Things Familiar and Things New

The week began with Diwali (pronounced Divali). It is also called the Festival of Lights. Last year, we were in Coimbatore for the celebration, and we were looking forward to seeing Diwali being celebrated in Bangalore. This year, Diwali was on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. On each evening, we could see and hear firecrackers and fireworks going off. The biggest day of celebration was on the second day, Sunday. The son of the family that owns the house where we live enjoyed lighting firecrackers and these giant sparklers. By the end of Sunday night, we were tired of all the noise and smoke from the firecrackers and fireworks. It is indeed a great celebration here.

  

Last year in Coimbatore, we went up to the roof top of our apartment building to see a panoramic view of the Coimbatore sky lit up with fireworks. We were not able to go up to the roof of our house here, but we were able to see some of the fireworks that people set off from our bedroom and kitchen windows. We were also able to share some of the sights and sounds of Diwali with some of our children through Facetime. What a wonderful thing it is to share our experiences in India with our children the minute they are happening! We are so thankful for technology.

This picture, taken Monday morning, shows the remnants of the Diwali celebration. Many of the streets were littered with papers and canisters from the firecrackers and fireworks. For the rest of the week, the air was heavy with smog. Although unpleasant, it offered a constant reminder to us of the three day celebration.

Drawings in front of people's homes is a common sight every day, but we saw more of them during Diwali. The regular everyday drawings are always in white, but for Diwali, some of them were more colourful. This drawing reminded us of the beautiful artwork we saw in Coimbatore that was done during the Pongal festival.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we looked at apartments for the office couple, which happens to be us at the present time. This is the first apartment. The pictures make the apartment look not too bad, but, to be honest, when we first looked at it, we were quite discouraged. It was VERY dirty; the bedrooms were tiny, and the suspended ceiling in the bathrooms were . . . less than desirous. This is one of the bathrooms.

This picture is one of the bedrooms. We think that this is not the master bedroom, but it is the one that has the balcony.

 

This is another bedroom. Again, it has a balcony, but it is not the master bedroom. The bathroom off this bedroom has a vanity (at least a counter top) for the sink, so we might use this room as the master bedroom if we decide to get this apartment.







This is the kitchen. The cupboards are definitely nice looking. We were wanting to get an apartment where we could put a free-standing stove. The office couple may be getting the stove from the old mission home. Presently, we have a real stove with an oven, and we have come to appreciate being able to put a 9x13 pan in the oven. In Coimbatore,  we had only the microwave/convection oven, so baking a cake took longer because we could put only one of the two small pans in the oven at a time.



On Tuesday evening, we had a farewell for Elder Dass (left) and Elder Dangwal. Elder Dass is from Coimbatore, and Elder Dangwall is from Delhi. Both play the piano, so they will be an asset to their respective branches in terms of contributing to the music of their branches. Elder Dass' two sisters were baptized while he was serving his mission. He is grateful for that blessing.





One of the "treats" that we always look forward to at all the farewells is having Sister Berrett's homemade dinner rolls. She always has butter and jam available at the dinner table to accompany them. We had never had jam served with rolls at dinner before. It is a nice treat. Maybe, it is too much of a treat because we end up eating more rolls than we should. They are so yummy!






Elder Mills is weird! We have a lot of fun with him. What do you think? Would he make a good model? We think he should stick to missionary work for now.










 On Wednesday, we looked at a brand new apartment, but it is a lot further from the new mission office than the first apartment we looked at. Although we both loved the apartment, we weren't sure we or the couple that hopefully is coming to replace us will want to take an auto to the office everyday. This apartment is also "inside," which means it is a bit off the main road. Being off the main road may be good because it is quiet, but it is also a negative point because it means it is a fair walk to the main road to flag down an auto. No supermarkets are nearby so taking an auto will be an absolute necessity if one wants to go anywhere.

 This apartment was bright with lots of lights shining in the windows and the doors of the many balconies. Elder Tiefenbach and Elder Smith are enjoying the view.










Sampath (front left) is helping us by driving us to all the prospective apartments. Shankar (half of him is seen on the right), the office assistant, is extremely helpful by finding the apartments and setting up viewings.









While we were in the neighborhood, we stopped by to look at the progress of the new mission home and mission office. This will be Sister Tiefenbach's new work station. It looks very modern and bright, but it is away from everyone else in the office. She will no longer be able to look up from her desk and see into Elder Tiefenbach's office. Even the assistants to the president will not be within her view. She is not quite sure what she is going to do to keep herself entertained while she is working. Ahhh . . . look at that wonderful air conditioner vent on the ceiling above her desk. It is a tough life!!


