Prasana's Baptism

Prasana and her friend Lokshmi walked in from off the street to West MarredPally chapel. It was our 2nd week in Hyderabad. One of the members brought them to me and introduced them to me. I welcomed them and figured out in a hurry they didn't appear to speak much English. We found Elder Kasper and invited Prasana and Lokshmi to attend the meeting with us. Then I introduced them to Sister Jebamoni who speaks Telegu and asked her to sit with us. Sister Jeb. and her companion followed up with Lokshmi and Prasana and were able to teach them the gospel. Meanwhile Elder K. taught them English and figured out that Prasana understood a lot of English but was shy about communicating in English. Lokshmi doesn't understand enough English so the missionary lessons have to wait until her English improves. We also enjoyed many Family Home Evenings with Prasana and Lokshmi.
The above picture is Prasana with all of her family. None of them are members but they came to support her in what she is doing. After her baptism she gave me a hug and said, "Oh Sister Kasper, I felt so good when I came up out of the water and I am so happy." We are pleased to have been involved in this little miracle for her life. I think it was a great honor for Elder Kasper.

Can't Take My Eyes Off You

We've learned that when the people stare at us, if we just flash them a big smile they give us a big smile back. (Elder K.'s story) I was walking back to church and there were 2 guys on a bicycle. One was on the handle bars and one on the seat. They were looking at me as they came toward me so I smiled. They smiled back and continued to look at me and ran smack into a power pole. That dumped them off from the bike and out into the middle of the busy street. I ran quickly to help them up and as I did they were yelling at each other in Telugu! I couldn't understand the words, but I certainly got the meaning. The guy on the bike was saying to the guy on the handle bars, "You were suppose to be watching!" The guy on the handle bars was yelling, "Oh yeah? You were driving!" After I helped them back on the bike they rode off down the street still yapping at each other. That's what happens when people stare at us!! Didn't your mom teach you not to stare???????

SEVEN TOMBS

This is a place called "Seven Tombs," and is the burial place of Kings and queens. Hayath Bakshi Begum affectionately know as "Ma Saheba" (meaning revered mother) was the daughter of Muhammad Quli Qutub who was the 5th king. She was married to the 6th king and was the mother to the 7th king. When her son (the king) shaved for the first time there was a 12 day celebration. (a funny thing to get so excited over.) The first and 3rd picture are her tomb.
No where in the world are there so many tombs in once place. These tombs date back to 1500's.
This last ;picture is Shaker & Vijaya and Elder and sister Woods who just arrived and will be serving in Vsack. (Vsack is a resort town on the coast. (Sea of Bengal)

Restroom in the gold and sewing shop

We were out and about Hyderabad on Wednesday. We told Shaker we needed a restroom. He was trying to think where he could take us. We ended up at this store. His friend works here. It's a fabric store. (you can see the fabric on the walls behind the people) (Aunt JaNell would have gone crazy in this store) Also a jewelry store that specializes in gold. The store was decorated with crystal lights everywhere. Such a beautiful store.

This is Shaker and his wife Vijaya. They live in 3rd branch. He is the nicest guy. He's the one who works on all the humanitarian projects helping to make sure things go smooth. We just met Vijaya.

HOLY BELLS SCHOOL

This school was started by Annie and her husband 10 years ago. (she's in one of the pictures below....dressed in blue) They started with 15 children on their living room floor. Kindergarten and preschoolers. (The littlest children are inside looking out the barred windows.) It grew to Kindergarten through grade 4 and just this year they added grade 5.

The children are children of the slums and off the streets. Many of them are beggars and are required of their family to work before and after school for a total of at least 5 hours. School isn't important to their parents but Annie and her husband are trying to do their best to see these children have a chance to become something other than a beggar.

The church bought school bags, books, & the uniforms they have on. Uniforms are not something the church normally does but the Lyerly's were able to make this happen. A plea went through because some of the children were so poor.....1 child came to school in his mothers blouse and it was humiliating for that child. Annie and her husband said it broke their hearts that day.
This boy sells stuff on the street before school and after. He must put in 5 hours or his parents won't let him go to school.
The school feeds them 1 meal (Lunch) every school day. It's usually the only meal these children get. Annie's husband told of the children going through the garbage for food. They might find somehting in the garbage in the USA. Here the garbage is gone through several different times by those who live on the street. I felt so privileged to meet Annie and her husband. Good people that have raised their families and are now reaching out to help those around them. They have a tough battle as the parents live with the mind set of the cast system. I'm a beggar and it's good enough for my child. They don't see the value of school. Annie and her husband are hoping to plant some educational ideas in these childrens heads so they can rise above their conditions and the next generation will be better.

