The Final Letter from Brazil: July 14, 2014

Dear Everyone,

Sorry that this is so late, I had interviews with President Genaro this morning, and then we went to a steakhouse for lunch, and now I am back in the mission office writing you guys!!!

1. What are you bringing home by way of luggage and possessions? Are you leaving things behind for other missionaries? I am bringing home all of my stuff in one suitcase (I put my medium size suitcase inside of the biggest one). Pretty much I am bringing home souvenirs, or items that are useful still, and ties, but all of my clothing I am leaving behind.
2. Will Elder P. still be in training with a new trainer when you go home? Elder P. stayed in Quebec and his new companion will be Elder F. one of my former companions!
3. Were you able to go out at all after the Brazil loss to Germany, or were you instructed to stay home due to the nature of the debacle? We had to stay home that night, especially for me and some other Americans who look German, this whole week everyone was calling me German, but even by the next day it was already a lot calmer, and no one swore at me or anything like that. Everyone just talked about how good Germany was, they were very polite considering the circumstances!! I was very glad that Germany won instead of Argentina, the Argentinian missionaries needed to deflate their heads a bit!!! Ha ha!! Just kidding!
4. K.T.  came up to me at the banquet tonight and asked if you were going to be going to Woodridge to swim on Thursday, and I told him I would let him know when your first swim will be, regardless of the day. FRIDAY!!!! 3:00 in the afternoon POOL PARTY!!!!!!

Here is my game plan for Thursday

1. Get released
2. Go to Grandma and Grandpa’s
3. Lunch
4. Go to the temple
5. Buy new garments
6. Buy a cell phone! (iPhone 5s, please, if you want to buy one for me this week before i get home that would be fine too!!!) J
7. Chill a little bit at home
8. Start getting all my stuff out of the attic (it’s already out—Marie) and to start organizing my stuff!!!

But the important part is that I want to be able to hit the ground running!! I’ll be using my old computer?? After that, I have no idea, I will play it by ear!!! 

Sorry, no photos today. I gave my card adapter to Elder P. because he didn't have one but the important photos you already got which were photos from the baptisms!

I’m going to go hit the town with Elder S. now, so see you guys in a few days!!!

Love you guys a lot!!

Elder Cummings!!

P.S. I am serious about what I want to do on Thursday. These are HIGH HIGH priorities for me!!!! Don´t worry about me if I’m tired or not, I’ll survive!!! Ha ha!!

See you on the 17th!--July 7, 2014

Dear Everyone,

1.  As you embark upon your last full week as a missionary, what are your thoughts on this time you have spent in Brazil? I feel as though my time in Brasil has been 2 years WELL SPENT!!! I would not trade my time here for anything. Before receiving my mission call I wanted to go to Russia or Europe, basically anywhere but Brasil, but now I would not trade it for anything!!! I feel as though I really dedicated these 2 years to the Lord and to serving the people of Brasil!! It was/is truly amazing. We are going to work for the miracle of baptizing 5 people this week...pray for us!!
2. What do you feel you have learned? In what ways do you feel you have grown? We will need to have a nice long talk when I get home, because I have learned so much and grown so much that I don't even recognize myself!!!
3. What do you want to eat when you get home? Ohhhh, good question! Pasta with carbonara sauce, rice fluff, lasagna, stroganoff, the usual.

While we are on the subject of trunky things, can you pick up a few personal hygiene products for me this week so I don´t have to worry about it when I get back? Thanks!! Also on my first day back if possible I would like to do a temple session and buy new garments!!! (And I still don´t know my travel info!!!!)

It gets crazier and crazier every time Brasil makes it farther in the World Cup!!! You should hear the warzone of fireworks that goes off every time that Brasil makes a goal or wins the game!!! Wowza!!!

And, as I was saying this week will be super crazy!! We have zone conference on Tuesday, there will the world cup finals on Sunday, and we are trying to baptize 5 people this week!!! So we are going to be running all over creation to baptize here and help the rest of the district baptize too!! Sunday we left lunch and went straight to the sisters’ area to do a second baptismal interview (they had baptized on Saturday but a miracle went to church so they had 2 baptisms!!!) and then I went straight over to Ouro Branco to do an interview for the zone leaders and got to see a lot of old ward friends there!!

