E-mail Aug. 18, 2014 "Greetings from Hyderabad"

Hey I made it to India, after a 41 hour flight and two fun layovers in Chicago and London I'm finally here, and all I can say is holy flippin' cow. We arrived at the airport Thursday morning at 5:00 and we almost didn't make it through because the people in charge of the immigration counter couldn't understand why we were here, but thankfully we finally got it worked out. President Berrett picked us up from the airport and took a cab with us to the mission home in Bangalore, and I got a hard slap in the face from reality as we drove.

We're not in Utah anymore, Toto.

The best way I can think of to describe this place is a giant messy apartment that reeks of culture, curry, and diesel fuel with millions of roommates that don't have time or money to clean up. Oh, and the traffic in this apartment needs tons of work. Most of the roads don't have lines on them and the few that do don't make a difference. Nobody here obeys traffic laws, probably because there aren't any traffic laws to obey. if there's any way you can possibly pass and cut off that bus in order to get where you're going a little faster, even if there's only 0.5 centimeters of clearance on both sides, you do it, and you do it terrifyingly fast.

The city structures are unbelievable, it consists mostly of 5+ story apartment buildings with tiny little three-walled shops in the bottom. You can tell that the cities are trying to expand to accommodate the people better because on every block there are enormous concrete frameworks for new apartments and business buildings going up, but I realized that most of them haven't been touched in years. These giant grey skeletal monoliths are so frequent that they look like a part of the environment now. I'll look down the street and instead of hills or mountains rising up in the background I see these lonely, desolate structures just waiting for someone to come and notice that they're still there.  

Oh, and don't let me forget to mention the ruthless raging monster I've come to know as Jet Lag. It preys on my fatigued human body in the most critical moments, such as the stake open house where I fell asleep twice when I was supposed to be teaching. My only refuge from this enemy is at 9:30 back at my apartment when I can lay down in bed. 

But then I'm attacked by the ravening Snoring Roommates beast, so I'm pretty beat up right now. 

Basically I feel like I've touched an Indian live wire because I am culture SHOCKED. The Lord is helping me to adjust though and I've come to know that the People and food here are fantastic and I'm loving getting to know them both. 

The church is true and the Lord knows what we need, I testify of that. Until next time, this is Elder Cloward signing off. :)