Hyderabad!

Alright so I have completed my first week in India. This place is absolutely nuts! Forget everything. I'm living in a city called Hyderabad which is in the northern part of the mission. It is surprisingly cool here but it still is Monsoon season so there is on and off flooding! 

I have no idea what people are saying all the time, accent is soooo thick. I have not seen a single white person in this city yet and EVERYONE stares at me. Literally I stick out like a sore thumb it's crazy! In fact we were walking through an area with a bunch of kids playing outside and they are so intrigued by me being so different that they follow me around. I had a parade of 10 Indian kids following me all around my area! 

India is an Urban Jungle. There is so many people but there is just as many animals. Wild dogs, Monkeys, Cats, Goats, Cows, and Camels all are just cruising around the city streets. Cows will just sit in the middle of a busy road no problem! What I have learned here is to just not ask questions. Oh that kid is using the restroom on side of the road. sure. Oh There is a Goat climbing on a motor-scooter. Go ahead. 60 + people on a school bus. how-about 70. This place is nuts and it is very dog eat dog world out here, there is no such thing as a line.  People cut you off driving, buying a bus pass, or checking out my groceries in the store people will just push to get in front of you everywhere. 

I'm Loving India though. The people are very humble and kind and always show so much interest when communicating. Funny thing, is a common thing to ask people here is 

" have you eaten" 

People get so happy when you ask them that. 

I'm happy to finally be here and serve the people here. Love hearing from you all

Love,

Elder Erasmus 

Hello INDIA!

Hey Family I have finally arrived in Bangalore India. It is absolutely crazy here! but I am here and safe and sound. Attached are some pictures of me and my Mission Presidents. love you guys!

Elder Erasmus

Adios Arizona! - Sept 12th

Hey everyone Visa came so I'm flying to India tomorrow! I'm gonna keep
this letter short but this week has been awesome! It's a little bittersweet leaving this hot place because of all the great people I've met and the memories I've made! This week we basically just said bye to everyone but did lots of work at the same time. I think the elders that come into this area will really be grateful because this week we put 10 people on date to be baptized! Super crazy right when we leave suddenly everyone wants to be dunked it's been awesome to see everyone's excitement for it! Well I guess you won't here about turtle riding anymore but hopefully elephant riding soon. Next letter will be from the other side of the world. Love to hear from you all

Elder Erasmus

DINO - Sept 4th

This week was pretty interesting! A fun thing we got to do this week
is visit a members home with their own little tortoise farm. these
people had like 30 tortoises and some goats! turns out tortoises are
pretty rude all they want to do is come up to you and start ramming
you with their head. they are super strong and will just try to push
you over. They had a 50 year old tortoise that weighed 130 pounds and
could easily lift me! (attached is a video of me trying to balance on
this dinosaur!)

This week I feel like we spent an unusual amount of time in the
ghetto. And as a result we met some pretty... Interesting... People.
One of them in particular saw us rolling up to an apartment complex
where one of our recent converts live. He clearly recognized us
because as we pulled up he turned around and started to walk towards
us. We parked and got out of the car as he walked in our general
direction. Both Elder Smith and I said hello but he didn't say
anything. When we turned our backs he, out of nowhere, he started to
accusing us of smoking marijuana. He told us he could smell it on us and
started to step up on us. Haha. We told him we hadn't but he wasn't
taking it. He continued with his accusations and told us to unlock the
car so he could get in. We told him we aren't going to do that and
because there is no need. All of a sudden our recent convert yelled
across the court yard saying she's calling the cops. It turns out this
guy had been stalking her for a while and was being an all around butt
head to her. He was convinced the Elders had some harmful alternative
motives for visiting so much. He made sure to make a note of our names
and disappeared the same way he came. It's crazy that sometimes people deal
with difficulties the missionaries don't even know about.

This week we are planning on taking a recent convert to the Gilbert
temple which will be awesome!
Arizona is cooling down everybody... I never thought I would say this
but a few days ago it was a "cool" 90 degrees. also I have attached a
pic of some ghetto kids we like to play basketball with. Stories about
them to come... Love hearing from all you. God Bless

