Elder Braden Baker: 5 W's and lots of sweat

Hello from the other side of the world! Literally though, I was looking at a globe this week and Utah is like directly on the other side of India. I'm as far away from home as I could possibly get. For example, we were at the beach for P-day last week and we started digging a huge hole trying to get to America. Zero success though.

Anyway, life in India is going great so far! I am just finishing my 5th transfer in the Tambaram area which is right outside the main city of Chennai. Chennai used to be named Madras in the past and it is a big city on the east coast of India. It is getting really hot and way humid. One day this week, we went out finding in the morning from 10am to about 12:30 and my shirt was completely soaked in sweat! There was literally no dry spots. We came back to the apartment for lunch and I had to hang it up on my drying rack and turn the fan on high. It's also quite interesting here how the people feel about the sun. They're terrified of it. They hate the sun! Its funny, everyone here wants to be more white and everyone in America wants to be more tan! When I tell people that in America, people lay outside in the sun on purpose to get more tan, they freak out and don't believe me. In America, they sell tanning lotion and here in India they sell whitening lotion. The grass is always greener on the other side.

So, the wonderful morning of the soaked shirt. We prayed for a specific area to go finding in the morning and decided we would go to Mappedu which is pretty close to our apartment. We went out and walked there. I told Rajendran to try and listen to the spirit and act on anything that might be a prompting. I was going to let him lead us out this morning on where to go. We were walking down the main road and we just kept walking and walking and walking. We were passing street after street of houses and people. It's pretty easy to "go finding" in India because you literally just have to be outside of your apartment and there is hundreds of people around you at all times. It also makes it hard sometimes on who to talk to so we leave that up to the spirit and God directing us. After walking for awhile, Elder Rajendran pauses and points down this street to our left. I turned pretty dang quick considering how long we walked straight. Hahahah we then started looking for Christian homes to knock or people to talk to or help. About halfway down the street, there was a big group of ladies underneath a tree. Turns out, there was something happening this morning and every person that lived on the street was meeting together under this tree. It was the fastest I ever "door knocked" a whole street! They were some wonderful people and showed some interest. We were able to share about families living together forever as they all had families. Specifically Mathu and Abee, who are a young couple who just had their first child. I hope to share how living the gospel of Jesus Christ can help them be strong as a family! I'm grateful for prayer and I know God is leading His work.

This week was the long anticipated apartment inspections. I am coming off of 4 wins straight since I got here so we made sure to clean our apartment way good. We went all in and it looked beautiful. Thank you Mom and Dad for teaching me how to work and clean, I really appreciate it. Anyway, I was pretty confident that we had the W before Elder and Sister Gibson came so I prepared a plate full of Oreos and milk for them as they came inside. Long story short is we win again. I'm proud about it too hahaha. 5 in a row. Thank you mom and dad for teaching me how to work hard and how to clean. Once again, you guys were right. My advice to all kids out there that might be reading this is to listen to your parents!!! Mother knows best, listen to your mother!

Also, happy birthday this past week to my man Jed on the 25th. Jed, you're a stud and I'm grateful we are best friends, love ya man!

Finally, happy birthday to my girl Ellie today, the 29th! She is the most thoughtful girl I've ever met and I'm so lucky to have met her. I love you!

I hope everyone has a great week! Love you all. Until next week.

Love, Elder Baker