4 Month Mark - Officially Trained :)

Hello family!! and anyone else that reads this..

I officially am no longer a trainee! I finished training on Saturday! and I've been out for over 4 months now!

This week was a pretty good week, but at the same time it sucked really bad. We'll start with the good!

So this week we had a couple be baptized! They are so awesome. They are in their twenties and they are dentists. Everyone in the branch is pretty excited because they are getting a new couple who speak good English! They could potentially be branch presidents and Relief Society president. So that was really good. The baptism service was really good and that was a good way to end the week. 

Also, we went to Rajahmundry on Monday night, stayed over night in the Zone Leader's apartment, and then had Zone Training meeting on Tuesday. President Funk was in charge and did some really good training. It was really good to hear from him. He is SO spiritual and I would not be surprised if he was called to be a General Authority. No joke. Then, Elder Vaiphei and I had an exchange because we hate each other. Just kidding! Wednesday we had baptismal interviews so Tuesday we headed back to Kakinada. Elder Smith was my companion and Elder Vaiphei stayed in Rajahmundry until Friday morning. Wednesday we were inside all day because of some Hindu festival so we had FOUR Americans in an apartment. It was SOOOOO fun! We had a fish curry on Thursday (yuck) and it was terrible (for real) but the family loves me and calls me a son. Hopefully, they will be baptized in November.

So the bad part is that we missed 3 days of proselyting. Thursday was our first day and we had so many bunked (missed) appointments because  people are "busy" or have "work." Liars! And we dropped like 6 families and we could not find ANYONE! So right now we are teaching like no one. So this week we are going to find people like crazy! 

Church was good, I had to teach Primary again though. It's funny. I remember not liking teaching primary at home, but I absolutely loved it here. It was such a struggle but I loved it. The mission is changing me! haha! 

Well, I don't really have too much else to say.. I love you all and am grateful for you and all the support I get! 

Love,

Elder Head

Utah Elders in India!

Wow! Who knew that BYU had a campus in India :)
The mascot looks a little different though!

October 22, 2012

H

Hello everyone! 

This week was a good week, but frustrating at the same time. We had planned four baptisms for the 28th, but two of them basically decided that they want to stay at their old church, but we will see! 

So funny story from this week is that our washing machine broke.. Which actually isn't funny at all because that means that A) I have to wash clothes my hand or B) I wear dirty clothes. I'm not one to be partial to one or the other so I decided that the best thing to do was to have a nice mixture of the two! :) Mom, aren't you so proud of me?! But you can't do anything about it since I live halfway around the world :) but we got it fixed on Saturday, so I'm so grateful for that. 

I have good news regarding the package.. It arrived last Monday! (October 15) and it was really nice to see Dad's signature on the receipt and eat the beef jerky. Beef is expensive here and so we don't get it that often. I love Skittles and Starbursts and the Reese's Pieces were a nice addition. However, I did not enjoy seeing the shorts and shirt :) I think that I may send that home with Elder Taylor's package home because I have enough clothes to manage and not a ton of room or weight in my suitcase to spare. We don't even wear "normal" clothes enough as it is. 

Like I said, we have a couple who is being baptized this Sunday and they are awesome! I love that family. They are dentists and they are just super humble and willing to change. It is so nice to teach them. They want to visit America one day and want to visit me. I love them. We are running out of people to teach though, which is really difficult and not a good thing since we are called to teach the gospel, but if we don't have anyone to teach, I'm just on a long vacation here. We already met the goal for baptisms for the year for the branch, so maybe we will just kick back and wait until January 1 to start trying again.. ;) Just kidding! 

Thanks for all the love and support! 

Love,

Elder Head

ello everyone! 

This week was a good week, but frustrating at the same time. We had planned four baptisms for the 28th, but two of them basically decided that they want to stay at their old church, but we will see! 

