May 28, 2017

its aight

So this week was pretty good. Nothing super exciting to report. Most of what we did was door knock and meet members, since both of us are new in the area. We tried seeing the investigators, but there's only a couple and they weren't available, so this next week we're trying to build up the teaching pool and get things going. My first district meeting went good. There's 4 companionships in the district, including the office elders and the assistants, but because the office elders/assistants are so busy they apparently don't make it to district meeting a lot of the time. But the office elders were able to come and I gave a training in district meeting on companionship unity. Other than that as a district leader I call the district a couple times a week just to see how things are going, invite them to work on certain things, report their key indicators to the zone leaders, and yeah that's basically it. One of my previous companions, Elder Banks, in an office elders so I'm glad I'll get to see more of him often. We had a bbq at our ward mission leader's house. He's really cool. He owns a boxing gym. And he's filipino. But he's not manny pacquiao :( In this zone we get to play touch-rugby with 6 or 7 other elder companionships a couple mornings a week so that's really fun, even though I'm no good at juking people out. But yeah hope everything is going good. 

Elder Cummings

May 21, 2017

what the heck I'm transferred already

Yes, that's right. After only two transfers, I've already been shifted out of Park Ridge ward. Bruh. After spending 5 transfers in Atherton (my second area) and being in Park Ridge (third area) for only two is quite a contrast. I was really bummed out to hear I was getting transferred. But our week was actually pretty solid, we got a couple new investigators that are really keen. One of the investigators we planned on setting on baptismal date soon, Revern, was asking us all sorts of questions about hot drinks in the word of wisdom and why Mormons do so well in business. He's a cool guy. I didn't get to say goodbye to a lot of members because of church and we had a couple appointments and a dinner to go to, and a lot of the members I got close with live a ways in different directions so I mostly just said goodbye at church. Pictures will be of the Mothers day call, which was great, Also a couple pictures of when I left the area and with one of the priests, Patrick, who I got really close with because he came out to teach with us a lot. 

So yeah, here's the score:

I'm on my 11th transfer (6-wk period) now.

It's my first transfer in Bunya Forest-my new area.

Bunya Forest is my third area.

Oh yeah and one more thing- my green missionary is already a district leader. Honestly I was pretty shocked but even more shocking was that I'm a DL now too. Waow. Plus me and my companion Elder Iufoni are whitewashing Bunya Forest which means both of us are brand new to the area. We were in the same zone the last couple transfers so we already are pretty friendly with each other. Plus we both served in bracken ridge (my first area) just not a the same time but it's fun talking about it. Plus the area we're serving in now actually borders bracken ridge, it's literally right next to us so that's pretty cool. But yeah, that's me. Super sad but super nervous. Plus Elder Banks, one of my previous companions is in my district because he's in the mission office, which is part of our district. Our zone covers the heart of Brisbane City. Transfers are always a crazy time but yeah there you go.

Elder Cummings

May 7, 2017

pretty fun week

Last week was pretty great. We did service for the Maires in our ward with the Elders we share a flat with. The Maires are a pretty cool family. We were helping brother Maire carry stuff out of his shed to clean it out. Me and Elder Dalingay were standing there and he just pointed at my shirt was like "ELDER CUMMINGS YOUR SHIRT" and I didn't even look down, I just frantically swiped my hand across my shirt before looking down and there was a HUGE huntsman spider on the ground! I was yelling at Elder Dalingay "was that on me? WAS THAT ON ME?" Man I can't believe I didn't die. Huntsmans are dangerous. We had dinner with a couple cool families this week. The Ryters are pretty cool, he's an institute teacher and he was telling us about his mission in Germany. We also had dinner with the Wilsons, who are all into Star Wars and Marvel and stuff so they're fun to talk to. Saturday our stake had a sports day which was really fun. Sunday we taught a couple of Peruvians we found door knocking last week. They had heaps of questions about the Book of Mormon, premortal existence, the afterlife, and they told us how they're Messianic, which basically means they're of Jewish blood so they still practice all the Jewish feasts and things but they believe in Christ as the Savior and Messiah. Plus they stay pretty open minded about every belief system. They were pretty cool. After church we took Patrick and Chom, a couple of the priests with us to go teach one of their friends but he wasn't home, so we went back to our flat and ate dinner in the garage. Sunday night we had a missionary fireside that we planned. Each ward had either a testimony from a recent convert or a musical number. It was really good. So yeah that's pretty much been our week. It was fun. I won't get to email next week since I'll be skyping home so stay tuned. The computers not letting me upload photos, so sorry. :/

Elder Cummings

May 1, 2017

CRIKEY LOOK AT THOSE ROOS

So most mornings for exercise we go for a run through this park that always has heaps of kangaroos jumping around and I finally brought my camera to take some shots. Usually when we get close they jump away but this one morning this big buff one just stood up and stared at us and we got pretty close but we dared not go past it. It was a buff kangaroo. Apparently if they feel threatened they can either box you, put you in a headlock, or grab you with their arms and gore you with the claws on their feet by standing on their tail. So yeah we weren't gonna mess with that guy. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera that day but just know it was on steroids. 

We went to our investigator Stacey's house on Thursday to talk about her baptism on Saturday, and she and her older brother said their mom decided she wasn't ready to be baptized yet. We kind of freaked out because we thought she already had permission so the baptism had been announced and the program was all figured out and everything, fortunately Stacey's brother made one last appeal to their mom and got permission. Thank goodness. so the baptism on Saturday went great. I was able to do her confirmation on Sunday which was also great. Yesterday we door knocked into a super awesome Peruvian couple who said they had been trying to find out more about the Mormon church and practically begged us to come back since they were about to head out to a picnic. We graciously accomadated them. The wife asked if she could buy a book of mormon but of course we hand them out for free so I gave her one that I carry when we go door knocking. It was a super awesome experience so I hope that goes well when we see them on Sunday. So yeah that was my week hope you all had a good one.

Elder Cummings