Londrina-bound!! August 19, 2013

Dear Family and Everyone,

Elder I. is the bomb! He is really good, and we get along really, really well. It will be sad to leave him after only 6 weeks, but I’m off to new pastures!!! I was transferred to LONDRINA and I will serve in the Ouro Branco (white gold) Ward which is the ward that has the most baptisms in the history of the mission. I will still be district leader and I will still live with the zone leaders, but I will not be training. My new companion is Elder F. B.!! I’m anticipating LOTS OF BAPTISMS!!! I’m super excited!! I will miss the wonderful people of Cascavel, though.

Me and my buddy Robert.

This week was a good busy week, no baptisms unfortunately, but at least we got to go to Palotina to help them have a baptism, and we had interviews with Pres. Genaro on Tuesday (he told me in the interview that I would be leaving!!!)

Me and Elder B. in Palotina. He will stay in Palotina for his 5th transfer, and possibly one more because his companion goes home at the end of this transfer.

Elder W. was transferred to Apucarana again but this Saturday he had his first wedding of investigators as a missionary and we were invited. It was really simple but really nice, too. The next day I interviewed the couple for their baptisms which took place directly after!! That was probably the highlight of the week, besides transfers of course, so luckily since President Genaro had given me the heads up that I would be leaving, I wasn’t super trunky but it was definitely a tough week. As I said, we had lots of things come up that took away from proselyting time, but they were all good things.

I packed my bags last night after planning, even though I didn’t officially learn that I would be transferred until right now (that’s called faith!!) so now i have the whole p-day to relax!! Tomorrow I will make lots of PB&J sandwiches for the nice easy 10-hour bus ride to Londrina!! Yeah baby!! I get on the bus at 11 and get off at 8:30, but at least I will get to sleep in my new house tomorrow night!!

Great job on the floor!! It matches so well the rest of the wood flooring, I thought at first that you had done the dining room too when I saw the photo!! Speaking of the floor, that's where I slept for our "slumber party missionary style" in Palotina this week.

Not much more for this week, but I am sure next week’s letter will be much longer!!

Lots of love,

Elder Cummings

P.S. I leave you with one more picture from the “Palotina Photo Shoot.”

Is it Really My Best? August 12, 2013

Dear Everyone,

Italic comments by Marie, Missionary Mom!

1. Have you gotten the box with the deodorant (among other things)? It made it to Londrina on July 16, so I hope so. Yes, I got the package!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! It was excellent!!! Thank you again!!
2. Do you need a shoulder bag? We happen to have picked one up from one of our missionaries. I don’t need the shoulder bag, I’m fine thanks!!
3. What is Brazilian ice cream like? Different from U.S. ice cream? If so, how is it different, and do you like it? Brasilian ice cream is almost the same as American ice cream, just that it is not quite as creamy, and the flavors are more artificial.
4. Are you still working with your young converts’ parents? I know when they were baptized, you mentioned they were not married but you were hoping it would happen so that they could be baptized. The parents said that they would go to church these past 2 weeks, and we stopped by there Sunday morning and they said that they were getting ready and would be there shortly but both weeks never went, so we are going to work a little less with them. I passed it on to the Primary President to visit them and we will pass by like once a week, but they are not making any progress at the moment unfortunately!

So this week was not a good week for dogs here in Cascavel, we saw/witnessed 2 get hit by cars and another dog of a ward member got a brain virus and had to be put down...

My lunch last Monday. Are you impressed? Yes, I ate all the bananas!

The work here is really slow right now, we are having great difficulty bringing anyone to church right now. We are calling everyone, passing by Sunday morning and arranging rides but still no one is going, we only had one 10 year old who went to church this week. Pray that he can be baptized this coming Sunday and also pray that I won't get too trunky (ready to leave) because transfers are this next Monday and I have been here in Cascavel a long time!

That is a great quote that Sister S. sent! Wow!! (So great, that I’ll repeat it here!)

"There might be a more exciting time to go on a mission, but I don't know when that would be....you all must have done something right in the council in heaven." He also told us that the prophets from the other dispensations knew that they would fail, that ultimately the gospel would be lost from the earth and that the people would enter into apostasy, but that they could keep preaching, they could keep singing praises to our Father in Heaven because they knew that we would not fail."—Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

From a recent zone conference
(gotta love how the elders are all goofy and the sisters are smiling sweetly)

It looks as though the kitchen project is coming great!!!

Jason, I have had a change of heart since last week about UVU when I said I didn’t think you should go there. I wrote you one letter, but then I decided to start over, putting aside my BYU Superiority Syndrome. UVU would be great for you, BYU for me is a perfect fit, maybe UVU is this perfect fit for you. My main concern is that it will be a little bit more costly because you will pay out of state tuition but other than that UVU is fine (BYU is better of course…ha ha…). And, it would mean that you would be a lot closer to me at BYU and you could come over and hang out at my apartment, or go to BYU sports and other BYU activities with me. So, that’s a big plus! Pray about it and follow your heart/follow the Spirit. Pray a lot about whether you should go on a mission or college first! Forget yourself and do the will of the Lord. Good luck! Love you! GO COUGARS!!! BYU!!!

