I love some good masala!

Hello!!!

We went through the area book and called a guy named Sharath who wanted to meet us that evening. When we first starting talking to him he was pretty doubtful and didn't seem that interested but as we and a member shared our testimonies about the gospel and the Book of Mormon by the end of the meeting he was super willing and he said he had a real desire to read this book and find out for himself if it was true. He said our excitement and joy from talking about the Book of Mormon really helped him to get excited about it himself. We shared some passages from the scriptures and he said that this is like really good masala! It was really funny and now we send him some really good masala every day which he really appreciates.

Also while calling someone else from the area book they wanted to meet but I found out that was only because they thought I was diplomat looking for a housemaid haha never heard that one before!

All I wanted on Friday was to have a banana smoothie so I put everything in a blender and everything was fine then I blended it a little more and you know those scenes in the movies where the blender just explodes and the liquid goes everywhere!? Well, that's exactly what happened to me! I had banana smoothie all over me and the kitchen! I just stood there shocked like what just happened. I have concluded to never make another smoothie.

This week I am the District Leader! Everyone has gone off to Bihar and Kolkata to baptise and teach people and meet members and stuff so it's just me and my companion left here. The Zone leaders especially Elder Miles thinks this is very funny and so he is actually treating me as the District Leader by asking me for numbers and all this stuff I didn't even know District Leaders did, while also asking me to say Australian things, speak with an American accent, Canadian accent and speak in Hindi with an Australian Accent. I'm looking forward to Elder Burnett returning on Wednesday!

Buses here are like a roller coaster! First of all majority of the buses are always over packed and they go way too fast and when they go round corners you have to hold on for dear life! Sometimes I feel like we are just on two wheels! Most of the time we never get a seat and for one trip we had to stand for a whole hour! Also when you get on or off a bus they don't always fully stop and if they do stop it's only for like half a second so you've gotta be quick! And when you want to get off you have to make it to the front door of the bus so when it's overpacked you can imagine the struggle!! So there are also three kinds of buses; green, orange and red. It's like red is first class, green is middle class and Orange is lower class. I don't exactly know the difference between green and orange but the red one is the one that always has air con so that's the only colour I'll be catching in the summer! Buses are great though especially since they are so cheap! ohh and prices also differ depending on which colour bus it is. 

Our in actives all came to church again this week! and two new people that we found this week through a member referral came two! I'm coming to learn more and more how important it is to work along with the members!

Also at church Ruth Garcia gave a talk about mental health which is something she struggles with and she said that one of the ways she deals with it is with her dog Rufus, her dad then came up the front holding up this adorable little puppy which was just the cutest thing ever and i can totally see how that puppy can help someone be happy! The puppy ran away during church and came next to me and it's so soft!

I'm spreading the Australian spirit here ready for Australia day this weekend by singing the Vegemite song to some Punjabi guy which he loved! Also, I've taught the Collingwood anthem to Elder Burnett and he'll just sing the first line and then stop because otherwise it just gets stuck in his head! 

It was a great week this week!! 

Love Sister Watts 

Dinner at Brother Willis's home last Monday night

I found a guy holding an Australian mug...

Hello!!

We have been focusing a lot on re-activating the members in Vasant Vihar as pretty much all the members in our area are less active. It's slow work but we are seeing the results! We had four less actives come to church on Sunday! One member came to church by himself after five years when his active son didn't even come with him. It made me so happy seeing these people and families come again unto Christ. I feel that as well as finding new people to teach it is also very important to reach out and strengthen the member's faith also as baptising people is pointless if they don't continue to build their relationship with Heavenly Father and endure to the end. All it took for a lot of these people was just having someone reach out and show that they are remembered, loved, cared for and needed to help build up the church and hasten the work. I truly believe that we can't do this work without the members by our sides.

One evening we tried to find a less active and we ran into this guy out front of the less actives home we were trying to find and he was holding an Australian high commission mug so I struck up a conversation with him and apparently he joined the church ten years ago but has since become less active as his father was disapproving of the church. He asked us if we still partake of the sacrament and it sounded like he had some really fond memories in the church as he said that he made some good friends there. You could see all of these memories flooding back to his memory and even though he didn't want to meet with missionaries again we hope that talking with us stirred up feelings of the spirit to his heart again and you never know what could happen down the track. The less active we were trying to find didn't live there anymore but I feel that this was the less active we needed to meet that day. 

Some days are really tiring, walking around on your feet all day and this one night I was just like my legs are dead I can't walk anymore. My companion felt the same and since there's nowhere to sit we just crouched down on the ground. You have no idea how much relief that gave even though it was only for a minute! People thought we were a little strange and probably wondering what we were doing but oh well haha 

We had two people find us this week! 

