Pictures

Aug 15 2015 - Strangest month of the misson

Hello Family!

 

I hadnt even realized that Bradly has already finished the MTC and is now out in North Dakota. Elder D'Vaz (who will be my comp for the rest of the week until I get my new comp) has a sister who will be going to the North Dakota mission in October so that would be pretty cool if they somehow met.

And Emily is just finishing her short stay in the MTC and will be in the field quite soon. They will both be going through the same things that I went through in Florida experiencing the ups and downs of the mission. The ups far outwaying the bad. 

 

This is going to be a veryshort email since this week has been a strange week due to the fact that I was not in my area much at all. I think I said last week that one of the Zone leaders had to go to Bangalore to get surgery so we were stuck with him this entire week as he recovers. So, we split the days we would work in each others area since Elder Johannson will not be in his area next week leaving his area without missionaries for awhile. The whole zone is kind of being affected with this but we are surviving.

His area is quite far away so we spent a lot of time traveling on bus and walking around visiting those in his branch. We had lots of fun together with the three of us. We were able to visit most of our investigators the few times we worked in our area and had some great lessons with them. Charles is doing awesome and is geting ready fast for his baptism. And we also started to teach a part member family, working with their daughter to be baptized. 

 

Today finally came when I had to send of Elder Monk away as he left for the Philippines this afternoon. He, along with the Elder Johannson and Elder Aldridge. It was a very fun 2 transfers I had with Elder Monk and the All-American Zone. I'm grateful for the time we had and the improvements we have seen with the branch. Now I'm with Elder D'vaz and the 2 of us will be together taking care of 3 branches/areas... so this will also be a strange and interesting experience as we await our new companions sometime next week. I don't know who he will be btw.

 

Something that I loved and have learned this week is the scripture Alma 31: 31-33.

31 O Lord, my heart is exceedingly sorrowful, wilt thou comfort my soul in Christ. O Lord, wilt thou grant unto me that I may have strength, that I may suffer with patience these afflictions which shall come upon me, because of the iniquity of this people.

32 O Lord, wilt thou comfort my soul, and give unto me success, and alm=so my fellow laborers who are with me, yea, Ammon, and Aaron, and Omner, and also Amulek and Zeezrom, and also my two sons, yea, even all these wilt thou comfort their souls in Christ.

33 Wilt thou grant unto them that they may have strength, that they may bear their afflictions which shall come upon them because of the iniquities of this people.

 

Now notice that Alma in verse 31 is praying not to take his burdens away but to grant him strength that he might overcome them. As I was thinking I agree that through prayer, God will not take our burdens away but will CHANGE us to be able to overcome them. We will receive the necessary change in our hearts that give us the strength to become more like Him.

 

Thank you everyone for you love and support, have a great week!

-Elder Conrad

Aug 3 2015 - An exciting week for the Conrad Family

Hello Family!!!

 

Well hello my awesome family! Today was another awesome P-Day and a pretty good week! Even though there wasn't that much missionary work that went on.

First of all, Ill give a shout out to my sister Emily who is leaving on her mission in 2 days! Man i am super excited and cant keep thinking of the wonderful experience she is about to partake in her life. 

 

And also I was super pumped to get the 2 packages this week! Let me say everyone kind of hates me right now but dont worry mom, I have been sharing ;) I was pretty stoked about the strawberry and Chocolate Nesquik! And yes I did get the Debit card but I havent tried it yet. I got to talk to Daniel for a small moment so hopefully I can talk more next week at church. He did give me an embarrassing hug thanks to you mom :)

 

This week has been pretty good because of the training that we recieved in Bangalore. So, we left Tuesday night on train which again was fun and a little sketchy. I just love watching what I think are mice running around in the train. When we arrived in Bangalore, all the zones that attended met up at the church. We had the Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore and the 4 Sri Lanka missionaries with us so we had a huge group.

Basically the 3 day training consisted of 8 hours a day and learning the principals/fundamentals of Preach My Gospel. So that included many things and kept us busy. We did lots of teaching practices to help us improve and apply the things we were learning. They were long hours but it was important for us to learn. Hopefully we will all go back to our areas and apply the things we learned.

After the trainings we would go with a set of elders and go to their area in Bangalore and try to visit and practice more. Which was kind of lame for us since the area took us an hour and a half to get their with all the traffic and being night. 

But an interesting experience that I got was to teach a person of the Muslim faith for the first time. We have to get special permission from President  in order to teach Muslims due to reasons. It was a pretty cool experience. I didnt really know how to go about teaching to well but I felt the lesson went well. He has a desire to learn how he can recieve an answer if Jesus Christ was actually our Savior and Redeemer.

