Why is The Water Heater Still in the Box?

So, should we start with the water heater or end with the water heater? Hmmm.....  We have decided to end with the water heater. Don't cheat and go to the end without reading the rest of the blog first!!!










We are now in the last week in October. Time is certainly marching on. Back at home, our family has experienced snow and slippery roads already. Here, we are still experiencing hot, humid weather. The rains we have had for the past two weeks has raised the humidity levels. We feel that it is just as hot now as when we came, but the actual temperature is are not as high, as we have not experienced any temperatures in the 40's for quite some time. This picture of Elder Ram and Elder Racharla's apartment complex shows that summer weather is still going strong here.

We have spent some time with the sister missionaries this week. We took them to a few appointments with us to introduce them to some of the members here. One day, we went to a restaurant across from the church and down the block a bit. What you see in this picture is a typical veg meal. They are served on a banana leaf. The person eating the meal is to pour a little water on the leaf to wash off the leaf. We really don't think that will actually clean the leaf, but that is what is done here. Then, the servers put several "side dishes" and some gravy type of food (curry) on the leaf, and then they put a huge pile of plain rice on it. The idea is to use the right hand (it must be the right hand because the left is used for . . . well, something else) to mix a little of the other food with the rice. Then, you pick up some food with your hand and put it in your mouth.

We did not have the veg meal; we had dosa with a few chutney dishes. Chutney in India is not the same as our Canadian idea of chutney. Our meals were presented on a steel plate with some kind of leaf on it. On another day, we took the sisters to a dinner appointment at a member's home, and Sister Madabathula laughed at the way Sister Tiefenbach was eating. Sister Tiefenbach thought that she had caught on to the Indian way of eating with hands, but apparently, Sister Madabathula didn't think she had learned very well, yet. Apparently, no food is supposed to fall out of your hand or your mouth when you put the food in. Well!!!! no one told us that before. Everyone else told us what a good job we were doing, and they were excited that we were eating with our hands. Now, Sister Tiefenbach will be self-conscious everytime she has to eat with her hands in front of someone.

 

We went to visit the Sekar family (pronounced Shaker). This is another good, solid family. The father's name is Sekar; his wife is Shanthi; and their children are Sujithra and Sathish. Sathish recently returned from his mission. We had pictures of that a few blogs ago. Sujithra is engaged to Solomon, who is the branch president in Chavadi. Brother Sekar is thrilled with the engagement. It is not an arranged marriage. We think that one of the reasons Brother Sekar likes President Solomon is that they can continue the tradition of everyone's names beginning with "s." Sujithra does a good job of conduction music. She is very patient with Sister Tiefenbach's slow organ/piano playing in sacrament meeting. Sujithra is also very supportive of the choir. When Sister Shanthi was showing Sister Tiefenbach her kitchen, she showed her where she keeps her food storage. When she showed her food storage, she said, "We listen to the prophet's voice." We are impressed with their dedication. The food storage here is not as extensive as it is in many homes in North America, largely because of space shortages, but their commitment to heed the counsel of the prophet is inspiring.

 

First Branch Relief Society held an activity on Tuesday. At the beginning, we played a game that Sister Tiefenbach introduced. It was the game where everyone gives themselves the name of a fruit or vegetable. Everyone sits in a circle, then they do a clapping and snapping of the fingers rhythm. The person who starts calls her own name on the first snap and the name of anther fruit or vegetable on the second snap of the fingers. Then, that person calls her fruit/vegetable name on the next first snap and someone else's name on the second snap, as so forth. They had a good time with that. Notice the skirt that Sister Tiefenbach is wearing. That is one of the skirts that she received from the long-awaited package from home. It has seen the world. The skirt began its life in India; it probably cost about one dollar to make. Then it travelled to Canada to be sold at Old Navy for - I'm not sure how much it cost in Canada, but definitely more than a dollar. Then it was sent back to India with a travel cost of about $80.00. Now it is home.

 

 

Following the game, we had a "talent show." Some people read scripture, others danced, others sang, while others told stories. Yes, Sister Tiefenbach sang a song. This is Sister Sareetha William (Branch President's wife) and her mother-in-law, Sister Mary, doing a great dance. Sister Mary was dressed up as a gent. They were fantastic!! What great fun!

