26 JAN 10 letter

Dear Family,

This past week was full of surprises. We had a big disappointment on sunday because the two families we are working with did not come to church! Well, one came but they were about 2 hours late. So we felt bad about it, but this week will be better. We are sure about that.

This week one of our investigators revealed to us that she was basically an alcoholic. We were blown away. She is 17 and after the word of wisdom lesson we had last week she had been acting weird. She has a little different personality but I assumed that she was a just a special girl. But I have now learned never to assume anything. It sounds like she is pretty bad and we will start to work with her this week on repentance and addiction recovery.

We met a man named Pavan Kumar last week. He lives in an area called Gnanapuram (pronounced "Yan-ah-poor-um"). It means village of wisdom, but could more accurately be named the village of Roman Catholics. This brother is incredible. He is about 21 and at the end of the first appointment we challenged him to say the prayer. During the prayer, he proceeded to ask God if Joseph Smith was a true prophet. A different feeling entered the room at that time. He recognized it immediately. Yesterday we met with him and challenged him for baptism and he accepted. But his parents will be the obstacle. So we will see how it goes.

I went on exchange twice this past week. First with Elder Lohat, he serves in 2nd branch and is from New Delhi. He is an amazing elder and we share a lot in common. It was fun to go with him and learn about his life in Delhi. From the way he describes it, Delhi seems very western. So it was cool to learn about that. Yesterday I went with Elder Mickelson who is serving out in Gajuwaka branch. If you remember he was in H-town 2nd branch with us for a while and served with Elder Ward. So it was fun to be with him, it brought back memories of the good old days in West Marred Pally. So that is about it for this week. Thanks for your prayers!

Love you,
Elder Tuscano