And, speaking of BYU, that is so odd what BYU is planning to do with putting those slogans on the jerseys! Either have the names or put nothing. You will have to let me know what people think once it happens.

Like I said, not a whole lot happened this week. Sorry it´s kind of short, it seems like each week I have less and less to share and also less and less time to do it!! I’m doing my best, but at the same time, I’m not sure if it really is my best. I want to continue to contribute, and to keep climbing the ladder so to speak, but I’m not sure if I am ready yet. At least it isn't me that has to know, or make the decision, luckily the One making all the choices knows everything!!

lots of love!

Elder Cummings!

P.S. Thought you’d be glad to know that I am no longer in the country “illegally.” My visa expired 6 months ago but it is all taken care of now. (I don’t know that he was ever in any sort of trouble; this is probably pretty much how it goes for all American missionaries in Brazil. At least that is what I tell myself to not worry)

One Year In: August 5, 2013

Dear Everyone:

First off, holy cow!!! How tall is Jason now?? He looks huge!! The whole family is so different than when I left!! I loved the photos for you guys at the W’s home (how come there aren’t any photos of Bro. W. or Dad? (Bro. W. was at work in Vegas, and Dad was taking the photos—Marie.)

(The picture we sent to Elder Cummings. No, that is NOT Elder W. It is his twin brother, who leaves for his mission later in August.)

To celebrate one year I bought a pizza. It is somewhat of a tradition.

Dad, it´s good that you got to go to Capriotti’s twice during the trip because you need to be eating better now to lose some weight for when I get back home!

Jason, you broke a 5 minute in the mile run...?!! Wow that´s pretty good. I´ll write another letter to send to you in a photo this next week explaining why I’m not a huge UVU fan, I don´t have much time this week!

This week I don´t have time to write a personal email to them but send Amber, Grandpop, and Uncle Cliff a happy happy birthday from me.

Thanks for the great letter this week!! It was awesome to hear about your trip to Vegas. Sorry I don´t have much to say this week again, we still didn’t have a baptism here but we worked really hard this week and all of our weekly numbers were better than last week. This coming week someone is going in the water, I don’t know who but someone is!! (Pray for S., J., and a miracle!!!!)

What are your new callings in the ward??? What is the name and information about the new ward? I need to inform the mission secretaries of the ward change!

This week I ate some new things, for breakfast this week I always made a sausage, egg and chicken heart sandwich (chicken hearts are super yummy)! I also got to eat cow heart at a barbeque this past week and it was surprisingly good, I like the chicken hearts better though!! Elder W. and I just happened to find some cow heart and cow tongue in the supermarket, and decided to take a picture. Little did we know we were going to eat cow heart later on in the week!!

This week we had 2 baptisms in the district so I’m proud of them but I want to baptize so bad! But it is good that at least the district is doing well! I really like doing baptismal interviews and traveling to Palotina to help them out! I love sacrificing for the district!!

So, that’s it for this week,

Love you guys a lot!!

Elder Cummings

Three Days of Winter: July 29, 2013

29 July 2013

Dear Family and Everyone,

1. Did you really get SNOW in Cascavel this week?? Yes, this week we did get the weakest snow flurry in the history of the world and some hail showers but now it is right back up into the mid 70´s. It was nice to have a full 3 days of winter!!
2. What are your thoughts and feelings on the mission at the halfway point? Are you planning a celebration? (take pictures, of course) I will probably buy a pizza, yes I’ll be sure to take pictures but probably it will be just a regular day. I plan on celebrating more on Sunday with BAPTISM!!! At this one year point on the mission, my thoughts are that it will be really strange to go back to civilian life! This time next year I will already have a week or so at home already!! I’m thinking a little bit more about home now that I have 1 year and because Elder W. is almost “dying” (going home) so on P-day we talk about college and girls and stuff and it is weird that my “son” (Elder I.) won’t go home until 2015!!! It is kind of surreal that the mission is halfway over already, I’ve got a lot of work to do still, that´s for sure!!

This week was a pretty normal week, the only abnormal thing was that the work here is abnormally slow. We did get 2 new bishopric counselors, we finally have a ward secretary, and finally have a Gospel Principles teacher and assistant ward mission leader!!! So thing are looking up with the ward, but the missionary work here in Ward 3B is really slow. 3A is doing amazing right now and we are going to try and catch that wave and also try and help Palotina catch fire as well, we are trying to get the whole district to baptize this week!!!

President Genaro called me Saturday night to see how things are going and if we were going to baptize, I never felt so bad in my life, because we are trying hard, we are being obedient, but I’m not sure that I am giving my 100%, so this week we are really going to bring the hammer down and baptize everyone!! We just need to get these 3 kids to stop smoking, so pray for J., W., and L. so that they can keep the Word of Wisdom and be baptized this week, also pray for another J. so that he can baptize this week also!!

