Concentrated Gratitude

 If there was ever a scenario set up for us to feel genuine gratitude for everyday things we enjoy but take for granted, this week was perfectly designed. We knew going into this mission experience, we'd be away this Thanksgiving from the comfort of our home, and sitting around a table with family and friends, enjoying a feast of favorite foods. How we would've loved to have been with our children and two new grandsons, or eating with our siblings and talking turkey! We had two offers to eat a traditional meal; one with the Expat families in our ward and another with Avi and Juli at the Marriot Hotel. But we were scheduled for our final Zone Conference/outing in Coimbatore (our first love), so that took away a little of the sting of missing out. Eating biryani at an open air cafe with the Elders and the Bushis came in as a close third choice. It was an apt reenactment of 2 pilgrims coming together with the native Indians.

 Lord bless this bounteous feast!

The first of a few trying events happened when our flight was cancelled just two days before we were scheduled to leave. President Bushi had a ready Plan B for us to drive down with him, Sister Bushi, and Brother Micheal of the office staff. We were in great company but I've described before how 6 hours of Mario Cart swerving, darting, accelerating, braking, and incessant honking can test our nerves to their limit. We volunteered to sit in the very back of the van so that helped reduce the stimulus overload and we listened to conference talks and BYU devotionals and so the time passed quite pleasantly. It all depends on what you choose to concentrate on. Upon arrival, first thing we wanted to do was walk (!) and to visit our favorite haunts, get a chocolate shake with ice cream and Kolkata Roll at Bengaluru Juicy, and walk the Race Course.

Hey, wouldja look at that! They installed a crosswalk light across the Spaghetti Bowl intersection since we've been gone! But sorry, only for yetis. 

               Nice to see you again, Juicy Boys! 

No sooner had we stepped out when it began to downpour in monsoonal amounts! The streets quickly became lakes and we were without our umbrellas. But no matter, in every life a little rain must fall and so we sang Laughter/Singing in the Rain as we proceeded to get absolutely drenched. Had our old apartment been available, we could've dashed there quickly but we were set up in a newly acquired place, that cosmetically looked brand new, but we soon discovered it was not quite ready for prime time dwelling. We had beds with pillows but that's where the creature comforts ended. We soon discovered our deep gratitude for many of life's basics; top sheets or any kind of covering deterrent from mosquitos, (I improvised with a towel, it sort of worked but they still bit me in divers places) potable water, hot water for showers, refrigeration, wifi, A/C, stoves to cook on, plates, glasses, utensils to eat with, waste baskets, bathroom mirrors to shave and apply make up with, a plug in the bathroom would've been the ultimate convenience, oh, and shower curtains. Thank you Lord, for life's many luxuries we take for granted daily!  And may I add, thank you America for the generous flowing supply of toilet paper you share liberally at any given restroom! Blessed be this great convenience!!! As it was, we were compelled to play the Glad Game for 4 days and put all these inconveniences into context. If we were camping, displaced from a natural disaster, or worse yet, in a concentration camp, how glad we'd be to have mattresses, pillows, bottled water, sinks, toilets, walls for privacy, and a shelter from the storm. Concentrate on what you have, not what you lack and you too can feel gratitude in concentration camping. 

                      All one could ever need

Our Zone outing on Thanksgiving day was fraught with challenges from the get-go. The rains proved problematic, and all roads to Ooty were washed out with mudslides. So rather than be Mudslide Slims, we chose other venues for photo ops, like parking lots:

      Handsomeness reigns supreme in India!

    Sunglasses were necessary only to look cool

Due to a lack of sisters in this Zone, there was far less chatting and much more napping on the bus rides.

                                  Zzzzzzz

                             An holy nap

But they did get in a rousing game of "Yo, Who Slapped my Head?"

And Skittle Wars, introduced by Elder Dunlap

We visited some other nearby sightseeing places, although it was chucking it down pretty heavy everywhere. We found it ironic, though through no choice of our own, on our two personal favorite religious holidays of the year where we focus our thoughts on Jesus Christ; Easter and Thanksgiving, we instead visited the very same pagan idol. What irony.

