Is Christmas in Coimbatore Different from Christmas in Killarney?

We suspect that Christmas in Coimbatore is different from Christmas in Killarney. First, there was no holly green or ivy green in India that we saw. We can't kick our heels and join the fun with the jigs and reels, either! But, Christmas in Coimbatore was great. Of course, we missed our family, but we were blessed to be with good friends. We had been invited to someone's house for Christmas Eve, but those plans fell through. We were left without anyone to spend the evening with, so we were disappointed with that. We went to the church in the early afternoon. President Arul (Branch President of 2nd Branch) and his wife were at the church, so we invited them over to our apartment for Christmas Eve. They and we filled a gap in each others' evening celebrations. We were so happy that they came. They helped us prepare the dinner. We had roasted chicken breasts, mashed potatoes with gravy, lemon and oregano green beans, cranberry sauce, and a salad made from broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes, onion, green peppers, and raisins. The dressing for the salad was made from mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, and mustard. The dinner was wonderful, and the company was great! We had cheese cake for dessert.

We felt very different waking up Christmas morning with just the two of us. We have not been alone Christmas morning since December of 1973 when we were newly married. Each year we have taken a family picture on Christmas day (mind you, I think we missed a couple of years as the family became so big). From our first Christmas together to before we came to India, the number of people in our Christmas family picture has gradually become larger. We can't say the same for the number this year. It abruptly changed from a large crowd of people to the two of us. To make us feel not so alone, we held our family picture up to be included in our Christmas picture. Our family may be many miles from us, but we hold them ever so close to us.

We had only a few presents under the tree this year. We didn't have much time to shop for presents, and shopping for presents is not very convenient. Any stores we would like to go to are far away, and we need to get our driver to take us there. We are not even sure what stores we would like to go to. We are gradually learning of more stores that we shop at. Elder Tiefenbach received a new camera from Santa this year. We appreciate the camera that our daughter, Sheri, lent to us while we are in India, but it was starting to give us problems.

Sister Tiefenbach received clothes.

And more clothes - you get the picture. Santa is always wonderful to Sister Tiefenbach.

Elder Tiefenbach also received an ebook entitled, The Guardian, by Gerald Lund. He is enjoying reading it in his spare time. It is about a girl who receives an old pouch for her birthday. She realizes that the pouch has great powers to help and protect her in her life.

For Christmas day, we had two appointments. First, we met all the missionaries at the church so we could all travel to President Raghu and Sister Nancy's house for lunch (big lunch). Elder Ram and Elder Vaiphei had some Santa hats to share.

Elder Ram also shared a huge snickers bar with everyone.

Elder Ram is SO dramatic! We are thankful he put a plastic bag under the chocolate bar before he started cutting it. We have great fun with the missionaries.

We all jumped on a bus and rode to President Raghu and Sister Nancy's house. President Allwyn and his family were also there. President Allwyn is Sister Nancy's brother. They made a lot of food. We couldn't believe how much the missionaries were capable of eating.  The other missionaries got chicken biryani and other Indian dishes. Sister Nancy and Sister Sonia made special food for us. Sister Sonia made a delicious pasta dish for us. We also had a feast of fresh vegetables. We were grateful for their consideration and making us something that was not spicy.

Elder Challa took advantage of the pre-dinner conversation to catch up on some sleep. We always enjoy our conversations with Elder Solomon. He is a pleasant, polite missionary.

This is President Allwyn and Sister Sonia.

At 4:30, our driver came to pick us and the sister missionaries (Sister Jebamani and Sister Madabuthula) up to take us to Brother Raja and Sister Sumathi's house.

Again, we had the Santa hats! And, again, we had chicken biryani. We were quite full from the lunch meal, but we ate some of the food that she prepared. Sister and Elder Tiefenbach had to ask for some plain curd to lessen the impact of the spice, but other than that, the food was good. The young boy in the picture is a neighbour. Brother Raja is a painter by trade. He painted the inside of his house for Christmas. This is quite the task because often he had to paint at night when his work was over. This meant that many times he had to paint by the light of a candle. He is quite pleased with the results. The new paint gave their house a nice face lift.

