Life in Visakhapatnam

Excerpts from the Letters of
Elder William L. Nixon II

June 10th

I love and enjoy working with Elder Ludlow. He is disciplined and determined, and I have been very blessed with great
companions. Our teaching pool is growing so big and we are constantly teaching lessons. We have two baptisms set for this
Sunday and one for the following Sunday. There has only been one baptism in my area in the past seven months and the drought is coming to an end. We are hopeful that we will see several baptisms within this next transfer.

One of our primary objectives is to build the Branch and to strengthen the members. We put together a huge "Mission Board" where members can find tips to help with the mission work, the Branch goals for the mission work, updates on missionary firesides, and pictures of recent baptisms this year. This area has a lot of potential, and I know that with the help of the Branch members we will meet our goals. There is a new energy within the Branch and everyone is beginning to support the Elders. We have worked with the Branch President and the Mission Leader to develop a Branch Mission plan.

This past Sunday we brought a man by the name of Karthik back to church. He is a returned missionary and has been inactive for a year. I don't know why he went inactive, but every missionary attempt to bring him back failed. He knows more about the gospel and Preach My Gospel, then anyone I know. He quoted word for word an entire page from Preach My Gospel. I feel he will be a Stake President here someday, and I have never felt the Spirit as strong as I have in trying to get him back to church.

Last Sunday, he entered the chapel and you could hear a pin drop. You could see the tears in the eyes of several members when he walked through the door. He bore his testimony that day and it was truly amazing. His sister is the wife of the Branch President, and she said that she couldn't believe that he finally returned. It was the best moment of my mission so far. He has already committed to teach the Gospel Essentials class in Sunday School.

We had the opportunity to go back to Hyderbad for our Zone Conference and we had a great time seeing the members that we served with and converts that we have baptized. I love those that I have taught and I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to introduce them to the gospel. Mother Stella, the older women that I taught and saw baptized, made me dinner and told me that she had missed me too much. Jay Raj and his family are doing great and it is amazing to see how much the gospel has blessed their lives.

Right now we have 16 different people who we feel will be baptized in Vizag. I am loving the mission, and everyday it seems like time is moving very fast—almost too fast.


June 17th

This week has been great. I had my first baptism in Vizag. The Spirit was strong and I am so grateful for the opportunity to a part of bringing souls unto Christ.

When I came to Vizag, Elder Jenks told me that they had walked the same streets and knocked on all the Christian doors and there is no one to teach. Right away I knew that we had a lot of work to do and it was going to be very hard. We attended church the following Sunday and there had been only about 40 members in attendance. The few returned missionaries from the branch were dressed in jeans and not very engaged in the meetings. The companionship that had been there for six months had tried very hard to change things, but it was very difficult. We had to gain the trust of the members, so we suggested a movie night and it was something that had not been done in the branch. It was a huge success and the members loved it.

One of our goals was to get all the returned missionaries back to church in their Priesthood attire and to use them to help us teach the gospel and baptize. Our objective is to get them into a leadership mode to take charge and build the Church. And I can attest that miracles do happen. Last Sunday was on of the happiest days of my mission. I walked in the chapel with tears in my eyes as I saw all the returned missionaries in their Priesthood attire and the Chapel was completely full. The whole branch stayed for the baptism that we had that day. I felt like we were making a difference. We were on the right path.

Last night I received a call from the Zone Leaders and they were calling to report on the Zone Conference in Bangalore and to let us know about the success of the Zone. They informed me that the Vizag Zone is number two in the mission. They thanked us for working so hard to build the zone.


June 24th

Things are going great and I love the mission! I have been really sick lately, but I am working hard to get better. We had another baptism and it feels great to have back-to-back baptisms. Sunday we found a family of 14 with perfect English and a great understanding of our message. We are going back to teach them tonight and I am hopeful that the lesson will go well.

My companion and I are working really hard to build the kingdom and things
are really starting to pick up here in the Vizak Zone.

July 1st


I had the wonderful opportunity to talk with President Nichols during our regular transfer interview. It was very spiritual and joyful. During Zone Conference they displayed the numbers of all the districts in the Rjumondy Zone and Vizag Zone. It was a thrill to see how far we had come.

Rajumondry is the leading baptizing zone in the mission. So far this year they have 80 baptisms and have doubled other zones numbers. My first Zone Conference in Vizag, our numbers didn't even reach a quarter of theirs. I told the other Elders in the Raj Zone that I was so inspired by their hard work and that they are an inspiration to us.

It is a blessing to be a part of a great work and see a dramatic change in the Zone. Right now our teaching pool is growing. Some days we have so many appointments and people to see that we have to go on splits with other Branch members. Last week we had 20 member-present lessons and 25 new investigators. I was a little disappointed with our sacrament attendance. We only had 15 investigators. Still, I really feel that things are going great.

