INDIAN OCEAN

Lyerly's are the other couple in Hyderabad.
They are humanitarian missionaries.

The cool breeze whipping E. Kasper's tie
This young man wanted his picture taken with me. It's a common thing around to ask in India.


We were in Rajahmundry for Youth conference. We were only 1 hour from the beach so President Gutty arranged for a car so we could drive there and see the INDIAN OCEAN. Rajahmundry is about 1 hour from the East coast. The nearest town is Kochinada.

Ramana & Aruna Wedding in Rajahmundry

Flowers around the neck are traditional for an indian wedding. This was an LDS wedding finished by a reverend from another church. (long story)

Over 3000 people attended. The wedding ceremony alone was 2 1/2 hours. Aruna is the District Y. Women Pres. in our area. She and Ramana will travel to Hong kong for the next week where they will be sealed in the temple. Yes......this is a "love Marriage."

In honor of our May BIRTHDAY babies!!

Our baby bird was born this morning!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY this month to:

Uncle Kent

Alex

Kelly

Porter

Tiana

Your lives are very important to us.

SUPER SATURDAY

They love to eat!!! And have their picture taken.
The youth are so much fun! We are glad this is our main focus because we enjoy working with all these kids.

Sangeta (long e) leads the music in 4th branch.

Pres Guntu is 3rd branch pres. and is over seminary and institute for the Hyderabad area. He is holding his little boy and his wife in blue.

Super Saturday is a day for Young Adults to come and enjoy each other. We listened to a great talk by Apostle Russell M. Nelson on listening to good music and keeping our hearts open to hear the spirit speak to us. Lunch was part of the day and Elder Kasper and I provide games. As you can see by the pictures, they were having a good time. We also had Movie night. We watched "The best 2 years." Refreshments were soda, ice cream and Banana Bread. They really like banana bread.

My new outfit for India

This is my favorite outfit and was made by the tailor in Paridise. It is very light weight and
good for the hot weather. The skirt is lined and as you can see has 2 layers. I finally found something to wear that's not to hot. The whole outfit cost me about $10. That's good especially because it was tailor made to fit me!!

We live here somewhere!!!

We live out there somewhere. That's looking at Hyderabad from LV Prasad. You can see there are some nice buildings in India. But probably more dumpy looking buildings. OK, we don't really live in an area that is quite this nice!! We've taken pictures of our street before so now you know the difference.

EYE CLINIC and LDS Charities

Dr. Rao LV Prasad eye clinic and school pictures of blind & partially blind children

So today we went to LV Prasad the eye clinic, with the Lyerly’s. The eye clinic is well known for being a good eye clinic. People around the world come to have surgery here because they are so good. Sam, the administrator of the clinic showed us around and then we waited to meet with Dr. Rao…….founder of the clinic. The following came from LV Prasad website.
Distinguished Chair of Eye HealthChairman, Hyderabad Eye InstituteFounder, L V Prasad Eye Institute
Gullapalli N Rao returned to India in 1986 to establish L V Prasad Eye Institute, after a successful career in the United States as an academic ophthalmologist. Dr Rao received his basic medical education in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, and completed his postgraduate training in ophthalmology at the All India Institute for Medical Sciences, New Delhi. He went to the United States in 1974, where he was trained first at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, and later at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, where he continued on the faculty until his return to India in 1986.

He is a person who seems to be concerned about leaving the world a better place. In Particular, India. He has new plans to expand and try to do some prevention programs. Such as Sanitation, Hygene and etc.

LV Prasad is a school that is attended by eye doctors all over the world. At 7 a.m. 6 days a week, 200 student doctors gather with some of the finest to give ideas they are working on. (new research) If they are 1 minute late they close the auditorium door and they are locked out of the room. (auditorium is in the building)

They also have 2 suites that are absolutely beautiful. (1st wood floors I've seen in India and they are not your ordinary wood floor) 3 room suites that would make the Hilton cry in shame. Sam said these rooms are for "The Rich and The Famous." They have people from all over the world who are of the upper crust, who come and stay in these rooms while they have their eye examinations and surgeries. They pay enough that it helps cover the cost of the 40 free surgeries they do every day.

