The Mission Chronicles of Joshua in India...

04 NOV 2010

2010-11-11T12:25:00.002-07:00

Josh returns...

17 OCT 2010 letter

2010-11-07T10:04:00.001-07:00

Dear Family,

Miracles are happening here. So last week as you know we had been planning this big transfer. My batch is going home and we were just trying to determine how to close a ton of areas. There were going to be so little elders that we needed one companionship to cover an entire city, Like Coimbatore or Visak. Then maybe even Hyderabad. Ha it might be hard for you to understand. But when I arrived there were over 24 elders serving in Hyderabad, now there might only be 2. So the situation was not ideal in terms of numbers, but as you already knew- the Lord has been blessing us greatly and the work has been moving forward with power. We knew that would continue to be the case, but it was a little rough thinking about what to do when 14 elders leave with none coming. So we wanted to finish it on monday, but for some reason President just felt uneasy. So we talked and waited. On Wednesday night, after we returned to Bangalore from a great Multi-Zone Conference in Hyderabad, President got a call. 16 months ago, we were supposed to receive 6 American elders, but they never got their visas. We haven't has any visas since that time. But on Wednesday some one granted those 6 visas! Those missionaries were permanently reassigned to Nashville and Baltimore, but they called Church Headquarters and they got permission to come over here! So we are going to pick them up tomorrow night. They will serve the last 7 months or so in India.

Can you believe that? How incredible! It is so nice to know that Lord is mindful of us and the work over here in India. We are so excited for these Elders, but probably not nearly excited as they or their families. They are going to be great, so that was a big surprise and we have been making preparations for that. Good thing, it has added a completely different dimension to my last week. I just wanted to share that with you, it was just a great thing to hear. We have been waiting for a year and a half and here they come. We don't know anything about a change in policy, we just know that these 6 were granted their visas. Hopefully we will get more. But that is probably it for the e-mail. The past week was great, full of spiritual experiences and I will be sure to tell you in more detail about it when you get here. Love you all!

Elder Tuscano

03 OCT 2010 letter

2010-11-07T09:56:00.004-07:00

Dear Family,

I cant believe that this will be one of my last e-mails home. I must admit, I really have enjoyed this correspondence. I know I have mentioned this before, but I feel that these e-mails have provided us with an opportunity to come closer together. Weird, right? I am on the other side of the world and we have had very limited contact, but I have never felt closer to any of you than now. So thank you for your uplifting and thoughtful e-mails each week.

This past week has just flown by, every week seems to be that way now. We are so excited for General Conference this weekend, I feel that it is a great blessing that I will be able to hear it at this special time. We have been in Coimbatore and Hyderabad since I last wrote to you. We were able to go down to Coimbatore on Thursday and do some interviews and training down there. President made some great comments about faith an miracles. It was appropriate because that is what is happening down there right now. When I first arrived on my mission there were 12 or 14 missionaries down in that zone. There is now 6, but those 6 are doing twice as much as those 12 when I first arrived. So the attitude and morale down there are just sky-high. I met some of Elder Jeppesen(one of my batch-mates) convert families. They were baptized just 18 months ago and she just became the District Relief Society President and her husband serves in the Branch Presidency. They are going to the Hong Kong temple this week to be sealed. I though that was the coolest thing, Elder Jeppesen was pretty stoked. It might be tough for you to realize just how difficult it is for our Indian members to get to the temple. If there is one thing I will never take for granted for the rest of my life it will be a temple that is close. After seeing the sacrifice members put forth here, I cant imagine living in St. George or Provo and not going to the House of the Lord on a regular basis.

So Hyderabad was pretty cool. I was able to go with one of our youngest missionaries, in fact he is the newest American. Elder Bennett is his name and he is the batch-mate of our beloved Elder Pope so let him know that I was on exchange with his boy this week. It was a great exchange, I was so happy to be with a missionary that is only 3 months out. I remember when I was 3 months out, it was easily the most difficult time for sure. I was able to comfort and encourage him and just let him know that everything would work out. That felt good. I attended church in Hyderabad 2nd branch on sunday, it was really cool. That was the branch where I started so it was cool to be back and see all the members. The branch is doing really well, I went with Elder Gantyada remember him? He is amazing, I learned so much from him. Just watching him and how much he loves others was an inspiration. Ok but I am done for this week. Sorry my individual e-mails are going to be short. Time is about to be out. We had ZLC today and there are a ton of other things pending. So we'll look forward to the word next week.

26 SEP 2010 letter

2010-09-28T06:48:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

Things continue to move forward in this part of the world. We are in the beginning stages of the first "interview tour" When President Funk came to the mission there had been some significant changes to the missionary calendar. The change that is now affecting us is that interviews and zone conference are separate. So for the next two weeks we are going to be visiting all the zones and doing interviews with President. It is a great privilege to accompany him on this tour. We are going to see just about every area in the mission before next thursday. Lots of flying and travelling but it is worth it. We are now in Chennai! Ha I was here only a week ago, but we've got interviews tomorrow and we'll fly back to Bangalore on Wednesday morning. There we will catch our breath and then head out to Coimbatore and Hyderabad for the weekend. It is a great thing spending time with all the missionaries. I am starting to see great reasons for these schedule changes. They provide the Mission President more opportunities to see the missionaries and for everyone to be together. There has been a strong sense of unity as of late. We're all having a great time serving the Lord and his wonderful children in India.

Sorry to report but for various reasons the mission was not able to achieve the baptisms we had projected. We had 18 which is still a good week, but I expect to see the mission out do that before I leave, The missionaries are just tearing it up. I wish I could explain to you the wonderful miracles that are taking place over here. Though we have lost so many great missionaries, the work just continues to hasten. It is a testimony to me that the Lord will take care of his work. All we have to do is have faith and do our best to be a part in helping it move forward. When we set high goals and do all we can to be effective in achieving them I have learned that Lord will see our goals and the efforts we put forth towards achieving them and He will make up the difference.

We spent alot of time in Bangalore last week as we conducted another Leadership Training Meeting and it was wonderful. Each time we gather together I am so impressed. Our missionaries are top notch, I feel that in meetings together that I am truly surrounded by greatness. Well I wont spend more time writing this general letter. I love you all and thank you for your prayers, they truly do sustain me.

Elder Tuscano

19 SEP 2010 letter

2010-09-26T09:08:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

Well as always it is great to hear from you. Things back home seem to be moving right along, everyone sounds happy and like things are going well. That makes me happy too.

This past week was full of departing and incoming missionaries. The mission works out that way, every 3 weeks or so we have either new missionaries coming in from the MTC, coming in to be set apart to go to the MTC, or missionaries coming in to depart for their homes. This past week we had all three of them, so it was quite busy. It is a privilege to see these wonderful missionaries at such different stages of their service. The wide eyes and sheer excitement that beams from these new Elders as they walk out of the departure gate. It is almost as tender as the tears that fall from the Elders on their last night as a full-time missionary. It is quite a sight, to see these tired Elders with looks of satisfaction concerning their service and uncertainty concerning their future. Ha, but it is a good time. We sent off two of our finest Indian Elders this week, they were both from Visak. Sad to see them go, but at the same time it was good because they will be quite a strength to their branches at home.

After the week full of arrivals and departures we were able to get out of Bangalore and head over to Chennai. Elder Naulu served there at the very start of his mission and he hadn't been back since, so that was a cool experience for him to be back in the city. It was especially rewarding to be there this weekend because it was District Conference. I got to see quite a few of my converts, including Priya's Family. They are doing so well, just like when they were baptized they showed up 30 minutes before everyone else. There were others that I also saw, they were very surprised to see me. It was a pleasant change of pace. Usually when we show up at church on sunday all the members just can't figure out what were doing there. We commonly get asked if were the new elders, or from another branch in the city. The other question we get alot is if we( Elder Naulu and I) are brothers. That's funny huh? You all have seen him right? Maybe I need to send a picture.

Anyway they week was very good, its always fun to sweat it out over there in Chennai. Tomorrow we are starting Leadership Training Meetings for the south side of the mission here in Bangalore so that will be fun. This past week was the Ganesh holiday, so our elders were on restrictions but it seems like it should be over pretty soon here. That is good, none of the missionaries seemed to like walking around without their name tags. But things are going very well, just to let you know our mission is preparing for 27 baptisms this coming week! That would be the biggest week I've seen on my mission. So pray for that and we're going to do all we can to make it happen. Things are really speeding up over here. Love you all and hope you have a good week!

Elder Tuscano

12 SEP 2010 letter

2010-09-26T09:06:00.000-06:00

Dear Family,

Hello there! Glad to hear from everyone this week. I thank you for all the wonderful birthday wishes, I can hardly believe this day has come. Last year on my birthday I felt very comfortable, but I remember thinking "Gee, next year this time I'll be getting ready to head home. I'm sure glad that's very far away." Apparently not too far, ha but I am glad it is here. It is funny that Elder Naulu and I have such close birthday's, I think I could have done a much better job celebrating for him. I've been looking for ways to make it up. But he is great missionary and a wonderful companion. I think the best thing about serving in this position is the great quality of companions you get to serve with. Just wonderful, spiritual, and fun brethren. We're having a blast.

This past week was amazing. President and Sister Funk were in Hong Kong, so we got to hold down the fort in India. This week I got a small taste of the issues that President Funk has to deal with on a day to day basis. Wow, I really had no idea. So many decisions to make, I really am starting to understand the importance of having the spirit with you all the time. When you get a problem that comes to you and needs a solution or decision made immediately sometimes all you can do is say a silent prayer and follow the spirit. So far that seems to be working, I can't imagine what we would do without the wonderful gift of the Holy Ghost.

We had to opportunity to go to a place called Coimbatore this week. I think you have heard me mention it before. It is a beautiful city down there in Tamil Nadu directly south of bangalore. We left on tuesday morning and travelled from the Airport to a place called Erode which is a smaller city two hours outside of Coimbatore. We have a companionship down there and I don't think AP's have been there for months. So it was good to be there. I had an amazing exchange with Elder Stephen. We first met a brother on the street named Velur, he invited us in. He was so excited to learn. As we taught we sought to discern his needs. We asked a few inspired questions and were able to know what we needed to do. He was a hindu but we taught him the principle of prayer and he really listened intently. He was so grateful that we taught him how to pray. As we left his home I felt strongly that this man would be baptized. We met alot of other families that were really good, I am seeing the influence of the spirit in many ways. More than anything, I am now beginning to see the spirit work in others. Everything just now seems to be coming together.

We conducted a few more exchanges which went very well. The trip was excellent, the church there is so nice. I think the church in India began in Coimbatore, so there is some sentiment there. The building is among the nicest I have seen here or in the states. We met a young man on the street and invited him to walk around the church with us. It was night and the grounds there just felt so holy. We stopped in the back where there was alot of green grass and big trees blowing in the wind. Elder Riley taught and testified about God and his creations. I remember watching the tree sway back and forth while listening to my friend testify to this young hindu brother. I can say honestly that in that moment I was back in the temple. What an experience it was. Very tender to me, it seems I am having those on a daily basis now. Perhaps it is because my time is winding down, or perhaps it is because I am seeking them. I am not sure, but I am just grateful for each day that I have to be in the Lord's service. Preach My Gospel is right, there truly is no more compelling work than this. I love you all and thank you for your support and prayers. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Tuscano

05 SEP 2010 letter

2010-09-26T09:02:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

Well I am happy to report that today I will have a reasonable amount of time to e-mail. So each one of you can expect a sincere and lengthy message. It sounds like things are going well back at home. I am glad for your updates, to be honest with you I can hardly remember Utah and the USA. I feel like India is the only place I know, now that's not true- but I feel that way. I am not sure why.

This past week was a blast. One of the most spiritual and uplifting weeks of my entire mission. On monday morning we set out to fly over to Rajahmundry. Everything looked fine until it started to rain, and when that happens they shut down the airport in Rajahmundry. So our flight was cancelled at the last minute. Which would have been OK if it were just me and Elder Naulu, but we had President and Sister Funk with us. We had to do some quick work, and got a flight to Visak and drove down there. It is about a 3 hour drive, it was nice to see the Andhra countryside. We got President checked into the hotel down there, I was very impressed with their ability to adjust. The difference between the hotel in Hyderabad and Rajahmundry is extreme. One is the Ritz Carlton and the other Motel 8, or less. So I was happy to see that they're willing to go where He wants them to go. Ha.

We had this new set of training meetings called "Leadership Training." It has been prescribed by the First Presidency for all the missions throughout the world to do. It was a little difficult to implement in our mission because of distance, but we divided the mission in two and had all of the Leaders from the north side join us for a few days in RJY to have these meetings. It was a huge success, President trained on the "simplified curriculum" which is a set of lessons that teach Elders how to use Preach My Gospel and become more powerful teachers. Ha, this probably seems boring to you all but it was exhilarating for a missionary to experience. So we received training in the morning and were able to go out in the evenings to apply what we learned in real situations. I had some incredible experiences. One thing I learned was there is no harm in inviting people to make commitments. As we do so, we give them an opportunity to exercise faith in Jesus Christ. That is why we teach anyone anything, without the commitment invitation there is no purpose in teaching. They cannot trust Jesus Christ until they have tried to live one of his commandments. That goes for any human being, irrespective of religion. It is our responsibility, as missionaries or members, to provide people with an opportunity.

We were able to be in all of the zones in Andhra Pradesh this past week. It was nice to see all of the Elders. There is just a wonderful feeling throughout this mission, there is optimism and hope. Though the present circumstances might not be the most favorable in terms of number of missionaries, the Elders are moving forward powerfully. I am about finished with the report this week. There were many other things that happened, which are noted in my journal. I will be sure to give you details in the future. Thank you so much for your prayers and support. And the birthday card! It was very funny, It made me feel happy. Have a good week everyone.

Elder Tuscano

29 AUG 2010 letter

2010-09-26T08:59:00.002-06:00

Dear Family,

Greetings from Rajahmundry! Ha we're posted up in the village for a few days. It is nice to be here and experience a change of pace from the city life. We arrived this afternoon. We had a flight from HYD to here but the airport is quite small and when it rains...No planes. So our flight was cancelled as we were waiting to board, we managed to get on a flight to Visak and get a car to drive us down. It took about 3 hours to drive and it was nice to see the beautiful Indian countryside from the car. President and Sister Funk are excited to be here, we told them well in advance that they better prepare for the full Indian experience. There is really no trace of western culture here at all. They call our church the "A/C Church." It makes me wonder how many other buildings here have AC. Anyway I am so impressed with both of them and their desire to be with the members and missionaries. I think they would go anywhere to help the mission progress. It will be nice to see that commitment tomorrow when they're eating curry with their hands.

This past week was incredible. The most General Authorities I've ever seen in one week. On Wednesday we had Sister Wixom and Elder Pratt( from the Area Presidency) come down to Bangalore for a member meeting. We were able to be involved with the meeting and got a chance to meet them and spend some time together. Sister Wixom's husband just finished serving as a mission president in the DC south mission. She was amazing and gave a great training. Her main message was "I will stay on the path back to my Heavenly Father." I learned how to teach doctrine in simplicity from her. She was very nice. On the weekend we were in Hyderabad for a District Conference. Elder Watson(from the Area Presidency) was there. He had come down. We were on exchanges friday and saturday and met him first on sunday morning. We got to visit with him a bit and that was really cool. He is from Cedar City, so it was nice to have the Southern Utah connection with a General Authoirty. He delivered perhaps one of the best sermons I have ever heard, it was about the Book of Mormon. He spoke about how it is a witness of christ. Many other members gave wonderful talks. The Hyderbad District is going to be a stake soon. I really believe that. I have never wanted a stake and a temple for these people more than I do now. Maybe it is because I get to meet such a wide variety of them and witness their faith and sacrifice.

I am really starting to understand our purpose as missionaries. We have been placed here to build the church. I fear that I have spent too much time on my mission worrying about selfish desires. But for some reasons, things are now beginning to click. These Indian people are amazing. The church is flourishing here and the missionaries are playing just a small role. I think that's what I am starting to get. When I arrived I thought the church was all about the missionaries, but now I understand that has nothing to do with us. It is all about the members. They are going to be the ones that establish a stake. I love and trust the members here, I know Heavenly Father has a big plan for his children in this past of the world. I have felt on multiple occasions that I really have no idea what I am a part of. It is hard for me to imagine the future. There are going to be incredible things happening here. Again, not because of the missionaries-but the faithful members of the church.

So thank you all for your support. I love my mission so much. I am so glad that Cody has returned home, he sounds like he was a great missionary. Give him my love. I think I will try to send him an e-mail. But I really am having no time these days. I forgot to tell you the reason why we came to RJY. We are holding a new meeting called "Leadership Training" we invited all the leaders from the north side of the mission here, because it is geographically convenient. Begin situated between HYD and VZK. So we are starting that early tomorrow morning and we have to go an prepare for it. So I am not sure that I will even be able to e-mail any of you individually these week. Know that I love you and pray for each one of you every night. Please continue to pray for me.

Elder Tuscano

22 AUG 2010

2010-09-26T08:57:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

Hello everyone, how are you all doing this week? Last week was quite an experience, certainly faith promoting. Elder Naulu and I have really been focusing on having faith lately. We have been reading some Spencer W. Kimball quotes and just getting pumped up to do work. We have been blessed with miracles here in the mission. Over the last few months we have seen alot of missionaries go home. In contrast to most missions throughout the world, departing missionaries have no replacements. So the number of companionships has been decreasing, but the work has not slowed down at all. Our baptisms per companionship is on the rise, I have learned that the way to battle losing missionaries is to focus on the ones you do have and make them more effective. That is what is happening here and the work is blossoming. I am so grateful to be here and be part of this, I will carry these experiences with me throughout my life.

We finished the transfer last week, that was a miracle in itself. There are so many transfers now, we really do have one every 3 weeks. Sorry, it is probably hard for most of you to relate to that. I'm sure Dad could tell you though, planning transfers is no easy thing. We finished this one just in time to start planning for the next one. Right now in the office we have Elder Evans and his batch, they are going home on Wednesday morning. We have their release activities tomorrow. It is hard for me to believe that they are going home. I remember meeting Elder Evans at our apartment in H-Town almost 2 years ago. I thought he was the oldest most experienced missionary. So funny, but it is a great opportunity to be here while he leaves the mission.

So please do allow me to share a faith promoting experience. This past week we made plans to travel to a place called KGF or Kolar Gold Fields. It is a small town about 3 hours outside of bangalore, we only have one companionship out there. The area has been struggling so bad for the past 6 months or so. Their zone leaders have been very concerned and a bit critical of the area because of the lack of success. So on friday morning we called up the zone leaders and asked them if they really believed in KGF. We told them we were not going to waste our time going down there unless they could honestly say that they believed in the area. They rose to the occasion and we rolled down on friday night, full of faith, ready for a miracle. We went out on saturday and worked hard. We found alot of new investigators which was great, but on sunday one of the brothers whom Elder Naulu had found came to church. He is hindu, but has a deep desire to learn about Christ. During sunday school we watched finding faith in christ and afterwards he asked us about baptism. We set him for Sep. 18 and he was so excited. His family is also going to come around. What a miracle. That area had not seen investigators at church forever, but with faith it looks like things are going to turn around. It is getting to the point where I am almost not surprised. God works according to our faith, I am starting to learn that and doing my best not to limit him by my doubt or fear. So I hope you enjoyed that.

Thanks for all your support, I love you so much. Have a good week. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you.

Elder Tuscano

15 AUG 2010

2010-09-26T08:54:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

What an incredible week it has been. I'm back in India and it is tuesday night. I did not get the chance to write yesterday, so here I am now. Again with little time. I feel bad that I am unable to find adequate time to write. It does not make sense really, I am in the office, I sit by the computer all day. There are just so many things to do. We are working right now on this new program called the simplified curriculum. I think I mentioned it before, but it includes a training meeting with all of the leaders in the mission. So right now we are trying to figure out how to bring in all the leaders from southern india and train them for 3 days. That is one of the many events we are planning for right now. There are so many things for us to do, I am just grateful each night for sleep.

Sri Lanka! What an experience. I loved every minute we spent down there. We arrived on Thursday afternoon, we took a flight down to Chennai and from there to Colombo. It was so exciting, it took me a while to realize that we were no longer in India. I would bobble my head in the usual Indian manner, and would get blank stares from the Sri Lankans. Many of the little indian habits we have developed over the past 22 months didn't make it down there. Ha for the first time on my mission when people would ask me where I came from I would say "India!" It was very strange, I could say this much. In Sri Lanka I felt more Indian than ever before. Does that make sense.

There were many miracles associated with this trip. But time allows me to only share one with you. So I selected the most inspiring missionary moment. Go figure! We spent 2 days in Negomobo visiting less active members. We went on splits with some of the brethren down there, we probably visited over 30 families. That was great, but on saturday night we rolled down to Colombo. It is about an hour south of Negombo, oh and by the way they are building a stake center in Negombo right now. Anyway we went to church in Colombo on sunday morning. It must have been the first time in 2 years that missionaries(Elders) had been to the branch. We were invited to bear out testimonies and that was fun. But after church we were introduced to a new family that just happened to be there for the first time. Their son is investigating the church in New Zealand and they found the address for our church on the internet. We met up with a return missionary sister and taught the gospel principles class together. The family of 4 were the only students, I think on a regular sunday they don't even hold the class. But this sister missionary suggested that we teach the Restoration. So we did, even President Funk joined in on the lesson and it was a great time. As we finished teaching about Joseph Smith the mother started speaking in Singhala to our sister friend. She got very excited at something she said, then turned to us and stated that this sister asked when she and her family could be baptized members of the church. Amazing. President Funk met them after the block and they organized a plan so that they could be baptized on september 4th. So how about that? The one week we go to church down there...I know that the Lord leads his children to the right place at the right time. We just need to be ready to receive them.

So that's a long experience. Sorry. But I hope that it was faith promoting, I would say it was a huge surprise but I have been on my mission too long. God is a God of miracles. My faith continues to grow stronger each day. Oh yeah, I don't know if you remember the experience I shared about Elder Shepherdson and I finding my former investigator SriNivas down in Chennai about 2 months ago. He was baptized this past sunday. Wonderful things are happening over here.

Thank you for your prayers, I love you all and hope that you are well.
Elder Tuscano

10 AUG 10 letter

2010-08-14T11:36:00.000-06:00

Dear Family,

Well, another week has come and gone. I can hardly believe I'm writing an e-mail again. I can't seem to keep track of the days anymore, monday becomes friday overnight and everything just seems to blend together. I actually like it that way. So today was a zone leaders council, we got caught up afterwards and now it is quite late and I don't have too much time to write. Sorry about that. We leaving tomorrow morning at about 4:30 to get down to Sri Lanka. Sorry Mom, perhaps I was unclear but we are going there this week. I am super excited about that, it will be my first international trip as a missionary. I hear that it is beautiful, but I don't think we'll get much of a chance to see it. The district president just e-mailed President Funk and noted that Elder Naulu and I will be visiting over 25 families on friday alone. So were pumped, you should look forward to next weeks e-mail. There have been no missionaries in that country for over 2 years now, so I expect some incredible experiences.

Last weekend was in Mumbai! I love going up there, it is always a blast. We stayed with the Branch President this time. His name is John Lee and he is the dean of a film making school up there. Remember that Mumbai is "Bollywood." So he has got the hook up. He and his wife really took care of us. We got to teach and prepare Joseph for baptism. He is an incredible young man with a rock solid testimony. He was never formally taught by elders. Only us, twice. So he developed this strong testimony on his own, with help from the members. Mumbai is a wonderful branch. They are so unified and determined to do missionary work, they take their responsibility seriously. It is mostly due to the fact that they have no missionaries, but I just get this great missionary spirit each time I go up there. That branch is going to flourish. A new American family from northern virginia just moved in to the branch. But the cool thing is they just came from Dubai. Did you know there was a stake there? I just found out last week and I was fascinated by that.

We also met a sweet referral up there. Here name is Betty, she is anglo-indian. That means Indian, with british or irish heritage. Anyway, she lived in the states before. She was married but got a divorce. While living in California she had some LDS neighbors. They really seemed to have a great influence on her, she always had a great desire to learn about the church but her husband never let her investigate. So after the divorce she moved back to Mumbai with her mother. I have no clue where the referral came from, but we got it and went over there with President Lee on satruday afternoon. It was an amazing experience. This sister was so sincere and prepared. I could just tell that she was so eager to learn more about this church that made her neighbors such incredible people. We taught about the Book of Mormon to resolve one of her concerns and the climax of the appointment was this. She asked, if this church is true and good, why is there so many bad things surrounding it? We simple asked, well is what you have heard consistent with the lifestyle your LDS neighbors had? The answer was no. When she realized that I could see a light in her eyes. I feel like she will be baptized, but not because of anything we did. It will be due to the great example set by her neighbors, and its not like they did anything incredible. They just lived the gospel. What a profound impact we can have on others by simply following the commandments and reaching out to serve others in a christlike way.

So...My time is officially run out. I sincerely apologize. I have not even had time to write Mom and Dad individually. But guess what, our mission just changed the Preparation day to Monday. So although I do not have a P-Day it would be best if you could e-mail before every monday from now on. So if you get this soon, please write me again before monday. Sorry! I love you all.

Elder Tuscano

03 AUG 10 letter

2010-08-14T11:34:00.000-06:00

Dear Family,

Hello! Before I start I just wanted to thank each one of you. The e-mails this week were the best I've had on my mission. I really appreciated them. Thank you so much for caring about me, It is such a comfort to know that each week my family will write and have good things to say. But this week, there was something different, I'm not sure what it was. I'll just say that they were very powerful, so whatever you all did last week keep it up! I think its working for you.

This past week was full of surprises. More for Elder Naulu than for me though. We knew he was coming in to be my companion, but he had no idea. The transfers were going out on friday, and Elder Singh was done on saturday. So we needed to pull him in, but hadn't told him anything. Mind you, he was serving as a District Leader here in Bangalore 2nd branch. So President pulls him in on Friday morning and extends the calling. I wish you could have seen Elder Naulu's face. He was floored! Ha but it was sweet, he has really impressed me with the way he is handling all of this. I remember when I was trained in the office and there is a ton of stuff to do. He is just soaking it all in and doing a wonderful job. When God calls you, he will qualify you. I have felt that many times on my mission and seen it in Elder Naulu as he steps into this new assignment. So continue to pray for him when you pray for me.

Early Monday morning we sent home 11 of the greats. Elder Singh and his batch are gone and that is hard to believe. I am just learning to be grateful for the time that I have. As I hear about all my boys getting back and about to go home. I realize that my time is going to end soon, but I am so grateful for the time I've had and still have left. Elder Nixon's parents came to pick him up and they went to church with all of us on Sunday. That was a nice experience for them, they were very proud of their son. As they should be, he has done a wonderful job here. It was a riot having all of those elders stay at our place for a few days on their way out. I love listening to the things they have to say. Missions are incredible. I like how Mom put it, they are a University where we learn how to live our lives. I feel lucky that I was admitted.