This picture is taken outside the new mission home/office. The mission office should be finished by the first week in December, but the mission home will take a bit longer. Hopefully, President and Sister Berrett will be able to spend Christmas in their new home, but the builders aren't positive it will be done in time.

On Thursday, we and the Smith's went to Coimbatore. We went shopping to buy food for our stay there. Washing the fruits and vegetables in bleach solution and rinsing them always take time and is a regular task, but we are rewarded for our efforts when we stand back and look at the clean fresh vegetables and fruit. They look so fresh and new!

The last time the Smith's were in Coimbatore with us, we forgot to go up to the roof to show them the view. The view from above is always refreshing. We feel like we can see forever, at least in the direction this picture is showing. The mountains in the other direction stop our "forever" view. The mountains were not as impressive looking this time because the air was heavy with pollution. We could still see the mountains, but some of them were fuzzy from the pollution. 



 We saw a few changes from our last stay in Coimbatore only a few weeks ago. The area that you see littered with stones and bricks had many "shanti" houses. The houses were in VERY poor shape, and we often wondered how they could still be standing. Well, they are no longer standing. All the people living here had encroached upon the land. The government had them all torn down. We don't know where the people are living now. Having the houses gone certainly changes the view.



From the roof, we were able to see another amazing cloud and sun picture. Although seeing the sun rays diffused through the clouds is beautiful, we realize that much of the splendor of this view is the result of the pollution. Although sun rays streaming through clouds is a familiar sight lately, we are always attracted to it.

We took the Smiths with us on visits to several members of the branches in Coimbatore. We visited with the Lawrence William family, the Amalaraj family, with Sister Vincey and her mother Esther, with Raju Joseph, with the White family and of course we visited with Raja and Sumathi and their three children.We enjoyed our visit with them. We probably stayed too long with the Amalaraj family, but we know that we will not have too many more visits with them before we go back home. We also took a drive up one of the mountains to look at a Hindu Temple. The two of us had visited this temple last year, so we wanted to share this with the Smith's. We stayed only long enough to look at the temple from the car. We did not stay longer because MANY people were pouring into the area. As it turned out, there was some kind of celebration, and hundreds of people ended up being there.


On the way to church today, we saw a familiar site - cows eating garbage. But, this time, they had a treat of fresh greens. We were not sure what the greens were, but the cows seemed to be enjoying them.









We saw a new sign at church today. This is the name of the church in Kanada (we think that is the correct spelling). The English sign is still there, but this has been added. All the signs in Bangalore must also be in the native language as well as English.








This is a familiar sight. After church, many people stay around to visit for a while. Elder O'Dell and Elder Singh are visiting with the former Elder Srigiris (now Brother Sreedhar) and one of the young men. This picture was taken from the second floor of the church building. In India, it would be referred to as the first floor.







So many things are familiar to us, yet each time we experience them again, they become new to us. We go to the same church building week after week, but each week, we have a new experience. We say our prayers daily, but each time, we have a new experience with our Heavenly Father. We read the scriptures every day, but each time, we gain new insights and are reminded anew of the doctrines of salvation. The gospel was taught to Adam and has been taught in times of old by all the prophets, and it has been restored anew in our day. The Lord reminds us, "blessed are you for receiving mine everlasting covenant, even the fullness of my gospel, sent forth unto the children of men, that they might have life and be made partakers of the glories which are to be revealed in the last days, as it was written by the prophets and apostles in days of old" (D&C 66:2). We are grateful for the restored gospel. We bear testimony that the fullness of the gospel has, indeed, been restored to the earth once more through the prophet Joseph Smith and that we continue to be led and directed by a prophet of God, President Thomas S. Monson.

Royal Tour

We don't usually go out for lunch, but we were out of bread for sandwiches. We went to a restaurant called "Sue's Place." They serve Caribbean food at this restaurant. They make a good Russian salad. We felt like we were a royal couple, as we were the only ones in the restaurant, and we had the full attention of the staff there.






Elder Tiefenbach is certainly of royal heritage; he is Sister Tiefenbach's Prince Charming!











