the beauty of simplicity

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.