Settling in at Viska

• We started with no investigators when we came. We had nothing. We have been working hard though. We have been finding for the past two weeks and last night we set three people for baptism. It is super exciting. I know that it will happen. It is crazy how the Lord has prepared some people. We found these families only last week and already they are preparing for baptism. It is so awesome!! I'm excited for them.
• My companion Elder Talk is super smart and super quiet at the same time. I have to try really hard to get him to tell me anything. I have had him start leading all day to get him out of his shell. It seems to be working out pretty well. He still has a hard time talking to people. So I do most of the talking. How crazy is that? Who would have ever thought I would be the one doing all the talking, but I do. I'm starting to enjoy it. It's so weird.
• The new state is crazy different. People are way nicer; they don't scold us or anything like that. I like it a lot better. The language is super hard. I was just starting to understand Tamil a little bit and now I have to learn Telegu. They are similar, but very different. I'm learning though. I also know some Hindi. I want to be able to speak part of each language. We will see how that works. The branch is about the same size, but there are two in Visak so it is actually twice as big. It is a good branch they aren't quite as involved in missionary work. That is something we are going to try and change. It might take some time. I don't know how long I will be here, but I hope a while so we can help the branch. All is good here in Visak I like it a lot.
• Anyway, here are some stories. Not too many exciting ones. We have met 4 pastors here. It's so funny to show them scriptures that show that a prophet is important and they still don't believe. There was one pastor who said the bible is the only thing we need. So we showed him that in Amos 3:7 it says that prophets are important. He then said, "Oh, that doesn't matter, prophets aren't important." And we are like, "Brother, are you telling us that the bible is wrong?" He didn't know what to say.
• They have so many crazy opinions here. We met one lady that was scolding us and telling us that we were leading people astray. Then we were like, "OK you aren't going to listen. Bye." Then as we were walking away she says, "Oh, can you go pray for this family down the street?" We were like, "What? You think we are leading people astray but you want us to go pray for them?" We didn't understand. I don't get it.
• Funny story. Monday I got offered a pigeon, a chicken, and a dog all in one day. They were just going to give them to me. It was weird. Then later in that evening we were walking to a member's house and we saw this auto (autos are the public transportation, cushman-like vehicles) with three huge marlins in it. The marlins were sticking out about three feet on each side of the auto. It was crazy. I'm telling you we see some pretty crazy things.