I rode a horse

 (Sister Cummings)

Hey y'all! Sorry I missed last week! Pday was crazy and we had to cut it short because we had to drive to go have dinner as a district with the new mission president and his family. So I didn't have time to write an email. But, honestly, I'm not complaining because dinner with President was a blast!

These last two weeks have been honestly kind of insane! We got transfer calls last week and my freakin AMAZING companion Sister Woodbury got transferred and is now an STL (Sister Training Leader). Which is awesome because I know she's going to do amazing. I trained her well. But that's not the only thing that changed during transfer calls! The new Mission President is now sending sisters to the Northern Territory! Y'all don't understand but that's amazing because it's been an area for only elders for the past couple years and us sisters have been having mega FOMO (fear of missing out). So we're all so excited!

To tell you about this last week though, I'll explain my email title:

The other day, my new companion, Sister Yochim, and I were out contacting and came across this cutie little playground so we decided to take a 5 minute break and check it out. While doing so, I got on this little metal horsey thing that rocked back and forth. I think I might have been a little too big for it because I absolutely fell off of it but as I fell, my foot got mega stuck and Sister Yochim LITERALLY had to pick me up completely to get me unstuck. And we were in public! It was embarrassing! But yeah, I rode a horse.

One more thing that happened this week is that we have a friend that's on date for baptism! It's such an amazing experience seeing people make the choice to further their conversion and relationship with God. It's top freakin notch!

Okayy now for the spiritual stuff:

I loved the responses I got to my question about where the line is between being humble and being too hard on yourself and I want to share with y'all a basic summary of what I learned from y'all!

Humility is only found through Jesus Christ. It's found through trusting in His grace and understanding your own imperfect nature. It's joyful and sprouts happiness. It involves recognizing the gifts you've been given by the Lord and by continuously attributing them to the right Source. Humility is a product of faith in your Savior and is one of the integral ingredients involved in partaking of the Savior's Atonement. Humility is real and attainable but only through Jesus Christ.

On the other hand, being too hard on yourself is the opposite of humility because it is denying Christ. When you're too hard on yourself and you beat yourself up, you are denying yourself the ability to practice Christ's grace and atonement and try again with patience and love.

So, be nice to yourself and turn to Christ always!!!

Amen? AMEN

I love y'all! I've been learning so much from y'all! And Jesus loves y'all!

- Sister Cummings

Question of the week: What qualities make someone a good teacher?

Pics

I’d be a fearless leader, I’d be an alpha type

 (Elder Mackrory)

Bom dia família e entes queridos!

This week was very different from any other week for sure. From the beginning to the end. Vamos que vamos.

This week I saw 20 fuscas, bringing the total to 763.

On pday, we went as a district to center of Búzios! Now I know why everyone calls my area beautiful. As missionaries we usually stay in the neighborhoods doing our stuff, so I was thinking “well it's not ugly, but there's not a whole lot here worth a vacation”. And then we went here. Wow. I would spend a week here as a tourist. We met up on the beach and went to lunch. I had just gotten a haircut and I had already eaten sufficiently, so I just sat with the district and chatted. That and the extremely high prices killed any hunger I did have. We then took a buggy ride around the city. We got to see all the beaches on this little peninsula, including a beach with red sand! Needless to say, I took some of that home with me. After that, we went home and chilled. Then everything was not chill. My phone rings. It's President! So we chatted for a second and then he says “Would you accept a calling to be a District Leader in Búzios?” “Yes, I would accept that calling” “Thank you Elder Mackrory, the Zone Leaders will call you to give you some orientation”. To my remembrance, I was never officially called as DL. But yet here we are. Oh well. Transfers were announced that night and Elder Flores and I are staying together here in Búzios, only I'm District Trainer. President also announced that this transfer there is an apostle coming to visit us and the Rio South mission this transfer. We are not sure which one he will be, but were excited anyway. That night we taught a lesson in Spanish and went home again. Then I did a little bit of stress cleaning.

