District Conference in Hyderabad

Apostle D. Todd Christofferson and his wife were with us at the conference. Pres Hollstrom (Asia Area President and a member of the Seventy's) and his wife were also with us. It was great to spend time with them and be taught by an apostle.
Most of the people in the photo are part of the choir and wanted this photo to happen. Others joined us just because when a camera comes out everyone wants in the picture. Kneeling by Pres. Hollstrom is Rajev and by Elder Christofferson is Swaroop. You'll hear me talk about them in our emails. Also to my right is Shilpa. She directed the choir and was scared because there is so much she doesn't know. She is a fast learner and takes direction. It was so fun to help her and she did a great job. By Shilpa is Mahesh! He's the one who called me for Mother's Day to make sure I was having a good day and to wish me Happy Mother's Day. He is 20 years old and the best athlete here. He also loves to sing and said, "Sister how am I performing?" He wanted to make sure he was singing to make the choir a good choir!! Then he would ask what time practice would be. If I said 9 a.m....he would say, "Sister, I'll be here by 6 a.m." He wanted to show his enthusiams for being part of the choir. This is one of many individual stories I could share!
To Shilpa's left is Sarisha. We love Sarisha and love to spend time with her. She wants so badly to come to the USA. She serves as Primary president. 28 and single. Next to Sarisha is Saritha. I teach her piano and I really love her! She is one of my most promising students. She's married and has 2 children. Her little boy is Kolab. (like the song)
Karthikey is standing on your right by the wall....tall in a white shirt. He also takes piano. He likes my food and wants all my recipes. Everytime I see him he wants to know if I've brought him another recipe. He is only 20 and teaches early morning seminary. Hema is in pink kneeling in front. She is such a fun person and I like spending time with her.
Mary is in blue right behind Elder and Sister Hollstrom. She's the one who checks out what I am wearing and tells me if I don't look good or if she likes what I'm wearing or not!!! I love her! Her real name is Fatima.
Shaker Bodu is Mahesh's brother. He loved the choir so much that he would sing the songs on the volleyball court! He would sing and then hit the ball and then sing and etc!!! He is married to Vani in purple just in front of him.
I could tell you more about these people but that's probably enough for now! You gotta love them cause I do!!!

A Night On The Town

This is the "Kakatya Hotel." It is one of the nicest hotels in town. The Mission president always stays here when he comes to town. The Woods who are the couple in Visak came for conference this weekend and this is where they stayed. We spent some time here visiting them. Very pricey even for India! $250 a night and that's a deal!!!
We went shopping at city center and saw "Ronald" in front of McDonalds and took some pictures. The LaDukes sitting by Elder Kasper are humanitarian and serve here in Hyderabad, and the Wood's on the right.

I tried to get a photo to capture what we saw but it's just not the same without the noise! It always sounds like you are in the middle of a huge traffic jam! The funny part is, if there is a traffic jam everyone becomes very calm.....horns quit honking (mostly), and the drivers and people are very courteous and calm just trying to do their part in relieving the traffic jam. We went to a restaurant that is across the busy street that you see in the background.
Restaurant is called "Fushion 9." It was very good and very Western. It was a 9 cuisine restaurant and higher priced than most here. We paid about $15-20 a plate each. This was Friday night, the weekend of District Conference.

Beautiful women's clothing

These are typical sites in India. You see women in beautiful dresses riding or driving motorcycles. We have seen as many as 6 people on a bike before. Some of the women wear pants under their dresses. The sari (wrapped dress) is the most popular with the pants and long dress being next most popular. Very seldom do you see a woman in pants and a shirt. Never do you see women in shorts (no matter how hot!!) but occassionally in capri's. They are a very modest people. The men wear long or short sleeved shirts. It's seldom that you see a T-shirt!!
Even the working women wear beautiful Sari's. These are the lower class women or they wouldn't be carrying something on their head! It amazes me how beautiful they dress even in a lower class. Sometimes you will see a little bit of their back as in this picture. These women carry construction items for the men who are building the apartment.

The lady in pink is typical of pants with the dress and always a beautiful scarf draped around their neck!!

Volleyball at the Church

These are some of the kids at 2nd branch. They play a lot of volleyball.
Elder K has played with them occasionally but my 1st time was Monday evening after Family Home Evening. They asked and I couldn't resist. It was a lot of fun....hard to play in a straight skirt and sandals.
There are always a few of the kids sitting on the steps watching the game. These are the back steps of the church. We love these kids.
This is a better back view of the church. If there is an outside activity this is where it is held.
Front view of the West Marredpally Chapel. There are 2 branches here, 1st and 2nd. It's so funny because we will walk to church and as we walk in it doesn't look like anyone is here. There are never any cars parked and usually 1,2 or 3 motorbikes. You walk in thinking no one is going to be there and the place will be crowded with people. We still aren't used to the idea of no vehicles in the parking lot.

This is the gate that seperates the church grounds from West Marredpally street. When we walk out of those gates we remember we are in India!!! The little house is the guard house. Anyplace in India that is nice has a guard! There was a bombing about a year ago and people are cautious of it happening again.

West Marredpally street

This is the main street that leads to the chapel. We walk this street every day. Sometimes more than once. It's just a few blocks from our apartment.
We often buy fruit and vegetables from street vendors like these.
This is our vegetable market. Father is always sitting in the middle of the vegetables when he is there. Mother (in the background) always over charges us so we don't buy from her when we go there. The man in front is their son in law. Their daughter is our favorite and she wasn't there when we took the picture. She treats us really good and we like buying from her. Most of the vegetables they sell are things we don't recognize. We buy the normal carrots, cucumbers, potatoes, onions, mushrooms and etc. They don't speak English but we are learning to communicate our needs to them. The father knows how to say photo! He wants us to bring him a copy of this picture!! We will do that in the next day or 2.

I never Tire of the monkeys/Bedroom Window

I thought I would never see a monkey...Now we see them almost everyday. They love our backyard because they like the playground and the trees. They jump from tree to tree and swing in the swings and climb the monkey bars...If there tired they just sit on a ledge and sleep.

Wet & Rainy

As I stated earlier it's not been much of a monsoon season.
We did have 5-6 days of good rains. This is the river on our street that we had to cross. It was only just above our ankles. Deep enough that Elder Kasper didn't want to cross, especially after watching the car come through!!
He finally got brave and waded the water in his dress shoes. The elders called us when we got home and said they had been in water up above their knees. We avoided those streets. We're not 19 anymore!!!

This guy didn't want to get his feet wet so he pulled up on the sidewalk.