Two Weeks in a Row: January 28, 2013

Dear Everyone,

Wow. Izzy is super big now!!!

               

1. Have you gotten a Princess Leia towel head picture with Elder F. yet? No, but that’s on today’s to-do list
2. When are transfers? They are coming up soon, right? Do you think you and Elder F. will stay together in this transfer? Transfers are the 5th of February so we have one more Sunday to baptize before transfers. I hope that we stay together because we are working really well together and we are catching the baptism fever!! And, he is a good friend but this is already the 4th transfer for him in this area so it is pretty slim that we will stay together. But I hope we do!!

Here is a photo of the birthday feast I made for Elder F. (I found a New York Knicks hat!!!!) I’m getting a little fat... I'll have to watch out for gaining too much weight on the mission...

Yeah I know that Elder S. was transferred. I missed seeing him in person by 5 minutes L but since he is in the same zone I got to call him on the phone and talk to him a little bit!! I was so happy to see that he was in Bauru!!!

BAPTISM!!!!  2 weeks in a row!! My new record! This week we baptized D., the daughter of a less-active lady, who always went to church with her aunt but we didn’t know that she wasn’t baptized. We ran into the mom on the street and got her address to pass by (we didn’t even know she was a member at that point) and then we were surprised to get to her house and find out that that we see her kids at church every week!! So we got D. prepped for baptism and her mom went to church for the first time in 6 years to watch it, and she now wants to become active again to help her kids out!!!!! No one had passed by to visit her for 6 years before we stopped by... And, we will baptize her brother P. next week, because he wasn’t going to church regularly, but he went yesterday so he can be baptized next week!! Baptizing weekly is super good but really tiring (but it’s a good tired)!!! By the way M. was confirmed yesterday too!!!!! It was a good day.

Oh, and I forgot to say this last week but thank Aunt Paula for the package!! I am behind on my letter-writing so I will try to get a letter sent out to her either this week or next.

Mom, last week in the house of a member I saw a cross stitch of the São Paulo temple which was pretty cool.

I have a new hobby, because a lot of times at houses the people have really annoying dogs that bark and bark and bark from the other side of the gate so I like to poke at them with my shoe keeping it just out of reach but it is really funny to see them try and stretch through the gate to bite it!!! But once you enter, they run away scared. They are only brave when they have a gate protecting them!!! haha

A little more info about my area for you now. My area has 5 different climates, almost. It feels like 5 different areas. We have:

1. the desert area with tons of sand
2. the industrial district which is foggy and has almost zero houses
3. the concrete jungle which is only houses and roads and sidewalks and gates, no green
4. the favela (shanty town) which we can’t go into at night because it is too dangerous
5. the jungle (this is where we work the most) which is dirt roads and lots of trees and lots of tropical bird noises everywhere (that is when we don’t have loud blasting music, Brasilians love putting giant speakers in the back of their trucks!).

I think that’s about it for this week!!

Lots of love!

Elder Cummings