Christmas Choir - From Basics to Beautiful

Bengaluru Stake Christmas Choir, December 23, 2018

As mentioned in an earlier post, Sister Martin and I, Elder Martin, auditioned for and joined the Stake Christmas Choir. The choir is made up of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from various congregations in the Bengaluru, India Stake. 

Elder and Sister Martin - Children singing following the Stake Christmas Choir performance on Dec 23, 2018

The solo audition was a method for our director to not only test our singing ability, but also decide our vocal range to decide which section we would be placed in. Sister Martin mentioned to me that this was the first time she had ever sung a solo in front of a group. Our director, Brother Jubal, then divided us into three groups, Soprano, Alto and Tenor. We had no one audition that qualified for the low range of Bass.

Our stake is made up of several wards or church congregations in various locations. We were all asked to come to weekly Sabbath choir practices at a central location and ward building called Ramam Murthy Nagar.

I'll never forget the first practice. As we began going over parts of Alto and Tenor, most said they had never sung anything but melody. I volunteered to take the brethren into a separate room so we could practice our tenor part alone. We had no piano but I was able to remember the tenor lines from years of caroling and singing in ward choirs back in the Utah. I remember one man exclaiming to me that he eagerly wanted to learn the tenor part.

That day, we drilled through the harmony parts of "Joy to the World" and "Angels We Have Heard On High". Other days we practiced "Carol of the Bells", where the men were divided into Tenor and Bass parts. The choir members worked hard to learn the new parts and were asked to practice with the YouTube videos during the week. Even the Sopranos were taught how to sing the higher notes more confidently.

Brother Jubal began each rehearsal with warm-up exercises and teaching basics such as controlling tempo. The choir never quite mastered slowing the tempo, as most members sang faster than typical, perhaps learned and ingrained from their youth.

Brother Jubal, Jubal Anthony Sujeeth Kumar, is a gifted and talented musician. He received schooling in Coimbatore, India and piano and vocal training from The Trinity Music College, London.

Brother Jubal is shown here conducting the choir and is the accompanist as well. His accompaniment is somewhat like what a professional Jazz musician would do, ad-libbing in the musical key, as he rarely looks at sheet music.

Brother Jubal plays the piano and conducts the choir at the same time

At a practice a few weeks earlier, Brother Jubal labored to teach us dynamics. Most of the choir members only sang at one volume, LOUD(FF fortissimo). That day, he changed his conducting style to mimic a hand turning the volume down like twisting a manual knob on an old TV or speaker amp.

I remember during one of our last practices of Silent Night, the choir finally began to blend in harmony and control volume. I distinctly felt the Holy spirit more present as we sang that day.

Following about six weeks of practices, sometimes lasting about 4 hours each, we were nearly ready to perform. The dedication of the choir members was impressive, some driving about an hour each way through Bengaluru city traffic and sacrificed a huge amount of time to attend choir practice.

The Sisters had custom choir dresses made for the occasion. Including the tailor who came to measure one day, the total cost was about the equivalent of $7 (US dollars) each.

The anticipated day had finally arrived. We all went to the Orion East Mall in Bengaluru, India. We were asked to perform by the giant Christmas Tree outside the mall's front entrance. Many helped to set up the sound and microphones, Light the World Banner and a hand painted nativity.

The person who had our matching neck ties arrived late so our first pictures showed us without a tie.

As the performance began, we realized the sound system was not working properly. About half way through, a few adjustments were made that helped to improve the sound.

Many people who were walking in and out of the mall stopped to watch and listen.

Our Stake President, President Sunderraj estimated that there were about 250 people at a time watching.

We sang "Joy to the World", "Angels We Have Heard On High", "Oh Come All Ye Faithful", "Silent Night", and "Carol of the Bells". Since we also celebrated the birthday (Dec. 23) of Joseph Smith, the first Prophet of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we also sang "Praise to the Man".

I think my favorite was when we sang Carol of the Bells, when Brother Jubal had us sing it a second time without the sound system, no piano, Acapella.

We all had fun and enjoyed performing.

The stake presidency joined us for this final picture.

