Some People Say that Being Peed on by a Monkey is Good Luck

So, does the title of our blog peak your interest? You may be wondering how something like that fits into our experiences here in India. Well . . .  we will talk about that later.

Sister Smith made a wonderful rhubarb cake to share with us at the office. It was so good. She found rhubarb at a store called Food Hall at 1 MG Road. We are not sure how much it cost, but Sister Smith said it was very expensive. Elder Raja had never heard of rhubarb; neither had Elder Ram for that matter. Elder Ram is from Hawaii, and apparently they don't have it there. They loved it. We told them about when we were children and we carried around a small cup of sugar and dipped a stick of rhubarb in the sugar before we took a big bite of it. We couldn't do it now, but it is such a good memory. Sister Smith also brought ice cream because rhubarb cake MUST have ice cream.

On Friday, Sister Anushuya, arrived from Toronto. She served in Toronto for 17 months. Then, her passport expired. She wanted to complete a full 18 months, so she asked if she could finish her mission here; she is originally from Coimbatore. She will serve in Chennai. She definitely lost most of her Indian accent. Both Sister Tiefenbach and Sister Smith had to laugh a bit because the Assistants seemed a little awkward with her at the office. They had never done an orientation for a sister before. Once they got going, they were fine, but getting going was interesting (from our view).

We all went out for lunch at, where else, The Only Place. We had several reasons for a special lunch. First and foremost, we were celebrating Elder Raja and Sister Tiefenbach's birthday. They both have birthdays on June 1st. Elder Raja will be going home next week, so this birthday celebration had to be special. He ordered steak and eggs, the same as Elder Ram.

We also wanted to take Elder Solomon out for dinner before he left Bangalore. Yes, Elder Solomon is being transferred to Chennai. We are very sad about that. But, he will be a zone leader there, so we will get to see him once a month when he comes in for the Missionary Leader Council meeting. We have known about this transfer before he knew about it, and it was very difficult not to say anything to him about it. Elder Solomon (and his companion, Elder Prakash) had the philly steak sandwich. His other companion, Elder Aeshamalla had a liberty steak (we are not sure what that is, but it looked like steak, and it looked good).


A third reason for the special dinner is that we like to take the new missionaries out for lunch. Although Sister Anushuya is not a green missionary, she is new to our mission. She will be a great missionary.









This is Sister Tiefenbach and Sister Anushuya. It is amazing how quickly the missionaries develop close bonds with us and how quickly we feel close to them. We received an email quite some time ago letting us know she was coming, and we received a few emails from her. Maybe, it is this short communication that starts this bond. We don't know how it happens; we just know that it happens.

A final reason we went to The Only Place is that the food is good, and we have been wanting to take the missionaries there because they are great to be with. They are so appreciative of anything we do for them, and they are so eager to do anything for us that we need done. We have enjoyed working in the office with Elder Raja. Elder Kumar (our Elder Kumar from when we first arrived in Coimbatore) will be coming to Bangalore to be the other Assistant with Elder Ram. We are excited to be with him in the office. Elder Ram and Elder Kumar will be fun to work with. We are so blessed to work in the office and feel of the spirit in this great work.


On Saturday, we went to a place about 90 km from Bangalore, Sangam, with the Lingarajapuram Branch for a branch activity. In the drier season, like summer, it is a popular place to go swimming and to have a picnic. The place is full of wild monkeys. The monkeys particularly like all the people bringing picnic lunches. Let's just say that they don't necessarily ask before they take things. Those little critters steal whatever they can get their hands on. So, what about the pee, you ask? Well, shortly after we arrived, Sister Tiefenbach (of course it had to be her) was standing under a tree when all of a sudden it started raining - only on her and only on her head. Hmmm . . . Why wasn't anyone else getting wet? Monkeys were in the tree. Need we say more? A woman in the branch doused Sister Tiefenbach's hair with water to get her hair some what clean. Another member told her that according to Hindu tradition, she would be considered "honoured' to have been peed on by a monkey. The monkey is one of the Hindu gods. If you look really closely, you can see a few wet spots on the ground. This is the spot where it happened. Luckily, the weather was hot, and both Sister Tiefenbach and the ground dried very quickly. BUT, Sister Tiefenbach was not as honoured as Sister Smith. A short time after Sister Tiefenbach had her encounter with this great honour, Sister Smith was standing under the same tree, and . . . let's just say that what the monkey deposited on her was thicker and gooier. That is right!!! She was pooped upon. We, indeed, have interesting experiences here in India.

