Week 7: More sickness, success too...

Sorry I am sending this email later than I usually would. Our district decided to go to this museum this morning and not return till about 3:30pm. We managed to squeeze 6 elders in one auto all the way from Secunderabad station which is 3 miles away from where we needed to go. Anyway I am here and thats what matters I guess. This week was kinda on and off for us. I found a way to get sick again and we stayed in the apartment for 3 days. We have not been finding much success by finding and OYM(Open your mouth). We did take the time while I was sick to totally fix our area book and make it nice and organized and up to date. We were also able to call all the referrals that were left in the area book but none of them picked up.

Last Tuesday(before I got sick) we had plans to go meet with our favorite YSA's Brother Delip and Sister Shraveni. When we arrived at their home their mother said that both of them were at church. We were wondering what we should do since we were all the way in Begumpet so we held the search for Monopoly Deal. We looked at 2 toy stores and found it in this shopping mall just a couple Km up the road. We came back to our apartment at 9 and played till 11. Monopoly Deal has been played everyday since we bought it and it keeps us grounded... a little.

On Saturday we had plans to meet our golden investigator Babu Ram. When he arrived at the church around 5pm the Ysa's just started their activity. We let him go participate and make friends because for us fellowship from people his age is very good and will make him want to come to church knowing he has friends besides us. They played a lot of different games and it lasted 2 hours. After we all ate biriyani and chicken kababs and Babu Ram was talking to all his new friends which made us very happy. I found an awesome opportunity to talk to this complete stranger I had never seen before at this activity. He said he was Delips best friend and that he was there to support him and the activity he was putting on. He was not a member but he loved feeling the spirit during sacrament when he went. I asked him If he would like to learn more about the church and how he can feel the spirit everyday. He said that would be great and I got his information. His name is Naveen and he lives in Filmnagar which is where all the Telugu actors live.

Yesterday at church a guy name Berrath Kumar showed up and said he talked to us on the phone. He was one of the referrals we got in our area book but he just hung up immediately when we told him we were the Elders. He came for the last part of sacrament and attended both Gospel Principles class and Elders Quorum. He was previously taught everything like 4 months ago but his friends told him the church was not true. He somehow felt an impression to call us back and to come to church because we really didn't do anything.We are teaching him tonight so we shall see how that goes.

So yea that was my week in a nut shell. When I was sick I ordered McDonalds twice and KFC! Yeah I went hard in the paint for three days! Yea Kevin Lind! You can order Mcdonalds from your house and they bring it to you:))))))))))) Since one of the workers there is LDS he gives us two free MccChickens every time we order:)). On the Indian food side of things I had Dhal Fry today which tasted exactly like moms Dhal. I also had Chicken Mogulei, Pani Purri, and Curd rice again which still is nasty! I had this amazing indian sweet that almost tasted like caramel but I cant remember.

And that was my week! This week I am going to TGI Fridays for my birthday and I am paying for like 5 people so dad watch my account for me. I also forgot to tell you that 2 weeks ago Elder Odells grandfather visited him/us and we went to TGI Fridays together. Grandpa Advani was his name and he was super legit. If you plan on making a trip down here I know a good/amazing hotel that is close to where I stay.:) Goodbye friends!  

Elder Dusara out...

Week 6 in India - Hard work beginning to pay off!

This week was much better compared to last week which is fantastic. We were able to teach 4 lessons to investigators with a member present, 2 member families and found 3 new investigators. This past week was so cool because we were able to see the Lord's hand in everything we did, whether it be teaching lessons or talking to people on the street. He really does prepare people to hear the gospel and to feast upon the words which we teach. Our strongest investigator, Baburam, has been texting us questions about the Book of Mormon and asking what certain words mean. He wants to be baptized so bad on Sep. 7th, its amazing! For the month of September we have 8 people that are willing to be baptized and 5 of them are really committing to follow all the commandments and the teachings of the lord. As a Zone we have 29 people who are wanting to get baptized, if we can follow through with all of them and help them with everything they need Hyderabad will set the record for most baptisms ever. But we are not about the numbers, we are about the people behind it.

So two days ago during Ward Mission Council Meeting (WMCM) we were talking about our investigators and how the ward can help fellowship them into coming to church. The meeting was suppose to take 1 hour but Elder Sarkies and Elder Dhandapani felt the need to share their entire list of investigators instead of just sharing the strongest ones hahah. Anyway, before the meeting ended a sister came to me and gave me a referral and told me that this investigator was interested and wanted to know more about the church. She said I should call her and set up a date to visit her family. Not 5 minutes after this, the investigator walks inside the building with her daughter and immediately me and my companion teach her about the restoration. Her name was Mamutha and her daughters name was Michelle and they were curious about our church because their church was becoming to commercial and business like. That experience was something I have been looking forward to for a long time.

Before the WMCM meeting we met with Baburam and he brought two of his friends from college. They were curious of the message we had to share and we taught them of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They understood everything we taught and it was so great, even though one of them only spoke telugu. Their names were Suresh, and Naresh. Both were great guys.

I wish I could send pictures back but we tried a new internet cafe and they don't have the SDHC card I need. I witnessed and actual basketball tournament that took place during independence day and there were hundreds of people. I also had the privilege to play volleyball with all the YSA's on Saturday night and they were amazed at how high I could jump haha.

