Code for the Kingdom

This week I had some fun times! One day I got to go back into my old area, Indiranagar, and see my old friends! It was great getting to see them all again. One cool person to see again was Sister Shashi. If you remember, she had a low paying job, but got an even lower paying job so that she could take Sundays off and come to church (although she was no baptized due to her husband). Well, here's something pretty spiffy! Her original job made 8000 Rupees per month, her new job made 5500 a month, but now she is working for 9000 a month! I consider that a true blessing from God for her faith and diligence. I'm so happy for her.

This week we also had Mission Leadership Council! It was pretty intense... our mission has dropped down significantly over the past year, so now these discussions on "what do we need to do to improve the mission?" are getting a little more intense... I think our mission may have some new rules rolling out pretty soon. Many of us are just too casual with this, the work of the Lord. 

Also, this week I got to attend an event called Code For The Kingdom. It was awesome! You can look it up online, but pretty much it's an event where programmers and designers come together for a two day coding marathon. During these two days their goal is to think of and design something that will benefit God and His kingdom, and/or help people in general. It was amazing to see so many people working together to use their skills for good. Here we had 100+ rich and educated people, and instead of relaxing and enjoying their weekend, they came together to do something great for the world. I enjoyed some nice food, and got to talk to quite a few interesting people. I didn't even realize how much I missed being a part of the tech world until I was thrown back into it! Although, one part of the tech world, video games, I now see through a new light. What a waste of time!

You might be wondering why I went to such an event (as you rightly should). Me and some other elders were invited to go there as a finding opportunity. All of these people are rich and educated (meaning they speak ENGLISH! woo woo!), and for the most part they are also Christian (much easier to convert a Christian than a Hindu). I had some interesting conversations with people, including one guy that was anti-joseph smith... as soon as he came up to me he started a confrontational religious discussion with me, and immediately the thought flashed in my mind, "you're stupid. this isn't going to go anywhere." Haha maybe that's not the best way to think... but in my belief, as soon as someone gets angry in an argument, they have lost the argument. Anger just shows that you are an undisciplined person, and why should I listen to someone that can't even master themselves? 

FORTUNATELY, I found a really prepared person as well. So, as I hear other missionaries about having these "I had a spiritual prompting to talk to someone, and it turns out they were totally prepared! stories, I've realized I haven't had one of those really happen to me. so I've been more specifically praying to be led to a person, and to know I was led to that person. I had my prayer answered! After I was done talked with one group of people, I was feeling really tired, and went to go sit down for a minute. As I was walking to sit down, I saw a guy and had the thought "I need to go talk to him.", but my laziness overcame me and I went and sat down... I decided if he was still there after I got back up, I would go talk to him. Well, after I got back up I saw that guy again, and again had the thought "I need to go talk to him." So this time I decided I better keep my promise to God and go talk to him. I didn't know what to say, so I just went up and asked him what his name was. But within minutes I found that this guy is WAY ready to learn! Usually I have to bring up the gospel with people, but this guy was anxious and ready for me to tell him more about what we are doing, and how we can help him come closer to God. Unfortunately, he lived in a part of Bangalore that isn't my area, but I'm sure the elders there will enjoy teaching a prepared referral. :-)

My District Buddies

Missionary Life

October 27, 2014

This week I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting on how members can better share the Gospel. I concluded my talk with saying "In the final day of Judgement, I don't believe God will care so much how many times we came to church, but rather how many people we invited to church." Not to brag, but I'd say it was a pretty well done talk! 

Also, this week was equivalent excitement level of Christians having Christmas: Diwali for the Hindu's! =D The grand holiday where people nearly blow themselves up by lighting more fireworks than I think most of them can afford. It was pretty awesome, but I was more than a little disappointed, because we ran all 3 days of Diwali, thus putting a big damper on the festival... plus, the area I live in is just filled with rich people, and rich people don't light off too many fireworks.... sad. Weird, but it's the poor areas that light off the most fireworks. Maybe that's because it's the one thing they look forward to all year, so they save up every Rupee they have for this festival, whereas the rich kids don't take seriously. Or potentially it's because the rich people are more educated, and thus they realize how dangerous it is to have their little 10 and 12 year old boys lighting off mortars... haha who knows. The one real highlight of my Diwali is when we took a late night auto ride through a sketchy neighborhood. THAT was awesome! Typical sketchy looking Indian neighborhood, with what sounds like gun shots and bomb blasts going off around you, and then seeing explosions right in front of the auto (haha the auto driver would get pretty mad when kids nearly damaged his auto...) Pretty fun, if I do say so myself! 

