Returning to Maringa: March 17, 2014

Dear Everyone,

The big news of the day is I am being transferred back to Maringá, to the Moranguera zone, which is different from the zone I was in when I was in Maringá before. My area is Alvorada A and my new companion is Elder B. (a new Elder B. who Elder C. has not served with before—Marie) I was totally shocked by the transfer! I thought that I was going to stay, but so here we go!!! Elder B. (housemate) will take my spot as zone leader here in Apucarana and Elder S. my former comp will finish the other Elder B.’s training (confused yet?). Those were the only moves in the whole zone, a lot different from last transfer when I was the only one who was not transferred!!!

1. How many transfers are left after this one? If you count the transfer that started today, I have 3 transfers, this one and 2 more. Unfortunately, it is coming down to the end. At the end of this transfer, if you want to you can send me a list of some Brazilian souvenirs that you want me to get and I can start picking that stuff up.
2. Did you ever get your Valentine package? Some of the moms on the Missionary Moms email list were talking about postal strikes in other parts of Brazil, so I did not know if you had a strike going on in your area or not. I might get my package this week or the next one with the transfers and maybe if we have zone conference??? So I’ll let you know when I get it.

I sent my drivers’ license extension to you this week. There is no postal strike here in Apuca, at least not yet.

In my last week in Apucarana, we ALMOST baptized this week. We found this 67 year old man who was an ELECT!!! But, his daughter showed up on Saturday and took him away to live with her in Sarandi (a different city) so it was a bummer to not baptize with Elder P., but I am leaving the area way better than I found it and I did manage to help the zone become one of the best baptizing zones in the mission so that was good!!! Elder P. is a good friend. I’ll be sure to keep in touch with him!!

So here are a bunch of photos!! First off are the two Elder B.’s after sprinting home one night because an appointment ran long. Also we found some puppies abandoned in the street and we took them over to a member who will take care of them so that was cool, also here are some other random photos from the week!!

I don’t know if you already translated the message that you forwarded from P.S., but the last part was for you, Mom:

eu e minha familia somos gratos por seu filho ter nos ensinado sobre a igreja, porque agora eu realmente sei que a igreja é verdadeira. Obrigada novamente

My family and I are grateful for your son teaching us about the Church because now I really know that the church is true. Thank you again!

So that’s pretty much it, I don’t have much news from this week other than I’m going to baptize até o pó in Maringá de novo (until the powder in Maringá again???) so, next week’s letter should be full of events from opening the area!!!!

Love you guys a lot!!!

Elder Cummings

Feeling Calm Leading Up To Transfers: March 10, 2014

Hey Everyone!!!

1. Is there anything you want/need for your birthday? I don’t need anything really for my birthday, everything is fine here maybe if you want to send some snacks or something that would be fine, but I really don’t need anything, maybe just some money in my account
2. Are transfers next week? Yes, transfers are ALREADY coming up next week!
3. How did your FHE go on Saturday? I hope you had a lot of people there. The FHE fell through, the people we invited are super shy and didn’t want to go, and they didn’t go to church but they will make us dinner on Friday, so we have been officially friend-zoned (which means that they just want to be friends instead of investigate the church, just like when you want to date someone but they just want to be friends)!!! UGH!
4. Are you going to be able to print out the drivers’ license form? I could snail mail it to you, but I don’t know that we have that kind of time. Yeah, I’ll print it out today and send it in the mail this week!

As promised, this week we have lots of pizza photos. We made 2 bacon chicken ranch calzones and 5 giant, super-heavy, meat-lovers’ pizzas!!! It cost us 15R each so about 7 dollars each so that was pretty good. Today we are going to play a little b-ball at the church and make Canadian bacon and pineapple pizzas!!!

The week was a pretty normal week; unfortunately the work here is still super slow, we are in desperate need of some great miracles here, but he zone is at least doing better (I got to do one more baptismal interview this week, and she passed and was baptized so now I’m up to 34 interviews where the person passed and was baptized afterwards!!!!). We are always able to find people to go to church and be taught in other areas of the zone, now all we have to do is have that same fire and "lick" in our own area!!!

