Staying Put in Londrina: September 30, 2013

Hey everyone!!

1. How are your shoes holding up? I have seen lots of pictures on Facebook of friends’ missionary sons’ hole-y shoes, which made me wonder. My shoes are holding up fine, I have one pair that is still almost brand new and the other has holes in it, but they are still perfect as long as it does not rain!!!
2. Transfer news? Staying? Going? New companion? The transfer news is that I am staying here with the same companion... but ELDER S. (CTM companion) WAS CALLED AS A ZONE LEADER!!! I’m so used to always getting a new companion at transfer time that it was a little disappointing not to have a change this time around. Also I found out right now that my district doubled in size!! (My district is bigger than some zones!!!) CRAZY!! Pray a lot for me this week, I am motivated because of the baptism that we had yesterday but I am really discouraged about staying the same... this will be a rough transfer...

Since I happened to be online when his email came in, I emailed back quickly and asked if it was the area or his companion that he was not happy about: It is both that have me discouraged!! Also no matter what I do, no matter how much I clean, the house is always a pigsty!! So I have stopped cleaning anything, I only clean the stuff that I use now!!

I wrote back, and said: “I'm so sorry this is a challenging area and companionship for you. Love and serve your companion as much as you can and good things will happen. Praying, praying, praying,” to which he responded:  I’m all better now, sorry for the freak out, I was thinking about all the bad things but now I am focusing on all the good blessings I am receiving!!! I still think the transfer will be difficult, but it will be really good as well!!

This is my district, minus the zone leaders who are also part of my district, but they were visiting another district when we took the picture.

I got the senior pictures this week. They turned out great! Jason has changed so much in his facial structure! And the tie is pretty darn amazing!!

This week I did another division with the secretaries and I was with Elder B. this time, it was good, a nice normal division. It was pretty torturous, though, because he knew all the information about transfers and would not tell me, but also I didn’t ask much because I know how much they get pestered by everyone!

Yesterday we went to the sister missionaries’ baptismal service to help them out and at the baptism was this 8 year old named C., whose parents are inactive but the mom is starting to be reactivated. C. wanted his dad (who is not currently worthy) to baptize him so he had originally said he was going to wait (I don’t know if his dad will ever actually be worthy again...) but while we were there he came up to me, even though I had never even said a word to him before, and asked me to baptize him! So I put on a jumpsuit and we went to work!! It was so good to get back in the water again! Photos will come later, I didn´t have my camera since I wasn’t planning on baptizing anyone.  I will get them from another missionary.

sorry it´s short, lots to do!!

love you all,

Elder Cummings

Young Women Theme: September 23, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. Did Elder S. actually draw on the money or did it come to him that way? Elder S. actually drew on it...
2. Grandpop’s 2014 calendar is finished, and it is really nice as usual. Do you want us to send you a couple in your Christmas box, or do you just want us to save you one for when you get home? If you want us to send them, how many do you want? Can you send me 2 calendars, one for me and one for my comp?

Today we got a blast of fall weather too, lots of wind and rain which meant that 2 big trees fell down in our neighborhood, tearing down power lines with them. We still have power, luckily, but during the week they are starting to turn off the water and electricity to the whole neighborhood in order to ration water, which normally isn´t a problem because we never are at home in the afternoon but for p-day it will be a little bit tricky!!

So, let’s get down to business!!

President Genaro ordered us to get our house in order, because in the words of Sister Genaro, “it looks as though the house has been abandoned for over a year!” So, as you can see by the picture, we did a major overhaul in the backyard and in the process we made a little mess!! But, we did clean it up, so now our house is limpinho!!! squeaky clean!! We cleaned everywhere, we even pressure-washed the bathrooms and kitchen!! Yeah, missionary cleaning!!!

This week, I told the other elders that I had the Young Women’s theme memorized and they were all making fun of me for a few days, but then one day they came back and apologized to me because they were teaching this young woman and they were trying to explain to the mom about what her daughter would learn in the Young Women’s program and they couldn´t remember all of the Young Women values!! Yeah, it would have come in real handy if they, too, had the Young Women’s theme memorized!! :-P

On Wednesday we spent the whole day in the sisters’ area tracking down references, talking with everyone in the street and basically running all over creation, but it was good, we got a lot of work done for them while they looked after their investigators and we even found some cool people for them to teach. They brought a family to church this week so that was cool!!