Sangam, as we said, is only 90 km from Bangalore, yet the trip out there took 3 hours. At least 1 1/2 hours of the travel was within Bangalore. We met at the church building at 7:15 a.m., but we didn't leave until about 8:30. The departure time was an hour late, mainly because the bus didn't come until that time. The people from India laugh and say, "You have to remember we work on Indian Standard time." Most of the members of the branch arrived before the bus came. Here Sister Tiefenbach and Sister Smith are waiting for the bus with the other members of the branch.


The women, especially the older women, wear sarees all the time, even for an outing where they will be stepping from rock to rock to cross the water or wading in the water. The building this branch meets in is a rented facility. To the right, out of your view, is the doorway to the church.











When the bus finally arrived, everyone piled in.

















More people turned out than expected. So, what do you do when you have more people than seats on the bus? The answer is simple: bring in chairs from the primary room and put them in the aisle and at the front. Elder Smith was a gentleman and gave up his "comfortable" seat part way through the trip and sat on one of the primary chairs so a mother with a car-sick child could sit and hold the child on her knee.





On the way to our picnic spot, we passed through several villages. The villages are certainly different from Bangalore. We also saw farmers ploughing their fields. The fields are much smaller than the large fields that are common in Saskatchewan. One farmer was using a plough that was pulled by oxen (cows).







Sangam is a place where three rivers come together. It was not as lush as what we thought it would be. It was largely rocks with water in several spots. On the other side of the water, you can see sand, but it was not really a beach as we know beaches. Nevertheless, everyone seemed to be enjoying the water. We did not go into the water, but Elder Tiefenbach put his feet into the water. It was warm. Sister Tiefenbach got splashed by some children playing nearby, so she was also able to feel the warm water. It seemed strange to experience a river with warm water.


During the monsoon season, the river is much higher. The area where these women are sitting will be completely under water in a few months, if we get the usual amount of rain in this monsoon season. Swimming is not allowed during the monsoon season because the river is flowing so fast and is full of whirlpools. The trees in this picture have many monkeys hanging from the branches. Unfortunately, you can't see them. We couldn't get more pictures of the monkeys because our camera died.

The rocks were less than comfortable to sit on, and they were hot. The temperature was very hot, too, when we were out sitting on the rocks. The whole area behind us is rock. The rock in this place reminded us of Peggy's Cove, but this was not as spectacular. We used an umbrella to give some relief from the scorching rays of the sun. Sister Tiefenbach wishes she brought out the umbrella sooner - if you get the point!





Remember, swimming is not allowed during monsoon season because of the speed of the water as the three rivers rush together and the whirlpools that result from this confluence AND because of the . . . crocodiles. Yes, it is true. During the monsoon season, crocodiles live in these waters. We never saw any crocodiles. It would have been interesting, but . . . it was best that we didn't see any.





We end our blog this week with the baptism that occurred today. We are so happy that Elder Solomon was able to end his time in Bangalore with a baptism. These children are brother and sister. The boy is 14 years old. His parents are very supportive of them, and hopefully, the parents will soon join the church, too. This is their father. He seemed very interested in the talks, nodding his head in agreement several times.




The most exciting news we received this week was that the mission president and his wife, President and Sister Berrett, received their visas. We are SO happy. Things go so much better when the mission president is in the mission. Apparently, the visas were ready about two weeks ago, but no one informed Church Travel. When the word finally arrived, they quickly went to pick them up. The mission president's presence will make a big difference in the entire mission. Everyone is looking forward to working with him. We will be picking up the Berretts late tonight (midnight). We are so blessed to be led by such great leaders, such as President and Sister Berrett. We pray that the Lord will continue to bless the people of India as the gospel is taught in this land.

Life in India

This past week has been quite typical of life in India. Our Sundays are much more leisurely here in Bangalore compared to the Sundays we experienced in Coimbatore. We have much more time to prepare a decent meal here. Last Sunday, Elder Tiefenbach took charge of the preparations for our orange chicken meal. Our daughter, Brenda, had posted a link to the recipe, so we thought we would try it. We do not have a slow cooker, as the recipe calls for, so we simply cooked it in the oven. We also had to change a few other things in the recipe. For example, we don't have access to frozen concentrated orange juice in India (from what we have seen), so we used regular orange juice in a tetra pack. The result was that the flavour wasn't quite as orangy as it should have been, and although we cooked it for an hour, the carrots were a bit too crisp for our likes. But overall, the Orange Chicken tasted good.

