Visiting, Shopping, Saying Good-bye

We continue to go to the Anand family to teach English. We have gone three times now and enjoy meeting with them. When we went there this past week, we again noticed the quietness of this rural looking area. They always give us a glass of mango juice when we arrive. This picture is taken outside their home. In the upper left hand corner of the picture is a cage with love birds in it. Every time we leave their house, the love birds are chirping. This picture was taken the first time we went to their home. We think they would think we were strange if we took a picture every time we went to see them. The man in the front and the two older girls are from a different family.

This week, we also went to Brother Raja and Sister Sumathi's home to teach them about family home evening. The man standing in the front of the Anand family picture is Brother Raja. Brother Raja and Sister Sumathi have three children. Elder Jurial likes to have his picture taken, too. This picture was taken in their "front" room. They have a double bed on the right side of the door, which also serves as a place to sit for guests. We imagine the children sleep on the floor. Brother Raja took the day off to prepare for our arrival that evening. Their home looked freshly cleaned, and Sister Sumathi prepared dinner for us. She is a very good cook, and we ate well - probably too much. She made vegetable biryani, vada with white chutney (coconut), and dosa with a curry. We had told her ahead of time to prepare only a small amount of food as a snack for family home evening. Apparently, the amount she prepared was small in comparison to what she usually prepares for guest. They live fairly close to the Anand family.

We went shopping at Town Hall for music book, but did not find what we were looking for. We were looking for music books for teaching piano lessons. Apparently, they are not available in Coimbatore. We will have to go to Chennai or Bangalore to get books for teaching piano. Town Hall is an area, not a specific store. It comprises of an area that is several blocks. Although we were not able to find music books, we found many other things to buy.


We found a wonderful store that sells interesting things made in India. We found this fruit bowl. It is made from one piece of wood and is cut in concentric circles. When legs are put on the bottom, the center of the wood falls down, forming a bowl. The bowls come in a variety of shapes.

This is how the wood looks when it is flat. We had been looking for a fuit bowl for quite some time, but we never found one that we particularly liked. We had thought that we would leave the bowl in our apartment when we go back home, but this will travel well because it can be flattened to fit in our luggage. What a great find!!!

We also found elephants. Sister Shanti, our friend who took us shopping was curious about why everyone from North America wants carvings of elephants. She finds it a bit strange. Sister Tiefenbach wanted a wooden elephant carving to put on the second shelf of our little coffee table. We can see the elephants through the top glass shelf. We found many wonderful things at that store, but we controlled our spending. Mind you, we will likely go back before we leave Coimbatore.

Sometimes for a break from our shopping, meetings, visits, or housework, we take a look out our balcony. One day, we saw this woman doing laundry on the roof of one of the apartment buildings we can see from our balcony. Many people do laundry on a block similar to this. Most of the stone blocks we have seen are much smaller than this. They use the stone block much like women used scrub boards long ago in North America. They also hit their clotes against the stone as if they are knocking the dirt out. One young man who was doing a field study program from BYU had to do his laundry this way. He said he broke most of the buttons on this shirts slamming them against the washing block. We are thankful we have an automatic washing machine for our laundry.

Hmmm.... We are not quite sure what this is, but we saw it scurrying across the parking lot at the church and up this tree.
If anyone knows, let us know.








We say good-bye to Elder Kumar. His departure was delayed for two weeks because the new elders from the USA had not received their visas to come to India. We have a special place in our hearts for him, and we shall miss him greatly. We wish him well in his new assignment in the Vysak area. Hopefully, our paths will cross while he and we are still on our missions. He has about one year left on his mission. We hope to visit him at his home just before we fly back to Canada. We have three new missionaries that arrived two weeks ago.



The mission president decided that we should have a zone meeting once a month and district meetings the other weeks in the month. We held our first zone meeting Friday, August 10. We have a picture of all the missionaries except Elder Thanniru and Elder Challa (new in Coimbatore).

To the left are Elder Smoot and Elder Aruldoss, who are serving in Erode.








Elder Oraun, new missionary in Coimbatore, is on the left.



 Our zone leaders are Elder Ram (left) and Elder Racharla (taking the place of Elder Kumar). We continue to be impressed with Elder Ram. He is a natural leader and seems to be able to understand people well and is sensitive to their needs. Sister Tiefenbach is also impressed with his great spelling ability!

Elder Jurial (left) and Elder Hodgson continue to serve here in Coimbatore. Elder Hodgson is the longest serving missionary in Coimbatore. When he gets transfered, we will have been in Coimbatore longer than all the other missionaries.

 Elder Vaddi (left) and Elder Thomas are serving in Erode.

We have seen another week in Coimbatore filling our days with colourful experiences.