Following the performance, a few others from our church sang, including some children and one Sister, Rebecca William, shown in this video clip. It was inspiring and helped us all get ready for Christmas. http:\\www.lighttheworld.org

   

Light The World - An Orphanage in India

Last week, Sister Martin and I participated in a food donation to a children's orphanage in India.

When we arrived to the orphanage, the children had just sat down for lunch

We also decided to do this in conjunction with the weekly challenges our church leaders gave us to "Light The World". This week's challenge was called "Light Your Community". See this YouTube video link... Light The World - 2018  and web site... Light The World One of the statements I liked on this web site said, "Jesus’s love knew no bounds. Discover ways to help someone in another part of the world."

Since we are currently serving a mission in another part of the world, and in a country with more challenges than we are used to seeing, the opportunities and need are endless. Instead of donating money, we decided to purchase the food items they requested and deliver them ourselves. We went with one other member of our ward.

Even the Uber driver helped to unload the supplies 

The list of needed items included: cooking oil, onions, ginger, garlic, flour and a variety of other items including some spices we were unfamiliar with. Below is the final list of item we purchased:

Even though it was not on the list, we decided to buy 150 small chocolate bars as well.

This seemed to be a very well run and clean orphanage. While the children were eating their lunch the director invited us to go inside to her office for a little bit of their curry rice lunch as well.

After lunch we came out to say hello to the children. They were all lined up and quite orderly. Sister Martin wanted to meet each child so she walked down the lines and shook every child's hand.

These children learn to speak four different languages; Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and English. Some of them asked, her, "how do you do?" in very good English. They even asked what her favorite color was. Sister Martin asked some of them their names and how old some of them were. Most of them could tell their names, but some may not have understood the question of their age, so their friends around them answered the question for them. Since this was a Christian orphanage, she asked a couple of them if they believed in Jesus and they said "Yes".

I (Elder Martin) decided to just talk to one or two. I asked one child a few questions. For example, I asked when their birthday was but they said they didn't know. The director then told me that none of them know when their actual birthday is so she picked February 2nd as the birthday for all 72 children. Perhaps we'll return on that day.

There are many orphanages in India; some for children and some for older people like a nursing home. The children orphanages are filled with mostly girls which was the case for the one we visited. One study in India reported that about 10 million children are abandon each year and about 90% are girls.

Here are a couple of videos. A few of the little children decided to dance for us to the tune, "Jingle Bells".

As you can tell we enjoyed this experience. It also seemed suitable to use a picture from this experience for our Christmas card. Merry Christmas 2018.

Teaching in the car, at the airport - Primary Program

Recently, the Mission President asked Sister Martin and I to teach a temple prep class for a couple of Missionaries that were currently serving in our mission, awaiting a visa. That's an interesting twist. They're going to the MTC and the temple in the Philippians about 5 months into their mission.

In preparation, I began trying to locate some booklets called "Preparing for the Temple". preparing-to-enter-the-holy-temple -read or listen-

The only ones I could find were in the Telugu language, which just happened to be their native language. Although reading Telugu is not always taught much and many prefer reading English. They both appreciated the booklet. In the 45 minutes we had together, we covered a few highlights. We also talked about international travel as well.

As we have mentioned before, the missionaries sacrifice much to come on a mission. For example, Elder Mungamuri, wearing the red tie, comes from a faithful family of missionaries. His parents died when he was a boy. He and his siblings were raised by his grandmother.  All of them have, are or are about to serve full-time missions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His older brother served a mission; is home and working to provide for the family. A sister is serving in the Marshall Islands, and another sister is ready to enter the MTC (Missionary Training Center).

Primary Program

Several weeks ago, we enjoyed watching the children sing for the annual Primary Program. They were all dressed nice with similar accessories. Girls wore the same head band and boys had the same ties. Since it's typically not appropriate to video in the chapel, I recorded audio. I then played the audio while displaying a group picture they took just after the meeting was over. 

  

Although India people speak several languages, most speak some English and our meetings are mostly in English. The accents are sometimes difficult for Sister Martin and I to understand. The children are a little easier to understand, especially when the songs they are singing are familiar to us. Enjoy these few clips. 

Loving Christmas - More Interesting Happenings

Getting into the Christmas spirit. This nativity was just put up in front of the church where we walk by every day. Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, a donkey, a Shepard and a lamb. The gardener to the right, makes everything so beautiful here.

