Cold-wise, I’m thankfully better now.
This week was crazy. Today we spent four hours cleaning up my apartment, then we went to Pizza Hut and spent 170 rupees each for lunch. Possibly we are the only people in Vizag to have done both.
The highlight of the week was Sunday. That included: Elder Pritchett and I feeling very confused because we had 10 people we are teaching at church, including one new family, and after church was over we didn’t have anything to do because all of them found friends. In addition, the eight other people that my companions and I taught and baptized were all at church, plus a 15 year old girl church member that we got coming back to church, plus her mother, plus another person who we found who the other elders are teaching. It was a pretty visual demonstration of the fruits of our labour, and it was pretty ridiculous.
It wasn’t ridiculous simply as a “look at me, look at how much I did.” The temptation was there for me to take it that way, of course. But the happiness I felt looking around me, was more of profound gratitude for coming to church as part of a process of slowly, slowly changing into more than we are. The slow process, that I have felt, of feeling God’s love more and more and losing the desire to do wrong, the process of becoming more than just men and women built for today and tomorrow but being built for forever.
Of that slow process; dividing the class we taught in church into groups, each assigned to present one thing that can make families stronger; seeing John Prasad with his curly hair in his normal teacher persona come up, write “Better Communication” on the board, and talk with vigor and power about their group’s idea, mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters listening more to each other so they could understand each other; how it would solve the many things that drove families apart.
Walking down the street in a hurry to an appointment on Thursday, seeing a flock of four church sisters – all short, round, with vibrant laughs, full of love – serving each other by visiting each other’s houses. Exclaiming in butler English our just-invented idea, to have them come to the house of a family we had started teaching, so they could make friends with the wife. Then on Sunday, helping escort two 5 and 7yo children trying to cling in fear to their mother into primary class, and then watch a lonely 26 year old housewife Swapna sit with happiness and wonder between her new friends Varalakshmi and Nagamani.
A crazy rest of Sunday when we started teaching three new families, and two sisters of whom (they aren’t actually sisters, just both female) that we gave Books of Mormon to a few weeks back read through like 100 pages each. Asking one of them, Madhavi, why Jesus Christ was special, and having her spit back more or less verbatim a Book of Mormon verse we highlighted that said that he has felt everything we as individual humans feel, so he understands us. Seeing the look in her face that meant that was really special to her.
So: life was good this week. With happiness and love,
Sam
Sunday, November 08, 2009
Vizag, October 28
This week has been pretty good. Nothing as spectacular this week as last week. On Sunday a new family that we’ve been teaching came to church and seemed to like it, which was really good. We had ten different people at church that we are teaching; it was crazy looking after all of them! (We might have more, or at least different, people next week too, that new family I talked about last week.)
Other than that the most new and exciting part was yesterday, when I went on exchange with the other elders.
My old companion Elder Bartlett and his new companion Elder Nixon are training a new elder, which means they are in a triple together, and then Elder Bartlett and I switched places for a day. Elder Nixon is way comfortable in chaos – he is the kind of person who draws attention to himself, hugs everyone, makes fun of the waiters by calling them film actor names, and always has something to say. He has the knack for making certain types of people comfortable, that I don’t have, so I had the chance to learn that; and it was pretty fun, even if it was ridiculous.
For example, there were three of us, and we ended up having three different recently baptized church members, all twenty-something and male, with us by the end of the evening. Then we got dragged into a house by this semi-drunk guy who didn’t speak any English, so we were teaching him and his wife about the relevant commandment on the subject, half in case he was willing to listen, half because it had to be translated into Telugu as an excuse to review it with the church members and then make them teach him. So basically there were six twenty-something males in a house with an old guy and his wife. Told you it was kind of ridiculous.
Sadly I am a little sick at the moment, just a normal cold, I think I caught it from Elder Pritchett. It’s the first time I’ve been sick since I ate those biscuits. Other than that not much to report, so hope you’re well, and with love,
Sam
Other than that the most new and exciting part was yesterday, when I went on exchange with the other elders.
My old companion Elder Bartlett and his new companion Elder Nixon are training a new elder, which means they are in a triple together, and then Elder Bartlett and I switched places for a day. Elder Nixon is way comfortable in chaos – he is the kind of person who draws attention to himself, hugs everyone, makes fun of the waiters by calling them film actor names, and always has something to say. He has the knack for making certain types of people comfortable, that I don’t have, so I had the chance to learn that; and it was pretty fun, even if it was ridiculous.
