Short Letter to End the Year: December 30, 2013

1. How did you do on baptisms this week? How did the zone do? None of the baptisms worked out for us, and the zone only baptized 2 this week, we are starting a zone purification process to start off the new year.
2. Are you allowed to take pictures of your big, beautiful, new house? If so, send us some next week! I’ll try and take some house pictures. It is 158 square meters (1,700 square feet) so it is pretty darn big!!

There isn’t really all the much to share with you that I didn’t already share with you during the video chat. Everything is fine and hot here in Apucarana, it is a little difficult right now but we are still working hard. It is a lot of stress to be zone leader, and I think I am going the way of Elder S. and am losing a little hair (hopefully it only looks that way because I got a haircut, but you never know)!

Yeah, that is about it!! Sorry it is so short today!!

love you guys!!!

Elder Cummings

P.S. I got your video today in an email!!! Ha ha it was kind of--a lot--a bit--dorky but I still liked it!!!

Feliz Natal 2013

(Elder Cummings is second from the right on the bottom row.)

Christmas Conference: December 23, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. Tell us about your new companion! Is he American or Brazilian? Is he also a zone leader? My companion is Elder P. from São Paulo. He is the other zone leader (the zone leaders are always companions. I am the only American in the entire zone! (Elder S. [CTM companion], if you haven’t already heard, is the new Assistant to the President!!!!!)
2. How many companionships are in your zone? There are 7 companionships in the zone 6 sets of elders and 1 set of sisters. We have a lot of work to do with the zone, we baptized 0 people this week in the entire zone!!! But, we have lots of possibilidades (possibilities) for this week, so pray for everyone and that we can light a fire in some of these missionaries!!

I’m going to be at the members’ house to Skype 4 o clock my time. I hope that works for you guys!

Here are the photos of me and my new comp, me and my “son,” (Elder Iglesias, who he trained in Cascavel), me and President and Sister Genaro and me and the new AP big man boss sauce himself!!

Yeah, way to go little bro on the lunch date!!! ;-)

We walked a ton this week trying to find a new area to work. We have to start over from zero because they don’t have any investigators, so that was a little frustrating but we had a family at church on Sunday so this week we should have at least 4 baptisms, so pray a lot for us here!!! Also, the area of the zone leaders moved, it used to be the Apucarana branch which meets in the center with the Eldorado branch (my old branch when I was in Apucarana before) but now we are in the America branch which is a different building, but I will go to Eldorado on Tuesday to do a division so that will be neat to be back in my old area again!! 

It is super hot here but it doesn’t even feel as hot because of all the wind. I’m not even sweating at all even though it is like 95 to 100 every day. But there are no trees, and even though it doesn’t feel hot and I am using sunscreen twice a day, still my nose is super burnt!! HAHA but it is good to be back in Apucarana o rei do batismo (King of Baptisms)!!

Our house is huge and new and clean and awesome!!! It is super chique!!! (fancy!!!)

love you guys!!

Elder Cummings

P.S. Here’s a picture of my zone in Maringá with Elder Costa!

Returning to Apucarana: December 16, 2013

Dear everyone,

1. Of course the big question is whether you or Elder B. are being transferred?? I don´t know anything about Skype, because I am being transferred to APUCARANA (AGAIN!!!) AND I will be zone leader there!! So I will get you the Christmas call info next week. Elder B. is going to train and he will stay here in Mandacaru B.
2. What has been something particularly memorable from this transfer? Something memorable from the transfer was... just the whole thing. It was great. Elder B. was great. 3 baptisms here in Maringá was excellent!! It was the most of anyone in the zone this transfer, so that was good. All in all it was pretty normal, and it is weird leaving after only one transfer here.
3.  How did your district do on baptisms this week? The district only had one baptism this week, the zone leaders baptized a pastor who has 3 churches, so that was cool. (I wonder if his congregations will follow suit and join the Church?)

Are the Ravens in playoff contention? Wild card? They have the second Hobbit movie out already????!!!

Elder B. said that the trip from Provo would not be too fun for you to get to work!! But, what is it that you do there at your job? What does the company do?

Here are the photos of the week. For the first one, I found the smoke monster from LOST this week. The second is me and Elder B. taken just this this morning!!!

