Preparation Day with the Missionaries

On Monday, we spent much of the day with the missionaries. The missionaries have every Monday to have some fun and get things like laundry done. Elder Tiefenbach played cricket with the missionaries and some youth. Sister Tiefenbach cheered them on.

This is one of the youth that played with them. The day was HOT, HOT, HOT!!!




After playing crickett, we went bowling at Brookfields Mall. We had a lot of fun. We had several spectators.











Sister Tiefenbach's first throw resulted in a strike. She impressed everyone, including herself. The rest of the game did not go as well for her.

On the other hand, Elder Tiefenbach walked away as the champion, with a score of 111. He is my hero.



We took a few minutes to pick up a few things at the grocery store at the mall, and most of us met for a picture. The two missionaries who have their dress clothes on did not play crickeet; they had some mission business to do that morning, but they were able to bowl.










The next day was the missionary district meeting. We made chocolate chip cookies for it. They turned out very well. We could only cook 6 cookies at a time, so the whole batch took about 3 hours to finish. They were much appreciated.

Orphanage and Family History Training

We had some mirrors and lights installed in our apartment this past week. We are happy to have mirrors and lights over the bathroom sinks.

The mirrors and lights make shaving for Elder Tiefenbach and make-up application for Sister Tiefenbach much easier. We were also able to get another light in the kitchen. Previously, the only light was hidden behind the valence of the cupboards. This light is above the kitchen sink.

We baked a chocolate cake for our weekly district missionary meeting. The missionaries loved it. The sugar is different here - it is far coarser, which made creaming the butter, sugar, and eggs interesting, especially without an electric mixer. Needless to say, the results were not the same. Also, the power went out half way through baking the first pan. We can only cook one pan at a time because we have a microwave/convection oven combination. We left the one cake in the oven and put the uncooked one in the fridge. About four hours later, after the power came back on, we decided to try to finish baking the first cake. Surprisingly, the cake rose again. I didn't think it would do that, but I thought it was worth a shot. We should have taken a picture of the cakes, but we didn't think of it. We will get used to taking more pictures to document our activities. For the week coming up, we plan to make chocolate chip cookies for the district meeting. I found some sugar at a different store that is not quiet as coarse, but it is still coarser than the kind we buy in Canada. We had a difficult time finding a pan that I could use for baking the cookies. The only thing that we found was something that looks like a non-stick pie plate.

I get the same response from all the stores whenever I ask if they have any metal baking pans. They don't know what I am talking about.

We had a wonderful experience visiting with some teenage boys at the Families for Children Orphanage. They have been learning English, and we were there for them to practice the things they had learned. School vacation is occurring right now in India, so these boys were involved in what they call "summer camp." It is not a boy scout type of camp; it is a learning camp. They seem to really like learning. We wonder how many teen-aged boys in Canada would consider spending their summer vacation learning another language. The boys loved having us there. We hope to go back again. Possibly, we can get some pictures together and teach them some things about Canada.

We haven't taken any pictures while we were at the orphanage because they don't allow pictures to be taken; however, we were able to get a picture of some "kids" on our way back.

Our Saturday was spent at a Family History Consultant Training meeting. Sister Tiefenbach gave a one hour presentation at the meeting. We had mature women, teenagers, and one mature man attend the meeting.

We all went to a restaurant for lunch, and the women who attended the meeting took very good care of us at the restaurant, making sure that we could have a good experience with Indian food (i.e., they ordered for us so we could be sure that we didn't get spicey food.) We had butter pannier (not sure of spelling). It is the same sauce as butter chicken, but instead of chicken, it had some kind of cheese chunks. We also had naan bread with it. It was very tastey.

 Today, in addition to attending two sets of church meetings, we attended a baptism. The brother dressed in white baptized his sister (dressed in white). We left our apartment at 9:30 in the morning and returned shortly after 6:30 p.m. We stayed late after all the meetings were over to assiste several of the young adults open an account for the church's family history program that they will need for the conference next week-end.The day was very rewarding.

We are excited about going to Hyderabad on Wednesday for the all India Young Single Adult Conference (single adults ages 18/19 - 31). Elder and Sister Tiefenbach will be going prior to the confernece to help get things ready for the arrival of the young adults. We will be helping with the family history computer center, as well as whatever other assignments that we will be given.

Shifting in Coimbatore

This is the church building in Coimbatore. Two branches meet in this building. We have the opportunity to work with both branches. That means that we are at church from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every Sunday. We enjoy meeting with the members of the church here. They make us feel very welcome.


 The building and the grounds are quite beautiful. We hope that everyone can tell by the pictures that the day was hot and sunny.

We were able to spend some time with some young people during the week. We "played" cricket for a while - well we didn't actually play a game; we hit the ball while a young man threw the ball to us. The security guard kept telling Elder Tiefenbach that he needed to hit the ball harder and that he should hit the ball with more spirit, like Sister Tiefenbach. After we played cricket, Sister Tiefenbach helped a young woman of about 13 years learn about the piano. In the Coimbatore branches, Sister Tiefenbach is the music expert. That is way too funny. We enjoyed our afternoon with them.

We shifted our apartment on Thursday. That means that we moved to our new apartment. We were excited to finally be closer to the church so we don't have to get a taxi everytime we need to go to the church. We will still need taxis to go shopping. We have no shopping close to us.

This is most of our belongings. How many trucks like this would it take to shift all our things in Regina? This makes us think about the things we really need. Mind you, our appliances and furniture were delivered separately. And, we definitely were barely getting by with the things we had. We did not want to acquire too much so our move would be easier. We had about 3 more bags that we took in the taxi. They looked far too precarious perched on top of everything else.


After moving, we were able to shop, shop, and shop. We had to make up for the shortages we had. We didn't buy anything extravagant. Things like flour and sugar were on our list. We also needed household items like garbage containers, etc. For the last two shopping trips, we hired a brother from one of the branches here. He has an old, old car (1940's or 50's) with no airconditioning and worn out seats, but we can rely on him. He drove us to the shops and stayed with us when we shopped. This all took 3 hours from the time he picked us up to the time he dropped us at home. He charges us 500 rupees, which is about $10.00. We don't mind paying extra because hiring him saves us a lot of time we would waste by waiting for a regular taxi.

We have two photos so everyone can compare the surroundings of our old apartment to our new one.







This is the area for our old apartment with quiet streets and beautiful trees.









This is the view from our balcony of our new apartment.

Welcome. Please come in and visit for awhile.

Take a seat. We can prepare something for you to eat with our new FOUR burner stove. We also have a microwave/convection oven. Maybe, we can make a chocolate cake now that we have flour and sugar. Mind you, the sugar is much coarser here, so we are not sure whether or not baking will turn our the same. We are still looking for some metal baking pans so we can possible make pizza.

If you need laundry done, we can certainly accommodate that. We have no dryer, so you would likely have to stay the night while the clothes dry.

 Today, Mother's Day, Sister Tiefenbach taught the primary children (children aged 3 - 12) a Mother's Day song. After they learned the song, they all went to sing the song to the women in Relief Society. (Relief Society is the women's organization of the church.) Sister Tiefenbach also received three roses from the two branches.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. Enjoy the day.