Remember the Missionaries In Your Prayers: March 3, 2014

3 March 2014

Dear Everyone:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love you guys a lot!!!

Elder Cummings

Preaching in the Rain: February 17, 2014

Dear Everyone:

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

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

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

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

 The man that the sisters baptized last week.

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

 This cool building close by our house.

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

Preaching in the rain.

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

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

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

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

And, that’s it for another week!

Love you guys!!

Elder Cummings

Who Says Maringá Doesn't Baptize? November 18, 2013

18 November 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. Did you actually get to see Elder W. on his last night, or were you already on your way to Maringá? I got to see and talk with Elder W. on my last night in Londrina, Monday night, and I saw him Tuesday afternoon just before getting on the bus!! How is he doing with civilian life??
2. Did your former companion Elder S. stay in Ouro Branco, or has he moved elsewhere also? Elder S. is here in Maringá as well, but he is in the other district.
3. Who else is living in your house? In our house is me, Elder B. (my companion), Elder D. (I was his district leader when he was a secretary and now he is my zone leader), and Elder B2, who I met at the CTM. He was in the group just after me. Our house is the worst house in Maringá. I think it is better than where we lived in Ouro Branco because it is cleaner, but it is really old. Two times this week I woke up with a cockroach walking on my arm and Elder B2 woke up 2 or 3 times with them on his legs. Let’s just say that Sister Genaro has asked us to look for a new house, and we are searching diligently.
4.  Are you in a branch or a ward? We are a ward, but our ward meets way far away in the center of the city. However, they have rented this warehouse really close to our house and on the 1st of December we will start to have meetings there while we are searching for a lot to buy and build a new chapel.

So on to Maringá news:

Who says that Maringá doesn't baptize???? We had 2 baptisms this week. L. is 16 and with a priesthood blessing he stopped smoking, drinking, and using coffee in one day!!! The other is A.C. She is a neighbor of L. and we are going to baptize her mom this next week. So, we should have at least one baptism this next Sunday (we always are hoping for more), which will give us the opportunity to invite tons of people to church for the baptism, and hopefully that will translate to us having tons of baptisms the following week.

It is very hot here in Maringá, just like all of the areas in the mission, but the streets are covered in trees so most of the time you walk in the shade. That is nice while we are doing the 45-minute walk to our area!! 

Today after we finish emailing we are going to go to the post office so I can get my CPF which is like the Brasilian social security number. It will make getting things like bus passes a lot easier, and you get this SWEET-looking card!! We are also going to visit the cathedral in the center so that should be some good pictures for you guys next week!!

I think that is about it! 

love you guys a lot!!

Elder Cummings

The Elder Cummings Show: October 21, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. How many lessons were you able to teach this week? Is this about average? Better? Worse? This week we taught 3 lessons with members and 17 lessons without members present, which is a good number, but the lessons-with-members number was way low!! We should have 3 baptisms this weekend, one is the investigator I mentioned earlier, he is 27 and he already has his interview marked and everything. (As you know, before the baptism everyone needs to pass an interview with the district leader, or in my case since I am a district leader, with the zone leaders!)
2. Do you get fed by members on Sunday? Yes, every Sunday we have lunch at members’ homes, it is pretty much the only guaranteed day to eat lunch with the members, as a lot of them are not home for lunch during the week, and it is always a really good lunch!!
3. What are some of the best new foods you’ve tried lately? New foods...um...every day I eat rice and beans and meat and salad. Sometimes we get stroganoff or lasagna (I now know how to make these Brasilian-style) or a barbecue (of course), so new foods are kind of a rarity at the moment, though I did get to eat Japanese food this week and that was really tasty!

Now I have some questions for you: How many people live in Bellevue? How many in Seattle? And, how many in the greater Seattle area? Thank you!!

I did get a few more ideas for the Christmas package:  Stride gum (spearmint), and a tiny sunscreen bottle to carry with me in my tiny bag. THANK YOU!!

