Yes, fall arrives in India, but not all trees lose their leaves from what we see. Also, the leaves don't turn colours the way they do back home. Here is the tree in the church yard after some of its leaves have fallen to the ground.
The church is getting a fresh look. It is being painted on the inside and outside. This is Brother Raja. He is a painter (that's obvious!). He and his family were baptized in July of this year, and is one of the families that we visit every Thursday. Although the new paint is the same colour as the old paint, the whole building looks much brighter and cleaner. The paint on the inside is a bit different, but it is still a light colour in the same tones. Again, the inside looks brighter and fresher with the new paint.
Early in the week, we made a follow-up visit to the 1st Branch Elders' apartment (Elders Solomon, Smoot, Thomas, and Challa). Their kitchen counters were still not as clean as they should be. Sister Tiefenbach ran her hand along the counter and felt . . . grime (that is the best word). I had some of the Elders run their hand along the counter to feel it because they said they had cleaned the counters. After feeling the counters, they said,"Oh." They thought they had cleaned them. By the time we left, they had everything ship shape. This is the outside of their apartment. 
Coimbatore continues to have a lot of construction going on. Much of the construction, as you have seen in the past is very labour intensive, so construction takes a little longer here. This is a new building not far from the 1st Branch Elders' apartment. It is going to be a new Big Bazaar, which is a department store that is similar to Walmart or Zellers, but doesn't have as wide a selection.
We see many people carrying loads on their heads. This woman is carrying a load of papers, but we see a variety of things being carried this way, such as loads of bricks and sand. We can imagine we would have a bunch of crushed vertebrae if we carried some of their heavy loads.
We visit this little girl's family every Thursday evening. She is modelling her Mickey Mouse back pack for us. We had her put it on her front so we could see the back pack and her face. We enjoy going to their house to teach English. We hope we are being of help to the family. Many people can understand some English, but they are reluctant to speak it. We find that women, in particular, are very cautious about trying to speak English. Some members of this family have moved to another house, so only three people live here now instead of seven.
We had Zone Training this week. Our Zone Leaders, Elder Ram and Elder Racharla were well prepared. We arrived to the meeting early and caught the last part of their planning meeting. We were impressed with the detail of their planning. They had goals in mind of what they wanted everyone to learn, and they came up with specific questions to ask so those attending the trainig to meet those goals. Our Zone Leaders have been busy travelling to Bangalore, Chavadi, and Erode for the past week. They put in a lot of hours in their assignments.
All the missionaries seemed to enjoy the training. Their favourite part was the carrot cake that Sister Tiefenbach made. Several said that they would stop coming to the meetings if she stopped baking for them. They all look attentive here. The first four missionaries are from Erode: Elders Aeshamala (left), Aruldoss, Vaddi (2nd row left), and McDonald. In the back row, we have Coimbatore Elders: Augustine, Thanniru, and Tiefenbach (the good looking one!). Elder Solomon is peaking in on us here.
On the other side of the room are: Elder Solomon (front left), who is our fellow Canadian, Elder Smoot, Elder Thomas (2nd row left), Elder Challa, Sister Mathbuthala (back left), and Sister Jebamani. We are really happy to have sisters in our District now. We chastized Elder Solomon during a recent meeting because he introduced himself as being from Bangalore. We told him that if he doesn't introduce himself as being from Canada, he wouldn't get any more treats! This time, he made sure he said he was from Toronto, Canada. We gave him a nod of approval.
After Zone Training, we accompanied one of the Elders to get some medical tests done. He was a bit nervous about having blood taken, but he was a real trooper! They take blood a bit differently here. At home, they insert a needle and then attach a collection tube that is a vacuum container. After attaching the collection tube, the blood begins to flow into the tube. In India, they still draw the blood out through the needle by pulling up on the syringe and then depositing the blood into a collection tube. 
This lab is very efficient. The results were e-mailed to us that evening. Also, we did not need a doctor's requisition. We ordered our own tests.
We thought that the Zone Leaders had been so busy that they may not have been eating properly, so we invited them for supper (dinner for those who use that term) on Saturday night. We had meatballs with a homemade barbeque type sauce that Sister Tiefenbach makes, rice, and a salad made from cauliflower, carrots, onion, red pepper, and tomatoes. Elder Ram used a fork, but Elder Rachala ate Indian style - with his fingers. We used forks, too. They ate well, so we think that indeed they were hungry.
Today, 2nd Branch had its Primary Presentation. The Primary Presentation is a presentation made in Sacrament meeting by the children of the church to show through song and word the things they have learned throughout the year. Sister Tiefenbach has been working with the children since shorthly after we arrived in Coimbatore to prepare them for the singing part of the presentation. The children did very well in their presentation. First Branch will have their Primary Presentation on the fourth Sunday of November. We had a practice today. These are some of the children in First Branch at the practice today. Several children were absent in First Branch today.
We are also met today with the Christmas program committee to begin making plans. Sister Tiefenbach has written a program for the event. It is entitled, "Picture a Christmas." We hope that the members here will enjoy the program. It will different from most Christmas programs they have had in the past. The choir for the program is making good progress. We continue to be impressed with the quality of the men's voices in this choir. They are every bit equal to the men's section in the choirs at home.
Although some of the trees are losing leaves, the temperature continues to be hot. We are still experiencing temperatures in the 30's. We can't believe that December is at our doorstep, and Christmas will be upon us. Elder Tiefenbach has experienced a warm Christmas before, but this will be the first for Sister Tiefenbach.
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