A Baptism: May 5, 2014

5 May 2014

Dear Everyone, 

Yeah, we are rebuilding trust with the ward members! So that is going well, and the baptisms are picking up here a little bit too!! We baptized a man named A. this week and if his sister stops smoking, she will be baptized too!! The zone baptized 3 again this week, so we are baptizing above the mission average still, which is really good!! This weekend we had stake conference and President and the assistentes (assistants) were there, it was good. President G. watched our baptism Saturday night and because it was late, he drove us home!! It was good to see Elder S., he is such a bro. Also, every member of the zone gave us a ton of GH with the assistants and with President G.!! (GH menas gloria dos homens, or in other words, they said lots of good stuff about us, so that always makes you feel good when you are liked by those that you lead, everyone in the zone seems so much happier now!!)

Here is A., the mirror photo is us waiting for the baptismal clothes because there was not enough for everyone, so the ladies went first with dry clothes, than changed and then it was the men’s turn!!!

So last week I forgot to mention, but we had barbeque 4 days in a row, Sunday, Monday, (our ritual p-day barbeque--today we started slow cooking ribs at 6:29 in the morning, see the picture!!) Tuesday, and Wednesday and on Friday we had barbeque salmon with rice!!!! YEAH!!!! I am jumping a lot of rope and doing a lot of exercises in the morning and on p-day to try and not get too fat!! Ha ha.

Yeah, way to go Jason!!! good luck with the 8:00 classes, I thought that they would be super easy since I was used to 6:00 seminary but after staying up until 12:00 or 1:00 every night my first year at BYU I changed my mind and don’t take classes before 9. But good luck, and at least you get done with school early every day!! How many credits is that? Criminal Justice... interesting!! Have you decided on a major?

Other than that it was a normal week of work. Tomorrow is leadership conference so we will be catching a bus at 6:10 tonight to go to Londrina! It will be good to see S. because it has been sooooo long since I last saw him!! Ha ha!

One last photo, here we have some weird "grapes" they are apparently called Japanese grapes, and they have a mixed flavor of grapes and apples. They are actually kind of tasty... when you are really hungry, ha ha!! They are a little starchy but yummy-ish.

Wow, my letter was actually kind of long-ish this week!! I hope I will have more things to share on Sunday when we chat!! We already have a member´s house lined up to chat so everything is a go on our end to talk at 19:00 my time!!!!

love you guys a lot!!

Elder Cummings

One of the Happiest Times: March 31, 2014

Dear Everyone,

1. Where is your companion from? Elder B. is from São Paulo, from the same stake as Elder P. (companion in Apucarana)
2. Who else lives in your house? In addition to Elder B. and myself, we have Elder M.S., Elder E.P., Elder B., and Elder T. We are in a group of 6.
3. How was zone conference? Zone conference was good. The mission is going through some really hard times because we are getting so few missionaries and the ones that show up need to learn how to work so President and the assistants are “burning” everyone (as they should). To me it just doesn't feel like we have the same camaraderie that we had in the past. So many of the missionaries that I know have already gone home, and I don’t know very many of the newest guys.
4. Do you have any good investigators? We have some good investigators and one of them was baptized on Saturday!!!

Here’s a look at all the fruit that we get off of fruit trees in our area, we get avocado (we made sweet avocado smoothies with them!!) acerola, which are the little red ones, they have the same amount of Vitamin C in each little tiny fruit as 1 orange!!! (I don’t think we have it in the US) and jaca (jackfruit) which is the giant one that I am holding, that I know don’t exist in the States.

The third photo is the bathroom remodel that I am doing, I am replacing a pipe and putting in a new shower head, and I also fixed the toilet this week!!

Oh—I got my valentine’s package at the zone conference this past week, along with the cards from the B. family in AZ!! They are awesome—thanks so much.

Elder S. asked me at zone conference when you would be looking at apartments so that good that you will do that this week. Also he said that his date for picking classes is today. Do you know when my day is??? When the time comes can you sign me up for classes??? With preference of not starting before 9 and not going past 3! J I am thinking/decided on majoring in computer science, so if you could put me in the introductory computer science class again, that would be great so that I can learn all the stuff that I didn’t learn the first time. Also, if you could put me in Old Testament, Dance 280, and other classes that are required for that major, it would be nice to have 14 to 15 credit hours!!! Thanks, you are the best!!! I don´t know what I would do without you!!!

Also because Elder S. is the AP, he gave me some inside news about my return, I should be landing at SeaTac on the 17th of July at 11:00 in the morning!!! I’ll give you a confirmation when I have the official paper. It would be nice to get released as soon as possible after I land, and then have a pool party up at Woodridge on my first day back!! But enough trunky talk for now!!!