This Sunday (yesterday) was the Elder Cummings show at church!! I arrived a little bit late because we were bringing everyone to church (we picked up our investigators and then most of the zone leaders’ investigators as well) Luckily sacrament meeting is at the end of church here during the third hour because I got there 2 minutes before the meeting started!! We had 3 investigators attend church who are all planning to be baptized this coming week (and like I said, one has already passed his interview and is ready to go)!!! I played piano, and they had changed the hymns on me and they were not hymns that are included in the simplified hymnbook, but I still did ok. I also gave a talk. It was my third talk of the mission, the third time I was the second speaker, and the third time that the concluding speaker who spoke after me was the stake president!!! Lucky me! To wrap up my big day, I conducted the baptismal service directly after church for the baptisms of the zone leaders. And then it was time for lunch. J

Oh, we sprung forward Saturday night!!

The district is doing great here, my companion and I are getting along great!! I have had great sorte (luck) with companions so far on the mission. I have enjoyed each of them. They have been great!!

To finish, here are some photos of our mountain expedition from this week!!

Com amor

Lots of love

Elder Cummings

P.S. Our mission came in third in all of Brazil for baptisms in September!!

Ward Pianist: October 14, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. Does Elder R. live in your house? How many sets of elders are serving in your ward? Yes, Elder R. lives with me, there are 2 sets of elders in the ward and the 4 of us all live in the same house
2. As I was helping Dad clean up his neckline when he gave himself a haircut on Friday, we both wondered if you are still cutting your own hair? Cutting anyone else’s hair? Yes, I still use the hair cutting kit, mostly for my own hair (I still have never gone to a Brazilian barber).
3. I know it’s early, but do you have any ideas on things you need/want for Christmas? I don’t see any necessity for any items right now, so I guess food, and saving money up for when I get back would be the best options!!
4. Got any fun stories to share from Zone Conference? Sister Genaro posted a bunch of pictures, and it was fun to play “Where’s Waldo” as we looked for you in them. This was the first time you have appeared in any of her photos. Zone conference was good, not really any cool stories to report, but we did earn pizza and we got to watch “17 Miracles” as a prize for breaking the mission baptism record last month!! And at the zone conference, I got to see two former companions, Elder R. and Elder F., so that was good!! Also in the zone conference it was announced that the backpack has died for missionary service (I am pretty sure that this is for the whole world), only shoulder bags (? I don’t entirely get why, but it is what it is) and handheld bags like my super-slick, stylish, state-of-the-art, height-of-fashion Primary bag!

 Elder R. (companions for ONE WEEK in Apucarana), Elder Cummings, and Elder F. (companions for one transfer in Cascavel)

 Lovely, height-of-fashion Primary bag

In other news, guess who is the new ward pianist here in the Ouro Branco ward? Yep, that’s right!! I am the new ward pianist. (Yes, you read that sentence correctly: I, Elder Cummings, am the new ward pianist!!) Right now, using the simplified hymnbook, I am only using the right hand and I can almost do the right and left hand together now. The trickiest part was learning bass clef, but now I can play the left hand just fine, and the right hand really well, it is just when I put them together that I have troubles, but it is always getting better!! (Elder Cummings took piano lessons in 3rd grade. He then played trumpet and French horn from 5th grade through 12th grade.)

This month, as a mission, we are passing through problems to baptize people. The adversary has really put his evil reinforcements here, because we have been doing so well lately. We are still pressing on!! Along those lines, pray for our investigator, D., so that he can go to church this Sunday and be baptized on the 27th, he is an amazing dude!!

When I was in Cascavel, I dreamed about this bridge and these steps. The rest of my dream didn’t make any sense, and the bridge was in a different setting, but it was the same bridge with the same graffiti. It was so cool to find these and see that I really am supposed to be serving here in Ouro Branco!!