    Once in the heat of April on Easter Sunday

 And in the rain of November on Thanksgiving

For contrast, we visited a Christian compound, that depicted, though a little too graphic for our sensibilities, the Stages of the Cross. We're thankful, that although we reverently acknowledge the agony Jesus endured at Calvary and in Gethsemane, we don't focus on or depict the gruesome aspects, instead we choose to concentrate mainly on the reality of His glorious resurrection and enabling Atonement. It's what you choose to concentrate on that provides the gratitude.

           The least gory depiction of the bunch.

It was also interesting to see in their visitor's center many LDS images of the Savior, due to it's free public domain access. So it felt a little familiar in that regard.

We stopped by the nearby Semmedu branch.

It was the only scene that gave any sense of harvest.

                          Indian Scarecrows

                     Be grateful for lawnmowers

 Last stop before the bus broke down, was a trip to the Gedee Car Museum. Since we'd been there before last summer, we thought it would be all the same but they had since added a wing of India transportation history which was very fascinating.

                They've come a long way, baby

                     Rob and his Ambassadors

The bus got a flat tire in the parking lot and we didn't stick around for the repair or another round of eating since we knew we had walked this town many times before and could find our way home. So we bid farewell to the gang. Brethren, adieu. 

Saturday was the ultimate wonderful day! BFFs Mani and Kati came over to our place with a lunch they had cooked with all the necessary items we lacked for the best Indian food kitchen picnic ever and games. 

           A bit of biker/hippie vibe going on

                   We're tight like unto a dish

 The final activity of our journey was like the best family reunion you can possibly imagine. You'd think it had been 6 years instead of 6 weeks! All the "yutes" looked older to us. I was told straightout I looked fatter. Maybe it's a compliment, I don't know. But it's true, we walk less and sit in an office alot more now. 

             YW Pres Rithi and Primary Pres Beni

o

 Ang Women Keyboard students Niki and Nikhi

And so many other dear souls too numerous to include. Here's a really gratifying story to end with. We visited with Thila when she was going through a very rough patch. She and her mom had just started coming back to church about the time we left. Just tonight, as she was sitting in the adult session of District Conference, the Spirit pricked her heart and told her she should get her life firmly on the covenant path and serve a mission. She was not expecting that prompting at all but suddenly she knew it was the Lord telling her what His plan was for her life. I told her that was just how it happened for me too. I knew exactly the exhilaration she was feeling! I'm so thankful I could share those fresh feelings with her. Personal revelation from God is a joyous experience. Tomorrow we have one more time to gather with the saints but I'll count it as next week's experiences so I can post this tonight. We have felt a concentration of gratitude for all things the Lord is having us experience on our mission, the good, the hard, and the best. We thank him for it all! And paraphrasing Corrie Ten Boom, "even the mosquitos!"

"And ye must give thanks unto God in the Spirit for whatsoever blessing ye are blessed with."

D&C 46:32

Doing the happy dance!

 It was a nice breather to not travel anywhere this week. Elder Dunlap was swamped at the office, catching up with finances and I don't think I've mentioned before that we received word that 4 of the 11 waiting American elders finally received their visas and are coming December 13th! With another 5 Indian elders and one sister starting soon in the Indian MTC, this will be a much needed boost for our dwindling numbers. So I had some preparations for their arrival to keep me plenty busy too. We squeezed in some apartment inspections in our spare moments that took us around town. It's a startling moment when realize your auto driver is drunk, his horn doesn't work, (actually we didnt mind that part) and has no idea how to read a Google map! While changing drivers we found these bricks by the side of the road that reminded us, everything we're experiencing is meant to be (MTB) and is ultimately for our good, (as long as we survive it!)

This mission is MTB! 

I should also mention as a backdrop that this week was Dewali, the largest Indian holiday of the year. There's so much I could say but I'll only tell the best and the worst of it. It's celebrated with lights and the lighting of candles and flowers and decorations everywhere. It is visually very beautiful!

