See you on the 17th!--July 7, 2014

Dear Everyone,

1.  As you embark upon your last full week as a missionary, what are your thoughts on this time you have spent in Brazil? I feel as though my time in Brasil has been 2 years WELL SPENT!!! I would not trade my time here for anything. Before receiving my mission call I wanted to go to Russia or Europe, basically anywhere but Brasil, but now I would not trade it for anything!!! I feel as though I really dedicated these 2 years to the Lord and to serving the people of Brasil!! It was/is truly amazing. We are going to work for the miracle of baptizing 5 people this week...pray for us!!
2. What do you feel you have learned? In what ways do you feel you have grown? We will need to have a nice long talk when I get home, because I have learned so much and grown so much that I don't even recognize myself!!!
3. What do you want to eat when you get home? Ohhhh, good question! Pasta with carbonara sauce, rice fluff, lasagna, stroganoff, the usual.

While we are on the subject of trunky things, can you pick up a few personal hygiene products for me this week so I don´t have to worry about it when I get back? Thanks!! Also on my first day back if possible I would like to do a temple session and buy new garments!!! (And I still don´t know my travel info!!!!)

It gets crazier and crazier every time Brasil makes it farther in the World Cup!!! You should hear the warzone of fireworks that goes off every time that Brasil makes a goal or wins the game!!! Wowza!!!

And, as I was saying this week will be super crazy!! We have zone conference on Tuesday, there will the world cup finals on Sunday, and we are trying to baptize 5 people this week!!! So we are going to be running all over creation to baptize here and help the rest of the district baptize too!! Sunday we left lunch and went straight to the sisters’ area to do a second baptismal interview (they had baptized on Saturday but a miracle went to church so they had 2 baptisms!!!) and then I went straight over to Ouro Branco to do an interview for the zone leaders and got to see a lot of old ward friends there!!

Ohhhh, this week I was a good boy with the camera, so let’s get started:

photos from my last district meeting (this week we have zone conference) and the sisters bought me a cake too!!!

Timeline of how long everyone in the district has been on their mission.
Note “Elder Cummings 1 year and 11 months…RIP”

This is a text we received when we broke the monthly baptism record with 201 baptisms in June and were in second place in all of Brasil (only Manaus baptized more than us!!!) (Roughly translated as Elders POWER, due to their allegiance diligence, and FACT THAT YOU ARE GOOD. We closed this month with the total registered by the Church of ... 201! Congratulations and let’s go!)

I fell in a hole in the street while watching the kite wars going on overhead!!! Here kites are super popular and people try to cut the lines of other people´s kites, it is pretty intense!!

Last P-day Elder P. and I played tourist in the Japanese square in Londrina. There are some cool squares in Londrina, but unfortunately I didn´t manage to find a cool shirt for Jason L

I think that is about it!!! If it turns out that this is my last e-mail: see you guys on the 17th!!!! I think based on the fact that I am here in Londrina already and will not need to travel on Monday, that I will be able to send a shout out to you guys this next Monday.

see you guys soon!

Love you guys!!

Elder Cummings

Catch Ya On the Flip Side: June 30, 2014

Dear Everyone,

1. How is Elder P. doing in his training? Elder P. is becoming pro status already!! We are working super hard, and it is starting to give fruit (just not in our area...)
2. How did your district training go? It went well—and was kind of crazy. This week that passed there was an emergency transfer and one of the sisters in my district Sister V. (I was her district leader when she arrived in Londrina back in October) went to Tupã in São Paulo (where Elder S. was trained), and arrived a new sister from there to train a new American and by new American I mean a sister with over a year of mission time who FINALLY got her visa... holy cow!!! And to top it all off the first day of the new sisters being here their lunch fell through, so after district meeting we bought them lunch (a member had given us money to eat in a restaurant and gave more than enough for us so we spread the joy to the sisters). I also got to give the new sister, Sister S., a blessing after district meeting. Poor Sister S. rolled her ankle that very same afternoon, but she is all better now.

Also this week I got to go to Ouro Branco (former area also in Londrina) to do a baptismal interview for the zone leaders and got to see the bishop and a few members that I know, so that was nice!!! And hopefully this week our area will be the one to EXPLODE and we will have lots of people to baptize in my last weeks!

On Thursday we were sitting at the bus stop to go to a meeting at the church building and we were witnesses to 3 different drug deals (the funny part is that we know some of the people)!! But it was all chill, no one messes with the missionaries in that neighborhood. (A few days later we were passing by and there were 6 motorcycle cops rounding up everyone on that street... our area is super chill!!)