This week we got to travel to Cianorte, a city here close by, it is 2 hours and 20R to get there and another 2 hours and 20R to come back. Unfortunately, the interviews didn’t work out and no one was able to be baptized. We missed the Saturday night bus so we had to come home Sunday morning so we didn’t manage to bring anyone to church... L (oh the joys of being a zone leader!!!)

Right now is one of the happiest times on my mission!! I have a great companion, we are in a great area, good house, good bishop, good housemates. I’m happy and healthy and BAPTIZING!!!!

love all you guys!!!

Elder Cummings

A Very Short Letter: December 9, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. Can you get scripture covers like that for Dad? He really thinks they are cool. Yes, I can get scripture cases for dad, too. He just needs to send me the dimensions of his scriptures and the photos that he wants to use and I can even have her send it to Utah for him!!! She can do cases for just about anything you want and you can even use family photos if you like and she will design the people, just that you can’t have more than 3 people in the photo or otherwise the quality is not very good. You can also choose scriptures that you want on them, etc.
2. How did you get chosen to have your one-on-one with Elder Costa? It was President Genaro that chose the people who would get to talk with Elder Costa.
3. Did you get the package from Aunt Paula yet? Will there be another opportunity for you to receive mail before Christmas? No, I haven’t gotten the package from Paula yet but next week is transfers, so I should get it then.
4. What does “kkkkkk” mean? I see that a lot in Brazilian FB messages, sort of where we might use “ha ha” or “LOL.” Is that about right? Yes, kkkkk is the Brasilian laugh...

How are the Ravens doing???

It was a pretty normal week for me here. We had L.’s baptism, which was awesome of course, but really nothing else different happened. We are going to have lots of baptisms in the district this coming week, which is good because no one else in the district besides me and Elder B. has had a baptism this transfer.

This week, I took a bunch of photos, but here are just a couple from the baptism of L. We had to break into the Relief Society activity room, because they were using all the chairs from the rest of the church!!

Love you guys, I’m excited to hear more family and Utah news!!

Elder Cummings

Staying Put in Londrina: September 30, 2013

Hey everyone!!

1. How are your shoes holding up? I have seen lots of pictures on Facebook of friends’ missionary sons’ hole-y shoes, which made me wonder. My shoes are holding up fine, I have one pair that is still almost brand new and the other has holes in it, but they are still perfect as long as it does not rain!!!
2. Transfer news? Staying? Going? New companion? The transfer news is that I am staying here with the same companion... but ELDER S. (CTM companion) WAS CALLED AS A ZONE LEADER!!! I’m so used to always getting a new companion at transfer time that it was a little disappointing not to have a change this time around. Also I found out right now that my district doubled in size!! (My district is bigger than some zones!!!) CRAZY!! Pray a lot for me this week, I am motivated because of the baptism that we had yesterday but I am really discouraged about staying the same... this will be a rough transfer...

Since I happened to be online when his email came in, I emailed back quickly and asked if it was the area or his companion that he was not happy about: It is both that have me discouraged!! Also no matter what I do, no matter how much I clean, the house is always a pigsty!! So I have stopped cleaning anything, I only clean the stuff that I use now!!

I wrote back, and said: “I'm so sorry this is a challenging area and companionship for you. Love and serve your companion as much as you can and good things will happen. Praying, praying, praying,” to which he responded:  I’m all better now, sorry for the freak out, I was thinking about all the bad things but now I am focusing on all the good blessings I am receiving!!! I still think the transfer will be difficult, but it will be really good as well!!

This is my district, minus the zone leaders who are also part of my district, but they were visiting another district when we took the picture.

I got the senior pictures this week. They turned out great! Jason has changed so much in his facial structure! And the tie is pretty darn amazing!!

This week I did another division with the secretaries and I was with Elder B. this time, it was good, a nice normal division. It was pretty torturous, though, because he knew all the information about transfers and would not tell me, but also I didn’t ask much because I know how much they get pestered by everyone!

Yesterday we went to the sister missionaries’ baptismal service to help them out and at the baptism was this 8 year old named C., whose parents are inactive but the mom is starting to be reactivated. C. wanted his dad (who is not currently worthy) to baptize him so he had originally said he was going to wait (I don’t know if his dad will ever actually be worthy again...) but while we were there he came up to me, even though I had never even said a word to him before, and asked me to baptize him! So I put on a jumpsuit and we went to work!! It was so good to get back in the water again! Photos will come later, I didn´t have my camera since I wasn’t planning on baptizing anyone.  I will get them from another missionary.

sorry it´s short, lots to do!!

love you all,

Elder Cummings

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.

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!!)

Con Amor: March 4, 2013

Dear Everyone:

1. Is there any news on the new missions and the new mission boundaries? No new mission news about boundaries L We have ZERO official news yet but what Elder B. said about Cascavel and Foz de Iguacu going to the Curitiba South mission is very probable! Here’s a map of the current mission boundaries from LDS.org.
   
