Week 47: Quality over Quantity

The reason why I am emailing today is because we had a specialized training yesterday, so our P-Day is now today. So this past week I was reflecting on my time here in the Ramamurthy Nagar branch and how fast time is going and all the things Elder Wigington and I were able to accomplish. 

So this might be the first branch I have ever been in where I have had no trouble with anyone. Everyone is this branch is amazing and they are all willing to do missionary work and help us in any way possible. The YSA's in the branch are so chill and down to do anything and they are always willing to help. I play futbol, basketball , American football and ultimate every morning with them. I have never felt so close to branch/ward in my entire life (of course not my home ward). I am very close with almost all the families and they give us referrals every single day pretty much. They tell us about their friends that stopped coming to church and we go out and find them and make friends with them also. The work here is getting better and better and its all because of the relationship that we have with the branch.

Yesterday we had our Specialized Training in Indiranagar (the first place I came to when I arrived in India...a year ago). We talked about how as a mission we are really struggling in some of our key indicators. Now that we only have 70 missionaries here in South India we are not able to maximize our full potential in our given areas (my area is huge). Bangalore needs a couple hundred more members and it will become a stake. At the rate we are going now it will take 2 years. The Area Presidency wants it done by the end of the year. That means we need to be having 40 baptisms a month for the next 6-9 months in order to reach that goal. We need to work 4 times harder! It is impossible to do that with our the help from the members! We need to go on splits and we need to be as obedient as possible to witness this miracle here in Bangalore.

As far as miracles go, yesterday we visited a family that is less active who we previously met 5 days ago and they all were fighting and arguing back and forth the whole lesson. The spirit was not there and we did not really want to go back. Yesterday I called the daughter who recently got married and she is 18 years old and she was wanting some church books and photos. We brought like 10 Liahonas, a photo of the San Diego temple, some teachings of the prophet and a Book of Mormon. We went to their home and everyone was there, mother, son (Nicholas), daughter (Maria), and Maria's husband (Joshua). There was a different feeling in that home! Everyone was laughing together and we were all joking around playing chess, talking about cars, and bikes and we shared 2 very good lessons. 1 for the family and 1 for Joshua. The mother thanked us for coming over and we were invited to teach some of their friends.

Heavenly Father does work miracles! You need to have the faith that he can!

Elder Dusara

Hanging with the youth

Ice cream time!

Staying out of the rain

Week 46: Ramamurthy Nagar week 1

Well I will keep this nice and short. I was transferred to Ramamurthy Nagar and my new companion Elder Wigington. We have just been visiting all these wonderful members and we have been having way to much fun! This branch is full of wonderful people and they are all super cool to hang out with. 

That's pretty much it. We have been having a lot of fun with the people here and its so nice to be surrounded by Pizza Hut and McDonalds. Next week I should be adjusted to the area and we will be able to visit all the members. But that's it so far! Till next time my friends. Oh, we bought nerf guns and we play Yu-Gi-Oh. We are going to play Basketball on a HARDWOOD floor now and we are going to eat American Burgers. Peace!

Elder Dusara

Smores the India way

New toy with Elder Wiggington

Favorite Ice Cream

Week 45: Transfer to Bangalore

So yea...I finally got the call to Bangalore! I was pretty excited because I have been wanting to go there since I have been in India. But I was later told that I was going to be District Leader and that was very weird to me. I never really saw myself as District Leader material but I guess the Lord has something else in mind. Since I did not have the chance to email you guys last week I would like to share an experience I had that I thought was worthy of sharing.

Elder Ravi and I were going back and forth to different appointments just taking autos everywhere since I destroyed my back while playing basketball. We had some really awesome lessons and then when it came to the evening time at about 7:30pm we were stumped because our evening appointments bunked on us and we did not know what to do. We talked to each other about the Zone Conference we had in Vizak and we talked about using the spirit MORE! We put it to the test. We sat for 2 minutes and we both used the spirit to help us think of someone to visit. 

Two names came to our minds and one of them we have never visited(I visited like 4 months ago). The first appointment we went to was sister Divya. She is a super cool member who loves the missionaries and the church, she just has trouble getting to church on Sunday because of work. We had a short lesson outside her home and then we went to the last family that I thought of. The last time I visited this family the father answered the door and told me he does not like the church anymore and that he does not need to saved? I had built up this hatred towards him for the comments he had made and that might have led to the reason I had not visited his home in such a long time (I was a fool). Anyway, we knocked on his door and his son Mani addressed us and invited us into their home (he is not a member). We talked with him for a little bit and we had a lot of fun, he even told us we wanted to get baptized in June and we were like ugh...sure! About 20 minutes went by and his dad showed up at the home. It had been a long time since I have seen him so I did not recognize him at first. Then this feeling of peace and comfort came over me and I did not remember all the bad things I had thought of him.

I instead felt this love towards him and I wanted to help him as much as possible (how a missionary should feel all the time). We talked together and I found out he has some super awesome hobbies and I was very interested in them. His son was just happening to be fixing his mother board on his computer and I just happened to have built my own computer:) These little moments I have on my mission just make me feel so happy to be serving. We gave them a commitment to read the Book Of Mormon and to come to church (Its been 3 years). They accepted and they continue to do their family prayer each and every day! I was blessed to meet that whole family before I left Rajahmundry.

Now I am in Ramamurthy Nagar, Bangalore with Elder Wigington! He is super cool and he has very similar hobbies to me. I am currently teaching him how to play Yu-Gi-Oh so I am pretty excited about that. I got to eat McDonald's last night for dinner (It was a special moment for me).

Elder Willis and I flew in together from the smallest airport I have ever seen in my life (except Fiji). We are still together again in the same zone. Waiting for Stevens to come join us!

Elder Dusara out!

Week 44: Skype on Mothers Day 2014

No letter from Elder Dusara this week because he was able to talk and Skype with friends and family.  His time in Rajahmundry is almost up as he will be getting transferred to Bangalore on May 21st.  It's hard to believe that his mission is almost at the halfway mark. We were told that the first six months goes by so slowly, that was not our experience at all.  The entire mission time has really gone by quickly.

The past six months he's been in Rajahmundry.  He has had so many wonderful experiences and had been an instrument in bringing the gospel so several people.  As the time drew closer for us to talk to him, his friends just showed up.  We initially just had to use our phone because there was not a computer available for him to Skype on.  His friends Grant, Tyler, Kevin, Johnny, and Jeff all made time to come over...even though their own Mother's Day activities were going on.  Later in the evening, we were able to Skype with him and they came back and talked with him some more.

As I was sitting back listening to the conversations between friends, it's like he never left.  The conversation turns toward movies, video games, sports, and of course they poke fun at each other as well.  He is really blessed with wonderful friends who know that he is doing a great work in India.

The past few days we have been trying to figure out how to get a new camera to him.  The one he had, he sold, so now he wants a different one. It's not cheap, and it's not an easy thing to deliver given the wacky mission address that he has now.  We will also be sending him a care package.  We found out that a 12lb box will cost $289 via DHL.  Looks like we need to cut the box down by half just to have a shot.

He's doing great! He has really made an impact the past year of his life personally, and in the lives of those whom he is serving.  It's at the 11 month mark at this point and he is such a better person today than he was 11 months ago.  Thank you for all the support and good wishes of Elder Dusara in India.

Phone call with Kevin, Jeff, Tyler, Grant, and Johnny

Skype with Jeff, Grant and Kevin

Skype with Rajina, Mom, and Noni

Family photo on Mother's Day 2014

Week 43: In Defense of Truth

If any of you have not read the book In Defense of Truth I strongly encourage you to read it:)

So once again Elder Ravi and I have been blessed with another spiritual week full of appointments and awesome experiences. We had a super cool experience with one of our baptismal candidates Brother Mohan. He had his baptismal interview on Monday and we found out that he was have a Law of Chastity problem. We prayed for him everyday because he is having a hard time staying away from pornography. So when we met on Saturday I testify and promise that I had the spirit with me that lesson because I was BOLD! 

I have never been so bold with anyone in my entire life. I felt like Samuel the Lamanite it was so cool. I told him straight up, If he wants to have a successful marriage in the future then he needs to stay as far away from pornography as possible. The only way he can avoid it is by reading the scriptures, praying, and repenting. I told him that he needs to delete all signs of pornography and that he should avoid thinking about it. Mohan understood everything and he was excited to stop because he knew it was wrong. We are trying to set him up with a sister in our branch so they can be married. Our branch is full of sisters and our Branch President wants them to be married. 

So knowing that we have all sisters in our branch (pretty much) we our trying to find only guys when we are looking for new investigators. We have been blessed with 4 new investigators and they are all guys who are very good candidates for these women. 

There is one sisters name Monica who came last week to church with her friend and she was very shy. She came to gospel principles and she was very quite and to herself. This week she came by herself and I said hi to her in Sacrament before we started. Sister Karuna from our branch came up to her and started to do the best fellow shipping I have ever seen. Since she and Karuna were the only ones in class we just had a lesson instead and she completely opened up. Her concerns and her desires she shared with us and we had such a fun time together. She sneaks out of her home to come and she has a strong desire to know about Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. 

Those are just the few that come to mind but there are many more I just dont have time to share. Heavenly Father is Real and So is His Son! 

ELDER DUSARA

Week 42: The Spirit is pretty neat...

This past week was actually one of the best weeks I have had on my mission. We were able to finally through diligence and faith have some really solid member present lessons. We were able to bring members that would actually provide really good fellowship instead of just having someone there for the number. I noticed that when you do it like that then your investigator can have a chance to come out of his or her shell by meeting someone new. It gives them something to look forward to on Sunday when they can be assured that one of their friends aside from us will be there. 

I really cannot express how grateful I am for Elder Ravi and his example he is to me. He is always helping me to do what is right and it is having a great effect on me. I am seeing a very good change in the way I approach things and I am actually excited to do practices...sometimes. 

On Friday we had a super cool experience with Mohan. I was in a bad mood because I was hoping we could have this certain member come on exchange but he ended up canceling last minute (this should not come as a surprise to me anymore?). So I was a little mad and I really did not want to teach and that was a horrible attitude to have. 

While we were helping him read and understand the stories in 1 Nephi there was this change in his heart that just lit up the whole room. He became so excited to read because he did not try to read the Telugu copy with the English copy side by side(we have told him to do that 4 times). When I noticed this the spirit touched my heart and I knew that this lesson was not for me...it was for Mohan. After having gone through that experience my attitude was changed for the rest of the day. The power of the spirit is real. No one can deny it.

Happy Birthday MOMMY!

Music Lessons

Hump daaay! Yeahhh!

Rajahmundry Zone activity

Goodies from the Nash family

Candlelight studying

Cooking with Elder Ravi in the heat

Week 41: Obedience brings blessings

Yet again we had another spiritual filled week because....we were Obedient. There were some days where things just did not fall through but Heavenly Father always just finds away to uplift you whenever you get discouraged. For example, we had a day where we had practiced and prepared for lessons that were going to happen that day and we just felt good about everything. We called to confirm our appointments we had previously made and most of our investigators were not able to meet with us last minute so we instead went around our area and I showed Elder Ravi new places and members he has never been before. 

We were, however, able to have some awesome short, and powerful lessons with some less-actives and members. The spirit was with us in those lessons and everything went very well. As the day came to an end we had one last appointment we wanted to attend and that was with Sister Vennela. Her father did not want her to be baptized because they were already Lutheran and he did not want her to change. We brought our Branch President over to her house and we all sat together and shared our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and the power it has to help us and guide us in our lives. Her father had been exposed to Anti-Mormon literature so he would bring up these topics and false doctrines that made no sense. There was a little bit of a heated discussion between our Branch President and the father but everything changed when we asked sister Vennela to bear her testimony to her father.

Tears were shed as she expressed all her feelings to her father. Before, we had committed her to bearing her testimony to her father, but she was so scared. But that day she must have been filled with the spirit because she bore one of the most beautiful testimonies I have ever heard in my life. The father then calmed down and started to listen to what she had to say. We gave the father a Book Of Mormon and asked him to read with his daughter and before he makes any judgments he should pray to Heavenly Father to ask if the Book is true. That one appointment we had changed the whole day from good to amazing with just one lesson. I know that as we do our part to be as obedient as we can, Heavenly Father will make sure we are taken care of spiritually and physically.

Happy Easter:)

Elder Dusara

Flowers on her head

View to the ocean

Elder Dusara alone