Bangalore - Coimbatore - Bangalore: Where are We Dear?

We arrived in Bangalore from Coimbatore late Sunday evening a week ago. We had been in Coimbatore for three weeks in a row. We are to the point that sometimes, we forget which apartment we are in and open a wrong cupboard when we are looking for the plates. It would be the right cupboard in Coimbatore but the wrong one in Bangalore. Our week started out quite normal. Two sets of missionaries dropped by the office on Monday. We are sure Elders (left to right) Kocherla, Penugula, Mangum, and Vaiphei dropped by to see if we had some cookies. Elder Alosias and Elder Surya also dropped by, but we did not get a picture of them. They come by under the pretense of needing to carry out some business, but interestingly, the topic of cookies always comes up. We did not disappoint them; they always have big smiles on their faces when we bring them out. Elder Penugula does not like fruit, so he always asks if there is fruit in the baking. If it is fruit free, he will eat it.

We have had a fair bit of rain this past week. On the way home from the office on Monday evening, we saw dark, heavy clouds, and we knew we had to walk very quickly. We arrived to our apartment seconds before the heavens emptied their contents upon the earth. We also had rain all Tuesday evening and night. We weren't sure we would be able to go for a walk because it was still sprinkling out when we headed to the park shortly before 6:30 a.m. We decided that would take the chance. We were grateful we went for our walk because the rain made everything in the park wonderfully green.

We had a great surprise this week. We received a package from Sister Ram in Hawaii. She is Elder Ram's mother. We received macadamia nuts, TURKEY gravy mix, and several other wonderful food items. Did we mention TURKEY gravy mix!!! Sister Tiefenbach has been craving turkey, or at least turkey gravy. Now, we can have mashed potatoes with turkey gravy. We may have only that with some vegetables for a meal VERY soon. Turkey is not readily available in India, so instead of turkey at Christmas, we had chicken. Although that was good, it wasn't the same as turkey. It would have been nicer if we could at least have had turkey gravy with the chicken. Now, that is possible. Thanksgiving will be wonderful with turkey gravy, and we will be thanking our Father in Heaven for wonderful people who look after us on our mission.

The macadamias are SO, SO good. We savor them. We could eat them all at one sitting, we are sure. But, then our pleasure would be over. So, we will restrain ourselves and eat them sensibly.



 Lately, people in India have been getting ready for the long week-end that is coming up. Tomorrow, is a festival day throughout India, as people celebrate the birthday of Ganesh. You can see the row of Ganesh statues in preparation for the festival. Ganesh is the elephant-headed god. The statues range from very small to about five feet tall.








We celebrated another birthday this week. This is one of Sister Tiefenbach's piano students. She turned eight on Wednesday and was baptized today. She is a sweet, delightful girl. She didn't seem to mind that she had to come to piano lessons on her birthday. She wore a special dress the entire day to celebrate her special day. 

When we left Coimbatore last week, we knew that we might need to return this week, but as of Tuesday evening, we were told that we need not go. Just before or after lunch on Wednesday, we received a phone call informing us that we needed to go to Coimbatore for the police check for our visa application. We quickly booked our tickets for Thursday morning. We arrived in Coimbatore and headed to the police station. Unfortunately, they had not received the paper work from the FRO office, so they could not do the police check. Agghhhhh!! We went back to the FRO and were told that the person who needs to send the papers had some kind of function and wasn't able to get the papers sent at that time. We were told to come back next Wednesday . . . AGGHHHHHH!!!! So, we smiled sweetly and said we will come back next week. The police will inform the security at our apartment when they want us to come, so we will wait until we get word that they have gone to our apartment. We expect we may have to go back to Coimbatore on Friday.  So, we took some time to enjoy our time in Coimbatore.


The day was pleasant, and we stepped out onto our balcony to take in the view. Ooops! Sister Tiefenbach does not have her name tag on! We don't wear our name tags in Bangalore, except at church and in the office, so we often forget to put them on when we are in Coimbatore. We have to keep reminding ourselves which city we are in. Sometimes, when we wake up early in the morning or during the middle of the night, we forget where we are until we open our eyes and look around the room.