Sorry it is kind of short for this week, it is really getting harder and harder to come up with e-mail topics. I’m going to go now and buy 4$ of ice cream for my weekly groceries!!

love you guys a lot!!!

com amor,

Elder Cummings

P.S. How are the Ravens doing?? J

10 Companions in 9 Transfers: September 2, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. Why was it possible that an emergency transfer might happen? Did it happen? Elder F. B. was emergency transferred because he didn’t feel safe after the stabbing of his backpack, and he wanted to leave the area. He went to my old area in Bauru (where he was stung by a scorpion and went to the hospital but now he is fine). My new comp is Elder S. from São Paulo. I now have had 10 different companions in these first 9 transfers, including two companions I only had for a week apiece due to emergency transfers. Crazy!!! Elder S. is really cool. He taught me how to mend and thin ties which is really handy!! I took some ties that I found in the house that were huge and ugly and thinned them to half their size, so now they are normal width!!
2. Is all of Londrina in the same zone? There are 2 zones in Londrina. I am in the south, called Zone Londrina and the north zone where Elder S. (his CTM companion) is called Zone Tiradentes. I did get to see Elder S. this week when we both had to go to the national police station (FBI) to get our overdue visas renewed, or else we would have been deported!! That was “fun” to sit in a government building all morning doing paperwork.

Elder S. and Elder Cummings

Now on to the new news from the week:

First off we found this great man. He lived in Florida for 8 years and has a wife (legally married!!!) and two girls, one who is 11 and the other who will turn 8 this month. We have only taught him, and not his wife or daughters, but he is really interested, so please pray that we can find him at home and help him and his family go to church this week.

We also met this cool, druggy, street “Dude” that is always saying and writing his own scriptures on cardboard boxes!! He is really funny and he likes the missionaries. He is really funny, dancing in the street and everything!! Ha ha!

So here in this ward, it is really different than my other areas, we eat lunch in very few member homes, but we do get lots of money for lunch. Because of this, I think the 20 lbs I gained in Cascavel will come off here pretty soon once it starts to heat up more!!!

This week was a really tough week for me, the new area is really morto (dead). Everyone works during the day, it is hard to find people at home and we got lost a lot this first week. Hopefully now that we know the area a lot better, the work can pick up some more and we can teach some more people this week and bring someone to church. Just to give you an idea of morto, we taught 11 lessons last week and we should be teaching around 40, but that’s OK, this week we are going to go all out in the work!!

And I think that is about it for this week,

ate mais (lots of love),

Elder Cummings

Unseen Baptism: August 26, 2013

Dear Everyone:

1. What is the street address of your house in Londrina (so I can try to scope it out on Google Earth)? I don´t know my street address, I’ll get that for you guys for next week!
2. What is your house like? Nice? Hopefully it did not need a good cleaning when you arrived. The house is all right, I live with the zone leaders again, so once again when I got here it was a pigsty! But, it’s passable now after our morning cleaning today.
3. Where is Elder F. B. from? Who are your housemates? Elder F. B. is from João Pessoa (where D.S. served his mission)!! The other 2 elders in the house are Elder M. from São Paulo and Elder D. from eastern Washington once again!!

A moth I found under the wardrobe when I was cleaning today (he was already long dead and dry!)

Me and Elder W. leaving Cascavel (I forgot my suit jacket in Cascavel, but the elders will bring it to Londrina at the beginning of the month when the zone leaders have a conference!)

Me and Elder F. B.!

My area is the southernmost tip of Londrina, and half of the area is closed, which means that we cannot work there because missionaries were already robbed, had guns put in their faces, or in the case of Elder F. B., backpacks stabbed!! They had been working in a ghetto that was closed, but they went there anyway and two weeks ago a drunk guy ran after them with a knife and stabbed his backpack!!! Yeah, our area is pretty dope!! (We are surprised that there wasn't an emergency transfer this week—still can happen—but whatever). It does feel super different to be back in the big city again!! Like super strange! It is a lot hotter here as well!

