Christlike!

 (Sister Cummings)

Hey Howdy Y'all!!

This week was awesome! I got sick and we had heaps of meetings so there's not much to talk about! Overall it was a fantastic week! I'd love to hear about y'all's!

Honestly, getting sick on the mission is really frustrating but also brings time for a lot of good reflection! I did a lot of reflecting and have discovered some things that I really want to enact and improve next transfer! So I'm hopeful and excited!

Here's some spiritual stuff:

Lately I've been thinking about Christlike attributes and something that was a lightbulb moment was I realized that these attributes of Christ are only "Christlike" because they are for the benefit of other people! Like knowledge is a Christlike attribute but it is only going to be "Christlike" if you share it with others and help them learn and grow! It applies to all of the attributes!

What Christlike attribute are you working on right now?

I love y'all! Sorry for the short email!

- Sister Cummings

Yeah, I learned my lesson, count my blessings

 (Elder Mackrory)

Opa tropa ta mais um email aí dando sopa

Espero que consigam ver a graça no ritmo dessa introdução. Pois eh. Vi 9 fuscas essa semana, trazendo o total aos 1360,5.

Last pday we took it slowly, and hung around the house. I made a raspberry-lime cheesecake for district council. I did some dishes and laundry and somehow managed to procrastinate writing my email.

On Tuesday we had district council and I brought my raspberry lime cheesecake which everybody loved. The only thing that didn’t go perfectly was the crust, which lacked butter and was therefore crumbly. After the council, a friend of ours Fabio came to church to see how it all works. We taught the first principles of the gospel, and he accepted our baptism invite. We did a reverse day from what is normal and did our online work in the afternoon and did visits at night.

On Wednesday we did some visits in the farthest neighborhood in our area after eating lunch in the mall. Afterwards we went to the chapel for seminary, and beforehand while calling referrals, Carol responded and told us how she had been taught by the missionaries before, she’s been reading the book of Mormon and want to be baptized and go to the temple. So there’s that. We marked a lesson with her for the next day, because our friends had arrived. With Luciano and Ruby with the help of the bishop we had a super spiritual lesson about the restoration. If they are ready, we hope to invite them to baptism this week. During this, our friend Jorge was interviewed for baptism and passed! Super crazy miracle about this. Afterwards we had some call lessons. One with Jessica, who is also super interested in being baptized, but she lives outside the mission in a super inconvenient spot that makes it easier for her to get a bus ride to our ward than to her ward. We will see about the situation.

On Thursday morning we called our friend Carol back, with the help of sister Barbara. She was so kind to Carol and helped her feel welcome and ready to come to church on Sunday. She was so kind as to invite Carol to have lunch with her the next day, which was the day we would be there too! After the call, we marked to meet with her that evening in the chapel, and invited a sister in the ward who lives on her same street. Unfortunately she was working, so to make the lesson work, we called up Luciano and Ruby again and they were able to participate in the lesson. Not members (yet), but at least we weren’t alone. We taught the plan of salvation, and it went really well despite some hiccups.

On Friday, we had lunch with Barbara, her family, and Carol. It was super good. Carol is feeling super welcome in the ward, which was one of her worries about coming. We went to go visit Joao on the complete opposite side of the area, who ended up canceling on us. That’s ok, there’s never too little online work to do.

On Saturday, we had a super cool lesson with Fabio, with a less active member we’re helping out. Super cool, and how they’re friends. We helped out with soccer that night, But we had to dip early to go to the family night marked by the sister who lived on the same street as Carol. Naturally, she asked us to invite Carol. We had a super good discussion about the restoration and the Book of Mormon, and she’s super excited about the Gospel Library.

On Sunday we had Jorge’s baptism, and some 6 of our friends came! Afterwards we had lunch at Nubia’s house, and were kinda stuck there the entire day because it was also Elder Amorim’s goodbye party since we are pretty sure he’s leaving.

Overall, it was a pretty full week. As I wrote, I went back like four or five times just because I forgot about a really important event.

Tender Mercy: Jorge was going to be baptized because we was supposed to switch jobs to free him up on Sundays. Come the interview, he passed, but said that some people at his current job left, and so now as a manager, he’s kinda stuck there. After some prayer and fasting, he spoke to his usually pretty stern boss, who told the first employee in the history of the company to take sundays off. Jorge told us Sundays off was never an option, never even a thought, and his boss just him he could have it. Prayer and Fasting really work.