Last Monday night, we didn’t have any toilet paper in the house so we used the bathroom at the super mufatto and I told Elder I. to get a little extra to use in the house, as you can see our ideas of what is a little extra are very different!!! HAHA

Thanks for the great letter. Yes, I am totally shocked at the news that they dissolved the ward!!! And that all the wards will have names now!! HOLY COW!!!

This week was Festa Julina on Saturday. Translated, it is July Festival, to commemorate all the Catholic saints, but at the Church it is more of a harvest festival. I ate a lot of sweets and a non-alcoholic version of a drink called quentão, which was pretty good!!

So I’m running out of time this week, lots of thing to do and such little time!!

love you lots!!

Elder Cummings

SNOW???!???

One of the ward members in Elder Cummings' ward sent me this link with a news story about snow flurries in Cascavel.  From what I understand, snow is completely unheard of in Brazil.

It's Hard to Type With Frozen Fingers: July 22, 2013

Dear Everyone:

1. Do you teach the new member lessons or is that handled by the ward mission leader? New member lessons are handled by the ward mission leader or the ward missionaries. We teach the Gospel Principles Sunday School class, so we do a little of the new member lessons that way.
2. Do you have to pay to use the LAN house? How much does it cost? It is about 3R a week when we print out 1 sheet of paper.
3. What do you do for so many hours on a bus (going from Cascavel to Londrina, for example)? Do you just talk to your companion, do you talk to other people on the bus? On the bus we talked and slept, or at least tried to sleep, during the trip!
4. How is Elder I.’s training going? Has he had an easier time picking up Portuguese? Does he speak any English? He is going great, he speaks some tiny words of English here and there, his Portuguese is coming slowly but steadily. He uses a ton of Spanish so I understand him really well but others have difficulty understanding him! Because he is training, we have extra study time each day! It is kind of nice to not have to leave the house until lunch time but at the same time it is kind of annoying.

Already planning for my apartment... I’ve still got a year (and I haven´t decided if I will go back to school right away or not...)

Way to go on the Eagle project little bro, I’ll send you a snail mail letter to answer your questions about the pros of going right away on a mission vs. the pros of going to school for a year.

On to the week’s news...this week was pretty normal, I am loving the cold weather. After a full year of summer it is good to be cold again!!  It is also getting rainy, as you can see from this picture.

We ate pizza 2 times this week which was good!! (stroganoff pizza is really good!!!) I thought I’d send you a picture of the way to the bathroom of a tiny mercado (market)!! It was a pretty cool tunnel to get there, so I thought it would be a good picture!! It reminded me of the Seattle Underground tour we went on with Aunt Paula a few years ago.

Sorry for the super short letter, 1) there isn’t much news to share and 2) my fingers are frozen and it is hard to type (no one in Brasil has heating...not even the LAN House).

Love You!!

Com amor,

Elder Cummings

Trainador! July 15, 2013

Dear Everyone:

So, here we go, I´ll read your new letter here in a little bit, but here are the past week updates and questions answered!!

1. Have you met President Genaro yet? I met him this past week 2 times, one at the mission home and the other at our zone conference in Foz do Iguaçu (we didn’t go to the falls...) He is great! His son is super cool, too. I’m good friends with him already!
2. Are there any sisters in your zone? If so, where are they from? We have 2 pairs of sisters in the zone. They are all from Brasil.
3. Did any of your 3 potential baptisms that fell through last week happen this week? M. was baptized last week, as it sounds like you already know, and was confirmed yesterday and is super happy!!! We didn´t baptize this week because of all the bus travel, but hopefully this next week we will baptize!!

I’m so sorry that I didn´t get to write you last week, it was because (as probably you’ve already heard) I was called to train!!!!!!!! I had to travel a good 11 hours to Londrina and then a good 9 hours back to Cascavel!! My new companion is Elder I. from Peru!! He is the only Peruvian missionary in the mission, and maybe the first one too. Get this: most of his family lives in Salem and Woodburn, Oregon! It was great to be able to tell him about Great-granny and Great-papa living there, and that I had been there many times. He is really good, and we work well together. I like him! As a Trainador (trainer) I am definitely feeling the pressure!, I can only imagine how Elder S. feels going from junior companion to Senior Companion-District Leader-Trainador all at the same time!! But, I know he is up to it. It is good.

 Elder I., Elder Cummings, Elder S.'s greenie, and Elder S.

We spent soooo much time on the bus this week! After getting back to Cascavel on Wednesday, on Friday we took a nice 2 1/2 hour bus ride to Foz do Iguaçu for zone conference and then rode another 2 1/2 hours back to Cascavel…YAY??!! At the zone conference, we had a belated birthday celebration for everyone who had birthdays!! (Sister Genaro’s birthday is May 14, and our recent convert is May 12.—Elder C’s birthday is May 15--Marie)

To answer Dad’s question from this week, yes, I am still district leader in addition to my training duties!!