The ward seems good, I don’t know anyone yet because this past week was stake conference, which made it hard to bring anyone to church. We are basically opening a new area since we are now strictly forbidden to go back to the ghetto. (President G. was very unhappy with the elders that were here before me for working in that ghetto, but they were doing it because they were baptizing a lot of people.) No one knows any other part of our area, but it will be fun to open it up.

So I’m still district leader, as I said last week, and my district consists of me and my comp, the zone leaders, the secretaries, and two sisters (almost as big as the zone in Cascavel!! Ha ha). That’s weird having sisters in my district for the first time. When I call to check in on them on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, they talk a lot more than the elders, which is good and bad at the same time! Another one of differences is that we have district meeting in the mission office, and guess who likes to watch and participate in all the district meetings?... President G... it is a little intimidating, to tell the truth.

Yeah the investigator from Cascavel who got baptized yesterday counts as my baptism!! Also this week we had a baptism here in Londrina, the only thing is that I never taught him, I have never even seen his face. He was taught by the elders before I got here, and was at a friend’s house all this week and was baptized in another ward at the same time as two of his friends but he is part of our ward, but he still counts as my baptism... woo hoo!...

Thanks for the great letter as always, sorry I didn’t respond to everything but I always read everything and am grateful for all of the input!! Now I’m re-focused on baptism for this next week; pray that we can receive guidance as to where we need to work and as to who we can baptize this week!!

lots of love!!

Elder Cummings

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

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

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!!

Flu Shots: May 6, 2013

6 May 2013

Dear Everyone,

Tell M. and K. congratulations for me!!! She’s a cutie pie. That’s awesome. I can’t believe “big sister” C. is 2 already.

1. Have you gotten our package with the basketball shorts yet (I haven’t been able to track it since it left the US)? Any other packages besides ours and P.’s? No, I haven´t gotten the basketball shorts yet, just the stuff from P.! I’ll be sure to write her a letter this week.
2. How long does Elder M. have left on his mission? Elder M. has this transfer right now and then one more and then he is going home. It is so crazy that the transfer is already almost half way over (it is only a 5-week transfer!)
3. What is “LMA” from last week’s letter? About all I could guess was less-active members? LMA means leader da missão da ala, and in English it means the ward mission leader.
4. What has strengthened your testimony this week? (In honor of Fast Sunday) What has strengthened my testimony this week is that we had 8 investigators at church this week!! We have been really needing new people to teach, and right now we are teaching a ton of couples, just some of them are not married... L Also, a member brought 2 friends to church. So, my testimony is really being strengthened that when you work hard, the ward helps you out a lot. I have never gotten so many member references up until now!! I have never had a baptism up until now that has come from a member referral, so it would be nice to be able to baptize these two that a member brought to church for us.
5.  Are you thinking about swimming for BYU when you get back? Yes! I am really considering swimming for BYU when I get back. It is something that I really want to do,and I want to start talking with the coaches now because I know that they have a training programs for missionaries to help them out when they get back! So, yeah, I really want to. I think I have a better than good shot of making it now because I am actually gaining muscle out here, which is what the old coach wanted me to do…strange, I am now up to 165...whoa! Also this probably means that I will go back to school right away instead of waiting, but I don´t know for sure yet! I’m glad that H. is really excited!!! Can you ask her what she thinks I could do to be in tip- top shape when I get back, keeping in mind I get about 30 to 45 minutes of workout time per day?

BTW, we have an elder who is in need of a heart transplant, so pray that they can find a heart that will match with his body, please!!

So thank you for the letter! It was really great! The letter really helped me out, not that I was depressed or anything just that it was for some reason an extra good letter! I’m sorry to hear that Uncle M. and Brother B. died this week. I hope Grandma and Grandpa are ok. How is Grandpa anyway, I hear a little from Grandma, but how is he doing? Do you think he will make it to see me get back home?