 Every morning (Monday to Friday) we go for a walk. This is a great way to give us a kick start to our day at the office. We mostly sit in front of the computer all day, so walking each day keeps us fit. To get to the park from where we are standing, go to the end of the street and turn right; then take your first left. Walk down that street for about two blocks. Voila! There is the park.












It is summer time in India right now, so we are experiencing hot weather. Mind you, the temperature in Bangalore is much more moderate than places like Chennai, Hyderabad, Rajahmundry, or even Coimbatore. We feel less hot here in Bangalore compared to other places because of the lower humidity, which make the higher temperatures during the summer more tolerable. We use the word "tolerable" because we still feel very hot, even in the early morning when we walk, although the morning walks are far cooler than when we walk somewhere during the afternoon. We are fortunate to have many trees in Bangalore to shelter us from the heat of the sun. The trees here are wonderful. The bad thing about the trees is that there are always leaves falling to the ground. It seems that this happens all year round. People are constantly sweeping leaves from in front of  their houses. One interesting thing we have found about India is that we have rarely experienced a windy day (if at all) in the heart of the cities. At most, we feel a light breeze, which is usually "spotty." That means that the breeze will be present in one spot, but it will be gone only a few feet further down the street. We are intrigued by this phenomenon.

We don't see garbage trucks being driven in the residential areas for curb-side garbage pick up as we are used to in Canada. Instead, people, many of whom are women, push around small carts like this one, stopping at each home to pick up the garbage. The person sorts through the garbage from each home and separates the recyclable items from the rest of the trash. Then the person picking up the garbage will take the garbage to another site (possibly only to a designated spot on the side of a different road). We really don't know where the garbage is taken once it leaves our street. We see many places on other streets where large piles of garbage accumulate. This woman pushing this cart seems to be finished her area and is heading somewhere else. Perhaps she may be going to dump this load so she can begin collecting in another area. These people must get up very early, as our garbage is often picked up before 7:30. This particular street is a fairly busy street, so the cars just manoeuvre around her.

Our office is on the second floor of the building. In North American terms, we would say we work on the third floor. In India, the main floor is called the ground floor, and the next floor up is the 1st floor. We are so used to this now that we are often confused as to which way of reference is from here and which one is from Canada. We most often take the stairs up to the second (third) floor. Some days, those two flights of stairs seem a long way, and the nearby elevator is very tempting. But, we usually ignore the temptation, unless perhaps we are so tired from walking a long ways. The Church uses the two floors above the Lotus diagnostic Centre for offices: the Mission office and the Service Centre Offices.

We have a couple of security guards watching the building all the time. This one is stationed at the underground parking. We caught him fulfilling his duties one day! He is a great guy. He always says hello to us and often asks us if we have had our breakfast or lunch and asks us what we had for that meal. They put in VERY long days.






We celebrated Elder Smith's 66th birthday at the office. Sister Smith made the chocolate cake. She is a very creative/crafty person. She didn't bring the cake in the cake pan like Sister Tiefenbach does. She decorated the top AND sides of the cake. She put crushed cookie crumbs on the icing on the sides of the cake.














The office has been very quiet for the last part of the week because Elder Ram and Elder Raja, the Assistants to the President, went to Hyderabad to take care of some missionary business there. To help liven things up, we invited all the people from both floors to Elder Smith's birthday celebrations. Actually, we usually include them in any treats that Sister Tiefenbach or Sister Smith bring to the office. Seen in this picture are (left front, then continuing to the back and then up to the front): Sam (Physical Facilities), Gangadhar (Physical Facilities), Sathish (Accounting), Steve (Finance Manager), and President Robert William (Managing Director). The other people, Shankar, Thomas, Sundar, Sunil, and Prem were behind the camera. Sister Judy was away at Youth Conference in Hyderabad.