So funny story from this week is that our washing machine broke.. Which actually isn't funny at all because that means that A) I have to wash clothes my hand or B) I wear dirty clothes. I'm not one to be partial to one or the other so I decided that the best thing to do was to have a nice mixture of the two! :) Mom, aren't you so proud of me?! But you can't do anything about it since I live halfway around the world :) but we got it fixed on Saturday, so I'm so grateful for that. 

I have good news regarding the package.. It arrived last Monday! (October 15) and it was really nice to see Dad's signature on the receipt and eat the beef jerky. Beef is expensive here and so we don't get it that often. I love Skittles and Starbursts and the Reese's Pieces were a nice addition. However, I did not enjoy seeing the shorts and shirt :) I think that I may send that home with Elder Taylor's package home because I have enough clothes to manage and not a ton of room or weight in my suitcase to spare. We don't even wear "normal" clothes enough as it is. 

Like I said, we have a couple who is being baptized this Sunday and they are awesome! I love that family. They are dentists and they are just super humble and willing to change. It is so nice to teach them. They want to visit America one day and want to visit me. I love them. We are running out of people to teach though, which is really difficult and not a good thing since we are called to teach the gospel, but if we don't have anyone to teach, I'm just on a long vacation here. We already met the goal for baptisms for the year for the branch, so maybe we will just kick back and wait until January 1 to start trying again.. ;) Just kidding! 

Thanks for all the love and support! 

Love,

Elder Head

October 15, 2012!!

Hello everyone!

So this week was much better than the last week! It was a weird and crazy week but I loved it! 

So.. I met Mission President on Tuesday and that was good. He is such a great guy and I'm very grateful that he is leading our mission. Then, one of our zone leaders was made an Assistant, so Elder Penumuru came with us to Kakinada and we were with him for three days while he waited for his companion to come! We got so much done and it was a crazy three days because I went with him and Elder Vaiphei (he didn't get transferred) went with a member. It was good and very productive.

Then, he interviewed some of our investigators for baptism that we were planning for the 21st, but Mission President and Elder Penumuru felt as though they should be baptized on the 14. So we had like 2 days to plan a baptismal service and do the paperwork for them. It was very stressful, but we had a wonderful baptism service on Sunday where we baptized a family of 4. The children have been coming to church for 9 years and were finally baptized! It was very good!

This week we had the opportunity to watch General Conference and it was so good! I love Conference and being able to hear the Apostles and Prophet speak! It was doubly nice to hear them speak in an American accent since all I hear is Indian accents ;) haha just kidding! But my favorite talk was in the Sunday Morning session by President Eyring! It was super good! Watching away from home was weird, but I enjoyed really focusing on the talks! One of the talks made me miss my mom so bad! He spoke about loving his mother so much and it made me miss my mom so much! I love you mom! 

The work here is progr 

Power cut until 6, couldn't finish. Love you!

Elder Head

We were happy to hear that Ryan had a better week....we would have loved to hear a little more but unstable power negated that :(  When Ryan talks about the constant power outages....I can't help but to pause and be so grateful to live here in America....I love electricity and clean water....we are truly blessed!  <3 <3

October 8, 2012 - 103 days!

Hello everyone! 

This letter is going to be shorter for a multitude of reasons. The first, nothing good happened this week, and secondly, it was a bad week. 

This week was really frustrating for my companion and I because nothing seemed to be going right. We had so many people not showing up for their appointments, or members not showing up for our lessons, and we were really struggling to find new investigators. I guess that just comes with being in the mission field! I'm still in training, but I am so ready to be done with training! It is so boring and an extra hour of companion study is too long! I like it short & then we just head out and get stuff done :) but that is not how it works so I still am training everyday! 

I have learned so much and am so grateful to be here. Every morning is so weird when I get up and look outside and I'm in freaking INDIA! It shouldn't be weird but it still totally is. And every night when I say my prayers and I pray for my family, I miss them until I fall asleep. That really is the only time where I am able to think of home. Most of the time I am too busy to think or worry about anything else. It is totally a good thing because if I had a lot of time to sit and ponder about home I would get so homesick! 