On Tuesday we got yelled at by a Chilean dude. Not exactly sure why he was mad, nor did I have the slightest idea of what he was saying, but we were able to calm him down and get back to normal activities. I later asked Elder Flores what he said, and he said he only got like 50% percent of it. So that's the Chilean accent for you guys.

On Wednesday we had the fullest English class I've ever taught. There were only about 15 or so people, but it made it extremely difficult to walk around and help people one on one because of a new hand being raised every 10 seconds. But it was better than 3 people, so I'm happy.

On Friday we spent about 6 hours on the bus. We left our house at 7am for the Zone Leadership meeting. At 9, we arrived. At 10:30 we left, and got to lunch on time at 12:30. At 2, we left for another area in the district to do some baptism interviews. At 3, we arrived, as planned. We then Waited almost two hours for the ZL's to show up and tell us where we were going, not as planned. The interviews went well, and yesterday we had two baptisms. Then we traveled An hour back to our area. After standing on the bus for most of the trip, we decided to do our work online and go to bed early.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty normal, English class, church, amazing member lunches and lessons. On Sunday night my comp came down sick, so we will see how that works out. This week is zone conference, and so I will have the opportunity to practice our musical number as we are preparing for the apostolic visit.

SummaRio:

20 fuscas, 763 total

Had a great pday in my area, and I realized why my area is so envied

Was called as District Trainer! this means I will continue training Elder Flores and be district leader

An apostle will come to visit us this transfer and we will get to do a musical number

The Chilean accent is really hard to understand

English class was really busy

We spent 6 hours on the bus on Friday because of baptism interviews and leadership councils

Comp got sick yesterday, started working on our special musical number

Tender mercy: On Sunday we had a few lessons with a recently returned missionary. Since I've basically been the senior companion since leaving training, I've been looking for new or better ways to teach. Having the perspective of someone who has already fulfilled their two years in the field was really nice for me to see and learn from him. I love training, but I always need my own training.

Spiritual thought: These last few weeks I've really been focusing on repentance, so much so that my predictive text suggested the first word of this paragraph to be “Repentance”. I've not stopped on that process, instead I'd like to focus on one aspect of it. Prayer. My companion's favorite scripture in the Book of Mormon reads, “But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul.” (2 Nephi 32:9). Prayer is an essential part of repentance. It is not just a process of realizing mistakes and becoming better, it is also a process of confession to Him, seeking forgiveness and guidance on how to move forward. In some cases, it is necessary to go to the proper priesthood authority to seek this counsel. Prayer will change the night to day because this is how ideas flow. Light bulbs of understanding fill our minds, and the once dark areas of our knowledge are filled with light. It is through the essential step of prayer that forgiveness and true repentance is brought about.

Fotos:

1. Predictive text

2. Random engine

3. Random tundra??? Nunca vi aqui Antes...

4. Nossa! Nossa area

5. Some beach

6. Some garage

7. The Telephone pole decided not to hold the wires anymore

8. Clean house

9. Red sand

10. The island on the left looks like a turtle

11. Buggy ride

12. Red beach

Last transfer, lets see if I can start a streak

 (Elder Putnam)

Friends and Family...

This is my last transfer and so I have a goal to send an email home every Monday. We will have to see how it goes, but at least we are gonna start on a good note. These words that I've just typed out will probably make my mom weep with joy.

This past week has been awesome. Like honestly its just been super fun and I'm super energized for next week.

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we didn't have anything big happen. I packed up all my stuff really tight and compactly, which I'm super proud of. Since I'm getting transferred over with Elder Beebe to be with Elder Woods in Brīvības I was able to see that I'm gonna have no problems bringing stuff back home. I'm gonna have space and weight in my suitcases.

On Wednesday we had our actual transfer. Not a ton took place outside of that except for some finding and whatnot.

Thursday was really fun. We went and served at a Ukrainian help center where we made hygiene kits to send to people affected by the war. We formed an assembly line and worked so efficiently. There is something beautiful about efficiency. When something just works without problems its so amazing. At the end we compiled 197 hygiene kits before we ran out of supplies. We went and told the instructor and she was very surprised that we had finished it all in an hour and 30 minutes. The project was expected to take 2 days. no sweat for the Rīga first district.

