Coimbatore District Conference

We had District Conference in Coimbatore on July 28th & 29th. The Asia Area President, Elder Kent D. Watson presided at the conference. He is originally from Cedar City, Utah, but he now lives in Hong Kong while he is serving in this capacity. The Saturday night session was not well attended, but the Sunday session was filled, with 430 - 470 people attending. One hundred and forty people came from Erode, a city about 2 to  2 1/2 hours from Coimbatore. They came in two buses. Erode usually has approximately 105 people attend church each week, so this attendance was fantastic for Erode. Everyone made a special effort to attend.

In fact, the total attendance at District Conference was more than the regular combined attendance at all the branches in the District. The District presidency made a great effort in emphasizing the importance of the conference, and the branch presidencies supported those efforts by encouraging everyone to attend.

The choir was superb!!! We received many, many positive comments. Several people approached Sister Tiefenbach asking if they could join the choir. We sang one song for the Saturday evening session, As I Have Love You. For the Sunday session of conference, we sang two songs: What Was Witnessed in the Heavens and Dear to the Hear of the Shepherd. Sister Tiefenbach was thrilled with the performance of the choir.

District Conference was a big day. We had eleven advancements in the Melchizedek
 Priesthood. They had all the men who were to be advanced sitting in one of the front rows of the chapel. They looked good. Following the general session of conference, the District held a meeting for the newly advanced elders and their families.

Another exciting event that occurred at this conference was a baptismal service. This meeting was held following the meeting for the newly advanced elders. We had 11 convert baptisms and 1 child of record baptism. What a great day for baptisms.
This is the group of those being baptized and the missionaries who were performing the baptisms. The child of record baptism was performed by the boy's father.




Two of the people who were baptised were Brother Raja and Sister Sumathi. We have a special connection to them because they are part of our English class. They have also been attending the English lessons that we teach at the Anand family home.They have two seven-year-old daughters. Elder Jurial performed the baptisms.

Suresh George Jayasingh baptised his son. Elder Massey and Elder Thanniru are also in the picture. This family took several pictures with extended family, as well, and they insisted that we be in all the pictures. Brother Suresh serves as the branch clerk Coimbatore 2nd Branch.







We were also excited about the baptism of John Raja Kumar and his two children. We visited the family with the missionaries for one of the lessons. Brother John's wife died less than two months ago. The gospel will bring great peace to their lives. He reported that he had a great impression that his wife approved of this step he was taking in his life. I have worked with the children in primary, and they are excited to learn the songs I teach. His mother (far right) supported him by attending his baptism.




Following the baptism, we attended the Priesthood and Auxulliary Training Meeting. Again, this meeting was well attended, and all the units were prepared with their assignments. We are impressed with the level of dedication shown by the leaders here in this District.




Many members stayed for quite some time following the meeting. Everyone enjoyed the fellowship and the spiritual lift that this day offered.









The members of the church in India become attached to the missionary couples. These two youth from Erode wanted a picture with Elder Tiefenbach. He had taught them a Young Men's lesson one Sunday in July.









This weekend was the last Sunday for three of the elders serving here in Coimbatore. We say good-bye to:


Elder Kumar. We shall miss him greatly, as we have grown very close to him. He will be opening a new area up for missionaries in a small town by Visakhapatnam (Vizak for short). He will be a great blessing to the members there. He is a dedicated missionary.

Elder Bean, who will be going to Rajahmundry. Coimbatore was his first area, so he is excited to move to another area and experience a new place. Life will not be the same with him not here.










Elder Massey. He will also be going to Rajahmundry. Elder Massey is the missionary who received special permission to begin his mission before he turned 19. We celebrated his 19th birthday here in Coimbatore. He has the most contagious smile ever. We will miss him.






Sunday was a long day. We left our apartment at 8:30 in the morning and returned between 6:00 and 6:30 in the evening. We had a good day!!

European Tour?

Two Saturdays ago (July 21st), we went for lunch with the zone leaders, Elders Ram and Kumar, to talk about the branch missionary fireside that was to be held the next evening. We went to a nearby Nilgiris store (grocery store) to buy a few things for the refreshments, and spontaneously we decided to take a quick trip to Europe. (Shhhh, don't tell the mission president.)