Spiritual thought: I learned this week the two different Portuguese words that mean “blessed”. One (abençoado) means simply blessed, having blessings received. The other (bendito) has a higher meaning. Beyond its meaning of blessed, it means someone who reciprocates those blessings to others and someone who is grateful for such blessings. For example, 10 lepers were abençoados. Only 1 was bendito. Whenever the scriptures wish to imply more than simple blessing, they use bendito or its verb, bendizer. May we always strive to be the part of God’s people that is more than abençoada, but bendita as well.

Anxiety y'all, who knew?

 (Sister Cummings)

Hey howdy y'all!!

I'm back again with another awesome week! There were HEAPS of miracles and I just LOVED it!

Here's a little run down from the week:

- We deep cleaned our flat and now everything sparkles! So yeehaw!

- We had exchanges with Sister T and Sister Hadfield and it was SO GOOD! We did service and I just LOVE service and I just LOVE those Sisters!

- Thursday was our temple P-day and I just LOVE the Adelaide temple! It's small but it's also so special. Being able to just be near it let alone in it always makes me so happy!

- We started teaching a FAMILY! The first family I have ever really taught on my mission! It's so special. Please pray that they can come to church this week!

- Saturday, one of my favorite people in the world went through the temple for the first time! Charlotte Clark I love you and I'm so proud of you! You make me so happy!

- Yesterday was our music devotional and it was spectacular! The missionaries who were performing did a fantastic job! Literally incredible! I felt the spirit so strong! I got to see pretty much all my favorite people there including missionaries AND members! So dang special!

Here's some spiritual stuff for y'all! (Sorry y'all, I got on my soap box a little here)

Lately, I was reading some of the Book of Jacob in the Book of Mormon and I was kind of pondering on Jacob's use of the word "anxiety". Honestly, I had never really heard it used in scripture so I just assumed it was just an archaic use for the word fear rather than how we modernly define anxiety. However, as I continued to read, I came to understand that Jacob was using it in the same way that we use it today and here's how I know!

At first, Jacob talks a bit about how his anxiety is for the welfare and salvation of his people and how it actually works as a source for good because it makes him more diligent! He even speaks about how sometimes the spirit uses anxiety for good as well!

- "Mine anxiety is great for you. … I have exhorted you with all diligence" (2 Nephi 6:3).

- "Because of faith and great anxiety, it truly had been made manifest unto us concerning our people" (Jacob 1:5).

In this, Jacob teaches a truth that modern psychology teaches us as well. Mild to moderate levels of anxiety actually increases our performance. If we weren't anxious about performing badly then we wouldn't feel the inclination to practice! It's true, i'm sure y'all have seen it in your life. But it totally applies to spiritual things as well! If you weren't anxious about becoming a better person through Jesus Christ, you wouldn't repent! If you weren't anxious to head the spirit, you wouldn't strive to do all you can to be intune with Him!

Later, Jacob shows that there is actually an anxiety threshold that when reached will actually limit our performance and lead more likely to failure. He says it here: "I will unfold this mystery unto you; if I do not, by any means, get shaken from my firmness in the Spirit, and stumble because of my over anxiety for you" (Jacob 4:18)

Here Jacob talks about "over anxiety" anxiety that limits rather than aids us. I think we've all experienced this anxiety. When we were so scared about a test that, even though we prepared well, we couldn't think properly and maybe couldn't focus on the test at hand. So we performed poorly. When it comes to spiritual things, sometimes I often get over anxious about needing to be more Christlike and a better person that I'm actually so self involved that I end up being more selfish and less like Jesus Christ. So I performed poorly. Sometimes, as a missionary, I get over anxious about talking to people that I can't even make myself say a word! That's poor performance! Sometimes, like Jacob talked about, we get too over-anxious that we cannot hear or head the spirit and therefore we stumble. Again, poor performance.

However, it's all about finding the balance and keeping anxiety within the helpful range rather than the toxic range. How do we do that? Again, VIRTUE! Remember, this is what the prophet said: "Virtue will free you from anxious, troublesome thoughts." By actively keeping a clean, uplifting mind and by not permitting harsh, mean, or critical thoughts to linger no matter their topic, you can keep your anxiety within the bounds the Lord has given to help you!

Sorry for the rant, but whenever scriptures or doctrine connects to psychology I get so excited!

I love y'all!!

- Sister Cummings

That red lip classic thing that you like

 (Elder Mackrory)

Fala pessoal!

Essa semana fui abençoado pra ver 16 fuscas! Eu até sonhei que vi uma outra metade de um fusca, mas isso não conta. O total está 1351,5.