Take My picture Please!!

Generally Muslims don't like their picture taken. These girls followed us around and wanted their picture. They even ripped off their face piece!

Dedication & Celebration in Village

(See the full story at the end.) As we drove into the village, we were met at our cars and walked the path of the village to where the reverse osmosis machine has been installed. The water in the villages are filled with heavy metals and flouride that are causing deformities and terrible health issues for the people. To have good water is such a blessing for these people.

Children receiving the hygiene kits. Most of these children have never brushed their teeth before and have no idea what soap is. Villagers think using water to water is enough.

The school was very helpful in teaching them how to use the things we gave them and to teach them they should wash their hands and take daily baths.

This sign says "LDS Indian Society of the Church of Jesus Christ. " Elder & Sister Lyerly are directly responsible for the Hyderabad humanitarian effort. Shaker in the yellow vest helps secure the projects and makes sure all the little details are taken care of.
The blue sign you can't read is written in Telegu and says the water is available between 8-11 in the morning and 6-9 at night.

As we walked through one of the villages this is a picture I took.
When something important happens they take coconuts and break them and drop the water of the coconut on the ground in honor of the place. The packages are powdered paint. They throw it around, sometimes at the people in honor also. Below you see the lady with the first caldron of water. There were a ton of people that attended this particular dedication. And we were treated far to good!!


We were given robes to put around us like a shawl. Then flower lai's that were made by the villagers. The dot between our eyes is a symbol of honor. (they put it on for us.) The lady with us was also being honored. She is a legislature in the government here.
As we handed out the hygeine kits the children all wanted to shake our hands. The man in the white shirt on the right is Conoco. His company did the water system for this village and all the others. He has designed a reverse osmosis system that can fly to any disaster area and they would never run out of water. You will hear about this system being used someday but right now it hasn't caught on.

cutting the ribbon with the lady from the legislature.

Today we visited 4 different villages where the church put in reverse osmosis water systems. They were doing dedications of the system in each village. The first village drums were beating and people gathered along the paths of the village street as we walked all the way through the village and to the place of dedication. It was a huge party and they treated us like the guests of honor. We took pictures of the first caldron being filled with water. The fluoride and other problems with the water are so bad that what we did was a drop in the bucket to what needs to be done. We also went to the schools and distributed hygiene kits to each child. The school was working with us to teach them how important it is to wash their hands and brush their teeth and have better sanitation. They are charged 2 rupees a day to use the water. They use the money to maintain the water and pay a couple of the villagers to care for the system. Then if there is any surplus of rupees they can use the money to do other things like build a toilet for the school. Most of the schools in the village have no toilet and that is a problem especially for the girls.
They now have 7 villages that have this water system and hope to get 30 more approved before fall.

Kamikaze Auto Driver

I'm sure by now you are all tired of us talking to you about the traffic here! Tonight we were at 4th branch and needed to catch an auto driver to get home. I swear we had a Kamikaze Auto Driver! I slide over close to Elder Kasper and he said "I think he has a death wish!" We had so many close calls. At one point I thought the car next to us was going to collide into the side of us. Then our auto driver swerved off into the gutter to save us from an accident. Cars seemed to be coming at us in every direction. There were also a zillion spead bumps that he didn't slow down for at all. Elder said, "Maybe he had a date as he sure was in a hurry." I really do think the only unsafe thing about India is the auto, yet.....so few accidents!! There was a man that was in the road right in front of our auto. He scurried out of the way as our auto driver layed on the horn. Yesterday we were in a bit of a traffic jam. Just a little one and every auto associated with the jam was honking their horn. Just sat there honking and honking. It was hilarious to us! As though honking was helping!
We had 4 of us in the auto the other day and it was raining. I was holding my umbrella over my skirt trying to point it in such a direction that the water would run down into the road. Madhu and Rajev had pants that were soaked. I tried to show them how to hold the umbrella so the auto didnt' drip on them and the rain ran out. It didn't seem to work as well for them.

Party time!

The big party was last night. This is the clean up crew. The white you see on the ground is rice. The big pans were full of currys and beriane. I have a hard time watching the food being prepared and the pans getting cleaned. It makes me think I should be extra careful where I eat.
The music is so loud sometimes that we feel we are at the party. The only trouble is it starts at 10 and goes till about 3 a.m....to late for us old folks!! I'm assuming its a very popular club as they seem to have lots of people come and they are dressed in India's finest clothing. We get to view part of the party through the trees that are between our place and the club!