Ohhhh, this week I was a good boy with the camera, so let’s get started:

photos from my last district meeting (this week we have zone conference) and the sisters bought me a cake too!!!

Timeline of how long everyone in the district has been on their mission.
Note “Elder Cummings 1 year and 11 months…RIP”

This is a text we received when we broke the monthly baptism record with 201 baptisms in June and were in second place in all of Brasil (only Manaus baptized more than us!!!) (Roughly translated as Elders POWER, due to their allegiance diligence, and FACT THAT YOU ARE GOOD. We closed this month with the total registered by the Church of ... 201! Congratulations and let’s go!)

I fell in a hole in the street while watching the kite wars going on overhead!!! Here kites are super popular and people try to cut the lines of other people´s kites, it is pretty intense!!

Last P-day Elder P. and I played tourist in the Japanese square in Londrina. There are some cool squares in Londrina, but unfortunately I didn´t manage to find a cool shirt for Jason L

I think that is about it!!! If it turns out that this is my last e-mail: see you guys on the 17th!!!! I think based on the fact that I am here in Londrina already and will not need to travel on Monday, that I will be able to send a shout out to you guys this next Monday.

see you guys soon!

Love you guys!!

Elder Cummings

Catch Ya On the Flip Side: June 30, 2014

Dear Everyone,

1. How is Elder P. doing in his training? Elder P. is becoming pro status already!! We are working super hard, and it is starting to give fruit (just not in our area...)
2. How did your district training go? It went well—and was kind of crazy. This week that passed there was an emergency transfer and one of the sisters in my district Sister V. (I was her district leader when she arrived in Londrina back in October) went to Tupã in São Paulo (where Elder S. was trained), and arrived a new sister from there to train a new American and by new American I mean a sister with over a year of mission time who FINALLY got her visa... holy cow!!! And to top it all off the first day of the new sisters being here their lunch fell through, so after district meeting we bought them lunch (a member had given us money to eat in a restaurant and gave more than enough for us so we spread the joy to the sisters). I also got to give the new sister, Sister S., a blessing after district meeting. Poor Sister S. rolled her ankle that very same afternoon, but she is all better now.

Also this week I got to go to Ouro Branco (former area also in Londrina) to do a baptismal interview for the zone leaders and got to see the bishop and a few members that I know, so that was nice!!! And hopefully this week our area will be the one to EXPLODE and we will have lots of people to baptize in my last weeks!

On Thursday we were sitting at the bus stop to go to a meeting at the church building and we were witnesses to 3 different drug deals (the funny part is that we know some of the people)!! But it was all chill, no one messes with the missionaries in that neighborhood. (A few days later we were passing by and there were 6 motorcycle cops rounding up everyone on that street... our area is super chill!!)

Wow, Jason´s phone is pretty darn sweet!!! But, would it kill ya to look away from the computer for one second to take a photo??!!!! haha!! But I guess I can´t complain too much this week, I slacked off and did not take any photos (though you should hopefully get some photos today from Sister C. of me and Elder P., her son and 2 other young men in the ward) but today we are going to go to the center and take photos at the Japanese themed square there and to look for a soccer jersey for Jason (I’ll use my card) and maybe one more for me!!! (I have been giving the lower quality jerseys to people as the time has been going so I hope I can get a jersey that is a little better quality!!)

(Oh, on a related topic, my last member lunch as a missionary will be Sunday the 13th, which happens to be the World Cup finals and it will be at the C.’s house!!!)

Yesterday we went tracting with this 19 year old young man who is in the process of finishing his mission papers, and he went to EFY a few months ago and there he met my old investigator N. from Apucarana who at the time had to work out a few things in her life before she could be baptized. He is friends with her on Facebook and he said that this coming week she will be baptized!!!!! Yeah boy!!!!

Dad, you are keeping the woodworking tools right?? Is that what will mostly fill the shipping container??

catch ya on the flip side!!

lots of love!!

Elder Cummings

There's No Time to Be Trunky! June 23, 2014

Dear Everyone,

1. Have you been able to get a soccer jersey for Jason? No, I haven’t gotten Jason a soccer jersey yet, but I’ll be getting one soonish, I hope. Does he have a preference?
2.  Do you remember if you saved a pair of board shorts for your first swimming party after your release, or should I go buy a pair??? I have board shorts at home still!! (I have no idea where but I should be able to find them at night before the first swim day!!)

