Letter from India October 24, 2011

Well this week has been amazing we had our first baptisms as a companionship and I performed both it was the family that you heard about that had been coming to church I was so cool and it all went smooth accept when I Dipped the wife into the water she came up gasping for air turns out she is not much of a swimmer and very afraid of the water but other than that it was all good and we were very excited if i have time I will send A Pic of Us on that day.
What else that was obviously the highlight of my week but we did do some other stuff We just got done with bowling for P day that was fun i had to show everyone superman bowling where you run and slide on your stomach then push the ball ya they all thought i was nuts the Indian elders would never do something like that they do not understand that kind of fun sometimes but we are changing them and they were all trying different kinds of bowling by the end haha it was a good day.
What else O i am getting fat like seriously I have eaten so much rice and so little meat that i am developing this weird thing called a gut.
um let see what else I have noticed so much but i forgot my note pad so i cant remember it all so ya I guess India is just crazy as usual and i am getting better at eating the food.
any ways i will write more next week love you all peace out.
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Letter From Elder Worton October 17, 2011

Hey Yall,
So this week has been great it seems like just yesterday that I sent my last E-mail to you guys. We had a family that is our strongest investigators come to church for a second week in a row this week so next Sunday they are planning to get baptized so that is super exciting and we have many others who are getting close. Dad sorry no time to write you back individually but yes we did finally get to to door to door approaches this week also most of the people we talk to we first ask if they are christan or not and if there not we just say ok thanks and ask if they know where any Christan families live because otherwise they don't let us in and we still half to be careful about the whole door knocking thing so ya.Lets see what else O ya how much did the birthday package cost to send ???? and how big was it approximately because i want to maybe send a small Christmas package yo yall which brings up how do I use the UPS code you gave me exactly ??
Any ways What else here are some more random things i thought of this week to tell you guys that might be interesting to read. They all love justin beeber, Akon, and Usher here haha it so funny like grown men have Beeber songs as there ring tones. O and we went to KFC ya i know its like the worst fast food of all the fast food but all they have is KFC or MacDonalds so ya but while we were there they were playing American music and it was so nice we were with the other elders in our zone so the three of us Americans just sat there and loved the music. We rode in a members car the other night and it was a Suzuki Swift kinda looks like a Kia soul but its a diesel of coarse and we take off and its making a turbo sound All the three other elders that i live with are like what is that sound and I say it sounds like a turbocharger haha the driver looks at me and is like ya that's exactly what it is it ya lets just say I want a Swift its a turbo diesel and there money sounding. Dad also to answer another question no none of the elders I live with have ever done any of the kinds of sports I have they literally lived in such humble circumstances they love the mission because they get AC in the room they sleep in none of there families have ever owned a car just motorcycles and they have only ever played cricket yes i played once by the way. But ya there are just so many people here that they half to do with what they have like they only do one sport cricket they only eat one food Rice and some sort of sauce. O and one of the elders really wants to go to the USA mostly because he has heard the stories of Black Friday and dreams of getting a laptop on black Friday or just a laptop at all haha its funny to hear there view of the USA things they hear like black Friday and Las Vagus and stuff they reprieve it so different than it is. Lets see what else Wild life Iv seen a Cow Goat Cat Dog Chicken all of those are all over the place just strays that roam the streets with nasty diseases other than that rats lizards and frogs haha nothing like tiger or elephant but if this BUNT stops some day we can go to the Hyderabad zoo and supposedly i can ride and elephant there?? who knows how much it  will cost though OOOOO I ALMOST FORGOT DID I LEAVE MY CAMERA CHARGER AT HOME I CANT FIND IT ANY WHERE I THOUGHT I FORE SURE HAD IT BUT CANT FIND IT ANY WHERE A NEW ONE FROM THE SHOP BY US IS 1800 RUPEE OR LIKE ALMOST 40 DOLLARS SO YA?????????
PS hand shakes here are so weird no one will actually squeeze your hand you just like touch hands kinda weird.
PS dad and Devin happy best Month of the Year love you both and thought of you on your Birthdays there even written in my planner haha
PS All the recipies you send are in American Units here all liquids are in mm and other things so ya i did some guessing but we do have one measuring cup that has a 1/4 cup line so ya hahaha
PS I want a Kneaders french toast, Baconator meal, and Rodesio grill the second day im back because the first day will be mamas cooking then those o and we did have dominos this week sososososossosos good.O and i made brownies (from box But still good ) and No bakes came out pretty good as well haha
PS some random street that we liv by one day i see a bran new Porche Cayann then ten min later a new Autti S5 then an hour later a BMW 535 parked at the end its so weird that way haven't seen anything like that then one day see all three within an hour