So really other than that I went to the trainers meeting and got my greenie and then went to zone conference. Not a whole lot happened because the rest of the time I was on the bus... but yeah everything is good. I’m really happy, I’m glad to still be here with Elder W. for at least 6 more weeks (we are up to 5 transfers living in the same house up until now!!! yeah buddy!!). This photo of Elder I., me, and Elder W. is our generation photo. We have son (greenie), father (trainer), and grandfather (trainer’s trainer) living in the same house. YEAH! J

I don’t have any more time, so until next week!! Sorry it wasn’t a whole lot of news for 2 weeks!

Com amor/lots of love,

Elder Cummings

A Lesson In Patience

This post by Marie, Elder Cummings' mother, and your humble editor.

Yesterday, I was able to read the letter that Elder Cummings' CTM companion, Elder Schenewark, wrote, in which he said that both he and Elder Cummings were called to be trainers. A trainer is a senior companion who is paired with a missionary who has just finished their time at the CTM (missionary training center). They are responsible for getting that missionary up to speed in the roles and responsibilities of a missionary, acclimating them to mission life, and leading by example. It is very exciting that Elder Cummings and Elder Schenewark, who were the only two missionaries in their CTM to come to Londrina, were made trainers at the same time. They will both be excellent trainers!

Elder Schenewark and Elder Cummings almost a year ago, as their CTM time was coming to an end.

We also learned from Elder Schenewark's letter that the trainers were called to Londrina for a meeting on Tuesday, July 9. This would be an easy journey for Elder Schenewark, who is serving in a stake in Londrina itself, but meant at least a 7-hour bus ride from Cascavel for Elder Cummings. After the meeting, the trainers would be assigned their new companions (aka "greenies"), and my guess is that Elder Cummings and his new companion spent Wednesday, July 10 traveling back to Cascavel. Tune in on Monday to find out how accurate my guess was.

This evening I got a brief Facebook message from a ward member in Cascavel letting me know that Elder Cummings had asked her to pass the word that we should not expect an email from him this week. While disappointing, it is understandable, under the circumstances. We are proud of his new responsibility as a trainer, and are excited for Monday's letter, as I hope you are too!

Special Assignment: July 8, 2013

This message was in my inbox this morning. Elder W. was Elder Cummings' trainer in Apucarana, and now lives in the same house as Elder Cummings, though they both have different companions now. I waited to post it in hopes that Elder Cummings would have had a chance to email us this afternoon, but it is 6:30 p.m. Brazil time right now, so I think we will have to wait until the morning to get all the details. I'm very glad he got even this much word to me, so I wouldn't stew over why I hadn't heard from him. Can't wait until tomorrow to learn all about this "special assignment!"

Hi, Elder W. speaking, your son has been called to a special assignment and will be writing you a little later today or tomorrow morning. He is spectacular and a huge blessing in my life. I don't know anyone that is more selfless than him. Oh. and he baptized yesterday!

Love, 

Elder W.

So much to wonder about in this message? Is it a one-time special assignment? A new position of responsibility? This was my reply to Elder W.:

WOW—whatever it is, I am excited for Elder Cummings and can hardly wait to hear the news. If it means leaving Cascavel and no longer being in the same house as you, I am sure this new assignment is bittersweet but I can also imagine how excited he is. You and Elder Cummings will be lifelong friends!

We are so proud of him, and so very, very glad that you were his trainer. We are so grateful for your love and example. You got him off on the right foot as a missionary, so I hope you are proud of his accomplishments. I am looking forward to meeting your mom at the end of this month and giving her a gigantic hug. Want me to give her one for you??

Love,

Sister Cummings

He quickly replied back with the following. And this, truly, is all we know at this point.

Yes, please! The good news is that he will stay here in Cascavel with me!!! Thanks so much for everything!--Elder W.

Adventures in Laundry: July 1, 2013

1 July 2013

Dear Everyone:

1. Are you counting D. and C. (from Bauru) as two of your 17 baptisms? I only have 15 on my list. Of course D. and C. are my baptisms!!! (The reason I asked this is because D. & C. are a married couple that he was teaching, and would have baptized, if he had not been transferred that week from Bauru to Cascavel. I did not know if the fact that they were baptized after he left Bauru counted as being his specific baptisms.)
2. How did you fare with the parents of the girls you baptized this week? With the mom, I woke up every day at 5:30 to call and remind her not to drink coffee and she was really good and didn’t drink and was praying a ton and reading the Book of Mormon at like 4 in the morning, and was getting ready to be baptized this week, but Saturday night they had to go to another city because a relative had an health emergency... Sai Satanas (Get Out, Satan), but we will get her this next week, the dad is really timid and isn’t reading right now, so it will take some more time with him.
3. How close to 200 baptisms did the mission come in June? We baptized 168 in June which at least was a new mission record!
4. When do you expect to meet President Genaro? We might get to see him this next week if he actually gets around to doing zone conferences like he plans, but we will wait and see, he has a TON of work to do to learn how to run a mission, it should be fun!!
5. How are your garments and socks holding up? Socks and garments are fine! I´m a little low on deodorant, last stick was opened this week. Also, if you are going to send a package, American snacks are always welcome!!! Tipo (?—no idea what that is—Marie)... Cheez-its, um... holy cow, I’ve forgotten a lot of snack foods!!!!! NOOOOO... well in any case you know what ones I like, so surprise me!!

