Forging New Frontiers

While we may not be talking to you about new frontiers that no one has discovered, we will tell you about frontiers that are or have been personally new to many people. On Wednesday, we had the privilege of sending off nine new missionaries to begin their training at the Manila MTC. Although many other people have made this same trip and faced the same experiences, this is a new frontier for all nine of these amazing people. Most of them had never flown before; their flight into Bangalore was their first flight, and many were nervous about their long flight to the Philippines. Fortunately, they were a big group so they could help each other. Also, one of the young women had a lot of experience flying internationally. Having someone who was familiar with big airports brought some comfort to many of these novice travelers. We have been working with these young people for several months in preparation for this day. This is the group of them just before they were to leave for the airport.

Sister Fernanes (left) and Sister Kalra (right) were the first ones to arrive. They are from Goa (incidentally, Goa is a place we would like to visit while we are here). They arrived Tuesday night because the affordable flights the next day would have brought them in too late for all the things that needed to be done on Wednesday. We were excited to have them stay with us Tuesday night. We found out about Sister Kalra coming on a mission rather late because she had been attending school at BYU and began her mission application online while she was there. So, we never saw her application or her mission call packet in our office. She had the good sense to call the office to inform us that she had been called on a mission and would be serving in India. We were glad she called because we were then able to arrange for her setting apart and her travel to Manilla. Sister Kalra is the sister who has done a lot of international travelling. Both these sisters are wonderful and will contribute a lot to their missions. Sister Fernandes will be returning to us, and Sister Kalra will serve in the Delhi Mission.

This is our own Elder Amalaraj. He is from Coimbatore, and we knew him and his family well from when we served there. He is like a son to us. We were thrilled to help him forge his new frontier. He will be a terrific missionary in the Delhi Mission. He was so happy to be going to Delhi because it gets colder there than southern India. He gets so hot all the time, and he loves the cooler weather. He hopes to one day come to Canada to live. When we said our last good-byes, he said, "We might not ever see each other again." That possibility was so hard for us. Fortunately, he has plans to eventually live in Canada, so there may be a possibility that we would see him again. We told him that if things work out for him to be in Canada, we would come to where ever he is. We were blessed to sit in on his setting apart. Actually, Elder Tiefenbach assisted with the setting apart.

With nine missionaries preparing to leave, President Berrett decided to divide the missionaries into two groups for the temple recommend interviews and the settings apart. President Berrett looked after one group, and President William (counselor in the mission presidency) looked after the other group. President William asked Elder Tiefenbach to assist him. What a great honour and privilege that has been. Sister Ravi is from Bangalore. She called the office often to see how things were progressing on her missionary application, on her visa application, and on other things pertaining to her call. As she began forging new frontiers in preparation to serve the Lord, she has seen many miracles, including financial miracles. Each time she had the thought that she needed to talk to Sister Tiefenbach, Sister Tiefenbach "just happened" to call her. This in itself was a miracle for her. It was amazing. She will be serving in our mission.

 Elder Nakkapalli is from Hyderabad, and he, too, was a last minute addition to our list of missionaries we needed to prepare. Because Hyderabad is now a stake, we will not know when a young person from Hyderabad applies for a mission. With Elder Nakkapalli, we did not get the mission call packet in our office, either. It went straight to the stake. Since then, we have received a couple of call packets in our office that we then send out to the missionary in Hyderabad. We found out about Elder Nakkapalli when we received a notice of missionary arrival in our email. It took us a while to figure out that we knew nothing of him because he was from Hyderabad. We arrange for the travel and visas for all missionaries living within the geographic area of the India Bangalore Mission, so we need to know when missionaries from Hyderabad are called. In reality, we did not need to bring him into Bangalore to fly to the Philippines, but he was very happy to be forging new frontiers with his batch instead of by himself. Elder Nakkapalli will be serving in our mission.

Elder Peddinti (left) is from Vizak, and Elder Stephen (right) is from Chennai. They both have interesting and wonderful stories of their journey to the church. Part of Elder Peddinti's journey toward his mission was to improve his English. Although his English skills were somewhat limited, he has forged ahead and improved significantly. This will assist him as he continues to forge his new frontiers. Elder Peddinti will serve in the Delhi Mission, and Elder Stephen will serve in our mission.

