What uppp

Hello everyone!

Well this week was a little slow but still solid. We were able to teach some awesome lessons and help others to be able to feel the spirit. We are teaching a less active members son who is 10 years old. Its a little difficult because he has a hard time understanding. But he is awesome. His name is Cherry. Really cool kid. We are still teaching that awesome family and they are doing really well. They have soooo many questions though. Which is a good thing because we are answering them all. Sister Kamala is doing well but the whole Hindu in-law thing is preventing her from progressing. We are trying to help her to have courage and to talk to her husband and do what she believes. We were going to share Joshua 1:9 and also the story of esther in the old testament. hopefully we can help her out.

I gave a talk on Sunday about remembering Christ not just on Sunday but everyday. I based it around the talk that Elder Gong gave in General conference. I think it was okay. Haha if only people here actually spoke English. I gave 5 points on how we can better Keep the covenant we make every week during the sacrament. A few people told me that I did a good job so I have confirmation that at least 3 people understood it! Good enough for me. Solid day. We also got lunch from a member with nice Mango Dahl. Sooo nice. 

Well definitely I want you all to know that this is the Lords work. I feel Him guiding us every single day. Appointments, lessons, and all tracting just go too well for there not to be someone on the other side leading it. Too many small things happen that would never work out if God was not in charge. Also. The church puts 20 year olds in charge of who qualifies to be baptized into the church so if it wasnt true the church would have fallen apart years ago. Anyway. I have already found the reason, or at least one of them, why I was sent back to India. The couple that was just baptized had a big part in it. They are awesome. And I also think it was just a merciful act of our Heavenly Father to allow me to have nice Chicken biryani again. Seriously though. I love that family. They are amazing. The Church is True! Love you all and Miss you!

Elder Checketts

Mango Season!

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the super late letter but we just barely got back from a place called Araku. Its like 3 hours away from here and we left at around 5AM and I am starving and have a massive headache so if there are some parts of this letter that dont make any sense or have a lot of typos i am sorry! 

So this week was pretty average... We have this family that we are teaching and they are awesome. Golden investigators. Everytime we teach them they ask awesome questions and just want to learn more and more. We end up teaching for an hour and a half sometimes cuz they dont want us to leave. Its super fun teaching them. All the other investigators are good but are now coming up with more concerns. But I know that all things will work out and someday they will be able to be baptized. This week for we need to go and find some new investigators. We have a member that referrals for us so we are stoked out of our minds for that and also one of our investigators has a family referral so we are even more pumped for that. Umm yeah other than that bascially everything else is the same. Its getting ridiculously hot here and I am sweating like 5 liters daily. In case you were wondering. Also! Big News! GUYS. MANGO SEASON IS STARTING!!!!! YEAAAAASSSSSSS!  I literally cant express in words how excited I am. One thing I can say though. God Loves His children. Mangoes are a witness of that. 

This week I have been thinking a lot about Elder Gongs talk on Remembering Christ and I have read that book Drawing on the Powers of Heaven for like the 10th time and it talks about keeping your thoughts continually directed towards the Savior and other Faith promoting things. I feel like I talked about this in my letter last week. But I dont care cuz its awesome and its something we all should do. So I have been focusing a lot on that and making sure that my thoughts arent just influenced by the insane things I see while riding in an Auto. For instance the other day we saw a naked man running through the streets screaming something in Telagu and it was pretty disturbing. But.... no pun intended.. hahaha Its definitely easier said than done to stay focused at all times! Anyway. yeah. Thats the message for this week. Be happy dont do drugs and focus your thoughts. 

Love you all!

Elder Checketts

Bucket list: Rode a Camel, check

Hello!

Well this week was still a little slow. but mostly cuz we went to Bangaluru this week for MLC! Super awesome meeting. we learned more about repentance why how to better teach it to people. And also how to have more effective meetings! Both of which I definitely need to work on! We had some awesome lessons this week and found a new family of investigators. they are super cool and have come to church and loved it! Brother Venket and sister Manga who were both baptized 2 weeks ago are still awesome. We are going to work on finding new investigators this week. 

Oh my gosh general conference. SO GOOD. Seriously I loved every single talk. I have already downloaded 10 of them. President uchtdorf's talk in priesthood session was one of my favorites. Also Elder Gong. He came to India 2 years ago for a mission tour and i got to meet him. really awesome guy. He gave a super talk on remembering Christ. Also of course Elder Holland gave a great talk and Elder Oaks and President Nelson and Elder Bednar and basically everyone. Super awesome. 

Also I have big news. I like cricket now! I understand the crazy game now and I am into it. India was in the cricket world cup and lost in the semi finals to the west indies. people here were super depressed when they lost. haha my companion is crazy about that game and loses his mind everytime they play its awesome. 

Anyways. I got to ride on a camel yesterday so basically I am good with coming home now. Just kidding. but seriously it was awesome.

Um nothing else is new. I literally do the same things everyday. Haha but its fun. Life is good. How are you all doing? I hope everything is going well. Love you all and keep your heads up! Also. Chris, Ryan, and Tim... write me an email you slothful bums!

Elder Checketts

Pray for India

Hey Everyone

This last week was a long one. I was sick one day and then the next my companion would get sick. every other day for the first half of the week was like that. We were still able to teach an okay amount of lessons though. We had 6 member present lessons and 21 lessons to recent converts and less actives. A few of our investigators told us their main concerns and they are tough. Sister Kamala's husband is very Hindu and I guess she is supposed to go and do poojas with him and if she gets baptized it may cause a lot of problems in their family. She doesnt want any contention to come in her marriage and her husband is out of town for another month so she cant talk to him about any of this yet. Then with a few other investigators there are word of wisdom things and yeah. lots of stuff came up this week so it was hard but we found a new young couple to teach that is super cool. They are both doctors and are fully busy everyday but they have sundays off so we are going to try and teach them once a week. they are really nice though. Some members brought their friends to church so we are going to go and teach them also. this week should be really good. We are excited. 

We are flying to Bangaluru on Tuesday night for MLC so that should be good. Its always good to go there and learn from the president what we can do better. Our zone is still doing well. This week was difficult for everyone though. Satan is definitely trying to stop the work from progressing. One thing that my companion and i have noticed is that literally every single time we are about to give a baptism invitation something comes up. Either someone calls them on their phone or a friend shows up at their house at the exact moment we are about to ask. Its super frustrating. Anyway. Haha sorry i am done complaining now. Everything else is going well. We are planning to go to a place called Araku today. Ive heard there are really cool caves there and waterfalls everywhere. But it takes a long time to get there so we might have to reschedule it for next monday. 

How is everyone there? I hope you all enjoyed conference! We will be watching this weekend! I am super excited to hear all the talks! General conference is like a holiday! So many awesome things happen! Well thats basically it for this week. Love you all and hope youre doing well!

Elder Checketts