The work has been busy recently. We are just in the office here in Bangalore, but there are plenty of things to do. We are going to Mumbai on Friday, we have a baptism! So I am pumped for that. Next week, we will be going to Sri Lanka I am so excited for that. Things are going to get pretty crazy here. That's good though, I like it better that way. So I think I will end there. Have a great week!

27 JUL 10 letter

2010-08-14T11:33:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

A warm hello to everyone back on the home front. I am happy because it is thursday and I actually have some time to e-mail you. What a great thing. Again, I apologize for my inconsistency and will try to improve. I hope that everyone is doing alright and its not too hot down there in the STG. It has cooled down a lot here at least in Bangalore, the monsoon is pouring on us this year.

We spent the last week in Hyderabad. It was a wonderful trip, we departed last friday and were able to get a lot of things done. It was good for all the members to meet President and Sister Funk. They are really adjusting so well, and the members love them so much. It is really cool to see that. Indian people really do have an incredible capacity to love, its almost a inherent trait. Their transfer of love from President Nichols to President Funk seems almost instantaneous. I really admire their example in that way.

We were able to conduct a few exchanges while we were in Hyderabad. We went with the Zone Leaders, I went with Elder Talk. For any of you that know my BYU counsellor, Lavay Talk, that is her son. He is an incredible Elder, he went to harvard before his mission. He has just done miracles out here. He was a zone leader in Coimbatore and now in Hyderabad and both of those Zones are on fire. So I was excited to go on exchange with him and stay in their apartment all week. He is a quiet guy, but he reminds me of that phrase "Speak softly and carry a big stick." So while on exchange with him we wanted to work on teaching from the scriptures. We had an appointment with a lady who did not speak much english. We asked her to open her telegu bible and we tried to stop her occasionally and expound the verse while she read in Telegu. It was quite the experience, I wish you could have seen us trying to translate and expound simultaneously. Ha but anyway were having a blast.

Zone conference went really well in Hyderabad. A lot smoother than Bangalore, it was also great for President to finally meet all the Elders. It was tough to do that first transfer when he had not meet any of them. So this morning we finalized the coming transfer and it felt really good, my companion is coming into the office this morning but he still does not know that he is going to be called as the next assistant. So I cannot tell you who it is yet...

Anyway I love you all and hope you have a good week.

21 JUL 10 letter

2010-08-14T11:31:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

So right now I am at the church in Hyderabad. It feels great to be back, it is President's first trip here. He is loving it. Ha I never had the opportunity to train someone in the field, but I now feel like we are training the Mission President. Ha, that's true in a lot of ways but he is still training me on a lot more stuff than I do him. It is a great experience though. The trip to Visak was very successful and it was so cool to see everyone again. Swarna Lata is now the Primary President and I was so excited to see her at church. President and Sister Funk won the love of all the members on saturday evening when they ate dinner at the church. There were some training meetings and afterwards they served some rice and chicken curry and they ate with their hands! They are naturals.

We had Bangalore zone conference this past week and it went very well. Except for some major technical difficulties, we made it through just fine. It was a lot different than Zone Conference with President Nichols, but the elders really enjoyed it. President Funk really knows how to conduct a meeting, they are truly revelatory meetings. You know in the scriptures how it talks about meetings being conducted by the holy ghost? Yeah, President Funk has got that on lock. But that's about all this week, sorry if this e-mail is bland. Next week will be better. Just for an update, Elder Singh goes home this next saturday so I will be getting a new companion. I am excited for him, I think it will be a surprise to him and to all of you as well. But I will tell you next week who it is.

Thanks, love you!

appreciating both ministration and administration

2010-07-17T20:56:00.003-06:00

Dear Family,

I am sorry that it has taken me so long to e-mail this week. Sometimes things get crazy and we just don't have any time. I am in Visak right now, we came up here yesterday. It was President's first trip out of Bangalore, so it was fun to be with him for that. Things have been going well. This past week was a blast. We got to see a few missionaries leave and had one come in to get set apart. Missionaries leaving is the trend right now in this mission. We are going to lose 11 missionaries when Elder Singh goes home in 2 weeks. Three weeks after that we lose 10 more. No replacements. So I have been constantly thinking about what we are going to do. It is an interesting experience. I am confident that things will work out, but it will be a unique situation for some time. Even with so many missionaries going, the morale is very high. The elders are baptizing all over the mission, it is just an evidence that we have quality missionaries. They are working hard until the last minute.

I am learning and experiencing so much. One of the things I love to see is how the church really works. I never saw that much when I was in the field. But now I am really learning about how it works. It is an incredible organization. President Funk has spent a lot of time with and around the Brethren, so I am learning a lot about them too. What a cool organization we belong to.

I am learning a lot about ministering, I never really understood that principle until now. I have many opportunities to minister to my Zone Leaders especially in our nightly follow-ups. Though I cannot see them very much, I feel that through our phone conversations I am able to counsel and uplift them. I am grateful for that. They do the same for me.

Recently I have been thinking about the trips we would make to see all of your family member in New Castle. As a kid I did not like to do it so much, but now I realize how important it was. That was a cultural experience, thank you for sharing those people with us. I want to go back someday soon and see everyone. I think it would be a great experience.

Things are going really well. I am really enjoying every minute. Being with President Funk is a wonderful opportunity. The spirit I feel while serving in this responsibility is incredible. That's good too, because I couldn't see myself fulfilling this calling without the sustaining influence of the Spirit. I am grateful for my time to serve, and for your prayers and support. I love you all and look forward to hearing from you in a few days... I'll try to get back earlier next week, but I cant make any guarantees.

Elder Tuscano

08 JUL 10 letter

2010-07-11T11:19:00.002-06:00

Dear Family,

Alright then, it is hard to believe that another week has come and gone. The past few weeks have been especially fun. It is a blast having a new mission president and showing him around the mission here in India. We have been in Bangalore for the past two weeks. President is finally getting settled in and we will be getting on the road next week. It will be fun to take him around the country on Kingfisher airlines.

So I’ll take a second and tell you about our new mission president. He is a great leader, and very different than President Nichols. It is a wonderful opportunity to see him and how he works. He has this humility about him. Perhaps it stems from his terribly green roots, but it really seems like he trusts and listens to our counsel. He is a man who likes to ponder and think about things before making decisions. He has a very warm spirit about him, many of the elders commented on the fact that he is very approachable. Though he has only been here over a week, I can clearly the mantle that has been placed upon him. We planned transfers with him these past couple days, but it’s important to recognize that he has only met about 20% of the missionaries. With that limited knowledge we counseled together and he was able to make some truly inspired decisions about where an Elder needs to go. In all that he does he depends on the Lord. One of his biggest principles for decision making can be found in Doctrine and Covenants 107:30-31. If you get a second, read that scripture and apply it as you prepare to make your next big decision.
We had a zone leader council yesterday and it was one of the best on my mission. He spoke about the purpose of meetings and why we hold a council. Much of the time was spent talking between the Zone Leaders and what we could do to improve the state of the mission. There was a unique feeling in that room as all of the zone leaders were engaged in discussion. The passionate discussion led to revelation. There were wonderful new ideas, goals, and plans that came into play. I really appreciated President and how he encouraged us to counsel. There is power in that kind of meeting.

My time in the office is really making me appreciate the opportunities I have to go out and teach. I was able to go on exchange last week with Elder Briggs. He goes home this coming Monday, but they invited us to go on a split with them. I remember when he was my district leader back in Chennai. I was so impressed with his ability to love these people. I am becoming more and more interested in the principle of love. I have seen on my mission that people begin to change when they can feel your love. The gospel is true and certainly the most powerful instrument to change lives. But that power can never be unlocked until we love the people we work with. I hope that I can someday understand love and charity. I have no idea what it really means, but I would like to have more of it in my heart.

Thank you all for your support and prayers. I really need them. I love you all!

Elder Tuscano

24 JUN 10 letter

2010-07-11T11:03:00.002-06:00

Dear Family,

This past week was a fast and furious. So I'll clear this up at the outset. We e-mail whenever we find time. It might be wednesday, thursday, friday, or anyday. I can't say because it will change according to our schedule. So it is best if we don't change anything and you follow the same procedure that you've been following. If I get them on wednesday it is best. So don't worry if it takes me a few days to get back to you, I will. If you have any other doubts feel free to ask me.

So we spent the weekend in a place called Rajahmundry. I had been looking forward to seeing that city from the beginning. It is one of the closest areas we have to a village in the mission. It is a green and open land, lots of farmers and rural areas. The city has the kind of enchanting indian feeling about it. It just is the place you picture when you think of India. So close your eyes, if you can see the dirt roads, palm trees, and thatch roofed houses- you're there. I really enjoyed the experience. My favorite part was riding the bicycle. As I had spent my entire mission in big cities I never had the chance to ride one. But I finally got the go, it was great. As I sat back on the seat of this Indian beach cruiser I really felt that I had the complete mission experience. The roads were crazy and I was more concerned about hitting cows than cars, but somehow I made it through the days alright.

On monday we finally arrived in Bangalore. I really love travelling the mission, but it is nice to have a pillow to sleep on at night. Late tuesday night we were able to go to the airport and pick up our new missionary. We waited for quite some time, but I didn't mind. We had a great chance to talk with President about some things. One of the most incredible things we spoke about was his service here as the mission president. He shared with us the goals he had set when he began his service, they were pretty big goals. It was a tender moment while he shared a bit of an accountability if you will. I could feel his satisfaction as he put his arm around me and reported on the magnificent progress the church has made here in the past 3 years. He spoke about how he exceeded his goals, and how he did much more than he thought he could at the start. It was a special experience for us, and it taught me a lot about the importance of setting goals. The new missionary finally arrived and he brought back the memories of my first night in India. What an experience he has in front of him. We sent him off the next day to his area, which is Chennai! So we're just setting him up for greatness.

Everything is going just fine over here. I am really loving life and enjoying this service. If you would have told me 2 years ago about the things I would be doing here and now, I would been very skeptical. But I have learned that while we hardly realize it, the Lord is always guiding our lives. He guided me here, and I am eternally grateful for that. I love each one of you and hope that you feel the same about your lives. Have a good week!

Love,
Elder Tuscano

18 JUN 10 letter

2010-06-19T14:06:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

It is friday night and we are in Visak right now. We just finished zone conference and are about to head down to Rajahmundry on the train. I'm sorry my time is short, but I will do my best to deliver an accurate report of the work here and answer your questions.

This past week was so busy. We flew out to Hyderabad last friday and were there for a few days doing exchanges. I really love being able to get around the mission and see all of these elders. It is cool because my entire mission I have heard all these great things about different elders, but because our mission is so big, I never got to be around them. Now I am able to get to know these elders and I am so impressed with the quality of elders that are here. When we were in H-Town I went on exchange with Elder Walther, he is a really cool kid from Utah. We had an incredible day. Probably knocked 5 doors total and we found 3 families. So that was pretty incredible.

The past two days we've been in Visak and it is so cool to be back here. I got to go in my old area yesterday with my replacement, Elder Mackay. He is from Solana Beach, CA and also went to BYU in 07. It was sweet, we met a lot of the people that I was teaching and Pushpa is getting baptized tomorrow! So I was so pumped that I could see her. We had miracles in finding yesterday too. We met a sweet Hindu family, at first only one of the sons would sit down. I gently but persistently invited his other brother and sister to join us. Finally they came in and we taught them how to pray. We invited the brother to pray because he actually spoke english. He said a great prayer, but as he finished and I opened my eyes, they caught his sisters. She had this look on her face, I wish I could explain it to you. It was a concerned look, I knew that she wanted to pray. So I stayed on my knees and invited her to pray. It took some convincing, sometimes Indian women can be very shy, but she did it and it was so sincere. I could just feel a spirit of compassion as she spoke to Heavenly Father. I was so grateful that the spirit was with us and we could discern the fact that she needed to pray. It was really cool.

That's about all for this week. I love you and hope you are all doing well.

Elder Tuscano

10 JUN 10 letter

2010-06-10T20:10:00.005-06:00

Dear Family,

It is good to hear that everyone is doing well back home. It is interesting to receive these e-mails. Each one of you has so many different things to say. While I lived at home I did not get this kind of information, at least not at this level of detail. I like it. You all have so many wonderful things going on in your lives. I feel that though I'm on the other side of the world, I know what's going on in your lives. Over this period of time I am able to see what things are most important to you. So i am grateful for this opportunity to communicate in a different way. I almost feel that I know each one of you better than I did before I left, especially Mom and Dad. Now that's ironic.

So this past week was incredible. We flew in from Chennai this morning. We had been there for the past 5 days or so. I had an opportunity to go on exchange with my MTC companion Elder Shepherdson. He is a Zone Leader down there and he tears it up. We had a miracle that day. In the afternoon we had an appointment fall through and I suggested that we go and visit a former investigator, someone I had taught while I served there over a year ago. We went and tried to find his house, and that took much longer than I thought because I got us lost. Finally we found their house and he wasn't there so they called him. Five minutes later he shows up with his best friend who happens to be a recent convert to the church. The former's name is Sri Nivas, anyway we sat down with them and it was amazing. Sri Nivas had not been baptized before due to family problems, but his friend had gone through similar problems to join the church. That example gave him courage and he had made a promise in his heart that if the elders ever came back to his house he would be baptized. Well, we came and he is going to be baptized. That was an amazing experience I thought to share with you.

It was great to be back in Chennai, it was raining so that was a saving grace. Zone Conference was really good and I like being able to hear it multiple times. It is President's last one and he is really giving a good training. It was great to see the elders down there and be with them. I am doing my best to pick up everything, I am grateful for Elder Singh. He is so patient with me, and that's not always the easiest thing to be when you're around me. So I hope that everyone is enjoying their summer holidays. Let me know if you have any questions. I hope these reports are sufficient.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

03 JUN 10 letter

2010-06-04T07:30:00.001-06:00

This week has been alot different than all of the other weeks on my mission. For the first time in 19 months I am spending my days sitting in an office. At first it felt very strange but I am slowly getting used to it. There is so much to learn and alot that goes into this new responsibilty. I am grateful thought that I have a chance to learn how to do all of these things.

We just had zone conference here in Bangalore. The zone conference tour always starts here and then moves around the mission. We are flying to Chennai tommorow and I am so excited to be back there and see some of the people I was so close with. Zone conference today went really well, we ran a practice on how to help memebrs participate on exchanges and i think it went well. We learned alot about how to improve it though.

On monday we went down to this place called KGF, it is about 3 hours outside of Bangalore and used to be a huge gold mine town. Today the gold mines are closed, but there are still quite a few people down there. Anyway, we've only got one companionship out there and they're basically marooned. I have been waiting to see that place my entire mission and I was excited to get down there. It was a really cool place, a small town but most of the people speak english because it was settled by the British when they had struck the gold. But that night when we were getting ready to head back it started PORUING! It was raining like I have never seen rain before...I am really starting to understand what the monsoon is. It is dumping here in Bangalore also.

Oh yeah I forgot. On saturday night we sent off Elder Mehan, Elder Ward, Elder Brown, and Elder Bartlett. It was very strange, not as strange as I thought but interesting to be a part of. We got to go to the departure devotional and be with them for their last night in India. We saw them out at about 3;30 Am to go and catch their flights. They all seemed to handle it very well. It is just strange to me that when Luke gets here and I tell him about these Elders he will have no idea what I am talking about or who they are.

So one more thing. At chruch on sunday, we attend Bangalore 1st branch, a brother pulled me aside and asked if i was Sister Arunachulam's grandson. I was taken back, but then I realized that this was the guy Mom was talking about. He is a member of 1st branch! He invited us over after church and we went. His wife and daughter made a wonderful lunch for us and it was so cool to get to know him. We came to find out that he is a huge pioneer for the church in India. Espcially in chennai, he told me that he was the first member there and he knew all of the old members that I had met while serving there. He was an incredible man and it was a miracle that we were able to meet him so easily and unexpectedly. Cool huh?

Love,
Elder Tuscano

25 MAY 10 letter

2010-06-04T07:29:00.000-06:00

I am very happy to hear the wonderful news! What a miracle that you are going to be able to make it out here! Surely something for each one of you to look forward to. India is a wonderful place. I am sure Luke is wondering about that right now...Ha I remember for my entire stay at the MTC I was just so eager to get over here. I was brim with anticipation, but I really had no idea what to anticipate. What I found was incredible country with truly incredible people. I love this place.

We are seeing miracles often here. This past week at church we had alot of new people come to church, it was pretty cool. Elder Cranney and I have been going real hard and things are really changing around. There is a renewed sense of excitement in the zone and the mission. I am excited because I think June is going to be a record month here, both for the zone and the mission.

On sunday there was a new brother that came to church with our recent convert Padma, who is just about the most active missionary I have ever seen. She can hardly speak english, but she just loves bringing new people to the church. So on sunday she brought one of her relatives named Vijay Paul. He seemed to enjoy church so we set up an appointment with him that evening at Padma's house. We went to go teach him and it was incredible. I have met alot of prepared people on my mission, but I think he might be the most so. He is a convert from Hindusm about 5 years back, he was baptized into the Lutheran church in Rajahmundry. But for some reason about 3 months ago he stopped going to that church. He had alot of questions about God and he could not find the answers. When he came to church on sunday he said that he had 3 main questions he wanted answers to, he told us that he felt God spoke to him and that all of his questions were answered. We procedeed to set him for baptism and he is so solid. He just says that he really feels different when he is around us and really likes it. There are alot of ways to do missionary work and help people progress, but it is always refreshing to meet people who are golden.

There are so many wonderful things happening here. I am sad to leave yet excited for my new assignment. I hope all of you are doing well. A big congrats to Mary for making it through SCHS, I know it was rough ha. But I am glad she survived. I am sorry, all my personal e-mails will be very short this week as time is less. I did not manage it properly becuase of few of the elders wanted to look at all the pictures that were sent this week. SORRY! Love you all!

18 MAY 10 letter

2010-06-04T07:27:00.000-06:00

This past week was pretty cool. Right now I am in Bangalore and we just finished our last Zone Leaders Council with President Nichols. It was incredible. I honestly cannot express my gratitude for my opportunity to serve a mission and to serve under President Nichols. We talked today about stewardship and accountability. It was an inredible day and I hope that I can apply the things that I am learning now and will continue to learn.

Last week we found a sweet Hindu family. We had just waltzed into their apartment complex and this brother was sitting there with his wife. He had on this traditional swamy lungee(spelling?) but he immediately invited us in. I was a little apprehensive at his welcoming nature becuase I thought he was paka hindu. But it turns out that he was down and really thirsting for knowledge. As we shared the message of the restoration it seemed like we were just reminding him about it rather than teaching. I have only felt that way a few times on my mission. We went back for the return appointment and he had torn apart the pamphlet, he was telling us about the need for the restoration to end the great apostasy. Ha and his family is sweet too. His son has been going to churches for while. Check this out, his daughter has skipped about 5 grades! She is 19 and just about to finish her masters degree...Uh, I felt pretty dumb when I told her that I've only completed one year of school.

Great things are happening here in Visak. Transfers were postponed for a few reasons but they will happen next week, calls come this week though.

That is about all I have to say for now. Hope you all have a nice week!

Love you,
Elder Tuscano

11 MAY 10 letter

2010-06-04T07:25:00.001-06:00

Hello there! It was so nice to talk with each of you on the phone. You all sound like you are doing very well, it is a great source of strength to actually hear from you. I spend all my time trying to help other families come closer together, but it is always so pleasant to remember that I have a family of my own and we are growing together, even now, through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This past week was full of excitement. We had some opportunities for service, that is especially exciting because we rarely get a chance to serve. Our investigators Sudhaker, Sharon, and Asyu were shifting their house. So we had to resist their attempts to prevent us from helping them and we were able to make the work go smoothly. As we set up their bed and couches and other household items I remembered Dad's words "many hands make light work." We told them that this type of service is what we promise God we will do when we are baptized, and even more when we receive the priesthood. The even really brought us closer together and I think now that they have seen the gospel in action they are beginning to take it more seriously.

Yesterday was an excellent day. We met a brother in the morning that was so prepared. I am really starting to understand what it means to "find them that will receive you." As we came to his door he immediately got up and welcomed us in. I believe that recognized us as servants of the Lord. I mean there have been many people who welcome us in immediately becuase we are American...Ha and that is not what we're looking for. This brother wanted the truth, and as he listened sincerely to the message I am sure that he realized he'd found it. Again, I am learning that there is great power in prayer. I am meeting with people who have never even heard the concept of a Heavenly Father. When they begin to understand that, and speak with him for the FIRST time ever it is literally a miracle. I feel so priveldged to witness it. It might be hot and I might be getting weary, but I do not think that I could ever become tired of bringing God's children to a knowledge of truth. The heat may be intense, but it is not enough to weaken my desire to carry these glad tidings forward.

Things are going well over here on my side. I am looking forward to welcoming Luke to the mission. He is going to do a great job. I love you all, have a good week!

Love,
Elder Tuscano

04 MAY 10 letter

2010-06-04T07:23:00.001-06:00

How are you all doing this week? I am pleased to announce that Elder Cranney is feeling much better and we are going at it full boar once again. The heat is still on the rise, yesterday marked the start of the infamous "Kathri" or the time when heat stroke is a killer. The time period is two weeks, I spent the last one in Chennai so I am fairly certain I'll make it through this one. Ha.
The past week was refreshing. After a few less productive days, due to illness, we were able to get out and go. We have been trying to meet all the people we're working with, but right now our focus is finding. We are getting on the streets and looking for the right people. India is a great country to serve in. There are streets that I have walked down hundreds of times and I have probably contacted 5% of the people who live there. Ha and I know what you're thinking but its not because I am lazy. There are just so many people in this country. There is always another door to knock or person to talk to. I am so grateful for that.

Antony and his family ran into some problems and are probably not going to be able to get baptized anytime soon. Family problems got to be too much for his mother, so she is refusing to allow them to be baptized. We spoke with their aunt on the phone the other morning and she was quite angry. Very sad for Antony because he had such a strong testimony, but I am sure that his time will come. Anyway, like I said, there are a TON of people here and we're on our way to finding the next prepared families. That is about all for this week. I hope you are doing well. I'll keep you in my prayers.

Love,
Josh

27 APR 10 letter

2010-05-02T11:12:00.004-06:00

Dear Family,

It was another fabulous week here in Visakhapatnam. There were a lot of things that happened though and I am glad to say that I made it out alive.

We found a nice family the other week. It was a family that we had contacted about a month ago, but just had not been able to meet. Finally, on Saturday we were able to take Vinay (a member) with us. We sat down and taught the mother and her two sons. One of them is seriously disabled and he is really cool. She was very humble, they are hindu but she loves Jesus Christ. We taught her the first lesson and at the end we asked her how she felt about it. She said “I want to follow the gospel of God.” I have never heard that response so quickly in the first appointment. She is prepared, but her husband is the one we are having trouble with. He is not so interested and there is little chance of her progressing without him. So we are working on getting some people over there to help.

Oh yeah, Padma was baptized this week! It was a sweet service. We held it after the district conference here. This past Sunday was the FIRST EVER Visak district conference. That includes the 3 branches here, 2 in Rajahmundry, and 1 in Kakinada. It was broadcast from here to those other places. President was so happy about it and he should have been. The members here are doing a great job. The district president is an all star, his name is President Ratnam and he does a good job. He joined the church 8 years ago and at that time he didn’t even know English. But if you were to meet him now, you would never know that. He has progressed so much, not only in English but leadership also. His life is an evidence that the gospel really can change every thing. I am completely convinced that true disciples of Christ are blessed in every aspect of their lives. Anyway, love you all and hope you have a good week!

Elder Tuscano

20 APR 10 letter

2010-04-25T22:17:00.005-06:00

Dear Family,

Greetings from Visak! Things here are going well and we are having a good time in the sun. Apparently some of the families here will take vacation to the Andaman Islands, it sounds like paradise. The islands are actually part of India, and that was news to me. Anyway Visak is just heating up and were excited about the miracles that are happening here.

I wanted to tell you about a member we are working with. His name is Manoj and he has been a member just over 3 years. He was perhaps the strongest member in this branch. He was always helping at church and just had a solid testimony. For most of his adult life he has faced a lot of problems. They are primarily financial but there are also legal problems that have caused his a lot of stress. He is divorced and getting a divorce here is a lengthy and difficult process. So he has been facing these problems but putting his faith in God and getting through them. A few months ago he met a guy named Bablu. He is actually an unknown distant relative to Manoj and is also a Buddhist. This man started to give financial help to Manoj and caused him to put his trust in him and not in God. Well at least not Heavenly Father. All the while he had been teaching him and coercing him into believing Buddhism. So we had no idea about any of this until we were able to find his new house (he moved) and visited him last week. He was a mess! His life had completely fallen apart. He told us that he felt he lost his agency. As we sat there and taught I discovered how right he was. He was living under the command of this Bablu character. I am still not sure why Mr. Bablu felt that he needed to force Manoj into these beliefs but it has, for the time, ruined his life. So we are trying our best to rebuild him, we started with the book of mormon. But his situation just seemed so consistent with the teaching and examples we find in the Book of Mormon. With Laman, Lemuel, Korihor, or Sherem it is apparent that the devil will not support you in the end. Manoj is experiencing that right now, and we just hope that we will be able to pull him out.

We met a brother yesterday named Mahesh. I was on exchange with my buddy Elder Schellenberg and we talked with this guy on the street. He is Hindu and he worships a god named Sai Baba. Sai Baba is very popular here, actually his story is similar to that of Jesus Christ… Anyway I wont go into detail, you can ask me about it later. This guy was very intelligent and seemed like he was interested in what we had to say. But there was one point which he couldn't seem to grasp. He told us that he thought all Gods were same, which is the basic Hindu belief in Visak. Then he stated that he prayed to Sai Baba and he got what he wanted from him. He told us that he was happy. He could not understand why we wanted him to pray to Heavenly Father. We told him that there was a difference and that he could receive so much more from Heavenly Father because he is the only true god. But he just was not satisfied. There's no lack of teaching to do...

Love you all!
Elder Tuscano

cousin Luke called to India!

2010-04-14T22:07:00.003-06:00

Dear Family,

I made the mistake this week of reading your emails first. The one from Luke caught my eye so I had to open it. I already knew what it was going to say. President told us in Zone Leaders council last week that we would be receiving a missionary from the states in july or so. I had a feeling it would be my cousin Luke. How incredible is that? God always has surprises for us, doesn't he? Luke should be thrilled to serve in this wonderful country. He specifically should feel privileged. He should recognize that he is 1 of perhaps 4-5 missionaries that will be called to this mission in the year of 2010. What a blessing. I will write him an email and give him some pointers. He reports very soon. I will be sure to go back and forth with him.

