Relief Society Activity

On Friday, the Relief Society (the Church's women's group) of Coimbatore 2nd Branch held an activity. We all tried our hand at fabric painting. Sister Lakshimi (left back) was the instructor. She is highly talented. She paints designs on sarees, paints on other silk for wall hangings, paints on canvas, etc. She has done some very intricate designs on sarees for many customers. She creates her own designs and does a lot of her painting free hand.



For this activity, she taught us to use existing patterns that we "fill in" with paint. We could tell by the way she used the paint brushes that she was confident in her abilities. The trick to this is that we are not to be concerned with filling in the spaces with paint, but to focus more on the brush strokes, making sure we brush up and down only, not sideways, and not adding bits of paint here and there to make sure the open areas are filled with paint.



When the template is removed, we end up with a great design. It looks simple, but it takes talent to paint it the right way so the paint doesn't run.











Sister Lashimi then added white by free hand to highlight the design.












Sister Punita (front left) and Sister Tiefenbach worked on a design together. We were enthused participants. The end product may not have been as grand as Sister Lakshimi's, but, it was good for our first time.









This is a sample of the paintings she does on sarees.














Sister Tiefenbach had the saree draped over her to get an idea of what it would look like.














At the same time that the women had a painting activity, the men also had an activity, but theirs was instructional on priesthood ordinances and not any where near as fun as the women's. The primary (the children's classes) also had an activity. They had fun by folding paper into fish shapes and painting them. Sister Shanthi Arul (the Branch President's wife), Sister Nancy Raghu, and other women helped the children with their activity. Of course, food was available when all the activities were done. Everyone had a great time at the church Friday evening.

We spent some time with the Sister Madabathula (by Elder Tiefenbach) and Sister Jebamani on preparation day. We checked out a few problems they were having with appliances and other things in their apartments. Their washing machine was not cleaning clothes as well as it should, so we wanted to have look at it to see what exactly was happening. We found that the filter had probably never been cleaned since it was purchased. It was extremely dirty. We cleaned the filter, so we will find out if that has solved the problem. We had lunch with them at Domino's Pizza that day and then went grocery shopping, too.

 

We had to pass by the Ramanathapuram Junction. As you can see, even the animal drawn wagons need to stop for the red light. The streets are always busy with pedestrians, bicycles, motorcycles, cars, autos, trucks, and wagons pulled by cows all looking for opportunities to pass, turn, or cross the street. The streets and the rules of the streets are very different than in Canada and the States, but we are getting used to the difference.

 

In the evening, the sisters also joined us at our appointment with the Suresh and Shanthi family. Actually, the sisters were originally to be there an hour before us, but everyone decided that we might as well all go at the same time. Sister Shanthi's father (far right) was visiting, so he also wanted to be in the picture. The woman behind the sister missionaries is Sister Shanthi's sister. The little boy in the green shirt is the sister's son. We had a great day with the Sister missionaries.

We had fun holding a couple of babies this week. On Saturday night, we went to the hospital to visit Sister Deepa who had a new baby girl shortly after midnight Thursday morning. We were negligent and forgot to take a picture with our camera, but we got a picture of the 3-month-old baby girl that was blessed today. Sister Jennifer and Brother Richard Paul have a beautiful baby girl dressed in frilly pink from head to toe and wrapped in a soft pink blanket.

 

Sister Jennifer was insistent that we have a picture of both of us with the baby so she can show her daughter when she gets older a picture of her with her grandparents. These babies will be a substitute for our own grandchildren. When holding these babies, our thoughts turned to our beautiful daughter-in-law, Jessica, who will be giving birth soon to our new grand????? We also think of our beautiful granddaughter, Cassie, who will give birth to our first great-grandchild in June. We may not be able to hold our new grandchild or our first great-grandchild in are arms while they are newborns, but we will hold them in our hearts. Everytime, we look at these two babies, we will think of them.

 

 

This baby is a little older, but she still holds the affection of everyone. It seems that everyone takes their turn holding people's babies. We find that even young people, such as Akash, enjoy holding babies. Akash is the son of Sister Punita and Brother Amalraj. In Canada, we didn't usually see unmarried men in their early twenties going up to a mother and asking if they can hold their baby. One of the things we like about India is the closeness people have with each other. All the children call adults "auntie" and "uncle." It is kind of nice in many ways when children call us auntie and uncle. That is much preferred over gramms and grapps!

 

 

And last, we leave you with a reminder to always look for the wonders of Heavenly Father's creations amidst our busy days. Our Heavenly Father has truly created a beautiful world. In the midst of all the noise of the busy city of Coimbatore, we can find peace and serenity in watching a simple butterfly.