Goodbyes, Hellos and a great recipe

We decided to give President and Sister Mortensen a little gift of a toy airplane since they spent so much time inside one the last 3 years.

They are the busiest people we know with amazing responsibility. Sister Martin asked Sister Mortensen how they find time to prepare talks for the hundreds of speaking assignments at Stake and District conferences, Zone conferences, etc. She said we often prepare while flying to and from the different cities.

We don't see President and Sister Mortensen together very much due to their amazingly extreme schedules. Here's a picture of Sister Mortensen. She has been going through details with us before she leaves for home in Arizona.

Here, she is talking to a missionary who lost his cell phone.

Saying goodbye to President and Sister Mortensen.

Outgoing and incoming Mission Presidents.

Hello to the new Mission President, and his wife. Greetings President and Sister Thomas.

President and Sister Thomas told how they were introduced to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. They talked about how they knew members of the church over the years and had good experiences with them. The Thomas's had two children and had just moved into a home off the military base in North Carolina. They happened to meet the missionaries who had just been chased away by one of their neighbors with a broom. They offered to share a message about Jesus Christ with him. He said yes. 

When they went inside their home he asked his wife to join the discussion with the Elders. She was shocked since they never discussed religion. She had read the Bible but he hadn't. They did attend a Protestant church every week. They listened to the message on that Friday evening and felt sorry for them so they invited them back for lunch on Saturday. The missionaries came back a third time and they argued saying to each other, "You tell them not to come back. No, you tell them". By the fourth discussion they had both committed to be baptized. 

President Thomas said that after he read the Book of Mormon, he knew it was true. he thought that if the Book of Mormon is true maybe he should read the Bible. He read the Bible for the first time and knew that it was true. They also mentioned that the missionary who baptized them had not baptized anyone else during his two year mission.  

We've been helping the Mungamuri Sisters lately and their aunt came to help prepare meals for them often. She had to go back to her home town so we said goodbye to her. Here's a group picture we took just before she left. Below that is a copy of one of her recipes definitely worth trying.

Biryani Rice with Chicken

By Aunt Anuradha

Ingredients: 

Whole chicken cut into big chunks

2 tomatoes (cut small)

4 big round spoons oil

1 cinnamon stick

5 cloves (whole)

2 cardamom pods

1 big round spoons ginger garlic paste

1 green chilies whole

½ tsp salt

2 cups rice uncooked

4 cups water

¼ cup chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)

1 heaping tsp coriander powder

Biryani leaves (a few bay leaves)

1 red onion

1 carrot

Options:

¼ cup chopped fresh mint (leaves)

1 heaping tsp ghee (clarified butter)

½ lime (juice only)

a few stands of saffron

Directions:

1.      In large pot over medium heat, add oil, cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom and biryani leaves.

2.      Add all of the other vegetables. (cook until onions are light brown)

3.      Add chicken, salt, mint and coriander leaves, and ginger garlic paste.

4.      Add coriander powder. Cook until chicken is done.

5.      Add water, bring to boil. Add rice and cook.  Can add a little water if needed to get rice done.

6.      (Add ghee and lime juice).  Put lid on the pot and let sit for at least 5 minutes.

Serve with Raita

Hello to the Sister Missionaries

Sister Ravulapudi and Sister Babu, the STL's, were soon off to other assignments. 

Here's a few past MLC's and a Bangalore Zone Conference that I hadn't posted yet.