As Summer Draws to a Close in Coimbatore

As summer draws to a close and the schools re-open their doors from the one month break, work begins on re-doing a roof before the monsoon rains come. These men are almost finished removing the old roof. They later built up the centre peak so that only one roof covers all four sections. Previously, the roof had two peaks. We do not know whether the home is one house or two. We have tried to figure this out, but we have not been successful. The week has now ended, and the new roof has not been started. The rains are supposed to begin late next week, so hopefully, they will finish before that. We can monitor their progress from our apartment balcony.

Some men were cutting the grass in the green space in our apartment complex. These men worked several hours cutting the grass with their shears. This is not the way we plan to cut our grass when we get back to Canada.

We stopped on the way home from picking up a few groceries to check out the trucking business here. We see many small trucks that deliver goods to stores, but we also see this type of delivery system. Interestingly, the drivers do not tie up their cows. They simply leave them as they go into the shops to conduct their business. As soon as the driver jumps back into the wagon, the cow begins to move. 

We spent one afternoon in a part of Coimbatore called Vadavalli. We went with Elder Aruldoss and Elder Bean. Elder Aruldoss is from India, and Elder Bean is from Utah. This area is more rural than the part of Coimbatore where we live. We took the bus there. It was our very first bus ride in India. We do not take the bus  on our own, but we had the elders to make sure we didn't get lost. We met with a family in Vadavalli and left a gospel message. We saw some wild peacocks while we were there, but we did not take pictures.

We were fortunate to get a seat on the trip there and on the way back. Each way cost 13 rupies per person, which is 26 cents. The trip there took about 45 minutes, and the trip back took a little over an hour. Buses are very cheap here.

Elder Tiefenbach decided that his second haircut was needed. This barber charges the young missionaries 50 rupies ($1.00), but he must think we have more money because he charges Elder Tiefenbach 60 rupies ($1.20). Very nice looking harircut!

One of the assignments we have been given by the mission president's wife is to inspect the elders' apartments to make sure they clean them. The day we went to this apartment happened to be Elder Hodgson's birthday. We knew before hand, so we made a cake for him. He was happy to have something special for his birthday. His last birthday was spent flying to India from Utah, and he felt sick. He was born in Australia. His mother is from India, and his father is from England. They have lived in the United States for the past 14 or so years, so he considers himself to be an American. We were happy to make this day a better day than his birthday last year.

This past week, we began to teach English classes. We hope that more people will come as they come to know about the classes.

The Week After Conference

This week is a short post for the blog. We were busy, but we spent more time doing the blog for the conference.

I made carrot cake for the district missionary meeting on Tuesday (May 29). This is all that was left. I can't get cream cheese here, so I had to go with plain icing. The butter here is a bit darker than in Canada, so the icing was not as white as it normally is. The cake disappeared very quickly. If I had made three cakes, they would have all been eaten. The missionaries  really appreciate the homemade treats. Sister Funk, the mission president's wife, told us that the missionaries told her that they are happy that Sister Tiefenbach makes treats for them every week. Elder Tiefenbach enjoys eating the baked treats, as well.

We went shopping on Wednesday afternoon. We hire Brother Augustine to take us shopping when we have several places to go or when we know we will be buying a large quantity of groceries. His car is quite old, and it does not have air conditioning, but Brother Augustine knows where all the places are that we want to go to. He also waits for us while we do our shopping. In fact, he always comes into the stores with us, which has been helpful many times when we have communication problems with the people in the stores.

On Wednesday evening, we attended a family history meeting at the church. Elder and Sister Gibb (the area family history advisors) were in Coimbatore and wanted to meet with the consultants, the director of the family history center, and us. We were at the church from 4:00 to 8:00. After the meeting, we went out for dinner with the Gibbs and Sister Shanthi (the director) and her husband President Arul (president of Coimbatore 2nd branch). We went to an Italian restaurant - yes, Italian. It was very good. We will go there again sometime.

Sister Tiefenbach has been helping a girl learn to play the piano. That is right!! Sister Tiefenbach cannot play the piano, but she is teaching other people to play. This girl has a good ear for music. Sister Tiefenbach taught this girl lessons on Thursday and Saturday.

