Vijaya-what?

 here is a picture of me on the Fourth, we thought the lighting was cool

  the Vijayawada elders.  My companion is on the opposite end, he is a cutie pie.

this is the view from our apartment

 this is one of the biggest hills in our area, it's near where we live.  

There are a lot of Christians that live on and around this hill.

Vijaya-what?  VIJAYAWADA (pronounced wi-jay-uh-vada in Indian English haha).

THIS PLACE IS SICK.  It is unlike any other place in the mission.  Completely untapped and ready to receive the blessing of the Restored gospel.  I will explain in more detail later on.

I would first like to explain a bit about my companion because he is awesome.  Seriously, one of the sweetest, most understanding, loving, and enthusiastic missionaries I have worked with.  He is eager and willing to learn, super teachable, and so humble.  His name is Elder Ramishetty, he is from Hyderabad.  I will give a glimpse of my companion's character by sharing the experience of him coming to know that I would be his trainer: When new missionaries arrive, we hold a new missionary orientation to introduce them to the mission.  This time around we had two sisters and one elder (E. Ramishetty) arrive.  There we were--President Mortensen, E. Alaguretnam, myself, and the new missionaries--gathered around the table in President's office.  He informed the missionaries that he was going to introduce them to their trainers, starting with E. Ramishetty's because his was really exciting.  President proceeded to tell E. Ramishetty that I was going to be his trainer, training him in Vijayawada.  E. Ramishetty then stood up with a huge smile on his face, turned to me and said, "I love you, Elder!"  We had just met that morning.  My companion truly is full of love.

A little bit about Vijayawada: IT IS SO HUMID HERE haha.  Walk outside for two minutes and you will be drenched in sweat.  It's awesome, this is an experience I've been waiting for haha, I was sheltered in Bangalore by the nice climate.  But Vijayawada is absolutely beautiful.  It is a relatively clean and green city--clean because there's not as much trash as other places and green because there is vegetation everywhere.  There are also many scattered hills here, all of which are covered in greenery, it's amazing.  I will send pictures.  The food here is amazing (and also really spicy, but that's why it's so good haha), the people are incredibly nice and humble, and the climate for missionary work is ideal.  Straight up, E. Ramishetty and I just hop on our cycles and ride around the city looking for "those that will receive us," and people refer us to their friends and family out the wazoo.

How is the work going and what is the Church like here?  It's awesome.  Check this out: on Sunday, the other two missionaries here, E. Kommalapati and E. Tahiliani, went to the village/city of Rajahmundry, which is four hours away, to witness the first baptism of the Vijayawada home group (Rajahmundry is where the nearest meetinghouse is to us and consequently the nearest baptism font as well,so that's how we have to conduct baptisms for now until we figure something out haha).  But anyway, they were out of town, so E. Ramishetty and I had to conduct the home group service on Sunday.  There were eleven people in attendance, it was awesome.  I conducted the service and played the piano, then my companion and I blessed the sacrament and also gave talks.  We then had a sister give the Sundayschool lesson and the service was over.  It's only a one hour service, so if you're tired of your three hour services, hop on over here to VJW (;  This is an experience unlike any other.  It is humbling and I am just excited to get to work here.

Hope everyone has a great week, keep the faith!!  Stay dry (;

Elder Tuscano

Happy 4th and an exciting transfer!

 they named him larry kumar

What's up y'all, HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY this week!!!  We tried explaining the Fourth of July to an investigator family we're teaching in this way: it's like Diwali, but better.  TRU.

This week was pretty amazing.  Elder Raju got transferred to Visak and in his stead we received Elder Kimmings from Sydney, Australia.  He is a boss, he just arrived in India this past transfer and came to Bangalore from Visak for medical purposes.

The highlight of this week: so we have been teaching this investigator family from Hindu background, they are rad.  They held a memorial service for their son this past week who passed away a few years ago.  They invited us to come offer a prayer for their family, so we did.  After saying "Amen," the grandpa, who was conducting the event, leaned over to us and said, "Aren't you going to sing a song?" The three of us looked at each other just like, "Uhhh...yes."  So we pulled out our little hymn book and the three of us sang God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again to a predominantly Hindu audience.  They loved it.  We had three or four different families come up to us during the event and ask us to come visit their home and share a message with their family.  Super cool.

Also, in other news: I'm being transferred!!  I received a new assignment this past week to go help establish the Church in the city of Vijayawada, in Andhra Pradesh.  Vijayawada just opened up this past transfer with one companionship serving in the home group there--yes, not branch, home group.  There are about fifteen or twenty members in the city.  There is a lot of good work to do there.  Oh, also, I will be training a new missionary in Vijayawada, his name is Elder Ramishetty, from Hyderabad.  That will be great because he speaks Telugu and Hindi and those are the predominant languages spoken in Vijayawada.  Hopefully I'm fluent by the time I complete my mission (;

Hope everyone has a great week, keep the faith!

