Birthdays

This week the big news is Elder Bandi had his first birthday as a missionary! woo woo! Haha it was kind of funny, because before his birthday he would make comments about he doesn't care about his birthday, and it's not a big deal, and he's not expecting anything special to happen on that day, etc. etc. BUT, I know my companion better than that. He loves being the spot light of attention, so I knew full well that he would care about his birthday. And, I was correct! Haha it was kind of funny actually seeing how much he cared about his birthday once the day actually arrived... ^_^

My special gift is a gift he doesn't know I gave to him. You see, last year on my birthday I got a lot of calls from people to wish me a happy birthday. All day people would call me, and I kept wondering "Wow, how do so many people know it's my birthday?? Maybe the Mission Leader told people?? I don't know... but I feel pretty popular right now!" Well, a few days later I just happen to be looking though the text messages in our phone, and I saw that Elder Watts had sent a text to all the members telling them it was my birthday, and they should wish me happy birthday. I was pretty touched by his thoughtfulness. So this year, I decided to do the same thing, but this time for MY trainee!

In the morning I texted a whole bunch of members to tell them to wish Elder Bandi a happy birthday, and they came through for me! All day he was getting calls from people! It was great to see his face light up with excitement each time someone called him. And it was even more fun to see him try and figure out how everyone knew. "maybe they looked on my Facebook and saw today was my birthday... or maybe they remember from when they met me last year at the YSA conference! or maybe one of the church members is sending a text to everyone... How does everyone know?!" He said more people called him this year than even when it was his birthday back home! And as of now, he still doesn't know how it happened. Hopefully, he will never know.

And I learned from my trainer's mistake. I deleted all of the texts I sent to people... :P

Lavanya continues to be a great joy to work with. She tells us time and time again that her life is full of sadness and stress, BUT she always feels peace and joy when she comes to church or reads the Book of Mormon. Awesome. :-)

Here's something random from yesterday... a woman in our ward rolled her ankle or something like that, and another sister was going to give her a foot massage to help with the pain. However, she wanted oil to put on the foot first, to make the massage better. She then asked me if she could use some of my consecrated oil to rub on her foot... Is that allowed?? I've never heard of a situation like this before, so I tried to think logically about it. The oil has been consecrated, set apart, to bless the sick and afflicted. This woman is afflicted. Having a good foot massage would bless her. Sooo... I guess it's okay! Haha so I let her use the oil to rub on her foot a little bit... so random. I'm sure God understands, whether or not that was technically allowed!

Thanks for the birthday wishes! And I got your package this week! I'm waiting until Saturday to open all the little gifts/card though. Thanks for your care! :)

Speaking of caring... would you be willing to shoot Elder Bandi a quick email next week? I feel so bad for the guy... Again, he loves getting attention, so it's kind of heart breaking for him when he gets on his email each week, and he has one, MAYBE two emails.... a simple email from you guys would make him really happy! :) Here's his email address: lakshman.bandi@myldsmail.net

A Day to Remember

From August 4

Well, good news for this week is Elder Bandi has emotionally recovered very well! He seems totally back to normal to me. Although, I'm sure there are still a few inner struggles he is going through, but I'm sure those will heal soon enough.

Today for P-Day we had a zone activity to a very famous place in Hyderabad called Charmenar! I bought some AWESOME stuff!! Possibly I overspent ($50!), but I figure the things I got, if I had purchased them in the USA, would easily cost triple or more... so, I'd say it was worth it! 

This week we had one wonderful day in particular! So, on Tuesday it was the last day of a big Muslim festival called Ramezan. Normally during big Muslim or Hindu holidays we have lock downs, so I was kind of anticipating that we would just stay inside the apartment that day. But if not, there was also an awesome ward activity happening (because everyone has the day off of work due to the holiday), so if we didn't get lock downed I thought we would just spend the day with our ward. Well... Monday evening I got some unfortunate news. Our zone leaders told us there was no lock down, and we weren't allowed to go the ward activity... AND, to make matters worse, we could only go to set appointments with people that we know (and just about everyone we knew would be at the ward activity)... To be honest, my first thought was "Thanks zone leaders. Thanks a lot. Way to shoot us in the foot." What are we supposed to go and due all day?? But, I was quickly able to have the rational side of my brain take over, and realized I need to listen to my leaders, be obedient, God will provide a way, etc. etc. 

And provide he did! Tuesday morning we got a call from a woman named Bhuvana. She is a potential investigator, and we had been trying to set an appointment with her for weeks. But every time she would always say she was too busy... well, she just decided to call us Tuesday morning and said "Hey, could you come visit my home today??" Why yes, yes we can! :D 

We then taught her and her family a great lesson on living the word of God, not just listening to it. They all seemed to enjoy. And then they gave us some lunch after the appointment! Hooray! It was her nieces birthday, so we also sang happy birthday to her (6 years old!)

