The Book of Mormon: Plain and Precious

What is up!

This week was solid, though a lot of it was spent inside.  We were on lockdown for three consecutive evenings this week and again for some sort of statewide strike that was happened on Friday.  It was kind of like fall break for our zone haha (;  Just kidding, our zone had one of the most productive weeks thus far this transfer despite all the set backs haha.  But Ganesh festival was crazy!  There were parades, and drums, and all kinds of celebrations (and noise) going on late into the night this past week.  I saw Ganesh statues that were something like fifty feet tall.  I wish I could send pictures, but unfortunately I don't have any as we weren't supposed to take any haha.

One cool experience from this week: one of our investigators is a twelve year old young man named Akash, he is awesome.  He is SUPER inquisitive and eager to learn more about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and our relationship with them.  Anyway, we met with Akash a couple times this week and after our first meeting, we challenged him to read 2 Nephi 31 to learn more about the doctrine of Christ, he accepted.  A couple days later, in our follow-up visit, he told us he hadn't read it--we were DEVASTATED (as Elder Holland suggests we should be when investigators fail to read the Book of Mormon)!  He told us he didn't read because he hadn't found time (you'd be surprised to witness how backed up a twelve year old in India can get with all the homework they're assigned).  We then felt prompted to depart from our initial lesson plan and read the chapter with him.  As we read, Akash lit up, we could see the Spirit working within him.  He exclaimed to us something along the lines of, "This is awesome, elder!  I can actually understand!"  He then revealed to us that he had had time to read, but he avoided doing so for fear that he wouldn't understand what he was reading!!  Akash came to know, as do all who read the Book of Mormon, that it is written in plainness and the beauty of the Book of Mormon lies in its simplicity.  The Book of Mormon testifies of Christ in a way that everyone can understand, especially when aided by the power of the Holy Ghost.  This experience was simple yet significant to me.  Cool things happenin' out here in Indiranagar.

Hope everyone has a good week, keep the faith!

Elder Tuscano

Bye Bye Dengue, Hello Ganesh Festival; Basketball and more...

Elder Jensen and I ballin' it up with Prabhu!

 The amazing lady from KGF (and her family) whose baptism interview I had the privilege of conducting! She is awesome and super ready to be baptized.  Fun side note: she only

speaks Kannada so I had to interview her via translator!  Incredible experience

funny photo of our crazy zone from zone training this past week!

HAPPY GANESH CHATURATHI, Y'ALL!  As missionaries, we will be celebrating this huge Hindu holiday by being on lockdown after 6PM for the next three days or so haha.  We aren't allowed to take pictures of all the happenings, unfortunately, but it's NUTS, I have seen some of the BIGGEST Ganesh statues I've ever seen in my life in the past week, and those were just the preparations for this festival.  It's crazy!  But a crazy cool time to be in India right now and I couldn't accurately express my gratitude for this amazing opportunity.

This past week we have been working with one of our SOLID investigators, his name is Prabhu.  Prabhu is something like twenty four years young and fresh out of business school.  He is pretty cool because his grandfather was a pioneer in Bangalore, as in baptized back in the 80's, I believe.  However, Prabhu and his family remained Hindu!  It has been really cool working with him and seeing where he's coming from.  He has a lot of questions that have been answered by the Lord's beautiful Plan of Salvation and he lights up as he learns things, it's awesome.  Something funny is that Prabhu asked Elder Jensen and I to teach him how to play basketball.  Prabhu is pretty tall and once we made a passing comment, and asked if he'd ever played before.  He said no but that he really wanted to learn how!  So we've been teaching him (whilst simultaneously teaching him the gospel)!  I will send a picture, it's pretty funny.

Also this week I had the opportunity to travel to Kolar Gold Fields, or what we call KGF for short, this week for a baptism interview.  KGF is about a three hour bus ride outside of Bangalore so that was quite the experience for me and Elder Jensen.  It was cool to see rural India at its finest.  Funny experience though: the bus we took out to KGF was PACKED, as in I couldn't even move, and I was sitting down!  But in my immobile state, somehow I felt a tap on my shoulder.  I swiveled my head around (to the extent that I could) to see what was up.  A man was trying to ask me something in Tamil.  I responded that I didn't understand (though I certainly tried) and turned my head back around, just minding my own business.  Then, no more than a few seconds later, a young boy (anywhere from five to seven years old) came and sat himself right on my lap, and stayed there!  For an hour!  I guess the man was trying to ask me if it was alright for his young son to sit on my lap!  I thought that was pretty funny, I hope I explained it well enough for you guys to get a laugh out of it as well.

