Week 56: The Miracle of Forgiveness

Probably the best Sunday I have ever had on my mission, no lies. I taught Sudhi and had a baptismal interview with him because he is getting baptized next week. Elder Mulampaka taught Nielson and Lazzar and got set with a baptismal date for August 17th. We had 5 of our investigators attend sacrament meeting and we are planning for 6 baptisms this month! We have seriously been blessed, no joke, this week. Our phone was not working for 3 days so we were unable to plan and meet with almost all of our investigators until Thursday. 

Elder Mangum came on exchange with me on Friday and we visited all of his converts that he and Elder Stevens baptized last year. I was able to understand an area that I have never even visited before so I was happy that had the chance to be with him. 

This past week for me I have been trying to work on my forgiveness and my love towards others. I have seen the blessings of loving someone unconditionally and not judging them of their past transgressions. This has been something I have struggled with my entire life. 

My mission has been able to shape the way I think now and I am going to make sure that it stays with me forever. There will be times where an auto driver makes up some insane price for a simple ride, or for a waiter to tell me after I had been waiting for my meal to tell me that they do not carry that certain dish today? Little moments like this give me a chance to simply just think about where these people are coming from and what they are going through in their life. For example, The auto driver has a family to take care of and he is really trying his best to squeeze in a couple last transports so he can provide his family with the sufficient food they need for the night. 

There are plenty more examples that I could come up with but the point of the lesson is to "Forgive" and "Love". I am going to strive to be better with this each and everyday and I give that same challenge to all of you at home! Read John 13:34-35:)

We got 6 baptisms planned for this month! YOLO!

Elder Dusara

His name in Hindi

Reunited with Elder Singh briefly

Week 55: Home Improvement!

Well, what a week full of improvement. We achieved almost all our goals for this past week and we had amazing lessons. Elder Mulampaka is doing a super good job keeping me inline and making sure I am doing what I need to be doing.

I think some of the greatest lessons that I have had to learn this week was patience and love. Some situations have come up where me and my companion were getting discouraged and we really felt like we could not do anything. But over deep prayer and constant viewings of Mormon Messages we were able to strengthen our relationship with the branch. This past Sunday was a great Sunday for us because we had planned on having 5 of our investigators come. Sister Shanthi was not planning on coming because her boss would not let her take work off on Sunday. 

On Saturday she told us that she was going to come anyway because she felt like she should. Shanthi attended sacrament and 4 of our other investigators came and they all had a super time. I taught the Gospel Principles and I organized everyone in a group because I hate just talking the whole lesson. It was a good chance to give our investigators a chance to speak up and share how they about the lesson(The Sacrament). Some great questions were asked in class and everyone helped in answering! 

We have been blessed to have such a great week and we were so happy to have strengthened the branch little by little each day. We have a great vision for Ramamurthy Nagar Branch and we are going to do the best we can before transfers to make it happen.

Elder Dusara 

Training with Pres Berrett

Home cooking

Playing hoops with other elders

Week 54: Chilling with Papa Bear!

So we had the chance to go on Exchange with President Berrett and we had a super good time together. We had a lesson with our Branch President and his family and we visited Teju, Kavia, Prakash and her mother( Recent Converts) and we had a very spiritual lesson about families. We shared how families can have happiness together no matter where they live. Teju's family was moving down the road to a smaller home and when I saw small I really mean SMALL! Their home now is the size of your average shipping container. 

They are now moving into a home the size of a shed...with 4 people. We shared with them that it does not matter about what kind of house you have and the size. The only thing that matters is the family that is with in the home. They really understood and wanted to apply everything we shared. They are some of the most humble members of the church I have ever met in my life. After the lesson President Berrett said "That was one of the most beautiful lessons I could have ever been apart of". 

We had another sweet lesson with a brother named John. We went to his mothers home because thats were we will find sister Esther but to our surprise we found her brother John there by himself. We asked if we could come inside and we had a lesson with him about the Book of Mormon. He is a member of the church and he has not been coming for 2 years. He also has not read the Book Of Mormon in two years:(. But we read with him the first chapter and he said he felt very good about everything and he was excited to start coming back.

My companion is an amazing missionary and he loves to work. I am teaching him a lot of English slang terms and other funny jokes. I am trying to get him to love Disney movies but its not working so well. He is an amazing piano player and he is teaching me little by little how to play:)

BTW: I made bacon....Yolo Swag!

Elder Dusara

Outside Habenero restaurant

Lunchtime

Makin some bacon

Week 53: New companion - new experiences

So last week transfer calls came. Elder Wigington left to Rajahmundry on Monday morning and I was with Elder Pydimalla for about 2 days. Elder Mulampaka came on Wednesday and I was super excited to be with him. We have been visiting members and less actives all week and just trying to help as many less actives as possible at the same time helping my companion understand the area. This past Sunday we saw 6 families that were less-active come to church! What an awesome experience that was to see. The members talked with them and loved each and every one of them. One sister got interviewed right after the classes for a calling:)

Yesterday at church we were sitting in Gospel Principles and one of our investigators pulled us out and asked us to meet one of his friends. I was surprised to see that this man was WHITE and he sounded like he was from Scotland. He sounded like he was drunk so already I was not felling to good about the situation. We brought him upstairs and we did some "How to begin Teaching". I told him that he had a Scottish accent and he was surprised that I knew that. I told him I stayed in Washington and what my purpose was and he wanted to change his life because he was not on the right path and he knew that we could help him. He has this neck problem that makes it

sound like he is drunk but thats just how he speaks(I felt bad).

He is an amazing artist and he is practically homeless. So I told him that if he exercises his faith in his Heavenly Father than he will see a mighty change in his life. I also told him that if he comes to church he will have the chance to receive some work from the members here. We were not able to find any solid investigators this week until now so we were very happy that this man was guided to us through an investigator that we dropped. His name is Peter and he reminds me of Professor Q from James Bond. 

Just received word from Elder O'Dell that Brother Raju and Sister Renuka are very active in the church and Sister Renuka is the Relief Society 2nd Counselor:)

Enjoy my friends  

Elder Dusara

On the bike

Zone meeting w/12th man

The One Year Mark is Here - New Companion!

So this past week Elder Willis, Elder Stevens and I hit our year mark! We enjoyed nicely at Habeneros and I finally got the chance to eat a real beef burger! It was amazing. On Monday we received news that Elder Wigington was going to be transferred to Rajahmundry 3rd branch. My new companion is Elder Mulampaka (My First Indian companion). I am still the District Leader and now my district is combined with Whitefield Branch (Elder Willis and his trainee, and the Assistants). KGF was closed so that's why I am with Whitefield now.

Elder Wigington had a hard time saying goodbye to some of these members this past week, but we had the pleasure of visiting everyone he wanted and it was a super great time. We were fed Dinner every single night...it was awesome. The members must love me also because they all made my favorite food(Chicken curry or Biriyani and Onion Raitha).  Last night we spent the night at the Zone leaders apartment and Elder Wigington, Eames and O'Dell left to Rajahmundry at 4:30am. I am really excited for my new companion and the work we are going to get done here. From what I have heard, he is a good missionary and a hard worker...but he does not know how to cook indian food:( So eating outside will continue hahah. 

So we had a pretty awesome experience last week with sister Shanthi again. She is our most prepared investigator and she should be baptized by next week. When we were at her home her mother was not feeling good at all and she was getting super hot and tired during our lesson. We stopped and gave her a blessing and then she layed down for the rest of the day. They took her to the hospital that night and the doctors did not know what exactly was wrong with her. So we visited the next day(Wednesday) and Shanthi told us that she said a prayer at night next to her mothers bed side and when her mom woke up she was perfectly fine. No problems at all and then she felt prompted to call us and have us over. This is another testimony that Heavenly Father is there and that he will answer prayers according to your faith and desire. 

Thats my experience for the week! 

GO USA!

ELDER DUSARA

12th man is alive in Bangalore India

District Meeting

Bollywood hero suit

Week 49 & 50 updates: The work is really progressing in Bangalore

Week 1

Well I don't know what there is to say about how the work is going here in Ramamurthy Nagar except that everything is Hastening! I cant even tell in words how blessed Elder Wigington and I are to be serving in such a blessed branch. The members actually just want to help, they are not doing it out of obligation but more out of the love of their hearts. We have been working very closely with some of the less-active members trying to bring them on splits because that is a good way to get them back to church. A really sweet experience happened on Wednesday that I would love to share.

We were out at about 1pm in the afternoon trying to call some members to go on splits. We had two lined up already but then bunked last minute. We were not having any success in finding someone so we just prayed that we could have the chance to have just one person to go on exchange. 

While we were walking back to get my camera(I forgot it at the apartment), a member drove up on his bike next to us and said "Hey Elders How are you?". I had no idea who this was but Elder Wigington did. His name was Naveen and he has not been at church for a very long time. My first question I asked him was " Are you free to come on exchange with us?". He said that he was free for the rest of the day and we took him and had some very powerful lessons.  Not only that but Naveen also came to church with his family on Sunday and that was super awesome to see!

Week 2

Man what a change we are seeing the the area. We found 9 new investigators some of who had been dropped by previous Elders. I guess they are now prepared to hear the Gospel again:) Once again we had the pleasure of taking members everyday on splits and the blessigs were being seen everyday. We are trying to take more sisters on splits because we have only been taking boys and we need to be fair to everyone. We were able to have 34 lessons taught last week so Elder Wigington and I were feeling very happy.

So I actually had two very special experiences that happened a couple of days ago that I would like to share with you. We have one sister who's name is Shanthi and she is the sweetest referral we have ever received. She comes from a Christian background and she really wants to be baptized again because she has not been the best she could be and she wants to change (Repentance). She has had a hard life and her mother HATES Christians (She is Hindu). 

When we came over for the first time her mother cleaned the entire house just for us so that we would feel comfortable. She only speaks Tamil but I know she felt the spririt in our lesson because she asked us to come over every day because she likes the feeling that comes when the missionaries come over. So 3 days ago I went over and we taught Shanti about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she mentioned a dream she had a day before when I showed here a mormon message about temples using my camera. She said she saw in her dream a gate and when it opend she saw a temple but she did not understand what that meant. After the lesson I explaing to her that Heavenly Father wants you and your family to go to the temple and be sealed for time and all eternity! What a cool experience for here to go through that and to share that with me. It was a super powerful experience for the both of us.

My next experience comes from 2 boys who's names are Stephen(14) and Bernard(10). They are the two sons to Simon who is a new investigator that was referred to us by a wonderful member of ours. We have not actually had the time to sit with them and teach for a good amount of time but we gave them a Book Of Mormon and asked them to read and ponder the message it contains. 2 days ago we went to their home to visit them but the parents were not home. 

Their youngest son Bernard came running up out of now where to tell us they his parents would not be returning for a couple of hours. I was on splits with 2 members at the time, James, and Alvin. I talked with Bernard and Stephan about soccer and how I would like if they could come play with us in the morning. One thing led to another and then we started to talk about the Book Of Mormon. Aparentely those boys have been reading without the parents knowledge and they have been understanding everything. Then they introduced their friend to me and he wanted to read that Book. So they let borrow it and this other boys family now has a copy of the Book Of Mormon:)

What a week it has been! GO USA!

I would like some packages:)

Love you all,

ELDER DUSARA

Street dogs

Rajamundry district

Two contacts from Congo

School kids

Morning soccer boys

Week 48: Who wants a banana split?

Beast Mode was turned on this week here in Ramamurthy Nagar! The only way that we could achieve what we achieved was with the help of the members here. THEY UNDERSTAND "Hastening the Work Of Salvation". We were able to have 31 lessons this week and it was all because of SPLITS! 

Every day this week we were able to go with different members and go on splits from 2pm-8pm. We did our best to take less actives on splits so we can help them rekindle that fire they once had when they were diligent in the gospel. Not only that, but while we are on exchanges we will ask them if they have any friends that they could show us and we will go visit them. This week was the best week I have ever had as a missionary. It comes from Faith, Obedience, and Diligence. Those three things can change an area from completely dry to overflowing with blessings in a week! I have witnessed it!

On Saturday we made the goal to have 3 members presents 2 RCLA and 2 New investigators for Sunday. We prayed that we could achieve our goal. We did the best we could throughout the day. One brother from Congo (Desire) brought his friend to church and we taught him a lesson after church about the Book Of Mormon and he was super excited. Another brother also came to church and Elder Wigington taught him in the afternoon and he is solid. I went on splits with two members and we taught a short and powerful lesson to Kishore and Bhavani. We taught a powerful lesson about the blessings of the sacrament. We were able to visit two or more less actives and we achieved our goals! Heavenly Father is real! Miracles can happen!

We are doing wonders in this Branch!

Elder Dusara

Elder Dusara & Wittington

Bollywood actor

Contacts from Congo

Soccer with the boys on p-day