E-mail Oct. 27, 2014 "I said religious, not racist!"

This week we celebrated Diwali, one of the biggest holidays in India where everybody spends all there money on fireworks to see who can put on the best show. That night was spectacular, we stood on top of our apartment building and watched a 360 degree fireworks show going on for miles an all directions. Here in India however they don't call them fireworks, they simply call them "crackers", and so that morning when I asked our zone leader if we would be buying any he gestured to me and said "we don't need any more crackers, we have one right here."

Yes he knew full well what that meant, and it took a while to get the other American missionary to stop laughing.

The last few weeks my companion and I have been having a really hard time teaching discussions and finding new investigators. We started making more phone calls and we were able to pick it up again this week, but I'm learning that very few things will ever just happen in missionary work. Everything that you get done is because you've put in all your effort to make it happen, and then the Lord helps you out and makes up for your shortcomings. The Lord will only help us if we show Him that we're committed and willing to work for something, and that goes for all aspects of life.

This week has cooled down significantly due to the "outpouring" of rain we've received and I almost had to put on a jacket this morning when I woke up and it was only 75 degrees. I'm continuing to fall in love with this place as I become more and more submerged in the traditional languages and culture. Everywhere we go almost all the women wear sarees (the colorful traditional Indian dresses) and have a bindi on their foreheads. I can hear Hindi music playing almost anywhere I go and during the festival this week I was constantly aware of people burning incense in the streets as the sweet aromas carried me away even further into this Indian reality.

Until next week-

Elder Cloward

with Gandhi at the International Peace Gardens in SLC