June 3, 2009

The month of May is really busy, okay?!

I must apologize to those who faithfully follow the blog; May is always such a busy month for some reason. I used to blame it on Devon's soccer, but I can't do that now and it is seems still the same. Anyway, it is now June so I will try to get things up to date and then keep up.
  • APRIL 22nd
  • Well this week was not so successful. They had state elections and those get pretty heated. So we weren't allowed to go outside so much this past weekend. It was a little frustrating, but I guess it is just to keep us safe. I don't want anything to happen to me so I guess I'm happy about it. We only had like three days this week to do any missionary work. We met some of our progressing families. We have a few set for baptism and hope to set a couple more this week. I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel after being whitewashed. I'm very excited to finally see it. It only took about 6 months haha.
  • I'm glad you asked questions so I can answer those. We talk to people like normal people. I don't know what you mean by how we talk to people. We just start talking to people on the street and find out if they can speak English then go from there. We are allowed to knock on any door now. We used to only be able to knock on Christian doors. (if you would have told me that before my mission I would have thought how the heck amIi supposed to know if they are christian or not, but it is easier then you think. People are a lot more open with what their religion is. They will have some sort of picture outside their house of what religion they are. interesting I know). We also do that. That seems a little more effective, but it is best to get referrals from members. Hey mom if you put this stuff on the blog you should correct my spelling. haha.
  • We just set up appointments with anyone that talks to us. Most of them however don't go through. They have no sense of time here, and they don't really have respect for time unless they are wasting theirs. Everyone is just a little selfish. It was really hard for me at first to get over how inconsiderate people are, but it doesn't really bother me anymore.
  • We get all kinds of responses. It is very rare for people to say they aren't interested. It is more polite to lie than to say no to someone. That is really annoying. I can usually tell if someone isn't interested though so I just ask them straight up if they are interested and then they will tell me the truth it takes some coaxing though. We also get the "Oh come in and share a message with me" which happens a lot, but most of the time they don't go anywhere. Then there is the "you are converting people, I'm going to call the police" response, and at that point we just run. No problem though. It makes things interesting and fun. haha If you can call it that. know Heavenly Father will protect us, so no worries.
  • APRIL 29th
  • Well I'm getting transferred. :( I'm a little sad. I love Visak. I think I could have stayed here my entire mission and wouldn't have cared. We also have 4 families that are getting baptized this next transfer. Its crazy, but its OK. Elder Nixon can handle it. I'm going to Hyderabad 1st branch. Oh yeah I'm also being whitewashed again. I don't know if President Nichols hates me or not. Just kidding. I think the second time around it will be a little bit easier. The first time was very stressful and tried my faith, but this time I have a good idea of what I need to do to get things started. Another problem is Hyderabad is on lock down for a little while longer. I hope I will be able to go out soon and do some work. Elder Banavath, who is now an assistant told me that they were planning on opening Hyderabad in the next couple of weeks. Elder Nixon is training a new Elder. He says he is nervous about it, but I know he is excited. It will be fun.
  • This week was fun. We were supposed to have some baptisms in the next week, but the families all decided to go out of town for a month because of "summer vacation." It is a little frustrating to have 75% of your teaching pool out of town for a month. We have been trying this week to build up our teaching pool again. It is going pretty well.
  • We also found a new apartment to move into. The couples have been nagging us to get a new one ever since they started only turning on water for 1 hour a day. I have been having to wash my clothes by hand in the shower. I never thought I would do that, but it is pretty fun. A lot of work, and really hard to get the clothes completely clean though. What I do is I just leave my clothes on and get into the shower. then I wash everything as best I can then rinse it out. Funny. I will never take a washing machine for granted again. Being in India made me realize how much luxury we have living in America. We have a lot of things that people never see their whole entire life let alone use everyday.
  • MAY 5th
