All~in in INDIA! : October 2023

Saturday, October 28, 2023

Compensatory Blessings

So many things, both wonderful and difficult happened to us this week. And there are amazing stories to share, so just sit right back and you'll hear a tale. I'll approach it chronologically and then we'll see if there's any theme at all that jumps out to tie it all together.

Saturday at 9:30 PM right after completing last week's blog, the President calls an impromptu mission zoom meeting and announces a mega-transfer. We'd been under austerity measures and travel bans for so long and now that it had been lifted, it was time to move one Elder in every companionship! Normally it would be no big deal except, 1) it happened to coincide with the biggest holiday in India and 2) he had a completely inexperienced secretary who was in charge of making all the travel arrangements on very short notice. I was determined to not work on the Sabbath, yet the date of the transfer was Tuesday. So I did a Scarlet O' Hara maneuver and postponed thinking about it 'til Monday.

Sunday was a glorious day of rest and rejuvenation. We were so blessed to be able to watch the dedication of the Bangkok Thailand Temple Dedication via satellite, as it's now the closest temple for the Indian saints to travel to for their own and their ancestors' essential ordinances. This was a compensatory blessing for us too because we haven't been able to attend a temple for 6 months now. Ronald A. Rasband, one of the 12 Apostles officiated and gave the dedicatory prayer. It was a spiritual outpouring to hear the testimonies born, participate in the Hosannah Shout and hear "The Spirit of God like a Fire is Burning" sung in Thai. I loved seeing all the local saints here dressed in their finest white saris and dresses too. I sat next to and visited with Sister Esther whose daughter is married to Elder Sunderaj, the newest Area Seventy of India.. Sister Esther

Brother Myore and his angelic wife Rithu

Expat moms Sisters Malwitz and Knies

Then too soon came Manic Monday, the dreaded day of reckoning. Just keep breathing. I had to book several flights for all the transferring missionaries plus arrange some cab pickups from the airports. With some blessed help from Sis Robinaugh in Thailand and the blessing of Zoom technology, (me, thankful for technology?) we were miraculously able to get it all done in one day except for two elders with extenuating circumstances, one who had asked to travel by train. But with the heavy holiday travel, there were simply no empty seats on any train on Tuesday. Now what do we do? Plan B -- India has this emergency train reservation system called Tatkal where you can make only 2 bookings for the very next day. So I was advised to get right on it Tuesday morning at 10:00 and make 2 reservations for Wednesday.

PS. My neck is hating all of this.

That night we had a sanity break and an unexpected pleasure that took some pressure off our harried minds. Some friends from Coimbatore had come up to Bengaluru for the holiday and to attend a baby naming ceremony and wanted to see us. They got there with just enough daylight to see the outline of the temple being built from our balcony. We then took Sister Beni, and her mama Lydia and brother Dani to Lola's for a bite to eat. While we were there we met a new married couple, she's American, he's Indian. (More about them later!) Afterwards, there was a program put on by our community for Desera that was staged on the outdoor field where they play cricket every Saturday. It was road show quality at best and because we couldn't find seats, nor could any of us understand the Hindi, we didn't stay very long. But it was so wonderful to see Beni again! She was ill the last Sunday we said goodbye to everyone. I wanted to tell her that honestly, she was the most gifted teacher I'd ever been taught by. Her weekly Institute classes were the inspiring. She seemlessly taught the New Testament in 2 languages, asked thought provoking questions, and gave us exercises that really made us apply the scriptures to our personal situations. I learned so much from her.

Dani Mami, Beni

Eating pizza and fries at Lola's

Good overcoming evil ala India

Tuesday was so incredibly stressful but also full of absolute miracles. Because of the holiday, no one was even there to open up the office. It's the equivalent of Christmas morning. How was I going to get these two Elders up to Bengaluru from Chennai and Coimbatore if I can't even get in the office to my computer?! After fretting in the lobby for awhile, some unknown man came and let us in. Miracle #1. I get on the Tatkal and was able to make one of the two reservations but because Brother Micheal was off for the holiday, I was desperately trying to call him to get the OTP to pay for the ticket with the corporate credit card and he wasn't answering his phone. I was in full panic mode!!! The transaction was going to time out in 5 minutes and the system is not forgiving or understanding. You get two shots at it. Period. Just then our new housekeeper and cook Kannagi (have I mentioned her before? More on her later!) shows up earlier than normal to get the key from me and she just happens to know Michael's personal phone #. In the nick of time, we call him, he picks up, he checks his business phone he had turned off, gives me the OTP and we make the reservation with like 13 seconds to spare. Miracle #2. Are you seeing a pattern of how the Lord works time after time, coming through for us in the clutch? Kannagi usually cleans our house in the afternoon but came early because of the holiday. We had told her she didn't even need to come this week at all but she did and what if if she hadn't come just exactly then?? We live in a day of miracles, that's all I can say .

