Young Single Adult Conference

Wow! This was the best conference.
Some of these kids bore their testimony in church today and said the conference had changed their entire lives. I can name 3 young men that weren't planning on missions that are now making plans to go because of conference. (Picture on the left is 2nd branch FHEvening kids...Daniel is standing up. He's a great dancer and singer and is lots of fun)

(4th Branch...these are our kids)
It was so fun to see them get so much out of the conference. I was thinking how blessed we are to have things like these conferences come along. Only some of us choose not to be apart and we miss out on the blessings that would have come our way had we taken the time to attend. I really felt bad that so many missed the conference.


There were 160 that attended. That's good. There were just so many that I love that didn't attend. And there's no way they can make up for what they missed. It's a lesson on being valiant and dedicated and committed to being where the Lord has plans to teach. (I'm somewhere in the middle of this dance group. They crowded around me and loved doing YMCA...great kids)

Elder K and I were in charge of 5 hours of Sports and other activities along with the help of the 4th branch kids. You can see Elder K in charge of Basketball!

These were a few of the subs for the basketball team.

Michael in the stripped shirt....the clown of the group (2nd br.) Praveen next to him in the red shirt. (Just a fun nice guy) John Wesley is a clerk for the district presidency and has only been a member for....less than a year but acts like he's been a member for ever. When Pres. Nichols told me that he was such a new member....I about fell off my chair!!

In between games they were good to come up with their own games. The one guy just stood there balancing his stick forever. Mahesh in the red shirt (who is so funny) was all over the place balancing his stick.

Shilpa and Raka are sisters. Shilpa (left in pink) is the choir director for our district choir. I'm training her to be the one who makes it happen when I leave. (love that girl) Raka was the girl representative for the district in charge of the conference. I got so everytime I saw her coming I would duck my head and say, "Oh No!" She kept changing our schedule or wanted me to do something. These girls are on the ball. Their father is a doctor in Saudia Arabia. I understand he's gone most of the time.

Pres. Naka is the 2nd counselor in the district presidency. They were playing a game where you have to jump over the bent person. About 20 of them were playing and they were having so much fun. Prashant (bent over) was the representative for the district for the men.

Grab your ankle relay....There good sports and do what ever we ask them to do....Even if its silly.

I told you they were good sports.

Swaroop in the white t shirt and Nikhil in the white hat. It's not cold but its fashion. Nikhil was one that was not planning a mission but after the conference he said he realizes the importance of going. We're so proud of him. He is one of my best piano students. He's playing some of the songs for the primary presentation in 2nd branch. This was a balloon relay.

Arm wrestling.....

Dinner time with my goofy companion,.

The Thomas family Reggie and Matilda (left) taught Temple Marriage workshop. They just got married a few months ago and he's the 1st counselor in 4th branch.

Rennie and Keerthi (right) just got married. He's been a branch pres. and they are hoping to come to BYU next year. Kirin in the middle is Keerthi's brother. He is living in New Zealand right now and going to school. He's looking for a bride.

More Activities...

Some of the kids. Kiren has her arm around me and Daniel is in the black shirt. They are brother and sister and are new members of the church. Some of you have heard me talk about them.

"There's A Dog In The House!"

(this was written in my journal last Tuesday, October 28th. There is no Halloween celebration here but they do Celebrate Dawali. Diwali is a major Indian festival, and a significant festival in Hinduism where the lights or lamps signify victory of good over the evil within every human being.)
It’s been Dawali and they have been celebrating with firecrackers and fireworks for a week. Everyday we see a few more and its very noisy here. Elder K says the number of Firecrackers that are blown up in 1 minute would have lasted him for a whole year when he was a kid.
Tonight it’s totally crazy. People on our roof have fireworks and sparklers and fire crackers. We are 7 stories up and looking at the whole city. The fireworks are all over the city. Not just in one spot but on every street and corner. When they light the 1000 string of firecrackers it looks like their houses are on fire. If everything weren't made of concrete the whole city would be on fire. It’s a panoramic view of fireworks. Never saw anything quite like it in my entire life.
We came back to the apartment and the Nielsons (a couple from Visak) went to bed. They were so tired from their 10 hour train ride. We shut the kitchen door and they shut their bedroom door to keep the noise level down. They tell us the fireworks will last all night long. (and they did!!) We’ll turn our fan up just to shelter the noise that goes on outside. Elder K and I went into our office (next to the living room) to work on our Career workshop for YSA conference. As I was working away, Rebecca called on SKYPE. Within a few minutes of her call I saw something walk across the living room floor. I said, “Elder K, there is a dog in our house.” He said, “You’ve really lost it….There can’t be a dog in our house.” Then I started going crazy inside because I realized it was a monkey. So I started screaming, “There’s a monkey in our house!” He made me stay in the office and shut the door and he went out to find it. I realized he didn’t have anything to protect himself and the monkeys can be very aggressive. (Elder Toleofoa and the banana story) So I opened the door and gave him a big push broom. He said, “What’s this for?” I said, “Protection!” He took it and I went back to the office to give Rebecca an update.
Elder K was looking under the table in the entryway….under the bed….We realized we had left our bedroom door open. When Elder K looked on our balcony in the bedroom he saw 2 of the bigger monkeys sitting on the ledge of the balcony. He just shut the door and came to tell me we were safe. Elder K said that he thinks the monkeys were afraid of the screaming lady so they left immediately.
I felt very fortunate because the monkeys are thieves. My purse was laying on the bed. If they had stolen my purse my identity would have been missing as well as my money and my credit and debit card. It was careless of me to leave my purse on my bed with the door open! With 30 monkeys living near by you never know.

