Still Working Hard and Still Having Fun: October 22, 2012

For the Christmas box it might be a good idea to send a generic SD card to USB converter that will work with the computers here. And try to keep packages small of course. I don’t have a ton of room in my suitcases.

q&a time!!

• If we teach a group of 5 people that counts as 1 lesson. (we had 62 lessons this week!)
• Marriage is tough because to get a legal marriage it costs 250R which is a lot for the poor people and even a lot for those who are better off. Also almost everyone is baptized Catholic (which is a pain) but very few are practicing. 
• We get zero referrals from our branch and others (practically). We find everyone on the street or by knocking doors or on the bus.
• I have no idea how calling on Christmas will work. sorry

Jason—ROCK ON!!!!! I was thinking the same exact thing that a mission would help a lot for getting into a BYU school!! (Do you want to go to a BYU school?) I am so excited! Elder W. and I were talking about if you would do that or not!! I’m so excited! J

Me and Elder W. at a park

So yeah I’m getting tan again but I’m using my sunscreen and haven’t gotten burned yet. And, yeah, it is hot but there are some cold days as well. I’m already getting used to being sweaty all day. (And my deodorant is freaking AWESOME!!! All the other Americans are jealous of my deodorant because the deodorant here is terrible!!) And I do a good job of rotating my shoes pretty well. Even in the rain my shoes do really well and stay really dry. Amazingly everything dries really fast in my area, which is nice!

So weekly updates. We had 62 lessons, a new record for me and Elder W. Still zero baptisms. The mom (who is a member) of the girl who we were going to baptize for some reason doesn't want her to be baptized anymore (even though her daughter wants to, but we need the mother to sign the form), so she wasn't baptized this week).  We are seeing lots of conflicts with our investigators. We must be doing something right because Satan is working overtime against us. We have had investigators robbed, lots of Word of Wisdom problems with investigators drinking and a member who relapsed and drinks with one of our investigators. We have had a less active family lose a cousin to a gunfight, a husband who won’t let his wife go to church.  She had a dream of her baptism and told us about it in detail, perfectly describing an LDS baptism even though she has never seen one but her husband doesn't want us to come back anymore, and won’t let her go to church so we had to stop teaching her to help keep the peace at home, but I know that one day she will be baptized and receive these blessings either in this life or the life to come.

Another picture of me and Elder W. in the park.

Satan is working overtime for sure. Elder W. didn't get any money on our money day (actually he got 220R for his allowance and a reimbursement for previous purchases but the bank stole all of his money and the money from other missionaries in the mission and our zone, so we now have a new official mission rule to never use the Bank of Brasil but instead we have to use the other banks. Hopefully he will receive his money today. 

Yeah, lots of trials already but we are still working hard and still having fun! It is amazing the gifts of the Spirit that we receive for being faithful and following all of the mission rules! Hopefully the baptisms will come but I know that this period will prepare me for the rest of my mission and even if I don’t fully understand why things happen I know that our Heavenly Father does and that everything happens for a reason!

Daylight savings was killer here because we have to get up early on Sunday so we have gotten up at 4:30 for 2 Sundays in a row now. We are so exhausted because we always have something or another that bogs us down but we always have the spirit to help us out when we need it!! I’m making sure that Elder W. eats because sometimes he doesn't want to, but he always does and is getting a lot better about it and we are both healthy and happy even though we never have money for food (for example before going shopping today we have two packets of juice powder and some butter and that’s it). But we always get meals from members (and pretty much all the other missionaries only get lunch from members but it seems like we always get lunch and dinner as well).  We have a few members and even investigators that always feed us dinner or give us fruit or juice and even yesterday when we were not even working in our area, we had no food at home and no dinner and we ran into a member around 8 at night who made us sandwiches and gave us cookies and juice! It was truly a blessing and we are so truly blessed every day. The Lord really does look out for His missionaries!!

A coolish picture on a wall, kind of random.

Dad--Thank you for the quotes from the Al Smith fundraiser dinner, they are too funny!!! And the Diablo 3 updates are nice too. I love reading your part because I can hear your voice when I read your writing!

We keep finding great potential in our investigators and maybe found a baptism for the other elders in our apartment for this next week, which would be awesome to be able to help them out. They had a baptism this past week which was special!! Hopefully we can get our baptisms rolling here soon. (Dumb Satan!!) Time sure does fly out here in the field! I can’t believe I've already been here for 3 weeks Crazy!!!

Well that’s about it! I’ll put more in my snail mail letter of the week.

Portuguese to English translation fail!
(I am holding a Law of Chastity pamphlet in my hand)

Lots of Love,

Elder Cummings