2. Has it been hard to stay focused with the news of the new missions? I’ve sort of thought about that a lot this week, and have prayed that you have been able to stick to the task at hand. For the first 2 days after the announcement it was a little hard but this past week was really pretty easy to focus except for being blasted with “FUNKY” music!! It is this really funky (for lack of a better word) type of music that all the Brazilians love and blast 24/7 and all the songs have the EXACT SAME BEAT!! It is getting a little annoying! I hope and pray that it doesn’t catch on in the states. J
3. I probably won’t get anything off to you for Easter, since it is only 4 weeks away, but it is never too soon to think about your birthday. Is there anything you particularly want or need? Think about it for a week or two if you need to but I want to be sure to get the package there plenty early. As far as birthday is concerned I am pretty good on anything, maybe just some snack items, oh yeah it would be sweet if you could send a few ties!!! 

Wow, I’ve never seen that one-centavo coin!!! That is a really rare coin!! I didn´t even know that they made that style of one centavo coin, I thought they discontinued that coin before they switched over to the new style so they probably only made that coin for one, MABYE two, years!!

We went to one of our areas this week, which is pretty much nothing but jungle complete with the little monkeys like in the movie Madagascar, I was unable to get a photo of them though L but, yeah, it’s a jungle out here, and we stumbled upon this sweet little grove hidden in the trees after going along a tiny little path. We had a little fun and a little Joseph Smith moment!! It was a pretty fun day!!

We also have been continuing to contact references from the area book, one of which was for this house here... where they don’t worship God, just Mary... we have some pretty golden references here (ha ha)!!!

This week I decided that I would never want to be a garbage man here in Brazil. (How’s that for a random topic?) Instead of having garbage cans and mechanical arms to pick them up like in the States, they use supermarket trash bags and have 3 guys hang off the back of the truck and run out to pick up all the trash by hand. I don’t know how they do it. When you can smell the truck 3 blocks away and lose your appetite, I can’t even imagine what it is like for them, but the apparently get used to it. One day we saw them eating while they were hanging off the back of the truck, and they would run out and pick up garbage with their left hands while continuing to put food in their mouths with their right hands. I have to admit it was pretty gross!! But, it is just what they know. They would think our way is strange, too, I bet.

 Heavenly homemade guacamole from the "little" avocado we found.

Just a little Guarana, and another (German, this time) soccer jersey!

We had another baptism this week!!! He is 11 and he is the little brother of our baptism from a few weeks ago. He is really cool!! Also we are currently teaching this amazing couple. They are elect!! As we were teaching a lesson, the husband was telling us about what kind of things he is searching for to fill his spiritual void, the kinds of things he likes in a church, and the kinds of things that they hate in some of the churches here. Every word that came out of his mouth testified of the truthfulness of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!! And his wife (they are legally married--YAY!!!) felt the Spirit and was crying a lot when we read Moroni 10:3-5 with them! It was really awesome!! The only problem is that they didn’t go to church Sunday (we taught this lesson Sunday night) so we have to wait 2 weeks to baptize them and if I’m transferred I won’t get to see them baptized! L But we don´t know about transfers yet, and the Lord will make the right choice and even if it isn’t what I want (which would be to stay) it will be what I need!!

The next time I e-mail I will know whether or not I will stay here in President Geisel (area of Bauru). I think there is a good chance I could stay because I only have 2 transfers here and only one with Elder A., but who knows with the mission changed that are coming up and the new missionaries that are coming in/not coming in (because of visa issues). We will just have to wait and see!!

 We have to try and stay cool somehow!  Ha ha.

We didn’t make it to the zoo last week because we couldn’t find out the bus stop for the bus that takes you right there, so we just ate ice cream instead! And today we are going to go play basketball with some other missionaries!!!

Com Amor
Elder Cummings

P.S. I bought a sweet hammock!!!! I’ll get a photo for you guys for next week!!!

I'm Here to Serve: February 11, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. Tell us all about Elder A! I already met his mom on the Missionary Mom email list and on Facebook; she was happy to know where he ended up since he wasn’t able to email last week. Elder A. is really cool, as you know he is from California, he is from the same group as Elder W. (my trainer) and was the secretary for the mission for the past 6 months.
2. Who was it that baptized P.? A ward member? Yes our ward mission leader baptized P. He was confirmed this week at the youth campout that they have every year during Carnaval.
3. How has the work been affected by Carnaval? Do you have an earlier curfew? Are people too busy reveling to want to listen? Are there lots of parties to have to avoid? Carnaval here in Bauru is normal, just with more people home during the day but they are usually sleeping, curfew is the same there are no huge parties or anything, so it is pretty much a normal day.