For example, there were three of us, and we ended up having three different recently baptized church members, all twenty-something and male, with us by the end of the evening. Then we got dragged into a house by this semi-drunk guy who didn’t speak any English, so we were teaching him and his wife about the relevant commandment on the subject, half in case he was willing to listen, half because it had to be translated into Telugu as an excuse to review it with the church members and then make them teach him. So basically there were six twenty-something males in a house with an old guy and his wife. Told you it was kind of ridiculous.
Sadly I am a little sick at the moment, just a normal cold, I think I caught it from Elder Pritchett. It’s the first time I’ve been sick since I ate those biscuits. Other than that not much to report, so hope you’re well, and with love,
Sam
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Vizag, October 21
This week has been pretty good. Mainly Diwali here is like Independence Day in America, people buy lots of firecrackers and whenever we walked down the street we were apt to see small (male) children running quickly and hear loud bangs. We stayed inside on Saturday night because it was the first night of Diwali. (I wonder if Diwali is so extensively detailed on Wikipedia because lots of Indians are helping to write it?) As for actual religious celebrations we saw fewer…last religious festival time there were big tents set up everywhere recreating stories about Hindu gods and with taped recordings in Sanskrit, but I didn’t see any of that this time.
This week has been really good, mostly because a couple of really good things happened.
We’ve kept having really bad lessons with Raju, because he didn’t really want to listen, and it was the same when we went there on Saturday night. This time we went back to what we’d been telling him, which was that God was much less likely and able to help him as long as he knew he should leave tea, coffee, and gukka and didn’t. (He kept saying ‘I can do it anytime I want.’) Basically we went there and the lesson started degenerating and then he and his wife had a quick exchange in Hindi after which he said, I’ll keep it starting tomorrow.
We aren’t exactly sure what happened, if Saraswathi goaded him or what. But he kept his promise. And he already is starting to look better – more at peace, more able to listen to other people, more confident.
We looked at our record and so far we’ve visited them 24 times, which is pretty unprecedented for both Elder Pritchett and myself. Some people need a lot of love. But even as the change comes slowly to his family, it’s undeniable. We can see it in their faces.
Also, we met the most wonderful family this week.
The husband Babu stopped us on the street and we took his contact information but he didn’t really seem to speak English so we didn’t think much of it, but he gave us his address. So when we were nearby we found his house and were greeted at the door by his beautiful wife Swapna, who was overjoyed to see us. They have two small children (like 7 and 5) and Swapna deeply desired to love them, but often became frustrated when they misbehaved, and by the tone of her voice I could tell her guilt at feeling this.
They said they knew intellectually God loved their family. But in their words, and even more in their faces and the tone of their voices -- I could tell that they wondered if it was possible to feel that love.
I have felt. We tried to explain how they could too. I don’t think I’ve **ever** seen two people focused more intently on our faces and words.
These two things are probably one of the two wonderful things that have happened in awhile. And so, life is good.
And following a pattern I’ve seen in the last nine months, when life is good it rarely seems to bear any obvious relation to anything we actually did or intended to do….
Love,
Sam
This week has been really good, mostly because a couple of really good things happened.
We’ve kept having really bad lessons with Raju, because he didn’t really want to listen, and it was the same when we went there on Saturday night. This time we went back to what we’d been telling him, which was that God was much less likely and able to help him as long as he knew he should leave tea, coffee, and gukka and didn’t. (He kept saying ‘I can do it anytime I want.’) Basically we went there and the lesson started degenerating and then he and his wife had a quick exchange in Hindi after which he said, I’ll keep it starting tomorrow.
We aren’t exactly sure what happened, if Saraswathi goaded him or what. But he kept his promise. And he already is starting to look better – more at peace, more able to listen to other people, more confident.
We looked at our record and so far we’ve visited them 24 times, which is pretty unprecedented for both Elder Pritchett and myself. Some people need a lot of love. But even as the change comes slowly to his family, it’s undeniable. We can see it in their faces.
Also, we met the most wonderful family this week.
The husband Babu stopped us on the street and we took his contact information but he didn’t really seem to speak English so we didn’t think much of it, but he gave us his address. So when we were nearby we found his house and were greeted at the door by his beautiful wife Swapna, who was overjoyed to see us. They have two small children (like 7 and 5) and Swapna deeply desired to love them, but often became frustrated when they misbehaved, and by the tone of her voice I could tell her guilt at feeling this.
