Dear everyone,
Sorry, but it is a no go on the photos again!!!!! I have
some really cool pics on this memory card so I am really bummed that I can´t
send them to you!!! L
- What are Christmas decorations like there? Do people decorate their homes and businesses? Christmas is pretty low key here. No one decorates anything...
- What is one of your favorite Brazilian foods? I sent a letter with some info on food this past week so you should get it soon. And I’ll send back some recipes some other time, I am collecting a few, slow and steady.
- Are there any members in the branch that you have gotten to know particularly well? Most of the members I know really well are the members in Vila Reis. (I have photos but.... yeah...)
I think I will try to Skype between 7 and 8 at night
here!!
I want to start writing a letter to the Governor of
Washington a little here and a little there during p-day, so can I get his name
and address, please!!?
I was hoping to be able to send lots of photos this week
because it was relatively uneventful. Well it is always eventful but a lot of
the events are things that I have already written home about and it is hard to
find new stuff to write about!
Luckily we are starting to teach a lot more complete
families now, instead of only having part of the family like us and the other
part fighting against us, which is good. The main problem still is getting people to actually come to church. But
luckily next week is District Conference (Stake Conference) and it is an hour
later than normal and we have a bus that will bring people for free, so
hopefully we can get everyone to go with us!!! More updates on this next week
of course!
Yesterday was Fast Sunday, of course, and fasting is the
hardest and most rewarding (besides baptizing) thing a missionary can do. The
no food is no problem: we do that all
the time, but the no water part, that is rough!!! This past Saturday (we fast
starting after lunch Saturday and end at lunch on Sunday) was blazing hot (of
course) and now I know it would suck to die of dehydration. Having a dry,
crusty mouth is not fun at all!!! (I felt like I was in the movie “Dune” where
I had to try to not breathe out too much of my water…Dad will understand.) BUT... we had some fasting
miracles this week that were pretty cool. Fasting can truly bless every aspect
of life from the most seemingly insignificant parts to the most important.
- First off, we got a member to teach with us on Saturday, and we got invited to come over to an investigator’s house for a barbecue on Sunday (which we happily accepted!!!).
- Then, that night we were having a mini zone conference over the phone, and I knelt down and looked behind me for the prayer and saw a pair of black socks that I was missing and one of my white Nike socks that had disappeared, so now I have a full pair of those again!!!
- The next day (Sunday), we got a member to drive us to Vila Reis to pick up 6 investigators for church, and then he took them home after church, too, saving us about 14R each (which is a lot for us). We are going to baptize 4 of the investigators this next Sunday (hopefully), and the parents (these 4 are all sisters) just need to get married before they can be baptized so hopefully they can get married and baptized here in the next couple of months!!
- And, we had a GIANT lunch/feast provided to us by the same member that drove our investigators around, and we had that dinner with a different investigator!! Life was great yesterday!!
What else to write...Oh, we have our Christmas conference
for my zone and 2 others this Thursday so I should get my package then. It
should be a lot of fun! It will be mine and Elder W.’s first Christmas
conference (he was in the CTM for Christmas last year). So, I will have some news about that for next
week’s letter!!
So, an update on my memory card: when I put it into the computer it says that
nothing is on it (oh, and one of my USB Drives is destroyed pretty much) but
in the camera the photo card has all my photos still. I will try to go to a
place to get the photos transferred to a different card this week! (I don’t
need any more USBs or anything, I should be fine.)
That’s about it for this week! Hopefully photos will come
next week! Sorry again. L
Lots of Love,
Elder Eldon Ray Cummings
Oh, he needing water made me sad! I'll have to have a chat with Tanner about being sure to drink plenty the day before! I'm really curious as to why he wants to write the governor! I'm sad you didn't get any pictures! That's one of my favorite parts about Monday! And I don't get any more to share with you :-(
ReplyDeleteI wanted to share with you a portion of my letter this week:
ReplyDelete"Your CTM companion wrote home about fasting, and happened to mention how blazing hot it is there, and how dry and crusty his mouth was by the end of his 24 hour fast. So just a gentle mother reminder to remember to drink a LOT all the time, especially the day before you plan on fasting ;-) I read his blog the night before I had to teach seminary students about the woman of Samaria at the well. Your companion spoke of how dry and crusty was his mouth, and how he needed water so badly. "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst..." It was a perfect seminary moment. You elders who work so hard and are so obedient provide me with much inspiration while I'm teaching. Thank you!"