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