We began our tour in Italy.

We have absolutely no idea what got into Elder Kumar. He jumped over the fence and started pushing the tower over! We called to him, "Stop! Stop!" Luckily, he stopped just in time before it fell over.

Hmmm, actually, it doesn't look too bad. Maybe, it could become a tourist destination some day.


We decided to move along quickly before someone found out what Elder Kumar did. Paris sounded like a good option.







Elder Ram, what on earth are you doing? We know the Eiffel Tower is magical and it brings out romantic feelings, but what is this?? Elder Kumar was a bit embarrassed and didn't know what to say.

These missionaries are hard working, dedicated missionaries. Maybe, they have been working too hard!



Ahhh!!! Paris in the summer time. We have always thought it might be a nice place to visit.


Obviously, we didn't go to Europe. We came across these minatures on the way to Nilgiris after we had lunch at Subway. Elder and Sister Tiefenbach and Elder Kumar had seen these before, but Elder Ram had not.

On one blog, we mentioned that there are not many trees in the city. Well, some places have trees, and others do not. The miniatures are in an area called Race Course, which is more upscale than the area in which we live, and this area definitely had more greenery.



This is one example of the many contrasts we see in Coimbatore. In some areas, we see big houses with trees and a bit of a yard,

and other places, we see small shanty houses crammed together with only enough space between the rows of houses to walk. These two houses were less than a five minute drive from each other.

Another contrast we often see is technology amidst poverty, such as the satellite dish on this small house. Many of the houses in Coimbatore are attached to each other, as this one is. This is the back of this group of houses. We walk by these houses on our walk to the Nilgiris store in our area.









While many of the streets are paved, some are dirt paths between the rows of houses. The dirt is very red here; it reminds us of Prince Edward Island in Canada. The trees between these rows of houses offer some privacy from the neighbours across the street, but in reality the people in India don't seem concerned about privacy. They can't have this concern because of the crowding.

This closeness may have some benefits. For example, we have noticed that child raising is more of a community effort here - at least we have noticed it in the church. Parents don't seem offended when another adult tries to correct their child. Everyone seems to take responsibility to ensure that the children are watched if the parents are busy in a meeting or busy talking to someone.

The shops also provide another example of the contrasts we find here. In this store, you can get fresh chicken . . . This is a little too fresh for us. We prefer to buy our chicken from the supermarket where the meat cutting area is refrigerated.











Or, you can walk a few blocks farther and buy freshly made pizza. We like the delivery vehicles. This land is definitely a land of contrasts.









If we don't want fresh chicken or fresh pizza, we can always eat the fresh cinnamon rolls that Sister and Elder Tiefenbach made. Yummmmm...... they were good. We took some for the weekly missionary district conference.







Fresh naan bread is also an option. Sister Tiefenbach found a recipe on the internet. It was easy to make, but time consuming. Naan is a bit different from some of the other Indian bread because it uses yeast as a rising agent. Some breads are unleavened.

Of course, we can't eat naan by itself, so we made butter chicken. We bought a package spices that is specifically for butter chicken, and we followed the recipe on the back of the package. Well, as most of you know, Sister Tiefenbach didn't follow the recipe EXACTLY; she reduced the amount of spice by half. It was still too spicy, so we added some fresh lemon juice and more curd, which is like Greek yogurt. The lemon and the curd cut the spice, and enhances the taste (at least it did for us). We enjoyed the meal. We eat with our hands for some meals, just to get the whole experience.

We had leftovers, so we invited Elder Kumar and Elder Vinck to drop by our apartment after their last appointment for the day. We had eaten about 1/3 of the butter chicken. It was gone by the time the elders were finished eating. Elder Ram, who is Elder Kumar's companion, was in Erode on another assignment, so he missed the butter chicken and naan.
We had District Conference yesterday and today. We will do a separate blog for that early in the week.

And so the sun sets on another week in Coimbatore.

What Happened to the Monsoon Rains?

The monsoon rains should have been upon us, but they did not come. Apparently, the areas around Coimbatore has received some rain, but not the Monsoon rains. We haven't had any rain here worth talking about. We may be looking at a drought year.

