Familiar Sights and Familiar Faces

Familiar sights and familiar faces can bring feelings of peace and belonging. Each morning when we look out our bedroom window, we see this view with a crane standing against the sky in the distance. (You may have to look very closely to see it.) Each night when we look out the same window, we see the same crane in the distance lit up with lights warning all air traffic of its presence and letting us know that it is still there. We look for the crane everyday morning and every night, and somehow its familiar steel girders standing against the sky tells us that all is well.

Each day, we also see this house across the street. Again, it speaks to us of familiarity. We love the bright red trim that contrasts with the white walls of the house. The green trees and colourful blossoms add a sense of beauty and grace to the scene. This scene is always a welcoming sight for us.














Another familiar sight that brings us joy and a feeling of belonging is the sight of the assistants hard at work in the office . . . hello????? Are these the assistants???? Okay, this may not be such a familiar sight! You may very well be justified in wondering why the assistants are not dressed in their regular missionary attire of dress pants, white shirts, and ties. On Monday, missionaries were to dress casually because of the holiday celebrating Ganesh's birthday. In the evening, we were locked down (meaning confined to our apartments). This is simply a precautionary routine that is taken during many religious festivals in India. Things are very peaceful, so we are not in danger. During festivals, many people set off fireworks and firecrackers in the streets, and we certainly don't want to be walking down the street and a firecracker suddenly go off right beside us.

On Tuesday, the zone leaders and sister missionary leaders came in for Missionary Leader Council. We love to see the familiar faces of the zone leaders and the sister missionary leaders. Each time they come in to Bangalore, we feel that we are participating in a family reunion. The activity level and noise level of the office go way up, just like at a family reunion, but just as with a family reunion, the activity and noise bring great joy and peace to the heart. The familiar faces definitely give everyone a sense of belonging. This past Sunday was Elder Stoll's birthday, so Sister Tiefenbach made sure we had a cake for him when he came to the office late Tuesday evening. It was a banana cake and was delicious. Elder Stoll is serving in Coimbatore.






Elder Mills is (was) the other zone leader in Coimbatore. He was one of our district leaders when we served there. We were delighted that we will see his familiar face every day in the office as the new assistant to the president. Elder Ramaraj is now the first assistant, and Elder Mills is the second. We have been very fortunate to have worked with most of the assistants prior to their service as assistants. This has been one of those tender mercies of the Lord. When we learn that one of the assistants will be leaving, we always wonder who the next one will be and have secret hopes of who it will be. Each time, our secret hopes have been fulfilled. We have so many great missionaries who work hard, who understand the administration of the church, and have strong testimonies. Elder Mills is one of those.

Here we see the familiar faces of Elder Arthur (left) (zone leader in Rajahmundry with Elder Kullai) and Elder Watts (new zone leader in Coimbatore with Elder Stoll). Elder Watts is from Australia. It is fun to hear him talk. Elder Arthur mentioned that he did not know what he should study and what career he should choose when he goes back home. He wanted to know how he could know what to do. Sister Tiefenbach gave him her iPad to read an Ensign article about that topic. The Ensign article gave the advice he expected that it would give, but it gave him some satisfaction.


 
Elder Kullai is a zone leader in Rajahmundry. We are just getting to know Elder Kullai, and he will soon become a familiar face that we look forward to seeing each month.











And, of course the wonderfully familiar face of Elder Solomon (left) always brings us great joy. Whenever we see him, we can't help but have big smiles on our faces. We miss seeing him in Bangalore, but he is doing a great job as zone leader in Chennai. He still thinks Chennai is too hot! So do we. He and Elder Ramaraj are standing outside Elder Tiefenbach's office. Both Elder Solomon and Elder Ramaraj are sincere, kind, steady, dedicated elders.




We caught the welcomed and familiar faces of Elder Stoll (left), Elder Pothula (zone leader in Hyderabad), Elder Morrill (also a zone leader in Hyderabad), and the very familiar face of Elder Wadsack-Stewart(formerly zone leader in Chennai) all together. When we arrived in Bangalore to work in the office, Elder Wadsack-Stewart was only a name on mail we received in the office and that was the extent of our familiarity with him. At that time, he was in the Philippines awaiting his second visa for the Philippines. Since his return to India, we had the opportunity to visit with him in our apartment, and we have seen him when he comes to Bangalore every month for the Missionary Leader Council. He has become another familiar face that we look forward to seeing and that brings us joy. He has been transferred to Erode as a new district leader. Erode has now become its own district, which means that the Erode elders will not have to travel to Coimbatore for their district meetings.


Now, we will give an explanation and a close up view of the package that Elder Morrill is holding. This is NOT a package for Elder Morrill; it is a package for Elder Taylor. Elder Taylor just recently returned from the Philippines, and he received this package covered with red hearts and other messages of love written in red ink. Many of the elders took the opportunity to write other messages on the box. Elder Taylor knows that he is going to get severely teased about this package. When President Berrett walked into the office after being out of town and saw the package sitting on the counter, he "inquired" about it. The package gave everyone in the office great amusement. Elder Taylor is a good sport about it all.

  Now, this is a wonderfully familiar sight! The assistants are definitely hard a work here! We had some birthday cake left over from the previous day, and Elder Ramaraj and Elder Mills did not hesitate to help get rid of it. We all work hard in the office, but we also have a great time! Elder Mills is a bit of a prankster. Before he left for the Philippines, he left little reminders of his presence on Sister Tiefenbach's computer, printer, and desk. One day this week, Sister Tiefenbach found a new reminder that he placed on her computer mouse with a note saying, "It has just begun." Hmmmm . . .

