Hard to Read the Difficult Smart Words: November 19, 2012

Dear Everyone,

So answers to the questions first:

1. On P-Day, do you still go out to Vila Reis, or do you stay closer to your apartment?  We end p-day an hour early (5:00) so we can make it out to Vila Reis by 6 to start proselyting.
2. How many lessons do you generally teach before you invite an investigator to be baptized? We always invite them to be baptized on the first visit and if they say no we don’t go back.

B. and K. are the only members of the family and we are trying to baptize more in the family though things are a little rocky right now with the family of B. but we are still trying our best.

The new missionary is also Elder W., he is from Alaska and he has one more transfer than Elder W. (my trainer, so just over a year) and he is cool. He is a good missionary. I think we have a good relationship so far. So in short we still have a pretty awesome apartment full of elders!! YAY!

I got package number 2 this past week!!!! Thank you so much!!! It is perfect! The missionary stocking is too cool!!! I also got a package from C., F., and A.!! That family is so awesome!! It had all kinds of snacks and CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!!! It was perfect! Of course I will be sending out thank you letters and all that stuff.  J It was also a big letter day! I got a letter from you guys and 3 from Grandma and Grandpa and one from Aunt Paula. I will try to write everyone back today.

Elder W. and I decided to deck out the house for Christmas a little early since no one celebrates Thanksgiving here!! (using the lights from C., F., and A.!!!)

We didn´t have any baptisms this past week but we have some really good potential! One investigator (didn't go to church this week so she is potential for two weeks from now) is the sister of a less active young man and she has almost finished reading the entire Book of Mormon!!!!!! Another possibility that we have for this coming week is this young woman that we met on Saturday. She cried in the middle of our lesson and she came to church yesterday with her dad and she brought two of her friends with her too!!!!! Maybe we will baptize her and all of her friends this next week (the dad isn't married so we can't baptize him) But she might be a little bit of a “snake,” or a person who only gets baptized because they have a crush on the missionary, because she asked if missionaries are allowed to date on the mission. But she is nice and her family is always there, so I don’t think it will be a problem and she has a strong testimony at the same time!! So Batiza!!! (just baptize!!!)

So back to the packages. Those water bottles came just in the nick of time!! We got them on Thursday and on Tuesday they banned all the mission water bottles they people got at the CTM so Elder W. was out of luck just like me. I gave him one of the water bottles of course, so now we are cruising!!! The water bottles are fantastic!!! Also the deodorant is GOLD!!!! (literally!) I hope you don’t mind but since I had so much deodorant I traded it for stuff, and I gave one to Elder W. ‘cause he desperately needed it (and because we are buds), and traded 2 others and got 4 ties and other goodies in return!! (And I still have enough that I should make it through the 2 years, hopefully... But yeah, they are gold!

Did Morty (the family gecko) sneak into my package!!??
Haha…the night that I opened my package from you guys we had this little guy
in our study room; he was hanging out for about 2 and a half days and then he left!!

(this is Morty, looking longingly at his dinner container...notice the resemblance?)

On a lighter note we saw this sign at the drinking fountain at the bus terminal that read (translated into English of course by me and Elder W.): It is prohibited to wash your dentures in the fountain... It was really funny and we got a good kick about that!

We got some major help yesterday with the bus. Our bus that we take home each night was late getting to Vila Reis so we were thinking: “Great, now we are going to miss our second bus from the terminal to our apartment, and we’ll have to walk another 30 minutes.” But we said a little prayer on the bus and even though we got to the terminal late, we made every green light and made it just in time to barely catch the next bus!! I’m glad that heavenly father looks out for his missionaries!!!

Hiking back from a lunch appointment!
(It took us about 45 minutes to walk there and another 45 to walk back!!)

I am still loving the mish!! Those packages and letters really were awesome!! Hopefully I can send you photos of another baptism next week!! The mission is so awesome! It really is the best start to your life! The gospel of Jesus Christ is so true and this Church is so true!! The gospel of Jesus Christ is so simple but yet at the same time infinitely complex! It is just purely awesome!! I love being a missionary and being able to study⁽¹⁾ and learn and to teach every day the gospel of Jesus Christ!! Love you guys so much!!!

Sorry my letters are getting a little shorter but things are becoming a little more of the same each day! I will try and keep finding new experiences and details to share to keep my emails from becoming too short like some missionaries, I really do enjoy emailing you and trying to share the most possible with you from my mission and hope to always continue to share the news in my life with you even after the mission! Love you so much!

Lots of love!!

Elder Eldon Ray Cummings

⁽¹⁾ Elder W. and I are currently reading Jesus the Christ (by James E. Talmage) together in English out loud and it is so hard to read the difficult smart words in English! All the time I substitute an English word for a word in Portuguese or pronounce a word with a Portuguese pronunciation!! Right now it is easier to read PME Pregar Meu Envangelho (Preach My Gospel) in Portuguese than Jesus the Christ in English.  It will be interesting to see how much English I lose by the end of my two years here! I am really excited that Portuguese is coming more and more naturally every day!