Week Forty-Nine

What's up guys? India is awesome!

Happy birthday Grandma Norma! I hope you had a good day and hope that my dad bought you a nice gift;) If not make sure he does ha-ha. Thank you so much for all the letters and in the last one you had a question about where I cut my hair. I get my hair cut at this place called Sunil's. It's like an old school Indian barber shop...but most of them are like that. They are awesome and the haircuts are really nice, but my favorite part is when they give me a head and face massage. They start by dumping about a liter of coconut oil on your head and they just massage and smack you on the head for like 10 minutes and you don't know if you are getting beaten up or a massage. Then he shaves my face with a straight razor and cleans my ears out for me and I feel like he's going to touch my brain ha-ha. I get the whole deal for 150 rupees so that's a dollar fifty for the best experience of the month. Also I'm learning to shave with a straight razor which is really cool and scary. Also, congrats on the mission call to Farmington, New Mexico, Hunter!! You're going to love it there and I promise we are sent where we are suppose to be, by Heavenly Father, you will soon realize that to be true. Proud of you man! 

This week was amazing guys. It was one of those weeks where I just continued to fall in love with this country. I am so grateful my visa was accepted and there were no problems, I couldn't stand to leave here or come here late. I need every second of India. It was also a week where you just see miracles all over the place, and I'm serious we saw miracles...so I want to tell you a story from my week. (one of three miracles)

Saturday night we had two new girls show up to our English class, Pooja and Priya, and none of us Elders had invited them. So I asked them how they learned about our class and Priya responded "God told us." Elder Mani thought they were crazy and I was so confused, so we asked how that happened. Then they pulled out this invitation card that was ripped and torn and battered. They had found an invitation card that was given to someone who threw it on the ground and whether it was the way the wind blew or the way the uninterested person threw the card, it landed with the Salt Lake City Temple face up. From there Heavenly Father and the Holy Ghost went to work to inspire these two girls to pick it up. That's only half of the miracle, with only our address and number on the card, they walked right to our church building at the exact time we had English class. There was no English class information on the card, they came to learn about our church. That is the only time of the week we are at the church except Sunday, and they just happened to walk in at that time. You can say it was by chance, you can say it just happened, but I believe in miracles, and I know that it was a miracle. They are both now being taught and are on baptism dates. They live in the other Elders Area, but it was Elder Mani's handwriting on the card, and we handed that card out. I have had so many rejections in Noida I have no idea about which person threw it away, but with every rejection your patience gets tried and you just have to have hope and faith in the next one, and sometimes that's an even bigger rejection. But the fact that God knows everything is an amazing relief. I find comfort knowing that Heavenly Father knows when we leave the apartment every morning to go finding in the heat, and He knows when we get rejected, and He knows when we are tired, and He knows how to bless us when we continue with Faith. 

Miracles will only stop happening when Faith stops. God knows each of us one by one, he knew Pooja and Priya would feel the Spirit when they saw the temple picture, and he knew that we needed the reassurance that no invitation is wasted. 

I LOVE INDIA. Now I've got to go burn my Utes tie with Elder Openshaw. 

Love, Elder Armstrong