The One Year Mark is Here - New Companion!

So this past week Elder Willis, Elder Stevens and I hit our year mark! We enjoyed nicely at Habeneros and I finally got the chance to eat a real beef burger! It was amazing. On Monday we received news that Elder Wigington was going to be transferred to Rajahmundry 3rd branch. My new companion is Elder Mulampaka (My First Indian companion). I am still the District Leader and now my district is combined with Whitefield Branch (Elder Willis and his trainee, and the Assistants). KGF was closed so that's why I am with Whitefield now.

Elder Wigington had a hard time saying goodbye to some of these members this past week, but we had the pleasure of visiting everyone he wanted and it was a super great time. We were fed Dinner every single night...it was awesome. The members must love me also because they all made my favorite food(Chicken curry or Biriyani and Onion Raitha).  Last night we spent the night at the Zone leaders apartment and Elder Wigington, Eames and O'Dell left to Rajahmundry at 4:30am. I am really excited for my new companion and the work we are going to get done here. From what I have heard, he is a good missionary and a hard worker...but he does not know how to cook indian food:( So eating outside will continue hahah. 

So we had a pretty awesome experience last week with sister Shanthi again. She is our most prepared investigator and she should be baptized by next week. When we were at her home her mother was not feeling good at all and she was getting super hot and tired during our lesson. We stopped and gave her a blessing and then she layed down for the rest of the day. They took her to the hospital that night and the doctors did not know what exactly was wrong with her. So we visited the next day(Wednesday) and Shanthi told us that she said a prayer at night next to her mothers bed side and when her mom woke up she was perfectly fine. No problems at all and then she felt prompted to call us and have us over. This is another testimony that Heavenly Father is there and that he will answer prayers according to your faith and desire. 

Thats my experience for the week! 

GO USA!

ELDER DUSARA

12th man is alive in Bangalore India

District Meeting

Bollywood hero suit

Week 49 & 50 updates: The work is really progressing in Bangalore

Week 1

Well I don't know what there is to say about how the work is going here in Ramamurthy Nagar except that everything is Hastening! I cant even tell in words how blessed Elder Wigington and I are to be serving in such a blessed branch. The members actually just want to help, they are not doing it out of obligation but more out of the love of their hearts. We have been working very closely with some of the less-active members trying to bring them on splits because that is a good way to get them back to church. A really sweet experience happened on Wednesday that I would love to share.

We were out at about 1pm in the afternoon trying to call some members to go on splits. We had two lined up already but then bunked last minute. We were not having any success in finding someone so we just prayed that we could have the chance to have just one person to go on exchange. 

While we were walking back to get my camera(I forgot it at the apartment), a member drove up on his bike next to us and said "Hey Elders How are you?". I had no idea who this was but Elder Wigington did. His name was Naveen and he has not been at church for a very long time. My first question I asked him was " Are you free to come on exchange with us?". He said that he was free for the rest of the day and we took him and had some very powerful lessons.  Not only that but Naveen also came to church with his family on Sunday and that was super awesome to see!

Week 2

Man what a change we are seeing the the area. We found 9 new investigators some of who had been dropped by previous Elders. I guess they are now prepared to hear the Gospel again:) Once again we had the pleasure of taking members everyday on splits and the blessigs were being seen everyday. We are trying to take more sisters on splits because we have only been taking boys and we need to be fair to everyone. We were able to have 34 lessons taught last week so Elder Wigington and I were feeling very happy.

So I actually had two very special experiences that happened a couple of days ago that I would like to share with you. We have one sister who's name is Shanthi and she is the sweetest referral we have ever received. She comes from a Christian background and she really wants to be baptized again because she has not been the best she could be and she wants to change (Repentance). She has had a hard life and her mother HATES Christians (She is Hindu). 

When we came over for the first time her mother cleaned the entire house just for us so that we would feel comfortable. She only speaks Tamil but I know she felt the spririt in our lesson because she asked us to come over every day because she likes the feeling that comes when the missionaries come over. So 3 days ago I went over and we taught Shanti about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she mentioned a dream she had a day before when I showed here a mormon message about temples using my camera. She said she saw in her dream a gate and when it opend she saw a temple but she did not understand what that meant. After the lesson I explaing to her that Heavenly Father wants you and your family to go to the temple and be sealed for time and all eternity! What a cool experience for here to go through that and to share that with me. It was a super powerful experience for the both of us.

My next experience comes from 2 boys who's names are Stephen(14) and Bernard(10). They are the two sons to Simon who is a new investigator that was referred to us by a wonderful member of ours. We have not actually had the time to sit with them and teach for a good amount of time but we gave them a Book Of Mormon and asked them to read and ponder the message it contains. 2 days ago we went to their home to visit them but the parents were not home. 