 

As the 1st Branch Relief Society activity ended, the 2nd Branch Elder's Quorum activity began (the women were invited to it, as well). We had a spiritual presentation, and then Elder and Sister Tiefenbach conducted a game called "Do You Love Your Neighbour?" It was great fun, that is until Sister Sumathi somehow had her toe cut and had to be taken to the hospital for stitches. She is doing fine, now. After the game, we had food: parotta (sometimes spelled barotta and is a one type of Indian bread) and some kind of curry. The curry was spicy.

We had a fairly good turn out for choir practice. We are making good progress with the numbers we will be singing for the Christmas program. Sister Tiefenbach has written the Christmas narrative , and the Branch president has said we will use the narrative for the program. We presented the narrative at a joint meeting of the two branches. We based the narrative on a request to have a spiritual evening that helped people to focus on the Saviour. We will see what the people think when it is over. Christmas is not as big here in India. The whole present tradition is not widely practiced here, but they have other smaller traditions of making treats and giving them to friends and family. Christians decorate their homes with lights, and many Christians will have Christmas trees.

 

Today, Sunday, 2nd Branch had another baptism. Manoharran Hellen Sudha was baptised. Elder Thanniru (left) and Elder Augustine (right) shared in the happy occasion. Elder Augustine performed the baptism. First Branch also held a baptismal service. Brother Sharma was baptized, but we did not get a picture of it. We both had other things we needed to do, so we weren't present when pictures were being taken. Interestingly,  Brother Sharma's wife and one daughter were baptized today in Bangalore. Brother Sharma works in Coimbatore, but his family lives in Bangalore.

 

 

Does anyone need some good quality tires? We know where you can get them.

 

 

OK!!! So, why is the water heater still in the box?????? That is a very good question. We bought the water heater (geyser) two weeks ago. The company was supposed to come the day after the delivery to install it, but they didn't come. Then, we made arrangements for them to come last Monday, but they didn't come. So, we made arrangements again, this time for Saturday morning at 11:00. Well, . . . We had to leave for the church at 1:30, and they hadn't come by that time, so we left. We couldn't wait any longer. (We won't discuss the communication difficulties we had.) Of course, they came 15 minutes after we left. As it turned out, we could have waited longer because the meetings and appointments that we had in the early afternoon all fell through, so we didn't really need to be at the church until close to 4:00. English class was supposed to start at 3:30, but no one showed up until 4:00. We felt we spent most of the day waiting for people. We were tired at the end of the day, even though we did not get much accomplished. SO, we now have made arrangements for the water heater to be installed tomorrow. Should we count on it? The reason we bought another water heater is because the power is off every morning, and the 15 litre heater that is in our bathroom isn't adequate to give two people a hot shower. If the power was on, it would not be a problem. But, with the power off, the water cannot be heated up during the shower. We end up having enough hot water for 1 1/2 showers. Elder Tiefenbach lets Sister Tiefenbach have a shower first, so she most often gets a warm shower, but she keeps the temperature cooler than she would like it so Elder Tiefenbach can have more hot water. Even with her wise use of the water, Elder Tiefenbach usually has a cool shower. What a gentleman he is!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Royal Treatment after Missionary Moves

This title can be read with a little humour, but it means that after helping the missionaries move into their apartments, we we were invited to a members home where we received royal treatment. Our week began by frantically making arrangements to get the keys for the new apartment for the zone leaders, Elder Ram and Elder Racharla. We were supposed to meet the landlord's representative at 9:30 in the morning. Finally, about 11:30 all the people arrived at the church so we could get the keys. The sister missionaries were arriving later that night, so we needed to have the elders out of the apartment so we could get their old apartment ready for the sisters. The elders are VERY happy with their new 3 bedroom apartment. We think some of the other missionaries are a tad jealous. It is a great apartment. We were also making arrangements for the delivery of all the elders' furniture, appliances, and kitchen items.

Their apartment building has some nice landscaping, with great walking paths. It even has a playground, which may be too much of a temptation for the elders. We will have to keep our eye on them to make sure the playground doesn't distract them from their work.






By the way, Sister Tiefenbach also made about 4 dozen cinnamon buns on Monday, as well, in preparation for the zone conference to be held on Friday.

