"But, it's THANKSGIVING!"

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Yet another awesome holiday that they don't celebrate here in India. hahah that is okay, because we made the best of it and we sure ate good!! I hope everyone had a lot of good food and thought of how thankful they are this Thanksgiving. I know I am thankful for SO many things. After living here and meeting people that have so little and are so humble and happy has made me think of how thankful I am for the little things that I have had my whole life. I sure took for granted a lot of things back in America. I have met people who don't have more than one room for their whole house and they still are giving us something to eat or drink. The people are so thoughtful and always inviting us into their home. I love the people already. 

Well, now that it is almost December, it is time for Christmas!! I can't wait for Christmas, we have a lot of good plans to Light The World this December. Everyone needs to look up the Light the World initiative for this year, it is awesome. We are working with the members here to Light the World and better the people around us and be more like the Savior. We are going to give as He gave, love as He loved, and serve as He served. Wow, I love Christmas time SO much!! We just need to decorate our apartment now.

We have been teaching this one family ever since I got here to India and they are so awesome, I love going to their home! Other than the fact they grow bananas and give them to us every time, they are learning so much. We met with the father named Pravin and taught him the story of Lehi's Dream. (Read 1 Nephi 8) We read the whole chapter from the Book of Mormon with him and discussed and made sure he understood. He asked really good questions and Pravin wants to be baptized!! So, he has a date to be baptized in December. We are really excited for Pravin and his family when they follow his example and are baptized as well. 

Sooooo, if you remember one of the first weeks I was here in India I told a story about a family that lived in the slums and I was taller than their whole house. We have been trying to get back to their family to teach ever since but they have been cancelling our appointments. Well, the whole family only speaks Tamil and very little English so we decided to show up one evening with a translator from our ward. We could actually communicate with them and the father told our translator that he always has wanted to meet with us and learn more because he recognized that we were sent from God but he just simply couldn't understand everything we said. The language barrier here is definitely the hardest part in teaching here. With the help of our translator, we could effectively bring the spirit into their home and teach better to them. One thing I learned is the spirit can only testify of truth if truth is taught clearly!! I know without a doubt that this is the true church and it is Jesus Christ's church restored back on the earth today but if they don't completely understand what I am teaching them, than it is ineffective. I just wish so bad I could speak Tamil fluently hahahah. 

So, it was the end of a transfer and I thought Elder Tolbert was out of Chennai but I was wrong!! We both stayed and will be together again in Chennai. In fact, all four of us Elders in my apartment are staying! The food we eat is not bad... I'll say that. hahhah The only thing is that we eat the same thing every time anyone feeds us. Oh, and the people here are serious about their food. We call dinner time "the boss fight" because they want to serve you and pile mountains and mountains of rice on your plate. They feed some sort of curry and rice every meal. It is either rice and curry or curry and some bread thing which is more like a tortilla. There are chipatis, parotas, dosa, rhotis, naan. Oh, they could get real fancy and switch it up and make biryani. That is everyone's favorite. Guess what it is!?? Surprise, it's rice! They just cook the rice and the curry together instead of dishing them separate lol. The food is pretty dang good, not gonna lie. I would die for a good ol' double double from In n Out burger though. Ooooh, also I would die for just anything my dad makes. 

I love living here honestly! Everything that happens that is out of the ordinary(which is like everything). We just say, "Well, it's a story". It is a lot of fun being a missionary and meeting some awesome friends. I hope everyone has an awesome week! I love you!

