Elder Ryan Ball - India Bangalore Mission: August 6, 2014

Dearest Family,

Wow what a great week in the MTC. This place is absolutely incredible. The Spirit is literally felt like non stop and Satan is like not present at all. I have learned so much and i think i am already becoming a much better man. The MTC is amazing. My companion's name is Elder Semadeni and he is the one from Wyoming. I like him. He is a good guy. My district as whole however, is the best in the entire MTC i just know it. I know that we are a select group of Elder's chosen to serve the people of India. We are already so close and best friends with each other. We all get along perfectly and our Spirit and focus together as a group is absolutely remarkable. I love every one of them so much. There are 8 of us and i will try to send a picture of us. Like i said, we are best friends already and i am not looking forward to leaving them all in a week....i probably will cry no joke and you know me as "not much of a crier" ;)

Elder Semadeni and i are teaching two investigators already as practice and one's name is Nick. We have gotten so much better at simplifying and relying on the Spirit as we teach and there was a huge difference between our first visit last Thursday and our visit last night. We almost committed him to baptism. He said he is willing but just not ready but we believe he is. We just have to continue to have faith in the slow and sure process. The other's name is Arnold and he is so cool. We have only visited him once and the whole time he wowed us with his knowledge of the Bible so we will have to brush up on it in order to keep up with him. But we did commit him to read Alma 34 on our first day so that is great.

Anyways, the food is pretty good but i feel fat haha. I have played some ball though and played against an Elder from Cali who played at BYU-Hawaii. I balled him up. But he was still way good:) oh yeah and 7 of the 8 of us going to India are going to Bangalore and the other is going to New Delhi. Their names are Pereira, Parks, Grimmett, Semadeni, Cloward, Martinez and the New Delhi Elder is Shumway. My new best buddies for sure. We have learned a lot from our teachers this week and have definitely grown. I recommend you guys to watch Elder Bednar's MTC talk titled "The Character of Christ." Look it up on YouTube or something it is so incredible. Like i was blown away and you will love it. Well, other than that not much to say. I leave on the 12th and we fly to Chicago, then London, then Bangalore for a total of 41 hours!!!!!!! It's insane. But more time with my friends:) I love you guys. Give Tyler lots of hugs for me please. Every night I ask God to send an angel every once in awhile to give Tyler a literal hug for me because I know that he will and that with Tyler being an Angel, that he has unlimited access to angels.

Oh and i won't be able to email you until like the 18th or something because of the travel complications but i will let you know. I am so excited to step foot in India and see what it looks like in person!

Love, Elder Ball

Pictures sent later of the MTC...