8 more sleeps till Christmas!!!

Hello!

This P-day came around even faster than usual! Not a lot has happened in the past three days since my last update.

We had a friend give us a call saying that his friend wants to come to church but that he himself won't make it. She actually came and brought a friend and says she'll be back next Sunday and that she would love to meet us during the week too!! I love it when people find us!

We had a recent convert family (Sunny family) who didn't come to church on Sunday so we went to rescue them! It's this thing our mission does that when a recent convert doesn't come to church we go to their house after church with a squad of members we form and rescue them! When we did this they said they can really feel our love and care for them as we come to their house when they aren't at church and it makes them feel they are noticeably missing. This rescue mission is definitely a success.

So last time I said I was going to play hockey with president and his sons and well we did that and it was super fun and me and Philip (President's son) definitely won the game even though we were one man short, not that anyone was keeping score though of course. President says that it's not a good game unless there are blood and bruises. Well, I definitely fulfilled half of that statement. I got black bruises on my wrist, hand and leg from getting hit by the puck and then I have these massive black and swollen bruises on my knees from falling straight on my knees on the tiled ground. My whole body hurts but hey it was really fun and I want to do it again!

Next P-day is Christmas and I'm super excited!!!!!!  On Christmas Eve all the missionaries are gathering and we are having a special Christmas service and exchanging presents! It should be really fun! 

I hope everyone has an amazing Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ!

Love Sister Watts 

Playing hockey out front of the church!

Surprise Guest!!!

This week we had a mission tour conference on Monday which is why our P-day was changed to Thursday! It was really good and we had Elder and Sister Holmer there. Elder Holmer is in the Asia second councilor! I also christored the Christmas hymns!

We also had Elder Evans hold a YSA fireside for those planning on a mission. Missionaries where allowed too and because it was a stake fireside all the missionaries were there so it was another reunion and there was more missionaries there than YSA haha.

This week we had a surprise visitor in our apartment! We went to take the rubbish outside and a cat ran out and scared me then when we went back into the apartment i was talking to a sister Srinivasan and she was like there's a cat and i was like what then i turn around and there's a cat behind me. I run away and the cat runs around scared everywhere then sister Meekakshi opened the door and it ran out. After Sister Srinivasan went around stomping her feet to make sure there wasn't anymore cats anywhere haha.

We had a relief society activity where we went to an orphanage and the kids were disabled and they were so sweet and didn't want me to leave! a girl even gave me her special bookmark.

We made Christmas cookies to give to people this week and it was so fun! #lighttheworld

Hope everyone has an amazing week and living next to the mission home has it's perks as i'm off to play hockey with President and his sons Saturday morning for exercise!

Don't forget to light your community this week!!!

You can overcome the world with faith!

Love Sister Watts

Serice when we went to an old age home!

When we were the greeters at that fancy hotel event dinner!

Light the World!!!

Hello!!

Last Wednesday I went on an exchange with Sister Sasidhar and we went to help a family paint their home!

On the worldwide day of service on the 1st of December Munirka ward went to an old age home and we helped them cook, clean, do some planting and we made posters and Christmas decorations. It was a fun time and you always feel happy when you are able to do something that brings a smile to others faces. 

This Christmas the church has paid for the light the world videos to be played in two big shopping centres every four minutes! Missionaries are on a schedule to go to the shopping centre wearing a light the world shirt and just walk around without our badges or anything and if someone talks to us we are able to talk to them about the videos that are playing. It's very cool!!

 

We got a special assignment from president for Saturday night! We got to go to this church-sponsored dinner at this super fancy and nice hotel! The dinner was for everyone of different faiths and they shared the light the world videos and talked about how we can all work together in helping others. We were there to greet the guest and check their names off the list and give them name tags. The people there were super high up and I'm not sure what they all do but one works for one of the biggest media channels in India, another one is the guy who places public toilets all over the world and I made contacts with a guy in the photography world. It was a very cool experience and after we handed everyone a blanket and they had the challenge to give it to a needy person within 48 hours.

On the Saturday night when we were about to enter the hotel, someone stopped us asking if we were from the church and if we could come to his house right now and pray. He was asking us about our church and when our service is. I was like wow someone has found us again!

Mosiah 27:36 - "...They were instruments in the hands of God in bringing many to the knowledge of the truth, yea, to the knowledge of their Redeemer." This is our role on our mission as the messages that we share are central to Jesus Christ and that he lives!

With love,

Sister Watts 

I got a call from President Wednesday morning...

Hello!!

On Wednesday morning I got a phone call from President Hansen and because its transfers week and we finally had new sisters coming since I got here, I knew exactly what that phone call was for. President only calls to tell you about transfers if he has a special assignment for you. My special assignment was that now I'M TRAINING!!!!! 

My trainee is Sister Meenakshi and she's 23 and from Chennai! She has a great fire inside her for the missionary work and she just wants to baptise everyone we meet which is awesome!!!! She was saying that when she heard that there was a foreign sister in the mission that she was praying she would get me as a trainer as she knows that foreigners are really obedient and that's how she wants to be and she also wants to improve her English skills. I hope to live up to her expectations! and sisters wanting to improve their English is pretty much why every sister wants to be with me haha. 