I am loving life and I am so grateful for this Great Gospel and to be a part of this Church. I could never do anything contrary to the teaching of the Church, because I know that nothing is worth giving up the blessings promised to us. One of my favorite stories is when Moses sees the glory of God and then when God leaves Satan and tells Moses to bow to him.... And Moses’ reply is a clear testimony that nothing in the world compares to that of our Father’s Kingdom. Satan can offer us nothing that can even substitute for the reward we are promised. I have never been happier in my entire life, and this happiness comes by living the gospel.

July 15

The work continues! It is funny to think that I am almost done with the first year and I guess it is true what they say, "the first year is slow, but the second year is down hill from there!" I know that I have much work to do before the end of my Mission and I am even more determined. I know that the next year will go by fast and I don't want to waste a minute of it.

The first year of my mission has flown by and it is scary to think that I have less then a year left in India. I am so far from reaching my personal goal of baptisms on my mission and I have really reflected on what I can do better to bring more people the truth, faster.

July 22

We continue to work hard. Lately we are working harder then ever to help our investigators progress. We have done some things that we feel will help the people we teach and help them gain a stronger understanding of the Book of Mormon and receive a witness of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. The most important question that is asked is, "is the book true?" The difficulty of this question is that no one on this earth is able to answer that question. You must find out for yourself by reading, pondering, and praying. Our determination to find the answer lies within ourselves and our personal commitment to know it is true.

As a missionary, our job is difficult. Often people make the commitment to read, but most of the time the result is that they did not understand or they failed to keep the commitment they made. Elder Ludlow and I developed a 25-day scripture reading list. This took us about three hours of diligent studying, and the end result seems to be very positive. Within the 25-day reading list lay the scriptures which explain the Restoration of the Gospel, our personal Salvation, The Atonement of Christ, the relationship between our Father in Heaven and his children and the entrance into the Kingdom of
God. I feel that this is going to be very successful and I am more then excited. I know that if they follow the schedule accompanied with prayer, they will receive a witness of the truth of the Restored Gospel.

Everything is going great, and we are now working with a lot of investigating families. We are hopeful that there will be at least two baptisms within the next three weeks. Right now we are working with a family and they are keeping all of their commitments and the Father has already committed his family to baptism. Elder Ludlow and I are confident that they will be baptized within six weeks. I sure hope so because we love this family dearly. He calls us his angels and whenever we teach about the Prophets, he says that he thinks that we are going to be future prophets. We laugh. He is a funny man.


July 30

I want to let you know how much I love you. I understand that you are down in the Bahamas on business. I must say I am extremely jealous and wish I was down there with you. I think that our deep sea fishing experiences are some of my most fond memories, and I absolutely loved it. I really hope things are going well and that you are able to help the resort properties for Mr. Li and his company.

This week has been a little rough, I was sick again and I really just don’t know how to get feeling better. I am still working through it, and we had some great successes. A fireside planned for July 24th went very well, and we had 110 people in attendance. It was the most successful fireside I have seen thus far in India. The Chapel was packed and the Primary performed Pioneer story skits and we had a "curry cook off." I won "Best Man Made curry." I made three kilograms of Beef curry as a joke and it was all gone within five minutes. The People absolutely loved it. I don’t think they knew it was beef, though, because I almost guarantee if they all knew it would have not gone as fast. People really loved it. I used a tomato base rather than the Andra Special coconut base, and it was very good.

Last night I received a call from the Zone leaders after zone leaders council in Bangalore. They reported that Vizag Zone is now leading the mission. They also said that during the conference President Nichols spoke about leadership, how every leader has a vision and knows how to execute that vision. President had them watch Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and talk about it. The Zone leaders were very complimentary. They told me that as they watched that video they thought about our vision in Vizag and how we have been able to get the branch and Elders excited about that vision.

I was so touched by what they said and that they would take the time to call me about it.

Well, besides the success of the mission work, I have thought more about my plans for my future. I think that I am pretty determined to work for Policy Impact and I feel that I have thought of the way I want to go about doing it. When I get home I want to go back to BYU and major in public relations, then I want to go on to get an MBA from one of the great universities in Washington.

While I attend the evening program I want to also work on Capitol Hill and get some political experience under my belt, so by the time I about 30 I will have my graduate degree from a great school, experience on Capitol Hill and in the military. I feel politically it will be a very good start to a career in PR, and I feel that it is something I want to do. I think I will be in good position to join Policy Impact at this point. I don’t want to be like some sons who feel that things are owed them or who just get what their fathers earned and then spoil the company. I want to be self reliant and work hard to learn and to be able to lead rightfully. I want to prepare my self before coming on. Of course, my ultimate goal is to take over Policy Impact and help it continue to expand into the future.

Well my time is up, and I better get going. We could not email yesterday because the LDS server was down and I was unable to log on all day. So sorry for the delayed email. I love you so much and I am so proud to call you my parents. I love you.