Light Shining in the Land of India

We saw some things this week that made us think of LIGHT, hence our title. The first LIGHT shining in India is the LIGHT of Sister Tiefenbach's life: Elder Tiefenbach. He is always hard at work in his office every weekday. Actually, occasionally, Sister Tiefenbach has caught him reading the online news instead of working. Today, we celebrated our 40th anniversary. As we thought of our anniversary last year, we were reminded that we took Elder Solomon and Elder Smoot out to dinner with us that evening. They protested, but we insisted.



Of course, the LIGHT of Elder Tiefenbach's life is Sister Tiefenbach. We are fortunate that we are able to work together everyday. We not only work together everyday, but we can see each other from each other's desks. That way, we can always keep on eye on each other. When we move to the new office building, we will not be within sight of each other.








Everyday, our lives are LIGHTened when we see the Assistants to the President. We see them almost every weekday. This week, we also saw them on Saturday because we went to the office Saturday to get caught up on a few things that we were not able to do before we went to Coimbatore. Yes, we went to Coimbatore again this week to do more FRO work.






This week, we received our new copier/scanner. We are excited to have it, but we will be even more excited when it is functioning. It will LIGHTen our work immensely. Presently, Sister Tiefenbach has a small colour copier/scanner, but it is SOOOO slow. The new machine will allow us to scan a document and send it via email to our desk top in seconds. It will be great! It was somewhat operational when we went to the office on Saturday, but the drivers were not installed on our computers, so we will have to wait until this coming week to make full use of the machine.



 This past week, we sent three new missionaries (left to right: Sister Chetti, Elder Pilli, and Elder Dharavath) to the MTC in the Philippines. All three will return to our mission. We love to see the LIGHT of excitement (and nervousness) in their eyes before they leave. For almost all of these new missionaries, their flight to Bangalore is their fist time flying. Many are concerned that they will get lost at the airport, but so far, we haven't lost a single missionary, and we don't expect to lose one. We had all three missionaries over to our house after the office hours and before they had to leave for the airport. Usually, the Assistants take care of the elders, and we look after the sisters, but this time, the Assistants had to catch a flight to Hyderabad in the late afternoon. We made pancakes and scrambled eggs for the new missionaries. We don't make Indian food, so we had to make something that wasn't too Western. Neither of the elders had ever had pancakes before. This was a first for them. They were a bit hesitant, but they loved them after the initial taste.

 We left for Coimbatore on Thursday morning, arriving at 10:15 a.m. We went straight to the FRO (after dropping our luggage at our apartment). We spent until 3:30 with FRO work. Unfortunately, we could not complete it that day because one of the tasks we had left to do required us to go to the State Bank of India, which closed at 2:00. That would be work for the next day. After the FRO, we stopped at the church to drop off some supplies and mail to the missionaries. We were fortunate to see Elder Mills and Elder Stoll at the church. This is the photo that started the light theme idea. The light from the door at the end of the hallway lit up the ceiling, and it looked like light was emanating from Elder Stoll's shoulder. It was more dramatic on the camera. When looking at the picture on the camera, we thought of the light of the gospel that the missionaries carry with them as they set out to proclaim it throughout the world. We also thought of the prayer offered at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple asking the Lord for blessings for those that go forth from the temple, specifically that they "may go forth from [the temple] armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them" (D&C 109:22). We thought of the light of the angels surrounding the missionaries.


Meanwhile, back to our FRO work, the reason that we missed the 2:00 deadline for the bank was because just as we got to the head of the line to hand in all our photocopies of the documents for our visa renewal application, the woman got up from her desk and went for lunch. GROAN. So, we decided that we would go somewhere for a LIGHT, quick lunch. Subway was not too far away, so our driver took us there, and we took him out for lunch. The only time he gets to go to Subway for lunch is when we take him. Last week when we went there for lunch, he noticed that some people were eating a salad. He wanted to know what they had. We told him it was salad. He said that he would like to try that. This time when we went to Subway, he asked for salad. He quite enjoys eating a lot of vegetables. Most meals in south India do not contain many vegetables.

 The weather was sunny and hot in Coimbatore. The temperature seemed much hotter in Coimbatore than what we are used to in Bangalore. From our balcony of our apartment, we could see that someone had laid their clothes out on their roof so the hot LIGHT of the sun would quickly dry their clothes. This is a common sight: clothes hanging on a line attached to the house and clothes on the roofs. We often wonder how clean the clothes are after laying on the dirty roofs and after touching the dirty walls of the house. Notice the satellite dish. We see high tech stuff and old ways of doing things together.

We visited Sister Mary Cruz Thursday evening. Last week when we were in Coimbatore, she invited us to come for the evening meal for this week. We always enjoy seeing her. We hope we bring a ray of LIGHT to her home when we visit with her. She is always delighted to see us, and she LOVES to feed us. We usually go to Brother Raja and Sister Sumathi's house on Thursday evenings when we are in Coimbatore, but this week, we promised to see Sister Mary.

We went back to the FRO on Friday morning and went to the bank to pay the fee for the extended visa. Brother Raja, who is a member of Coimbatore 1st Branch, has been helping us with the FRO business. After we finished at the bank, he told us that he would return to the FRO and finish things there. That left us to go and get some quick shopping done. One thing that we have had a bit of difficulty with consistently finding in Bangalore is good cauliflower. So, when we were in Coimbatore, we went to this vegetable and fruit market to buy some good cauliflower. We always feel a ray of LIGHT filling our hearts as we go to familiar places in Coimbatore. This particular store acts as a wholesale supplier where many small shops purchase their merchandise. This store will receive a whole truck full of cauliflower at a time, similar to the truck seen in this picture. We bought a head of cauliflower and a few other things to take back to Bangalore. The carrots that we bought there were much more delicious and far sweeter than most of the carrots we buy in Bangalore.