Toleofoa and the Bananas

Funny story......Elder Toleofoa (from Hawaii) was walking down the street by the park with his companion and a bag full of bananas. They were headed to their apartment when they were accousted by about 30 monkeys who saw the food. Elder Toleofoa decided the only way out was to throw bananas at the monkeys. It worked, but as soon as he threw the first banana and the monkeys figured out what he had.....they all started to chase him. He and his companion were running down the street lobbing bananas over their shoulder to keep the monkeys away. That verifies the stories we've heard about being careful when the monkeys are around and you are walking down the street with food. One of the sisters told us that a monkey grabbed a banana from her hand as she was walking.....I thought that sounded fishy and never really believed her....Now I've heard several people say the monkeys are very aggressive and it's true. They will grab food right from your hand.

Meet Some of Our Friends

Ammon with his mom Kumari. Her husbands name is Kumar. Many of the children are named after prophets and apostles and some book of Mormon people. Kumari does a lot of translating for the church. They are trying to translate magazines and books into Telugu. She and some of the other members have been to Salt Lake City a few times in regards to the translation. She also translates for our Marriage and family relations class. She and Kumar are fun and keep us laughing and smiling. She has a great sense of humor but when they want to talk fast here they switch over to Telugu and I'm lost! I keep telling them I know it was funny....I just don't know what you said!!

Sudoker in the back right. He's one of our 4th branch kids. Daniel holding on to Elder Kasper. A new member of about 3 months and a wonderful young man. We've written about Daniel and his sisters Kiran and Joslin. We love all these kids.

Solomon and Prasana. Prasana is due to have her first baby in November. They are a great couple. They've had us to dinner and if we need anything Solomon is one of the people we call. These people take such good care of us.

Shaker Bodhu and his wife Vani. They sing in our choir and are such a cute couple. They are in first branch so we have to search for ways to spend time with some of our good friends in first branch. Bodhu is the one who sings "Come Follow Me" in between serves on the volleyball court. When we try to close choir....he's always saying, "One more song sister!" Vani is the New Relief Society President in 1st Branch. She's very dedicated. A wonderful young couple that we are privileged to know.

Mahesh is Shaker Bodhu's brother. He was the one who called me first for Mothers Day and wished me a happy mothers day. That's the only reason he called. I told him he was first. None of my kids had emailed or called at that point.....Truth be known it wasn't even mothers day yet in the USA when Mahesh called. He feels like one of my kids. We have a zillion kids here!!

WEDDING BELLS AGAIN

Rennie and Keerthi got married Friday night. They are a cute couple from 4th branch. He's been on a mission (to India) and when he returned from his mission he served as branch president. He is now Elders quorum president and Keerthi is in the Relief Society Presidency.
Shaker Bodhu next to Rennie is in a traditional outfit. I can't remember the name. Women wear something similar and it's called a Salwar Kameez. You see the women are wearing their beautiful Sari's.

Rennie and Keerthi have plans to attend BYU. They said probably July next year they will leave India. I'm so excited to have them close by for a couple of years.

WEST MARRED PALLY

This is West Marred Pally Street. It runs in front of the 1st & 2nd Branch Chapel. It is 2 blocks from our apartment building. This is a common site here. People sell and deliver out of these little carts. This one is definately Hindu and one that looks like this is often a traveling Hindu Temple. I noticed this one has a little child in it. We love India because of the unique things you see....like this!!
It's unique to us but a very common site here.

View from Our Living Room

This is the club next door. The man in the picture has a goat and he is chopping up the meat probably for goat curry. They chop it up bone and all with a meat cleaver. Same when they do chicken. They whack it several times, bone and all...It all goes in the pot. I have blogged pictures of the big pots but we found the process interesting....(Poor little goat)