On our feet again and Happy Republic Day!

Hello hello everybody!  I hope you're week was as awesome as ours!

This week we finally got Elder Thambi some medicine for his foot and he is healing rapidly!!!  About midweek he recovered sufficient strength to return to our full proselyting capacity.  It was a little rocky getting back on our feet (pun totally intended) in terms of finding, but the Lord is infinitely merciful and we found some new investigators!!  We also found almost an entire street of potential investigators and we are making a lot of progress with the ones we have now!

I have mentioned Purushotham's parents before, haven't I?  If not, our recent convert couple, Purushotham and Shravani, invited their parents to learn of the gospel, attend church, etc.  What a blessing that has been.  Purushotham's father shows up to church before Purushotham does--even before we do!!  He and his wife accepted the baptismal date of February 14th!!  I'll keep ya posted on progress they make.

Sad to say I didn't eat any obscure foods this week, but as we will have the entirety of this week back in the field I will do my best to uh....try new things haha.

Everyone have a solid week!  And Happy Republic Day from India!!

Elder Tuscano

Pongal celebration: we added our humble kites to the skies

Hello hello all!  I hope everyone's week was awesome.

Our week was good!  Our missionary efforts were greatly hindered due to Elder Thambi having a strange foot infection that has put a serious damper on his mobility.  Also Pongal was this week so many of our members and investigators alike went to their "native places" to celebrate with family and whatnot haha.

My sincerest apologies to those who read my blog, I fear that the past couple weeks have failed to bring the excitement of India to the forefront of your minds.  However, I will elaborate on the holiday of Pongal because it is pretty awesome.  Pongal was on the 14th, 15th and 16th of this past week.  Other missionaries had warned me that it was coming but had not informed me quite when. 

 So I woke up bright and early the first day of Pongal, and walked out onto our balcony, as I typically do each morning (we live on the fifth floor so there is a nice view of a portion of Visak).  I looked around and I couldn't see ANYTHING due to a thick cloud of what I determined was smoke.  I was so confused, I looked around as best I could to determine the source of all this smoke to find that many people had lit logs on fire and placed them in front of their homes.  I thought this quite peculiar, but later learned that this is symbolic of a new start to a new year!  Awesome.

The second day was rad, it was a giant kite festival!!!  Everyone takes work and school off to go fly kites!  It was super cool.  As missionaries we even purchased a kite and joined in on the fun for a little bit.

The third day was fairly uneventful, most people, that haven't already left town, go to their native places to visit with relatives.

Honestly it's an awesome holiday filled with excitement and colors and strange sweets haha.  People would not stop feeding us these strange sweets.  Typically some sort of fried dough ball with a sweet inside that had an....interesting texture.

Everyone have a good week this week!  Also please pray for Elder Thambi to heal so that we may return to our normal capacity of work haha.  

Love,

Elder Tuscano

Trying times in Visak, chicken heart curry and all pictures lost yet all Good!

Photos lost would have been inserted here!

 

While I certainly wish I had an extensive list of exciting things to report on, that is not the case this week.  It was the first week back at work, school, etc. after the holiday break for the entirety of India.  This was a major roadblock for our productivity this week haha.  Few people were able to meet with us or come on exchange/translate for us.

Despite numerous setbacks, however, there were some highlights!  Among spiritual highlights, Purushotham and Shravani were confirmed yesterday!!!  That was awesome.  They were both beaming after their confirmations.  I had the privilege of confirming Shravani!!  The members here, especially the recent converts here, are AWESOME!  They love the gospel so much and they share it with all those around them, specifically their family members!!!  We receive so many referrals and opportunities to unite families.  Shravani and Purushotham referred us to their parents and they've been loving coming to church and learning the gospel!  Hopefully there will be positive updates in the coming weeks on their progress!

Among other funny highlights, this week I had chicken heart curry.  Hahaha the texture was odd, but it tasted really good.  I hope everyone had a nice first week of their year!  And hopefully you don't have to eat chicken heart curry any time soon.  Follow your dreams.

Love,

Elder Tuscano

P.S.  The "net shop" that we email at broke my memory card for my camera so all the pictures from the last few months are gone haha.  Doing my best to recover them though, hopefully I'll send some pictures soon!

Namaskara New Year!

Namskara all!  I think that's how you spell that.

This week was filled with New Years Festivities!  The extent of our celebration was cutting a cake and singing "Happy New Year to You" to each other to the tune of the happy birthday song haha.  It was super fun!  I think the custom for each holiday/celebration is cutting cake and singing a song of some sort, it's awesome.

Our New Year had a great start!  Finding here is quite the opposite of the norm here.  Because we wear white shirts, ties, and tags, we stand out.  This beckons the curiosity of many who thus approach us and ask us who we are and why we're here.  This creates so many teaching opportunities, it's awesome.  So we picked up a few investigators out of their mere curiosity this week!  The Lord truly prepares people to receive the gospel.

This week Prashanth and Chandrika were confirmed members of the Church and received the Holy Ghost!  The former of which I had the privilege of confirming, that was an awesome experience.  I truly could feel the Spirit speaking and working through me and so could he.  Also, an awesome young couple was baptized yesterday!!  Shravani and Purushotham.  They were a member referral and they're super solid.  They love Church and the Savior.  I had the privilege of baptizing Purushotham!  He is rad, he was beaming after he came out of the water.  I feel that I'm beginning to have a correct understanding of the joy promised to us in Doctrine and Covenants if we bring save but one soul into His Kingdom.

