Ok. Well transfers came in. Hindi transfer 2! As of today I have been in Fremont in the same apartment for 1 year and 6 days. Nothing surprises me anymore cuz I've been here for so long.
Last pday eve we found a guy who wanted to buy our neon open sign for 50 bucks. So now we have an extra 50 dollars to spend on indian stuff
We had interviews with President. I barely mentioned possibly extending my mission and President Larson looked at me like he was confused and was like "are you going to college? You have to go to college, you're to smart"
I almost started laughing because- of course i'm going to college. . .i just might wanna be a missionary for another 6 weeks before I start that.
So then we talked about college and careers and he said I should maybe consider 'Technology'. . .
Then we met a cool friend named Sana- she is literally ready to be baptized. She is very indian and also Christian! So we taught her family for a bit then they started feeding us and so i started crying because there were just sooo many spices. My entire mouth was just overwhelmed. Then they gave us 'rose-milk' and it took the pain away…
So I bet somewhere in South India where the church is more prevalent that somebody went up on a fast Sunday and talked about how rose-milk is like the atonement of Jesus Christ because it stopped the stinging and helped them to stop crying.
Friday was a BREAKTHROUGH day. I started reading the Bhagvad Gita a while ago and working on someway to use that knowledge to contact and teach indians. Oh wait- some context- bhagvad gita is the Hinduism scripture kinda thing.
So we saw a big truck full of tools and stuff and we had a moment of like "well…should we go talk to them even though they're probably not indans…."
Then we headed over and- surprise- there's a huge word in hindi on the back of the truck!
They all walk out and have like- zero English. So we use all of our hindi. They're not interested at all.
A sudden burst of inspiration and passages of the gita come to my mind and I open my mouth with faith.
I start comparing the gita to the Book of Mormon and Lord Krsna to Jesus Christ. I compare ईश्वर to God as the creator of the world and talk about how Jesus Christ suffered for our bad karmas so we don't have to suffer in our next life.
Suddenly he's pulling out mail and pointing at his address, we give him the Book of Mormon in Hindi and set a time to come back.
Epicccc. The gita gave us a door and reading it is helping me to open it.
So now we've been trying something similar in our other Indian interactions.
We performed "Silent Night" at church elder vest and I sang, Elder Holladay pianoed and Elder Smalley cellod. Everybody cried.
We did so good we were asked to sing at a relief society party later that week. But this time we also did "the first noel" and "what child is this"
So now I am a legend at singing In my chest and doing duets.
We're performing again tonight!
This next part is dedicated to all Edwins, Edward's, Eddys, and anything else with a 'Ed' in it!
This week I finished Joshua! Chapter 22, Which has a very Alma 60 type story, was especially good. The tribes of Gad, Simeon, and Manasseh(half of it) built a big Altar and all the other tribes of Israel were confused. They sent the 3 tribes a big letter saying they were so disappointed that they were worshiping false Gods now and were gonna come and beat them up. So the 3 tribes sent a letter back saying that's not what's going on! We didn't build this altar for sacrifices! (The children of Levi are in charge of that) we just built it so that when we look at it we remember to worship God and so when our kids and their kids and their kids look at it they will remember God.
So the other tribes were like ohhh ok ok I see. We won't beat you up then. That's a cool idea.
So they were all friends again and they got together and guess what
They decided to give the altar a name…
And they named it…Ed
Satan is the author of Confusion, misery, and violence. This little misunderstanding nearly led to the destruction of 3 of the tribes of Israel! I think more than half of all contention stems from a misunderstanding of some kind. If I took time to understand why somebody did what they did before I reacted, I would save myself and others soooo much trouble! When we react in anger without thinking- we are actually just acting in Satan's Will. So- when somebody upsets you- take a second. Always Remember Ed. Remember Ed and you'll be on the safe, peacemaker side.
If you wanna read this, it's in Joshua 22!
Love you!
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