Assignment to Coimbatore

Assignment to Coimbatore - March 26, 2012

We received a call from the Mission President last night. He is assigning us to the city of Coimbatore. Although the church website says Coimbatore has two branches, he said that it had three, two Tamil speaking and one English speaking. Coimbatore has a modern church building. A picture of the building can be found at http://www.lds.org.in/index.php/coimbatore-1. We will have a variety of assignments, one of which will be to be involved in the family history centre there. When President Funk, the Mission President, told us that would be one of our assignments, we were very excited. The family history centres in India are quite different from the ones we have here, so this will be a learning experience. Information about the family history centre in Coimbatore can be found through a google search. The listing says that it has film ordering ability, but I don't know whether it is a generic posting for all family history centres or specific to Coimbatore. The listing does not include any other information about the family history centre there. We had found a site on the internet that talked about a family history centre in Chennai, and it said that the one in Chennai did not have the ability to order films. We will see when we get there. Other assignments could include teaching English classes, teaching marriage and temple preparation classes, teaching people how to lead music, or any other classes that the local leaders ask us to teach. We will also need to be available to help local leaders in organizing and running various meetings and training seminars. We are not there to take over from local leaders; we are to assist them in anything that they ask us. President Funk asked if I, Teresa, played the piano. He was hoping that I played because not many of the members of the church in Coimbatore play the piano. Unfortunately, I do not play the piano.

The temperature in Coimbatore is quite reasonable with daytime temperatures varying between the high twenties to the mid thirties. The highest recorded temperature is 41 degrees. Today (which will actually be Tuesday because it is night time there), the high is 35 degrees. March and April are the hottest months. According to Wikipedia, a cooling breeze is always present, making the hot temperatures more pleasant. We will have to see if the hot temperatures are pleasant. The humidity is not as high in Coimbatore and it is in Chennai, so I think the heat will be more tolerable. Mind you, I personally prefer the heat. Wayne does not like the heat as much as I do.

As of last night, they have not found an apartment for us. They are looking for an apartment that is within walking distance to the church. We are hoping that they can get one before we arrive in India, so we can go to our assigned city as soon as possible. We will be staying two to three days in the Mission Home recovering from the change in time and becoming oriented to India.

We are still waiting for our visas.