Come, Let Us Anoop!

The week between Christmas and New Years can be rather disorienting, you never quite know what day it really is, when Monday feels like a Saturday but then you get up and go to work instead of church! It seems we've been 1 day off all week and here it is Saturday again with the promise of another 3 day weekend. Have you been like us, trying to wolf down all your holiday goodies this week so you can start afresh with new eating goals for the new year? Oh, the irony. December has literally been a CarbFest every day, fellow missionaries have been bringing goodies to share at the Discovery Zone and we confess we have freely partaken. Tis the season, right? Keto Shmeto.  Well it's time to Anoop! This word became part of our vocabulary when we once went on a cruise and our steward's name was Anoop from India. (Little did we know then) We would leave our cabin in disarray but when we returned, everything was sparkly and organized. We loved when our world had been anooped! And so today we prepare for a new beginning, symbolized by the changing of the calendar to a new year. The thing is, every day we can be anooped, and every week we can partake of the Sacrament in remembrance of Christ's Atonement, this is the greatest renewal of all where, if we approach it with a humble heart and contrite spirit for the things we didn't do our best at or really failed at, we are freely forgiven by our Savior through this ordinance and our slate has been wiped clean by his mercy, and we feel encouraged and ready to commit ourselves to becoming a better version of ourselves the coming week. So if you're like us, yearly resolutions feel a bit unattainable, but when we approach repentance and change on a daily and weekly basis, they are more doable. We are absolutely loving this missionary lifestyle with prayer, daily scripture study, temple attendance and service built right into our schedule. We couldn't recommend serving missions and doing these daily rituals more highly. We are glad to know that 2023 will be filled with more of these same joy-producing habits.

We've been amazed once again at how the Lord doth provide for our needs. Last week, when we attended the early morning devotional at our old Sandy ward, good friends Steve & Jana Eliason asked us if we would be interested in using their missionary son's car that is sitting in their garage while we're here in SLC. Oh, would we ever! We really only need it to go grocery shopping and to the temple weekly but this has greatly simplified our life to not use TRAX or beg a ride from other missionaries. Thank you Eliasons!

Let us rejoice with one Accord!

And there's a cute story with my red ear muffs too. Our first week here, we met Tab, a sweet simple man who comes every weekday to the Library. I asked him if Tab was short for another name. No, in fact his father added Tab to the beginning of his name when he blessed him in church because his parents had a little joke about naming him after the Tabernacle Choir but mom was a little unhappy that he actually did it! Anyhoo..he was wearing a pair of gray earmuffs and I asked him where I could buy some just like his, pronto! I am so bothered by the cold. He said he'd find out. I asked the same question of our friends the Eppersons the next day where I could buy some in Salt Lake and they, being the giving souls that they are, gave me a gray pair they had on hand. But then back at the library on Monday, Tab presented me with a pair of bright red ones which I felt to graciously accept from him. What a dear! So now I had two pair. But not for long. That weekend I was wearing the gray pair as we were walking on W. Temple just outside our apartment. We met a sweet lady named Marie who had the happiest smile (but only 1 visible tooth!) She's not homeless, she lives somewhere nearby but looked very underdressed for the cold. She pointed to our badges and recognized us as missionaries. At that moment, I knew we were representing Jesus Christ and without any premeditation, I found myself taking off the gray earmuffs and putting them on her ears all pre-warmed. Her eyes lit up, she was so happy with them, just like a little child at Christmas! We all went away from the encounter rejoicing in our hearts. I felt so grateful for Dwight & Jillyn Epperson, and for Tab too, for they were really the givers of the gift for Marie but I knew the warmth we felt in our hearts was from The Savior himself. "Inasmuch as ye do it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

The happiest moment this week was arriving at the Discovery Zone Friday Afternoon after a morning at the temple to see our dearest friend, Grant Collier from St George! He completely surprised us with his visit!

A joyful reunion!

Grant, finding a a 64% resemblance to Philo T Farnsworth.

The Colliers brought the warmth of St George to us. 

We invite any of you visiting Salt Lake in the month of January to pop in unannounced like Grant did and visit the Discovery Zone and see you one more time before we're off to India.   Want to read more about the FHLibrary from Rob's perspective?...Click below:

Rob "In The Zone"

 We did receive another email from the Indian mission office. No change of status on our visas, but a change in city assignments. We won't be serving in Hyderabad like they told us last email, now they would like us to serve in the farthest southern area of the mission called Coimbatore, which is in the southern tip of India, but not near the ocean. There is no stake there yet, just a district with a few branches. How exciting and challenging! It's a good thing we hadn't learned too much Telagu phrases they speak in Hyderabad, now we will try to familiarize ourselves with the Tamil language! From what we learned from the internet, it seems like a lovely place to be, it's even nearer to Pondicherry, where the movie Life of Pi was filmed. We are up to any assignment where we can be of help to strengthen the young adults in that area. 

To keep our sights and hearts focused on India while we wait, we decided to find an Indian movie we could watch for free on Youtube last night. We found the Indian re-creation of Forrest Gump called "Lall Singh Chaddi", completely in Hindi with no subtitles and unlike the American version, PG.

It ran 2 hours and 47 minutes but we sat fascinated from beginning to end. Because we knew the story pretty well, it was easy to follow the plot without understanding a word. They of course added musical numbers or it wouldn't be a true Bollywood movie, in our opinion. Occasionally they'd use some English phrases, also they adapted it to show the significant events in Indian history that Lall was involved in that we had no clue about; the uprisings and civil wars in the 60's-70's, the Indira Ghandi assasination in the 80's, etc. The main character reminded us a little too much of Mr. Bean, still we found the movie charming overall and learned some interesting things too, especially about the Sikhs.

Lall with Lt. Dan equivalent

After the movie, we researched a bit to learn that there has been historical and ongoing religious persecution towards the Sikhs. In the movie, his mother put his uncut hair in a little bun, covered with the most unique little hat or sometimes a full headcap that looked much like a pair of pantyhose pulled over the hair. When an uprising was portrayed and there was killing and brutality in the streets against Sikhs, it showed his mom cutting off his hair to protect him from the rioters. 

The original manbun.

It's so fascinating to see the many parallels in Eastern religions to biblical Christianity, like the Nazarenes who never cut their hair as a token of religious piety. And it doesn't seem to matter what country, the fighting over religion and political power seems to be a recurring theme, doesn't it? What we know to be true and want to share with the people of India is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Prince of Peace and that he is the true hope of world peace. But until the blessed day that we are all united in faith in Him, we will respect and honor all the religions we encounter in India; Hindu, Moslem, Sikh, and other Christian faiths. We are all children of God and he loves ALL his children! 

Happy New Year 2023