Tuesday, January 2, 2018

HAPPY NEW YEAR Nineteenth Month Mark

Dear family,

Happy New Year!! Life is going great and I have completed my "mission year". The entire year of 2017 I was a missionary. I started the year finishing my time in Dwarka as a trainer, I then had the wonderful opportunity to serve in Noida, our mission's toughest area as the district leader. I loved my time there and learned so much. One cool thing about that, I was the last American to serve in Noida because of the increasing political problems and the area not being very safe. You can see now why I loved it there;) I then served in Lajpat Nagar in the center of Delhi as a Zone Leader. I loved being there and I had so much fun, that was a great learning experience and I have some really great memories from that time. Next I came here to the Munirka Ward not long after we became a Stake! I have loved every second of this ward and area and being an assistant to President Hodges, he is the coolest and I have learned so much from him and this leadership responsibility. I am so excited for 2018 and for the last few months I have in this mission.

This week we have been blessed immensely by the Lord in finding people who are interested. We have been welcomed into the homes of so many people and we have felt that we are literally being led by the Spirit to places and apartments where we can have success. Yesterday we went to a home and taught Aki and his wife the Restoration. They were so prepared that before we could even invite them to be baptized they invited themselves and asked if we could baptize them. They have been wanting to be baptized for a long time now, but random things kept stopping them, and now they found us. After the lesson which was seriously amazing Elder Basil and I left with just the biggest smiles on our faces and gave each other a huge hug. It's the coolest feeling in the world to see someone accept the gospel and have a desire to follow it because they know it will make them happy. Better than any touchdown I have ever scored or wrestling match I have ever won. I absolutely love it. 

This week we have a few baptisms on Saturday for Nirmala and Ahman from Rishikesh up in North India. It's a state called Uttarakhand and it's close to Nepal, a few weeks later we will baptize a family from Dehradun which is also close to Rishikesh and they will hopefully start a home group together in the coming months. It's so cool to see the work come together and to see the gospel spread. 

Right now I am just lost in the work and it's the best thing ever. I think that as true disciples we will all lose ourselves in the service of our God, the service of our fellow men, or any other true or worthwhile practice. Follow the Saviors example and "go about doing good", be "anxiously engaged in a good cause" I promise you your time will be spent well and you will look back as a much happier person knowing you gave your all to something that changes lives. I hope all of us will start the new year with awesome goals that will bring us closer to our Heavenly Father. 

Love,

Elder Armstrong

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