They said they knew intellectually God loved their family. But in their words, and even more in their faces and the tone of their voices -- I could tell that they wondered if it was possible to feel that love.
I have felt. We tried to explain how they could too. I don’t think I’ve **ever** seen two people focused more intently on our faces and words.
These two things are probably one of the two wonderful things that have happened in awhile. And so, life is good.
And following a pattern I’ve seen in the last nine months, when life is good it rarely seems to bear any obvious relation to anything we actually did or intended to do….
Love,
Sam
Vizag, October 14
The flooding is a couple hours away, the closest is in another place in Andhra called Vijaywada. We'll hear about it from other people, but there still has been very little rain here. I got soaked a couple of weeks ago, and a couple months before that, but that's it.
We're going to go play football in about an hour after e-mail, which will be cool -- I haven't really done anything athletic (besides walking everywhere) since we played football like two months ago. Last time I dropped an interception thrown right to me. Sigh.
Life continues well. The main highlight has been our recent convert, John, who brought his friend Vasu to church two weeks back. Vasu felt really good at church, really wants to stop smoking, told us this but we didn't really get to start helping him, went back to his home village, and had some dream which involved him killing people and Jesus Christ stopping him (John was translating the dream for us, I didn't really understand it fully), and now hasn't smoked for like three weeks. It was crazy. He wants to take baptism, but he's kind of uncomfortable with us so we just played caroms with him on Monday to build friendship.
Then John lost his job due to some office drama and is understandably kind of down, especially because other jobs are saying he doesn't have enough English skills. Apparently no one in the office has ethics and most of them have bad habits also, and it's really been dragging on him spiritually, so maybe it's a blessing in disguise, though we're still worrying about him because bad things happen to him when he is depressed. He might move to Hyderabad and get a call center job of some sort. If he does, I'm going to miss him a lot.
…We stopped by on Sunday [to visit a family we are working with,] and Saraswathi (the wife) was reading from the Book of Mormon storybook to her children (and also translating it into Telugu for them) and her daughter was sad because she wanted us to leave so she would keep reading to them. Which was pretty funny. Her 10yo son Santosh really loves us (or me) though so he was okay with the interruption. Saraswathi seems about ten years younger than when we first met her, even though her husband isn't changing quite as much. We're still learning how to help him change, and it's really difficult. For Elder Pritchett and I, it really involves a lot of soul-searching, complete confundment, and throwing good ideas at the wall until something sticks. The main thing that stuck this week was one time where he really wasn't listening or being rational, so we left him to fill in lists of "What I'm doing that God wants me to do," "What I'm doing that God doesn't want me to do," and came back in three hours with Elder Nielsen, and he was way more receptive and rational. Still, honestly we still don't really know what worked -- it was probably some combination of Saraswathi, self-reflection, and Elder Nielsen.
On that note, we seem to be encountering a lot of problematic Indian males right now. When we stopped by Raju's on Sunday we learned that his neighbors that we used to teach moved out. The husband was apparently jealous that his (house)wife had friends nearby and was socializing with them. She would always complain to us about her husband and make faces about him, and when we played caroms he seemed to not-jokingly describe her as 'Pakistan'. I smilingly suggested 'Sri Lanka' but he kept insisting on 'Pakistan.' (This was about the extent of our direct communication due to my lack of Telugu and his lack of English.) Meanwhile the husband's sister was staying with her because her husband kept threatening to kill her and their infant son. Basically one big happy neighborhood. I heard a quote recently that describes my situation well, to paraphrase: "My mind informs me that I lack the capability to help all the people of whom my heart requires." Alas....
Also transfer calls came and I'm staying here with Elder Pritchett for at least another six weeks. Yay!
Love,
Sam
We're going to go play football in about an hour after e-mail, which will be cool -- I haven't really done anything athletic (besides walking everywhere) since we played football like two months ago. Last time I dropped an interception thrown right to me. Sigh.
Life continues well. The main highlight has been our recent convert, John, who brought his friend Vasu to church two weeks back. Vasu felt really good at church, really wants to stop smoking, told us this but we didn't really get to start helping him, went back to his home village, and had some dream which involved him killing people and Jesus Christ stopping him (John was translating the dream for us, I didn't really understand it fully), and now hasn't smoked for like three weeks. It was crazy. He wants to take baptism, but he's kind of uncomfortable with us so we just played caroms with him on Monday to build friendship.