Brother Raja had painted the kitchen earlier in the month. It, too, gave the kitchen a fresh look. Here is Sister Sumathi as she made the final preparations for our meal. She was not expecting this picture to be taken. Sister Tiefenbach called her name and took the picture when Sister Sumathi turned around. Sister Sumathi does not have a refrigerator, so when we asked for plain curd, she had to go to the small store next door where they store her few items that need refrigeration. This family has been so generous to us.

We ended our Christmas appointments with Sister Mary on Thursday. She also is generous with us. She loves to have us come. We love to visit with her. Whenever we visit, she insists on feeding us. On Thursday, she had two of her cousins helping her prepare the food. Her daughter, Sister Shanthi (back left), joined us later.

We are so grateful that the Lord has placed so many loving people in our lives when we are so far from our loved ones. The gift of all these wonderful people will always have a special place in our hearts. We have one more precious gift from Heavenly Father this year - the birth of our 18th grandchild. We would so much love to be there to hold her, hug her, kiss her, and sing to her. We will miss that. But, we are grateful for modern technology that helps us to be part of her life, and we are so happy that we could share in her life from the beginning. What greater gifts could we receive than all this? The Lord has truly blessed us.

Where Do We Begin?

We have so many pictures this week, we are unsure of where to begin, what to include, and what to exclude. Our work week began early Monday morning with a phone call from Brother Raju Joseph from Semmedu asking us to pick up Brother Gill from the airport at 9:45. Brother Gill was the first mission president for the India Bangalore Mission. He served from 1993 - 1995. We had to put ourselves into high gear to get ready in time. We also had to call our driver to see if he was available to take us to the airport. Luckily, he was available. Well, we went to the airport, but we were late because Brother Raju Joseph decided to ride his motorcycle into Coimbatore from Semmedu to go to the airport with us. Brother Gill was not sure anyone was coming to pick him up, so he hired a taxi. We went to his hotel and met him there. We enjoyed our short visit with him. Later that evening, he went to the church to meet with any members that wanted to drop by to visit with him. We stayed until 7:00, and then we had to leave for an appointment. His Grandson, Elder Westwood, who recently returned home from his mission here in India, accompanied him.

We visited six families this week. One family was the Raju Joseph family in Semmedu. We left at 10:00 a.m. and returned about 4:00 p.m. Travel time is about one hour one way. The Raju Joseph family had just completed some renovations to their home. They increased the height of the house, put on a small addition, and painted their house. They now have an indoor toilet. This is the outside of their home. Notice the double doors. Most of the houses that we have been in have this type of door. Also, notice that the windows have no glass in them. This, also is common in this type of house.

This picture is of Sister Kalyani in her new kitchen. As we mentioned earlier, the roof, including that of the kitchen was raised. Originally, the roof on the left side was not much higher than Sister Tiefenbach. This kitchen is typical of many of the kitchens we have seen in India. We have seen two kitchens that would be comparable to western style kitchens and several others kitchen that fall between what we see here and the western style. This family has a refrigerator, but it is not in the kitchen; it is in the hall (or living room), which is typical in India. In an earlier blog, we mentioned that the floor space of a particular kitchen was filled with water jugs and cooking vessels, etc. You can see an example of this here. Also, the shelves behind Sister Kalyani are tyical of many of the kitchens we have seen.

The floors of this house are cement without any tiles. Many houses we have been in have not tiles, while others have beautiful marble tiles. Brother Raju Joseph and Sister Kalyani have added beauty to the cement floors by making an impression of a flower in the wet cement and then painting it. The hall (living room) is about 8 feet by 8 feet. They feel highly blessed to have been able to make these renovations to their home.





