Life in the Swaram

Whats up?

So pretty solid week. We had a really good Sunday again! We had 6 investigators at church! What the heck! It is truly a miracle! We have one baptism date right now and her name is Sri Laxmi.. I think I talked about her last week... I dont remember. She moved back into her families home from Bangalore and she is from a Hindu backround. She is awesome though and cooks us food everytime we come to her home! I will have to take a photo with them. Its been kind of a weird week. India is celebrating Ganesh festival this week and there are giant 10 foot statues of him everywhere with music blasting! Its kinda sketchy to take pictures of it but I will try to sneak one in this week. Just pray that I dont get caught! Anywho. Life here is swell. We went to Kakinada last P-day and saw the Indian Ocean. We also played some beach volleyball which was fun!

Volleyball on the beach at the Indian Ocean

I stitched a Corta

 I stitched a Corta as well! Its like a very muslim shirt type thing. I dont even know. But its sweet. Not much happened this week. We have been trying to stay away from the areas where there are large Ganesh parties but thats almost impossible because they are everywhere. We wake up to the music playing by them every morning. Its lovely.

The slums in Rajahmundry aren't too bad. I have heard that they are really nice compared to the ones in Bangalore. The temp has definitely cooled down a lot and its sooo nice! Its still way humid but now its only like 70 to 80 degrees. Sometimes I get really cold. Weird. I am definitely not excited to come home to Utah in February. But its rains everyday and we have had some fun lightening storms. The weather is starting to get really nice. I have heard that in the winter in Bangalore, sometimes its cold enough to wear a jacket!

The language is alright. I can understand enough Telagu to know what they are asking me but I have no idea how to speak it back. I think the language barrier is one of the hardest parts of this mission. It takes a way long time to get used to it and its way frustrating to understand what the heck is going on1 I havent heard church in English since I was in Ritzville. Good times. We teach gospel principles class a lot so then I can understand the lesson, but we have to have someone translate. Its hard to deal with but it ends up working out. When I go to the Philippines I will be sent to a Tagalog speaking mission so I will have to learn that language too. Kinda frustrating! So far I have heard people speaking Telagu, Tomil, Hindi, Arabic, and Kanada. Its Intense. There are like 20 languages that are spoken in India. Oh I have also heard people speaking Bengali, and Punjab. Way weird.

 So I heard that Lebron went back to the Cavs. Haha man thats awesome. What else is going on back home? I havent heard like anything that has happened outside of India. Its weird. They just don't care what is happening in the world around them. Except for Robin Williams. We saw that in a newspaper the other day. I was in shock. Crazy!

Sorry Mom

Nothing new happened this week... that I can remember. We had a really good lesson with Sri Laxmi on the Restoration, Showed her the movie and she accepted baptism on the 7th. Hopefully that works out! Satish(Killer Fish) is awesome. They have a way cool family. They all need to be baptized!

The Sword of Truth!

Well yeah. Thats crazy that Leo and Rylee came home! Man that time went by so quickly! I still have a long time though! Which I am grateful for! I read and finished Our Heritage this week and its really good! Its goes over the early history of the church really well! There were a lot of things that I didnt know about! Or maybe just forgot! Either way it was really good! I still love Jesus the Christ more though. If any of you have a copy of it.. READ IT. Just set a dictionary by it and it will be okay. Sooo yeah. Thats about it. Have a good week!

Elder Checketts

Beautiful Sunset in the Swaram