Week Twenty-Three

Hello from the Other Side...of the Planet,

It's me again here in Dwarka. I hope you aren't tired of reading my emails, because this week I have some interesting things to tell you. Number one, this was one of those weeks where nothing wanted to stay in my stomach. As you know I love street food here in India, but this week I went out of the adventure zone and got into the danger zone of the Indian roadside dirt and germ filled cuisine. The zone where most Indian people won't even go...I got out of hand. I need to repent. Also, I ate a dog this week. Worst feeling in the world. I know God can forgive men of almost all sins, but I think this one in Unpardonable. I thought it was beef at a Muslim shop, then we looked in the back at them cutting up a dog. Gross! And this wasn't any pure bred dog on Dog Chow or eating table scraps like you see in America. This was a street dog from India, the kind that have diseases and that you don't pet or even let get near you, but don't worry the sickness wasn't from the dog, it was from a bad batch of butter chicken. And I'm feeling much better now. The sickness is just a part of the whole experience in India and I am used to it I think. I hear it stops about the 6 month to one year mark and then you have an Iron stomach..can't wait to see what I eat then.

This week we had a lot of fun and we got so much work done. Elder Chidithoti and I are working well as a companionship and I love the way he teaches. We have a lot of fun. I also am having a lot of fun with Elder Openshaw who is from Boston and new to India. This week we did English class finding as a district and literally just held up a white board that said free English classes on it on the side of the road. We about caused so many wrecks and about were run over a million times but we had the highest attendance at English class than ever before. I tried teaching the whole time and towards the end I was just too sick and had to sit down. I said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help me stay strong so I could give the spiritual message I had prepared. He gave me exactly what I asked for and I endured just long enough and after class I was nonstop throwing up all night. What a great experience.

 

Looking for Someone to Teach

Elder Openshaw from Boston is the tall one.  He reminds me so much of Parker

Also yesterday we had a baptism and the water wasn't working at the church and we had to impromptu the whole thing by filling the font bucket by bucket. We had a great video I'll try and have my dad put it on the blog. We slaved for a solid hour and could barely get the font to fill up to my knees. It was the lowest water for a baptism ever and they almost had to roll her on the floor just to get her completely immersed but it was successful, she now has Salvation. That's about the closest thing we get to Redneck in India. 

Anyways I'll get spiritual now so I can actually help you feel the Spirit and uplift you like I am supposed to. This week I was reading in Ether chapter 12 (great chapter). And I came across verse 27:    

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.                  

And I love this message. We have weaknesses in life, all of us do. We all have our own personal cross to bear, our own individual problems that bring us down and try and stop us from progressing in life. It is a part of life, a very important part of life. We learn here in this scripture that we have problems so that we will Humble Ourselves and Come Unto Christ. Sometimes we just have sins and problems and things that we just can't exactly solve on our own. And no matter what we do, those weaknesses cannot be solved by our own genius thinking and all the Internet articles and Dr. Phil TV shows. We need the Savior, and we need to humble ourselves and realize that He is the only way of defeating those weaknesses, and becoming stronger. We need to have Faith and allow Him who paid the price for those weaknesses holding us back, and allow Him to take them away from us. We cannot overcome everything on our own, and we aren't always as strong as we think we are. But He is stronger than any of us will ever imagine.

It starts will sincere and fervent prayer asking for help. It starts with acknowledging that we are Nothing without Jesus Christ. And then taking our Faith and turning it into actions that help the Savior take those weaknesses away, so that He can make weak things strong unto them. 

Stay Strong and be Happy. Good luck with the elections. Pray for America, God will protect the righteous no matter what happens. 

Go Dallas Cowboys, Utah Jazz, and Parker and MV Basketball.

With a whole lotta love from Dwarka,

Elder Armstrong

 

This is where I got the Butter Chicken that made me very sick!