They also work with children who are blind or have limited vision. When we were visiting today, the children were singing and playing a game. It looked like Ring around the rosie! Another group were doing Yoga. A 3rd group was doing some kind of a stand up and speaking excercise. They sang "We Shall Overcome" while we were there.

LV Prasad also does stem cell research. They make the artificial eyeballs. We get to see that room in about 2 weeks. They do 80 surgerys a day. 40 of those are free. Given to people who can't afford to pay. This is what Dr. Rao wanted to have happen from the beginning. There are rooms with multiple beds for those who can't afford to pay and they see that they are given some food.

The church purchased a brail reading machine that translates into 28 different indian languages. They have need of people such as ourselves who type up books for the children, (like "Harry Potter" and then the machine reads the book and translates it into brail.....which ever language the child speaks. They would also like people to read the books aloud and record them. The children love books read to them.

The church also helped open 8 eye clinics for LV Prasad.

First Experience with a tailor

This is a new skirt and top for me. I purchased the fabric from cheap jacks then took it too a tailor that Sister Lyerly uses over in an area called Paradise! (he also sews suits for men made out of Italian Fabric) I actually had 2 skirts made and 2 tops. This is my least favorite of the 2. Next time I will have him taper the top just a bit. The skirt he made has a lining which is nice. The first time I tried it on there was no place for my hips. So I had to have him take a little out in the hip area!! I got all 4 pieces done for about $30.

I've also given myself several haircuts!!! I hope I get better at it because there's only me and Elder Kasper and there is no way I'm going to let him touch my hair with a pair of scissors! I learned from Chris's mistake!!

Elder Lyerly's Birthday Party

These are the Lyerly's that will be going home the end of June. They've been a lot of help to us.


(Kiersher, Rajesh, Madu and Shaker)

Jogi, Sarika and Saloni came to the birthday party. Also many of our branch members. Kiersher in the purple shirt and his wife Padma (in white) have been married for a year.
Madu is in the picture with Sister Lyerly. He is very fun to be with. He sings with us in community choir and he tries to make sure I know my way around. When we are in an auto with him he always says, "Sister Kasper, where are we now?" He likes me to take note of landmarks so I can find my way around the city. He works for Microsoft and is 21. He will soon quite his job and go on a mission. When he comes back it will probably be like starting over. Its doubtful he will get his good job back, but that's how loyal the young people are to the gospel in India!

Jogi, Sarika & Saloni

Jogi is Pres. of our community choir and started it several years ago.

Sarika, who is hindu, is his wife and she is the greatest!!

Saloni their beautiful daughter who is a student and wants to be a photographer!!

These people are very anxious to help us discover India. We went to a vegetarian Hindu restaurant with them when we first came to Hyderabad. Sarika sells the pearls that Hyderabad is so famous for. She also works for LV Prasad which is a very famous eye clinic in Hyderabad.

Whoops!! I liked that picture so much I posted it twice.

Jogi is visiting with Elder Kasper at Elder Lyerly's birthday party.

Saloni is interested in being a photographer and she liked poising for my camera!!

Cont' pictures of Sewing School and Orphanage

These Pictures are the sewing machines inside the building. They are treddle sewing machines and some of them are equipped with electric motors. There are 5 embroidery machines, 3 juki type machines and about 15 regular sewing machines. Some of the women you see are the first students.

