E-mail Sept. 1, 2014 "Week four in India! Oh wait, maybe it's week three..."

Holy humidity Batman. Now that the rain has stopped and the temperatures are going up again there's almost enough water in the air to swim to our appointments. I'm sure I'll get used to feeling sweaty and sticky all the time but if I go to eat breakfast one more time and soggy (not stale, soggy) cornflakes come out of the box I may have a problem.

We've spent a lot of time visiting less active and recent converts this week, in fact that probably made up 80% of our teaching. It's interesting to see the patterns that are consistent with the different members we visit, like even though the less active members will give every excuse for why they weren't there on Sunday when we ask them if they're praying and reading the Book of Mormon the negative response is universal. Contrast that to the faithful recent convert members we visit who are reading and praying every day and, not surprisingly, are the ones who come to church consistently even though several of them live an hour+ away. I've come to learn that faith is a plant that you have to nourish at home, not a battery that you recharge on Sunday.

The language is still a struggle sometimes, and there have been several occasions where the person we were teaching only understood Telugu (the native language) and so my companion had to do most of the teaching. On one such visit my companion was teaching the lesson in the language that the member could understand and I was trying to follow along so I could at least know when to join in with my testimony. I felt like I knew where the conversation was going and right when I was about to bear witness of Jesus Christ my companion said "No, Citric Acid is good for kidney stones."
Lesson learned: If I listen to the spirit then I'm sure that despite the language, I too will know when the appropriate time to bear testimony of the negative effects of unbalanced minerals in your kidneys comes.

Oh, and on a side note the cell phone that my companion and I use is very old and keeps falling apart so I figured out how to shove a pass along card inside of it to hold it together and it worked. It just goes to show, the gospel really can fix anything.

I'll be sending pictures as soon as I get an SD card reader to put them on the computer, they're not so easy to find over here.

Elder Cloward over and out. :)

another fun photo from his pre-mission photo shoot!