Hello Family and Friends,
Well this week was like a roller coaster. It is sufficient to say that all five of the planned baptisms got pushed back one more week, which isn't a terrible thing at all by any means, but it was stressful at the time. When people are getting baptized things get really stressful because so much paper work has to be filled out. In India there is a problem of people giving money to have people join their church so if someone wants to be baptized they have to handwrite a document, sign it, put their address, and have two witnesses (one member of the church and one non member) put their name and sign it. It's very annoying especially when you have to fill out enough for every member of a family. Also for the baptismal record of the church it is difficult to fill out all the information because people just don't know sometimes. Especially for parents birthdays but that is mostly due to the fact that most parents grew up in uncertain times so they don't have any birth certificates.
But for every down there is an up and with the way the gospel works it seems like that up really gets up there. We visited Chaithenya and Indu, the family recently baptized and we shared a video about temples with them. They were very impressed and Chaitenya told us that it was his dream to go to the temple. At the end of the lesson he said "Elders I have three dreams: To meet the prophet, to go to the temple, and to go to Los Angeles!" We laughed at Los Angeles and I asked him where that came from and he said "they're just dreams". We then saw the reality of the situation, because as secure as the family is, to save enough money to travel anywhere would be nothing less than a miracle. Then we got very serious and told him that the dream is possible through faith and obedience to God's laws. The spirit was very strong in the room.
We had a great find the other day. We found a family in a big white house. Elder Chagoya and I were amazed when we saw the inside. There was a full kitchen, living room, two bathrooms, an office and a separate room for every member of the house. It was a house I would not mind living in. And they had the largest collection and assortment of dogs ever. I loved it because they ranged from small fluffy white dogs to giant police dogs. The father's name was Raju and the mother was Jennifer. Raju made his fortunate from a metal welding business that made metal frames for windows. India doesn't use wood because there aren't any good trees growing here that can be used for buildings so the two most common materials for building houses are concrete and metal. Needless to say the business is thriving but they are still a very humble family and say that the home is God's gift. Raju doesn't know very much English but Jennifer is a school teacher at an English medium school so she speaks very nicely. As we were teaching her she would share some of her beliefs and they matched the Plan of Salvation as we know it today. She even had a firm belief in a pre-earth life, which I've never heard anyone having even a concept of it before. She liked the message of Joseph Smith because she said that she was having the same doubts as him about other churches. Hopefully I'll be able to write more about this family later if they progress:)
This morning was very exciting because we got up early to bike across the Godavari bridge, the 1st or 2nd highest bridge in Asia apparently. Pictures are included herewith, I hope you appreciate the talents of Elder Chagoya to get the picture with me eating the sun and with the dove. I joked that the spirit of God descended on me like a dove and I ate it!
Last night was a little scary. We got into our last appointment and Elder Chagoya looks over at me and says he's not feeling to good. And he didn't look good. He was in full sweat and the color from his face drained. I took him outside and you probably don't know but if any Indian knows your sick or injured they will swarm you like flies to try and give some home made remedy. We declined the questionable medicines seeing as the apotharetic methods seemed a bit rudimentary and the lack of the scientific method was fairly evident. I suggested water. We called an auto off the street and went home and now Elder Chagoya is fine, sometimes a urge a naseau just hits for about an hour but after people usually recover.
Anyways I better read your letters. I hope you had fun on your trip Jeff, honestly I love camping so I'm extremely jealous. And Paige keep up the good work. Just remember that my first night managing I had to deal with Spider-man 2 and that was the time I started the movie a 1/2 hour late. So don't worry if you haven't messed up that bad then you're doing pretty good. Also I wanted to know how all the boys were able to do their missions in the snow. I can't imagine how you go about it. But it is starting to get pretty hot now. It hit about 100 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday and in the full summer time it does get about 120 degrees.
Love you a million dreams of a righteous future,
Elder Curtis Mackay
PS
Wow I am so jealous. It sounds like your having a blast in the boat house (I remember that when we first moved in that is what it felt like). I also miss baked goods. You can find them here but no one rivals Ashley's home cooked buns (sorry Ashley no pun intended and yes you can call me a dork :)
Love ya!
Curtis
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