Week 60: Pizza Hut experience / Travel to Vallaparai

Busy week we had last week. Exchanges, Interviews, Baptisms, Zone Activities, Cleaning, and traveling. Varsha, and Jeff were both baptized today by their father which was super special and spiritual. They have been taught for along time now and now they are ready to enter into the waters of baptism. Shreedhar is going to get baptized next week Sunday just after District Conference so that is also going to be very exciting as well. This next week our goal is to find some more investigators through the less-active and recent converts. We are not doing a good job of asking for referrals from then so we are committing to doing that next week.

The Zone is really doing great. I am receiving a lot gratitude from the other missionaries here because they feel like ever since I have been here they have been able to have more fun and motivation to work hard. This has been my goal since Day 1 in Coimbatore so its nice to know that things are slowly working out for the better. Yesterday we had the chance to travel 100km to Vallaparai. It was a beautiful place and there were a lot of great places to stop and take nice photos. A couple of people in the van did not enjoy the 43 hairpin turns going up the mountain though ;)

Yesterday I had a very special experience with Elder Mckamey and Elder Dias. After we had returned from our journey to the jungle we came back and were very hungry! Of course, the P-Day meal Pizza Hut came ringing into my head so I went with those 2 Elders and we made haste to Fun Mall. While sitting there, I noticed this sister that worked there was using sign language to communicate with this brother who had just walked in. I do not know what compelled me or why I even asked but I asked this sister to join us at our table. I am a regular member of Pizza Hut now so she knows who I am and what the missionaries do so she did not feel as shy when I asked her to join us.

I asked her questions about where she learned sign language? Why did you choose to learn? What school are you going to? What is your ambition in life? Why did you choose to work at Pizza Hut? Just simple questions to understand where she was coming from. She answered every question and then just started to open up with me. She told me about how she had a brother who passed away when she was in the third grade and how her only form of communication was with sign language. I immediately told her about my uncle and my aunt who also have some of those similar challenges. She then said that ever since her brother passed away she has had this desire to love and serve everyone around her despite their limitations and challenges. I shared with her my testimony of Jesus Christ and how she had so many attributes that our very savior had. She started to tear up a bit and then she said that she had come our church before when her father was alive. After he passed away she stopped coming. Without hesitation I reached for my Plan of Salvation pamphlet and gave it to her. I urged her to go home and read it an the next time I come to Pizza Hut I want to talk to her.

To everyone that reads this story. Suriya Shree is the name of this sister whom I am speaking about. If we do not have the same love and charity for people as does she, we cannot reach our full potential here on this earth. Through her example I was reminded that there are loving and caring people out there that are not members of the church. Elder Dias, Elder Mckamey and I will never forget then chance we had to speak with her that day. I hope and pray that I will get the chance to teach her even more and to help her enter into that "Straight and Narrow path". Enjoy the photos:)

Elder Dusara out