In Bangalore for MLC

What up!

Man how is everyone! It has already been another week! Crazy. So this week was busy but good! The assistants came on exchanges with us on thursday so that was fun. No pressure. Just kidding we found a solid family to teach so we will go see them on Wednesday or Thursday! I am in Bangalore right now so if Bishop Brisko or Darren Wesemann are reading this hit me up.

 I will be here till wednesday morning! MLC is tomorrow so we are preparing for that. Pumped. Everything is alright though. Vamsi is doing well. he doesnt speak much english but luckily my companion speaks Telagu so I just sit during the lessons and smile. Juts kiddin Elder Kumar is good about translating! He is from Hyderabad. He is 22 years old so thats cool. got his degree in mechanical engineering. Way smart guy but also way chill. He is basically American. We have taught him like all slang words and our apartment is a party! Elder Larsen made banana bread one night back and it was amazing so thats awesome. We also make Egg Bhurgii all the time for lunch. Look that one up because I have no Idea how to describe it. Way good though. I like so much.

Our investigators are okay. all but Vamsi bunked church so we are working on that one. Haha why does coming to church have to be the biggest problem? Its okay. We will just tell them they can't go to heaven if they dont come. Just kidding. But seriously. Maybe. We will see. We are going to focus on finding this week. Our teaching pool is a small puddle right now. Soon it will become Lake Powell though. Well yeah cool. I dont think we have many plans for thanksgiving. There is a birthday in our branch so we will go and have nice biryani with them! Birthdays are so awesome. There are always huge parties when there is a birthday. Something I want to bring to America! Also when its someones birthday here no one buys them anything but they always give out treats or buy food for a bunch of friends. Kinda cool. So I stitched a couple of pairs of pants last week. I have 4 pairs and I am leaving to the Philippines soon so I figured I would get some pants cheap. To stitch 2 pairs with pretty nice material was 20 bucks. Awesome. 

So this week first branch has a brother with a baptism set for next week so we went to do the interview. The brother is one of the Elders in our missions dad. Brother Dondapati. Really good guy. I guess he has had a word of wisdom problem for a really long time and now he is ready to be baptized. Elder Kumar did the Interview and it was pretty emotional. I guess he asked if his son could come home and see the baptism but we were planning to have his son do the baptism. he didn't know about that and was shocked but he is very happy. So that will happen next Sunday. I didnt really have anything to do with it but Its awesome so I thought I'd share. So Elder Dondaptai will fly home next week and baptize his father and then come back to Bangalore. Pretty cool. Anywho. Life is good. Send me some nice food. Maybe macaroni and cheese. I dunno. haha the package that I got from the ward was awesome! Thank you all so much! Sorry I opened it... I couldnt wait... I saw the christmas wrapping and got all excited haha but it was awesome. The Jeus pictures are way cool! I want some just like that but of different temples! Its awesome! Anyway thank you all so much! Love you miss you

Elder Checketts

I'm a True Missionary

Hello everybody!

How is everyone doing this week?? Hopefully well and sober.... So this week was better! We were able to find a couple of new investigators. Ones name is Meena. She is really interested in the gospel. I think she has been attending some other church down the street from her home. She loved coming to church on Sunday so hopefully all will go smoothly until dunk day. Set for November 30. Tims Birthday! We will see though! Also one of our members has a nephew whose father just gave permission for him to be baptized so we started teaching him and he is 10 years old. His name is Womsi. Solid Kid. Ramu bunked church. Also lost his baptism date so we are going to go and fix that this week. Pumped. The zone of Rajahmundry is doing alright. We are having a hard time finding new investigators. Mostly because no one here speaks English and we aren't supposed to teach in Telagu. Its tough. But they are out there. And the Lord will help us find them.

So yeah. Everything here is good. I am glad its not cold here haha Its still a solid 90 degrees everyday so thats cool. As much as I love having a white Christmas Im not too fond of the snow. Anywho. So remember that package that you sent that had real peanut butter and real honey in it? we can get those things here but they are fake and expensive... I just want you to know I will never ever take a peanut butter and honey sandwich for granted ever again. I sort of have a confession.. Remember when I was in elementary school and every day Mom wold make me a peanut butter and honey sandwich? So I think almost everyday I would eat maybe half of it and than throw everything away cuz I wanted to go outside for Recess..... I just wanted to apologize for that And I want you to know that I will never ever throw away one of those beautiful masterpieces again. I made a sandwich last night and it all hit me how good those things taste. Yeah. Just enjoying the little things. Haha the other chocolates and candy got destroyed because of the humidity.. but still tasted amazing so thank you! By the way. For those of you who will understand (my older Brothers) I am now a true missionary as of last Monday night. It was a lovely experience and im sure it will happen again! Anyways. I hit my 9th month mark a couple weeks back. I think I already told you about it but it was really weird. Never thought that day would come. Still waiting for the year mark to come but thats never gonna happen haha but I dont really want it to happen. I still feel like I havent been gone for that long. Everything is good. I guess it would be cool to receive a letter but they dont make it very often so its your choice... If you wnat to know anything about India or anything thats happening just ask. My memory is lame so I dont remember anything. well love you. Be safe. Eat some Cafe Rio for me!