                    Our neighbors front door

            The pavilion of our community

              Many balconies lit up with lights

                      The ascending walkway

People dress up in their finest traditional clothes and greet you warmly and smile and offer you sweets and it's all very lovely and joyful. Doesn't that sound similar to Christmas? There is a definite feeling of good will all throughout the days. We enjoyed celebrating this part.

The other aspect of Dewali is a 4-day fireworks onslaught, much like our 4th of July, but on steroids. Starting at 6:30pm, (it gets dark here about that time, all year round) it is a non-stop bombarding barrage of blasting. We live in the apartment tower that is right next to the driveway where all of them were lit. Being on the 17th floor put us on the exact level where they explode. Imagine those large BOOM firecrackers up in the sky going off outside your bedroom window. It was deafening! Nothing we could do could tune it out or distract us from it. We could only endure. It felt like a war zone and the enemy was bombing us for 4 hours relentlessly. By the 4th night of it, we were really ready for Dewali to be over. All these things are giving us experience and empathy for those that live through the actual terrors of war and we hope and pray we never have to live through the real thing. This was a close enough enactment. 

                        The Daily Aftermath 

         The sweeper ladies were busy for days 

Moving on, another joy for us, as you well know because we oft repeat it, is being with our young missionaries. We truly and genuinely love them. This week was the Bengaluru Zone Conference on our home playing field. Unlike our little band of Coimbatore Stripling Warriors, the Bengaluru Zone is beefy and "large in stature", and they have big hearts and testimonies to match. They are truly spiritual giants. We would not however, want to pit these two zones in a rugby game. 

                  The Bengaluru Beefcake Zone

One delightful difference in this Zone is to have two sweet and petite sisters in our midst. Sisters Kalyani and Portapotty (we know...it's Pollupalli but said fast, it sounds pretty much the same) do much good here and hold the fort down in two wards. We could use about 20 more of them in the mission, to be honest. We've got only 1 sister slated to come next month but we're losing 1 before Christmas. No gain there.

                  Such diamonds, such jewels

We are having a wonderful experience with two of these elders in the teaching of our friends, Juli and Avi in our home. That's all I can say about it at this point but what a joy to be included in that process. We have felt the Spirit testify of the truths found in the scriptures as we've studied them together. We went with these same Elders Macdonald and Rajendra to visit Sister Thilaka, a stalwart member who will have the distinction of living closest to the temple once its completed . Our SWM (small world moment) came when she pulled out her photo album, there were Elder Knut and Sister Edna Loewer, next door neighbors from the visa waiters group in Salt Lake! They served in India about a decade ago and are now in Australia. 

                              Sister Thilaka

Back in the day before digital photos

We also said goodbye to the Gibsons this week who have served not 1 but 2 missions here in India, one during Covid. They have primarily served in Chennai. After having visited there just last week not during the hottest part of the year and still feeling the immense humidity, I think these two deserve sainthood status.

It takes a special breed of person to live in India for 3+ years. They have given so much service to building the Lord's kingdom here and they will be sorely missed by the members in Chennai especially. We'll miss them too since that only leaves us now as the one remaining senior couple in the mission (and by January in all of India!). It's hard to say why it's part of the Lord's purposes to have so few missionaries here right now. These are questions we can only know the answer in hindsight but for now must trust that for whatever reason,  it is meant to be. 

To end this blog on a super happy note, the expat families in our Whitefield ward, some of who are over the YW/YM program decided to host a youth dance, unsure if it would be a success or not. It's never been done here before. It was a bold risk to take. The decorations were super fun, they put up lights and really made a fun atmosphere. Like most American dances, it started slow with only a few girls participating. We invited our little neighbor Joyce and tried to get her involved. 

                            Joyce in the hat

 Are senior missionaries allowed to boogie? You betcha!

There still was a little resistance from the youth to fully participate. Joyce said she had a headache so we walked her home and came back to a similar vibe. They had asked us to teach our pioneer circle dance and I wasn't 100% sure it was going to make any difference. But something about it always works a little magic. People lose their initial shyness and start smiling and having fun. Barriers between boys/girls, American/Indian, old/young, came down and a group spirit starts to emerge.

Holding hands is the first barrier to overcome

Once that worry is behind them, everyone starts to relax and smile.

