Carl, this one's for you...

Birthday Dinner with my new cricket bat

Years ago, Carl and Gloria Howard and their family were in our ward (church congregation).  Carl was a big man (literally).  He was about 5' 10" or so and weighed about 350 lbs, but I think it was all muscle.  From his actions I could tell Carl loved his family and family history.  It was not uncommon to see him every Sunday in the Family History room doing research on his ancestors.  What I didn't know was his love for cycling, until one day while out riding, Bryan and I caught up with him.  It was a sight to see Carl on his road bike riding on the skinnest tires available (19mm).  He was riding alone, so we rode with him for a ways.  As we were talking, I asked him about his cycling and he said he was riding his age that day.  Carl was about 52 at the time and I was really impressed (I think Bryan and I were out for our regular 25-30 miles).  I rode with Carl several other times that year.  With his big frame, I would easily pass him riding up hills, and he would zoom pass me on the downhills (amazing what mass does).  Carl passed away quite some time ago, but I have never forgot his goal of riding his age on his birthday.  So today, on my 60th birthday, I got up early, hopped on my stationary bike and rode 60km before our 9 am meeting at the church (that's like forever on a stationary bike. I'll have to wait until next year when I can get on a real bike to do the miles).   

Now you might ask, "what does this have to do with India"  Nothing, it's just the ramblings of a "middle-aged" missionary thinking about good times many years ago.  Carl, thanks for the memories...

Dinner with Brother and Sister John

Friday night we were invited to have dinner with Trija John, her husband and their two children.  Trija is the office employee that handles the mission expenses.  Financially their family is considered to be above average.  Both she and her husband work and have good jobs by India standards.  They live in a normal apartment of about 400 square feet consisting of two rooms roughly 15 x 10 feet and a small bathroom and a "turnaround" kitchen (that's a kitchen where you go in turnaround and come back out).  One room functions as a bedroom for the family and the other room is the living room, tv/computer room, kitchen, study and anything else you can think of.  The apartment is up 4 flights of steep stairs and is un-air-conditioned.  The family is the ideal church family.  Trija works with the young women as a counselor in the District Young Women's organization, and her husband, Gagan, is a district high councilman, responsible for providing leadership to the congregations in New Delhi.  Both of their children are great kids and are doing well in school and church.  Boomika is looking forward this year to being 16 and San is a typical 9 year old (10 in May as he reminded us).  We had a great meal of India prawns, dahl (lentils), salad, and papad (a spicy crisp bread that is fried).  We ate at 8 pm (late for us, early for them), and of course Angela and I had indigestion all night, not because the food wasn't great, just because we can't eat that late. The Johns are the type of family that will help the Church grow and flourish in India.  We really enjoy working with Trija and being friends with her and her family.      

We're Back...

Not back home, just back on the blog.   It has now been 1 month since our last post.  My blog writing reminds me of my first mission where I was pretty consistent with my journal writing until I got to Hump Day.  What I think happens is all those uncommon things that you experience the first half of your mission become common and it's just part of life.  I'll try to do better. 

During the last month, I have been working to get the 2012 Mission History completed.  Given that I haven't maintained a journal for most of my life, I'm not the ideal choice, but there weren't many to pick from in the mission office (Sister Stevens just kept her head down and went temporarily deaf).

So for posterity, I have included some of the mission history narrative below and a few pictures.

2012 was a year of change for the India New Delhi Mission. 

Senior couples began serving in the mission for the first time in many years.  Elder Jerry and Sister Sue Ann Capener and Elder Clark and Sister Brenda Crookston both arrived within two weeks of each other in February.  Both were assigned as member and leader support (MLS) missionaries and served in the 1^st and Dwarka branches respectively.  Subsequently, Elder Paul and Sister Angela Stevens arrived in late June.  Their assignment was changed from MLS to office support since previous to their arrival Sister Jackson was doing all the mission office support.  They were assigned to the 3^rd Branch.  Elder Bill and Sister Rebecca Black arrived in November as Public Affairs missionaries and were assigned to the 4^th Branch.  Unfortunately, both the Capener’s and the Crookston’s could not get their visas renewed and were transferred to Cambodia and Malaysia to complete their missions.  Their good nature, service and commitment will be missed.  

