Week 59: Baptism of RiyElder a, huge M & M's

Yesterday at church we had our baptism for Riya Masee. I was the person that baptized her. It was the best baptism that I've ever done. Everything went smoothly. After church everyone in the apartment were hungry. So I made french toast for some of us. It tasted just like home. Everyone was grateful to have some good food in their belly. In church we had a couple young people visiting from Utah, they said that they were here for humanitarian work. Church yesterday felt very strange. There was only 52 people in attendance. All six of us missionaries gave talks but we felt rushed because there was so little time. I was given the 2 minute warning before I even started my talk. Our BML forgot to tell the Branch Presidency about the baptism so Elder Chand made an agenda last minute. It just felt like a rushed Sabbath.


This past week we've been hit with some rain and thunder storms. There were some nights that we slept without power. I feel now that I'm one of the more "seasoned" missionaries in this mission (even though I've only been out 13 1/2 months). A lot of younger missionaries come to me for advice about literally anything. It's so refreshing because this is how I was at home too.

We had our zone conference last week and it was filled with 4 different training's and role plays. I hate  role plays but I know they help me be a better missionary. We had lunch provided by the mission home so we had spaghetti and rolls with ice cream and brownies for dessert.

FUNNY STORY
We had a meeting for the new cycle of English class at the mission home. All the American missionaries and members in Delhi were invited. During the middle of the meeting one of the American moms pulled out a bag of steroid injected M&M's. They were literally 3x the size of a normal M&M's.  They don't sell M&ms in india except for at import stores. So they are basically the equivilant of finding diamonds. So it's safe to say that all of us Indian missionaries went nutz when we say them.

I bought new protein and a new G-shock watch last week. Other than that nothing new has happened. Time flies when your doing the Lords work. I love you ALL!!


Elder Dusara

Elder Chand, Riya Masee, Elder Dusara 

Branch Mission meeting

Just a little workout stuff

Week 58: Meeting someone from the old neighborhood

This last week was great. It was great to listen to the talks in District Conference. I got the feeling that in order to help us build our stake we as missionaries need to help our members with following commandments like keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. It was refreshing to see members from 4th Branch. Elder Chand have been very busy this past week with planning for trainings, doing call ins, and planning for English Class. But we both managed to have a pretty good week. Riya passed her baptsmal interview. So she will be baptized next week.

COOL STORY
Yesterday at district conference there was four men from BYU-Provo doing a research project at the Hospitals here in Delhi. I was talking with them and one of them recognized me and said that we were both in the same ward in Orem, Utah when I was younger. It's amazing how you can be on the other side of the world but still find people that know you.

This mission has made a huge change therse past 6 months. Last week we gained a new missionary from Melbourne, Australia and one from Malaysia. Both of them are awesome missionaries. I'll send pictures of them after we get lunch with them today.

This week is supposed to be about 105 degrees as the high and 82 degrees as a low. I've never sweat so much in my life. I feel like I should walk around with a beach towel everywhere I go. I also finally burned my shirt for my one year mark.

Love ya'll!
Elder Dusara

Meeting Taylor Baker from old neighborhood in Orem UT

Burning the shirt - 1yr mark

Week 57: More people in English classes

We were able to have a good work week. Elder Chand and I were able to meet with Riya and go over the baptismal interview questions. She will be interview this Sunday and will be baptized on the 29th. Elder Chand and I are doing our best to find new investigators. We are finding lot of people that are interested in our English Class. In our last class we had 33 people in attendance. Since it was the end of the 10 week course us missionaries pooled some money and went out and bought ice cream and soda or floats. Our class almost doubled in size and we were all a bit overwhelmed. In church Meghna was finally in town and not sick so she was able to receive the Holy Ghost from me.

Funny Story

So this last week in church there was a woman named Amber at church. She's actually from Toronto, Canada but is out here in India as a belly dancer. She's a church member and she said yesterday was the first time coming to church in a long time. She was super nice and you could totally tell she still has her LDS roots.

I'm doing well. To help deal with the heat I'm now carrying two liters off water with me whenever I leave the apartment. My testimony of this church is growing little by little every week as I continue to read and ponder my scriptures daily.

Elder Dusara

Week 56: Mother's Day message

It was great to Skype wih Elder Dusara on Mother's Day.  We had some connectivity issues at first but he was able to get things figured out. He is doing great and is enjoying the work. He gets along very well with Elder Chand as you can read from his emails.  We learned that he is even learning a little Hindi so that he can communicate with the "auto" drivers in Delhi.  

Suh

The missisonaries sang a song with the young women because there aren't a lot of active young men in the branch. It felt like I jumped into a time machine and was singing in Primary all over again. English Class we had less people in attendance but we had a few new members in class. This next week we are planning to have an ice cream party with the students. After church there was two baptisms for the other companionship. After that the Branch make sweets and samosas. I thought  member bought McDonalds because that's what it smelled like.

This week we picked up three new investigators. Two of them have been coming to church for a few months now. The only problem is that their English level is a 1/10. We put them on date for June 19th. We had to push Riya's date back again. It's tough to meet with her because she doesn't have a phone. So we almost blindly come to her house in the evening with the hope that she is there. We spoke with the Allens about the Talwars and they said that they plan on being baptized towards the end of this month.

Elder Chand is doing great. We both got to meet each others family this morning. We found out that his grandfather actually knew my grandfather back in Fiji.

I'm doing well. It was refreshing to see my family this morning. I had them all meet my roommates. seeing them didn't make me very homesick. I felt fine because I know I have more work here to do. I sent my mom something special for mothers day and I hope she likes it.

Elder Dusara

This morning I saw a monkey on the way to the gym. Some girls were telling me to put my camera away they said the monkey would jump down and steal it. Here's a picture of some of the members that stayed after for the baptism. I'm giving Elder Vodloori a piggy back ride

Steph Curry fan

Small homes for less fortunate downtown

Dwarka branch after baptism

Local monkey - camera thief

Week 55: Companion getting hurt on the treadmill, Successful Sunday

Hi,

There hasn't been much that have changed this past week. We had to push Riya's baptismal date to the 15th. We had a great turnout in church at around 91. There was an american man that was here in India for work and he looked up where the nearest LDS church was to his hotel and little did he know that our church in Dwarka was literally next door to the hotel that he was staying in. English class was awesome as well. We had 18 students in class. We had about 7 new students.

During sacrament meeting one of the sisters in the branch convinced me to go bare my testimony. In my testimony I said that before my mission I had the scriptural knowledge of a sunbeam. The congregation got a good laugh from that. Yesterday i had to give 5 baptismal interviews in the dark because the home didn't have any electricity.

Elder Chand and I are continuing to have our companionship grow more and more everyday. I can definitely see us catching a couple of monster shakes from Red Robin and reminiscing on old times. He also has told me that his younger brother was recently baptized and is preparing for a mission.

FUNNY STORY

Elder Chand was running on the treadmill and was looking around to find me. When he turned his head, he moved his feet and slipped and fell. There was an old Indian lady yelling "PUSH THE STOP BUTTON, PUSH THE STOP BUTTON". Elder Chand scraped up his leg and I had to wipe his scrapes with rubbing alcohol. I've never heard him yell so loud in my life. When people ask me what happened to his leg I tell them that he was trying to check me out while running on the treadmill and he fell.

Also happy 29th birthday Mama! I cant wait to skype home next week.

Elder Dusara

Time at Carls Jr

Gym time