Anglos and Gospel Seeds - March 3, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

Now we're finally starting to be able to manage our time a little bit. We're still extremely busy but it is in a good way. Hey Matt we have a member here who is actually a principal of school. It's a private owned school so the quality is not probably what you are expecting but he is a pretty experienced guy so you may be able to get some information from him. But he also wants to talk to you and Dad also to get some tips on how to improve his school. His school is Kindergarden to 10th grade so you can relate on some level. Since it is a private school he chooses the name and after he was baptized he changed the name to Moroni Model School. Pretty great, No? Anyways his email is 'dineshkulathil@yahoo.com'

We had a pretty amazing experience this last Sunday morning. We received a referral from some members a few weeks back and since then we've been teaching this family. They are the Paulson family and the father doesn't have much interest but the two sons, ages about 21 and 23, are very interested. They've come to church twice but they felt uncomfortable with the services because they weren't devoted to prayer. Along with some other doubts it seemed like for a while that they were going to lose interest. But we told them to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and this last Sunday we followed up with them. One brother Jithu said he didn't have time to read but the other (who was also busy just to note) read and prayed and he said that he felt a happiness that week that he had never felt before. I could hardly believe his words and I felt like that we were just handed a precious, fragile glass ball that would break if too much pressure was applied. Well we're meeting with him this Saturday and Elder Chagoya are sweating bullets trying to make sure everything goes okay. But I guess we'll just have to plan the best we can and then let the Spirit take the rest.

We have just run into our first serious word of wisdom problem. We are working with a guy named Kranti Kumar who found us because he wanted to learn more about Jesus Christ. The reason why is because when he read the Bible and prayed to Heavenly Father he felt a peace that he couldn't get anywhere else. Well we gladly accepted his invitation and taught him but now he having a struggle trying to grasp the idea that Jesus Christ is an actual person and not just a magical power. It's a very different and difficult idea for a Hindu man to catch. But he has been reading the scriptures and has found very much peace and is moving onto the next step: quitting his smoking habit. I don't meet very many people who smoke around here but this poor guy is stuck on a pack of cigarettes. **Both Elder Chagoya and I are very new at this so if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.**

This Sunday he tried quitting cold turkey and so far so good but we'll have to see because he was smoking a pack a day before. Dustin I remembered all your letters about helping people quit smoking and I'm just starting to get a taste of what you probably had to go through every week. As he is trying to quit we're also expanding his knowledge of Christ and his testimony in Him. It's probably the most unique thing we have in the Indian Mission to teach Jesus Christ to someone who has a very limited if no knowledge. But Hindus make the best Mormons.

The heat is starting to pick up. We have to drink about 5-6 liters of water each day to keep up with our sweating. In May and June it should hit a humid 120 degrees. We were watching a church video where we saw the pioneers going across the plains and one of the other elders looks over at me and says "I will never complain about American heat ever again". And I agree.

Interesting Indian fact: There are many types of Indians, each with their own style and manner. There are Punjabi, Andhra, Karela, Tamil, and many more type of Indians. The most out of place though are the Anglo Indians. I'm not sure how they came about but they are exactly what the name decribes, half Indian and half English (or British). They form little colonies so that wherever you go you can find little Anglo communities. They speak very good English and all are pretty much Roman Catholic. Their skin is very fair and many times can pass off as a white person. Many times they are very American also. When I go into an Anglo's home I feel like I just got blasted back to America with their music, style, colors, and clothing. Many Anglos I know love country music and it's pretty funny to see an Indian wear a cow boy hat. Most are very nice but they're not too interested in listening to us. But we are teaching an Anglo Lady who is a single mother with three children. Her name is Angelica and she is very nice and likes the church. She came a couple of times and when she comes you can see everyone look at her and talk about her. We lost her after Sacrament meeting one day and found she wandered into the Gospel and Doctrines class. She had made some friends in there and we didn't want to disturb her so we just left her there. We went up to Gospel Essentials and ten minutes she bursts through the door and says in a booming voice "brothers I've already finished the class downstairs last time I came". I wasn't quite sure what she was talking about but we told her to just come in this class. Angelica is a character but she has a good heart.

Anyways I better get going. I just received an email saying the birthday packaged arrived in Bangalore so I should be recieving any day now. I'm so excited. By the way we celebrated my birthday very nicely. We had cake and good curry! Thank you so much for all your letters and love.

Love you a million heartfelt testimonies,

Elder Mackay

MY TWINKIE SISTER (that means twins by the way). Happy Birthday!! Sorry I meant to save it for the end of the letter but I forgot to send it off. Anyways here is you short personal blurb. I love you a million reeses peanut butter cups (including both the candy and our niece!) I hope you're 18th birthday is going to be fantastic! And you're going to be an adult. You can sign your own papers! You can go to 18+ years concerts. Wow you are so grown up.

I love you sooooooooooo much,

Curtis

Since you asked Carly, there are some interesting Birthday things in India.

The first is that there is a second verse to the birthday song that goes "may God bless you dear" repeated over again to the same tune. Also when you cut the cake it is customary to have the birthday person feed the cake to everyone else by hand. So I had some fun with that:) Also on your birthday you're supposed to give out candy to everyone. Birthdays here are more about giving actually and it's kind of fun.