3 Baptisms and 8 Pictures!

Dear Everyone,

1.  How did your week go this week? Did your investigators get baptized? One of them was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday! It was awesome. We had 2 more baptisms on Sunday (they are the two closest to me, the ones on either side of Elder S.). The zone leaders had 3 baptisms this week, too!! And, we already have a good possibilidade (possibility) to baptize 3 more this next coming Sunday! The work is progressing in Ouro Blanco!
2. What have you been studying lately in the Book of Mormon or Preach My Gospel? In my studies I am studying stuff that helps my current investigators and marking up my new scriptures that I bought and studying topics in Preach My Gospel to help out my district. (I was hoping to get a little more detail. Well, I tried at least!—Marie)
3. Tell us more about why you were in the “mountains” in your pictures last week? Is that part of your area? Yes, the mountains are part of my area and we passed by coming back from lunch and took some quick pics!

 

Can you send me a photo of my baptism in a letter? It would be cool to be able to show to investigators. Thank you!!

I didn’t even get to attend my ward this week because of returning from Cornélio Procópio Sunday morning and preparing for the baptisms, so I didn’t play piano this week. I was practicing a little bit here and there, but now I am just going to wing it on the piano, it is coming really well, at least the right hand, that is!

So, for the rest of my letter I will give some comments on my photos. Yes, lots of photos this week, so feel lucky! I don’t know if I can send so many every week!!

The pizza was for Elder S.’s birthday, which was Friday!!

Last P-day we had a barbeque, but it was really hot so we used an umbrella when we were at the grill!!

This photo shows a little bit of my tie alterations work, which I learned how to do from Elder S. They all started off the same size as the piano tie!

It rained A TON on Thursday!!! A few minutes before the bus passed by, an old lady was walking by when a truck passed there...let’s just say she got SOAKED!!!

The elders in Cornélio Procópio have this funny noise-making rubber chicken in their house. I traveled there Saturday night to do two baptismal interviews for the zone leaders because Elder R. forgot his ID, so I went there in his place with Elder G. (a greenie). That was fun. We traveled back early Sunday morning (luckily it is only 1.5-hour bus ride) but we didn´t bring any extra clothes because it was last minute and we didn’t even have time to shower on Sunday morning before I had to do 2 more baptismal interviews and then we had our baptisms!! (The Elder Cummings Show continues!!)

I think that is about it for this week!! Enjoy the photos!

com amor,

Elder Cummings

The Elder Cummings Show: October 21, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. How many lessons were you able to teach this week? Is this about average? Better? Worse? This week we taught 3 lessons with members and 17 lessons without members present, which is a good number, but the lessons-with-members number was way low!! We should have 3 baptisms this weekend, one is the investigator I mentioned earlier, he is 27 and he already has his interview marked and everything. (As you know, before the baptism everyone needs to pass an interview with the district leader, or in my case since I am a district leader, with the zone leaders!)
2. Do you get fed by members on Sunday? Yes, every Sunday we have lunch at members’ homes, it is pretty much the only guaranteed day to eat lunch with the members, as a lot of them are not home for lunch during the week, and it is always a really good lunch!!
3. What are some of the best new foods you’ve tried lately? New foods...um...every day I eat rice and beans and meat and salad. Sometimes we get stroganoff or lasagna (I now know how to make these Brasilian-style) or a barbecue (of course), so new foods are kind of a rarity at the moment, though I did get to eat Japanese food this week and that was really tasty!

Now I have some questions for you: How many people live in Bellevue? How many in Seattle? And, how many in the greater Seattle area? Thank you!!

I did get a few more ideas for the Christmas package:  Stride gum (spearmint), and a tiny sunscreen bottle to carry with me in my tiny bag. THANK YOU!!

This Sunday (yesterday) was the Elder Cummings show at church!! I arrived a little bit late because we were bringing everyone to church (we picked up our investigators and then most of the zone leaders’ investigators as well) Luckily sacrament meeting is at the end of church here during the third hour because I got there 2 minutes before the meeting started!! We had 3 investigators attend church who are all planning to be baptized this coming week (and like I said, one has already passed his interview and is ready to go)!!! I played piano, and they had changed the hymns on me and they were not hymns that are included in the simplified hymnbook, but I still did ok. I also gave a talk. It was my third talk of the mission, the third time I was the second speaker, and the third time that the concluding speaker who spoke after me was the stake president!!! Lucky me! To wrap up my big day, I conducted the baptismal service directly after church for the baptisms of the zone leaders. And then it was time for lunch. J

Oh, we sprung forward Saturday night!!

The district is doing great here, my companion and I are getting along great!! I have had great sorte (luck) with companions so far on the mission. I have enjoyed each of them. They have been great!!

To finish, here are some photos of our mountain expedition from this week!!

Com amor

Lots of love

Elder Cummings

P.S. Our mission came in third in all of Brazil for baptisms in September!!