 

October 10, 2011

Hey Yall
Its Elder Worton from India i survived yet another week this week has actually flew by we had to travel by train to another city three days of the five Monday and Tuesday we went for the FRRO office for registration because Im Fron the U.S. and yes it took two days full days inclooding travel lets just say they don't like missionaries here much. We met a guy from the mission office there and he told us what we had to do and say the best part was if they asked why we were here we were to say "we are teaching piano lessons and English at the churches location" ya it was kinda a weird situation and they were very skeptical to OK us but we got it done and were all good. the next day we had to travel to the same city for district meeting and we had quite a good time me and my companion haha. So we are on the train and as i said last week the trains are uncomprehendingly stuffed so we got separated enough that we couldn't see each other. But we had been to that city the previous two days so wen Begupet station came i got off just as we had the two days before well elder sampara did not so there i was in India all by my self in down town Hyderabad a city of about 10 million people a... but i know kinda where the chapel was so i started walking to it well this random Indian guy comes up and it talking to me as we walk come to find out he loves the US and really wants to go there. So we are talking and some how our conversation goes to how the USA puts out 90% of pornography and then he asks me do i love that there.... so ya i then proceeded to teach a small lesson on how bad that was and by the end of our talk he agreed with me that it was bad and he would not do it anymore. at this point we have walked about a mile he stops and says well this is my stop where are you going i said well to tell you the truth i have no idea and he looked at me quite puzzled i probably lost all validity at that point in his mind but he said OK well see ya then i guess. so ya i just kept walking i finally got to the street we had met at and got an auto to the church lucky the driver knew where it was. after a while my companion shewed up and ya he had an adventure of his own lets just say this was the super sort version of the story but ya good times.
this week had been good though i have been getting used to the food kinda at least im getting god at eating it wont say i enjoy it much but ya. Um we dedicated a guys new home ad it was cool they are not members but just wanted someone to bless the home i guess thats a big deal here and they treated us like pastors and then tried to pay us and we had to stop them but it was  a cool experience. I also got to give a recent convert a priesthood blessing because he was struggling with alcohol relapse and even though he only understands very minimal English after i was done with the blessing he stood up and said he could understand the part about how his family loves him and they are a supporting and preying for him and he said i know that what you said is true it was so cool to see that he had understood me but really the spirit was talking to him thats why he understood it so clearly.
We had four people show up to priesthood session so ya that was kinda weird but we had one investigator with us and it was perfect for him to hear all about prophets since that was what we had just taught him ten min before. All the sessions of confrence was very low attendence its weird here i feel like lots of times the church is just another christian church o members here and they dont take it serious but i am coming from Utah so ya i know thats why im here to help change that.
Let see what else this week lots more small things like oreo's here  I pretty much live off them but on the package they say the worlds best biscuit instead of milks favorite cookie haha ery thing here is a biscuit no cookies. o and the milk is in cardboard cartons warm when yo buy it tastes OK.
Everyone especially the Indian elders love LOVE beef jerky haha they devoured my bag when the heard i had some they dont sell that here if you did not noticed O and I had beef for the first time since i have been here today Beef Beriani ya spicy rice with fatty beef chunks it was good i guess
-O ps dad your emails are working just fine
-Ps President Monson quoted Tennyson haha
-pps kent i will send a pic of our apartment elevator it will bring back good memories haha
PPS porter thanks for the water proof ties they got well tested this week te rain came down and the floods came up
Mike thanks for the leatherman i fixed the shower with it today haha
Aubz andKailee you both happened to send me random funny stories that i loved thats what i miss most i really did LOL

