Couples' Conference and Youth Conference

Well, we were supposed to have put up another post before now, but we have been busy, and the week passed by before we knew it.

On Tuesday, September 25, we boarded a plane to fly to Bangalore for a Missionary Couples' Conference. Six couples serving in the India Bangalore Mission met with President and Sister Funk for training. We enjoyed being with the other couples because we always feel spiritually uplifted and edified after talking with them about the things they are doing. We always seem to get ideas that will help us with the work we are doing in Coimbatore.
The couples are (back, left to right): Hatch's, Sharma's, Zobell's, Tiefenbach's, and Allison's. In the front (left) Sister and President Funk and the Wigg's (mission office missionaries).

All the couples, except for the Sharma's, are from Canada. We are from Saskatchewan, and all the rest are from Alberta. The first night, we went out for supper at a restaurant. The Allison's flight was cancelled, so they were late getting in, and they missed our meal at the restaurant.







Elder Tiefenbach was hiding in this picture, so we have added another picture to the right so everyone knows he was there, too.We flew back to Coimbatore on Thursday morning. After we arrived at our apartment, we unpacked our suitcases and then re-packed them to head off to youth conference. We were in our apartment for one hour before we left again.






Youth conference was great!!! We loved being with the youth of Coimbatore District. Youth Conference was held September 27, 28, 29th at the Corniche Resort, which is about 1 hour from our apartment just outside Coimbatore near a place called Anaikatti.The resort was in a beautiful setting in the foothills of the nearby mountains. The buildings were colourful, and the trees were plentiful.

The word "resort" does not necessarily mean the same thing here as it does in other parts of the world. For example, our shower consisted of a bucket and a pitcher. Hmmm..... Well, at least we had hot water for the "shower."

Although the resort was filled with trees and other plants, we could see the dryness of the area. The whole area surrounding Coimbatore is experiencing a drought. We should be having heavy rains now, but we continue to have hot, days without rain. Our average daily highs have been 35 degrees C.







The resort had many birds. We awoke each morning to roosters and geese. We also watched the ducks, turkeys and chickens everyday.











We can't forget the budgie birds.

President Allwyn and his wife, Sister Sonia gave two workshops on Thursday. They spoke on using the media, paricularly using the LDS websites, and on dating standards. They are a great couple. Sister Sonia is the sister that gets together with Sister Tiefenbach to teach each other to cook different foods. President Allwyn really liked the cinnamon buns that Sister Tiefenbach taught Sister Sonia to make.

We gave two workshops on Friday. One was about preparing to serve missions, and the other was about the importance of education. The youth seemed very attentive and responsive to our presentations. We hope that we have helped inspire the youth to take advantage of opportunities to serve and to further their education.

The youth did a service project, as well. They collected used clothing to give to an orphange in Coimbatore. They sorted the clothing, then pressed the items and folded them. The boys worked on the service project one day while the girls went swimming. The next day, they changed places.

People here don't wear bathing suits to go swimming; they wear their clothes. Many of the boys changed into shorts. Most of the boys wore a shirt, but a few of the boys took their shirts off. The girls wear their regular clothing.








Thursday evening, we conducted group games with the youth. We played "Do You Love Your Neighbour" and "Giants, Wizards, and Elves." Following the group games, we had a "campfire."  Many of the youth, mostly boys, showed their dancing abilities. Elder and Sister Tiefenbach were "asked" (arm twisted) to perform a dance. We did the jive. We do not have pictures of us dancing. Someone took a video and showed it to his colleagues the next week.

A special effort was made to lessen the spice in the food for Elder and Sister Tiefenbach. It looks very colourful.

This is a picture of all the youth and the leaders at the conference. President Allwyn and Sister Sonia and the District Young Women President, Sister Deepa, and her family only stayed for the first day, so they are not in the picture.

 

 

The beautiful setting of the resort was removed from the noise and traffic of the city and provided an atmosphere for spiritual experiences and for making new friends. The final part of youth conference, a testimony meeting, was held in Coimbatore in the chapel.

We left the youth conference quickly after  the testimony meeting because we needed to go back to our apartment to prepare for our English class, which began at 3:30 and for choir practice following English class.