That same day, we went out for lunch with the Smith's to an Indian restaurant called Kund Restaurant. President Funk and/or Sister Funk had taken us and the Smith's there (on separate occasions), so we thought we would give it a try again. This time, however, we did not have the Funk's there to order for us. We told the waiter we wanted the chicken dish that was like butter chicken. We also ordered tandoori chicken. Sister Smith ordered a chicken/onion dish. That one was the least spicy of all. The butter chicken type dish tasted a bit different from the time that President Funk ordered it for us. We assume it was the same dish, but this one seemed far more spicy. We prefer the butter chicken at the Laajawaab Restaurant across the street from the office. Both of these restaurants serve mostly north Indian type of food. One nice thing about the Kund Restaurant is that at the end of the meal, we were given a bowl of warm water with a lemon in it to clean our hands (seen in front of Sister Smith). The warm water feels so, so good. In this picture, you will also see a bowl with some white stuff in it (a spoon is in the bowl). This is served after meals in many restaurants. It is a licorice type of treat. It is supposed to aid in digestion and is quite tasty. It is made from fennel (or maybe anise) seeds. Each seed is coated with a sweet white coating. Anise and fennel are both known by the same name in India: saunf). We don't know the name of the "candy." Some of the missionaries said that it is called saunf, the same name as the spice.

This past Saturday, we went to a different Nilgiris store just to check it out, specifically to see if they sell baking soda there. We can't get baking soda at the Nilgiris store near us. The new one we went to did not have it, either. Interestingly, we could always buy baking soda at the Nilgiris store in Coimbatore. We find this interesting because Coimbatore is a much smaller city than Bangalore, and it is not nearly as modernized. Last time we were in Coimbatore, we bought several boxes of baking soda. Baking soda is very important in all cookie recipes, so we can't possibly be without it. We can find cooking soda in many stores, and we imagine that it is the same thing, but Sister Tiefenbach is not willing to take a chance on using it in her cookie recipes.

We also went to a store called the French Loaf to buy some bread. We bought a loaf of multigrain bread. This particular store is fairly close to our apartment. We have been told that they make great sandwiches. They serve sandwiches for lunch from Monday to Thursday. Someday, we will try it. It is a bit farther from the office than our apartment, so we are not sure how we will manage that.





This is the way we do dishes here. We don't have a dishwasher - groan! Sister Tiefenbach is going to kiss her dishwasher and her washing machine when she gets back home (the washing machine is a different story). But, we have HOT running water in the kitchen (we think we have mentioned that before).We need to use basins in the sinks because we don't have plugs for the drains. We wash the dishes in ordinary water from the tap with dish detergent and bleach. Then, we rinse them with purified water (you can see the water purifier on the wall). Obviously, we then put the dishes in the drainboard and then dry them AND put them away. Doing dishes doesn't usually take a long time, but if we have made a large meal and have been baking at the same time, the dishes pile up. Elder Tiefenbach often fills up the water bottles at the same time we are doing dishes. This particular water purifier has a hose attached to it, which makes filling the bottles and the rinse basin easier.

Elder Ram and Elder Raja both spoke in Sacrament meeting today. They both did wonderful jobs - we would not expect anything less from them. Elder Ram spoke about obedience and told several stories from his younger years that helped him learn to obey particular commandments. One commandment was about obeying and honouring your parents. He told the story of taking the car to go to McDonalds after his father told him not to take the car when they were out. It was a good story. All his stories were good. Elder Raja told of a spiritual experience when he was first called as a missionary and working in Hyderabad. Both he and his companion were knocking on doors, and at one door was sharply turned away. Despite this, they both felt impressed not to leave. As they slowly walked away, the man came back out and called them back. The man had been preparing to end his life, and they were the "angels" that God had sent to him. His talk was about honouring the sacred priesthood which he and other worthy men in the church hold. The spirit was strong in both their talks. They never cease to impress and amaze us.

This is Sister Rosaline. She is a member of the Whitefield Branch, but she attended Relief Society in our branch today. Her husband is in the District Presidency and had some business to look after during our meetings. She is strong in the church and has a sound understanding of the restored gospel. Sister Tiefenbach taught the Relief Society lesson today, and she was happy to have Sister Rosaline in the class because Sister Rosaline was able to add additional comments to other sisters' answers to many of the questions, which helped the other sisters in their understanding of the topic.


After the meetings each Sunday, we and the missionaries usually talk with the members for a short while before we head for home. We caught Elder Solomon encouraging a young man to give a talk. Elder Solomon is always so positive and supportive in his exchanges with others.







The restored gospel of Jesus Christ brings joy to the lives of those who embrace it and keep the commandment of the Lord. You can see the in the eyes of these missionaries of the joy they feel as they serve the Lord by teaching others of the great plan of happiness that our Father in Heaven has provided for all his children, whereby we may all return to live with him and become joint heirs with the Savior, as we inherit all that He has. Their countenance shows that they have taken to heart the scripture: "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life" (3 Nephi 5:13). This is the vision statement of our mission. We feel of the strength and power of this scripture as we do our work here in Bangalore. We are so blessed to be part of such a great work.