Speaking of ears, Elder Tiefenbach bought Sister Tiefenbach some garnet earrings for her birthday on Friday. She likes them a lot. Sister Tiefenbach asked Elder Tiefenbach not to bake a cake because she had eaten cake two days during the week and did not want any more.

On Friday afternoon, we met with the Mission President to talk about the work we are doing here, and he also gave us some more ideas of things that we could do. We had a wonderful visit with him and his wife.

Tonight, we made mango/banana smoothies. Mmmmmmm.

YSA and Stake Conference - Hyderabad, India

We had the great experience of participating in an all India YSA (Young Single Adults) conference in Hyderabad from May 25 - 27. This group is for young single adults between the ages of 18 and 31. For this conference, singles up to ages 37 and 38 attended. On the same week-end, we also were privileged to be part of a conference for the church where the first Stake of the church in India was organized.

 

On Wednesday, May 23, we began our journey by having our picture taken with the two women who clean the apartment building and look after the plants. They are wonderful women who love to have us say hello to them. They don't speak English, but they are thrilled to associate with us. They make our days fun. Taking these pictures gave us something to do while we were waiting for the taxi to pick us up to go to the airport.

 

The hotel had two buildings: Green Park Hotel and the Marigold Hotel. This is the outside of the Marigold. All the meetings and activities for the conference were held in this building. Our hotel room was in the Green Park part. All foreigners had to stay in the Green Park.

All the missionary couples worked a long day on Thursday getting all the packets ready for the YSA. We had approximately 600 attend the conference. The missionaries here are [right front] Elder Zobell(Warner, AB), [left front and then going back] Elder and Sister Meyers (USA - serving in Sri Lanka), Elder Hatch (Cardston, AB), Sister Allison (Cochrane, AB), Elder Tiefenbach (Regina, SK).

 

We had computers working to get name tags, etc. ready for the registration packets.

 

 

Sister Wigg (from Calgary) was the official photographer. She was busy everyday documenting the conference. She had the wonderful experience of being with the General Authorities of the church throughout the week-end.

The young single adults arrived throughout Friday morning, beginning at about 4:30 a.m. We did not get up that early, but Sister Wigg and Elder and Sister Kellerstrass (from the USA and serving in Sri Lanka) were up early to meet the first train. They deserve a special thanks. Elder Kellerstrass and Sister Tiefenbach are talking with Rooben from Coimbatore.

The highlight of the YSA conference was the devotional on Friday morning when Elders Oaks (from the Quorum of Twelve), Hallstrom, and Perkins spoke. Their wives also spoke, and the wives spoke at a devotional on Saturday morning while Elders Oaks, Hallstrom, and Perkins were busy with the organization of the stake. This picture shows the YSA as they wait for the devotional to start. If you look way at the back, you will see Sister Tiefenbach (dressed in black and white). She is checking the sound quality/balance of the choir. Elder and Sister Allison from Cochrane, AB are seated in the front row.

The participants in the conference had time for some fun and games. Elder Tiefenbach and I were in charge of this part of the conference. This game is called "Return of the Ring." They formed two lines and had to pass the ring up and down the line. Which ever team finished first was the winner.

Here, they decided to play the same game while standing in a circle and holding hands. They had to pass the "ring" from person to person without breaking the hand clasp. Two rings were going around the circle in the opposite direction. The person who ended up with both rings had to step out of the circle, so no one wanted to be caught with both of them. They had a great time.







Elder Tiefenbach and Sister Tiefenbach had some helpers from an organization called Help International. They conducted the games under our direction. This is Brooke, from Utah, giving instructions for a "get to know you" game.












These are two YSA women from Coimbatore, Sister Beena and Sister Shaymala. They recently retured from missions in the Philippines.

The YSA loved the "Giants, Wizards, and Elves" game. Giants beat elves; wizards beat giants; elves beat wizards. Then the race begins to capture members of the "losing" category. They had a great time with this game.

 

Many of the participants took part in a family history workshop. We had many computers available, so everyone was able to have personal time as they began their family trees.

 After the dance on Saturday night, many of the young single adults grouped together for pictures. They had a great time posing for their pictures. The YSA especially enjoyed watching the couples dance. Sister Tiefenbach helped demonstrate a line dance.