On Friday we were able to meet with Ralfs and finish teaching him about the plan of salvation. He is so chill so its hard to see if he's ever feeling the spirit. But he's keeping commitments and wants to be baptized, so... I don't know I guess we'll dip him at some point.

On Saturday we had a baptism for Lehijs. Thats a member's son. He was so excited for his baptism that he made his own poster and bore his testimony at the end. I'll send a pic of the poster. At the baptism I got to talk to Gatis Senkāns for like 30 minutes. He's so wise and charismatic and vibey too. he spat in my eye on accident. lol. I also had the chance to teach Arta, who got baptized a couple years ago about endurance to the end. She said it was really moving and really touched her. That was pretty cool. Saturday night we were in charge of basketball night and we had a good turnout. It inspired me to take some pictures and try even harder to get people to come next week. So I texted some old basketball contacts and invited them. I'll report next week on how it went.

Sunday was likely the high point of the week with the Sacrament. I feel like I had been preparing all week and just in general had been a better person and a better missionary this past week. Disregarding eating healthier, drinking more water, and working out harder and more often, I was also doing better spiritually. I've been listening to general conference sessions before 10 and after 9 so I'll include a suggested talk to listen to at the end.

We were finally able to meet with Persijs which was a win. Edžus is still preparing for baptism and has been taught all the lessons. He's just waiting on permission to get baptized now.

Monday (today) we went to get our hair cuts in the morning by Sister Hall. The Hall's are a senior couple and they absolutely adore us. They made nachos for us and then we gave them a spiritual thought to help Elder Hall overcome some concerns regarding the recent assassination attempt of Donald Trump. I never thought that I would teach that kind of a lesson, but there we were, using the story of Enos coupled with a few verses from the Doctrine and Covenants, to address a concern about politics. God is good.

This coming Tuesday we are gonna visit the šostaki family which will be fun. We are gonna go walk with them in their garden. Elder Beebe and I are trying to meet with all the members in Rīga before we go home. So far, they are the first ones but they will not be the last.

Anyways, I think that’s enough for this week. I hope that I will write an email next week too.

Talk for this week: God Knows and Loves You - Elder Allan T. Philips

Lehijs baptismal poster. What a legend

After the storm, something was born on the Fourth of July

 (Elder Mackrory)

Happy Birthday USA! Hope you had fun blowing stuff up!

This week was crazy for me. So crazy, in fact, that I can't for the life of me remember what happened in specifics. But I can never forget this week or the things I learned. The normal things happened, English class, district council, pday, lessons, contacts, and all that good stuff. But this is not what I want to focus on today. So we'll get to the real focus shortly. Here are the highlights:

14 fuscas for a total of 743.

Made cuzcuz (couscous) twice. It's a dish made from corn flakes cooked as if it was oatmeal. Since it's savory by nature, you can add things like eggs, deli meat, cheese, vegetables and all sorts of good stuff. So I did that. each time differently and each time better. The first time I just put green peppers, eggs, deli meat, and cheese. The second time I put green peppers, tomatoes, corn, carrots, savory sausage, onion (grilled of course), and cheese. It was incredible. Highly recommended.

Google maps told me that I have spent 58 hours walking this month. I don't take my phone with me every time we leave though, so it's more than that.

I don't know if you guys remember, but I had a division with Elder Levie on December 30. During that division, we taught the restoration to a family. This Sunday, the daughter and son were baptized, and their parents are next! Missionaries, no effort you put forth goes unnoticed. The people notice it, and your Heavenly Father notices it more. For me these fruits took a good 5 months to come, and some take more time.

I've started including slang in my English classes. The students really like it.

