Week Six

Dear family,

I love and miss you all so much. I think about you whenever I'm done with missionary stuff for the day. While we eat dinner (with our hands) we all sit around telling stories and people love to hear about you. I tell about everyone so don't think you're safe. The missionaries here are awesome and I've made such good friendships. I love my area and the members here are so faithful. We are teaching so many great people. The Lord really has prepared people for us to meet. We are teaching one guy we met at a Mr. MoMo's stand in the middle of Delhi. Crazy that we could find someone looking for happiness in the middle of a crazy city at a dirty MoMo stand. By the way they have good food. It's worth the upset stomach. 

This week was just another crazy week in the life of a missionary. And I hate to keep stressing the whole "I'm a white missionary in India," but seriously people can't control themselves when they see me. It's weird. They want to take selfies and pictures, they literally hug us. It's weird and I'm not really a fan of the hugging because everyone is sweaty and smelly. Haha. But they are just good people. It just blows me away that skin color still means anything in the world today. How stupid. Racism is the biggest joke and anyone who is racist just makes me mad. I hear from home about black people killing white cops and over here in India people get treated better if they have fair skin. Why can't everyone just treat everyone fair and the same. If you're a bad person you're a bad person, no matter your skin color. If you're a good person you're a good person, no matter your skin color. We're children of Heavenly Father, brothers and sisters and we treat each other like hell. It's upsetting. I just like people to be happy. Haha. I miss the MTC because it was seriously a refuge from the world. Here in India it's so worldy and the people are really nice but it's just such a wicked world.

I had some run ins with Muslim people this week and they don't like me and they definitely don't like my name tag. But I'm pretty proud of it. I know I'm safe here in India and there are Angels watching over me. They just call us terrible names and one kid tried throwing a bottle at us and that didn't make Elder Armstrong very happy. So I let him know with a very casual death stare that he better not mess with me. Haha mom stop freaking out, I'm on the winning side. But yeah this week was the end of their holiday month and they were sacrificing animals and stuff. And with this I'm not being racist I promise, we met the most genuine Muslim as well this week named Saddam Hussein. No joke. Named after the original. But he was way nice to us and treated us so kindly, I only don't like the ones who treat me bad as I'm going to teach someone a lesson when they throw stuff at us and call us horrible names. 

But with this week I'll tell you about our food. So like I've said we eat with our hands just about every meal. And you only use your right hand as much as possible for everything. It's pretty hard. I have eaten biryani, butter chicken with roti and butter naan, we have had Afghani chicken, and egg curry, and today I'm having chicken curry. We have an Indian Elder in our apartment from South India who can cook the most amazing food. His name is Elder Uppe and he is awesome. I'll send a picture of our district next week I forgot this week. Besides that, I sometimes eat street food which is highly frowned upon, but its pretty tasty. The Mr. MoMo guy was so good the first time and it looked clean, but when we went back a couple days later it was not so clean but I had to eat the food again because it was so good the first time. I'm actually becoming more adventurous and I never thought that would happen. I am pretty picky when it comes to cleanliness and my food choices but here I don't know I just am going with the flow. When I don't eat Indian food I can get all the rip off American kind of food, I eat so much peanut butter and honey sandwiches and cereal. I'm just eating things that are prepackaged like cereals, and yogurt, and stuff I know is clean. Rip off brands here are like western family stuff and its really cheap, the only hard part is that nothing comes from cows. It comes from water buffaloes so even the milk is from water buffaloes. It's so weird, but its all I have. And it comes in bags of milk not cartons or jugs. I have a gym membership and have been waking up at 5:45 everyday for the gym. I love it and it's about the only thing I do that reminds me of home. I love releasing my stress in the gym and getting stronger; You should see these abs. Haha! But yeah I've gotten so much better this week and I'm sure I'll be sick again, but it's all apart of the experience.

Teaching people makes me so happy. You have NO IDEA how fulfilling it is. I love it, and Dad you always said I would be a teacher and I'm starting to think you might be right. But that's after I get done being a Navy Seal and Quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. I love teaching though, especially English. I'm helping improve so many lives and people from our class are already getting better jobs because of the English they can speak. I spent hours this week helping kids in our Branch do their homework and reading with them on their floor of their small homes. I help them read write and do math as well and it makes me so happy. I'm falling in love with serving the people. Especially the kids who I teach. They call me Elder Neil Armstrong and sometimes even Elder Jason Bourne. I'm bigger than everyone here in India which is crazy and my muscles are tiny, but here people think I'm so huge and muscly. They think I'm 25 and it blows them away when I say I'm only 18. They have no idea how small I really am in America.

I love teaching the gospel as well and how happy it makes people. There's nothing better than seeing happy families. Seriously the gospel blesses all families and makes everyone so happy. To see that firsthand for two years is such a blessing. I know that families are eternal. I don't know if I could have served a mission without that understanding. I couldn't have left behind family, and especially grandparents, without the for sure knowledge that I would see them again. Anyone can go at anytime, but I know that we all will live together forever through the blessings of the temple. That's how I have peace with being 7500 miles away. I know that no matter what, we'll all live again, together, with the Savior and our Heavenly Father, if only we keep the commandments. So do your best to keep the commandments and repent when you mess up so we can all live together happily in the Celestial Kingdom. 

I love this gospel and I love how happy I am here in such a crazy place. I laugh to myself all the time because it's just so crazy where I am. One year ago I can remember everything I was doing with my friends and I never would have guessed in a year I would be in India. Last year I was at football camp and that's all I cared about, now I'm in stinking India. Crazy how things change. 

I miss you all. I love you all. I'm sorry this email is a little shorter but I want to email some friends back before I have to go. 

Please stay safe everyone. I miss you all and I love hearing from you.