  • Well, this week has been pretty interesting. Being whitewashed again has been a lot easier this time. The area wasn't quite in such disarray as last time. Did I tell you I also replaced the sister missionaries again. They seemed to keep everything up to date a little more this time, which was nice to have. The first time when I went to Visak everything was out of order and discombobulated. It is better here in Hyderabad. The Zone leaders are really worried about us. I don't know why. I keep telling them that I've done this before and that they don't need to lose sleep over us. I hope they relax a little it is starting to bug me when they call me all the time to check up. I just want to tell them that we are big boys and can handle ourselves. I think they just want us to be successful.
  • The new area is huge. Like 6 times the size of my last area. We cant even go to all of our area. It is too far away from the church. It is crazy. I really don't know what to do with myself sometimes. It is hard to choose where to go when we have so many places to go. In Visak it was one of three places that we chose. It is funny.
  • We are kinda in lock down. We don't wear tags and ties outside. Just in appointments. We cant talk to anyone on the street. We can only knock on Christian doors. Which is a lot harder here. In Visak it was obvious what religion people were, but here it is hard they are a lot more reserved about it. It is interesting.
  • MAY 13th
  • My investigators are doing well. We don't have so many. We have an awesome family that we are teaching. The only problem is they think it is too hot to come to church in the Afternoon. We will have to get them over that if they are ever going to come to church. Prakash and his family is the exciting point right now. They are set for baptism on May 31. I hope they come to church this week.
  • The branch is huge, but only about 150 people come every week. There are like 300 members though. A lot are less active, but I guess that happens everywhere. The branch is like a ward back home. This is the first time that has ever happened on my mission. The branch has three companionships in it so the area is pretty huge. It is crazy.
  • MAY 27th
  • Thanks for the emails this week ;) I got a grand total of one. From Hyrum. My only faithful writer. HAHA Just kidding. This week was good. It was really actually frustrating. OK so the truth is this week was rough. I feel a little discouraged. I thought being whitewashed was going to be easier the second time, but it isn't. The first two weeks went pretty good. Then this last week happened and things just didn't go our way. We didn't find any new investigators. That was really discouraging. This week was just hard. I think we will push through it though. That is good.
  • JUNE 3rd
  • This week was better. Don't worry about not emailing me. I forgive easily. :) My birthday was pretty good. I liked your package. I really liked the gnome. I will send you some funny pictures next week. I forgot my cord this week sorry.
  • This week was good. We had our interviews on Monday and zone conference on Tuesday. It was really good. All the elders came from Visak and Rajamundry zones. It was really good. So I got to see everyone that I left when I came to Hyderabad. I knew basically everyone. It was fun. Zone conference was all about making goals and plans to meet those goals. President Nichols really really loves goals. I decided I need to start setting goals. He said when he was in seminary his teacher read him a story about setting goals. So he did some studying about goals. He then wrote down three life goals on a note card and put it in his wallet. He said he looked at them everyday. He then told us that he had met all those goals at age 61 and wishes he would have made his goals higher. So that is my plan actually. He is a very smart man, and I'm proud to say he is my Mission President. :)
  • Not much happened this week. That was the highlight. We did find 7 new investigators last night. It was crazy. We only had a couple of hours after zone conference too. It was a nice boost for our week last week. We found more investigators last night then we had found the previous two weeks.
  • Oh, we did give talks this last Sunday. Mine was on gaining a testimony. I was probably one of the best talks I have ever given. I guess it was because I prepared for more than the night before. It was really fun also to talk. It still amazes me how comfortableIi am doing things that were so hard for me, just a year ago. :)
So, there you go - all caught up. Check out the slide show on the landing page of recent photos. And feel free (Please!) to make some comments.

3 comments:

  1. I love reading about how Devon is doing. India is an interesting place, and he sounds like he has the hang of it. Go get em Elder Jenks..The Loveless's

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  2. Apparently, June July and August are busy too.;)

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  3. and September, October, November, and a good chunk of December!

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