Week 50: Meghna and Priyanka baptism

Our area had it's ups and downs this past week. We were able to have two baptisms yesterday. We were originally planning on having three. But as I was reviewing Dileep's baptismal record I saw that he doesn't turn 8 until this November. We called his father to double check and he confirmed his sons 8th birthday as being this November. Hearing this news saddened elder Mungamuri and I, but it was okay because we had to other baptisms to worry about. In church, we had about 87 people in attendance. There was many that stayed after for the two baptisms because there was a potluck afterwards. I didn't dunk Meghna all the way the first time so I had to do it again.

Elder Mungamuri is getting the feeling that his time in Dwarka is coming to an end, him and I are continuing to get along as well as work together. I've found that a companionship that can laugh together will be able to work together.

My Zone is continuing to baptize which is great. Slowly we are building momentum to bring great success here to the India, New Delhi Mission. I will miss our outgoing Elders, especially Elder Cratch, Hunt, and Braganza.

 Elder Hunt was the missionary that woke me up on my first day here in India to tell me that Sister Hodges was done making breakfast. He's a great missionary that knows the balance between having fun and working hard. Elder Cratch 's presence in this mission will be missed as well. He's a very focused missionary that know's and lives by the missionary purpose. He's also kind of goofy and that's what made him different. Elder Braganza and I were companions for one transfer in Malviya Nagar I got to know him very well. He's one of the few missionaries that I've seen in this mission finish out their missions strong. He's a hardworking and fun individual and that's what I liked the most about him.

Elder Dusara

With Elder Cratch

Elder Briganza

Elder Hunt

Baptism day: Elder Mungamuri, Priyanka, Meghna, Elder Dusara

Lunch at Pacific Mall Dwarka

Strangers at McD's celebrating Holi a day early

Week 49: Happy Holi, Two baptisms this week. Attendance is up at church.

This past week we had a very successful and stressful week in Dwarka. We were dealing with logistics when we could have had two of our investigators interviewed for baptism and one of them could even be baptized into Dwarka. But now everything is figured out. We have the baptismal interviews set for this Wednesday. This past Sunday we had 103 people in sacrament meting. No, that's not a spelling error. I was very impressed and so were the members as well. We had another decent turn out at English class as well.

Elder Mungamuri is doing well. Him and I are both hopeful that Priyanka and Meghna pass their interviews and continue to abstain from drinking tea so they can be baptized this Sunday. Elder Mungamuri and I want to baptize together before one of us get transferred.

This past week we had to power through the lessons with Priyanka and Meghna on Saturday night. There's no way that we would've been able to do it if they didn't speak English as well as they do. Our Heavenly Father has blessed Elder Mungamuri and I with these great investigators. Ever since they started coming to church the Singh family has been coming and been more active as well. It is our hope that as Priyanka and Meghna are baptized that they with help activate the Singh family. Plus this Sunday Dinesh is also getting baptized and we have the same hope that it will help his family be more active in the gospel.

This past Saturday I went on an exchange with Elder Mall. We were able to teach an investigator named Sanjay. He was scheduled to get baptized yesterday. Then we went finding with the sisters to show Elder Mall some in-active families.

Funny Story

The holiday called Holi is coming up this week. It's the holiday where everyone throws colors on each other and sprays each other with water. While walking home from church yesterday some kids with water guns sprayed me and said "Happy early Holi". I wasn't even mad at them because it was hot out so they were doing me a big favor. Also this past Saturday when I was waking to church a bird pooped on my back... :)

Happy Holi,
Elder Dusara

Streets of Delhi

New friends in Delhi

Messy kitchen - 6 missionaries live here

Young friends from Delhi

Streets of Dehli

Meeting with Elder Daayam

Week 48: Three accept the baptismal challenge, AC in the apt finally

My in my area we picked up three new investigators. One of them is named Moses and we taught him the first lesson last week. He speaks excellent English and he has already done his homework about our church. He told us that he's been struggling to find the right church for him. He said that when he lived in Kolkata that he tried to find our church but the person that he spoke with on the phone only spoke Hindi. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted for the date of March 29th.

We also invited Megna and Priyanka to be baptized and they both accepted for the date of the 29th as well. The one challenge that I foresee is us finding the time to teach them ALL the lessons necessary for them to have a more well-rounded understanding of our beliefs and standards. We will do everything we can to allow them to make those dates. We also had about 18 people at English class. Of those 18, seven of them were members. The non-members were almost a completely different group than last week.

This past week we FINALLY got brand new AC units installed into my apartment. It took about 8 hours to install three units. I'm sleeping so much better now. Also the mosquitoes that were in our room are now almost extinct. This past week we've gotten a few days of rain with a little bit of thunder and lightening. The work is progressing.

Elder Mungamuri is doing great. Out of all of my companions I think that I get along with Elder Mungamuri the best. We both are young and ready to go to work and baptize. None of us are showing any signs of slowing down.

These past few weeks I've been trying to do a better job of loving the Savior. I've been praying for those that I don't get along with. I have the hope that my love for them will grow little by little based upon my faith. I haven't seen miracle happen yet but I'm seeing changes in my attitude towards others around me. Baptisms will happen in Dwarka soon. We just need to be patient a little bit longer.

