Week Sixty-Nine

Note from Mom:  HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY PRESTON!!!   WE LOVE YOU!!! Don't know where those 20 years went, but I am so proud of you!  

Hello family and friends!

I'm just sitting here in a cyber cafe humming the tune of Piano Man by Billy Joel, I can't remember any of the lyrics anymore, just the la didi da's. I can't help it because I was raised by good parents in the greatest country on Earth and so on any good day a good song can come to mind. And yes today is a good day because I am feeling much better than last week. I am still recovering, I have no idea how it's possible to be so sick, but with many of our missionaries having both Dengu fever and Typhoid fever, I consider myself blessed and lucky to have only had intense food poisoning. 

This week was great though, a lot of great faith building experiences and moments I'll never forget. On Friday we received a call from our investigators that we have been teaching for some time saying that their mother was sick, and they asked if we could give a blessing. We loved that because it can be such a testimony builder to see a Priesthood blessing in the home of an investigator. So of course Elder Openshaw and I ran out of the apartment to make it down to where they live in a village area called Gautampuri. We took the metro and it started to rain, and that's when we realized we had no umbrella or plastic bags to protect our scriptures, so we were going to have to improvise. After riding the metro, we had to get off and get a pedal rickshaw, and I always feel bad taking them, but they are the only mode of transportation sometimes. I feel bad because these guys who drive these little tricycles are seriously 80 pounds, and when Elder Openshaw and I get on combining for about 400 pounds, it's not the easiest task for him to pull us about 2 miles, for a cost that would blow your minds. So we always try to tip the man, he needs the money to support himself and his family. The guy we had was probably in his late 50's, should be at home retired and spending time with grandkids or something, but that's just not even close to reality here. But he was a nice man as we conversed back and forth a little in Hindi and tried to stay warm and dry under his cardboard roof above us, unsuccessfully I might add.

Finally we had reached the little village area of Gautampuri and it was now a complete downpour of what we believe may have been acid rain from the pollution in Delhi ha ha. Then we had to make it into the colony to the correct house, which proved to be a challenge in the rain. You see, in India, in these small low caste areas where there is a lot of poverty, even in some higher caste areas they have completely different plumbing systems than the USA. Basically what happens is there is a pipe that just comes out of the front of your home and empties the waste into a little canal about 8 inches wide to a foot deep, and it all runs above ground, to a destination I never want to find.  The funny thing is, in the rain those canals just rise up and run wherever it pleases, making it very difficult for us Elders to walk through the small alley ways without ruining a pair of shoes. Long story short, after multiple hops, skips, and jumps, I ended up with some smelly shoes and a pair of pants that might not see another proselyting day.   

Look Closely and you can see why I can't wear these shoes anymore!

The best part is that the blessing was administered and our investigators are doing well and so am I. Life in Delhi is fun and exciting, interesting and sometimes unpleasant, but there is no place I would rather be and I love having experiences like these. I know I was sent here by our Heavenly Father, and I know that the Savior directs this work. Two years ago I wouldn't have walked through what I did for all the money in the world, today I understand that those people are my brothers and sisters and that if Christ could suffer everything for us I can suffer the smallest portion for Him and His work. If needed I would walk all over India and get every sickness possible if I was asked, and I hope all of us can learn to sacrifice for the Savior and for the support and service of our brothers and sisters.

Fight, Fight, Fight, Team Fight, Go Eagles!

Love,

Elder Armstrong

Week Sixty-Eight

Preston won't be providing a weekly blog this week.  He is very sick and we only got a few seconds of emails from him letting us know that he is super sick and he will write next week.  Please keep him in your prayers.

Thanks

Week Sixty-Seven

Hey family! 

This week was great, things are really going well here in Delhi and I couldn't be happier with how things are going for us.  If things keep continuing to go this well we should be having a few more baptisms in a few weeks. We are teaching great people and all of them come with their different struggles and different backgrounds, but the gospel helps each one of them continue to progress and make changes in their lives that result in an increase in happiness. That's what I get to see every day, and I love it. 