Love, Elder Baker

                                                       Happy Thanksgiving

                                                     Thanksgiving Dinner

Indian Home

American vs Indian Rainstorm 

Transfers

Hey everyone! This week has gone by so fast. I feel like I say that every week but it is so true. Everyone said that your mission flys by super fast and I guess they were right because apparently I have been out more than 100 days now. I still have a while to go but weeks just keep going by super fast. Time works weird on the mission. In fact, this transfer is over already!!! My first transfer in India is over. We are still waiting on transfer calls to hear what the news is. My companion Elder Tolbert has been in Chennai for his whole mission and he has been out almost a year so he might get transferred this week sadly. I hope he stays because we have grown close and are really making strong relationships with the people we are teaching. He is a really good guy so as much as he is ready to leave, I want him to stay! hahaha

This week we had zone conference!! So, President and Sister Mortensen came to the Chennai zone and met with us missionaries. It was a really good zone conference and I loved learning from them as well as all the other missionaries. One thing we talked a lot about is service and ministering and the new Light the World stuff for this Christmas season. But, I don't want to forget about Thanksgiving!! I am so thankful for all of you and your kind words every week. I can feel the prayers and I am so thankful for it. Happy Thanksgiving this week to everyone!!

This week I got to go on an exchange with Elder Gollapolli and it was a really good day. One of our friends that we are teaching named Shiva is really interested in what we do and he actually asked to go with us to learn more about the gospel and what we do. So, we brought him with us missionaries, i hope that is allowed! I don't see why not because it was very beneficial. hahah anyway, we first went to meet a guy named Apoorv Singh who had referred a Book of Mormon. We were so excited because like nobody does that here. We learned about him and learned that he found our church and watched a lot of our videos on youtube and instagram. So he found our website and requested a Book of Mormon and to meet the missionaries. He knew a lot already which was awesome but we taught him and the spirit was very strong!! Then we visited a member family with our other friend Shiva and the members got to bear their testimony to Shiva and it was awesome!! 

We had a random number call us on Saturday night and said that he met us and wanted to come to our church but we couldn't remember how we met this guy at all!! He said he met the "tall white guy" so I guess that was me lol. He asked to meet us in the morning to travel together so we said yes but we couldn't remember who he was!! So, we met him in the morning and came to church with us but we STILL don't know who he is or how he met us and got our number... Interesting but awesome!! God is providing for us. He is answering our prayers!! 

Love, Elder Baker

                                                                   Zone Conference

                                        

                                                                    Basketball?

Happy Diwali!!!

Hello everyone, what a super fun week! We totally celebrated this week, it was awesome. So yeah last week was Halloween but nobody celebrates that here in India. The real holiday that was lit this week was called Diwali. It is pronounced "Deevali" but they say the 'V' sound for their 'W's here. Diwali is some huge Indian holiday/festival thing and it was so much fun! I honestly don't know what they celebrate but we sure celebrated! We danced, ate food, and lit A TON of fireworks. It was a lot of fun. Our work this week was kind of a slow week to be honest, we had a lot of appointments cancel sadly. It was a really good contacting and finding week and I will tell you why here in a little bit. We did have 24 non members at sacrament so that was way awesome!!

Happy Diwali!! We found out there was a big Indian holiday coming up because there was posters all around our apartment for a big party and it was only 100 rupees for unlimited food so just that part caught our attention. 100 rupees is equal to $1.37 soooo SWIPE!! We went and got in contact with the guy in charge and asked if we could get some tickets to come to the party. He was shocked that we wanted to come because we are white or something. He was also in charge of the program for the night and a lot of people were performing to celebrate so he asked if we would do a dance for everyone. It was the day before but we were like yeah sure!!! hahha so we committed ourselves to perform in front of everyone a dance we haven't made up yet. The next day was Diwali so for companionship study, we made up a dance to our favorite Tamil song Orasaadha by 7up Madras Gig. We don't know what the words mean but it is catchy!! haha so we made up a dance in an hour and then preformed it that night for everyone at our apartment!! We wore traditional Indian clothes and everyone absolutely loved it! 

So, the rest of the week like everyone in our apartment came up to us and asked more about us and we met a lot of people because of this!! Even people on our street would ask about our dance or say that their friends told them all about it! It was so much fun and a great finding activity! After the dance, EVERYONE in India was lighting fireworks and firecrackers. They would just light up the whole sky, it was so cool to see from the roof of our apartment building. 

I am still alive here on the mission. Thank you to everyone who talks to me and prays for me, I can definitely feel it while I am out here. I love all of you and miss America a lot but I am sure enjoying India. Thanks for everything, until next week!!

