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!!!

New Missions: February 25, 2013

Dear Everyone:

Before I answer the questions, here is some amazing news:  http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/list-of-58-additional-missions-created. Yeah that’s right, 58 new missions and 7 of them are in Brazil!!! The Brazil missions will open up in July and we don’t know the new boundaries or anything, or how it is going to all work out, but the Brazil Londrina Mission will be split up, so that will be super exciting!!! I just about had a heart attack when I found this out!!!! A lot of missionaries are speculating that they will cut all of the state of São Paulo from the Brazil Londrina Mission to give to the São Paulo West Mission and maybe get rid of Cascavel and Foz de Iguaçu to give to the Curitiba South Mission and just open up a ton of currently closed cities in our area, but this is all just crazy missionaries talking about crazy stuff that we have no idea about!! But one thing is for sure that they will need to take more experienced missionaries from the current mission to help open up the new missions so there is a good chance that a bunch of people will be transferring missions. (I think this would be super cool!!!!) But again we don’t really know anything, we are just super, super excited!!!!

So, Q&A time, here we go!

1. Are we allowed to see the mission website that you referred to in your letter last week (even if it is probably all in Portuguese)? I don’t think so because you need to choose your name and enter in your mission password to get to the mission website! Sorry!
2. How are your shoes holding up? My shoes are holding up great!! I wear one pair pretty much every day except when they get really wet and the other pair only on Sundays and my everyday pair is just starting to get a hole in it but not like a hole all the way through but like there is a outer layer, then a gap that has supports and air, and then even more shoe, and right now I am almost through the outer layer on that pair in some spots. But the 2 pairs that I have will EASILY last the whole two years.
3. Did you get a hammock? No, because you have to buy them from the hippies that walk around in the street and we didn’t see any, but we are going to the zoo today so maybe I will see one!! J
4. Is this current transfer only 5 weeks long? Our elders say they are currently on a 5-week transfer, and that will cut one week off of everyone’s time at the end of the mission. Yes, this is true that this transfer is only 5 weeks long. Transfers will be the 11th and 12th of March.

By the way, I bought one more jersey and plan on getting more (they are really cheap and we found this really cool guy that sells them and he always gets new jerseys!! I’m a little addicted... but there are worse things to be addicted to!!

Way cool on the coin find!!! I think that is a 5 centavo piece because they don’t make 1 centavo pieces anymore and you can’t use them in the stores so they are rare (and they are silver) (I have one and will try and find a second one for dad, I decided that cool coins will be my present for Dad (I have some cruzeros, the coins they used before the centavos that are not valid anymore and are also rare!!)

There are lots of food pictures this week:

 First McDonald’s in 7 months!!!! It was heavenly!!!

First Brownies and ice cream in 7 months!!It was super good!! 

Keep up the good work toward the Eagle badge, little bro!!! It will help a lot, especially if you want to go to BYU. ALL of my friends at BYU are Eagle Scouts, and it is hard to find any guy at BYU who is not an Eagle Scout. If you don’t get it, you will be at a big disadvantage when you apply. (If that’s where you want to go to school, which I think it would be super cool if we went to the same college!!!)

Barbeque at a member´s house!!! it was soooooooo good!!! 

 A little avocado that we foraged while out tracting one day!!

We had no baptisms this week, but we have a strong prospect for this coming Sunday. His name is Lucas and we brought him and a friend of his to church on Sunday and the friend didn't like it but he did and he said that he will continue to come even without his friend!!! He is really great!! So I expect that we should have another baptism this coming SUNDAY!!

Other than that, this week was another week of pounding the pavement to contact 88 more people!! A lot of the references from the area book are really bad!! But, like Elder G. (my friend on a mission in Taiwan) said, member referrals are key!!! Until now I have had ZERO baptisms from member referrals. ALL of them were found knocking on doors and talking with people in the street because we have had very little member help. This way is so much harder!! But at least the ward is much more excited lately because we have been having a lot more success than normal in this area (and Elder A. and I are pretty dope!!) Last week we went out with members 4 different nights and this week we have plans for 4 more nights. It really helps out!! One of the less-active people that we visited went to church on Sunday, so it is already bearing fruit!!!

I´m still here, still working hard, still sweating a lot, still loving every minute!!!

I think that is about it. There wasn’t a ton of new stuff this week besides the new missions.

Lots of Love!

Elder Cummings