While we were in Coimbatore, we were able to get the missionary apartment inspections done. The missionary apartments had not been inspected since we left in February. Of course, we left a treat with the missionaries when the inspection was done. First, we tell them all the things they need to clean (we also compliment the things they have done well), and then we butter them up with cookies. Elder Mills and Elder Stoll had a very clean apartment, but it wasn't perfect. We managed to find a few ways they could improve their cleaning.


Elders Pydimalla (left) and Elder Massey were definitely excited to receive the cookies. Elder Massey had most of his share of the cookies eaten before we left their apartment. Remember, they get the treat just before we leave. They needed a little more encouragement for cleaning, but we have to admit, the apartment looked a lot better than when they first moved in.






Sister Jackson and Sister Gupta were the last on the list for the apartment inspection. We were happy that they were the last because Sister Punitha called them about where to meet them for lunch. Because we happened to be there, we were also invited to lunch. Sister Punitha and Brother Amalaraj were taking the missionaries out for lunch because two of them, Elder Mills and Sister Gupta, were leaving next week.

Here are Sister Gupta and Sister Punitha. We were so happy that we were able to go for lunch with them - not that we wanted a free lunch, but we were happy to see Brother Amalaraj and Sister Punitha. Because we were going to be in Coimbatore such a short time, we didn't think we would be able to see them. But, we were blessed to be with them.







Here is Brother Amalaraj with Elders Stoll and Mills. Elder Tiefenbach was sitting on the other side of Brother Amalaraj. By the way, Elder Mills will be coming to Bangalore as the new Assistant to the President. We are sad that Elder Bown will be leaving the office, but we are excited to have Elder Mills working more closely with us. We are also happy that  Elder Bown is not going too far; he has been assigned to continue working in Bangalore (Convent Road Branch). That means we will see him periodically. Elder Bown has only about three months left, and the President wanted him to train a new elder.  Elder Bown will be a great trainer. Traning a new missionary is a great way to end a mission. After lunch at this restaurant, the Amalaraj's took everyone for ice cream at ibaco. The ice cream was great! The Amalaraj's drove us to our apartment after the ice cream, and we invited them to come up to our apartment for a visit. We were delighted that they took the time to visit with us. We really enjoyed our time with them. We are so blessed to have them as good friends.

Sister Peddinti (left) and Sister Dhikao seem to be doing well together. Sister Peddinti's English has improved significantly since we first met her a few months ago when we sent her to the MTC. We inspected their apartment, as well, but we didn't take a picture of them at that time.








We left Coimbatore on Saturday morning at 10:20. We did not arrive in our apartment until about 2:25. The trip from Coimbatore to Bangalore is about 40 minutes. The rest was getting from the airport to our apartment. The traffic was horrid! Once at our apartment, we had a bite to eat, and we started to work. Elder Tiefenbach cleaned the light fixtures and changed light bulbs. At least half of the lights were not working in the apartment.

While Elder Tiefenbach was busily cleaning and changing lights, Sister Tiefenbach was baking up a storm. Bread and cinnamon buns were the order for the day. The apartment smelled so good. The cinnamon buns are for the office to share with the missionaries. Unfortunately (very unfortunately) one of the cinnamon buns stuck to the pan and got wrecked, so we were forced to eat it. We couldn't possibly give a deformed cinnamon bun the missionaries!




We love this tree outside the church in Bangalore (not Coimbatore). We know we are in Bangalore when we see this tree. We love how it grows out flat. The leaves are changing colours right now to a wonderful red, and many have fallen to the ground.








We may have been mixed up a few times, saying we are in Bangalore instead of Coimbatore or visa versa, and we may have been not sure which apartment we were in until we opened our eyes, but we know the path that we are on. We know that "the way for man is narrow, but lieth in a straight course before him, and the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel (2 Nephi 9:41). Nephi taught us to "enter into the narrow gate, and walk the strait path which leads to life (2 Nephi 33:9). As we press forward on the path that leads to the tree of life, we can partake of the fruit that is "most sweet, above all that [we] ever tasted," that "it may fill [our] soul[s] with exceedingly great joy" (1 Nephi 8:11, 12).