Then John lost his job due to some office drama and is understandably kind of down, especially because other jobs are saying he doesn't have enough English skills. Apparently no one in the office has ethics and most of them have bad habits also, and it's really been dragging on him spiritually, so maybe it's a blessing in disguise, though we're still worrying about him because bad things happen to him when he is depressed. He might move to Hyderabad and get a call center job of some sort. If he does, I'm going to miss him a lot.
…We stopped by on Sunday [to visit a family we are working with,] and Saraswathi (the wife) was reading from the Book of Mormon storybook to her children (and also translating it into Telugu for them) and her daughter was sad because she wanted us to leave so she would keep reading to them. Which was pretty funny. Her 10yo son Santosh really loves us (or me) though so he was okay with the interruption. Saraswathi seems about ten years younger than when we first met her, even though her husband isn't changing quite as much. We're still learning how to help him change, and it's really difficult. For Elder Pritchett and I, it really involves a lot of soul-searching, complete confundment, and throwing good ideas at the wall until something sticks. The main thing that stuck this week was one time where he really wasn't listening or being rational, so we left him to fill in lists of "What I'm doing that God wants me to do," "What I'm doing that God doesn't want me to do," and came back in three hours with Elder Nielsen, and he was way more receptive and rational. Still, honestly we still don't really know what worked -- it was probably some combination of Saraswathi, self-reflection, and Elder Nielsen.
On that note, we seem to be encountering a lot of problematic Indian males right now. When we stopped by Raju's on Sunday we learned that his neighbors that we used to teach moved out. The husband was apparently jealous that his (house)wife had friends nearby and was socializing with them. She would always complain to us about her husband and make faces about him, and when we played caroms he seemed to not-jokingly describe her as 'Pakistan'. I smilingly suggested 'Sri Lanka' but he kept insisting on 'Pakistan.' (This was about the extent of our direct communication due to my lack of Telugu and his lack of English.) Meanwhile the husband's sister was staying with her because her husband kept threatening to kill her and their infant son. Basically one big happy neighborhood. I heard a quote recently that describes my situation well, to paraphrase: "My mind informs me that I lack the capability to help all the people of whom my heart requires." Alas....
Also transfer calls came and I'm staying here with Elder Pritchett for at least another six weeks. Yay!
Love,
Sam
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Vizag, October 7
India is going crazy over the swine flu but apparently it's not more serious that normal flu. I'm still more concerned about dying when crossing the road than getting swine flu.
This week was good. Stuff is going on, I suppose. We painted the walls on the staircase to the church and now people are spitting gukka on them again. Ai-yo. We finally tried out an idea that I'd had since I got here, loaning out marked Books of Mormon. We're doing a lot better job of explaining things clearly and concisely -- Elder Bartlett and Elder Nixon are actually making us follow the directive to keep our lessons under 45 minutes, and it's worked out well. I've figured out how to concisely write but concisely speaking is harder, especially for me.
Most importantly, Elder Pritchett and I are finally melding, really, together. Last night, I got a really invaluable insight from another elder, Elder Nixon, who I was on exchange with. He said you grow to love people as you serve them. "Of course," I thought, when he told me, but I didn't really realize it until now.
It makes total sense -- I've developed a great love for the people I teach, and also the people in India in general, but I never developed the same love for other elders, or really (to a lesser degree) the church members. And so with other elders, especially Elder Pritchett, I've probably expressed a lot more impatience, frustration, demanding attitude, stubbornness, and so forth than I should. Alas. I'm going to have to have a much more conscious attitude to serve the other elders so I can grow to love them more. As I gained that insight, I realized, even more, how much of life is a choice.
Love,
Sam
This week was good. Stuff is going on, I suppose. We painted the walls on the staircase to the church and now people are spitting gukka on them again. Ai-yo. We finally tried out an idea that I'd had since I got here, loaning out marked Books of Mormon. We're doing a lot better job of explaining things clearly and concisely -- Elder Bartlett and Elder Nixon are actually making us follow the directive to keep our lessons under 45 minutes, and it's worked out well. I've figured out how to concisely write but concisely speaking is harder, especially for me.
Most importantly, Elder Pritchett and I are finally melding, really, together. Last night, I got a really invaluable insight from another elder, Elder Nixon, who I was on exchange with. He said you grow to love people as you serve them. "Of course," I thought, when he told me, but I didn't really realize it until now.