Apartment house purchased to be retrofitted for a
church meetinghouse and mission office/mission home

The Church bought proper 3 adjacent properties in Vasant Vihar that will be the center for future church growth.  The 4 story building at F-48 Poorvi Marg is being retrofitted to be a combination meeting house, mission home and mission office.  The mission home and mission office were completed in July.  Construction on the basement, first and second floors is ongoing and will be used to house the New Delhi 2^nd and 3^rd Branches when completed in 2013.  The building directly behind the mission office building is a 4 story apartment building, previously occupied by the El Salvador Embassy.  It now houses missionary couples on floors 1 and 2 with the Assistants to the President on floor 3.  The ground floor still is occupied by the El Salvador Ambassador and the basement houses the embassy offices. The lot directly behind the apartment building was also purchased by the Church.  As of year-end 2012 it was an abandoned building site and was affectionately referred to as “the hole” because it consisted of a large 30 foot deep hole that had been previously excavated for a building site.  Plans are to fill in the hole and fence the property until used in the future. 

President and Sister Jackson completed their mission and President and Sister Sackley began serving.   Effective July 1, President and Sister Jackson were released as the Mission President having served from July 2009 to June 2012.  President and Sister Sackley from Calgary, Alberta Canada began their tenure.  After getting their feet on the ground, they attended the Mission Presidents’ Seminar in September held in Hong Kong.  Six of the 10 mission presidents in the Asia Area began their missionary service in July.  They subsequently hosted Elder Gong on a Mission Tour in late October and Sister Mary N. Cook, General YW 1^st Counselor in early November.  President and Sister Sackley have been active in working directly with the missionaries both in India and Pakistan.  Having an office couple in the mission office has allowed more frequent travel to Pakistan to meet with the Elders and District Leadership.

Mumbai at night

Mission boundaries were realigned between the India Bangalore and India New Delhi missions with Mumbai Branch of the Church becoming part of the New Delhi Mission. In September, The First Presidency approved a realignment between the two missions that moved the states of Maharashtra (which includes the Mumbai Branch of the Church), Chhattisgarh and Orrissa from the Bangalore Mission to the New Delhi Mission. In early October, President Sackley initiated discussions of assigning full-time missionary in Mumbai with the Area Presidency.  Right before Christmas, President Sackley traveled to Mumbai to finalize arrangements to move Elders to Mumbai effective with the January 3, 2013 transfer.  Four Elders were assigned (Elders Aruldoss, Vuppadda, Chandrasekar and Bogati)

Elder and Sister Gong from the Asia Area Presidency
Sister Jalli and Sister Swarna
President and Sister Sackley

Sister Missionaries were assigned to the mission for the first time since the mission was created on November 1, 2007.  It was decided to begin having sister missionaries serve in the India New Delhi Mission.  Two sisters already serving in the Philippines were transferred to this mission on November 1.  Sister Swarna and Sister Jalli came from two different missions in the Philippines and became companions.  They served together until Jan 3, 2013 when two new sisters from the MTC came, giving the mission a complement of 4 sisters in early January 2013. 

Full-time Mission Status

Missionaries in Pakistan

In the year 2012 the Mission said goodbye to 29 full-time Elders and 4 couples (2 in Nepal, 2 in New Delhi).  They served with distinction and will be missed.  They took with them a wealth of experience and have left behind a very young Mission.  The New Delhi couples came and left in 2012 because of visa issues (Capener’s and Crookston’s).
During 2012, the India New Delhi Mission also welcomed 28 full-time Elders, 2 full-time Sisters and 6 new couples (2 in Nepal, 4 in New Delhi).  

Our year-end missionary strength is: 4 couple missionaries (2 in Nepal, 2 in New Delhi),  23 Elders in Pakistan, and 32 Elders and Sisters in New Delhi

Missionaries in India

Visa issues for foreign missionaries continued to be an issue for 2012.  While the mission was able to get senior couples for the first time in 3 years, two of the couples needed to be reassigned to other missions because they could not get their visas renewed.   In 2012, only 6 US elders were able to get visas to begin their missions in the New Delhi Mission.  At the end of the year, 3 additional missionaries were still waiting on visa approvals, as well as 2 senior couples.  We anticipate issues will continue.  Additionally, visa renewals (for the second year of service) for young missionaries are taking on average 5 weeks. 



The India New Delhi Mission celebrated
5 years on November 1, 2012

Well if you're still reading, I've done my job.  Until next time....

PS - If you're looking for a new use of old CD's,  tie one to the handlebars of your bike with the shiney side facing out.  It makes a great reflector.   Another inventive idea from India.   