Week of Celebrations

 Each week, when we unlock the doors to the office, we know of some of the things that will fill our days, but the days often give us some surprises. This week, we had many opportunities to celebrate and to feel the joy of serving here in India.

On Tuesday, we celebrated Elder Watson's 70th birthday. His actual birthday was on Wednesday, but he was leaving to go back to Hong Kong early Wednesday morning, so we celebrated a day early. Elder Ram and Elder Raja learned Tuesday morning that Elder Watson's birthday was coming up, so they bought a cake for him. He shared it with everyone in the office.








Elder Watson cut the cake and distributed it to everyone.












Elder Tiefenbach certainly enjoyed the celebration. The cake may have been small for the number of people in the office, but we all got a sampling of the delicious cake.











Of course, the Elders always enjoy having food associated with any celebration. This is Elder Aydelott, who recently transferred to Bangalore. He is assigned to work in the Convent Road Branch.









We continued our celebration by going to a Mexican restaurant, Habanero's, for lunch. The food was good. We particularly liked the vegetable fajitas. Some of the food was too spicy for us, but most of it was fine. This is the whole group: (left front and continuing toward the back and then going around the table) Elder Aeshamalla, Elder Solomon, Elder Aydelott, Elder Pace, the former Elder Sharma, Elder Raja, Elder Ram, Elder Tiefenbach (why is he working?), Sister Tiefenbach's chair, Elder Watson, and Elder Prakash. We think Elder Ram and Elder Raja may have won the prize for the most food eaten. They were still eating when everyone else was done. We have many reasons to enjoy working in the office. This is one - being with so many great missionaries and being in the presence of a wonderful leader.

Elder Aydelott (left) and Elder Pace just happened to be at the office when all this celebration was occurring. Normally, the elders outside of those working in the Indiranagar Branch rarely come into the office on days other than Mondays. They were glad they dropped by the office to pick up some extra supplies that day because they were able to join the celebration. One day a few weeks ago, Elder Pace asked Sister Tiefenbach if she would make another banana cake. Tomorrow (Monday) he will celebrate the arrival of a banana cake at the office. We always enjoy seeing the former Elder Sharma (right). He also happened to come to the office at "just the right time."

We have been so blessed to work with Elder Watson for a the past week and half. We have enjoyed his humour, his kindness, his gentleness, and his dedication to the Lord. He will be released as the President of the Asia Area later this summer. We not only celebrated his birthday, but we celebrated the opportunity to work with him. He mentioned many times to us that we helped him to know the things he needed to do while he was here, but, in truth, it was we who learned from him. What a great privilege we had to come to know him.


A great celebration we had this week was to send three new missionaries off to their missions! This send off was very different from most missionary send offs. These particular missionaries, (left)Elder Neelapu, Elder Dondapati, and Elder Michael, will be going straight to their missions without going to the MTC (which also means without going to the temple). The reason for this change is because the Philippines Consulate person in Chennai would not grant visas to these missionaries. In the past, we have always worked through the Delhi branch of the Consulate, but the policy changed, and we now must work through the Consulate in Chennai. The person working there does not know about the history of our relationship with the Philippines and thought that because these men were young, they likely would not return to India. Therefore, she denied them their visas. This has put a kink in getting our missionaries to the temple and to the MTC prior to them starting their work in the field. We have heard that someone from Delhi will be visiting the person in Chennai to help her with another request for a visa the Church has made. We are hoping that during this visit, the Delhi person will also talk about granting visas to our young men and women, as well. The problem is being worked on by several people, and we hope to have this issue resolved in the next few months. Despite the challenges, these missionaries are excited to begin serving the Lord.

Elder Tiefenbach was privileged to help President William (counselor in the mission presidency) with the settings apart for these missionaries. This is the second time Elder Tiefenbach has participated in setting apart missionaries. Serving the Lord always gives reason to celebrate.







Elder Michael attended BYU Idaho prior to serving his mission. His English is superb. Because he lives in Bangalore, his family was able to be present for the setting apart. His parents have been a great support and a source of encouragement to him. This was a great day of celebration for Elder Michael's parents. The others in this picture are his cousins. Sister Ranjini Gowthaman (second from left) will be leaving for her mission in June. Hopefully, we will have the visa issue resolved. We are not sure whether or not this next batch will begin serving without going to the temple and the MTC. Their start dates for their missions may be delayed until we can get them to the MTC and to the temple. We will have to wait for the decision of the new mission president.