It makes total sense -- I've developed a great love for the people I teach, and also the people in India in general, but I never developed the same love for other elders, or really (to a lesser degree) the church members. And so with other elders, especially Elder Pritchett, I've probably expressed a lot more impatience, frustration, demanding attitude, stubbornness, and so forth than I should. Alas. I'm going to have to have a much more conscious attitude to serve the other elders so I can grow to love them more. As I gained that insight, I realized, even more, how much of life is a choice.
Love,
Sam
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Vizag, September 30
I'm a little sleepy as I write this, mostly due to a nap I took today. Not really sure if that was too good of an idea. My companion and I made chapattis today along with some prepackaged mango daal, which was the first time I've actually made them in India. Exciting.
This last week has been pretty crazy. One family we are teaching is struggling this week - they came to church but they're about to get evicted. We're trying to help them but are not allowed to give them anything Even though the family is actually in need, it's generally a bad policy to give/loan money to people joining the church (creates the wrong incentives, and a lot of jealousy), plus the conversion concerns in India. We talked to the branch president and offered an extra room that belongs to a church member, but it's a few kilometers away and they don't want to move so far (far from their children's schools and so forth). And on the spiritual side, because of this, he feels like he can't concentrate on God, and also that God isn't blessing him. He called us yesterday to tell us this, and I talked him into letting us come that day. He keeps changing his mind on everything and is basically in panic mode, which is kind of frustrating but understandable. The only peace the family has (and they recognize this) is when they come to church and meet us and read their scriptures, and thus even in worldly terms it's kind of counterproductive for them to not do that. I came with one of the mission leaders who was in town, named Elder Mehan, and we pointed this out. We're really worried about the family but we're doing our best right now, so there isn't a lot else we can do. The main problem is that so many people view blessings from God as primarily financial or other worldly things instead of other-worldly things, and this man has picked up on that. All we can do is keep committing him to repent and change, and help him see the blessings in his life. Last night we committed him to give up tea coffee and gukka (some chewing tobacco product) and tonight we will offer to start fasting with him.
Other than that, we had a really good missionary conference yesterday, about our purpose as missionaries. President Nichols pointed out that the intent that you do things determines your results (go to school to get good grades, or a good education? wed so you can get the best-looking person you can find, or so you can build an eternal family?). He pointed out that while we all generally came for good reasons (eg we knew we should, that it was the right thing to do, we saw the changes in others who went, the prophets and/or scriptures said we should), they shouldn't be the reasons we should be out now. Somewhere around 6 or 12 months out, he said, the mission starts more and more to become about the people of India and less and less about us. I was reading an essay I wrote before coming and saw that was true for me. I really feel that before, I knew from a chain of logical arguments that I should be out here, but now I really see the evidence with my own eyes and it's (started to) really sink down into my heart. There's a scripture in the Book of Mormon that "blessed are those who believe and are baptized without stubbornness of heart, without being compelled to know the word," and I really understand that more now. I had stubbornness of heart about coming out here -- though that might seem hard to imagine -- and I'm becoming less and less stubborn (eg when things are hard like changing bad habits or talking to people) which is good.
Also we found another broken family. I hope we'll be able to help.
This last week has been pretty crazy. One family we are teaching is struggling this week - they came to church but they're about to get evicted. We're trying to help them but are not allowed to give them anything Even though the family is actually in need, it's generally a bad policy to give/loan money to people joining the church (creates the wrong incentives, and a lot of jealousy), plus the conversion concerns in India. We talked to the branch president and offered an extra room that belongs to a church member, but it's a few kilometers away and they don't want to move so far (far from their children's schools and so forth). And on the spiritual side, because of this, he feels like he can't concentrate on God, and also that God isn't blessing him. He called us yesterday to tell us this, and I talked him into letting us come that day. He keeps changing his mind on everything and is basically in panic mode, which is kind of frustrating but understandable. The only peace the family has (and they recognize this) is when they come to church and meet us and read their scriptures, and thus even in worldly terms it's kind of counterproductive for them to not do that. I came with one of the mission leaders who was in town, named Elder Mehan, and we pointed this out. We're really worried about the family but we're doing our best right now, so there isn't a lot else we can do. The main problem is that so many people view blessings from God as primarily financial or other worldly things instead of other-worldly things, and this man has picked up on that. All we can do is keep committing him to repent and change, and help him see the blessings in his life. Last night we committed him to give up tea coffee and gukka (some chewing tobacco product) and tonight we will offer to start fasting with him.
