundry?  Does your apartment have a washer and dryer, do you use a Laundromat, or do you hand-wash?  We have a laundry machine which is actually pretty nice and then we have lots of clothes lines to dry everything (no one in Brasil has a dryer, they just don´t exist here).
• What types of jobs are there in Apucarana?  Is it an agricultural town?  Industrial?  Apucarana itself is almost like Bellevue but smaller, and less tech, the people do a lot of construction and various other things. In Vila Reis, however, everyone either farms or does construction.  It is pretty agricultural here.

The packages you have sent/are sending sound perfect. I will be the envy of every missionary in Brasil!! J And the water bottles sound like a great idea! Thank you!

On the whole apartment thing, it actually isn't bad at all (it is a real eye opener though). We live in a really nice apartment but it is hard to explain.

Thanks for the sports update!! YAY!! Keep it coming please! Also let me know how the storms turn out and things like that. Thanks for keeping an eye on my account! Yeah, I took a little money out this past week.

There is a calendar sent around the ward every month but it is for lunch appointments since that is the big meal down here in Brasil. We have a lunch appointment for every day this month!! J Speaking of food you would be proud of me for buying healthy food and getting Elder W. to eat more and healthier as well. We bought things like yogurt and fruits and veggies and milk this past week! Fruit and veggies are super cheap here, 1R for a kilo of carrots and between 2 and 3R for a kilo of fruit depending on the fruit. And we have a goal of not drinking soda except on Sundays from now on which will help us be healthier as well.

The mission application news is CRAZY!!! Wow! (By the way I hit 3 months this week or 1/8 of the mission already! CRAZY!!!)

On an investigator note. For the third week in a row we had a baptism lined up but then it fell through. At least this time we are still teaching him, just he couldn't make it to church yesterday. But we did have 2 other investigators come with us and they loved church and are planning on being baptized this next week. So (I know I have said this every week so far) but we have 4 baptisms planned for this Sunday with really good potential, and these baptisms would open up the floodgates with family and friends that we could baptize too. So keep your fingers crossed for us this week.

We always find great families—for example we found 2 pretty big families where everyone except one person is over the age of 8—now comes the hard part of getting them to come to church. That is one of the hardest things to do because church starts at 9 in the morning, it is hard to get people to show up. Luckily our two investigators that went last week and want to get baptized this next week were ready and waiting by the time we got to their house, and normally we have to clap and bang to try and wake people up, so that is encouraging.

This past p-day we went to a lake which was really fun.  Today will probably be an arts and crafts day with a nap thrown in there for good measure!! Elder W. and I have been working so hard this past week with getting up early to get people to come to church and just in general doing work! It will be good to get a nap in.

 Some graffiti that means: Calm in the soul, it was pretty funny.

 4 roommates at the park next to the lake in our area. Elder D., Elder W., Elder S., and me.

Getting in the mood to baptize with Elder W., his face is priceless!

  

 Playing on the swing father-son style!

 Getting up close and personal with some capybaras.

My new tradition to always get a photo with my comp with Princess Leia towel hats!

In other news I had my first division/split (my first division longer than 1 hour, that is) this week with an elder from California named Elder D. (not the Elder D. in the picture above.) It was a blast! We worked in his area and got rained on A LOT (in 24 hours I got soaked 2 times all the way through). Waterproof shoes don’t help when you are walking through water past your ankles! But it was fun to finally get some real Brasil rain. Anyway for this division I worked with Elder D. all day in his area and then stayed at his apartment for the night. It was really good to be able to learn from someone else for a day, but it was also really great to be back in my own apartment the next day (our apartment is like the biggest, nicest, and cleanest apartment in the whole zone—maybe the whole mission). But, yeah, divisions are fun!

I think that is all for this week. The mission is already passing by so fast! I love learning every day! I love being able to speak Portuguese better all the time! I love my comp and the other elders in our apartment! I love your letters they are perfect, except for Jason not writing anything...Life is good! J

Love,

Elder Cummings

P.S. Jason BETTER write me this coming week!

P.P.S. We got a bunk bed today for me and Elder W. so now we don’t have to put our mattresses on the floor!! So pumped!