Asha Latha Akula

England London Mission

2004-2005

I was born in Visakhapatnam. From my childhood, I was attending different churches including Baptist and Pentecost churches. I stopped participating in the Pentecostal church as I did not like the way the pastor was sharing the gospel. Prayers were loud, and the common man had no part in church leadership or activities. I did not like it.

After a year, Anil, my brother met elders on the street and invited missionaries home. He listened to a few discussions and later stopped listening to them and started escaping from them. My brother used to ask us to tell the missionaries that he was not at home while he was secretly hiding inside. After a few visits, Elders asked me if they could share the message. I did not want to listen, but they would ask me to pray about the gospel they want to share. They never came inside the home as there was no brother.

They would take an appointment to visit with me when my brother was present. They were punctual, and they were persistent to share the gospel. One-day Elder D Souza, his companion came home, and they requested my neighbor who is a teenager to accompany them.

They taught me the message. Many members came to explain to me about the gospel. I read the part they gave me and prayed and felt good. Meanwhile, I attended the church which had an attendance of 15 members.

Most of them were also having discussions. We all became good friends and regularly attended church in CBM Compound. Earlier all the church meetings were in the Elders Apartment. Most of them are young and active and gave me a good fellowship. I also liked learning about Temples and loved the doctrine of staying with the family forever. Elder D Souza who was a missionary and the Branch President baptized me on the 27, May 2001.

My testimony lies mainly in Temples and how God would want us to live as a family and how members of the church are caring. It helped in changing my understanding of God and his Church. One of My Best Experiences on Mission I served my Mission in England London Mission from 2004 -2005. The best experience that I had on my mission was when I was serving in Aylesbury in Norwich. It was my first area and I was proselytizing in an area which was taught by the missionaries for decades. None of them seem to be interested. We tried door knocking, and none of them were happy to invite us. So was one particular man. He was not excited to see us and asked us to leave immediately. We saw that his front yard was full of weeds.

We knocked on the door again and offered to clean it up the next day. He reluctantly said yes after he was sure that we would seriously do it. We went the following day and cleaned a portion of it. Moreover, the next morning I completed cleaning the weeds thoroughly. We exerted much energy to remove these weeds. He was observing us each day and was also quite impressed. He offered us tea which we politely declined.

We also helped him with cleaning the backyard. He was quite happy with our genuine nature to help. He later agreed to listen to us after the final day of work. He shared with his wife and her death and felt happy coming to church. He made some good friends at the Church and took baptism eventually. So I learned that doing service is the best way to convert people to Church.

Our Marriage

Jonas and I got married in 2008 and later got sealed in the Hong Kong Temple. Jonas and I moved to Bangalore in October 2011. We moved because he got the job in the Service Center of the Church.