Just bumpin' along

 

Meanwhile, as we bump along each week in India, Kinzi's "Bump" is growing and is becoming more pronounced. She's finally in her last trimester. Before we know it, Baby Bump will be here and we'll be at our one year mark. Hurry up November! For both our sakes!

But until those real momentous occasions happen, I've gotten myself in a fix here with a weekly blog. Let's just say that some weeks are definitely newsier than others. With the high of last week, we found ourselves in a lull this week as the work inevitably ebbs and flows. We have found too, some discouraging patterns emerging with contacts. It's so thrilling when we first meet someone new and feel that rush of possibilities. For example, we met a young couple on one of our walks this week. They were so excited to make our acquaintance and learn our names. We hit it right off. As they shared that they were childless and had experienced the pain of miscarriages, we immediately sensed the approach we could use to share the message of the Plan of Happiness and the eternal nature of families with them. They wanted us to come over for lunch that very day. We gave them our # and they said they'd call us. They seemed genuinely interested in forming a friendship.

We rushed home to find just the right video and pamphlet to share with them for when we went to their home. But then they never called! We held out hope that maybe they meant later this week but they never did contact us and it left us discouraged and asking, "what are we doing wrogn?

                                Lord, is it us?

It's problematic for missionaries to get caught in the tangle of thinking that if we could only be more obedient, more this or more that, that if we only had the perfect introductory question, we'd see more miracles. After many  discouragements of this kind, we consolingly circle back to the thought that we are merely seed planters, others can choose to water and nourish their seed but it is ALWAYS God who gives the increase. So rather than elevate ourselves time and again to high excitement followed by a steep downward slope of emotion, we're trying now to just bump along on an even keel. Find the balance in Christ. Keep centered in Him. All things working together for good to those that love Him. Resolution: We can find joy in Him in all our doings, in small and simple things all around us. For instance:

We noticed the colors and plumage are starting to emerge on our graveyard peacocks.

The street puppies make us smile and are always so cute to watch, (just make sure you don't get between them and Mama!)

It amuses us that dogs can bed down in the middle of a busy street. "Dum-de-dum, no worries here. Hakuna matada."

Speaking of bedding down, on our visits to the cemetery to take gravestone photos, we never know what interesting things we'll see. Mattresses on a pole? Fans? What's up with that? Well, we've seen pillows strewn about before and evidences of celebrations and picnics. Nothing eerie or wrogn about that!

Talk about finding delight in the littlest of things; we were amazed and astounded in a single perfectly balanced oat bran that had fallen off a plate onto the placemat on its tip. We couldn't have found that balanced center in a million tries.  There's a lesson to be learned here:

          When you least expect it to happen,

                          then it'll happen

Actually, a few good things did happen this week:

Running into Katie and Mani on P-day at the bookstore, apparently a favorite place for all of us!

Finishing up the temple prep courses for Rohith who leaves for his mission in a few days.

Taking the elders out to China V'lley for Elder Adhikari's birthday. (To create an Asian ambience, they played one Chinese song on a continuous loop and by the end of the meal, we were the loopy ones!)

Helping Akash scribe and proofread his "Hear Him" Facebook post about his 

"Title of Liberty project

Meeting with many branch members at the home of our President's family for biriyani and wholesome recreation. It was great to meet  cousin "Harry" and all play games together.

Helping a young woman get caught up on the Conducting Course with some personalized time so she can certify with the rest of the class. (Pictured here with her father)

In all these small and simple things (that certainly didn't fill up a 24/7 time frame), we pieced together a small offering and called it our consecrated effort as we bump along daily on this mission of ours. 

"Fear not little flock, ... nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along".