Alright, now for the good stuff. I've been thinking about what the most important thing we teach is. Is it the Book of Mormon? Is it the Plan of Salvation? Is it Baptism? While all these things are important and integral to anyone's true conversion, there is but one principle that goes above all these. It's repentance. Numberless times the scriptures call missionaries to “cry repentance” or “preach repentance”. The Savior himself was often quoted by starting with “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” This is the word for which I have been called. Preach repentance unto those who need it. Who needs it? People who are far from God. People who are close to God. People who are distancing themselves from God. People who are nearing themselves to God. Everyone. No matter the situation or the past, everyone needs repentance desperately. It is the only way we can overcome the world. Christ has already done that, and he has given us the tools to do so as well. The Spirit of the Lord drives away sin. Sin drives away the Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord allows us to leave our worldly desires behind and follow Christ. When we have the Holy Spirit, we will reach a point where sin loses its appeal, and we are left wondering why we would ever want to sin. How do we get to having the Spirit? Repentance. Simple as that. Repentance allows us to realize our faults and shortcomings, but does not leave us in that gall of bitterness, it gives us the righteous desire to do better and to be better. In a lesson this week, we were setting goals for this incredible couple to follow the Word of Wisdom and other commandments. In the Spirit that this repentance brought, the wife said out of nowhere “and I need to be reading more of the Book of Mormon!” We had not mentioned the Book of Mormon in this lesson yet. But the Spirit of Repentance, who is the Spirit of the Lord guided her to make the changes she needed to make. The joy that comes from deciding to follow the Lord leaves us wanting more and more and more. Repentance is not sadness and guilt. It is joy and relief. It is what I now strive to fit into every conversation I have, be it with members of the church, other missionaries, or with our friends. Repentance is the most important thing that my calling holds. As a missionary, it is my duty to share the joy that comes from repentance. In my prayers I always reflect on how I can become better. In doing this, my guilt of not being better before is swept away and joy, greater than was my guilt, fills my soul. I feel inspired and full of righteous desire. A fire fills my spirit as I prepare to preach to the souls of this dispensation. There is no greater joy than that of repentance. Make it a daily goal to reflect on how you can become better, and your day will be filled with inexplicable joy. I promise this. The lesson we had with this wonderful couple was a tender mercy for me and I am forever grateful to have experienced it.

Fotos:

1. Batismo of Bryan and Maria Martha

2. Haircut

3. English class

4. Théo, the goat

5. Cuzcuz part 2 (has the fork)

6. Cuz cuz part 1

7. All you can eat buffet

8. Super sick bike

9. The district

Just Another AWESOME Week

 (Sister Cummings)

Hey y'all!

So I've been told that y'all want me to spend more time talking about the missionary work I'm doing. That's valid. I just get worried that if I write too much, y'all won't want to read my emails! But I'll work on including more details in these emails.

One of the biggest things that happened this week was that I got to meet my new mission president and his wife! They are incredible! They're really young too! They have 4 boys and a little girl named Honey (isn't that the cutest name ever??).

Apart from that, we also got to meet a lot of people since we've been on the bus. Actually, it's crazy because we were walking because we missed our bus and we ran into this guy who's been inactive for a while and had just moved to the area so he didn't know where the chapel was. So we told him! And he invited us over for din din on Sunday and that was a absolute hoot! That's a miracle that's come from the car crash!

Anyways, I want to get to the spiritual stuff now because that's why I'm here! I love Jesus and want to tell more people about Him!

So I finished the BoM for the first time since starting my mission! (I finished it in 2 months!! CRAZY) and I just had a couple thoughts that I've developed on the importance of consistency. OH SIDE NOTE it's true. The Book of Mormon is true! But yes consistency. It's AMAZING and SO IMPORTANT. I've always kind of known that but I've seen it even more since I've been on my mission and with the Book of Mormon. Since I've been reading so much of the book so consistently, it makes so much more sense because y'all, it actually reads like a story. A story! It's amazing. Also, when you read the Book of Mormon everyday, you are blessed. I've found here on my mission that when I read it everyday I can better keep my mind centered on my purpose and on my Savior. It's great and I'm sure the consistency has been blessing me in other ways too. Y'all should try it! Please please please read the Book of Mormon!

Anyways, I love Jesus, I love y'all, and I miss y'all

Have a good one!

