Vonga, Vonga, Ye Saints!

 If there was ever a week of great joy being amongst the Saints, this was it! It started on Sunday with the awarding of the Conducting Course certificates by the Branch President to 5 young women, 1 Primary girl, and 1 adult leader (his wife) who faithfully came to all the classes before church meetings began and learned all the conducting skills, knowledge of time signatures, tempos, beat patterns, musical notes, etc. We made it a special occasion, kind of like a graduation with individual photos and refreshments.

The newest batch of Coimbatore conductors!

 That morning as I made lemon zucchini bread and banana bread, I substituted jaggery in the latter, thinking it would behave just like sugar. Well it didn't. The bread didn't rise and it carmelized the contents. It came out of the convection oven looking like a brown brick. I was thoroughly dismayed but Sister Jennifer, the most lovely, saintly woman and ever the optimist, said to bring it anyway. It turned out to be everybody's favorite of the two! The Lord is always performing miracles to feed his children when we offer the best we can do, even 5 loaves and two fishes, or slightly burnt carmelized brickbread..

Next activity was a Ghandipuram Branch YM/YW activity on Tuesday since there was a state holiday and no school. Elder Dunlap was asked to supply the games as he now has a great reputation for creating frivolity and merriment. With simple objects he found around the apartment, he had them running relay races in our slippers, dressing in missionary shirts, ties and tags and racing to do a door approach, ping pong balls on spoons, and bouncing cricket balls in our curtains! I love that the Indians of all ages will join in to play games with gusto and enthusiasm! 

                          How do they tie these?!

           "My turn to give the door approach!"

"I'm a future missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints"

 

Later that evening, all the missionaries hosted a combined branch missionary fireside to help the members get enthused about sharing the gospel with friends, neighbors, and strangers. We took the idea of "speed dating" and turned it into a "speed sharing" activity. One side acted as the member missionary, the other side was given a specific identity- an auto driver, a sweeper lady, an uncle, a widow, an orphan for example, and then in 1 minute, share a message of the gospel that was tailored to their needs or else an invitation to have them "come and see" the fruits of Christ's gospel. When the whistle blew, they moved quickly to the next person. Once again, they all jumped into the experience with great vigor, so much so, it was hard to get them to finish up and move on! We switched roles so everyone had the chance to be the giver and receiver of the Good News.

"Let me tell you about Self Reliance principles"

  "You'll see your husband again, dear widow"

                       Are we not all beggars?

It was great practice in sharing our beliefs and good bonding for all the saints from both branches that came. And this was merely a small portion of the evening. There were many other videos, activities, and quizzes. The young Elders (there's an oxymoron) are so earnest and sincere in their efforts, it is always a joy to work alongside them. 

Another marvelous experience this week was delivering the newly arrived keyboards to our Ghandipuram Young Women. Thanks to the Harmon Family of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame, and in connection with the Church Music Department, they sponsor a grant to send keyboards to small branches anywhere in the world as long as there is a missionary to spearhead the logistics. It was like 4 Christmas mornings to go to each of their homes and deliver the girls their new toy. President Paul drove us all around the city and bought them adaptors for their plugs. Each place wanted to feed us food, lucky for our waistlines we don't do that very often. So tomorrow we start again on a new adventure of piano lessons! 

When I look back on my life, and how I didn't take full advantage of the piano lessons offered to me in my younger years, I'm always grateful for this Gospel of 2nd Chances. I have an opportunity to repent and do better this time around. Here I'll be practicing with the girls and learning right along with them. My guess is they will shortly surpass me and they will keep progressing long after we've left India. My keyboard will be left behind for the next missionary to pick up where I leave off.

 

Did I mention we've had a change in our mission assignment? With the restructuring of the Young Adult Committees throughout the church, there are no longer advisory couples for the Young Single Adults. Thus, we are now considered just MLS missionaries, which stands for Member and Leader Support. Gratefully, young adults are considered members so we don't have to drastically cut any ties with them, it just means we won't attend any of their planning meetings and can just lend general support to their activities. 

We had one sweet and one supernatural encounter with friends on the street this week.  You wouldn't possibly remember the sweet little lady who came and danced alongside us at the opening of Bangalore Juicy would you? She lives right next door to it and we wave to her as we walk by on the occasion when she's sitting outside. This night on our way home, she waved me over, she ran into her little home and brought back a hat she had crocheted and gave it to me as a gift. I was very touched by her generosity. We had never even known her name until that moment.

                            This is Devamani

I will cherish this hat even though it's too big for my head. I am so moved by the Indian people's generosity to us when they have so little themselves. I just hope we can fit all the crocheted hats and scarves and shawls in our suitcases when its time to pack! 

And if you've been following this blog with any regularity, you will understand how completely mind blowing and significant it was when we heard a "hello", turned around and saw this old friend: 

Patrick, the Nephite

Of the millions of Indians we've seen around about the streets (yes, we're keeping count, we're up to several million now), Patrick keeps showing up every month or so, and never in the same place twice. And if that wasn't uncanny enough, on the very same day, we're riding on a bus in a completely different part of town, I have a window seat. I'm looking out the window onto the street and there he is again.

 Twice in the same day.  No. Way.  

Same shirt, same slender build, same haircut. Same toothless smile. The bus takes off before I can even holler to him because I am stunned and thought my eyes were playing tricks.

Is it pure coinkidink? Is it by divine design? It must be. The odds are just too impossible!  If we get just one last chance to see him, we're going to at least invite him to church, even if we get thrown into jail for proselyting. For some reason, the Lord keeps putting this man in our path! I know ... maybe he's been hired to spy on us to make sure we aren't breaking the rules! (Somehow I doubt that). He's never asked us for money, but does he keep a lookout for us? Is he a guardian angel of sorts? We've been told by our beloved Prophet to expect miracles and so even though we don't know exactly why, we believe Patrick is our mission miracle. 

...God has not ceased to be a God of miracles...and the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because they dwindle in unbelief...and know not the God in whom they should trust. 

Behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles...

Mormon 9: 9, 15, 20