And of course, we have our smiling and cheerful Sister Peter (left). She is from our branch in Bangalore. She faced many challenges in her preparation for her mission, as she waited six months for her mission call. She was so thrilled to labour in the India Bangalore Mission. We look forward to her return to our mission at the end of the month. Sister Peddinti (sister of Elder Peddinti above) is from Vizak. She will not only be forging new frontiers as she travels to Manila, but she will be forging new frontiers as she learns to speak English. Her English is not as good as her brother's, and she sometimes relies too much on her brother to explain the things people are saying to her and to speak on her behalf. We know the Lord will bless her as she devotes time to studying the gospel in English. She will see miracles as she focusses on serving the Lord. She was very touched with her setting apart. She had tears in her eyes when we took her picture following her setting apart.

The Assistants to the President, Elder Bown (left) and Elder Kumar (back right) were a great help that day. They helped several of the new missionaries get signed up on the missionary portal (internet site for the missionaries) and on their missionary email accounts. They also helped keep the missionaries busy after the settings apart by showing some church videos until it was time for them to get ready for the taxis to pick them up and take them to the airport. They also went to pick up the pizza at about 6:30 that we ordered for everyone . We were all hungry. We have known Elder Bown for only a short time, but we have already come to appreciate his dedication and his obedience. Both he and Elder Kumar are exemplary missionaries and take their assignment seriously.

Although we go to the same park every week day morning for our walk, we like to forge new frontiers by noticing differences in the park each day. We notice when we see different people, and we notice when we see changes in the plants. This plant has changed colour. It was completely green not long ago, but has changed to variations of reds, yellow, and greens. Plants and trees change colour at different times of the year. We never see all plants and trees changing at the same time together.

The park was established and is maintained by a group in the community. They have erected a stone commemorating this. Of course, Elder Tiefenbach is better looking than the plaque.

We went grocer shopping on Saturday to Auchan. We go there at least once in every six weeks or once a month to do a "big shop.' Now, what does going shopping for groceries at a store that we frequent have to do with forging new frontiers? Well, we went a different route!! The traffic was horrid. It took over an hour to make the usual 20 minute auto ride. Our auto driver, Baskar, decided to go a different way. This was definitely a new look from the regular scenery. This was a new frontier for us in Bangalore. It reminded us a lot of the areas we walked in Coimbatore, with small shops  all along the narrow crowed street.

We saw women hauling bundles of wood and other things on their heads.

Many small fruit and vegetable stands dot the street. We wonder how so many of them can earn money. There may be two or three of these shops within a couple of blocks of each other. Next door, we can see a clothing shop. We saw a shoe shop and wondered how long some of the shoes had been in the shop. Some of them looked very old. We weren't sure whether or not this "short cut" turned out to be any shorter because MANY other people got the same idea as our auto driver, and the street was crammed full of vehicles. Forging a new frontier didn't work out in terms of time this time, but we were able to see a different view of Bangalore from the view we see on our daily walk to and from the office or to and from church.

On Saturday evening, our branch celebrated the early pioneers of the church as they forged new frontiers as they were driven from place to place and finally arriving in the great Salt Lake valley where they found peace and refuge. We are touched by the desire of the branch president to help the members of the branch understand the sacrifices that were made by the early members of the church and to help them recognize that they also are forging new frontiers as they come to accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and establish a legacy of faith for their posterity. Following the more serious and spiritual part of the celebration, the branch held a "talent show." We had a young woman in Elder Tiefenbach's Sunday School class show some artwork. We saw a group of children perform a dance from Fiji. The primary president recently returned from her mission from Fiji. The children had a great time performing this dance. It was great fun!

We even had a Michael Jackson performance.  How do people do the moon walk???? We can't figure it out. Part of his act was to do a robot imitation (just like Michael Jackson) where his head looks like it is rotating on his chest. He was amazing!

Adults, youth, and children all joined together to have fun with games. Elder Ravi (from Utah) [his back is to us] conducted the games. We might add that we won one of the games. The game required cooperation between the husband and wife - and a little balance as well. But, we did it and beat the other couple. We had several investigators at the activity. It was good for them to feel so welcome as the branch honoured all those who forged new frontiers as the pioneers laid a foundation of faith for countless generations in the future.

And of course, plenty of food was served. Elder Kumar enjoyed the food.

The scriptures remind us that as we forge new frontiers, we must constantly be "pressing forward . . . and [catch] hold of the end of the rod of iron . . . clinging to the rod of iron, even until [we] come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree" (1 Nephi 8:24) and immerse ourselves in the fountain of living waters and drink freely of the water that Christ shall give. The Savior reminds us that the water that he gives us "shall be in [us] a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14).