Elder Erasmus

Ups and Downs, August 29th

The miracles never stop! A few weeks ago one of our members, Matt, was going around in his complex trying to find the person who parked in his spot. Haha. Just when he was about to go home (of course) the spirit told him to visit one more door. So he went to the last house on the building and knocked. Danielle answered, she's a single nurse with 3 children (two 8 year old twin boys and a 10 year old girl). She also has a friend Nigeria living there. He asked about his car and they started talking. Matt found out that she had just been robbed a few days ago, all of their electronics; phones, tablets, TV's, Xbox,were stolen. So he ran over to his apartment, grabbed his xbox and brought it over and gave it to them. A few nights later we were at Matts house on our weekly scheduled visit and he told us about what had happened with Danielle and wanted us to go and see if she'd be interested in hearing the gospel. Referrals like this are some times sketchy, you never know what your going to get because they haven't actually asked if they would be interested yet. So we go over and catch Nigeria home, we found out very fast that Nigeria is a recovering addict and was in no state to talk to us. Perfect, looking good. So we will try again when and see if we can get Danielle. A few days later we got Nigeria again, worse than last time. It just keeps getting better. One more time. We go back one night and actually get in contact with Danielle. She came out onto the doorstep and talked to us. We asked her if she knew Matt and she said yes. We then went on to explain why we were there and said that we wanted to help her come closer to Christ, we explained that we have a unique message that will bless her family. She told us right away that she's too busy for religion right now, she said that she had been to church before back in DC where she's from and that she doesn't care about it right now because it's not that high on the priority list. She did however say we could come back to teach her kids, because he kids needed Jesus. So the next night we were back again, and we brought Matt with us. When we got in the house they were all watching a movie, Danielle and the 3 kids. We were welcomed into the small apartment and Danielle said "you guys can go to kitchen table, I'll stay here, watch my movie, and listen in". We told her that we had a video to share and that we didn't want to interrupt her movie, so she paused the movie and turned off the TV. We shared our video and asked questions. Everyone participated in the lesson, but we directed it at the kids. When it was time for us to go we asked for someone to say the prayer, after a minute of silence Danielle volunteered. She said a very sweet prayer and it was perfect. Matt encouraged her to go to church and she said yes. The next morning she actually came! Her and her 3 kids were there and stayed the entire 3 hours. They loved it and said they will be back next week. It was an exciting weekend.

Sheena was another of our investigators we took over when white washed into the 1st ward. She was on fire and excited to get baptized, she only had a few things holding her back. When we met with her the meeting was good, she spoke a lot of it and told us that she had been on an incredible spiritual journey. She was on fire and ready to go!We tried contacting Sheena in following weeks after our initial contact with no luck. One day we saw her playing soccer in a field with her kids and stopped to say hello. As we crossed the street to say hello she noticed us and started yelling "I don't want to talk to you right now!" We were confused and said " we just want to play some socc-" she cut us off yelling louder "I don't want to talk to you right now! I'm playing with my kids!" So we turned around and left. We apologized for anything we may have done over Facebook and prayed for the best. The next morning we got a response saying " I don't want to be a part of your church anymore". I'm not sure what had happened during those weeks when we didn't see her. But she was very upset.

We got to end off the week on a good note though, Sunday night a member invited us over to see their tortoises! We thought It would be fun to see them because "every Arizona missionary has seen a tortoise"we got to the house and these people had like 20 of them!!! They were all huge. The biggest one (the one I'm riding) is like 50 years old and weighs 130 pounds and is so strong. I never knew how jacked tortoises are holy! They also had a bunch of goats I swear these people had their own little Zoo it was awesome. I'm going to attach a video of me surfing the turtle. This week was great and it's awesome to hear from you all.

Elder Erasmus

Maricopa - August 22nd

Hey everyone

This week we got the opportunity of going to a baptism in Maricopa!
Maricopa is a small desert town south, bout an hour from the border.
we saw wild stallions, massive dust devils I swear were tornadoes and
a whole lot of nothing. The town had a weird feeling to it, although
going right thru the center of it. We got snow cones and the guy
hooked it up FATTYYYY style (pic attached). The baptism was very
eventful except I felt bad the older gentlemen had to dunk this poor guy more then once
still really spiritual. After we went to a members home that my
companion knew. I got to hold their chickens. Nicest clucks I've ever
Arizona is pretty fun I'm enjoying playing basketball with kids in the
hood, meeting awesome and wacko people, and just being a missionary
has been enjoyable. Would love to hear from you! Shoutout to people
who write!

Elder Erasmus

August 15th - Still in Arizona!

Hey everybody!
 I am currently still in Arizona. Things aren't as terrible now I have a car so I'm not drenched in sweat to every lesson I go to. Nothing too crazy has happened but last night we got to go scorpion hunting! you find them with a black-light, They are huge here and they stick out like a sore thumb because they glow! We caught a few and did this thing called the ring of fire. The ring of fire is exactly how it sounds, you surround the scorpion with gasoline or alcohol and light it. The trapped scorpion rather than burning to death will actually kill itself by stabbing its own body with its tail needle. so cool.  Members are really cool here, every restaurant we walk into 3-5 people always ask to pay for our meal. that never happened to me before and now its a daily its crazy! we have a baptism coming up which I am stoked for. No word on my Visa yet. Miss you all!  

 Here is a pic at Arizona state campus!