A parting shot with Elder F., sporting the now-traditional Princess Leia towel hat. 

Like always, keep the questions coming because it is becoming a little hard to always write about new stuff that is happening here.

How good to see his CTM companion, Elder S!

 (No, really, it WAS good!)

Way to go Jason with the great grades!!!

 Elder A. is so stoked to be out of the mission office and back in the field!

This week we had lots of rain, almost every day. It was pretty annoying. Rain is much cooler when you are in normal clothes and have a car and a house with heat. But it was a good week still. The day before Elder A. arrived I spent the day with the zone leaders because Elder F. had already left for Apucarana. So that was pretty cool to see all the things that zone leaders do. We really have some great zone leaders here in Bauru!! Things are going great with Elder A. here in President Geisel. But it is really hard at the same time because since I know the area better (I don’t know it too well because Elder F. knew this area like the back of his hand and I just followed him) I have been doing a lot more planning, a lot more confirming lunch appointments, a lot more talking with people in the street. It is almost like being the senior. But luckily Elder A. is really great and helping me out. I just hope that he doesn’t feel like I’m trying to dominate the companionship, I am just trying to help him get to know the area as fast as possible. Things are going really great. We have only one possibility for baptism this coming week so we are going to do everything to help her be baptized!! We need to find new people something fierce. Our teaching group is 6 people right now. Some people have been cut and we have been baptizing the rest. We really need new investigators so that will be one of our focuses this coming week!!

 This week's baptism!

BATIZMO!!!!  Yesterday was the baptism of B.!!! She is 18 and we found her by talking to her in the street. She went to church but then it was difficult to set up a teaching appointment with her. but when we finally did we found out that she doesn’t like coffee (a miracle here in Brasil), she doesn’t drink (the drinking age here is 18, so another miracle), and she doesn’t have a boyfriend and so doesn’t have a problem with chastity (ANOTHER miracle!!), and when she prayed about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith she had a really strong answer! She physically could not sleep the whole night long because she was thinking about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith the whole night!!! She is pretty awesome, and now we are at 4 weeks in a row with a baptism!! Elder A. was so happy to have a baptism again because it has been so long for him!!

 Bauru:  it's not just a city, it's the national sandwich of Brazil!!

This transfer that just happened we were supposed to get about 14 or 15 Americans but none of them got their visas in time and are serving in the United States and will be transferred here when their visas are ready, so we could possibly have a bunch of emergency transfers this transfer period (6 weeks). Who knows, I could be transferred again, but I hope that doesn’t happen because I love the area, Elder A. is great, and we have baptized here the past 4 weeks in a row. But it isn’t important what I want, what is important is what the Lord wants, so if I stay here that is great! If I get emergency transferred again, that’s great, too. I’m here to serve, and that is what I will do!!

Lots of Love,

Elder Cummings

Two Weeks in a Row: January 28, 2013

Dear Everyone,

Wow. Izzy is super big now!!!

               

1. Have you gotten a Princess Leia towel head picture with Elder F. yet? No, but that’s on today’s to-do list
2. When are transfers? They are coming up soon, right? Do you think you and Elder F. will stay together in this transfer? Transfers are the 5th of February so we have one more Sunday to baptize before transfers. I hope that we stay together because we are working really well together and we are catching the baptism fever!! And, he is a good friend but this is already the 4th transfer for him in this area so it is pretty slim that we will stay together. But I hope we do!!

Here is a photo of the birthday feast I made for Elder F. (I found a New York Knicks hat!!!!) I’m getting a little fat... I'll have to watch out for gaining too much weight on the mission...

Yeah I know that Elder S. was transferred. I missed seeing him in person by 5 minutes L but since he is in the same zone I got to call him on the phone and talk to him a little bit!! I was so happy to see that he was in Bauru!!!

BAPTISM!!!!  2 weeks in a row!! My new record! This week we baptized D., the daughter of a less-active lady, who always went to church with her aunt but we didn’t know that she wasn’t baptized. We ran into the mom on the street and got her address to pass by (we didn’t even know she was a member at that point) and then we were surprised to get to her house and find out that that we see her kids at church every week!! So we got D. prepped for baptism and her mom went to church for the first time in 6 years to watch it, and she now wants to become active again to help her kids out!!!!! No one had passed by to visit her for 6 years before we stopped by... And, we will baptize her brother P. next week, because he wasn’t going to church regularly, but he went yesterday so he can be baptized next week!! Baptizing weekly is super good but really tiring (but it’s a good tired)!!! By the way M. was confirmed yesterday too!!!!! It was a good day.

Oh, and I forgot to say this last week but thank Aunt Paula for the package!! I am behind on my letter-writing so I will try to get a letter sent out to her either this week or next.

