The twenty-ninth week...

Namaste~

One more week down and so many new adventures to report on. This was another good week here in the V-shack. We set Girish, Veena, Sailu, and Lavanya for baptism on June 21st. I am very excited. We had a way spiritual lesson with them and we committed them and they all are ready. The son, Girish, is usually called Lucifer in his home. This is b/c he will never pray or go to church. But in the 7 weeks we have known them he has prayed 3 times and he has been to church 5 times. We told the family his new name is “Michael”. Then, we had to have a lesson about how Lucifer was defeated, and how Michael is a way cool angel. Now, they think that they have to change their “Indian” names to “Christian” names. That is a whole different lesson. Their family is doing well. We were finally able to take a family over there, 6 weeks after we met them. We brought over the YW 1st and 2nd counselors, they just happen to be mother/daughter. They were excellent fellowship; they invited the mother to church - something that we have been unsuccessful in doing. They also were really good teachers and helped us out a lot. To get their family excited about reading the Book of Mormon we told them, “whoever is farthest when we come back will get a big chocolate.” We called them last night and I could hear Lavanya yelling, in the background, “Brother, Veena and Amma are hogging the 2 Telugu copies. It’s not fair.” Even if it’s only for candy, I am happy they are reading.

Sunday night we went to Ravi Prakash’s home. He and Saroswathi are rocking the house. Ravi has a bit of a hard time reading, so Saroswathi reads to him while he listens. It was sweet. They really love each other. I even found out that they thought they had to buy their own baptism clothing, so Saroswathi, a major shopper, bought Ravi a bright white shirt and a shirt to wear afterwards. She is making him buy the white pants though, lol. While we were there we went over the baptism interview questions and they were having a blast. She thought she wasn’t going to be ready, but she is on fire. She knew all the questions, and she even read them from my planner. Ravi wants to serve a mission when he is older. They said that they want a branch in Narciputnam, which is Saroswathi’s village. We have been teaching her nephews and nieces that are in town, and I had a dream that Ravi and Saroswathi would baptize their family and bring them to the gospel and a branch would be formed. It was way cool. Ravi said he had the same dream - out of the mouth of 2 witnesses. They are so prepared to make a difference in their life and the life of the members here in Visakhapatnam. We still have to do all of their paper work and their interview in the 2 days we have with them when we get back from Hyderabad.

Nothing else is too exciting. I had a 13 hour train ride to Hyderabad. It was way fun. I took lots of pics. I will send most of them home. I love Hyderabad. I feel like I am home, and it's always good to see all the people whose lives were changed for the better. I miss them, but I am excited that we will be able to see each other on the other side of the veil.

Thanks for all of the support and love, both to me and for my family. Keep the letters coming.

~Logan