Well, everyone have a happy Ganesh Festival and keep the faith (in Christ of course, not Ganesh.....unless you're Hindu I guess)!

Elder Tuscano

on the mend from dengue fever

 (not) joint director of horticulture

Lalbagh

Hello hello all!

This week was a pretty crazy one.  Not really haha, just kind of.  Not too eventful because Elder Jensen and I were directed to stay inside and on bed rest.  Why?  Well, in short, I've had Dengue fever this past week.  It hasn't been fun, no not one bit, but I've had a lot of time for study and sleeping, that's for sure.  

We were, however, still able to have President Funk and President Mortensen come to our weekly planning session, which was awesome.  They both truly are inspired men and we were able to learn a lot that we can and will apply in our area (as soon as I'm 100% healthy haha).  One thing I liked that they said is that the point of a council is not necessarily to reach a consensus, but to receive revelation.  That made a lot of sense to me.  

That's really all from this week, folks, I'm sorry to say.  I'll do my best to get healthy again so I can finally get back to work and witness some miracles out here in Indiranagar.  God is great, look for miracles in your lives!  I promise you, you'll see them.

Keep the faith and stay away from mosquitoes!

Elder Tuscano

painting, parks and problems with visas for incoming missionaries

 helping sister rajini paint

Lalbaugh Botanical Garden

What's up, y'all?  

This week was pretty crazy, but super rad!  A lot of crazy stuff is happening in our mission, just in the sense that we are losing a lot more missionaries than we are gaining them!  A lot of missionaries are SUPPOSED to be coming, but they're having trouble obtaining visas (what's new, right?).  This imbalance has caused some change ups in our zone.  For example, I'M BACK WITH ELDER JENSEN!!!  At least temporarily haha, until we get things figured out.  He came to Indiranagar with me this past week!  So I'm like half zone leader half trainer now haha.  It's good to be back with him, I'm excited.  He came with me because his previous companion went home to go to school.  Elder Shrestha went to Lingarajpuram (a different area in our zone) to be with Elder Samson because Elder Samson's previous companion went home due to jaundice.  But that's the current state of things for now haha.

Another highlight this week was changing things up from our normal missionary routine!  For at least a couple hours haha.  Elder Jensen and I helped a sister in our ward repaint her home!  She was really appreciative of our help.  That was fun haha, I will send a picture!

I think that's it really.  Oh!  This week we will be having Mission Leadership Council with President Funk!  In addition, President Funk will be sitting in on our weekly planning session this week......pray for us!

Have a solid week everyone, keep the faith!

Elder Tuscano

Jai Hind (Happy Indian Independence Day)!!

 zone bowling activity

 bengaluru zone

Jai Hind!

HAPPY INDIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!!!  Jai Hind!!!!!

Not a whole lot goin' on for us this week, but it was a good one.  The work is slowly starting to pick up, all is well in Indiranagar!  I would have to say the highlight this week was definitely Mission Leadership Council with President Mortensen.  That was a cool experience.  It was awesome being able to interact with other elders from different zones in different parts of the mission (or country, rather) all coming together to address different concerns.  One thing I really like about President Mortensen is his take on repentance and the Atonement.  He doesn't see repentance as something restricting, binding, condeming--or even a roadblock--he sees repentance as a beautiful, enabling privilege that gives us a "fresh view about God, the world, and ourselves."  I really like that.  He understands the Atonement and what the Savior's loving sacrifice can and will do for us so long as we are humble enough to apply it.

We also had zone training this week!  That was fun being able to connect with our zone.  Some elders traveled for two hours by bus to attend!  We also had a zone activity last week haha, we went bowling.  Yes, of all things to do in India, we went bowling.  It was rad!  I will send some pictures.