Last pday we had a great time at a place called Uruguayans. I had gone before, but it was a holiday, and so basically no stores were open. This time, however, I found so many goodies, including a super cheap, but good quality Brasil soccer jersey, a lego Ferrari F40 (so freaking beautiful), and another big Jesus statue.

On Tuesday we had district council and I kinda made a Oreo and lemon cheesecake with Oreo bits on top. It wasn’t the most solid cheesecake, but it was good. Then we went to lunch and I learned a bunch of army slang. My comp had a bad headache, so I got some good study, online work, and housecleaning done.

On Wednesday we had lunch with a family who just had their son come home from the mission, and so there was a nice spirit there. It didn’t make me trunky because I was more focused on the cute baby that kept looking at me. that night we went to seminary, and two of our friends were there. Super awesome lesson.

On Thursday we had lunch in the favela, and did some unfruitful visits until it was time to go to seminary. Seminary was cancelled at the last moment, and so my comp and I were there with the seminary teacher. We had arranged to have another friend of ours, Jorge, come to be taught. Since seminary was cancelled and the member we invited to participate in the lesson also cancelled, we invited the seminary teacher to participate, and it ended up being exactly what Jorge needed. We were able to mark his baptism date for next Sunday. He also is super interested in family history and temple work now, so that’s a plus.

On Friday we actually went to lunch in the same place as Thursday, this time with slightly less guns. We had most of our appointments fall through, and so we ended up doing a lot of online work. At night I was catching up with Elder Patterson who was doing a division with the other companionship in our ward. We may have gone to bed a little late. Good talk though my guy.

On Saturday I was a little tired for reasons unknown. But we still were able to reinforce our church invites and invite lots of people. We had the returning missionary’s homecoming churrasco, which was really good. It left me very motivated and searching to love more fully the people that I serve.

Sunday was good, and we had two of our friends show up, Jessica and Miguel. They both loved it and are planning on coming back next week. The sacrament meeting was super edifying and once again no one said anything weird at the pulpit. Miracles are real. After lunch we had lunch with one of my favorite families, and we laughed about common grammar mistakes, since the mother is a Portuguese professor. She made a really good dessert with brownies and ice cream, but no one wanted seconds (what?) and she didn’t want any leftovers, so I did what any reasonable Elder would do in this situation and had three servings of dessert.

Tender Mercy: Elder da Silva without hesitation volunteered to clean the casserole dish that I used for my not-cheesecake. I was impressed with his example of searching for opportunities to serve, and have tried to emulate it throughout the semana, and have seen more of the pure love of Christ as I did so.

Spiritual thought: I did a study this week about study. Sounds weird, but it was really cool. In school I learned about three types of questions as we analyze texts. Level one questions have to do with the text itself, Level 2 questions have to do with how this text relates to others, and Level 3 questions relate to how the text relates to the historical, social or political context of the text. I decided to apply this questioning system to my scripture study. To get the most out of a certain chapter, I must READ (level 1) to understand the story and the words written. The Holy Spirit can then bring peace to my soul and use the knowledge of the stories to help us in difficult situations, bringing the stories to remembrance. I must also STUDY (level 2) to see how the teachings in the chapter are also supported by other scripture stories and passages. The Holy Spirit can then bring peace to my soul and testify of the truthfulness of such teachings. I must also PONDER (level 3) to see how such teachings can be applied in my life. The Holy Spirit can then bring peace to my soul, testify of the truthfulness of such teachings, and bring personal revelation to make me a better person.

Virtue y'all! Who knew?

 (Sister Cummings)

Hey y'all!!

This week was our temple week so we didn't have p-day until today! It was definitely worth the wait!

Because we went to the temple, I don't have much time to write this but I'll give y'all a little update on my last week!

Highlights:

- MLC: We got to meet as meeting leadership and counsel about the needs of the mission! I always learn so much from the other missionaries in my mission. It's so good! We started a Facebook 2 week fast and I got to see my favorite Sister Templeman so all is well!

- Exchanges: Got to go on exchanges with the FANTASTIC Sister Arledge! For only being here for two transfers, she's KILLING it! She's so much fun!

- Sisters Conference: We had our first ever Sisters Conference where just the Sisters came and it was awesome! We learned about mental health, the priesthood, and divine worth. It. Was. Incredible. I learned so much more about the priesthood and Sister Standley gave such an awesome training!

- "Sister Lee is the best and I'm going to miss her so much!!! Best grandma ever!" - Sister Lee

- Went to my first ever Saturday session of Stake Conference and I'm committed to go for the rest of my life! It was so incredible! I felt the spirit so big! It was better than the Sunday session honestly!