Other than that, we had a really good missionary conference yesterday, about our purpose as missionaries. President Nichols pointed out that the intent that you do things determines your results (go to school to get good grades, or a good education? wed so you can get the best-looking person you can find, or so you can build an eternal family?). He pointed out that while we all generally came for good reasons (eg we knew we should, that it was the right thing to do, we saw the changes in others who went, the prophets and/or scriptures said we should), they shouldn't be the reasons we should be out now. Somewhere around 6 or 12 months out, he said, the mission starts more and more to become about the people of India and less and less about us. I was reading an essay I wrote before coming and saw that was true for me. I really feel that before, I knew from a chain of logical arguments that I should be out here, but now I really see the evidence with my own eyes and it's (started to) really sink down into my heart. There's a scripture in the Book of Mormon that "blessed are those who believe and are baptized without stubbornness of heart, without being compelled to know the word," and I really understand that more now. I had stubbornness of heart about coming out here -- though that might seem hard to imagine -- and I'm becoming less and less stubborn (eg when things are hard like changing bad habits or talking to people) which is good.
Also we found another broken family. I hope we'll be able to help.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Vizag, September 23
This last week has been really, really crazy. The family that we were teaching got baptized on Sunday. Between Thursday and Sunday, we visited them five times, plus they came to church, and they still wanted us to come over on Monday for lunch (it was Anisha's 11th birthday). As my companion put it, "I'd be sick of me." By Sunday night, I about collapsed.
The other family we're focusing right now is so wonderful. It's really clear how much the Spirit is there. A lot of what we teach they will forget (or won't understand -- English problem), but they do everything we tell them to, so they feel the Spirit and start to change. For example, they've started having prayer and scripture study every night as a family. They've come to church every week, and they feel so happy there. The wife gave up tea and coffee on Sunday, though the husband is still working on tobacco, tea and coffee. It's really clear how much time stuff takes to sink into people's souls. He needs to feel the Spirit and understand the gospel enough to stop. It amazes me sometimes that the gospel of Jesus Christ has changed him as much as it has - a concrete person that I concretely know and concretely love. Even as I teach him I am amazed.
We found another wonderful family on Monday - well, the mother and the children are wonderful, but they have to hide their Bible and our meeting from the father, who is meanwhile having an affair with another woman. He used to be Christian, but something happened. We really, profoundly, don't know what to do but are praying about it.
The people that I taught and saw baptized we've all put to work on other people we're teaching -- John Prasad we took three times last week, Solomon by tonight we'll have taken him to four appointments this week, and Jerry is busy trying to help a sister we're teaching that has tons of problems. Eight people that I've taught here are now baptized. All of them come to church plus other people we're teaching, which means I have like a small posse at church. I don't know whether that's good or bad. It could make me lazy, on the other hand they all want to come with us. It does probably mean that I'll be sent somewhere else soon.
In summary, life is crazy and wonderful at the same time, which is pretty usual.
With love,
Sam
The other family we're focusing right now is so wonderful. It's really clear how much the Spirit is there. A lot of what we teach they will forget (or won't understand -- English problem), but they do everything we tell them to, so they feel the Spirit and start to change. For example, they've started having prayer and scripture study every night as a family. They've come to church every week, and they feel so happy there. The wife gave up tea and coffee on Sunday, though the husband is still working on tobacco, tea and coffee. It's really clear how much time stuff takes to sink into people's souls. He needs to feel the Spirit and understand the gospel enough to stop. It amazes me sometimes that the gospel of Jesus Christ has changed him as much as it has - a concrete person that I concretely know and concretely love. Even as I teach him I am amazed.
We found another wonderful family on Monday - well, the mother and the children are wonderful, but they have to hide their Bible and our meeting from the father, who is meanwhile having an affair with another woman. He used to be Christian, but something happened. We really, profoundly, don't know what to do but are praying about it.
The people that I taught and saw baptized we've all put to work on other people we're teaching -- John Prasad we took three times last week, Solomon by tonight we'll have taken him to four appointments this week, and Jerry is busy trying to help a sister we're teaching that has tons of problems. Eight people that I've taught here are now baptized. All of them come to church plus other people we're teaching, which means I have like a small posse at church. I don't know whether that's good or bad. It could make me lazy, on the other hand they all want to come with us. It does probably mean that I'll be sent somewhere else soon.
