Six Month Mark

Hello Family and Friends from home,

This past week was great and we had a lot of fun, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was weird, I ate rice and vegetables. That's not Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving is eating turkey and pie and watching Dallas win again;) but I am very thankful to be here in India and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. This week I will hit my six month mark in the mission. That is absolutely crazy, I feel like I just left. Time is flying by fast and I want to make the most of it while I'm here. Pretty soon I'll be home wondering where the time went? 

This week Elder Chidithoti and I had a really good time and we saw a lot of really good things happening in our area. Just yesterday we were teaching a lesson and right in the middle of the lesson they kicked us out of the home. Literally just stopped us and told us to leave in very offensive Hindi..I was laughing a little because getting mad just causes problems. So we walk out the door after putting our shoes back on and walking right past the home was a man named Solomon from Nigeria, he had just returned from church and had a bible in his hand and had a sweet black bow tie. I definitely was going to talk to this guy. So we ended up teaching him the first lesson and he accepted baptism on the 1st of January..his birthday. He loves the Book of Mormon and that there is a living Prophet on the Earth today. I look forward to helping him find his path in life even more and helping him reach up to a higher life Our Father in Heaven has in store for him. The fact is we would have never met him without being kicked out of the lesson, maybe the Lord knew who had a heart that was willing to be changed. It's amazing to see miracles so often, even if they don't always end in a baptism or a big success story because just for that little moment, their life is changed and they feel the Savior's love for them, and that's worth 1,000,000,000 rupees to me.

Yesterday I also had the opportunity to confirm Kavita in Sacrament meeting and it was so cool. Last week when blessing the baby I was pretty nervous, but this week I just stayed cool and let the Spirit take over and I could literally feel the Spirit speak through me. I had no plan of what to say before the blessing, but it was amazing and Manisha wrote it down as fast as she could and then translated later in Hindi so she could understand more fully the blessing. It was an amazing experience. 

This week I just want you all to know how much I love you. Really. I just could not be out here without the love coming from back home, I have piles of emails I'm trying to get back to because you all keep emailing me and I love it. So sorry if I haven't emailed back yet..I’m hurrying:) I have a pretty big family back home, and I love you all so much, even those of you who aren't actually family but I would adopt you in any day of the week. 

And I just want to tell you about how important family is. I've talked before about family being eternal, and why that's so true I just want to focus on why family is important. The family is the most basic and necessary base of the Church and the gospel, and also in any community or country around the world. Families are important, more than we can ever imagine. And that is why Satan is attacking them, pulling them apart, and trying to make us think we don't need them. Well he's dead wrong, and he always will be. Because he never got a family, and he wants us to be miserable like he is. One of my strongest sources of testimony of a true and living Prophet on the Earth today is The Family: A Proclamation to the World. That was over 20 years ago, and now we see that everything in there is coming true, and that the Family is being attacked. Brothers and Sisters we need families, families who love and care, who follow the gospel, who have family home evening on Monday nights and who pray together each day. Life is hard enough these days, and without a solid base of family, we don't stand much of a chance. Read the proclamation, understand why it was given, and help improve your family. Each person has a responsibility to help the family grow. 

I am thankful for my family, and friends who are just as much family to me. I'm thankful I came from a family where everyone and their dog was crying when Aunt Patty moved to Arizona, and that not a single one of us can keep from visiting them in Arizona or them coming back to Idaho. That shows that Grandma built a family based on love and the Savior Jesus Christ. Arizona is like two states away, but it seems like a million years away when you love your family. Here in India I have seen families that are torn apart, and families that are strong, families that stay together, and families that just don't care. There is a huge difference the gospel has on our families and like Harold B. Lee said, "The most important work we will ever do is within the walls of our own home."

With all my heart I love the Savior, and I love you, each one of you. Enjoy the snow and the holiday season, I’ll see you in 18 months;)

Elder Armstrong