It doesn't take long to feel like a pro. And it gives you the chance to dance with every person in the room.

After that, it was full steam ahead! Everyone was fully engaged at this point and having a blast. 

               Doing the Loongi dance was a hit!

                              Bust those moves! 

                      Heyyyyyy Macarena! 

         I would call it a smashing success!

         

       What a high note to end our week on!

Let Israel rejoice in him that made him. Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and the harp. Let the saints be joyful in glory!

Psalms 149: 3-5

 

People meet for a reason

We delighted in another opportunity to get away from our desk jobs, travel and see more of India, and meet more missionaries, this time to Chennai for their Zone Conference and outing. And it commemorated our 1 year mark of our mission on November 7th. Wow, what a milestone for us! But before I go there let me follow up with something very cool that happened at the end of last week. We were in the airport waiting in line to board our plane home from Hyderabad. We saw 3 American women waiting as well and they had an eerie air of familiarity about them. So I took the opportunity to introduce ourselves to them and find out where they were from.  Lehi, Utah?! Are you kidding me? What are the crazy odds? Sister May was traveling with her 2 daughters, and her Indian husband, who I hadn't noticed before hidden in the Indian Ocean (er..the ocean of Indians) She had met him at BYU and they married. Only in this worldwide church we belong to can these small world incidents happen! Her husband's name is Samuel May and he is the very first convert to the church in the city of Bengaluru, back in 1983. Wow! That's super incredible!

                      The Samuel May family

We didn't have time to hear his story or how they met because we were boarding the plane but after the flight, we talked to them for a short time again before we took our cabs home. They said they were planning to attend another ward the next day (not ours) where Samuel's nephew was the Bishop so we parted ways but we were all in such amazement that our paths would cross on the very same flight. The next day we go to church and, lo and behold, there they were again! Their nephew is now the Stake President! So they followed him to his assignment which happened to be at our ward. Such amazing coinkidinks! We have said it more than once on our mission- people meet for a reason.

                    Rachel, Jennifer and Sariah

It couldn't have been more ideal because it was Fast Sunday and we were able to listen to both Samuel and Jennifer's testimonies and learn a few more details of how he joined the church. At that time in 1983 in India, there were only senior couples who held meetings in their apartments. They had made contact with another family member of Samuel's but he was the one that had the genuine interest and felt the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon when he read it. So he was the first baptism even before there was an established branch in the area. He is a true Indian pioneer and it was such an honor to meet him and his wife and daughters. I felt a kinship to them because they have 4 daughters just like me, including a Rachel and another daughter that lives in Seattle. Parallel lives! 

And now, back to the present week with our quick jaunt to Chennai, we met Sister Berryman, a Service Missionary working as a Family History Consultant and auditor in the Chennai district. She came along with us on our Zone outing and as we came to learn, she too was the very first convert to the church in Chennai! Wow! Two pioneers in 5 days! 

 Like the Banyan tree, her gospel roots run deep

Sister Berryman was raised as a Christian by her mother who worked in an orphanage. Their father had abandoned them, if I have the story right, so not quite an orphan but lived there her whole childhood with her mom. So one of the first places we visited on our outing was the Church of St Thomas where legend has it, the Apostle Thomas died as they have his toe bone. (?) I'm sure she's been there many times since then, but she showed us the very courtyard where she played as a child.

This was her dirt playground, now paved

Sister Berryman, revisiting her past

We saw many shrines all over to various Catholic Saints, including this familiar one. 

  This banyan tree is even older than the Saint! 

An ancient saint in the background and some saints of the Latter-day variety, front and center

The sweetest Catholic saint I saw was a live one! She was so gracious and kind with her perfect English. Sister Berryman asked her if we could see the children but ever since Covid, they are restricted by the government to not have outside visitors. It's just as well, as we aren't allowed to pick up children for liability reasons, I would've been sorely tempted to snuggle one or two. Or take one home with me.

                Taking care of India's orphans

We saw the place where the women would leave their babies and the bell they'd ring to alert the Sisters before they ran away. Maybe some of these broken hearted mommas would come back anonymously to light a candle 

for their little ones they couldn't take care of, hoping to catch even a glimpse of them as they grew up.

