Week Forty-Seven

Dear Family, 

I hope all of you had a good week, mine was pretty good. Just working and enjoying each day because my year mark is coming up fast and after that I hear it only goes by faster. This week I literally turned down buying food at a street stand because it was 40 rupees (60 cents) and then walked about a mile in the heat to eat at a street food stand that cost 30 rupees (45 cents). The meal filled me up completely and I bought a liter bottle of water for another 30 cents. It is unreal how cheap things are here, I will come back home and die because I won't want to spend a single penny. Plus all my rupees look like monopoly money; I have purple, green, red, white, and orange, but instead of the monopoly man with a mustache and a top hat it has Mahatma Gandhi. India is a pretty cool place.

Noida is a great place and I have changed so much since coming here, it's amazing to see the church at such a small beginning and to know that someday Noida will have 4 wards. It's faith in that future, that helps all of us keep going. We as a district are pushing continual improvement here in Noida and trying to have zero setbacks. Even if we make a tiny amount of progress, we want that over any type of setback. We always want to be climbing. 

This week we found a new investigator which was a miracle. We have been on a drought of investigators this last month. His name is Shiva Ji. He is an awesome kid who just moved to Delhi from a small farm community in Maharastra. He wants to study here in Delhi and was looking for a job when we found him. He let us in and we taught the restoration and he even accepted baptism. He is awesome and is keeping commitments so far. We were praying for him to get a job and he did, but he works on Sundays during church, so that is a challenge we are trying to overcome. We have high hopes for him and I hope he can be baptized before the end of this transfer. He could turn into a great leader to help our branch. 

In English class this week I was able to give the Gospel Message at the end of class, and I chose to share my favorite Mormon Message. "Bearing Our Burdens with Hope" It's such a good video and I hope you will all take some time to watch it, even if you already have. It's only 8 minutes guys;)

But I love the message because truly hope is a necessary part of our spiritual life. The Book of Mormon teaches that if ye have Faith, Hope, and Charity, then ye shall always abound in good works. Hope is so important because it gets us through the tough days. Hope helps us understand that it won't always be bad, that it won't always be hard, that someday all will be well and we will no longer suffer. Whether the situation is your child going in a direction you had otherwise planned, or a loss of a job, or walking all day in the heat and dirt of Noida, someday all will be well. We can either wait for that happy day to come, or we can build our Hope and enjoy the tough and sometimes heart breaking journey. I promise if you weigh your burdens down with Hope, you will get the traction you need to push through another day. Rely on our Savior and his Redeeming Power, there is no other who can help you like He can.

Let's Go Jazz! I'm cheering from India, and I can hear that arena from here. Jazz fans are the best fans. 

Love Elder Armstrong