6 Months Finished!!

Hello!

Well. I have made it through 6 months of my mission. I still feel as though I am fresh from the MTC. Pretty crazy! It feels like its been such a long time but yet so short. Its weird. I dont really know how to describe it. Good stuff though! How is everyone doing? Life in the dirty swarem is good!

Water Worn Shoes and the traditional tie

6 months completed

So now Elder Eames and I are covering the entire branch and its a huge area we cover. But We are teaching a guy named Satish! He is a way cool guy and is willing to learn! He is also the leader of a gang here in Dowleswarem. The gang name is Killer Fish. haha Pretty sweet. Its not the same as an American gang though. Gangs here are basically a big group of friends that every once in a while will get together and beat someone up. They told us that they've got our backs.... soo thats cool. Sister Pillelli is doing well. We can only really teach her on Sundays because we want the husband to listen to the lessons and that is the only day he is there. Working on that. Our branch needs some serious help right now. We arent sure what to do with it and have asked help from President Berrett. We will see what he says next week. Also. We had Zone Conference yesterday which is why I am writing today. President Berrett came and gave a really good training on "Begin with the end in sight." he talked a lot about when we see our investigators, see them wearing temple clothing getting ready to be sealed to their families. That is our goal here now. Getting people to the temple. It was really good and I am excited to put it to action.

So I have almost finished reading Jesus the Christ on my mission for the second time and I think I have learned 10 times as much as I did the first time I read it. Now that I have more time to study and think about the words of Christ and what He did I understand it much better. One of my favorite parts is when Is talking about judging and self righteousness and says "Thou hypocrite, first cast the beam out of thine own eye, then shalt thou be able to remove the mote from thy brothers eye." ... Something like that. I dont have it completely memorized yet but its really good!

Things we eat: So Dosa is made out of like rice powder and its like a really thin wide pancake. Really good. and served with coconut chetni which.. I dont even know but its really good and really spicy. Also there is bajji and that is a deep fried balll of heavenly goodness. I love Bajji. I had 8 of them this morning. Its also served with coconut chetni. Parota is like a fried onion tortilla thing... I dont know.. but its really good and usually served with potato curry. Mango season is over.. sadly enough. So we havent eaten much fruit in the past month. We go out to eat everyday and it usually costs around 150 rupees. we get 3500 rupees every two weeks which is about 50 dollars. The members feed us dinner maybe once or twice a week. but when they do feed us, its big. usually Chicken Biryani and lots of it. They like us to eat 2 plates of it stacked like 6 inches high. Its death. They just keep putting more and more on our plates untill we beg them to stop.. Its awesome but horrible at the same time. Hence the reason for the rice belly coming so quickly. Its like the cool thing to have here. Also everyone here has a mustache. If you dont you are either considered gay or your father just expired. so yeahh. I have seen people of all ages being beaten. I havent been able to play any sports for a while. P days are mostly traveling eating and buying groceries. Travel time takes a long time here. No one goes over 30mph. Its legal to. But you will probably hit a cow and die if you do. The main road in our area is somewhat paved.. its paved but there are so many pot-holes that I can't classify it as a modern road. The rest are either cement or dirt roads. Dowleswarem is different in that its much poorer and there is absolutely nothing out here. No restaurants, (Safe restaurants) no businesses. Just small shops and tons of people. This place is considered a village and it has more than a million people living in it. Its ridiculous. Lots of beggars. Lots of mothers hold their babies out to us and tell us to take them back to America. Our apartments are actually very modern. We have western style toilets while most places are just a squatter. I have yet to use one of those. Its just a hole in the ground that has 2 places on either side for your feet. Pretty sweet. Man I had a horrible experience with the bucket last week. We were in a restaurant and I guess the food decided to go right through me. So I went into the bathroom and again beheld the bucket in all of its glory, but there was a wonderful addition to this. There were cockroaches everywhere. In the bucket, on the toilet, on the walls. Its was awesome. I did it anyways. I just had some companions while sitting on the throne. Anywho. We have bunk beds and A/C that freezes us. It was 60 degrees F in our room 2 nights ago and I almost died. It was sooo cold. Yeahh more to come next week! Love ya all. Be grateful for what you have. Thats something I have definitely learned in the short time that I have been here.

Love ya,

Elder Checketts