 As it so happened, President Berrett made a trip to Coimbatore on Friday morning to see some missionaries. So, we had the opportunity to ride back to Bangalore with him. Sister Berrett did not make the trip this time. We enjoy being with both President and Sister Berrett. We always find something to talk about. We saw many interesting sights on the way from Coimbatore to Bangalore. This hill reminded us somewhat of Old Chief Mountain. Now, we know that Old Chief Mountain is not in Saskatchewan, but it stands as a symbol of our family in Cardston and area and makes us feel at home whenever we see it. So, seeing this hill reminded us of home, which always fills our hearts, minds, and life with warm LIGHT. With a little imagination, we hope you can see Old Chief in this hill.

We saw many billowing, storm clouds developing in the sky on our drive to Bangalore. The LIGHT from the sun as it set behind the dark clouds gave some interesting sights. The pictures do not capture the beauty of the LIGHT shining behind the clouds. It was quite impressive to see the massive, dark storm clouds contrasted against the bright, hopeful light behind them.

The next LIGHT show was spectacular. Again, we think that the camera does not do justice to the display before our eyes. Above the dark cloud was a white halo effect. The halo then changed color to a pink centre with a bluish-green outer circle. We had never seen anything like it. It was like a conduit from heaven. You can see a smaller halo effect on the right side of the picture, as well.






We took several pictures of this phenomenon. We were awestruck with the effect of the LIGHT. The color would disappear, leaving only the white halo. Then, the colour would gradually come back.









At times, it looked like the LIGHT was dancing. It was fantastic to see this. We were so grateful that we were able to drive to Bangalore instead of flying. We would never have seen this had we flown. We consider this one of the many tender mercies of the Lord. How grateful and amazed we are to see the wonder and majesty of our Heavenly Father's creations. Certainly, all things testify of God.

We arrived in Bangalore around 9:00 p.m. on Friday night. We went to the office on Saturday morning and went shopping in the afternoon. We hired Baskar (an auto driver) to take us to several places. On the way to one place, we saw several cows laying on the medium having a rest. They were having a LIGHT nap under the canopy of the overhead metro line. Perhaps they were seeking refuge from the blazing LIGHT of the sun.

On our Saturday shopping trip, we caught this "pack" of vehicles waiting their turn at this traffic LIGHT. In reality, this street has room for only about two lanes. But, drivers always find an empty space where they can snuggle into so they can get closer to the front. We often laugh at the traffic patterns here.

Baskar stopped so we could get a picture of this float. It was outside a Hindu temple and was created to honour one of the gods.

These are our anniversary flowers. Flowers always bring LIGHT and gladness to the heart. Today, we celebrate 40 years of marriage. Last night, we had a wonderful supper of meat loaf. While we are in India, we consider meat loaf to food fit for a king. We also had baked potatoes with dahi curd (our sour cream substitute), carrots, and tomatoes. We had a half piece of carrot cake (we had only one piece left in the freezer). We then watched a 1946ish movie from the archive site. We enjoy watching and often laughing at these old movies. They are really quite entertaining and in many ways are better than the movies that are available today.








Today, we had some friends from Coimbatore over for lunch. We ate at just after 3:00, so it was more like an early supper. We broke our fast early so we could feed our friends. They stopped in Bangalore on their way to Hong Kong so they can attend the temple. This will be the first trip to the temple for both families. We are so excited for this great event they will be experiencing. We could see the LIGHT of joy and excitement in their eyes. Both families have made great sacrifices so that they could go to the temple with their children so they can be sealed together for eternity. The two families are: (left to right) Brother Suresh Jayasingh, his two sons and his wife Sister Bakyalakshmi; Sister Deepa and Brother Renald and their two daughters. We served roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, and cucumbers. We had chocolate cake for dessert. Brother Renald had asked us a long time ago about how to make roast beef. He had it as a child and remembers loving it. He had hoped to have it again. This was the first time the others had a meal like this. They liked it a lot, even though it was not spicy.

We walked both families to 100 Feet Road so they could catch an auto back to Brother Sundar's house. They used his house as a home base while they were in Bangalore. Our hearts were filled with LIGHT as we shared some time with these two special families.










We made sure they got safely into the auto. An auto fits the two of us comfortably, so you can imagine how squished they were. We are so happy that they came to visit us. They definitely brought LIGHT into our lives as we witnessed their gratitude to our Heavenly Father to go to the temple. When we were all leaving our apartment, Sister Deepa hugged Sister Tiefenbach so tightly. It seemed that Sister Deepa did not want to let go. We are so blessed to know these families and more blessed to share in this great event in a small way. We would have loved to have been able to go to the temple with them, but because our visa extension has not been finalized, we cannot leave the country. Well, we could leave the country, but we would not be able to get back in.


 As we have thought about light this week, we have been continually reminded that Christ is the source of all light and truth. Christ has said, "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life" (John 8:12). Alma taught his son Shiblon that "there is not other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ. Behold, he is the life and the light of the world. behold, he is the word of truth and righteousness" (Alma 38:9). We add our testimony that Christ is the source of light. In Him lies our hope. We are ever grateful for the atoning sacrifice of the Savior that gives hope that we may all return to our Heavenly Father to live with Him and with our families in the eternities where we can partake of all the blessings and glory that He has for us.