Visa Renewal, Birthday, Engagement Function, and Baptisms

What a week! We spent a good part of 3 days at the FRO (Foreigner Registration Office at the Police Commissioner office) applying for a renewal of our visas. We have applied for a one year extension. Things are looking good for that, and we expect that we will be granted our request. We still have to return to the office on Tuesday to begin the registration process. Foreigners staying in India for more than 6 months must register in the city in which they will be staying. We have all our paper work in order, so the registration process should go well. The renewal process for our visas took a little longer because there was a bank strike. That meant that we could not pay the fee for our visas. Here, one must go to the Bank of India to pay fees such as visa fees. Had it not been for that, we could probably have spent only 2 days on our visas this week. Hopefully, things will go smoothly on Tuesday. This is the FRO. We could not take pictures inside the walls. The ground of the FRO were quite well manicured.

One of the junctions that we travelled to the FRO is the Sungam junction. This is the junction that we use most often.We want to get a picture that captures the business and craziness of the traffic at this junction, but the pictures we get never seem to show the real story.








We had the opportunity to attend another function in Coimbatore. This one was an engagement function. The bride-to-be, Sister Beena John, is from Coimbatore, and the soon to be groom, Rajan Tewati(can't remember the spelling of his last name) is from the USA. His father, who died before Rajan was born) was from India, and his mother is from the USA. He served a mission in India and spent some time in Coimbatore. He knew Sister Beena's family but did not know her at the time because she was serving a mission at the same time in the Philippines. When they both returned home, they contacted each other, and the rest is history. They are both happy and excited about their future wedding. They will most likely get married in the States. They have to work out the details with regard to a visa, etc. for her.

Many of the women attending the function had beautiful sarees or churudar (dress-like tunic with matching pants). The churudar are considered a dress even though they have pants or leggings and are commonly worn to church. Sister Suchitra, Sister Punita, Sister Deepa, and Sister Sonia are fine models for the beautiful outfits we saw that Friday evening. Sister Tiefenbach looked . . . well, like a missionary. Sister Tiefenbach asked the woman in the lavendar saree how many sarees she had. She said 35. She also told her the number of churuda, scarves, and American type clothes she had. Sister Tiefenbach was very surprised and promptly reminded Elder Tiefenbach that she (Sister Tiefenbach had only 5 skirts!! - hint, hint.)









Many of the women worked hard to make sure the bride-to-be looked perfect. She definitley looked perfect. Rajan is getting an absolutely gorgeous wife.

Beautiful!

Sister Mary William, the mother of the Branch president for 1st Branch, was a major helper in getting Sister Beena ready. Sister Mary is a wonderful woman. She is intelligent, poised, charming, and caring. She was one of the first people to warmly welcome us to Coimbatore.

We had another special occasion this week, as we helped Elder Jurial celebrate his birthday. We invited him and his companion, Elder Hodgson,  for lunch on Saturday for a spaghetti meal. We were able to have parmesan cheese and garlic bread. We were glad that we were able to have them over because Elder Jurial is being tranferred next week. He will be going to Hyderabad. We will miss him. He is always cheerful and is fun-loving and can lighten anyone's day.

Elder Hodgson enjoyed the meal as much, if not more, than Elder Jurial. When we suggested he have a second helping, he did not hesitate.











Of course, the best part was the chocolate cake.

We really enjoy having the missionaries over. Because Elder Jurial and Elder Hodgson are not assigned to the area of the city in which we live, they had to get permssion from the zone leaders to come to our apartment. The zone leaders, Elder Ram and Elder Racharla, were planning on coming for the cake cutting, but they ended up having an appointment. We had hoped they would be able to make it. We had them over for cake earlier in the week, so we had a chance to visit with them for a while.


Sunday was a long day, as usual, but it was longer than most Sundays. We left our apartment at 9:15 a.m. and returned at 8:45 p.m. We had some exciting activities occurring today. The most exciting were two baptisms: one for 1st Branch and one for 2nd Branch - well, 2nd Branch had four baptisms, but it was one meeting.

Brother Raja and Sister Sumathi's son was baptized this morning in 1st Branch. Brother Raja and Sister Sumathi were baptized about 4 weeks ago. Brother Raja received the priesthood the week after he was baptized, so he able to baptize his son. That was exciting for him. We feel very close to this family. They are a great family and are both eager to be involved in the activities of the church.

Their two daughters will be able to be baptized in January. The parents and the daughters are attending our English class. The girls go to a Tamil only school so don't speak English, but we believe they will begin to pick it up quickly. The son goes to a boarding school and is allowed to go home two week-ends per month so cannot attend the class.

Brother Suresh and Sister Shanthi and their son were also baptized today (2nd Branch). She has been SO excited about being baptized. She seemed to be so happy that she could almost not contain herself. Although this picture doesn't show it, she is always smiling and laughing. This is another great family that is fully embracing the gospel. Sister Shanthi and Brother Suresh (when he is not working) also attend our English class. Again, we feel very close to this family, too. We can already tell that leaving these families when we go back home will be difficult. Elder Thanniru (left) and Elder Oraun were the missionaries who baptized this family. By the way, the older woman in the picture is the mother of John Raj Kumar, who was baptized the last week of July - the same day as Brother Raja and Sister Sumathi.

Last week, we mentioned that we wanted to get a picture of a young child with a winter hat. Well, today, we were able to get the picture. This is an example of the types of hats that parents put on their children when it gets "cold" here. Today, the temperature was in the mid to high twenties. This picture was taken today at church. When we see the children wearing these hats, we think that they must be very hot.






As we close another week in Coimbatore, we hope you can review your week and find blessings and experiences amidst the day to day hussel and bussel that will make good memories for you and those you love.