This is one of the most calm weeks leading up to transfers that I have had on the mission. Normally I get really anxious about transfers but now I am perfectly calm, for me it doesn’t really matter if I stay or if I go, maybe that is because I know that this area is most likely my second to last area and that when I am transferred, I will likely be going to my last area. It also helps that President G. has already said that he will transfer almost no one this transfer so as to not get in the way of MARCH MADNESS and trying to break the mission baptism record. We are not doing so hot right now, well, we are doing good, but just not good enough to break the record. It seems that the good strong missionaries are all leaving but at least the newbies are really good so right now the mission is going through some rough times but it still has a bright future.

Love you lots,

Elder Cummings

Elder Cummings also sent a copy of the letter he wrote to his mission president this week, and a copy of the letter that he and his companion sent out to the entire zone, but I did not feel them to be appropriate to share on the blog. It was, however, an interesting glimpse into the types of things they discuss with their zone members and also with their leader.

Remember the Missionaries In Your Prayers: March 3, 2014

3 March 2014

Dear Everyone:

1. As a zone leader, do you do anything different for P-day? Do you spend p-day with others in your zone (aside from your comp of course) or is it just a normal P-day? (that question is from Dad) On P-day the only difference is that we have to report the zone numbers on the mission website and we have to write the zone letter, so we get an extra half hour in the LAN house (an hour and a half instead on just one hour) but the rest is all normal. Also, sometimes we have phone conferences with all the zone leaders and the assistants some mornings during study time. Today we are going to make pizza and calzones because Elder P. worked in a pizza restaurant before the mission (photos next week).
2. Do you still get fed every day for lunch? (This is Mom’s question…) Yes, we still get fed every day for lunch

Elder P. and I are working great together. I like working with him. He is a great friend and a great missionary!!

So this week was a normal hectic week doing divisions with lots of people, and it paid off because we had lots of people at church here in the zone!! The zone is exploding and will baptize lots of people, the only thing is that our area of the zone hasn’t quite caught fire yet, so we are switching to an area that is close to the church building but has only one member family who lives there, and the missionaries never work there. There is a Catholic Church right in the middle of that neighborhood, it is the second largest in the city, so that might explain why no elder wanted to work there. But it will also explain why we are going to baptize so many people there!!!!!! Please remember us in your prayers that we can find those in this new area who will be receptive to hear our message and bring them to our Family Home Evening that we have planned on Saturday, that would be great!!! (The translation of the writing on the statue is as follows, according to Google Translate: “Tell us the way Jesus, sustain us at every step, lead us to where the Divine Providence wants us to be.”)

The weather this week has been nice and cool and wet, and I am happy and healthy, just not really many things to report this week!!

Hey, major props little bro on the date!!! That was a great idea and she is pretty cute!!! J 

These are adidas insoles that are the same size as my shoes that I picked out of a dumpster!! I washed them off in the washing machine and now they are squeaky clean and super comfy!!! (No, I was not dumpster diving, we just happened to see them as we were walking in the street, they were right on top  and in perfectly good shape so I took them home!!)

Love you guys a lot!!!

Elder Cummings

Kicking it into Overdrive: February 24, 2014

Dear Everyone,

1. Is Apucarana cooler, temperature-wise, than Cascavel? I remember it got pretty cold in the winter when you were there. When I was in Cascavel it got to -4C, but here we are getting an unusually cold summer (YAY!!!!!). Everywhere else it is still hot but here it is nice and cool and rainy!!! (It is almost Seattle weather!!)
2. Do you have a favorite “conversion story” from your mission so far? My favorite conversion story of the mission so far would have to be... D. a young man who I taught in Londrina that had such a hunger for the scriptures, he read the Gospel Principles book in 3 days and after hearing about the promise to be able to more easily learn another language if you read the Book of Mormon in a different language, asked us for a Book of Mormon in English and German. After his baptism he went by himself without us knowing to mark a temple recommend interview with the bishop to do baptisms for the dead. He is super cool.

Jason, I’m glad that your wisdom teeth experience was better than mine!!! That’s good!

As far as the package is concerned I will only know here in a month if it got here or not.

Way to go on the de-cluttering! I am glad the labels helped on the game cords, even I was getting confused, which is why I labeled them!!!!

Oh, by the way, some March Madness updates would be greatly appreciated when that starts up.)

So this week was a normal week, it was nice and chilly and it was a little bit slow as far as the work goes, but the members turned it up a notch and brought 3 people to church for us!!! FINALLY, MEMBER HELP!!! So that is good!

