Wonderful People in Coimbatore

This week, we visited many people. We began on Monday, making our regular visit to a Sister in Coimbatore 2nd Branch. This is the end of the street that the pathway to her house is on. The pathway to her house is not visible in this picture, but it is on the right hand side of the road. The pathway is not wide enough for vehicles. We hope to help this sister improve her reading. Her reading skills are very poor. She has had very little schooling.




We also went to Brother Suresh and Sister Shathi's home on Monday. They were recently baptized. They have two sons. Only one is in this picture. Brother Suresh is in the white shirt, and Sister Shanti is on the right. The others are neighbours. After we had eaten, we were about to teach a short lesson when many of their neighbours came over to see us. The neighbours stayed for the lesson and for the song we taught, "Jesus Said, Love Everyone." The Relief Society president and her husband (in the picture below on the right) had also been invited for dinner.

The thirteen-year-old daughter of one of the neigbours (in pink) takes classical Indian dance. Her parents told her to dance and sing for us. She was reluctant, but once she started, she went into performance mode. We did not have our camera out during the dance this time, but hopefully, she will come and dance for us again when we go the this home. We were impressed with the maturity of the dance, with the way she held her hands and arms, and her wonderful facial expressions. We don't know for sure whether the girl was 12 or 13. Here, the day after someone has a birthday, they begin to say the person is the age of the next year. So, here, if someone says s/he is 13, we have to ask if him/her if s/he is 12 complete or 13 complete. We didn't ask this girl, so we don't know.

On our way to a dinner appointment at Sister Mary's, we came across a home that was to have a wedding soon. Whenever a special occasion is going to take place, the people erect an archway to the entrance to their home. In this case, the archway was erected at the entrance of the driveway into the apartment complex. We know it is a wedding because of a branch of a banana tree is used in the archway. The banana branch is on the left hand side.

On Thursday, we went to our regularly scheduled appointment with a family to teach English in their home. We didn't think ahead before we left. We knew they had gone out of "station," meaning out of town because of the death Brother Anand's 92-year-old grandfather, and we assumed they were back. Well, they were not home. When we saw the padlock on the door, we knew we had to make alternate plans. We had an appointment for one hour later at Brother Raja and Sister Sumathi's place. We were only about 5 minutes away, so we couldn't go to their house an hour early. The missionaries assigned to this area were with us, so they took us to see a few other people they are working with who live in the area. The house that Brother Anand lives in is just the greenish-blue part. Seven people live in this house. We arrived at Brother Raja and Sister Sumathi's house on time, and we enjoyed our visit with them. We taught them a bit more about family home evening, giving them a family home evening lesson, teaching them a primary song, and teaching them a simple game they could play with their children. Sister Sumathi informed us as we were leaving that her mother was very sick in the hospital in Chennai. They asked us if we would pray for her mother. We were honoured that they felt close enough to us to request our prayers.

Elder Ram (right) and Elder Racharla (left) came over at the end of their day for a bite to eat. They helped finish off our leftovers. What we thought was going to be a scanty meal turned out to be lots of food for them. Here in India, everyone eats with their fingers, but at our apartment, most of the food has to be eaten with utensils. We had a few leftover chapati (flatbread), so Elder Ram used his fingers for the eggs and chapati.





Sister Vincey opened a new shop. She does stitiching. We would call her a seamstress. Her dream was to have her own shop. Just a few weeks ago, we visited their home, and she was telling us about her dream. Within less than two weeks later, she had her shop. She still can't believe that she has her own shop. She knows that she has received great blessings from the Lord because of how everything fell into place for this to happen. Her husband is from Sri Lanka and has to return there every year to renew his visa for India. The Lord continues to bless them greatly. His visa was approved in record time, so he can return to India right away. Often they are apart for extended periods of time because of visa issues.


Her mother, Sister Esther, is also a seamstress and helps out in the shop and helps look after the children.



Although they have one electric sewing machine, they mostly use the treadle machines. They can't rely on the electric machine because of the many power outages. She has a new machine that she is getting that is much faster than this one, but we think it will be a treadle machine. Seamstresses in Canada often have the latest equipment, including a serger, but here treadle machines are very common. She does not use patterns for her sewing. She takes measurements and then cuts the fabric. She is making the blouses for two sarees for me.


After visiting Sister Vincey, we travelled to Brother Kumar and Sister Karin's place. The trip took about an hour. They live in a less settled part of Coimbatore. We travelled through some forested areas with banana and coconut trees. In the forested part, we got out of the car to take some pictures. We relished the peace and quiet of the area. Banana trees are not tall. We don't know if all banana groves are irrigated, but this one has hoses running throughout the trees. This is the first time we have seen bananas growing on trees.

On our way to the Kumar's, we saw a large Hindu temple, called Pateeswaarar Temple, in the community of Perur (part Coimbatore). The temple is dedicated to the Hindu god, Shiva. This temple is very colourful and has a lot of detailed carving.









Brother Kumar and Sister Karin have a house that is not attached to another house. They had their house built for them about 2 1/2 years ago. They were the first ones to build in the area. They now have several neighbours. Notice the closeness of the houses. This picture was taken from the roof top of their house. There are some very colourful houses here. The rooftops also give a nice view of the mountains.

The Kumar family will have new neighbours soon. Again, the closeness of the houses is evident.












Brother Kumar works for a Texas property managment company. Sister Karin looks after their energetic son. They are working hard to be good parents and are always conscious of teaching their son correct principles. We hope that they will be able to be sealed in the temple by the end of the year. That means that we will be able to teach them the temple preparation class.

Their neighbour (the one with an orange house) has a banana tree in the front of their house, so we were able to touch a banana tree. That was exciting for us. You may think that we are weird to think that touching a banana tree is exciting, but banana trees do not grow in Canada. The leaves of this banana tree are quite big. Banana trees that are this big are used as "plates." Many restaurants use this method of serving food. The food is placed directly on the leaf. Serving food on banana leaves supposedly has health benefits. As we are westerners, we are always concerned about the cleanliness of the banana leaves. They are not washed before thye are used for serving. Just before putting food on the leaves, a bit of water is sprinkled on the leaf. The person eating the food then wipes the water around on the leaf. That is the extent of the cleaning. Nevertheless, it is an interesting way to serve food.

Today, Brother Alexander was baptized. His wife (next to Sister Tiefenbach) has also expressed interest in baptism. She has seen the difference the gospel has made in her husband's life and has decided that she wants to be part of it. We hope that things will work out that way. Their married daughter, Sister Margaret (far right), is also interested in baptism, but her husband is not supportive of her desire. The picture was taken after the baptismal service, so Brother Alexander is not dressed in white.




Of course, our week would not be complete without introducing two of the new missionaries. Elder Solomon (right) is from Toronto. He was born in Bangalore, India, but he and his family moved to Canada when he was eight years old. The first question he asked Sister Tiefenbach when we were introduced was, "Do you know where we can buy western type food?" He got out his weekly planner and a pen and began writing. Elder Smoot is from Utah. He was transferred here from Erode. He had served in that branch for about 3 months. We have one more new missionary, Elder Augustine, but we did not get a picture of him. We took Elder Solomon and Elder Smoot out for dinner Saturday night. It happened to be our anniversary that day. They were both insistent that they not go to dinner with us because it was our anniversary, but we very much wanted to share a meal with someone. We had asked a few other people that we were close to, but they were all busy. The elders were leaving the church as we were leaving, so we grabbed them. We refused to take no for an answer.