5C!!!??? I’ve never even heard of the 5C. I think the 4 was just coming out when I started my mission!! (Photo please!!!! J)

Wow, Dad, a whole week off for 4th of July!!! Awesome.

Our week was fun and very busy once again. We are trying to do everything at once, so it always seems as though we run out of time. But, that’s a good thing here at the end because there isn’t even any time to be TRUNKY.

Tuesday was district meeting, it was strange and refreshing to once again give district training (this morning I prepared district meeting for tomorrow). But with the Brasil game Tuesday we had to return home after lunch and only leave after 7:30 at night. This world cup is getting really in the way!! (Today we have an extended p-day until 7:30 because Brasil will play again!!! (I hope the United States wins but with the heartbreak tie yesterday we will have to wait and see). Every night when we return to our apartment complex, the gate guard always gives us updates on how the games ended up that day since we are not allowed to watch the games. It will be interesting to see what will be the rules once the games get more and more important and the people get more and more crazy!!

Thursday we went to the sisters’ area again to work there and do a baptismal interview since the sisters had to travel to Foz and Cascavel to do divisions (this week they will be going to Sarandi in the Morangueira zone and Thursday we will go there again to find some more baptisms for them and maybe this weekend too to do yet another baptismal interview!!!) 

This Sunday we managed to bring this young woman to church who is 16, she really liked church and she already has a testimony about the Book of Mormon, so we will do our best to baptize her this week!!! Her mom was going to go too but at the last minute Satan inspired her married son to call Saturday night and tell her that he would have lunch with them on Sunday (something that he never does) so she stayed home Sunday morning to prepare lunch... but she will go with us this next week!!

Weekly photos: 

Me returning from lunch one day in the rich fancy, brand spanking new still-in-construction part of town!! (a lot of members live there.)

A sweet sunset that we saw one night!!

And, I think that’s all he wrote!!!

Love you guys a lot!!

até logo! (see you soon!)

Elder Cummings

Slow/Busy Week: June 16, 2014

16 June 2014

Dear Everyone:

1. How did your week go with the World Cup? Were people too distracted by the games, as you feared they might be? It was a slow and super busy week all at the same time!! (Yes, the World Cup is quite distracting!!)
2.  Are you a district leader? I saw a picture of you in a group photo on the mission Facebook page from the leadership conference this past week. Yes, I am DL again! There are two sister companionships in my district so we joke that I am the "Relief Society president" because it is just me, my companion and sister missionaries in my district!! Ha ha!!
3.  Is it just you and Elder P. in your apartment, or do you live with other missionaries? It is just us two in the apartment but that is good because it is about 300 square feet. Really tiny!! For leadership conference this past week, there were 8 more elders (all the leaders from Maringá and Morangueira, so I got to see my first-born “son” Elder I.) sleeping there for 2 nights. Let’s just say the neighbors were not too happy.

Here is how our slow/busy week went:

• Monday was p-day as usual
• Tuesday was leadership council
• Wednesday was a normal work day
• Thursday we had zone meeting in the morning, and after lunch we had to return to our house and could only leave after 7:30 p.m. once the Brasil World Cup game excitement had died down
• Friday we were in the sisters’ area for a baptismal interview (it finally worked out at the end and she came into the interview not wanting to be baptized, only wanting to get some doubts answered, but after an hour and a half she left the room smiling ear to ear and the next day she was baptized!!!!
• Saturday and Sunday were normal days too

So as you can see, we had very little time in our area this week, and this week will be p-day today, Brasil World Cup game tomorrow (essentially a second p-day since we have to be at home during the game) and on Thursday we will work in the sisters’ area to help them out, and Friday or Saturday I will have to do another baptismal interview for the other sister companionship!! Wowza!!!!

Way to go P.K. on the sweet mission call!!!! 

Mom, you still have more than 2 years of Sunday letters to write, there will only be a halftime break before Jason goes on his mission!!

My Helaman Halls roommate from freshman year shot me an e-mail today!!!! Yeah buddy!!