We picked up the sister missionaries from the airport on Monday evening at 8:35. Sister Madabathula (next to Sister Tiefenbach) and Sister Jebamani were excited to be in Coimbatore. They were the last passengers out of the terminal. We were beginning to wonder if they had made their flight. The sisters stayed at our apartment on Monday night because the nearly vacated elders' apartment was not ready for sisters. As of Sunday evening, work still needs to be done on their apartment. We hope that the person in charge of the church buildings will work on some of the repairs early this coming week.

While at the airport, we kept company with an elder that arrived on a flight shortly before the sisters. The elders were scheduled to pick up Elder McDonald, but they were delayed in arriving, so we took care of him until the elders arrived. At first, we couldn't find Elder McDonald, but we soon found him around a corner sitting talking to some local people. He was easy to identify. He was happy to see us. He stood up when he saw us, and as he stood up, our eyes kept going up and up and up. He is 6 feet five inches tall.


We spent most of Tuesday helping the sisters clean their new apartment and to buy some items for their apartment, such as a frying pan, a rice cooker, a pressure cooker, a mop, and other household items.

We returned to our apartment in time to be picked up to go to Brother Amalraj's and Sister Punita's home. They have two great sons, Akash and Abhishek (Abu). They have done a great job in raising their sons. Their family was baptized about four years ago, but they seem as though they have been members for over ten years. They are a wonderful family. They have a great knowledge of how the church functions and a great understanding of the gospel. We are impressed with this dedicated, solid family. As soon as we entered their house, we felt a calming peace, created in large part by the soft music that was playing. This feeling was a big change from the hard work and busyness of the day. Sister Punita prepared a wonderful meal for us. She made an alfredo pasta dish, mashed potatoes, brown beans, stew, dinner rolls, and hot dogs. The hot dogs were the meat part; they were not in a bun. They were served with browned onions and green peppers. The presentation looked great. The food was exceptional, and the conversation was wonderful. We hope we did not over stay our welcome. We were indeed treated royally.

 

On Thursday, we went to the furniture store to order 6 more mattresses so all the elders coming in for the zone conference would have a mattress to sleep on. We also bought fruit and vegetables and prepared the fruites and vegetables for the lunch that would be served the next day. Thursday evening, we picked up the two sisters from Chennai at the bus stop at 10:30 p.m. They stayed at the sisters' apartment.

 

Elder Ram and Elder Racharla were in charge of ordering the main course for  the Zone Conference lunch. They ordered butter chicken and roti, and we provided the vegetables and fruit. The cinnamon buns were served as a snack during the morning break. 

Zone Conference was great. Missionaries from two zones, Coimbatore and Chennai, attended the meetings. The sisters loved being together. Sister Batula (2nd from left) and Sister Jebamani (right) were both serving in the Philippines until they were transferred to India. They are both from India. They were surprised by this big transfer. We wonder what the mission president from the Philippine mission thought of ths re-assignment. Everyone is thrilled to have sister missionaries in India. The other two missionaries are brand new. Sister Batula and Sister Guptha (left) are serving in Chennai.

 

It was good to see all the elders from our zone as they sat together.

 

 

 

On Sunday, we went to Semmedu Branch. Both of us gave talks in Sacrament meeting. After the meetings, the young men enjoyed visited with us. They liked looking at our family pictures on our ipads. 

We arrived back in Coimbatore to attend the baptism of Sister Grace. We did not take pictures.

 

Elder Tiefenbach has been given the assignment as a District Counsellor. With this assignment, he will have more opportunities to help  the leadership in the District.

 

 

Miracle of miracles!!!!! Our package that our daughter, Sheri, mailed at the end of May finally arrived!!! It took 4 1/2 months. We think that our inquiries helped move the package along. It was not in good shape when it arrived at the mission office on Tuesday.

Elder and Sister Wigg put it in another box for the trip to Coimbatore. We received the package in Coimbatore on Thursday night. We received everything that Sheri sent, so we are happy. We have already used the mosquito repellent.

 

A great ending to this week's blog: the beauty of the dragonfly. We have had many dragonflies lately. We sit at out dining room table and watch them out our balcony door as they fly around. This dragonfly was at the church. Maybe the increased rain has brought the dragonflies out. We have had rain almost everyday since last Tuesday.