In summary, life is crazy and wonderful at the same time, which is pretty usual.
With love,
Sam
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Vizag, September 16
This week has been pretty good. No crazy stories like card-preparing, but pretty good. Glad you liked it!
Elder Pritchett and I are getting into a groove, which is good. It takes about a week to get into a groove with a new companion, I think. Elder Pritchett and I are getting along pretty well and also figuring out how to remedy our weaknesses, mostly that we just both are inclined to go off on tangents instead of focusing on what we need to be focusing on, especially during planning. It’s testing my focus and prioritization, but I don’t have Elder Bartlett to get me back on track anymore. I’m doing a pretty good job though and learning.
Case in point: we had this wonderful lesson on Thursday that we spent half an hour preparing our three main points, what we were going to read with the family, that went off without a hitch, and motivated the family to start reading the scriptures together. And then they reported feeling really happy as a result.
Hmm what else is new. We keep having a bunch of appointments at the church with people that are doing all right in keeping their commitments but have unpredictable schedules, so we keep sitting at the church a lot which is annoying. We also discovered that one really great family we’re teaching doesn’t actually live in the area that we’re responsible for, which is kind of sad because we have to give them to the other elders and I’ll miss them.
Elder Pritchett and I were thinking recently and we realized that most of the families that have really investigated our message are love marriages. (The Michael family in Chennai, the family we have to give to the other elders, and the Raju family, a family I’ve mentioned before that we’re teaching that is preparing to be baptized on October 18.) It’s interesting because love marriages are a small percent of the 40-50 year old Indian population, even, at least I would presume, among the people that speak English. But they are a large proportion of the people that accept our message and get baptized, in my and my companion’s experience. There are several possible explanations but we’re not sure which one is correct. Also the sample size is pretty small. Anyway, these are my recent ruminations.
Today I finally sat down to write letter to Jeremiah and Michael family, my converts in Chennai, which was really good. I’d written them a letter six weeks ago, but now I got to write them another one.
Oooh, excited that you actually saw a copy of the essay! How does it look? (Visual on the paper, I know what it says.) Also if you look an interview with Margaret Young is in the same issue. Also Elder Pritchett informs me that his family is in the same ward in Boston with the journal editor-in-chief, so his sister found my blog. Amusing. Also glad to hear I’m a little bit richer.
Glad you made the deadline for the newsletter. Our perennial experience at the Daily was missing ours, hah.
Times Square looks way better as a pedestrian zone. Is Baba’s friend Suresh the one we went to see in Kentucky. And the dress looks nice on Rachel! It’s weird to think that you made it! (And still have it, you packrat. Though I should first ask, how many dresses have you made in your life?)
Have a safe trip to Chicago, and hope you don’t suffer too much from empty nest syndrome,
Love,
Sam
Elder Pritchett and I are getting into a groove, which is good. It takes about a week to get into a groove with a new companion, I think. Elder Pritchett and I are getting along pretty well and also figuring out how to remedy our weaknesses, mostly that we just both are inclined to go off on tangents instead of focusing on what we need to be focusing on, especially during planning. It’s testing my focus and prioritization, but I don’t have Elder Bartlett to get me back on track anymore. I’m doing a pretty good job though and learning.
Case in point: we had this wonderful lesson on Thursday that we spent half an hour preparing our three main points, what we were going to read with the family, that went off without a hitch, and motivated the family to start reading the scriptures together. And then they reported feeling really happy as a result.
Hmm what else is new. We keep having a bunch of appointments at the church with people that are doing all right in keeping their commitments but have unpredictable schedules, so we keep sitting at the church a lot which is annoying. We also discovered that one really great family we’re teaching doesn’t actually live in the area that we’re responsible for, which is kind of sad because we have to give them to the other elders and I’ll miss them.
Elder Pritchett and I were thinking recently and we realized that most of the families that have really investigated our message are love marriages. (The Michael family in Chennai, the family we have to give to the other elders, and the Raju family, a family I’ve mentioned before that we’re teaching that is preparing to be baptized on October 18.) It’s interesting because love marriages are a small percent of the 40-50 year old Indian population, even, at least I would presume, among the people that speak English. But they are a large proportion of the people that accept our message and get baptized, in my and my companion’s experience. There are several possible explanations but we’re not sure which one is correct. Also the sample size is pretty small. Anyway, these are my recent ruminations.
