The Best India Parade We Didn't Attend.

January 26 is Republic Day in India.  They celebrate the formation of the Republic of India in 1950.  They have a parade attended by the President, VP and Prime Minister.  So we thought it would be good to get tickets and attend (we have lived in Houston for 30 years and never have attended a parade, but hey, we're in India).  We got the tickets, and then we saw the restrictions.  In bold letters on the back of the ticket it says:  Ticketholders are requested to not bring any bag, briefcase, radio, pager, mobile telephones, tape recorders, cameras, binoculars, digital diary, palm-top computer, remote controlled car-lock keys, arms and ammunition, match box, cigarette lighter, thermos flask, water bottles, knife, razor, scissors, screwdriver, blade, ipod, wires, explosives of any form, etc. with them as all such items will not be allowed to be carried to the seating enclosures.  In addition, everyone had to be in their seats 30 minutes before the parade started and not leave until the President, VP and Prime Minister had left.  On top of all this, there was a general security release from the Church to not be in these kinds of crowds because of an unconfirmed terrorist attack. 
 
We didn't know what to do.  Can you imagine a parade in the US with the restrictions listed above (would anyone attend?)  Being unfamiliar with the "downtown" area of Delhi, and not being able to take a cell phone with us, we opted not to go.   We watch the parade in comfort (and warmth) of our apartment, and I took pictures of the TV screen.  I figured I could do that since I paid to attend the parade.  I even "cropped" them so they look like we were there...   We actually saw more on TV than we would have been able to see, 15 rows back in the crowds.


Lots of show of various branches of the military

 

Outfits and Headdresses are very colorful
 

Lots of dancing groups with colorful outfits

Many floats

Lots of acrobats on motorcycles.  This is a pyramid of
riders balanced on 9 motorcycles

Several displays of various aircraft, planes and
helicopters

The President was hosting the King and Queen of Bhutan, I even got their pictures, but decided it would be best to not post them.  It might keep me out of an Indian jail. 

 

 

The Hole Revisited

Some time back, I mentioned that when we look out our front window, we have a perfect view of a 30 foot deep hole.  It's a piece of property the Church acquired to eventually build a new multi-use church building in the future.  For now it's just a unsightly hole with partially constructed pillars - apparently construction that was started and abandoned before the Church purchased the property.  We woke this morning to a constant pounding outside.  When we looked out the window, we found two sets of two workers each that manually were taking the pillers out.  There are 12 of these pillars and each set of workers take turns with the sledge hammer pounding on the concrete until it finally breaks away from the rebar, so they can then cut the rebar with a blow torch.  I am amazed that they would have even approached the task, and even more amazed that by the end of the day, they had broken through all the columns. 

 

Brrrrr....

If anyone would have told me in June when we got to New Delhi (with the tempertures constantly above 100 degrees Farenheit), that I would be sitting at the kitchen table writing in the blog with a blanket around my shoulders to keep warm and using the computer heat to keep my hands warm, I would not have believed them, but it's so true.  Since December 1 the tempertures have turned cold and gotten colder ever since.  The temperature range right now is around 40 at night rising to about 60 during the day, but it's a very damp cold and so we never feel warm.  We came primarily with warm-weather clothing based on the instructions about our mission, but have needed to go out and buy sweaters and leggings (for Angela) to try and keep warm.  It's the same in the misson office.  To compound the problem, the buildings have marble floors and concrete walls that retain the cold.  There is no central heat in New Delhi. We are trying to keep warm with two small raditor-type heaters for our fairly large apartment They do a poor job of keeping anything warm except right around them.  I generally like cooler weather, but both of us are pining for the warm weather to come, but we have at least until early February.    

Christmas Day with the Missionaries

Carolling at Priya Market

We spent Christmas Day with all of the missionaries in India - 26 young elders, 4 young sisters, President and Sister Sackley, Elder and Sister Black (Public Affairs, just arrived in November) and us.   We had a delicious  breakfast of various treats prepared by the "older" sisters, after which we had a white elephant exchange, skits by the missionaries and caroling in the local market. All the missionaries got stockings filled with "goodies" prepared by Sister Sackley and Sister Stevens.  Lunch was catered by a local member.  We had roast beef, mashed potatoes, grilled vegetables, rolls and salad.  We even had jello with marshmallows - talk about feeling like we were in the US - at least while we were eating.  After lunch we had a devotional with talks and videos on Christ and  Christmas.  The event ended with too many desserts to count all made by Sisters Stevens, Sackley and Black.  It was a fun day, and helped us not think to much about being back home.  In the evening we were able to talk with all the grandkids right after they had opened their presents.  It was a very enjoyable day for us.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!  

