All Creatures Great and Small

 Caption this photo! It was sent to me by a friend taken at a Relief Society activity. It seems to me like I'm reenacting Noah's wife's reaction to all the chaos of the Ark. "Noah, do we really have to deal with this zoo for the next 40 days and nights?! How can we sleep with this constant din? I dubs not to clean the elephant cage!" 

So although I'm not an award winning photographer with my cheap Walmart TracFone, we've had a few encounters with the animal world while here in India that I've tried to capture on film. Some I will just have to tell you about as vividly as I can without a sound recording or picture. 

Every morning, we awaken to the sound of 3 distinct species of birds, competing for air time. The loudest of the three is the WhoopWhoop birds, that in essence do the same job as roosters. They get whooping faster and faster and higher and higher in pitch. One will start and encite another until you have an intense competitive cacophony you couldn't possibly dream through. We can tune out the Moslem prayer caller by now but not these noisemakers. You would think they'd be these wild, colorful, and exotic looking bird but are in fact, a drab, colorless, black and grayish crow look-alike.

 Next, is a species that we have never actually seen but coined their sound as saying "for real, for real, for real." Incessantly! They give us a constant reality check. Yes, you really are here in a foreign country living the mission you requested and prayed for. You are not dreaming anymore. This is FOR REAL for real! 

Lastly, there is the one we call The Squeaky Wheel who drones on and on endlessly with his sweet one-note chirp that if focused on, can drive you to absolute madness. Somebody, get this bird some grease, please! We will associate these unique sounds with early India mornings for the rest of our life and perhaps someday we'll fondly miss them. As for now...it's good we don't have access to slingshots. It's all part of helping us become patient in every circumstance so it's ok. 

Other more pleasant avian encounters: 

An "ostentation" of peacocks in the local cemetery. This pride is either female or juvenile males that haven't reached the full maturity of their plumage but on closer inspection you can already see the beautiful coloring on their necks.

One slightly less ostentatious

The peacock is the Indian national bird. This is an open funeral conveyance honoring it and the deceased.

                A new breed- the dinoturkcock!

We have seen some colorful birds in the trees

                        A trunk knot for a canvas

And once we were absolutely positive we saw a dead bat in the top of a tree. Ew.

             Turned out to only be dead leaves

Little skinny mini horses we have seen on occasion.

                            Hello Mr Eddie!

  Not usually taking a dip in the lake

  but sure, why not? 

And cows are a common sight, but it's the incongruous settings that always surprise us.

                 On the side of a busy highway

Dumpster diving in our lane

                 And inside our church gate

       (We're pretty sure this is a Christian cow)

I've mentioned before that every street has dogs. Itchy and Scratchy are our local canines.

Scratchy once followed us across the busy four lane highway to the Race Course and we've not seen him since. Well did he ever return? No he never returned and his fate is still unlearned. He may roam forever on the streets of India. He's the dog that never returned. (Heheh)

Now, if bees count as an animal, look at this-

we were amazed to find this perfectly shaped beehive!

                       In their lovely Deseret

Gratefully we haven't seen a single snake yet.  But we do have some ravenous wolves we see pretty regularly, always on the prowl for their next meal:

They don't merely butter their banana bread,

they frost it! 

Any senior missionary couple will tell you part of their mission duty is to keep their hungry pack of mancubs well fed at district meeting! 

Then there are even more rare sightings of strange little creatures on social media

                                Hello Kitty?

For a rare treat, we got a 2nd-hand sighting of an elephant in the wild from our Branch President when they were in Mysore. 

Last to report, our longest and most devoted English Group friend Balu, gave us a very special gift of this book. He works for the forestry division of the government and sees wild elephants all the time in his job. He calls Elder Dunlap "Bear." 

   The title of the book is "The Elephant Doctor"

We were so touched by this gesture of friendship. To reciprocate, we felt the time was right to give him a copy of The Book of Mormon in Tamil, with the hope that his heart is prepared to receive it. 

Well, that's our zoo. I guess the only thing left to see while we're here in India would be a Bengal tiger. Or maybe a curelom or cumom! 

