Well, we had a surprise, or at least disruption to the schedule every
morning this week; some much more so than others. Last Monday, we took a
trip to Semmedu, but Tuesday kind of upstaged it. We were just studying
in the morning, when the power went out. It wasn't your normal
powerout- it cut in sections. So, we went out and looked at the junction
box- only to see a power company representative pulling our fuses. We
talked to him, of course, and he said that it was because we hadn't paid
our bill. Monday, we'd gotten a strange call from the mission office
about that, but it was referred to the zone leaders, who I had assumed
had taken care of it. Apparently not. Anyway, I called the mission
office again, and got the lowdown on the situation: missionaries had
vacated the apartment last year for a couple months due to transfers,
and the electric meter got switched out in the interim. The church
didn't know that, and couldn't figure out how to pay the bill. So, in
November, the power got cut, and the talks began in earnest. Soon, it
was all figured out, and the power company gave us power again. BUT, the
company seemed to have failed to credit that to our account, and so was
charging us for that huge amount all over again, along with the recent
power use. The mission office had been talking with them for 3 weeks
without any results, and now asked us to go down in person (they'd sent a
few others, who had all been sent off ineffectually), and figure out
what was happening. We went to the main power office, and got redirected
to a more senior official. Our BML, Bro. Bosco, and Elder Maddikonda
and I went down there to speak to the guy. But, he didn't know English,
and our BML was the only one that knew Tamil, and didn't fully
understand the situation. After much talking, translating, and
misunderstanding over the papers we had been sent, we finally learned
what had happened: Soon after the missionaries had left the apartment,
the power company had shut off the power for no explicable reason. But,
someone had gone and plugged in their own fuses: a criminal offense here
punishable by jail time, as it technically is stealing power, despite
the fact that the company still meters and charges for it. Anyway, the
power company confiscated those fuses in November, causing the power to
cut. They put in the official fuses, and restored the power. But,
sometime between those points, the power company threatened police
action, and someone went to them and asked if they could just apply
penalty charges instead of informing the police. So, they did. The only
problem was that the company billed the user, the church, not whoever
actually put in the fuses, which was probably the landlord. So, we
talked about our options, called the mission office, and ended up
telling the power company that they could just sue the landlord; we had
nothing to do with it, and wouldn't pay the penalty. They accepted that,
and I just got an email confirming that the terror is over: the bill
(the standard amount) was paid, not the penalty. After the talk, they
gave us our power back, which was off for a very long four hours. But,
that seems to be the end of it.
On Wednesday, we had
yet another exciting trip to the FRO. And yet again, they told me to
come back another day. Apparently, my documents finally cleared in
Hyderabad, after a month of waiting, and are now pending in Rajahmundry.
No one can quite explain why or how or what is going on, but they are
content to sit on it and let things pass by.
On Thursday, we had some thrilling weekly planning, where we tried to guess what was going on in the
transfer. But Friday was where it got really exciting: we had zone
training, and learned some very interesting new announcements:
1: We are no longer serving in the India Bangalore mission; it is now the India Bengaluru mission. No explanation was provided.
2:
Due to another change in the MTC training time (it's 3 weeks for
English speakers again), next transfer will be 7 weeks long to catch up.
3: 4 missionaries are entering the mission on the transfer.
4:
Missionaries from our mission whose visas ran out have been waiting for
6 months for new visas, and prayers would be appreciated.
5:
Bangalore has unofficially stopped registering missionaries, so no
American elders will be assigned there until they clear things up with
the FRO.
6: Our area is probably being split.
That
was what we heard, and yep, it all happened. On Saturday, we were
anticipating an appointment in the morning and an exchange with the zone
leaders, but both fell through. Finally, on Sunday, we had church, then
transfer calls. Elder Maddikonda and I are staying in the same area,
but splitting up: the area is being divided, and we have to figure out
how. That means that every area I've stayed in for a full transfer in
India, I personally had to split it. Granted, that's only been two
areas, but it's still pretty crazy that out of the 9 months I've been in
India, I've only been in 2 areas for a full transfer! At the end of the
email, I'll send my full transfer/companion list as of the end of my
first year. Anyway, my new companion will be Elder Kommalapati, who is
fresh out of training, and also a native Indian. Stuff is happening!
Man,
I keep getting weird flashbacks to a year ago, which was still on my
mission now. I remember talking with my trainer about the Super Bowl!
Also, I'm really jealous about you getting snow. Believe me, I'd really
appreciate a couple feet of snow around here. It's nice and hot and
humid in Coimbatore right now, still hitting over 80-90 some days, with plenty of sun. I looked through some
old pictures I had, and saw one of me wearing a jacket, which made me
laugh. That's also interesting news about McDonald's- they never offered
me more money! And, that's about it for the week. See ya!
Year one of the mission:
Areas:
Brea 1st Ward (5 months)
Rajahmundry 1st branch (3 weeks)
AS Rao Nagar (2 weeks)
Rajahmundry 2nd Branch (5 months)
Kakinada (1 month split b/t RJY 2nd)
West Maredpally 3rd Ward (5 weeks)
Coimbatore 1st Branch (6 weeks and counting...)
Companions:
Brea 1st:
Trainer: Elder Wilding
Elder Mackey
Rajahmundry 1st:
Elder Thompson
Elder Willis
AS Rao Nagar
Elder Patten
Elder Peter
Rajahmundry 2nd Branch:
Elder Patten
Elder Braganza
Elder Jalagam
Kakinada:
Elder Patten
Elder Braganza
West Maredpally 3rd Ward:
Elder Campbell
Coimbatore 1st Branch:
Elder Maddikonda
All that in one year!
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