Week 69: A little late due to Diwali - Spirit in Sacrament Meeting experience

So I am so sorry that I could not email you on Monday. We had to fly to Bangalore for MLC so there was little time.

I guess Diwali is over but I would still like to wish everyone a HAPPY DIWALI (World War 3). Actually I would like to share a story with you regarding my Diwali experience this year. So my companion and I had made plans to visit 2 investigators at the Church. Praveen and Ruby were the two that we were planning on having a lesson with. 

Since Praveen has been asking so many questions about Joseph Smith and the life he lived, we decided to watch "Joseph Smith The Prophet of The Restoration". After watching that his doubts and his questions were answered and his testimony was much stronger. At about 4 o clock sister Ruby came to the church and we were just planning on sharing with her the message of The Gospel of Jesus Christ. After beginning with an opening prayer I asked, "How do you feel about your baptism date on Oct 26th?" Keep in mind that she comes from a very strong christian background and that missionaries have been teaching her for about 10 months, she also is wanting to receive her personal witness.

She said, "Yea! the 26th sounds great". Me and my companion turned to each other and had the most confused look on our face. I was like, "Did you just say yes" and she replied, "Yes I did". She was the hardest investigator I have ever worked with on my mission. In a recent exchange with President Berrett on Sunday she even said that she was sorry for putting the missionaries through so much. 

So this Saturday we will be having a Baptism service for sister Ruby and right after that we have a Missionary Fireside! 

This small experience I want to share is with a sister that I saw in Sacrament meeting this last Sunday. I noticed a sister I have not seen before sitting in the back and I felt compelled to just day hello. She had some small disability and a slight speech problem but I felt the spirit even stronger. I just shook her hand a gave a simple hello and that was it. Sacrament carried on and then it came time for the closing prayer. She walked up there and and started and finished what I thought was the most beautiful prayer I have ever heard. I felt the spirit confirm to me that what she said was true and that I must follow it. In her prayer she mentioned the "she wants everyone to love everyone unconditionally without judging, and even though people might be different we should love them more". Absolutely fantastic!

From Love and no photos.

Elder Dusara 

Fireworks like no place else!

Diwali meal

Elders sitting down to eat

Week 68: Bang, Bang, new song from movie

So the new jam of the week that all the Auto drivers are playing is "Tu Meri". That song is from the new movie Bang Bang and it is a pretty cool song, so y'all should check it out!

Oh and one more thing! I would like to give a shout out for Papa (from Fiji) and wish him a Happy Birthday!

Anyway this week was the baptism of sister Navaneetha! We have been teaching her for about 3 weeks and she is solid! The service went very well and we let brother Raju preform the baptism because he has never had the chance to do so. The spirit was very strong and everything went according to the plan. Brother Praveen (who was about to be dropped) attended sacrament today and he brought up a concern that he was having that was preventing him from being baptized. 

He said "How is it suppose to feel or look like when I receive my witness?" We told him about the different ways the Holy Ghost speaks to us. Sometimes we over think or over look what is to happen and we totally miss the small moment. We both shared our witness and what we flet when we read to know for ourselves. I was very bold with him when he said that " I am saying my prayers everyday", I told him, "If you were saying your prayers with real intent having faith that Heavenly Father will answer you, you would have received your answer last year when the Elders were first teaching you" He thought about that for a second and then I said that, "You need to make your prayers more meaningful than they are now". He understood and the prayer he gave to close the lesson was so powerful and strong! I cannot describe the feeling as I left that room but I am positive he felt something. 

"If we always do what we have always done, than we will get what we have always gotten"

                                                                                                                       -Elder Bednar

If you are not seeing a change in your life, you need to change it yourself with the help of your Heavenly Father! We need his help so badly in this life I cannot even begin to describe! Make your prayers more meaningful and see the change it will bring. That is my challenge to you:)

Enjoy the photos: Yes I am still a little big! 

