SIVA & RAMMENI

I am still in Abhishaik's area. I'm actually teaching his family now. His sister is doing really well, and her mother is too... but she doesn't speak english :( Oh well, we ignore rules and teach people the gospel, jk. The gospel is for everyone she just will have a hard time understanding in church, the mother I mean. Abhi is still doing great. He's my first baptism, but I've two more... haha, yeah. I baptized Siva and Rameni last sunday, it was a real treat. They had learned the lessons for 8+ months now and were finally willing to be baptized now.

I guarentee that India is dirtier than any American city, maybe even twice as dirty. Mother, the sewers are open on the sides of the roads. I don't remember if I told you this but my OLD bike fell into one of those ditches. It was perhaps the grossest thing you can imagine. Fortunately I have a new one, completely new and amazing.

Your grasp on the hymns sung by newly formed branches in foreign countries is exactly correct. There are creative timings and unrecognizable tunes sung for the 5 different songs that they know and cycle through every week. They sing "repent and be baptized..." every single week. It's cute (and annoying.) We're teaching our converts how to broaden their repetoire and sing songs correctly and so are the couple missionaries. I don't play piano in sacrament, two or three have enough piano skills to play the hymns. I play for district meetings though.


Here's something for my blog, which, as the emails I am receive are telling me, everyone is really liking so keep up the good work!
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1. First of all, we as members represent the church, that's true, but remember that the church is JESUS CHRIST'S. If you really believe that, then you should be able to overcome the hypocrisy you see around you. Trust me when I say that nobody is perfect, not even me. Only to Jesus Christ can we look to as a perfect human example as we try to be perfect "even as [our] father in heaven is perfect." People will make mistakes, and may make the church look bad, but that in no way means that the church IS bad, rather that it is misrepresented. We were provided the atonement because we are mortals, we will make mistakes, but through the power of His mercy we can be clean again. That opportunity is extended to ALL, including members of the church who profess cleanliness but practice uncleanliness. Therefore, when you go on a mission you do not represent the sins of all the church members, but rather Jesus Christ and the opportunity of reprentance that he gives to all men.

2. I'm a *pretty* straight shooter. In this case, I'll be direct and to the point. EVERY PERSON IN THIS WORLD MAKES MISTAKES. I make ridiculously stupid mistakes and you've made mistakes too. When we recieve forgiveness for our mistakes, when we truly repent and cease to continue in unrighteousness, then we are clean, and our sins are forgotten. WHATEVER sin occured in your past, if you can accept your repentance, if Jesus Christ accepts your repentance, and if required church intermediators have told you that your repentance has been accepted, then I will join in saying that you are not only clean enough to represent the church, but more prepared than countless others, because you have a firsthand knowledge of the forgiveness that Jesus Christ offers in its fullest.

3. Go on a mission. There are so many reasons to do it. There are a lot of selfish reasons not to. Believe that there is a life after this one and that we will be infinitely rewarded for our devoted service to the Lord. Know that the blessings that are extended to us on a mission cannot be completely provided by any other means than by serving a mission. Your testimony will increase tenfold, your knowledge of the gospel will increase tenfold, and your love for the Savior and capacity for charity will increase tenfold. I do not regret coming on a mission, and I never will. You will regret not going on a mission. All worthy males are provided the duty, all worthy females are extended the opportunity. The sacrifice is not a small thing, but it's not the whole world. The blessings ARE the whole world. GO ON A MISSION.



I love my Savior and have a strong testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. I love that I have the best family in the world, life sure is easier that way. Thanks for everything!
I love you soooo much.
Kyle

HELLO!

So, my new companion is awesome. Elder Shahi is Nepali, but his ancestry is from China. He knows how to work very hard and genuinely cares for all of the people we meet. I'm starting to be able to do the same. I've almost got it down. He has not climbed mount everest, but you're right, it's in Nepal. He's 22 and was baptized maybe 5 years ago. He's a lot of fun and really wants to cook, so I let him... he cooks well. We're almost ready to move into an apartment. It's pretty nice. Marble and a full kitchen. Wood cabinets and guards. Its in a commercial area and should serve us fine if we get it approved. We don't, however, have a cell phone. We also don't have a landline. The other elders we're staying with just lost their phone... so it's VERY difficult to get a hold of our people, and since we just split our area, we really need to follow up with potentials that were ignored due to our previously less-than-satisfactory area book. I'm excited to get to work... again.

Here are the names of people I have been teaching...
Abhishaik: boy 18yo, I baptized him this sunday (yeah, I did it)
Chaitu: girl 19yo, INCREDIBLE testimony and now has a huge knowledge of the gospel. Wants to be baptized but her father will not allow it.
Naresh's Parents: They don't speak much english but we can teach them because they are a part-member family. We helped his father overcome alcoholism and they are finishing up getting over tea addiction, then they'll be good as far as the WoW goes. They love us and want to baptized, so they're doing their best to get eligible.

Since our boundaries just got split (4 elders in RJY 1st instead of 2) we have an incredibly small area and I lost many of the people I've been teaching previously. Some of them are:
Silaja, Amar, and baby Lucky: Silaja is a teacher and speaks english. She is soooo good, but is pregnant again and is getting sick, and is unable to attend church. She follows through with comittments well other than that. Amar speaks little english and went from tolerating us to really enjoying our lessons. He doesn't read the BoM as often as he should though. Lucky is the cutest little boy. Always smiling, rarely making noise.
RaShaker: boy 18yo Works out a lot and is starting to get built. He promised to come to church everyweek and sincerely meant it, came for 2 weeks in a row and then didnt come once. It was sad, but is very ready to overcome his parents unwillingness to let him get baptized and go through with it.
There are others...


Actually, yesterday we had a lesson with Chaitu and since there isn't anything left to teach her we discussed Corinthians 11 about the covering of our heads when we pray. One thing that isn't difficult for people to accept here, but is a culturally common practice is for women to cover their heads with their sari as they pray. No one knows why they do it, it's just that everyone does it so they assume it's the way it should be done. Well, Paul explains it away when he talks about a woman's hair is a covering for her and it is glory for her. Weird stuff.
Anyways, Chaitu asked me to bear my testimony to her, it was a little unexpected, but an awesome experience. The missionary work really is very exciting. I've managed to learn so many things and the gospel just gets more and more interesting the more I learn.

The doctrine that most people have trouble accepting is... different per person. Some can't accept that new prophets are called, they believe that revelations ceased with the death of Christ. Most often it's just confusion of what we teach mingled with things they heard from other people. If they are willing to listen to us and what we are actually teaching we can clear up concerns, but a struggle sometimes is getting them to let us teach what we believe, sometimes they would much rather tell us what we believe. Haha, we can only knock Christian doors for safety reasons and most of what we get is "I already know about Jesus and I've been saved, you aren't on a mission to save the people who already know about Jesus, go teach the Hindus!" That's the funniest, some of them tell us they already know everything about Jesus and that we have nothing to offer... those types of things. It's really quite sad, those with beliefs that are similar to ours seem to be our worst enemies. It obviously isn't the case every time. Many times we are urged to come in and pray for their family. Many want us to eat with them the second they see us, having never met them before. It's sad when we have to turn away people because there isn't a male in the house and we couldn't get a member to come, or because they only speak Telegu and we can't communicate. I'm hoping that we can teach in the native tongue soon.

I love you ALL!

Elder Shep