Well the saga didn't end there because after finally getting their tickets, then we had 2 elders the next day trying to meet up with their cab drivers at the airport and train station except they don't get to carry phones with them so I am the go-between trying to talk to non-English speaking drivers describing the elders they're supposed to pick up! Large tall American young man! White shirt! Dark pants! Large tall Indian young man! White shirt! Dark pants! It was the perfect storm of craziness. I became so aware of my weakness, that I can't stay calm when I feel the responsibility I've been handed bearing down on me so heavily. It makes me oh so aware that I need the Savior to help me change my very nature and He's the only one that could accomplish that change in me. But I am happy to report that all Elders are in their new areas safe and no worse the wear and I am now going to exhale and ponder on how I can better handle the next transfer. Elder Dunlap is also feeling some stress, whereas mine comes in gigantic bursts, his is the ongoing variety. And he has taken to work long 9-10 hour work days, as is his natural man, to work too long and too hard. Which brings me to our next compensatory blessing--

Kannagi. Because Rob is putting all his energy into the finances, he's not throwing that energy into cooking anymore like he did in Coimbatore. it is such a treat to come home to her creative and delicious meals with the random items we have on hand. It's like the cooking show "Chopped". Here's a coconut, a pumpkin, cabbage, cauliflower, lentils, and spices...have at it! She would win that show! We love her already and consider her a heaven-sent blessing.

Another heavenly compensation for working daily in an office is happenstance meetings in our community that have given us an opportunity to make new friends and share the gospel. We met a vivacious young woman, Joyce (named for joy and peace together) and her parents Kamal and Jess. They are a colorful bohemian family of artists who have lived abroad and reached out to us. Joyce has expressed interest in coming to church this Sunday and her father likes to read and showed interest in having a Book of Mormon. These are requests we can gladly fill!

Kamal teaching her art students how to paint with coffee.

Art students having a little Java jive

Joyce

As I mentioned before, early in the week at Lola's, we very briefly met a darling young married couple, Avi and Julia. When Rob explained why we were here living in India, they said they've been looking for a church to attend so we gladly invited them to come with us to church too. Tonight we plan to go out to eat with them so I may have a photo or two to share. We pray that the Spirit will touch the hearts of any of these good people the Lord has placed in our path, to feel the truth of the message we came to India to share.

Avi & Juli (pronounced Yuli)

The name of the restaurant really is Pot Head

And as so often happens, I found my theme! It seems to happen every time I write, some principle emerges that testifies unmistakably to me that we have a Father in Heaven who loves us so much and sends His tender mercies to His children. We're so glad to be in India serving this mission for the Lord, yes, even in the office, and being on the receiving end of these compensatory blessings.

“As we are righteous, compensatory blessings always come—even in the most difficult times of our lives.” —Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles.

Saturday, October 21, 2023

Mysore complaint

I'd like to report we are on top of things and we're cruising down Easy Street. But this is a more apt depiction of how stable we feel about our assignment at this point.

Most of it is still a blur

Yes, some parts of the office job are getting better for both of us but 2 weeks into it, we still have to work out daily glitches. I won't bore you with all the headaches, but this is one of the problems:

5 phones between us is 3 too many

We will get something configured on one phone and then somehow it must cancel it out on another. One day I have One Drive and Outlook, the next I have zero access and we have to get the OTP from a sim card in Bangkok to reinstate it. Or if I take a photo on one phone, I have to go through a three-way process to get it to my American phone because Google Photos doesn't recognize all the other accounts. WhatsApp contacts don't transfer from phone to phone. It's all terribly confusing to me. Too many phones, too many apps, too many files, too many passwords, firewalls, and pincodes. Calgon take me away!

Apparently, the Lord heard my desperate plea because in the midst of this mayhem of our minds, President Bushi planned a Zone outing on P-day Monday for all the Bengalore missionaries, us included, to get away from the stress of our cares while we see a bit of India. Excellent concept, let's all exhale together! At the wee hours of 5am (6 IST) we boarded our minibus, bound for Mysore...

Bus travel is so fun when you're fresh!

Here we are in The Zone

For the next 19 hours, we "did a Mysore" (remember that phrase from the prince who ordered 22 Rolls Royces at once?) Yeah, well that was the mindset. If one is good, 22 is better. We crammed alot of stuff into our time together. For example, we started eating the provided snacks immediately; breakfast was Peanut Butter and Nutella sandwiches on white bread, (PB&N, the Breakfast of Champions!) followed by chips, (6 varieties) Snickers, 5StarBar (like a Twix) Apple Fizz, well you get the idea. It was CarbFest. No restraint was shown, we were in vacation mentality after all, so we did eat. And eat. And eat.