We have been waiting for a "Joseph Smith" morning for a long time. We had one a few weeks ago, but we did not have a camera with us, so we did not get a picture. But, this past week, we had a morning that we could pass as a "Joseph Smith" morning. For those of our readers who are wondering what we are talking about, we will explain. The church has a painting of Joseph Smith's vision in which the sunbeams are streaming through the trees. When we first arrived in Bangalore last February, we often saw the sunbeams shining through the trees, streaming all the way down to the ground, and it reminded us of the painting. But, since then, we have not had many such mornings.

 This picture shows the size of many of the trees here. We still continue to be amazed at the massive size of the trunks of the trees here. This tree sits at the exit (or the entrance if you are coming in) to the park. We had just finished our walk in the park. Oh, there is Sister Tiefenbach's Prince Charming again!







We took a preparation day on Friday and spent it with the Smith's touring in Bangalore. We started with Tipu Sultan's Palace. It was build from 1781 to 1791. Tipu (or Tippoo) Sultan finished the building that his father had started. Tipu Sultan was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore (which is where Bangalore is situated). He was Muslim, but most of his subjects were Hindu. He was friendly toward the French, and he did not like the British.

 
Here we are inside the Palace. Actually, it wasn't the residence of Tipu Sultan; it was his court, where he met with dignitaries and talked of the affairs of his kingdom, etc. The actual residence is no longer standing, but it stood just to the east of this building (which is slightly to the front of it). The front of the Palace is completely open to the air. In this picture, Smith's are standing outside the Palace taking the picture, and we are inside. When we walked into the palace, we could tell that it was old because there was a musty smell.


Throughout the palace, we saw evidence of the beautiful paintings that covered the walls. We wish that restorative work could be done to preserve this beautiful building.

All the walls had small nooks cut into them. Again, you can see evidence of the painting that decorated the walls. On the inside wall of many of these nooks, we saw faint paintings, such as a painting of a flower in a vase. You can also see the decorative carvings around the upper nook. Unfortunately, many people have put their own carvings into the walls. It is sad that something with such historical significance has been defaced. We enjoyed looking at the detail of the art work, and Sister Smith and Sister Tiefenbach began to imagine what it would have looked like over two hundred years ago.


The pillars and archways were wonderful!













This is one of the supports helping hold up the ceiling. They, too, were carved with ornate designs.











The palace, itself, is not a huge building. One could tour it in a matter of minutes, but we took time to look at the fine details contained in it. After touring the inside of the palace, we took time to stroll through the grounds that were in front and to the side of it. Sister Tiefenbach loved the delicate fragrance of the beautiful blossoms of this bush. When the palace was being used by Tipu Sultan and his family, did the royal family have flowers in the garden to enjoy? We can only imagine.



Beside the royal palace, sits a Hindu Temple. Ahh, there is Prince Charming again! His majesty is enjoying the royal garden.











We are always impressed with the detailed carvings on the roofs of the Hindu Temples. These ones are not painted. We are not sure why some are painted and some are not. We know that the temples that are ancient are not painted. This temple must be built to the monkey god, Hanuman. Notice the carvings of the monkeys

We went into the temple for a few minutes. We could not stay long because some kind of ceremony was about to take place. When we say inside the temple, remember that the inside is still outdoors. Part of the temple had a ceiling over head, but there were not walls. We saw interesting designs on the ceiling. In the middle of this series of concentric circles rests a symbol that looks like the Star of David. Interesting!






These statues sat on a ledge just below the ceiling.

After visiting Tipu Sultan's Palace and the temple, we headed to the Tipu Fort. Obviously, this fort was also associated with the royal family. Today, most of the fort is not standing.











The gates to the fort are massive! The fort was a stronghold for Tipu Sultan, but it was not strong enough to defend the kingdom against Lord Cornwallis. The fort fell to him in March of 1791.

Here is a view from inside the remaining fort.

This passageway is locked. Hmmm . . . what is on the other side?

We may not have been able to squeeze through the bars of the gate, but our camera managed to find its way far enough in to get a closer glimpse of the unknown. What stories lie on the other side of this passageway? Did the British troops storm through here as they conquered the fort? The ruins hold so many untold stories. Throughout our touring, Sister Smith and Sister Tiefenbach wished that they could see through a glass that could take us back in time to capture the view of the people and the things they were doing. We would like to part the veil of time, so to speak.



This was an interesting carving on one of the walls inside the fort. It depicts a lion fighting with a man. Or, is the man fighting the lion?

Here we are taking a small rest. We were hoping that there were no lions on the other side of the door!