This past week was, as every week is, full of miracles. I will share only one with you right now due to lack of time. You know that we have been working with Swarna Lata and her family. A few days ago we were discussing Kishore and the progress he wasn't making. We counseled and felt that we should teach him about prayer and invite him to say the prayer at the end of the lesson. We went there two nights ago and we taught as planned. We both prayed that it would work out. I had no idea what was going to happen. We finished teaching and then somewhat boldly invited him to pray...to our surprise there was no objection! He prayed and the spirit was there. After the prayer Swarna Lata said that it was the first time she had heard him pray. They have been married over 20 years! I left with a deep sense of gratitude for the help we received. Swarna Lata even called us yesterday and said that Kishore had been doing uncharacteristically nice things for her and their daughters. We consider this to be a miracle.

You asked for my thoughts on General Conference. The most personal part for me was President Monson's talk on sunday morning. When he testified of the savior and his resurrection and then the choir sang "He is Risen," I felt electrified. It was a huge testimony builder. I love our prophet, he is truly the man who speaks for Christ in these days. I also loved Elder Eyring's talk in the priesthood session -- it was so good. I want to give more while I am serving.

All else is going well. I hope that you are all happy.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

new companion, new journal...

2010-04-10T16:03:00.004-06:00

Dear Family,

We just got back to Visak. We spent the last two days in Bangalore for zone leaders council. It was a fun time, but it is nice to be back. Bangalore is a very cool place, and while we were gone the temperature here came up. That is nice though, I am growing to love the combination of heat and humidity.

My new companion, Elder Cranney is great. He comes from Cache Valley, Utah. I am so happy to serve with another Utah homie. It was a blast with Elder Schmidt and this one promises to be a great companionship. He is way humble and ready to work hard. He shoots competitively back home, he has a lot of guns. It sounds like he ranked nationally or something so that is pretty cool. We are having fun with Elder Evans who is with us for the time being. His companion has not come from H-Town yet so we’re covering both areas until his companion arrives.

Alekhya, who is a you girl from a recent convert family, was baptized this past Sunday. It was a nice baptism service and the primary president really helped us with it. We were at church a long time on Sunday; it was a nice Easter though. They handed out mosambi’s at the end of church so that was very festive.

We are working with a lot of good people right now. We have a Roman Catholic family from Gnanapuram (remember that place?). They are doing very well. The son is about 18 and he is tearing up the book of mormon. We have another brother named Ritesh we are working with. He is so humble and ready for the gospel. Elder Ward met him on a bus and gave him an OYM card and asked him to call us. And he did! So we met him and he came to church and even accepted the invitation to be baptized. Things are rolling forward here in Visak. We expect April to be a great month for the zone.

Many more things to tell you and discuss but we will save them for a later day. Good news, I finished my journal finally and it is time to buy a new one. So many things to learn out here, I just hope that I can record it all. Anyway, I love you guys. Thank you for your prayers. Have a good week!

Love,
Elder Tuscano

29 MAR 10 letter

2010-04-03T11:52:00.000-06:00

Dear Family,

It is nice to have this weekly opportunity to communicate with you. I hope that all is going well with you in STG. Things in Visak continue to heat up. I’ll be here to enjoy that heat for at least another six weeks. Transfer calls came last Friday and my boy Elder Ward will be leaving me. He is going to Goa to spend the last 9 weeks of his mission with Elder Naulu. It was a big surprise to both of us. Transfers were supposed to happen this Friday but they will be postponed due to some riots over there in Hyderabad. I know not the details of the situation but we are taking some precautions and making sure to stay out of trouble. Don’t worry though, everything will be just fine. Oh yeah, my new companion is Elder Cranney, he is actually one of the elders I have yet to met in this mission. He arrived in India a transfer after me and from what I hear he is a great hard working elder. So, I’m looking forward to some new experiences but also regretting that my time with Elder Ward is short.

We had a cool week last week. We had a lot of investigators come to church, as did the rest of the zone. Elder Schellenberg, who serves out in Gajuwaka, has a family of 5 entering the waters of baptism this Sunday. We are pumped about that. Our area is doing well. We got permission from President Nichols to set Pushpa’s Mom with a date. She is so solid and she even gave us a referral last week and brought them to church on Sunday. She can’t speak English, but she is definitely experiencing conversion.

We met an 87 year old man last week. His name is Luke and he is the coolest man. We knocked on his door and he let us right in. I was impressed most by his humility. He is Christian and has sons who run their own churches. But as we taught the restoration he listened with open ears and an open heart. He totally accepted it and in his prayer at the end of the lesson he thanked Heavenly Father for bringing back the New Testament church and sending these two angels to tell him about it. It was so sweet. It is not too often that you will find an older person who will actually listen to you here. So we thought it was amazing. Anyway, things are going very well.

Two American missionaries recently arrived to our mission. They came last night. We haven’t had new American missionaries for a year! They are both P.I.O. (“person of Indian origin”). They are just about the only Americans that can get a visa for missionary work in India right now.

Love you all,
Elder Tuscano

time flies...

2010-03-25T07:16:00.002-06:00

Dear Family,

My time here in Visak with Elder Ward is flying. We are having a great time together. I am so grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to work in this city with such a good friend.

This past week was fun. As I reflect on it there are not too many things that happened which would be that great for me to share with you. I received that Warrior Newsletter finally and I can’t believe how many of my friends are close to returning home. I hope that each one of them is able to finish strong and get all that they can out of their missionary service. I am grateful that I still have a significant amount of time left. I am working hard to savor every minute I have out here.

We have been doing a lot of finding lately. As I have mentioned previously, I love finding. It is always an adventure. In our zone we are working on finding and teaching Hindu families. Here in India it can become a habit for elders to only find and teach Christians. It is much easier to work with Christians. It is a different experience while teaching a Hindu family. They don’t understand the nature of God, but when they are able to understand it-something incredible happens. I have watched some people as we teach them the doctrine of prayer; how they can speak with God themselves and that God will respond to them. In Preach My Gospel it teaches us how prayer is “two-way communication.” We have been exerting our efforts with these people here in hope that they can understand this principle. There is literally some kind of light that turns on when a person is able to understand this concept. We all are children of God, and as such, we have the opportunity to speak with him at anytime. As I watch that light turn on in others, my testimony of prayer is refreshed. I’ve been inspired to put more effort into my prayers. I am pleased to say that in doing so I am growing much closer to our Father in Heaven. I love you all and hope you are experiencing the power of prayer in your lives.

As I observe families here and talk with elders about their families at home I have come to realize something I never did before. Our family is way solid. You have done an incredible job. I remember listening to Elder Bednar’s talk in General Conference and recalling how our family consistently did the things he mentioned. I know nothing else but these good habits so I will obviously instill them within my own family because they WORK! Thanks again for being so diligent with that.

Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Tuscano

persistence pays...

2010-03-17T23:01:00.002-06:00

Dear Family,

I hope that all of you are doing well and enjoying the springtime over there. I think that the season we call spring does not exist here. It became very hot and sultry rather quickly, I am not sure that the weather here is much different than Chennai. But luckily the heat only adds to the fire of the work that our zone is experiencing.

This week was sad in that we lost a few of the families we were working with. Sister Lakshmi and her family were compelled to discontinue their investigation by the father. His name is Ramakrishna, their family is pure Hindu and it seems that he got scared because of some opposition they were facing. So he asked us not to come back anymore. Those other sisters, the ones we found because they had the picture of Jesus Christ outside their door, also dropped off. Their Father decided to harden his heart and insisted that we never return to his home. Elder Ward and I felt very bad. It really hurt when these families asked us not to come back. I have realized that my hurt was not because I felt that they didn’t like me or anything. It was because they were not willing to accept the message of the restored gospel. In 3 Nephi it talks about the 3 nephites and how they would not suffer- save it be sorrow for the sins of the world. In these experiences I am beginning to understand what that phrase means.

Don’t worry though! All is not lost. We have been working with Pushpa’s mother recently. She does not speak much English and at first we didn’t take her seriously. She is Roman Catholic and told us that she wouldn’t come to our church. But she would always tease her neighbors and tell them that they should come to our church. Then out of nowhere she decided to start coming to our church. I guess she saw the changes in her daughter prompted her to do it, but she has been coming to church the past three weeks. She knows it is true. Yesterday she told us that her parents and other family members were hassling her and telling her not to leave their church. She told them that she had been attending that church since she was a little girl and had never felt the spirit. She proceeded to tell them that she had never felt the influence of the spirit more distinctly than when she attended our church. I am learning not to doubt the power of the church commitment.

After church on Sunday we invited a member, Santosh, to go on an exchange with us. We planned to visit about 5 potential families. Each of the families refused us, claiming no interest in Jesus Christ. Santosh said the following. “Man, I always thought that missionary work was easy, but now I realize that it is hard!” Anyway he had the faith to stick with us to visit the last potential. It was a non-member referral we had received a few days before. Her name was Divya and she was there at her home and willing to let us in. It just so happened that she was extremely prepared to receive the message. She was so interested and Elder Ward and I were blown away by her understanding and desire to learn. We gave her the soft baptismal commitment and she accepted! It was nice for Santosh to see the how missionary work really is. How faith and diligence really do produce miracles. We felt very blessed.

I love you all. Have a good week!
Elder Tuscano

09 MAR 10 letter

2010-03-17T22:33:00.005-06:00

Dear Family,

This past week was incredible. Swarna Lata, Mounica, and Suchitra were all baptized! It was a great day for them. Kishore was there and I think he really liked it, he is not ready yet but I think one day he will be. The actual ordinances were pretty tough. They have never spent much time around water, so they were all very nervous. I baptized Suchitra, 19 year old, and when I finished the prayer and tried to baptize her she refused to go down! I tried to speak some words of comfort and we did it again. It worked out the second time and that was a huge relief. But anyway it was very cool. I will send you pictures next week…

We went to Hyderabad, which is why I am e-mailing on Thursday…We had a multi-zone conference and Elder Perkins, the Asia Area President was there with us! It was a great experience for all of us. He conducted a few interviews before the conference began. Elder Ward and I were not part of those but Elder Schmidt and Evans both had a chance to sit down and visit with him. He and his wife are amazing people. His wife was very bold. In the morning we had a few elders give attribute talks. They were supposed to last about 3-4 minutes. All of the elders gave good talks, but none were able to stay within their time limit. Sister Perkins was scheduled to speak right after these missionary talks, but according to the program we had, her time was already finished. She stood up and read about the stripling warriors and how they obeyed with exactness. She stated that she would not give her talk because her time had been eaten up by the elders before her. It was a powerful lesson and I think we all made commitments to stay within the time we are allotted when giving a talk!

It was good that happened in the morning because I gave a talk in the afternoon. The assistants and the zone leaders were to come prepared with a 5 minute talk on how “inviting sacrament attendance blesses families.” There would be 1 assistant and 1 zone leader to give a talk, and I was the lucky zone leader. I was pretty nervous to speak in front of a general authority but luckily I was prepared. I made sure to be punctual and I think it went well. Elder Perkins really liked it, so that made me feel happy.

Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Tuscano

zone council in Bangalore

2010-03-03T06:57:00.005-07:00

Dear Family,

Greetings from Bangalore! I hope that all of you are doing well. We just finished an edifying Zone Leader’s Council. I love to come here and be with all the Zone Leaders throughout the mission. President trained today on the impact of a leader, he spoke about some influential leaders in his life. It strengthened my resolve be a better leader, but also not to determine the effect of my leadership based on the immediate results. After speaking about 10 great world leaders, he got very emotional and started to speak about his father. How his father was really the one who had the most influence on him. I took some time to think about my father and the influence he had on me. I probably did not respond well to your example and influence while I lived at home, but Dad they mean everything to me now. I am so happy when I reflect on different experiences I had with you. Thank you so much. I learned so many things from you and will be very lucky if I can successfully implement them when I raise my own family. Anyway it was great.

This past week was great. We were able to have some experiences that really strengthened my testimony. As I have previously mentioned we are working with an excellent family-Kishore Kumar. They are 4 members total, but only 3 are preparing for baptism – the mother and the two daughters. Before setting up their baptismal date, we were made sure to obtain permission from Kishore and he readily gave it. But last week he told his family that he did not want them to be baptized. This man is the administrator of all the public hospitals in the Visak district, which makes almost 100 hundred hospitals. He is extremely head strong. There were many reasons that he was against the baptism, I will not give an account of them for lack of time. But we were distraught and had no idea what to do. For a few nights we tried to resolve the concern but were unsuccessful. Days of fervent prayed seemed not to be enough, so we decided to fast. It is hot here and I do not fast unless it is fast Sunday or I absolutely have to. But this, we felt, was required. A few hours after we finished our fast, Kishore called us and gave us the approval. The only condition was that we postpone it for one week. I am not sure why he wanted that, but I could really care less what the reason was. We were exuberant, as were his wife and daughters. It really was a testimony builder and I thought I would share it with you all. Their baptism should be this Sunday and I will send you pictures.

Anyway that took up most of the letter this week. There are many more things happening, I am unable to share them all with you. I promise at a latter day, when time is sufficient, that I will tell you everything. I love you all and hope that you are happy. Thank you for your prayers and support, they mean so much to me.

I hope that all goes well as you prepare for this trip to San Francisco. I am sure that it will be a great experience and I am especially glad that you will be able to have the whole family there. Thank you for all that you do Mom – taking our family on trips has not always been the easiest thing for you. I am so happy that you did it anyway, those memories together are priceless.

Love,

Elder Tuscano

pictures on doors...

2010-02-25T19:35:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

Hello there! I hope that everyone is doing well this week. Things are really starting to heat up here in Visak. It is sunny all the time. The pollution is not as bad here so Elder Ward and I are getting a little tan. We went to the beach this morning and played football – it was a blast. Elder Evans is now in our district so we have a pretty tight district for the time being. Elder Ward, Elder Schmidt, Elder Evans, and myself-President hooked it up in Visak 1st branch.

This past week was fun. We met a cool family; I’ll share the experience. Last Thursday we had an appointment cancel in the early afternoon. It was real hot but we were able to generate some excitement and we went finding. After a few apartment buildings we met a lady who directed us to the top floor of her apartment building. There, posted on the door was the picture of Jesus Christ that you find on the first pages of the book of mormon! We were incredulous. I proceeded to peel back the picture and found the Joseph Smith portrait on the back. By this time the daughters had come out and we began to ask them where they got the picture. They stated that a Hindu friend had given it to them months ago. They had no idea what it was, but they were very interested to find out. As we returned a few days later for the appointment we found that they were prepared. After teaching clearly about the book of mormon one of the daughters expressed her gratitude. She said that for months she had looked at that book on her shelf and just wondered what it was. She was so happy to know that God would tell her if this book was true. The Mom and Dad are good. We will see their intent within the next week or two. But we both felt that it was a cool experience. I can’t find words to describe the excitement we had in seeing that picture on their door. After seeing 100,000 doors with Ganesh photos on them, it’s impossible to look at that picture on a door and not be filled with happiness!

Elder Ward and I are excited for another transfer together. We hope that we are able to really get Visak going. Other than transfers there is not too much that happened this past week. So that’s about all for now. Everything else is going well. I am learning so much about the gospel and leadership as well. I am so happy to be here and I am thankful for your prayers. They certainly carry me. I love you all have a good week.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

16 FEB 10 letter

2010-02-23T20:56:00.001-07:00

Dear Family,

Things in Visak are going well; it is really heating up again. The memories of Chennai heat are returning quickly. Anyway, it’s good for me; I just tell myself that walking around in the heat builds character. So by the time I get back to Utah I should have built plenty of it!

This past week was full of train rides. We came back to Visak last Friday. The train ride was about 14 hours. We figured the distance is actually about 300 miles or so…the trains travel a bit slower than you would think. But that is just fine because the Indian countryside is beautiful; all of the rice patty fields and chili fields are quite breathtaking. If you’re in the mood for a scenic journey the train would be your choice mode of transportation. It was a fun journey and zone conference was good, but I was very eager to get back to Visak and get to work.

Elder Ward and I are working with some incredible people. One of our greatest successes this past week was with a sister named Puspha. She is actually the cousin of a recent convert family and has known about the church for some time. About two weeks ago we decided that we would start to focus on her. She was OK at first but it seemed like she wasn’t that interested. At the end of one appointment we challenged her sincerely to read and pray about the book of mormon. It was close to a week and a half before we saw her again. She seemed different. There was nothing incredible about it, but we could certainly sense a change in her. As we taught her, she was much more attentive and became excited when we would extend commitments. She had felt the spirit. The process of conversion had begun, and we continue to watch it take place. I feel so privileged to be a part of it.

Church was also good. We continue to have great people come to sacrament, and they seem to enjoy it a lot. There are a lot of great people in Visak and the church is really a fun place to be. There are always new and exciting things that happen. I will go into detail on another occasion when time is sufficient. But it really is always a riot. Anyway I love you all and hope you have a good week. See you next time!

Love,
Elder Tuscano

09 FEB 10 letter

2010-02-10T18:28:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

Greetings from Hyderabad! We just arrived last night at about 7 in the evening. The train ride was about 12 hours, it was a nice trip. The Indian countryside is so beautiful and it was nice to get to know more of the elders in our zone and Rajamundry. It is a cool experience being in H-town again; in some ways it feels like nothing has changed and I’d never left this place. I am so happy to be serving in this mission and to have these cool experiences.

This past week was great. On Sunday Deepthi was baptized! It was incredible. After all that she has overcome, watching her be baptized just seemed so right. One of my favorite things as a missionary is the gratitude expressed by recent converts towards us. I know that the Spirit does all the work, and we really are just instruments in the hands of God. But hearing a recent convert sincerely express their appreciation to you for bringing them to the knowledge of the restored gospel is perhaps the most rewarding experience of a life time.

Also we have been meeting with Kishore Kumar and his family. They are so good, we gave an invitation to be baptized and they accepted. All except for Kishore, he is so busy with work that he hardly had time to meet with us or come to church. He has less interest in spiritual things, but he has made progress and we feel that he will come around. He told us on Friday that he feels like he is returning to the good habits of his childhood. After moving out, he stopped going to church and praying and hadn’t resumed until we met him a few weeks ago. Swarna Latha is a saint. She has been trying for years to get her entire family into good worshipping habits. She has been unsuccessful until now. With the knowledge of the restored gospel and the fellowship of the members their family is making significant changes and Swarna Latha is so happy. It is exciting to see.

I went on exchange with AP Mehan on Saturday and it was a great experience. He is a great missionary and a good friend. I learned a lot. I was most impressed with his ability to work, when finding I truly felt like we were working. That was a contrast to a common feeling that elders have when finding, which is they are just simply walking around. Elder Mehan didn’t waste a minute but talked with everyone everywhere we went. He had faith that we would find good people and he exhibited that faith through his work ethic. I am grateful for my leaders and the many things I can learn from them. Thank you all for the support. I hope you have a good week!

Love,
Elder Tuscano

02 FEB 10 letter

2010-02-10T18:27:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

This past week was fun; we had a lot of success and are seeing a lot of people make incredible changes in their lives. The foremost this week is Deepthi. She is finally ready for baptism. She has overcome a million obstacles over the past few months. I will be sure to tell you all the details at a later time, but she really overcame just about every kind of problem. Family, Job, and any other trial you could imagine. She is so excited for baptism, and with so many problems in her life right now she understands that this is the best thing to do. Her faith and courage have been and always will be an inspiration to me. I know things will turn out OK for her, and that God has got a great plan for her.

This past Sunday was a great experience. Elder Ward and I were able to give talks. Church started about 30 minutes late because someone forgot to bring the bread for the sacrament. But we were eventually able to give our talks but I don’t think they were received well. Throughout the day we asked people if they enjoyed the talks and they all said yes. Then we would ask if they remembered what we talked about, and each time, without fail, the response was a blank stare! Elder Ward spoke about Enduring to End and I spoke about Covenants.
Yesterday was also a funny day. I was able to do some baptism interviews. Two kids, they are brother and sister and I think cousins of a member family. Anyway the girl, who is about 16, was so nervous for her interview. She studied in a telegu medium school and her English is not so much. She was so funny; there was one point in the interview where she was so frustrated with me because I was not reading the baptism interview questions word for word. She had prepared to answer those questions exactly and couldn’t answer the others! Anyway she is really good and the Elders did a great job preparing her for baptism, it was just a hilarious situation.

The weeks are really flying by, I can’t believe that it’s February. I was thinking the other day about coming home. I realized that once I come back that’s it. There is no more mission in India. It made me sad and strengthened my resolve to give everything while I still can. There really is no reason for me to think about things at home and how great it will be to be back in Utah again. Once I’m back, I’m back for good. But my days in India are numbered and I want to get more out of them. I am so grateful for this, my opportunity to serve the Lord full time. I love you all and hope you have a good week!

Elder Tuscano

26 JAN 10 letter

2010-02-02T22:30:00.002-07:00

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

faith and blessings...

2010-01-20T07:28:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

The weather is beginning to heat up here in Viask, but it’s still very cool compared to the Chennai heat.

Elder Ward and I are very grateful this week. We learned a lot over the past few days. I think the lesson we learned was best stated by my mission prep teacher at BYU. He said "Heavenly Father does not bestow superior blessings without significant trials to prove them." So this week we learned that was true.

Last calendar week was rough. All aspects of the work were looking a little down. Finding, teaching, and just about everything was not working out for us. We were, at times, a little frustrated. But we did our best to keep the faith and work hard. By doing our best to be patient in tribulation we were able to receive some of those superior blessings President Bott was talking about.

Jyothi the hindu girl we have been working with had some incredible progress with her situation. She is 17 and her dad was opposed to her joining the church. But fasted for her this month and all of a sudden he started asking about us and our church. We were able to meet with him, and it looks like he is really warming up to the church – that was a miracle.

We have been meeting with this kid named Bhargav. He is about 16 and probably one of the most intelligent kids I've ever met. I think I mentioned him a few weeks ago. Anyway he has an aunt named Bharati who is about 28 and we started teaching her on monday. As we taught the restoration it became very apparent that she was a prepared individual. She asked great questions and really wanted to know the truth. We committed her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We called her last night to follow up. I remember being a little nervous because I knew that she would have actually kept the commitment. Sure enough she did, and she received an answer! Every time I discover that one of our investigators has received a witness of the book of mormon I am so grateful. I consider each experience to be a miracle.

Many more wonderful things happened this week and we are very excited for the future. Visak is a special place.

I love you all and hope you have a good week.

Elder Tuscano

gospel bonds

2010-01-16T09:32:00.001-07:00

Dear Family,

Hello to all from Bangalore. We just now finished ZL council and it was edifying to say the least. I love hearing the trainings prepared by President Nichols. Sister Nichols made beef stew for lunch and it was incredible, she takes good care of us. I have got to say that this ZLC was incredible. Probably one of the most edifying experiences I have had in awhile. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve in this assignment. There are times when I feel like I am not doing a very good job. I make a lot of mistakes because I have never been a zone leader before. But I am grateful for my mistakes because they teach me a ton. I have learned to take that attitude. Just take the good and leave the bad from them. This experience has also provided me with an excellent opportunity to rely on the Lord.

This past week has been so fun. Elder Ward and I are working hard and doing our best to help the people in Visak. We have this one area called Kancharapalem and it is about the only place we ever go to proselyte. It is a relatively small area, but the population is so dense here that it would never be fair to run through the streets once and move on to another area. Our church moved to 2 in the afternoon, so on sunday morning we were able to visit everyone of our investigators and invite them personally. That helped a lot.

I think I mentioned that family named Kishore Kumar last week. They came to church again and they got such good fellowship. They really enjoy the church; we have high hopes for them. We challenged them for baptism on sunday, the mom and daughters seem willing. Kishore is a bit skeptical but hopefully we will be able to help him resolve that concern.

The biggest highlight of the week was yesterday. Our journey from Visak to Bangalore was through Chennai. We had a 3 hour layover, we decided to go eat lunch and at the last second we decided to catch an auto out to Priya's house. Ha we just walked right up and they were SO surprised to see us. We only had like 20 minutes, but everyone was there and they are all doing so well. Soloman was telling us how he had just finished the book of mormon. I remember that I was sitting on the couch in their home I felt ecstatic. I tried to recall other moments in my life where I had felt that good. I don't recall being able to.

There is such an interesting bond that is created when you help someone come unto christ. It is a relationship and feeling that is very difficult to describe. I can confidently say that if that visit we had with them yesterday would have been the only good experience on my entire mission, the two years would have been worth it. Luckily that is not the case and there have been many more and hopefully more to come. But it was pretty cool. And by the grace of God we were able to return to the airport before our flight left...

Love you all,
Elder Tuscano

finding treasures...

2010-01-06T07:36:00.001-07:00

Dear Family,

Our week was pretty cool. Sunday was a huge day for us; we had a lot of people come to church that we had been waiting on. Also some new people decided to show up. One family was this guy named Kishore Kumar. Elder Ward and Elder Mehan had actually met them 2 weeks ago when they were on exchange. It was just after zone conference and they didn’t have much time so they went caroling! They ended up caroling at this guy’s home. The family was very surprised to see two americans singing Christmas songs on their doorstep, but they did welcome them in. He is a hospital administrator for all the hospitals in the Visak district. Everyone in the family is well educated and they all speak perfect english! We were so pumped. Elder Ward and I returned to teach them. The lesson went OK, we weren’t sure how interested they were. But on sunday all 4 showed up at church. Elder Ward and I were a little surprised, but so happy. It just showed me that sometimes people are more interested than they let on. So we will see what happens with them.

Last wednesday we met this kid named Bhargav. He is a neighbor of one of the recent converts in our area, who happens to spit out referrals like every other day. They are sweet. Anyway, he is about 16 and loves Jesus Christ. His family is Hindu but they are way chill. We taught him the first lesson and he was just so prepared. At the end of the lesson he said, "So if the book of mormon is true, then everything else is true?" His understanding is perhaps the best I have encountered thus far on my mission. Anyway he came to church and we set a date for his baptism him last night. The only concern his parents had was that they wanted to see some changes in him before he does it. We basically committed him to do everything his parents ask. I remember when I was sixteen and how I would have reacted to that kind of commitment. But he gladly accepted it and I think that speaks volumes of the kind of kid he is.

Another Family is Uma Maheshwar Rao and his wife Kalpana. They are so sweet, they are both "christian" but have never been baptized. Kalpana just decided to start liking Jesus Christ about two months ago. Her english is less, but she has a desire to learn. His is enough to communicate properly. Anyway, as we taught about baptism, Kalpana was a little apprehensive and it was because she didn’t know what baptism was. I thought that was very impressive. The reason being, most hindu's simply view baptism as "conversion," or, changing from Hindu to Christian and giving up your social status and all that is related to it. But she was different, so we made her a nice colorful poster and put Jesus’ baptism photo on it. We wrote simply about what baptism was and she was so happy because she could understand what it really was. I think we might make a few more baptism posters...

Love to all,
Elder Tuscano

Happy New Year 2010!

2009-12-30T15:50:00.001-07:00

Happy New Year!