Love,

Elder Dusara

Baptism of Navaneetha

Baptism of Navaneetha

Chillin with the nerf gun

Week 67: "Once in a while is fine"...cyclone news as well

I would just like to say that General Conference was AMAZING! The questions that I had were answered in the most straight forward way possible. The talks I love the most were by Tad R. Callister, Elder Jörg Klebingat, and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (Lord, is it I?). 

Those were the three talks that I really enjoyed and that answered the questions that I had. I had been pondering about the messages that were shared and how I can apply it to my situation as a missionary. I am not perfect so there are alot of things that I can do to change the way that I do missionary work. One of the things I want to work on this week is "Love". I have reflected the past couple weeks and came to the conclusion that I am not doing my best to "Love Everyone! I cannot remember exactly who gave the talk but the impressions came throughout all of the conference. I need to love everybody even thought they might not like me or they way I do something. I still need to love them because that is what I need to do as a Zone Leader and as a Missionary. Sister Payne sent me this quote today and I thought I should share this with Y'all, "If you learn to put your [zone's] needs above your own interests, then you are going to be good at this." 

I am to apply this to my work and see what blessings are in store. This also applies to everyone else.

So I want to share a story about a sister named Ruby. Ruby was introduced to the church earlier this year. She has been on and off in her attendance and she is a strong member of the Hebron Church located here in Hyderabad. We have been trying our very best to meet her but her schedule does not comply with us. The past two weeks we have been very "Bold" in out commitments to her to read the Book of Mormon and to receive her witness. She has been asking some interesting questions like, Why do we need the Book of Mormon?, What is the difference between this church and others?, Why do we need prophets? and Why do we need the priesthood?. I have never had to go so deep into details with any investigators in my entire life. I talk to her about the Nicean Creed and Dispensations and all sorts of other things....and she understood. 

She said she would come to church and attend General Conference with us but we did not see her at either of the sessions on Sunday. She did not even return our calls (sounds like Ajay). When the conference finished we saw her walking towards us and she said sorry for not lifting the call, " I was watching the conference from the back and I did not want to disturb anyone".  We had a lesson with her afterwards and everything went according to the spirit. We had planned to set her with a baptismal date but both of us felt a little uncomfortable because she is a very serious person. I prayed in my heart that I could receive the strength and the courage to invite her for baptism! It was very scary but I followed the promptings from the spirit and everything was fine. She said that she would try again and this time with more sincerity. She now is reading the Book Of Mormon everyday and her testimony is getting stronger and stronger. Her date is for the 25th of October! She is ready!

Here are the photos from the Zone Activity we had!

Elder Dusara  

btw, in emailing elder Dusara this morning, I was informed that a cyclone hit the eastern side of the mission in an area he calls Vizak. Prayers and fasting are with the missionaries serving there as they do not have power, water, etc. The missionaries are all safe, but are struggling without food, water and electricity.

Zone activity at Golconda Fort

Zone activity at Golconda Fort

Zone bowling activity

Week 66: Google, Google...

What a week! Full of appointments, random conversations with drunk guys, running on to moving buses, and fooling people with laser pens! This last week was so legit, we had a great time in Bangalore for MLC and we had a blast during our service on Thursday! It was busy going back and forth taking care of these little problems here and there but it was so worth it because everyday ended with something spiritual. 

Elder Ravindran and I have been having a party together! We have been just killing it in our appointments and we have been teaching really powerful lessons. On Friday we had a Zone Training meeting and as a zone we established that we could have 49 baptisms as a zone this month! We all made the commitment to pray and fast for every name on the board (49 names). I think that by doing this we can be more accountable to the lord for those names. I have been noticing that since Elder Ravindran and I have been having alot of unity together, that has translated to the work that is happening in the other companionship's. Last week every companionship found at least 3 new investigators and had more than 10 lessons per week. One of the companionships (Elder Gill and Pushpa Raj) had 37 lessons last week! 

