Con Amor: March 4, 2013

Dear Everyone:

1. Is there any news on the new missions and the new mission boundaries? No new mission news about boundaries L We have ZERO official news yet but what Elder B. said about Cascavel and Foz de Iguacu going to the Curitiba South mission is very probable! Here’s a map of the current mission boundaries from LDS.org.
   
2. Has it been hard to stay focused with the news of the new missions? I’ve sort of thought about that a lot this week, and have prayed that you have been able to stick to the task at hand. For the first 2 days after the announcement it was a little hard but this past week was really pretty easy to focus except for being blasted with “FUNKY” music!! It is this really funky (for lack of a better word) type of music that all the Brazilians love and blast 24/7 and all the songs have the EXACT SAME BEAT!! It is getting a little annoying! I hope and pray that it doesn’t catch on in the states. J
3. I probably won’t get anything off to you for Easter, since it is only 4 weeks away, but it is never too soon to think about your birthday. Is there anything you particularly want or need? Think about it for a week or two if you need to but I want to be sure to get the package there plenty early. As far as birthday is concerned I am pretty good on anything, maybe just some snack items, oh yeah it would be sweet if you could send a few ties!!! 

Wow, I’ve never seen that one-centavo coin!!! That is a really rare coin!! I didn´t even know that they made that style of one centavo coin, I thought they discontinued that coin before they switched over to the new style so they probably only made that coin for one, MABYE two, years!!

We went to one of our areas this week, which is pretty much nothing but jungle complete with the little monkeys like in the movie Madagascar, I was unable to get a photo of them though L but, yeah, it’s a jungle out here, and we stumbled upon this sweet little grove hidden in the trees after going along a tiny little path. We had a little fun and a little Joseph Smith moment!! It was a pretty fun day!!

We also have been continuing to contact references from the area book, one of which was for this house here... where they don’t worship God, just Mary... we have some pretty golden references here (ha ha)!!!

This week I decided that I would never want to be a garbage man here in Brazil. (How’s that for a random topic?) Instead of having garbage cans and mechanical arms to pick them up like in the States, they use supermarket trash bags and have 3 guys hang off the back of the truck and run out to pick up all the trash by hand. I don’t know how they do it. When you can smell the truck 3 blocks away and lose your appetite, I can’t even imagine what it is like for them, but the apparently get used to it. One day we saw them eating while they were hanging off the back of the truck, and they would run out and pick up garbage with their left hands while continuing to put food in their mouths with their right hands. I have to admit it was pretty gross!! But, it is just what they know. They would think our way is strange, too, I bet.

 Heavenly homemade guacamole from the "little" avocado we found.

Just a little Guarana, and another (German, this time) soccer jersey!

We had another baptism this week!!! He is 11 and he is the little brother of our baptism from a few weeks ago. He is really cool!! Also we are currently teaching this amazing couple. They are elect!! As we were teaching a lesson, the husband was telling us about what kind of things he is searching for to fill his spiritual void, the kinds of things he likes in a church, and the kinds of things that they hate in some of the churches here. Every word that came out of his mouth testified of the truthfulness of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!! And his wife (they are legally married--YAY!!!) felt the Spirit and was crying a lot when we read Moroni 10:3-5 with them! It was really awesome!! The only problem is that they didn’t go to church Sunday (we taught this lesson Sunday night) so we have to wait 2 weeks to baptize them and if I’m transferred I won’t get to see them baptized! L But we don´t know about transfers yet, and the Lord will make the right choice and even if it isn’t what I want (which would be to stay) it will be what I need!!

The next time I e-mail I will know whether or not I will stay here in President Geisel (area of Bauru). I think there is a good chance I could stay because I only have 2 transfers here and only one with Elder A., but who knows with the mission changed that are coming up and the new missionaries that are coming in/not coming in (because of visa issues). We will just have to wait and see!!

 We have to try and stay cool somehow!  Ha ha.

We didn’t make it to the zoo last week because we couldn’t find out the bus stop for the bus that takes you right there, so we just ate ice cream instead! And today we are going to go play basketball with some other missionaries!!!

Com Amor
Elder Cummings

P.S. I bought a sweet hammock!!!! I’ll get a photo for you guys for next week!!!