(I got a quick little thank you email from the L.’s, are they reading? interested? not really?) Probably how I am going to write Grammie and Aunt P. and S.G. and everyone, is to hand-write a letter on p-day, take a photo of it, and send them the photo of my letter, otherwise I will not have time at all to write everyone. :-)

Me with great hair, a great tie and a great backdrop!!

I got a present from D. and C.!! It is super sweet!!
It is a Brasil national team jersey for my favorite Brasilian player, Neymar!!

So what new happened this week?...umm...well, we got the swine flu shots this past week like you already know, so we don’t have enough money to go eat schawarma this week like we had planned, I think we are going to just sleep all day today. It is finally starting to get cold here, and on Saturday we all got soaking wet because all of our appointments fell through so we were in the street the whole day! At night now (because I didn’t bring like any cold weather gear, and by “cold here” I mean like 70 or 65 degrees during the day), I sleep in my towel shorts, a sweatshirt, a beanie, gloves, and socks. Yeah, I feel like a pansy. It’s going to be rough when I go back to Provo. Elder W. and I run almost every morning, and this morning it was so cold (for us at least) that it felt like what could normally be a normal fall day, and we are almost in the middle of winter... let’s just say that my new sweater will be getting a lot of use here pretty soon!

We had to get swine flu shots this week!! 80R later and in 3 weeks, we will be immune to swine flu!!!

Here is my leg after I fell last p-day, it is already almost completely healed up now.

Umm... what else? I left my cheat sheet with notes from the week in our house today so I’ll just tell you guys about some more stuff when we Skype on Sunday (which probably means that this next week’s email will be really tiny because I’ll have shared it all on Sunday).

Com amor,

Elder Cummings

Happy in Cascavel: April 29, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. How did you like your birthday box? (I hope I explained everything that was in it—if I didn’t, let me know.) I hope you enjoyed the Ties of Love as much as I enjoyed gathering the ties from everyone. I hope you can take a picture as you wear each one of the ties. THE TIES ARE SO AWESOME!!!!!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! Also, please thank Aunt Paula for the peanut butter and homemade jam. It arrived at the best possible time, because we get money every 15 days and that means that every now and then we have 3 p-days without getting money and today is number 3 so the food was definitely very welcome (and very yummy!)
2. How is it going with your new companion? Where is he from? Elder M. is from Pará way up north. I am super excited to be companions with him this transfer.
3. Dad wants to know what does it take to become a senior companion in your mission? I am still trying to figure out how to become a senior companion, I feel as though (said with a much humility as possible) I am ready to be senior comp but I guess I still need to learn more as a junior first. I have no idea!!! There are not set requirements, I know that Elder W. was called to train directly after being trained and we have a new zone leader with 2 less transfers in the field than I do, so obviously I haven’t figured it out quite yet. L
4. Do you know anything about Skyping on Mother’s Day? May 12. Not that I am looking forward to it or anything. J If we can avoid the hours of noon to 4 your time, that would be best, but we will do what we have to in order for it to work. I will make Skype plans this week, and I’ll plan it for after 4 my time and let you know this next week.

Goodbye, Elder R.! On his way to Maringá.

Hello, Elder M.! Welcome to Cascavel!!

This was the happiest week of my mission so far because:

1. Elder M. and I worked our tails off,
2. I’ve got Elder W. back in my apartment, which is super good, and
3. Elder F. is still here in the apartment!!

It is soooooo stinking good to have Elder W. here in the same apartment with me!!!!

I finally have a scriptural hero, so to speak. I finally found someone in the scriptures that I want to be like. It is Nephi from 3 Nephi 7:18.  “And it came to pass that they were angry with him, even because he had greater power than they, for it were not possible that they could disbelieve his words, for so great was his faith on the Lord Jesus Christ that angels did minister unto him daily.”

It is just a blast, and we are working super hard, so that makes everything great. Oh—and I have a ton of new ties!!! J

Me running in a field trying to find baptisms!! haha!!