The past week has been very eventful. There are a lot of people we are working with, but each one seems to have problems that stand in the way of their baptism. One family is Shyam and Monica. They have 3 kids, Shyam is an auto driver. They all have a desire to be baptized, but Shaym knows NO english. Everyone else does though, even Monica. So we gave him a blessing and are working with him. He has already made improvement and is able to pray simply in english. We hope that all goes well with that.

Another investigator, Deepthi, has been having some ridiculous family problems. It has been fascinating to watch her grab hold of the gospel during this difficult time. Even though she is experiencing some very rough things, she still has a smile. I think it is in large part due to her faith and devotion to the gospel. She understands that the best thing for her to do is be baptized. It has been very cool to work with her and see that.

Christmas came and went rather uneventfully, the new year will most likely be the same. The holidays that are celebrated here are the hindu festivals. The other holidays receive little or no recognition.

Anyway I gotta get going. Sorry to be so short. The server messed up and I lost my entire e-mail. It was done, and so nice, but now I have no time to write it again.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

Christmas week...

2009-12-24T07:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

This past week has been fun. We just had Zone Conference yesterday. In Visak, we have conference with the Rajahmundry Zone, so it has been cool to see some of them. Zone Conference was on finding people and it was excellent. It has made a huge difference in some of the other Zones and I'm sure it will here. Although we usually find a lot of people here, the struggle is helping them progress. Oh yeah, President is showing us the BYU vs. Oregon State bowl game. It is on in the church, which is upstairs. We watched the first quarter and came down to e-mail. BYU looks pretty good.

A few weeks ago we found a brother named Uday. He is about 19 and comes from a hindu family. We taught him once and he was mildly interested. We committed him to daily prayer, and he kept the commitment. We were only able to meet him the second time this past friday, but as we met him we could see a change in his countenance. He had been praying daily and noted how much of a difference it made. We taught again the restoration and his understanding was perfect! At the end we started to talk about baptism and he asked us when he could take it! It was sweet. As he said the prayer he told Heavenly Father he wanted to be baptized, I remember looking at him after he said Amen. He had the biggest smile on his face. It was way cool to see the change in his life. He quickly gained a testimony, but he is going to need that because his Mom said there was no chance he could get baptized. I'll be sure to let you know what happens with him.

I gave a talk in zone conference about finding by the spirit. It was a great opportunity to reflect on my experiences and see just how often the spirit was guiding us. I really am so grateful to be a part of this work. At times I catch myself feeling inadequate, like I might be unable to do all the things that are required of me. But as soon as those thoughts begin, I just remember that I have no reason to think that way. I have the gift of the Holy Ghost all I need to do is trust that He will help me. It is so comforting to know that we don’t have to make this journey by ourselves.

Anyway I am very grateful, especially this christmas season. I am grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ and the hope it brings into my life. I am grateful for experiences that help us understand that sacrifice, and for my opportunity to help these people understand it. Merry Christmas and I will talk to you soon!

Love,
Elder Tuscano

Andrah splits

2009-12-16T20:48:00.000-07:00

Hello Family,

Last friday, Andhra Pradesh decided to split! We were so surprised. The district president called us friday morning and advised us not to go outside because the government announced that this state would split in half! The other state is called Telangana and I think it is the area surrounding Hyderabad. Maybe you can google it to learn more. President Nichols has been working with us and things seem to be cooling down. It was very interesting. I thought I would let you know about it.

We had a cool experience on sunday. On saturday night we counseled with President and he decided it would be ok to go finding on sunday. We called the Elders and let them know the good news. As a companionship we really needed to go because we had about half of the new investigators. We were excited, but sunday morning before church, President called and told us NOT to go. We were so sad because we planned the night before for a lot of finding. Anyway, after church we visited a family – our only appointment for the day and one of the little girl's friends came in. She spoke english and said she was christian so we were able to set up an appointment with her family for the evening. We visited a potential investigator who happened to actually be there! After the lesson he told us to go teach his neighbors and they were also interested. To end the night we visited that little girl’s family and they were way good, too! We ended up with more people to teach than we planned! It was just a witness to me that God helps us when we are committed to achieve our goals and even if you can’t "go finding," you can still find people to teach. That’s all for this week.

Love you all,
Elder Tuscano

Visak beginnings

2009-12-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

This past week was very good. I left Bangalore on friday morning and arrived in Visak early that afternoon. I am finding Visak to be a very enjoyable place, wonderful people and atmosphere. I looked forward to serving here my entire mission and my hopes have not been let down. The work here is great.

We have been working with an incredible sister named Deepthi. Elder Ward met her about one week before I got to Visak. She comes from a Roman Catholic background and she is so good. She gained a witness of the Book of Mormon very quickly and has been keeping commitments like crazy. She even introduced us to her Hindu neighbors who are very interested as well. What impresses me most is her ability to keep commitments. I have noticed that when investigators actually gain a witness of the book of mormon, it is rare that they fail to keep the big commitments. There are always exceptions, but this is just an observation that I have made from my experience.

I was on an exchange last night with Elder Pritchett, the district leader in 2nd branch, and we met a sweet investigator. Her name was Manjusha and she was so prepared. She has a Hindu background, but when I was sharing about Joseph Smith she was finishing my sentences. As soon as we showed her the picture in the pamphlet she stated, "Oh, that’s Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ." I have not seen many people do that without hesitation. She was very impressive. Anyway I am having a great time here, and my testimony does not go a day without significant growth.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

zone council

2009-12-02T16:51:00.001-07:00

Dear Family,

I am writing to you from Bangalore. We came here for a Zone Leader council and it has been so fun to see some of the missionaries I had served with. I am especially excited for tomorrow; we are going to set our goal for baptisms this next year. I am happy that I get to be a part of that.

This past week was great. Transfers are never easy. It was hard to say goodbye to Chennai. But I was very excited to arrive in Visak and start working with Elder Ward. We both couldn’t believe that we ended up as companions. We are excited for our area and the zone. The week before I arrived they had achieved their goal for the year, and we had to re-set it. We have high expectations.

Visak is a great city...Very small in comparison to Chennai and Hyderabad so it is something to get used to. There are 3 branches in Visak. The church has been there for almost 20 years. It is a great place for the church to be also, they just formed a branch in March called Gajuwaka. It is pretty far from Visak, but it is a beautiful place. We went out there for a baptismal interview yesterday and it was a cool experience. I interviewed this kid who is from one of the strongest member families in that branch. He was an Alma the younger of sorts. I was most impressed with his sincerity. He had truly repented and turned his life around.

Everything else is going well. My studies are excellent. Elder Ward and I are trying to improve our ability to follow the spirit.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

transfer to Visak

2009-11-25T07:37:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

Happy Thanksgiving! We actually celebrated Thanksgiving two weeks ago at one of the American families’ homes. So my day tomorrow will be quite the same, but oh wait....I got transferred!

The Chennai chapter has come to a close and I will forever recall my time here with fondness. It was a great place to serve and I am grateful that President allowed me to stay here for this long.

I will be going to Visak; but even better than that...ELDER WARD is my new companion. Do you remember him? I haven't seen him in 8 months and now I will be his companion. When I got the call from Elder Mehan on friday I was overcome with joy. I think I got a taste of what Ammon felt. Elder Ward is my boy and I look forward to doing work up there in Andhra. I am going to be a zone leader. I hope that I can do a good job. I look forward to setting an example of obedience and hard work with Elder Ward. I honestly couldn’t have hoped for a better transfer.

I am excited to go back to Andhra and eat biryani. It is the specialty there and I am pumped. I will miss Chennai very much though. It has been hard to say bye to people though. Especially the people I prepared for baptism. But no problem I will see them down the road I am sure.

This past week was just short of incredible. We have been focusing as a companionship and district on the message of the restoration. A lot of times we will only teach the restoration first to those with a christian background. But recently we changed that. As stated in Preach My Gospel, The Restoration of the Gospel is our unique message to the world. So we are sharing it with everyone we meet, regardless of their background. We have seen some cool things happen.

We met a less-active member, Jonathan, his cousin from Bombay recently moved here. He was Hindu, but we shared the message of the restoration. At the end he told us that for the past few days he had been having these spiritual impressions, but he couldn't figure out what they meant. He then expressed his feeling that this message was the real explanation he was searching for. On saturday we met a brother named Rajesh on the bus. He invited us to his home right then, I was so surprised I almost said no. We went to his home and taught him and his friend the restoration. They were both hindu. At the end of the message, his friend told us that he had received some "divine inspiration" while we shared… sounded a lot like the Holy Ghost to me.

These reactions happened because the restoration is real. Joseph Smith saw God. That experience changed the world and if it did not happen we would not know all the other things we teach. That is why the restoration is lesson one -- I guess I have a hard head. But it does feel good to finally understand this for myself.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

solid finding...

2009-11-18T07:17:00.001-07:00

Dear Family,

We have been doing some solid finding lately. One of my favorite parts of finding is just being able to meet all kinds of people. You NEVER know what kind of people you're going to meet. We have been meeting some crazy people lately. On the bus over here I was talking to a brother name Rajan. He was going off about how dogs are much more faithful than human beings.

On saturday we met an interesting family. Vijayanand and Sonia. They are married and have two children. They attend a church called the brethren assembly. They are very strong members of the church and have many insights on religion. We sat down and began to teach the restoration. While my companion was teaching about how the gospel blesses families, she cut him off. She said we were wasting our time because we were teaching them the basics. She went on for about 10 minutes lecturing us and questioning our reason for being there. Needless to say, she lacked patience. I proceeded to politely cut her off and began to teach about prophets. When she understood that we were now teaching things she didn't know, she relaxed a bit. We shared Joseph Smith and the first vision. She loved it actually. But my favorite part of the appointment was the end. We taught them how they should pray and ask God if our message was true. They said OK. Then Sonia asked the question that I think all missionaries want to hear. "So if this is true, what should I do?" It really caught me off guard. She then continued and said something like, "do I need to be baptized again?" I tried to be as polite as possible and started talking about proper authority. She cut me off, repeated the question, and demanded that I tell her straight up. I answered, "Yes." She smirked and said "OK, if God answers me." I was surprised. We’ll see what happens... she is going to california in a few weeks and she said she wants to go to SLC and meet the Prophet. Interesting discussion.

We met a guy who lives in Uganda! He was taught by Elders there. I did not know we had Elders in Eastern Africa!

Thank you for the compliments. I am proud of the changes that have occurred in my life and hope that I can preserve them for the rest of my life. While I have changed a lot, I still feel there is so much more I need to change. But I guess that is a common feeling with those who have a goal to be like Christ.

That will be my email for this week.

Love you all!
Elder Tuscano

monsoon time!

2009-11-11T15:52:00.002-07:00

Dear Family,

Hello there. This week was a wonderful week. We got wet! At long last the monsoon decided to visit Tamil Nadu. It was crazy. I have never seen so much rain at once. I have also never truly been grateful for good city drainage while at home. They could use a new system here, when it rains-it floods. I might be able to send some pictures, but when we came out of Priya's house on friday night we were in water almost to our knees. I was happy though, I had been anticipating the monsoon for over a year.

We have been meeting some cool people lately. On sunday we met with a brother named Johnson; a referral that was passed over to us about a month ago. I had been trying to meet with him since that time, but only sunday were we finally able to meet him. His house is clear outside of the city though. There is no chance I would have found him through my own efforts because I would never go that far from the church. But it was a referral, so we went and took Madhu with us. He was so happy to meet us and just seemed so prepared for the message. As a missionary, it is so refreshing to meet with people who have been truly prepared. At the end of the appointment he told us that he would read the book of mormon everyday. We called him last night and he said that he has been reading every morning and night. He sounded very happy.

I am astounded at the difference that the Book of Mormon can make. I couldn't imagine doing missionary work without it. All you have to do is read, and you will be happier. That is a great witness to its divinity, and the people who actually read, realize this. That is when true conversion starts to take place.

My studies have been great. Last week I gave a training on exercise. I discussed the spiritual blessings that flow from it. They are quite similar to those associated to the word of wisdom. I have been working with my Elders and Sisters to improve their exercise. Not simply for the physical blessings but also the spiritual, which is something I only learned on my mission. When I worked out at home my purpose was only temporal. So I only received temporal blessings. But I have learned that spiritual motivation is a lot stronger than physical. Does that make sense?

The work is going very well. I feel that Heavenly Father is teaching me a lot about how to love and care for others right now. He is using the example of my companion to do so. My companion is so concerned for the welfare of others. I honestly don't think he spends much time thinking about himself. I need to be more like him in that aspect. He is always looking for an opportunity to help another. I am not always doing that. So I am grateful for my chance to serve with and learn from Elder Gantyada.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

04 NOV 09 letter

2009-11-05T19:23:00.001-07:00

Dear Family,

This past week was Zone Conference. We had it here in Chennai and it was a great experience. We don’t see President very often, so it is always nice when he comes to town for conference. It was centered on extending commitments. President was explaining how extending commitments is how we as missionaries "cry repentance." It was very inspiring and I will never prepare for a lesson again without first deciding what commitment to extend.

Elder Elliott and Elder Cunha have been working with some brothers from Nepal. One of them was baptized two weeks ago and his friend will be baptized on sunday. As I have had the chance to conduct their interviews, I gained a lot of respect for them. They have pure hearts, their desire to do what is right is inspiring. I am learning so much about the gospel as I watch other people prepare to make and keep covenants with God.

My studies have been incredible lately. I am reading in Alma. Ammon and the sons of mosiah dominated. One of the most prominent of their christlike attributes was patience. I believe that is why they were so successful, throughout their many afflictions they never lost faith or cursed God. I hope that I can emulate their patience in some part.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

28 OCT 09 letter

2009-11-05T19:19:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

Days go by. I can hardly believe it's another wednesday. As I was sitting in sacrament this past week, I realized that I have only a year left. It was a somber moment. I am glad that I have completed a year, but not so glad that I only have 1 year left. As the time passes on my mission, it becomes more precious to me. I hope that I can use it wisely.

No baptism this past week, but Sherman was confirmed. He brought his brother to church with him and to a fireside we had on saturday evening. His brother really enjoyed church, but he leaves to work in Australia in a few weeks. I plan to give the referral when he goes. So who knows maybe Elder Chris Christiansen will be the one to tract him out down there.

Yesterday I had a cool experience. We were teaching Shameem, a less active member. Their family is so good, but they will just not come to church. We sat down and began to teach Lesson 3 (the gospel of Jesus Christ). When I started teaching about repentance I chose to read from Alma 5. As we were talking about the "mighty change" I learned something. It's not that feeling this mighty change is a one-time experience. If that is the case, we are not enduring to the end. It must be something we continually strive to experience. Otherwise we will become complacent and lose zeal in following the commandments, and when zeal is lost it is not long before we stop following them altogether. This is what happened to Shameem, and I think it can happen to any of us if we are not careful. That’s why we must continually ask ourselves what Alma asked those people in Zarahemla. "If you have experienced this mighty change and felt to sing the song of redeeming love, can you feel so NOW?"

My personal revelation was a spin off Dale G. Renlund's talk. I am eager to receive the Liahona for November. I want to read that talk again, it changed my life.

Sorry for preaching. I just thought it was cool.

Love you all,
Elder Tuscano

21 OCT 09 letter

2009-11-05T19:10:00.001-07:00

Dear Family,

Things in Chennai are still on the up, and so is the temperature. We just moved into the apartment with Elder Cunha and Elliott. Their AC actually blows cold air, which was quite opposite to the AC we were using in the other apartment. Elder Gantyada is having a hard time at night. The other Elders were unwilling to turn up the temperature, so they bought him a blanket so he can survive the night. It's not that bad, but I think my natural temp of 98.6 has risen a few degrees since I've come here.

This past week Sherman was baptized. What a wonderful day it was. We had our Branch mission leader perform the baptism, and he did a beautiful job. Sherman was so happy. I don't know how many times I've expressed my gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. I will be sure to maintain contact with him throughout my mission and my life. I expect great things from him. Also, Madhu came to church for the first time in a white shirt, black pants, and a tie. I was shocked; I took a picture and will send it to Elder Schmidt today. I think he will die from shock. It really was so satisfying to see him in priesthood attire, on time for church.

We had a cool appointment this past friday. A brother named Saravanan that Elder Gantyada and Brown met while they were on exchange a few weeks ago. We met him once before. He came to the church and we taught him about the plan of salvation. Now, I have been in some edifying discussions before but this was particularly uplifting. We taught the lesson as usual but it was so smooth. He was asking many questions along the way. But when I would answer it was automatic. I didn’t take much notice during the lesson, but in reflection I realized that it was like pure intelligence coming into my mind and I would just turn and speak. We all felt the spirit. We challenged him for baptism and he accepted. At the end of the lesson, he was trying to express to us the good feelings he had inside. We just assured him that it was the Holy Ghost. I am not sure what we did to experience that, but I hope I can figure it out soon so we can do it again.

The sister missionaries are a great addition to our district. I have been doing my best to support and encourage them. They are very good though. The last two this mission will see for a long time also. I am glad to have the opportunity to work with them. I left them some of the spices I use for cooking when we moved. I got a call that night in which they told me that my spices were junk and they would never use them it in their cooking (and I thought I was a decent cook). But apparently I was wrong. Sorry Mom, I'll learn how to do it properly before I return.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

13 OCT 09 letter

2009-10-19T13:07:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

Sri Devi (Sri Raj's sister) was baptized this past week. She was so happy and it was a good baptism. Sri Raj did not perform this one. I had to do it, but she was a little scared of the water. So I made sure to be slow and careful. Everything went fine. We had her baptism service between sessions of conference on sunday.

Before conference began on sunday we had a live broadcast from Bangalore in which, President Nichols formally organized the 3 new districts here. Chennai, Visak, and Coimbatore. It was cool to see that happen, I don’t think I will be here to see the temple built, but the work we are doing right now is certainly laying the foundation for it. I feel privileged to be a part of it.

Sherman is doing so well. It is so amazing to see how the gospel is changing his life. Apparently his Mom had been just his best friend, and when she died it was very difficult for him. Only ten days after the tragedy he happens to meet the Elders and hear about the plan of salvation. What's more, he is absorbing all of the doctrine that we teach. His desire to know and do what is right is an inspiration. Sunday night we met him and he took us over to his in-laws house. We didn't ask him for the referral, he just took us there. And it was because he truly values the gospel and what it does for him. He wanted his friends and family to feel the same.

Now, his situation may be somewhat extreme. But his desire and zeal to share the gospel is pure. I think each one of us can learn from that. We should share the gospel out of love. Simply because we understand how greatly it has blessed or changed our lives. Then with that understanding, the next logical step would be to share that knowledge with the people we love.

Conference was incredible. Yes I did love Elder Holland's talk. I also loved Henry B. Eyring and the talk he gave in the priesthood session. I decided that he was my role model. But I think one of my favorites was given in the sunday afternoon session by Dale G. Renlund of the seventy. He spoke about how the natural man wants to reject a heart that is changed through repentance. He suggested things we could do to remain zealous in following God. I loved his talk.

Everything else is going well. Transfer calls came on sunday, but I am staying here with Elder Gantyada. Also the only two sister missionaries in the mission are coming into my district. We only have them for like 3 months, but they should be good for us. Hope all is well back home.

Love you!
Elder Tuscano

p.s. - I loved conference so much. I remember when I was young and I was very against watching all the sessions. I am sorry for that. But I am grateful that you and Mom made me do it. You set a pattern that I will never forget. Even though I resented it at the time, you had patience and vision. You probably knew that one day I would be sending you this e-mail saying something like this. What a stroke of parenting genius from you and Mom.

06 OCT 09 letter

2009-10-19T13:06:00.001-06:00

Bad news. I wrote a big nice letter but it deleted. Sorry about that. So I am going to have to abridge it.

The week was good. Sri Raj baptized his brother. Watching that could have been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Seeing his family come around to the gospel has been such a cool experience. His sister is also doing very well.

Madhu is doing amazing. He wants to serve a mission as soon as he can. I love that guy. He is so innocent and just wants to follow Christ. He has a strong testimony of Joseph Smith too.
We continue to see miracles each day. I continue to learn lessons in humility from my companion. He is such a good example to me. I hope to be humble like he is someday. It sounds like Conference was good; I look forward to watching it this weekend.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

29 SEP 09 letter

2009-09-30T19:03:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

This week was wonderful. Kevin was baptized this past sunday. He is such an amazing kid. I am so impressed with these young single adults and their sincere desire to follow Christ, and to improve themselves. The whole Priya family was very excited to witness the experience. I don't know if I have told much about Kevin. He is Priya's very good friend and she was key in helping him make the decision to be baptized. He was worried at first because his parents are strong members of the CSI church. But he came around.

I think I might have got a small taste of the feeling Elder Bayzk had when he met Dad for the first time. Sunday night we went up to West Mambalam to meet a referral the other Elders had given us. This brother's name is Thiyagu. He is about 21 and he is s smart man. He speaks perfect english and is very quick. We sat down with him, his sister, and his Mom. While we shared the message he was very interactive. After the message was over he said something like "I have been searching for the truth for a while." He knew had found it, because he then asked us when he could become an Elder. It was incredible. I am constantly humbled by experiences like this. It really evidences the fact that God is truly looking out for us.

It has started to cool down a little bit. Not much, but some. I think the monsoon is really on the way so we are preparing for that. My studies continue to be very rewarding. I am truly enjoying my time here.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

22 SEP 09 letter

2009-09-30T19:02:00.000-06:00

Dear Family,

This past week was incredible. We were able to baptize Madhu on sunday. He was so excited. I was sad that Elder Schmidt was not able to be here for it, but I will send him pictures. I think he will be surprised. The baptism was good; it had to happen twice though. He was very nervous about going under the water. After I finished the prayer I was trying to be cautious and careful. I attempted to slowly lower him into the water, but that was not his plan. He just plummeted down; it was so fast I almost lost him. The second time was much smoother though, so I was grateful for that. He called us that night and couldn't stop telling us how happy he was.

Sri Devi is Sri Raj's sister; I think I have spoke about her. She is doing so well. At first I felt that she was not interested, but we made a goal to get her to church. When she came she got awesome fellowship. Also she has been reading the book of mormon daily and saying her prayers. We asked her to pray and sincerely ask God about the book of mormon. She did. And she got her answer; the happiness that has suddenly entered into her life could not be attributed to any other source. Needless to say her level of interest is up. Also they have another brother who wants to get baptized. He came to church on sunday. I think he will be good.

I am blown away by the changes occur in the lives of the people we work with.

We had a sweet zone conference yesterday. It was about "My Purpose" and I learned so much. President helped us to understand truly what our purpose is. I don't know any other mission presidents, but I am so glad that we have President Nichols. His understanding of his purpose is so apparent. He knows we are here to do more than simply baptize people. I am so grateful for the leadership and guidance of an inspired mission president. There are 3 new districts being created here: Visak, Coimbatore, and CHENNAI! That is sweet news

Love,
Elder Tuscano

Happy Birthday Josh!

2009-09-16T10:15:00.003-06:00

Dear Family,

This past week was great. We have some amazing people we are working with. We had small birthday party for me at Priya's house last night. She set up decorations, her mom made Biriyani and we had big cake!

Cool story about Priya's family. I guess 3 weeks ago in Relief Society they had a lesson on temple and family history work. That family had just been baptized, so we hadn't taught them temples yet. It was the first time they heard about it. That night, Priya had a dream and her great-grandmother came to her. She informed her that she and about ten other relations of hers were waiting for them to do their temple work. Apparently in the dream her grandma gave the names and photos of the ten people, but Priya couldn't remember all of them. Anyway, we plan to get as much detail as possible and I will probably send the information to Grandma. I am beginning to understand why that family needed to be baptized. I think it was for many reasons, but this is surely one of them.

My companion is so great. I am learning so much from him, but especially humility. His desire is so sincere. He has great faith. Because of his example I am learning to put even greater trust in the scriptures and the basic principles of the gospel. I was coming to the point with some people where I believed nothing could help. My companion is helping me to see that in all situations Faith in Jesus Christ works. It’s such a simple principle, but really so powerful. He is good.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

08 SEP 09 letter

2009-09-15T22:17:00.000-06:00

Dear Family,

I can't believe BYU beat Oklahoma. I was honestly shocked when I read the score; I about fell out of my chair. So what is their ranking now? They always start strong, but we'll see the real strength of the team as time passes. Or rather, you all will see it.

This past week was great. It was sad to see Elder Schmidt go. At first it was weird walking the streets and visiting people without him. But that transition is about through, and it feels great to be hanging out with Elder Gantyada. He is an amazing person. His dedication to the gospel is incredible. He is not scared to tell people the truth. I have been learning a lot from him.

We were working with Madhu since June. He was good, but he couldn't make it to church consistently. Then we discovered that he was receiving retribution from his family. They all attend the AG church. It's the biggest christian church in Chennai. But they told Madhu our church does not believe in Jesus Christ. Once we discovered this concern, it was a quick resolution. We pointed to the name of our church on our tags and asked him if the book of mormon was true. Problem solved. He came back to church, and I think this time he'll stay.

We have also been working with Sri Raj's sister. Her name is Sri Devi and she is about 20 – very smart, like her brother. She came to church by herself sunday because Sri Raj had a job interview. We were stoked to see her, but I was even more pumped to watch her receive great fellowship from Priya and her mom. This mission is sweet.

I read a great talk by Neal A. Maxwell about patience. I gained a lot of things from it, but one of the coolest was this quote: "Patience is the acceptance of a divine rhythm to life." I felt that was so articulate. I used it in a training I gave on patience. Anyway, thought someone might enjoy that.

Love you all,
Josh

comp change, priya's family baptism...

2009-09-02T08:16:00.004-06:00

Dear Family,

I'll start with some sad news. The Chennai companionship, or in other words, Elder Schmidt and Elder Tuscano came to an end. Transfer calls came monday morning. Elder Schmidt is off to new adventures in the land called Visak. He leaves friday morning. It will be sad to see him go. We had a lot of good times together in the heat of Chennai.

I am now a district leader. I hope that I can be a good one. I took the advice you gave me a while back. I have been watching my leaders closely and I will attempt to emulate the good qualities they exhibited. My new companion is Elder Gantyada. He has been on his mission almost 3 weeks now. He was being trained by both Zone Leaders but some other stuff didn't happen, so he is coming over to my area. It will be fun. He joined the church only a year and half ago. He was referred to the church by the brother of my trainer, Elder Siyyadri. He was taught and baptized by the great Elder Toleafoa. Now he is my companion in Chennai. It is amazing how small the church is in such a big country.

This past week was great. We met a sweet new brother. His name is Sherman. We were at the train station in a place called Kodambakkam. I had never been there. There were some less-active members and we went to visit them. Upon our return to Mambalam, we found ourselves waiting for the train. Some man approached us that had apparently met the elders a few years ago. He was Roman Catholic and came across a bit obnoxious toward us. We had nowhere to go, so we listened and talked with him. It wasn’t long before a few other people walked up to us and introduced themselves as christians. We didn’t think much of it; gave them our cards and told them to call us. But one of them seemed different. He introduced himself to us, specifically Elder Schmidt as we boarded the train. I was kept busy during the ride by our catholic friend. As we got off the train, my companion turned to me and said "I've never felt so good about anyone in my life." He was so excited. He stated that he felt the man was just prepared. He was. We met him two days later and discovered that his mom had passed away just ten days ago. He accepted the message of the restoration. He came to church the next day and stayed all three hours, and also for the baptism we had that day. He also set himself for baptism in two weeks. My companion was right.

