People and Cleaning

This is Raju Joseph with Elder Tiefenbach. We met him at the fireside about temples that we gave on Sunday evening. He is a pioneer in the history of the church in India, having been baptized in 1971. He was one of the first missionaries from India to serve in his home country. Raju Joseph was the branch president of Semmedu Branch for about 18 years. He has a strong testimony. We met with him at the church the next day and listened to his many stories. One of the stories he told us was about the time he encountered a wild elephant about 7 to 8 years ago. He had gone down to the river to bathe and did not see the elephant until it was too late. The elephant picked him up with its trunck and threw him through the air into a bunch of bushes. He suffered broken bones, cuts, and bruises. He had about 20 stitched in his head as a result of this.

We had a district missionary meeting on Tuesday for District 1 (District 2 was on Wednesday for this week.) One of the missionaries (Elder Aruldoss) from District 1 received a transfer to Erode. An announcement was made that Erode would be getting another set of missionaries. That means that Erode would have its own missionary district. Presently, the missioanries are part of Coimbatore District 2. Elder Aruldoss will be the District leader with Elder Thom as his companion. Elder Thom is new to the Coimbatore area. Elder Dangwal, from Erode, is being transferred, and we do not know the name of his replacement. (Missionaries are divided into groups called districts. Each district is responsible for a particular area within their assigned branch. Several districts make up a zone.)

District 2 elders also showed up after the meeting. Here we are with Elders Ganaparam (next to Sister Tiefenbach) and Elder Massey. Elder Ganaparam is being assigned to Visakhapatman (also called Vizak). Elder Ganaparam was the District Leader for District 2. Elder Massey is great fun. He is always smiling. He will be turning 19 in July. He received special permission to begin his mission prior to age 19.

The entire zone posed for a picture before transfers. The zone includes: (beginning left of Elder Tiefenbach) Elder Massey, Elder Tiefenbach, Sister Tiefenbach, Elder Aruldoss, Elder Dangwal, Elder Ganaparam, Elder Hodgson (behind Elder Massey), Elder Kumar (to the back of Elder Hodgson), Elder Jurial, Elder Lara, Elder Bean, and Elder Braun.

The elders had great fun setting their cameras on auto to take pictures of the zone. Here Elder Jurial is excited for the picture. We all went to KFC for lunch one more time before those elders with transfers left.

On Saturday, we went to a village called Chavadi to help clean up the church building and yard. We waited on the front steps of the church in Coimbatore for our ride with President Allwyn (second counselor in the District Presidency). One of the security guards, Brother Prakash, and his son Hari enjoyed visiting with us while we waited. One of the youth (seated beside Sister Tiefenbach) from our branch also went out to Chavadi to help. President Solomon (Branch President of Chavadi) asked us to stop at a particular nursery to pick up some flower pots.


We arrived at the nursery and noticed that the nursery people had just laid some fresh sod outside the nursery and watered it. We stepped over the sod. The ground was muddy. Well . . . the skid marks are apparent. We are thinking of calling the accident reconstruction team to measure the skid marks to determine the speed at which Sister Tiefenbach was travelling before she hit the parked motorcylce.

This was the result - 3 stitches and a swollen eye. It was  a good thing that the KJ hospital was only one block away. So, we had the experience of going to the hospital in India. The purple is NOT eye shadow. Look at it this way, Sister Tiefenbach can save money on eyeshadow for that eye for the next week or so. Actually, this was not a good experience. She hit very hard and twisted her body very badly. She will be sore for several days.

This was a sign in the hospital. We thought it was quite funny, so Elder Kumar (left) and Elder Ram posed for a picture. The sign says that the lift is only for Patients, Elders, and Physical Handicapped. Elder Ram was just assigned to Coimbatore 2nd branch. He replaced Elder Lara.

 


We returned to the nursery to purchase the flower pots. Sister Tiefenbach stayed in the car. We continued to Chavadi.








This is the church building in Chavadi. It is a one-room small building. The large sign is in Tamil, the language spoken in the state of Tamil Nadu.

President Vincent Paul (District President), on the left, and President Solomon (Chavadi branch president) take a break to discuss church affairs. They worked extremely hard on this project. In the background are members of the branch cleaning up the yard.

Elder Tiefenbach is hard at work. The entire dirt area that is seen here was completely covered with weeds when we arrived. We were amazed at how quickly we were able to pull all the weeds. Sister Tiefenbach did not work hard. She moved slowly as she pulled weeds.

This is an example of a house in the village. Not all the houses had straw roofs.

Coconut groves are common here. Here is one near the church in Chavadi.

The entire area around Coimbatore is surrounded by mountains. This is one mountain as seen from Chavadi. The mountain ranges are different here. In Canada, the Rockies are massive, and they are all connected. Here, we will see one mountain, then flat landscape, then another mountain later.