We had a "war counsel" with the missionary couple and the district leaders and we are also going to do a competition for the whole district to see which branch can bring to most friends to church and then baptize them!!! Being zone leader is cool because you are invited to all the cool meetings and stuff!!

We are kicking it into overdrive because March has 5 Sundays and so we are trying to break the mission monthly baptizing record and baptize 231 people this month (our own version of MARCH MADNESS)!!! So, please pray for us to be successful!!! That will be super cool. Unfortunately, we still haven´t baptized but we are going to do our best to baptize lots and lots of people this month (Elder B. and Elder B. baptized yesterday--the first baptism in Elder B.’s mission!!)

N., our investigator who is still not wanting to get baptized yet, is going to seminary, she is going to all the activities by herself, she never missed church and she will go to the GSY camping trip this weekend, so pray for her that it can be a super special experience for her and that she will want to be baptized after the trip!!!!

These are just some fun photo effects that Elder P. can do on his camera. 

And I think that is all...

love you guys!!

Elder Cummings

Preaching in the Rain: February 17, 2014

Dear Everyone:

1. Did you get your Valentines package? No, not yet. I will probably get it at the beginning of the next transfer here in a month
2. Who are the other missionaries in your house? The other 2 missionaries that live with us are Elder B. from Utah and a new Elder B. who is also from Utah
3. How do you & Elder P. get along? Do you speak in English or Portuguese when it is just the two of you? Elder P. and I are good buds!! We end up talking English a lot but we are trying to talk more and more Portuguese.

We fell back this week!!! An extra hour of sleep was super good!!

About time you read Ender’s Game, Jason!!!! (Wait…Jason got his wisdom teeth taken out???) You have got to give me an update on how the date goes, little bro, and if possible send a photo. J

 My second night with Elder P. we bought pizza for his 1 year 2 month and 1 day anniversary.

 The man that the sisters baptized last week.

Our Standard of Liberty that we made to get the zone animated during zone meeting this week.

 This cool building close by our house.

 Because dad said last week that he likes hills better than stairs I thought I would send a photo of one of the little hills that we walk up and down all day every day. 

Preaching in the rain.

This week was actually nice and cool and this coming week should be a little chilly with highs in the mid to upper 80s, but that is way better than 94 every day, I’m so glad that Apucarana is the coolest city in the whole mission!!!!

This week we had a city holiday which was in commemoration of Nossa Senhor de Lurdes (some Catholic saint) they had a giant parade through the city with candles and everything at night while the "padre" read all of the miracles that had supposedly been done in name of this saint!! To us, it was actually pretty darn funny!!

We have this ice cream place close to our house that has the closest thing to a Dairy Queen dipped cone!!! Let’s just say I am a frequent customer!!! J

Oh, and last Monday, I got a little bit of a "trunky" phone call (don’t worry, I’m not trunky yet, I’m still focused and good to go). They were calling to ask me what airport I want to land in when I go home so they can ALREADY buy my tickets...CRAZY!!! I didn’t think to ask what day I am going home, but I guess I will find that out in the next transfer or two.

And, that’s it for another week!

Love you guys!!

Elder Cummings

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

Obeying the Mission Rules: February 3, 2014

Dear Everyone:

1. Transfer news?
2. What was a highlight this week?

I will answer both questions at once. The highlight of the week was transfers. Unfortunately, our baptism for this week traveled and didn’t go to church but we did bring a young woman to church that we will try to baptize this week!!! And as far as transfers is concerned, almost the whole zone got transferred except me and two other missionaries, so Apucarana will get a much-needed fresh start. It will be good, but it will be super complicated because I will travel to Londrina today to help with transfers, and to have leaders’ conference on Wednesday, so Apucarana will have literalmente (literally) zero missionários (missionaries) for 2 days (the sisters are in a neighboring city) so that will be difficult!!!

Also this week, I learned a valuable lesson about obeying the mission rules (and thankfully I did not learn it the hard way). On Tuesday I was on splits with Elder A. That afternoon, our lunch was provided at the elders quorum barbeque, and my companion and the elder he was on splits with went and played soccer while Elder A. (the district leader) and I stayed and just ate before leaving to go back to work. A member told President Genaro that the two of them played soccer, and so my companion is getting transferred and is no longer a zone leader and the other missionary who was going to be a trainer will still be a junior companion instead!! Wow...