Elder Tuscano

busy busy bangalore

 Raj Kumar's domain where we played cricket #cricketselfie

"Raj Kumar: the Indian Bald Eagle"

HAPPY RAMADAN!!!  Ramadan is a widely celebrated Muslim festival that is basically a forty-day fasting period to show devotion to God.  Today is the last day of Ramadan, it's basically a HUGE party.  And no Muslim party is complete without beef biryani, so we are looking forward to having some beef biryani later today.

This week was crazy over here in Bengaluru haha, so many things happened.  I will just touch on a few of the highlights:

Speaking of Ramadan and Muslims, does anyone remember Zia?  Zia is a Muslim investigator that Elder Jensen and I started teaching about a year ago.  He actually lives in Coorg, a beautiful scenic town about six hours southwest of Bangalore, and meets with us whenever he's in town.  Fun fact, he also owns a large coffee plantation in Coorg.  Zia is one of the kindest and most understanding people I've ever met.  He is very open-minded and loves learning about the gospel.  This week he asked us what the difference between churches and temples is and about the fundamental differences between our church and other Christian churches.  He also gifted me my very own Qu'ran!!!!  Which is sweet.  I just thought that is cool, in light of Ramadan.

So remember Brother Amul Paul from last week?  He is a boss.  He is an incredible member missionary who is not yet a member haha.  He called us on Thursday and said, "Elders do you have time that I can show you some few families to teach?"  YES.  YES of course we do, Brother Amul.  He then took us to the homes of seven new families to teach.  So sweet.  Unfortunately, however, we learned that these families do not live in our area, so we referred them to the Lingarajapuram elders, our neighboring area.

Also this was crazy: we were playing cricket with some young men and less-actives this past week at a dusty lot in our area.  The first crazy thing is that there was a bird that looked exactly like a bald eagle.  By the way, the only difference between an American bald eagle and an Indian bald eagle is that the latter's name is Raj Kumar (; But anyway the other crazy thing is that this same bald eagle kept swooping down trying to snatch something in the same field where we were playing.  We ended the game shortly after we found out that the "something" the Indian bald eagle was trying to snatch were large snakes.  By the way, "snake" in Tamil is "paambu."

We started teaching an investigator yesterday named Praveen.  He is awesome, he is from Hindu background.  We asked him what interests him about the Savior and he said, "I want to be kind, like Jesus Christ."  Same, Praveen.  Same.  More updates to come on Praveen.

Hope everyone has a great week, and HAPPY RAMADAN!!!!  Also shout out to my sister, Anjuli, happy birthday!!!!  Love ya, Anj.

Keep the faith,

Elder Tuscano

Elder Cook, Hari and Diferently Abled...

meeting Elder Quentin Cook

with Hari at the Kerala restaurant 

instead of "disabled" they say "differently abled" in India

Namaskaram, y'all, what's happening?

This week I will just jump right into it haha:

Last Sunday we had a brother in his thirties walk into church.  He stayed for all three meetings which kinda surprised us.  As we talked with him, we learned that he is a chauffeur for the Marriott hotel here in Whitefield.  He passed by our church almost everyday on his way to work and finally decided to come in and see what it's all about.  He is very interested to learn more about the new things we discussed at church.  What also surprised us were the insightful comments he made in both the Sunday school and elders quorum classes.  He invited us to his home this week, so we went!  He lives in very humble circumstances with his cute family of ten (they are sort of a joint family haha, I'm still trying to figure out who is who exactly, but they're not all his immediate family).  We taught them the message of the Restoration and they were all so eager to learn more, it was amazing.  When I say "we taught," I mean that my companions taught them in Tamil and I played with/entertained the two children in the home--both of whom are handicapped/mentally challenged, it was so fun to play with them and show them pictures of Jesus and try to help them understand who God is haha.  I wish I had taken a photo or two but I will be sure to do so this week.

Also, we have an investigator from Kerala (a state on the southwestern coast where we do not have missionaries) named Hari.  HARI IS SO SWEET.  He works for Intel.  I told him that I always wanted to try Kerala food and so he took us to this random restaurant about an hour and a half away (yes, that's how big our area is) and the food was SO good.  THE RICE GRAINS WERE MONSTROUS haha I have never seen rice that big in my life.  It tasted a lot like Thai food because they use a lot of coconut milk and various curry powders (i.e. red curry powder).  Anyway.  Good week this week.

Hope everyone has a good week.

Keep the faith,

Elder Tuscano

when it rains, it pours (monsoons and blessings)

 mission photo we took with Elder Cook

 GIGANTIC Hindu temple we visited in a village (Kolar Gold Fields).

Straight up there's over 1,000 of those little black statues you see around me

 an area we frequently work in

What's up, y'all?

This week was nice and cool (kind of) because monsoon season has arrived early. It's been so nice because it mostly rains at night, after we've returned to our apartments, and in turn, cools the city off for the next day or so.

Not a whole lot going on this week though, but one cool experience: we have been teaching this wonderful elderly sister for the past few months, her name is Devanamma. Devanamma is not so educated, she cannot read, but she has been coming to church faithfully for a few months. She struggles to retain what we teach (we teach her in Telugu), but she is sooo so so faithful. So we have been confused as to whether she can be baptized or not and when that happens you ask President--so we did! He gave us an insightful answer. He said, "I'm going to read something and you tell me the answer." He proceeded to read Doctrine & Covenants 20:37, which reads:

All those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into his church.