I will wrap up today with some photos:

Picking up Elder P. at the mission home

Pizza for Elder P.'s first day in the field

A view of the center of Londrina from a member’s fancy apartment (Quebec is the richest/strongest ward in the mission)

Walking through a field

Street sign in the middle of the street. D’oh! The sign reads Monte Sião, or Mount Zion. There are a few members that live on this street.

How I multitask while talking on the phone with the sisters in my district (they like to tell a lot of stories about their day).

love you guys!!

Elder Cummings

New Area, New Companion: June 9, 2014

Dear Everyone,

(In the hustle and bustle I forgot my camera today when coming to the LAN house, so sorry but you will have to wait one more week for photos. sorry!!!!!... L)

My new area is called Quebec and yes it is in Londrina!! It is the zone Londrina. My area borders the area of Elder S., I even have part of Cambè in my area, and Elder S. even baptized some people in my area by mistake some months ago!! Ha ha!!

And my second “son” is Elder P., he is Brazilian (no Americans arrived this transfer...) but he is super cool, his name is German and he looks American, so everyone asks him from what part of the United States he is from!! Ha ha!! But, yeah, he is really cool, he served a mini-mission during the new year close to his home. He is from a city that is super close to Florionópolis in Santa Catarina called Balneario Camboriú. 

Pictures from Facebook of the lunch after ward conference.

Unfortunately this week we did not baptize but it was ward conference and the members brought 8 friends to church so we had 12 investigators at church yesterday (a new record for me!!) so all we have to do now is try and get in contact with them all and teach them, which maybe will be complicated with the World Cup starting this week!! Attached here are the rules during the World Cup when Brazil will be playing (this is only during the first round, more information will be arriving later on)... crazy!!

Our house/apartment (my first time living in an apartment!!) is on the third floor,) is located at the corner of our area, the church is at the other corner of our area (about 30 minutes from our house) and our area where we are working is about 40 minutes from our house and an hour an 20 minutes from the chapel!!! So, let’s just say that we walk a lot, but luckily there is a super awesome recent convert who will be serving a mission here soon, he is 24 and he always goes teaching with us and really helped us get our bearings in the area!!! Now it will be smooth (well, relatively smooth) frantic sprinting to the finish from here on out!!

Oh--also in Maringá Elder B. and Elder I. baptized 2 people this week!!

love you guys a lot!!

Elder Cummings

Leaving Maringa (Alvorada) Better Than I Found It: June 2, 2014

Dear Everyone,

1.  How did your investigators fare this week? Was the family able to be baptized? Answers below.
2. Where will you be spending your final transfer? Answers below.

It is transfer week!!!  And there are lots of updates!!! First off, Elder I. (my “son”) will be ZONE LEADER!!!!! He will be here in (Maringá) Alvorada in my place!! So he can baptize these 4 families that I found here. No one went to church yet because there was always complications and it never worked out for us to stop by there on Saturday and confirm everything "certinho" but I know that Elder I. will baptize all of them!!! And I will train a new missionary!!! I think it will be an American because that is what I asked for but I don’t know for sure, I don’t even know where I will be going yet! I will only find out tomorrow at the mission home. The only thing that I know is that I will leave the zone! I will be taking the 6:20 bus to Londrina tonight and I will sleep once again in Ouro Branco!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE BRO!!! You are now legal!! You can now go to big boy prison!! Ha ha!! And in Brasil you can legally smoke and drink at 18!!! (Dad´s birthday was last week right? Is it the 28th? I always forget!! But happy 51, Dad!!) And, way to go on the driving test!!! If you remember, I only got an 84 on my test...but wow, that is so nice to not take the test at the DMV!!!

So, updates from the week that ended:

The zone once again had 3 baptisms and we found out that in the month of May we broke the all-time zone baptism record with the all-time high of men baptized!! And it was only a 4-week month as far as baptisms are concerned!! I hope they can break the record without me in June with 5 Sundays!!

So, for 4 days this week I was in division and Elder B. traveled to another city to help out the missionaries there so I didn´t even work at all in May area this week so our 4 complete families did not progress that much this week, but soon they will baptize!!

