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