On Monday and Tuesday evening, we had Sister Peter and Sister Madabathula stay with us while they attended the Tuesday meeting. Both sisters are very familiar to us. We prepared Sister Peter for the MTC in July, and she is member of our branch in Bangalore. Sister Madabathula came to us as a new missionary in Coimbatore, so she became very close to us. She is now a Sister Missionary Leader. Unfortunately, we did not get a picture of them. They left Wednesday morning, and a few hours later, we received two more beautiful familiar faces: Sister Yelamanchili (left), whom we prepared for the MTC in June, and Sister Jackson, who arrived in May from the Provo MTC. They were in Bangalore to meet their new companions from the Manila MTC. We took them to Pizza Hut for lunch. They stayed with us Wednesday night.


While we were eating our pizza, we noticed a sign out the window. It was a wonderful reminder of our own beautiful daughters. Yes, daughters are totally worth it! Elder Tiefenbach does tend to spoil our daughters, so this idea is VERY familiar to us. Hmmmm . . . will jewelry be one of the gifts Elder Tiefenbach brings back to his six daughters? (For those who are confused by that, we have 5 daughters and one daughter-in-law. That makes 6 daughters!) One cannot have too many daughters.

Now, this face is not familiar, but his name is familiar. This is Elder Anthony who newly returned from serving a mission in Delhi on Wednesday. He arrived at the mission office shortly after his flight arrived so he could be released by President Berrett. His brother George Anthony, a member of our branch, will be leaving on a mission in October.














 Late Wednesday night, we received four new missionaries from the Manila MTC. Sister Amala is from Delhi. Her face is familiar because we saw pictures of her, but we are not familiar with her, yet. We know we will grow to love her. She speaks six languages, so we are already impressed with her. She will be trained by Sister Jackson in Coimbatore. We did not get a group picture of all our arrivals. The other three missionaries from the Manila MTC are the ones we sent out 13 days ago: Sister Chetti (being trained by Sister Yelamanchili), Elder Pilli (being trained by Elder Bown, our beloved former assistant to the president), and Elder Dharavath (being trained by Elder Wadsack-Stewart in Erode).

Early Thursday morning, we received 2 new missionaries from the States. They were not fresh from the MTC, as both had been reassigned to other missions in the States while they waited for their visas for India. Their arrival was delayed by about 4 hours, so they were extra tired. They did not get a chance to sleep before they were taken to the mission home for their orientation and then to the office for our part of the orientation. When they walked into the office, their faces were familiar because we had seen their pictures. Elder Stevens is being trained by the infamous and very familiar Elder Mangum.


 Elder Singh is being trained by Elder Peck and will be serving in Rajahmundry. We now have two Elder Singh's and one Sister Singh. Shortly, we will have one more Elder Singh. We will have to work hard to become familiar with all the Singh's so we can tell them apart from each other. We will not have a problem with knowing which one is Sister Singh!

We love to see the familiar sight of the massive roots of the trees in Bangalore. So much of the roots are above ground. We continue to be amazed at the size of both the trunks and the roots of the trees here. Familiar sights like this are constant reminders to us that we are actually in a distant country, far from our home. We still have to pinch ourselves (not literally) to make sure we are not dreaming.

Ahhh!! The familiar sight of a shopping mall brings GREAT joy and a great feeling that all is well with the world! Often, when we have to buy a lot of groceries at one time, we go to Goplan Signature Mall where we shop at a grocery store called Auchan. When we go to the mall, we hire our familiar auto driver, Baskar. He waits for us while we shop, and he takes us back to our apartment. He then goes the extra mile and carries the heaviest grocery bags up the two flights of stairs. Saturday was one of those big grocery shopping days. After shopping, Sister Tiefenbach made chocolate chip cookies and soft raisin oatmeal cookies. Elder Tiefenbach prepared two lessons for Sunday and washed the dishes.

Saturday night we filled our taste buds with wonderfully familiar tastes. We had roasted chicken breasts, potatoes with gravy, tomatoes with parmesan cheese, and carrots with butter and dill. The gravy was extra delicious because we used one of the packets of chicken gravy mix that Sister Ram from Hawaii sent us. We poured some chicken broth (made from a chicken cube) over the chicken and roasted it. We added the resulting drippings from the chicken to the gravy made from the gravy mix with a little flour to thicken it a bit more, and we had wonderful, flavourful chicken gravy. It was the BEST chicken gravy we have had in India. It had the great familiar taste of gravy made from a nice plump roasting chicken. We could not have achieved such a great flavor without the gravy mix that Sister Ram sent us.

 On Saturday night, our apartment was filled with the familiar aroma of popcorn. Elder Tiefenbach made a great batch of popcorn that not only smelled good but tasted great, too. We also had A&W rootbeer - another familiar taste that makes us feel comfy cozy. We were all set with our popcorn and rootbeer to watch a movie from the thirties: My Man Godfrey. We have such a great time watching these old movies.

As we go through our day to day life, we see many things and people that are familiar to us. These familiarities bring us comfort and peace. They help us understand and appreciate the certitudes of life. Just as we are familiar with the sunsets we see each night, let us be familiar with the unchanging and ever presence of our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Their ways are certain; they give us clarity, hope, comfort, and a sense of belonging to something greater than ourselves. As we repent and accept the Savior's atonement, we become part of His kingdom and we "are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the Saints, and of the household of God" (Ephesians 2:19).