I'm really excited to get this package! I know that it is expensive and I'm sorry that I want to feel loved by getting a package but it will be nice to see what I get :) It is so weird to think that on the 27th of this month, I will have been out for 4 months! It only feels like yesterday that my parents dropped me off on the curb at the MTC. Time flies! 

We get to watch Conference this weekend in Telugu! So I won't understand! :) just kidding! They are going to play it in English too so 5 of us can watch. Rajahmundry is good. We are going back tomorrow for interviews with Mission President. We did not get transfer calls, but this week might be the week. I'm so scared! I don't want Elder Vaiphei to leave.. He has been here for 5 months in Kakinada! He loves it and I love him so he HAS to stay. 

Well, I am out of things to ramble about, but I would really like some G2 pens in my Christmas package. The fine point ones and send like 6-8 refills. Thanks :) 

Love you! 

Elder Head

We also received some clarification on his trip to Washington DC for visa renewal....

So on July 31, 2013 I will leave India and fly back to Washington DC to renew my visa because it is only a one-year missionary visa that I have now. So that's what that is all about. I will serve there until I get my visa and then I will head back to India to finish. 

That is so interesting ;)  We love you Ryan....keep up the good work!  Listening to the great talks from conference will certainly recharge his batteries!  Much love from America <3 <3!!

October 1, 2012

Hello everyone! 

This week was a pretty good week! So I originally thought that the Ganesh festival was a one day thing. Silly me! Turns out that it is NINE days long and the last two days are the biggest days where they push the statues into the ocean. So on Saturday we only had a half day and Sunday we only had a half day. It was really rough because those are our best two days to find new investigators, teach lessons to whole families, and to help the branch out. Being stuck inside was a pain in the butt, but I managed! 

This Sunday was a really good Sunday! I played in Sacrament and I had to try to play the Spirit of God and I SUCKED, but I'm over it. Then our investigators that we baptized became members of the church! It was so awesome. I was like a proud father as I watched them be confirmed. Then we went to Gospel Principles and the lesson that the teacher taught was a really good lesson all of our investigators that came to church had a good experience there. One of our investigators who is like 50 but doesn't act that old was so funny. He loves the Book of Mormon and the Gospel Principles class so he would yell answers and participate so it was really funny. Then we have been teaching this family that the children have been coming to church for 9 years but the parents wouldn't let them take baptism, but the parents came on Sunday and they really enjoyed church and want to take baptism so hopefully we baptize them on the 14th! And then the Branch President taught a really good lesson in combined Relief Society/Priesthood on "The Merciful Obtain Mercy." 

One funny experience that happened this week: we found this family on Monday and we are teaching them. The mother's parents live with them and the grandpa is like 80 years old, almost completely deaf, and fairly blind (watch out Grandpa, if you do not get hearing aids this may be you in the future). He wears these thick glasses and yells when he speaks. Naturally, he likes me, because well, I'm me. And he just yells at me about Jesus and the only thing I can do is the head bobble (yes, I developed that habit) and say "yes brother." So on Sunday we visited them and a stray dog was standing at the gate to their home and the grandpa goes out and starts yelling at it to go away. The dog doesn't listen and so the grandpa gets angry and pretends to throw a rock at it. Normally this scares them off but it didn't this time. Oh yeah and he speaks really good English and so I can understand everything he says. And so he starts saying expletives and the most rational thing to do is to grab the close by bicycle pump and chase the dog down the street. I couldn't help but laugh as this old man chased a dog down the street with bicycle pump in hand. It was awesome. 

Being here is so fun! We are going to Rajahmundry on Friday for Zone Training and President Funk will be there so that will be good! Transfers are coming this week and I'm afraid my companion will be transferred.. I don't want him to be transferred! I like him a lot and if he leaves, I'll have to be in charge! But, it's all good. I'm not scared! 

Being here is so much easier than I imagined. Being in the work doesn't leave a lot of time to worry about other things so I am constantly immersed in the work and it is so good. I'm so grateful to be able to serve here and to help the people in Kakinada as best as I can.

Thanks for all the love and support! 

Love,

Elder Head