Close-up of one of my birthday ties (from Grandpa Cummings)

I did come to a heart-wrenching decision this week, and now I know a little bit of what Abraham felt when he was commanded to sacrifice Isaac. I decided after much prayer that I should sell all my video games upon getting back to the States. Unfortunately, I don’t think an angel will appear and stop me at the last second L ha ha!! I know this is a huge step for me!!

All those people on Facebook seem fine. You are still keeping a list of all the new people so I know who they are when I get back, right? 

Can you get me the email of the BYU swim coach?? Thanks!! And, tell S.G. I’ll email him back this next week. I’m running out of time today, but I did get it this time so that’s good!!!

Now, on to the news of the week:

Here in Cascavel there were a lot of transfers, even with the whole new stay in the area for 6 to 8 months rule, only one companionship in the entire zone didn’t have a transfer!! Crazy!! We are all doing great in our apartment. Elder W. and I have been doing a lot of catching up this week and running every morning!! Elder M. and I are doing great as a companionship and working super hard!!! Unfortunately, our two baptisms for this past week fell through but we aren’t discouraged. We are working a lot more with the LMA (not sure what that is—Marie) recently and found these two incomplete member families where the kids are inactive and the parents aren’t members so we will work with them, and baptize the parents!!! Yeah!!!

Elders W. and F. are away at a leaders’ conference again, but this next p-day we are going to go to a shawarma (Middle Eastern “street food”) shop. (You know, that restaurant that they go to at the end of The Avengers!!) Yeah, that will be dope.

Oh, btdubs (BTW), I totally bit the dust this morning on our run trying to run on the curb and scraped up my leg pretty good, but it’s no worse than those giant turf buns marks I’ve gotten before, so I´ll live!! Sorry the letter is lacking this week, I will try to have more things to write about in my next letter! Great letter as always.

com amor,

Elder Cummings

Staying in Cascavel, Getting Another New Companion: April 22, 2013

Dear Everyone,

Thanks for all the news!!

1. How are your investigators doing? We continue to pray for you and Elder R. and all those whom you meet. Our few investigators are ok. We might have 2 baptisms for this next Sunday, which will be good.
2. Does Elder R. know your roommate from freshman year? No, he doesn’t know Sam.
3. I happen to know you received your birthday package, the big question is, are you going to be able to keep from opening it before your birthday?? I think I’ll open it now if that’s OK. (I told him it was…)

Me in my hammock reading drinking terere out of a bull horn cup!!! (That might be just too much epicness for one photo!!)

Our last district meeting of the transfer (me, Elder R., Elder G., and Elder B.)

I still have never had a comp for more than one transfer other than my trainer Elder W.! Elder R. is going to Maringá. My new comp is Elder M. I was in the same district as him in Apucarana. Elder F. (first companion in Bauru) is staying in our house, and his new companion is none other than my trainer, Elder W.!! I’m super excited to be with both of them again. Even though it was kind of hard at times with Elder R., I am super sad to see him go!

This last week we did a service project. Holy cow, I miss manual labor!!! We filled in this GIANT hole in this lady’s back yard where she used to have a septic tank. It was so good to be physically exhausted instead of just mentally exhausted for a change!!

I got to bless the sacrament for the first time on the mission this week so that was cool!!

My knees make a high pitched squeaking noise when I walk. Do you know what that is?? (They don´t hurt.)

This is a river in our area which is really pretty.

We have been sick this week and have been drinking tea a lot and eating Halls cough drops like crazy. This tea has a raw egg yolk in it and lots of sugar, it was actually really yummy!! A member gave us the recipe.

I think that’s about it for this week, sorry it is short, there were just not any BIG updates other than transfers. Thanks again for your great email!! You guys are the best!!