 

Busy, Busy Week

We are getting desperate for titles for our blogs. But, this title does reflect our week, although it may not differentiate it from other busy weeks. We are much busier than when we first arrived. We prefer to be busy. We have finally had rain. It rained Tuesday evening, Saturday evening, and again this evening (Sunday). Although we have had some rain, the temperature doesn't seem to have cooled off. The days are still quite sunny, hot, and humid. Today, we saw billowing clouds forming, and we wondered if we would have rain.

The thunderstorm and the rain began a bit before 5:00 this evening. The rain is difficult to see in the picture, but it was a downpour. Fortunately, we were in our apartment today when it started to rain. Yesterday, we were at the church when the downpour started. We were NOT going to walk home in it, so we called our regular driver, Brother Augustine, to come and get us. He was sitting down for his dinner when we called, but he came right away. He is always so helpful to us.



Many of the apartment buildings, including ours, have hallways that are open to the outdoors. That means rain is free to come into the hallways. At first, we were surprised to see the open-air hallways, but the openness is helpful in reducing the heat. This is the hallway just to the right of our door. The shininess of the floor seen here is the rain water on the floor.













We see many buildings under construction in Coimbatore. There seems to be a lot of building going on here. One building that is under construction is on a road that we take to see Sister Mary. They have now put up an effigy on the front of the building. We think that we have posted a picture of an effigy before, but this one is a close up view, so it can be seen clearly. Apparently, hanging these on buildings that are under construction is supposed to bring good luck.

Some of our busyness has been because we were shopping for furniture, appliances, and household items for a new missionary apartment. The Zone leaders, Elder Ram and Elder Racharla, are moving to another apartment so the newly assigned Sister missionaries can move into the apartment that the Zone Leaders have. The decision was made to have the Sister missionaries move into the Zone Leaders' apartment because it is closer to the church than the new apartment. The Sisters arrive in Coimbatore on Monday evening, and we will be going to pick them up from the airport. They will be staying with us for Monday night. The new apartment for the Zone Leaders is supposed to be ready by Monday, but we have had difficulty contacting the landlord to confirm the address and to determing whether or not the apartment will be ready.

 

Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving. While we did not have turkey with all the trimmings, we were able to make a "special" meal with mashed potatoes. Thanksgiving came up quickly, and we did not purchase a chicken when we went shopping at the supermarket. Had we purchased a chicken, we would have had chicken. We had ground beef in gravy, mashed potatoes, buttered carrots with dill, and tomatoes. We had chocolate cupcakes for dessert. The most special thing about this dinner was our company. We invited Elder Smoot and Elder Solomon. We wanted to make sure our fellow Canadian, Elder Solomon, had a real meal on Thanksgiving.

We were able to attend an exciting event this week. Elder Sekar (pronounced Shaker) came home from his 2-year mission in the India Delhi Mission.

His parents and sister were so excited to see him. We told them to smile for the picture, but for some reason, most people do not smile for pictures here. Really, they were so excited. Of course, his mother shed some tears when she saw him. He hugged his mother longer than anyone else, or maybe, his mother just held onto him longer. It brought back many memories of when our son came home from his mission in South Africa.



Of course, everyone wants to have their picture taken with the missionary couple. We are definitely treated with much respect and love. The people here are so welcoming and loving to us. As we watched this young man return from his mission, our thoughts turned to the time that we will leave these wonderful people. We will have a difficult time saying good-bye to all the people here. We will be filled with joy to see our family, but our hearts will ache to leave so many people who care for us so much.




This little girl has got to be the cutest thing ever. Well, we consider just about every little child here to be the cutest ever (except for our grandchildren, of course!!). She is the daughter of Sister Devya and Brother Suresh. Sister Devya is the sister to Brother Anand, and it is Brother Anand's entire family that we go to every week to teach English in their home. When we entered their home this week, the little girl came up to us excitedly jabbering away in Tamil. Of course, we couldn't understand a word she was saying, but she was certainly intent on telling us something. Her mother told us she was telling us about a new kitten they had. At the end of each English lesson, we teach some songs. One song that we sing (every week) is "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes." She absolutely LOVES this song!! She is so fun to watch.