The first was Nishant and we were just walking down the street and then he stopped us and asked if we were missionaries. He said that our badges really stand out. He told us that his sister is involved with our church and that it interests him. He's not in our area so I referred him to Elders where he's living and he's been able to meet with them already which is awesome! When we met I also asked him if he knew anyone else that might be interested and his face lit up as he explained that he was some sort of trainer for over 700 people so he knew lots of people he could refer us too! 

The second was Dharm and we were looking for someone's house and didn't know where it was and i think he could see we were a little lost so he came over and helped us out. We then started talking about the church and he was interested to learn more about it so we referred him to Elders in his area. He said that he's visited our church once before and he loves talking with missionaries as they make him feel really happy and good inside. 

A lot of the people we find aren't in our area so we aren't able to teach them but we are just happy to help the person know where they can find the truth and happiness they are searching for. As missionaries, we are all united as we are all working with the same purpose which is to help others come unto Christ. 

Love Sister Watts 

Ward Christmas Activity!

Christmas Eve Program for all the missionaries. These are all the missionaries in the East and West Zones.

I LOVE my new area!!!

Hello!!!

This week has been so amazing!!  

It's sad leaving Munirka especially when the people finally started recognising us haha even the autos would drive past and would ask "Poorvi Marg, Vasant Vihar" and i just laugh because they know us and exactly where we want to go. 

Vasant Vihar is awesome though!! especially since my area is the wealthiest area in Delhi! The houses are so fancy and i don't even feel like i'm in India sometimes! It's fun getting to know a new area and figuring out the bus system which i have never really used before. Vasant Vihar ward's attendance has really fallen lately so President wants us to really focus on reactivating the members. We'll have the ward back to full swing in no time! This last Sunday's attendance was the highest it's been in a long time and we had a family of seven come back to church after one year! 

All of the members are great and i can tell i'm going to have a lot of fun this transfer!

My new district is awesome too! There are four sisters (me, Sister Mungamuri, Sister Dorairaj and Sister Srinivasan) and just two Elders and so when there's a district with more Sister's than Elders the District leader (Elder Burnett) is known as a Relief Society President! It's great and the theme song for our district is 'As Sisters in Zion' which will be sung at every district council.

Love Sister Watts

This is a picture of all the Sisters in the mission! The beautiful sister in the front right is my companion Sister Mungamuri!

I got a call from President Saturday night...

MERRY CHRISTMAS/ HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Christmas was so good! It was awesome getting call home to family! We called at Elder and Sister Pecks home with other missionaries from Munirka and Vasant Vihar and we had cinnamon scrolls and scrambled eggs for breakfast! There were lots of games being played throughout the day! Phase 10, go fish, snap, jumping monkey's, monopoly and I taught everyone to play DON'T EAT PEATE! They all loved it!

President loves to keep everyone on their toes in this mission... transfer calls came Saturday night when transfers aren't until Thursday! No one was expecting calls until Wednesday so there was a lot of excitement! On Saturday our phone was on meeting mode and when I looked at it there was a missed call from President and I was like well I never expected to see this... turns out that he was calling to tell me that I'll be opening up a new area for sisters!! I'm super excited because I'm moving to my first new area! I'm going to Vasant Vihar and taking over Elder Mills old area! Guess what that means!! I have all the embassy's in my area!! I'm super excited! I'm finally going to fulfil my goal of getting inside the Australian Embassy! 

That's not the only thing that's changing! President said that I'm still training but I'm training a different sister! Now I will be training Sister Mungamuri! Her brother always went out on exchanges with mine when he was serving his mission down south and she still remembers him too so that's a cool connection! We will be as they say "white washing" the area as neither of us know the area. She also hasn't been to the MTC yet so everything about being a missionary she's going to have to learn from me, pressure! But I'm super happy and excited! 

All of Munirka is splitting up this transfer! I've been in this place for six months and it'll be so weird to leave! Elder Mekala is no longer AP and is moving to Noida, Elder Epuri is now a zone leader for the Delhi East zone so he's moving to Laj Pat and will still be in the same district as Sister Meenakshi as she's moving there too!

This is my first transfer to a new area and you don't really realise how much you touch people's lives until you're leaving and everyone is so sad. The Sunny family who are recent converts were crying so much when they found out I was leaving and it was really hard but now I know the importance of staying connected with your converts throughout your life. There will always be a special bond which can never be broken. I look forward to the day that that family is able to enter the temple and be sealed as a family for eternity. Plus I'll probably just be switching between Munirka and Vasant Vihar my whole mission haha

Love Sister Watts 

A nativity set up outside the church for Christmas. This is also where we had our ward Christmas party and I'm wearing the Light the World shirt we wear when we go to the shopping centre!

This is the Sanjay family who we have been teaching!