Week 16: New Companion, New Attitude...

The major event that has happened this past week was transfers. Elder Sommer is my new companion and Elder O'Dell went to Bangalore. I am the senior companion in our companionship so I was a little afraid at first because Elder Sommer goes home in January (He is pretty much an apostle of this mission). Right when he got here we just started to work non stop. We had days planned out where every hour was pretty much an appointment. He is such a humble and diligent, hard-working guy and he is so fun to be around when we are proselyting. He motivates me to do better each and everyday and he is not one of those missionaries who thinks he knows everything about the work. 

He told me that I am teaching him how to have casual conversations because he is not very good at it. I AM TEACHING HIM! It's a crazy thought. We have been having 3-4 lessons a day and meeting a ton of less-active members. During my personal study today while reading Alma 23 verse 5-6 really touched me and my companion when I shared it. It talks about how they converted thousands of Lamanites and they never fell away from the church.

Hyderabad has a population of a about 2-3 million people, India as a whole is 1 billion strong! Why can't we have the same success Aaron and his brethren had when teaching The King of the Lamanites? As we have that faith and determination that the Lord will guide us to those whom he has prepared to hear the word, we will have that same success. Not exactly thousands but you never know how the Lord works.

Elder Sommer is from Rexburg, Idaho and he is a farmer/country man. He is an amazing person and he never talks bad about any missionary at all. Everything he talks about is kind and funny. I have a lot to learn from him and that's what I am going to try and do this companionship.

This week we are going to rock Hyderabad! We are making sure we reach all our Key Indicators and even more. Those less actives better be prepared for us cause were coming! 

Elder Dusara!   

Week 15: Activity again, transfers coming...

Since this last week was the final week of Festivals we could do a little bit of missionary work towards the end of the week. We were able to teach 5 recent convert lessons so that is decent I guess. The big surprise though was a package Elder O'Dell received in the mail on Wednesday. It was all his FRO paper work and it pretty much said he was getting transferred to Bangalore, Indira Nagar. He leaves this Wednesday and he is very excited. We did receive a call from the assistants the next day to confirm everything. 

My new companion is Elder Somer, he is from Idaho and he is a hard worker, we are going to do great together. These couple days till O'Dell leaves is kind of saying goodbye to the ward and his favorite members. Yesterday we visited Brother Raju and Sister Renuka and they made us the best chicken curry I have ever eaten in my life( Sorry Mom). We took pictures and just talked and had fun. They shirfted(moved) down the road to a new home and some of their neighbors asked if we could say a prayer for their families. Elder O'Dell and I said 2 prayers for two families that had the faith that Heavenly Father would answer them. Brother Kumar was the name of the man we prayed for in the first family and he messed up his foot and ankle pretty bad while working. The next family had a little boy name Nikhil and half his body did not function properly. He was such a sweet and humble boy and he spoke very good English.

Both these families have the desire to learn more about the church, so me and my new companion are going to help them come closer to our heavenly father and partake of the good fruit. Since we have been going to Pizza Hut at least once a week I got to know the whole staff very well because they think I am a funny guy. I gave my card to one of the servers we get every time and he was happy. I will be giving him a call this week to see what we can do. His name is Stanley. If he will except the message we have to share, then some of the other co-workers will as well.

Elder Dhandapani and I went on exchange a couple days ago and we taught a member family about the importance of the Book Of Mormon and we read the introduction page with them and explained it. They were not understanding who wrote the Book of Mormon and who compiled the records so I made it very clear to them and their questions were resolved.

Stake Conference was last weekend and it was so cool because Elder Holland, Elder Hales, Sister Stevens and Elder Evans spoke directly to the whole Asia area and about the work members and missionaries can do together. They even made a video just for the Asia area similar to the Work of Salvation video just ASIAN! 

That was pretty much my week so I will talk to you later.

Elder Dusara @ Inorbit Mall

Week 14: General Conference and Lockdown Again

The past week was super slow with not much success and we really needed that motivation and drive to keep the work going. Conference did that for us. I took so much notes that totally applied to me and my situation here in India and I am so glad Conference came when it did. 

As a District we set another record at Pizza Hut, We ate 12 med pizzas all together! and I had a dessert! It was heavenly.

The work, like I said, was very slow and we did not have the appointments that we would have liked. A lot of our investigators cancelled last minute or just never showed up to a lesson. 

We did eat quite a bit at members homes and that was very nice. Had a lot of good curry and I think I had the hottest Chicken Curry of my life as well!  I could not taste anything for a couple hours. Biriyani is getting more and more desiring for me but I am not obsessed with it yet like every other missionary here.

Might be able to ride and Elephant or a Camel today so wish me luck:)

Physical fitness and apartment updates from Elder Dusara:

Exercise in the morning has been so legit the past weeks. I am now able to do about 80 push ups and 40 dips in the morning so my body is looking extra cute:) The thing that stinks a little is that we have a ban right now. No ties, No tags, No visiting new investigators, No OYM( Open your mouth), and No Door knocking (never done it anyway). 

Its pretty much a lock down with all the Andhra Pradesh people and the Telengana people fighting over the ownership of Hyderabad. And there is the DASARA festival going on now and everyone at church wishes me a happy birthday because DUSARA sounds like DASARA so thats kinda cool I guess. Soccer is pretty much taking over my life slowly on the sports side of things at least. I love hearing about the premier league and all the teams and players that are there.

The major transfer calls come every 6 weeks. Nov 6th is that next major call but this Thursday my companion might get transferred so we will just have to see. President Berrett visited our apartment and said we might be moving out because there is to much termite infestation and its the oldest apartment in Hyderabad. Everything is falling apart but i really don't care. 

The Church is true:)

Elder Dusara

Week 13: Success returns in Hyderabad

This week was a complete turn around compared to 2 weeks ago. Our goal was to find at least 5 new investigators and we ended up finding 6:) The Lord has really shown unto us those people whom he has prepared to hear the Gospel, and through fervent prayer we were able to develop the faith to find them. Brother Vanu was a progressing investigator that was taught by missionaries last year and he came to church and enjoyed the lessons he was taught. We went over to his house later on Sunday and shared the message of the Restoration and shared our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and the power it has to answer any questions that they might have. 

His wife was a very strong member of the Hebrewn church and she only excepted the Bible. She kept on saying why we need another bible and 2 Nephi 29 3-10 came into my mind and I never shared the scripture because I felt it was a little to harsh to say. Elder O'dell answered any questions they had and we just told them to read the Book of Mormon and then make any judgement's they want. But they need to read it with a desire to know that it is true. This family has great potential and I pray that we can bring all of them to the true church here on this earth.

The other investigators came from simply talking on the bus to people. Indians here always start asking me or my companion questions because we both have American accents. I talk to people a lot about technology and their jobs and it really opens the conversation to anything. We try to use the spirit as much as possible to help us find these people and it totally works. 

Now we finally have people to teach so hopefully this month will be a successful month, unless me or my companion gets transferred. Either way we will work hard!

We have been waking up everyday at 5:30am to play soccer and basketball with members and then come back and do our own workouts. It makes the day go by so much better and you have a little bit more energy as well. I am starting to look like a monster again:) I played volleyball with the YSA's last Saturday and I worked.  I was set up to spike every time and we dominated. I blocked so many guys spikes and they started getting mad! 

Thats all I got this week...

Elder Dusara out!