We had a great baptism this week. Priya's entire family entered the waters. I will send some pictures. It might have been one of the greatest days of my life. They were all so ready. And the branch did a beautiful job fellowshipping. I don't know why, perhaps it was because two of the daughters are cute. Maybe because it is a big family. But the branch really helped us. I look forward to seeing how much they progress as members of the church. Working with them was a sweet experience. We met them at the right time, in the right circumstances, and taught them the "right" message. It was great!

Love,
Elder Tuscano

weather cooling a bit...

2009-08-26T08:36:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

This week was money. We had some really cool experiences. The rain is off and on here. It is nice though because it is not quite as hot. We were excited the other day when we went to Shri Raj's house. Since we met him, he has been in a terrible financial situation. Due to a variety or reasons he had virtually no money. His parents refused to help him, too. His only hope was some money he had coming to him, but he was supposed to receive it years ago. On monday he told us that it finally came! We were so happy. he was even able to purchase a cell phone. Things are turning around.

In India many christian people send text messages of Bible verses to each other. Because of our christianity we tend to be the recipients of many bible verses. This morning we got our first BOOK OF MORMON text message. Shri Raj sent us 1 Nephi 9:6. Elder Schmidt and I were pumped.

Priya's family continues to progress. They are amazing. We went over yesterday for Vinod's birthday. They made Biryani. Either my mouth was confused, or it tasted exactly like old Paradise back in Hyderabad. It was delicious. Priya's progression in the gospel has been amazing. I don't know why, but she just understands it perfectly.

I am preparing a talk on sunday. I am addressing the apostasy. I hope that I am able to present the information in such a way that people recognize the need for a restoration. I've noticed that it is not only investigators who don't understand the apostasy. Many members want to follow their old ways still.

I am so glad my parents understand the gospel so well. I never really appreciated it while I lived at home. That is because my testimony was lacking. But now I can see your devotion to the gospel, and the reasons behind it. Words cannot express my gratitude for the example you set concerning your love for the Savior and His gospel.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

18 AUG 09 letter

2009-08-21T14:33:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

I wanted to share a little about one of the less active families we are working with. I have mentioned them before. It is Peter's family. They were baptized awhile back and haven’t been to church in years. We went to visit them on monday evening. The family was in disarray. They have so many conflicts, it was very sad for us to see them in this condition. Granny was begging us to find her a room where she could stay by herself. Peter was saying he had completely given up on God. Anitha was so mad, she feels targeted by the other two. Their boy is deaf and they blame him for many of their problems. We sat and just listened to their problems. They all hate each other. We had no idea what to do. Eventually we had to leave and all I could say was "We love you." I don't know if that helped, but I had no idea what to do or say. We talked about it after we left. In discussion we both determined that their problems were not really a direct result of their inactivity in the church. If they had stayed in the church it is possible that the events could have transpired in the same way. But we came to the conclusion that the present condition of their family was a direct result of their inactivity. Does that make sense? If they had been living the gospel, they would have had adequate tools to help. We just hope that it is not too late for them to come back into the light.

Sri Raj was confirmed and even received the priesthood last sunday. We were so happy for him. It was so cool to see the light in his eyes. It wasn't there a few weeks ago.

Something cool happened at church on sunday. We were standing at the door greeting people as usual. Every week a lot of americans come to church, they are the volunteers out therein Chenglepet. Just like abbey. So the wave of white people came in and I was so astonished to see a friend from school. I had no idea she was even coming here. She was just as surprised to see me. She knew I was serving in India and thought she might see me, but didn't know for sure. Her name is Karly Kimball. It was so tight to see her. Right after sacrament meeting I introduced her to Priya and her family. They loved her. She came out and took them to relief society too. I thought it was so cool. I never would have guessed that my friends from BYU would be giving fellowship to my investigators in Chennai!

My studies continue strengthen my testimony. I have been reading the bible daily, but I have realized how much I miss the book of mormon. So I stopped neglecting it and made sure there was time in my study for both bible and book of mormon study. It has made a difference.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

commit and follow up...

2009-08-15T09:56:00.002-06:00

Dear Family,

I was very glad to hear about Jonathan's ordination. I remember when I was first a deacon. I, too, was scared to pass the sacrament. But the Lord really does strengthen us over time. The picture was nice, everyone looks the same!

This past week was full of excitement. The crowning event would have to be the baptism of Sri Raj. Working with him was such a blessing. Shortly after our first visit with him, we both felt that he was truly prepared. In retrospect I note two factors that influenced his preparation. The first is his intelligence. He was smart and he had a thirst for knowledge, thus the book of mormon was gold to him. The second factor was certain events in his life which brought him into the depths of the humility. Elder Schmidt and I happened to met him at just the right time.

Another brother I had worked with during a transfer also got baptized this past sunday. It was a great sabbath. There are many wonderful things happening in our area. We are discovering the value of following up. We are working with a ton of people and it is easy to lose track of who is supposed to be doing what. We made a companionship goal to be consistent in organization and following up. We found that people are much more likely to keep their commitments with follow up.

We were having trouble getting new missionaries from the states over here. Something was held up with the visas. We just received word that all is good, so I think we will be getting some more Americans in the next week or so. We were all relieved to hear that. It worried us to think that we all might be the last American missionaries over here for a while.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

chapel groundbreaking in Chennai

2009-08-06T07:28:00.002-06:00

Dear Family,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Jono! Congratulations my friend. I am so excited for you. I remember this birthday of mine like it was yesterday. Moving out of primary was the best. All of my friends were older than I was and I remember being so excited to move on up. The best thing is you get the priesthood. I am so excited for you. You and Dad will be able to go to priesthood session together. Make sure that you always take your responsibilities seriously.

This week we were in Ooty. It is a mountain town located in the western gats mountains. It was a strikingly beautiful and it was nice to get out of the city. There was NO pollution and the air was crisp. I was actually cold – I couldn't believe it, but it was a nice trip.

We had been in Coimbatore for two days. We had zone conference there. Chennai is a small zone and there is no chapel so every other zone conference is a multi-zone conference in either Bangalore or Coimbatore. It is a nice city – much smaller than Chennai but they have a pretty chapel there. The trip takes about 7 hours by train and travelling is always fun. We get time to hang out and get to know each other. We got to do some contacting and finding while there and it proved to be very fruitful.

This past saturday was the groundbreaking ceremony for the chapel here in Chennai. It was amazing. I was so touched to see these long time members taking part in the event. Some of these people joined the church in the 80's and have never had the opportunity to worship in a chapel on sunday. They must be so excited. It will be a large building, two floors, underground parking, and three bishops’ offices. Only the first branch will be meeting there. I learned from President Nichols that the Brethren have approved only 5 building plans in all of asia recently. 4 of them are in this mission. Chapels will be built in Sri Lanka, Bangalore, Visak, and Chennai. I think the Brethren have high hopes for this country. And they should.

We met a family about 3 weeks ago that is incredible. Mom and the kids are christian converts. They have a great faith in Jesus Christ and they also have humility. They have been so receptive to the message of the restoration. One of the daughters, Priya (23), has been especially open. She reads more from the book of mormon than we ever ask. They all came to church on sunday and received great fellowship. We plan to meet with them today and are so excited about it.

Last week we were walking to an appointment in Ice House – the place is full of muslims (probably the highest concentration in all of Chennai). When you walk down the street all you see is women in black burkas. Anyway, we were stopped by an older muslim man. Neither of us recognized him but he sure recognized us. He said he knew the church very well and promised to come on sunday. We were skeptical, but he came. Apparently he has been working with our church since the early 80's. He used to help the couple missionaries around and he was so tight with all the old members of the branch. His name was Ali, I'm not sure how seriously he investigated the gospel but we plan to go over there next week. I love teaching Muslims. I also think he is planning to make us beef – it could be the best appointment of my mission.

I try to find common ground with all the people we met with. I realize that there is something fascinating to learn from everyone we met everyday. When I think of it that way, everyday contacts turn out to be a lot more interesting.

My studies are still going great. I am learning much from the Bible and I am continually inspired by the missionary example Paul sets. I love his zeal for the work. I was reading a verse this morning and the people were warning him not to go to jerusalem because he would be killed. He states that he’d be glad to die for Jesus Christ. He had no fear!

Love,
Elder Tuscano

July 30, 2009

2009-08-05T00:39:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

This past week was cool. We have been working with a brother named Ashok for over a month now. He is a deep thinker and gets off topic very easily. With that combination it took over 4 visits to get through the plan of salvation. But he loves it. Actually we just discovered that he was 50. He looks maybe 35 and he used to live in Miami. Anyway My companion and I regard him as our "favorite" investigator.

We have also been working on something as a district here in Chennai 1st. Contacting females. For the first 9 months of my mission I never contacted a girl on the street. Ha I'm not sure why. I never saw other missionaries do it, so neither did I. Maybe its culture, but after talking to some lady members of the branch we all decided it was time to change our ways.

We are going to Coimbatore next week for a multi-zone conference. Also we will do a zone activity in Ooty. Sounds like an interesting week. The heat is on the decline here. The rains are coming in. Not the monsoons, but it has been raining almost everyday. It is nice.

My studies are amazing. I have been reading the book of Acts. It has no become apparent to me why Jesus spent so much time instructing the apostles during his ministry. From what I can tell Peter did a great job leading the church. I love the story of Paul; he is also a great missionary. I am finding joy in my bible reading. I was never familiar with it before, but now I can easily see why it is the foundation of so many christian peoples' faith. But Joseph Smith translation is sick.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

mini miracles

2009-07-22T11:48:00.002-06:00

Dear Family,

This week was really cool. Elder Schmidt and I are continuing to notice the Lord's hand leading and guiding us wherever we go. Something neat happened a few weeks ago. We were at a bus stand in T-Nagar waiting to catch a bus out to Madhu's house. It was evening and the bus was just not coming. Naturally we got impatient and started looking around for things to entertain us while we waited. Just behind the stand was an apartment complex and a volleyball court! We saw a few people playing and decided to join. We played for a little and asked the kids if there were any christians around. They directed us to some houses on the other side of the complex. Right then our bus rolled in so we had to run but we came back another day.

That's when we met Sri Raj. He is a great man. I have never taught someone quite so intelligent yet humble. We met him and introduced our message. He was interested. Two weeks later we were on exchange with the assistants. We went up to his house and met him. We taught the plan of salvation. He had some questions. He ended up sharing a huge story about someone he trusted and loved a lot but was basically emotionally abused by them. He was obviously hurt by the experience. We spoke some comforting words and how this was an experience he could learn from. After a while we both just had nothing to say. I looked down so did Elder Hughes. After a minute or so of straight silence Sri Raj said "So what is baptism?" It was a great experience.

So we had a talent show on saturday night at the church. It was a hoot. We only went for about the last hour but it was a great time. Even we Elders prepared a small talent. We had practiced a little dance to the Michael Jackson song "Beat It." We were the last talent. We got up there and did our skit. They loved it. It was mostly a funny dance because anyone who knows me understands that I am a "funny" dancer, not a good one. So it was like that. But they were giving praise and accolades galore. One day I'll send you the video.

My studies continue to benefit me greatly. I have been reading the book of John. I love more and more the words of Christ. As I read the bible I realize that Christ didn't even baptize everyone he talked to. In fact a ton of the people he taught wanted to kill him...I never realized these things before. He was so bold and confident in speech. Through my studies and personal experiences I am learning more about those people God calls "elect" and "prepared."

Love,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from individual letters to family)

..it is such a miracle to get those cookies from you. Who would have thought that while I was on my mission I would still be enjoying your chocolate chip cookies. Thanks a ton. It really made me happy to think that those cookies were made at home.

We saw the Solar Eclipse this morning. It came here! I have some small photos I might send. We woke up early this morning and went to Besant Nagar beach with all the Elders to watch. It was sweet.

This week we had some really cool spiritual experiences. We are learning more about relying on the spirit and inquiring of the Lord. All of these little things really add up. They are helping me so much. My testimony only increases while I'm out here. There are tough times but these miracles always get us through. And they keep coming.

tender mercy coincidence

2009-07-20T10:32:00.005-06:00

Below is a post from a blog written by Abbey (a friend of Anjuli's who is visiting India with the Rising Star Outreach organization). The branch of our church that she attends in Chennai is the same branch where Josh currently serves!
__________

Well first of all, here is a post for Anj! For those of you who don't know, my friend Anjuli's brother, Josh, is serving a mission here in Chennai. I have never met him but we have been planning this meeting since the day we discovered I was coming to India a month ago. Anj and her mom put together a package for me to take to him at church today. Here is the experience:

I walked in to church with my large "package" for Elder Tuscano and I instantly spotted him scanning for me from the stand. His smile looks identical to Anjuli's so it could not be missed. For some reason I became extremely emotional! Probably because when I said goodbye to Anj she cried and said, "Tell my brother I love him." It was so sweet and it was surreal to see him. Anyway, he waved at me from the stand and I had to wait the entire meeting to talk to him. By the way, the meeting was awesome. This branch has 2 missionaries going out in the next few weeks so they both spoke. It was honestly amazing. Conveniently they speak English in this branch so we understood nearly every word.

I found Josh after the meeting and got to talk to him for a while. He introduced me to some members and I gave him his package which was so nice to get off my hands because I was stressing about it! He was super excited, especially about the homemade cookies :) As we were talking another elder came up and asked if Josh would teach a lesson. he invited Chelsea and I to join his class while the rest of our group went to a young single adult class. The class was fitting for me, all about service. It was so fun to hear Josh teach. A few notes from the lesson that you might enjoy:
- Love is more than a feeling. When we love others, we want to serve them.
-Love doesn't fear, love does what needs to be done
- A list of "small and simple acts of kindness we can do":
1. give good advice
2. don't make problems
3. pick up garbage
4. pray and love the weak
5. have a helping mind

I only add this list because it was hilarious and Josh was literally pulling teeth to get them to suggest things. Everything they said was hard for even him to understand and interpret enough to write something on the board. It was hilarious.

Also, Anj, he talked a lot about your parents and their perfect service to him as their child. He talked about your dad and said that whenever he was having a bad day, your dad would encourage him to serve others and he would therefore feel better.

-Through service we increase our ability to love. When we serve, we grow close to the Lord.

It was a wonderful lesson and made me excited to finally get to the colony where I will be serving the people. In our meetings today we also talked about trying to see the people the way the Lord sees them. I have thought about that a lot coming into this experience and it is something I am trying hard to focus on. Though I have not encountered it yet, I am hoping I can see beyond the bodies and deformities of these people and see them as children of God.

I was so happy to go the church here in India and once again realize that the gospel is the same no matter where you are and that there are incredible members all over the world. Luckily I found out we will be attending that ward again next Sunday. Josh says he has things to send back with me that he didn't have today so that worked out well. It was such a neat experience to meet and talk to Elder Tuscano. He is darling and made me miss my dear friend Anj!

Posted by Abbey on July 19, 2009 9:25 AM

Anjuli said...
what can i say...i cry at everything. i can't even believe how amazing this whole thing is :) i knew you and josh would be instant friends. i am so happy right now and so proud of both of you!! i hope you are getting some sleep!! i love you!!

Posted by Anjuli on July 19, 2009 11:59 AM

gratitude, blessings, miracles...

2009-07-15T08:08:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

This past week was zone conference and it was incredible. President Nichols talked about how to recognize and understand the spirit. I had always been somewhat confused about specific experiences and whether or not the spirit was involved. I'm sure many people wonder the same thing. As I listened to President share experiences from his life I realized many things that I hadn't before. One major thing I realized was this; the more important the question we ask is, the more quickly Father in Heaven answers it.

We have been working with a sweet family. The father's name is Peter and his wife is Anita. They have a young son named John and he is deaf. Also Peter's Mom lives with the family. They are from Vietnam, but Anita is Tamilian. Peter and his Mom got baptized in our church many years ago and virtually haven't been since that time. His wife is a convert to christianity. But after certain trials in her life she had turned back to her hindu traditions. She wondered most why God would give her a deaf son. She asked us that question last week. I had NO idea what to say. But something told me to ask, what have you learned from this experience? She was then able to realize something significant about God and his purpose. We have been working slowly and teaching for understanding. But we both feel good about her and this family. With a lot of prayer and faith I think we can bring them ALL back to church.

We went out to the village on friday. Madhu has some family friends out there who wanted us to offer a prayer or something. Language problems often leave us in the dark. Details are hard to come by out here. So we make the journey to the village and it was sick. Ha we got to help some aunties make biryani. They cook in these massive pots. You just sort of throw all the ingredients in the pot and close the lid. Elder Schmidt loved it. I will send some pictures of the experience. We then had to offer a small prayer for the people there. The lady who was running the show was really nice. I think she was from the pentecostal church, but she spoke perfect english which was really a surprise to us.

We continue to see the hand of the Lord guiding us in our daily work. Little miracles keep occurring. We realize that as we express our gratitude for the blessings we receive, the Lord sends us more. What a concept! Anyway the studies are great and I find joy in feasting upon the words of the scriptures.

Love you all,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from individual letters to family)

I am doing my best to serve with all I have. There are setbacks and a lot of obstacles. But I have realized that as I trust in the Lord none of those things matter. I might not have the most baptisms, but I feel that the service I have rendered thus far has been accepted by our father in heaven. That’s really all that matters to me.

So one thing I wish I would have done before coming out here was go on exchange with the missionaries. We were encouraged to do that during my senior year but I just was not interested at the time. That’s too bad for me. This week we took an american who was visiting chennai on exchange. He is 18 and about to leave on his mission. We took him to an appointment friday night. I think it was a cool experience for him. I wish I would have done more of that.

First 4th of July in India...

2009-07-11T17:12:00.000-06:00

Dear Family,

Top of the morning! We met with a former investigator named Steven Raj this past friday evening. I had never seen him before; I hadn't even seen his teaching record. We met him at the church in Nandanam. We chatted and I was trying to gauge his level of understanding and even more just the lessons which he had been taught by the elders before. After we said the prayer I had no idea what I was going to teach the man. Something in my head was just like 3 Nephi 27. I didn't wait. We opened the scriptures and read. Pretty soon in the lesson we realized the man needed a baptismal date. We challenged and he accepted. It was a cool experience. Actually he didn't come to church sunday or answer our phone calls. Not uncommon behavior for investigators in this place, but I'm sure we'll talk to him soon.

Last night we met a sweet family. The other day we were finding in a place called T-Nagar. Elder Schmidt said that it had been tracted out but we still gave it a go. As we were walking down the street Elder Schmidt randomly asked a watchman if there were christians in the complex. He didn't have a clue what we were saying, but took us to the first door, a hindu woman who spoke english and directed us to a christian door in the back. We scheduled an appointment with the man's daughter. He has a crazy story. Born christian, but converted hindu...Ha I made him tell me that like 3 times because it’s completely backwards. The only direction for a convert starts with hindu and moves to christian. Anyway, he converted back to Christianity. He attends the AG church which is the biggest church in Chennai. They have a great concept like home teaching. We shared a little world history with him starting with Adam and going through the line of prophets. At first we thought he might be contentious but he was surprisingly humble. At the end he said he has a lot to learn from us. Ha I'll be sure to keep you updated on that.

I have been continuing my bible study. This morning I was reading in Luke, the parable of the prodigal son. I never before saw the light it shed on the concept of repentance. I understood a little more about Heavenly Father's position in this process. I've realized that having the spirit while you study is so important. I learn so much more when I feel the Holy Ghost.

That’s all for this week. Love you.

Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from individual letters to family)

Happy 4th! We did as much as we could to celebrate. Whenever people asked us where we come from we made sure to tell them that it’s independence day there. Then we ate lunch at the american restaurant called Gallopin Gooseberry's. They had beef hamburgers. It was a day of days.

Before I came on a mission I had no idea what to really expect. You know people tell stories about their missions and how much they loved the experience. But I never really understood what they meant. I can't express how grateful I am for the opportunity to serve one myself. I could listen to people relate experiences from their service all day, but in the end it would not do much for me. I have already seen the benefits of doing this, and I trust that the Lord will continue to bless me now and throughout my life if I serve him faithfully. I can't imagine moving forward with my life without having that kind of assurance.

still hot...

2009-07-01T08:21:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

Things in chennai are still really hot. Everyone said that it cools down about the middle of june... but not this year. I remember when I used to take of my pads off after football practice. They smelled so strongly of sweat; when I take of my shirt at the end of the day here it smells the same!

Madhu is moving right along. He actually moved this past week into the farthest reaches of our area. Clear out in a village like place. I've spent the past 8 months in downtown city. It was kinda nice to get out there and see some grass. But after we taught we sang the spirit of god and he LOVED it. At the part when we sing hosanna he joined in. He wants to sing it every time we visit. I've really enjoyed working with him because of his humility – it really is a strength.

We went to a marriage last night. I am growing to love Indian weddings more and more (mostly because of the food). There were a ton of people waiting for the bride and groom in the banquet hall. But they were taking forever, so they just pulled out the banana leaves and started eating dinner. It was late, so we ate and rolled. We didn’t even get a chance to see the couple...

I've been continuing my studies in that wonderful book we call the Bible. I am becoming more impressed with the teachings of our savior. I love the parables, and I also love his ability to be bold. He was not afraid of anyone, but he did it in a silent confident manner. That is something I hope to learn more about.

Anyway that’s about it for this week. Love you all.

Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from individual letters to family)

I want to thank you for writing me every week. I know you are busy and have a lot of things on your mind. There are elders who have little brothers your age and they hardly write them. I feel so happy to know that you are a consistent writer.

I love telling people about my roots – it always surprises them. It’s incredible how my ethnic background is a culmination of the major faiths here in India.

I am trying to understand how the time passes out here. Sometimes it’s fast sometimes it’s slow. Some days are better than others. We have been doing a lot of walking in the sun lately and at the end of the day I'm just exhausted.

I am so glad that I have this opportunity to become acquainted with your culture. I feel that it is now a part of me. I am starting to learn tamil with more resolve. By the time I get back I hope to be fluent.

it's true...

2009-06-24T07:13:00.001-06:00

Dearest Family,

It’s great to hear from you all this week. I was especially excited to find out that Anjuli was able to make it to Janet's baptism. I would have never imagined that someone I taught would be getting baptized on the campus at BYU. Crazy! Teaching her was an incredible experience; her perspective was so relative to me. She understands the culture in Utah and I was able to prepare her somewhat for some things she might experience as a member of the church there. I feel really blessed to have been a part of that.

This past week was great. Kevin's family came to church. I keep meaning to take pictures of them and send, but always forget. Can you imagine that? They are excellent. The grandpa and granny don’t speak english. But grandpa has a rock solid testimony of the book of mormon. We were there last week and I asked him if he knew that the book of mormon was true. "It's true. It's true. It's true" was his reply (In tamil of course)! But the progress being made in that family is incredible. For their age and weakness, just seeing them make the journey to church on sunday morning is a miracle.

We have been working with a brother named Madhu. He is hilarious, we love him. SO humble. We were over there a few weeks ago and we also asked him if he had a testimony of the book of mormon. He said yes. Then we asked him how he knew, he opened to the first page of 1st Nephi, verse 3. Nephi says that he knows this record is true, so Madhu says know it’s true because Nephi said! We taught him word of wisdom yesterday, he said he did not know any exercise so we made him get on the ground and we showed him how to do sit-ups and push-ups.

My studies have been full of insight lately. I was reading today in mark about a young man who was possessed by a devil. The apostles tried to heal him and it didn’t work. Jesus came down and did the job. Later his apostles asked why they couldn’t do it. He said it took "prayer and fasting." I was reading Jesus the Christ also, and Talmage says that this applies to us also. Sometimes when we have a favorite sin or indulgence we can’t overcome, the only way to do it is through prayer and fasting. I am continually amazed at the modern application of the Savior's teachings.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

one in a million miracle...

2009-06-17T09:04:00.002-06:00

Dear Family,

It sounds like the weather in old St Geezy is not too bad. Enjoy it. They say it cools down here after may here...and maybe it has. But I haven't noticed it. How cool it is that you met Elder Schmidt's grandparents! I have known about them since the MTC but I didn’t know they were in the 7th ward. It is weird, the more time I spend out here, the more little things I forget about home... irrelevant things like street names, ward boundaries… it’s kinda funny.

Elder Schmidt and I are having a great time serving together. This is one of the most enjoyable times of my mission so far. Not that it has not all been good, but now I'm really living it up. We took Jeremiah on exchange last night and it was amazing. I always thought he was sort of shy and I was a bit apprehensive to take him on exchange. But we were teaching him about missionary work last night. We had an appointment the next street over and asked him to come. It was SICK! He was money and not shy. He was honestly one of the best member exchanges I've taken. He was resolving concerns, testifying and promising blessings. It was so neat for me to see that happen.

I want to share an incredible experience. We have been in a companionship threesome the past two days with our boy Elder Naulu. On Monday, we were running a little late. We had to catch an auto from a far place in our area back to our apartment. The whole night Elder Naulu was carrying his bag around with him for the exchange (valuable goods inside). Anyway, the auto dropped us outside of our apartment at 9:29pm. We stopped to buy biscuits at the store for breakfast and Elder Naulu realized that he left his bag in the auto (which was long gone). Now just to put things in perspective, there are about million autos in Chennai... once he told me he forgot his bag I knew the chances of finding it were low. The only thing I suggested, and it was immediate, was that he'd better pray and ask for a miracle. We walked around the streets for a few minutes looking to see if the drive stopped nearby. No Chance. My logic started taking over, I thought maybe we could go back to that part in our area and see if he returned. Out of any ideas, all the chances of actually finding the bag were really low. It was 9:40 and we knew we should be in the apartment, but he needed his bag. We stopped in the middle of the street and I prayed. I asked for guidance and as soon as I said Amen, Elder Naulu said we gotta get in the apartment. We didn’t question, we just rolled. We got in the apartment and planned for about 15 minutes. Then the doorbell rang. I must admit, I was actually expecting this. Two guys were standing there trying to say "bag" in english. We went downstairs and there was the auto guy with his bag. I learned from the experience, obedience really comes first. Sometimes we have to step into the dark with it. We were obedient to the spirit and almost immediately – a miracle! Through faithful obedience we can expect miracles.

That story took up a ton… I love my studies. I’m learning more about the mysteries of Godliness. I have become really attached to Doctrine and Covenants section 88.

Love you all,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from individual letters to family)

Things out here are sweet. We have a huge area now and we spend a lot of time on buses. Here you have to run and jump to catch them and jump off when they are still going. This is a pretty athletic mission bro, so you better prepare yourself.

My companion and I were so pumped to hear that our families were chilling together in STG. It is cool that at home you can have that connection. I may be far away for now, but it doesn’t really feel like it.