Hope everyone is sticking to their New Years' Resolutions!!!  And being faithful.  Do both of those things and you'll just be solid.

Love,

Elder Tuscano

Baptisms during Christmas week in Visakhapatnam

Namskara everyone!

Christmas in Visak was awesome.  Aside from getting food poisoning this week, all was well!  I don't have very much time at all to email today because we're going to some tropical place in the mountains with a bunch of waterfalls for P Day!  Should be super rad, I'll be sure to send pictures.  An important side note is that this place is a four hour train ride away haha so our day started extra early today.

Highlights of this week:

I had the privilege of confirming Sister Chilakama yesterday!!!  That was awesome, I'd never done that before, and she was glowing after, so that was seriously so cool.  I also had the privilege of baptizing our nine-year-old investigator, Chandrika!!  That was also a first for me.  Though it was the last Sunday of 2015, it was full of firsts for me haha.  I will send pictures later (hopefully)!!

Also for dinner last night Elder Thambi and I had goat head sambar.  It's exactly what it sounds like haha it was....peculiar.  

Make and stay faithful to your New Years' resolutions!!! Keep the faith!

Elder Tuscano

Wake-up "calls," Zoo visit and lives changing

when a camera battery dies sometimes you get part of a picture that includes the top of your head (under the letter P)

This week was awesome!!  We had some awesome lessons and were able to do some fun things!  Side note: I think I've failed to mention that waking up on time is no problem in Visak, we wake up at around 6:00AM each morning to the profusely loud yelling of something in Telegu via loud speaker (coming from the Hindu temple right next to us haha).

In our planners, there is a list of awesome finding ideas.  Among these is helping teach English as a second language.  Elder Thambi and I took this to heart and for the past couple weeks, we've been helping a member teach a group of twenty or so kids, ages three to thirteen, learn English!  This past week they had their exams, and they passed!!  To reward their efforts, we took them to the Indira Ghandi Zoo Park!  It was an awesome experience.  I will send the one picture I have (as my camera died just as we were entering the zoo) haha.

For the past few weeks, Elder Thambi and I have been meeting with a less active member, Pavan, and his wife and adorable nine month old son.  Three years ago, Pavan was a super solid member.  He came on exchange with the elders almost every day, looked forward to and actively attended church each week--up until about a year ago.  He got into some financial trouble and turned to alcohol to solve his problems.  Meeting with him this week, he really opened up to us.  He told us that he's tried and tried to quit drinking and he feels that he's not worthy to even come to church.  I was super filled with the Spirit and don't entirely recall what I said, but I expressed to him something along the lines of a General Conference talk Elder Holland (I believe) once gave: that no matter how far he thinks he's traveled, he has not traveled outside the infinite redeeming power of the Atonement.  I also shared with him Matthew 11:28-30.  He wept.  He has not tasted a drop of alcohol and is coming back to church.  He's now doing all that is necessary to become clean.  I'm so grateful for the Spirit and the truths is never ceases to testify of.

Is it cold back home?  It sure isn't here haha.  Everyone have a solid week!  Also please pray for Pavan!!!

Love,

Elder Tuscano

Christmas Season in Visak, yet not so visibly!

It is officially the Christmas season in Visak haha, but looking around the city you wouldn't be able to tell.  Also, I finally got an SD card reader so I can send some pictures!!!

Our area/branch boundaries right now that we cover is the size of the ENTIRE Idaho Boise Mission haha if not slightly bigger.  Crazy.

Last week for P Day our zone went to a super pretty beach!  Everything here is colorful, even the little boats that just chill on the beach.  I also had the privilege of drinking from my first coconut since being here!  Sippin a coconut on the beach. I've had this opportunity to drink coconut water straight from the coconut (but not on the beach) almost everyday this week haha, it's awesome.  

I've eaten some strange things this week.  There is a little fruit that is shaped exactly like a tomatillo, but is bitter and everyone claims is good for your health.  So I had to eat like three at member homes this week haha.  I also had a strange, brown pancake thing that tasted eerily like chocolate but was definitely made from some sort of dried fruit.  Also ate a strange vegetable that is supposedly a potato in the form of celery.  Like it's yellow celery, but the taste is that of a potato.

The work this week was up and down.  Days of success and setting baptismal dates for the coming weeks alternated with days of appointments falling through, translators not being able to come with us, etc.  But finding was not an issue this week!!  While we were on our way to various appointments, people would just call us over and we were able to teach them and set follow up appointments!  We would just be walking inbetween buildings and people would be like, "Hey!"  Anytime we were in autos we would find people who were eager to be taught so that was awesome.  We are in autos quite frequently, it's a unique experience haha. Our lives our on the line every time we get into one hahaha the traffic is CRAZY here!!  There are definitely driving lanes painted on the road, but I don't think anyone can see them (;

I also met Josh's trainer this week!!!  So that was pretty rad.  

Also, important side note:

The lessons we did have the privilege of teaching this week went super well, especially for me haha.  It's been difficult feeling like I'm not being understood when teaching.  But this week I prayed earnestly for the ability to teach and be understood in some way.  This week, as I bore testimony of the simple, beautiful, truthfulness of the Gospel, my prayers were answered.  Though they didn't understand what exactly I was saying, they undoubtedly understood the Spirit testifying of the truth, I could see it.  It was like turning a light on in a dark room when I looked in their eyes.  It was so cool, one of the coolest feelings.  

The Spirit speaks all languages, I know that.

Everyone have a wonderful week and make the most of the Christmas season!!!