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

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