Monkey video

I was to late, but you can see the swing still swinging. The monkey jumped up in the swing and got it going and than jumped off. 3 other monkeys were in the background playing on the monkey bars. Wish I had got a better shot!!

Our beautiful view

This is the view out our bedroom window. We are 4 stories high. Under the palm trees is the roof of the club next door. They have lots of parties and loud music at the club. (we live in a noisy place!! There is a swimming pool at ground level by the club,an eating area and the playground. They must serve lots of people at the club as we see them preparing massive amounts of food beneath our living room window. Yesterday they were chopping barrells full of mutton and big caldrons of rice. They had a fire with the caldron on top and were cooking and preparing for the big party that started about 10 last night. You have to remember that the average person in India does not eat dinner until 10 p.m.
If you look close at the playground you'll see some monkeys that were pushing the swings and playing on the monkey bars. I've included a little video below.

2nd Wedding

Elder Kasper and I went to a wedding last night. We arrived at 5:30, which is the time it was suppose to start but it didn't start until 6. When we arrived Smetta, a cute 17 year old girl in 2nd branch ran to me and said, "Sister you are suppose to play the piano. Your name is on the program so come quickly." Then Pres Rao (District Pres.) came up and shook our hands and told us we are on the program to speak. Please take 10 minutes each! Lyerly's told us that is how it would be. You speak at the weddings and they never ask you ahead of time. I'll be a bit more prepared next time. (carry a 5-10 minute talk with me to every wedding I go to!)

Reggie is from Hyderabad 4th branch.....Metilda is from Chennai. (on the East coast)

After the wedding the bride went to change into her sari that you see here! When they came back everyone just sat there! Finally Pres. Monaharram came to tell us that everyone was waiting for us to greet the bride & groom before they got up. So we walked up to greet them and they wanted pictures. Then we were asked to go have dinner (on the basketball court outside the church). They told us if we would go, everyone would follow. So we did. I caught a few pictures of the man making the cooked bread.

Elder Kasper and I danced 1 dance alone. All the youth wanted to dance and asked us to start it.....but they didn't join in! Typical!!

JUNE BABIES

Happy Birthday to ALL YOU JUNE BABIES!!
Stuart
Patricia
Seth
Keayen
We love you!

At home, in the USA we have cats and dogs running around. Here we have monkeys swinging from the trees, outside our window. These monkeys were playing just a couple of blocks from our house. The one with the leaves showed off and swung up into the tree and pulled down this green limb. He was faster than I was, cause I didn't get the swinging! There are some babies too, but they weren't out this day!!

ANNOUNCEMENT

We have news this morning! Our family is growing. Rebecca and Kelly are announcing that they are going to have a new baby in March of next year. Hopefully on my birthday!! This will be their 4th child and Keayen is really hoping for a little brother. I can't blame him! Those little girls are doing little girl things and having a little brother would even things out!
Our other announcement is that Tia married last month. His name is Jared and he's from Idaho Falls. We're very happy for Tia and are looking forward to having Jared in the family.
Our family continues to grow. We continue to love them all! We feel very blessed and want you to know that we are so happy to be serving this mission. It's been almost 2 months and it feels more like 2 weeks. Where does the time go?

Aruna's wedding in Rajahmundry

Trying a little video......Let me know if it works. This is a clip of the wedding and one of the special musical #'s.

YOUTH CONFERENCE in Rajahmundry

Pres. Gutty is the counselor in the District Presidency. On the right, Pres Rao is the District President. He was right in the middle dancing with the kids. Standing by him on his left is the Young womens district counselor

Pictured right is Swaroop. He is living in Hyderabad, preparing for a mission and went to Rajahmundry with us to help with Y.C.

Rajahmundry is 1 hour from the Indian Ocean on the East coast of India. It was 9 1/2 hours by train for us to get there. To our surprise the train was very pleasant. We were 1st class and in an air-conditioned box. We saw some of the conditions of the other box and ours was definately the best.

Youth Conference in Rajahmundry, 27 and 28th of May.

Rajahmundry was very hot while we were there and it was also very humid.

Elder Kasper & I were in charge of games, dancing and a workshop on time management and communications. Everything went well except for the games. Games we have played with the Young adults that work well really went south with the kids 12-18. We have another youth conference here in Hyderabad next week. We hope to be able to redeem ourselves!!! If you have any ideas to help us out we would appreciate it. Large Group Games!!! Tug of War went well and the Water Balloon Toss went well.