Tuesday, November 4, 2014

November 4, 2014 - Bangalore

Hello everybody!
And first of all...Happy Birthday to the best mom in the world! This is a day late because of transfers, but if there weren't transfers i would have said happy birthday on time! Hope your day was great mommy:)
So my week this week was pretty dang good again.  Except i randomly came down with a cold for a couple days which was really weird.  

But this week we did member visits and taught investigators as usual.  So those two investigators we inherited from the Ramamurthy Nagar elders names are Raju and Yogita.  So we planned to go and visit them and meet them and teach them.  So we decided to ask Cedrick if he could go with us so he took us along with a member named Arun in his car.  Those are the car pictures i uploaded.  So we traveled and traveled and traveled and these people live clear out of our way haha.  It took us two hours to get there and the place isn't even in Bangalore.  It is in a town called Nelamangala.  But apparently it is still in our area.  So we got there and they are soooo good.  They are very interested and were very receptive and willing to learn.  They only have one problem....Getting to church every sunday. So they told us they will come twice a month.  First and last sunday of every month.  Which is kind of a bummer because in order to be baptized, investigators have to attend three sacrament meetings in a row.  So we will probably talk to President Berrett about this one and see if we can make an exception because they live so far away from the church.  But it was a good time and we taught them about the Book of Mormon and challenged them to read it so this week we will see if followed through with their commitment.   And Cedrick really opened up to us.  Cedrick has always kind of been a quiet guy but with us this day, he really opened up and said he is always free so to call him and let him know when he can come with us.  So we took him a few times out this week and he is so awesome and has such a strong testimony and we are so glad that he opened up to us.  We also taught his friend Stephen again this week and Stephen is i think making very slow but very sure progress.  

We saw Sister Amudha and her daughter Jaromia last Monday and Jaromia had her baby so Vincent David is now a grandpa.  The baby is so dang cute so i uploaded some pics and thought mom would love newborn baby pics:) We are going to reinvite sister Amudha to be baptized this week to see if she is still willing and ready.  November 1 was a member named Sister Barathi's birthday and they are such a nice family to us so they invited us over to celebrate her birthday so that is whose b-day it is in the pictures.

On Sunday we had a really productive day.  So after church we asked Cedrick if he could come with us to Kothanur and he said yes and we also brought another African named Frank (from Ivory Coast) with us.  We went and taught Logo and he is really good and wants to come to church but his brother Yona hasn't been waking up to come to church so Logo hasn't been able to come with is a bummer.  But then we taught Grace and Nique (Pictured with Elder Bunga and I).  We taught them about prophets and had a really good discussion.  Toward the end it kind of turned into a bible bash because Frank (who is a return missionary of two years) was pulling out scriptures left and right and Grace and Nique were having a hard time accepting them even though they were in the bible.  But nevertheless, the discussion was still pretty good and they were willing to let us come teach them again so i guess that is good.  Then we went and taught Simmy and John and they have still been busy with exams so they haven't started reading the BoM yet, but they promised us that they will start on Thursday after exams and then that they would come to church on Sunday.  

So we have really been gaining the trust of the members and really trying to become close with them so they are more willing to help us so that has been good.  The Pidugu's are such a great family and they are so nice to us and feed us every once in a while which is nice;)  We went last night to brother Vasanth's house for family home evening (pictured).  It was a really good family home evening.  Our Branch President got an assignment in Chennai for his job so it is a bummer that he can only come to church twice a month so we are wondering if we will get a new Branch Presidency soon.  

So a good week for us and on to transfer news: so Elder Bunga and i will be together for at least another 6 weeks! We are very excited about that and really hoping we can get a baptism before our companionship ends.  The assistants said that they are keeping us together because we are doing so well together.  So that is really good.  The picture with all the missionaries is our district.  It was our last meeting with Elder Kesterson as our District Leader because he is going home on Thursday.  The elders are Martinez, and Mulampaka.  

I'm glad you guys had a great week as well.  Answers: Highlight of the week was probably not getting a transfer call and finding out Elder Bunga and I are still a team because we are doing so well.  Lowlight: probably getting a cold or having zero investigators at church. New about the culture is that it is bad to yawn at someones house or while talking to them because that means you think they are boring.  Really surprising was not getting a transfer call because it isn't that common that comps stay together for longer than three months especially comps that are in the training program.  Oh and no i didn't get grandpa's letter...

Dad: OkC will really have a hard time without KD and Westbrook....NFL seems weird this year though...Cowboys, cardinals lions all doing good...weird.  Sounds like Kole is having quite the year! tell him i say "Atta boi" The college football top ten is weird too! Mississippit St.?! Mississippi?! TCU?! what the heck is going on?! haha.  Thanks for the great SC update.  It was awesome.  So it is also beginning to cool down a bit here but by cool down i mean to 70s and 80s haha.  Bunga thinks it is cold but i think it is perfect haha.  Thanks for the reminder about my call.  I read it a few times since i have been out but probably could read it more.  So yes i am starting to gain back some of my weight.  And getting a little bit of a rice belly at times haha.  Don't get too trunky Dad;) It's okay to get a little trunky but pretend you still have 21 months left like me haha.  You're awesome pops and a great example to me.  Thanks for words of advice.

So scripture of the week: Alma 26:11-12, Alma 37:46  Well I love you all and hope you all have a wonderful week! Thanks for you love support and prayers.
Love,
Elder Ball

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