C'mon Noah! Let's enjoy this animal cruise while we can! 

"Having all manner of cattle, of oxen, and cows, and of sheep, and of swine, and of goats, and also many other kinds of animals which were useful for the food of man. 

And also they had horses and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms, all of which were useful to man, and more, especially the elephants..."

Ether 9:18-19

Pioneers and Indians

 About a month ago, in the middle of the intersection we cross daily where 8 roads converge into a spaghetti bowl of mass traffic confusion, emerged a mystery statue on an island hidden behind green screens. Little by little as the wind blew, the screens drooped and eventually sagged down and finally blew off, we could see that it was two men driving a wagon pulled by two oxen. It almost looked like something out of the old west or a pioneer museum. Except on closer look, you notice these are Brahmin cows with their distinctive hump. Also missing are reins and whip, so maybe these minor touches will be added once the official unveiling happens, after all what we're seeing is only the sneak peek.

It got us wondering what historical event this statue might be depicting or what other significance to putting it in the middle of an intersection for all to see. The running of Italy's Pamplona bulls? The Mormon Trail Pioneers crossing the plains? Maybe it's simply a subliminal message to slow down traffic, we see real cows saunter down the road all the time, oblivious to the frenetic pace of automation. Maybe it's simply an homage to the sacred cows who need no reins to guide them. At any rate, it caused us to reflect on our pioneer heritage every time we passed it. With the nearing of Pioneer Day in the state of Utah, it must have given us the subliminal idea to try teaching the Indian young adults a pioneer dance at our next District gathering. So try we did today. They were definitely skittish at first, especially the guys when we told them this was our aim. (Maybe that's why our #s were lower than normal if the word had leaked out beforehand.) Once we started, the girls kept clumping together in a huddle for security, boys were feigning sickness and trying to opt out but once we finally got it going and added the music and the clapping and the whooping, we saw some genuine smiles! The girls openly admitted they enjoyed it, the boys were mum but were not openly protesting anymore, thus we achieved the goal of getting them comfortable with interacting with the opposite sex and diffused the fear of (gulp) holding hands, along with a little teaching of Church History to boot.

(With 12 guys and 5 girls in attendance, there was absolutely no qualms on the guys' part to dance with other guys)

On a side note, one other really good thing came from this. We put up a sign to welcome anyone who might just mosey in off the busy street. 

In the middle of lunch, a man walked in and said he'd like to bring his family, including his teenagers to church. Brother Gibson gave him an invitation and an explanation of times and meetings and he said he'd come tomorrow. Well, if that didn't make it all worth it! Mission accomplished. Fingers crossed again. 🤞🏾🤞 🤞🏿

In our workshop we emphasized that they are the pioneers of India. They are the ones their posterity will honor for generations to come just like I do my pioneer ancestors; Wilford Woodruff, Benjamin Gunn, et al. I hope they realize the impact their choices and testimonies will have on others for good. I take strength in my pioneer ancestors' great faith to uproot and leave their homes and their newly built temple after intense persecution, and set off for an unknown destination. It makes coming to a predetermined foreign land on a jet plane feel like a cakewalk! 

Other great happenings this week: Last Sunday a member from Japan showed up to our Sacrament and Sunday School meetings- Dan Kawashima from Tokyo. He was in town on business and found the nearest meeting house on his own. It struck me that this is why we try to conduct much of our meetings in English because we're a global church now and anywhere you go, you can find a congregation pretty much anywhere in the world and understand a meeting if you speak English. It so happened we were asked to teach the English Sunday School class that he attended so afterwards we asked if he had somewhere to go for dinner and if not, would he like to join us. With not wanting to eat out on the Sabbath he was glad to accept our offer. We had the caveat that tomorrow was P-day when we do our shopping so we might be shorthanded on some food items, that gold and silver have we none, but such as we have, give we unto him. He was gracious to say that creative cookery wasn't a problem for him . We have recently found one of our absolute favorite starter meals here in India at the local grocery store:

Thanks Mares and Warren for introducing us to Tom Kha! It is now our favorite go-to meal here.

