Is that a camel?

Hey Y'all,

 This week went by pretty fast! It wasn't as busy of a week, but it was still pretty good. The week started out with Mission Tour where President Berrett, and Elder Funk ( Quorum of the Seventy/previous mission pres) came to do training. The main point of the training was "teach repentance and baptize converts". I was able to get some really good insight on how to teach some of our investigators that aren't progressing very well. I have better insight on asking better questions to the investigator, which helps me know if they understand what I'm teaching them. We did a role play and practiced teaching about repentance and Elder Funk was listening and watching us role play. It was hard because its a lot of pressure when someone from the Quorum of the Seventy is watching you teach. He was able to help me improve my teaching. Sri Ram introduced his brother ( Rajeshkar)  to us, and we were able to teach him the Restoration. His main question was why we needed The Bible AND The Book of Mormon, and I was able to explain that when we have two witnesses testifying of Jesus Christ it helps our faith grow to know of the divinity of him and that he lives. There was also a wedding at church, and was somewhat fun. I was too busy trying to end a conversation with two punks that wanted money from me. I started talking to these two guys, who I thought could be interested in the message we teach, but turns out they weren't.  They asked me where I was from and I told them "The U.S" and then for about 10 minutes argued with me on how and why I was an American when I am ethnically Indian, they kept going on about how I'm "not suppose to be an American". Once that was finally settled they asked me what my dad did for a living, so I told them, and one of the guys replied with " So your rich" (in a form of a statement not question). I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that, then he says "Give me money". I'm like "why"? He said he had a charity called "Helping Hands" that his church works with (I'm pretty sure he just named any charity that came to his head) and asked me for my parents information, and wanted to give me his bank code, so we can wire money to his account. Then the other guy asked me when I was gonna get married, and I said "sometime after my mission" and that after my mission when I go back to the U.S I'll find someone (someday in my life). He then asked me if I was gonna marry and Indian (when he said that I thought he mean't ethnically) and I said "I don't know." Then he said I should marry an Indian and take her to the U.S. (now understanding that he was talking about nationality) I replied and said 'I'm going to marry an American" And yes, you guessed it, he started chastising me on how I won't marry someone from India and bring them to the U.S. He did that for about 20 mins. He then asked me to find an American for him to marry ( I wasn't sure why he should marry an American when he chastised me for not wanting to marry someone from India) and I asked "Why"? he replied "So I can have money". That response caught me off guard. I explained to him that in the U.S we have (What India calls) "Love marriages" ( Obviously in the U.S we just call it marriage) and not "Arranged Marriage". He told me he would love whoever I set him up with (essentially arrange him with) so I basically missed the wedding answering these guys questions. That was the most awkward conversation I have had since I have been in India. Especially because the people here don't censor there words. They had no problem chastising me, which was odd because, it doesn't affect them in anyway who I marry and where they're from.  The good news was we were teaching a part member family/investigator when this Camel walked passed us. I ran out there to see if what I saw was real and it was. The guy that charged us 50 rupees to ride it, I felt as if I was on "The Mummy" (the movie). The guy we were teaching (Ratna Kumar) has had many issues in his life and is committed to quit his bad habits and come unto Christ. Though it has only been a week, I really hope he is able to keep his commitments that he is making with God and his wife. He is scheduled to be baptized this next Sunday, so we will see! Until next time

Love,

Elder Magnusson