This week I felt as if my last emails hadn't been as good as they sometimes have been, and I'm sorry for that. Some weeks we get really busy and others, p-day is p-day, but I never want my emails to get boring, so I hope you're still reading them. I feel that I have a pretty cool opportunity to help people in Idaho from India, just as you help me here from their with your great emails and prayers.

This week I wanted to write about something I felt everyone could use. A little bit of Hope. For a few weeks now I have received emails and emails about things happening around the world. Two hurricanes, an earthquake in Mexico, earthquakes in Idaho, wildfires everywhere you can think of, and any other natural disaster that seems to be happening right now. A few weeks before that actually commonly throughout my mission I have heard news of terrorism and attacks, I have heard about North Korea and Syria and nuclear bombs. Through it all, I'm kind of glad that I'm not allowed to watch the news or worry about all of that because it sounds stressful and nerve wracking. But for you people of the real world it's important to watch the news, if accurate, and be informed on the important events happening throughout the world. So I pray that as you see these things, you don't lose Hope. In the Book of Mormon we are taught that True Disciples of Jesus Christ are to Hope for a better world. Some days that sounds like quite the feat, I'm sure 16 years ago to this day on 9/11 it was hard to Hope for a better world. But the fact is, it is possible to have hope. The Church website has Hope defined as “the confident expectation of and longing for the promised blessings of righteousness.”  All we have to do is the simple things that bring us closer to God each day. Be a good person, be a friend, choose the right, and never lose Hope. The blessings will come to those who believe they will come. Believe that in the end that it will all be okay.

I have spent 20 years of my life hoping every day that this year would be the year the Utah Jazz wins it all, that the BYU Cougars or Dallas Cowboys would win it all. Most years of my life the chances of that happening has looked kind of like what the world's chances look like right now, bad, scary bad. But through it all I'm here in India doing missionary work all day knowing, that someday they will win it all. And that will be a good day, but it won't even come close to how great the day will be when the Lord will once again come to Earth, when every knee shall bow and tongue shall confess that Jesus is the Christ. That is the day I cannot wait to see and I have sure Hope that it will come. 

Love,

Elder Armstrong

15 Month Mark

Hello!! 

Another great week down in Delhi! Life is great, Elder Openshaw and I have canned the entire Lajpat Nagar area for the best deals on any kind of food, edible or not, we are getting the best food at the best price and it always involves a meat of some kind. Chicken, dog, goat, illegal beef, you name it, we can find it.

This week was one that just reminded me how much I love my mission. We again had our leadership meeting like we do each month and we got to see the Pakistani Elders. It was Elder Openshaw's first time meeting with them and it's just so crazy, I will never see them in person, but they are in my mission and they are really great. I wish they could come to Delhi, and I really wish I could go to Pakistan, but it won't be in my mission lifetime. Once the stake is created in Delhi they are looking to branch out and go to Kolkatta.  I would love to go there as well but only if the stake comes soon enough. This part of the world is pretty crazy, very different from Marsh Valley Idaho, but it's full of God's children, and it's a very special place to be.

Sounds like BYU got clobbered by LSU, that's okay though Marsh Valley won again and is 2-0. I miss this time of year so much in Idaho. I miss the football games on Friday night and all day Saturday, I miss cold mornings and the State fair. I have had to go through a lot of changes on my mission because everything I grew up having, got left behind in Idaho. My mission I feel has been all about change. I feel I have changed a lot, at least I hope I have. At the end of the day, if in 9 months I step off that plane and haven't become a changed person, I failed on my mission. And that's truly how it is, for mission life and regular life. If at the very end of our lives we have not changed enough, we will have wasted our time here on earth. God has given us a probationary time here on Earth to learn and grow and change. If we are doing things right we will be focused on changing for the better every single day. It may be the smallest thing, but every day should be focused on preparing yourself to meet God again as a changed person, a person who loves God, loves to keep His commandments, and loves to change the bad into good. I promise that change can be instant, it can be fast, and sometimes it takes longer than other times. But change is the result we all need. 

The pain of discipline is far less than the pain of regret. 

Love,

Elder Armstrong

Skyping the Elders in Pakistan

The Entire Mission with Elder D. Todd Christopherson

Missionary Leadership Council