Mom, last week in the house of a member I saw a cross stitch of the São Paulo temple which was pretty cool.

I have a new hobby, because a lot of times at houses the people have really annoying dogs that bark and bark and bark from the other side of the gate so I like to poke at them with my shoe keeping it just out of reach but it is really funny to see them try and stretch through the gate to bite it!!! But once you enter, they run away scared. They are only brave when they have a gate protecting them!!! haha

A little more info about my area for you now. My area has 5 different climates, almost. It feels like 5 different areas. We have:

1. the desert area with tons of sand
2. the industrial district which is foggy and has almost zero houses
3. the concrete jungle which is only houses and roads and sidewalks and gates, no green
4. the favela (shanty town) which we can’t go into at night because it is too dangerous
5. the jungle (this is where we work the most) which is dirt roads and lots of trees and lots of tropical bird noises everywhere (that is when we don’t have loud blasting music, Brasilians love putting giant speakers in the back of their trucks!).

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

Lots of love!

Elder Cummings

I LOVE IT HERE: January 21, 2013

21 January 2013

Dear Everyone:

1. Mailing address? Did you find out your CEP? Not yet, I don’t mind them getting sent to the mission office and waiting longer because then I can focus better on the work and only have to worry about replying every now and then.
2. Have you encountered any other unusual critters or unusual fruits? Yeah but not very many, I’m pretty used to the critters and fruit here by now so it doesn’t feel strange anymore. And, no, I don´t think I have ever eaten these things.
3. How are your knees doing? Is it just from all the walking? My knees are doing great. The knee brace is wonderful. 

And, yes, the photos are perfect!

Thanks for the recipes, I also found a recipe book in the house that has the same recipes but it is good to know that they are right reading it form 2 sources, and for the syrup I just made white syrup by using vanilla instead of maple and it is really good, so no need to send the extract.

We had a baptism this week!!!! The first baptism here in the area in over 3 months!!!  We found him on the 11th as we were walking to another appointment and we felt prompted to knock on this random door so we did and he came out and he let us in. Later on we found out that he met the missionaries for the first time in Campinas but then he moved to Bauru, the missionaries passed by a couple of times but he never let them in but he felt prompted to let us in. We taught him the first vision and invited him to be baptized on the 20th and he accepted. We found out later that he cancelled his baptism in another church that would have been on the 27th. We kept teaching him and he accepted everything really easily, he has such a strong testimony of Joseph Smith that he would always accept what we told him (he would always ask why but after explaining he accepted everything really easily). And on the Friday before the baptism (the 18th) he had already set aside his tithing money for the money that he made during the week even though he didn’t have to yet!! And then he was baptized yesterday (the 20th).

He is one of my favorite people that I have met so far on the mission—he is an elect! I believe that he will remain active for a long time! He has gone to a Family Home Evening already and will go to another tonight. He was one of the 20 people to show up to the ward activity last Thursday! He is one of my best friends and proof that it is never too late to change!!!

Sister T. did a surprise inspection this week, and our house had a rep for being the worst house in the mission, but as you can see, Sister T. said it was the cleanest house in the mission and talked with us personally to congratulate us for our house!! The note reads as such: “I am very happy and proud of you two! This is the cleanest house that I´ve visited! Congratulations!! Sister Tavares.”  Yeah, we are pretty sweet! And, our house was in my opinion a lot more dirty than normal, and after our cleaning that we did today it is way cleaner than it was when she made her inspection.

After talking with a lot of elders that have also served in Apucarana, it turns out that Eldorado (the area we were starting to work in just before I was transferred here) was a really tough and trying area but I didn’t think it was too bad at all. But all of the missionaries that I know that served in Geisel (where I am now) said it was the toughest, most trying time of their mission with the worst area and the worst house they had on the mission, BUT I LOVE IT HERE!!

So as far as talks go, I’m glad your talk went well! And I also gave a talk in sacrament meeting this week (my first talk of the mission) and it just so happened that the two speakers in sacrament meeting were: yours truly and the Stake President. It wasn’t too bad at all and afterward everyone was asking how much time I had on the mission and how soon I was going home, everyone thought that I had at least a year on the mission so that was pretty cool!!

RAVENS!!!!! Can you guys PLEASE buy me a NFC champions Ravens t-shirt for me so I can have it when I get back??? And if/when the Ravens win the Super Bowl, please buy me a Super Bowl champions t-shirt too.  J

Me being goofy with a toy we found in the street. 

I think that’s all the time I have!!