A couple days ago we were invited to go visit brother Pavan. He is a less-active and we wanted to go see what we could do to help him come back and fulfill his calling as an Elders Quorum counselor. When we sat down with him, sister in-law joined us. We taught her about the Restoration and while we were teaching I felt like should ask some questions about her. I just asked how she met her husband and she told us this amazing story of how they met. She opened up and started to tell us everything! Which made it very easy for us to answer every question using the Book of Mormon. She was very touched by the message we shared and she said that she was very happy for the Book of Mormon. She and her husband are not church members so we are going to help them as much as possible this week. 

Enjoy the Photos!

BTW: Google Google is my new favorite Tamil song! I have been hearing it everywhere!

I am excited for General Conference next week!

Elder Dusara

Festival season with the zone

Week 65: Transfer back to Hyderabad..back to work

So I am now serving as a Zone Leader in Hyderabad 1st Ward. I am so happy to be here again and I am so happy to be surrounded by those that I saw when I was trained here in 3rd Ward. When I came to church literally everyone remembered who I was. I was approached by people I had forgotten and they still remembered me as the "Big Man". Everyone was shocked to see that I had lost weight since I was gone (I did not feel a difference). 

Elder Ravindran and I had visited some awesome families before Sunday and we were planning on maybe 4 people coming to church on Sunday. Yea we had 8 come and we had a baptism. I visited with sister Vimala on Saturday and she was actually really sick. I noticed she really was tired so I wanted to make her laugh. I was able to make her and her friend Divya laugh and she said she felt much better after the lesson.

She was baptized yesterday and she said that all the sicknesses she had went away when she came out of the water? That is awesome! I have attached some photos so check em out. I am going to kill it over here with Elder Ravindran and the rest of our awesome Zone! I have been blessed and so are all of you. Thank you for your prayers and thank you for emailing me every week! 

Love ya'all

Elder Dusara

Sister Vimala's baptism

Week 64: A Miraculous Comeback...

What a change from 2 weeks ago! President Berrett came and visited our Zone and gave us a big talk on Loving our companions and working together. I was really motivated and I think my companion was too. We worked together and we had some really great appointments and we were able to go on splits! Everything that was not happening before happened last week and it was awesome! 

I was able to go on splits with one of our members(Allen) and we were teaching one of our new investigators. Blessy who is 9 years old invited us to her home and she is the sweetest little girl I have ever met in my entire life. She wanted us to teach her mother and that's what we did. We shared a message about the Book of Mormon and she was so excited to finally learn about it since her husband was a church member.  I was looking around her house and noticed a cabinet full of church doctrine books. And she understood the books that were there. She is a very strong member in her other church but she is willing to except the Book Of Mormon. 

What a blessing it was to finally go out and teach wonderful lessons and spend time with the members.  Today was transfers so its going to be a busy day! Thank your for all of your replies. Enjoy the photos!

Elder Dusara

Week 63: Slow week in Coimbatore - Helping with a move

I just going to be real with everyone...this week was pretty lame. There was not a lot going on and everything just went by very slowly.

The highlight of my week was the service we were able to offer on Tuesday. Our Relief Society President was moving out her home and they did not have enough money to pay for labor. So Elder Anthony and I were ready to help. At about 6:30pm we arrived at the home with our Branch President and there was no one there. 

Usually at home we will have most of the Priesthood holders and their sons come and the job goes by very fast. This was not that time haha and it was only us 3. I was not in a good mood this entire day until this point. I then was reminded of one the gifts my Heavenly Father had given me, and that was my strength. I was able to carry these huge bed frames, box's and cabinets by myself? Everyone was shocked at how much I was able to lift and they always made a comment on it. The whole move took about 6 hours almost, with the help of 3 men and their family. It was so nice to be able to give service like that and I always remember the times I had at home doing the same thing.

When I saw that family at church, the grandfather came up to me and said that he is going to remember me for the rest of his life. He thanked me and my companion and I felt so good inside. Even with all the other things that are distracting me I was able to push that aside and feel happiness and joy.

God has given us so many talents an gifts! He has also given us opportunities to use them. May we recognize what they are and use them for the purpose of uplifting and edifying. We can be comforted in times of sorrow! 

Elder Dusara

Mayflower anyone...?

Time to eat