My past companion Sister Sasidhar has now moved on to be an STL and is now in charge of a home group! With two more sisters that have come, we now have six sisters in the apartment which is crazy!!! 

My bargaining skills have definitely improved!!! I managed to get a Rs. 150 phone charger down to just Rs. 0!! That's right! He just gave up and gave it to me for free!!!!

We have been working with Abishek for a while now and have been trying to help him in his doubt that he actually does have faith in Jesus Christ. Finally after having him pray a lot and us sharing scriptures and testimonies he has finally accepted to be baptised!!! It was a major highlight for my week!

Love Sister Watts 

Went into the American Embassy!!

Hello!!!

With Sister Sasidhar away last week I was apart of Vasant Vihar and Munirka districts which was a lot of fun!! I went to Vasant Vihar district council on Tuesday and I let them know that my wish while being in their district was to go into the American embassy. So in Vasant Vihar, that's where all the embassies are and that's actually why the church can't have a sign out the front there and we have to be registered as the Indian society of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints (also the most expensive church building the church has purchased). The Vasant Vihar elders have all the really big embassy's in their area like the Australian embassy which is right across from the American embassy! You can't get inside an embassy unless you know someone on the inside, which is easy because all the Americans that are in the wards here work in the embassy. Anyway, my wish was fulfilled that night and I got to go into the third largest American embassy in the world!!! Sad that you can't take any photos around the embassy but It's like a mini city in there with houses, bowling alley, mini Walmart, a swimming pool and a restaurant that has real beef!!! I had the Greek salad there and it was so good to have a real salad since being in India! (they just don't know what a salad is here).

Also, it was really funny because we used cutlery at the restaurant and Elder Kneeland had forgotten how to eat using cutlery. He honestly forgot how to hold it in his hands and use a knife. He ended up just giving up and using a fork with one hand, it makes cutting salmon look a lot more difficult than it should have been.

I've just accepted the fact that my mission will be full of surprise assignments that I need to do last minute. Last week it was getting a phone call on Tuesday morning saying that me and sister Ramu need to do a training on referrals for zone conference on Thursday. Usually, we have a week to prepare and it was meant to be the STL's training but with sister Dorairaj gone it meant I had to fill her spot. We were able to sort everything out though and it ran smoothly with everyone saying how much they loved it! Quote from Elder Epuri - " From all of the Zone Conferences that I've attended I didn't feel like I was being trained this time but that I was actually learning something." So I didn't want to give just a boring training but I wanted to play some sort of game so I decided hey let's play Jeopardy. We made a chart with different point values in different categories all relating to referrals. Everyone was split into two teams and when you answered a question right you got chocolate!!! President said that it was really good and that we need to play it again because all the missionaries in our mission are very sporty and competitive so give them a competition and they'll love it. 

Every week we are going to have a service project cleaning the parks around Vasant Vihar. We had our first day on Friday with Vasant Vihar district too, it's always fun to do service during the week. As a mission, we are trying to do 10 hours of service a week!

A member Sister Joseph found a referral for us so we went to find them together even after walking up all the stairs in the building we couldn't find her but obviously, it was God's plan because we found four new people to teach instead. We went back to the house with the three friends and they were pretty shy and not talking a lot but when we asked one of the Sister's to pray and she did she was just had tears pouring down her face as she was telling Heavenly Father about all of her problems. The spirit after was so strong and we were just sitting there soaking in the spirit, I didn't even feel like speaking I just wanted to sit in that feeling forever. 

They had the primary presentation on Sunday and it was so sweet when they sang I hope they call me on a mission and I was like hey that's me, I'm a missionary! 

Today all the Americans plus three Indians and one Australian hung out today and played American football and then we all went out to an American restaurant called Chili's which I was super excited to try for the first time. It was all American themed today because it's Thanksgiving on Thursday!! 

I am thankful for the days I don't have to eat rice.

Love Sister Watts 

Zone Conference Training!

Met a guy on Sunday who knew my brother on his mission! 

DIWALI IS CRAZY!!!!

Hello Hello Hello!!!

DIWALI IS CRAZY!!! We were at shakunthala's home for dinner (she's a member) and all you can hear are these loud noises that sound like you're in a war with machine guns and bombs exploding everywhere and it's like walking through a landmine when you walk through the streets. I was just standing on the balcony of her house watching all the fireworks going off everywhere and then I see this thing that looks like a shooting star and it landed on someone's house. I was like hey do houses ever catch on fire and stuff and Elder Epuri was like nah not really. I continued watching the fireworks and then I saw the house that the shooting star thing landed on and IT WAS ON FIRE!!!! Luckily I was watching the fireworks so that I saw the fire and could warn the people. It was all good though it was put out quickly and there were no casualties of war. There were so many times while I was walking along the street though that I would just scream because a firework went off right next to me that I didn't see and it would make such a big noise that it would scare me so much.