Raja helped us out this week, our fridge was broken and he sent one of his boys to come fix it. It’s so cool having cousins up the road.

Thanks for the advice about charity and showing people that I care. It is such a true principle. I try to show them and I know that when they know we care then they will keep their commitments.

You're right; there are a ton of people to learn from and to emulate. I have been trying my best to do that throughout my mission and it has helped.

Our new area is huge and we are just trying to figure out how to travel in it and meet everyone. It’s fun though, and I love serving with Elder Schmidt.

companion change...

2009-06-10T10:36:00.002-06:00

Dear Family,

This past week was transfers and we got a surprise. Elder Bhagwat got the call to Visak and another Elder named Cunningham also. Till now we had 4 companionships here in Chennai 1st. But they just reduced the number to 3. So... my new companion is Elder Schmidt. He is my batch mate. I was so surprised to hear that I would be serving with him. We both have to combine our areas now, so it should be an interesting experience. Needless to say, I am pumped to be serving with my boy from the MTC. We have been around each other so far in our missions, but I never thought we'd be companions. His grandparents live in St. George.

The work in our area continues to explode. We had a baptism this past week. I had the opportunity to perform it. Jeremiah was one of the most prepared individuals I have ever met. While his life has been very difficult for him and his family, it was incredible to see the peace the gospel has brought into his life. Teaching him was, and is a treat. Hopefully someday in the future, he will open a branch up there in Nagaland.

We also have been working with Kevin and his family. They are incredible! Basically, this past week Kevin asked when he could be baptized a member of this church. The only problem is they have strong loyalty ties to another church and they don’t see the importance of going to our church every week. Other than that they are ready to go…

We met with Prakash and his wife Annie. I think I told you about them, he has been a smoker for 20 plus years. We have been working with him, but not too much progress over the past three months. He is a great man and my companion loves that family so much. It was nice to be there with my companion before he was transferred. We planned to watch a DVD about temples, but it didn’t work, so I had the “reflections of Christ” DVD also. I don’t know if there was divine intervention involved but the lesson we had was incredible. We just bore our sincere testimonies of the savior. My goal in the lesson was to put a smile on Annie’s face. She always seems so down. And we did! So I was pumped, and I think it gave them a little more encouragement to have faith in the atonement.

I spent the past week studying the last few chapters in the book of Matthew. It has been quite the ride – especially chapters 26 and 27. I never really took much time and studied them. The story itself is a miracle. But I was so impressed with the strength of the savior throughout the experience. As I think about my trials and worries compared to His I really get a new perspective. Elder Holland was right when he mentioned in his recent conference talk that the surrounding circle he had got smaller and smaller. But he stayed strong. That example means everything to me.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from individual letters to family)

I’m excited to get started on a new transfer but I’m just a little worried because of area splits. My area may be given almost completely to two new elders. Now my companion and I are trying to work out a compromise so that we can keep some of my area. It would be tough to just hand over all our good investigators. But whatever happens will happen. I'll be happy no matter what.

I have not tried the brownies yet. In fact, the reason I asked was because there are some members in our area who wanted brownies but did not have an oven. Actually his name is ruskin and he is a returned missionary. His father had been sick for a long time. This past Sunday, we went there and gave him a blessing. I said that he would have peace and gain joy in knowing where he would go. He is not a member. I told Ruskin to talk to him immediately about the plan of salvation. He was sick and basically incoherent. He died two days later. We went to see ruskin and he told us how after we left on sunday he explained the plan to his dad. His felt that his dad understood and felt peace, and started to act normal. I have seen the spirit do things through me that I had no idea were possible. I am out here counseling all kinds of people and, in reality I have no experience or any idea what they are going through. But I always know what to tell them. Crazy, huh?

I have been thinking a lot about my mission lately. I have been trying to give it my all. Be obedient and work hard. I have seen success, but I want to be better. Are there any suggestions or insights you have from your mission experiences about improving yourself as a missionary?

study, spirt, strength

2009-06-03T09:31:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

It is still burning up on the streets of chennai but we are lovin it. You can sometimes wring out your tie at the end of the day!

This past week was great. The fifth sundays here are "missionary" sundays and we were in charge of the sacrament meeting. It was pretty fun; we sang a song together as a district, missionaries gave talks and I was the chorister. Anyway, everything at church is fine except for attendance. This branch is huge on paper, but not that many are coming to church. It’s been said the reason is the holidays and because people are out of station. But those days are coming to a close pretty soon here so we'll see how valid that reason proves to be. I hope it does.

Jeremiah is doing so great. I told you about him. I talked with President Nichols about him this past week. He keeps all his commitments and is prepared for baptism. But his family lives in that dangerous area of India called Nagaland. So I was on exchange with Elder Siyyadri (ever heard that name before – he was my first companion and now home from his mission) and we talked to him about how joining the church is a life long commitment and about how it should be a determining factor as to which places he chooses to settle down if he wants to be near the church. I was impressed at the strength of his testimony, because he knows this is right. He committed to live in an area of the country where the church is. I was very excited to see his sincerity. I understand that he is 19 and nothing is set in stone, but he understands the importance of the restored gospel.

We have been spending more time than usual working with people who struggle with the word of wisdom. We taught a few lessons to people in the past week that were actually under the influence at the time. It was amazing to notice how when we were just talking to them, we did not have much control over the situation. But as soon as we said a prayer and started teaching, the power of the spirit became extremely evident. Those people became completely subdued and listened intently to every word we spoke. I have truly gained a stronger testimony this past week about the power the spirit has.

My studies have been great lately. I have been spending some time reading the parables in Matthew. They are amazing. I find that as I read and study from the bible and keep the book Jesus the Christ open beside it, I learn so much more. I was reading today from the 22nd chapter of matthew and came across a parable I'd never studied – the marriage of the king’s son. There are some amazing implications in that parable. I was especially intrigued by the concept that we all have to "put on" the wedding garment to enter the kingdom. You should check it out.

I’ve grown to know more about other denominations of christianity since coming on the mission. I remember dad showed me that chart which told about different beliefs of christian sects. No one else believed pre-mortal existence right? How is that possible? Revelation is pretty plain in explaining it…

Anyway, all is well and I'm lovin my time here in Mom's hometown.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

chennai is hot...

2009-05-27T11:09:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

As always it has been a pleasure to hear from you all. The wednesday e-mail session gives the week a boost for me. I am sorry I may have been confusing in my explanation of my visit with our family last week. I was in a hurry as usual, and sadly I did not take my camera that night. I plan on seeing them sometime this next week, probably tuesday. At that time, I will surely bring my camera and hold a photo shoot.

This past week was great. Chennai is not getting much cooler, but the work is about as hot as the weather. We have been blessed, like I was in Hyderabad, with many people to teach. The Lord has truly been mindful of us and led us to different families who have been "prepared" to receive the message of the gospel. The hard part of missionary work is helping them SEE that they have been prepared for this.

Yesterday we met a guy named Prakash. He was contacted a few months back by the elders here. He has a big problem with drinking. He is married and has a son. When we went yesterday, he was a little past tipsy. We sat down for a while and he started telling us how bad his life was and how much he disliked his wife. I felt bad because his wife was sitting right next to him. She doesn’t speak english, but I'm sure she could get a feel for the conversation. He was going off saying tons of ridiculous stuff. I was just looking around and didn’t know what to think. I kind of wanted to leave, feeling as though I should not be there. But then I remembered when Christ said the healthy have no need of a physician, but it is the sick that he visits. Yeah, that was perfectly applicable in this situation. The whole time he was going off, my companion was trying to read from 3 Nephi 14 about how they can fix their marital problems. But it didn’t go too far. I was just waiting. Then all of a sudden the spirit took over. I was led to say a ton of stuff. It was all way good and none of it came from me. The spirit helped us take control of the situation and help him understand that his marriage was failing because of him, not his wife. I feel bad for his wife. Anyway, we set a return appointment on sunday and he is really excited for it. He has a desire to change, but we will see how sincere it really is over time. I hope everything turns out well for this guy, mostly because I feel sorry for his wife and the future of his son.

We are teaching Jeremiah and he is getting closer to his baptism. He is doing so well. He comes to church early and even takes notes in gospel essentials class. I love seeing people who have a real desire to learn and change. These are the kind of people who are elect.

I have been spending some time studying the parable in Jacob 5 about the house of Israel. Actually, I have nothing profound or spiritual to share about it this week. But it is interesting and there is a lot to it. If any of you know a lot about this parable I would love for you to shed some light on it. I am nervous because I have to sing a duet with another missionary at sacrament on sunday. I never sang at home. But I am spending a lot of time singing out here. I am growing to love it, but still pretty nervous to do it in front of people.

Anyway, by and large this week was a success. Chennai is the place to be in the mission right now (no political problems). It’s all good.

Love ya'll,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from individual letters to family)

Tamil is coming along; it is actually really difficult compared to Telegu. The sounds you have to make while speaking are difficult and there are a lot of characters in the alphabet. I will try. Most of our investigators are actually from Kerala. I don’t know why that is. They are christians and that is who we find. But, I will try harder to learn this language as I go. Most of the men we talk with speak English. I do feel badly for not being able to converse in Tamil with the women because most of the indian women we talk with do not speak English.

So it sounds like the memorial day block party was a success. I remember going to that thing, it was always fun and the neighborhood had a good time. I was just thinking about what the outcome of a neighborhood block party in India would be. I honestly don’t think it would be pretty – the muslims on the corner would probably be avoiding the hindus up the street, who would be busy try to insult the christians next door, but I am glad that in shadow mountain everyone is CHILL.

I am glad for scouting and young men’s activities. While I might have been less than excited to participate during the time, I am happy to have the memories now. It seems that way with a lot of things in my life.

It is cool to hear that the St. George visitor center is starting the "Why I Believe” firesides like the ones at the DC visitor center. I always loved them. I planned to do it in Hyderabad, but I got transferred before the date. I plan to start them here in chennai. Nearly everyone in India is a convert and the have some pretty incredible stories. I want to get it started because I feel it will strengthen the members, and also provide our investigators with inspiration.

first visit with relatives

2009-05-20T07:31:00.002-06:00

Dear Family,

It was great to hear from you all and it sounds like time is just flying by back home in the STG. I must admit, I feel the same way about time here in Chennai.

So, first things first. I spent the evening last night with Raja (note: Raja is a very close cousin of Usha). It was a great time! My companion and I somehow found their home without too much trouble. They live in 2nd branch area, but in an auto it is only about 30 minutes travel time. It was wonderful finally meeting them. I met Raja's wife Geetha and his mom, Saradha (she only speaks tamil, so I'm going to have to learn quickly in order to communicate with her). It was so fun to be there, they fed us idly and sambar. And yes mom, it did taste familiar. I felt so happy to be there. Raja and Geetha are both amazing. They showed me pictures of Sita and Curtis when they came to visit. They said they had a great time with them and were impressed with curtis’ ability to adjust to the culture. So a big congratulations goes out to big uncle curtis for embracing the indian ways. They also showed me photos of Mom and Dad when they came here for young ambassadors... Dad, you look great in a doti. Ha

We have an investigator here by the name of Jeremiah. He comes from a place in India called Assam. I actually don’t have a clue where that is. But, north is my guess... His family now lives in a place called Nagaland. Apparently in that area of the country people live in tribes and they are all christian and are constantly fighting. His family had to flee their home for saftey. They are in a different place now, but Jeremiah lives in Chennai and works as a cook. He is so prepared for the gospel. Every time we meet him he accepts and keeps the commitments we extend. He obviously had a difficult life but the gospel, and especially the principle of repentance, is working a marvelous change in him. He is preparing for baptism. We have to talk to the Branch President because he has a little bit of a "unique" situation.

There is another family we are working with, I can’t remember if I told you about them yet. The son is Kevin and he lives with his mom and grandparents. Basically only kevin knows english. The grandfather has been reading the book of mormon in Tamil daily though and expressed to us recently that he feels he is "learning the gospel for the first time." We bring a member for exchange and do some translation while teaching. But this week I talked with Kevin's mother during the lesson. She is very sad and stressed because her husband left her and kevin alone. She has a job as a teacher and is worried that she won’t be able to support herself and Kevin. She feels bad because she has to live with her parents. I bore my testimony to her about the gift of the holy ghost and how he can help us overcome our trials and sorrows. She expressed to me that she didn’t know much about feeling the spirit and I told her about receiving that gift after baptism. She really understood the concept, even though a huge language barrier was there. Further proof to me that the spirit speaks in a language that is universal.

One last thing... something I gleaned from my gospel study this week – actually, today. I read a line in the Preach My Gospel manual. It was in a story from a convert and he made a statement: "We know who we worship." I felt strongly about that. Here there are many people who worship Gods they know little or nothing about. I am so grateful for modern day revelation and scriptures which testify of the nature of our loving Heavenly Father. And for prayer, so we can build an intimate relationship with him.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from individual letters to family)

Mom, it was great to meet our family. You know I always knew we had family in Chennai, but until yesterday that was an abstract statement. Now I actually have met them and enjoyed spending time with them. It was a miracle that we were able to find their house so easily. The Lord really guided us there. Raja is so funny and I can tell that he is Alagu's brother.

Hey dad, you looked like a natural Indian in those pictures! Raja thinks highly of you and told me how much he enjoyed spending time with you when you came to India. I couldn’t believe that I was looking at pictures of you on the streets I walk on every day. Crazy, right?

I have developed some goals, but I like how you said to look specifically at your ultimate goal and make little goals each week to try and achieve. I will work on that. Having a goal makes doing hard work a lot more meaningful.

Mother's Day

2009-05-13T17:54:00.000-06:00

Dear Family,

It was great to hear from you all on the phone on Mother’s Day. Everyone sounds good, just like you did when I left. Jonathan's voice is getting a little deeper so it was good to hear that. I am so happy to hear that everyone is doing well. I think it is incredible how much Heavenly Father has blessed our family as of late.

I'm writing from the mission office in Bangalore. The past two days have been a great time. We had a great zone conference yesterday. It was about goals. I realized that I didn’t really have any good specific goals. Like there were certain things I wanted to accomplish on my mission but I never really considered it so deeply. Now I have been thinking a lot about specific goals that I can set for myself. I know that a good goal will help me be a lot more productive.

Chennai is wonderful. It is not cooling down anytime soon, but I am just getting used to it now. We are working with a wonderful family; the father's name is Prakash. He has been smoking for the past 20 years or something. They have been teaching him for months, but never came to church. This past week his wife and children came. It was so good to see them there. They had a great experience and I feel so good about them. Prakash has some financial problems and his word of wisdom is obviously an issue, but I strongly feel that with the strength of the Lord he will overcome these problems. That’s all for this week.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

chennai arrival

2009-05-06T09:29:00.002-06:00

Dearest Family,

This email is coming to you directly from the heart of Chennai baby. I arrived on friday morning last week. After walking through the airport doors to the open air here, it was not more than 3 minutes before my body was wetter than my shower that morning. It is hot here and it is humid. Mom mentioned that my timing to be here was perfect and she was right. Starting on the 4th of May till the 18th of May is a period of time they call "Karthri." Or in other words, the two weeks of time when most people die because it’s too hot. Ha but I am coping.

I really feel so blessed to be here. It is weird to say it, but this place really does comfortable. I always felt drawn here, especially since I arrived in India. But, being here is such an amazing experience. I love knowing that, in a way, this is my hometown. People are so surprised when I tell them that my Mom is from here. I love holding them in suspense when they ask my origin. I always tell them about Dad first and how he is Italian and Arab, then, while they are still trying to sort that out in their minds, I drop the Chennai bomb on them. It’s funny to see their faces.

The branch here is great, I am serving in the first branch and it has a huge membership. There are a lot of active and less active members in our area. So we have a lot of work to do here. I am just trying to sort out all of the people we have on our plates down here. Since this was my first transfer ever I didn’t really know what to expect. Getting to know a new area is difficult. Learning all the people, places, and members here is a big task. But the Lord is helping me out – my mind is clear and I am focused.

I would tell you all about the investigators we are working with, but I don’t have that great of a handle on the situation yet. I have not seen the majority so far. I will give you that update next week. Everything is going great, Chennai is an amazing city and I am looking forward to spending some time serving here.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

first transfer

2009-04-29T07:16:00.003-06:00

Dear Family,

I am so, so sorry but this week is going to be a really short email. It is 5:27pm and I still have to get a haircut before P-Day ends at 6. I wrote you a nice email, but it was lost, again. Actually I have spent the majority of today in the FRO (note from parents: we think FRO is the Foreigners Registration Office) because I am getting transferred... TO CHENNAI (the area where Usha was born and the majority of her parents’ family live)! Can you believe it? I was astonished. I could only think about Mom when I found out. How happy are you Mom? I am so excited. I am going to do my best to light it up down there for you Mom.

I am going to be serving with a guy named Elder Bagwhat. He is half-indian too. He was a senior at Stanford university and a convert of just a year. I am going to be serving as his senior companion. I bet he is really intellectual. I hope that he doesn't think I am dumb.

This week was really great. There are a lot of families that are going to be baptized soon in my area and I am really excited to have that happen.

This week has been hard, too – knowing that I am leaving Hyderabad. It’s crazy how you grow to love people.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

gratitude and perspective

2009-04-22T16:29:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

I have noticed something incredible in the past week. A principle that I wish I would have discovered long ago. Gratitude. I have been trying to spend more time reflecting on things that happen out here. As I do this, it becomes increasingly more clear just how much the Lord intervenes in this work. And in my life. I noticed that as I make a concerted effort to express my gratitude each day, the Lord just sends more. Its an amazing concept.

This past week was one of the best in my entire mission. Things were really tough the past month or so because of our situation. It was tough to find families to teach. I began to plead somewhat with the Lord, to somehow give us people to teach. That is exactly what happened. Through former investigators we had, referrals, and a little creativity we are now teaching quite a few good families.

One brother named Prem, whom we had never met before this past Sunday, made a huge sacrifice to come to church. Apparently he had been doing some work in a village about 4 hours away from Hyderabad. We did not know this information, but we called and invited him to church. On sunday he was there, he met with us after and shared how he has left the village at like 3 in the morning just to come to church. He is an amazing brother and I am sure that he will soon be a member of this church.

We have been working with the brother of a member lately. His name is Hilkias and he is such a good man. He is about 24 I think. He used to live in Bangalore, but recently moved back to H-town. We taught him for awhile but he was not showing much interest. He wouldn’t come to church either. We dropped him. Last week we went back and read from the book of mormon with him. Something had changed; he came to church and also started reading the chapters we assigned him. He came to church two weeks in a row and two days ago he bore his testimony to us. We set him for baptism in two weeks, if I am around to see that I'll be real happy.

There are so many good things happening here now. It is amazing to see what a little resiliency can do for an area. This area is looking the best it has since I got here. I am so grateful this week for the blessings that have been given to us. Also, my study has led me to some interesting conclusions lately. I have been thinking about perception. How everyone perceives the world around them differently. Then I think about how God sees the world. He sees it how it really is. He sees the truth. The only way for us to see the world like that is to be continuing in his word and allow the truth to set us free. Check out D&C 93:24 and John 8:31-32.

Love ya,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from individual letters to family)

Thanks a lot for including the information about our syrian family. They sound like a really hard working and faithful family. Islamic people continue to impress me. Their faith is incredible. The women especially, I don’t know how they get through the heat out here in their full burkas! Faith has got to be the only explanation. They really are a wonderful people with a beautiful culture. I am proud to be a quarter muslim. I tell people that all the time.

A typical day is like this. Usually we try to have some appointments in the morning. If not we go to the church and do some study. But we really try to have somewhere to go. Then lunch and back out to some appointments. In the afternoon we usually go to members houses because no one is really awake. Everyone takes huge naps in the middle of the day. At night we are somehow full booked with appointments. Such a blessing. So what you can understand from this is we go to appointments only. We still don’t wear ties or tags or talk to people outside. But President Nichols said that the restrictions would be progressively removed over the next two months.

Pictures I have been taking, sorry for not sending more home. I usually forget my camera at the flat. I will try to get some to you next week ok. And the CD will come, I am just waiting to get some more. So sorry for being bad about this, I'll try harder.

shortened message...

2009-04-16T07:52:00.000-06:00

Dearest Family,

I am distraught right now because I worked really hard and formulated an exquisite letter to the family but went I sent it I got signed out of my account. The letter is gone. Man it was so good. The sad thing is now I have hardly any time to write. So let me do my best to get a watered down version of the things I said.

General Conference was amazing. We received so many blessings this week. Most of our investigators came to conference, which was especially nice because we have always had a little trouble getting investigators to church. The opportunity our investigators had to receive the messages of living prophets and apostles will be a huge blessing to them.

Our investigators are all doing well and progressing at their own rate. The work continues to move forward in our area. Murthy and his wife are making a lot of progress. The result of following the spirit in the lesson with them allowed me to understand that they both needed to be baptized together. So we withheld the planned invitation for baptism to Murthy. We are going to have them both baptized together in a while. She finally opened her mouth and expressed her concerns about leaving hinduism. It was a wonderful experience.

I have learned many lessons recently I wanted to share, but it will have to wait till next week cause I still need to e-mail anj and mary. But all is well with me. The Lord continues to bless my life every day.

I love you all and hope you have a good week,
Elder Tuscano

the work moves forward...

2009-04-08T09:15:00.005-06:00

Dear Family,

We get to watch the sessions of conference on saturday and sunday. I can honestly say that I've never been so excited to hear the words of the apostles and prophets. Here I am proclaiming the good news to people in India that we have a prophet on the earth and General Conference is the outward expression to the world of this truth. I'm so excited to sit down and indulge myself in some spiritual refreshment (note from family: if you never watched a General Conference or want to know a little more about it, click here).

This week was a great one. We met a wonderful family on sunday afternoon. They were a referral that we received from the elders out here in the 4th branch. They were teaching this man, Jason Babu's brother. They are all very smart and well educated. It is so lovely to teach people with proficient english. The language barrier consistently presents a problem. But not with this family. They were so excited to hear the message of the restoration. The father graciously accepted our invitation to read the book of mormon. I have a great feeling about this family. I am pretty sure their brother is preparing for his baptism out there in fourth branch, so we'll see if we can’t get his brother's family to follow suit in the second branch.

There is a little incident that happened a week ago from today, its kind of humorous actually. My new district leader, elder ward, and his companion elder mickelson, were walking to their area from our church. They were along walking along a busy road and a man on a scooter drove by. The scooter slowed down and the man reached out his hand and whacked elder mickelson on the back of the head. He proceeded to park his scooter and hopped off. He ran at the companionship while screaming telegu. Mickelson saw a bus crawling along beside him and took no thought, he jumped on the bus. Leaving his companion behind, the telegu guy tried to smack elder ward too, but he blocked it. Then the guy reached down for a huge rock, Elder Ward did not stick around to see what he planned to do with it. He sprinted the other direction. Anyway, the guy got confused and didn’t know how to react. The missionaries may have split up, but in doing so, they kept the disturbance to a minimum. Had they loitered, a mob could have formed and the situation could have escalated into something much worse. Anyway, there continues to be disturbances by certain groups of people here but the work moves forward...

Anyway that’s about all for this week.

Love you,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from individual letters to family)

There really is so much joy to be found in serving others. I never realized that before. I bet you wish that I would have though. It was great to hear that you enjoyed conference so much.

Brother Atun is really a great guy. His questions are so good and he is so happy when we answer them. When he prays, he always expresses his gratitude for our ability to answer his questions. We look forward to helping him enter the waters of baptism.

We are going to make sure we get a ton of investigators to attend conference this weekend. It will be so good for them to actually see the prophet.

It is interesting to see how the work continues to move forward here. I am gaining a testimony of working through members and other missionaries. Referrals are great! I am almost glad that we cannot find. I am urged to be more creative and use the resources around me. They prove to be better anyway. I am learning a lot about finding people to teach.

preparation, faith, results

2009-04-01T09:25:00.001-06:00

Dear Family,

How is everybody? Wednesday mornings are always a treat. Receiving email from home is a great experience for me. This week was great. The way we work has changed a little, but the spirit has not changed a bit. It is wonderful visiting with the members, as we build relationships with them there always seem to be referrals that follow.

This week we met with a new brother named Atun, he is the cousin-brother of an investigator the sister missionaries are teaching. Their family comes from northern India somewhere, but I'm not exactly sure which place. Anyway, he is a very interesting guy. As soon as we sat down to meet with him he started asking questions. His main concern was how we can gain salvation. We were pretty stoked to hear that. We taught him a little and gave him Alma 42 to study. We went back a few days later and he had created an entire page of notes and more questions to ask. That morning I had been studying 3 Nephi 27. During the course of our discussion a question of his came up, he basically asked, how do we clean our soul? Automatically I flipped open to that chapter and gave him verses 19 and 20. They tell us how to wash our garments through the blood of christ. Anyway, this brother does not have the best english but he definitely understood that verse. He was so happy to have his questions answered. I feel good about him.

Last night we met with a sister in our branch. Her name is Sister Sirisha, she is 1st counselor in the relief society. She served a mission and is one of the greatest strengths in the branch. She has had a difficult life and a very bad relationship with her father who left the family a few years back. She was having a lot of trouble. She claimed that God didn’t love her. She thought that according to her patriarchal blessing she had already fulfilled her purpose on the earth by serving a mission. We urged her not to think like that. But last night I really experienced the spirit of discernment. For some reason we had made a lesson plan that morning for another brother, it was on Hope. We didn’t end up meeting with that brother, but the lesson didn’t go to waste. Both Elder DJ and I felt prompted to teach Sirisha the doctrine of hope. She heard exactly what she needed to. It was obvious to see that the message we shared comforted and inspired her.

I see the Lord's hand in the work consistently. There is no such thing as chance out here. I have learned the value of patience and keeping an optimistic attitude. The gospel provides us a way to be happy in any circumstance. All we have to do is look for the blessings we've been given.

Love you guys,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from letters to individual family members)

General conference this next week... I am so excited for it, but we don’t get to watch until the next week. I have never been more amped for a conference before. I remember when you guys had so much trouble keeping me awake for the full two hours... man, I was a chump.

The weather is getting pretty hot. My branch is about 200 people big. But only 100 come to church on sundays. We are about to have a few baptisms planned near the end of this month. We have some cool people we are teaching right now. Serving the Lord is not easy all the time, but it is the most rewarding thing I have ever done. Bringing people into the church is the best man, I cant wait till you get a chance to do the same. I hope you are getting ready for it.

missionary-minded members

2009-03-25T18:00:00.002-06:00

Dearest Family,

This week was different than most I've experienced on my mission. We are spending more time with the members. They are so great here. There is a family we love to visit, Elizabeth her husband Rajan and her sister Prema. They are so great and they always feed us the best food. They are from Kerala which is the little state on the southwest coast of India. That state is mostly christian, the legend goes that Thomas the Apostle came to India to preach the gospel. Everyone in India seems to agree that he spent his time in Chennai and the surrounding areas in Tamil Nadu...except for Keralas, if you suggest that Thomas came to Chennai in front of them, a prompt reproof and correction follow. Elizabeth claims the Thomas himself converted her pagan ancestors.

