Treasured Moments in Time

Sister Tiefenbach had a chance to hold a baby on Monday night. She thoroughly enjoyed it. Brother Renald and Sister Deepa invited us for family home evening and asked us to give the lesson. We used our ipads for the lesson, and needed our hands to move from one screen to the next, so Sister Tiefenbach had a little difficulty doing this. But, she would not give up the baby. This little one is two months old and likes to be held upright. She had been a bit fussy, but Sister Tiefenbach quickly calmed her down. Sister Tiefenbach loved every minute of it, and did not share with Elder Tiefenbach. Of course, she imagined holding her own new granddaughter. Elder Tiefenbach was able to pay a lot of attention to their other daughter. He certainly enjoys playing with the children of the families we visit.

Here are Brother Renald and Sister Deepa and their two children (on look! Sister Tiefenbach is STILL holding the baby). Brother Renald does medical transcriptions for doctors in the US. Both Brother Renald and Sister Deepa have excellent English. This is another family in the Church in Coimbatore that is strong and dedicated to the gospel. They, too, are eager to learn and follow the gospel culture. They are planning to go to the temple this year. The closest temple is in Hong Kong, so families have to prepare for a long time in order to make the trip. We feel so welcome in the homes of the members here. Many of the members here have truly become our family. Words cannot describe the closeness we feel to so many people here.

 

On Tuesday, we had our regular missionary district meeting. We and the zone leaders forgot to bring a marker for the white board, and they and Sister Tiefenbach needed a marker for the meeting, so the zone leaders, Elders Mills and Vaiphei, raced to a nearby stationary store to buy a white board marker.  Every week Sister Tiefenbach takes 10 to 15 minutes to teach the missionaries to lead (or conduct) music, so she needed a marker to draw pretty pictures of notes on the board.

 

We wish we had a picture of the closest stationary shop; it does not look anything like a stationary shop in North America. One day, we will get a picture and post it. Many of the stationary shops are very small and look similar to these small shops that are seen on the left. Likely, one of these shops is a stationary shop. The streets are lines with small shops.

 

 

After the meeting, we accompanied the zone leaders to Sister Jebamani's and Sister Gupta's apartment to investigate some strange noises they were hearing. Of course, the noises weren't there when we were there. In the end, the noise turned out to be a bird. By the time we were finished at the sisters' apartment, it was well past lunch time, so we and the zone leaders stopped at Domino's Pizza for lunch. Having lunch with the missionaries is always a treasured moment.

 

You may wonder why a picture of workers at a construction site is a treasured moment. Well, it is treasured because it will always remind us of India. In particular, it will remind us that India is a country of contrasts. Here we see the labour intensive view of construction. The workers are lifting sand to the upper floor (we presume to use in the mortar for the bricks). They made a human conveyor belt, putting sand in a basin-type container then passing it to the next person and so on up to the top person. Notice that the women construction workers wear sarees with a shirt over top of it. This would be comparable to construction workers in the western world wearing long dresses on the construction site. This particular building is not a tall modern building where cranes would be used, but we marvelled that they were not using some kind of pulley system to make the work more efficient. Several blocks away we saw a complete contrast to this where huge cranes were used to aid in the construction of a much larger building.

 

We will always remember the street markets in India. Every Tuesday, the streets close to our aparment turn into a huge market, where farmers sell their produce. The local Catholic church has a special service every Tuesday, so the sellers of produce use this day as an opportunity to catch all the people going to the services. The farmers simply lay out their produce. Many of them have scales to weigh the customers' purchases. The prices are cheaper here than in the shops and stores, but the markets get EXTREMELY crowded. Shoppers need to be aggressive. Also, remember that all this produce is on the street. Therefore, the shoppers need to make their way through the crowds of people and through the cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and animals that are on the street. We prefer the quieter more Western type stores.

 

Ahhhh! What a wonderful treasured moment! One day, when we left our apartment building, we saw a new floor mat. Although we are Canadians, seeing this floor mat everytime we leave our apartment building or enter the building, makes us feel a bit closer to home. We wonder where they found this mat. They were probably able to purchase it at a great clearance price!

We made visits to seven families this past week. One of the families was the Relief Society president, Sister Saraswathy, and her husband, Brother Rajendran. They made lunch for us, and they did not put any chilies or coriander in any of the food. It was great to not have our mouths burning after we ate. Their daughter is attending a prominent college where she is earning a degree in Aerospace technology (or something like that). She hopes to end up in NASA. We like to visit the members in their homes because get to know them better than when we casually see them at church. There is something about being in a person's home that draws people together.

 

 

Another treasured moment occurs on Satuday when we get to see many members when they come to the church to do the weekly cleaning. We are usually at the church late Saturday afternoon, or evening as they call it in India. Anything after 4:00 p.m. is considered evening. We think that many of the men particularly like to clean the floors because they get to play with this wonderful toy.

 

Now this is a great treasured moment! Where in Canada can anyone buy six ripe tomatoes for 18 cents????? Most vegetable are so cheap here compared to Canada or the States. We are amazed at the quantity of vegetables we can buy for only a few dollars. Well, in actual fact, the price is in rupees, but most people will relate more to dollars than rupees.

Baptisms are always a treasured moment. Today, Brother Sivasubramaniam (Siva for short) (left)and Sister Latha's (right) daughter (father is touching her arm) was baptized. We haven't really had much contact with Brother Siva; we see him at church, but we have never heard him say anything. He keeps to himself. But, today, we found out that he speaks excellent English. He did a great job of baptizing his daughter and confirming her. We were amazed at his English ability. He was confident in performing the ordinances. We were impressed with him! The woman beside Sister Latha is Brother Siva's sister; the woman beside her is her mother-in-law. The girl in the front is the other daughter of Siva and Latha. The other children belong to Brother Siva's sister.

Of course, they always want a picture with us.

We heard today that Elder Smoot is being transferred to Vizak. We are sad about this, and we wish him will in his new assignment. We will treasure our memories of being with him. We have had some very good discussions with him. He always appreciates the food we have shared with him. He especially likes the frosting that Sister Tiefenbach makes for her cakes.




 

Some of the great treasured moments in our lives come when we receive pictures from our family; receive messages from them on facebook, emails, and imessages; talk to them on skype or facetime; and receive cards or packages from them. We treasure every moment with our family.


As we all take time to treasure moments in our lives, we will be aware of the blessings that our Heavenly Father has given us. We will understand that He loves us, that we are His children, and that He wants us to be happy and return to him. May the Lord bless you all as you hold on to those things that bring you joy.