Diwali

Wow! You lucky ducks! I LOVE Halloween!! Abbey, I give you my approval for not wearing a skanky Halloween costume, as all too many girls seem to do nowadays...

And since you brought up candy, I will tell you that the candy here in India is... usually edible. Haha the first time I had an appointment where a family gave us an Indian sweet I really had to force myself to get it down! Store bought candy is still good, but the bakery sweets here aren't the greatest. oh well, the curry is good!

Oh! Except for a sweet called Kasha (spelling?) Kakinada is famous for them, and they are AMAZING! Kakinada Kasha! It's like a cookie thing with honey inside! Yum! :)

Oh, and exciting news! Yesterday evening we had a lock down for a couple of hours for another awesome possum Indian holiday! At 5 o'clock we had to be back to our apartment, because that's when Diwali really got goin'. What is Diwali? Well, I want you to imagine 4th of July fireworks. Now, imagine what people would do with fireworks if the government wasn't there. That pretty much sums up Diwali! Just INSANE fireworks every where! It really did sound like a war zone! I can only imagine how many people blow themselves up on this holiday... 

So for the evening Elder Thompson and I just went up onto the roof of our apartment building, and watched the show! We also made ourselves some delicious smoothies (don't worry mom, I always remember your secret to a good smoothie: more sugar!) It was a lot of fun just getting to chillix for a few hours, just talking about random stuff like world war 2 and funny youtube videos. Being on a mission, you appreciate down time 10,000X more than you do back home.

I really like that quote from President Benson about working hard on a mission brings greater happiness. I can definitely attest to that. A couple of weeks ago we had a training in which we read a talk by Elder Callister. It was about becoming a 100% consecrated missionary. Not just a good missionary. Not even a great missionary. But a 100% dedicated servant of God. I've really been doing my best to ramp it up, and give 100% to the Lord, leaving behind everything from my American life, and being fully focused on the work. And I've seen that over the past few weeks, I've only felt happier and happier, and missionary work has become easier and easier! Interesting when we give more to God, our life is better than if we had kept more for ourselves.

There's so much more I would love to tell you about, but there is just never enough time for emailing! So, I guess I'll just tell you more in 7 days. :)

Love you all,

Elder Anderson

P.S. Actually yes, there IS something I would like for Christmas! Could you get a USB drive, and then load it up with some missionary music I can listen to while exercising in the morning? My companion has 3 CDs, and we've pretty much memorized every song on them... haha :) I would definitely want all of the scripture mastery songs, any EFY music we have around the house, and anything else you think would spiritually uplift me in the morning! Thanks a bundle! :)