So on Sunday during the first block the bishop of another ward called me asking if we could fill the font because their water heater was broken, so we spent the whole church time filling the font with hot water and with a hose and running buckets because the font fills super slow!!! The whole time the members were complaining about the noise and the water the whole time and to top it all off, when the font was full I called the bishop of the other ward and he said: "ohhhh.... I forgot to inform you but the lady that will baptize decided that she wants to be baptized in cold water after all so we will baptize her here in our own ward..." I almost yelled at him but it is all good since I will be leaving the city! I am a little bit sad that I am leaving now that the area is finally catching fire, and the ward likes me now. but at least I am leaving the house, area, ward, and zone way better than I found them!!!

But, yeah I think that is about it. I’m excited, anxious, animated, shell shocked, nervous, ecstatic, all at the same time!!! This will be a wild last transfer full of baptisms!! (and full of the World Cup!!)

love you guys a lot!!

see you in 6ish!

Elder Cummings

Rainy Days and "Cold" Weather: May 26, 2014

Dear Everyone,

1. Was the family you mentioned last week baptized? How are they doing? They were supposed to go to church yesterday but didn´t because of colds and the rain (as a matter of fact no-one of our investigators went to church because of the rain)... but they made us dinner Sunday night (he also gave us a ride home during the giant rainstorm last night, we passed 3 accidents in the roads, 2 of them were a car and a motorcycle... yikes!) They also always make cake when we come over, and one day the dad gave us 6 fish that he personally fished in the river this week!! We are going to keep teaching them and hopefully some of the family can come to church next Sunday (the dad will have a surgery this Thursday...)
2. How did the ward activity go? Our activity was a non-activity. It was a joint 2-ward activity and the only people who showed up were the 6 missionaries and one member... yeah it was not great!!! And the next day the ward had another activity where the ward did ribs and tons of people showed up, but it went long and we had to leave before eating anything…maybe we should have combined our activities?! (see photos of our activity turned hotdog-eating contest).

I have heard zero news about new missionaries that are going to show up. I am completely in the dark, I will only know next Monday when there are transfers! 

Wow, the man cave is looking pretty darn MANLY!!!! SWEET! Also, mom, your computer looks super cool too!!

It’s been raining a lot here lately and getting "cold"--60 degrees--but it will heat up again to the 70s this week!

On Thursday we went to Cianorte, a neighboring city, to do baptismal interviews of a mom and her son, they both passed but for other reasons ended up not baptizing (the zone baptized 4 again this week and confirmed 5 more).

I think that is about it for this week! It will be interesting this last week of the transfer!! vamos para cima do povo!!! (literally translated, “let’s up the people…”)

love you guys a lot!!

Elder Cummings

Birthday Week: May 19, 2014

Dear Everyone,

1. When is the next transfer? Is this the 5-week transfer? Yes this is a five week transfer. The next transfer day is June 1.
2. Did your zone have any changes because of the new American missionaries who came out of the CTM? My zone had one change because of the "mini transfers" there were 20 missionaries in the mission who were transferred!!! But the only change was that one elder left and Elder I. (my “son” who I trained) came to the zone now!!! (We had interviews with President G. on the 16th and I told him that if it were at all possible and in harmony with the Lord´s will of course, that I would like to have the opportunity to train an American missionary in my last transfer. so we will have to just wait and see what will happen in this next transfer!
3. What did you do to celebrate your actual birthday? I hope you got lots of birthday wishes. To celebrate my actual birthday my companion and housemates bought pizza for me at night!! But it was a regular day of work during the day, the member that made us lunch that day put a candle in the Jell-o dessert, so that was cool!! Also, I got to perform a baptismal interview on my birthday and the young man of 21 years was baptized on that same day, so that was cool (he is studying software engineering!)

The cake (mix), frosting (in a can), noisemakers, napkins, and plates were part of Elder Cummings' birthday package!

 Birthday candle in the Jell-O.

This week had 4 more baptisms in the zone, Elder I. baptized one, we also confirmed A. who we baptized 2 weeks ago!!

Can you send photos of the new roof and your new laptop please!!?? :-)

Jason: what lead you to decide to study criminal justice? Was there a job fair or something?

This week was really cool, we had an OK ward activity this Saturday, it was a joint activity with the other ward and in total there were 20 people who came... and we will be doing another activity on Friday so I will let you guys know how that one goes!!

