Week Seventy-Five

Hello everybody! 

We are officially the India New Delhi stake! As of yesterday we have become a stake and are now working towards the next one! Our first stake President is Suresh Rama Krishna, an absolute stud. I love the guy and he is really the man for the job. We are excited for what he and the first stake presidency and leaders can do to continue the work of the Lord here in New Delhi. I am so happy for these people and the entire conference was just filled. We even had tons of return missionaries from South India come back to Delhi for the stake formation, so it was great to see all of my old friends again!

This week was full of meetings and lessons and mission tour and mission anniversary meeting I don't even know what to tell you and what to keep to myself. It was great learning from Elder Funk and his wife all week, they are great people and we learned a lot. So much of the things you learn as a missionary are intended to help you for your entire life, and I know that this mission is going to bless me for eternity. I love where I serve and the opportunities that I have been given. Sadly this week is transfers and I will definitely be leaving again. Lajpat Nagar was a great branch (now ward, I’m so excited to start using these terms, haven't said bishop in 17 months), I had a lot of success here and was able to do some really great things. I will no longer be the East Zone leader with Elder Openshaw, but I have no idea where I will be going next. It was so fun being a zone leader and I feel like through the last 6 months I was the most effective I have been on my mission. But now I'm staring down the end of my mission and I got to keep on pushing myself to be better.

If there is anything that I have learned from this week and all the things we had going on, I learned that the Church will continue to grow and grow and grow and it will never be stopped. Never ever. I seriously cannot tell you the odds that have been stacked up against New Delhi from day one. This isn't an easy place to serve or for the gospel to be preached, it's not the hardest either. But there are a lot of problems that we face in moving the work forward. No matter what though, the church will grow. There will be new stakes, new temples, new members, new everything built upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ until every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is the Christ. Places we never thought the Gospel would be preached will be opened to missionaries. The church is growing strong in Pakistan, a place I bet most thought would never be possible. But you wouldn't believe how much work is being done and how many baptisms they have each week. The church truly is today the vision that Daniel saw, a stone cut out of the mountain without hands that shall roll until it has covered the whole earth. I promise the church is true, and I promise you that we are on the winning team. It may not feel like we are winning most days, but we are. We have God on our side and if we do as he asks us, we will never go astray, we will teach all nations and baptize them into the true church of Jesus Christ.

Love,

Elder Armstrong