On Thursday I did a division (split) with the zone leaders so they could travel to another city to help out a companionship that works there and still accompany all of their investigators!!

On Saturday we did a division with the secretaries to help them out and that also was really good. I will probably do more divisions with them this next week because they will be trapped in the office doing the transfers so I will help them accompany all of their investigators!! Being district leader is great!! I love running around creation to help everyone out!! (We ran into this crazy lady who has 60 dogs that she takes care of!!!)

Also this week we did a lot of sleeping outside because of the heat. One night I tried to sleep in my hammock and by tried, I mean I tossed and turned for 2 hours before getting my mattress and going to sleep!! My hammock is really comfy to relax, but to sleep it is not so neat!!

And that sums up my week!! Thanks for the great email as always!! Happy Birthday, Uncle Steven!! HOLY COW WHAT HAPPENED TO IZZY!!!?? She is huge!!

Com Amor!

Elder Cummings

Slow but Steady: September 16, 2013

Dear Everyone:

1. Is this your street? I think that is my street!! Here is a photo of our house!
2. What is your ward like? Do you have support for your efforts? The ward is good. We have good member support, just that they are so accustomed with baptisms that they are not super animated about baptisms, but overall it is a good functioning ward!!
3. Have we snail-mailed you any of Jason’s senior pictures? No, I don´t think you sent me any of Jason’s senior photos yet!
4. How did your investigators do this week? We have kept them in our prayers. Unfortunately, two investigators that I thought were promising were not progressing so we had to cut them both, but we brought these 2 guys to church this week so that was good to finally have investigators at church this week!!! Hopefully they can be baptized. They have problems with the Word of Wisdom, but they are really good. We found one Saturday night and the other Sunday morning and they both went to church and really liked it so that is at least a start!!! The work is going slowly but steady.

And now, on to the other news of the week!!!

I got a really nice package and a really nice tie from C., F., and A. I will try to get a thank you letter out to them this week!!

This week, I spent almost 3 days with Elder D. (zone leader, who lives in our house) while our companions (Elders M. and S. were helping out another area of the zone) so that was really fun!! We took this short-cut through the woods at night to save an hour of walking time!! Good thing I had my super-bright flashlight or else crossing the river would have been much more difficult!!!

União, the neighborhood that we can´t go into any more because Elder F.B. was almost stabbed there

Looking into Londrina from my area

  

This week, we learned how to play this game called tako or bats. You play it with two 2- liter bottles, 2 pieces of wood, a tennis ball, and some chalk/a rock to mark the street. You make a little box to put the water bottle in, and draw a circle that you have to keep your stick in when you are not trying to hit the ball. You have 2 people on each team, 2 batters against 2 pitchers. The batters are trying to hit the ball, of course, but when they hit the ball far they run and trade places with their teammate to score a point (first to 12 wins), and the pitchers are trying to knock over the water bottles, when the bottle is knocked over the teams switch!! It is actually pretty fun, the only problem is that the tennis balls here are garbage (we broke 6 in 1 hour) but luckily we got 2 real tennis balls from a member this week so, all is good! 

Also, I learned how to play a different version of tic-tac-toe, but you have to get 5 in a row to win!! it is much more intense!!!

Hey Jason! Have you started thinking yet about getting your patriarchal blessing?? If not I would start thinking about it if I were you!!

This Saturday the house on the other side of the street had a party all night long playing really dirty Brasilian rap. Luckily I don’t understand a word of Portuguese when it is in that type of music because it is all squished together, so that was good for me, but Elder S. said it was really bad!

Here are a couple more pictures to close the letter this week:

Elder S. with his now-illegal money!!

My study sheet from this week!!

love you a lot,

Elder Cummings

Esta sendo muito dificil para escrever e pensar em ingles: September 9, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. How long has Elder S. been out on his mission? He has been out for 9 months.
2. I assume the emergency transfer did not change any of your responsibilities (i.e., senior companion/district leader)? That is correct, the emergency transfer did not affect any of my leadership duties!

Parabéns (congratulations) for the progress at Grandma’s house, it looks amazing!!! Those new steps will be great and those fitzers needed to go!!