Love Sister Cummings,

About old question: I LOVED the responses to the last question about humility. I took notes and I'm going to write up my next spiritual thought on what I learned. So thank you!

New Question (PLEASE ANSWER): How do you grow your trust in the Savior?

Cause there we are again on that little town street

 (Elder Mackrory)

Hey folks! Tudo certo por aí?

This week was easily the fastest one yet. I don't know what day it should be, but definitely not pday. This week was so gratifying and I know exactly why. Wait until the end.

This week was a little slower than I was hoping, we only saw 12 fuscas. 729 total.

On pday last we did a nice little hike in Arraial do Cabo. I was really excited for the hike, but turns out it was just a walk over a hill for a hidden beach. Really beautiful and fun to dig holes in the sand. Elder Flores built sand castles and I dug tunnels, all the while the sisters were perpetually astonished at the male mind. Apparently women don't constantly want to dig holes and build sand castles. Strange. Digging a hole is one of the most gratifying things to do. If you know me, you know it was one of the first things I did when I moved to New Mexico. We spent the rest of the day exploring the city and then went home to chill. When we went out for work that night, we visited a good friend and introduced her to the Book of Mormon. Great time. That night, I was able to talk to a few friends who happened to be with my dad, including the dad of my #1 amigo. He also served in Brasil some time ago and so we spoke Portuguese together. Super cool.

On Tuesday we had my first lesson by audio messages. That was nice to be able to re-record when I make grammatical mistakes. I love to study the grammar, and so that means my knowledge of the grammar exceeds my ability to use it. It's frustrating. But I'm getting better. Weird observation: in Portuguese, you can say “I had taken” (eu tomara) instead of “I hope so” (espero que sim).

On Wednesday we helped set up for the branch festa junina and had English class. My students Like to learn slang, and since we were talking about clothing, I taught them about drip. Apparently I'm the drippiest American they've known.

Thursday was the Branch festa junina! Festa junina used to be a harvest festival, but nowadays it's just get together dressed as farmers and do line dancing and eat food. So basically just any other holiday. But it was fun, we got permission from president to stay up an extra 30 minutes!

Friday was interesting. We tried to find this one guys house and ended up getting on the wrong street. Upon realizing this, we switched over to the Correct street and found his house on the corner we arrived at. Cool little tender mercy there. We had an awesome lesson with Marcelo and he's loving the Book of Mórmon. On our way to our next appointment, the person canceled. His wife wasn't sure about us and had some worries. So we settled on passing by and introducing ourselves. He sent us his address and we started off. we had the street name and number. Arriving at his address, We called out “Alex!”. Alex's wife opens the door. We introduce ourselves, and explain a little about what we do. We expressed that we would like to meet with them another day. She introduced herself as Rose, and agreed to meet with us on Monday (tonight). We said good night and thank you and started off for our next visit. I sent a message to Alex telling him that we had just spoken with his wife, Rose. He responds, “my wife's with me and her name is Margaret, you must have spoken to the wrong person.” So we confirmed his address, and we had visited the right house. So we asked for his location (addresses are awful in Brasil and you often need a location to find things). The location he sent us was on the other side of the area. Turns out there are two roads with the same name, and two houses with the same number where both families have Alex as the father. So we have no idea who we just marked with, but we walked an Hour or so to the real Alex's house. We introduced ourselves just fine and all is well. So we'll see how our accidental lesson goes tonight with fake Alex and his family.

On Saturday we managed to mark a lesson with real Alex and his wife. There awesome people who love to talk about God. Especially Alex. We chat almost all day everyday about the gospel. He was really attentive and adored hearing about the Book of Mormon. He said he'd come to church. Then his wife said “don't just go there, get baptized!” So we marked a date for his baptism. The wife, ironically, is less interested, but we're working on that.

Sunday was great! Our new ward mission lead was called and he's very enthusiastic about the work. I'm excited to work with him. He speaks English Spanish and Portuguese fluently and is a natural conversationalist. Gonna be great. I spoke in church with 12 hours notice, which went well. Many of our friends came and so it was hard to keep track of them.