D&C 35:27

India-pendence Day

 In a gracious act of inclusion, we Americans were welcomed to join in on the celebration of India's Independence Day on August 15th and it was an unforgettable day! The festive feeling started even as we walked out our door:

Children had decorated the apartment landings and streets with colored sand pictures of the flag and national bird. At the church grounds, a flag "hosting" was held in the cool early hours of the morning. Flower petals were inserted into the folding of the flag so that when it was hoisted and reached the top of the pole, all the petals came a-fluttering down. Very pretty! All the Indian citizens saluted as they sang their national anthem. Just like we do! It must be a God-given innate feeling for all people to love the land of their birth, and although we love America and miss it, for that day we were so happy to be in India and feel the love they have for their country. We love it too, mostly because we love so many of its people.

                          Hosting the hoisting

Brother Amalraj was an officer in the Indian army for many years so he came dressed in his uniform decorated with medals and gave a short speech. Treats and photo sessions ensued for a lovely memorial. 

                Brother Ambrose & Sister Punitha

The next activity was a day-long Young Adult gathering. Workshops on missionary preparation, testimony building, and career planning were held. What a marathon! What made this day most thrilling for us was because one of our young college student contacts who attends our English group, joined us for the whole day. He was there almost from the start and stayed for all the workshops, lunch, 4- Square, and all the riotous fun activities we had after lunch, including more American folk dancing. (What's more Indian than the Virginia Reel?) Even after the official activity was over, he stayed on and played cricket with the guys. We could tell he felt happy to be there and fitting in like one of the gang. Everyone was marvelously friendly to him. He had come to church on Sunday completely on his own, not with his English class buddies, which we thought was especially brave. I just hope and pray he is one whose heart is humble and prepared to accept the true gospel of Christ. The missionaries have not started teaching him officially but I am so very hopeful he is our golden contact. 

                        Our golden boy out front

.          Ramanathapuram Branch- The Rams!

Now, the branch that we've had the least contact with in our district is Tiruppur. They've had some real challenges since we've been here. First the missionaries were removed from their area and then they switched them to online meetings since they were using rented space in a hotel for their church meetings. But this undaunted little "twig" came down to Coimbatore to use the church building here to have their Independence Day celebration. They are a close-knit bunch who are determined to stay strong. We were able to teach them a pioneer circle dance and have some great fun with them too. 

                Double timing with Tiruppur

                             A Tirappur tiny tot

As if the day wasn't full enough, the Ram branch proceeded to hold an EQ/RS party with more food, fun and hilarity. We literally laughed until our sides ached at this one too! I'm so glad they hadn't put us in charge of activities because we never could have come up with the funny ones they did! There was such a feeling of camaraderie and love in the air after it was all done. Whew! By the time we flopped on our beds it had been a 12 hour non-stop day but one we'll never forget.    India, we salute you!

Another noteworthy event happened this week that I'd like to include. There is a wonderful family of brothers in the "Ram" branch. They were all raised in an orphanage. The youngest brother is currently serving a mission. The oldest brother Mani, is married to Katie. Katie is an American from Utah who came as a young woman and worked in their orphanage. They all joined the church, I'm sure as a result of her good influence. Mani served a mission for the Church (so did Nagaraj) and it was after Mani completed his that Katie came back to India and they fell in love and were married. Such a happy story! We had them all over for a Family Home Evening, starting with an American meal of barbeque chicken, baked potatoes, cole slaw, with brownies and ice cream for dessert. They have had American food before and so they were not weirded out one bit, but gobbled up everything veg and non-veg in sight, except for Katie who is eating only veg. Katie gave a great  lesson on the Epistle of Paul to the Ramanathapuriams. Hah! We played Books of the New Testament Memory game and just had an overall wonderful time, even found many commonalities with them, not the least being Pete's Dragon and Charles Dickens.

                      Katie and the brothers

                            Jeeva and Nagaraj

  (Elder Dunlap is eating again, glad to report.)

 

I guess we can honestly say we feel some dual citizenship in our hearts. Our love for the people of India is growing with each new shared experience. They have accepted us into their circle of unity, symbolized by the blue circle on the flag. Their saffron courage, their white peaceful ways and the green verdant growth of their land has been symbolically evidenced in the true colors of their people. 

"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God"

Ephesians 2:19

 

On the run. It's nuts!