We had lots of fun in Banglore, the area we got to stay in was loaded with nice restaurants. I was able to have Taco Bell, Burger King and Krespy Kreme! Oh man it was the best!

 

After the Training we went back to Coimbatore and everything is well. We set 2 new baptismal dates with A new investigator named Charles for the 22 of Aug! He is an awesome kid alot like Jebaraj. The Training took pretty much the whole week but it was good to have. 

Jebaraj was confirmed this week at church and gave a small testimony in fast and testimony meeting which made my day.

 

Today for P-Day we went to see Taj and his family since they are leaving next week and asked if we could go visit them one last time. haha So we went and hung out with them again :) This time we didnt play much bball but went on a cool hike in the forest. Which was pretty cool since Taj said no one is allowed where we went but since he has some pretty cool connections they allowed us in. We hiked up to a cool waterfall place and had fun watching everyone play in the water... :( but it was super cool. Very pretty. They didnt let us take pictures for some reason but im pretty sure we will get some.

 

Love you all and thank you all so much for the awesome letters you gave! Have a great week everyone!

-Elder Conrad

 

 

 

Aug 10 2015 - 8 months just flew by

Well hello family!!

 

As I have expressed to Emily/ Sister Conrad that it has been a very fun week as I have been checking the time and realizing all the important and exciting events happening back home. I get a kick when I check the time and realize Emily is probably waking up, studying, or teaching lessons in the MTC. Makes it fun to remember that not too long ago the same experiences were happening to me! It is a blessing to know the family is doing well and is happy. :)

 

This has been a pretty great week! We started off the week going on an exchange where I went to Elder Aldridge's area and spent the day with him. It went pretty well, we found a new investigator and taught him the first lesson. Even among the distractions of the setting he like totally told us he believed what we were saying was true and he would read the Book of Mormon. 

We also taught one of their investigators who has a baptismal date and really focused on him reading the Book of Mormon. Basically that is what we are focusing on, the power of the Book of Mormon in conversion and how it is the keystone of our religion. 

 

Later in the week we had our zone training and President Berrett came to Coimbatore to have his quarterly interviews with us. Which went really well. President Berrett really wants us to work on finding investigators since the whole mission is struggling right now. After this transfer I will be the senior missionary in the Coimbatore zone so that was weird to realize i need to the example.

 

We had a couple really good lessons, one was with Raja. We meet him in church and he has really been struggling with outside influences talking bad about our church. We expressed our love and concern for him and read a couple scriptures about trials and faith. I bore my testimony on us not understanding what God has in store for us but trusting in Him and His eternal plan for his children. The Spirit was probably the strongest I have felt so far on my mission. I was super glad and peaceful the rest of the day.

 

For Sunday we had district conference and had President Berrett Elder Wu from the Seventy come and talk to us on family history. We had 6 investigators at church! a big jump from last week! Pretty much most of our solid investigators came. 

 

Sorry this is so short, this next 2 weeks will be pretty strange. We are having many exchanges and switches with other elders due to our zone leader needing surgery in Bangalore so we will not be in our area as much as we would like. 

And then Elder Monk goes to the Philippines next Monday! crazy, a lot of things are going to change.

Love you family!! So many blessings are happening right now with our family. its awesome.

Have a great week! 

-Elder Conrad

 

The Dynamic duo are unleashed ;)

Dad's email To Elder Conrad about all the contacts and coincidences we have had with Spencer being In India. What a small world!

Elder Conrad,

Ok, I had to write this email to show a few of the tender mercies, contacts, and amazing coincidences (which there really are none in the gospel) of your short time on the mission.

You will remember how nervous we were when you announced your call. I believe you said that our faces made it look like your coffin was being nailed shut.
Since that time it has truly been amazing of the many people we have met and incredible network of people.

All of these people have served us so much.
I know there will be more to come.

First we met Latha Palani from my work. She and her family is from the South of India with many connections in Coimbatore.
She invited us to dinner, with you right after you received your call, and we met Michael Anthony who was one of the first Indian missionaries.
(Well, he has been a member for a long time, he knows the Cahoon's from Canada who served in India many years ago.)

Through Latha we also met Daniel  Sr. PHD. from India who has four children.
His son, Daniel junior, is the owner of the Bombay house in Provo.
Another son owns the Royal India restaurant in Sandie, UT
And two daughters. Beula and Priya. (spelling is probably wrong but hey..)