After our visit with Bhuvana, I wasn't really sure what we were going to do next. But, we decided we would go back to the main part of our area, and just try and figure something out. Well, as we got back to our area, we decided to get some water from church. And then right as we were about to leave the church we got ANOTHER call! This time from an investigator who we had been trying to meet with for weeks as well, but like Bhuvana, he would always say he was too busy. Well, he called us and said "Hey elders, where are you? Do you happen to be near the church? If so, can I meet you there?" Why yes, yes you can! :D

We then had a great visit with Arun. He told us many us his life problems, and we invited him to read the Book of Mormon to help bring peace into his life. Awesome. :)

BUT, the day gets better! 

That evening we went to go see a part member family. The dad is like 60, and he is a member. His son is 38, and is not a member. Well, we went to go see them, and had a true miracle fall into our laps! We shared a simple lesson on the plan of salvation, and then afterwards the father said "My son has so many problems in life. He needs to be baptized to help fix his problems." The son then looked at us and said "I've thought a lot about getting baptized... and I agree with my dad. I need to be baptized to help put my life straight." What? Did my ears deceive me? I managed to stammer out "Uhhh... well... will you prepare to be baptized on August 24?" "Oh yes, definitely!" He then wrote August 24 down on a piece of paper to help him remember his baptismal date. Wow. Incredible. 

At first I didn't enjoy listening to my leaders, but their guidance brought a day of miracles for us! Truly a day to remember! 

I hope you all have some equally memorable days this week! :-)

Mourning

Well, the big news of this week isn't very happy... Elder Bandi had his uncle die. :( I remember it was Thursday afternoon, and we got a call from President Berrett. He asked us if we had a minute to talk, and I said ya. Then he started talking to Elder Bandi. At first Elder Bandi was happy and excited to be talking with the mission president, but after a minute of talking his face totally changed... after the call he burst out in tears telling me how his uncle had just passed away.

I've done my best to comfort him during his time of need, but I'm not good at comforting people! What am I supposed to do with a crying man?? I just don't know... The biggest thing I've probably done to help is enlisting the help of other people to comfort him. Like for example, I texted the sister missionaries in our zone and told them they needed to call and comfort my companion... I don't know how to help him, but sisters are supposed to be good at consoling people, right?? They did call him, and I think that helped him a little bit. 

The really exciting part though is that the next morning we took an early morning flight to Vizag to go to the funeral. It was a crazy whirlwind of a day. Our flight left at 7 am, so we had to leave our apartment at 5. We spent the day at the funeral in Vizag, and then our flight home didn't land until 10 o'clock that evening. I was so zonked out on the flight home that I fell asleep in literally what felt like 10 seconds. I only vaguely remember waking up for a few moments during the flight to hear the people next to us ask my companion "Hey, why are you crying??" and he told them "My uncle just died...." and then I fell back asleep. I feel bad for the guy. 

My companion has an interesting family. They have all of the dad's side living in one house! 35 people in one home! They have 20 more members in the family, but now they have moved out. So many people! It was kinda weird being there, because at first I just felt like a 36th wheel in this big family group (believe me, I stick out like a big ole sore broken thumb in this group, being a white tall foreigner dressed in a shirt and tie...) Fortunately, after a few minutes the kids got over their shyness, because of COURSE they want to come talk to the foreigner (who wouldn't??) I ended up spending the whole day talking to like 6 or 7 kids. It was great fun for me! By the end of the day, this kids knew me and my family so well that when an adult in the family would come over and ask something like "how many brothers and sisters do you have, where are you from, etc. etc." the kids would shout out the answer before I even responded! haha. The kids all wanted my autograph before I left... cute. :)

I feel like I was at least able to help the family a little bit, by bringing some happiness and joy and excitement into their lives (especially among the kids) while this horrendous trial is going on in their lives.

I really felt bad seeing my companion though. He was in hysterics over his uncle passing away. And his family wasn't doing well either. He is the only church member in his family; the rest are Hindu. It was interesting to see them prepare the body, and then burn it. Very different than a Christian funeral. 

Preparations for a cremation on an an open-air funeral pyre. In India bodies are cremated on open funeral pyres

But now my companion has improved a lot, and the way I am helping him is by putting him to work. Work is the cure for worry!

Lungi Dance

Most exciting thing of this week! Yesterday and today there is a huge Hindu festival going on in Hyderabad! It's just a local festival, but it is still AWESOME! As we tried to get back to our apartment last night, we had to navigate our way through a big part of the festival. It was by far the best dance/rave I've ever gotten to pass through; definitely smokes any stake/school dance I ever went to! Just tons and tons of Indians swarming everywhere, with music blasting loud enough that people for miles around can probably hear it! (one of my favorite Indian songs they like to blast is called Lungi Dance (from the movie Chennai Express, I believe), if you want to hear some modern Indian music! And the best part is seeing all of the Hindu god idols. These things are like 20 feet tall demons! They have fog machines going around each idol, and of course big flashing lights everywhere. I might have been a little scared going though such a place, but fortunately they had police everywhere to make sure things didn't get too crazy... :)