Here's some spiritual stuff:

Sister Briscoe have been really focused on President Nelson's most recent talk about charity and virtue and I wanted to share this bit:

"Now, let us speak of virtue. The Lord tells us to garnish our thoughts unceasingly with virtue. Imagine the boost you will receive to any positive thought when you enhance it with virtue. Virtue makes everything better and happier! On the other hand, imagine what will happen when you add virtue to an impure thought, a cruel thought, or a depressing thought. Virtue will drive away those thoughts. Virtue will free you from anxious, troublesome thoughts."

I LOVE THIS! I love that President Nelson literally gives us the cure to mental health and discouragement! It's virtue! It's keeping our minds clean from self-defacing thoughts and inappropriate thoughts and keeping our thoughts kind and centered on Jesus Christ! I've been trying it out lately and it works! It works like immediately! I invite y'all to try it out!

I love y'all so much!

- Sister Cummings

The wedding was charming, if a little gauche

 (Elder Mackrory)

Boa noite meus caros amigos e parentes,

É muito bom escrever mais uma vez relatando os acontecimentos da semana. No decorrer da semana, vi 9 fuscas. O total então é 1335,5.

On Pday last, we worked in the afternoon because that was the only time some people were available. It worked really well, but a lesson went overtime and we missed the beginning of the mission meeting. I also used the missionary underground shipping system, which is sketchier than it sounds, to get same day shipping on the cheapest terere herb there is. Turns out it’s my favorite one yet.

On Tuesday we had district council at home and the zone leaders pulled up. They gave a bomb training on member lessons and it was super fun to apply what they taught. We met a super charitable person who is super interested, but she unknowingly had blocked us before knowing what we were about and so we have to go visit her again to ask her to unblock us. An old lady talked our ears off but the stories were good.

On Wednesday we met up with the bishops son who is preparing for a mission and we met two super cool dudes. One of them we felt prompted to talk two in the part as we drank a cold coke. He was really needing our conversation and it was a tender mercy as much for him as it was for me. That night we taught Vitoria, who is probably the most interested person we are teaching, and this week we plan to mark a baptism date, so stay tuned.

On Thursday we went to go do visits with another young man in our ward who is preparing for a mission, and he called a non-member friend of his to show us around the kinda sketchy (super sketchy and full of guns) neighborhood that we were not familiar with. This friend is now super interested because he felt lots of peace as he went preaching the gospel with us.

On Friday we had lunch with a member family who is super cool. After lunch, by surprise, they gave each of us a super cool model bike. I got a nice Aprilia. That night we had a ward karaoke night, that awkwardly turned into a second reception for the newlywed couple in the ward. Its ok, they’re cool members.

On Saturday we had a super awkward lunch. We arrived and the apartment complex and were about to knock on the door when the sister and her boyfriend were arguing, so before knocking, we waited a few minutes outside and then knocked when the argument subsided. Then throughout the lunch there were lots of passive aggressive comments and made my preplanned message about living with others in peace both inspired and a little awkward. That night we had soccer and the people literally spent a full 45 minutes arguing about who had the most goals. Not super fun, but at least my companion and I got to third wheel a PDA-prone couple.

On Sunday we had Jeiel’s baptism! It was kinda stressful because we had tons of our friends show up. That’s a very good thing, but with logistics of baptism and all, it was difficult to give attention to all of them. Afterwards we got super caught up with online work and visited our super interested friend from the sketchy neighborhood. We didn’t meet him but met his mom, who is interested in being taught again after two years. Good end to the week.

Tender mercy: I made beans for the first time in my life, and they turned out to be really good! I was super worried about getting it wrong and going without lunch, but I was able to make some pretty nice beans.

Spiritual Thought: I had a really deep study this week about how the Holy Ghost works conversion in us. I based my study in a study suggestion in chapter 4 of Preach my Gospel. As I read the stories in 2 Nephi 4 and in Enos, the spirit testified to me that He works conversion in the same way, and still accounts for the different needs of the person. I invite you all do this same study and search for how you can deepen your conversion by seeking the Holy Ghost.

Are you gonna marry, kills or kill me?

 (Elder Mackrory)

Opa pessoal, tranquilidade?

Essa semana eu também tenho pouco tempo para escrever, então tentarei sei breve. Vi 10,5 fuscas essa semana, totalizando 1336,5. Temo que terminarei a missão com a contagem entre dois números, mas tenho fé que verei um outro meio fusca.