We ate at a member family’s house again this Saturday (one of our favorite families) and we had an amazing BBQ for the Independence Day of Brasil!! (Chicken hearts are the best!!)

Congratulations on being a senior, Jason! Yeah, Business Law is a snore. Hey you need to reactivate that girl from your class who has a brother on a mission in Brasil (invite her to seminary!!) Cuidado com a snakes, menino!! (beware of “snakes,” boy!)

Dad, yeah you need to watch what you eat!! I expect to see/hear about some really progress here!! (Love you, and I want/need you around for more time!!)

This week was pretty slow, we had zone meeting on Thursday which was good we found some mais (more) people to teach so hopefully this next week will EXPLODE and we will have tons of work to do!! (Pray for E. and L.!!)

It is getting pretty hot here once again. I really miss winter, one week of cold was definitely not enough for me!!

It is super weird now seeing “babies” (new missionaries) with one year or less of “life” (being out on their mission) because I always think, “Holy cow I was on my mission when you were born!!!” That is pretty strange!!

Another fun (?) fact, this past week we caught 2 active members drinking in bars; that was definitely really awkward.

This week unfortunately I didn’t take any photos, but here is a photo of what I did in my study time this week. It is a list of useful missionary scriptures, a mioria are scriptures to use during the lessons, but of course you got to put a few Bible-bash scriptures there just for luck (this next week I will do the same thing with the Book of Mormon!! (I think it is interesting that EVERYTHING is in Portuguese!)

Sorry I don’t have much to report this week, I’ll try better to log my actions this coming week (also we are at a different Internet place and it is poopizão!! (crap) so that doesn’t help either!!

I love you guys so much!! I know that the Church is the one and only true church on the face of the earth, and the Jesus Christ our Savior and Redeemer is the everliving head!!

Elder Cummings

Editor’s Note: I sent back a quick reply to this message, saying “WOW, lots of Portuguese words in this letter!”

His quick reply back was “sim, esta sendo muito dificil para escrever e pensar em ingles agora!!” which means: “Yes, this is very difficult to write and think in English now!”

10 Companions in 9 Transfers: September 2, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. Why was it possible that an emergency transfer might happen? Did it happen? Elder F. B. was emergency transferred because he didn’t feel safe after the stabbing of his backpack, and he wanted to leave the area. He went to my old area in Bauru (where he was stung by a scorpion and went to the hospital but now he is fine). My new comp is Elder S. from São Paulo. I now have had 10 different companions in these first 9 transfers, including two companions I only had for a week apiece due to emergency transfers. Crazy!!! Elder S. is really cool. He taught me how to mend and thin ties which is really handy!! I took some ties that I found in the house that were huge and ugly and thinned them to half their size, so now they are normal width!!
2. Is all of Londrina in the same zone? There are 2 zones in Londrina. I am in the south, called Zone Londrina and the north zone where Elder S. (his CTM companion) is called Zone Tiradentes. I did get to see Elder S. this week when we both had to go to the national police station (FBI) to get our overdue visas renewed, or else we would have been deported!! That was “fun” to sit in a government building all morning doing paperwork.

Elder S. and Elder Cummings

Now on to the new news from the week:

First off we found this great man. He lived in Florida for 8 years and has a wife (legally married!!!) and two girls, one who is 11 and the other who will turn 8 this month. We have only taught him, and not his wife or daughters, but he is really interested, so please pray that we can find him at home and help him and his family go to church this week.

We also met this cool, druggy, street “Dude” that is always saying and writing his own scriptures on cardboard boxes!! He is really funny and he likes the missionaries. He is really funny, dancing in the street and everything!! Ha ha!

So here in this ward, it is really different than my other areas, we eat lunch in very few member homes, but we do get lots of money for lunch. Because of this, I think the 20 lbs I gained in Cascavel will come off here pretty soon once it starts to heat up more!!!

This week was a really tough week for me, the new area is really morto (dead). Everyone works during the day, it is hard to find people at home and we got lost a lot this first week. Hopefully now that we know the area a lot better, the work can pick up some more and we can teach some more people this week and bring someone to church. Just to give you an idea of morto, we taught 11 lessons last week and we should be teaching around 40, but that’s OK, this week we are going to go all out in the work!!

And I think that is about it for this week,

ate mais (lots of love),

Elder Cummings