This week was filled with a lot of service! On Tuesday and Wednesday we helped the sunny family paint their home and then on Thursday, we had a combined service project with Munirka and Vasant Vihar and some YSA and youth. We had the yellow helping hands vests on and we went around the streets of Munirka picking up all the rubbish after Diwali. A guy from the street just joined in with us the whole time too, everyone really appreciated our help and when we went to the chemist to buy some plastic gloves they just gave them to us for free. Another person lent us a broom and dustpan and the most exciting part was that we made it into the newspaper!! There was some media guy that happened to see us so he took photos of us and wrote an article about the service we did. The newspaper in Hindi so I don't understand anything but you can see our pictures!

President was sending our monthly report to the Area Presidency and he thought we might want to know how well we've been doing compared to this time last year. The results are below and it really gives us a sense of how the Lord is hastening His work through all of us. Also a couple of weeks ago we hit a new finding record in one week of 105!!!
Oct 2017 - 12 Baptisms
Oct 2018 - 22 Baptisms

Sep 2017 - 11 Baptisms
Sep 2018 - 22 Baptisms

Aug 2017 - 7 Baptisms
Aug 2018 - 27 Baptisms

Jul 2017 - 21 Baptisms
Jul 2018 - 41 Baptisms

Subrata and Marie are this couple that we have been teaching. Subrata never prays when we are there but this time we said okay we will say the prayer and you repeat after me. He did it and it was a huge step and he was excited himself that he did it. We decided to teach more about prayer from the book of Enos, it was a really great lesson! We invited them for church the next day and it is a struggle to get them to church as they love sleeping and church is so early in the morning. Marie has only come twice but this week Marie and Subrata were both there!! I was so happy and I feel like we have made a major breakthrough with them both but especially with Subrata. I hope to see their faith continuously increasing.

On Sunday we got a phone call in the morning from a guy named James who we're teaching. We haven't met him in a really long time but he just called to say that he was coming to church and that he'd be there at 8:30am. He was true to his word and I am so thankful that he hasn't forgotten about us and hopefully, after coming to church he'll now give us appointments to meet with him and teach him!

Abishek is this really sweet guy that we are teaching and he has trouble with praying as he feels like he can't find the words. One time he started to pray and then just stopped saying he couldn't do it. Sister sasidhar finished the prayer and she said later that his eyes were filled with tears as he was praying. Naww the spirit just fills you with such mushy feelings.

My companion Sister Sasidhar has never been to the MTC or the temple and there's a lot of the missionaries in the mission like that because the Philippians weren't letting Indians get visas to go there so they just send them straight into the mission. Exciting though because Sunday night her and nine others got visas and were able to leave to go to the Philippian's temple!! Sadly I couldn't go with her so me and Sister Ramu are back as companions until Thursday night as Sister Dorairaj went to the temple too. We have the whole apartment to ourselves now which is so weird! 

President thanked me this week for always smiling and being a happy missionary! Keep smiling everyone! It makes your day way more fun!! 

Love Sister Watts 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!..... I mean Diwali!

Hello!!!!

It's Diwali time!  It's on Tuesday and Wednesday this week and Diwali is one of the most popular festivals of India. Its origins are Hindu, and it celebrates the victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance. Often temples, shops, homes etc. are decorated with bright coloured lights and people give gifts and gather as families for meals and firecrackers.  It honestly just feels like Christmas though with all of the homes everywhere decorated in fairy lights. Then in Christmas apparently they don't have lights up so I'm just celebrating Christmas a little early this year.  

With all of the celebrations, we have an earlier curfew for this week and we now have to be in the apartment by 8:30pm but President has come up with a different activity for us to be doing every day as we're back earlier so we won't be getting bored.

It was Halloween last Wednesday so me and my companion made some cookies which we decorated to match the Halloween theme and then we went to people's homes that we are teaching. We dropped the cookies off at their door and ran away. It was a lot of fun!!

We had Stake Conference on Sunday and it was really good!! There's only one stake in Delhi so Stake Conference is also just like a mission conference because all of the missionaries come together. 

The church in India is really growing as we have 14,000 members, four stakes, two missions and a temple announced!  

Oh at the beginning of the Conference I got a text message from President Hansen saying that he just learned that I will be called upon to share my testimony. The conference then started and I was just waiting to be called upon but before I knew it conference was nearly over and the closing hymn and prayer had been announced. President sent me another text saying that I may not have to speak because the conference was running late. Ayoo I was so disappointed.... kuch nai.

Love Sister Watts  

Vasant Vihar and Munirka Districts after Stake Conference

We had a picnic in the park for lunch

Four Months!!!!!

Hello!!

Last Monday me, Sister Sasidhar, Elder Epuri and Elder Millett all went to Jama majidh! It's in this Muslim area so we had to take our tags off when we're there just to be safe. Unfortunately the place closed as soon as we got there so now we still have to go another day. There's all these markets and stores around the building though which is fun! I tried this Kulfli drink thing, the ice cream was good but the rest not so much. 

