On the Move

This week was a week where we were on the move. Elder Tiefenbach took some down time before the hectic week began. Our week involved preparing for and carrying out the move of the office. The new office is about a half hour to one hour away from our old office. If traffic is light, the travel time is about half an hour; if it is heavy, the time is one hour.

We began doing some packing of the office on Monday, but we still had to carry on with our work, as well. Sister Tiefenbach was busy getting registration packets ready for nine missionaries who needed to register in their new areas, and Elder Tiefenbach was up to his elbows in making lease arrangements and making payments. On Tuesday, we had a farewell for three elders who completed their missions. The Berretts had decorated their home on Monday, and we had the pleasure of seeing the beautiful Christmas decorations. Sister Berrett had many nativity sets displayed. They had collected the nativity sets from various places around the world.

Here we see a blend of the spiritual part of Christmas and the fun part with Father Christmas.

The Christmas tree was beautiful. They had purchased the tree in Kong Hong when they were there, and they had it shipped over with the rest of their belongings.

The three missionaries heading home were (left to right) Elder Thomas (from Bangalore), Elder Watts (from Australia), and Elder Thanniru (from Vizak). We have worked closely with Elder Thomas and Elder Thanniru in Coimbatore. Elder Thanniru was one of our district leaders. He always made us feel part of the district by giving us assignments in our district meetings. We appreciated the way he worked hard to include us. We never felt like two old people sitting in on a meeting that was meant only for the young missionaries. We came to know and appreciate Elder Watts after he became a zone leader in Coimbatore (not while we were there). He would come into Bangalore for the missionary leader council once a month.





 This picture was taken on Wednesday morning, which was our last walk in the park. We took a picture with our walking friends. We only know the name of one of them, Santosh (beside Elder Tiefenbach). Santosh is the man who has given us many t-shirts. Both of us are wearing t-shirts made by his company. The man beside Sister Tiefenbach always arrived at the park before his other walking companions. We will miss seeing them every weekday morning. They were sad that we were moving away.




In this picture, you can see the other man that walks with them. There is often one more man who comes to the park with this group, but he usually walks ahead of them, so we didn't get his picture.

This is our old office on Wednesday morning. We still had work to do amidst all the boxes. By the end of the day, we were all packed and ready for the truck to begin transferring all the boxes to the new office. It was a hectic day, but we had to keep up our energetic mode so we could work hard for the next several days.







We both worked as long as we could before getting all our files and other things packed. Doing our work with chaos around us was challenging, but we successfully did it. We shall miss the old office with its many amenities.

We were at the new office by 9:00 a.m. ready to start unpacking. Unfortunately, all the boxes had been put in the president's office (much to his dismay), and the person with the key to the office did not arrive until between 10:00 and 10:30. We kept ourselves busy by washing the work stations. The office really was not ready for us to move in. We see President William (first counselor in the mission presidency and managing director of The Indian Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [the legal identity in India]). We are sure we were engaged in a highly profound discussion here!

 On Wednesday afternoon, we also met Elder Gottipatti who arrived early that morning from the States. He finally received his OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) card, so he was able to join us after serving temporarily in Arkansas. This picture was taken the next day at the new office building. Elder Gottipatti is serving in Bangalore, so we will likely see him several times. We hope the missionaries will still be able to drop by the office. The office is very far from most of the missionaries in Bangalore.




Sister D'Souza arrived late Wednesday night, and we were able to greet her on Thursday, as well. We always love welcoming the missionaries back home after completing their time at the MTC. This picture was taken prior to her leaving. Unfortunately, we neglected to take a picture of her on Thursday. Perhaps the busyness of unpacking through our routine out a bit. She will be serving in Chennai with Sister Peter.

We travelled to and from the new office to our Indiranagar apartment on both Thursday and Friday. What a commute!! We travelled by auto, which makes the trip even more exciting. We continue to be amazed as we watch the cars, autos, and motorcycles weave in and out of the "lanes." Sometimes, the vehicles are only a couple of inches apart. Nevertheless, the drivers don't seem to be stressed. During our commutes, we also became keenly aware of the pollution. First, the fumes of the vehicles was often choking. We developed sore throats on the two days we travelled by auto. Since we moved, our throats are fine. In this picture, you can see the setting sun. The reason the sun looks so diffused is because of the pollution.





 Here is a picture that shows the closeness of the vehicles. Seriously, many times, we would be able to reach out and touch the passengers in the auto driving next to us.











Saturday was the day we moved to our new apartment.We are ready to move the apartment! We could not believe the amount of things we needed to move. Going home will be so much easier. We will simply pack our suitcases and walk out the door.

 We had a lot of help. President Berrett gave permission for some of the elders to help  us. We could NOT have done it without them. In the truck, we have (left to right) Elder Potula, Elder Bown, and Elder O'Dell. On the ground is the truck driver, Elder Gottipatti, Elder Singh, Shankar (office assistant), Sampath (Presdent's driver), and Baskar (the auto driver we and the Smith's use). They all pitched in and made our move easier.




We fed everyone Dominos pizza after we got the first truck load unloaded. Thank you so much for all the help!

This is our new apartment. We have the old furniture of the old mission office temporarily until the mission home moves into its new location. We (or the new office couple) will then get some of the furniture from the mission home. We have a gas leak in the stove, so some of the drawers are out until the leak gets fixed. Making meals is getting a bit tricky without the stove. Mind you, making meals is getting tricky because we don't have food left. We cut down on our grocery shopping before the move so we wouldn't have a lot of food to take. The down side of that is that we didn't have time to go shopping on Saturday. Consequently, our meals have been inventive.

No matter where we move, we always seem to be able to make it our home. We are always warmly welcomed into our new branches where ever we go, and the people are excited to see us. We also have the gospel of Jesus Christ, which binds us together and gives us a feeling of belonging. Our family also is united with us. These are the elements of home. As we are on the move from one place to another, we can always feel at home when we remember the Lord's promise when he tells us, "I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up" (D&C 84:88).