 We were out of mushrooms so we substituted brinjal ( little purple striped eggplant) and it didn't diminish the flavor or texture one bit. Add some basmati rice, American inspired tossed salad made with Indian vegetables and watermelon and voila, lunch! If a fortune teller had told us we might someday be feeding a Japanese man Thai food in India I would've thought fat chance of that ever happening. (That's like the Alamo having a basement!) 

Turns out Dan was a former Bishop and currently serving in his Stake Presidency and was a man of high faith and integrity. And true to Japanese tradition, he presented us a darling gift of a Nara coin purse with two hands and a bow. We found so much in common to talk about that produced instant comraderie. Isn't that just amazing how the gospel of Jesus Christ is our common ground that transcends all cultural differences? I love that about our international church and testify it is that very unity in faith of our universal Savior that will save the world and bring global peace to those who will believe in him. 

Another great experience of note was taking two of our young adult friends to the Geede Car Museum and then to Bangalore Juicy for a casual bite to eat. They've lived here all their life but had never visited it. (Kind of like Utahns who've never been to the Great Salt Lake!) It was a car lover's paradise. Even I, who doesn't give two hoots what kind of car a person drives loved learning the history of the automobile. We probably could've spent an hour longer reading every sign but Akash and Pugal just wanted the visual experience mostly. Here's a few photos for those that give two hoots.

Bertha Benz who took the first car ride ever in her husband's crazy contraption.

Friends Akash and Pugal along for the ride

It's Herbie!

Rob says Fiat stands for "Fix it again Tony"

See these all the time in historic British films

???

Sturdy and serviceable, just like Elder Dunlap

The Cadillac Stretchy Limo

In honor of Steve Dunlap

Scawy!

The only car Rob was hoping to see was the Indian made Ambassador but sadly, they only had this poster about it.  Whoever drew it sure knew their Indian culture!

Gotta do a close up to catch the details.

Amby Namby and Pamby

You can bet we'll be utilizing this saying

We'll end this blog with a screen shot of our Emotional Resilience class in action. The best part of this experience has been that of our growing friendship with Elder Bunga who we utterly adore and with whom we couldn't thrive. He is our IT man that makes our job look easy and who we couldn't begin to fulfill this assignment without. He also serves in his ward bishopric in Hyderabad and has a successful career so it's not like he isn't already busy but he is currently serving a service mission as well. It is a real honor he would call us his friend. Normally we only get one or two people per session that use their video camera to see faces so we can't honestly say we know the young adults by face who are joining us except him. He alone has made the experience so worthwhile.

 Honor, praise, and veneration to these founders we revere.

They the builders of a nation

Blazing trails along the way

Stepping stones for generations

                                       Were their deeds of every day

Building new and firm foundations

Pushing on the wild frontier

Forging onward, ever onward

Blessed honored Pioneer! 

Hymn #36

Ye are Called to Labor

 Our top headline this week- after much intensive labor came the birth of our first grandbaby; Silas Stephen Lake born July 13 at 1:04 am, weighing 8'13" and measuring 21 inches!

Welcome Silas to the world!

We are so overjoyed! Our daughter Rachel pushed for 6 full hours before Silas decided to emerge from his comfy quarters! It was the 12 hours between hearing she had dilated to a 9 and the announcement of his birth that had those of us on the other side of the globe worrying and praying continuously that all would be well. After 24 hours of labor, she was so spent, and rightly so. She need not run a marathon now to prove her endurance. We're so very proud of her. Giving birth is hard labor! (When people ask you why it took so long for Silas to vacate the womb you can readily quote Acts 15:34.) We are so happy for Griffin and Rachel and know that baby Silas will bless all our lives.

              The newly formed Lake Family

I confess I'm a little sad to be so far away right now. I'm aching to hold him and be there to take care of my daughter. (Sigh) But we're all called to labor in different fields presently, and our labor here presented some interesting opposition this week before some compensatory blessings came forth. 