Ok, lets get into things. Last pday we took it slow and went to the store. Just that the store we went to doesn’t accept card. And someone (I won’t mention my comp’s name) forgot to tell me. So there I am with a cart full of delicious fruits and milk and condensed milk and all the other essentials, without a way to pay. Thankfully the other Elders were leaving the house to make their purchases as well and so they just brought me some of my cash. I got my hair cut, deep cleaned the bathroom, and made Milk Tart. My roommates ask me when I'll make it again. That night we did a lot of online contacting, but not with too many fruits.

On Tuesday we had district council and interviews with the president. We took the wrong bus and almost ended up going to the airport (I promise I’m not trunky). We arrived on time still and had a great time practicing stuff and being interviewed by president. He’s awesome. We again geeked out about spreadsheets (just a little). We then went to lunch. After lunch we saw half a fusca, and had a total of one in-person contact with someone who signed up on the site. This contact lasted two hours, was exhausting, and I will never go back to that house again. Tiktok brain rot does some crazy things to 75 year olds.

On Wednesday I had a division with my district leader Elder Roca, who also happens to be part of my departure group in July. He’s super dedicated and hard working, albeit a little trunky. He recorded no less than 4 videos of airplanes passing overheard while asking me “How many days, Elder?”. We spoke some Spanish and I learned a lot about grammar differences between Spanish and Portuguese. I hope to speak a lot of Spanish with people at college. It’ll be super fun. We were also blocked on WhatsApp.

On Thursday we went to lunch in a rather sketchy part of town. Upon entering the area, we were stopped by like 5 guys with some super sweet assault rifles. Like, super nice. Drum magazines, 10x (at least) scopes, laser guides, and flash reducers. On top of that there was a table bigger than a car with assorted “candies” and money. They asked us where we were going, thought it was the coolest thing that I was American and then recognized us as the people who always show up on Instagram ads. Then they offered to take us up to meet the boss so that we could get our favela IDs so that we can enter and leave without any trouble. We politely declined and went on to lunch. After lunch it was just normal work, more fruitful. Unfortunately we were blocked on WhatsApp again.

 

On Friday we had lunch with a member who bore strong testimony of the truth of the Church. He said that there are about 75 thousand clueless and crazy 19 year olds as the main source of growth in the church, and the Church hasn’t gone under. So the Church must be true. We laughed and all but there’s actually some truth in that. It goes to show that despite the imperfect efforts of missionaries, God still directs and hastens his work.

On Saturday we went to a wedding for lunch, and found some new people to teach, who are family members of the couple. Super awesome experience. Then we went to go finding in a rather strange part of town. More assault rifles and stuff, but this time no one stopped us since we are pretty well known in that neighborhood. However, there was a crazy lady passed out on the ground (somehow still smoking) who woke up very suddenly when we passed by, and gave us both a big hug and tried to kiss us but we were quicker than that. She then laid back down. I played some soccer with some friends and we were able to get to know Ruby, who has been coming to seminary for the last few months and is interested in being taught by the missionaries.

Sunday we got blocked on WhatsApp again, and had two people come to church! We were able to remark Jeiel’s baptism for next Sunday (hope it works out). We also had a super cool lesson with Jeiel in which my testimony of the mercy and justice of God was really strengthened. We finished the week super strong. This week was probably one of the most successful weeks in terms of finding. We found 13 new people, and a good number of them are member referrals.

Tender mercy: This week I started a deep study on the process of spiritual conversion, guided by the Holy Ghost. As I wrote my impressions, it was so clear. It was as if the Lord Himself told me. At least that’s how I felt at the time. Later this week, as I continued the study, I had trouble focusing and feeling the spirit. Then, as I prayed fervently to regain the presence of His Spirit, I came to know exactly what it was that I lacked. Although the experience itself I consider too personally sacred to be put in the email, I came to see how humility, repentance, and forgiveness brings the presence of the Spirit in such a real way that made my previous impressions, clear as they seemed at the time they were received, were like foggy class in comparison to the clarity of living the principles of the Gospel.

Spiritual thought: Faith and humility are inseparable friends. Without humility, it is impossible to have faith. Without faith, it is impossible to have humility. As I read Enos, and focused on his conversion process, I saw how it was his faith and humility that brought his forgiveness. When the Spirit works in us to convert us totally to Jesus Cristo, we desire the well being of others, that is, we desire that which Jesus Christ desires. This is part of the sanctification process. We are brought to not even want to sin and we desire that all humanity be blessed as well. Search in fervent prayer that which lacks in you, and you will find a love incomparable for God, yourself, and others.