Week Eighty-Five

Hello!!

I hope all of you had as good of a week as I did! I hope the snow is falling, the Jazz are winning, and the NFL playoffs are exciting. I hope all of you are healthy and happy and enjoying the new year.

This week I had the opportunity to go to Mumbai on exchange again! It was such a great time! I woke up in Delhi at 6 a.m. to get to the airport. The pollution, fog and cold here was horrible on the way to the airport. Then we got off in Mumbai just a few hours later and I couldn't even walk to the cab without sweating and feeling the humidity. Delhi is such a desert compared to Mumbai. This time in Mumbai I tried some new food. I had some Shwarma Rolls from an amazing Muslim Dargah. Muslim people are the best cooks in the world. I love their food. I of course had Vada Pav again; it's not Mumbai without it. We also ate at a member’s home one night and she made awesome South Indian food. The members there don't get to see white missionaries like me very often....like once every two years maybe. She was surprised at how much I could eat, and how spicy it could be, and then she offered to find me a South Indian wife ha-ha. Such a fun night, I just love Indian people. I don't know if I have ever told you this before or not, but they are the funnest people on Earth. They are just looking to have a good time, all the time. It's just a good place to be on a mission.

This week I have one experience that I would like to share with you. We taught a man named Mohan, we have taught him before and have known him for weeks but this lesson was just awesome. We were on the roof of his building at the very top. You could see all the buildings in Delhi for miles, all painted bright colors of every kind, filled to the top with Lakh's of people. Every building has Sarees and clothes out drying in the wind and big tanks on top to collect the water. The sun was shining and it was just a gorgeous day. You could see all the Hindu temples from Chattarpur to Qutob Minar and there we were, just two missionaries on the roof teaching a random guy who had become a friend. He used to be Hindu, but gave up on religion when he was about 20. He had questions such as, "Why do I need faith?" "Does God even live?" and, "Does He know me personally?" We were able to answer all of the questions, and to help him start to understand. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read it. 

The main point of this story that I want to tell you is that he is not the only one. Those buildings are filled with people, all of them with questions. Some will ask them, others won't. There are thousands and millions and lakh's and crore's of people who need and want the gospel in their lives. Delhi is full of them, Mumbai as well. All of India needs the gospel, and we are working at it. But while I'm over here working on these people, I hope you're joining with us. There are people in Robin Idaho that need help also. There are many people in Pocatello that could use the gospel light in their lives. Their circumstances will be different than the people of India, but the questions are all the same. The confusion is all the same. Yeah, maybe they won't listen to us, but we will never know unless we try. Maybe they have heard it before and didn't accept, but that doesn't mean we can't be a friend. Maybe they don't want to give up coffee or alcohol, but that doesn't mean they aren't good people.

I hope we all can see the people around us in a different way, and look and pray for opportunities to share the gospel. How selfish it would be to keep it to ourselves. 

Love,

Elder Armstrong

Pollution and smog outside the door of my apartment