October 3, 2011 Second of two letters

So the power goes out still a lot so i sent multiple sections so i dont loose it that also reminds me our power goes out every morning now so ya I get a Cold dark shower every day its real nice o and if that's not enough at night I sweat because our AC broke for the third time so ya the night are terrible right now. O that brings me to another thing i wake up every morning to like 50 more mosquito bites and im going to go crazy itching so one night i could not take it and took a bottle of deet 40% and sprayed a thick layer all around my bed on the wall one the head board everywhere and it smelled for like an hour but no more bites the next few nights very nice.
O lets see what else o this week there is still bunt and so we cant where tags or ties all week and if there are big groups gathered in the streets we half to turn around and go the other way it also does not help that it is the 9 day s of the yearly Hindu holiday October 1 to 9th is all holiday so they have been setting up these huge theaters and there are like strands of Christmas lights strung over the streets leading to these mini Hindu tempels and then they hook up huge speakers and blast music in some language through the streets all day its real nice haha
  we have had three baptism dates set but all three did not come to church this week so we are back to zero but we have lots of new investigators so thats good hopefully we can stay busy this week.
Lets see what else O never ever ever ever ride a public train in India it is so nasty they stuff about 300 people in a space that should be packed with 50 no joke if you fall down you get trampled and nobody notices. and people are hanging all over you it was horriable to say the least but ya just do not do it take my word.
General conference already happened I know but we will get it on DVD's in one week so ya im stoked to hear that.
O i have to tell you guys how we get chicken here so we went to go get chicken because my companion wanted to make what else? chicken curry of coarse but ya we go to a street vendor and ask for one KG of chicken so he brings our a skinned chicken like whole thing feet neck the whole chicken and chops it in half then sets it up on a cut off tree stump and just chops it up into pieces bones and all just with this huge knife then puts it in a bag and hands it to us it gets better then we go home and cook it right as were eating it im picking through the bones to get some meat off then when its over i have a stack of bones on my plate i look over at the other three and there are no bones on there plate so I say where is your waste?? turns out they just eat the bones..... Ya no joke they just crunch through them they like it they say i almost throw up and go to bed at that point haha so weird.
well got to go love you all till next week
 

O mom can you send me some simple recipes by chance like a very simple bread one and just others that could be helpful??
Reese congrats on the pine wood derby thats so sweet you are a winner i like that and that car looked super cool.
Olivia i hope thriller is going good thats so cool that you get two parts send me pics I really wish i could be there for that its the one thing that Im truly home sick about right now so do good Sis
O and porter this Mini bike thing is going to be hilarious also send pics of that  as it progresses.
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October 3, 2011 first of two emails

Hey yall I dont have much time this week so I cant read all your emails before I write back because today we had to travel one hour by train to the main city of Hyderabad to register me in some FRRA thing i guess it is something with our visa and today was the last day to do it so we have been gone all day doing that. I also found out today that i live in the (OUT SKIRTS) of the city the down town part that we went to today was very much more modern than my area there were nice big buildings and a pizza hut, KFC, Golden arches, even a mall but ya where i live there is no american influence and no nice big buildings just small street markets and one main road with dirt roads everywhere else. Lets see what other interesting things did I learn this week Lets see men here hold hands all over the place and it is super creepy looking but i guess that it is just a friendship thing and nothing gay at all so ya that was weird Yet a hug is a huge deal here and you do not hug people unless your like getting married so ya just different customs.Another
Another thing i really noticed this week was how white I am I think the first week I was just in shock and didnt notice but this week I started Noticing that everyone looks at Me and I mean everyone also little kids all run up to me and yell HI then run away laughing its really weird. Although I did see one white person this week at church I look over and there is this one random white girl in the back corner right after the meeting got over she walked straight up to me and talked to me she was from salt lake and here for two weeks on business so that was cool to talk to an american. Um lets see my BIRTHDAY haha it was a good day when i woke up elder Boddu who lives in the apartment with me had bought a piece of chocolate cake and had put a candle in it haha it was so funny and then they sang to me. then later that day the same elder makes this famous banana bread and so he made me a birthday loaf and we went to the church and the senior couples came too and we had a mini birthday party there it is a weird tradition here that when you cut the cake everyone there need to hand feed you one bite before you can eat the cake so ya i had like fifty people stuff food in my mouth that day it was super weird for me but ya a good day. Im not sure if i have told you about the couples missionaries or not but i will again they are so nice they are in our branch the madina guna 2ed branch and they are the first couple missionaries from north India EVER to go on a mission. they are so cool they feed us and we hang at there place a lot because we cant go tracking or even do street contacts still we have lots of extra time some days so we go there and she makes us food. Her food is so good too especially for me because in North India they cook very mild compared to here so she had just potatos and cheese balls and this gravy stuff and it was the best tasting meal i have had yet. O that reminds me for lunch on my birthday a member invited us for lunch the dad is a return missionary and they were so sososos nice they wanted to feed me american food but they dont really know what that is so i get there and they had rice and curry for the other three then for me they had made a whole pot of mashed potatos and a pot of gravy it was amazing I was so happy they did not half to do that for me but as I have said before they are a people who will do anything just to please you. 

Hyderabad india pictures 9-26-2011

        Elder Worton's washing machine.

                     The bedroom where all five of the elders sleep.

      Elder Worton's first companion in the field. Elder Sampara.

The main street outside elder Worton's appartment in Hyderabad. The little white truck is what they mainly use to get around.

Elder Worton's apartment in Hyderabad India

                The tent city outside of Kade's apartment window...

                     Elder Worton's kitchen sink.

         Elder Worton's shower and toilet. he said there was no toilet paper just a hose to rinse off.