I reached fourth months on Friday! It was so sweet i was in the bedroom and sister sasidhar was in the dining room and she called me out so i went and all the lights were turned off and there was a delicious chocolate lave cake from domino's ( honestly so delicious!!) with four candles in it. It was the best surprise!

Little concerned that she was able to do this without me knowing about it though haha.

We had another person call us on Sunday wanting to meet us that day. We went to meet with him, his name is Rahul and Sister Badde had met him when she was still here. He came to English class once and then got really busy but is now free again so wanted to start meeting with us. He says that he really wants to serve a mission too. I don't know how these people find us but it just shows that we are doing the Lords work and he will send us those who're ready and prepared to hear the gospel. 

Love Sister Watts 

Someone finally sent me a photo from the stake cricket match! Look how big the stadium is!

Sunny family's baptism!

Hello!!

There is this brother named Kamlesh that me and Sister Badde found and we were never able to meet with him again. Then one day he recognised me on the street and said hi, from that we were able to get an appointment with him the next day and we have already been able to meet him twice this week! Heavenly Father has a timing for everything.

They've moved Olivia! I went to go there but it was alltorn down and i was like noooooo. I think it's just moving somewhere else though but the other location is so much smaller. Kho bath nai.

There was one day after an appointment this week were we were like where should we go. I had this thought come to me of this house i had remembered seeing on the way to a members home and on the door there was a cross which means they're a christian family so i thought hey let's go see who's there. We went and knocked on the door and there was a grandma with her two grandkids. At first she was like i'm busy but then my companion asked if she spoke tamil and she did! People love to find people that speak their own language here so after that she invited us in and was interested in hearing our message which her daughter came and joined in on too. She wants us to come back and we're excited to go back!

We had a relief society activity where we learnt how to knit! it was kinda fun once you know what you're doing but also kind of hard as we're expected to make sweaters by Christmas to wear to the ward Christmas activity. I don't know how we are expected to do that but let's just hope i'm not in that ward for Christmas haha no i never want to leave Munirka. 

One of the people we're teaching named Satish gave us a referral of one of his friends Kaushik. Kaushik seems more prepared and ready to receive the gospel than his friend! He calls asking when we're going to meet him again, keeps his commitments, ask so many questions and he even looked up the mormon.org website on the calling card we gave him and ordered himself a Book of Mormon. He's super interested in the book and was asking how big it is, we said it was only 531 pages and he was like oh that's easy, that'll only take me a week to read. We were like wow that would be amazing if you did that!

I got to experience my first baptism of someone that i had actually taught and the feeling that day was so amazing!! I was absolutely overjoyed that Sanjay and Parul were able to be baptised and they're just so happy about it too! There was a great turnout from the ward to their baptism! I could definitely feel the love from the ward towards their newest members! Even President Hansen and his wife were there! I think i overheard him saying that he'd never seen this many at a baptism before. Yay!! Yash was supposed to get baptised on Sunday too but he was so scared of the water that he refused to do it. BUT! we're excited because Sanjay is able to receive the priesthood next week so we're going to have him baptise Yash next Sunday. I think he'll be a lot more comfortable with his dad baptising him and it'll be so special for Sanjay to be able to baptise his son. 

Love Sister Watts 

Sunny family baptism!

I'm no longer a trainee!!

HELLO!

Last P-day we went to the zoo as a district and the zoo wasn't that great as you aren't allowed to take snacks inside and you have to pay to take a camera inside but other than that it was fun just going out with everyone. I was also asked for a lot of photos while in there which made me think that I was one of the attractions in the zoo. My favourite thing at the zoo was these bunch on wild monkeys and these little baby monkeys just playing around and they're so funny to watch!

Winter is coming which makes me so happy!!! It now gets cold as we ride back in the auto at night. I'll need to start carrying a cardigan around with me! 

We had district council combined with Vasant Vihar last Tuesday and because the AP's are in our district they told everyone about transfers early! From last Thursday I am now finished with training!!! I'm now leading the area in Munirka with my new companion Sister Sasidhar! Sister Ramu is now with Sister Dorairaj in Vasant Vihar so we'll still all be in the same apartment except Sister Thyagarajan has moved to Laj Pat. The Munirka district the same except for Elder Bedont being traded out for a new Elder, Elder Millett is being trained by Elder Epuri. Elder Reiss left during transfers which were sad too. 

I am loving my new companion! We get along so well! She is the sweetest! After she found out that she would be my companion they were at someone's house for dinner and they had Mac 'n' cheese. So she got the recipe and everyone was so shocked because she only loves Indian food and she's never followed a recipe before. She got the recipe and made it just for me and it tasted so good!

This week I learnt that as missionaries we aren't just here to teach lessons to the people but to really show the saviours love for them through us. It was a simple thing but we just went to someone's house that we're teaching on their birthday and brought a card and a cake to cut and sing happy birthday. It was a total surprise for her and she loved it so much as it doesn't seem like she celebrated her birthday in any way. We felt so good after leaving knowing that we had made her truly happy showing that we really care for her.