Your last email said you met the Rowlands from Orem and they know grandpa Conrad.
Well, after thinking on this I also remember the Rowlands as they were in our ward way back before a few ward boundary changes. They actually live just around the corner, just as you head over the steep hill on the right. About 2 blocks from our house. We use to cut Christmas trees at the ranch and deliver the trees to them each year.
Brother Rowland was also the wrestling coach at MVHS.
The Rowlands adopted a young boy from India many years ago named Taj.
The first day at his new school in Utah, Uncle Ben was asked to be Taj's friend for the day to help him figure out the new school.
Ben and Taj were friends from then on, even though Ben broke his nose once during a sports event...
Taj later became student body president at MVHS THE BEST!!! (The same school where you drained threes from)
Taj went on to marry Priya  who is Daniel's daughter from above.
All with ties to Coimbatore! (Coincidence that you were called to Coimbatore? I think not)
Taj apparently has a home in Lehi and just recently built that incredible home in Coimbatore where you were invited to visit and to play Bball.
I hope you were able to go.

We also were introduce to the Bedke's who currently serve in Bangelor as a missionary couple. How incredible was that to have a couple from Orem who we knew is helping watch over the missionaries.
Sister Bedke is Sister Pett's daughter from our ward. I have known Sister Pett pretty much my entire life.

Through Michael we were also invited to a sealing of a marriage in the SLC temple of a young couple from India. Richard Raju and Jennifer Peters. (One from Coimbatore and one from Bangelor)
Richard's dad was the 2nd person who helped us get you needed items.

We are meeting with Daniel Sr. this week to send a package to you as he is going to Coimbatore. We will send you the new Debit card, the envelope with your PIN in it, and a few other things.
Let us know what you want / need.
I imagine you can send something back with Daniel Sr. as well. (the shoes, etc)

We met Elder Ravi who served as an AP in your mission. He answered so many of our important questions like, "IS THERE TOILET PAPER THERE?"
He laughed at our many concerns and questions wondering what we were thinking India was like.
(The world really has opened up to us through this calling)

At the sealing of Richard and Jennifer I met a former mission president and three couples who served in Bangelor about 5 years ago in mission callings similar to the Bedke's .
They all had incredible stories of their challenges, food issues, heat, smells, etc but would go back in a moment. They learned to love the people soooo much.
Also at this sealing was a former mission companion to Richard. He and his fiancé are getting married in Aug. The fiancé said that the India mission really refined the young man and made him an incredible person to marry.

Brother Bauer from our ward has taken such an interest in your calling and experiences and has passed on many words of encouragement. He is so excited to read your letters.

And, I could go on and on.

The most incredible of all the connections is still you and Elder Trevor Patten getting called to the same mission. You having your call for two months when Trevor received his call to the same place and entering the mtc the same day!!! Who has ever heard of that??? Then, being companions in the MTC, getting your visas together and flying there together....
Coincidence? I think not!
Keep in touch with him!

What stories and experiences you will be able to share.

The church makes the world really, really, small.

There have been so many of these tender mercies in our lives as a result of your decision to serve and accept your call. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Emily will serve because of you, Max is having incredible growth in the field largely because of you example. Ethan has his call to Japan.... etc.
No, not all because of you but you are all riding the wave of friends, excitement, and service.
I will always be so thankful to your many, many friends who are all out there serving and being an example of Christ. To Carson, Ryan, etc who all chose to serve and give up a few short years.

He that will loose himself will find himself....

Wow!
This is amazing!

ok, yes it is hard at times and not everything is going like you want or expect. But you are doing a great work.
Love the members, build the members, and enjoy the members and the gospel!!!

dad

July 20, 2015 American BBQ and familiar families!

Hello Family!!

Today I wanted to start off with todays Pday. Man was it fun, due to power outage and the internet gone is the reason i am sending this so late. So i was really happy to read from dads email about the crazy connections that are going on here in Coimbatore. Yes i figured out most of those today about Taj and his connection with Ben Cahoon.
Taj and his family invited me and Elder Monk to their home the other day to come over and have lunch and play some bball and just hang out. Which we did but we also were able to invite the other Elders from 1 and 3rd branch. So we had 6 elders with us. Taj and his family live forever away though, about a 45 min bus ride out close to the mountains/hills. out of the city and lots of greenery everywhere. Soo like he has a really really nice house. It is still in construction but it was pretty awesome anyway that you look out it. Their family comes out every summer for 3 months. June,july,august. They are leaving like in 3 weeks i think. But it was way fun we played basketball and it was pretty intense. we had 3 people who could actually play so it was more exercise than im used to haha. we had an american meal! barbecue chicken, mashed potatoes(again yes!) salad, jello, and other things. it was really good. They are an awesome family and when we figured out that they knew the cahoons it was pretty crazy! i think im going to try to go up there one more time before they leave.

