Tamilian Bengaluru

companions Elder Alaguretnam on the left, Elder Raju on the right

Hello y'all, how is everyone doing?

This week, again, just flew by.  A lot of things happened, a few of which I will elaborate on:

ELEVEN new missionaries came to our mission this past week.  ELEVEN. This NEVER happens haha, at least this many missionaries have not collectively come to the field since my group nearly eighteen months ago.  Among the eleven are four American elders, three Indian elders, and four Indian sisters.  The Lord's work is definitely hastening in south India.

Speaking of hastening the work, this past Sunday, the Bengaluru stake fasted for the purpose of bringing those who "know not God" to a knowledge of the truth--simply put: they fasted for missionary work to increase.  It worked.  Yesterday we had two brothers come in and tell us very plainly that they want to join our church.  One of the brothers was so moved by the Spirit he felt in fast and testimony meeting that he got up and bore his testimony about how he's been searching for the truth and he strongly feels he's found it.  Isn't that so cool?  God really does know each of His children--and fasting brings blessings fast.

In other news, I now have not just one new companion, but two!  My companion that is the new assistant is Elder Raju from Coimbatore.  He is an athlete through and through and his specialty is a not-so-common sport, kabbadi.  It's like tag combined with rugby?  It's hard to explain but it's cool.  Our other companion is Elder Alaguretnam from Sri Lanka/Thailand/Salt Lake City.  I say Sri Lanka/Thailand/Salt Lake City because he was born in and lived in Sri Lanka for a few years, then moved with his family to Thailand (where his family found the Church and was baptized), then moved to south Salt Lake and has been there for a while.  He is with us temporarily because once he gets proof of his Sri Lankan citizenship he will be off to Sri Lanka to serve there!  Side note: currently, you can only serve in Sri Lanka if you have citizenship there.  Both of my companions speak Tamil so that's been a nice addition to our teaching.  So my goal is to pick up on Tamil while I serve with these elders.

I hope everyone has a great week, happy Holi next week!!  The festival of colors!!

Keep the faith,
Elder Tuscano