Do you think it could snow here?

The Sister Missionaries helped Sister Martin decorate the Christmas tree.

A touching moment - Elders studying their scriptures just before Mission Leadership Council began

We went to another ward for a special meeting with Elder David Evans of the Quorum of the Seventy, and the Asia Area President. He served a mission in Japan Tokyo area in 1971. He invited the youth to come discuss the opportunities and blessings of serving a full time mission.

Elder David Evans of the Seventy

Half of the missionaries serving in India are from India. Each one we have met have amazing testimonies of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Restoration-of-the-gospel

Elder William (from India) part of the Eighth Quorum of Seventy, also spoke.

Elder William

He talked about a Sister Missionary that decided to give up her government job to serve a mission. Government jobs are highly sought after in India and extremely difficult to get. People in India just don't let go of good jobs. Government jobs pay an average of about $7,000 annually, which is quite good for India. For example, the top salary for a manager of a government bank is around $15,000. Many faithful young missionaries give up everything for 1 1/2 - 2 years to serve the Lord and the people of India.

Most people travel to work and church on motor cycles and scooters. You don't see coat racks at church instead there are stacks of helmets. Here are some helmets and the church parking lot...

No winter coats - Just helmets

The church parking lot could only hold around 10-15 cars, but a lot more when it's scooters

The sidewalk in front of the church on the way home is sometimes quite interesting.

Another day had a bunch of strange new red wires strung together...

Even our elevator had something strange happening...It shows we are on the 72nd floor but there are only 19 floors in the building...

Locked out of the Mission office during a power outage. It took about 10 minutes for the generators to fire up before we could go in this time.

Just relax and enjoy the wait

Trapped in the Elevator - Talent Show - Christmas Choir

The other day, Sister Martin was intensely working on some paperwork for a departing missionary, Elder Massey. Each departing missionary receives a certificate of completion, various disease letters, a few select general conference talks, letter to their Stake President and more.

After finishing the packet, she dashed to the elevator to deliver it to the Mission President on the upper floor, who was running late for the driver to take he and his wife to the airport. As soon as the doors closed the power went out and she was trapped inside (we have a few power outages every day).

Sister Martin was freed, after being locked in this elevator

Locked in the dimly lit cell, Sister Martin began knocking on the door. The security guard on the other side assured her that the power would come back on in about two minutes, the time it would take for the backup generators to kick on.

When the power came back on, she continued to the top floor. Unfortunately, we have two Elder Massey's in the mission and she had picked the wrong one. Minutes later she had the packet corrected and all was well.

Elder Martin grabbing a bite to eat at the mission office - Curry seems to get better as leftovers

Our local church had a talent night where everyone was encouraged to prepare something to perform or share. Sister Martin and I decided to prepare a silly song that I had heard and sung privately before but never publicly. We improvised, messed up a few times but still had fun. It's called, "The Green Grass Grew All Around".

Two young girls sang a very touching rendition about the savior called "Gethsemane".

About half way through the program, they invited us and a few others up to the stage. They asked us to dance to some music so we did a swing.

There was a wide variety of talent presented by so many. We had great time and had a curry dinner at the conclusion. They like to eat late here in India as it was about 9:30 pm when dinner was served.

A few weeks ago, Sister Martin and I decided to join the Stake Christmas choir. This was a different choir that required an audition. One by one each of us were asked to walk up to the pulpit and sing a solo of the 1st verse of "Angels We Have Heard On High", followed by Do, Re, Me, Fa.... Of course we were a little nervous. Sister Martin mentioned that this was the first time she had ever sung a solo in front of people at church or anywhere.

We're excited to be in this choir. We are getting to know some of the saints here in southern India. These pictures I took at our practice last Sunday, from 3:30 - 8:00 pm.

Coming back from choir practice Sister Martin took this picture of a decoration in front of Phoenix mall 

Did you bring your fishing boots??

A few days ago, after a late night in the office, we noticed it was raining so we grabbed our umbrellas. It was only sprinkling rain so we headed for home. Our walk is typically only 12 minutes, 5 of which is on the busy road with road construction. Well, today it was a lot longer.

