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.