Week 60: Pizza Hut experience / Travel to Vallaparai

Busy week we had last week. Exchanges, Interviews, Baptisms, Zone Activities, Cleaning, and traveling. Varsha, and Jeff were both baptized today by their father which was super special and spiritual. They have been taught for along time now and now they are ready to enter into the waters of baptism. Shreedhar is going to get baptized next week Sunday just after District Conference so that is also going to be very exciting as well. This next week our goal is to find some more investigators through the less-active and recent converts. We are not doing a good job of asking for referrals from then so we are committing to doing that next week. 

The Zone is really doing great. I am receiving a lot gratitude from the other missionaries here because they feel like ever since I have been here they have been able to have more fun and motivation to work hard. This has been my goal since Day 1 in Coimbatore so its nice to know that things are slowly working out for the better. Yesterday we had the chance to travel 100km to Vallaparai. It was a beautiful place and there were a lot of great places to stop and take nice photos. A couple of people in the van did not enjoy the 43 hairpin turns going up the mountain though ;)

Yesterday I had a very special experience with Elder Mckamey and Elder Dias. After we had returned from our journey to the jungle we came back and were very hungry! Of course, the P-Day meal Pizza Hut came ringing into my head so I went with those 2 Elders and we made haste to Fun Mall. While sitting there, I noticed this sister that worked there was using sign language to communicate with this brother who had just walked in. I do not know what compelled me or why I even asked but I asked this sister to join us at our table. I am a regular member of Pizza Hut now so she knows who I am and what the missionaries do so she did not feel as shy when I asked her to join us. 

I asked her questions about where she learned sign language? Why did you choose to learn? What school are you going to? What is your ambition in life? Why did you choose to work at Pizza Hut? Just simple questions to understand where she was coming from. She answered every question and then just started to open up with me. She told me about how she had a brother who passed away when she was in the third grade and how her only form of communication was with sign language. I immediately told her about my uncle and my aunt who also have some of those similar challenges. She then said that ever since her brother passed away she has had this desire to love and serve everyone around her despite their limitations and challenges. I shared with her my testimony of Jesus Christ and how she had so many attributes that our very savior had. She started to tear up a bit and then she said that she had come our church before when her father was alive. After he passed away she stopped coming. Without hesitation I reached for my Plan of Salvation pamphlet and gave it to her. I urged her to go home and read it an the next time I come to Pizza Hut I want to talk to her. 

To everyone that reads this story. Suriya Shree is the name of this sister whom I am speaking about. If we do not have the same love and charity for people as does she, we cannot reach our full potential here on this earth. Through her example I was reminded that there are loving and caring people out there that are not members of the church. Elder Dias, Elder Mckamey and I will never forget then chance we had to speak with her that day. I hope and pray that I will get the chance to teach her even more and to help her enter into that "Straight and Narrow path". Enjoy the photos:)

Elder Dusara out

Varsha and Jeff

P-day in Vallaparai

P-day in Vallaparai

Week 59: Fun times on the bus...where's my stick?

Well to start off my wonderful P-Day It began with on old man. I was on the bus already sitting by myself just derping around and this old man comes on the bus shouting to the heavens in TAMIL. Everyone was looking at him and he was yelling at the conductor for about 20 minutes. He sat next to me and seriously farted like 4 times and picked up this stick he found and then he left. I did not understand a single word he said but I was laughing because the conductors face was priceless. Apparently the whole argument was over this old mans stick that he was looking for for 2 days. He found it on the bus and blamed the conductor for stealing it! God Bless India!

So last week Elder Anthony and I had the chance to work closely with some of the less-actives in our area and some of our progressing investigators who are getting baptized next week and the week after. Brother Shreedhar is one of those investigators. The last time we visited his home we taught him about the Word Of Wisdom. The lesson was great but I felt like he did not fully understand the blessing that can follow when you choose to follow this commandment. So I pulled out my camera and HDMI cable and hooked it up to his TV. We watched the Mormon Message "Leave the Party". It pretty amazing how technology works and I am glad that his understanding was improved just by visually watching it. He is preparing for Baptism next Sunday so we will do our best to prepare him for that day. 

On Friday last week we had an Open house and we had about 78 people who attended. Our Zone had a great number of new Investigators just based on this little event that happened so hopefully in the coming weeks we will have the success we are looking for. 

Time for Basketball and Soccer:) PEACE

Elder Dusara  

New team in Coimbatore

Yummy

Week 58: Transfer to Coimbatore, three baptisms first...

Well what can I say? I had an awesome time in Ramamurthy Nagar and I am glad to have met the members that I did. Each one of their testimonies has impacted me in such a way I cannot put into words. Now that I am in Coimbatore I am going to use them as an example so the work over here can progress as it did in Ramamurthy Nagar. It was actually super hard to say good bye to the members because I had got so close to them but I know that they all are going to continue to work super hard in building the branch there. Maybe some of the older members will see their example and they might be compelled to actually do something...:)  All is well in Bangalore.

Yesterday Elder Mulampaka and I were blessed again with 3 baptisms. We were working very hard with each of them and all that work was paid off. Sister Shanthi was baptized, and Brother Lazaar and Nelson we also baptized. If it was not for the work of the YSA's in our branch none of these baptisms would have happened. Every YSA played a very spiritual role in each of these individuals lives and they were blessed for it. These YSA's know how to Hasten the Work of Salvation and that is my testimony to all! Take a seat ladies and gentleman because the YSA's of Ramamurthy Nagar are about to take you to school:)

I was transferred to Coimbatore 1st branch to be the Zone Leader with Elder Anthony. I arrived here at about 9:45am and I have just been getting settled in. There are great things to be done here and I am glad I am going to have opportunity to participate in the work. I am going to make sure that we have fun as a Zone, but at the same time...Doing WORK! 

"Lets do our Best, Kal Ho Na Ho"

                                                 - Timothy Touthang

Elder Dusara

New suit, looking good

Pizza Hut

Soccer crew

Three baptisms in Ramamurthy Nagar

Week 57: Stress is the best

Dear Family,

So this last week was the most stressful week of my entire mission...actually my entire life. Elder Mulampaka and I have been working very hard this past week and we both have been stressed in so many different aspects of the missionary work here. We were not able to get splits to happen when we wanted too, investigators were not keeping commitments, RM's from the branch are not doing a single thing to help with the work. Its a stressful time here. But I think the most stressful experience comes from Sudhi's baptism. 

We have teaching brother Sudhi for the past 3 months every Sunday and his progression has been astonishing. He really understands the gospel and he has felt a change in his life and he felt that getting baptized would be a great way to show his love for his Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Based on where he stays he actually would belong to the other branch but he already knows everyone in our branch so he would like to stay. I told him that if that was to happen then he would have to shift his home into our boundaries. He thought about it for sometime and called me and told me that he is going to look at homes in Ramamurthy Nagar. 

So since everything changed last minute, I had to cancel some appointments and make like 50 calls to different people regarding the cleaning of the font, the agenda, the records, and tons of other things. Everything went great and Ajay preformed the baptism. The spirit was very strong and I had ever seen the branch so happy in my time here. All the stress of the week was quenched in the little moment when Sudhi was Immersed in the water! I was comforted and reminded by the spirit that it was all worth it:)

Sudhi is from Kashmir and he is super cool! He might be one of the coolest North Indians I have ever met on my mission. We have been blessed this week with many new investigators and we have had some really good lessons. Next week we are planning for three baptisms. Sister Shanthi, Brother Nielson, and Lazaar. Nielson and Lazaar are bothers of Nicki. Blessings are being poured out over here in Ramamurthy Nagar! Lets keep the spiritual juices flowing:)

Elder Dusara

Ajay, Elder Mulampaka and Sudhi baptism day

Shudhi and Ajay

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