14 Month Mark

Hello family, 

This week was bittersweet,  a lot of good things happened and some bad things happened also, so I'll start with the bad. I got extremely sick again, I thought I was over the whole "Delhi Belli" phase. But this week just proved that even after countless times of being sick, spending over a year in Delhi, and being confident that all the sketchy food I eat is okay, you can still get wrecked. It started with a fever of 103 and right then I knew it was going to be a rough week. I spent a few days inside and after the sickness left I was 5 pounds lighter and all the members at church were saying "So thin you are!" So I guess I'm looking better, but I'm warning you if any of you want to come to Delhi, you will get sick and it will try to kill you. 

In India there is tons of traffic, you've seen the videos, and so when buses come along they either don't stop at all or they slow down just barely. Every bus I get on is with a running start to jump on and catch it, they don't slow down for children or the elderly, and about 100 people are getting off while you and 1000 people are getting on, it's the closest thing to football I get these days. I love it, but it can be really stressful especially in the heat. Anyways about a month and a half ago as Elder Karkala and I were doing this to go out to our area, we met a nice kid named Siyon. As we invited him to learn more, we had about 20 seconds of actual speaking to him, so we didn't think much of it.  However, he called us a day later and was interested, we ended up teaching him and his only struggle was to give up some tea, and after that he's been golden! Yesterday he got baptized and he is a great guy with so much potential. He has a very big heart and was really shy at first, but is now really open with all the Elders and most of the branch. It was a great service and I'm really proud of the last two baptisms we have had, they are going to be great members.

This week there isn't that much other news, I am just trying to recover and get back out working. I am giving a few trainings this week and that has kept me busy while I have been sick, and in only 3 weeks Elder Christofferson is coming! 

I'm sort of in a hurry to get out of the cyber today, so I'm sorry if my message today seems short or scrambled.  I wanted to just share a message on prayer, and how it helps so much. This week as I was sick there were countless prayers being said and so I think that's where this came from. But it's so interesting to me to see the religions of the world like I get to see and how prayer is strong in all of them. We all have our different methods and beliefs, our different languages and traditions. The one thing that is in common with all of these religions, including Mormons, is that it's an act of Faith in a higher power, and a human understanding that we need help from someone stronger than we are to help us. Everyone needs help, everyone needs comfort, that's what makes us humans. And I think we're all just a bunch of humans trying to find our way on this crazy Earth, praying at every chance for a little bit of help. I'm thankful that my entire duty is to help people learn to pray, to trust in God, and find their way. 

Elder Armstrong

Siyon's Baptism

Looking pretty thin after being so sick!