One of the packages we had sent to Billy was a copy of the book “Reflections of Christ” with its accompanying DVD. He was so taken with the photographs of Christ’s life that he spoke with the Branch President about having an open house where the missionaries would talk about the different organizations in the Church, and end conclude the meeting with the DVD and the pictures of Christ in the chapel. They printed over a 1000 cards to pass out, and ended up with over 200 people in attendance. 50 of them were investigators! Billy was really excited with the turn out, and they feel that it was a great success. A BIG thank you to Mark Mabrey for being inspired to take such beautiful photographs of the life of Christ, so that we all have this as a wonderful missionary tool.
Billy and his companion have been teaching a 14-year-old boy who is scheduled for baptism next week. This will be the first baptism in this area in over eight months!
Billy is enjoying his mission and loves the people of India. There is a young man who travels two hours each way to attend church every week. He takes the bus and has to transfer four times to get to church. Every week he works hard to earn money for his transportation, and the thing that touches Billy’s heart is the fact that this young man has polio and has a manmade wheelchair at home. He uses his crutches to travel, but when the time comes to bear his testimony in church he struggles to the podium without his crutches, and he is always the first to bear his testimony.
Cooking with every type of curry has certainly become a fun thing for Billy to do for investigators as well as the other missionaries and the zone leaders. They are surprised that the food tastes so good and that Billy has mastered the art of cooking Indian cuisine. It is a special event when Billy cooks 20 lbs of rice, chicken, and curry for all, and they look forward to Billy’s tasty meals. He is always telling us about the different types of curry to cook with and he is excited about showing his skills to us when he comes home.
We got a sweet email from the daughter of the Mission President who had the opportunity to visit Hyderbad and to attend the Zone Conference with her 10-year-old son Ethan. After the Zone Conference Billy was assigned to be Ethan’s companion for the day and had the opportunity to show him around. According to Ethan’s mother he really enjoyed being with the missionaries and his time with Elder Nixon. Ethan sat next to Elder Nixon during Zone conference, and Billy said that because they were mission companions he would have to go home with Ethan in ten days. Ethan thought that was pretty funny so he ran up and shared that with President Nichols. Billy got really embarrassed because he thought that President Nichols would think that he wanted to go home. President Nichols laughed more because Billy was so embarrassed. According to his mother, Ethan loved serving with Elder Nixon and he thought he was really fun to be with.
President Nichols told the Elders that they would be getting fewer Elders this year, so they are going to have to work harder. They talked in depth about baptism goals and how they still wanted to meet those goals with fewer missionaries in the field. He also said that the Lord has sent very dedicated, spiritual, and hard working Elders to India. Sister Gee mentioned that she could feel the spirit in Zone Conference and that it was so strong. We are so grateful to Sister Gee for sharing this wonderful experience with us.
