April 20, 2010

The Rest of the Story

This week I want to do a Conference Report. Whenever they have a sports tournament, they do a report. Well I'm doing the same thing with Conference.

FIrst up. Top 5 Talks.
1.Henry B. Eyring - Help Them On Their Way.
2.D Todd Christofferson - The Blessing of Scripture.
3.Dieter F. Uchtdorf - Continue in Patience.
4.Bradley D. Foster - Mother Told Me.
5.David A. Bednar - Watching with all Perseverance.

All of the talks were great, but these five spoke to me the most. i really enjoyed them all and am looking forward to reading them when I get next months Liahona. :)



Rookie of the Conference (The best talk by someone I had never heard before)

Bradley D Foster
I dont know why I liked his talk so much, but I did. I dont know if I considered myself a mamas boy before my mission but I sure do now; so maybe that is why I liked it so much.




Top 5 Lessons Learned
1.Teach your children the things of God.
2.We have more scripture than any other generation. USE IT!
3.Be a Rescuer for those who are lost.
4.Take comfort in the promises of God.
5.Turn to the Lord without delay. Especially in times of trial.

I think the general theme of the conference was teach our children. It's funy how it works out like that even though there are no assignments given. :)






Top 5 Jokes.
1. "He kissed me on the cheek. First date." Thomas S. Monson
2."But we don’t have to throw open the door, serve them tea and crumpets, and then tell them where the silverware is kept! (You shouldn’t be serving tea anyway.)" Jeffery R. Holland
3."Grandpa are you in there." Robert D. Hales
4."Man, what a pitcher." James B. Martino
5."Our trained toed friend had his foot in his mouth." Thomas S. Monson

 
I thought the whole conference had a lighter side to it. I like it like that. I felt President Monson was in a wonderful mood and it made things fun.






And Last but not least. MVP
And this year it goes the Dutch Bulldog. aka Jeffery R. Holland. He comes again with a spiritual smackdown about the terrible affects of pornography. You may be wondering why this talk was not in my top five well it's because it was in a league of its own. He taught pure doctrine while amusing us with whitty sayings like "True love, we are absolutely giddy about—as I am about Sister Holland; we shout it from the housetops, and occasionally from General Conference." and "Throw the rascals out."



Overall it was a great conference that I was pleased to watch. I'm excited for next months Liahona.

April 12, 2010

Not Much This Week

  • This week was nice. I got nicely sunburned yesterday. I don't get it though, because we weren't even outside for very long. We were in appointments all day. The sun does weird things. :)
  • I ate Intestine Biriyani on Monday. It was terrible, but I've trained myself to eat anything and say it is good. :) That's all the interesting stuff this week, only two things. I know, it's a downer week.
  • I got your package. It was awesome to get pictures. Evrything looks a lot different than when I left. You all look older. I guess that happens when you are gone for two years. Thanks for the deodorant, it's nice. :)
  • London did ask some questions so I will answer those. Yes, I see corruption everywhere. They pay people to vote. People have to give bribes to get like their pension plans after they retire. If anyone gets pulled over they just pay off the cop and then they don't get a ticket. It's sad. I haven't seen anything about an Indian Census. It might be going on; I dont know. As far as call centers go, I knew people that worked at call centers in Hyderabad and Visak, but there are no call centers here, so I don't know anyone here. Elder Chigurupati worked at a call center before his mission. Half of the branch in Visak worked at a call center called HSBC you might have heard of it. It's a bank. Bangalore is crazy big. The whole city is basically the technology district. Hyderabad had a place called Hi-tech city, but it was kinda disappointing, a couple big buildings and that's it.

April 5, 2010

Staying in Erode

  • This week was good. Same ole same ole. We have been trying to get 10 investigators to come to church since I came. We have had around 8 the whole time I have been here. This week we finally did it. We had 11 at church on Sunday. It was awesome. 6 of them are set with dates now. Three are being baptized on Sunday, and 3 more in April. They are all great. I'm excited for them all.
  • We had the three baptisms on Sunday. That was awesome. It was of three 16 year old best friends. They have been coming to church for over a year, but due to English and age they had to wait to be baptized.Tthey could have been baptized sooner, other elders never took the time to teach them and help them progress due to the English problem. They are awesome guys. They are so small though. It is funny. They are tiny. You'll see in the picture.
  • We have a great young couple that has been coming to church for 6 months. They have been beggng us to baptize them, but they dont know enough English. I feel pretty sad, because they know the gospel, they just can't speak enough English. However, we talked to President Nichols about them and he said that they can be baptized. So they will be baptized in April. I'm so excited for them. They have such a strong desire to do what is right, but they just couldn't, but now they can. I'ts awesome. Plus they are learning English like crazy. I cant believe how fast they are picking it up. I guess that's what the spirit can do. :)
  • I feel like Heavenly Father is blessing Erode so much. He has given them a wonderful District President that wants to help fix some of the things in the branch and he is working hard to get those things fixed. He came on Sunday and started the process. He is an awesome man. We are also finding so many great families that are progressing towards baptism that will help this branch so much. It has been so awesome to be in Erode right now. I am very thankful to have served here. I have learned a lot while I have been here. I love being a missionary and I never want to stop.
  • It's freaking hot in Erode by the way. I sweat so much.
  • Oh, my bicylce got stolen on Monday. I was so upset. I had just gotten it to work correctly too. People are dumb. now I have to ride the ghettoist bike ever. The seat is like a piece of plywood. It hurts so bad to ride. Oh well. I didn't get transferred. So I will have to bear it for at least 6 more weeks. But what to do.