Our next stop was to Bangalore Palace. We had gone here once before, but we did not go inside at that time. This time, we went inside. We could not take pictures inside because we did not want to spend an additional 650 rupees for the privilege. Included in the price of admission (250 rupees for local people and 450 rupees [about $8.00] for foreigners), was the audio tour. At first, we were uncertain that we wanted to spend so much money to go inside the palace, but we decided to go for broke and splurge. Bangalore Palace was the summer home for the royal family, and some people say it was designed after Windsor Castle in England. Others deny this. The palace was not over run by patrons when we went through, so we enjoyed our leisurely tour. Some of the rooms have been furnished with pieces from the time period.


 When we arrived at the palace, the skies were bright and sunny. When we came out of the palace, the clouds were beginning to form. The sun, however, was still strong and hot. We have been able to get many pictures here  in India of the sun shining behind the clouds. It has a spectacular effect.







A beautiful royal garden area has been planted in front of the palace with flowers of many colours and types and other plants. On the edge of the garden was a grove of trees that formed a huge canopy. One lone taller tree with red flowers grows in the middle of the grove.

We walked through the garden, enjoying the different views of the palace and the beauty of the flowers and plants.











Tucked away amidst some other plants, we found some Bird of Paradise flowers. The only Bird of Paradise flowers that we have seen before have been in greenhouses. These ones were in their natural habitat. Wonderful!









This looks like a sunflower, but it is not yellow. It was as tall as Sister Tiefenbach. We don't know enough about flowers to know whether or not this is a sunflower. It was NOT facing the sun. Does that mean that it isn't a sunflower?









Next, all the botanists out there can let us know the name of this plant. The bottom looks almost, but not quite, like a pineapple. We know it is not a pineapple, but we have no idea of what it could be.















Good friends. We are so grateful to have the Smith's here in Bangalore with us.

















The men needed a more manly backdrop for their picture.  Both of them made sure they read the inscription of the barrel of the gun.

From the Bangalore Palace, we went back to our apartment for a short while before we went out for supper at Pizza Hut. We enjoyed our royal tour with the Smith's. It was a wonderful day!

On Saturday, we baked cinnamon buns and jumbo raisin cookies. They were all delicious. Okay, some of you may be saying, "were?" We did not eat all of them. Two of the missionaries from Indiranagar Branch, Elder O'Dell and Elder Singh, dropped by to get a recipe for banana muffins. They walked into our apartment filled with the aroma of freshly baked cinnamon buns and saw the physical evidence of the product. We did not even finish asking them if they wanted a cinnamon bun when they quickly nodded their heads and said, "Yes!" We hadn't started the jumbo raisin cookies when the elders dropped in, so we weren't able to give them a sample of the cookies.

This picture was taken earlier in the week on the ground floor of the building where our office is located. We include it here to show a picture of Elders O'Dell and Singh. Beginning from the front left, we have Elders Singh, Mills, Hodgson, O'Dell, Kullai, and Ravi. Elder O'Dell and Singh share an apartment with the Assistants, Elders Mills and Ravi. We don't know whether or not Elders Mills and Ravi knew about the cinnamon buns that they didn't get. But, no worries: we will make sure they get a cinnamon bun on Monday.

This is an interesting picture. Earlier that day we saw men working in a huge hole in the road. On our way back to our apartment, we saw that it had been mostly filled in. To warn drivers of the unsafe conditions of the road in that spot, they erected a barricade. This is a typical barricade that is used to warn drivers of a large hole. Sometimes, they simply put a bunch of rocks in front of the hole. This is very different from what we see back home.




This is Sister Tiefenbach in her new Indian dress ready to go to church this morning. It has a pair of "pants" that go with it, but because she is a missionary, she did not wear them. Several people at church inquired as to why she was not wearing the pants. She enlightened them about the dress code for missionaries. She told them that girl missionaries are not allowed to wear pants. (I suppose that is not EXACTLY true because we wear them if we are on an outing where a dress or skirt would not be the most practical.) But, we definitely cannot wear pants to church. She thinks it looks great as a dress (or as people here would say, "gown"). Elder Tiefenbach thinks she looks like a royal princess!

We have enjoyed sharing our Royal Tour with you and hope you have been able to experience to some degree the things we have seen. We are thankful for the great experiences we are having in India working with so many wonderful people. We are here because of the prayer the young Joseph Smith offered in a grove of trees inquiring of our Heavenly Father about which church to join. In answer to his earnest prayer, Joseph Smith said, "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me . . .  When the light rested upon me I saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other - This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!"