Off to New Delhi - meetings, Light the World and more fun

Before jumping into our Public Affairs role, we decided to go to New Delhi and coordinate efforts with Elder and Sister Hurst, who have been helping PA efforts in all of India while we were unavailable.

While there we met many enthusiastic and wonderful Sisters and Elders in the New Delhi Mission.

Sister Potharaju, Sister Abraham and Sister Srinivasan 

Taking a break to eat between coordinating meetings with Elder and Sister Hurst.

In the evening we saw the India Gate.

Stopped by the New Delhi Mission office.

Met Elder Muthyam and Elder Posapalli, the assistants

Sister Hurst (next to Sister Martin) and Sister Toone, right, (of course working on the weekends like office couples do)

Saturday evening we joined in for a Light the World event where they had set up a nativity scene in front of the church.

Since you couldn't see the nativity from the street, Sister Toone was out on the sidewalk inviting people to come see it. Over 40 people walked in to see the display and take pictures in about 1 1/2 hours time.

After church Sunday

We talked to another return missionary.

The mission vehicle doesn't have a parking place in by the mission home so they have to park out by the street and sidewalk - it has a nice cover.

We enjoyed dinner with the Beesa family.

How about a picture by the Christmas tree?

Sister Beesa, now returned home from the IBM - India Bengaluru Mission, served in our neighborhood where we were living about a year ago.

Praveen Beesa took us to a few sites, but that's for another blog.

What a warm beautiful feeling we enjoyed, visiting wonderful people in New Delhi. May Heavenly Father's blessings be upon them all.

Combined Zone Conference and Christmas Caroling

The mission held a combined zone conference for Bengaluru and Hyderabad missionaries.

Group pictures were fun.

President Thomas taught a great lesson on applying Scriptures to our personal lives. He started by asking a few to present what they had prepared on assigned Book of Mormon story topics. The First one was "Nephi Builds a Boat". 

First, "Doctrine/Principals" would be listed from what your learn from the story such as: Faith, Humility, Repentance, Obedience, Prayer, Revelation, Self-Reliance, etc.

Next "Application" items would be listed of things that could help us in our every day lives such as: Adversity, Humble, Grateful, Invite others to help in missionary work like when Nephi asked his brothers to help build the ship, etc.

The next story was on the Jaredite barges. One of the "Applications" mentioned was how God doesn't provide us everything like how the barges would receive light. Stones were molten and then he asked God to touch them. Several ideas were given of how this could be applied to our lives such as how we need to act and use our own creativity and then believe and exercise faith before we receive divine help.

I was talking with a few missionaries after and we agreed that President Thomas's teaching that day was engaging and extraordinary. He added personal stories to enhance our understanding. He was enthusiastic and we all wanted to apply his ideas into our own reading and studying.

We enjoyed going caroling with church members. We found they have various traditions in India such as how carolers are invited in for a snack or food and drink at every house. At each home after singing, a scripture/spiritual thought was shared and a prayer for the family was given. This takes longer but it was fun and rewarding. Some houses took 45 minutes to reach the next one. Some carolers often visit most of the night. A few people we visited were visibly touched, bringing us all closer to feeling the love of Jesus Christ.

One of the people in our Service Center said that carolers arrived to his home at 3:30 AM and that they visited one more after his home. He brought in the extra food that they didn't eat, since they were full from eating at so many homes earlier.

They wanted to give us a full plate of food each but we split one.

We all had a wonderful time visiting and caroling.

A few we could see were very touched by the visit. The following pictures were taken the 2nd night we went caroling.

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Light the World - Welcome new office couple, Visak, Thanksgiving, Public Affairs

Light the World - One by One - Like Christ Did

Sister Martin and I attended a Light the World prelude event - See more on this in the story below

After temporarily helping out in the office for about 13 months, Sister Martin and I are excited to have the opportunity to work in our original assignment of Public Affairs.

We welcomed Elder and Sister Willnauer as the new office couple.

Training began and continued until we were required to go back to Vishakapatnam for time.

Enjoyed a wonderful primary program while visiting.

They had a little birthday cake in primary.

We then had the opportunity to check out the progress of the the new church building being built.

Artists rendition of what the finished building should look like

Flying Spaghetti Monster or Upland Bistro

                                                                       We picked Upland Bistro


Back in Bengaluru, a wonderful family invited all the missionaries and another family to their home for Thanksgiving.

Many helping out

What a feast that was.

No turkey this time since it is not easy to find, and if you do find it the cost is about $10 a pound.

The young missionaries hosted a Light the World event to get members involved and excited to do daily acts of kindness the 24 days before Christmas. It's called "Light The World - One by One - Like Christ Did"

They had various games and competitions.

Score tied 3 to 3

Score still tied 4 to 4 now

The Elders made an Eastern Hemisphere world with a table, paper and flashing lights - very creative - India is the center

They showed everyone how to use their smart phones to access ideas on ways to serve others.

Saying goodbye to two more awesome missionaries, Sister Paduru and Elder Tolbert.

One of Sister Martin's final tasks in the mission office - Help decorate the Christmas Tree

Is that a skateboard or an extra computer desktop trolley under your feet?

Either way it looks like Sister Willnauer is getting in to her new assignment.

Transferring our stuff to desks upstairs for our new Public Affairs assignment.

Since our desks will be upstairs in the Service Center, they have their own Christmas Tree.

Starting to get a few fun things from Grandchildren for Christmas!

Phoenix mall down the street just put up their Christmas Tree as well.

Is that a Christmas present under the tree for the Elders?