Cool cool week, happy Hanuman's Birthday!

Hello hello everyone!!

This week was pretty rad, it flew by though.  Crazy.  

This week we had a mission tour!  Elder Funk came to the Hyderabad zone and we had an AWESOME conference about how to better teach repentance and baptize converts.  I seriously learned so much and am excited to apply what we learned in our daily proselyting efforts.  What was super cool was that he shared with us a story about Josh that illustrated the importance of planning!  It was super rad, I was beaming as he was sharing it (he made sure to mention "Elder Tuscano").

One really cool experience we had this week was teaching a semi-active YSA age young man, his name is Saul.  Saul's family has recently been struggling with a number of things, chief among these, however, was the tragic loss of his older brother who was also the source of income for their family.  His brother left behind a wife and four children.  When we heard of this we were absolutely just devastated.  So we went to their home.  Only Saul and his father were home, but we shared with them 1 Corinthians 15:55-58 and testified with all our hearts that because of the Savior, death has lost it's sting.  We also shared some of the last verses in Romans 8 to illustrate that not he, his family, nor any being that ever has lived or will live can be separated from God's love.  I testify of that to all of you as well.  Saul broke down in tears.  He was so moved by those scriptures.  It was a really powerful experience I won't soon forget.

I love this work.  I love these people.  With nothing wavering, I am proud to say that I am an assistant to this great and marvelous work.  The love of God is real.  The grace of our Lord is available for us today, tomorrow, and forever.

Have a great week everyone, love ya!

Elder Tuscano

P.S. Shout out to the one and only Haley Lindsey (soon to be Hermana Lindsey) that just got her call to the Argentina Comodoria Rivadavia mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Telegu: if you can't speak it, go ahead and speak it anyway; they just might understand!

Hello hello all from Hyberdaddy!!!

This week was an awesome one for us, really productive.  Also really hot.  The average temperature during the day is usually over 100 degrees.  Any time we go to anyone's home they are sure to remind us.

Some highlights from this week include the fact that we set a baptism date this week!!!  Woohoo!!!  We set it for May 8, the last week in the transfer.  We are super excited.

Also this week I had a pretty cool experience.  So we showed up at a less active family's home (because trying to schedule appointments in India is like trying to jump over the moon) and as it so happened, only the sister and her husband, both of whom are in their later years, were at home.  Neither of them speaks English.  So we were thinking to leave but then I felt prompted to stay.  So we stayed.  And in very, very broken Telugu I was able to teach and testify.  It ended up being a powerful lesson and the sister understood clearly.  Super cool experience, I thought.

Also we had stake conference this week and the presiding authority was none other than Elder Randy D. Funk of the Seventy.  Elder Funk is Josh's former mission president.  Before the meeting started he greeted all the missionaries just briefly then paused for a moment when he got to me.  He hugged me and asked if my brother was the very same Elder Tuscano that had been his first assistant when he came to India, I told him I was.  He was thrilled.  He said he was so excited when he found out that I was serving in this mission.  Also we are having zone conference with him next week, so I'm really excited about that.

I'm finally able to send some pictures also haha, so enjoy!  And have an AWESOME week!  Keep the faith.

Love,

Elder Tuscano

Hindu New Year and belated General Conference: it's all RAD

Hindu New Year

Hello hello all, and Happy Hindu New Year!!  Hindu New Year was not as much of a party as I thought it would be, I guess everyone here is Muslim, oops hahaha.

This week was rad and went by really fast.  Elder Larson and I spent the week getting to know our area, the members, and doing whatever we could to find people to teach.  It is also really really hot here haha, we get texts from the mission office everyday to go in the shade for ten or so minutes because it is almost dangerous to be outside.

Conference this week was RAD, I seriously loved ALL the messages.  If I could watch the Sunday afternoon session over and over again, I'd be thrilled.  Messages that stuck out to me in particular were delivered from Elder Oaks about the necessity of opposition in mortality, from Elder Gong who shared many ways that we may ALWAYS remember Him, and Elder Kearon who spoke of refugees.  Elder Kearon's talk was even more moving because President Uchtdorf, who got up after to conduct, was weeping.  At first I was confused but then remembered: he himself is a refugee.  That was touching.  The messages delivered by General authorities pluck the very heart strings of their own.  I'm forever changed by this conference.  What wonderful messages.

I hope everyone was able to tune in for some of it last week (sorry I'm late by the way, they had to translate it into Telugu so we had to wait a week to view the sessions).

Hope everyone has a good week and that it is not as hot as it is in Hyderabad!

Love,

Elder Tuscano

"Hyberdaddy"

photo not taken by Jonathan but it represents what he described in his letter

(no pictures this week)

Hello one hello all, and greetings from Hyderabad!!!

I love it here, it is seriously awesome.  It is also really really hot and dusty, the average temperature right now (during the day) is around 100 degrees.  Always.  It's nice though, it's not nearly as humid as Visak.  There is also a TON of people here and the city is HUGE!!!  I think this is either the third or fourth largest city in India and our area takes up a big chunk of it haha.  Which will be fun.  Sort of.  We are kind of white-washing the area.  I say kind of because there was already a companionship here in the West Maredpally 1st ward, but now we are splitting the area.  So these next couple weeks will be a blast getting to know the place haha.