 It never ceases to amaze us that the Lord is blessing us with the ability to love more and more people as our time continues on. With our own abilities, we simply couldn't keep everyone and their difficult names straight! There has to be some divine intervention involved to sustain this pace and capacity. Because the Savior set the example of ministering to souls one by one, we attempt to focus our love and attention on just one individual. Or two maybe, or perhaps a family, or even a small group. Or a crowd. What's more incredible is we're finding the depth of our love for the Indian people is expanding too. It is soul stretching! We are having so many blessed encounters with so many people, both one-on-one and in ever expanding larger groups. We keep wondering if we will reach our breaking point capacity and finally have to say no to a few assignments to not spread ourselves too thin? For example, we were asked last week if we would teach a marriage relations class in one of our branches for the next 8 weeks. Because they asked us to co-teach with our amazing friends Sister Punitha and Brother Ambrose, how could we possibly say no? We start that tomorrow. Also the young adults want us to teach more dancing at this coming week's FHE activity. You betcha! So in addition to teaching Music Conducting and Keyboard course (me), the Emotional Resilience Course on the national level (together), helping with English Connect for the missionaries, plus our own English conversation group, we are perpetually preparing and attending many lessons every week. On top of that, we meet every week with our missionary district who always deserves treats. Whenever possible we love to visit branch members both on our own or join with the elders. It just so happens one of our young adults got his mission call this week and we've been tasked to give him his temple preparation lessons before he leaves. And to add just a little more activity to our humdrum boring lives, Elder Rob loves to invite people over to our apartment to cook an American meal for them.  To say it was a slightly busy week is literary litotes! But the unexpected glitch was when Elder Rob once again developed a severe reaction that put him down in bed for a day with a slight fever and running to the bathroom every few minutes for two full days. This is the 2nd time for this to happen to him. He's finding the most effective way to deal with the intestinal distress is to simply fast for a couple of days to completely clear his system and reset his whole intestinal tract. He's made plans to make some drastic changes to his eating habits so this doesn't keep happening. But if it does continue, we will have to then address what might be a chronic condition. This might be the only way the Lord can figure out how to slow him down. But we hope and pray it's just a fluky overeating of the wrong foods and can be fixed with prudence and moderation. 

We'll start our photo journalism this week with the Sunday missionary fireside for Coimbatore District with Elder and Sister Chestnut from the India MTC (which for safety reasons has to be called something like the Indian Service Center). They got everyone so pumped for serving missions, we were ready to sign up for our next one!

 The Chestnuts. Their schedule must be as nutty as ours!

    Ramanathapuram Branch leaders and potential elders. We love these homies!

Same with Erode, a strong thriving branch with great leadership and leading the district in baptisms. We love to visit there when we can.

Semmedu future sister missionaries Sneha, Anandi, and darn, the name I can't remember!

That handsome bunch from Semmedu includes Barnabus, Joseph, Rahul, Saran, all surrounding the Branch President. Ladies, take your pick! I swoon frequently!

Our one-on-one time this week was with Jason, a young man we have seen blossom in the past 4 months since our arrival. His English is improving as is his confidence. He is planning to serve a mission when he finishes his college courses. He was so eager to try an American meal. He wolfed down the barbeque chicken, the baked potato with butter and cream, and the cole slaw, no problem! I'm always eager to get these young adults helping with transcribing the Tamil gravestones that I can't read. He just plowed through them, he never wanted to stop! The thing we've noticed is that our young adults love to come to our apartment and they love to stay. My belief is they crave the surrogate father time.

Scribing for his supper

It was Elder Mehta's birthday on District meeting day. Though they are so adorable in many other ways, this district is not quite ready for the Choir at Temple Square. 

Since we could take just a little time to celebrate, Elder Dunlap bought a ball and introduced them to 4 Square. They loved it!

Last week's attendee to English came a 2nd time and brought 2 new friends with him. The Elders were on hand and made some appointments to teach them some discussions. Score!

This week we taught them alternative phrases to say instead of OK. Okie dokie!

