Elder Preston Armstrong : Week Twenty-Nine

Hey family,

One week closer to Christmas and I am so excited to see my family next week you have no idea. It is going to be so great to see my mommy and my dad and talk football with him just like we used to. We usually would try and stay focused on the work this upcoming week, but it will almost be impossible. We are basically the interim Branch Presidency for an indefinite time period starting now because they will all be out of Delhi with work. So we have to plan two nights of caroling, a Branch Christmas Party, and Church on Christmas Sunday...but we always take care of church. The experience we get here to lead and to help the leaders learn and grow is unreal, it will be so good for me for the rest of my life to get this experience. But when you put that all together along with trying to celebrate your own Christmas with the mission party and Skyping family it will be a crazy week.

Just yesterday we had a baptism and it was awesome. Elder Chidithoti baptized Suchat and he is such a good kid. He comes from a part member family, and his family is one that I used to think only existed in movies. His mom is in Kulkatta and his father is in Punjab, so right now he is living in a two bedroom home made of cement on the third floor of his building. They have one bathroom and a small kitchen with a small gas stove and they sleep on the floor with only blankets. He lives with his Aunt Divya who is a 20 year old member and is divorced with a 2 year old baby, and their Auntie lives there also. But they usually have most of the neighboring family stay with them and so trying to have a silent and peaceful lesson is unbelievably hard. But Suchat kept every commitment and always wanted to be at youth activities and is going to be a great young member. I'm excited for him.

This week was a fun one just like always and yes the American food has been awesome. It's a nice switch of taste even though I love Indian food, I could eat French toast for the next six weeks. This week I cut a little snowman out of Styrofoam and we bought some Diwali lights so our apartment is looking a lot more like Christmas. Each missionary in our apartment (6) is buying each other a 100 rupee gift (1.5 dollars) and we even pinned some of our socks to the wall of the apartment. So everything is going good here in Dwarka, my second home. That's how it feels when you are about to spend 8 months of your life in one proselyting area.

So thank you all for the Christmas wishes and the support and prayers from home. I promise you that your prayers and love are felt and appreciated. And I know my dad will hate this because he's stubborn and doesn't like attention, but please pray for my dad to have a healthy recovery to his back surgery. We've got a football season to get ready for and he can't be laying in bed;)

This week I was reading in Luke and I came across the perfect scripture for this time of year. In Chapter 19:10 it says:

“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

I love this Scripture because it tell us exactly why the Savior came to Earth. He came here to seek us, to reach out to us, to help us. Because we are lost and don't know the way. He came to show us the way that we could follow Him, so that we could literally be saved from our every sadness and hardships. I remember times in my life where I just felt lost and confused, usually about a lost football game or a biology test. I remember the 17 hour flight on the way here where I just felt so far away from everything that I had ever known. I was scared and honestly lost in the Middle East somewhere, but nothing comforted me more than praying and just telling Heavenly Father that I knew that what I was doing was true and that I needed comfort. I found that comfort when reading about the Savior in the Book of Mormon. He comforts me every day when I need Him, that's why He came. He came to seek us, and to save us from being lost. No matter what life situation you may be in, He came for you, to seek you, and to save you. Show Him this Christmas season why His efforts weren't wasted. Find Him, Seek Him, Allow Him to save you. Give to others and be happy!