Friday, June 12, 2015

June 8, 2015 - Bangalore - Convent Road

Note from Mom…After not getting a Mon am email, while sitting in the Tuacahn Amphitheatre in St George that night, got an email from our missionary son asking if I wanted to chat! J  It was so fun to “chat” with Elder Ball via email!  So rather than his typical letter this week, here are highlights of what he shared.

--Monday is still p-day, but we had mission conference yesterday with Elder Funk from the 70.  he gave one of the closing prayers in conference last session and gave a talk a couple sessions ago.  I am doing pretty well.  My new area is basically all slums...it is okay.  The other elders' area is americanized a lot more. 
--I really miss my old area and Elder Thompson.  I loved both of them so much.  Me and Elder Thompson became great friends and we actually want to room together at Utah State.  It was way cool!  He is an awesome guy!!!  And it was sad to leave that area.  I loved it so much. 
--Bangalore is so cool though!!  Much better weather than Rajahmundry.  It is incredibly cool, and i actually get cold at nights and in the mornings. 
--I am doing great spiritually, but mentally i am trying to recover from leaving an area i grew to love so much.  And now i am in Bangalore i learned that my old Linga area is basically in shambles, and the elders aren't doing anything there.  I am really trying to get over there soon to visit some people.  Yeah He is sure helping me.  He always does without fail.  (trusting in Jesus Christ, esp during tough times)
--We had some really good lessons this week.  Especially with one brother named Pavithran and his daughter Priya and son Arial.  When we went earlier that day to set the appointment he was working with his plants.  When we went back not knowing what to teach, we asked if they were reading the BoM and had received answers to their prayers if it was true.  They said not yet but that they wanted to know really bad.  So the spirit told us to turn to Alma 32 and since this brother knows a lot about seeds because of his work with plants, we talked about faith being like a seed and if it is a good seed it will grow.  It was such an awesome lesson and we came out of that with our minds blown.  We went in not knowing for sure what to teach because we wanted to see if they are progressing or not.  And the spirit filled it in for us and we had a killer lesson. 
--We also have one part-member investigator named Kanchana.  She is the mother of a really active member in our branch and we are going to be baptizing her on the 21st of June.  We had two really good lessons with her this week and she came to church so we have set her with a june 21 baptism date:)

--The food was pretty good too and way expensive.  (An American who has been in Bangalore for work took the local Elders to a nice restaurant to treat them to dinner before leaving India…also emailed both parents a pic of them at dinner and signed the email ‘just a random guy who also has a missionary’.  So nice! :)
--Yeah i will go and check on them:) (John and Simmy that he/Bunga baptized in Bangalore)  They are excited to see me.  Elder Bunga is awesome!! I uploaded some pics, and he is in one because we had the mission conference tour, so his zone and my zone were together so i saw him, Bandi, and Chettimalla.  Bandi and Bunga are companions now in Chennai.

-- I might not end up going there (to Chennai).  So i leave for the philippines in 5 weeks, and i heard some rumors that there are like 25-30 of our elders waiting for visas there.  So i heard that if i go to the peens i might not come back to india....crazy....or i might even get sent stateside if there is a good chance of not returning to india.  (why the delays?)  Because the government is slow to give them but i have no idea why.  we will see what happens.  My comp goes the FRRO today to see if he gets his extension...if they reject it, he will have to be out of india by next week.  
--(There are long delays for visa processing right now…his mission has visa waiters in US trying to get to India, visa waiters mid-mission in Philippines trying to get back to India, and passport waiters of local to-be-missionaries trying to get to Philippines for the MTC/temple prior to missions in India.  So anyone interested in joining missionary families in praying for timely visa processing so that the work can go forth in India, please do!)

--Well i gotta go! I will talk to you guys next week!!! Hope you have a great week and make sure to tell the family all hi for me!! and tell them i am really grateful for their support!
Love, Elder Ball

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