Sister Tiefenbach loves to serve the Lord. She, too, celebrates the experiences and opportunities to feel and see the Lord's hand in this great work as the gospel rolls forth as a "stone cut out without hands   . . . [becoming] a great mountain [filling] the whole earth" (Daniel 2:34, 35).








The celebrations continued as we celebrated Elder Solomon's birthday on Thursday. He has left behind his teen years and is now the "very mature" age of 20. Sister Tiefenbach made him a chocolate cake. Elder Ram suggested that Elder Solomon would prefer a chocolate cake rather than a carrot or banana cake. We did not put candles on the cake because we were not sure we were allowed to light candles in the building. We all sang "Happy Birthday" to him. We think he felt a little awkward because we told him he needed to come to the office that day, and he "knew" I would likely make him a cake. But, he didn't want to "expect" a cake. This truly shows his humility.He first arrived at the office that day during all the hubbub of getting the new elders set apart and ready for the taxi to take them to the airport (except for Elder Dondapati, who is serving in our mission). We didn't have time to get the cake out at that time, so he had to come back later.

We adhered to the tradition in India of feeding cake to the person. Actually, we think that it should have been Elder Solomon who should have fed a piece of cake to all the guests attending the celebration. But, Sister Tiefenbach cut the cake, so she fed the first piece of cake to Elder Solomon. Elder Aeshamalla (left)volunteered to feed it to him, but Elder Solomon refused to let him do it. Hmmm . . . why do you suppose he didn't want Elder Aeshamalla to give him the cake? Let's just say that the night before, all the elders serving in Indiranagar Branch had some cake the night before. Need we say more?

Sister Smith had a saree made earlier in the week. One of the branches she attends planned to have a special Relief Society meeting on Sunday to celebrate Mother's Day. At this celebration, everyone was going to wear a saree. She received permission from President Watson to wear one during the Relief Society meeting. Of course, when the saree was delivered to the office, we all celebrated and made a big production out of the event.  When she went to buy her saree, she told the sales person that she didn't want anything with glitter, etc. on it. Despite her original thoughts, she bought this with all it's glittery, shiny adornments. Her saree is beautiful, and she looked gorgeous in it. Both she and Sister Tiefenbach agreed that they would wear a saree like that to a formal party in Canada.





We have many opportunities to celebrate the uniqueness of India. One day, we saw some men taking down some branches from a tree that was overhanging the street. One man was sitting in the branch that was to come down, and while he was sitting there, he was bouncing on that branch and twisting a nearby branch that was also to come down. We had never seen "pruning" like this in Canada.





Our travels to and from our shopping trip we made on Saturday also gave an opportunity to celebrate life in India. We went to an ultra modern mall. It was a huge mall that had all the brand name stores one could think of. After shopping in such an up-to-date mall, we drove by a boy riding on a cow, as a man (presumably his father) led the cow along the road.






These houses show a stark contrast to the modern architecture, air conditioning, and the very expensive items of the mall. This man's simple village dress is the antithesis of the designer clothes we saw many of the people in the mall wearing.

Whenever we travel the main roads to the shopping malls, we often see people wandering through the lines of vehicles selling various items, from toys and sunglasses to fruit. Each day we see things that help us to celebrate the diversity found in India.








Lastly, we celebrate Mother's Day. At this time, we celebrate our own mothers who raised us and taught us. We will ever be grateful for the influence they have had in our lives.

At this time, we wish our daughters, our daughter-in-law, and our soon-to-be-mother granddaughter a Happy Mother's Day. We hope your day will be wonderful.

Mother, I love you; Mother, I do.
Father in Heaven has sent me to you.
When I am near you, I love to hear you
Singing so softly that you love me, too.
Mother, I love you; I love you, I do.

May you hear these words resounding in your ears, in your mind, and in your heart whenever you feel overwhelmed and frustrated as you raise your children in the Lord.

After we posted this blog, we received some visitors. So, we had to make an addition to our original blog.

What a wonderful surprise! Here I am with my boys. How I love you all! Thank you elders for making my day complete. Your kind words in the card you gave me brought tears to my eyes. You will always have a special place in my heart.

I thank all the mothers of these elders for raising such caring, outstanding men.