This baptism picture is actually from last week’s baptism. 

This week was lots of running around, lots of miracles found that then fell to pieces on Saturday night. We had 3 people lined up to be baptized, 2 more for the zone leaders, and all 5 fell through... it was kind of hard but we will just keep going!! This week was tough because of the Confederations Cup. For some reason, no one wants to hear about the gospel when Brasil is playing Italy or Spain... strange... So that was hard because 3 days this week there were big soccer games and it was hard to teach, but the finals were yesterday, Brasil destroyed Spain 3-0 and now we are in the clear to find lots of new investigators!!

I´m sorry to hear that lots of the inactive people in our ward are so anti-Church now. I know how it is working with less active members. A lot of times it takes forever for them to come back and lots of times it is for the stupidest reasons that they stopped... but it is really great to see them back at church when they do return so that is good!!

Other than that it was a pretty normal week, we deep-cleaned the entire house this week, destroying the black mold that has been growing on all of our tile walls, and getting rid of 1-inch or 2-inch thick mold from the backs of the cupboards!!!

Oh, and this is how we roll on p-day: chimarrao (drink), chocolate, Monopoly Deal (super fun!!), and we heat a ton of hot dogs and eat them with French bread!!! Yeah, we are super cool… J

I LOVE HUMIDITY AND COLD!!! It would be so nice, though, to have a clothes dryer or even just heaters!! This is what happens when you dry your socks in the microwave and put them in for too long. Yeah, we are that desperate to dry our clothes here, it has been raining so much that nothing dries!!

I think that´s about it for this week!!

Love you guys!!

com amor,

Elder Cummings

Missionary Zeal: June 24, 2013

Hey there everyone!!!

Super sorry, I forgot my camera today when I left to go to the LAN house but at the same time I don´t have any photos from this week. It rained all week and was pretty darn cold, the only photo worth sending home is the photo from our baptism this week!!

This week we baptized R., the sister of P., our baptism from last week. Last week was her first time going to church and she watched her sister get baptized. When we stopped by their house Sunday night, we asked her how she liked church and she said that she liked it a lot and wanted to be baptized too...after a pause (we were a little bit slow because this normally doesn’t happen) we signed the form and that Thursday she was baptized during the ward activity!!! This week will be the parents’ turn, we hope. Pray for them that they can stop drinking coffee and not be afraid to be baptized!! They are really great!!

Elder F. and I are good, we are friends but we have our rough spots, like any companionship. One moment he can be super animated and singing hymns in the street, and the next minute he is mad at me and walks on the other side of the street. But, the important thing is that we are able to work together, and we are baptizing a lot, so it is all good!!! I have 17 baptisms now, the average number of baptisms for a missionary serving in Brasil is 18 (this is in 2 years), and the mission average for my mission is 22 in 2 years so I am being truly blessed by the Lord!! I do not say this to brag, I know that without Him and without being obedient to the rules of missionary service, I would not have been blessed to have already found these 17 souls. Like Ammon in the book of Alma, “Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.” (Alma 26:12)

Yes I saw the worldwide missionary broadcast it was super good, the only thing I am worried about is the use of computers and Facebook. I am glad that they will start it off in phases and I hope it will probably take a while to reach Brasil, which is good. I hope it doesn’t cause lots of problems with pornography and flirting with investigators and recent converts, unfortunately this (flirting) is already a problem with some missionaries. I just hope that this doesn’t hurt the work, but it is coming from the prophet so it is coming from God, so it will all work out!! J About the guided tours of our buildings, this will be an excellent tool to help people get to know the church!! Elder S.’s brother (in another mission in Brasil) is already doing the guided tours and with a little more than a year on the mission, he has 150 baptisms and is the record holder for his mission already!!

There has been some protesting here in Cascavel, but it is really far from my area so it is all good. Elder W. and Elder S. got separated for half an hour because of the protestors when they were coming back from doing a baptismal interview (by the way, I did 2 more interviews this week!!!).

Way to go, Ed! Two-time Ironman is so cool! Maybe he will have his third Ironman by the time I get home.

Dad, work with these inactive prospective elders!!! This is a gold mine!! Also, work with the list of members not baptized!!! (This means families that have become inactive that have kids of baptismal age!!) Correr atrais de todo mundo!! Run behind everyone!! Which means, contact everyone on the list go there with the missionaries, have the missionaries teach them in our home!! Seriously, the missionaries with a well-organized list of these 40 prospective elders and inactive families with kids of baptismal age don’t need to proselyte!! Seriously, I promise you, that if you contact everyone, go there with the elders and have them teach in our house, that the ward will gain many new families in these coming WEEKS!!!!!

Two of my baptisms in Geisel (Bauru) were kids of an inactive mother if you remember. We baptized them and reactivated her!!! This is a great tool!! Use it!! I expect to hear news of at least one new family that was baptized here in two weeks—that means bringing at least one family to church this Sunday and baptizing/re-activating a family the next week!!) I can’t stress this enough, our ward can baptize so many people and reactivate so many people just by bringing back the lost sheep. I promise that through prayer and fasting you will be able to choose the people who are ready to come back and here in a few weeks you will no longer have problems filling callings. A lot of times less-active or inactive members are willing to accept callings, don’t be afraid to call a less-active member to a position. This is another way to bring FAMILIES back to the Lord!!! You’re the man!! Fill the missionaries’ planners!!! SO BATIZA!!! Just baptize!! 

lots of love!!!

Com amor,

Elder Cummings

Zone Conference in Foz do Iguacu! June 18, 2013

Dear Everyone,

Sorry this is a day late, but as you know, yesterday our zone went to Foz do Iguaçu! It was AMAZING!!! I sent some of the best photos that showed the widest views, but I took over 100 photos, so there will be a lot more to share when I get back home!!!

To answer your questions here really quickly before I get to the pictures:

1. Jason is sitting at his computer working on his dictator research paper that is not due until Wednesday, but his goal is to have it ready to submit to turnitin.com after the essay final tomorrow. He wants to know what dictator you did your research paper on when you were in Oliveira’s class? I don’t know who I did my dictator paper on to tell the truth!  
2. How many companions are in your district? Where do they all live/serve? There are 3 companionships in my district: me and Elder F., Elder W. and Elder S., (the zone leaders) (we work here in the 3rd Ward), and Elder B. and Elder A. who work in Palotina which is a city 2 1/2 hours from Cascavel.
3. How many baptismal interviews did you do this week? And on a related note, who interview your baptismal candidates? I hope that at least some of your 8 good candidates were ready and able to be baptized this week.  I did only 1 interview this week. The zone leaders do my interviews for my baptismal candidates!! We baptized only one of the 8, this week. Her name is P., and she is 15 and my first baptism from a member reference. The older brother of her member friend baptized her, and Elders S. & W. baptized the lady on the left in the picture. We are going to baptize P.’s sister this coming Sunday and their parents soon as well (they are married—Yes!)

 Now without further ado, this week’s pictures! (Sorry this is so short…)

 This is the color change that has come to pass because of the sun on my backpack!! (from gray to pink)

P.’s baptism. The man between her and me is the friend who baptized her.

FOZ DO IGUAÇU, one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World!

The van that was supposed to pick us up at 5 in the morning was late, so we passed the time by chronicling our awesomeness by taking photos in the foggy street!!!

Me and Elder W. in front of the sign before going into the park.

Me with the little tiny waterfalls in the background!! The big ones are yet to come!

Some more of our missionaries in front of the medium sized waterfalls!!!

The Devil´s Throat!!! The giant waterfalls!!

Me, Elder S., and Elder W. in front of the medium falls. You get a little bit wet because of all the spray!!

Sister T., me, and President T. The sun was bright!

Top view of the waterfalls from the observation tower.

Com amor,

Elder Cummings

And Now A Word from Our Sponsor

Sister Tavares, the mission president's wife, is seriously awesome!  This is the message she left on the Facebook page this morning so all of us worrywart mothers wouldn't freak when we didn't receive emails today (or until later today).

Queridas mães que tem os filhos trabalhando em Foz do Iguaçu ou Cascavel. Hoje eles estarão reunidos em Foz do Iguaçu e terão uma mini conferência de zona pela manhã e à tarde eles irão conosco até as Cataratas. Provavelmente eles escreverão o e-mail no final da tarde ou amanhã de manhã. Desculpe-nos o transtorno. Todos estão bem. 

Com amor,

Sister Tavares

Google translator:

Dear mothers who have children working in Foz do Iguaçu and Cascavel. Today they will be meeting in Foz do Iguaçu and have a mini zone conference in the morning and in the afternoon they will us to the falls. Probably they will write the email in the late afternoon or tomorrow morning. Sorry for the inconvenience. All are well.
With love,

Sister Tavares

I am SO EXCITED that he gets to visit the Falls today, and grateful that he will get to enjoy one final zone conference with the amazing President and Sister Tavares.  They end their mission on July 1, and I will be sad to see them go.

First Baptism in Cascavel: June 10, 2013

Dear Everyone,

Answers first:

1. In last week’s letter when you were explaining some of your District Leader duties, you said, “I was called this week as district leader here in Cascavel!! This means that I need to accompany everyone on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and get their weekly numbers on Sunday by telephone.” What does it mean to “accompany everyone…”? Essentially that means I need check in with the other companionships in the district to see how their day went, see if they have people that committed to go to church, people that will be baptized this week, mark baptismal interviews (I did 3 more interviews this week!!!), and just generally make sure that everything is going good with them!
2. You also mentioned that the mission goal for baptisms this month is 200. What is the current average monthly baptism rate for your mission? The average is a little more than 100 per month, which is a little low, but we are going to do everything to get 200 this month. Elder F. and I have 8 good prospects in our area to be baptized this week and Elder W. and Elder S. have a lot as well. We are the smallest zone but we are baptizing the most!!!