But anyhow back to the week here in Coimbatore! It was a pretty good week. A little different but it was good. On tuesday 3 of the elders went to Chennai to get an additional passport for when they leave to the Phillipines next month so Elder Monk went with them. I was in my area with Elder D'vaz for half of that day and Elder Harris( who i met in London on the way to India) for all of Wed. I love serving with other guys and getting to know their stories. I had a blast. With Elder Harris I wanted to try a new idea that was given to us last week and do a table/stand right at the gate for the church building and hand out book of mormons, pamphlets, and cards out to people. We were not allowed to call people over so they had to come to us. We put a free books sign on the table and that seemed to work pretty good. And I guess 2 white guys probably attracted some attention as well :) but we were pretty busy right after we got it set up. Talking with people, giving the supplies, getting numbers etc we even gave a church tour for one family. We went through quite a bit of supplies and got a good amount of numbers to give calls and see if we can meet them. 

Our branch president's son Akash Amalraj just returned from his mission in Delhi this week as well and was immediately assigned as our Branch Mission Leader. Which I'm quite excited about to be able to work with him. Possibly because like the first thing he asked us was were if we getting fed by the members. Thats what im talking about! haha

It was a rough week with us not finding any new investigators but thats something we need to work more on. Thats something we dont like as much and right now we are meeting generally with the members and trying to help them out. 

The weather as been awesome, cloudy and the best weather ever. It got somewhat chilly at night, but not really. I thought it was hilarious seeing a few people rubbing their hands and wearing scarfs. It wasn't even cold, they would all die in utah. 

So on Daniel coming to Coimbatore. When will he be here? I wont be here for the 29 30 and 31st of July since we will be in Bangalore for a training. Just thought you should know.

Anyhow it was a great week. Hope you are all doing great back home! Love you all!

-Elder Conrad

July 14, 2015- 5 Transfers down

Hello my awesome family and friends!!

This week in the Coimbatore 2nd Branch has gone quite well and yes, I have stayed safe from the police. Everything is sorted out and there is no problem know. It has been a little hotter than usual but that does not stop the work from progressing! Me and Elder Monk are doing quite well.

We did receive our transfer calls and it looks like me and Elder Monk are staying another transfer in Coimbatore which is awesome and then for sure Elder Monk will be going to the Philippines to renew his visa. Which means I will probably be in Coimbatore another transfer after that :)

We do have some good news! So Bascar, our previous investigator who left town 2 weeks past, has come back and is staying from what we hear! We went to see his sister and there he was. He was happy to see us and immediately wanted again to start where he had left off. So we set a baptismal date for The 2nd of August with him. 

This week for me was a pretty good week and I had the most lessons that I have had so far on the mission. I agree with you dad, that is something we have been trying to do is to strengthen the branch and the members and work through them to receive referrals. 

There is this one family I have visited a couple times which makes me laugh every time I am there. They are a family of four. (grandma, mother, son and daughter) And the only one who speaks English is the son Harish/Hayish. Every time I see the grandma at church or anywhere she just speaks nonstop Tamil at me and expects me to understand... And that happens everywhere with the Grandmas! Why do they think a white kid knows Tamil!! but it has been super fun learning the little phrases in Tamil. Every time I say something in Tamil they are all like OOH and AHH. I feel pretty awesome haha

I don't know if you have heard but a Sister and Brother Rowland came up to Coimbatore and visited our branch. They were from Orem, UT and they said they know Grandpa Conrad. They live a couple blocks away apparently? They have a son who has a house here that they visit sometimes and it was so fun to meet with their family. They invited us over to play some bball and hang out at there house next week.

It looks like I'll be in Bangalore July 28-31 for a training so hopefully the package doesn't disappear on us and yes I did receive the money from bro Raju. Thanks! I'll see if I can repair my camera today.

Love you all and have a great week!

-Elder Conrad

July 5, 2015 Going to Jail on your mission is probably not the best thing!

Hey family!! Sooo this week has been an allright week. Definetly not the best week due to reasons soon expressed. But we did have some excitement that I wish I had been more involved in.

But anyhow, this is the last week of the transfer. We are getting the transfer calls tonight so we are pretty excited. but we have heard rumors from the AP's that almost every companionship is changing this transfer. so there is a big change me and elder monk are getting seperated. Im pretty positive im staying in the area for at least 1 more transfer.

So to begin this week we had an exchange on tuesday. Our Distrcit leader (elder Aldridge) came up to my area with me and elder monk went to the 1st branch area. We had a fun time and had a good day. The only bad news was at 8 pm we called 1st branch to figure out how to exchange back and we get a frantic answer of a member telling us Elder Monk and Elder D'Vaz were in jail.... uhhhh what!!!???

So we rushed over to that area and called mission president and everyone else. Luckily the district president was already on his way and we were told to stay in our apartment. Long and intense story short, they got in trouble with some cops while they were visiting a members home and were charged with converting.(paying people to join church or religion) Luckily they were visiting a member or it wouldve been more difficult. From what i got out of the situation though, it was handled well and everything is fine now. And some funny fluke that got them in trouble the first time. We were worried we might all get sent out of Coimbatore but everything is fine.

Then on thursday we had our mission president and his wife came to give the zone a 6 hour specialized training. It was really good focusing on us how we can have better planning and using time wisely. There is alot of things that we learned!

Soo the bad and sad news as well was our investigator that is supposed to get baptized this next sunday had to move out and is far away now. Soo that was a real bummer to hear. But we did what we could and a strong seed is there.

We are still working with Jebaraj and he is still awesome. Coming to church, reading, attending activites. he is an awesome kid wanting to learn more.

Thats it for the week, sorry its so short.

Love you family, everyone have a great week!

June 29th 2015-

Hey family!!

Well this week has been pretty good! It really wasn't too productive/fun the first part of the week but we continued to work and were able to have some pretty eventful days by the end of the week. It was really hard to get lessons some days. Man one day was terrible, we had a great day planned and everything just bunked. It was really hard to find things to do and be productive. If our appointments bunk in certain areas with no members around it really sucks since we still arent allowed to knock and talk to people. So at times I feel we are wasting valuable time but what can we do.

During the week one of our awesome investigators came back after a week being gone and we were able to meet with him! His name is Bascar and he is pretty great! He is around 30 years old and he has a sister who is a member. He is a pretty quiet guy and doesnt really like talking to us in english since he doenst speak it to well, but understands us really well. It can be frustrating at times but he is loving the gospel! he wants to meet us like everyday which is fine with us but we dont want him to get sick of us! but we set a baptismal date with him awhile back for july 12 i think. so he is doing awesome and progressing. im so excited for him!

Also a referral from on of our ysa members, also came back after 2 weeks and we were able to meet ith him again. we have only taught him the restoration but he has a great desire to read the book of mormon and learn if it is true. he came back and he is near the end of 1 nephi! that is music to hear when they are reading :)

One area we dont visit often, because it is like 1 hr bus ride away, we went up to visit a couple members and it was probably the greatest experience ever when we went to a members home and we got fed. And let me tell you it was the best indian meal ive ever had! it wasnt anything special, just rice and chicken and beef curry but everything about it was delicious.   

Other than that we are still working on going through our investigators since we have a decent amount. We are a little iffy on a couple and its super hard to think of dropping any. our pool is going down and we are struggling with getting new investigators. Its so hard with member referalls but at least we have a couple that are awesome! 

Ya so thats about it for this week, sorry not to exciting. Today we are going to play some basketball and shopping at a mall (which means nothing since i have 100 rupess for the next 2 days) 

Also my camera is kind of broken, the lens is having trouble opening and closing so thats why no pictures lately. I dont know what to do, ill see if i can fix when i get my debit card.

anyhow love you all!! thanks for everything. Everything is going good and we have all decided that i will probably staying in the area another 3 months since my companion will be leaving to phillipines in august.

we are excited though! the mission is getting like 15 indians and 8 missionaries have gotten visas so we will be getting them all in the next 2 months.

 love you all and have a great week!!

-Elder Conrad

Seeing snow and going to Ooty! June 22, 2015

Hello Family!!!

Well first off I have to say is this week has been pretty great! The weather in Coimbatore was sooo nice this week. Had clouds like the entire week but no rain and a great breeze to keep us cool. The raining season is supposed to begin soon so hopefully it will keep this awesome weather here!

I wasnt able to send out an email earlier today because our zone again went to Ooty!! All the new guys wanted to go and it was pretty fun! Weather was a bit ridiculous there but guess what!? We saw snow!! In India! it was wimpy snow, you could barely see it but it was there :) in ooty it was very windy, rainy and cold, luckily i had a jacket which many of the others didnt.

Everything sounds like it is going good back home, last preparations for some of my friends leaving onto the mission life. Its awesome to see everyone heading out.

But my week wasn't good just because of the weather. Me and Elder Monk have been working pretty hard and it went really well. Sadly we dont have much time to email because of our long trip. 

quickly a few things ill share. So we had a lunch appointment with a member this sunday and we were surprised to get tehre and there was mashed potatoes and gravy, chicken legs, salad. Man it was an american meal!! it was sooo good and was awesome.

But this week we have found that we have a pretty decent amount of investigators and have been working with them alot. Also our branch is awesome and has been helping us alot with trying to get members out to lessons that will be good fellowshippers. Sadly we hadnt been using the members as much as we should have. 