Love, Elder Baker

Elder Tolbert and Elder Baker dance at Diwali!!
                                   

Food and Fireworks

                                                            Introducing ourselves. 

God's Plan

It has been another great week here in India. Elder Tolbert and I are having the time of our lives. We have had some really awesome experiences lately. Lately we have been seeing and feeling how God is literally directing our work here. He is specifically guiding our path and putting us in the places we need to be. Something will happen where it just has to be God directing His work and Elder Tolbert and I just look at each other and say at the same time, "God's Plan". Hahaha, but for real I know that God has a grand plan for all of us. He is surely using us as instruments in his hand. We are completely trusting in the Lord and seeing the work go forward. It is so amazing! Also, it was Halloween this week!! Even though nobody celebrates that here, we sure did!!! We found the closest thing to a pumpkin and probably paid way over price because they charge white tax here but that's okay, it was worth it!!

So, on Friday we woke up like usual and did our normal morning schedule. We started to plan out our day and we had a few appointments set for the day except for like 2:30-5 in the afternoon. We thought of everything and could not think of something to do during that time. We called our whole contact list and prayed and couldn't think of anything. I even raised my hands to the sky and was saying, "Tell me!! Tell me what to do!! Come on!" hahah I was kind of joking but we ended up just leaving it blank. So, fast forward to 2:30 and still no plans. I am not kidding when the clock hit 2:30, we got a phone call from a guy named George and he said, "Where are you?? I am at your apartment." He was a guy we found knocking doors a few weeks back and we just gave him our number. He legit just showed up at our apartment and called us. We then realized that God needed us at our apartment at that specific time for George to show up! We were able to go outside and meet with him for a hour or so and had a really good talk with him. God has a plan and since then, we are just completely relying on the Lord!!

On Sunday, we got to go to our new church building in Tambaram!! The members here have been traveling almost 2 hours to get to church every week and luckily we just got our own meetinghouse much closer!! It is super nice and all the members loved it!! It was a really good fast and testimony meeting. The members testimonies are really strong and we had A LOT of non members there at sacrament because of the new building. After church, we had plans to meet with Prakash, George and Mary's family, and Simon and Sophia's family aaaaaaaaand they all cancelled! Sometimes, that just happens. Sometimes, life happens and doesn't go the way you planned but that is because God has a different plan for you. So, we went out with a member named Parminder so he could help translate for us. We were supposed to meet him at 4 at a nearby park. We didn't get to the park until 4:45 because three guys stopped us and talked to us and had a lot of questions and asked why so many people don't like us. hahah they said they went to bible college and they teach that our church is wrong and they thought we believed some really weird things. Anyway, we set them straight and will meet with them again soon. We then walked across town to stop by a family we are teaching and they weren't home. There were some little boys playing tag in the street though so we asked if we could play with them. We ran around with them for a little while until this guy stopped us and started talking to us. His name is Arwin and he is from Africa!!! He brought us up into his home right then and we met his whole family. There was 15 of them. He used to be a body builder and his brother Timothy played professional soccer. They were such studs! It was their mom's birthday so we stayed and sang and had birthday cake. It was a lot of fun. We talked for a long time and they loved us and the message we had to share with them. When we left, we started walking home but had to go a different way to walk Parminder home. As soon as we dropped him off, we were stopped by a guy named Sam and he actually knew who we are! He told us that he used to visit our church and loved it and he has read the Book of Mormon and loves it. He was giving us big hugs and we set an appointment for this week and he is also coming to church with us Sunday. 

The events that happened this week and the people we met were supposed to meet us for some reason. The timing and the plans were definitely God's plan. There is no way that all those things happened randomly at the most specific time for us to meet these people. I know that God is directing his work and I love it. I am doing my best every day to rely on his plan and I am seeing the blessings. Thank you for all the prayers back home, I can definitely feel them! 

Love, Elder Baker

                                            

                                                                     Happy Halloween!

                                       

                                                    Elder Tolbert and I in our Kurtas  

                                                                     Indian Family