Elder—uhhhh, I mean Mister—B. is great!!! You will like him a lot for AP Government, Jason!! (Oh, have you gotten my package yet??!!) Thanks for the photos!! Dad was a stud on the mission!!!

Being district leader is definitely tough, having to travel to do baptismal interviews and sacrificing time that we could be contacting and teaching for the sake of the district, but it is sooooo good at the same time. I am so proud of my district, we were the only district in the entire mission to have each companionship have at least one person baptized this week!!!

Here is a photo of the new zone*!! We are the smallest and youngest zone in the mission!!! Yes, we are cool!! (*I am not sure if he means zone or district)

Elder S. (Elder W.’s companion) and me cleaning out the baptismal font…you know what that means…

BAPTISM!!!!!!

I finally broke out of my slump and we baptized these two kids, V. and K., they are super legit!!! We didn’t baptize the parents yet because they are not married, but they are super legit, too. They should be married and baptized here in a couple of months!! K. (the younger one) was scared of getting in the water because it was ice cold, but his dad was right there with him, and almost went in the water with him!! This family is super awesome... I’m thinking they have 4 future missionaries!!!!!!

Thanks for the words of advice from Elder Wirthlin’s talk. I am starting to gain a stronger testimony of the fast now. It is like L. Tom Perry said, the most important commandment for us is the commandment that we have the most difficulty with!!

We found this portal that took us to the hidden cow level!!!

This week, other than the baptisms not a whole lot happened. I know now that I love Tabasco sauce—it is super good!! (We are going to make quesadillas with it today....mmm!!!)

I think that is all for now! love you guys!!

com amor,

Elder Cummings!!

P.S. Pray for our 8 potential candidates for baptism this coming week!! Vamos par acima!! Vamos pegar fogo!!!! (We pair up, we’ll catch fire!!)

Life of a District Leader: June 3, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. Are any Londrina missionaries going to the new missions? No Londrina missionaries will go to other missions.
2. Will there be any sort of mission conference(s) when President T. leaves and the new mission president arrives? We should have a zone conference with President T. this coming week (week of June 10).

Nice shirt, little bro (it doesn't have a pocket…mind is blown…)!!! Congrats on the seminary pin and everything!!! Great job on the gym, Dad, keep it up!!

So on to the week’s news (I actually have a bunch to report today which is nice!!):  first off... happy 50th birthday old man!!! J (Speaking of birthdays, when is Elder S.´s birthday? He sent me a birthday card and I want to be sure not to miss sending him a birthday card!!)

I was called this week as district leader here in Cascavel!! Wow!! This means that I need to accompany(?) everyone on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and get their weekly numbers on Sunday by telephone. Also I do all the baptismal interviews for everyone in my district, so this past Saturday I traveled with my companion 2 1/2 hours to Palotina to do a baptismal interview. He passed and was baptized yesterday, so that was great. He was super ready and I had done a practice with the zone leaders earlier that day (talk about pressure doing a fake baptismal interview with your trainer and one of the old assistants to the president watching and critiquing every move!!) so the real interview was smooth as butter!!! And I will probably need to go out there again this Friday to interview one more and the zone leaders have already marked an interview for them this Saturday!! We are starting to catch fire here as a district, the only thing now is that we need to baptize, we almost had a baptism but he didn´t feel ready and we tried to help him out but he was firm that he will get baptized just not today, (hopefully this week will be better!!) This is the “Month of 200,” where our goal as a mission is to baptize 200 people. With the month having 5 Sundays it gives us a better chance to reach the goal. It is President T.’s last month, and all stops are out to try and finally reach 200 baptisms in a month in his honor. When President T. first started as mission president, the mission was baptizing 20 to 25 people per month. That is like a stateside mission!!! He is the best, and it will be so different without him here.

Me and my companion waiting for the 8:20 bus back to Cascavel.

When we were coming back from the interview on Saturday night, we had to get the 8:20 bus, which is the last bus of the day, and we got the last 2 seats!!! We got back home in bed around 11:15 but it is all good because we got permission from the APs to be out later in order to do the interview.

Can you scan and send me a photo of dad on his mission??!!!!

Some other fun facts from this week:

• Elder F. is from Rio and is super energetic... like a little ball of energy!! He is awesome.
• We tried ordering pizza from Foz do Iguaçu by accident. Didn’t get it.

One of Elder W.’s investigators who is friends with some of the YM in the ward was caught with a bunch of marijuana and went to jail this week. (I don´t think he will be baptized on his baptismal date...)

