First Full Week at the New Location

Wow!! We can't believe that the first week in our new apartment and in the new office is over. Yet, in other ways, we feel that we have been here a long time. We have been busy in the office getting things organized and trying to get caught up on all the work we put on hold during the move. We finally were able to access our computer files on Tuesday. The "M" drive, where our files are stored, was not accessible and is still not, but the computer people from Hong Kong copied our files to a flash drive so we could access them. Sister Tiefenbach's  desk (shown before occupation) now sports a computer, a fancy VOIP phone, and a digital photo frame.

We had another farewell this past Tuesday, but we have no pictures. Because of the busy schedule everyone had, we had the farewell dinner at Chili's, and we had the devotional at the Whitefield Branch building. We did not have our camera with us. Obviously, that means no pictures. Sister Berrett took a picture of the elders after the devotional with her phone. Elders Higgins and Tracy left us to return home after completing their missions. On Wednesday, the Missionary Leader Council was held. It was held at Whitefield Branch because all the missionaries who came to Bangalore for it stayed with either the assistants or with us (the sisters stayed with us), and we are next door to the church. In this picture, we see Elders Kocharla, Alosias, Sampath (the president's driver), and Arthur.

Lunch was Pizza Hut pizzas and fresh veggies. Elders (left to right) Cunha, Kandukuri, and McDonald seem to be enjoying the food. Well, maybe Elder Kandukuri got momentarily distracted by someone.










Here we have (left to right) Elders Hodgson, Peck, and Kullai, with Elder Erupula in the back. The missionaries love to get together and visit, too. They learn a lot at these meetings and have their testimonies strengthened, but they also gain the benefits of socializing with each other.









Most of the elders drop by the office when they come to MLC. Elders O'Dell and Bown also visited us that day. They don't attend the MLC, but they came to the office so Elder O'Dell could meet up with the zone leaders who were going back to Chennai. Elder O'Dell had an appointment with the US Consulate in Chennai for his second passport. He is preparing to go to the Philippines so he can apply for his second visa for India. Getting a second USA passport is the first step in the process. Elders O'Dell and Bown show their very serious, dignified missionary look. This picture was taken in the waiting area of the new office.


Next, we see their more familiar look: relaxed and jovial. We're not saying that they are never serious or dignified. We could say that this look is their happy, contented missionary look. They are both great missionaries who are dedicated and who love to obey the commandments and the mission rules.







Here, we have Sister Gupta and Elder Singh. Elder Singh is usually always smiling, but not here from some reason. Sister Tiefenbach told him he is way too serious. Sister Gupta was in Bangalore with Sister Singh (no relation to the Elder shown here) and Sister Lama. They are all Sister Leader Missionaries.








President Berrett found two glasses of Sprite (or Seven Up) sitting in the office. No one knew who they belonged to, and no one knew how long they had been in the office. We know that the filled cups had been there since at least the day before. President Berrett wanted to know if there were any takers for it. Not surprisingly, missionaries are very . . . bold. He found several volunteers to drink the pop (soda pop for our American friends). We wouldn't touch it. Neither would he.



This is Elder Alosias (Elder Arthur in the back). This is the elder who had Dengue Fever. He looks like his old happy, fun person. But, when he was sick, he was not like this at all. We are so glad to see our old Elder Alosias back in his true form.








Here we have the fun group! Can anything be better than this? Okay, seeing all our family in the temple tops this, but being around wonderful missionaries is in the top favourites. Here we have (left to right): Elders Aeshamalla, Mills, Hodgson, Kullai, Vaddi, Rees, Ravi, Bown, and Peck (in the front). We LOVE to see the missionaries! We hope they love to see us, too.

This past week, we put up our Christmas tree. It is a bit of a Charlie Brown tree, but it still a wonderful tree. The top tends to lean to one side, so we could not put the star at the very top of the tree; it is put near the top.















On Saturday night, we attended a Christmas party at church. We were met first by Sister Laleetha and Brother Charles.

To begin the program, we met in the chapel to view part of the 2013 Christmas Devotional from the First Presidency. We then moved to the cultural hall where Santa joined us. This Santa liked to dance. Santa was actually from Coimbatore, and he picked us out to dance for a few minutes with him. He danced with Elder Tiefenbach, but we did not get a picture of that because Elder Tiefenbach had the camera. Santa danced and bounced to the music through most of the evening. We also played a few games, and then we ate. The food was definitely too spicy for us, but we enjoyed being with everyone.