My thoughts about Apucarana, of all the zones that I served in it is the only one that I didn’t necessarily want to repeat because of the hills and the fact that we have to live so far outside of our area, but I’m super excited to be zone leader, so it is all good!! I will live in a different house and be assigned to a different area but it will be the same chapel!! So, I will still see all of the members from my old branch. I don’t know who will be my companion so that will be sent out next week. I may go to my new area tomorrow, I am not sure. We have a Christmas conference in Londrina on the 18th.VAMO QUE VAMO!!!

amo vocês (Love you),

Elder Cummings

A Very Short Letter: December 9, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. Can you get scripture covers like that for Dad? He really thinks they are cool. Yes, I can get scripture cases for dad, too. He just needs to send me the dimensions of his scriptures and the photos that he wants to use and I can even have her send it to Utah for him!!! She can do cases for just about anything you want and you can even use family photos if you like and she will design the people, just that you can’t have more than 3 people in the photo or otherwise the quality is not very good. You can also choose scriptures that you want on them, etc.
2. How did you get chosen to have your one-on-one with Elder Costa? It was President Genaro that chose the people who would get to talk with Elder Costa.
3. Did you get the package from Aunt Paula yet? Will there be another opportunity for you to receive mail before Christmas? No, I haven’t gotten the package from Paula yet but next week is transfers, so I should get it then.
4. What does “kkkkkk” mean? I see that a lot in Brazilian FB messages, sort of where we might use “ha ha” or “LOL.” Is that about right? Yes, kkkkk is the Brasilian laugh...

How are the Ravens doing???

It was a pretty normal week for me here. We had L.’s baptism, which was awesome of course, but really nothing else different happened. We are going to have lots of baptisms in the district this coming week, which is good because no one else in the district besides me and Elder B. has had a baptism this transfer.

This week, I took a bunch of photos, but here are just a couple from the baptism of L. We had to break into the Relief Society activity room, because they were using all the chairs from the rest of the church!!

Love you guys, I’m excited to hear more family and Utah news!!

Elder Cummings

Meeting with Elder Costa: December 2, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. Did you get the Christmas package? If so, have you opened it up yet? Everything wrapped should wait for Christmas, but all else is fair game. Yes, I got the package, yes I have opened it, yes I saved the wrapped items, and yes I already started eating the food!! J
2. Do you know plans yet for Skyping on Christmas? You probably don’t just yet, but just to put it in your mind. Remember you are 6 hours ahead, so we probably can’t do it much before 3 p.m. your time. No, I don’t have Christmas Skype plans yet but I will keep the time restrictions in mind.

Oh—I got my scripture cases this week, and they turned out SICK!!!

Yeah, I have recovered from the shock of the news, last Monday was hard for me, it was just really hard to breathe the whole day but by bedtime it was all good, I know that it is the best thing for the family. It has the Elder Cummings stamp of approval!!! And, it was probably better to just tell me how you did. Otherwise I would have been worried, so thanks!! And, about picking me up after the mission I have been thinking for like a year that I didn’t really want you guys to pick me up so that worked out great!

The Mission Tour (Elder Costa touring all the missions in Brazil) with Elder Costa was amazing!!! We got such amazing instructions and of course everyone got to shake his hand!! But, i think the coolest part, at least for me and Elder S., was that afterwards there were 11 of the 182 missionaries who were selected to have a one-on-one chat with him and we were both selected!!! So, that was super cool!!! It was also really good to see every elder in the mission and see that I am getting old because there are so many new elders that I have never seen in my life!!

The night before we left to go to Londrina, we had 10 elders staying in our house one, of whom was my former Greenie, Elder I.!!! It was great to see him. But with 10 elders, it was really interesting trying to get everyone showered and ready to go to catch the 5 a.m. bus!! We started the process at 2:45 a.m., but I think we still go off a lot easier that the 10 sisters who all had to use one bathroom! The meeting with Elder Costa was truly a once in a lifetime experience and a great alternative way to pass Thanksgiving!!

On Sunday we had this young man at church with us who is 13, he bore his testimony that he knows that the church is true in sacrament meeting (it was his first time attending church, by the way). He is going to the Young Men’s activity on Saturday and his baptism will be right before the activity!! He already has a friend in the ward, and they asked to go proselyting with us after church. Here is a photo of the two of them trying to find the right street for us!! Already, one of his goals in life is to be a missionary!!!!

I think that is about it for this week.

Love you guys!

Elder Cummings

P.S. One more picture, this half-way built house that we explored rapidão (quickly) one day!