Orphanage & Sewing School

Our friend Anthony Praveen who is only in his early 20's (I think 23) has an Orphanage and a Sewing School. The sewing School is for women who have been beatin or abused by their husbands. They come and are given a place to stay and Melissa (an indian lady who sold her home to make this happen) teaches them how to sew so they can find employment. She has 16 women that she has taken in right now. These pictures were taken on the Grand Opening of the Sewing Machine School. There was a great honoring that day as they are so happy that the church donated the sewing machines you will see in some of the pictures. They made flower lei's for all of us, had a ribbon cutting ceremony.....gave speeches about how happy they were, and asked us to make speeches. This happened once before to me. (at the other orphanage where the church donated tables and chairs for the children) They also made a fancy plaque that is part of the building. Elder Kasper got to do the unveiling of that sign! It was a very big deal to these people. Refreshements in India always scare us a bit as we have tried to be very careful not to eat at just any place. We sometimes feel obligated to try because we don't want to offend the people. This day we ate a SUGAR BALL.......I'm still not sure what it was, but it was terribly sweet......and gave me an instant headache.......It didn't last long and we didn't get sick......also had pop (which we drank but generally speaking you turn down anything that is liquid here) and the biscuits (a non sweet cookie) were good.

In the top picture on the right there are 2 girls that are sisters. Blessy who is in the Pink shirt and Nissy who is in the black top. They also have a sister named Krissy. There father is in the picture and he owns most of the property where the Sewing School is.

MANGO FRUITSTAND

This is a typical fruitstand in India. You see these all along the sidewalks. Some of the people will be selling different things but it's mango season and their are mounds and mounds of mangos all over the city waiting to be purchased. We eat a lot of Mango smoothies......also mango just sliced up fresh for breakfast. I didn't ever think I really liked mangos at home but the mangos in India are so sweet and juicy!!! The green mangos are more tart and not my favorite. I like the yellow ones.

COMMUNITY CHOIR

We started singing with Community Choir on Thursday. The same choir that I played a piano solo for their last concert!! (Concert Pianst who also was there.....if you don't know that story ask me!!)
Its a choir that is made up of about 25 people from various walks of life and many different religions. Elder Kasper sits by a man who is the Consulate General of the USA. We looked him up on the internet. He's the main man!!! And he has a great voice. That's just to give you an idea of those who are in the choir.
We are preparing for a concert that will take place in November. The Christmas Concert. We are singing pop tunes such as "Fiddler on the Roof", Bridge Over Trouble Water," "Moon River," "When I'm Sixty Four," and many others.
Our choir director is Jonathon from Australia. His wife is a native of India and they are here for a couple of years than back to Australia. He is a very good director and we enjoy being in this choir!

MARRIAGES IN INDIA

Most marriages in India are arranged. Occassionally they marry for love. If a young couple find each other and fall in love many times it causes much grief for the young couple and for the family. One young man in one of our branches is in love with a member girl. He wants to get married and so does she, but her family told her that if she marries him they will kill themselves. They were suppose to get married in November but she is afraid because of her parents threat! She is of a higher cast and that is why her parents don't want her to marry. Besides they are suppose to arrange the marriage.
Another situation.......a young couple in one of the branches married a year ago. They don't live together. 4 months ago he told his family he wants to be married. They have agreed but his family and her family can't get together on a time and a place and how............so there is no marriage.....although they are married! Confusing huh!

MONKEYS!!!

These aren't the best shots but had to show you "The Monkeys." There were about 20 of them hanging around at the club that is right by our apartment. We took these pictures from our bedroom balcony. There was a mama monkey carrying her little baby on her tummy. It was so cute! Many of them were swinging through the trees. I tried to take a picture of them in the trees but you couldn't see them clearly.

My First Clothing Purchase In India

In the little Alley where we went shopping I found a skirt and some shoes. The shoes are so comfortable and they cost me $6. All kinds of bargains in India!!

The background is the best part. When we first got here Elder Kasper kept saying, "Are they building it up, or tearing it down." It's really hard to tell! This is around the corner from where we live and they are building it up!!! The brick is stacked by the lower cast women. Then they carry it up to which ever level the construction workers are on. They also carry large bags of sand on their heads, up to the higher levels for the men to mix mortor to put the bricks together.