Love you guys!! Pray for me!

com Amor,

Elder Cummings

I Don't Know What Happened to Eldon Cummings: April 8, 2013

8 April 2013

Dear Family and Everyone,

Answers to questions, as usual, to start things off:

1. What Gospel principle really reaches the people you meet who are interested in the Gospel? Well, the First Vision is really strong and it is that and the Book of Mormon that touch their lives the most. (A lot of baptisms come from the fact that the people think the missionaries are cool, but sometimes even that works out in the end and they become really firm in the gospel after their baptism.)
2. What was your favorite message from conference? (this question is from Dad) Elders Bednar (chastity) and Cristofferson (missionary work, bringing others to Christ through faith and repentance so that they may experience His Redemption) were great but I loved L. Tom Perry (obedience, agency, and the little book he got in World War II) and Craig A. Cardon (the Savior does not demand immediate perfection and wants to forgive us)!! I also liked the talk (from a member of the Seventy) who talked about how in all his years in the stake presidency he only got one call asking where they were needed as they moved into the stake!
3. We did not listen to any talks on lds.org this week, mainly because I was a little confused. All the “talks” I could find were videos, and I didn’t know how you would be able to listen to them while you were cleaning your apartment. How does that work? Do you download them and have some sort of player in your apt? On a related question, BYU Men’s Chorus has put out a free album of hymns for missionaries. They are all MP3 files, and the music is BEAUTIFUL! How can I send them to you so you can listen? Would a USB stick or SD card work? They are too big to attach to an email, even one at a time. It is fine about the talks, don’t worry about it, as far as the BYU Men´s Chorus, it would be easiest in a USB in the next package.

Oh, I decided to not do chain mail, it is too distracting for me.

Noooooooo!!! BYU lost!!!!! L Yeah, please ask if I can switch to come back for Winter Semester instead of Fall.

On Tuesday night we got a member reference but they didn’t remember the street name or number but remembered how to get there and were going to drive us over there but they didn’t have a man there so she drove and we ran the almost 3 miles (or at least it felt like it, it was probably a mile and a half) to the reference’s house just to find out that their friend is really strong in her own church and doesn’t want anything to do with us!!! At least the members were happy and we didn’t break any rules by riding with the sister by herself!!

Elder R. gave me some root beer concentrate but we don’t have any instructions so can you send me the instructions for McCormick root beer concentrate please!!! J

Dad, this is a question for you. Can you type up a word document talking about what you do for your job? I’ve been thinking about it this week in between conference sessions and was thinking it would be super cool to do what you do, but the problem is that I don’t know what it is that you do! Oh, and I’m going to stick with bioinformatics after all and just take computer programming and chemistry again with my newfound study skills. The mission really teaches you how to study really well!!! J

The mission changes you so much! This week in between conference sessions again I was thinking a lot about how I want my life to play out and my desire to play videogames is so far down. I don’t know what happened to Eldon Cummings but this Elder Cummings is really weird!!!

Fun fact: we were running late to get to conference on Sunday afternoon so a member gave us a ride (all 4 of us) in the truck bed (against mission rules) and when we pull up at the stake center guess who was making a surprise appearance in Cascavel... President T.!!!... But it’s all good!!

 Elder R. and I are the only two Americans in Cascavel, 

so we got to watch Conference all by ourselves!

We love oranges!

Hopefully we will baptize this next Sunday!! All out of time!

