Week 37: Progress with Franklin family, eating non-Indian food for Christmas

This past week we were able to set a date for 3 members in the Franklin Family on January 10th. It was with the daughter, mother, and father. The daughter is progressing well towards baptism. The parents still need to come to church. The daughter has already been twice. Other than that there wasn't really a whole lot that was new. We visited a lot of the members to share a Christmas message with them.

Christmas morning we had breakfast at the mission home. We had crepes, sausages, and hashbrowns. It was so refreshing to have breakfast food that wasn't Indian. Then we had a gift exchange with all the missionaries. Then we made blankets for poor kids at a nearby school.  Then we went to a members home for dinner. His name is Beesa. He's super cool. He had family and friends over includng us missionaries. He ordered a cook for the evening and the food was super good.

This week Elder Singh leaves to the Philipians. Then Elder Roberts and Pedely finish their missions. I'm going to miss Elder Singh and Pedely. Transfers are this week so we will see what happens. Happy New Year Everyone!

Be Safe
Elder Dusara

Week 36: Notes from Skype call with Elder Dusara

We had the opportunity to Skype with Elder Dusara. It was great to get answers to many of the questions we have been asking the past few months which always seem to go unanswered.  Here are some notes that we thought might be good to pass along.  He is currently serving as a district leader.

Who is your companion? Elder Braganza from Hyderabad is his companion today

Which area is he serving in today? Malvia Nagar, New Delhi  He is serving in a small branch there. The mission has branches in Islamabad, Katmandu, Mumbai and New Delhi. As for american missionaries, they will spend their two years in New Delhi for safety purposes.

How many missionaries are in the New Delhi mission?  Today there are 40 missionaries, however, between now and March 2016, 13 missionaries will be going home which will leave only 26 missionaries in New Delhi by March.

What do you eat? Elder Dusara loves butter chicken, and other types of chicken dishes, however, because a street vendor near his apartment serves Chinese Stir Fry, he pretty much eats that every day for lunch.  Also, he loves going to Johnny Rockets for shakes.  Also, he hasn't eaten chicken strips (his favorite) since going to India. They don't have them.  Also, he gets fed by the local members about 2-3 times a week.

What's the weather like? Temps in New Delhi range from between 60 degrees down to the high 30's for low temps.  It can get a little chilly for a few months. It should really begin to warm up by March.

What about the Taj Mahal? It's a 3-4 hour drive to the Taj Mahal and after missionaries have been in the mission for over a year, they have the opportunity to go down there and take some photos.

What are the churches like? The church buildings are like converted office buildings and for an activity room, they include ping pong tables.

How do you get around? Depending on where their meetings are, they are in public transport buses or they take "autos"...three wheeled taxis.

We spent most of the time remembering times with his friends that were with us and he is very mindful of the value of good friendship.  He loves his friends and really misses them.

Skype with Elder Dusara

At the mall with Braganza

Week 36: Christmas week in Delhi

This past has been slow for my area. There was no new investigators and we were having trouble meeting with investigators as well as RCLAs. We also found ourselves busy with planning for our Christmas Skit and preparing for our Christmas Party. This upcoming week seems very promising. We have a handful of set appointments ready for this week.

At our Christmas Party we had about 120 people in attendance. The missionaries had to preform a song (which I forgot about until 5 minutes prior to our performance). The missionaries and some of the youth also performed a comedy skit which everyone loved. I played a doctor and after the performance all of the members were calling me Doctor Dusara.

This week is Christmas which means that we are going to have breakfast and and activity at the mission home this week. Also I have few American restaurants on my hit list for this week. This past week I finally found somewhere that had decent chocolate chip pancakes. I'm missing American food like crazy.

Anyways in my non native tongue Feliz Navidad  Fam & Friends & Foes

Elder Dusara

Naptime

Week 35: Franklin family gets taught; Cricket and Soccer this weekBro

My area has grown a lot the past week. We received a referral from the Munerka Elders this past week for a family of 5. They are the Franklin family. They already are Christian. We shared one of the new Christmas videos with them and during the lesson there was something that was biting my leg. When I looked down there was a 30 day old German Shepard puppy nibbling on my shoe laces. After the lesson I got a picture with the puppy. Then they fed us cake and cookies. I have a great feeling about this family. Two of the 5 family members were able to make it to church.

This past week we had a great activity at the mission home where we ate Pizza Hut pizza and had deserts. Then we played board games as well. Then I played cricket and soccer this past week for the first time in a while. No broken windows this time during cricket. I actually was able to to make good contact with the ball and score a lot for my team. For the first time in my mission I was able to bust out my soccer cleats and I now have blisters because my shoes are slightly small. Turf fields don't exist out here so we were forced to play on a dirt field with tons of dust and pot holes.

Elder Braganza has been doing well this past week. He is very nervous to hear back on his results for his exam. But we have been doing a lot of work with visiting members as well as spending time with the youth. I took a couple of the youth in the branch out for shakes at Jonny Rockets this past week.

My district is doing well. The Sisters were able to have a baptism. I had the opportunity to baptize their investigator Brother Sunil John.

I'm doing well. This past week has treated me well so I have nothing to complain about.

Lots of Love From India,
Elder Dusara

Pday in Delhi

Franklin's new German Shepard

Bro Sunil John gets baptized 

Cricket with the boys

Week 34: Found new people to teach, challenge to do something nice

My area has grown more this past week. We were FINALLY able to find some new investigators to teach. It's been about 6 or so weeks since our last time that we found new investigators. All three of those investigators were able to attend church this past week. They are all youth (about 10-15 years old). A couple of them already have really great fellowship from the youth. I have a great feeling about these kids. Yesterday after an appointment we ran into a less active member that no missionaries have been able to get in contact with for over a year now. So we were able to get her updated contact info and set up an appointment for this week. There was also 83 people at church.

My companion is doing well. Elder Braganza has been busy this past week with planning for zone meeting, as well as preparing for his TOEFL exam. If he passes then he can attend BYU-Idaho this spring.

I went on an exchange with Elder Karnikaraj and we had a lunch appointment that we went to. It was with President Pokru. Him and his wife are awesome members and they are both return missionaries. They both understand the struggles of being a successful missionary. We ended up sharing a Christmas message with them and invited them to do something nice for someone else this holiday season. They both accepted and said that for everyday this week they have been posting a spiritual message for each day in December on their Facebook accounts.

This Sunday I'm going to be baptizing one of the sisters investigators. Stay tuned for pictures. Love ya fam! Happy Holidays

Elder Dusara

Bunny buddy

Pday activity

Elder Braganza

Delhi train station

Smart phone-Delhi style

Delhi streets