We had the closing down of a missionary area and apartment in Tiruppur and another inspection to attend to in Erode so we decided to travel on Monday by train. Though run down and antiquated, it was a new mode of transportation for us that we both agree we prefer over buses. Faster and less honking! And mosquitos don't generally hang out on windy trains. Big plus. Again, that feeling of being on a movie set in some past era pervaded. 

                     This ain't no bullet train. 

The best part of our trip up there was taking our Elders out to lunch on their P-day. The power must have gone out a dozen times during our meal. But our time with them left us feeling happy and confident in the rising generation.

The lights are on with Elders Bora and Sondi

The only icky part of the trip was being verbally accosted on the street. Twice. We haven't experienced that at all in our own city. Mostly they wanted to bully us to give them money. We can handle the gentle beggars just not the angry ones! We chuckle that everyone assumes that because we're Americans we're the rich kind. If that were the case we'd be using a private driver to take us to these places or at least buy a sleeper compartment, not general seating! Well, even if we were rolling in dough, we'd probably choose coach most days, just to get the public interaction. And quite frankly, we like walking instead of autos. We've been told this is odd behavior for senior missionaries. 🤷🏼

While waiting for the train back on a mostly deserted platform in Erode, we were approached by a friendly man who worked for Marriot and knew Randy Funk, a former Bengaluru Mission President. C'mon, now, what are the odds of that? He knew us by our unmistakable missionary look I guess, since we can't wear our tags. When we have these chance encounters we try to stay in touch via WhatsApp because you never know the why of it at the time.

Ravi the Bee

We had another odd occurrence inside our compartment with yet another crazy guy bothering us. Not wanting to create contention, we tried to just ignore him but when he got a bit threatening, our fellow "inmates" became our best defenders and chased him off. Thank you brave warriors! The Lord uses angels of every kind to bless and protect us.

                           The Men of Cell B

Back home, who should return on the scene after a long hiatus but Mohammed, our security guard!! He is back working, working. 

We missed you Mo!

We made another new friend, Arthi, a darling young woman who lives right across the lane from us. She works for an American company and is interested to improve her English so she came to English Conversation group, being the only female we've had so far.  We hope to see lots more of her as we come and go out of our apartment. Brother Augustine, as our voice, invited her to church so we'll see if she has any interest there too. We hope!

         Arthi and Silas share the same birthday!

Also this week we found a lot of compensatory joy in a couple of our new assignments. I've started teaching the Young Women of Ghandipuram Branch the Music Conducting Course in preparation for our keyboards to arrive. 

Deja vu!

Unfortunately, the shipment is stuck in customs and we may need some divine intervention to get them to us. I'm not sure if it will come down to bribery, we've given them all the paperwork they've requested. What can we do more? The kits were marked on the invoice as Bibles and other religious material. Could this be the holdup? Let's pray not. We need more musicians in India. 

And as of tonight, we're on week 3 of our Emotional Resilience Course they've asked us to facilitate. 

    This original missionary photo is only a year old but already outdated! Crazy to think we received our call on July 19th of last year and now we're really in the thick of it. Years fly by and the gray hair has caught up with us. 

Every week I think I surely won't have anything new to report the following week but sure as "heckfire", new people, places, and experiences come our way. This week especially, I wanted to hop on a plane and be done with it. Opposition is never fun. Plus I have a grandchild now, a new calling for us. (You may call me Ajji if you'd like. Telegu for Grandma). I have a little more empathy for those folks who don't serve a mission because of grandchildren and higher respect to those who do in spite of the fact. But we are convinced there are higher purposes for the small and simple things that engage us daily in our missionary labor here in India. We believe the Lord would still have us be here. Silas and our other grandson in utero will be blissfully unaware of our absence for awhile. (Maybe they've helped us from the other side?) And someday we'll be able to view the sum of our impact on our fellow sojourners, where we did the most good or where we fell short to fulfill our various stewardships. Then we will know for a surety where we should've been but for now we go by faith and where the Spirit directs. 

"For ye remember our labor and travail:

 for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. "

1 Thessalonians 2:9