Our first stop was a summer palace for a prince with a very long name.

Elders Mcmacrajendraguntemsetti

I also kept my eye on this 3-some

I was watching them, they were watching me.

Rob was more interested in the homing pigeon station.

We both enjoyed the beautiful architecture

Like this built-in enclave for candles and lanterns in the walls. Fire hazard? Guess not.

And this portrait mural of every Indian ruler in the Mysore region. Similar to senior homes w/ multiple grandchildren

With Macdonalds, McSwains and Dunlaps present in our ranks, we were all interested to see our Scottish heritage in action:

The Indian Bagpipe Brigade

And apparently Colonel Dunlop made the history book with his final attack:

Have fun storming the Castle!

We stopped to see a large Catholic cathedral and a place where silk was spun and woven. Interesting, but non-essential in hindsight. Mainly because we disappointed the merchants by not purchasing anything silky. Sorry, we're just looking.

Oh, the tangled webs they weave

A great and spacious building

We stopped for the essential biryani lunch at this point, at an outdoor pavilion restaurant.

The food was exquisite!

The dishes were so tasty!

Sister Polluparti (affectionately called Sister Pullaparti by us) joked to the president that we now needed ice cream so he stopped and bought us all ice cream bars. Like we needed it, but he was in total Father Christmas mode. Fully indulged, off we bussed to a second palace even more ornate and amazing than the first.

Just wow

Royal families can be together forever too

The most expensive picture frame ever

Ebony & Ivory

Solid gold thingy you ride on top of the elephant

Ali squared

Festoon this!

Mysore neck

"Hellooo, Mem." Our tour guide's catch phrase

Can't take too many group photos

Or can you?

C'mon seriously?

Really bordering on overkill

Please, know when to say when

So after the second palace, we were thoroughly touristed out and thought our sightseeing time was done. Time to head back? Not so fast. We still needed to go to the famous gardens right next to a huge dam built entirely of rock. (I'm sorry I don't know any names of these places, where is Hellooo, Mem when we need him?) It was quite dusky by now and we had just climbed to the top of a hill when a switch was flipped to reveal a lightscape wonderland. There was an audible gasp, just like Temple Square at Christmas time. We were not expecting it!

Good timing President, glad we didn't miss this!

As it was, we met two families who we chatted with and both wanted to take their photos with us. They both exuded such goodness, how could we refuse?

Mom, Dad, 5 children and Grandma. I'm so glad I had a pass-along card in my fanny pack to give them. They struck me as such a golden family. The daughter in black print dress was the family spokesman.

Dad and His 3 Sons

Ok, so that whole stop was really worth the extra time. Forgive us for murmuring! But surely, it was time to head home now. We boarded the bus completely ready to stop taking any more group photos and began envisioning the beloved reunion with our mattress. Imagine our surprise when we stopped again around 8ish to eat another meal. Honestly, every time we reboarded the bus there was more snacking so I don't think any of us were particularly malnourished but we stopped nonetheless to eat Hakka noodles at a roadside restaurant. By the time we ended that meal, it was pushing 9:00 and we still had the long ride back. You'd think traffic would be thinner later when everyone is home and getting ready for bed but that's never been the case. It is notoriously congested even late at night. In general, I'd say the late nighttime hours are when the roads are the very busiest. Shops rarely open before 10am. So the missionary schedule of "early to bed, early to rise doesn't quite jibe with India's "late to bed, late to rise" reality. The American elders say the hardest adjustment has been that Indians eat their last meal around 9:30pm and then you're to be in bed by 10:30. When we pulled into our enclave at five minutes to midnight, we were never so glad to finally be home. Knowing we had to be up and going the next day took a little joy out of that last leg of the journey.

Our takeaway from the Mysore experience: indulgence in eating round the clock is fun in the moment but there's always a price to pay. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Group photos can be taken to the extreme but just keep smiling anyway. Prudence and moderation are virtues.

But don't think for a moment we aren't grateful to have been included in this excursion. Now that we are back to our normal work routine, diet, and sleep schedule, we see where we can show personal restraint, even when enticed to indulgence. Good thing too, because we just learned that in lieu of senior retreats, (who would we retreat with?) the President, with his generous nature has invited us to 3 more of these outings with each Zone during the month of November. We'll get to "do a Mysore" all month!

"And it pleaseth God that he hath given all things unto man; for unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to excess.."