Lots of love,

Elder Cummings

First Week in Cascavel: March 18, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. Do you have a local address for letters and packages?? With being so far from Londrina, that would be nice. I need to get your birthday package out by the end of the month. I don’t know my local address, just send it to the mission office I will get stuff with the same exact frequency as in all my other areas, because the only time you get mail is after the zone leaders go to Londrina, so just keep sending it to the mission office, please! 
2. Did you get a Princess Leia picture with Elder A.? No, I forgot, the tradition already died! L And, my towel that I liked to use for it is in pretty bad shape anyway.
3. How was your trip to Cascavel? Were you in Londrina on Tuesday night with all the other new and transferring missionaries? I heard it was really packed in the mission home and in the missionary apartments in Londrina that night. Yeah, I was in Londrina Tuesday night and it was jam packed (I never went to the mission home). They ran out of mattresses at the house where I slept. The new missionaries never went to the CTM and because of that they didn’t get a chance to register with the police, so they can’t go to their areas yet. They all went to Apucarana for this week to fill out paperwork and they will go to their areas hopefully this next week. It stinks, because Elder A.’s training one of the new Americans, and they were not able to work in Bauru this whole week. L But, my trip to Cascavel was fine; it was just kind of long and boring.
4. We have heard the Church has come out with a new policy change that allows missionaries to receive and respond to emails from people other than their parents. Have you heard anything about this? Do you want to be able to receive email from other people, and if so, who? I was thinking mainly extended family. I literally just got the email like 10 seconds ago saying that we can send emails to other people outside of the family. I don’t really know what to write really to other people that I don’t already send home in the big weekly letter, but giving it to extended family members and close friends would be fine.

Elder S. is right, it is so hard to not see the old slug bugs here in Brazil!!

It’s good to hear from all three of you guys this week!! Good luck with A.P. U.S. History, Jason, and way to go with the Eagle project so far!!

Now, about Cascavel:

As I already said, my new companion is Elder R. from Spokane, Washington (only the elect live in Washington!) and we live with Elder F. (my old companion from when I first got to Bauru) and Elder R.S. (who will “die”—or go home--at the end of this transfer), and they are our zone leaders. We have a really nice, new house but because the zone leaders live there it is SUPER DIRTY. I don’t know why, but the zone leaders’ houses are always the dirtiest houses in the whole zone…oh, wait…I do know why: they have more duties and in order to have any time to relax on P-day, they skip cleaning anything—ha ha. J So that’s kind of annoying, but with them gone at Londrina today and tomorrow, I will dedicate my entire P-day to cleaning the house really good so hopefully it can stay cleaner a little bit longer. Knowing how to clean is one essential skill for a missionary, because no one does it, except the 3 or 4 missionaries that don’t like dirty houses (me included). I think President T. is just sending me to the dirtiest houses in the mission in order to clean and organize them for other missionaries and then he will send me to a new dirty house to clean that one, too. J

Sorry it is really bad, my camera almost froze when I put it up top on the nice 9 hour bus ride because it was right by the air conditioner!! But here is my comp Elder R., he is pretty crazy but a lot of fun!!

“I’m gonna come at you like a spider monkey!”

Cascavel is really sweet! It almost reminds me of Salem, Oregon. It is so weird seeing so much grass after 7 months of nothing but dirt and concrete!! I am loving the cooler temperatures and overcast skies every day. It is like being back in beautiful Bellevue, weather-wise. 

Elder R. preaching to some capybaras!!!

We went to the tiny Cascavel Zoo.

Cascavel means rattlesnake and really this city is appropriately named, that’s for sure because there are a lot of women here who are “snakes” (like to flirt with the missionaries), but it doesn't affect me because I’m not here to get a date! But, yeah, seriously, there are so many more women than men in this city!!

The ward here is really strong. We average between 100 to 140 that come every week with a lot of Young Men and Young Women and a pretty big Primary (it might be bigger than Bellevue 2nd’s Primary) and they have 3 missionaries from the ward out in the field and one more waiting to get his call.

The work here right now is pretty slow, we have one investigator and we can baptize him this next Sunday if he stops drinking coffee, but other than that we have no one, so this week will be focusing on continuing to reorganize the very disorganized area book and working way smarter and finding a lot more investigators. Wish us luck!!

Oh yeah, almost forgot: my last night at Bauru I slept in the zone leaders’ house and Elder S. (CTM companion) did, too, because his companion Elder D.B. was leaving on the same bus as the rest of us. I got to have a good long talk with him, so that was great. We laid awake talking for a while after lights out, and it was so good to get to just talk with him again!! He is such a great friend!!

So I think that is about it for this week!! (I should get snail mail letters tomorrow when the zone leaders come back!!)

Lots of love!

Com Amor,

Elder Cummings