Elder Hodgson (seen in the picture) and Elder Challa (partially in the picture) accompanied us to the Anand family this week. Elder Hodgson is being transferred to Rajahmundry on Monday. We are sad to see him go. We do not like transfers because we get stongly attached to the missionaries. Elder Hodgson has been in Coimbatore since we arrived here. He has always watched out for us, making sure that we don't eat in places that might not be good. Whenever we had a question about whether or not to eat in a particular restaurant, we always talked to him.


This is a scene we don't see very often!! Pigs!!! Yes, pigs rummaging around in the garbage on the street that we always walk down. We have seen cows, goats, chickens, roosters, dogs, and cats, but NEVER pigs. We think the men let the pigs out of the truck to have a little snack.








After the pigs were finished their snack, the men rounded them up and put them back in the truck. We watched as they put one pig in. The pig was NOT happy. It was squealing and squealing frantically in protest.









Our Saturday and Sunday was spent at the church attending the General Conference sessions from Salt Lake. As many of you know, General Conference was held last week in Salt Lake City. In North America, most people watch it live, but because of the time difference between there and here, we watch it a week later. If we watched it live, we would be up until past 3:30 a.m. We heard all the new announcements almost right away last week end, but we did not listen to the talks until this week end. All the talks were wonderful. The spirit was strong as the all the speakers bore witness to gospel truths. We are blessed with technology that allows us to hear the words of the prophets and other speakers. Elder Holland gave a particularly powerful talk. President Eyring also gave a wonderful talk about prayers being answered in God's time, and he reminded us that we need to remember that God keeps His promises and that sometimes our own timetable can obscure God's plan for us. We have been spiritually edified for the past two days.


Between the sessions on Saturday, we bought pizza for the missionaries. Here is Elder Racharla representing all of them. Dominos pizza is . . . different here. We had green pepper with chucky chicken pizza. The chicken was spicy. Although the pizza has an Indian twist here, it was still good.








After being spiritually fed on Sunday, we returned home to be physically fed. A meal of rice with cheese & tuna sauce, peas, tomatoes, and cucumbers was a fitting meal for a stormy, rainy evening.

Gandhi's Birthday

Tuesday, October 2 was a holiday in India to celebrate Gandhi's birth. Coimbatore 2nd Branch had an activity out at Semmedu. We met at the church at 8:00 for our bus trip to the small village. Well, things in India don't happen on the time they are supposed to (except sacrament meeting). Everyone was told to be at the church by 7:45 a.m. so the bus could leave by 8:00. The bus was there before 7:45, but most people did not arrive until closer to 9:00. Before the opening prayer, President Arul, the Branch President, talked about the blessings they have for living in India and told the people that they need to thank Heavenly Father for Gandhi because he is the father of India. He said that we need to be thankful because Gandhi was able to bring independence to India through peaceful means. President Arul reminded everyone that not many nations in the world have achieved independence through peaceful means. As he said that, we thought about our own great country of Canada and that we share that with India. President Arul talked to Elder and Sister Tiefenbach just before we boarded the bus and asked us if we knew anything about Gandhi. We told him we knew everything he had talked about; he was surprised. Elder Tiefenbach then told him that the City of Regina has a statue of Gandhi outside the City Hall. President Arul was even more surprised.

We boarded the bus shortly after 9:15. The Branch clerk, Brother Suresh, and the Branch President, President Arul, are doing a final count.

The trip took about 3/4 of an hour. Our activity was held at the church meeting house in Semmedu. The building is bigger than we anticipated. It has a large hall for Sacrament meeting and has several rooms for classroom. Oh, and best of all, it has TOILETS - not squatters. Sister Tiefenbach was particularly thrilled with that!

The church building is situated in a quiet, green space. The whole area is far more lush and treed than Coimbatore, but the ground is dry like Coimbatore. Behind the church is a large open area bordered by coconut trees. The church owned area used to be planted with all kinds of vegetables. There are a few tomato plants in the area, but mostly it is empty.





The people here will cut the green coconuts from the trees and cut the top off to drink the water inside. Apparently, it is supposed to be cooling for the body. Elder Tiefenbach decided to give it a try. Often, people use a straw to get the water, but straws were not available at our activity.

Sister Tiefenbach was more dignified and poured some into a plastic cup to have a drink. We don't find the water particularly cooling. The water itself is not cool. Many people in India believe that if a person drinks cold water, he/she will get sick. Their grandmothers have told them this, so it is definitely true.