Diwali Fireworks

Just a random side note: As I take more and more plane flights, I've really noticed something sad: no one treats the air hostesses like people! Here you have these two cute peppy little women, saying hello and good evening to everyone as they board the plane, and everyone just walks right by them without even acknowledging their presence! I always make sure to say hello back to them. As I thought about it, I thought how interesting this is. Because, to be an air hostess, you have to be at least pretty attractive. So here you have these attractive young woman smiling and saying hello to all of these business men, and none of them say hello back. However, if these same men were to have the same encounter with the exact same woman outside of the airport (as in, one of these men had one of these cute women say hello to them out on the streets), I'm sure that man would light up with joy at the fact that he was getting waved at by her! But for some reason, as soon as that woman puts on her little air hostess outfit, she is no longer a person. I know this is a random observation, but I think about it every time I fly. Especially since one of my converts in Kakinada, Diana, said that her dream is to become a flight hostess someday, so I always think of her whenever I go flying. 

This week we helped to get 3 new Indian missionaries sent off to the Philippines Missionary Training Center. As I looked at these three starting their mission, I couldn't help but think "Oh man... do these people know what their getting themselves into?? " One of the sister missionaries seemed totally prepared, but the other sister missionary looked like a scared little girl about to get onto a roller coaster, and the elder seemed... pretty much like he had no idea what he was doing. It reminded me how crazy it is that the main portion of the church's missionary force is just little kids! How are we expected to move forward the most important work of our age?? Only by God's help, that's for sure. I'm sure all 3 of these new missionaries will do a lot of good with the Lord's help, and they will grow a lot personally as well. I know I've certainly changed a lot for the better. :-)

Sad story... so there was an elder that served in our mission 10 YEARS ago named Prasana Dass. He is somewhat of a legend in our mission, and he is one of the main reasons we don't wear name tags in Bangalore. On the first day of his mission, he and his companion went out to proselyte. Well, they came in contact with some BJP members (a political group that advocates a traditional India, not westernization/Christianization). These people invited the elders inside their home. Long story short, they got in an argument, the BJP members called the cops, they saw the inside of the elder's bags (which were LOADED with pamphlets), and they thought the elders were illegally converting people. The American elder was shipped out to Sri Lanka that night, and then flown from Sri Lanka back to America. However, Prasana Dass went to court. By the end, the court said they would drop the case if he paid them 15,000 Rupees (the equivalent of maybe $500 back in those days). Well, the church doesn't support the corrupt bribing system in India (which is one reason the church has so many struggles with the government here in India), so they didn't pay it. Well, guess what? They didn't drop the case. In fact, they STILL haven't dropped the case. And every couple of months Prasana Dass needs to come back to Bangalore for a "court hearing", during which they essentially say nothing, but just tell him he has to come back again in a couple of months. He lives very far away from Bangalore, but the church has agreed that whenever he has a court hearing, they will pay for a flight for him to come to Bangalore, and book him a hotel to stay in. And this has been happening continuously for the past 10 years. Well, this week he came to Bangalore for a hearing. Again, they told him to come back in December. But, here's the real problem. Before he left for Bangalore, he told his work that he had to take leave to come to a court case, but they didn't give him permission to take leave. Well... he HAD to come, so he just didn't come to work without their approval. Because of that... they fired him. :-( Also, you take into consideration that it has been difficult for him to find ANY job, because the employer sees that he has a running court case.. oh man. I don't know what's gonna happen with him. I'm just glad this whole incident hasn't made him leave the church! I really do feel bad for the guy though. 

Also, telling that story reminded me you asked me about Sri Lanka. So usually, the only missionaries we have in Sri Lanka are one or two couple missionaries. However, there's been a recent change to that! Now we are going to send any Sri Lankan missionaries that want to go on a mission to a different mission for a year (maybe the Philippines, Autrallia, or something like that), and then after the first year of their mission send them BACK to Sri Lanka for the second year of their mission. Which is really crazy, considering their only 3 branches in Sri Lanka... soooo... most likely they will be serving in their home branch at one point or another. Crazy. They want to send them somewhere else for the first year, to get a taste of how the church is run in more established areas, so then they can better help their own branches in Sri Lanka reach that level. Also, what I'M really excited about is that we are planning on sending the Assistants from our mission to go on exchanges with them from time to time... which means I may get to go to Sri Lanka! woo woo! 