My new companion is Elder Larson!  He is a boss, really cool, humble, funny guy from Preston, Idaho haha.  So I've been cracking a lot of Napoleon Dynamite jokes with him.  He just recently returned from the Philippines; which is where the American elders go after their visas expire to apply for a new one.  He arrived on Saturday and we are both ready and excited to do some WORK.

Nothing too crazy has happened yet, but I expect this coming one to be jam packed with awesome stuff.  One thing, however: we were on a bus yesterday on the way to church (all our travel is by bus, by the way).  I was looking out the window and had to doubletake when I saw a young man riding a camel.  But the camel wasn't trotting at a normal pace, it was SPRINTING down this busy road, it was pretty crazy.

I'll try to send some pictures from this week, hopefully they come through!

Much love, hope everyone enjoyed conference!  We get to watch it this upcoming weekend!

Elder Tuscano

Piano lessons came in handy, and transfer to Hyderabad!

Hello what is uuuup all?  This week was pretty good in Visak, not too happenin', but still really good.  I am pretty sad though, I'm leaving!  Transfer calls were Saturday night and I'm going to Hyderabad!!!  I'll be serving in the West Maredpalli 1st ward, yes ward because Hyderabad has a stake!  I'm super pumped, I've heard nothing but good things about Hyderabad.

It will be really sad leaving these wonderful people of Visak though, I love them a lot.  They are like my family now.  In a sense, they've "raised me," as this has been my first area.

In other news, the zone leaders had a baptism this week at which they asked me to be the pianist haha.  Yes, me.  That was interesting, but fun and actually worked out!  I wasn't quite as rusty as I thought haha.  So I'm thankful to my wonderful mother for having me take piano lessons for all those years.  

Ok, not much time today, I've gotta go pack, I leave tomorrow for Hyderabad!  See y'all, have a great week and stay true to the faith!

Elder Tuscano

Sping is here (and pictures, too)!

 

Hello hello all!!

This week was a pretty good one here in Visak, really productive.  Nothing super duper awesome happened BUT Purushotham's parents were confirmed yesterday!!!  Man, that was awesome.  They were both beaming/glowing after, it was an AWESOME experience.  Such a happy day and a happy experience.

Another cool thing is that we went a super cool village by the beach to give a blessing to someone.  I will try to send pictures, hopefully they come through this time.

The coolest thing that happened this week though was an experience with being led by the Spirit.  So this week Elder Shaik and I had the strong impression to visit a former investigator.  But neither of us knew how to get to his home.  I had been there once with Elder Thambi when I first came to India and had not the slightest sense of spatial reasoning.  But we knew we had to go.  So I said a prayer in my heart that we'd be able to find his home.  And we started walking.  We walked down streets that were but vaguely familiar, obscure alley ways that proved to be quite useful, and line upon line, we were led to the investigators home.  The thing is, is that I didn't hear a voice in my head.  There was no lighted cloud guiding the way. Yet I knew not where to go.  I asked in faith for guidance and the Spirit led us where we needed to go.  The Spirit is a lot more subtle than one might think.  It's not always this crazy spiritual experience, sometimes it's quiet.  It's humble.  I thought that was way cool.

Anyway, everyone have a rad week this week, and keep the faith!

 

Elder Tuscano

a partial photo is better than no photo, right?!

at least it's more of a picture than we've seen for a long time :)

 
What is up, all?

This week was an incredibly good one for the Visak zone, full of good news.  In part, some good news is that I (miraculously) recovered my photos from the past few weeks [parent note: well.. the miracle is yet to be seen as evidenced by the partial photo of only one picture that he sent; but we haven't given up hope and believe that faith precedes the miracle :)]!!  So there will be some coming your way.  We had three baptisms across the zone this week, two of which were from our companionship!!  Purushotham's parents (Mutyalayya and Paidithalli) were both baptized!!!  Man, they are seriously awesome.  This week I will simply elaborate on the baptisms in the Visak zone, they are pretty cool.

So on Sunday morning we got a call from Shravani (Purushotham's wife) explaining that they had had a death in the family.  Our hearts sank.  We were about to explain that we could move the baptism to a different week at their leisure, when she told us that her parents-in-law were asking if they could still be baptized that day!!  Talk about awesome faith, right?  I thought that was awesome.  They are seriously such wonderful people.  I'm so happy for them.

The other baptism in the zone was in the Visak 2nd branch, this one was particularly cool.  So there is an elder currently serving in Hyderabad, from the Visak 2nd branch, who is, or at least was, one of the only members in his family--up until yesterday!  As is the case with many native missionaries who come from part member families, his mother started meeting with the missionaries upon his departure for the mission field, and yesterday she was baptized--BY HER SON!!  The mission president granted him special permission to come to Visak for a day and baptize his mother.  How beautiful is that?  There is nothing more beautiful than the Gospel, I know that without the faintest shadow of a doubt. [parent note: Jonathan mentioned that they had fifteen baptisms across the mission this wee and also had seventeen investigators attend sacrament meeting. He says that they are honestly overwhelmed with work to do]

There is so much to rejoice about.

Love,

Elder Tuscano