After he read that, the answer was very clear to us that she not only can, but should be baptized as soon as possible. She now has a baptism date for the 18th of this month! Stoked.

In other news, yesterday Mayur bore his testimony in fast and testimony meeting and said some profound things: "Our life becomes beautiful as we follow Jesus Christ." "Grow spiritually and give priority to God."

Also in funny news, I talked to this CRAZY media referral the other day, he refers to himself as Prince Immanuel (he is not a prince). He asked me over the phone how to spell my name, so I did. On Sunday morning, I received the following text: "Want to meet you Today Bro. Cusacano!" I died laughing. Funniest text I've received on my mission thus far.

I hope everyone has a great week and grows spiritually because God is their priority.

Keep the faith,
Elder Tuscano

visit with an apostle!

  the kind 87-year-old man and his granddaughter

 Mayur sitting with the children

one of my favorite areas in our area

What's up y'all?  How was the week?

Our week was pretty solid.  I think I forgot to include this last week, but we had transfers and I'm staying here in Whitefield!  One addition to our companionship though: Elder Alaguretnam!  Remember him?  He is the one from Sri Lanka/Salt Lake City haha.  Anyways, he is back with us and he may be receiving his Sri Lankan citizenship sometime soon.

The highlight of this week?  Definitely meeting Elder Quentin L. Cook.  It was a little chaotic: THE ENTIRE MISSION came to AND LEFT from Bangalore in a day, but amidst the chaos was the stillness, sweetness, and surety that was present as we were taught by Elder Cook.  One cool part of that day, for me, was shaking hands with Elder Cook.  He looked me in the eye and said, "Thank you for your service."  It is such a cool thing to know that an Apostle is thankful for the service we as missionaries render.  Probably the other coolest thing is that, at the end of his address, Elder Cook said, "I bear sure witness that the Savior lives and is divine."  He made sure to place a special emphasis on the word sure.  As he said those words, I received an overwhelming assurance that the Savior does, indeed live.  As does Heavenly Father.  And because they live, there is a marvelous plan in the works, one of which we're all a part.  Our Savior Jesus Christ makes this marvelous plan possible.

Another cool experience: this one is kinda random haha, but here's the situation: I'm with Mayur on exchange.  We started teaching a new family that lives nearby an investigator family we've been teaching for a couple of weeks.  At the head of this new family is an 87-year-old man who has been through a lot in life.  It just so happened that as we were talking to this man, some neighbor children, whom we have been teaching, came in and sat down.  I introduced them to this kind elderly man and then asked them, "Of all the questions in the world, what would you ask an 87-year-old man?"  They all paused for a few moments and thought, then one of them said, "Do you know about Jesus?"  That was incredible.  What a great response, am I right?  That should be a question that occupies our attention each day.

Ok, we have an appointment we need to go to now, but I hope everyone has a good week and remembers to learn about Jesus.

Keep the faith,

Elder Tuscano

Mother's Day greetings from India!

 driver was wearing a "Live to Ride" shirt.  I died laughing and had to take a picture.

 catching up with my boy Sunil after stake conference!!!

 Sunil and Gowtham.  Bosses

our "funny face" photo haha

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in the world!!  There is a saying in India, "Mother is god," which simply means that our mothers mean everything to us.  How true, India.  How true.

This week was good, we did a lot of planning, scheduling, and arranging for our coming visit with Elder Cook.  We received some crazy news this week that SIXTEEN NEW MISSIONARIES are coming to our mission!!!!  That is unheard of!!  And amazing.  That will be a great boost to the hastening of the Lord's work here in south India.  One reason this whole planning thing is crazy is because transfers are at the same time as Elder Cook's visit haha.  So our logistical skills are at their breaking point.  Kidding, but sort of haha.

One cool thing that happened: so the Visakhapatnam zone leaders came on exchange with me this past week and we visited one of our returning members homes, his name is Moses and we've grown pretty close over the course of my time here in Whitefield.  Anyway, we walked into his house and sat down and he said, "Hey I told my friends about you guys, do you 5 or 10 minutes?  He wants to meet with you.  Can you meet with him?"  YES MOSES!  Yes we can, that's what we do haha.  So we met with his friend, Suresh, and had a great experience.  He is from Hindu background so we talked to him about the nature of God and he was so touched.  We also taught him how to pray so he said the closing prayer!  He offered one of the most amazing prayers I've heard, we were all so impressed.  What great, simple faith.  I think one of the most beautiful truths that India has taught me is that it's okay to have simple faith.  The gospel has taught me that it's not just okay to have simple faith, but rather it is essential to spiritual progress.

That's really it for this week haha.  I will send some photos.  I hope everyone has a great Mother's Day!  I feel blessed beyond measure for my mother and it has been an absolute privilege to serve her people.

Keep the faith, have a great week!

Elder Tuscano