Working Hard in Apucarana: February 10, 2014

Dear Everyone,

1. Who is your new companion, and where is he from? My companion is Elder P. from Idaho, he was trained by Elder A. in Bauru/Presidente Geisel right after I left there.
2. Is Elder Z. in your zone? His mom mentioned that he was being transferred to Apucarana, but I didn’t know if there is more than one zone in Apucarana or not. Elder Z. is in my zone, there is only one zone in Apucarana.
3. How was ZL training? From reading Elder Schenewark’s letter, it sounds like the APs had a lot of “surprises” and new ideas to share. Yes there were lots of surprises at the zone leader training--for me the only surprise was who would be my companion! (My “son” Elder I. is in my zone now!)

On Monday I went to Londrina and stayed in my old area in Ouro Branco until Wednesday when Elder P. and I went back to Apucarana. It was good to be back in Londrina and it helped the Ouro Branco elders out a lot because they were all new there and didn’t know where anything was. Other than that it was a pretty basic week.

There are now 6 Americans in the zone so I’m not the only one anymore. 4 of the 6 live in our apartment. 

This week the sisters baptized this 54 year old man that I found for them so that was super cool to go there Friday so Elder P. could do his first-ever baptismal interview and I got to chat with him. I couldn’t interview him because I had already taught him one time, but it was so cool to see the change that happened in the 3 weeks since I last saw him. When we see them every day we don’t notice the difference as much, but after a long time it is so much easier to see. When we found him he was sad and depressed and just miserable, but now he is super happy and jokes around and is enjoying life. He even has a girlfriend in the branch now and he wants to get married here in 2 weeks!!!! YEAH!!! It was super cool to see him.

N. made great progress this week the only thing now is to get the permission of her mom to baptize her. She went to church again, but this time she wore a skirt, she went to seminary this week and the Young Women’s activity on Saturday and she wants to go to the FSY activity that will be in March in Curitiba!!! She is super "firme" in the Gospel and the church!!!!

And that is pretty much it. The week passed by like a blur!!! Lots of helping new missionaries get to know their areas, lots of picking people up from the bus station, and lots of crazy busy-ness!! Sorry, there will not be any photos today. I took some really cool ones but left my camera at home. D’OH!!! But next week you will get a double dose of photos!! (lucky for me, I found some pictures of him at zone leader conference…)

love you guys!!

Elder Cummings