Elder Kent Thompson, India Bengaluru Mission: Stake Conference

Hello all!

It was a pretty good week for us here in Hyderabad. The weather has been pretty hot but I'm complaining because I know it was much worse last year in Rajahmundry! Yesterday we had stake conference. Elder Funk, Asia area president and former mission president to the Bangalore Mission attended and gave a great talk. It's always so fun to hear from the general authorities especially in person. Our stake is great. People came to conference right on time and were totally reverent during the entire meeting. It was great!

It's so fun to be here meeting so many amazing people. I've met some really cool foreigners as well. Last week I had to go to the FRO (foreigner's registration office) to do some work. While I was there, I met a really nice man from Yemen. I had to ask him where that actually is because I'm a little slow with my geography. We had a nice conversation about what's going on in the world, what different cultures are like, the importance of families and even a little bit about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (I didn't want to push anything since I was in the FRO.) Anyway, it's just so cool to me to see how many different kinds of people there are all over the world doing amazing things. God truly loves and cares for each one of his children.

I don't have anything too exciting to report from this week but I remember a pretty funny experience that happened to us last week on our way to MLC. We were driven to the airport by a member named Praveen. He has a nice car but the battery was having a problem so the starter on the car also wasn't working properly. The only way to get the car to start was to have both of us push the car from the back as fast as possible. As soon as we had enough speed, he could pop the clutch, push the gas, and it would start. We pushed the car out of our apartment complex to get it started and hopped in. We were driving for a while when we started to get into some more heavy traffic and busy intersections. We were sitting at a stop light and as soon as it turned green, Praveen started to make the car move, let the clutch out a little too fast, and killed the engine on accident. Imagine being stuck in the middle of a very busy intersection with cars behind us blaring on their horns. Panicking slightly, Elder Rajendran and I immediately jumped out and started pushing the car as fast as possible but there was one problem. We were pushing it up a hill! We beckoned for some random guys to help us out who graciously came and helped us push the car until it had enough speed to clutch start. Drenched in sweat, we were able to get back in the car and safely get to the airport. We later laughed over the experience and mentioned that this was probably the first time that the people watching us had ever seen a tall white guy in a shirt and tie pushing a car up a hill!

I'm so grateful for the experiences that I've been privileged to have on my mission. Next week we are planning to have the baptism for Bro. Cheeranjeevi and Bro. Ramu! We're excited for that!

The Gospel is true! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Kent Richard Thompson