Hey everybody!
This week was pretty crazy. We got a lot of stuff done and
had tons of fun.
On Monday, we and the sister missionaries had a little game
night with the father and daughter that came to church last week. To make a
long story short, we starting playing a Swedish card game, and ended up forming
a ward choir. We ran the idea by the bishop--who had already asked us to find a
way to provide more musical numbers for our worship services--and he was all
for it and wanted to join the choir himself. So on Sunday, we had our first
choir practice between sessions of General Conference. It was glorious. The
choir itself was only 5 people, 1 accompanist, and 1 director (me haha). It's
not the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square under the direction of Mack Wilberg
and Ryan Murphy with Andrew Unsworth and Brian Mathias at the organ but we do
our best. All you need is a willing heart. "Therefore, if ye have desires
to [sing] ye are called to the [choir]" (D&C 4:3).
Wednesday, we went to a local high school to talk to some English
classes. It was really really fun. The students were well behaved and talkative
which helped a lot. They asked lots of good questions and we told them all
about American culture and showed them pictures of our houses on Google Earth
and taught them some American slang words. I couldn't remember any slang words
other than "sauce" and honestly, I'm not sure what people are saying
nowadays so we started telling them mission lingo that has worked it's way into
the missionaries vocabulary here. Stuff like "big dog," or "big
boy," or "dad." Really funny stuff. By the end of it, you could
hear them calling each other "biiiig boyyyyy." Good content.
On Wednesday we went down to a city a little south of us to
visit a couple that were taught and baptized by my good friend, Elder BIRD. I
had heard a lot about them so it was so fun to actually meet them and get to
know them and hear their stories. The husband is from Venezuela and has a
pretty crazy backstory which has resulted in a number of things. One of them being
that he has some pretty sick dribbling moves in basketball. He wiped the floor
with us. I love them so much already.
Speaking of basketball, between sessions of General
Conference, three 15 year old Swedish kids biked to the church parking lot and
started playing basketball on the outdoor hoops. We decided to challenge them
to a game of basketball. So, knowing that this would only work if they thought
we were cool, I used our secret missionary weapon: English. I just walked up to
them and said "Hey big dogs you wanna ball?" and we were in. We
played basketball with them for about an hour and beat them pretty badly but we
all had a good laugh by the end.
For those of you who don't know, we had something called
General Conference this weekend which was many hours of inspired teachings and
guidance from the leaders of the Church who we believe to be prophets and
apostles who are given inspiration from God to convey His messages to us. This
time around was as good as always and full of plenty of great counsel and
specifically loving calls to repentance. President Nelson is particularly adept
at given correction and encouragement to shape up, so to speak. I think it's
exciting. It's always good to know that there is still room for improvement.
The more we repent, or in other words, the more we change the way we think,
feel, and live to be more in accordance with God's will, the closer we come to
Christ. Isn't that wonderful?
Have a great week!
Love,
Äldste Cummings
1. Mauro and Sara sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g 😘.
2. Elder Seely was really self-conscious about sweating through his pants after a gentle 15 minute bike ride until we discovered that the culprit was the cracked leather on the bike seat and the soaking wet foam underneath.
3. Big Boyyyyyys
4. Eating tons of candy for General Conference. Timeless
classic.
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