Dal and Rice is my favorite indian food to eat at members home:) Tastes like moms:)

Goodbye

One Month in India - Zone Conference & Sickness

Table tennis on P-day

Film crew in Hyderabad

Crispy Garlic Chicken dish

Elder Dusara and new convert Gotham

Hyderabad family

Hyderabad family #2

I can't actually believe I have already been in India for a solid month today! Everything is going pretty fast and I am scared for when I hit my 6 month mark because that's when everyone says the mission starts flying by. Anyway some new missionaries to our area where Elder Doss, Elder Bean (District Leader), and Elder Merril. Elder Aruldoss finished his mission on Tuesday and is now enjoying the luxuries of the NBA. Elder Britton is leaving to the Phillipines on the 17th of August so we have to go out and celebrate with him. We just recently combined zones and now West Marredpally and Madinaguda are now one large zone. We are losing missionaries left and right and our mission is getting very small so combining zones just made sense.

On Thursday I had the opportunity to have me first interview with President Berrett. It was really cool because I could express any problem I had and he could sympathize with me about it because he is just as new as me. On Friday I went to my first Zone Conference and it was awesome. We talked about using the Book Of Mormon more in our lessons and the power it will have in conversion when it is combined with the Spirit. President Berrett is a very knowledgeable guy and he has so much to share about the gospel. Sister Berrett is basically our mom plain and simple. She has the solution to any sickness and she will help you until you have full strength and are ready to get back to work. I love them both :)

The main struggle for me and my Companion this past week was sickness. I got sick on Tuesday, the same old sickness I got back at home, you guys know what i am talking about. But it was combined with this strange stomach pains and crazy pooping! It was the worst sickness I have ever had in my entire life so far... and it happened in India of all places haha.

Anyway, I was sick for about the whole week and my companion took pretty good care of me. We had KFC which is amazing here in India and we had McDonalds the next day so I was starting to do better. Then Elder O'dell got sick after Zone Conference and I knew it was my fault. We spent the entire week inside pretty much and on Saturday made some time to get out and teach a lesson and I gave my first blessing which was amazing.

That was pretty much our week, I pray that I will never see sickness again and hopefully never stay inside for a full week haha until next time my friends.

Elder Dusara Out:)

Week 4 in India: Elections & Festivals

The past week has been tough for missionary work because of the elections and its the beginning of festival season here so all the Hindu's are going crazy and we pretty much cant go outside. We are not allowed to wear ties and tags at all for the next week or two because of all the festivals. We have still found ways to reach out to those investigators we would really like to teach. One example is Sister Lakshmi who lives is Bowenpally. She was ready for baptism a couple weeks ago but she kept going to visit her native village and that would cause her to miss Sunday and that kinda resets that baptism process( We need her to come three weeks in a row). We met with her on Thursday and asked her if she remembers any of the lessons she was taught(Elder O'dell has been teaching her for 5 months) and she could only remember the Word of Wisdom. We told her that we would come over every other day at 4pm to visit her and reteach everything so she could be prepared once again for baptism. So thats what we have been doing with here for the past couple days, she says that if she gets baptized her two sons will also get baptized so I pray that all goes well with her.

Since our area is not as successful as it used to be Elder O'dell and Elder Britton tried to find a way that we can have more success. They came up with the idea that we should reactivate all the less actives that fell away from the church. Elder Odell and I went the clerks office and talked with Brother Patrick about getting a Ward List and a less actives list. When we got back to our apartment we cross referenced everything and found that there are more than 60 less actives in our ward and there are 27 in our area. This is great for us because we can fill up our planners and bring these lost souls back to church. Our bishop is by far one of the worst bishops I have ever seen so its hard to deal with him and try to bring these people back because he follows these weird set of rules that he makes up. This week should be slightly more successful then the last and this month should be pretty solid. We have been teaching a man name Baburom and he really wants to get baptized and go teach his village about the gospel so hopefully we can baptize him next week and it could possibly be my first:)

I had the opportunity to go on an exchange with Elder Yelisetti again and I got to meet some awesome people. The first set of people I met was Saul and Johnson. They were brothers and Saul loved basketball so we talked for 45min about it before our lesson. They have this super cute cat I will send a picture of and we played with it also. After we met with them Saul came with us to go teach his Uncle and the rest of his family just down the street. I walked in and they were all really depressed because they were expecting Elder Britton and they thought I was another Indian elder. Elder Britton is from Missouri and he's white and was American so that's why. We sat on the ground and there was about 7 people we were about to teach. I wanted to surprise them with my accent so I did not talk for like 5 min and right when I did they all just lit up! I started joking around with them and showed them pictures of my family and we just laughed and had a super great time. We taught in investigator Sis Swarthi about the first 5 commandments and I tried to make it as fun as possible.

It was so amazing to see how they went from super sad to just all out laughing and having fun. They were my favorite family by far and they were not in my area:( I hope I will see them again. They were so cool I asked If I could get a picture with them.

That's pretty much my week here in India. I hope you all are enjoying your mission as much as I am and I will be praying for your safety:)

Peace

Elder Thajeevs Dusara!