Waterfalls greet us as we enter our apartment complex. The water is not always on; we wonder why. They often turn the fountain on at night. It looks beautiful with the lights shining on the falling water. It truly offers a soothing welcome to all those who enter and prepares visitors and residents for the tranquil, beautiful grounds awaiting on the other side of the waterfall fountain.

In contrast to the beautiful grounds in our apartment complex, this is the sidewalk that we walk on as we go to the church and our office each day. The sidewalk is the part with the pipe connecting the two separated parts. Yes, folks, this is the sidewalk. We cross three such canyons on our way to the office (and church). When we walk on the sidewalks here, we cannot look around; we must always keep our eyes on the ground. Oh, I guess we also have to watch out for autos and motorcycles on the sidewalks, too. We have so many interesting experiences in India.

We now come to the part in our blog where we take you on a short tour of our apartment. We welcome to our new home. This is the fourth apartment we have had on our mission - not bad considering couple missionaries are not supposed be transferred!








Upon entering our flat, you will see the living room at the end of the spacious entrance. You can see the old furniture from the mission office in our living room. We are actually thinking that perhaps this furniture is better suited for this space than the furniture we are slated to get from mission home.






Behind the couch you see on the left in the above picture is the dining area. You can also see that we now have a few pictures up on the walls. These pictures are from the old office. We have two pictures of the first vision (one above the two chairs in the living room and one on the wall at the far end of the dining area) and a picture of the Savior (to the left of the dining table).







This is the built in stove top. We love this stove. It makes great popcorn. This is the pot we use to make popcorn. It gets used a lot. We know it is a pressure cooker, but we use it for popcorn because it has a nice thick bottom. The bottom drawer here makes an excellent pots and pans drawer. It is big enough to hold most, but not all, our pots.













The counters are fairly low. You can see how much Sister Tiefenbach has to bend over to wash the dishes. We now have a geyser (water heater) for the kitchen. We had one in our other Bangalore apartment, so we suppose we became spoiled by it. We did not have that luxury in Coimbatore, where we had to get our hot water from the bathroom. We have a nice washing machine and dryer on the other side of the short wall (on the other side of Sister Tiefenbach). We have used the dryer a couple of times this week. We washed our sheets and needed them dry for the night, so we splurged and used the dryer. We will likely not use it much because it uses so much electricity.







This is the guest bedroom. It is much smaller than the guest bedroom we had in our other apartment, but it is large enough for a queen size bed. Guests using this room will get a decent view of Bangalore from the balcony. This room also has a built in wardrobe, which we use for storage purposes and to hang Elder Tiefenbach's suits.






This is the master bedroom. Again, it is somewhat smaller than the bedroom we had in our other apartment, but it is comfortable. The master bedroom does not have a balcony, but the view from the window is wonderful. Each morning, we look out to see who is coming and going from the apartment complex. We get up at 5:58 (yes, exactly at 5:58) to get ready for our walk. When we get up it is still dark, but by the time we go outside by 6:15 to 6:20, it is beginning to get light.



We also have a built-in wardrobe in our room. Sister Tiefenbach's half has a rod that goes the full length of the cabinet to hang clothes, but Elder Tiefenbach's half has a rod that is only half the length. Hence, he needs to hang his suits in the guest room.








We have a third bedroom, but we didn't take a picture to show everyone. Let's just say that it is . . . hmmm . . . not organized yet. We will buy a desk and then get things organized and presentable. We wanted to buy one on Saturday, but we couldn't find one in the short time we had to look for one. Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, we can get one. Of course, we have the bathrooms. This one is the guest bathroom. It is between the guest room and the third bedroom. We have a bathroom off the master bedroom.

We miss our old neighbourhood. We don't see as many trees on the streets outside the apartment complex as we had in Indiranagar. We also don't have as many shopping options here. We will have to take an auto everywhere we go. Nevertheless, we are comfortable here, and we feel we have been blessed to have three bedrooms, which will come in handy when Carma and the girls and Krista and Danny come in two months. We are looking forward to their arrival so we can share part of our experience with them. We truly feel that the Lord has watched over us and blessed us throughout our time here. Words cannot express the feelings we have experienced and the closeness we have felt with many people here. We can truly testify that the Lord showers great blessings upon us, for he has said, " Wherefore, the blessings which I give unto you are above all things" (D&C 18:45).