Brother Raju Joseph and Sister Kalyani had some of their family visiting. On the left side is Brother Raju Joseph's brother, Brother Joseph, and his wife, Sister Mary (who happens to be Sister Kalyani's sister). Brother Joseph and Sister Mary live in Dehli. Their sons have very good English. The older woman is brothers' mother. Both Brothers have two sons. In this picture you can see that the roof is tiled. This is typical of many houses in India. Notice that the roof simply sits on top of the walls, and their is a space between the wall and the roofs. Many people choose to have cement roofs to avoid rats entering into their homes. Brother Raju Joseph (blue shirt) was one of the first missionaries from India to serve in India.


While we were visiting this family, we also visited a Hindu meditation place, Isha Yoga. This cement block has a Christian symbol, a Muslim symbol, and a Hindu. The presence of all three symbols suggests to them that we all worship the same God.









Opposite to this is a statue of a cow, which is one of the gods that the Hindus worship. Beside us is our driver, Brother Augustine. He is such a good help to us. We appreciate all he does for us.















We visited with Sister Ronna again this week, which we do every week. Her sister, Jean, and her two children were visiting. They will be staying for ten days. They will all sleep in the same room, which is about 8 ft. x 9ft. Sister Ronna has only a kitchen and one other room in her house. But, this doesn't seem to influence whether or not family can stay. This makes us wonder why in North America we think that we can't have extra company over because we don't have enough bedrooms.




Sister Tiefenbach made banana cake for our Zone Meeting. Actually, she made two attempts at the cake. The first ones did NOT turn out. They fell drastically in the centre just before they were finished cooking. That is the third time for this recipe. The first time, the cake turned out exceptionally well, but each time after that the results went further downhill. So, Sister Tiefenbach used a different recipe (the one she got from her daughter, Sheri). It was a hit with the missionairies. The toilet seat that Elder McDonald is holding has nothing to do with the cake.

Our trusty Zone Leaders, Elder Ram and Elder Vaiphei, were will organized for their presentations and training. One of the topics was Hope . . . what is that you have on the board? . . . Hope for . . . reimbursement . . . what???? What is happening? Oh, now we understand. That is Elder Challa with Elder Ram. Elders, quickly erase that . . . Elder Ram, you better get with you companion, Elder Vaiphei, so he can keep you on the straight and narrow.




That looks much better. Having scriptural references on the board and holding the scriptures and the Preach My Gospel manual is a great touch!

In truth, they give very good presentations.









The Christmas program, Picture a Christmas, was fabulous. The choir sang wonderfully. Everyone was impressed with the program and the singing. This is the first program they have had of this type. We asked one of the branch presidents if the program met his expectations, and he told us that it surpassed his expectations. The attendance was over 300, and many people not of our church were there. Many of our visitors commented that they felt peace and that they felt good when the songs were sung. Our goal was accomplished. We wanted the spirit of Christmas to be felt by all those who attended.

The evening started with the primary children performing a dance and singing a song. The song was directed by Sister Tiefenbach.

The choir was thrilled with the opportunity to participate in a program like this. Sister Tiefenbach has been asked to lead a choir for the District Conference that will be held on January 20th. Their experience with this choir has made all of the choir members eager to sing for that, as well. We had a small choir, numbering only 14 members, but they sang like a much larger choir. We still can't get over the number of fantastic male singers we have here. We had a difficult time getting women to sing in the choir, so those numbers were quite low, but they were wonderful. We had several who had never sung in choir before. They made great progress from the time we started practicing to the time we performed. The men looked handsome in their suits and red ties. The sisters had special sarees made for the occassion. The one sister not in her saree changed before we could find her for this picture. Everyone looked very professional. Maybe, we looked just as good as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Unfortunately, our pianist left before the picture was taken. Elder Tiefenbach is in the picture because he operated the computer for many of our practices. Our pianist could not practice with us until December. Until then, we used the music on the church website to learn the parts. Elder Tiefenbach was very patient while Sister Tiefenbach had him stop and start parts of the songs over and over again. He deserves a special award for his work.