Elder Checketts

Whitewashing

Hello everyone!

So this week was really slow. My companion and I basically just whitewashed this area and so we had to start from scratch. But we found one new investigator, his name is Ramu. He is a really cool guy. I think I told you about him last week. We are going to see him tonight. He asks a lot of really good questions that are about the plan of salvation so thats what we will be teaching him tonight. I am excited. We have a couple of other potentials that we need to go see but they were all really busy this week so we visited a lot of the members on this side of the branch and found some less actives and we were able to re-activate him just from visiting him. If only the branch would do their home teaching now! I realize why that is so important now! 

We had Zone training meeting this week and it was alright. I dont really know what the heck I am doing. My companion had only been out for 6 months and neither of us have ever been a Zone Leader before. Sometimes it can be stressful but I think we are doing alright. We also had interviews this week with President Berrett. He blows my mind with Doctrine and convenents sometimes. Its awesome. That man is destined for apostleship. No doubt. He just has that voice. Also I have almost memorized the Sermon on the Mount. I have Half of chapter 5 and all of chapter 7 in Mathew. Its way good though. My favorite. Anywho. Life here in the Mundry is lovely. the weather has cooled off to like 80 degrees so its really nice now! 

I dunno what else to say. I almost got hit by a bus the other day but thats normal now. Everything that used to be weird is normal now so if you want to know about something you should probably ask... Oh I almost got trampled by a cow. That was crazy. I was cycling to our branch presidents home and all of a sudden a huge bull comes charging past me. It was awesome. Um yeah. I love chicken biryani. My companion made some amazing but really spicy chicken curry last night. It was really good. I need to have him teach me. Mutton is gross. Also fish curry makes me want to die. but sometimes its really good so I cant make up my mind. We still eat like 2KGs of rice everyday. Definitely I am going to get Diabetes. Its fine. Well I love you all. I hope you are all doing well. I didnt see those pics of Noah from Halloween! Send those! Proud to be an American. Also. I am slightly considering marrying an Indian......... Any thoughts? Hahaha just kidding. Well maybe... I can hear Dad saying "Oh brother" right now. Anywho. The church is true. Jesus Christ lives and He is at the head of His Church. I know it with all of my heart. If you dont, I invite you to find out now. God is always listening. He is always watching. And He is waiting for you to knock. I have seen that too many times to count while I have been here. Let me know how your week was! Hope you start to feel better Mom!

 Love ya miss ya!

Elder Checketts

Still Chillin in the Mundry

Hey! 

How is everyone doing?? I hope all is well. We are doing well here! This last week was crazy! Got quite the story for ya. SO. After emailing you guys last Monday. We were in a big hurry because the flight to Bangalore was leaving in a couple of hours. We cycled back to the apartment and grabbed everything and then I went to the airport with Elder Kumar. When we got there we found out that our flight was delayed. So we were like crap. Then we sat there for another couple of hours and of course it eventually got cancelled. for low visibility. So by that time our the Visak Zone leaders had arrived at the airport so  we called the assistants and they told us to go to a bus stand and try and get a bus that was going to Bangalore. So we went to this bus stand and ate at a really sketchy but awesome place, and then found out that our bus had been filled completely. So we called a cab driver in Rajahmundry and had him drive us to Vijaywada which is about 3 hours away. Then from there the other bus going to Bangalore was full. So we rented another cab to drive us across the country to Bangalore! 13 hour drive. in a mini van! So sick. We basically had a competition to see who could solve the rubix cube the fastest almost the entire time. I almost won... sort of. I was like 10 seconds too slow. My excuse was that I am colorblind and it was dark. I think its valid. Anywho. We got to Bangalore at like noon. MLC had started 2 hours earlier so we all walked in. way late but its fine. Its was awesome. We had KFC for lunch and had a good meeting about getting better numbers. Then I went to like the nicest shopping mall I have ever beheld. Way nicer than City Creek.

 Look up Phoenix Mall in Bangalore. Holy shnikies. Its so nice. Then we woke up at like 4 am and got a flight back to the mundry. Pretty sweet. Not very many elders get to drive across India. Way fun but I dont really want to do that again... 

 Our investigators are doing alright. Prathyusha's mom is not allowing baptism still so we will keep talking to them. Way frustrating. Satish is doing alright but He is still bunking church. We struggle to get him there. Still figuring out what to do there. Sri Lakshmi is awesome and is way solid. I will be switching back into the area I was in when I was companions with Sharma. So that will be fun! I will most likely be in Dowleswarem until I got to the phillipines in January. January 27th is the scheduled day that I leave. So thats cool. I am scared to leave Rajahmundry. This is the only place I know. Ive been here my whole mission haha crazy. but I love it. We found a new investigator the other day named ramu. He is pretty cool and was asking a lot of good questions. He just converted from Hinduism to Christianity and is currently attending a Lutheran church down the street from his home. So I hope to be able to help him out!

Well Yeah! Solid week. It was really fun! I am sad i dont get to stay with Coleman and Larson but We will still be in the same apartment so thats cool. Well send me some more pics of the fam! love ya miss ya!

Elder Checketts