Also, we found this really great family that we had marked with the daughter to pass by there Sunday afternoon to teach the whole family and when we got there they had cake waiting for us (food is always a good sign of the possibility for baptism!!) and the whole family of mother, father and 2 kids (the son is 21 and the daughter is 17) were all really receptive and are excited to learn more and to go to church on Sunday!! The dad was telling the mom this past week that they needed to find a church to attend because they have stopped going to any church pretty much!! So, that was cool. Pray for this family please!!

On a side note, a member who lived in England for 10 years made imitation Kentucky Fried Chicken for us on Sunday for lunch!!! It was pretty darn good!!

And I think that is about it for this week!!!

love you guys a lot!

Elder Cummings

Post-Skype Letter: May 12, 2014

Dear Everyone,

There is a corn field close to our house and they harvested the corn this week, so that night we went to pick up the corn that was left over and we got a lot of corn, but upon our return to our house we found out that all the corn was bad, it was the type of corn they use for animal feed, so it was already dry and hard and not suitable for eating. L 

That’s about all that I have to say after our Skype date yesterday. I kind of said everything already. 

See you guys later! J

Lots of love,

Elder Cummings

P.S. My opinion as to whether to get me a car in Washington or in Utah, is the sooner the better!!! J

We did have a wonderful Skype with Elder Cummings on Mother’s Day, our last Skype until he comes home. Because it is his birthday later this week (May 15), he had a little birthday gathering with some other missionaries at the home of the members where they were able to Skype. I love that the members take care of the missionaries in Brazil just like we try to do for our missionaries here! Happy 21st Birthday, Elder Cummings!!

A Baptism: May 5, 2014

5 May 2014

Dear Everyone, 

Yeah, we are rebuilding trust with the ward members! So that is going well, and the baptisms are picking up here a little bit too!! We baptized a man named A. this week and if his sister stops smoking, she will be baptized too!! The zone baptized 3 again this week, so we are baptizing above the mission average still, which is really good!! This weekend we had stake conference and President and the assistentes (assistants) were there, it was good. President G. watched our baptism Saturday night and because it was late, he drove us home!! It was good to see Elder S., he is such a bro. Also, every member of the zone gave us a ton of GH with the assistants and with President G.!! (GH menas gloria dos homens, or in other words, they said lots of good stuff about us, so that always makes you feel good when you are liked by those that you lead, everyone in the zone seems so much happier now!!)

Here is A., the mirror photo is us waiting for the baptismal clothes because there was not enough for everyone, so the ladies went first with dry clothes, than changed and then it was the men’s turn!!!

So last week I forgot to mention, but we had barbeque 4 days in a row, Sunday, Monday, (our ritual p-day barbeque--today we started slow cooking ribs at 6:29 in the morning, see the picture!!) Tuesday, and Wednesday and on Friday we had barbeque salmon with rice!!!! YEAH!!!! I am jumping a lot of rope and doing a lot of exercises in the morning and on p-day to try and not get too fat!! Ha ha.

Yeah, way to go Jason!!! good luck with the 8:00 classes, I thought that they would be super easy since I was used to 6:00 seminary but after staying up until 12:00 or 1:00 every night my first year at BYU I changed my mind and don’t take classes before 9. But good luck, and at least you get done with school early every day!! How many credits is that? Criminal Justice... interesting!! Have you decided on a major?

Other than that it was a normal week of work. Tomorrow is leadership conference so we will be catching a bus at 6:10 tonight to go to Londrina! It will be good to see S. because it has been sooooo long since I last saw him!! Ha ha!

One last photo, here we have some weird "grapes" they are apparently called Japanese grapes, and they have a mixed flavor of grapes and apples. They are actually kind of tasty... when you are really hungry, ha ha!! They are a little starchy but yummy-ish.

Wow, my letter was actually kind of long-ish this week!! I hope I will have more things to share on Sunday when we chat!! We already have a member´s house lined up to chat so everything is a go on our end to talk at 19:00 my time!!!!

love you guys a lot!!

Elder Cummings

More Time in Morangueira: April 28, 2014

Dear Everyone,

1.  Did your two investigators make progress toward baptism this week? Are you staying or leaving Morangueira zone? I’ll answer your two questions together: Still no baptisms this week but Elder B. and I are both staying here. There were only 4 people in the whole zone who were transferred (a lot of the missionaries in the zone were hoping and praying to be transferred because they have been here a long time, but they almost all stayed. By a “long time,” some have been here for 3 transfers with the same companion. I hope that this does not affect the work here in Morangueira. The zone managed to baptize 3 more people this week and I hope that we can continue to baptize every week!!

