Dunked and Confirmed

Hey!

Whats up? Man this week was fun! So first I went on exchange to do a baptism interview for the elders there and it was solid. He got baptized yesterday! Also I bought some Kakinada kaja. Man. I cannot find words to describe to beauty of those sweets. They taste so good. Anywho. Sri lakshmi was confirmed yesterday it was awesome! She is way solid and read the BoM everyday and understands everything we tell her which in and of itself is a miracle. 

No one here understands English. I cant able to speak English anymore.... We literally talk like that everyday. So sick. Also. This week was Diwali. A Hindu festival that represents when some devil died and everyone celebrated his death..... yeah. Way fun though. There were bombs going off all night. Sooo loud. There were places where they had like 50 yards of firekrackers tied together and it would go for like 20 minutes. Indians like to party. Its was awesome. 

So big news. I am flying to Bangalore in like 4 hours. I was called to be a new Rajahmundry zone leader.... Please pray that Rajahmundry doesnt burn down. Just kidding. But seriously... I am excited though. I am staying in the dirty swarem yet again and my new companion will be Elder Kumar from Hyderabad. he is currently in 2nd branch in the Mundry so I know him pretty well. He is a way cool guy and I am excited to be his companion! So I am flying to Bangalore for mission leader conference. I have no idea whats going on but I am pumped. So. Yeah I dont know what else is happening. Whats happening in America? Hows the fam? How is Benny? I miss him. 

Well nothing else is really new. Our investigators lost their baptism dates because they decided not to come to church. lame. Also because one sisters mother said no. Dont worry we will go have a chat with her mom this week on Wednesday. I am excited. Should be fun haha. Satish and his family came to church though so thats awesome. good week. Slow week. but fun. Lemme know whats going on there!

Elder Checketts

Busy Busy Busy!

Heyy!

How is everyone? Is America still there? Life here is good! Our investigators are doing well and are progressing nicely! Sri Lakshmi was baptized yesterday! It went really well and she is solid! We had some good appointments this week! We had the district presidency at church yesterday and that was good! Its amazing how smoothly everything goes when they come. Haha kinda ridiculous. But we had some good meetings and they really stressed about helping the missionaries so that will help us a lot. We have one investigator named Prathyusha. She is 14 years old and knows more English than the entirety of Rajahmundry so thats awesome. Last time we went to her home we asked if she remembered the 3 kingdoms of heaven and she said all three of them in their correct order. It was a Celestial moment.

I dont have much time today. We are being rushed all over the place today. We gotta go find a new washing machine and shop and clean and all that fun stuff! Still no photos. Sorry. I will see about getting a new camera. Rajahmundry isnt really the place to get one though so we will see how that works out. Definitely next week I will find a way to get some solid pics to ya. Havent gotten the package yet. I have heard that customs is holding a lot of our packages right now. dont know whats going on. Love ya all be safe. Email me some more pics of the fam. also just any white people that you see. Love yaaaa

Elder Checketts

Chillin in the "Cyclone"

What up!

How is everyone? Life here is going well! We had Sri Laxmis interview over Skype with President Murala. It went well so she will be baptized next week! We are very excited! Also we have a new investigator named Prathyusha, she is set for baptism on the 26th along with Karun Kumar and Ramji. They are all awesome so I am pumped! The trio lives on. We are all doing really well. We laugh a lot and we are working hard! I am really grateful to have Elder Coleman with me as we train this new missionary. It would have been twice as difficult to be the district leader and train by myself. Its awesome though. Elder Larson is a way chill and we are all getting along well! 

So nothing really crazy happened this week. As most of you know India was hit by a cyclone but the majority of it hit Visak. The mission has almost 0 contact with the elders there so we are hoping that they are all safe. Rajahmundry got a little bit of it. I was pretty disappointed. I was hoping I would get to experience something a little more intense. It basically rained for 24 hours straight with a little more intense wind than normal. We still went out and cycled in it. Got soaked. It was good though. 

Man CONFERENCE. Holy. Elder Holland blew my mind. I tried so hard to take good notes this time but I was just stunned the entire time. Elder Bednar's talk was amazing and is something I will definitely use in my missionary work. Also I loved Elder Robbins.. I think that's his name. Saturday morning session. He Gave an amazing talk. Of course Elder Eyring was awesome as well. I could list every single person that spoke. this conference was so good! I loved Uchtdorfs talk that talked about "Lord, Is it I?" way good talk! I could go on and on. Basically my mind exploded on Saturday and Sunday. 

So I had a really cool experience last week. We went to a members house that lived way far away in a small village. He then told us there was a sister in another village about 10 miles away. So we went way the heck out to this tiny village and it was night time so I thought we were going to be eaten by a tiger or something. But We went to the home and she asked me to be the one to give her a blessing. There was a very different spirit about it though. I dont know how to describe it. I dont really remember anything that I said but the spirit was really strong. Later that night when I wrote about it in my journal I had a very distinct impression that I knew her very well in the Premortal existence. It was really cool though. I was really grateful to Heavenly Father for providing that experience. We give a lot of blessings here. I gave I think 4 this week. I love to exercise my priesthood! I invite you all to do the same! Look for opportunities to be able to serve others through it! Its an amazing gift that God has trusted us with. 

Anywho. Life is swell. Send me some sweet pics of life in America. I do miss the weather of Utah. Here its just hot and humid all day everyday! If its less hot then its twice as humid. Ridiculous. Its okay though. Well love ya all. Stay safe. 

Elder Checketts

Dirty Life in the Swarem

Hey!

So we had a solid week of missionary work here in the swarem! My new companions are awesome and love to work so I am way pumped! We set 3 baptism dates this week! Sri Laxmi for next week but thats not positive. She has some concerns that we will have to take care of this week but she is awesome. She reads the BoM  every day! She is progressing really well. That is seriously the best feeling ever. Seeing someone doing everything that Heavenly Father wants them to do and watching the blessings pour into their lives! Satish bunked church so we will have to see whats up with him. He Postponed his baptism because he got a really bad infection in his knee and wont recover for a couple more weeks. We also set his friend Karun Kumar on date but he bunked church as well. We will scold them nicely this week though! I am really excited. 

The new companions are way fun and we all get along really well. We are laughing all of the time! I cant send a photo yet because my camera is being a jew again. Its okay. I have been thinking about selling it and buying a new one. But we will see. I didnt really have any new crazy experiences this week. The same old stuff. Buses driving on sidewalks. Naked homeless people. Cows, Dogs, and pigs everywhere. I don't know. all of that just seems normal now. Its so weird. So I just got my papers to apply for a second passport to go to the Phillipines. I leave on January 27th. I will be flying to Hyderabad in a month or two to visit the US embassy. Soo pumped. I hear that they have real Mcdonalds there so that will be my first order of business! 

Dont tell me about conference yet! I havent seen it! Here they record it and then show it a week later! I am soo excited! I cant even begin to describe my feelings towards said event.

Well this week was swell. There were a bunch of hindu festivals this week so there were huge crowds of people dancing and playing drums. Its sweet! I wish Americans partied like the Indians do! Except for the alcohol. Holy shnikies its everywhere. I have been in autos when they were completely wasted and they somehow drive like a professional driver. it explains the traffic here though. They are all drunk all the time so  it just works! Anywho. love yaaaa be safe.

Elder Checketts