The other big highlight of the week is our investigator Lavanya! I think I mentioned last week that we got her as a referral from one of our members, and she is so great to work with! She is one of those people that actually have good LEGITIMATE questions! Many people have dumb questions ("Where does it mention Joseph Smith in the bible?? I can only believe he is a prophet if the bible says so." Dumb.) But she actually has a lot of great concerns, which I love working with! She claims she hasn't felt God's love in her life, she doesn't know if God exists, she wants to know what happens after she dies, and many other wonderful things that I love to talk to people about! Most importantly though, I'm very grateful we have a great investigator that Elder Bandi gets to work with. Mission work is fairly demanding at times, but getting to work with a great investigator makes it all worth it. :-)

You asked if I had any leadership positions, and I would say YES, more so now than ever before. Being a trainer has waaaaaaaaay more responsibilities that a district leader or a zone leader (those are a piece of cake!) Teaching a little baby how to walk though takes a lot of work. But no, I don't have any other positions on top of being a trainer. 

Just a funny story about my companion... So, he has limited English vocabulary, and even less Gospel vocabulary, so when he was getting interviewed to become a missionary, he didn't understand what all of the questions meant! But instead of asking "what does that mean??" he would say yes to every question, until he got to certain points when he would say yes and then President Berrett would say "Really?? =0" and then he would say "wait! No no no! I meant to say no." "oh... okay. that's all fine then." hahaha of Elder Bandi... I think he would have passed anyways though, even if he HAD understood all of the questions! ^_^

Also another fun little tid bit about my companion... he LOVES me! haha not to be prideful or anything, because from what he tells me it sounds like he would love his trainer no matter who his trainer was (he was just very excited to get a trainer to teach him everything!).  

How to Microwave Curry

Here is a picture of me and some other missionaries. The girl in middle with the green shirt just got set apart as a missionary (I even got to participate in the setting apart! So cool!!) She is going to serve in Arizona! I told her over and over how excited I am for her to get to go AMERICA! So awesome!

July 13, 2014

For me, this week has just flown by! Working hard makes time go faster, and I am definitely working hard right now on my mission. Training and learning the area are still both pushing me quite a bit; fortunately, I don't feel too stressed about it anymore. We are definitely making progress each day. :-)

And good news, my Indian English is as strong as ever once again! I even did a little bit of English-English translation for one of the new American elders that was trying to ask a guy whether he liked chicken or mutton Haleem better (haleem is like liquid meat. I had it once, but I'm not too big of a fan of it. Haleem shops are eveeeerywhere though!) Anyways, ya, English-English translation always cracks me up!

I've found that I train Elder Bandi in a very similar way to how Elder Watts trained me. I heard as I was growing up that you tend to parent in the same style that your parents parented you, so I guess I can now attest to the truthfulness of that because I train my missionary son the same way my "Dad" trained me! 

And really, it is like raising a son... haha you wouldn't believe how many things I need to teach Elder Bandi! Naturally, he doesn't know missionary work, but what really cracks me up (or sometimes frustrates me) is he doesn't know how to live outside of home/away from his ever giving mother. One funny example... so, we bought some curry from an outside shop, and then the next day we wanted to heat it up in the microwave. He asked me if he could put it directly into the microwave. I told him no, because the curry was only in a very thin plastic bag, so the microwave would melt the bag. I handed him a glass bowel and told him to put the curry in that, and then he could heat it up in the microwave. Well, he followed my instructions word for word! He put the plastic bag of curry into the bowel, and then asked if he could heat it like that. Yes, as in there was a little plastic bag filled with curry sitting inside a glass bowel.. haha I thought that was pretty funny! Kind of reminded me of an Amelia Badilia experience. Next time, I will be more clear; EMPTY the bag of curry into the bowl! 

Super awesome thing about Hyderabad: they have RUNNING buses! Which, as the name implies, means you have to RUN when taking a bus! The buses stop at the bus stops, buuuuut, they only stop for like 5-10 seconds, and then they get going again. So if you haven't made it on the bus... better run to catch up! And getting off the bus you need to get off facing the same direction as the bus is moving, otherwise you could very well fall over if you try getting off against the way the bus is going... danger. Fun. Excitement!

Speaking of buses, today we were taking a bus and all of the seats were taken except one, but the seat was in the senior citizen section. Well, as I was scanning around to see if there were any other seats available, one of the old gents invited me to join them in the Senior Citizen section! Haha all of the other missionaries that were traveling with me were laughing and motioning for me not to sit there, but sit there I did! I felt honored to get to sit next to three old Indian men, as the rest of my missionary friends stood for the whole bus ride. Haha good times.

We have been spending most of our time trying to find members and less actives and recent convert's homes. Our investigator pool is... slim to none. BUT, this week one of our members that recently returned from his mission gave us a GREAT referral named Lavanya! Look at him, actually doing missionary work after his mission is over! Huzzaw! I'm very grateful for this opportunity to teach her, because I want my companion to get a chance to teach an investigator. Every missionary years to have that experience, and as of yet.. he hasn't gotten to yet. But this week we begin teaching her! A true tender mercy!