Week Fourteen

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello from the place where I once saw a man carrying 30 bricks on top of his head, where men hold hands, no matter what age they are, to signify their friendship and where eating McDonald's literally means you are rich. I love this place and I'm still having a great time doing the Lord's work here in India. I wish you all could come here for just a week and see what life is like. I think you would enjoy it.

This week has been a pretty good week. But I am sad to say that many of the people I have written to you about are no longer taking lessons from us anymore. Varun stopped, Shiva stopped, Shivani has stopped, and Vishesh is still going, but was highly discouraged when he couldn't be baptized. We are trying to do our best to keep him going for the next year if that's how long it takes to get him baptized and a member of the church. Our most progressing investigator is Kavita. She is a part member family investigator. Her sister-in-law is the Relief Society president and her husband is a less active member with Word of Wisdom problems. She speaks absolutely zero English and we got special permission to teach her because she's the only one in her family that isn't a member. We are working so hard with her, visiting almost 4 or 5 times a week to help her learn English and the Gospel. We teach her terms like Heavenly Father and The Gospel, Jesus Christ, and The Book of Mormon. In doing this she will be able to attend church and understand what the teachers are teaching in English, until she learns enough to go on her own. She literally is working so hard at it, not to mention she has a one year old kid and is 8 months pregnant. She's pretty awesome and even though I don't understand her, I care for her a lot.

We also have 3 Christian families that we are teaching. They are all great and I want them to improve so badly, but they continue to fall off the path. One family believes in The Book of Mormon but won't come to church and the two other families don't want anything to do with the Book of Mormon but are more than willing to come to church. It's a weird mess and we have a lot of work to do to help them feel the Spirit tell them what is right.

This week I was watching a video and studying about Lot and the story of his wife. It related to me so well and I know I needed to learn this lesson this week with the struggles I had been facing.

In no way am I trunky, or homesick, or even at all having a hard time adjusting to life here, either because of the culture or the missionary lifestyle. I actually feel like I have adapted rather well and I seriously love this place. But this week I was feeling a little uncomfortable. I was kind of wishing I had the comfort of my old life. For a second I wanted to be back in the life of High School Preston. Then I learned about the story of Lot's wife. Lot had been commanded to leave Sodom because it was going to be destroyed. And he was commanded to "Look not behind thee" in Genesis 19:17. They did so and as they were walking away from Sodom his wife looked back, and was turned into a pillar of salt. She was so worried about the life she left behind her, her home, her friends, her belongings, everything she loved she had to leave. And even though she was commanded not to look back, she couldn't help but look back towards the life she once lived, the one she was comfortable in living. Now in a similar sense, I wanted to look back. I don't want to come home, but there was a sense of homesickness for the life I lived before my mission. I had it easy. High School came natural to me, I was good at sports, I had a lot of good friends, I kissed too many girls, I showed up to school and while barely trying got all A's and B's. It was a life of comfort, even whenever I needed money or wanted to do something fun, it was given to me by my loving parents who only wanted the best for me. We went on vacations and we had plenty of food on the table. I had zero stress other than what movie I wanted to watch or what friend I wanted to hang out with that night. Life was simple, and I kind of missed that. But I realized that I can't look back, because we're here in this life to look forward. I'm living a life that will change my future forever, but if I look back, I'll miss the point of serving my mission. I'm here to change, and I'm here to serve. With my mind back home that's impossible. And like I've said, God gives us trials to make us better….one more trial of mine is not to look back. So many of us want to look back on life before our trials and our struggles, to when we lived a life of comfort. But if there's one thing I've learned, there is little growth in the comfort zone, and little comfort in the growth zone. We are here on Earth to learn and to grow, and to be happy while we do that. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is for that purpose only. To help us learn and grow and become happier people. The whole point of the Atonement was so we didn't have to look back, so that we can always have a better tomorrow. So I invite you all this week to look forward to what life has in store for you and what blessings your Father in Heaven wants you to have. You'll miss them if you're constantly looking in the past. Don't live a life of comfort, live a life of growth and improvement. I promise the days will be happier.

In the words of my man Jeffery R Holland. Keep loving. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever.

I love you all. Look Forward. Stay Happy. Go Eagles. Go Cougs. Go Cowboys.

Your favorite,

Elder Armstrong