Still waiting for more photos from Visak and raw sugar cane is sweet!

Usha at the Taj Majal in 1986

Hello all!!!  This week was seriously awesome.  For those who still read my blog in spite of a more drab past couple of weeks, I hope you will feel the same.

This week we had zone conference!!  The topic was chapter eight from Preach My Gospel: Using Time Wisely.  President Berrett reminded us of whose time we are on and that as if we consciously understand this we will most assuredly see blessings.  This is exactly what Elder Thambi and I needed to hear as we were transitioning back into the flow of normal missionary work.  We really took the message to heart and have begun to see the blessings of doing so.

As I've expressed previously, we are teaching Purushotham's parents.  This week we were reviewing the message of the Restoration.  Purushotham's father was having some trouble remembering what we had taught (who can blame him, he is like seventy something years old) but then something awesome happened: Purushotham, a recent convert himself of a little over a month, just went off in Telugu and explained the Restoration in immense clarity and in a manner that his father truly understood.  It is incredible to see what the gospel, but especially the Spirit, does for people.  

We had another super cool experience this week.  One evening all of our appointments bailed on us.  We were walking around a part of our area determined to find someone to teach.  We felt impressed to go to one house and we called inside the house to see if anyone was home (that's how you door knock in India haha).  A brother in his thirties or so came out and warmly invited us in.  We soon learned that he was one of the first fifteen converts in Visak and that he had been inactive for sometime and wanted to come back to church.  He told us that his wife wasn't a member and that he had been praying that he would one day be able to take his wife to the temple and be sealed.  He was thrilled we came when we did.  The Lord truly, truly hears and answers prayers.

Also, this week I had sugar cane for the first time haha that was cool.  At Shravani and Purushotham's home, they handed me a sugar cane stalk that was about as long as my forearm.  They instructed me to peel off the black, plastic-like casing on the outside with my teeth haha.  I did so and they had a good laugh while I did it because I was an absolute failure at doing it.  Then you bite off a huge chunk to release the nectar, swallow the nectar, then spit out the fibrous remains.  It was definitely a process, but it was a cool experience.

I hope everyone has a good week!  Remember to always have a prayer in your heart. 

Elder Tuscano