Lots of Love,

Elder Cummings

Staying in Apucarana: December 17, 2012

Dear family and friends,

1. Do you feel really tall there in Brazil? Yeah, I feel really tall here in Brasil, of course there are a few taller than me but I am pretty tall for here!
2. Did you get your third Christmas package from us? Aunt Paula also wonders if you got her package, and Aunt Jeannie said they sent a letter.  Yes, forgot to mention last week that I got your third package and the package from the ward along with lots of letters from the fam:  Grammie (2 letters), Kory & Michele, etc. Thank you!!!! J  I got Jeannie’s letter but not the package from Paula yet.
3. What time is sunrise/sunset now that it is summer (or nearly summer)? Does it stay light as late there as it does here in the summertime?  It is light about the same hours that it is in the United States. 

An average evening sky here in Apucarana

This week was a weird week indeed!! But the blessings of following the leaders are starting to bear fruit. Our work in Vila Reis is starting to slow down a lot so it is good that we are working in JD Catuai, which was the worst part of the other elder’s area (I asked for the worst area to work in), and we are finding some great people to teach and lots of less-active and part-member families to help out! It truly is a blessing!!! And it is a lot of fun to work in a larger, little more wealthy area of the city, I love Vila Reis, don’t get me wrong, but JD Catuai feels great too!!! But we did have 3 baptisms this week that came out of Vila Reis!!!!! All three of them are sisters, I baptized the two older ones (the ones farthest from me in the photo).

 

 Three sisters being baptized together!

I am pretty sure there has never been anyone more excited to be baptized than F. (the one closest to me in the picture)!! She is so cute! We actually baptized them on Saturday and confirmed all three on Sunday!!!!! We are working to help the "dad" stop drinking and to marry their mom so they can be a family together in the church!! (we have a dinner appointment there tonight) And, then besides them we have some other recent converts we are helping and one investigator that we had cut but he magically showed up at church (he always wanted to go but his mom never let him go). Other than that the work in Vila Reis is drying up a little. But JD Catuai is growing fast with lots of people to teach. It involves some more walking because it is a lot bigger that the Vila and it has A LOT more hills. But we are definitely feeling the love of the Lord for being faithful to the instructions of our leaders.

One last set of baptisms before Elder W. leaves to be a ZL in Maringa

So, as you know (or maybe you forgot) today is transfer day...I will stay here in APUCARANA!! I don´t know who my comp will be, I need to ask my district leader later today. Elder W. will leave and be a zone leader in Maringa with his trainer!! How cool is that!!!  I was a little disappointed that I was not called to be a trainer this week because everyone was saying how they thought that I would train this transfer but I just thought about that talk by D Todd Christofferson about the currant bush, and now I am really grateful that the Lord loved me enough to humble me and allow me to learn by following instead of struggling with being a trainer!! What a blessing!! The Lord will always be right.  President T. is amazing!!! He prays for 3 to 4 hours every day the week before transfers to make sure that everything will be in accordance with the plan of the Lord for us!!!

 Some of the most popular cars here in Apucarana

 A quick snapshot of the cathedral in Maringa that I mentioned last week,
which I took from the bus as we drove past it for the Christmas conference

Elder W. (not my comp) threw a bad egg out the window and onto the roof last p-day
and it stunk up the whole house so we spent a good chunk of time cleaning it up
missionary-style out on the very unstable roof! 

At our district meeting, Eu sou um TIGRE!!!

A sign for a travel office... Salt Lake temple... Utah Jazz... Utah... Disneyland... cool

Some more random stuff real quick:

• I heard that China is opening up for missionary work, which means that I think that Jason will serve there!! And if he does, Elder W.’s twin is learning Chinese now at West Point and if they both serve there, Elder W. will have one more year more or less than Jason there and maybe could train him!!! Me and Elder W. got a good kick about this possibility.  J
• What is S.G.’s address??
• Elders W. (not my comp) and S. are staying here with me. YAY!!!
• Snow sounds so good right now!! At least it is pretty cold and rainy here, APUCARANA really isn't that hot, I am truly blessed. It seems like every other zone is way hotter than Apucarana!!

 Lots of love!!!

(Hope I didn't forget too much!!!)

Elder Cummings

Feast and Famine: November 26, 2012

Dear Family and Everyone:

1. CHRISTMAS CALL—we need to know what to plan on, Skype or phone call, so we can figure out the timing.  I know you have transfers on Christmas Day, does that mean you will be at the mission office that day??  The Christmas call will be Skype from a member’s house. I don’t know the time yet. (Transfers are a week early, so the 18th of December!)
2. On Sunday, do you have a Gospel Essentials class during Sunday School?  Do you teach any classes during the block?  Have you had to give a talk in sacrament meeting yet??  Yes, we have Gospel Essentials during the second hour of the block, and, no, we don’t regularly teach any classes, and, no, I have not talked yet in church!

 On to the rest of the week!!