I think that the next transfer here in 5 WEEKS, people will move around a lot...

Yes, let’s Skype 3 o clock your time, 7 my time on the 11th!!

So the pictures are just of an accounting company in town that is LZ, which is also the abbreviation for Zone Leader in Portuguese.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the birthday present, that will help out a lot when I get back to school!!!!! You are the best!!! I love you!!

I’m glad to know that my driver’s license renewal finally got there, I was going to ask about that this week!!

Hey, Jason, What is your UVU schedule?? Way to go at MoPro little bro!!! Ohhhhh. How’s it going with C? (Parabéns [congratulations]!!! she is the cutest in the group, you’ve done well!!)? Hey, when are you going to get your driver’s license?? You need to be able to drive the girls around, not them driving you around... ha ha…it’s all good, just kidding. But seriously, when are you going to get your license? You have some sweet ties by the way, i am jealous!! I’ll have to give you some old ugly ties to take on your mission! 

So the work is going a little slow here this past week. It is always a little slow the week before transfers, but we are going to catch fire this week!! It seemed as though Elder B. really wanted to leave the area, and a tiny part of me wanted to go too, but our relationship is still good and we are both ready and excited to work!!! We have a lady that has gone to church 2 times now, and the only thing that is impeding her to be baptized is that she smokes, so pray that she can stop and that we can baptize her and her older brother too!! I made a giant baptismal card so we are going to catch "fogo do batismo" (fire of baptisms) this week!!

By the way, now there are 11 zones here in the mission, they divided some zones and made a zone in Tupã.

That’s it for this week!!!

Love you guys a lot!!

Elder Cummings

Tired but Trekking Onward: April 21, 2014

Dear Everyone,

1. Do you want to sub for swim lessons from July 28-August 8. I know you said you weren’t interested in teaching but that was before you knew your return date, and M. really is having a hard time finding anyone to do it. It would be 90 minutes a day and you could stop by and see Grandpa & Grandma when you are done each day if you wanted to (I know they would be glad to see you). I really don´t have any desire to teach lessons at all. I’ll still visit Grandma and Grandpa, but I have other more fun/ religious plans for my morning hours of the day, so I’ll still pass on the teaching lessons gig.
2. You said transfers are next week, do you think you will be getting transferred, or staying in Maringá? Ah, with my track record either me or Elder B. will be transferred because I have 14 transfers and 14 companions... I think there are two options for me, one that I am transferred here in one week, or I will die here. I kinda hope I don’t finish my mission here, but if I do, it’s fine with me too. The house is good, the area is goodish (just really far away), the only problem of the area is that I don’t know any members here still, none here like the missionaries because the other missionaries before fought with the members... but all is well. I’m tired but happy and working até o pó! (until the powder??—must  not translate exactly)
3. How did the mission do on the goal of a White Easter? How did your zone do?? White Easter was "legalzinho" (kinda cool), our zone baptized 4 which is good for our zone, our zone is not well known for baptizing "até o pó." 

I’ll try and call you around 7 Brazil time on Mother's Day, which will be 3 o clock you time. Is that ok? (Remember the time difference is 4 hours)

So here are some photos from Easter (my first ever Easter egg Brasilian style!!! it was/is super good!!!) and me running 31 Km an hour!! But all in all the week was pretty normal, we are going to have a big barbeque today for p-day to celebrate Tiradentes Day, another holiday here in Brasil. 

 (the blur is apparently him running...)

We had 2 investigators at church Sunday that came all by themselves, so maybe we will have more baptisms this coming Sunday! We are working really hard, walking a lot, talking with a ton of people, doing our best. The mission is great, and I love it but there is a reason why it is only 2 years. But don´t worry about me, I’m still working great, I’m still happy, I still get along great with Elder B., I’m healthy, just a little bit tired, but I hope that our barbeque today can fix that!!! J

love you guys alot!!!!

Elder Cummings (BATIZADOR {BAPTIZER}!!!)