Week 38: New adventures and success

Well this is unrelated to missionary work but...I would like to inform everyone that my bracket was destroyed. I had Louisville going all they way and they lost yesterday:(. 

So back to the real news at hand! Our investigator Mohan quit his job and came to our branch for church yesterday and he felt the spirit so much that he wanted to stay for the next session. He will be given a date this week and he should be able to get baptized next week or the week after. 

Two days ago Elder Britton got sick and I went on exchange with Elder Thompson and we visited an investigator named Vanilla. She is the most prepared investigator I have ever seen on my mission. Her prayers are beautiful and she always is reading her scriptures and defending her beliefs against her father. He father does not want her to get baptized because they are Hindu and if she gets baptized she wont be able to come to the temples and worship...heard that about a thousand times. 

Transfers calls came and I am staying in this area by myself with Elder Ravi(Now the assistant), we got the whole area. So I will be able to teach Vanilla and get her baptized because she is awesome. She also has a friend name Harikha that came to church on Sunday and she is also from a Hindu background but she shared her testimony about the Jesus Christ and why we must follow his example and be baptized. 

So yeah i might be in this area for one more transfer but we will see what happens. Today is the Telugu New Year so Happy New Year:) So many pointless holidays but what ever its cool.

Brackets busted!

A hike with the zone

With Elder Singh

Puppy power

Week 37: Feeling the Spirit of the Atonement

Last week when we had District Meeting it might have been the greatest meeting I have ever had so far on my mission. Elder Britton did a fantastic job leading all the training and the topic was the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We talked about experiences we have had on our mission where we have felt that love for our Savior and his atoning sacrifice. We split of from our companions and we taught (practice) just one on one with someone else (Elder Nepali) and we were sharing what we know about the Atonement with that person and baring our testimony of it after. I felt the spirit so strongly during that short practice and I even notice that my voice changed while I was teaching. Elder Britton was watching me and he said he has never heard me teach and speak like that ever. The Spirit is so real I cant even begin to describe that many wonders that can happen when it is with you. The next greatest thing happened only 2 hours after we had finished District meeting.

Elder Gardiner and I were trying to visit some less-active families that were in this area (Aryapuram) and no one was available because of EXAMS! Anyway while we were riding down this street I felt an impression to visit one family because we had not seen Kumar in a long time. When we knocked on the door we were greeted by a sister we had never seen before. Her name was Durga and she was related to Kumar's family and she was only visiting for 3 days and tomorrow was her last day. We shared a lesson about trusting in God at all times and he will deliver you out of your trails and afflictions. That can be found in Alma 36:3. When we got finished sharing our testimonies she started to cry because she had not been to church in 4 years and she was hopping for a chance to see the missionaries so that they can teach her husband. They live very far away from church and her husband is Hindu so thats why she has not come in a very long time. That was one of the most powerful lessons I have ever taught in my mission! So Cool:)

Sorry but the photos will come next week because our zone activity took a long time:) Love you all

Elder Dusara

Week 36: Dehydrated, but not demoralized w/pics

This past week I was struggling a lot with sickness because I was not getting the proper H2O I needed. Even though we did not have a lot of lessons we were still able to have really good powerful short lessons. 

We met with our new investigator Dasu and we were going to share the Restoration but we felt that he wasn't ready to hear that since he did not know the different between the members of the God Head. So we shared about the God Head and how they are three separate beings but they have the same purpose. He understood that and he said our closing prayer the correct way:). 

Then there is Phanindra. I still have not been able to play my secret weapon with him but until then we will continue to keep his mind refreshed with all the doctrine. He came to family home evening last night and I bore a strong testimony to him about the power and blessings that come to those who come to church. I shared with him some personal experience and the spirit was totally felt at that time. That was my week pretty much nothing to crazy but a lot of good experiences.

Elder Dusara

Rajamundry rooftop view

Feeding each other

Sunset in Rajamundry

Week 35: Starting over again, working hard

This past week has been such a turn around compared to the last month or two! We found four new investigators that speak very good English and they come from a Christian background so they have a good understanding of Jesus Christ. I had the opportunity to go on exchange with Elder Britton (finally!) and I learned a lot of things from him. He showed me how I can better teach people according to their needs instead of me just teaching them a lesson that I prepared. He is very good at resolving any questions that investigators have regarding the Bible (I am not very knowledgeable in the Bible). 

I am going to make it a goal of mine that once I finish the Book Of Mormon again I am going to read everything from the Old Testament and the Book Of Mormon. We have been struggling to bring members with us to our lessons and that is hurting us a bit. Fellowship is one of the most important things that can happen within the church. Without fellowship there is no unity and people go less active very fast! That is something we are going to work on this week and we are going to do a better job of bringing our leaders with us! 

My companion leaves in 4 weeks so we are going to do the best work we can so he can go home a happy and faithful missionary:) Swag! The reason why I put Mohana you ugly is because our investigator Mohan is not really progressing at all and we are going to have a drop lesson with him to see if he will take things seriously. Phanindra is still not getting permission to take baptism. Not till next year? We have one last plan of helping him but after that I dont know what we can do. We will see what Lord has planned. 

Elder Dusara

Bangalore mission 2014

Bunk beds in the flat

Pool with a view

Week 34: Mission Conference and new pics

So as all of you might know, this past week I had the opportunity to fly to Bangalore with every other Missionary in the mission to attend Mission Conference. We were addressed and by Elder Randy Funk and his wife (Previous Mission President), Elder Halstrum (Area Seventy), and Elder Jeffery Holland (Apostle) and his wife . It was a very spiritual experience and I learned a lot more about stories from the New Testament. 

We discussed John 3-4 and talked about how these stories were similar and how Jesus Christ was able to teach on their level to where they could understand. Elder Holland's knowledge about the scriptures is freaking crazy! My mind was hurting just trying to understand some of the things he was saying. He comes over a bit scary at first but when he was teaching us he was the funniest guy. He was cracking jokes and everyone was laughing! I have never seen that side of Elder Holland ever! 

The whole trip to Bangalore just amazing in general. I felt like we were all business man because we just had our suits on with no ties and tags (airport policy). It was super cool to meet everyone in the mission and to see how large it has gotten. We were taught of some new ways of how we can better ourselves as missionaries and how we can help others come closer to Christ.

We went to Phoenix Mall and ate Krispy Kreams and ate mexican food. I bought a Shirwani and Scarf:) I look pretty hot!

Elder Dusara

Mission Conf

Bollywood Hero

Misson conference

Jeevy with Boo

Rajajmundry Zone

Jeevy and Boo