We started walking along the street and noticed the water kept getting deeper. As we continued, the cars and motor scooters were churning up the water into a very muddy mess.

See the video which best shows the situation we were in.

We decided to wait for an AUTO (small three wheeled taxi) but after about 10-15 minutes we noticed they were all occupied...so we decided to continue the trek.

I'm sure the younger missionaries are used to this.

Rain boots would have been nice to wear. However, most people wear flip flops or sandals. Mike's pants after our walk home.

Back to the office for a nice drink of water. At least the water inside is clean, and it tastes good.

You take the cups from the top - they're face up - just blow out the dust

On a brighter note, check out the pics on a sunny day on the grounds around the Mission Office and church building. Beautiful! The rain and mud are worth it. These Poinsettia trees really get you in the mood for Christmas.

We're really going to miss that Luke 2 reading with the all the grand children children acting out the Nativity and dramatizing details surrounding the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

Chocolate Cheese and a Taco Shell Made of Spicy Chicken??

We were surprised walking through the grocery store the other day. Chocolate Cheese!! Perhaps it's good but we'll have to think about this one. 

It is Curry heaven for me here in India. I'm enjoying a chicken Tandoori platter with Biryani rice and nan. Sister Martin wanted to try something "normal?" in the mall so she went to Taco Bell. She picked the Naked Taco, costing a whopping $1.43 USD. That different looking shell is not your typical...It's actually made of crispy, spicy fried chicken. 

Almost everything is somewhat spicy in India. I haven't had anything very spicy yet but Sister Martin sometimes says it pushes her limit. 

Kids are entertained in the mall on this little train.

The malls here have many of your typical shops plus a lot of India style dress shops and yes, various veggie and curry chicken fast food restaurants. They are also priced higher than the local restaurants. What costs around $5 or $6 in the mall is half to a quarter the price at the small restaurants.

I went to a place called IT crowd and ordered what I thought was an appetizer for 150 Rupees, which is just over $2. When the plate was ready I was amazed that it was, a large meal that even included desert.

As I sat on a bench of sorts by a tree a younger missionary joined me with his plate of food he purchased from a place called Tandoor Box. His plate had a few Naan breads stuffed like pockets with a kind of curry masala/potato. I asked the Elder what he paid for his lunch and he replied 60 Rupies, which is about 85 cents. Wow, the price is amazing for a plate of food here. 

Trying out guitars...this is the one we bought.

Enjoying a quick Saturday afternoon lunch at this restaurant. We just happened to run into a few of the young missionaries who had just finished teaching a lesson; Elder Vupadda, Elder Wheeler and Elder Thomas. This is the second time coming here. The food is great and the price is generally around $2 - $4 per person. Our friend, Vasanth, ordered what he thought we would like on the menu. He ordered Dal Tadka for Sister Martin; made of lentils and spices...and Chicken Chettinad for Elder Martin. Last time we got Hyderabadi Chicken which was my favorite so far at this restaurant. 

India snack we like

Since it is hard to find Grapefruit here, I enjoying a new daily breakfast treat. So, with a banana, I break open a nice juicy Pomegranate for us to share.

We have a lady who comes and cooks and cleans our apartment from time-to-time. She also does the same for the our Mission President and his wife. It's a very reasonable price. My first cousin Bob Priddis and his wife Annette served as office couple in this mission earlier this year. They had the same person come and work for them. She will make whatever dish you want. I usually ask for Curry Chicken but Sister Martin will ask for other items like this. 

She made this nice curry chicken, Naan, rice and some spinach paneer. Yum-Yum.

Thanksgiving 

We enjoyed a nice thanksgiving dinner with the DeHarts, an American family that lives in different locations around the world because of his work. The last place they lived for a few years was Argentina. They invited us to join them for the feast.

They even found a modest sized turkey, amazing! It was great. I made my favorite chocolate chip cookies but they didn't turn out too good. All we have is a little toaster oven and they were overdone on the bottom and undone on the top, not to mention the ingredients are not quite the same here. The butter, flour and sugar are quite different here. I took some of the cookie dough to their house and did the last batch in a bigger oven. They turned out better but still not the same as at home. I wonder if I can find the ingredients for Clam dip here?

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I took and Sister Martin didn't take any either.