Namaste

Hey!

Man what is going on?!? Whitney is having the baby right now?!? That is crazy! I am so excited! We are all praying for her! Man I cant wait another week to see! That is so cool! Sooooo the week here was very slow but very good. Since my companion and I were white-washed into this area we have had a tough time figuring out where to go and what to do and yeah! Its pretty sweet. Miracles happen literally every single day. Its amazing! The people are still amazing! The food is growing on me but is still disgusting. Just kidding It has grown on me a lot! I am starting to enjoy the spice more and more. although my mouth is constantly on fire. Its a beautiful thing. Speaking of beautiful things. There is one thing you all need to know about as we continue throughout my mission... The Sprayer. The sprayer has already saved me many times. For those who dont know, Indians dont have toilet paper. I am pretty sure they have never heard of it. Anywho. The sprayer is this nice little hose that they use to spray themselves off after loose motions (diarrhea). Not gonna lie. I havent even had loose motions yet but I am pumped for the day that it comes. Anyway. the sprayer is awesome. And I want one when I get back.

So we have some awesome investigators! One is Ravi Teja! He is a way good kid I think he is 17 and he was already baptized once but they didnt confirm him a member and give him the holy ghost so we have to redo it. Kind of a pain because his Mom is agaisnt the church and she keeps saying he was already baptized so we are working with that. He is scheduled to be dunked next week. Hope it works! Also We have a new investigator named Mahdri! She is 17 and was introduced to us by a member named Rahuul. He invited us over for Family night and brought her and she is interested! She is scheduled to be dunked on May 4th. Sorry I keep calling it dunked but its way easier to type than baptism and I am terrible at typing. Anywho. Did I tell you guys about Fedro? He is really cool. We were looking for Ravi Teja's house and knocked the wrong door and this guy named Fedro invited us in and we taught him and he is supposed to be baptized on May 11 or something like that. Crazy! My companion is a beast at putting people on date! And there are like 5 other potential investigators but we are having a hard time meeting with them. Oh! Also Ravi Kumar! He is so weird. but he is awesome. He keeps telling us that he doesnt want to sit through the lessons he just wants to go help people. He told us that he is going to go work in Delhi for 5 months then start a orphanage in Rahjamundry to help kids. He has a way good heart. but he also tells us of all these wild dreams he has had about Christ talking to him so we are kinda weirded out but he has come to church for like a month now so once he understands that the only way to get back to heaven is to get dunked then he can start helping others then it would be great!

So Culture. I dont even know what to say. Indians are weird. PDA is very frowned upon but men will walk down the street holding hands all the time. Apparently that means friendship. Im not going to lie, when I first got here I thought we were going to have a huge problem with gay people. hahaha but its not a problem. Its also very awkward when the members that I have become good friends with hold my hand and I feel extremely uncomfortable. Pretty sweet. Um poverty.. yeah. lots of it. I have lots of beggars come and grab me and ask for money  but we arent allowed so we have to walk away. These people live in some rough conditions. I dont know how to describe it. Their houses are like 10 feet by 10 feet. no doors just a big blanket hanging from the top! They usually have us sit on their bed and they pull out a fold up chair or sit on the ground. The water here is filthy but luckily for us we have a filter in our apartment. also bottled water is really cheap its like 15 rupees which is like 25 cents in the U.S. I am definitely going to buy a suit here! They are like 50 buck and its all hand stitched! One guy in our zone has been here for 10 months and he has like 8 suits now. and they are all way sweet! The power goes out here like every 2 hours so we have to use is to our advantage. I wake up in a wonderful pool of sweat every morning.

Rahjamundry is about as native India as I can get. They consider this city a small town but it has around 400,000 people. Soo big change from Ritzville. Also traffic is ridiculous. I feel like im going to die everytime I am on the street but somehow I havent been hit. these people as crazy as theyare, they know what they are doing. sometimes. there are a lot of drunk people. Everyone thats drunk that talks to me tells me that their name is Jack Sparrow. Thats how I know they are drunk its weird.

They have Dominos Here! but its freaking weird. We had it for lunch today and part of me wants to die but then the other part is hungry so I suck it up. Okay its not that bad but its just really different. Their cheese is nasty. But the curry is beautiful. I am learning to cook some Indian things but I have to idea how to spell them so I will let you know later!

Let me know how everything is going there! I want to see pictures! I am an Uncle??! So crazy!! Also! Everyone here asks about family so I need some pictures of everyone! Lemme know!

Love yaa!

Elder Checketts