Two last interesting things I've noticed as an Assistant. One, Indian elders will almost always call Elder George (he is Indian) when they have something they need to talk about, and American elders will almost always call me... hmmm. Interesting. Also, as we just finished some transfers, I've noticed the reaction of some missionaries to how transfer calls went are very short sighted. All they see is their little bubble (what should happen in transfers to best help their own situation), but they fail to look at the big picture. Because they don't realize, whenever you transfer one person... another person also must be transferred. Now... where do you put that other person? Or when we book plane tickets for people they will complain about not getting a good timing for their flight, and they will whine "why did the AP's book me so early in the morning!", never even thinking for a moment "Hmmm... maybe that was the only plane ticket available." But, I can't be too hard on them, because I had the same thought process as them just a few weeks ago! =P Now I know... you just gotta trust that your leaders know what they are doing.

Friends

My Zone

 

No, I'm not from Utah

This week I got to go back to Hyderabad to finish my work at the FRRO (foreigner registration for the respective area where I live). After 2 days, I successfully got a transfer paper from the Hyderabad FRRO, so now I can go to the Bangalore FRRO, and hopefully after a day or two there I will be registered here in Bangalore! I was very blessed when I went to Hyderabad though. I think I worked with the one woman in all of India's FRRO's the was actually friendly and helpful! It was amazing! She actually TRIED to help us, instead of seeing how much she could torture us! We sincerely thanked her after we left. 

While I was in Hyderabad I also got to go see my little baby, Elder Bandi! Haha he was so ecstatic to see me... even though it's only been like 3 weeks! He even wore his nice Sunday shirt and tie because he knew I was coming... cute cute. 

This morning after I finally got home, Elder Penugula (an elder in my apartment) came up to me and said, "Elder Anderson, are you sick? You always look so tired after you get back from traveling and exchanges..." All I could say was "Yup. That's because I AM tired..." :P

As I travel around our mission, I've gotten to meet a lot of elders I didn't know before. Almost always I have a conversation that goes something like this: 

"Elder Anderson, where are you from??" 

"Well, I'm from..." "WAIT! Let me guess."

"No, I'm not from Utah." 

"Are you serious?! Man, you look totally like a Utah Mormon!" Haha apparently I just scream Utah boy!

This week was also really exciting because our office couple missionaries, Elder and Sister Loewer, finished their missions! :( We definitely had an exciting last night with them! First, they took Elder George and I bowling! That was pretty cool. Then they had us over for an AWESOME dinner! REAL beef burgers, mashed potatoes, AND blueberry pie and brownies and ice cream for dessert! The mother-load!! :D We stayed and chatted for a long time, but finally around 10:30 we (me, Elder George, and the other 4 elders in our apartment) all said a final good bye to the Loewers before they left in a few hours, and headed back to our apartment (their apartment is the apartment building right next to ours). 

Well, we had a fun surprise when we got back to our apartment... So, a month ago, Elder Pilli came to Bangalore for Mission Leadership Council. Well, he accidently took our key with him back to Hyderabad... :P So for the last month all 6 of us were sharing one key. The good news is, when I went to Hyderabad to do my FRRO stuff, I got our key from Elder Pilli! But then when we got back to Bangalore, we gave it to a guy named Shanker to make 2 duplicates of it (one for the other companionship, and one to have as an extra). Weeeeeell.... we didn't tell the other elders we gave it to Shanker to make duplicates. All they thought is that we had an extra key with us. SO, they decided they didn't need to bring their key with them, knowing that we had an extra... so, when we got back to the apartment, we learned that Shanker had one of our keys, and the other key was inside our apartment....... So we went back to the Loewers apartment, and asked if we could sleep at their place for the night... haha I'm sure just what they wanted, 6 elders coming and spending the night with them when their taxi comes to pick them up at 3:30 that morning... First time in my life I brushed my teeth with just toothpaste and my finger! 

All in all, a fun, memorable experience. Reminds me of the time I stayed out too late at BYU, forgot my key, and slept outside from 4-7 until my roommates woke up to let me inside... Did I ever tell you that story?? It's a good one! 