This was the view outside our hotel room window. These men are constructing a new building. They have a unique way to build things here, and as you can see, safety measures are not the same as we experience in Canada.

After the YSA conference, we attended the Stake Conference where the first stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in India was created. The Stake Conference was held at the Novotel, which is a huge conference centre and hotel. The formation of a stake was a significant event for the members of the church in India. With a stake, the local members have more responsibility and authority. It also prepares them to have a temple in India. Presently, they have to travel to Hong Kong to attend the temple, which takes a considerable amount of time and money.

Sister Gibb and Elder and Sister Sharma are taking time out after the conference to talk about family history. Elder and Sister Sharma are from New Delhi, and are serving as family history missionaries in Hyderbad. Elder and Sister Gibb are from the USA and are serving as Area Family History Advisors for the Asia area. They are serving out of Hong Kong. (Elder Gibb is not in the picture, obviously.)

Elder and Sister Sharma have been wonderful to us. We first met them when we had our couples conference shortly after we arrived in India. She could tell that we were not used to the new culture, etc. and simply showed us a lot of love. They brighten our hearts whenever we see them. If we have time left on our visas when our mission is over, we plan to take an additional 7 or 8 days and go to visit them in Delhi so they can show us around that area.

 

Preparation Day with the Missionaries

On Monday, we spent much of the day with the missionaries. The missionaries have every Monday to have some fun and get things like laundry done. Elder Tiefenbach played cricket with the missionaries and some youth. Sister Tiefenbach cheered them on.

This is one of the youth that played with them. The day was HOT, HOT, HOT!!!




After playing crickett, we went bowling at Brookfields Mall. We had a lot of fun. We had several spectators.











Sister Tiefenbach's first throw resulted in a strike. She impressed everyone, including herself. The rest of the game did not go as well for her.

On the other hand, Elder Tiefenbach walked away as the champion, with a score of 111. He is my hero.



We took a few minutes to pick up a few things at the grocery store at the mall, and most of us met for a picture. The two missionaries who have their dress clothes on did not play crickeet; they had some mission business to do that morning, but they were able to bowl.










The next day was the missionary district meeting. We made chocolate chip cookies for it. They turned out very well. We could only cook 6 cookies at a time, so the whole batch took about 3 hours to finish. They were much appreciated.

Orphanage and Family History Training

We had some mirrors and lights installed in our apartment this past week. We are happy to have mirrors and lights over the bathroom sinks.

The mirrors and lights make shaving for Elder Tiefenbach and make-up application for Sister Tiefenbach much easier. We were also able to get another light in the kitchen. Previously, the only light was hidden behind the valence of the cupboards. This light is above the kitchen sink.

We baked a chocolate cake for our weekly district missionary meeting. The missionaries loved it. The sugar is different here - it is far coarser, which made creaming the butter, sugar, and eggs interesting, especially without an electric mixer. Needless to say, the results were not the same. Also, the power went out half way through baking the first pan. We can only cook one pan at a time because we have a microwave/convection oven combination. We left the one cake in the oven and put the uncooked one in the fridge. About four hours later, after the power came back on, we decided to try to finish baking the first cake. Surprisingly, the cake rose again. I didn't think it would do that, but I thought it was worth a shot. We should have taken a picture of the cakes, but we didn't think of it. We will get used to taking more pictures to document our activities. For the week coming up, we plan to make chocolate chip cookies for the district meeting. I found some sugar at a different store that is not quiet as coarse, but it is still coarser than the kind we buy in Canada. We had a difficult time finding a pan that I could use for baking the cookies. The only thing that we found was something that looks like a non-stick pie plate.

I get the same response from all the stores whenever I ask if they have any metal baking pans. They don't know what I am talking about.

We had a wonderful experience visiting with some teenage boys at the Families for Children Orphanage. They have been learning English, and we were there for them to practice the things they had learned. School vacation is occurring right now in India, so these boys were involved in what they call "summer camp." It is not a boy scout type of camp; it is a learning camp. They seem to really like learning. We wonder how many teen-aged boys in Canada would consider spending their summer vacation learning another language. The boys loved having us there. We hope to go back again. Possibly, we can get some pictures together and teach them some things about Canada.

We haven't taken any pictures while we were at the orphanage because they don't allow pictures to be taken; however, we were able to get a picture of some "kids" on our way back.