Their youngest son Bernard came running up out of now where to tell us they his parents would not be returning for a couple of hours. I was on splits with 2 members at the time, James, and Alvin. I talked with Bernard and Stephan about soccer and how I would like if they could come play with us in the morning. One thing led to another and then we started to talk about the Book Of Mormon. Aparentely those boys have been reading without the parents knowledge and they have been understanding everything. Then they introduced their friend to me and he wanted to read that Book. So they let borrow it and this other boys family now has a copy of the Book Of Mormon:)

What a week it has been! GO USA!

I would like some packages:)

Love you all,

ELDER DUSARA

Street dogs

Rajamundry district

Two contacts from Congo

School kids

Morning soccer boys

Week 48: Who wants a banana split?

Beast Mode was turned on this week here in Ramamurthy Nagar! The only way that we could achieve what we achieved was with the help of the members here. THEY UNDERSTAND "Hastening the Work Of Salvation". We were able to have 31 lessons this week and it was all because of SPLITS! 

Every day this week we were able to go with different members and go on splits from 2pm-8pm. We did our best to take less actives on splits so we can help them rekindle that fire they once had when they were diligent in the gospel. Not only that, but while we are on exchanges we will ask them if they have any friends that they could show us and we will go visit them. This week was the best week I have ever had as a missionary. It comes from Faith, Obedience, and Diligence. Those three things can change an area from completely dry to overflowing with blessings in a week! I have witnessed it!

On Saturday we made the goal to have 3 members presents 2 RCLA and 2 New investigators for Sunday. We prayed that we could achieve our goal. We did the best we could throughout the day. One brother from Congo (Desire) brought his friend to church and we taught him a lesson after church about the Book Of Mormon and he was super excited. Another brother also came to church and Elder Wigington taught him in the afternoon and he is solid. I went on splits with two members and we taught a short and powerful lesson to Kishore and Bhavani. We taught a powerful lesson about the blessings of the sacrament. We were able to visit two or more less actives and we achieved our goals! Heavenly Father is real! Miracles can happen!

We are doing wonders in this Branch!

Elder Dusara

Elder Dusara & Wittington

Bollywood actor

Contacts from Congo

Soccer with the boys on p-day

Week 47: Quality over Quantity

The reason why I am emailing today is because we had a specialized training yesterday, so our P-Day is now today. So this past week I was reflecting on my time here in the Ramamurthy Nagar branch and how fast time is going and all the things Elder Wigington and I were able to accomplish. 

So this might be the first branch I have ever been in where I have had no trouble with anyone. Everyone is this branch is amazing and they are all willing to do missionary work and help us in any way possible. The YSA's in the branch are so chill and down to do anything and they are always willing to help. I play futbol, basketball , American football and ultimate every morning with them. I have never felt so close to branch/ward in my entire life (of course not my home ward). I am very close with almost all the families and they give us referrals every single day pretty much. They tell us about their friends that stopped coming to church and we go out and find them and make friends with them also. The work here is getting better and better and its all because of the relationship that we have with the branch.

Yesterday we had our Specialized Training in Indiranagar (the first place I came to when I arrived in India...a year ago). We talked about how as a mission we are really struggling in some of our key indicators. Now that we only have 70 missionaries here in South India we are not able to maximize our full potential in our given areas (my area is huge). Bangalore needs a couple hundred more members and it will become a stake. At the rate we are going now it will take 2 years. The Area Presidency wants it done by the end of the year. That means we need to be having 40 baptisms a month for the next 6-9 months in order to reach that goal. We need to work 4 times harder! It is impossible to do that with our the help from the members! We need to go on splits and we need to be as obedient as possible to witness this miracle here in Bangalore.

As far as miracles go, yesterday we visited a family that is less active who we previously met 5 days ago and they all were fighting and arguing back and forth the whole lesson. The spirit was not there and we did not really want to go back. Yesterday I called the daughter who recently got married and she is 18 years old and she was wanting some church books and photos. We brought like 10 Liahonas, a photo of the San Diego temple, some teachings of the prophet and a Book of Mormon. We went to their home and everyone was there, mother, son (Nicholas), daughter (Maria), and Maria's husband (Joshua). There was a different feeling in that home! Everyone was laughing together and we were all joking around playing chess, talking about cars, and bikes and we shared 2 very good lessons. 1 for the family and 1 for Joshua. The mother thanked us for coming over and we were invited to teach some of their friends.

Heavenly Father does work miracles! You need to have the faith that he can!

Elder Dusara

Hanging with the youth

Ice cream time!

Staying out of the rain