We can tell that some places had rain because this area has been marshy at best since we arrived, but now it looks more like a small lake. This area is one of only a few areas that is green. While there are a few trees here and there, most of the city around our area is pavement and concrete. Most people do not have yards here, so lawns are mostly non-existent.

 A few places, like the Church grounds, have trees, flowers, and lawn.

Hearing the term "the monsoon rains" brings up visions of stormy weather, but actually, the rains are quite light. The mountains stop the heavier rains during this season. We believe that the heavy rains come in September. We will see if those rains materialize.



Because we have had no rain, we have been able to be out walking. While we were out, we bought a clock for 200 rupies ($4.00) from a small shop on the street that we take when we go to church. The shop is no bigger than 8 feet by 8 feet.We finally have something hanging on one of our walls. We hung it using a hook that sticks on the wall because we don't have a drill, and we don't know what type of anchor is required to hang things on the cement walls.

One of our outings took us to the post office. We walked the 1.5 km to the post office so we could mail a birthday card to our son. We finally found a store that sells birthday cards, so now we can send birthday cards to family members. But, it means a 1.5 km walk everytime to mail them.

Everywhere we walk, we see street vendors selling everything from fruit to clothing. The streets seem to be in constant motion. India is definitely a busy place. You can see some people crossing the street in this picture. Crossing the street is . . . interesting. People here don't have to go sky diving or things like that to get a rush; they just have to cross the street. Vehicles have the right of way - need we say more. On the bright side, the traffic sharpens one's awareness of one's surroundings.

We must also not only manoever around street vendors but around garbage bins, crowds of people at bus stops, parked cows . . . yes, parked cows. Oh, we have to go around parked cars, too.

Actually, we see more goats here than cows, but we come across them periodically. We saw more cows in Bangalore than here.

We see a LOT of bananas here. We particularly like the red ones and the mini ones. They are sweeter than the regular bananas, and the flesh of both have a pinkish tinge.

Whenever we stop by the church, we always stop in to see Brother Prakash. He is one of the security guards at the church gate. We ask him if we have any mail, and just about everytime, he says no. It has almost become a game. He will often say "no mail" and laugh before we even ask. We are waiting for a package that was mailed from home May 28th. Prakash is here with Elder Ram and Elder Kumar, the Zone Leaders.

Sister Tiefenbach is preparing a choir to sing for District Conference that will be held on July 28th and 29th. The choir is small, but the choir members are making good progress. They have even been able to learn tenor and bass for the chorus for one of the hymns.

Brother Raja (standing on left) and Sister Renuka (gold saree) and her sister prepared lunch for all the missionaries in Coimbatore. Brother Raja and Sister Renuka have a nicely decorated home. Most homes we have been in are not decorated in any way. Sometimes the main thing hanging on their walls is a huge calendar. When the members of the church prepare lunch, they prepare a LOT of food. For this lunch, they made masala dosa, chicken curry, rice (of course), vegetable fried rice, and a variety of chutneys (sauces) to go with the masala dosa. The masala dosa was our favourite. Dosa is similar to a thin pancake (without baking powder). The dosa is usually folded in half and will sometimes have a filling in it. Masala dosa has cooked, spicy potatoes in it.We also had dessert first. the dessert was gulab jamun. Usually, we haven't cared for it in the past, but this was very good. Elder Jurial took the picture so is not in the picture.

Sister Tiefenbach made oatmeal dosas. Sister Sonia had come over earlier in the week to share some recipes. Sister Tiefenbach taught Sister Sonia how to make oatmeal cookies, and Sister Sonia taught Sister Tiefenbach how to make dosas.









Elder Tiefenbach enjoyed the dosas.

We teach English classes on Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons at the church. The Anand family in 1st Branch want to learn English, but they live very far from the church and can't travel to the church at those times. We decided that we would go to their house to teach them. One other family who is taking the lessons from the missionaries (the man in the white shirt at the front) also attended that night. Although the Anand family lives in the city, their area is a rural like setting. Their house, which has a tin roof is in a cluster of many houses. No roads or sidewalks divide the houses. Dogs, chickens, and roosters freely roam around the houses. Their house is a stark difference from the home where all the missionaries ate lunch.