I absolutely loved general conference this weekend! Saturday morning was my favourite but I just feel like this whole conference was made just for me! It answered all my questions and filled me with such hope and motivation for my mission. I love our Prophet, Russell M. Nelson. Every time he got up to speak it brought a smile to my face and I know that he is called of God to help lead us in these Latter-days. 

Love Sister Watts 

Vasant Vihar and Munirka districts after Sunday General Conference.

My oh my what a beautiful week 08/10/18

Hey hey!

Parrul, Sanjay's wife was never able to understand us when we spoke in English whenever we've been there but suddenly just a couple of days ago she has been able to understand everything we teach with such a deep understanding. She's now able to be an example to her husband who would usually have to translate and teach her. It's a miracle. 

We went to their house for dinner on Sunday with the Smith's and their daughter who's visiting from America (her name is also Sister Watts!). When I last visited them I wasn't with Sister Ramu as we were on exchange and so when he saw her again he told her that I taught very well last time as I spoke very slow, loud, clearly and simply for him to understand. I have to be very conscious of how I say things here otherwise no one can understand my accent. I mean they still can't sometimes but just a little better than normal i guess. Anyway, in the lesson I kinda felt like I was repeating myself but hey it worked and it just proves that the spirit is the true teacher and shares exactly what they need to hear.

We were teaching a lesson to these new people we're teaching named James and Marylene. It got to the point where we were teaching about the apostasy while explaining the Restoration and then all the power suddenly went out and it was pitch black. We were like this is perfect, this is what the apostasy was like when the truth was no longer on the earth and the world was in spiritual darkness! 

We went to teach them again and this time they gave us biscuits and Fanta. While we were having it, they did something I've never seen before! They dipped the biscuit into the Fanta! I was like what is this a thing? Apparently, everyone does it. I tried it and it's not too bad, just a little weird. Plus, unlike cookies and milk where you get crumbs in the bottom of the cup, any crumbs that get in the cup the Fanta just dissolves it!

Blessings! It was at the end of the day and we were at our last appointment before going home and I was so tired and hungry! Then Maria who we were visiting comes out with this cake and lassi (Milk/curd drink which is everywhere in lots of different flavors) for us! It was exactly what I needed! 

Sister Ramu got a phone call on Saturday and the person was like is this Sister Ramu, my names Aastha and I’m at the church. We were both super confused and had no idea who she was, but we went to find out. Apparently, she had gotten one of our English fliers and looked up our church on Facebook and so she decided to go and visit the address of the church. She spoke to the security guard there and that's how she got Sister Ramu's name and our number. She's golden! She's so interested in learning everything about our church and wants to be baptised and become a Sister missionary like us. We are so blessed to have a person so ready to receive the gospel find us.

On Sunday we got a phone call from someone we've never met but who's number is saved in our phone from past missionaries more than a year ago! We went to visit Satish after church and we found out that someone had borrowed a lot of money from him and isn't returning it to him, so he thought to call us just so we could pray for him. He's this sweet young University student living by himself and we are so thankful that he remembered the missionaries so that we are able to now share this beautiful message of the gospel with him!

I felt and experienced so many blessings and miracles this week. It has been a very tiring but a very rewarding week!

Love Sister Watts 

Simran Massey's home for dinner!

Two P-days in one week! 01/10/18

HELLO!!!

So this week we have our normal P-day on Monday but then on Tuesday we have the Delhi Stake Premiere Cricket Match!!! All the wards have a team, even the missionaries! It's a whole day thing and they all have jersey's and it's at a massive cricket stadium and everything! It's going to be so much fun! So we don't really have a second P-day as we will be trying to talk to everyone and get as many referrals as possible but it's still going to be so much fun! The Sisters are the cheerleaders for the teams haha. Then we get to leave early at 4 and go to teach English class! I'm excited for a super fun day!

On Wednesday something happened which never happens! A guy recognized us as missionaries! We were just walking along the street on our way to an appointment and then this guy who was sitting on the side got up to get our attention and he asked if we were missionaries and asked what we do and where we come from and everything. It was super cool to have someone recognize us for a change. Probably because me walk up and down the same streets in Munirka all the time but still!

Elder Bedont and Elder Epuri had baptisms of two sisters on Saturday and they aren't fully there mentally but they are the sweetest girls ever! They were both scared of the water, so it took like an hour just to get one of them baptised but yay Gloria finally got baptised! Karen was too scared though, so she didn't get baptised that day but hopefully she's able to overcome her fear and get baptised soon!

Every fifth Sunday here all talks are given by missionaries so Elder Bedont talked about forgiveness, Sister Ramu about the Word of Wisdom and lucky me i got to speak about temples and conduct the music for sacrament meeting! At first you think a talk about temples is easy but then you realize you kinda have to change your angle as most people here have never been to the temple or are unable to make frequent visits there. The talk went well though!

I ate veggies with my hands for the first time on Sunday and it was just weird. 