But this week was good with a couple of our investigators. yesterday after church we meet with 2 young men 17 and 16. Jabadorage and Jabadari. they are pretty cool! we have asked them how reading the book of mormon was. We had assigned 2 ne 31. and they answered saying the wanted to be baptized... like okay!! i like that kind of answer!! we set a date for the end of july. we just need to work with one of the brothers and strengthen him a little more. 

We have 2 others who I feel are ready to get a baptismal date but left the city this week. we will hopefully see them asap.

We have others as well we just need to meet with and helping them the best that we can. We are still not doing tracting or knocking but are finding lots to do!

I was very happy with this week even though I know we can do better.Sorry this is so short but thank you all for your support! Have a great week

-Elder Conrad

June 15- Being on lock down again!

Hello family!!

So you know how the lockdown happened during the end of the week until Monday. Ya so that lasted another 4 days here in Coimbatore... :( Which is super boring and lame because I done feel like there was anything going around in our part of the area. But we ended up making it as fun as we could by making killer brownies and eating ice cream. Yum!! Now I am waiting for the day to find some Root Beer and make some Root Beer Floats!! I hear there is one place in Hyderabad that sells Root Beer so lets pray I go there some day. :)

Everything sounds like life is going good in Ut! And I am super upset that the ward is going on a camping trip. Escalante was soo much fun. That is awesome news with Brandon and Mallory!! Cant wait for theirs and Amy and Nates kids :)

So pretty much it still is crazy to me that Emily leaves in 2 months! I bet time is a flying and then it will really be an empty nest hehe

This week in Coimbatore, well the long day and weeks have gone by and the long awaited Elder Monk has arrived from Rajahmundry! Him and 2 other elders arrived Thursday night and the six of us all had a sleepover at our apartment.

Quick little update on Elder Monk, he is from Houston, Texas and has finished 9 months on his mission in India. He has 2 sisters and one brother and is first to serve on his mission. He is a pretty cool kid and im excited to serve with him. He is a little quiet but is very funny. and also a rubix cube master. oh and his sense of smell and taste is pretty much gone. which I cant tell is lucky or bad for india. smell is lucky for him on most occasions. Taste kind of sucks for him haha

This week we had the zone conference that you know about in Bangalore and also had our zone training. Which was really good, our zone is pretty awesome. 6 Americans and 2 Indians missionaries. Not saying anything bad about the Indians of course, they are cool to. haha

So besides this week being mostly lockdown and the days have been filled going around showing him the area and visiting members and investigators not that much has gone by. We did get new bikes that are pretty awesome and are running those things to the ground.

We received a referral from a member this week of a family of four, which they seem pretty awesome. but don't speak English very well. That's going to be the story of the next couple weeks. Its going to be hard finding good English speakers to teach.

But let me say having two Americans is providing miracles with our ward. we are getting lots of dinner appointments coming up all of a sudden when I didn't get any before The members are really taking care of us. :)

The members are being so awesome. I am so surprised at the devotion some of the leaders are putting in for helping the branch and helping us out. I keep hearing that this is one of the best supporting branches in the mission. Its so awesome.

That's all for this week, but things in India are looking great!! this week has been good and there is so much to do! I have no idea what to do here in India, im still new but its awesome and I love being out here!

Love you all and have a great week!!

-Elder Conrad

Being on lockdown for 3 days is normal when you are a missionary right?

Hello Family!!!

This week has been a interesting week, but not very productive at all due to reason that will be displayed shortly. First of all sorry for the late email, we had a zone conference in Bangalore yesterday and are now having our pday today. Let me just say its been a long couple days. We had to travel to Bangalore Sunday night on train and got there 4 in the morning, so we are all running on little sleep. The train was pretty cool even though you can imagine the conditions haha, luckily we got a sleeper cell which gave us a short bench thing to sleep on. I'm pretty sure my Elder Chettimala saw a small rat running on the floor but i only got a glimpse.

Zone conference was really good, we had Elder Funk who was the last Mission President here in India come and teach us. A lot of what was taught was being exactly obedient. Sis Funk shared a cool miracle of a Elder who got burned pretty bad from spilling a big pan of boiling water on himself and having a pretty severe burn and blisters but was given a priesthood blessing that night before they would go to the hospital in the morning and he was pretty much completely healed. I thought that was cool how you mentioned the priesthood in your email.

I got to meet more missionaries which was pretty cool and guess what, I met another person from Mountain View! His name is Elder Magalei and he is a year older than me but I immediately recognized him. He played football and wrestled. Apparently Mountain View is popular for India.

So this week has been different for sure... mainly because Elder Nakkapalli left last Tuesday and I still don't have my companion! hahaha Ive been companion less for a whole week now. Same with my zone leader and another area in the zone. We are all getting them from Rajahmundry and we have to do some gov de-register papers to leave a district and to reside in another. So they have all had issues getting that finished but we are expecting them on Thursday.