We sat around and talked for a while.

We played games, such as a game similar to duck, duck, goose; blind man's bluff; and toss the ring.

 

The children played some games, as well.

 

 

The children also took the opportunity to play in the holding tank for the irrigation system.

Later, some of the men played games. Interestingly, the men and women in India rarely do activities together. We see this in North America to some extent, but here, the separation is very apparent.

 

Not everyone played hard; a select few were able to sleep through the festivities.

Yes, a baby is inside. The advantage of this type of sleeping arrangement is that it is lightweight, unlike the bulky strollers or cribs that we use in North America. We don't think we will adopt this type of bed for our grandchildren, though. Several babies had their naps in these "beds" during the activity.








Lunch consisted of chicken biryani, curd (with onion), and boiled eggs in some kind of chili sauce. That is a whole lot of biryani!!!











Curd with onion:

This is a typical portion for a woman. The plate is a regular sized paper plate. You can also see the egg in the chili sauce.


















Sister Mary (who regularly feeds us) was concerned the food might be too spicy for us, so she and her daughter, Sister Shanthi, prepared some chipote and a chick pea dish for us. She was right. The food was too spicy for us. Elder Tiefenbach ate some biryani, and Sister Tiefenbach took a small, small taste. We are grateful for Sister Mary and Sister Shanthi. The food they made for us was welcomed - and good.





After lunch, many people went to the nearby river, the Siruvani River. The river, which is one of the cleanest rivers in India, is quite shallow at this point. It is only about one foot deep at the most. Everyone enjoyed the dip in the river to get relief from the hot, hot sunny weather.

 The Branch President got right into the swing of things and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the water. Our driver, Brother Augustine (right), liked the water, but he wasn't prepared to be quite as enthusiastic as the Branch President.  The water was actually quite warm, which is not surprising considering it never gets cold here.

Elder Tiefenbach was conservative in his splashing about in the water, too.  President Raghu, the 1st Counselor in the District Presidency, and Elder Tiefenbach had a good chat while they stood in the water. Elder Tiefenbach, your legs look soooooo white!!!







Sister Tiefenbach watched from the sidelines. Sister Tiefenbach is still squinting from Elder Tiefenbach's bright, white legs!!

Many of the local women came down to the river to do their laundry. As we watched this couple come to the river, we noticed that the woman carried the heaviest load, while the man, presumably her husband, carried the lightweight things.

As we watched, we couldn't help but wonder if the detergent they were using was polluting the clear river. The women have been doing laundry this way here for many, many years, and the water is still clear, so it must be okay. These women work very hard out in the scorching sun doing the laundry. We are certainly grateful that we have a washing machine.

This area is wild elephant country, but alas, we saw no elephants. If we had stayed until night fall, we would have seen elephants. This is the third place we had been that was known to have elephants, and we have seen absolutely no elephants! But, in the end, we are fortunate that we did not see them because wild elephants are very dangerous.





At the end of the day, we were tired and hot, and we welcomed the offer of Sister Punitha Amalrag to drive us home in their air conditioned car.

In Canada, we celebrate Thanksgiving on October 8. Let us express our gratitude to Heavenly Father for the MANY blessing we have. We have become so grateful for the consistent power supply we have in Canada. India experiences many, many power outages everyday. On Friday, the power was out from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Each day, the power is out for around 12 hours in a 24 hour period. India may have difficulties with things like power, but we are blessed to serve here. We have met so many wonderful people. We have seen the blessings of the Lord in the lives of many people here. The members of the Church are helpful and kind to us. They are thrilled when we attend their activities or when we visit their homes. They truly love us. We have been able to work closely with many people who have recently joined the church.They have strong testimonies and are eager to learn more about the Gospel and about church standards. Their enthusiasm is contagious.

We are grateful for our family and the support they give us. We acknowledge the sacrifice they have made for us to be away from them. We are thankful for our granddaughter, Cassie, who posted a wonderful blog about the blessings she has received. She has a wonderful spirit about her. We are particularly grateful that we have technology that allows us to communicate with our family and friends instantly. We can both see and hear our children and grandchildren. This is a great blessing because it helps us keep close ties with them.