12.27.2016

Hare Krishna (Merry Christmas)!

 skype with the family on Christmas morning
  skype with the family on Christmas morning
  skype with the family on Christmas morning
 Madame Nazarena and her class of schoolchildren with whom we shared the Light the World
three cute kids we showed the Light the World video this past week!
 this is a bunch of tractors in our area, it reminded me of Staheli Farm in Washington haha.
a typical scene in our area.  This specific area is where we found a new family to teach!

Merry day after Christmas everyone!  I think just generally speaking, the day after Christmas is usually pretty anticlimactic, or maybe that's just me haha.  Anyway.

This week was pretty jam-packed with Christmas festivities and activities and lighting the world and whatnot.  There were quite a few highlights, I will just mention a few:

In the month of December in India, Christian families will hang a colorful, lighted, paper star outside their home in anticipation for Christmas.  Elder Poleboina and I took advantage of this and used it as a finding opportunity.  So on Thursday night, we went to an area, knocked on people's doors, and asked them if we could share a short Christmas message.  In a space of 2 hours or so, we found four new families to teach.  Almost everyone we spoke to invited us in and absolutely everyone loved the Light the World video.  That was an unforgettable experience.

On Christmas Eve, in the afternoon, the missionaries in the Bangalore zone got together and had our Christmas devotional.  We watched part of the First Presidency Christmas devotional, had a small testimony meeting, exchanged white elephant gifts, and had homemade chocolate chip cookies and ice cream afterwards, it felt like a little slice of home.

Later that evening, we had our ward Christmas party--it was a crack-up.  The party was supposed to start at 6:00PM but as things go in India, it started at 8:00PM.  Ten minutes or so before the party started, the Relief Society president approached me and my companion and asked us to be in the Nativity play.  She asked yours truly to be Samuel the Lamanite.  Hahaha.  It was awesome, I got to stand on a chair and hold my hands above my head and read the prophecies of Christ's birth in a loud voice.  Everyone got a kick out of that.  My costume consisted of a baptism jumpsuit with the Relief Society president's shawl wrapped around me like a toga.  It was so funny.  I wish I'd taken pictures, I will have to find some and send them.  My companion was the angel Gabriel.

Sacrament meeting on Sunday was great.  Our ward had a special Christmas program where each quorum or auxiliary (i.e. Primary, Relief Society, Young Men, etc.) would sing a song, then the leader would speak.  Unfortunately, the Young Men AND the Elders' quorum had designated a chorister beforehand and, in the middle of the meeting, asked me to come be the chorister.  It was awesome, I loved everything about this weekend.

Important Christmas side notes:
  • Our Christmas dinner consisted of green chicken biryani and dhal, it was delicious.
  • Our mission had twenty-four baptisms on Christmas Sunday!!!
I hope everyone had an exciting, spiritual Christmas.  My prayer is that we will all Light the World in 365 ways over 365 days not only in this coming year but every year that follows.

Keep the faith,
Elder Tuscano  

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