So what i've been doing is taking a couple members out with me for the whole day and meeting up with my zone leader at night. Its been pretty fun but kind of hard. I have had to give lessons on my own which is super difficult. But its been a good learning experience.

I have found this week how nice it is to have Elder Nakkapalli who can speak the Indian English because so many people cant understand when I talk to them. Like i've said before here in Coimbatore is the Tamil language. And they prefer to speak that more than anything so English is very difficult for many of them. I would say most of the people are definitely more shy but are definitely a loving people. I usually always get some sort of snack when I go into their homes :) 

But like i said this week as been pretty uneventful. Due to the reason of a BJP assembly/conference for Anit-Conversion that took place for half the week. Which led us to a lockdown in our apartments, and all Americans were not to go out and to stay hidden at all times. Apparently some people don't like what we are doing here. I'm just kidding it wasn't that bad, but we were told not to leave the apartments so we were stuck for 3 days. And can I just say that I don't like it doing absolutely nothing all day. Man, I did not feel like a missionary. But it was also fun to invite some other missionaries over and to play games and to get to know them. We have a pretty good zone which i'm excited to work with.

Mom don't be worried because it really wasn't bad in our area. At least from the what I got out of it ;)

So for my thought for the day, so as I have been doing the Book of Mormon challenge to finish before zone conference and to mark everything that has to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was an awesome experience to take that challenge on. I can only say that the Book of Mormon is such a blessing for us to have and we can learn so much from it. I don't know how many times I was reading and something I hadn't noticed before popped before my eyes. We can get so much out of the scriptures if we are prayerfully searching them out. There is a reason God has told us to read the scriptures. We must have that daily spiritual nourishment, just like we need physical nourishment. As we do those small and simple things we will see a light of understanding in our lives and give us the Faith and Hope to continue on the path of righteousness.

I love you all and hope everyone has a great week!

With love,

-Elder Conrad

Finally pictures in India!

6 months down!

Hello Family!
Well in approximately 2 days I will be hitting my 6 month mark! Already 1/4 of my mission has flown by and it doesnt seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Like you have all said each day I am out, I am seeing things and growing a greater appreciation for the blessings in my life. Man I don’t think we realize how awesome our family is and the relationship we all share. I often think, why should I be someone so blessed with my life and so many others don’t have what we do? Its been such a testimony builder for me as a missionary to help those around me to the best of my abilities.
This week in Coimbatore has been hot... simply said, at least hotter than its been, even though I know everyone in Chennai,Hyderabad, and Rajahmundry are getting hit with 110 degree weather. Yes let us pray for those missionaries in those areas for their safety because I know they need it.
We had an interesting week here in my companionship, in an area close by one of the companionships was split due to one of the missionaries finishing his mission. So they sent Elder Aldridge to hang out with us for the entire week. Which was pretty fun to actually have an American who I’m able to talk about random stuff with. Even though you would be surprised how much Elder Nakkapalli knows about American music sheesh... he knows more than I do.
Also early in the week we received a call from the wonderful APs, informing us on ideas for transfers and what President has been thinking about. Apparently my guess about Elder Nakkapalli was wrong and he is leaving to Bangalore to finish up his last 6 weeks. Soo... ive been in India 6 weeks and am now about to take over an area im not as familiar as I should be. Sounds great! haha just kidding. I am pretty excited for a change of things. We get a new zone leader as well due to Elder Chandroo leaving to the Philippines. Which so everyone knows we have like 15 Elders in the Philippines and 10-15 more in the states waiting for visas. Which has been a problem of late with rumors running about the government and other things that might make it harder for Visas to be approved. Right now I think the mission is dropping with missionaries out and we are not receiving new ones either. :(
It looks like our whole Zone is receiving new companions. We will be getting Elder Monk from Rajahmundry who is from America! haha dope. And also Elder Harris (who came to India the same as I did is also entering our zone from Rajahmundry) My new district is souding fun with Elder Aldridge as District leader and 2 other Americans and a Canadian who is like half indian or something. Elder Monk has been out like 2 transfers more than me I think but ill get back to you next week more on him.
But im not too worried about the area, everything is opening with us very soon being able to knock and talk with everyone once we have our zone conference next week. Surprisingly we have a pretty good teaching pool that has seemingly popped out of nowhere. we have gotten a couple referrals and im exctited to work with a couple of them who seem strong.
I am loving our branch though, our leadership is amazing out here. they are holding lots of meetings to help us out and the branch members with lots of plans. Even though I am a bit scared of our Branch President haha he has got a lot of passion and is wanting the best out of us. They are awesome.
Not much to say about the events of the week, It was kind of disappointing to see the overall numbers and how I feel our efforts were but many things are about to change and im quite excited to start a new transfer.
Elder Nakkapalli and I were very appreciative to receive a talk assignment for yesterdays sacrament session. Which I didn’t like at all preparing since we hardly have time to prepare! But I was given a really easy topic. The Sustaining Power of Faith in these the Latter Days. We were told 15 min long which I was worried about but ended up being just fine. I gave a pretty good talk and went over the time which surprised me since I had to rush and not use like half of my talk.
Anyhow I did find a nice paragraph that I liked alot about faith.
Even if you exercise your strongest faith, God will not always reward you immediately according to yourdesires. Rather, God will respond with what in Hiseternal plan is best for you. He loves you to a depth andcompleteness you cannot conceive of in your mortalstate. Indeed, were you to know His entire plan, you would never ask for that which is contrary to it even though your feelings tempt you to do so. Sincere faith gives understanding and strength to accept the will ofour Heavenly Father when it differs from our own. We can accept His will with peace and assurance, confident that His infinite wisdom surpasses our own ability to comprehend fully His plan as it unfolds a piece at atime.
I’ll end with that and my short testimony of what was just said. I think we would be surprised how much we are able to grow through using our faith. Gods plan is eternal and not meant for us to complain about the trials that we go through. Everything is for us to grow and prepare us to enter into His presence. I liked a talk, that I can’t remember, that talked about how we think of the Whys in negtivity in our lives. but that we should always be thinking of the Whys in postivity and blessings that God has given us.
Love you all and hope you have a great week! Your always on my mind and in my prayers!