I sent a package (envelope) home for Jason and one more envelope for C., F., and A. (I probably won’t be able to do this again because it was crazy expensive to send these 2 super light padded envelopes, well, crazy expensive for a missionary!) Jason can open the package on Christmas Eve (nothing is wrapped inside) and C., F., and A. need to wait until Christmas to open theirs! J

Some lighter news first. Music here is interesting and often really funny because Brazilians like American music but don’t understand the words. Two examples:

1. Jason, look this song up on Spotify, it is really funny.  It is called “Gummy Bear” and all the words are: “I’m a gummy bear” over and over again.
2. This big tough guy in a big truck (really rare here in Brasil to see a big truck), and he had on big giant sunglasses looking all tough and was listening to “Man, I Feel Like a Woman” by Shania Twain... me and Elder W. were busting up laughing!!!!

So, interesting facts about missionaries/missions in Brasil (I don’t know how many new missionaries will be added to our mission but it sounds like a good amount, close to how many are going to be added to the Seattle Mission):

• 2 years ago the Brasil Londrina Mission was the lowest baptizing mission in South America, but now it is 15th in Brasil!
• The average missionary in Brazil walks enough to walk from São Paulo to Salt Lake and back during the 2 years!!! Crazy, huh?

I saw my first chicken get killed in real life. We were teaching this girl (baptized her this week!!!) and the mom was right there (we were teaching outside) and she cut the throat of the chicken and was plucking it during our lesson...it was interesting...

One thing about Brasil is that you get to see a lot of new types of bugs and you don’t have to look hard to find them. All you have to do is wait a few minutes and then look down at your shirt and you will see a cool bug!!! I am getting a lot more used to bugs landing all over me and getting bitten all the time so it doesn’t even itch really anymore, which is good.

Dad, a member had this beautiful dog. It was a border collie and was about 2 years old! It was gorgeous, and he looked a lot like Dusty (only bigger). I was going to take a photo this week, but in the 3 weeks in between our lunch appointments the dog died… L he ate something really bad. Sorry I couldn’t send a picture of him! L

And, thus we arrive at the day of food, both for the belly and finding lots of new investigators!!!! So to start it all off, the member who had the dog took us to this all-you-can eat buffet and Brasilian-style grill!! It was soooooooo good. I ate more than I ever have in my life! (I’m slowly starting to get Brasilian recipes, too!!) And then we went to Vila Reis and while we were still super full from lunch, a member gave us 2 glasses of chocolate milk and a thick slice of homemade bread with butter and 2 bananas and 2 apples each!! Holy cow, I was so full... Then we were spiritually fed with investigators, first by this lady that stopped us in the street and said: “Please stop by my house! My son has some new friends that are bad and he really needs God in his life right now. Please stop by later this week!” (we will stop by tomorrow!!! J).  And then that night we found this really big family (about 7 or 8 people) and after about 15 minutes of just talking about who we are and where we are from, they gave us dinner... (I wasn’t even close to being hungry this whole day!!! Holy cow!) And then on Sunday we found 7 more new investigators in another big family!! Blessings galore (which is good because we have no money for food, it is feast AND famine here in Apucarana)!

And now, what you have been waiting patiently for!! The baptism story!!  We baptized a 16-year-old girl this week. We found her knocking doors last Saturday and the next day she went to church with her dad and she brought 2 friends too. We taught her this week and baptized her yesterday!! An 8-day turnaround! Not bad! Hopefully we can baptize her friends this week and some from our new giant families in the week after!!! A pretty uncomplicated story, thank goodness!!

That’s it for news from Brasil today!!

·              Yay, Choke is finally gone from the Mariners!! 

·              Ravens are representing really good!! (Elder D. from Eastern Washington is a Ravens fan too, what are the odds?!!)

·              Interesting about Hostess, “That’s not the stuff!”

·              Wow, crazy about all the people talking about seceding (even if they are not serious!!!)

·              Congrats DAD!! I´m proud of you!! Keep me posted on how it goes setting up the testing department!!! (How’s the weight coming off???)

I probably forgot something but oh well, I don’t have much time left!!  I love you guys! This church is so true! Jesus Christ is amazing!! He was the only person to live a sinless life and without him we cannot return to live with our Father in Heaven. He is a boss! (with the utmost respect of course!:) I am so blessed to know for certain that he knows and loves me individually!! Jesus is the Christ!!!

Lots of love!!

Elder Eldon Ray Cummings J

Eu Sou Um Tigre!!!  (I’m a Tiger)

P.S.  I don’t have a baptism photo, but I had a lot of other photos I wanted to send, but the security on this computer is weird and won’t let me get to the files to send them home! Sorry... L I´ll try again next week cause I’m out of time (I might have gotten a virus from the other more shady cybercafe.) L

Dressed in White: November 12, 2012

Dear Everyone,

Yeah, sorry about being negative last week. But, luckily things are looking up!!!