I asked my first person to be baptised this week! Brother Sanjay, his wife and son Yesh are finally going to be getting baptised! He would always say that he'll be baptised after one year so that he can learn as much as he can, and he said that he's already been baptised in another church but we were able to talk to him and now he sees the importance of not delaying your baptism and that it needs to be performed by someone holding the priesthood authority of God. They have been getting taught for a long time, so this is a super exciting time!! 

They also have these adorable little kittens that are only a few weeks old and I got to hold one!

Love Sister Watts 

Why did the Sisters cross the road?

Hey!

They sell popcorn on the side of the road and it's just popped popcorn in a pile and it's so tempting to just reach out and grab some so we asked and he let us take some for free! 

We were crossing the road and then we hear this really loud honking coming from a motorbike on the right of us and it scared me so much because it was so loud and out of nowhere! The motorbike had come around the corner really fast and was suddenly right next to us but the thing is that he was driving on the wrong side of the road! There's no correct way to look while crossing the road in India.

On Wednesday nights we go to the Wednesday market which is like the south bank markets where they have all these markets stalls for a night except it's way crazier! There are so many fruits and vegetables everywhere and it's way cheaper here! They also have all these clothes, shoes and jewellery stalls. you can find everything there!

We had Zone Conference on Tuesday which was really good!! I found out that they used to have foreign missionaries in Pakistan and they're trying to get them back in there soon. China has influence there so Chinese missionaries might be the first ones to start the wave for foreign missionaries entering there again. 

We did an activity where we were split into three groups. Satan, Jesus and the fence sitters. They each had to give arguments to persuade the fence sitters (me) to choose their plan for coming to earth and then the fence sitters had to ask them questions to help them make their decision. Satan is very persuasive but we have all already chosen Jesus once, we can choose him again!

We had a ward missionary fireside on Saturday night and it went well! Our theme was stories that bring us together and we had classes on the plan of salvation and temple and family history work and then at the end we had made these books with all of these questions to help people start writing their own stories and we shared how important it is to write down your story to share with your family for generations to come.

Jungle means forest in Hindi so while teaching about the restoration and Joseph Smith you explain that he went into the jungle to pray haha.

If the opposition is really strong then it means that you're on the right path! Keep pushing forward! 

Love Sister Watts 

The power of testimonies

Hello Hello Hello!!!

This week we visited this guy's family we're teaching and his name is Sanjay. It was a district dinner appointment to celebrate his birthday which was the day before. Before we ate we taught him the restoration again and it was all mostly in Hindi but the spirit was still strong. He then said that he had a task for everyone in the room to bear their testimony about Jesus Christ, the spirit was already so strong but then add a couple of members and six missionaries testimonies on top of that! The spirit was so strong that it was almost suffocating! It was one of the greatest spiritual experiences I've had since being here and it really bore testimony to me about how powerful sharing your testimony with someone can be. 

Elder Mekala isn't so bad anymore, he bought me and my companion an ice cream from maccas!!

I'm very surprised by my spice tolerance. I don't take a drink of water at all during meals, meanwhile, my companion dies sometimes and drinks multiple cups of water. I guess I'm good at controlling it and also if I drink water that just makes me more full and then I'm not able to eat the ton of food they're trying to feed me. They insist that you eat more and sometimes they just put more on your plate anyway without your consent so you just have to grab your plate and hold it away from them as you beg them not to give you anymore as you're about to explode! That doesn't happen often but when it does there's no need to eat for another day. 

We were sitting in sacrament meeting on Sunday and they started to play the opening hymn and Sister Ramu was like go up there and I was like huh why? She was like look there's no one leading the music. So I had to quickly run up the front and chorister. I'm really thankful now that I had my calling as the ward chorister! 

Have a bohut aacha week!!!

Love Sister Watts 

Dinner at Sister Shakunthala's house with Elder Epuri, Elder Bedont and my companion Sister Ramu 

This is Shubham! Someone we're teaching. Had to go on exchange for an hour with Sister Thyagarajan 

First transfer, done!

Last P-day was Sister Ramu's birthday P-day so we went to Ambiance Mall to have lunch and go bowling as a district. Me and Sister Ramu went to Olivia's after to get ice cream and I saw they have these cute takeaway bags with an Olivia sticker so I was like I must have these. So we got a family size ice cream tub just for the bag but the ice cream was so good too!! We also befriended the store owner and my trusty companion was able to get him to throw in a few Olivia stickers for free and he let us pick different flavours to go in the tub as you're usually only allowed one flavour! We then ended the day by having Maccas for dinner so overall it was just a really fun day! 

I've now completed my first transfer! Just 12 more to go! Transfers are like some sort of survival TV show, wondering who will stay and who will go. We thought our apartment was safe because there's two companionship's with a trainee each but no ones safe in this game. Sister Thangaraj moved to Laj Pat and Sister Dorairaj who just finished her training this transfer came and is now finishing Sister Thyagarajen's training and became an STL! New President new rules because you used to have to wait for four transfers before becoming an STL. Then Elder Riess got shipped off to Mumbai for his last transfer so we had a farewell dinner with our district in dominos. Also a sad fact, they don't have Hawaiian pizza at dominos here. 