 

In one part of the program, Sister Tiefenbach sang "Mary's Lullaby" with Sister Sujithra (left) and Sister Punita (centre). Sister Punita is one of the sisters that had never sung in a choir before. She has a sweet, pleasant voice, and when Sister Tiefenbach heard her sing, she knew that she wanted her to be in the group to sing this song. Sister Punita learns the things Sister Tiefenbach taught during the choir practices very quickly.

 

The program, written by Sister Tiefenbach, was inspired by the primary children's song, "Picture a Christmas." The audience was asked to picture several scenes in their minds. Of course, we had actors to help them picture the scenes.

  

Following the program, a cake was cut, and food was served. Of course, the main attraction was chicken biryanni. Notice that the food was served outdoors. This is the common pratice when large numbers of people are served at the church. This isn't a problem because the weather is warm in the evening, and Coimbatore gets very little rain.

Christmas is two days away. We have a hard time believing that Christmas is here. We have enjoyed singing Christmas songs at church and thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas program, but Christmas is different this year. We will spend Christmas day with two different families. But, Christmas morning will be spent by ourselves. We have not woken up Christmas morning without others in our house since the first Christmas we spent after we were married. This will be very different for us.

We pray that your Christmas will be wonderful and that you will remember the birth of the Saviour as you gather with family and friends.

Santa Claus, Yellow Watermelon, and Strange Moon Phases

With Christmas less than two weeks away, Elder Tiefenbach was very sad because he had not had a chance to see Santa. One day this week, we went shopping, and we saw him! Elder Tiefenbach was so eager to see Santa Claus. Santa did not make any promises, but he listened carefully to Elder Tiefenbach's wish list. Apparently, Santa was looking for snow. His sled got stuck on the dry pavement, so Elder Tiefenbach told him of a wonderful place where he could find lots of snow. We haven't seen any live Santas here, so this was close enough.


 
We have seen a few decorations in some of the homes here, but the decorations are scaled down a lot compared to home. This store has the most Christmas decorations up than any other store we have seen so far. It was good to see some evidence of Christmas. The weather certainly is not contributing to the festive season. Mind you, we are enjoying not having to put on bulky winter jackets, boots, mitts, hats, and scarves. But, somehow, sweat running down one's back does not invite the Christmas spirit as well as looking outside and seeing the moonlight glistening on the new fallen snow. Now, that is a scene to make one feel cozy.
 

Yellow watermelon????? We had never seen it before. The shop keeper told us it tasted just like the watermelon with the green rind, and what was even better, it cost the same. So, we decided we might as well try it. It, indeed, tasted the same as the other watermelon. Having the yellow rind made eating watermelon seem more exotic. We had bought 3 regular watermelon at the same time to feed the missionaries at the Zone Conference last week. All the watermelons were exceptionally good; it was juicy and sweet - yummmmm.

On Saturday and Sunday night, we noticed a strange moon phase. The crescent was on the bottom. We had never seen that before. At first we thought it might be a lunar eclipse, but when we saw it again on Sunday night, we knew it wasn't an eclipse. Apparently, it is not uncommon here. The internet said it has something to do with the apparent path of the moon across the night sky. This path is associated with the seasons. Sometimes the northern part of the earth points toward the sun; other times the southern part points toward the sun. This changes the path of the moon as we see it on earth. When the crescent moon appears to travel straight down toward the horizon, we get the "U" shaped moon. This happens once or twice a year (usually in the winter). That is the explanation, according to one source on the internet. It happens only at specific latitudes in the northern hemisphere. Even though it apparently occurs once or twice a year, we have never seen it before. Maybe, we have always been at the wrong latitude or at least not at the one that gives this look for the moon.

Well, we have told you about all three parts of the title of the blog, but don't stop reading; we are not finished yet. We have more to share.

We went to a business opening this week. Three brethren from 2nd Branch (left to right: Brother Prabu, Brother Ramamoorthy, and Brother Suresh Jayasingh) have decided to go into business with each other. They have opened a business called "Zion" (a suiting name for members of the Church). This business will do training for businesses (e.g., motivational presentations, etc.), help with job placements, help companies get ISO (International Standard Organization)certification, etc. They have been planning this for quite sometime, and are moving into it slowly. Only one of the men, Brother Prabu, quit his regular job to do this business. The other two will follow as the company grows. We were honoured to be invited to share this moment with them. We wish them good fortune in their new adventure.