            Candles weeping for grief and loss

The Chennai Zone is the largest in the mission with 11 missionaries total plus 1 senior couple, the Gibsons. The real highlight of this excursion was meeting 4 brand new Elders and 3 brand new Sisters we'd never had the chance to know before. 2 of each variety we had served with in Coimbatore so it was a real "Sons of Mosiah" reunion with them. Elder Harmon is the lone American elder serving with 5 native elders and 5 native sisters. It reminded me a little of the time in my Korean mission when I was in a house with 3 Korean sisters and though they were all dears, I would've been ecstatic to have had an all-American chat with someone who shared my language and culture. So we took the opportunity of the interview wait times and the long bus rides to listen to his life story as well as many of the other missionaries we had met for the first time. He shared with us his miraculous story of surviving a serious car accident when he was only 2 years old. Also he shared about his promising cross-country and track career and how he was able to leave it behind for a mission, but not without severe trials. Some of the sisters' stories shared uncanny similarities; mothers with cancer, fathers dying, being the only member of the church in their family, etc. As we listened to each one, we marveled at their unwavering faith to sacrifice their own desires and put the Lord's will for them first. They each bore testimony of the blessings they had received in spite of their trials and through their obedience and willingness. We couldn't help but feel a strong bond with them with all this soul-sharing. They are all bright spirits.

                              We talked

                                  We sang

We snacked

                               We laughed

     We hit each other on the head blindfolded

               Oh, and we did eat many eatables

The closest we got to Pondicherry was KFC (see the map on the wall).

             Some handsomeness overload here

Some of the sights we saw were overrated and sadly, we spent too much time there. The hype of one place was that it was the answer to world peace. People from all over the world come to Auroville in search of Utopia. All you had to do was renounce your religion in order to enter...

                         The Golden Golfball.

 With everyone in our group trying to be a peacemaker, we had already found our Utopia in the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the Prince of Peace. And so there were no takers and we journeyed on. We were running out of daylight when we finally got to some ancient monuments and shrines all carved out of one mountainous rock. All very impressive, all very cool! We'd have liked to have had more time here but dusk was approaching.

                   Doggie or dogie? You decide.

At yet another site...

   The so-named "Butterball" was more potato than turkey.

We came home from Chennai tired, not having slept all that well for 2 days, but truly happy, nonetheless. It wasn't what we saw when sightseeing that was memorable, but the bonds of friendship we forged in those two days. It felt like Zion. I'm so grateful we were there for the testimony meeting after ZC. The Spirit was there in abundance and we all felt so edified and strengthened by each other and by the Lord. I will miss these missionaries so much when it's time to go! We've already said goodbye to a few who've moved onto their next phase of post-mission life. Coincidentally enough, tonight as we went to grab a bite to eat at Lola's, a handsome young man walked into the restaurant and introduced himself to us and said he was a returned missionary who had served in Bengaluru. He loved the brownie & ice cream dessert so he came to Lola's for old times sake while he was in town for business from Hyderabad. Come on! What impeccable timing! What a blessing for us!

Brother Shane also had a story to tell about how his father had joined the church on the island of Cyprus. Wait, do we have missionaries in Cyprus? Apparently so. He and his brother were named after the elders that had taught his father the gospel. (Moms of missionaries, name your sons well. They are going to impact people's lives so dramatically, people will want to name their children after them!) As for me, besides wanting to be involved in a spiritual conversion in someone's life, my other secret desire is to introduce a couple of returned missionaries to each other and help them find their twue wuv and eternal companion. I think there's a yente in all of us, no?  I am never entirely sure at the time, why we meet the people we do but I'm convinced our lives are all intertwined and woven together like a beautiful tapestry and someday we'll see all the inter-connectedness and purpose of it all. It's a beautiful work to be a part of.

"...and other choice spirits were reserved to come forth in the fullness of times to take part in laying the foundation of the great Latter-day work. I observed that they were also among the noble and great ones who were chosen in the beginning to be rulers in the church of God."

Doctrine & Covenants 138: 53, 55