Monday, April 18, 2016

18 April 2016

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This is the Bangalore Metro.


Well, things are happening in our area! I can't really keep track of the days; it all happened so fast. But, here's a quick overview:

On Saturday, I got to interview an investigator for baptism! Not ours, but the other elders in our ward were teaching him. On Sunday, he was baptized! That was a very long Sunday. We had 9:30 church as usual, then the baptism, then a mission farewell for one of the YSA members of the ward. He's leaving to the India New Delhi mission this week! All told, we were at church for 5 1/2 hours. Right after that, we had a quick lunch, and went out to teach some lessons. It's plenty hot here- so much so that we all got little cards from Sister Berrett warning us about heatstroke and its symptoms, and giving some remedies. Anyway, we met with one elder's parents, who fed us a very nice dinner, and then with an interesting family. The husband was baptized about ten years back, and then got an arranged marriage. That's when your parents and your soon-to-be spouse's parents are both hunting for a spouse for you, meet each other, and decide to marry you off. You do get a say in the matter- you can meet your spouse exactly once before the marriage, for the engagement. That's your one and only chance to veto before it becomes permanent. Fun, right? It used to be incredibly common in India, but is much less so now. Back on topic, his newly wed wife was baptized basically just for his sake, and so they remained up until we ran into them. Elder Sunny and I all but whitewashed (both moved in at the same time, thus being equally clueless about it) this area, so we were trying to find some members. A member showed us this particular family's house, so we visited. They weren't home. We tried again later. This time, their 7 year old daughter was home, but not the couple, just the daughter and the grandma of the house. We talked briefly, and left. Then, out of nowhere, the brother showed up at church! I didn't recognize him, because I'd never met him, but he told me his name, and asked me to find my companion (who was at the other side of the sacrament hall). I did so, but when I turned around, the guy was gone. We visited their house Sunday night, and finally met them, and learned their situation. The husband was very less-active, and the wife had pretty much abandoned our church in favor of her last one. But, they listened to the message, talked with us, and promised to come back next week! That's always good. 

Other various announcements: 

I have 3 weeks left till I go to the Philippines. Anyone who wants souvenirs, speak now or forever hold your peace. I'll mail them off from the Philippines; I've heard the mail is a lot more reliable and faster there. 

We are teaching a Muslim investigator, Navaz. He wants to be baptized, but the mission has some special rules for Muslims. One of them is that they have to be interviewed by our mission president. He did that this week, and we sat in and watched. It was interesting: there are some strong recommendations made, and some things that I hadn't thought of. For example, Navaz was advised not to travel to the Middle East and certain other countries, to consider changing his name, and other sundry topics. He was also asked if he had any friends/family who would consider injuring or killing him for converting. Fortunately, he passed the interview, and is go for baptism! 

Bangalore is awesome!

That's it, but here's some pictures. See Ya!

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This is as much of the chapel as my camera could get at one time. 





A normal street in Bangalore.Inline image 2

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