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