2 May 216

This week was fairly eventful, but not quite as much as the news back home, I'll admit. On Tuesday, we had quite a few fun appointments with some less-active members. At one of them, the family had a few pet chickens. Those came in handy when a cockroach raided the house. Turns out, chickens love cockroaches. They handled the situation very quickly. We also had a couple appointments set for later days. 

Wednesday was an exchange. I went with Elder Shanmugam to his area, which turned out to be fairly uneventful. We had a quick appointment with an investigator in the morning, but the next appointment bunked. Then the one after that bunked too. Instead, we tried to  find someone to teach, but I didn't know the area, and Elder Shanmugam didn't know anyone close enough before our final appointment. We ended up going to that last appointment early, but the brother was an hour late. That was a long day. 

Thursday was the real exciting one. We had to wake up at 4:30 to make it to Whitefield chapel for a mission meeting. There were a lot of missionaries there! Coimbatore, Chennai, Sri Lanka, and Bangalore all arrived for it. You know what's really funny? Ever since Coimbatore got evacuated, it was turned from a zone down to a district. That's right: Elder Kommalapati and I single-handedly took out a whole zone. Aren't you proud? Anyway, I got to meet up with a lot of old companions: Elder Campbell, Elder Whaley, and Elder Maddikonda. That was pretty fun. President Funk, the Asia Area President, addressed us for a few hours on the Atonement, and teaching repentance. It was a good meeting! Afterwards, we went to the mission office to do some work, and I heard the final news: I'm going to the Philippines Quezon City Mission on May 10 or 11. That's soon! 

On Friday, we had a surprise visitor. Elder Wijithenge, from Sri Lanka, was with us during our proselyting. He and his companion are the only missionaries from, or serving in, Sri Lanka. They came up for the mission meeting, but their flight wasn't until that night. So, in the afternoon, we went all over with him, but our evening was burned by dropping him off in Ramurthy Nagar and going back. 

Saturday was also interesting. We had our weekly planning then, instead of Thursday, because of all the stuff that had happened since. Afterward, we had a lunch appointment scheduled, but the family had to bunk because one of their uncles died, and they were flying out to Chennai. That night, we went out with a member to visit Amul Raj and his family, who we met last week. They still don't speak too much English, but we managed. 

Fast Sunday is always fun as a missionary. We had church, then a meeting, then a lesson, and then lunch. In the evening, we went with our Elders Quorum President out to a new area, Gotigere. That was an hour off by bus. We found a new family there, but ran out of time and had to go back. 

That's the news for the week! I have picked up all the souvenirs I'll need for a lifetime, including not one, but two saris. Turns out you'll have to do all the stitching yourself- they come as long strips of cloth. There's (relatively) plain cloth at the end of it that you cut off and sew into a blouse, and the rest you'll have to look up. I also got a lungi and a jubba, for me. A lungi is basically a lava lava, and a jubba...is hard to explain. They're commonly worn by Muslims here, though. You should like all the stuff, though. I've heard that you can get anything in the Philippines, which will be very exciting.