Wow, Jason´s phone is pretty darn sweet!!! But, would it kill ya to look away from the computer for one second to take a photo??!!!! haha!! But I guess I can´t complain too much this week, I slacked off and did not take any photos (though you should hopefully get some photos today from Sister C. of me and Elder P., her son and 2 other young men in the ward) but today we are going to go to the center and take photos at the Japanese themed square there and to look for a soccer jersey for Jason (I’ll use my card) and maybe one more for me!!! (I have been giving the lower quality jerseys to people as the time has been going so I hope I can get a jersey that is a little better quality!!)

(Oh, on a related topic, my last member lunch as a missionary will be Sunday the 13th, which happens to be the World Cup finals and it will be at the C.’s house!!!)

Yesterday we went tracting with this 19 year old young man who is in the process of finishing his mission papers, and he went to EFY a few months ago and there he met my old investigator N. from Apucarana who at the time had to work out a few things in her life before she could be baptized. He is friends with her on Facebook and he said that this coming week she will be baptized!!!!! Yeah boy!!!!

Dad, you are keeping the woodworking tools right?? Is that what will mostly fill the shipping container??

catch ya on the flip side!!

lots of love!!

Elder Cummings

There's No Time to Be Trunky! June 23, 2014

Dear Everyone,

1. Have you been able to get a soccer jersey for Jason? No, I haven’t gotten Jason a soccer jersey yet, but I’ll be getting one soonish, I hope. Does he have a preference?
2.  Do you remember if you saved a pair of board shorts for your first swimming party after your release, or should I go buy a pair??? I have board shorts at home still!! (I have no idea where but I should be able to find them at night before the first swim day!!)

5C!!!??? I’ve never even heard of the 5C. I think the 4 was just coming out when I started my mission!! (Photo please!!!! J)

Wow, Dad, a whole week off for 4th of July!!! Awesome.

Our week was fun and very busy once again. We are trying to do everything at once, so it always seems as though we run out of time. But, that’s a good thing here at the end because there isn’t even any time to be TRUNKY.

Tuesday was district meeting, it was strange and refreshing to once again give district training (this morning I prepared district meeting for tomorrow). But with the Brasil game Tuesday we had to return home after lunch and only leave after 7:30 at night. This world cup is getting really in the way!! (Today we have an extended p-day until 7:30 because Brasil will play again!!! (I hope the United States wins but with the heartbreak tie yesterday we will have to wait and see). Every night when we return to our apartment complex, the gate guard always gives us updates on how the games ended up that day since we are not allowed to watch the games. It will be interesting to see what will be the rules once the games get more and more important and the people get more and more crazy!!

Thursday we went to the sisters’ area again to work there and do a baptismal interview since the sisters had to travel to Foz and Cascavel to do divisions (this week they will be going to Sarandi in the Morangueira zone and Thursday we will go there again to find some more baptisms for them and maybe this weekend too to do yet another baptismal interview!!!) 

This Sunday we managed to bring this young woman to church who is 16, she really liked church and she already has a testimony about the Book of Mormon, so we will do our best to baptize her this week!!! Her mom was going to go too but at the last minute Satan inspired her married son to call Saturday night and tell her that he would have lunch with them on Sunday (something that he never does) so she stayed home Sunday morning to prepare lunch... but she will go with us this next week!!

Weekly photos: 

Me returning from lunch one day in the rich fancy, brand spanking new still-in-construction part of town!! (a lot of members live there.)

A sweet sunset that we saw one night!!

And, I think that’s all he wrote!!!

Love you guys a lot!!

até logo! (see you soon!)

Elder Cummings

3 Baptisms and 8 Pictures!

Dear Everyone,

1.  How did your week go this week? Did your investigators get baptized? One of them was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday! It was awesome. We had 2 more baptisms on Sunday (they are the two closest to me, the ones on either side of Elder S.). The zone leaders had 3 baptisms this week, too!! And, we already have a good possibilidade (possibility) to baptize 3 more this next coming Sunday! The work is progressing in Ouro Blanco!
2. What have you been studying lately in the Book of Mormon or Preach My Gospel? In my studies I am studying stuff that helps my current investigators and marking up my new scriptures that I bought and studying topics in Preach My Gospel to help out my district. (I was hoping to get a little more detail. Well, I tried at least!—Marie)
3. Tell us more about why you were in the “mountains” in your pictures last week? Is that part of your area? Yes, the mountains are part of my area and we passed by coming back from lunch and took some quick pics!

 

Can you send me a photo of my baptism in a letter? It would be cool to be able to show to investigators. Thank you!!