Anyway they are so funny and she and her sister are both principals of schools out here. They have been members of the church for 19 years. Essentially the oldest members of the church in Hyderabad. They have seen it grow from a small home group to the four branches that now exist. It must be quite a sweet experience for them to watch the church grow here. Between her family and Rajesh we have more than enough spectacular meals each week.

It has been so rewarding to watch brother Mahender grow in the church, he is so good. Every week he is seated for sacrament a half hour early. That kind of behavior in India is unheard of. He received the priesthood this week. Rajesh continues to grow. Every week he works us in ping pong and then we teach him. His daughters(12 and 13) go to a christian school and he loves to have them pray for us. They recite the Lord’s prayer (the Our Father) every time. Last night we tried to teach them how we pray. We even wrote the steps on the board for them to follow. They began with dear heavenly father and started to express their feelings like we explained. They got tongue tied halfway through and recited the Lord’s prayer to finish it off. It was quite the combination.

We have been in a threesome companionship for the past few days with another Elder named Morrison. He is from the first branch and we got a chance to do some work over in his area yesterday. There are some wonderful families. There is one brother who is our age and joined the church a year ago with his sister. Their mother used to hate the elders. But two months ago she was baptized too. They are inviting their extended family to learn from the elders and another one of their cousins is getting baptized in a few weeks. They are a great family and a wonderful example of spreading the gospel. It’s incredible to observe the desire within recent converts to spread the gospel. I hope I can keep my desire up to their level. Anyway I think that'll do it for this week.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from individual letters to family)

I am stoked to hear that you wore your cricket jersey to school. You play with a wicket. There is a bowler, who is like a pitcher. He runs and throws the ball that has to hit the ground first. The wicket is three sticks in the ground. The batsman protects the wicket. He tries to hit the ball away from it. He does this until finally the bowler hits the wicket. In a normal game there are ten outs for each team. Sometimes games last for days because batsman are good. They get points by hitting the ball, you get a certain number of points depending on how far you hit the ball. It is a pretty cool game and it is huge in India.

March 18, 2009 letter

2009-03-22T09:13:00.003-06:00

Dear Family,

This week was great, Mahender was confirmed a member on sunday and received the Holy Ghost. He was so excited to participate in that ordinance. It is so humbling to see the change wrought in him, and even more humbling to think that I was a part of it. He is going to be an incredible member and I know the gospel will truly bless his life. He even started to bring some of his neighbors to church on sunday so he is already helping us with missionary work. Such a gem.

We had a fireside on saturday. It was originally planned to be a huge activity to get member referrals. We had planned dances from each auxiliary, dinner, and a church tour. But, due to the circumstances the district presidency suggested strongly that we limit the fireside to just members. So we had to adapt, but the fireside was great. We talked about the life of christ and then showed a little video. It is called reflections of christ. It is incredible, I don’t know if any of you have heard of it. But you should check it out. Only about 7 minutes long, but so powerful (click here to view the video).

We are no longer allowed to contact or find but there have been many other doors opened up. The members have been giving referrals and helping us so much. I actually can see how this incident happening is a blessing. The members know our situation and in response they have been working harder to give us people to teach. Member referrals are more likely to join the church anyway so I am excited to see how this works out here in the 2nd branch. Elder Tolefoa left the mission on saturday it was really sad to see him go. He was a great leader and took good care of us out here. We are all really young now, but it is exciting. We can’t rely on him for anything now, were just gonna have to figure it out ourselves. The oldest in our district is 9 months out. I’m sure well be fine though. That’s about it for this week I think.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from individual family letters)

We are being as careful as possible, being a missionary without finding is kinda weird. We are trying to stay as busy as possible. Even in the mornings we have been having extra district meetings and such.

As far as drinking water goes, there is no need to worry. The first week was adjustment, but since then there have been no problems. The water is probably not the cleanest everywhere, but my body has adjusted and it does not bother it. I make sure to drink a lot of really clean water from my apartment and bottles too though. If it tastes really bad then we won’t drink it. But I haven’t experienced that very much.

"holi" day

2009-03-10T10:37:00.009-06:00

Dear Family,

Today is the day before Holi (click here for info about this festival). Mom, it seems that Hyderabad is far enough north to be celebrating the holiday in full force. Today we had to stay in til 1, luckily there is a Reliance close to our apartment out here. We were able to sneak our way over here and I've got no paint or chalk on my person. Let's hope it stays that way...

Last thursday our zone leaders were confronted by some members of the RSS, which is a radical fundamentalist group out here in India. They despise all forms of western culture and specifically christianity. Our zone leaders were simply contacting in their area and they came across a few RSS brothers. Basically, there were friends called and a large group surrounded the companionship. They beat them a little and one of the zone leaders was able to get away. The other was taken by the mob to prison. We all caught wind of this quickly because of the other zone leader’s escape. Thanks to that we were all able to promptly return to the safety of our apartments.

I have seen mighty miracles this week. Our district kneeled together in prayer on behalf of our ZL. Elder Tolefaoa offered the prayer and it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. He pleaded with Heavenly Father to keep Elder Moses safe. He begged Him to work a miracle for our brother. During the prayer I literally felt embraced. Comforted and assured that everything would go smoothly. Later that night our district presidency went to the jail, and was able to recover Elder Moses. A miracle in itself, because in order to release someone immediately like that there needs to be all the respective authorities present to sign for it. That never happens. But, that night everyone was there. Moses was released and taken back.

Missionary work in this city is changed and probably will be for quite some time now. We can’t contact or virtually talk to anyone on the street. I wear a colored shirt outside. No tie or tag. We have to be super careful and take autos everywhere. The RSS seem to be making a concerted effort to target us missionaries. But, among all this turmoil, I must admit that I have never felt more safe. This is our Father's work and it must roll forward. I know I will be ok. So please don't worry about me.

Mahender was baptized on sunday. Wow, that was an incredible experience. I was able to perform the baptism and that was such a blessing. I was so humbled to see how the Lord has brought another one of his children back into the fold. It is awe-inspiring to know that I was an instrument in that process. What I am doing out here now does not even compare with what I was doing back at home. This is exhilarating.

Ultimately I want you as a family to know how much I love and appreciate you. I want to thank each of you for the example you have set for me. The blessings of having a sealed family are so apparent to me now. Hope this week goes well for you, just know that amidst all the different things going on out here, I am having the time of my life.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from letters to individual family members)

I don’t know if times have changed or what, but it seems that this holiday is celebrated all over the country now. Even in Chennai there are huge celebrations. And everyone is throwing chalk. This mission is different… There are a lot of occurrences that we cannot predict. Our situation is constantly changing. As if learning how to be a missionary wasn’t hard enough. Now we need to learn how to do work under these special circumstances. No problem, I trust that everything will be taken care of and we will still have success out here.

Mom, the baptism I had was so awesome. Thank you for joining the church. Your courage is going to bless so many lives. I promise.

I am learning patience that is for sure. We can only go to appointments that we have set up. It’s hard to find new investigators at this point. I am hoping that the members of our branch come out big for us with some referrals…

I recalled the other day that you and Mom had met mother teresa and I did actually share it with one of our investigators so it is interesting that you mentioned that this week.

When I go down to chennai I will be learning as much Tamil as possible. But as for now I am learning Hindi and Telegu. Those are the major languages up here. In telegu to say how are you it is "Bagunara?" and in Hindi it is "K see oo?"

summer begins in hyderabad

2009-03-04T14:29:00.003-07:00

Dear Family,

It was wonderful to meet up with Lata this past saturday. We spent a couple hours together and had a great time. Seeing a great family friend from home made me feel so comfortable. We took her to the church after lunch and showed her around. We sang a couple hymns for her in the relief society room and the spirit was there.

This week was another great week and a learning experience as well. We are working hard, but man is it hot out here. March is the beginning of summer out here and the only difference between the summer here and in St. George is about 20 degrees and humidity. It is pretty hot walking around during the middle of the day, but I am sure that eventually I'll just get used to it. I'm thinking about buying a cowboy hat to keep the sun out of my eyes...I heard they were mission approved.

Today was a zone activity which is why I am writing this at such a late time. We went all around Hyderabad looking at some famous sites, I am planning to attach some pictures and I hope that you enjoy them. I learned more about Hyderabad. There is this huge fort called Golcunda here, it was built hundreds of years ago by the muslim royalty. We climbed to the top of it! Ha but it was quite random because once we passed the first couple mosques on the ascent, out of nowhere this Hindu temple appeared. I was so thrown off. It’s like a huge muslim fort and there is some random Hindu temple right in the middle of it. The diversity here is so apparent. We even rode a boat to a Buddha statue.

We are working with a brother named Rajesh who lives near to our church. Actually his wife owns a girls’ hostel. He has us over for lunch on sundays after church. This sunday I tried something quite peculiar. I remember how mom and dad always warned me that I better not be a picky eater at home because I'd have no control over what I eat on my mission. Until this past sunday I've been quite content with my cuisine consumed over here in India. Rajesh decided to change that when he put fish head curry on my plate. yum...Ha he told me the brain was the best part. Wow I somehow put it down. But i'll be making sure to ask for fish without the head next time. He is doing well. He said to me this past week that he wanted to take baptism in the USA. I asked him why and he didn’t really have a reason. I explained to him that baptism here in India and the USA are the same, and once he realized that, he was ok with getting baptized here. Mahender will be baptized this sunday if all goes smoothly and I will be very excited about that. It is my first baptism and I can’t wait to see my friend make this special covenant. I know he will be a great member of the church.

I watched a goat get killed and dressed right in front of a member’s house yesterday. I never liked the goat meat much before, but now I'm pretty much determined to avoid it. Sorry to end the end the letter so bleakly but I didn’t know where to throw that in.

Love you guys.

(below are excerpts from individual letters)

It is crazy to see that grandma is now a great grandmother. She seems so young to me for some reason. I've noticed that about Indian people though. They have the fountain of youth. I always seem to underestimate people’s age out here.

Temples are such a wonderful blessing. I must admit that even though I tried to take my temple attendance seriously while I was at home I didn’t quite understand the importance. Now that I see all these member families that have not had a chance to be sealed in the temple I understand a little better the necessity for a temple. I want to do all I can to bring these people a temple. Hong Kong is just too far.

Anyway thanks for the tips and everything else you do for me. I am trying my best to roll with the punches. The mission is not easy. I am trying my best to stay positive and motivated. I try not to think too much. Just allowing myself to become adjusted and learn as quickly as I can. Teaching is fun though. Finding in the hot sun is difficult, but I can see the blessings when we meet sweet families. There are the ups and downs. But I must say that I've never grown this much in any other circumstance. Thank you for encouraging and helping me find my way on a mission.

I played ping pong with our investigator Rajesh at the church this week. He was the champion in all of andra pradesh 20 years ago. He smoked me.

I am still in my first area and with my second companion. There are about four different languages we deal with each day...English is the only one I understand.

...patience and faith

2009-02-25T08:19:00.001-07:00

Dearest Family,

Man, it is great to hear from you guys every week. It is quite refreshing. I got a call from President Nichols last friday morning and he informed me that dad’s surgery went well. It was comforting to know that. Thank you for emailing him so that I could receive that information.

This past week has involved a lot of sitting inside the apartment. My companion got really sick last thursday. His voice started to leave and then he just got way sick all around. His throat was way swollen and he still can hardly talk. We took him to the hospital on sunday and he got some meds and now he is starting to get better I think. I got to go out on saturday though because the assistants came to go on exchange with us. But Elder Doss-Johnson was inside so I went with one for the morning and the other one after lunch. It was a great experience and I learned a lot from both of them.

Mahender is doing great and is continuing to prepare for his baptism in the coming weeks. It has been so incredible to watch his growth and progress over the past few months. I am very excited for him. His family is not that happy about his decision to get baptized but that is fairly common in India. Especially with hindus, leaving family traditions is one of the biggest set backs. But he is developing a strong testimony and he knows what he needs to do. It seems that over here when you extend an invitation to read and pray about the book of mormon the christians are unlikely to do it, at least the first time. But I've noticed that Hindus are quite receptive to the invitation and more often than not they actually do it.

This week Elder Leckington (AP) and I were finding in a colony full of christians. Every one who lived there had a huge dog. We were excited to see a neighborhood of christians because that means a lot of doors to knock. We got down to business, at one house we stopped outside the gate. Elder Leckington looked inside and asked me if I thought the owners of the house had a dog. I didn’t see or hear one and was like, Uh...No dude they don’t have dog. He pointed to a chain that was hooked up to the house. But in my ignorance and excitement to knock doors I was like no man there is no chance they have a dog. I flung open the gate and approached the door, Elder Leckington timidly followed. As soon as I got close to the door, the lady inside started yelling, she's all get out the dog will come! I ignored here at first and then the barking started. Actually it was more like a roar, this huge dog darts down the stairs. I push Elder Leckington out the gate barely make it out before mufasa got hold of me. Ha it was ridiculous, the dog was ruthless. Two seconds later and I would have been DONE! Anyway it was a funny day and literally every one of those christian houses had a monster inside.

I don’t really have anymore things to say this week cause I have been sitting inside a lot.

Love you guys!
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from email to individual family members)

The Book of Mormon is a wonderful book. Since coming on my mission I have realized how much of a treasure that book really is. I learn new things from it each day. Today I was reading Alma 32 and his discourse on faith. But it was interesting to note that before he touches on faith he discusses humility. How those poor zoramites were humble because their poverty compelled them to be. He said that those who are humble because of their belief are blessed so much more. I never paid much attention to that advice before. It caused me to do some reflection and decide why I try to be humble… So I am going to try and humble myself for some better reasons than I have been.

the beauty of simplicity

2009-02-19T08:21:00.001-07:00

Dear Family,

I was very surprised to hear about Dad's hernia surgery and I will keep him in my prayers for sure. That came out of nowhere. Dad, you better be taking care of yourself back there.

This week was great, Elder Toleafoa and I had created our musical medley of a couple hymns and it is quite a beautiful arrangement. My love and respect for music continues to grow out here, the effects of good music reach farther than I thought. We sang in the multi-zone conference and at sacrament on sunday. Multi-zone conference was so cool; we had Elder Watson the second counselor in the asia area authority come to visit with us. He is quite an impressive individual and gave us some great advice.

We have been working with a brother named Murty since I got here. Actually he has been meeting with the missionaries for over a year and attending church and all that stuff. His knowledge concerning the gospel is superior to mine. But, his wife is a hindu and doesn’t want him to take baptism. He was scheduled to over a year ago, but she said no. Recently we have been teaching her. I don’t know how we got her to sit down and listen to us. But it is going well. Soon we might see the two of them enter the waters of baptism together.

We found some more muslims yesterday. Three brothers who helped us find the house of an investigator. We stumbled upon them in a muslim community we were passing through. They seemed nice so I asked them for directions; they helped me and we got along very well. I gave them a visiting card. They called us after our appointment and asked if they could spend some time with us, it was cool. We taught the plan of salvation and it is interesting to note similarities between their beliefs and ours. The big difference is respect to Jesus Christ, which is pretty important. We will meet them again and I hope they can understand the importance of our Savior.

There are many things occurring here in the mission and the work is constantly moving forward. I am trying my best to improve each day. This has been a great experience for me; I learn that through all the disappointments and discouragements that my faith and testimony only grow stronger. Opposition continues to motivate me.

Love you all,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from letters to individual family members)

I am learning a ton about the gospel. I am so taken back by the simple message the gospel delivers. It is so simple you cannot confuse it with any other doctrine and that is just how the Lord intended it. He is such a genius.

I am excited for your soccer games to start, this past week I got a chance to play soccer! There were a bunch of Indian kids playing in the dirt and they had goals painted on the wall. I had fun, as soon as I touched the ball I shot it from the other end of the field and it was a perfect hit in the far post bottom corner.

Thanks for your advice concerning discouragement, I remember how you always told me when I was sad to get up and go do something nice for someone else, so I will try to do that. The mornings are toughest for me and I think I will try to start out each day by doing something nice for someone else. I think that will help me to remain upbeat and happy.

Yesterday I was trying to remember what my room looks like, and I couldn’t do it for like 5 minutes. It was way sad, I'm like I haven’t been gone that long... but I guess India is just becoming home for me now. I actually kind of like it.

There is a lot going down with the work right now. We are working with so many people and it is an incredible process. One thing I have learned out here on the mission is patience. It is like the most important quality to have as a missionary. I have never been patient, so it has been hard. But so rewarding.

I was reading about President Hinckley the other day while my companion was sick. He was such an amazing man; I was inspired to do better because of him. Also it mentioned how he used to write a lot and that motivated me to start writing more. During my personal studies and at lunch I am writing just gathering my thoughts together. It is helping me a lot.

There are a lot of things for me to improve on out here. The mission is tough and I have felt very inadequate. But I have been learning of my need to rely on the Lord. I think it is wise for him to send us out here and put us to work. We have a ton of stuff to accomplish and a lot of skills to develop. But I am learning a lot about the power in simplicity. If you think about the gospel it is the most simple process known to man. Believe, Repent, Make Commitments, Follow the Holy Ghost, and Endure to the End. Strikingly simple isn’t it? The Lord wants us to realize our inadequacies and strengthen them by making correct decisions in wake of a firm belief developed concerning the principles of the gospel. Sorry about that, but I hope you can understand what I am trying to say...

School sounds good; I do not miss it at all. Well actually I do. The other day I was like craving a chemistry book. How weird is that? I have become fascinated with the relationship between science and the gospel. Last week President Nichols was talking about how truth is truth. No matter where we find it. He was comparing the law of conservation of energy and mass to how God organized the world and quoting all these scriptures. I ate it up. When I teach I always draw those kinds of relationships.

...following the Spirit

2009-02-11T07:14:00.003-07:00

Dear Family,

Well, as usual it’s great to hear from you all. It sounds like everything at home is going very well. This past week was a great experience for me personally. I saw the spirit do many incredible things and my testimony has increased because of these experiences.

We have been teaching a brother named Shastri. He is maybe one of the smartest people I have ever met. He is like a private detective or something and he uncovers corruption in the Indian government. He is born a Hindu, but has read the Bhagavad Gita, Quran, and the Bible. he already knew about the celestial kingdom and all sorts of things before we taught him. We went to his home a few nights ago and brought a member named Dasari for exchange. Dasari just got back from the Delhi mission a month of two ago, he served as an assistant to president up there. We taught shastri the gospel of Jesus Christ and it went well. We wrapped the lesson up and my companion bore his testimony. All of a sudden I started bearing my testimony, I don’t know why and I can’t remember what I said. But when I finished my heart was racing cause I knew I had to ask him some important questions. I looked him in the eyes and asked him if was willing to follow God. He said yes. I asked him to be baptized. He accepted, not a specific date but he is preparing now. I don’t know why I did that, I hadn’t thought once of challenging him for baptism during the lesson. But the spirit constrained me to ask.

I've noticed something this week. The promptings of the spirit are not always easy to follow. Sometimes I am very timid because it puts me out of my comfort zone and it can be down right difficult. But every time I act when prompted to, something incredible happens.

We met with a family that reminded me of Mom! They are christians and we contacted them last week sometime. It is a family that consists of the mother and her four daughters. They are all old though. The youngest daughter is maybe 35. None are married. I just thought it was funny to meet a family like mom's here. They are great. We shared the first lesson with them and they are all reading the book of mormon now. This week I have noticed the spirit a lot more than I have before. I don’t know what has changed. I am trying my best to increase my faith out here. Really its all we have going for us.

The more we rely on the Lord out here, the more success we have. It takes patience and I am learning a lot about that virtue. But when we "wait" on the Lord he really does come to help us out. When I follow the spirit I am happy.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from letters to individual family members)

Thank you so much for the package! I was so happy to receive it; really when I walk back in the apartment at night and the watchman has a package waiting for me it just lights me up.

That’s so cool that you went on splits with the missionaries and watched them challenge for baptism. You are definitely getting a taste of my life out here when you go on splits.

I made chicken curry for lunch on sunday. My curry was good, but not spicy enough so I learned my lesson about that. I'll be sure to put more spice in next time. I think I might try to do Dahl this week.

Have you been reading the scriptures? If so you should tell me where you are. I have been reading in Alma lately about the experiences of the Sons of Mosiah. They are so cool; it starts in Alma 17 and goes to 26. You should check it out bud.

...at home in Hyderabad

2009-02-04T07:31:00.002-07:00

Hey Family,

Another week gone in Hyderabad. Time is starting to pass by pretty quickly. I am becoming more adjusted to missionary life and life in India as well. It is beginning to feel more like home. It’s an interesting transition but it is certainly taking place. This transfer comes to a close this week and Elder Doss-Johnson and I are safe. We'll be together at least for another six weeks and that is great. We are working with a lot of families here and I hope we can see success with them together.

This past week was great. We had our missionary fireside on saturday evening and it went very well for an Indian fireside. It was scheduled to start at seven but in India nothing starts on time. We were lucky to get started before seven thirty. It was quite a good turn out, at least compared to firesides in the past here. The last one had about 20 people in attendance and this one had about 50. So it is improvement. Everyone who was there was uplifted and edified by the spirit. We are planning for another function at the end of this transfer and hope to really have a great turn out. We sang a few songs as our district. Next week we have a multi-zone conference and a counselor from the asia area presidency is coming to visit. He loves musical numbers and our district was selected to perform, so we are excited about that.

I think I have talked about one Brother named Mahender before, but this week was really good with him. He came to church on sunday and after the meeting he got to watch a baptism take place. He is very excited to take baptism and it has been such a cool experience to see him grow over the past few months. I have been working with him since my second week out. We will continue to work with him, making sure he understands exactly what he is doing before we baptize him. But, I feel that he will be a great member. He is so concerned with helping other people and has such a big heart. The priesthood will be a really big blessing for him, because it is all about blessing the lives of others.

We are working our hardest and having success. It is amazing to see how many people the Lord will put in our paths. One brother called us randomly last week and began to ask about the book of mormon. He owns a chinese restaurant and we visited him yesterday and gave him a book. He is very interested to read it; he says he has been searching for the truth in all different places. He has read the bible and Quran and many other books. I gave him a book and listened to his philosophy for a while and then I bore a strong testimony I could about the book of mormon and left. We invited him to read and pray, I am pretty sure he will read because he is searching for the truth but he needs to understand that the only place to find real truth is directly from God, not the philosophy of men. That’s all for this week.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from letters to individual family members)

Thank you for including that story about the concert violinist Joshua Bell in the DC Metro station. I have never heard it before but it has a wonderful principle attached to it. It made me think about how many people we talk to about this message of salvation but they disregard it in light of their business. Everyone has somewhere to go and is in such a hurry to get there that they miss so many important things along the way. Even the most important message they will ever hear. President Monson was right when he encouraged us to find joy in the journey.

I miss jazz music. I'm sad I waited so long to develop a taste for it.

To answer your question, I eat every meal with my hands. Even at the nicest restaurants we eat with our hands. It is a wonderful experience and makes the food taste better I think.

...early growth

2009-01-28T14:24:00.001-07:00

Good Morning Family,

It's interesting how I am basically starting my day on wednesday while all of you are just winding down on tuesday evening. As you already knew this week was zone conference. They really are such a wonderful experience. President Nichols is truly an inspired man. I had the chance to have an interview with him on monday morning. Usually he lets the missionaries just ask questions and stuff. But my interview was him just talking mostly. It was exactly what I needed to hear. During zone conference we spent a lot of time discussing the concept of goals and then he gave our mission goals for the year. The goal is to achieve 500 baptisms this year. But, we have a lot less missionaries than we had before and we are a lot younger and we are going to lose the only old missionaries left in the next 3 months. With all these factors considered, the goal for baptisms is still much higher than it has been in the past.

This past week was wonderful; we are continuing to teach Alex and his wife. They came to church and really enjoyed it. Alex has so much potential to contribute to the church. We taught him the Plan of Salvation on Monday and it went very well. At the end he said, so you’re telling me I can live my whole family forever? And we said, yes that’s the whole point, he said, ok well whatever it is I have to do, let’s do it. He is so cool, but as a missionary I have learned a lot about patience. People need to completely understand and accept the gospel before they make the sacred covenant of baptism. We will continue to teach his family. His wife is also progressing; it would be a cool experience to help a muslim prepare for baptism.

We met a brother named Jacob last night; he had approached us this past saturday. Apparently he met the missionaries in Germany where he was doing his studies. He has a very colorful story, and a very difficult and trying life. He does have a strong belief in god and desire to follow his commandments. He has been to a number or christian denominations including the Jehovah's Witnesses. It was in Germany, but you would be surprised to know that there are many Jehovah’s Witnesses in India.

As a companionship we learned a lot this week, especially about teaching by the spirit. I have been consumed with my desire to teach all the principles and cover all the material. But, I am beginning to realize that if I slow down I can pay attention to the thoughts that come into my mind. When I share my thoughts with the people I teach, they can sense the love I have for them. It is much easier to relate information in simple sustained means. The spirit tells us which questions to ask, how to respond and everything else we need to do during a lesson.

We have been teaching a wonderful brother named Noel who works as a chemistry professor in the Maldives. Also his son who works on ships down there. They are such a cool family; they are very musically talented too. The other day he brought out a guitar and started playing american songs! Ha we were singing along and I felt like I was at uncle Phil's house! It was really fun. Anyway, his son brought out this book he had, it was about celestial marriage. One of his friends gave it to him, this girl that is in the first branch. So we have hardly taught him the first lesson and he began inquiring about the temple and eternal marriage. It was definitely not the next lesson on the teaching record but it went very well. They came to church and I have a good feeling about their family. This week was another incredible week in India, I continue to see the Lord's hand in the work here and it continues to amaze me.

Love,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from letters to individual family members)

Thank you for your compliments in your past email. I am so happy to be out here and even though it is hard at times, I wouldn’t trade anything for these growing experiences. Not even a pair of william rast jeans.

We have to be so careful, even if someone falls on the street or something we have to be careful of how much we help them. You never know how far a member of the BJP or RSS is. They could make crazy accusations or something against us.

Indians are motivated strongly by reward and incentive aren’t they? I am trying my best to become better at analyzing people so I can discern their needs and teach to meet them.

How are uncle phil and aunt muthu? I would love to hear from them and any of our family. Aunt sita and uncle curtis? and make sure to let your brother and sisters know that I am doing well and thinking about them. Especially uncle frank, how is he doing anyway? I would love to hear from him!

Thank you for your uplifting and encouraging statements and tips each week they help me a lot. I try to be obedient and work hard. I have this feeling inside that is always telling me I need to work harder. I have never had something like that before. I constantly have a voice in my head and my heart that tells me I need to do better. I hope I can keep it through my whole mission and always want to work harder no matter what.

It is crazy to think you will be out of primary so soon. I feel like I just graduated from primary yesterday! Before you know it you will be out here on your mission like me. It will come fast buddy so make sure to enjoy the time you have right now.

planting seeds...