When it comes to zucchini bread, they are all for it! 100%! Absolutely! Count me in! Sign me up! You betcha! Sure thing! Yas!

We made a 3rd visit to Vadivu and Mag at the Old Folk's home. The best part was sitting on the porch with Saraswathi, chatting with her as she peeled the onions, picked the mint leaves off the stem, while Vadivu sliced the mushrooms. A cool breeze wafted through the early evening and it was ever so pleasant.

Mag cooked us a fabulous meal of chicken biriyani. Amazingly, they requested us to say a blessing both on the meal and on the ladies as we left. We left them with a stack of brochures in Tamil about the Plan of Salvation and the Doctrine of Christ to give to their Christian friends, Xavier and Stephen, wink wink, but we're hoping they'll be curious enough to read them too. We just adore this group of ladies. We feel supremely happy to be in their presence. Unfortunately, this was exactly when Rob started feeling a little queasy. I failed to mention we had taken the district out for biriyani for lunch earlier that same day so it was a double whammy for his digestive system. But believe it or not, we're suspecting it's the almonds that he's always snacking on in the morning and throughout the day. If it's not Jackfruit he's overindulging on, then it's gotta be the nuts. Google tells us eating too many almonds is not good for biomes. Ah nuts!

Two family visits rounded out our week. Beni is the most amazing Institute teacher (and Primary President) and I'm not exaggerating. She masterfully weaves her Institute lessons in English and Tamil so seamlessly, we get as much out of it as the native speakers. She is top notch in her knowledge of the scriptures and really gets to the heart and makes you ponder. Her brother Dani is so talented in music and is personable, as is their mommie. They all have clear beautiful singing voices. They want us to come back some time when Elder Dunlap can actually eat! We had a great discussion with them and the golf card game Play Nine was how we ended the visit. 

         Dani creamed us all with 5 over par 

Our last visit was earlier today. The Elders took us to a sister's home, just her and her daughter live there. The husband lives in the US and they've had some huge struggles but their prevailing faith amidst them all was very touching. They committed to come to Sacrament meeting tomorrow. They both asked for priesthood blessings which all 3 Elders assisted with. As we left, I just casually mentioned that this was a 2nd marriage for us and that Christ's gospel is definitely one of 2nd chances. I must have been inspired to say just exactly that because that was what opened the floodgates for her to share openly what the struggles were all about. She was so touched to hear that we are allowed 2nd chances, do-overs, restarts, and slate-washing beginnings because of the Atonement of Christ. It was what she needed to hear to give her hope in her situation. Her tears of sadness were changed to tears of joy before our very eyes. Look at these smiles at the end of our time together. 

Pria and Thila, the shortened versions of their beautiful but lengthy names

As a parting gift, since Elder wasn't able to eat her delicious cooking, she showered us with scarves she had crocheted. Once the weather cools, we will surely enjoy these!

                   Hearts knit together in love

Though we cut it so close with the slowest bus ride ever due to traffic, we got back in time to do our online Emotional Resilience class. But not before Elder could cook for our little Stripling duo. They got cheated out of their dinner appointment so he fed them some leftover Barbequeen chicken, coleslaw, rice and instant chana masala. No Indian would ever be caught dead using instant food, it would be like serving a tv dinner to your guests, but you know what? They ate every last bit of it, no complaints. 

As if the day hadn't been spirit directed enough, the most gratifying thing happened during our online course. The topic was overcoming addictive behaviors, the core principle was honesty with ourselves and others and having integrity to God. One of our participants sent us a private note in Chat that he needed help and asked how could he attend an ARP meeting. Having served a previous mission in that program we were able to connect on Whatsapp  after the class and show him how to find the nearest phone-in meeting (in Australia!) and how to get the manual in Gospel Library. This was a beautiful chance to minister once again to the one. Elder Dunlap would truly love to start that program up here, since apparently there's a need. Maybe if we have a slow day, we'll get serious about it. 

"Put on therefore, as the elect of God, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long suffering; and above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts..."

Colossians 3: 12-15