When we ate lunch with the Bishop this week, he invited us to eat in the house of another member with him, we thought it would be perfect “tranquilo,” but when we get there what was going on? It was a lunch activity for the YSA sisters from the ward...ha ha, we ate outside by ourselves!!! It was pretty funny, actually!

Pray that we can baptize someone this week and that we can bring lots of people to church this coming Sunday. I don´t know why, but Fast Sunday is the day when everything goes wrong, baptisms fall through, investigators don´t come to church, members bear their testimony about baptisms for the dead (which just confuses any investigators who do come to church), LUNCH FALLS THROUGH!!! I don't like Fast Sundays at all... I am trying my best to gain a testimony about fasting, I always pray so hard and fast with a purpose but nothing right ever happens, it kind of stinks!!

Love you guys!!

Vamos Para 200!!! (go to 200, or get 200)

com amor,

Elder Cummings

Senior Companion: May 27, 2013

Dear Everyone:

1. Tell us about the activity where you served the popcorn. The picture was from the ward activity we put on this past Thursday called SHOW MORMON!!! It was really fun, it was like Jeopardy, with different categories of questions that people had to answer.
2. Are transfers this week? Yes, transfers are this week. I will stay here and Elder M. will go to Londrina. I will get a missionary named Elder F. from Rio who just finished being trained, so I will be the senior companion!! Whoo-hoo!! Elder F. (my old comp, who was living in the same apt. with me and Elder M.) is also going to Londrina, but Elder W. (my trainer) is staying. We did not have interviews with the President this week, maybe this coming week.

Me and Elder W. serving popcorn and juice at our SHOW MORMON! Ward activity.

New basketball shorts and goodies from the B. family! Gotta love mail day.

I got the package with the basketball shorts, and the package from the B. family!! Happy birthday to me all over again. I’ll try and send a thank you letter to them this week, but it may have to wait for next week since this is transfer week. But it was such a fun package to get! And, thanks for the BYU Men’s Chorus music that you sent on the USB with the basketball shorts. It’s really good! I am building up quite a missionary-approved music library that I will pass on to Jason when I get back!!

Wow lots of news this week!!! Crazy stuff!! I’m sorry to hear about the bridge and the tornado and the Boy Scouts decision.

Sorry, there’s not a lot new to talk about right now this week other than I got to teach the Gospel Principles Sunday School class this week for the first time ever, so that was cool!!

Recognize the tie?? Be sure to tag Mr. D. in this picture when you post it on Facebook.

I’ll try to document everything that happens on my first week as a senior to share with you guys in next week’s letter. Pray for me that I can lead well and follow the Spirit to help this ward and area grow and have a baptism here in 2 weeks!!!

com amor,

Elder Cummings

P.S. Are you guys planning on picking me up at the end of my mission?? Because as of right now, I don’t know about that. I will probably be more than ready to come right back home and get ready for school/swimming, but if you guys really, really want to we can (it is going to be expencive de mais). We can talk about this more another day, we still have lots of time!! Love you guys a lot!!

The Refiner's Fire: May 20, 2013

Hey, gang!!

1. How is the elder with the heart condition doing? The elder got released as a missionary and is living in São Paulo with his aunt while he is waiting for another heart (he right now has an heart of an 80 year old...) but he should be fine. He is way at the top on the waiting list for young heart because he is young.
2. How are your two investigator sisters and G.A.’s uncle doing? We haven’t gotten to talk with the girls at all and G.A.’s uncle smokes and promised his 7 year old daughter a long time ago that he would be baptized when she is, so only in April of 2014... but we have a lot of other investigators finally, the only problem now will be accompanying (?) them all!! 
3. How was your actual birthday? Also, did you enjoy your cake?  Yes, my birthday was pretty great!!  Elder W. bought a pizza and Elder F. and Elder M. bought a cake with sparklers!!! It was super legit!!

Pizza from Elder W.

The cake with sparklers.

WAY TO GO ON THE BOSS EAGLE PROJECT LITTLE BRO!!!!!!!!!! It sounds like the project was a huge hit and really helped give Jason a well-deserved confidence boost!! Yeah, it definitely looks like it went better than my project did!! Ha ha.

The space heater is pretty standard, we hooked it up to an actual plug now.

This week was full of finding new investigators and then not checking up on them so no one went to church. I just want to work, I just want to baptize!!! It’s been almost 2 transfers without a baptism!! 

Me and Elder W. chilling out eating some brownies with ice cream!!! It was super good!!

Me pondering the meaning of life in my hoodie and beanie before going to bed.

Also this week we finally ate Schwarma, which is the sandwich/wrap/bbq thingy. It’s pretty darn good, too. Go, Avengers!!

One more random food picture.

This is definitely my hardest and area but it is also where I have grown the most!! The Lord is definitely putting me deeper and deeper in the refining fire. I know that He will never give me anything that I cannot handle, so I say: BRING IT ON!!!

com amor!!

(I’m so proud of you little bro!!)

Elder Cummings