A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That: April 1, 2013

Answers to questions first:

1. So, the boundaries of the Londrina mission are not changing, but is it still possible that missionaries in your mission might get called to move into one of the new missions? Yes it is likely that missionaries will get moved from our mission to others because a lot of missions around us are changing.
2. Do you get fed often by the members? Are there any local delicacies in Cascavel? We get lunch from members 6 days a week (every day except p-day!) and they really, really like chimarão (like a TON). It is kind of terrible the first few times you have it, but after that it is really pretty good. It is a tree that they cut up called herba mate that they use for chimarrão, terere, and tea. It is really weird and kind of plant-y tasting, but is pretty good, and the water turns green!!
3. I see your weather has warmed back up a bit, but you are heading into fall.  Do you think you will be warm enough in the winter? Yes, it is becoming fall here and I have plenty of clothes to keep me warm!!
4. And, of course, the big question after your letter last week:  did the ceiling get fixed? That was quite the adventure in home repair! I hope Elder R.’s bedding survived the ordeal. Yeah Elder R.’s bed is fine and we just have a big hole in the ceiling still, I don´t know when we will fix it, it isn’t a very big priority for a missionary house!

 Eating the most expensive Subway I have eaten in my life!! 5 dollar 6-inch sandwich with a 2 dollar super tiny drink!! It was pretty good still!! I pulled a Dad and had them overload it with every veggie that they offer here in Brasil!!

Drinking chimarrão.

Can you send me 2 more pairs of basketball shorts, please? I traded mine with the young men in the ward. J

Can you also send me a short Word document with some yoga positions on it to do during morning workout time to mix thing up a bit??

On p-day we (me and Elder R.) are making chainmail scripture cases (we learned how from a hippie!!!) but I want to learn some new patterns, so if you could find some photos of different chainmail patterns and put them in a Word document so I can print those out, too, that would be great!!! Oh and I’m gonna make one for Dad and Jason too, I already have the size of dad´s scriptures because they are the same as mine, but talk with Jason about what size scriptures he will take on his mission and send me the dimensions and I will make him a case that every other missionary in his mission will be jealous of!!!

 Me with a real Rolex watch that a member showed us and let me take a photo with!! It is white gold with diamonds. It is super legit (but a little girly)!

 This week was a tough week so Elder R. and I went for pizza 4 times!! Luckily a ward member works at a really good pizza restaurant and gives us a sweet deal!!
*yes that is chocolate on that pizza!!!!

I would like to challenge you to listen to one church talk from lds.org that is not from General Conference (CES, BYU devotional, etc.) and in the email each week send me your favorite from the week so I can listen to it during cleaning time!! Thanks!!

And also just so I don’t forget, I know it´s a long way away, but when I get back do I have to start up school at BYU right away (Fall Semester) or can I wait to start up in Winter Semester?? Speaking of BYU, WOWZA, BYU is doing AWESOME in the NIT!!! Let me know how they do, and buy me a t-shirt or something if they win!!! Yeah! I go on the mission and lots of my sports teams do well! Maybe the Mariners will win the World Series this year!! J

And now here’s the news of the week. There really wasn’t a lot that happened, so I will tell you about some of the interesting lessons we had this week!

We are teaching this newlywed couple from the Lutheran church that have been married less than a month who had a bazillion questions for us this week. Elder R. was pretty amazing answering every single question perfectly but was going crazy at the end, like literally crazy (he hates questions) but that was fun!

We knocked on a door and an old lady told us to come in before we had even opened our mouths to talk, and so we chatted with her for a little bit, and then her daughter and her husband showed up and we taught them and then she gave us TONS of bread and pastries and all sorts of yummies. It was really sweet! And, her daughter and her husband, who actually live in the sister missionaries’ area (right next door to the chapel) want to keep getting taught by us (because we are cooler! J yeah!!) so we will meet them at her mom’s house again this week!

And, then, we met these people Friday night that were partying and drinking beer and kept offering beer to us but we refused of course and they brought out soda pop, and just kept giving us more and more so we drank a whole 2 liter in like 5 minutes. But one guy was really interested in the Book of Mormon, so we left him a copy to read, so that was cool!!

I think that is about it for this week,

Con amor,

Elder Cummings