No, Jason, you will NOT buy a Super Bowl shirt for me, thankyouverymuch!!!

Wow, it was a pretty busy week for you guys!!! Way to go, Jason, on all the accomplishments this weekend.

Photos this week are of the 70th birthday party celebration of Apucarana, which was January 28, and of the little table we set up on a street corner to get references!!!

Well, I’ve got to go and try and figure out how I will do all the stuff that I have to do! Life of a ZL!

love you guys!!!!

Elder Cummings

P.S. Happy Birthday!! Are you now 48, Mom??? (I’m 47…don’t age me any faster than I am already aging!)

Baptism From On High: January 27, 2014

Dear Everyone

1. So, I take it from your reaction to the news of the Seahawks making it to the Super Bowl, that you do NOT want a t-shirt if they win? When is the Super Bowl?? Who won??
2. Any changes in your zone (or your companionship) due to transfers this week? Transfers are not until next week. It was a 7-week transfer because of the 5-week transfer before Christmas.
3. What was the highlight of your week? The highlight of the week was definitely the BAPTISM!!! It was a baptism from on high!!!

We had zero "firmies" on Thursday and the whole zone didn’t have any possibilities!! (the zone is super mole [weak, soft, or sluggish, according to Google Translate]) but Thursday night at 10:43 a member called us to say that the girlfriend of her son decided to get baptized. The girlfriend has been coming to church for 3 years, already read the whole Book of Mormon and half of the Doctrine & Covenants but never before wanted to be baptized. She asked if we could have the baptismal service the next day (Friday)... ummmm…YES, SURE THING WE CAN BAPTIZE HER TOMORROW!!! And, so she was baptized on Friday and confirmed on Sunday.

We had another really nice lady come to church on Sunday as well, and we will try and baptize her this coming Sunday (she has a baptismal date already marked, the only thing now is Word of Wisdom and the rest of the lessons), so we are catching a little fire here!! Also, we went to a neighboring city called Arapongas to help the sisters there and this man that we found there for them should be baptized if all goes well of course!!! So, the week was all in all a good week!! 

But other than the miracle, this week was pretty much a normal busy, stressful week!! Transfers will be good to shake the zone up a bit!!

Oh, and tell Aunt Dot happy 100^th birthday from me!

Sorry it is so short!!

Love you guys!!

Elder Cummings

These other two pictures were sent without explanation. The sign reads "Council of Ministers, promoting unity in diversity."

Struggling but Moving Forward: January 20, 2014

Dear Everyone,

1. Did the investigator you mentioned last week get baptized? No, she didn´t get baptized this week, she is an English teacher and was swamped with work this week so we didn’t get much chances to teach her and she didn’t go to church on Sunday but we are going to keep working with her 
2. Do you have any other investigators that are promising? Right now we are in a major rebuilding process so we don´t have a lot of investigators right now... 
3. How has your zone done this week? The zone didn´t have any baptisms this week, we really have some struggling missionaries here...more on that below. 

Yes, save the Rubik’s cube for me. I can solve the cube in about 3 1/2 minutes!!

Let’s go Broncos!! The Seahawks can’t win the Super Bowl!!!

On Wednesday the assistants made a surprise visit and on Thursday we had interviews with President Genaro where he burned the heck out of me and Elder P. for being too soft with the missionaries and for losing a little faith. It helped out a lot, the visit by the assistants and the meeting with president really was an answer to my prayers and will really help out my companion and the entire zone!!!! I just hope that President doesn’t demote me at the end of the transfer... (which is possibly next week—by Marie’s calculation) I hope not, because the zone is growing (it was super, super horrible when I got here) but it is still nowhere near President’s or my own expectations for APUCARANA!!! But let’s see, let the Lord’s will be done... 

As for the week, the highlights of the week were the visit from Elder S. and Elder S.P. (the assistants to the president...it is always great to see my bud Elder S.) and the queimação (burning) by President but other than that there is not much to report from the week. Sorry, this week I have plenty of time to talk but nothing to talk about...