Here's a job for those who like a "hands on" job. This man is painting lines on the church parking lot. It is all done by hand. Many others were working on the landscaping, as well. You can see the workers in the background; many of the workers are women. They haul that whole pile of dirt to the new destination using small bowl type buckets. Once that pile of dirt is gone, a truck brings in another load. In Canada, they would hire a bobcat machine and have it all spread and leveled in a short time. They all looked hot. At least the man painting the lines has found some shade. We have seen a lot of labour like this done be hand.

 
On Friday, we walked to the grocery store (about 1 km one way). On the way, we noticed several houses with the outside cement falling off. We thought this would present us with the opportunity to show the way houses are constructed. The walls are constructed from plain bricks. Then, a layer of cement is spread over the bricks. The cement is the same type of stuff that is used in Canada for the parging on the outside of the basement walls that are above the ground.

On Saturday night, we went to Sister Radha and Brother Yesaiya's home. They are the parents of the family to whom we teach English every week. The parents and two adult children have moved to a different house. The new place is closer to where Sister Radha works. Their oldest son and his wife and daughter remain in the old house by themselves. The parents still own the old home and are renting the new place. In the picture are (from left to right): Brother Yesaiya, Sister Radha, Sister Priya (daughter), Sister Tiefenbach, and Elder Tiefenbach. The young girl is the daughter of the Branch President, who lives close by. Sister Radha works for the Branch President's family (cooking, cleaning, etc.).

 

We went to Chavadi Branch today. Elder Tiefenbach spoke, and Sister Tiefenbach listened. As this branch has been designated a Tamil speaking branch, Elder Tiefenbach's talk was the only thing Sister Tiefenbach understood, but we could clearly understand the warm welcome the members extended to us.

 

 The temperature at Chavadi was quite a bit cooler than Coimbatore, as it is much closer to the mountains. Remember "cooler" is relative. It was probably around 25 degrees C (abt. 80 F). The church building was cool. They have fans, and they open all the windows to keep the meeting hall from getting too hot. Today, they had to close the front doors during the meeting so it wouldn't be too cool. Also, they didn't open all the windows. During the hot summer, keeping all the windows and doors open and the fans on is a necessity.

 

Today, 2nd Branch had another baptism. Sister Grace's husband, Brother Rungan Ratinum, and her son, Brother Vivek Raja, were baptized. Sister Grace was baptized about a month ago.

 

The sun greets us each morning outside our balcony preparing us for days filled new opportunities and memories to cherish. We love working with the missionaries and the people here. The Lord has truly blessed us to be associated with such warm, loving people. We shall cherish these relationships always. May the Light of the Lord fill your hearts with happiness and joy.

 

 

 

 

 

Sixteen Days Before Christmas 2012

Our week started with teaching the final temple preparation lesson to two young people, Brother Prabakaren and Sister Sathya, from Erode who are preparing to go on their missions. They are excited to be going on their missions. Brother Prabakaren is going to the India Delhi mission, and Sister Sathya has not received her assignment, yet. We ejoyed teaching them, and the spirit was always strong in the class. Teaching about the temple reminded us how much we miss the temple. We look forward to attending the temple when we return home.


After the lesson, we went to the missionaries' apartment to do an inspection. Elder Aruldoss (right), Elder Massey (centre), Elder McDonald (not in picture), and Elder Vaddi's (not in picture) apartment was in good shape. It was much better than the last time we inspected it. Right after the inspection, we took the missionaries and our driver, Brother Augustine (left), out for lunch at a place called Boom Boom. It is similar to Kentucky Fried Chicken. We had chicken burgers and fries; lunch was yummy.