-Elder Conrad

Working Hard and having fun!

ell late start today in the emails! Sorry about that but we have had a long and busy P-Day! But I do have to make it short since we dont have enough computers for the 6 of us and need to finish quickly to get dinner and head out on time. Like I said last week we did a Zone trip to a place called Ooty. There were only 6 of us , the other missionaries had other things to do. But the other 2 slept over and we had to wake up at 4:30 in order to get ready and head out. It takes 2 1/2 hours to get there and we wanted to have 3-4 hours there to explore and be able to come back and email. It was pretty fun! We visited some rose park that had some cool things and this little shopping mart and got some chocolate. and i dont know exactly where but im pretty sure its the main attraction. It was the top of the mountain with an awesome view. I did get to see some monkeys on the way up! Haha not that cool but the trip was pretty cool. Ill send some pictures next week since i forgot my camera cord again...

This week has been good, there were a couple of my first times here in India. I had to jump of a bus which doesnt sound intense but the bus took off before I could get my money and through all the people and was going pretty dang fast. I was on a short split with Elder Chandroo who had gotten off before the bus left so I had to. good thing ive got good blance and quick feet or i wouldve died.

Also I was able to go on exchanges with one of the zone leaders and also one of the AP's. Which went really well. The one with the Ap was nerve racking cause i didnt even know it was happening till the night before and I was supposed to go with him around my area. I thought i was doomed since I still dont have the area down. Luckily he had served around here before and actually helped me alot learning more of the area and members to see! He also taught me how the crazy streets and addresses work, which still doesnt really even make sense to me. And he also taught me the game of cricket

On the exchange with the ZL we had a lesson fall through and were walking back to the bus and these 2 kids came over and talked to us. Which was weird, I thought we were the ones supposed to talk to people haha but they were fun and had lots of questions.( not abut religion) They had a ball and pretty much a flat broken piece of wood they probably got from a fence that they were using to play cricket. So we asked if we could hit a couple times with them and they agreed. Ill admit I totally missed the ball my first swing... 

We had a fun lunch with the ZL one day. We went to a buffet place called Barbecue Nation! Oh my, it was so good. Pretty much like tucanos but a little bit more of the indian side and other countries foods added to it. I havent said much about the Indians but man do they know how to eat. My companion is so small but everytime they just pounds in food like nothing.

Im super jealous right now that you are all in Florida right now and having a blast. I guess I couldve told you it was a really bad time for you to go with the weather haha I bet that was fun. Probably lots hotter out there than it is here. Its been raining quite a bit lately which makes the weather perfect. 

Oh ya! So this guy called us earlier this week and was like is Elder Conrad with you, I would like to meet him tomorrow at the church. Soo im like how the crap does some random guy even know who I am... Come to find out his name is Raju Joseph and he his real good friends with Michael Anthony. Which took me awhile to figure out who that was haha and told me he was still in touch with my family in utah and that he wanted Raju to come and say hi and give me a small gift. Which was super awesome to meet him, he was one of the begginner missionaries in India. He was talking about the places he went with only like 10 members so that was cool.

Anyhow ya thats it for this week! Everything is going pretty good. Thanks for everyones support! Have a great week!

-Elder Conrad