Tuesday, we had district meeting in the
morning, then Elder Daniel had another checkup on his eyes. Then, we had
correlation meeting, where the topic of a surprise new investigator
came up: Sister Ramya. Actually, she's not new, and we aren't even
teaching her. She is mentally handicapped and lives in our branch area,
but the sister missionaries are teaching. I knew next to nothing about
her, just that the sisters were supposed to be teaching. Turns out, the
branch was planning on baptizing her that Sunday, and wanted an urgent
status report. Surprise! We were pretty shocked, considering that they
hadn't asked about her ever before. After the meeting, I spent half an
hour on the phone, calling the sister missionaries, the mission
president (he had interviewed her because of her handicap, and found her
capable enough to be baptized, but I was hearing some weird things
about that interview), and just about everyone else on the planet. That
night, I talked with the zone leaders, who talked to the APs, and we
worked out a tentative plan: to get the branch president to interview
her father, and see if Ramya can be baptized, then move on from there.
After
that craziness, things kept moving on Wednesday. We met with Jhansi, an
investigator, in the morning, and she accepted a baptismal date! Later,
we went out to Madhurawada, a far area, and thought we'd have
appointments. Just Saturday, we'd found 6 new investigators there...but
none were available. Surprise! We did manage to meet with a less-active
member with an interesting story (a ceiling fan decided it wanted to be a
ground fan while she was sleeping under it. Surprise for her!) , but
that was it. After we came back, we serendipitously managed to arrange
for the branch president, Sister Ramya, and her father to all be at the
church at the same time, and had an interview. We are now pretty sure
she is accountable enough to be baptized.
On
Thursday, we had weekly planning in the morning, and went out. We met
with Aruna, one of our progressing investigators, but struggled to find
appointments for the rest of the day. At night, we managed to meet
Sister Ramya at her home with the sister missionaries to try to find out
what she knows about the gospel, and if she needs to be taught. Turned
out, the sister missionaries, her family, and everyone else had not
taught her at all, and she knew nothing. Surprise again! We started
teaching, and laid the burden at her parents' feet.
Friday, we met with Jhansi again. She is
still doing well! Then, things fell through. We had an appointment with
a recent convert that we had just set that morning that bunked, even.
We ended up giving up on that area and going back to Madhurawada, which,
again, did not end well. We talked with a couple investigators, but
none were available for lessons. At night, we did meet with a member,
though.
Saturday was the fun one. We had
mission president interviews! Surprise! Okay, we actually knew about
that one. Those took quite a while, though, up until 4. Right after
that, we headed out to Madhurawada again to meet up with a member to
take to Bheemili, which is an hour off. We were a little late, so the
member had decided to start washing clothes...which took another half
hour. Finally, we got moving...only to learn that there was no
transportation. All the buses and autos were jam-packed. Rush hour, eat
your heart out. Eventually, we had to give up and travel back to the
church, where the sister missionaries had invited us to watch their
baptism.
Sunday was the surprising
day...again. We called all of our investigators and invited them to
church in the morning. Most said they'd come. None did, except Jhansi.
That was a surprise, because we thought she'd attend the first branch
meeting like she usually does because of her work schedule. We called
the Ravi family, who had promised they'd come, afterwards, and learned
why they hadn't: their auto got stolen. Considering that he is an auto
driver for work, that is a big problem for them. After church, the
branch had a massive baptismal service. They had 6 primary children who
all turned 8 about the same time, and all got baptized at once.
Well,
that's about all the news for the week. I can't believe I'm missing
Halloween...again! Diwali is coming up next week, and should be pretty
spectacular. Transfer calls will be tonight, and we'll see what happens.
See ya!
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