SummaRio:

12 fuscas, 729 total

Went to the beach in Arraial do Cabo and dug holes

I know less Portuguese than I know

My English students think I'm “Drippy”

Celebrated the harvest that didn't happen

Visited the wrong (right) house and found the wrong (right) people.

Alex is amazing and is getting baptized pretty soon

Spoke in church, and had the new ward mission leader called.

Tender mercy: on Friday we were struggling to put anything on the calendar, and we're kinda not feeling like doing anything so we just decided to act in faith and go out to teach. In the moment we decided to go out, things came to mind and appointments kept happening. We ended up teaching 4 lessons. The Lord truly prepared our path.

Spiritual thought: Repentance does not just bring joy. Repentance is Joy. This last transfer I’ve tried my very best to follow every rule and standard we missionaries have. And it's been an incredible ride. As ive tried to follow every standard, I've realized how far I've come short. The hardest and toughest parts of my mission have been in this last transfer and also the most joyous. In striving to be better, I am able to be more sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. In moments of coming short, I feel guilt and sorrow for the things I did or didn't do. This feeling is known by many in the scriptures. Lehi, at one point having insufficiently exercised faith, experienced this guilt: “he was brought down into the depths of sorrow.” I felt this. From not keeping all the commandments, I feel the Spirit of the Lord retreat to a certain degree. For me, this is reproof enough. In solemn prayer, following the examples of all the scripture heroes I know, I ask forgiveness and make plans and goals to be better. Godly sorrow reproves sin and incites righteousness. I felt the godly sorrow, repented of my shortcomings, and resolved to do and be better. In fulfilling my desires to become better I feel my spirits soar and the Spirit of the Lord once again residing in abundance with me. Alma the younger describes it well, “my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!” I would go further to say that the joy exceeds the pain. This process repeats itself daily, and each day I experience the consequences of my shortcomings and the joy of becoming better. Daily repentance is daily joy. Try daily repentance and come to know the paradise that comes from overcoming the natural man. This joy is incomparable and indescribable. There's beauty in that. You gotta experience it to know it. So go! Review what ways you can become better! Pray for guidance as you make these changes! Don't wallow in pain, use it to motivate you to become the person God wants you to be! And then become better! Experience the joy I'm feeling every day!

See y'all in the next one!

Fotos:

1. Meme

2. Electric lawnmower???

3. Sick car?? Who knows what it is?

4. My drawing

5. Service project

6. "Hike"

7. "Hike" com todo Mundo

8. Beach

9. Me playing in the sand

Boom Boom Crash

 (Sister Cummings)

Hey howdy y'all!

Sorry I missed last week! I was really tired and decided not to send an email. But, I learned my lesson because apparently when you don't send an email, you get in a car crash! So yeah! We got in a car crash! It was definitely an experience! Everyone is fine but Sister Woodbury and I are now biking, walking, and taking the bus. It's a total hoot!!

Anyways, even with that trial this week, we still saw SO many miracles and were able talk to SO many people! So God had His hands in the car crash. That's not a sentence I thought I'd ever say but yeehaw!

Soo moving on the spiritual stuff:

Last week we had this one last zoom call with the Mission President and his wife because their mission was ending. It was so amazing but there was one thing that our mission president shared that really stuck out to me and it's this:

"You will never hear your Father say, 'are you worthy?' but 'Do you believe?' 'Will you receive?''

I have three words for this. Amen. Hallelujah. And Yeehaw!

Actually, I have some more words about it. I think it's amazing that repentance is up to us! It's up to our faith and belief in our Savior. We have to have faith that He WILL take our sins from us. You just have to trust them with Him. He has already taken them for you. He has already born your pain. You just need to trust Him. Which is the simplest thing to say and one of the hardest things to practice. But it's worth it! I promise!

I know these things, I've done these things, and I'm so thankful for my Savior. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

I love y'all!

Sister Cummings

Question of the week: Where's the line between true humility and just being too hard on yourself?