That's all for this week though, unfortunately.  Haha.  I hope everyone has a solid week this week and Happy Independence Day from the motherland!

Love,

Elder Tuscano

new companion from Nepal. birthday dinner at Chili's? Cody Monson lookalike!

 Me and my boy E. Shrestha about to chow down on some Chili's!

 me and my boy E. Shrestha chowin' down on some Chili's!

 our apartment!  We stay on the second floor

LOOK!  I FOUND THE INDIAN CODY MONSON!!!  He's our elder's quorum president haha.

Hello hello all!  Hope you all had an awesome week, we certainly did out here in central Bangalore!

Our area is pretty sweet.  It's right in the heart of the city so there's big buildings and offices everywhere.  There are a lot of American restaurants, it's pretty westernized.  There are also a good number of trees which keep our area pretty cool.......see what I did there? (;  Our area also happens to be the smallest in the mission.  You can fit like three or four of our areas inside the other respective areas of our zone.

The members of our ward are AWESOME.  They are happy, helpful, and humble.  They love missionaries and, well, missionary work in general.  We are really excited to work with them.  Our current bishop's brother was one of the first mission presidents of the India Bangalore Mission, so that's pretty cool.

My companion, Elder Shrestha, is a boss.  A boss from Nepal.  He loves music and is especially good at the guitar.  He is a humble, hardworking guy and I'm excited to have him as my companion.  The morning of my birthday this past week, I rolled out of bed and the first thing he did was give me a HUGE hug and say "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!"  That meant a lot.  We went to Chili's for lunch on my birthday haha.  Crazy, right?  What is Chili's doing in India?  No idea.  But I will send some pics.  

Anyway, I hope everyone has a solid week!  Feels good to be 19 haha.

Keep the faith!

Elder Tuscano

transfer and zone leader assignment; 19th birthday and baptisms

 One of my favorite places in the Convent Road North area

where we spend a good deal of our time: Wilson Garden

 The baptism of Alex Raju (along with his family, none of whom are mormon)  

 Elder Jensen, me and Zia (our other favorite Muslim investigator who is

originally from India but was brought up in the UK.  He is AWESOME).

Jonathan's good friend, Haley and her parents.

Haley leaves this week for her mission in Argentina.

Parent note: Jonathan celebrates his 19th birthday this week on August 5.  He was grateful for the package that we sent to him yet it was tender to read his perspective about gifts that he sent to us in our individual email (separate from the general email that he sends for us to share).  I don't think he'd mind that I share it here: "If the only birthday present I ever received was the gift of repentance and being able to improve my character because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ I would be overjoyed.  But luckily for me I have a loving family and especially parents who have helped shape me into what I am.  And that gift is irreplaceable."

Hello hello all!  Hope you're not partying too hard back at home.

This week was transfers and it turns out I'm leaving Convent Road and heading across town to Indiranagar (to serve as a zone leader)!!  My new companion is Elder Shrestha, he is from Nepal and that's literally the only thing I know about him haha.  It will be fun, I'm excited.  Kinda crazy though, Elder Jensen's training isn't finished yet!  But due to an increasing shortage of missionaries some crazy changes have been made (i.e. me being transferred mid-training).

This week, I had the privilege of confirming brother Navaz, that was an experience I will never ever forget.  He was beaming after I said Amen.  But also it was the baptism of brother Alex Raju!  He is among my favorite people I have yet taught on my mission.  Here is an example of how strong his faith is: yesterday morning, Alex was a little late for sacrament (which was a slightly alarming to us because he was to be baptized later that day).  After sacrament he told us that shortly after he'd left his home to come to church, his motorcycle ran out of gas and he'd left his wallet at home.  So he literally walked his bike to the church so he wouldn't be late for church and his baptism.  If I can one day develop the faith that people like Alex, Gregory, and Navaz have I will be satisfied.  They are incredible examples to me.  I hope they are to you all as well.

Don't just keep the faith this week but cultivate it.  I promise growth will come.

Love,

Elder Tuscano

P.S. Shout out to Haley Lindsey (soon to be Hermana Lindsey) who leaves for the MTC this week!  Give her a shout out if you know her, she is dope to say the least and will do great things in Argentina.