On a previous blog, we showed a picture of some sod that had been put down and had mentioned that it was there temporarily. It has now been put in its proper place. We knew they divided the large pieces into smaller pieces before laying it, but we had no idea of how small the pieces were. This is a section that has the sod layed. Each small piece of sod is about 2 inches across. Apparently, within 3 months, the grass will have grown together. They do it this way because sod is too expensive to lay the entire stips down the way we do in Canada.


On Thursday, we had a multi-zone conference with our zone and Chennai's zone. We had 35 attending, including President and Sister Funk and the Assistants to the President. We have been blessed to have President and Sister Funk in Coimbatore three times in the past three weeks. Sister Tiefenbach made cinnamon buns (or rolls for those who prefer that name) to serve during the morning break. Making the cinnamon buns was a day long job because of the lack of power, but in the end, it was worth the  time because all the missionaries appreciated them. They all eagerly lined up to receive them. Although the training is meant specifically for the young missionaries, we always learn something and gain new insights into the gospel.

Here we see the elders in Coimbatore Second Branch (left to right): Elder Justesen, Elder Augustine, Elder Vaiphei, and Elder Ram. We not quite sure what Elder Ram was doing when this picture was taken. Elder Ram conducted the meeting. Of course, he did a good job, as usual.








The Elders in Coimbatore First Branch are, from left to right, Elder Thomas (barely seen), Elder Challa, Elder Solomon (Canada!!!), and Elder Smoot. Interestingly, Elder Smoot's grandparents served in Coimbatore several years ago.









Of course, we have the sister missionaries, who serve in both branches. We enjoy having Sister Madbuthala (right) and Sister Jebamani in the district. Sisters always add a new dimension to the area.

Today, Sunday, was a typical Sunday. We spent about 11 hours at church today. Elder Tiefenbach attended a Branch Presidency training meeting after all the church meetings today, and Sister Tiefenbach helped with the practice for the Christmas program that will take place on December 22. A highlight of the day was the baptismal meeting for two families (7 people) for Second Branch. Brother Kanniyappen was baptized when we first arrived in Coimbatore in April. He had the privilege of baptizing his wife, Sister Ranganayeki, and children today. It was great to see him perform these ordinances.

 

Elder Ram and Elder Vaiphei baptized Sister Christie (3rd from left) and Sister Bhuvenswari (2nd from right) and Sister Bhuvenswari's two children.









We have had a UPS (uniteruppted power supply) for the past few weeks. It has been great!!! It allows us to use fans during the day. That is a big relief. We can now do our preparation during the day without sweating. The UPS will not operate the oven, so we still have to wait until the power is on to do any baking or any cooking with the microwave/convection oven. It doesn't work well with the generator the apartment building uses at night, so we have had to bypass the generator. This situation has a few minor inconveniences, which we may be able to sort out. But, if it can't be resolved, we will be happy to put up with the few small inconveniences in order to have the UPS provide us with power when we have power cuts. Between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., we continue to generally have power from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. and from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. That means that for most of the daytime hours, we would have no power if we did not have a UPS. In the evening and night, the power often goes out every other hour. The rest of India does not experience power outages to the same extent we do. Many other states experience one or two hours of power outages per day. The battery for the UPS is in the cabinet.

When we are outside, we do not think a lot about the Christmas season. The sun is shining; the grass and trees are green; and the temperature is in the low 30's. Although, we see a few signs of Christmas, we see nothing like we see at home. We don't hear Christmas music in the stores here like we have at home, but that may not be a bad thing because the type of Christmas music played in the stores back home are no longer centered on the birth of Christ and are usually played too loud.










Once we step into our apartment, however, and we see our newly purchased Christmas tree, we are reminded that this is the time we celebrate the birth, the life, and the resurrection of the Saviour. There is something magical and wonderful about the sight of a Christmas tree, as it can fill the soul with hope. This is the smallest Christmas tree we have had in our entire married life, but it still gives us pleasure when we look at it, and it still brings the Christmas spirit into our home. We will look for a few small ornaments to add to the tree. We hope all your preparations for Christmas are going well and that you will take time in your busyness to think about the Saviour and the hope and light that He offers to the world.