Happy Pongal

Happy Pongal/Sankranti/Kite Festival (depending on what locality you're from and what faith you belong to), everyone!  The kite festival was AWESOME here in Hyderabad.  Seriously, thousands of kites were in the sky yesterday and Saturday. Everywhere you went you would hear the victorious shouts of children after they'd cut down a rival kite (kite festival really means kite fighting here, it's pretty cool).  I am so sad to say that I didn't get any pictures as my camera battery was dead all this past week.  We had helped some investigator kids fly a kite on the top of their apartment building--which just happens to be one of the tallest apartment buildings in the area, that was a lot of fun.

This week flew by, I was in a different area/ward nearly every day this past week.  I started in A.S. Rao Nagar then made my way across the city from there.  It was a lot of fun working with these elders and, what more, the Lord led us to at least one new family to teach in each area, how incredible is that?  

I had a cool experience this past week while I was serving in the West Marredpally 2nd ward area.  It is important to know that in the earlier part of last year, I served in the West Marredpally 1st ward area.  I struggled quite a bit in that area because I felt like the work was not progressing very well, despite the hard work my companion and I were putting in.  We talked to hundreds of people, most of which seemed relatively disinterested in our message.  So that brings us to now.  Prior to my arrival in Hyderabad, a certain investigator in the 2nd ward area, Swamy, had been looking for me.  He had been asking all the elders in Hyderabad when Elder Tuscano would be coming.  Naturally, the elders asked Swamy why he wanted to know and he told them that Elder Tuscano was one of the missionaries who introduced him to the church.  When I got to the 2nd ward area, the elders asked me if I knew Swamy.  The name sounded familiar, though I had no recollection of any specific Swamy in Hyderabad that I knew of (you talk to a lot of Swamys in India haha).  Anyway, the elders told me that he'd been dying to meet me and they'd scheduled an appointment to meet with him.  While walking down the alleyway to his apartment, Swamy saw me from the end of the corridor and ran up to me and gave me a huge hug.  As soon as I saw him, I recognized him!!  He was one of the few people I'd spoken with last year that had actually been interested in learning more about the gospel--my companion and I had talked with him while waiting for a bus to come in the 1st ward area.  And now brother Swamy is making rapid strides toward baptism.  It was an amazing reunion.  This experience was a testimony to me that, truly, NO effort is wasted.  Whether planting seeds or gathering the harvest, we are but instruments in His hands.  I will forward some pictures we took with Swamy on his phone haha.

I hope everyone has a week as exciting as this festival was here in Hyderabad.

Keep the faith,

Elder Tuscano