 

 

Office Christmas Party

12 Days of Christmas - 3 French Hens

Unlike most mission offices, we have employees that work for the Church in the office.  There are 2 reasons, 1) the mission has not been able to consistently have senior couples called to New Delhi, and 2) as mentioned before many people, including most of the vendors, landlords and contractors that the Church uses in New Delhi don't speak English.  So we had a Christmas party for the office this week and had the mission's 3 employees and their families along with us and President and Sister Sackley gather for food and fun at the Mission Home (the home of the Mission President).  Kids are what make Christmas fun and we played games and sang songs and the kids got presents to open.  Our contribution was to teach the kids the 12 days of Christmas - a tradition we had all the time our boys were growing up.  I'm sure Bryan, Eric, Tyler and Jared are groaning right now as they think about the years that Dad would don the Santa hat and we would perform in front of their mother the 12 Days of Christmas.  Well boys, the tradition lives on now in India for a whole new generation...

Merry Christmas - A Time of Service

At this time of the year, we all look for ways that we can be of service to our fellow men and women to demonstrate our love for the Lord at His birth.  Most Latter-day Saints go about trying to do good without much fanfare.  Recently I read a talk by a modern Apostle, M. Russell Ballard.  In speaking about being anxiously engaged in good causes he said in part, "...Now, brothers and sisters, I'm not encouraging religious zealotry or fanaticism.  Quite the contrary!.  I'm simply suggesting that we take the next logical step in our complete conversion of the gospel of Christ by assimilating its doctrines deep within our hearts and our souls so we will act and live consistently - and with integrity - what we profess to believe.... In your morning prayer each new day, ask Heavenly Father to guide you to recognize an opportunity to serve one of His precious children.  If you do this, your spiritual sensitivities will be enlarged and you will discover opportunities to serve that you never before realized were possible.... if we multiply our efforts by tens of thousands, even millions of prayful efforts to share God's love for His children through Christian service, there will be a compounding effect of good that will bring the Light of Christ to this ever-darkening world." 

Sister Stevens and I invite you to join us this Christmas and throughout this coming year to do as Elder Ballard has asked - pray for opportunities to provide Christian service to our Heavenly Father's children. Merry Christmas.    

Our Love and Best Wishes,

Elder and Sister Stevens

Off to Manila...

Sister Anu Lama (from Nepal in center with pink scarf)
and Sister Shruti Singh (far right in jacket) with us,
at the Mission Home the night before leaving for the MTC

This past week we saw off three young sister missionaries (sisters in the sense of the church, not biological sisters) going on their missions to the India Bangalore Mission.  They first spend 2 weeks at the Manila MTC to learn about how to be effective missionaries.  Both missions in India (Bangalore in the south and our mission, New Delhi in the north) are considered English speaking, so there is no language training for the missionaries.  In reality, only about 50 % of the people have passable English skills.  One of the three sisters are one is from Nepal, who came to New Delhi to be set apart as a missionary by our mission president.  The other two are "graduates" of our first missionary preparation class.  We have really enjoyed teaching the class these last 2 months.  The class helps the young prospective missionaries learn 1) why they are serving the Lord, 2) why it's important to be personally worthy to preach the Gospel, 3) how to recognize the spirit of the Holy Ghost, 4) how to invite the Spirit into their teaching 5) how to teach basis gospel principles like the restoration, the plan of salvation and the importance of keeping the commandments, 6) how to effectively use their time and 7) why it's important to be physically, mentally and spiritually prepared to serve.  For any youth preparing to serve a mission, I recommend that they receive this training.  It integrates well with the teaching they receive at the MTC.  And with the length of time at the MTC being shortened to allow more missionaries to go, it's even more critical than before to their success and effectiveness.