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.