I love you guys!!
Elder Cummings

Getting Used to Being Zone Leader: January 13, 2014

13 January 2014

Dear Everyone:

1. So what exactly does “burned” by the APs & President G. mean? Hopefully this week was less “toasty” in that respect. So burned is when...you did something wrong and he scolds you, and, yes, it was much less toasty here this week!
2. How was the ZL training? And your meeting with your own zone? Zone leader training was super cool it mostly just talked about all the new rules and how to help the district leaders do their part!! It was lots of fun to see Elder S. and all the other zone leaders! I am definitely feeling more and more like a zone leader now!! We drove down with the missionary couple who is working here in Apucarana, so that was nice to not lose a whole day of work, since we got to drive down and drive back all on the same day! Elder and Sister L. are a huge blessing here, giving rides here and there, helping out when lunch falls through! It is great to work with them!! Couple missionaries help the younger missionaries a lot!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Any good teaching moments this week? so the miracle of the week was that we are now knocking doors at the casinhas (nice houses, similar to the one in the photo below) and we were led by the Spirit to this tiny street where there is this lady who is super ready to hear the Gospel, she went to church yesterday with her 1.5 year old son and she loved it!! We will be preparing her for baptism this week!!

I got the packages from Aunt P. and from Uncle D. and Aunt K.!!! They were both GREAT and I loved the letters and pictures!!! Tell them thanks!!!! I got a kick over P.’s Google translate, it was all translated right!! J (happy belly!!)

That show was the view from our window one night. The music was really loud but luckily it ended at 10 so we still got good sleep!!

The other photo is the “graffiti of Zion” which is done by the youth group of another church called bola de neve which means “snowball church.” Gag me with a spoon!!!

Sorry that my emails are becoming shorter and shorter but I am becoming more and more stretched with my computer time. As a zone leader we need to pass the numbers of the whole zone on to the mission office, and we write a letter to the zone each week, and our letters to the president are much longer and filled with info on the zone.

I love being a zone leader but it is definitely taking its toll mentally, I am really excited to relax today for p-day! Our house is now nice and clean because we are clearing out all the old, cockroach-infested furniture. It is surprising how big that apartment is without all the trash that we threw out!!

Oh, I have almost learned how to solve a Rubik’s cube!! I will learn and memorize the last 2 steps today!!

love you guys a lot!!

Elder Cummings

Pioneer Handcart Experience: January 6, 2014

Dear Everyone,

1. Did you know Elder T.  when he served there in your mission? All of us back here at home were so sad to hear about his death in the car wreck. A number of returned missionaries, friends from Brazil, and missionary moms (myself included) fasted today for his family. I did not know Elder T. very well, I never served in the same zone as him but I did talk with him a few times, we were all sad here to get the news too.
2. What did Elder P. do before his mission? Was he in school, working, etc.? Elder P. just worked before the mission and went out tracting with the missionaries.
3. Have you conducted any zone meetings yet? How have you been helping your zone this week? We did a zone meeting my first week here and we have leaders’ conference tomorrow in Londrina and will have another zone meeting on Thursday!! But mostly we help out by keeping everyone animated and updated on information from the assistants and being a good example for them, and so far it is working, all of the zone numbers are going up, (we had 3 baptisms in the zone this week) but being zone leader is hard too because when you are just a normal missionary normal you get burned by the district leaders or the zone leaders, but as a zone leader you get burned by the assistants and by the mission president!! Ouch!! We got burned a little bit this week, but nothing out of the ordinary so it is all fine (we are not breaking any rules or anything like that)! 

This week, we had a move from our giant new house to a super tiny apartment which has had missionaries since at least 2002, so it is a little destroyed but still in good shape. On the other side of the street is the giant cathedral at the heart of the city, so we are right in the middle of downtown. We are no longer in the America Branch, we are now back in the Apucarana Branch, which is the same time and building as the Eldorado Branch so I got to see some old friends which was good!! We made the move on New Year’s Eve. The missionary couple who is serving here (to help Apucarana become a stake) helped us with the luggage, but the desk we had to walk down to the new apartment down town (we walked with the desk on our shoulders for about a mile and then we used a shopping kart for the other 2 miles (we returned it afterwards). It was our pioneer handcart experience!!! HAHA (see the attached photos). The other photos are views from various parts of the area.

New Year’s was super rainy here so there were hardly any fireworks, which helped us all get a good night’s sleep!!

That is about it for this week!! 

com amor,

Elder Cummings

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!