Merry Christmas Week Eighty-two

Hello everyone and a very Merry Christmas!!

I just talked to my family and it was amazing to see them, but even better to hear their voices and to laugh and to make some jokes with them. Some things back home have changed, but some have not changed and never will (that's why I love where I come from).  

This week was a really good week! We have some people who have come down from Northern India to get baptized. They are from a place very close to Nepal and China and want to be baptized. They have some family members here in Delhi and after they get baptized we are going to try and have them start a home group where they live. It's really cool and Elder Basil and I get to teach them. It's just so cool to see how the church grows as people get interested and bring the gospel back to their homes...that turns into home groups...then branches...then wards and stakes an missionaries. We are way excited. Elder Basil is such an awesome companion! He is so cool and we work so much it's awesome. He is just a really good person and wants to do good as a missionary to everyone he meets, so it's really easy to be his companion!

This week I had a lot of cool experiences, but overall I recognized something really cool in my life. I have met so many people here in India, literally thousands upon thousands. Not just Indians, but people from all countries that I have met. All of them, like myself, are imperfect. I have been lied to, cheated, spit on, doors slammed in my face, people threatening to hurt me, and the list goes on and on and on. But through it all I have learned to love them. I have learned to love people through their imperfections. We learn in the Book of Mormon that Charity is the pure love of Christ, and that we can only receive that love as a gift from God as we pray for it and work at it. Well I have been praying and working for a long time, and this week it hit me like a truck. I love these people, I love them all. They have problems, some hate me, some will never listen to me or my message, but I still love them...and I hope only good things for them. This world is full of a lot of problems, and I believe a lot of those problems can be solved through love, true, Christ like love. It's the best Christmas present I could ask for to have the pure love of Christ for my brothers and sisters in India. I hope all of you will pray and work in your own lives to receive this love as a gift from God. It will change your life and although you may think otherwise, it really can and will change the world. 

I love you all...I pray for you. And I hope that your Christmas is wonderful. As I send this mail, I realize Santa is on his way...hope you have been nice this year!

Love,

Elder Armstrong