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.