I didn’t even get to attend my ward this week because of returning from Cornélio Procópio Sunday morning and preparing for the baptisms, so I didn’t play piano this week. I was practicing a little bit here and there, but now I am just going to wing it on the piano, it is coming really well, at least the right hand, that is!

So, for the rest of my letter I will give some comments on my photos. Yes, lots of photos this week, so feel lucky! I don’t know if I can send so many every week!!

The pizza was for Elder S.’s birthday, which was Friday!!

Last P-day we had a barbeque, but it was really hot so we used an umbrella when we were at the grill!!

This photo shows a little bit of my tie alterations work, which I learned how to do from Elder S. They all started off the same size as the piano tie!

It rained A TON on Thursday!!! A few minutes before the bus passed by, an old lady was walking by when a truck passed there...let’s just say she got SOAKED!!!

The elders in Cornélio Procópio have this funny noise-making rubber chicken in their house. I traveled there Saturday night to do two baptismal interviews for the zone leaders because Elder R. forgot his ID, so I went there in his place with Elder G. (a greenie). That was fun. We traveled back early Sunday morning (luckily it is only 1.5-hour bus ride) but we didn´t bring any extra clothes because it was last minute and we didn’t even have time to shower on Sunday morning before I had to do 2 more baptismal interviews and then we had our baptisms!! (The Elder Cummings Show continues!!)

I think that is about it for this week!! Enjoy the photos!

com amor,

Elder Cummings

Young Women Theme: September 23, 2013

Dear Everyone,

1. Did Elder S. actually draw on the money or did it come to him that way? Elder S. actually drew on it...
2. Grandpop’s 2014 calendar is finished, and it is really nice as usual. Do you want us to send you a couple in your Christmas box, or do you just want us to save you one for when you get home? If you want us to send them, how many do you want? Can you send me 2 calendars, one for me and one for my comp?

Today we got a blast of fall weather too, lots of wind and rain which meant that 2 big trees fell down in our neighborhood, tearing down power lines with them. We still have power, luckily, but during the week they are starting to turn off the water and electricity to the whole neighborhood in order to ration water, which normally isn´t a problem because we never are at home in the afternoon but for p-day it will be a little bit tricky!!

So, let’s get down to business!!

President Genaro ordered us to get our house in order, because in the words of Sister Genaro, “it looks as though the house has been abandoned for over a year!” So, as you can see by the picture, we did a major overhaul in the backyard and in the process we made a little mess!! But, we did clean it up, so now our house is limpinho!!! squeaky clean!! We cleaned everywhere, we even pressure-washed the bathrooms and kitchen!! Yeah, missionary cleaning!!!

This week, I told the other elders that I had the Young Women’s theme memorized and they were all making fun of me for a few days, but then one day they came back and apologized to me because they were teaching this young woman and they were trying to explain to the mom about what her daughter would learn in the Young Women’s program and they couldn´t remember all of the Young Women values!! Yeah, it would have come in real handy if they, too, had the Young Women’s theme memorized!! :-P

On Wednesday we spent the whole day in the sisters’ area tracking down references, talking with everyone in the street and basically running all over creation, but it was good, we got a lot of work done for them while they looked after their investigators and we even found some cool people for them to teach. They brought a family to church this week so that was cool!!

On Thursday I did a division (split) with the zone leaders so they could travel to another city to help out a companionship that works there and still accompany all of their investigators!!

On Saturday we did a division with the secretaries to help them out and that also was really good. I will probably do more divisions with them this next week because they will be trapped in the office doing the transfers so I will help them accompany all of their investigators!! Being district leader is great!! I love running around creation to help everyone out!! (We ran into this crazy lady who has 60 dogs that she takes care of!!!)

Also this week we did a lot of sleeping outside because of the heat. One night I tried to sleep in my hammock and by tried, I mean I tossed and turned for 2 hours before getting my mattress and going to sleep!! My hammock is really comfy to relax, but to sleep it is not so neat!!

And that sums up my week!! Thanks for the great email as always!! Happy Birthday, Uncle Steven!! HOLY COW WHAT HAPPENED TO IZZY!!!?? She is huge!!

Com Amor!

Elder Cummings

First Baptism in Cascavel: June 10, 2013

Dear Everyone,

Answers first:

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

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

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

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

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

BAPTISM!!!!!!

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

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

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

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

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

com amor,

Elder Cummings!!

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

Life of a District Leader: June 3, 2013

Dear Everyone,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some other fun facts from this week:

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

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

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

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

Love you guys!!

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

com amor,

Elder Cummings