Ward Pianist: October 14, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. Does Elder R. live in your house? How many sets of elders are serving in your ward? Yes, Elder R. lives with me, there are 2 sets of elders in the ward and the 4 of us all live in the same house
2. As I was helping Dad clean up his neckline when he gave himself a haircut on Friday, we both wondered if you are still cutting your own hair? Cutting anyone else’s hair? Yes, I still use the hair cutting kit, mostly for my own hair (I still have never gone to a Brazilian barber).
3. I know it’s early, but do you have any ideas on things you need/want for Christmas? I don’t see any necessity for any items right now, so I guess food, and saving money up for when I get back would be the best options!!
4. Got any fun stories to share from Zone Conference? Sister Genaro posted a bunch of pictures, and it was fun to play “Where’s Waldo” as we looked for you in them. This was the first time you have appeared in any of her photos. Zone conference was good, not really any cool stories to report, but we did earn pizza and we got to watch “17 Miracles” as a prize for breaking the mission baptism record last month!! And at the zone conference, I got to see two former companions, Elder R. and Elder F., so that was good!! Also in the zone conference it was announced that the backpack has died for missionary service (I am pretty sure that this is for the whole world), only shoulder bags (? I don’t entirely get why, but it is what it is) and handheld bags like my super-slick, stylish, state-of-the-art, height-of-fashion Primary bag!

 Elder R. (companions for ONE WEEK in Apucarana), Elder Cummings, and Elder F. (companions for one transfer in Cascavel)

 Lovely, height-of-fashion Primary bag

In other news, guess who is the new ward pianist here in the Ouro Branco ward? Yep, that’s right!! I am the new ward pianist. (Yes, you read that sentence correctly: I, Elder Cummings, am the new ward pianist!!) Right now, using the simplified hymnbook, I am only using the right hand and I can almost do the right and left hand together now. The trickiest part was learning bass clef, but now I can play the left hand just fine, and the right hand really well, it is just when I put them together that I have troubles, but it is always getting better!! (Elder Cummings took piano lessons in 3rd grade. He then played trumpet and French horn from 5th grade through 12th grade.)

This month, as a mission, we are passing through problems to baptize people. The adversary has really put his evil reinforcements here, because we have been doing so well lately. We are still pressing on!! Along those lines, pray for our investigator, D., so that he can go to church this Sunday and be baptized on the 27th, he is an amazing dude!!

When I was in Cascavel, I dreamed about this bridge and these steps. The rest of my dream didn’t make any sense, and the bridge was in a different setting, but it was the same bridge with the same graffiti. It was so cool to find these and see that I really am supposed to be serving here in Ouro Branco!!

Sorry it is kind of short for this week, it is really getting harder and harder to come up with e-mail topics. I’m going to go now and buy 4$ of ice cream for my weekly groceries!!

love you guys a lot!!!

com amor,

Elder Cummings

P.S. How are the Ravens doing?? J

General Conference was Awesome!: October 7, 2013

7 October 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. What language did you watch Conference in? Where did you go to watch it? I watched Conference at the stake center in English!!!
2. How’s it going with your Mega-District? How many Elders and how many Sisters? They split up the district again, which is good, because it would have been a little much for me!! I would have been more than a zone leader basically with the number of people I would have needed to accompany and do interviews for, so I am glad to have my old district back!!! My mega-district would have been 10 elders and 6 sisters with 4 people training... but now it is back to 8 elders and 2 sisters with only one sister training!

In five weeks 7 zone leaders will go home and in 6 more weeks 6 more zone leaders will go home!!!! Big changes in the mission between now and the end of 2013.

General Conference was AMAZING but it went by way too fast. I loved all the talks but in particular I loved:

•  David A. Bednar and President Uchtdorf from Saturday morning
• D. Todd Christofferson, Elder Nelson, and Elder Dyches from Saturday Afternoon 
• President Monson from the Priesthood session
• Elder Eyring, Elder Oaks, and Elder Scott from Sunday morning
• Elder Vinson from Sunday afternoon

... yeah, I know, that’s almost all of them!! It was definitely a great Conference!!

Of course Conference talked about a lot of things but I felt that it really emphasized the following points a number of times:

• Freedom of choice
• Read the scriptures a lot!
• Marriage
• REPENTANCE
• The sin in the world
• You cannot change the doctrines of Christ
• Tough and trying times are coming and persecutions will once again rise up against the church like times of old and in our own church history!

So this week was great, we brought 3 people to Conference so hopefully we will have some baptisms here pretty soon. Here is the picture of last week’s “surprise” baptism.

Elder R., the new elder in the ward, is way cool, he is from just outside of Sacramento.

Way to go cleaning up Grandma’s house, eagle scout application, SAT, and getting a ´date´ to homecoming!!

Sorry this is so short, but I think that is about it.

love you guys a lot!!

com amor,

Elder Cummings