Dear family,
Então... muito desculpa (so, very sorry…) We forgot to bring Elder W.’s camera
with us to the internet cafe so no photos this week, but we will send lots of
photos next week (and I haven't sent a snail mail letter the past 2 weeks
because of time constraints and a lack of other things to report now that my
emails are longer and I can normally send photos in email).
Question and Answer Time:
- What did you do for arts & crafts P-day?? So arts and crafts time on p day was
making a really nice wallet with gospel pictures on it and waterproofing
it as well, along with making a new cover for my daily planner. They are
pretty dope!
- Does your church building have a baptismal font? Yes, our building has a baptismal font! J
- Have you gotten your first package from us, or any snail mail
since you got into the field? Got
the first package yesterday along with the letter with info from my other
friends on missions (it was perfect timing but I’ll talk about that later).
And if you could send me some more photos of the family, like grandma and
grandpa and cousins, and photos of Seattle that I can share that would be
awesome!!
- Are you doing any work with reactivating inactive members of the
branch, or are you spending most of your time with investigators? We spend a lot of time teaching
investigators but we have a lot of inactive members who can’t afford to
take the bus to church every week so we teach them a lot as well! We set
new personal records for lessons in one day twice this week! One day we
taught 15 lessons and 2 days later we taught 16, and we had a new record
for most in one week: 67!! We’re doing the work, and hopefully our
hard work will produce fruits this coming week.
This week was an interesting week. We got around 9 new
mission rules because of habits that missionaries had regarding baptisms. These
rules make is so we need more authorization to baptize younger kids, and addresses
other issues that have been going on. It will be a good thing in the end
because even though it is a pain to get the extra interviews and authorization
for baptisms it will make them stronger members after baptism, which is good.
And, it will help to prevent the “shady” baptisms that some missionaries get a
reputation for. It is really hard to be a missionary when missionaries before
you are a bad example, because even if they have never heard of the church they
have heard about the bad things that the missionaries have done. These new
rules will bless the mission a lot!
Elder W. has been a little sick this week but it isn’t
anything serious he got some meds from Sister Tavares and has been improving
every day! (Sister Tavares takes really great care of all the missionaries!!)
The Vitamin C gummies are perfect, and I have been sharing them with Elder W.
All the missionaries thank you for the tootsie rolls, especially Elder S., who
loves them!! Ha ha! And great call on the peanut butter, it is just what I
need! Pretty much in general the package was perfect! I am very blessed to have
you as my mom! Love you so much!
Once, again no baptisms this week. L Once again, the adversary is
working really hard to prevent us from doing our part. For example, the bus
fare went up by 25 centavos this week which will cost us 4R every week, which
is annoying. But I think we are handling the challenges well and should produce
fruit this coming week!
We had three baptisms marked for this past Sunday. All were what
we call firmies but they all fell through at the last moment AGAIN!
- Case 1, “L.” We talked with him on Friday and he was
excited to be interviewed the next day on Saturday (a new rule is that they
have to be interviewed at least one day in advance) and that he was
excited to be baptized on Sunday. But 2 hours after our conversation he
left to visit family in another city and won’t get back until today
actually.
- Case 2, “B.” She went to
church this past week and loved it and was ready to be baptized but was at
her dad’s house in the other part of Apucarana for the weekend because of
the Day of the Dead which is November 2, but she was planning to go to
church anyway to be baptized. And we called her the morning before church
and she said she would come but then never showed up...
- Case 3, “K.” She passed her interview Saturday morning
(YAY!!!) but later on that night there was an emergency in the family in
another city so she and her grandma left and didn’t go to church.
We are still working strong here. We found 20 new people to
teach and have lots of references left to contact! We are getting there but are
not quite doing everything right yet, but we are working really hard every day
and are planning to have better numbers this next week than the week before!
(We have the best teaching numbers in the whole zone right now and possibly in
the entire mission (excluding baptisms of course...) right now.) So we are
working hard, but just need to figure out what we are doing wrong and fix it in
order to help these wonderful people who we love enter into the waters of
baptism!!
We had a crazy storm this week, not nearly as crazy as the
storm in NY but it was my first real wind and rain and thunder and lightning
storm Brasil-style! We had tons of wind and rain and of course it was really
hot that morning so we left our umbrellas and jackets back at the house. Luckily,
though, we only got soaking wet once (and things dry really fast in Brasil,
thankfully). But after that initial crazy running through the streets with
pouring rain coming at us almost completely sideways, we were fine! Because
after the initial 30 minutes of extreme weather, it was off and on, and it was
always off, maybe lightly sprinkling while we were in the street and as soon as
we would go into a house to teach a lesson, it would pour rain and the wind would
blow, and all that jazz. Then, during
the closing prayer it would stop again until we were in the next house! It was
pretty amazing and a good testimony builder that our Heavenly Father is mindful
of his missionaries!!
So, the damage that Vila Reis sustained in this storm was
that a few trees fell over (I have one photo of me standing on a tree that fell
over that I will send next week), the roof of the local school came off, the
wall for the playground of the school fell over, and one shack collapsed (thankfully
no one was hurt)! It was pretty crazy!
Thank you once again for all the updates and thank you Jason
for your added part as well! I am really excited that you will serve at 18!!
That´s about it I think... (we got our new bunk beds which
is cool!)
I love being a missionary! It is so hard but the Spirit guides
us where ever we go. Our study time is especially inspiring! Whenever one of
our investigators has an issue, or a member says they are going to leave the Church
because of a passage in the Bible* or anything like that, we always find the
perfect response in the scriptures and our understanding is constantly being
enlarged, even about scriptures that we had already studied and thought that we
knew! Pretty much in short being a missionary is...well it is pretty DOPE!!
There is really no better way to describe it!
Lots of love,
Elder Eldon Ray Cummings
(Sorry it’s all jumbled.
I ran out of time again.) J
*The version of the Bible in Portuguese that is the “best”
version is not very good. It is sad to
see written in the front of the Bible that it was translated, compiled, and
altered by so-and-so. The Word of God does
not need to be compiled or altered by man! We have already experienced many difficulties
with those who are familiar with this Bible because there are scriptures in it
that are nowhere close to the same verse in the King James Version of the Bible.
It is sad that other religions have
changed the Word of God to try and make their church the correct church of God
(and kind of embarrassing that they left in certain parts that prove that their
church is still false... whoopsie)!! But our purpose here is not to Bible-bash
or prove other churches wrong, it is to help others to realize that our church
is the true church of Jesus Christ!! J
This was a wonderful and very detailed letter this week...yeah! I'm feeling a bit gyped ;-) I am very interested in their 9 new rules to prevent the “shady” baptisms. Pretty much he better know you're the best mom around, and that your package timing was impeccable does not surprise me at all! Great job. Just another confirmation that "Heavenly Father is mindful of his missionaries!!"
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