Elder Braden Baker: Wedding Crashers

Hello everyone, another week goes by and I am still having the time of my life in India!! My companion Elder Rajendran and I are doing very well together and are loving the work. Two more people want to be baptized soon in the next few weeks. That makes 9 people that are going to get baptized soon! They are so happy and so excited. It makes me so happy when I see others happiness. Anyway, we had some great lessons this week and some fun things happen. We were invited to a wedding which was a lot of fun. We also had a big District activity on Saturday which was India's Republic Day. It was a great activity and a lot of people came and me met many new families because of the activity.

So, Priya's sister was getting married so she invited us to come to the wedding! They sure go all out for their wedding functions here. We found the place and just walked right in and sat down then before we knew it, there was like 10 people dragging us to get some food. There was so many people here, they would have no idea if we even knew the bride and groom!! ahahha so if we learned one thing, it is that when we don't have any dinner we just have to find a wedding and walk right in and we will surely be fed! The wedding consisted of live music that was SO loud, a camera man walking around filming everyone, lots of food, and then everyone lines up to take pictures with the bride and groom. There was a huge line so we were just going to leave. As we were saying bye to Priya and her family, they brought us right up to the stage as if we were VIP's! So, us four missionaries will forever be in their huge photo album they will make for their wedding. You're welcome future missionaries in this area.(;

There wasn't too many crazy things that happened this week, just the same old things to be honest. I don't know, maybe I am just getting used to all the crazy. Yeah, it is definitely just me getting used to it. Sometimes randomly it will hit me that I truly am in India across the other side of the globe sitting on some random families floor eating rice with my hand. Then, you start remembering it is all real and I am not just dreaming hahhah.

I have found out for myself that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is in fact the only true church on the Earth today. I know with a surety that Jesus Christ is the head of this church and speaks to His prophets. After studying about the great apostasy in history, it just makes sense that God needed to restore His church on the Earth in these latter days. Joseph Smith really did restore the same church Jesus Christ established when he was on the earth and it is available to us to experience the same joy. I know that I have felt this joy and I know that it is also just a fraction of the joy that we can feel as we live eternally with our families in the presence of God!! What amazing hope living this gospel brings to us and our families.

Love, Elder Baker

PS. This little guy came to my computer at the internet cafe and just started watching everything I am doing and now we are friends. His name is Manikandan!