18 New Investigators! April 15, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. Who has emailed you since you’ve been able to receive emails from others (you don’t have to tell what they said, just who has emailed you)? S.G. said he hopes to email you soon. His family went to Utah and Arizona for Spring Break this week, AND he has been really sick with mono (!) and has missed a ton of school. Aunt Pam has emailed me, and so has M.G., telling me where she is going to be going on her mission, and I just found one from H.R. in my spam that I will have to respond to next week, but other than that I’ve gotten nothing. (I just sent a quick tiny email to “Fish” and I plan on writing a snail mail to D. and C. either this week or the next, depending on when I have time, so thank Elder A. for their address for me since I can’t email anyone in my mission boundaries.)

Me with my new haircut eating this pastry thing called queca virada which is translated to inside-out underwear (?!!!) but it is pretty good and really cheap!!

Great letter this week!! Sounds like a fun trip to Western. Oh, what I wouldn’t do for some Panda Express right about now!!! Of course, I won’t give Jason any fuss about what college he wants to go to, the only thing that in my opinion that a college NEEDS in order for it to be the right college for Jason is an Institute program!! Other than that, whatever college he feels like he should attend, that he feels prompted to attend is where the Lord needs him to attend!! I´m just super happy that he is getting a little more pumped/serious about college!! Way to go BRO!!!

I ran away from bioinformatics because it was hard, but now I am seriously thinking of going back to is (especially sense officially it is still my major) and with my newfound study skills I think it would be really sweet! So, if you could send me a little more info about your job, that would be great, preferably in a separate Word file that I can print out and read on P-day while drinking chimarrão and terere!!

I’m seriously considering going back to BYU for winter so I can work and be a little self-sufficient and spend some last time with you guys!! And also, a lot of the girls who are leaving on missions right now won’t be back until winter semester so as of right now my vote is winter semester, but I agree I should wait until I’m at the end and then I will make my final decision. One of the first things I want to do when I get back is go to a day spa and get a massage and pedicure!!  

This was a great week for me and Elder R. I freaking love this guy!!! He is one of my best friends. We worked really hard and got as many new investigators this week as we got in the past month!!! (18) Some are pretty golden, and we had 5 people at church on Sunday. We had a lot of people that are super interested who we found on Friday and Saturday that already had appointments for Sunday, but they said they will go this next week!!! Our goal for this week is to get 5 baptisms, I don’t know it all of them will get baptized but I know that some will for sure!!! So, yeah, things are looking up for us here! And, this was the first fast Sunday that it wasn’t burning hot, and my first fast Sunday with people actually at church visiting! Oh, and also I got to pass the sacrament for the first time on my mission!! It was cool to be able to do that again.

This is random, but what’s going on with the whole North Korea thingy? A lot of people are talking about it here. Is it just blown way out of proportion, or is it a serious problem??

I sent a package home for you guys I hope it makes it there in one piece. I put a list inside with the contents and a brief history about each item!! I hope it gets there safe!!

Oh, we broke the Word of Wisdom this week...it was on accident!! We were getting a quick snack at a MEMBER’S house and she brought us tea. Some types of tea are approved for use and I really like tea such as tea mate (the same herb as chimarrão and terere), so we took the tea she made us and afterwards we said: “wow that was some great tea, what type is it??” and she said it was green tea, which is the same herb as black tea... Oops! What was up with that?

Cascavel is actually getting pretty cold now, I wear my sweatshirt and BYU pink beanie to bed at night!! It’s probably only like September weather back home but it feels really cold to me, probably because none of the houses have heating or insulation or anything. Or clothes dryers, for that matter. That’s probably the worst part because you hang your clothes up to dry, and then it rains and they get wet again, and then you have to iron-dry them, which doesn’t dry them all the way, and then you walk around with wet clothes sometimes!! But it’s all good, everything dries out eventually!!

That’s it for this week!

Com amor,

Elder Cummings

These pictures were posted to Facebook by a ward member in Cascavel. So fun to get pictures from other sources!!