Also, we inherited all of the Loewers unused food when they left... We've been eating pretty well these last few days. :-)

This week I had a talk hit me so hard as I read it. It was "The 7 Deadly Heresies" by Bruce R. McConkie. As I read the second heresy about evolution all I could think was "That's me! That is exactly what I think!! =0" I've always tried to combine my knowledge of the Gospel with my knowledge on evolution, but as I read that talk, I quickly realized that an apostle of the Lord thinks I am making a VERY VERY big mistake in my logic... I've done quite a bit of research this week on evolution from a Gospel stand point, and I've realized... evolution does not fit in with the Gospel! But... all I've ever learned in school is how evolution is so true and correct... I was feeling quite frustrated at these contradictions, so I decided to talk to the smartest guy in our mission: Elder Larson (he goes to MIT!!) I was fortunate to talk with him, because he told me that he has done a LOT of research on this topic, and has learned a lot. He shared with me quite a few flaws (from a scientific point of view) with evolution. Actually, pretty substantial flaws with the theory of evolution. But what he said most that really hit me was this: ALL true sciences bring us closer to God as we learn about them. They testify of God so clearly (chemistry, sociology, history, math, etc.) Everything that is, EXCEPT evolution. Evolution has caused more people to become atheist than just about anything else in the world. Hmmm... Also, the strongest proponents of evolution strongly tell others that God is NOT there. Hmmmm... that's a red flag. So not only may evolution be incorrect, but it may very well be inspired of the devil! I still haven't learned everything yet that I want to know on this subject, but believe me, my view of evolution has changed dramatically in the past few days.

These weeks are flying by so fast... it feels like I'll be talking to you guys tomorrow! So... have a great day!

Follow the Prophet

As always, General Conference was superb! I remember during the Saturday morning session when it got to the intermediate hymn I was thinking "What?! An hour has already gone by?! They just started!!" It was definitely a great spiritual experience. After conference was over, me and my fellow missionaries all agreed: Elder Bednar had the best talk. Hands down. But also, I thoroughly enjoyed Elder Callister's talk on parents being the primary gospel teachers. I'd say over my mission, I've come to really appreciate Elder Callister, and now he is one of my favorite people to listen to. One thing I noticed was that people talked about the prophet a LOT! How grateful we are to have a prophet, blessing him during the prayers, or sharing examples of things he has done within their own talks. Truly, he is a great man of God.  

Thomas S. Monson

 Gee wiz, I have so many great things to share from this week!

First off, we started going on exchanges with the zone leaders this week. Which is pretty awesome, because we take plane flights to go to their respective areas! It makes me feel pretty official, having flight travel paid for me so that I can go give training to the other missionaries. I had quite a few great experiences with them!

One part I really enjoyed was getting to go on exchange with Elder O'Dell. As you might remember, he was one of my companions in Indiranagar (Bangalore), so that was really sweet getting to serve with him again. He is one of my favorite companions. One what made it REALLY fun is that we were on exchange in Rajahmundry (the least speaking English zone in our mission), in an area that has the least English for all the areas in Rajahmundry! hahaha of man, the lessons were so funny! Half of the lessons we would speak baby level English, and the people could manage to understand, and then they would speak back in a baby level Telugu, and we managed to understand that. At one point Elder O'Dell even got a stick out to draw pictures on the ground to help them understand! It was awesome.

One thing that also really struck me was when we were teaching a very, very, VERY poor recent convert family. You know the houses they make on the TV show Survivor? Yup. Pretty much describes their living conditions. Instead of having the hut next to a beautiful ocean, it's next to a dirt field covered in trash. Delightful. It just made me a little angry that as we were describing the people in tents that surrounded the tower of King Benjamin, we described the tents by pointing to their own home... here we are in the 21st century, with incredible strides in technology, and yet people living thousands of years ago had better living conditions than they do! Why in the world is that??! Well, at least they have the Gospel now. That's better than all the riches in the world. They were a wonderfully humble and loving family. I'm glad I got to meet them. 

I was reminded what India is REALLY like. I've been living too long among the richest of rich Indians in the nation. 

Another fun experience was when I was on exchange in Visak. After District meeting, the whole zone went to lunch together. And, not intentionally, but as usual, all the Americans went to one place for lunch (Pizza Hut), and all the Indians went to some noodles and rice restaurant for lunch. No one ever intends to segregate Indians and Americans, it just naturally happens every time you do something together as a zone. We are comfortable with people that are similar to us. Just adds to the idea that people that are unrighteous won't even WANT to be in the Celestial Kingdom! Why would they want to spend eternity with people they have nothing in common with? 

I gave a lot of insights to the missionaries that I got to interact with. Hopefully some of it helped them in some way or another! 