Today I finally sat down to write letter to Jeremiah and Michael family, my converts in Chennai, which was really good. I’d written them a letter six weeks ago, but now I got to write them another one.
Oooh, excited that you actually saw a copy of the essay! How does it look? (Visual on the paper, I know what it says.) Also if you look an interview with Margaret Young is in the same issue. Also Elder Pritchett informs me that his family is in the same ward in Boston with the journal editor-in-chief, so his sister found my blog. Amusing. Also glad to hear I’m a little bit richer.
Glad you made the deadline for the newsletter. Our perennial experience at the Daily was missing ours, hah.
Times Square looks way better as a pedestrian zone. Is Baba’s friend Suresh the one we went to see in Kentucky. And the dress looks nice on Rachel! It’s weird to think that you made it! (And still have it, you packrat. Though I should first ask, how many dresses have you made in your life?)
Have a safe trip to Chicago, and hope you don’t suffer too much from empty nest syndrome,
Love,
Sam
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Vizag, September 9
My new companion is really cool. Get this: his family lived in Delhi for 3 years because his father worked for....the World Bank. (and is currently teaching development economics at Harvard.) Everybody in this mission is ridiculous. I guess it's rainy season now, but we've missed most of the downpours -- we've only gotten seriously rained on twice, but we're mostly spending time inside teaching people instead of outside finding people to teach.
Life this week was pretty low-key. We didn't go outside for a couple of days this week because the CM of Andhra Pradesh died (you might have heard) in a helicopter crash, and the government called a strike. Then was a crazy Saturday -- we ran around town to three different really important appointments, that all went really well -- Sunday we weren't able do too much, planned Monday morning, then in the afternoon it took three hours for my companion to get registered at the police station, and then we made and took a "Get Well" card to a 16yo brother in a family we're teaching, who's had a 104 fever. That one was a bit funny, the stationary shop had tons of these ridiculously elaborate friendship and birthday cards but not a single Get Well card (or a single simple card), so we bought a sheet of blue paper to write on and a couple 8 1/2 x 11s and folded an envelope out of it, wrote a note, and folded a paper boat. All done in the stationary shop -- the people who ran the shop are going to be telling the story about the two strange American customers for a while :)
By now I've gotten pretty settled in my area and I'm continually making sure that I don't get comfortable -- eg, not shying away but saying hi to people that I don't know at church (because I should know them by now). Neither of us really like to talk on the telephone which will either be disastrous or a great learning opportunity - we'll try to make it the latter. We're still getting used to each other's teaching styles - Elder Pritchett has a very thoughtful way of speaking which involves pauses while he thinks. But all is well.
Today we walked up the hills just behind our house, it was pretty fun. When we got to the top we could see a lot of Vizag (probably 5-6 kms radius). It's way more pretty than suburban America, there's way more variety in building styles and so forth. Then we were tired so we went back to our house and slept for half an hour.
With love,
Sam
Life this week was pretty low-key. We didn't go outside for a couple of days this week because the CM of Andhra Pradesh died (you might have heard) in a helicopter crash, and the government called a strike. Then was a crazy Saturday -- we ran around town to three different really important appointments, that all went really well -- Sunday we weren't able do too much, planned Monday morning, then in the afternoon it took three hours for my companion to get registered at the police station, and then we made and took a "Get Well" card to a 16yo brother in a family we're teaching, who's had a 104 fever. That one was a bit funny, the stationary shop had tons of these ridiculously elaborate friendship and birthday cards but not a single Get Well card (or a single simple card), so we bought a sheet of blue paper to write on and a couple 8 1/2 x 11s and folded an envelope out of it, wrote a note, and folded a paper boat. All done in the stationary shop -- the people who ran the shop are going to be telling the story about the two strange American customers for a while :)
By now I've gotten pretty settled in my area and I'm continually making sure that I don't get comfortable -- eg, not shying away but saying hi to people that I don't know at church (because I should know them by now). Neither of us really like to talk on the telephone which will either be disastrous or a great learning opportunity - we'll try to make it the latter. We're still getting used to each other's teaching styles - Elder Pritchett has a very thoughtful way of speaking which involves pauses while he thinks. But all is well.
Today we walked up the hills just behind our house, it was pretty fun. When we got to the top we could see a lot of Vizag (probably 5-6 kms radius). It's way more pretty than suburban America, there's way more variety in building styles and so forth. Then we were tired so we went back to our house and slept for half an hour.
With love,
Sam
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