Week Fifty-Three

Hey Family,

Me and Elder Karkala, My New Companion

Goofing off at KFC

This week was one to remember that's for sure. One year down and officially on the countdown, I am so scared that it will be here before I'm ready to go home. But we had a lot of fun celebrating my year mark and we had a big dinner with tons of chicken and thums up! I have some really great friends here in India and I was so happy I got to celebrate with them! I also got to share it with my MTC companion Eder Stephens.  We live in the apartment together.  It’s great and of course burning my shirt was awesome.

Me and Elder Stephens (MTC Comps)

Getting Ready to Burn our Shirts

This week was extremely hot...triple digits everyday now, and there honestly is no trick or tip to beating the heat. You just endure it. You can't do anything else, and it gets easier if you focus on something else. We have AC in our new apartment, way better than Noida, and it's a really nice apartment, but right now we are having water problems.  Our water pump isn’t working and I haven't showered in two days.  We have to walk to the church to use the washroom. It's crazy and we hope it gets fixed soon, but it may be a few more days before I take a shower again. 

The work I get to do now as a zone leader has increased and has kept me busy, which is nice, the days go by quicker and you feel good when you are working. We also had a baptism yesterday for a kid named Aman. He is 18 years old and he was taught by Elder Karkala last transfer and I just kind of walked into the baptism, but he is a good kid and I have had fun teaching him the few follow up lessons. We also tease Elder Karkala that he is the cleanest in the apartment since he got to do the baptism and we have no water.

Notice the more upscale baptismal font in the background

Baptism of Aman

 

Not much other news this week, just enjoying my mission and doing my best to help people. Not everyone will accept the gospel, but I just follow the Savior and "Go about Doing Good" I feel like that's something all of us can emulate from our Greatest Exemplar. We may not be the best at everything and we may not have the strongest testimonies in the world, but we all know the difference between right and wrong. So go about doing good!  You will be blessed for simply being a good person and you will feel the Love of Christ grow in you.

Love, 

Elder Armstrong

More pictures from last P-day

 

Billboard in India

One Year Mark

Heyyyyyyyyy!!!

1 YEAR!!!!!! I CANNOT BELIEVE IT! I don't know how it went by this fast, and I don't know how I made it a year without getting a one way ticket back to Marsh Valley. But here I am and I am happier than ever, just living life in India as a missionary. This week we had transfers and it was tough to leave Noida and Elder Mani, but I am excited to serve in a new area called Lajpat Nagar. (Lodge Putt) I am serving with Elder Karkala as a Zone Leader. We are the Zone Leaders of the Delhi East zone, covering Noida, Lajpat Nagar, and Malviya Nagar. We are already so busy which is nice.  I am excited for the opportunity to serve in this assignment and help the mission progress. Elder Karkala is a longtime friend in the mission and a really cool guy.  He is from Hyderabad. So I now have a Tellegu speaking companion again, my favorite Indian language, and we will be drinking a lot of Thums Up and eating a lot of Hyderabadi Biryani. 

I have a lot to do as a Zone Leader, but I am enjoying Lajpat Nagar. We are in inner Delhi and in a very nice area with more people in the middle class of India. The missionary work is awesome and many people already know and understand English, and a lot of people are just more interested. The Branch is very good and has leaders that can lead without the help of missionaries. We only focus on bringing more people into the church which is weird because for the last year I have been teaching lessons, talking in sacrament at least once a month or more, and helping the branches grow and develop. Now I kind of get to just sit back and focus on being a missionary. There is great food and awesome places to go in Delhi.  We are right in the middle of all the crazy night life and big fancy rich people with nice cars. It's going to be fun.

What else is happening? My MTC companion Elder Stephens and I are living together finally, he is awesome and we have a lot of fun, especially at our year mark together. We are the best at playing this game called Carrom and the Indians who have been playing their whole lives can't stop us, it's really fun. Also, right outside our apartment is a badminton court that we can play on every morning for exercise and every p day too. I have got to get better at that though. 

Things are going great here and I am such a happy person. If there is anything that I have learned in the first year, it's just that I know the Gospel is true. It truly is. I cannot tell you how many experiences I have had to just prove it to me, miracles truly are happening all over the world. I know that what I am doing is worth every hard time and it’s worth walking in the hot Indian sun and not having toilet paper and not watching football. It's worth it all, because the blessings are real. I love the gospel, and am so thankful that I get one more year to serve these people. 

Never give up in your trials, in all things choose the right, be a good person, love everyone, and love Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. If you do these things you can make it through anything, including one year in foreign country with nobody you know and completely out of your element. I'm here because the Savior has been with me at every step, without Him, I would be so lost in this world. 

Love,

Elder Armstrong

Week Fifty-One

Sorry for the late email mom and dad! Today was crazy...seriously. We just woke up super early and traveled to this place in South Delhi where there are a lot of hills and trees. It was the highest elevation I have seen in a year, probably about a 200 foot hill. Ha-ha. In these hills were old abandoned Hindu Temples and buildings and statues of their Gods just out in the forest. It was so crazy and really kind of scary. People still live out there in the jungle. You cannot believe how foreign that place was to me even after a year in Delhi. I have never seen India like I just did. It was awesome and I cannot wait to get you pictures and videos sent home. 

Here in India, we American's are always completely fascinated with the way things work. This is the most foreign place in the world to America, literally nothing is the same. The saying the American's use in the mission is "Everything is the exact opposite" and down to every detail everything is seriously the opposite from America. And we love it. Some of the things we do to kind of just stay normal and have fun, we keep records. We keep track of the crazy and cool things that happen in India so that we can always be on the lookout for something awesome and bizarre. That includes how many bricks you see a construction worker carrying on his head (32). And my personal favorite, how many people can fit in a Gramin Sewa (18 plus a baby). So basically a Gramin Sewa is a miniature shelled out work van with benches inside. It's really small and it’s probably the size of a regular minivan from the 90's. These are a part of the public transportation in India and they run routes throughout our areas and missionaries always use them. They cost 10 rupees a piece and these drivers want every last rupee possible so they jam you in like a can of sardines. Trying to go to appointments in them is honestly like trying to catch the last helicopter out of Nam. I have never been so comfortable being sweaty and dirty, with sweaty, dirty people sitting on my lap, and me sitting on theirs. It's a great experience and so we love to see how crazy it can get here in Delhi. Those are just a few of the records we keep. What a place. 

This week was awesome and we made some great progress with our investigators. Priya and Pooja are still progressing towards baptism and things are looking up for Noida. This week we have transfers and the rumors are that I will be leaving, but we will wait until transfer calls until I set my mind on anything. I have loved Noida and don't really want to leave, and Elder Mani has been the best companion, such a big heart and such a fun guy. 

This week I read Article of Faith number 13 and I just love it. I challenge all of you to read it because to me it sums up what being a Mormon truly is. If you can change "We" to "I" and you truly do believe in doing those things and are doing them then you have nothing to worry about. That is what being a good person is all about, it's what Christ wants us to be. Being a Mormon is a wonderful thing, because we believe in being good and there is nothing better than the cause of good over evil. 

We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things.  If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praise worthy, we seek after these things.

I believe those things, and I hope you all do too.  None of us are perfect, but if we strive to follow this and seek after those praiseworthy things, we’ll never go wrong.
I love you all,

Elder Armstrong

Meditation Rock