Five new investigators this week...

Hey everyone! This week was alright. We walked a lot and talked to quite a few people which got us 5 new investigators (the most i've ever had in a week) but none of them seem really solid. We'll work with them though! We were walking down a road and i said, "let's knock on that house." So we did...and an indian lady answered the door and when I asked if they were interested in learning about Jesus Christ she said, "yes." I was shocked for a sec and kind of re-stated the question because I could tell she didn't speak really good english but she said yes again. Then her husband came to the door and he invited us in. They're sikh so they believe in worshipping their idols and stuff like that. There was a little bit of a language barrier-they speak punjab and hindi. But we offered to teach the wife and ESL class so we went back on saturday and shared a brief lesson and tried to teach her ESL but found out she's just shy and doesn't need that much help so we told her about the ESL class that the city teaches at our church during the week. Anyhow, we don't think they'll be investigators for much longer because they're really strong sikh believers but I think we'll give it one more try. On Wednesday after district meeting we went out to lunch together and on our way back to the car this lady asked us for directions. I whipped out my newly purchased GPS and we walked around looking for it. She told us how her husband died and now she has to find a job. She is Hindu. I told her that we share a message about eternal families and how she can be with her husband again and her eyes got big and she said, "I can see my husband again?!" We got her information but maybe we should have explained more on the street because yesterday we got in contact with her and she said, "i talked to my brother-in-law who is (some sort of) a priest and he said we shouldn't disturb the dead because they need to be peaceful" haha i was like oh noooo...a little miss-communication. So i explained it a little bit and told her about ldsjobs.org and how that could help her. She seems pretty set in her ways but it was a neat experience. We dropped by a former investigator named Mukata (moo-koo-ta) and he invited us right in! I don't think he realized who we were haha but he then explained how he's so confused about churches because there are so many and he just wants to know which one is true and how to know it. :) I promised him if he listened to our message that he would get a sure answer for himself if he truley seeked for it. There is a language barrier because he's from Congo and speak French but luckily there are 2 people in our ward that speak french and he said if we brought a translator that he could understand and listen better. We have an appt this Saturday with him. Nanthini has dropped off the face of the earth. She didn't return our calls so we dropped by and she was on the phone with her family in SriLanka and so we didn't wait. We can't get a hold of her and she lives with her cousins and they're devout Hindu. We were driving by yesterday and saw her cousin and 2 sons out in the front yard so we stopped and talked to them. Her son who is usually really excited to see us and laugh and tease us wouldn't even look at us! So we think her family did something to make her avoid us. We're not sure but we're gonna give it a break for awhile. darn, eh? We continue to teach Florence who is 7th Day Adventist. She is super strong in it but she misses church to meet with us. haha I don't think she has intent of changing but we've gained a good relationship with her. We'll see what happens this week. Every thursday we go on splits with our ward missionaries. It's been pretty fun. We've gotten into a few less-active members homes that would have been hard to do otherwise. Since you were asking about indian traditions...there are a lot. haha Shaving is one of them- but don't worry...we took care of that. She was so excited afterwards. haha I've taught her a few hair tricks that she likes. She was really self conscious about the way she looked-hair and clothes and stuff so we've been able to get a few things figured out. I think it's helping. She also continues to ask me for help with some english phrases. The other day she said, "i really like how you take time in the bathroom." I was like uhhhh...alright. But what she really meant was "I really like how you're quiet in the bathroom" how i don't wake her up during the night if i get up. hahaha oh the little things. Yup, she does speak with her hands a lot. I dont think that's a really big indian thing. I think it may have helped her express herself she didn't speak very good english. i'm not sure. Am i learning Tamil? That's a negative. I thought i'd have to learn a different language with my mission call but i didn't...but ya never know. There aren't a ton of tamil speaking people here. it's mainly hindi and punjab. But even the missionaries that get sent to India speak english because there are so many languages spoke in India. We ran into a spanish guy last night in front of the hospital and i used my 2 years of spanish skills to talk to him...it was horrible. haha so we called the spanish elders in our area and he talked to them on the phone. His son has been in the hospital for 5 months with meningitis! So he said he would talk to his wife and call us. We'll see...we'll see. pray that someone is led to US looking for the gospel :) that would just make it so much better ;) love and miss ya! sister messer