Elder Braden Baker: Bargaining skills on point

Wow, this week has been super busy!! I'm doing a lot of different things then when I was in Kakinada. Kakinada is a smaller area on the outside of the mission and there is only two missionaries there. They are pretty isolated from the rest of the zone, let alone the whole mission. Now, I'm in Hyderabad as a zone leader and we have been busy. This week, I was only in my area for two days!! I went to Bangalore on Tuesday and Wednesday for MLC. I came home on Wednesday night and left Thursday morning to a different area for an exchange for Thursday and Friday. Finally, Saturday and Sunday I was working in my own area. We've also been busy with planning our zone training meeting and soo many other things like taking care of money and all the missionaries apartment repair and stuff like that. This week sure went by fast!!

MLC was sooo good. It was fun to be zone leader here in Hyderabad because we got to take a flight to Bangalore just for the meeting. Okay, obviously the best part was receiving all the trainings from our Assistants and President Thomas but a close second was Wednesday morning. The church in Bangalore has an indoor basketball court!!! We got up early and actually played a game of basketball. It was like the first time I've played ball in like a year. It was too much fun to play and actually play on an indoor court. I'm sure back home, I would've complained about the quality of the court and the hoop but after a year and a half of not having a real court, I was so happy. It's funny my standards have changed so much. Anyway, I still threw down a few dunks but my hops need improvement. After basketball, we went to the mission home where we had a pull up contest with President Thomas and he smoked all of us!! President Thomas is 63 years old but whooped us all in a pull up contest. I was super impressed. He is strong physically and spiritually!!

OKAY, crazy story!! One day, Elder Gaddala and I were just walking and finding and talking to people. This dude comes up to us with some fabric and is trying to sell it to us. At first, we were like no no and pushed him away because they literally get physical with trying to get you to buy their stuff. He kept saying the fabrics are really nice and name brand Peter England and what not. So, finally we stopped and asked some questions. We asked him how big is the fabric and what colors and how much money. There was four different colors of really nice fabric. Each fabric was big enough to make 2 tailor made pants. So, that means 8 pairs of brand new pants. Alright, we asked him how much money and he said that they are worth 12,000 rupees($168) which is about $21 per pant but he would give them to us for 4000 rupees($56) which is $7 per pant!! So, now we were actually thinking about it because it was a pretty good deal. But, we actually just didn't have the cash on us at the time so we walked away. AGAIN, he followed us and is trying to get us to buy it so we said well we only have 1,500 rupees so what should we do?? He said he needed to get rid of the fabric and would take 1,500 rupees. So, he legit gave all the fabric to us for 1,500 rupees($21) which means only $2.60 per pant!!! We are going to get them tailored on P-day. The price went from 12,000 rupees($168) down to 1,500 rupees($21). That was the deal of the week, probably some of the best bargaining I've done in India hahah.

I'm pretty excited for the ward I'm in in Hyderabad. I gave a talk this Sunday at church and talked about obedience. I also played the piano for sacrament. I felt like I was doing too much for sacrament meeting haha I played the first and second hymn, then stood up and gave a talk, then sat down and played the piano again. I've met a few member families so far and they are awesome! I'm excited to work with them and help them in their missionary work. President Thomas told us something at MLC this week that was interesting. He said, "Often, we think the members are here to help the missionaries but really the missionaries are here to help the members be missionaries. Don't release the members from their calling to be a missionary!" I found that really interesting! I have found it more effective when I have a ward of 100 members inviting people better than if just two people, my companion and I, are inviting people. So, always fulfill your calling to be a missionary!!

We are playing basketball for the first time in a while and it's so much fun! So, I'll have to tell you more stories next week. Love you all, have a good week.

Love, Elder Baker