Sunday In India

Church was interesting. My first impression when I walked in was that there were more members than I expected. There were probably at least 100 people in the branch that I went to (there are two in Vizag). However, sitting through Sacrament Meeting was as boring in Vizag as it is in the US. Everyone speaks english and the missionaries are legally only allowed to proselytize in english. This is because the majority of christians in India already speak english and the powers that be don’t really care if christians become christian. What is sad is that not everyone speaks english well and since there’s absolutely no language training for the missionaries they go through their entire missions not understanding a lick of what most people say. Even in church we had gospel doctrine taught/translated into both english and telugu mostly for the benefit of us Americans.

Lots of people seemed to love going to church (and plan on getting more involved in firesides and other such things) and it wasn’t a particularly bad experience for me, but it felt too familiar, which was strangely off putting. I know that lots of people love that the church is the same everywhere, but especially after this experience, I am not one of them. Along with the church came everything else about western culture. The church had western toilets, western dress (suits and ties for men, sarees for women), and western conceptions of faith.

Having said that, in Gospel Doctrine a man got up and gave one of the most beautiful and sincere prayers I’ve ever heard. He prayed that God would deliver his message through the teacher, but in a way that was completely foreign to me as a westerner. He practically told God to deliver his message, “You tell us what You want us to here”. It was beautiful in the sense that it recognized that each of us becomes a conduit for God as we speak truth and that we have the right to demand that God teach us. We become the medium through which He communicates His message, and in that way each of us has the power to ascend into the divine and God inhabits us for just a fleeting, but awe inspiring moment. It was the most Indian part of church.

Overall, however, it felt like a slightly counterproductive experience. Immersion seemed a little less possible afterwards. So, while I still plan to attend church while I’m here, I don’t plan on making any more of it than that.