On the way back, we had a 4 hour layover in the Hyderabad airport. Blah. Well, I picked up a newspaper (is that apostate for a missionary? I felt like it was fine!) and read through a few articles. One thing that really struck me was an article on what India is trying to do to solve it's power crisis. People aren't happy about having power cuts on a regular basis! And as I read this article I realized they are really TRYING to fix this problem, but they just aren't capable of producing enough electricity for everyone! Now, it gives me a new dimension ever time I leave a fan or light on. Because I left that fan on, that means there wasn't enough electricity for someone else to have any fan running in their house, because their neighborhood had a power cut (we never get power cuts. Our apartment complex has it's own generators. A LOT of generators.) Pretty sad, really. 

One last cool experience to share. So, one night we went out to visit a member's home. Unfortunately, she wasn't home yet, because she had to stay extra at work... Sigh... Well, fortunately there was a different neighbor that lives next door to her, so we went to go visit them instead. We just popped in, and of course they welcomed us inside their home. Well, as were talking and getting to know them I asked the husband, how he met his wife. He said "Don't ask me. Ask her." "Uhhh... okay. Lalitha, how did you two meet?" She was pretty silent. I was a little confused, "Why won't either of you answer that question??" The husband said "she doesn't want to tell the story, because that might stir up some romantic feelings in her." I was thinking "Uhhh... ya... so isn't that a good thing?" Well, come to find out, they actually hadn't been speaking with each other all day because they were angry at each other... :P But, this is what I am grateful for, we were able to help them bring the Spirit back into their home. We talked to them more about their marriage and how much they love each other, and shared a scripture on forgiveness, and by the end the husband went over and gave his wife a hug and a kiss. :-) Nice. 

Mister Anderson

Well, good news for me is I've gotten into the full swing of things here in Bangalore. I'm fairly confident doing my different duties now, and I'm beginning to learn our area pretty well also. Still, some things get a little stressful, because we deal with booking plan tickets for our mission, and dealing with big money can raise the stress a little bit... For example, I booked 4 people for the wrong time, and then to cancel their tickets it cost a total of 6000 Rupees ($100). Woops... fortunately, I then found an alternative for their travel that was 15,000 Rupees cheaper than the flight plans I should have originally booked, so all in all I saved 9000 Rupees! That's a month's salary here in India! 

Another fun, but sometimes stressful, part of my new life is that everyone expects me to have all the answers for their problems! Almost every night I get a call from someone asking if they can/should do XYZ, or what they should do to fix problem ABC. Uhhhh... I don't know what you're supposed to do! Although it's a tad bit stressful at times, it's also kind of cool having people listen to me. But really, it's kind of weird how much people listen to my opinions... haha. 

One problem though is when people don't like the answer I give (or that Elder George gives), so then they call the other person, and try to get the answer they want... Good practice for parenting I suppose, when Dad/Mom gives the "wrong answer", so the child goes to the other parent. You always need to be unified, even if you disagree with what the other parent said.

So, in my apartment, we have 6 elders total, and I am the only American; the rest are Indian. One night Elder George realized this, and asked if I was lonely, being the only American in our home. I said no I'm not, and really I'm not. I'm just fine talking to and being friends with Indians, as long as they can speak English! :P Fortunately, the elders in my apartment all have pretty solid English. There is even one elder, Elder Saroha, that is from New Delhi. Delhi people are... way American. In India, the country is very divided, North against South. I can see why! South Indians act like... Indians! Where as north Indians, especially those from Delhi, are waaaay westernized. Just for example, Elder Saroha will always refer to me as "Mr. Anderson", in reference to the Matrix. Or when we were walking this morning he started singing the Star Spangled Banner! What in the world?! Also, two Delhi sister missionaries were here for MLC this week, and they also were super American! One of them even used the phrase "shenanigans"! Rest assured, shenanigans is not in the typical Indian vocabulary. 

Also, here's another fun tid bit about Elder ******. So, this elder is... not the most obedient missionary in the world. In fact, most of his companions complain about him being a junk missionary... This week though, I learned something. Elder ******'s parents don't know he is on a mission. In fact, they don't even know he was baptized! He said "Ya, if my parents ever knew I was baptized... they would probably disown me." His family is Brahman, the highest caste in India. Getting baptized would ruin your prestige as a Brahman. His family is 110% Hindu. 

It just reminded me how we really have no room to judge others. We have no idea what situation they are in. Maybe some of their actions aren't the best. but for all we know, that person could be much more on the path to the Celestial Kingdom than we think we are.