2009-01-21T08:16:00.003-07:00

Dear Family,

Every week here proves to be very rewarding and a growing experience. There are so many things to be done here, and I truly enjoy working all day. Our district has been working really hard to build strong relationships with the members and hopefully find good referrals from them. We have been to a few members’ houses this past week and they all feed us and we have such a great time with them. There are many who truly are such wonderful members of this church and understand the importance of sharing the gospel with others.

We visited with a brother named Shanth Kumar; he is a returned missionary of about one and a half years. We have a church membership record and we find people in our area and highlight them, but we don’t recognize the names of people on the record. We just call, set up appointments, and find out who they are when they open the door. It’s exciting, and this guy, Kumar, is great. His family is one of the strongest in the branch. He is experiencing a lot of trials in his life. He is married and has a child. His father was helping him financially since he got married, but his father died a few months ago. So he is really struggling to support his family among other things. But still, his love for the gospel enables him and his family to be so happy anyway. I am really starting to see how much the knowledge of the gospel can provide us with a solid happiness.

We met a wonderful family on friday evening in A-town (alwal) which is our favorite place to proselyte. The people there are just prepared. This family speaks great english and the father works for the king of Saudi Arabia. They are catholic I think, but were so open to our message of the restoration. We are teaching the father's sister's family too. So I really hope it is God's will to bring this family into the church. They would strengthen our branch so much. Pray for us as a companionship to have the spirit strong so we can invite them to enter the waters of baptism. His name is Alphonse, and his sister’s name is Edna. They treat us so kindly here, he even sent us home with arabian chocolates and sweets.

Things with Alex are definitely moving along, we met him on monday and afterwards he and his wife came with us to family home evening. His wife is Muslim royalty here in Hyderabad; apparently her grandfather was some king. Anyway, they are so wonderful. Noel is helping us so much; it is so nice to have him there all the time for fellowship so we don’t have to worry about that phase of the work. Alex even volunteered to bring the treats for FHE next week. He is so funny. He knows that the book of mormon is true. He is a very logical guy; he needed to understand exactly what the book of mormon was. And when we explained how it was a record of writings from prophets in the Americas, he was like "Ok, that makes perfect sense." Once he reads and prays I am sure he will receive a witness that it is true.

Our closest investigator Mahender is having a hard time in his life right now. His brother got in a bad accident on saturday and he was very distraught about it. But, he has been in contact with us continually asking us to pray for him and his family. I think this experience will strengthen his testimony. All in all, we are continuing to move forward. I am learning so much and time is beginning to move pretty quickly...

Love you all,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from individual letters to family)

It sounds like the inauguration went well; I think there were many people here who watched it on television last night. It is amazing to me to see how concerned people are with things that are going on in America. But I guess America affects the world more than I realize.

I am beginning to realize that even though you are planning to have a baptism there really is so much that goes into it. I now realize the tenderness and delicacy we must use when approaching any baptism. I am looking forward to my first one; I hope it comes sometime soon. It sure would be nice to see fruits of my labor. I feel like I am working hard, but I think I have to learn a lot about being a missionary before the Lord will send great blessings.

One thing that has proved to be very helpful is the principle of teaching when you find and finding when you teach. When a first lesson goes well, we ask our new investigators if they know anyone who could benefit from the message we are sharing. We met Sister Edna through some little children we met on the street. They took us to the school they attended because their english teacher was christian. We walked into the school during the middle of the day, and met Edna. We set up an appointment that weekend; we came to visit and shared a wonderful message with the entire family. After the lesson, we asked if there was anyone she knew who we could teach. She wrote down four families and their phone numbers. Through that we have been able to teach quite a few new investigators. When we are out finding we talk to everyone we see, and if they are not interested we ask them to point us towards families who are christian, speak english, or have interest to hear the message. It is surprising to see that even though they might not be interested, they will give great referrals. Each day I try to walk out the door knowing in my head that I will find good people today. And if I work hard, I always do. Sure, you will be getting rejected ninety percent of the time, but eventually you will find that family. Patience coupled with faith can work miracles.

During personal study I read the conversion story you sent to me of the missionary who taught and baptized you, wow it was so cool. When I was halfway through I realized something. I was sitting there and it hit me that if this guy hadn’t had those wonderful experiences, you might not have joined the church. And I wouldn’t be in India on a mission. I realized the importance of growing and nourishing our testimonies. We really have no idea how many apple trees our seed can bring.

You asked if I’ve been getting any regular mail (non-email). I haven’t received mail yet from anyone except the packages from you guys.

Thank you so much for your insight about people getting baptized and making good choices. The statement you made about Satan's way and God's way hit me very hard. I wrote it in my journal. You are very right, God values agency in the highest regard. He was willing to lose 1/3 of his children in a struggle because of it. I think I need to follow his example and totally give people their choice. If we testify and invite the spirit they will then have to make some choices for themselves. I hope that we can meet a lot of people who are ready to accept the commitments we extend.

Things with alex are good; I realize that he is way too smart for me to try to reason with him intellectually. All we can do is bear testimony and explain the basic principles of the restored gospel. I feel good about him; I think he will make some good decisions in the upcoming weeks.

I have realized that the spirit hasn’t been guiding me as much as I would like. I realized that the reason for that was my pride. I try to rely on myself too much. I am trying very hard this week to humble myself and move past my pride. That way the spirit can truly guide me in His work.

Thank you so much for the jerky, missionaries treat that like gold out here. It is very hard to find anything beef, you already know that. So you can imagine my joy in being able to eat some beef each day.

Jonathan, you will be getting the priesthood in August and I am looking forward to that for you. It will be such a great experience. I am glad to hear that you felt the spirit while Grandma was reading the scriptures in tamil. That is the thing, even here the people can’t always understand what we are saying to them. But, the spirit doesn’t speak a specific language you know? It is universal!

...learning to adapt

2009-01-14T10:26:00.001-07:00

Dear Family,

This past week was very difficult. I would consider it to be one of the most trying times I've experienced. But, I definitely learned a lot. The quote I keep on my wall, "more weight," has grown to mean so much more to me. Brother Singh will be baptized in early February, it has been somewhat of a confusing situation but I learned one very important thing about baptism.

Since I got to the MTC all I heard about was the importance of baptism and I just wanted to get one so badly. I didn’t really realize what baptism actually was. I might have tried to rush this baptism a little bit, partly because I was so excited for it and because I knew that’s what I'm here to do. But from this experience I learned that I am not out here in India to just get people baptized. I am here to help people get to the celestial kingdom. In order to do that I will make sure that every one of my investigators has a rock solid testimony before getting in the water.

There were many forces opposing our companionship and our district this week, but we stood our ground. I know that God is trying me right now, but I am working my very hardest to respond how he wants me to.

We met a new investigator just yesterday, his name is Alex. We were introduced to him by one of Elder Toleafoa's converts from over a year ago, his name is Noel. Probably one of the best members I have ever met, he always gives us the best referrals. So Elder Toleafoa went on exchange and this guy Alex took us to lunch at paradise. He is so funny, and way smart. He is the VP of a huge company; I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little intimidated talking with him. But I think I did ok. He said that he had met the missionaries a few years back, but he wasn’t quite as mature. Now he is very prepared and ready to hear this message, we will meet with him very soon.

We met another brother named Shastra and he was probably one of the most knowledgeable guys I have ever talked with. He is a hindu by tradition, but he follows christ. He has read the bible, the bhagavad gita, and the Quran. He already knew that celestial kingdom is where god lives and everything. We brought to the appointment a member in our branch who just got back from the Dehli mission a little while back. All of us were so taken back by this guy’s knowledge. But he was very open and he was willing to pray, I think when he gets a book of mormon he will really tear it apart.

We are doing very well finding new investigators, but helping new investigators turn into progressing ones is the difficult task. We really are making a concerted effort to build relationship with the branch. We have been visiting members a lot; they are so good to us. Also we have been working on finding less active members and helping them come back. We met these two girls in our branch that haven’t come to church in years. We visited with them and shared a powerful message about the atonement. They said they would come back to church. We are going to really try to get them back. This week was trying but very rewarding.

Love You,
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from individual family letters)

I got your envelope last night! I bet you will be very excited to see that. You addressed it to my apartment so that is good and I am glad that it got here. Even the jerky made it, usually customs will confiscate any meat, but they let it through so that is nice.

…the slums of mumbai probably look very similar to a lot of
neighborhoods in my area. There are a lot of slums; it is just so interesting to witness the blatant contrast that India presents. So much wealth in little areas and so much poverty that is wide spread. I don’t think I will ever be able to get used to it. We got to ride in Alex's car and it was so cool, I don’t get to ride in cars much.

The power goes out at least once a day here. But we never get to go home early from “work.” No problem though cause this work is especially captivating.

...a new year begins

2009-01-07T09:52:00.002-07:00

Dear Family,

Hi everyone, it was wonderful to hear from all of you this week. Everyone seems to be doing excellent and starting the new year off quite smoothly. New year’s celebration for us Elders here in India was quite the extravaganza. Ha, well actually the branch threw a big party and it was a huge success. That was a relief, we had a few investigators there and they really seemed to enjoy themselves. As for us, we were off to the apartment and inside by nine fifteen. We did receive permission to stay up till twelve. But, I only made it till around eleven and I was off to bed. Next day means up at six thirty still, so I didn’t see the benefit. The holidays will pass here, without much notice on my part. It’s kind of a blur, mostly we are just focused on the work and our investigators. All christmas and new years for us were opportunities to get our investigators fellowshipped. It’s weird but that’s how I think now.

This week was a great week, we had a lot of success and I am continuing to learn so much from different missionaries and the people here too. Brother Singh is preparing for his baptism this sunday. I am so excited for it, but not as excited as he is I think. Last night we were at his house doing some of the paperwork with him, when we left he was saying the prayer and I finally began to realize what I have helped him to do-understand his true relationship with his father in heaven, I was feeling so much joy sitting there listening to him say a prayer. His baptism will be the first in our branch since early november and the first of this year. Our branch presidency made a goal for 192 baptisms this year, and Singh is so excited to be the first.

We have been teaching another brother his name is Mahender. He is so excellent, we have been teaching him for quite some time but his only problem was that he worked on sundays all day. We told him to pray and ask Heavenly Father to prepare a way for him to attend church; we told him we would pray for him as well. Wednesday night he called and was so excited, he said God answered his prayer because his shift timing changed and he was coming to church every week from then on. He came on sunday and we met him at his house that night. We taught a wonderful lesson and challenged him for baptism, he accepted and he will be baptized the first week of february, pray for our progress with him to continue, he is such a great guy.

Progress with Sister Bagyamarry and her daughter Rosie is still underway, we weren’t able to meet for awhile but we met yesterday and they are so funny. Probably my favorite investigators to be around, they just crack jokes the whole time. They gave us MANGOS! I heard they are going to come to H-town soon, and when they do I am gonna eat nothing else. They struggle with coming to church but we're really trying to stress the importance of it, any suggestions for them?

Yesterday I went on exchange with a Zone Leader here in Hyderabad, his name is Elder Sookhoo and he is a great missionary. We went together in my area to a new place have never even been before. It was called Alway, such a good place. We found at least 5 new families! I learned so much from this guy, he really knew how to deal with the Indian people and work efficiently. I am excited to try out some things I learned from him in my own finding. The people are so willing to help, all you have to do is ask them. There are so many crazy things that happen here, I will always think to myself that I need to remember that for my e-mail and then I forget what it was. Ha I think I will start to write them down now. Anyway that does it for the general epistle this week.

Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from individual family letters)

My health is excellent. I adjusted fairly quickly and I drink the water at investigators and members homes all the time. It doesn’t give me any problems, and I hope it stays that way.

I really am trying my hardest to keep the weight off my belly. I'm doing a good job, but it’s really difficult. It is because I am used to eating a lot, cause I did at home, but I was exercising like crazy. Out here I only get a half hour and I don’t think that’s enough. So basically, I think I either have to stop eating so much or I will get fat. So, I will have to eat less, because getting fat is not an option.

I decided that I really want to learn canada, the language they speak in Bangalore. Everyone says that if you know that language all the other Indian languages will be easy for you to learn and understand.

There is just a lot of gossip and a ton of politics out here. Although the caste system is "done away," there are still fat traces of it. It affects a lot of things out here. All we want is a happy branch, we are putting a lot of effort towards the members this transfer.

Actually mom, I have had so much curry out here. I don’t know if it is just H-town style but yours and grandma’s are still my favorite. They taste a lot different than the kind people make here.

The work is moving along. I am realizing that I really have to depend on the lord. I have found that my success as a missionary is directly dependent on my faith and my obedience. I am being blessed so much.

I was very surprised to hear about the sugar bowl score. We all were quite taken back.

It is so cool for me to know that I have friends all over the world doing the same thing I am right now.

Is the ward running smoothly? We have to work hard to keep this one going well. I am not used to a branch not running smoothly and definitely not used to spending a lot of time making sure that it does. I am learning a lot.

I don’t know if I mentioned how young this mission is, but I think I did. My "follow-up" trainer is only three months out longer than me. He is a good kid, ha we are both learning a lot. I am trying my hardest to pick up everything quickly. I know that with time everything will come, and patience is probably the most important thing to remember in my situation.

Hey bro, I really appreciate what you shared with me about that song. It is such a good one and I am so glad that you thought about me while they were singing it in sacrament meeting. Hymns are so good and they really bring the spirit into a room so much.

It is never cold here, it was a little windy this morning and it has been the coldest i have seen here. Which is probably like 70 degrees in the morning.

Keep reading the book of mormon. i love that book so much… that’s the key to our work out here so make it the key to your life back there.

Happy New Year...

2008-12-31T09:26:00.003-07:00

Dear Family,

It was so nice to talk to each of you on Christmas. You all sound the same as I remember, but it has not been too long. We'll see if I feel the same in May. Transfers went down on saturday; we got to take a nice A/C bus to the airport. Elders ward and evans came with me. My new companion is Elder Doss-Johnson he is from Santa Clara, Cali. The same place where andy benton is from! He is an OG, really a cool guy. He is very chill, but down to work hard. In our short time together we have experienced quite a bit of success.

Yesterday we taught the first muslims either of us has ever taught. We contacted them in an area called Karkhana and went over to one of their homes. They are auto drivers, but both of them are well educated and intelligent. It was quite an experience. They were very receptive. I feel like you all may be thinking that muslims are dangerous or something and we need to stay away from them as missionaries. That is not the case; they are some of the nicest people I have ever met. I hope that I can teach a lot more during my mission. Last week there were two baptized in Chennai.

The work is going good; the Branch President asked my companion and a new elder fabrizio to speak in sacrament last sunday. It was great, the whole sacrament was a huge emphasis on missionary work and the members are starting to get better about it. I had a few members walk up to me and give me referrals last week. I am really excited for these upcoming weeks.

I realized something last night about the people here. We were sitting in an investigator's little one room house, and talking with them. They kept bringing us food and drinks as the people here will always do. I realized that these people will give you everything they have. If that means just water, they will be sure to give you it. They simply love everyone and care for them. I have learned so much about service and compassion from these wonderful people.

Love you all
Elder Tuscano

(below are excerpts from individual family letters)

We are continuing to work with Brother Singh; he came to church fifteen minutes early this week! I have noticed that people's perception of time here is very different than back home. No such thing as punctuality… I am trying to emphasize to people that things start when they’re supposed to, not thirty minutes or a half an hour later. But singh will be ready for baptism very soon and we have others who have dates as well and we will work hard to help them progress.

I bought soy milk the other day and it tastes way good! It was nice to have something close to milk, I just can’t get over the fact that the milk here comes from water buffalos, too weird for me to want to drink it.

The work out here is definitely moving forward, the branch is starting to become more excited about missionary work. There is just so much gossip out here in the branch it kind of tears people apart. There really is a division of loyalty.

Virtue is a really cool topic. I was studying it a few weeks ago and there are some cool lines you can draw between it and power. Look at the story of the woman who touched christ's garment and was healed. See what power healed her.

India is crazy; boys and girls here are not allowed to talk to each other really (referring to dating). Most marriages are still arranged…

Christmas Call

2008-12-26T10:29:00.002-07:00

On Christmas Day we talked on the phone with Josh. It was so good to hear his voice and to listen to him describe his experiences. He didn’t sound homesick yet he mentioned some things that he misses; hot showers, clothes dryers, a pantry filled with foods that he enjoys, and the taste of beef. It appears that he is nicely adapting to living in India and getting used to the traffic on the streets as well as the insect/rodent traffic in their apartment. He already speaks with a fondness in his voice for the people of India. His English contains a hint of an accent (his words are more clearly enunciated). He spoke enthusiastically and optimistically about the challenges and joys associated with being a missionary.

Although we miss him, it feels wonderful to know that he is immersed in this life-impacting experience.

Christmas week

2008-12-24T09:42:00.002-07:00

Merry Christmas Family

Sorry about last week, it was disheartening to see that you weren’t going to see any of the e-mail I penned last week. It was a good one, but no problem, hopefully this one works out...

So, It was really nice to hear your voices today on the test call, I never realized how easy it was to just call across the world. Life here in India is going well, I’m finding missionary work to be really fun, there are so many people to meet and the members here are great. I have made good friends with a few of them actually. One of them, Sri Kant, is like 21 and he is the smartest kid that I have ever met and he is so good for exchanges. I am trying to convince him to leave on his mission as soon as he can. Maybe I'll get to train him!

This past week was good, except for my companion being so sick. He was seriously on his death bed for like two days in a row. He is still pretty sick actually, but he did get out of bed for e-mail so that is pretty lucky for me. I’m trying my best to take care of him, and make sure he gets better. Last night I was trying to think of what Mom would do if it was me that was sick. Ha but I couldn’t really remember what she would do. We gave him a blessing and I think that he will be getting better any time now.

We were able to meet with Singh a few times and he came to all our ward activities, except CHURCH! It was a little frustrating, because that means we have to postpone his baptism another week, hopefully he will gain a stronger testimony of church. This week I have a good lesson about the sacrament prepared and I hope that the spirit will testify the importance of that ordinance. He is still a great guy, and his wife is so good. Only she just can’t understand english that well, or hardly at all actually. We have a few others who are close to baptism. I know that they will come soon, there are still so many people out here that have been prepared and I know they are just waiting to be found, taught and baptized. Speaking to the Indians is getting a little better for me. For the most part they are able to understand me, or at least I think so...

Yesterday we had an incredible experience. We were called to an apartment that is opposite to a member. There was a four year old girl, and apparently she was possessed. Her mother was talking to us about it, and telling us how she would have outrageous outbursts when the night came. But, at that time she was relatively calm. I looked in her eyes and I could just feel that there was a darkness there; I sensed that something was there. We sat her down to give her a blessing and she began to cry, I anointed and Siyyadri sealed. It was amazing; the spirit truly spoke through him. He said that whatever was within the little girl to come out. After the blessing I looked at the girl and literally there was a light replaced in her eyes. It was so cool to have an experience like that. It helps me to further realize that we truly are at war with satan and his forces, but more importantly it helped me to realize how much stronger the priesthood is than any power that he has.

Anyway, that’s it for the general epistle this week.

(below are excerpts from individual letters to family)

…Christmas time out here is a lot different than back home. Christ is certainly not the center of attention at this time of year. The christians will celebrate but there are so few that it’s hardly making a noticeable difference. To tell you the truth it does not feel any different than any other time of year out here.

…I love to think about how I have friends all over the world right now doing the same thing I am. It is such a comforting thought. I know that the work we are doing is making such a big difference and I am so glad we all get to be a part of it.

…We will still be proselyting on christmas day, but we have a party in the morning and at night I told you were going to President Guti's house. So that will be good. But I think christmas will be a great day to get work done in between functions.

…there are so many monkeys around right now, but you have to be careful because they will steal your food and run away if you don’t pay attention.

email "brief" - internet glitch

2008-12-17T08:51:00.002-07:00

Family,

So...Bad news. If you didn't recieve the e-mail before this, then this little e-mail is all you will be getting this week! Sorry, but I guess the internet in India is all messed up today and I don't know if it sent. It was a good letter, too. Anyway, since time is short now I have to hustle. Still gotta write Anj. Let me know if you want me to call christmas eve for you, or on your chirstmas morning. I wil give Dad a test call on his phone this week I think, SO be ready for it. It was so good to hear from you this week. Brother singh didn't come to chruch because he was sick, but he will be baptized january first week.

I love you all, sorry about this. Talk to you next week.

Hyderabad Happenings...

2008-12-10T08:03:00.003-07:00

Namaskaram Family,

Thanks for spelling Namaskaram right for me dad. we don’t see much written out here, so the spelling is always gonna be a little sketchy. you would actually be surprised that most people out here can speak like 3 or 4 languages but really can’t write or read many of them - only their native tongue. but it actually makes sense because all the languages are so different; telegu and tamil are nothing alike and written, they are very different. people up here in Andra Pradesh speak a telegu but its like mixed with english and hindi. my companion always brags that he speaks "pure" telegu. the cities are so diverse so the mixture of language is inevitable.

this week was good. brother singh came to church (which is like monumental)! when you get people to church here it’s a big deal. actually this week we did really well for church. we had like 7 investigators there. but only 4 counted because 3 were late. India Standard Time is far more distorted than Mormon Standard Time. so you take what you can get. but anyway millusingh came and was able to meet a lot of members and learn about the priesthood. i am so grateful we were able to find him, please keep praying for him. he is working towards the big day on dec 21. we have a few more people who are progressing towards baptism. one is brother santosh, who my companion taught like months ago, showed up at church. we taught him the next day about baptism. we had a recent convert named manoj there and he shared his experience with baptism and it was so powerful. i think santosh will be baptized soon.

the past few days we have been walking a lot! we are searching so hard for an apartment, but we can’t find one. we need to have one by monday because we have to be moved out by the end of the year. actually that brother singh knows people here and is helping us find an apartment. the two main problems are the fact that we are bachelors and christians. Indians have no problem being prejudice. anyway, we really are having trouble finding a good apartment. but ya there has been a lot of walking in attempt to find one, and people to teach as well.

i have mentioned the lack of unity here and i continue to see manifestations of it daily. yesterday was a muslim holiday here, I’m not sure what it was called but its a fairly big one. so what the muslims do on this holiday is basically try to irritate the hindus. and they do a good job. we were walking down the street and passed a hindu temple. right next door there was a group of muslims slaughtering a cow -- like in the open. not a pretty site for me, an american who has spent his whole life enjoying hamburgers and steaks. imagine a hindu who holds the animal sacred and is vegetarian watching that take place right next to their temple. the conflict between religions here is huge.

last week i got a chance to give a training lesson in district meeting and it went really well. i think all the members of the district were able to get something out of it. i taught about the pre-earth life and God’s purpose and plan for us. it was nice because I’m used to only teaching basics to investigators, but when you get a chance to teach people who already know, then you can go deeper. i really enjoy that. the scriptures are so incredible. I’m really finding that they truly can unlock the mysteries of God.

Another guy we are teaching is named Murthi and he has been getting taught almost a year now. he is great he has wanted to get baptized for some time now but his wife is really rooted in her hindu traditions. she even comes to church, but she won’t give up her old traditions. this week we will meet them, maybe you could pray for her heart to be softened? the members here are so great, they are always willing to go on exchanges and they spend a lot of time at the church. the chapel really is a sanctuary here.

i have realized a trend with the church and its growth here. the converts are mostly kids younger than 30. there are few families here compared to YSAs. The kids are the ones who speak english. the parents oftentimes do not. when we go finding, i try to pick out the smart looking kids. they are usually the ones most receptive to the message. so in twenty years there will be plenty of families to build up the church in India. but now it’s kind of disheartening because so many kids are having to go against their parents to join the church.

So, mom never told me this, but the indians are very affectionate and touchy people. only, not in the way I’m used to. they show their love towards members of their own gender. here, it’s very common to see grown men walking down the street holding hands, and women too. but to see a boy and girl giving PDA is unheard of. I’m getting used to it. members will always put their arms around me when we are walking and yesterday this kid, sudheer even held my hand, ya, i was like uhhhh this is really weird. but honestly, for now, i just pretend it’s a girl or something. sorry mom and dad, probably shouldn’t be thinking about that on my mission, but it’s the only way to keep my sanity! maybe ill get used to it. anyway that’s probably enough for the general letter this week. love you

(below are snippets from his individual letters to us)

…we took a video on the way over here today so maybe i will send that. It’s pretty funny -- it has us crossing the street and catching an auto (rickshaw) and stuff.

i hear gas prices hit the floor after i left! just my luck.

thanks a ton for the college bowl games info. we all loved that. that national championship game will be sick, so will utah vs bama. BYU in the vegas bowl. what's new?

anyway thanks for all the advice. actually i wanted to thank you and mom for being such great examples throughout my life. i see now how much i was privelged to have parents as faithful as you. there are so many members out there that don’t enjoy the same blessings. anyway love you and thanks for everything.

…i will probably call dad’s cell on Christmas, and i am not sure what the limit is. we get a test call like a day before though. I’ll know more details next week.

i am starting to gain a little fat on my belly and it’s bothering me. is it the rice? i have been drinking a lot of cool drinks (soda) so maybe it’s both? I’m not gonna drink anything but water and juice now. i don’t have that much time to exercise in the morning. when we move i will get a gym pass so that will be good.

my district has 6 people. five americans including myself. district leader is elder toleafoa from Hawaii. he is such a good missionary and a great example. he sings very well and we have fun writing music together. his companion is elder Sorensen. he was from my batch in the MTC but not my district there. so i didn’t know him that well till we got to india. he is from texas, he went to the same high school as Deron Williams! the other two are elder evans who you know about, and his companion is probably my favorite in the district, elder ward. he is from a tiny town in idaho called almo. i am trying to convince him to go to BYU when he gets back because i think he would be chill with all our friends. he served in chennai! mom i can’t wait to go there. apparently the people down in tamil nadu are tough but i don’t care.

the people out here are naturally flaky so i see where i got it from. but they are still good people. finding is tough and can get discouraging when no one wants to hear the message. but it’s great when you find someone who does want to listen.

there are so many cockroaches and they are everywhere. It’s hard to get away from them. and there are rats in the street all day man! still haven’t seen an elephant but I’m looking.

First Photos from Hyderabad

2008-12-10T07:43:00.009-07:00

This first batch of photos that Josh sent from India includes his district, zone, his companion (those pictures taken on Thanksgiving Day at the Hyderabad Marriott) and a picture from their turkey bowl football game. Below is the text that Josh sent with the photos:

Ok, so these photos are of my district. my companion is the only brown one. elder toleafoa and sorensen are in the middle. they are the big dudes. elder evans has curly hair and ward is the other one. the other is basically our whole zone. the kid i am holding hands with is elder thompson and he is from my district at the MTC - he is sweet. the other is just me and my comp doin it big. they are all at the marriott. ha, dont get any false conception of india. that hotel was by FAR the nicest thing in india.