So first off, a fun fact for Dad:  you can get 7 DVDs here for mais o menos (more or less) 5 dollars. They are pirated, though. Just thought about you when I saw this (when I saw the DVD part, not the pirated part J)!

Q and A time

1. Looking back at your growing-up years, what was the one thing that best prepared you for missionary service?  There wasn't really one thing that really prepared me for missionary work. Everything helped, but a couple things that really helped was reading the scriptures, and camping.
2. Do you miss the cold, or are you getting used to the heat? Yes I miss the cold, I am used to being wet and sweaty but I am not used to the heat, from talking with everyone else you never really get used to the heat.

So this week we mixed things up a lot and did a lot of tracting and finding new people to teach and cutting A LOT of investigators that have not been progressing. It is really hard to find addresses because in some streets half or more of the houses have a number but it is not displayed, so when we get a reference it is almost impossible to find the house (and a lot of times they give you an address to a house that doesn't exist!!!)

Our area in Vila Reis

Some other interesting things that happened this week:

1. I learned to wear my dirtiest tie in the rain so that way you can wash it.
2. We had 8 missionaries in our apartment this week because their apartment was being painted. It was crazy having the whole district in our apartment. It was tons of fun, but a little annoying because the other elders are not as tidy as us. It was still a blast, but it will be nice when they go back to their apartment this week!

 We had a really weird encounter this week with a guy named J. He was pleasant and nice with his words and was respectful but the spirit in his house was EVIL!!! Holy Smokes!! It was so weird the whole time, he was asking really weird questions. He only believed in the Old Testament, he had this gigantic German shepherd, which had this weird feeling about him as well. It was creepy, and a little bit into our conversation with him the phone buzzes and we look down and the screen says Pres. Monson... and it rings three times and then stops (we checked our phone afterwards and we didn’t receive any phone calls during the lesson...??). Weird, and then when I was trying to say something to wrap things up with him (I had been silent this whole time, letting Elder W. talk), I could not say a single word! My words were stuck in my throat. My tongue would not work...so we got the heck out of Dodge.

On a related note it is weird to see gypsies and witches on the streets sometimes and they always say pew pew when we walk past, I try not to look at them and I haven’t stopped to ask them why they go pew pew, and I don’t plan on doing so.

Parrots at the bird park we visited last week

The peanut butter was heavenly!!! My favorite thing to put my peanut butter on was a spoon!! (I say “was” because it is already all gone! A missionary has got to eat!)

So before I forget, today we found out the transfer schedule! Elder W. and I are staying here and staying together (he will have 6 months in this area by the end of the transfer which means that he will leave after this transfer and I will stay here for at least one if not 2 more transfers, which means 4.5 to 6 months for me in Vila Reis!) Elder D. in our house will leave to be a zone leader in another zone, and he will be replaced by another missionary that we don’t know much about, so we will see how that goes.

And now the part you have been waiting for!!!! BAPTISMS!!!!! We had our first 2 baptisms this week, B. (who Elder W. baptized and is next to him in the photo) and K. (who I baptized and is next to me in the photo). B. is 11 and K. is 9, and it helps that they are next-door neighbors and good friends. We are working on baptizing the brother and sister of B. and the brother of K., but it is a long and confusing story so I will write a snail mail letter with all the details and the story behind this baptism because it is a pretty crazy story!! But we finally both got to baptize!!! It felt so good to enter into the waters of baptism with K. and perform the ordinance (and I said the prayer correctly on the first try which always helps)! It was such a cool experience, one that I will never forget! It is so amazing to see them change in that one second that they are underwater, and then emerge a completely different person!! It was really awesome and has us more excited and a little re-energized to try and get more and more!! J

We look good in white!

Don’t know what else to add, like I said I will put all the baptism details in a snail mail letter to you guys!! Sorry it is kind of short this week, I probably forgot a lot of what I was going to say but I guess this will have to do until next week! Things are really hectic at this point. I am learning so much Portuguese it is really cool! I looked back to the beginning of the transfer and how little I knew back then and it is amazing how much more I know now and how much more confident I am now!! The mission is the longest, shortest, hardest, most rewarding experience of my life so far and it is only just beginning!! Love you guys so much! I know that this is the one and only true church of our Heavenly Father here on the face of the earth and that Jesus Christ is at the head guiding and speaking to us through his prophet! I know the gospel is true and I love it!!

A tree that did not survive our wind and rain storm last week

Hope you like the photos!

Have a great week!

Keep me posted!

Lots of love!

Elder Eldon Ray Cummings!!

P.S. It is already getting a little tough to talk and write in English at times. I still dream in English, but I sometimes think in Portuguese now, which is cool!!