I've come to the Garden of Eden - June 16, 2009

Dear Family and Friends,

Well I made it to coimbatore and it is a wonderful place. The heat difference is about 10 degrees celsius from Rajahmundry so I've been enjoying even the hottest of afternoons. It is really beautiful here, probably even more than Rajahmundry but it is definitely more crowded. The streets can get pretty thin, buildings pack up the area, and there are no hills so you don't see the horizon very often. But when you do get to a farming area it is beautiful to see. And there are plenty of trees and shrubs to make the area very pretty. And they have pizza hut and dominoes here! Right now I'm trying to convince my companion to go but he says it's too expensive, I say eat, drink and be merry;)

Speaking of companions, my new companion is Elder Smith. He is from Idaho and he comes from a family of 14! He is the oldest boy with two older sisters but he is the first in his family to serve a mission. A very nice and humble guy, and he teaches really well too. He has told me he worries a lot, at from what I have seen so far that's true but I just laugh when he worries and sing Bob Marley to him. At the beginning it was a little rough because we had very few good investigators so we spent a lot of time finding and the appointments we did have seemed to cancel on us. One thing I don't like about Coimbatore is the schedule everyone has. Everyone who is free is uneducated and doesn't speak English and everyone who speaks English works at some corporate job and works from 7am to 9pm. I know that sounds ridiculous and I can't believe that someone works that much at one job every day with only one day off a week. But amazingly enough we found some people to teach and we started to progress with some of the investigators we had already.

Another and probably the bigger challenge is getting members to come with us to appointments. In Rajahmundry it was very easy to have members come with us and it was suprising if we had a lesson without a member. But here with everyone's busy work schedule it's harder to schedule lessons with members present. But we're making do and our goal is to get one member with us to an appointment every day. Yesterday we brought a recent convert young man to two appointments and he did great so hopefully this is just the start to some awesome member fellowship.

I know this area has a lot of potential. In the Coimbatore branch there has been 26 baptisms already, 11 of them on the same day. There are a lot of families to teach and people speak a lot better English here so language will not be a factor. The elders before were really hard workers too. The area is really big and it takes a lot of cycling to get to appointments (by the way I'm still cycling and the cycles are so much better here!) so you have to go really fast...in a safe manner of course. And the people seem to be a little more hesitant to meet with the elders than Rajahmundry but nevertheless I looked at the numbers and the elders are finding just as many, if not more new investigators every week.

Right now we have a great newly wed couple we're working with, Renald and Deepa. They have a newborn baby and the elders met them at the beginning of the year. We met with them on Monday and had a taught them about baptism. We asked them to set a goal date for baptism in July but Renald was hesitant and didn't accept. They both said that they wanted to be baptized but they wanted to be absolutely sure that they were doing the right thing. Also Renald wants to be completely ready and sure he won't go back to his former ways. For him the Word of Wisdom is his biggest stumbling block but from what I've heard he is doing a lot better now than he was doing before. He already quit tea and coffee and just the other day he went to a party and didn't drink. Now he's just working on his tobacco addiction and he'll be home free.

It's been quite the experience so far and the district here is great. We have the zone leaders as well as the sisters in our district and let me tell you it was weird following up with the sisters at night. They are the only sisters left in the mission because all the Indian Sisters now are being called state side, which is a really cool thing. One of the sisters, Sister Yadav, is sick right now though with a stomach infection so were hoping she gets better soon and doesn't need surgery. Luckily they are in a threesome so one of the sisters goes on splits all day with one of the members while the other two stay inside, so at least the work still moves forward.

The Zone Leaders are a funny pair. Paige you would love Elder Hullinger. He is an amazing piano player. Apparently you can see a video of him on Youtube playing the piano in the MTC so check it out. But he's also a very femmy kind of guy. He would fit in as a host for what not to wear. Than there is Elder Valluri who is from Rajahmundry so we talk about how good Andra food, how nice Raj is, and how Tamilnadu doesn't know anything about taste. Elder Hullinger said I'm Indian because Elder Valluri made us dal and rice and I ate a portion three times as much Elder Hullinger.

Anyways I better get going and read your letter. I'm glad that you are safe Mom and please take care of yourself.

Love you a million cool breezes,

Elder Curtis Mackay

Baker, Huh Dustin? Well I agree that the other destinations are cool but I think I have to shake my head at the last one. So i guess since Paige went on a date with Elliott he has been released and won't go back out or is there still a chance? Thank you so much for your letters, I love every little bit of it. Eat some Texas Doughnuts for me will ya? Love ya