We visited a family who had one-year-old twin boys. The mother is standing between two bag-type things that are suspended from the ceiling. These bags are the beds for the babies. Yes, that is right. If the baby is fussy, they swing the bag. The baby on the mother's left was fussing, so she was swinging the baby as we took the picture. These "bags" are like a hammock. We had never seen anything like this. This is definitely cheaper than the cribs we buy in North America. (The mother had just washed her hair and has a towel around her hair - just in case you wondering what she had on her head.)

Visiting with Friends

We visited several people this week. We went with the missionaries to some, and we went on our own to others.

On Monday, we went for supper at Brother Anthony and Sister Mary's house. They and their daughter live across the street from us. Sister Mary made a chickpea dish called Chole (that is what we think it is called). The sauce reminded us a bit of canned brown beans, but it had a bit of an Indian flavour to it. It was good. She also made an Indian bread called Bhatura. Bhatura is made from white flour and is cooked in oil. When she served it, it was piping hot and was puffed up. As it cooled, it became flatter. It was very good, just like all the Indian bread we have had so far. We ate the bread with the chickpea dish. She also made a chicken curry and, of course, rice. Curry does not refer to the spice that we think of in North America. Curry basically refers to anything that has a "gravy." Their gravy is more like a sauce rather than what we think of as gravy. The main spice in curry is red or green chili. They also use a lot of corriander (cilantro) here, of which we do not care for.

On Tuesday, we walked to Sister Mary's (blue) and Sister Shanti's place. Sister Mary is Sister Shanti's mother. Sister Shanti and her husband, President Arul (branch president of 2nd branch), live upstairs, while Sister Mary lives on the main floor. We went there after lunch following our district missionary meeting to return some plastic containers that Sister Mary had filled with food the last time we had been there. Of course, Sister Mary wanted to feed us again. We were FULL from lunch, but we ate the chipote that she had made specially for us. We love to visit with them.

On our walk to Sister Mary and Sister Shanthi, we saw the mountains that lie just outside of Coimbatore.

The mountains were on the right side of the street, and these houses were on the left of the street. The stairs led down 10 to 15 feet from the street level on which we were standing.












 As hard as we tried, we just could not figure out why the chicken crossed the road!

We invited Elder Massey and Elder Thanniru for lunch on Wednesday to celebrate Elder Massey's 19th birthday. Of course, he requested chocolate cake.

Above is one of the grocery stores, called Nilgiris, that we go to for shopping. We often walk. It is about 1.5 km from our apartment. A somewhat larger Nilgiris is located further away. We go to the larger one more often, but we hire a driver or take an auto.

On our walk to Nilgiris, we pass this major intersection. Most intersections are traffic circles, but this one is not. It is one of only a few intersections that has traffic lights. Although this junction has traffic lights, they still need a traffic director to make sure traffic runs smoothly - if you can call the traffic here smooth.

We and the missionaries, Elder Hodson and Elder Jurial, made several visits to people's homes. Following two other visits, we went to Brother Abraham's place so he could go with us to see Sister Nirmala Kilbert. Brother Abraham, his wife (Sister Sneha), and their daughter live in this two room apartment. The apartment consists of a kitchen and one other room that serves as the bedroom and a room to visit with guests.

 Sister Nirmala is the mother of the Second Counsellor in the District Presidency. From what we could tell, this home has three rooms.

This is the street that we walked from Brother Abraham's place to Sister Nirmala's house. Elder Hodgson and Elder Jurial led the way. This was the last of several visits we made that day.











On our return to the church following the visits we made with the elders, we found Elder Kumar and Elder Ram enjoying nature while they waited for someone to arrive for an appointment with them.

Elder Tiefenbach accompanied Elder Kumar and Elder Ram on an appointment on Saturday night, while Sister Tiefenbach worked in the family history center. Yes, Elder Tiefenbach rode double on Elder Kumar's bike.










Ahhh!!!! A beautiful sunset to end our week. The sunsets are not as spectacular as the ones at home, but they are still beautiful.