D&C 59:20

Friday, October 13, 2023

(Dis)orientation Week

Wait a minute, are we still on a mission? Our world just got rocked big time and we're still reeling as if the polar magnetic shift already occurred. For one thing, we're so very used to the austerity of missionary life that to suddenly be thrown into a life of opulence doesn't even feel normal. Our new flat is a former Mission President's apartment and it's palatial! It has picturesque views out the 17th floor window and a wide screen TV and draperies and floor rugs and many other niceties. Now that we are experiencing "life elevated", we ask, where is the daily dust and ash seeping through every crack, the floor and counters crawling with micro-ants, the smell of open sewage on the streets, the neighborhood garbage piles, the driveways painted with tumeric colored cowdung, the street vendors hawking their wares, the 4:45 am prayer callers, the blaring of traffic horns, the incessant wake-up squawks of the birds, everything that we'd grown so accustomed and familiar to in our previous mission life? And where is the perpetual toe jam and mosquitoes and my daily bites, huh? (jk, I don't actually miss those.)

And what about our existence now? Think Terrestrial! We have lush Eden-like surroundings, soft cool breezes wafting through our windows (actual climate change), flowering shrubbery everywhere, meandering walkway paths, work crews that pick up not only garbage, but any stray leaf that happens to fall! The traffic horns are still audible but so faint, it's like a quaint brass quintet concert warming up in a distant amphitheatre. Assuredly, there is a constant pounding of a metal machine shop to bring us back to reality or we might have wondered if the Millennium had already started and no one informed us.

The ascent from Telestial to Terrestrial

Welcome to royal living in Earl's Court

Birds of Paradise now awaken us

Our protected enclave (with more security personnel than the White House) is called the Metro Brigade. But there's no crime or mischief or "unseemly behavior" to contend with that we've ever seen. After dinner, folks of all ages come down to the common areas to visit with each other in the cool of the evening. We marvel at the scene of serenity. It gives us a near foretaste of Zion living.

Included in this shelter from the storm is The Arcade, which is lined with small shops and eateries, including one of our long time favorites when we've visited before with American style salads and pizza.

la la la la "Lolas"

Our work space is a mere 3 minute walk once you're off the elevator also in this protected neighborhood. Through those windows of the main floor lobby you can see the church's mission office all a'bloom and a'buzz.

In our Lovely Deseret

A beehive of swarming activity

The mission office shares the space with all the church employees who work for various departments in India. We aren't the only worker bees in the hive!

No drones here. (Or queenbees for that matter!)

Despite it's charm, another major shift in our move has been ultra-jarring to us. Suddenly we've been upended and switched to a corporate environment, sitting at desks behind computers for most of the day for jobs we never aspired to nor even qualified for. My neck is protesting this change the most. "Help Mr. Wizard, get me out of this place! I don't want to be a missionary secretary anymore" If it wasn't the Lord's kingdom we're laboring for, we might've self-exited the first day. So we've clung to the promise that "whom the Lord calls, he qualifies." Please Lord! Qualify us quickly! Another promise from Him also applies to our immediate situation.

"I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me... for if they have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong into them." Ether 12:22

We are clinging to that promise that things are going to get better and true to His word, I'm already seeing it. Thursday and Friday were no-cry days for me. But Elder Dunlap is still overwhelmed and swamped with work and in stereotypic harried husband fashion, had to stay late at the office on Friday to meet some deadlines. So we're still in the thick of it. We will humbly submit to this assignment and I will feel blessed if the Lord will take away even a modicum of my ineptness. Turning it into my strength? That's a stretch. Gratefully, I still had help from dear Sister Robinaugh via Zoom and I know the same goes for Elder Rob with Elder Robinaugh. We would be floundering without their virtual tutoring! Additionally, I am grateful for 3 in-house mortal angels who also happen to be technology wizards that answer all my in-the-moment stupid questions- Brother Micheal and the two APs, Elders Guntu and McSwain. When they realized that they were working with "a special needs" secretary and a speedy click-click-click explanation didn't make things immediately crystal clear, they have slowed their instructions way down and given me step-by-step help. Bless them, Lord for their patience and long suffering!

Our angelic cohorts

Two aspects of our new life that have yet to occur and will greatly help us to feel more missionary-ish will be attending our new Whitefield ward tomorrow and hopefully attending District meetings with the young Elders and Sisters of the Bengaluru Zone if we can occasionally squeeze that into our weekly work schedule. We predict we will make new friends at church and we'll love the missionaries here too with the same affection. But presently, that is what our hearts are missing the most; the people of Coimbatore. Our final Sunday, we said our goodbyes to the cherished friends and branch members we'd formed bonds with, promising we'd find a reason to come back, hoping those weren't empty words. Relationships are truly one of the greatest blessings of missionary service. Each one has enriched our life in some special way. Here's an album of but a few of the many people we've come to love. If you've been reading this blog weekly, their names and faces may be familiar by now to you too: