Dressed in White: November 12, 2012

Dear Everyone,

Yeah, sorry about being negative last week. But, luckily things are looking up!!!

So first off, a fun fact for Dad:  you can get 7 DVDs here for mais o menos (more or less) 5 dollars. They are pirated, though. Just thought about you when I saw this (when I saw the DVD part, not the pirated part J)!

Q and A time

1. Looking back at your growing-up years, what was the one thing that best prepared you for missionary service?  There wasn't really one thing that really prepared me for missionary work. Everything helped, but a couple things that really helped was reading the scriptures, and camping.
2. Do you miss the cold, or are you getting used to the heat? Yes I miss the cold, I am used to being wet and sweaty but I am not used to the heat, from talking with everyone else you never really get used to the heat.

So this week we mixed things up a lot and did a lot of tracting and finding new people to teach and cutting A LOT of investigators that have not been progressing. It is really hard to find addresses because in some streets half or more of the houses have a number but it is not displayed, so when we get a reference it is almost impossible to find the house (and a lot of times they give you an address to a house that doesn't exist!!!)

Our area in Vila Reis

Some other interesting things that happened this week:

1. I learned to wear my dirtiest tie in the rain so that way you can wash it.
2. We had 8 missionaries in our apartment this week because their apartment was being painted. It was crazy having the whole district in our apartment. It was tons of fun, but a little annoying because the other elders are not as tidy as us. It was still a blast, but it will be nice when they go back to their apartment this week!

 We had a really weird encounter this week with a guy named J. He was pleasant and nice with his words and was respectful but the spirit in his house was EVIL!!! Holy Smokes!! It was so weird the whole time, he was asking really weird questions. He only believed in the Old Testament, he had this gigantic German shepherd, which had this weird feeling about him as well. It was creepy, and a little bit into our conversation with him the phone buzzes and we look down and the screen says Pres. Monson... and it rings three times and then stops (we checked our phone afterwards and we didn’t receive any phone calls during the lesson...??). Weird, and then when I was trying to say something to wrap things up with him (I had been silent this whole time, letting Elder W. talk), I could not say a single word! My words were stuck in my throat. My tongue would not work...so we got the heck out of Dodge.

On a related note it is weird to see gypsies and witches on the streets sometimes and they always say pew pew when we walk past, I try not to look at them and I haven’t stopped to ask them why they go pew pew, and I don’t plan on doing so.

Parrots at the bird park we visited last week

The peanut butter was heavenly!!! My favorite thing to put my peanut butter on was a spoon!! (I say “was” because it is already all gone! A missionary has got to eat!)

So before I forget, today we found out the transfer schedule! Elder W. and I are staying here and staying together (he will have 6 months in this area by the end of the transfer which means that he will leave after this transfer and I will stay here for at least one if not 2 more transfers, which means 4.5 to 6 months for me in Vila Reis!) Elder D. in our house will leave to be a zone leader in another zone, and he will be replaced by another missionary that we don’t know much about, so we will see how that goes.

And now the part you have been waiting for!!!! BAPTISMS!!!!! We had our first 2 baptisms this week, B. (who Elder W. baptized and is next to him in the photo) and K. (who I baptized and is next to me in the photo). B. is 11 and K. is 9, and it helps that they are next-door neighbors and good friends. We are working on baptizing the brother and sister of B. and the brother of K., but it is a long and confusing story so I will write a snail mail letter with all the details and the story behind this baptism because it is a pretty crazy story!! But we finally both got to baptize!!! It felt so good to enter into the waters of baptism with K. and perform the ordinance (and I said the prayer correctly on the first try which always helps)! It was such a cool experience, one that I will never forget! It is so amazing to see them change in that one second that they are underwater, and then emerge a completely different person!! It was really awesome and has us more excited and a little re-energized to try and get more and more!! J

We look good in white!

Don’t know what else to add, like I said I will put all the baptism details in a snail mail letter to you guys!! Sorry it is kind of short this week, I probably forgot a lot of what I was going to say but I guess this will have to do until next week! Things are really hectic at this point. I am learning so much Portuguese it is really cool! I looked back to the beginning of the transfer and how little I knew back then and it is amazing how much more I know now and how much more confident I am now!! The mission is the longest, shortest, hardest, most rewarding experience of my life so far and it is only just beginning!! Love you guys so much! I know that this is the one and only true church of our Heavenly Father here on the face of the earth and that Jesus Christ is at the head guiding and speaking to us through his prophet! I know the gospel is true and I love it!!

A tree that did not survive our wind and rain storm last week

Hope you like the photos!

Have a great week!

Keep me posted!

Lots of love!

Elder Eldon Ray Cummings!!

P.S. It is already getting a little tough to talk and write in English at times. I still dream in English, but I sometimes think in Portuguese now, which is cool!!