Funny story

While walking to an appointment I was taking a picture of a really nice apartment and from behind me some 10 year old kids thought I was taking a selfie. One of them had a big bag that was full of water balloons. My companion and I then took heavy fire of about 5 balloons and ran out of there. They were already celebrating Holi and few weeks early. I also found Domino's and they have corn as a topping...excuse me what?? hahahaha

Elder Dusara

Waiting for AC install, watching planes fly

Delhi walkways

Dominos Pizza with Corn topping?

Nice apt before being hit with water balloons

Week 47: Saving money on food, fun with mosquitos, English class miracle

Hello,

My area didn't grow a whole lot this month. If anything is decreased a little bit. We have a few investigators that we may have to consider dropping because they haven't been keeping their commitments and they haven't been giving us appointments, but we still had 5 investigators at church. There was about 79 people at church. The Talwars were able to be there fir the first two hours. Then we had Prianka and Megna at church as well. After church they invited us to come over for lunch. They are both close friends to the Singh family in the branch. We taught them The Plan of Salvation. They both were confused on why we would all be judged. Elder Mungamuri saved the day with pulling out the Gospel Principles book and turning to the Judgement section. Once we finished the lesson then all of their questions were answered.

This past week we've had to kill over 20 mosquitoes from our room alone. I have about 10 bites on each of my arms. Plus the weather is back in the 90's and my apartment sits on the 9th floor and we don't have AC units. But we did get rain on Saturday night and it felt amazing. All the members said it was heavy rain. I walked outside and it was a light rain from Seattle. Walking outside in the rain felt absolutely amazing! I also started making myself peanut butter and honey sandwiches this past week to save money on food.

Funny Story:
We took the couple missionaries (The Allens) to visit a few families. One of the families had two teenage daughters that didn't speak English. During the lesson they kept on talking to one another in Hindi and saying "Elder Dusara has such fair skin", "Elder Dusara is so handsome"," Elder Dusara looks so good". They were doing this during the entire visit. My companion could understand everything that they were saying and he was dying of laughter and I was just sitting there confused.

ENGLISH CLASS MIRACLE
English Class started this past Saturday. I was worried that that we wouldn't have enough students in the class for the Allens to teach. I could only imagine there being a handful of students. But there turned out to be about 12 members and 9 non-members. Only one non-member left before the Gospel Message. There will be about half those students that wont make the cut. So this week we are planning on doing two more days of finding for the English class. Our goal is to be close to 20 students.

These past few weeks I feel that my attitude has been getting better towards being more focused and to working harder to talk with everyone. I think ac units in the Dwarka apartment might help with that too. Just kidding (not really). I'm going to start downloading mormon messages and give them to members to watch for FHE. There's no members that know that church videos exist. This banch needs a lot of help with strengthening the members to help grow their faith.

Did anyone do something nice for someone else this week?

Elder Dusara

Feeding street dogs one at a time

Week 46: New people to teach, Eating out too much Do something nice for someone else...report back

We are beginning to notice his letters getting slightly longer, and the missionary work growing. It's wonderful to see the progress Elder Dusara has made the past few months.  He is embracing his role as a zone leader and appears to have the support of his fellow church members and missionaries.

Yesterday at church we had a mini miracle. There was an almost" in-active" member that came to church and brought two of her friends that aren't members. Her brother told me that he wanted me to teach them, but I tried to make sure that they actually lived in our area. After sacrament I talked with Shruti to introduce me to her friends. Shruti then told me to teach both of her friends. One of her friends said she lived in Dwarka sector 6. I found out later that she doesn't live in my area. Anyway the second friend said she lives in East Delhi about 1 hour in a half away by car.

They both said that they will continue to come to church. During the second hour our branch presidency pulled me aside and told me to talk with the 3 of them during 3rd hour to build rapport and to get to know where there interest is. It was only supposed to be a 10 minute conversation, but as we did "How to Begin Teaching" questions arose which led us into teaching the first lesson. Both of them speak great English. We didn't have to use a single word in Hindi. It was easily the best 1st lesson that I've ever taught on my mission. We answered ALL of there questions and we introduced them into the Plan Of Salvation. Even during second hour both of these sisters were reading the BOM to participate in on the discussions.

This past week I went to my first MLC meeting where Elder Cratch and I had to give a 40 minute training on correcting disobedience. It went well and our mission President had a cook make us chicken curry for lunch. Plus he ordered us some drumsticks from KFC. This week I have to give another 40 minute training on "Ministering to The One". Then After I'll probably go to the mall with some American missionaries to eat some good food. Speaking of food I've  been spending too much personal money on going out to eat. out of the 50 missionaries here I easily lead the mission on spending the most money. So to fix this issue I'll be paying the missionaries that live in my apartment to cook for me. #ProblemSolved #99ProblemsFoodAintOne

We had our BMCM this past week for the first time in over a month. We had 76 people at church. We also made it a point to be at least 30 minutes early for church after what happened last week. We as missionaries should be setting a better example for our members. We had a total of 11 investigators at church yesterday which was great. We just need them to progress to baptism.

I love you all! I can feel our Heavenly Father bless me each and every day. This week I challenge all of you to do something nice for someone else to make their day. I can be as simple as holding a door open for someone or smiling at a stranger. Just do anything to lift their spirits. Message me back with what you've done next week.

Elder Dusara

New Delhi polution

Bowling scores...guess which one is his?