Our Saturday was spent at a Family History Consultant Training meeting. Sister Tiefenbach gave a one hour presentation at the meeting. We had mature women, teenagers, and one mature man attend the meeting.

We all went to a restaurant for lunch, and the women who attended the meeting took very good care of us at the restaurant, making sure that we could have a good experience with Indian food (i.e., they ordered for us so we could be sure that we didn't get spicey food.) We had butter pannier (not sure of spelling). It is the same sauce as butter chicken, but instead of chicken, it had some kind of cheese chunks. We also had naan bread with it. It was very tastey.

 Today, in addition to attending two sets of church meetings, we attended a baptism. The brother dressed in white baptized his sister (dressed in white). We left our apartment at 9:30 in the morning and returned shortly after 6:30 p.m. We stayed late after all the meetings were over to assiste several of the young adults open an account for the church's family history program that they will need for the conference next week-end.The day was very rewarding.

We are excited about going to Hyderabad on Wednesday for the all India Young Single Adult Conference (single adults ages 18/19 - 31). Elder and Sister Tiefenbach will be going prior to the confernece to help get things ready for the arrival of the young adults. We will be helping with the family history computer center, as well as whatever other assignments that we will be given.

Shifting in Coimbatore

This is the church building in Coimbatore. Two branches meet in this building. We have the opportunity to work with both branches. That means that we are at church from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. every Sunday. We enjoy meeting with the members of the church here. They make us feel very welcome.


 The building and the grounds are quite beautiful. We hope that everyone can tell by the pictures that the day was hot and sunny.

We were able to spend some time with some young people during the week. We "played" cricket for a while - well we didn't actually play a game; we hit the ball while a young man threw the ball to us. The security guard kept telling Elder Tiefenbach that he needed to hit the ball harder and that he should hit the ball with more spirit, like Sister Tiefenbach. After we played cricket, Sister Tiefenbach helped a young woman of about 13 years learn about the piano. In the Coimbatore branches, Sister Tiefenbach is the music expert. That is way too funny. We enjoyed our afternoon with them.

We shifted our apartment on Thursday. That means that we moved to our new apartment. We were excited to finally be closer to the church so we don't have to get a taxi everytime we need to go to the church. We will still need taxis to go shopping. We have no shopping close to us.

This is most of our belongings. How many trucks like this would it take to shift all our things in Regina? This makes us think about the things we really need. Mind you, our appliances and furniture were delivered separately. And, we definitely were barely getting by with the things we had. We did not want to acquire too much so our move would be easier. We had about 3 more bags that we took in the taxi. They looked far too precarious perched on top of everything else.


After moving, we were able to shop, shop, and shop. We had to make up for the shortages we had. We didn't buy anything extravagant. Things like flour and sugar were on our list. We also needed household items like garbage containers, etc. For the last two shopping trips, we hired a brother from one of the branches here. He has an old, old car (1940's or 50's) with no airconditioning and worn out seats, but we can rely on him. He drove us to the shops and stayed with us when we shopped. This all took 3 hours from the time he picked us up to the time he dropped us at home. He charges us 500 rupees, which is about $10.00. We don't mind paying extra because hiring him saves us a lot of time we would waste by waiting for a regular taxi.

We have two photos so everyone can compare the surroundings of our old apartment to our new one.







This is the area for our old apartment with quiet streets and beautiful trees.









This is the view from our balcony of our new apartment.

Welcome. Please come in and visit for awhile.

Take a seat. We can prepare something for you to eat with our new FOUR burner stove. We also have a microwave/convection oven. Maybe, we can make a chocolate cake now that we have flour and sugar. Mind you, the sugar is much coarser here, so we are not sure whether or not baking will turn our the same. We are still looking for some metal baking pans so we can possible make pizza.

If you need laundry done, we can certainly accommodate that. We have no dryer, so you would likely have to stay the night while the clothes dry.

 Today, Mother's Day, Sister Tiefenbach taught the primary children (children aged 3 - 12) a Mother's Day song. After they learned the song, they all went to sing the song to the women in Relief Society. (Relief Society is the women's organization of the church.) Sister Tiefenbach also received three roses from the two branches.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. Enjoy the day.