Basking in the varmth

 Ahhhhh...Do you recall the pleasure of inching down into a hot tub after you have been chilled to the bone? Isn't it glorious to finally feel warm again and to feel the ache and tenseness leave your neck and shoulders because you've been hunched and bracing yourself against an icy blast for too long? This is how it feels to finally be settling into India!! We have been so warmly received here and it is a warm happy experience any time we get to interact with the Indian Saints and even the regular throngs of people on the street are gracious too. They are very curious about us so we get many stares but as we make eye contact with them and smile they respond with a head wobble or a smile or a namaste gesture in return. We try to always have a friendly approachable smile on our face at all times and it's interesting that by merely doing that, we have warm positive interactions constantly. Try it sometime as you walk down a street! (It doesn't hurt our spirits that the temperature is warm too. Nice!) 

Despite no badge wearing on the street, we're feeling like missionaries.

What a great week we've had fulfilling our "District" Young Single Adult Program calling, (because Coimbatore isn't a stake yet, we must be DYSAP instead of SYSAP missionaries) Our first delight was in teaching Kishore, a young man preparing to leave on his mission, the Temple Prep lessons over Zoom. 

 Because he's leaving next Friday, we had to squish 6 lessons into 3 meetings but we got the job done and bonded with him in the process. We just sat in complete awe at his goodness, his faith in Christ, and his preparation. We'll love them all as they come along but Kishore will be special to us because he broke us in and was so patient with our technology ineptness. 

Secondly, we got asked to attend a Ramathanapuram (Auto correct thought I was trying to spell Aromatherapy! ) Branch Young Adult FHE on Tuesday. We again were blown away to see this small group of returned missionaries, a few prospective missionaries, and even the current sister missionaries speak about their faith and testimonies of Jesus Christ and sharing His restored Gospel to the people of India. These are powerful and faithful young adults! We're not teaching them anything they don't already know. We provided treats and introduced them to the game "Do you love your neighbor?" followed by a short message about the Good Samaritan that we've been studying in Come Follow Me this week that asks that very question. To feel the Spirit strongly followed by good hearty laughs as we played together did something so satisfying to our souls.We walked home after being with them, floating on clouds of joy. 

                    Better than aromatherapy 

                 Branch leader Akash, B'gosh

But the granddaddy of them all was a District-wide Young Adult gathering today on Saturday for an entire day-long event. What a marathon! They do not seem to tire of talking about the gospel. There is no restlessness or boredom in their attitudes whatsoever. 

       For the strength of youth...to sit this long

Here's a first for church rolls-There are nearly twice as many brothers as sisters in the ranks in Coimbatore. 

How often do you see a counselor in the District Presidency single and this young? So glad it's a thing now.

Lunch was amazingly scrumptious. This is how you feed 40 young adults. 

       Biryani in a bucket. No utensils required 

 They asked us to take one hour of the day for a workshop teaching English skills, Celestial marriage preparation, and any other gospel subjects we wanted. Originally our time was 1-2pm right after lunch. I think we started our part at 2:30 by the time everything else ran over. No problem! We are starting to understand IST- Indian Stretchy Time. One activity of the 3 we did was doing an English MadLib game with a job cover letter. They weren't quite sure how to get silly...the craziest word they could come up with was peacock. 

  One funny thing we've noticed is the consistent switching of their Vs and Ws. It must be the Indian English they learn in school because for example, they velcome wolunteers. Rather than correct them, we've decided to join them. Wish I'd known this when we were Wisa Vaiters! 

Rob in his element, loving them wery vell.

Spinning a web of gratitude activity 

Such beautiful young adults

Kishore in the flesh

The institute teacher asked this young man to leave the class. He politely left. We thought it was for wearing his hat in the church but then he came right back wearing it still. We were so confused so we asked her later what that was all about. It was for chewing gum! Remember when that was a thing? 

A shy first-time inwestigator hopefully caught in the veb of fellowship.

So yeah, life is good again. The prayer caller blends in seamlessly with our dream soundscape now. No more mosquitos, jet lag is done, and lots of time with young people who inspire us and motivate us to be believers of the Word in thought and deed. Yea, werrily werrily, I say unto you, if all people would be like unto the young adults of India, behold the very powers of hell would be shaken forever, yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.