Week 2 and answers to questions

I printed off the emails you guys wrote to me last week. I wrote answers to them back at the apartment. So I'm just going to transfer them from my paper to here.   That is exciting to hear you're running dad! I have to jump rope instead. It's not the smartest idea to run here. Haha Only two more years of jump-roping!

Everyone told me that the food here in India is spicy. The American Elders are also known for getting "loose motions" in their first few weeks here. However, I'm handling the food pretty well. The Indian missionaries are surprised I'm doing so well. The food is actually quite good, but rice about every meal does get tiring. Breakfast is my biggest meal: Eggs, Cereal or toast, and a fruit. I've been having mangoes a lot here. Then it's usually rice with some kind of curry for lunch and/or dinner. Oh, and I tried mutton or lamb the other day.
Tell Mike he's wack for thinking mutton is bad. ;)  It's pretty good in my opinion.  Elder Bunga is very helpful. He's from Hyderabad and leaves in June. Good things about him is that he really tries to work hard, knows the scriptures, KNOWS HINDI (I'd be dead without him speaking it), and helps to talk to me about the work here. We have had some talks, but they really helped us understand each others thoughts on
missionary work.

The work here is totally different. Currently 2 units of  investigators. (I've invited 3 people to be baptized this week) Sacrament attendance ranges from 85ish to 18 across the mission in Delhi. The members are really helpful here. We can usually count on someone coming to lessons with us everyday when we need. The leadership in church here however is a hinder-mint. There are some really helpful leaders, but as a whole it's a learning process. Street contacting is not effective. It's a lot more member referrals or teaching the families of recent converts. (Yea dad all 27 missionaries work in the Delhi area. We're divided up into the 7 branches here. Old Delhi and New Delhi are really one city. Pakistan is actually a really developing mission there. Only the natives serve there. Napal only has senior missionaries there. That's about the extent of our mission)
  It's hot here and this isn't even the hot season. I've heard it gets up to 45 - 50 degrees Celsius. Highs 55 Celsius. Times by 2 and add 30 to get Fahrenheit.  Mission office is a 30 minute auto (taxi) drive.  Our schedule is about according to the Preach My Gospel guidelines on page viii. Add 30 minutes to everything and that's us.

The driving is crazy, yet I'm not scared because they are so comfortable with the driving system. There will be no driving for me.  Not too many bugs in apartment (a probably turn around during the summers). Outside though, there are big ol' cockroaches and ants.   Meats: Lamb (mutton) and chicken are the meats here. No beef.

Comments from week
I had a slice of raw coconut off the street the other day. Pretty good, but I was kinda expecting more of the sugary flake taste back home. haha

There are so many embassies located here. I mean it's not like this is the capital of India ;) Their cars stand out. They have license plates with blue backgrounds.   I've never seen so many popped collars on guys than I have seen here in India.

At the MTC departure, all missionaries stood up when their mission was announced. When India was called, the MTC president gave us the only warning out of the whole group. Basically he said "Make sure you
do what you're suppose to. India is delicate and you need to help keep the doors open." However I found out this week the first stake is being formed on May 26. (I think that's the date) That's pretty exciting!
Motorcycles are everywhere here! Though they're not Harley Davidson kind. More street bike type.

This is more spiritual things:
This last week has been fantastic. I’ve been able to teach and invite three investigators to be baptized this week! During studies this morning, I was just excited and couldn’t calm down. It was because Elder Bunga and I were preparing our lesson for our investigators. I was ecstatic to hopefully get to see the light bulb go off in their heads about the importance of our message. This church, the gospel of Jesus Christ, is true. I’m only beginning to teach and find people, but I hope to love these people and those I serve immensely.
I’ve been memorizing the first vision and the bullet points during my studies to help me improve my teaching and sharing my purpose in being a missionary. Elder Bunga has helped me a lot in breaking the ice with teaching people as we role play and actually teach too.

This is definitely the Lord’s work. I’ve seen in as I’ve tried to do become the missionary he wants me to be. Also, it’s evident in the investigators and members with the change of heart that comes as the gospel is taught to them. As a side perk, it’s also evident in how my understanding of the gospel has grown in these short two weeks.   I mentioned earlier about wanting to love his mission, the people, and those I serve. This last week has helped me to realize that Jesus Christ’s church is centered on love. It’s humbling to know that and that's why I want to strive to love. If I love the people, I want to help them see the importance of repentance. If I love them and want them to repent so that they can return to live with Heavenly Father, then I work harder as Christ’s missionary.

I love you guys and hope this answers questions.
Love your son,
Elder Devin Bastian

Survived First Week !

(Devin was online and typing a few paragraphs to us.  He had to go be quick because he, Elder Cooper and Pres. Jackson  were headed to Delhi for a tour of the Mission.)

Hey are you guys up?! I'm on for only 30 minutes because Pres Jackson is taking Elder Cooper and I to visit Delhi.

This first week has been hard, but today I realized something as I was pondering. 2 Nephi 31:19-20 are the scriptures that made me ponder about this. Instead of strait and narrow I replaced it with mission. Then where Heavenly Father is talking about eternal life I replaced it with "You will have success on you mission". That helped a lot! And dad thank you so much for the blessing you gave me before I left. I reread that blessing in my journal yesterday and I just started bawling because it hit home and gave me the comfort I needed to get through yesterday. Thanks :D

I took pictures that I wanted to send to you today but because of the computers we're on Elder Bunga told me to wait until later. Sorry :/    Before I go any further, HI MOM!!! HI DAD!!! I love you guys!!! hehe I've been stoked to email you and hear from you

Now that I've been here a week our apartment is really nice. Dirty because of 6 missionaries living together but it really is nice. I do a lot of cleaning because... well that's me. haha Actually some of the guys cook for us at night. I have my own breakfast of cereal, eggs, and a fruit. The rest of the day is hard to figure meals out. Like last night it was 10:30 by the time I could even think of making any dinner and I was so tired that I didn't eat. I'm not sure how to plan for those things. There are quite a few people that speak English and understand how to speak it well. However their accents are so thick it is very hard to understand. The rest of the people here speak Hindi and even in the lessons we teach Elder Bunga has to translate to from English to Hindi so that they understand what is being said. I've picked up on a few phrases/words but I feel lost a lot because of how often English is spoken here. The Church members are the ones that speak the best English.

All we have is a stove, microwave, and refrigerator. No oven.  I'm the only American in the apartment. There are 3 other Americans in our mission though. There used to be 4 more but because of visas they had to leave to Washington the day before Elder Cooper and I arrived.