Happy Ponga!

Decorated Cow from

a favorite Hindu Holiday

The Work is Picking Up!

• This week was good. Transfer calls were this week and Elder Talk and I are still not being transferred. That means we will be companions for at least 4 and a half months. Actually, no one in Visak got transferred; we have all been here since I came here. They pretty lmuch whitewashed the whole entire city, except the Zone Leaders. So, yeah, it's pretty fun.
• They also made another Zone so all the Zones are a lot smaller. I think they did that so the older Zone Leaders can stay in the city and help us younger missionaries learn. Before, they were traveling to other cities in the Zone, so we hardly saw them. I really like having them around. I still have so much to learn.
• Next week we are going to Hyderabad because Elder Watson from the Area Presidency is coming to India. We are going to hear him and have a Zone Conference again. It is really soon but I'm still happy; I like Zone Conferences.
• This week we have been doing well. We have really been focusing on getting members to come with us to all our appointments. We have been doing a lot better with that, so that's good. We have two people set for baptism in the next few weeks. I don't know if you remembered, but we dropped one investigator because he wasn't coming to church. The week after we did that he came to church. He has now come for two weeks straight. I guess sometimes we just have to leave it up to them and Heavenly father. He is one of our sets. Seeing him come through the door at church made me really, really happy. I love that scripture in Doctrine and Covenants that talks about how great is your joy if you bring just one soul unto Christ. It is so true, just seeing him walk through the door to church made me so happy.
• Well, that is all for this week. I have no good stories. I'm still working hard and missing home a little bit since the news of the baby and all, but I'm OK. I'm glad you are all there to tell me about it. : ) Have a good week I love you all

Starting with New Investigators

• Well this week was pretty good I went on a lot of exchanges with the assistants and other missionaries. I think I was with Elder talk less than all the other people. It was not that great; it's weird to have a new companion for only a day. I seem to learn a lot of new things, so that is nice. I am doing better with all of our slow progressing investigators. I think I just expect everyone to progress fast. I guess I only heard the stories about all the investigators that are baptized in 3 weeks, so that's what I expected. I haven't had that experience yet. I have only dealt with really slow progressers. OH well, it will just take time. Which I have :)
• This week was good. We found a lot of new investigators, so this week we will have to weed out all those that are interested and those that are just pretending. That is getting a lot easier though so that won't be too hard. Most I think are good. I'm excited for this week.
• I'm glad everyone is doing well. There seems to always be a new story about Briggs every week. I find that funny. HAHAH Now just think, if you would have let me get a dog I would have trained it and everything and you would have a perfectly trained dog right now. :) maybe....
• Thank you everything for all the emails you are the best family ever and I'm glad you don't forget me :) India is great you should all come and pick me up it would be fun. :) except I'm not so sure you could all handle it. I would take care of you though. no problem.

Getting to the Quarter

• Well this week was zone conference. It was pretty good. Zone Conference seems to always make me feel kinda retarded some how. We always talk about investigators that we are stuck with and we don't know what to do next. President Nichols always knows exactly what is going on and how to fix it. I always wonder why I couldn't think of that. I don't know, I guess that's why he is Mission President and I am only a missionary. I think I expect to much of myself. I expect myself to know everything already. I don't know...
• Yesterday at Zone Conference President Nichols asked everyone that had been out for 6 months or less to stand up. There were 24 missionaries there and 17 of us stood up. It's crazy how young we are and get this, my group is the oldest of all the young people. I'm like ancient its crazy. It's fun though we all just don't have any experience so we don't know how to deal with situations. That poses a problem, but we are learning.

Seems amazing that the Zone is so young! I guess they will make it out of the "refiners fire" with more time to take advantage of the lessons learned. MM

How a Branch in India Works

Do they have meetings in English in this branch?
The branch in Visak has some translation, but they really try to speak English. They are pretty good at that.
Do the youth have Seminary or Institute?
They have seminary and institute, but they are just at night time at the church. There is no way the government would ever let institute into colleges. Maybe some day.
How long have the branch leaders been members of the church?
The leaders have been members for different amounts of time. President Ratnam has been a member for like 8 years. One of the councilers has been a member for like 6 years and one for 2 years. Most of the time the leaders are members for a while. I don't think that the branch could stand if missionaries weren't here though. We are always telling people what they should do; how it works. We are trying to help them become self efficient. They are getting better.
Do thy have a full block on Sundays?
There is young women and young men and primary. They don't, however, have mutual or anything like that. It's just on Sundays.

Funny Story

I have a good story from this week. We went to teach a second lesson to a man named Anil Kumar and his family. We went and started teaching them in their shack of a house it is like 10x10. with a queen sized bed in it. It's only one room. Anyway, so we started teaching, and I guess they had told all their neighbors about us coming. So by the end of the lesson we were teaching 30 people. He was the only one that knew English also so he was translating. It was crazy. I have never seen that many people crammed into that small of a space. It was insane. I am pretty excited for him. He tried to come to church last Sunday, but he couldn't find the church. He called me during Sacrament, but obviously I didn't answer. He said he is coming next week. I'm happy for him.
Thirty people?! Sounds like some of the meetings that the early missionaries of the church had! MM

Investigater Troubles

• Our investigators are driving me crazy!!!! They all say that they know what we are teaching is true, but they won't come to church. I don't know what to do. We have had members start calling them and inviting them. I think we will have to start picking them up ourselves every morning. We have no people set anymore, because they aren't coming to church. I don't really know what to do. I guess I will just keep praying and bearing my testimony. I hope it works. :)
• Everything is going well here. We are working hard, but the results aren't really showing yet. We haven't baptized anyone yet. The few that had dates either fell off the face of the planet or would not come to church so we dropped them. We do have Seezar set for baptism. I know a crazy name for India. He seems really good. He calls me his huge younger brother. He has this really deep voice that I like. He also teaches English so his English is amazing. He even corrects me sometimes, because I'm not used to speaking to people with good English. HAHAH