President came by our apartment to check out our new couches and coffee table (we didn't have anything before) and he says that we would get an air con in our living room as he wants to make sure we're as comfortable as possible and he wants us to feel spoilt! I feel sorry for the Elders haha 

We met with Jhanavi again and she's already read half of the Book of Mormon and the only reason she stopped was that she wants to read the bible first so that she can better understand the Book of Mormon. She says that her day isn't complete and she feels something missing without reading it. She reads each sentence and word carefully making sure she understands everything and she doesn't stop reading until she learns something which she needed to know. She feels at peace as she reads it and she has a pile of books she keeps in order of importance and it's on the top! She's amazing and did I mention that she's only 18!

We were on the way back from an appointment and we saw someone we're teaching who's name is Tara and he has a pretty hard life and faces Word of Wisdom problems but he meets with us nearly every day and comes to church and he's been reading the Book of Mormon constantly. He says that it has given him the strength to say no when people offer him alcohol. When we drove past him I saw him walking along the road and that in his hand he was holding tightly to the Book of Mormon. 

Sometimes we can forget the great power and strength you can gain from continuously reading the Book of Mormon but it can bring you so much comfort, joy, peace and can literally change a person's way of life.   

Love Sister Watts 

I ATE FIRE!!!

Last P-day we went to Humain's tomb with all the Sisters and Noida Elders. It was so cool! They call it the mini Taj Mahal and that's literally what it looks like! Coolest thing I've seen so far since being here! 

It's a big tourist site so there are lots of people there to ask you for selfies with them. Had a whole group of guys come up one by one to have a photo haha. These adorable little girls came up and were like where are you from, I told them then they asked for a picture. When they were walking off I could hear them say wow Australia haha. 

I eat all my meals here with my hands and so sometimes the food is really hot but I'm also really hungry so I just eat it straight away anyway  and this one time I burnt my fingers really bad and it had started to rain so on the way home I just had my hand out the auto the whole time to cool it down, then I put an ice-pack on it but it still wasn't cold enough! I think Indians hands are made out of steel or something.

Cool thing though because you always use your hands so their dirty and you can't shake hands with people so you just fist bump everyone! It's great getting to fist pump the bishop.

I've found myself doing the little Indian head bobble thing and I think I've got it down pat now. 

We were stopped at lights and I a saw a heshe further up going to all the cars asking for money and I was right on the side of the auto and I was no oh no and he was getting closer and closer and then just before he reached us the lights turned green and we took off. Phewf! That was too close. 

Breaking boundaries out here in India! We had leftover chapathi and I wanted a snack but it just didn't taste as nice plain and I asked Sister Ramu if you can put jam on it and she was like no you don't do that and I was like I'm gonna try it! I did and it was great! it tastes so good and Sister Ramu tried it and she loved it! We had it for dinner the other night too! 

SPOILER ALERT! I had an astrologer read my palm and tell me my future. So I'm going to study two courses in Australia and two courses in another country. I'm going to take a language course. I might run my own consultancy business and I'll get married after four years and my husband will be working in the same stream as me and we'll then run our own business together. We'll never get divorced YAY! eternal marriage and we'll have one kid. I'm very charitable and helpful to others so I'll run some kind of non-government organisation like a charity trust or something. I'm going to have lots of travelling opportunities and live a healthy life as I'll never be a diabetic and I'll die at the age of 81. 

It was Sister Ramu's birthday on Sunday and apparently, it's a thing in India that when it's someone's birthday you wake them up at 12am and give them cake and sing happy birthday, they also get cake all over their face. It was kinda fun and different but for my birthday I would just like to sleep and have the cake go in my mouth, not all around it haha. 

We then had a dinner celebration at the Smith's home (Senior couple missionaries) with other sisters in our apartment, our district and Sister Peck (Senior couple missionary) and the Skidmores (Senior couple missionary) came by, they brought ice cream too so that was really great! 

You know Elder Skidmore was a rocket scientist! How cool is that!!

Okay now for the story you've all been waiting for. There's this thing you can eat and it's all this stuff that they put onto a leaf and then light it on fire! and then what they do is they shove it in your mouth with the flames still blazing! Disappointing though because it tastes disgusting! I couldn't even chew it, I just spat it all out straight away. The taste lasted in my mouth for ages! It looked pretty cool though. 

Love Sister Watts 

Wasn't P-day just yesterday?

Hello!

Can't believe it's p-day again, feels like I had it just yesterday. 

Last Monday we went to India gate with some Elders from Noida so got to see Elder Robison again. India gate is this big gateway thing and at night time it lights up with the Indian flag so that's pretty cool.

 Me and Sister Ramu got a sketch of us together there and it is such a good drawing! 

So many people asked us for selfies probably because we were with three white American Elders and Elder Robison says this sort of thing happens to him every single day. 

There are these little mini motorbikes you can ride there so all the Elders got on one and had a race down the road and it was so funny until an Elder ran into a guy and knocked him off his bike and broke his mirror.

I gave my first district training this week on Preach My Gospel Ch 10. It was alright but what went really well was when Munirka and Vasant Vihar districts combined at the end and I had to do a game so I taught them all how to play fruit salad and everyone loved it and we had a lot of fun! 

Elder Jorgenson taught English class that night and so he got me to teach everyone there how to play too haha.

Elder Webster went home this week and so that was sad. So now Elder Jorgenson has moved to Vasant Vihar district to be companions with Elder Saka and we got Elder Bedont from Malvya move into our district.

This week I was sitting in the room with just the fan on and my companion is like what you didn't turn on the ac and I was like wow I'm getting used to the heat and becoming an Indian.

We met this guy Khali for the first time and he's awesome! He's from Nigeria and he has so much faith and understanding.  We were meant to meet Khali again on Saturday at 5:30 but he didn't come to the church until 6:30 which was actually perfect because a baptism started at that time so he was able to come in and see that and it was after the baptism where we taught him and extended a baptismal invitation and he accepted! It was the first time I've been in a lesson and we asked someone to be baptised. It was such a good feeling and he couldn't stop smiling!

We went to meet with some people we're teaching named Maria and Subrata and I had only been there once before but I thought I knew the way, turns out I didn't exactly know the way so we went a wrong way but I don't think it was really the wrong way because Sister Ramu met someone she knew and who was interested in the gospel so we were able to get his number and an appointment to meet him. We found Maria and Subrata's house after that and she made me popcorn because she remembered that I love popcorn! She also came to church on Sunday which was super great!

On Sunday they had an Indian festival called Raki where sisters will tie bracelets onto their brothers as a sign of respect and love and in return, the brother will give them really nice gifts and treat them like a queen for the day and they promise to protect them forever. It's such a nice tradition. 

We got bracelets made with the brother's names that we're teaching and gave them out which was fun!

Went to church yesterday and found out I was the chorister in sacrament meeting, then because they saw me chorister in sacrament meeting I also did it in Relief Society. I'm glad I've already had some practising in choristering! 

Sister Joseph is a member of Munirka ward and she always knows where all the food is on a Sunday which is great because she always brings me along with her! Last Sunday it was because of her that we found out about a secret gathering that happens every week where brother Kamalakaren brings food for the people in the group to eat. We're now apart of this V.I.P club. Except for yesterday, we went to the secret room after church and no one was there then brother Kamalakaren told us that he didn't make any food because sister Kajol said she'd make it this week but she forgot! He say's he's never going to trust anyone else to make the food again haha.

Love Sister Watts 

One month done and dusted!

Hello! 

My first trainer Sister Badde has now left and I got join her in the exit dinner with President which apparently never happens so that was fun! Except that we had an appointment straight after, so I had two dinners that night and you can't even believe how full I was! 

I'm now being trained by Sister Ramu, but it doesn't really feel like I’m being trained because I’m the one in charge and leading the area now with Sister Badde gone and with Sister Ramu never serving in my area before so that's fun. 

We were crossing the road and we made it halfway across and we were just waiting for a car to pass so we could cross and then we look to the right and there's this car on the wrong side of the road heading straight for us and we were like ahh because it wasn't safe to cross yet and it wasn't very safe to stand still either haha but it all worked out fine and we made it across safely. 

We found a new person to teach and her name is Jhanavi and she is so sweet! She has this adorable little puppy named Bella and it's only six weeks old so it's this tiny little thing and I love it so much! She has her own family religion and some heavy traditions like only being allowed to cut your hair once a year and then you put that hair on their goddess as extensions and when they're a baby they go to their temple and get a tattoo of their family symbol carved into them with a knife and then it's injected with ink they grow and make themselves. She seems excited to learn about our religion though and calls us her friends and when we gave her a Book of Mormon she was so eager to read it and was like I’m gonna finish it in two days!

Sister Jhanavi can read a person through their handwriting and I was writing in the Book of Mormon I gave her and then she was like wow you have beautiful handwriting and then she said I was very independent because my handwriting was straight and not crooked and that I have a clear purpose and plan of where I’m going but that I get scared when I have a lot of responsibility placed on me. She also said that I was stressed and had tensions about something because I was writing very heavily, and my words were clearly pressed into the paper so that you could read it on the other side. Not all true but it was cool how the way you write can mean different things.

We had district finding in SN Markets this week and usually when people try and sell you things they never leave you alone but if you give them a free English class flier they stop following you straight away haha so there's a handy hint to remember for next time. 

I don't think I look that completely different and stand out heaps but apparently, I do because this lady came up to me and asked for a selfie with me haha never had that happen before 

The power cut out in church a few times and when it cuts out it's pitch black and it's like no one even notices because they just carry on with their talk or whatever as if nothing’s happened. The funny part was when it happened for the first time while we were singing choose the right and then we got to the last line of the chorus which sings choose the right and God will bless you ever more then the lights turned back on haha we all chose the right by coming to church that day so God blessed us and turned the power back on. 

Love Sister Watts