Hump Day

Today is our official HUMP Day.  For those who are unfamiliar with the term, it marks the middle of our mission based on the day we left.  So starting tomorrow, we "officially" have less time to go than we have served.  This is really only important for those that are anxious to go home and we're not.  We are still enjoying all aspects of our mission service (although I am having a hard time getting excited about compiling the 2012 mission history that needs to be submitted next month).  We didn't do anything special - just another day in the office - literally... 

Construction 101

 It has been very interesting to watch as they remodel the 4 story building that will be used as the church, mission office and mission home. When constructing walls, there are no studs and sheet rock. All interior walls are brick and then covered with a concrete "mud". With no hollow walls like in the US, any wiring and plumbing that is not part of the original construction is either run on top of the wall or the wall is chipped away to put it in. In this building, the exterior basement walls were also just bricks with no exterior coating, so workers hand dug down 10 feet all around the entire building so they could coat the wall with a rubber/concrete mix, so the basement would not leak. When they were digging out around the basement, all the dirt was carried out in buckets. Fascinating to watch, but extremely labor intensive and very hard work. I'm not sure what the workers make but it's probably $2-3 US equivalent for 10-12 hours a day - and they're happy to have the work.

Adding Plumbing between floors

Trench around the building

New Classrooms (bad Iphone shot)



Dirt replaced after coating walls

Kanwal Bharti Public School Annual Program

About 2 weeks ago, a man came in to see President Sackley to invite him to the Annual Kanwal Public School program.  I remember thinking at the time (while President Sackley was being so gracious and said that he would be there), that I was glad it was him and not me.  I should have known that that kind of thinking almost guaranteed that I would be going.  Sure enough, President Sackley had to make an unexpected trip to Pakistan the weekend of the event and he asked me to "fill in" for him.  It was on a Sunday, so Angela quickly bowed out because she didn't want to run the risk of not getting back to teach her Sunday School lesson (that was convenient), so I went by myself.  When I arrived I was given the royal treatment.  They marked my forehead with paint, gave me a bouquet of flowers and invited me to sit on the first few rows for the dignitaries (right in front of these huge speakers). 

 

Very colorful outfits.  Most presentations were students
from kindergarten to 8th grade

They were disappointed when I said I couldn't stay all day and quickly rearranged the program so that I could get on the stage and give a speech (where was this in my mission call??).  After saying a few words, the MC translated in Hindi what I had said.  Anil (the mission driver that took me) later told me that the MC said what I said and a lot more - well it's good to have someone make up for your deficiencies.  I sat back down thinking I was safe, but 10 minutes later they called me back up on the stage to make award presentations to about 20 kids as a photographer took pictures of each one with me.  They didn't know me, but they will always treasure the picture with the "white man".   Actually the skits, dancing and singing of the students was entertaining and I wish I (and Angela) could have stayed longer.  You never know what unexpected opportunities await you on a mission.

 

Yes, this is a man. 

"Beating Retreat" Rehearsal

Admission ticket - Rs50 (about $1)

Monday night, Jan 28, we went with the other missionary couple, Elder and Sister Black, to the rehearsal for the "Beating Retreat", which is held on January 29 (only VIPs and their guests are invited to the actual ceremony).  Unfortunately there were even more restrictions than for the parade (but no bomb threats), so the only pictures you're going are my ticket stub and the ones I could find on the internet that weren't copyrighted.   

My "extensive" knowledge of this event comes from Wikipedia, which seems to be fairly accurate.  "The Beating Retreat in India officially denotes the end of Republic Day festivities. It is conducted on the evening of January 29, the third day after the Republic Day. It is performed by the bands of the three wings of the military, the Indian Army, Indian Navy and Indian Air Force." The event is held close to the President's Palace.  It reminded me of going to high school band competitions when Bryan was in the band, although the formations were not nearly as complicated as what HS bands do today in the US.  Each band took it's turn playing familar Indian songs (not familiar to us, but still good).  The most surprising song was the Christian hymn, "Abide with Me" played by all the bands combined at the end of the event.  Especially when you consider India is predominately Hindu.   From Wikipedia - "A regular feature of this pageant is the last tune played before the Retreat, when the National Flag is lowered. It is the famous Christian Hymn written by Henry Francis Lyte, Abide With Me set to music by W. M. Monk and one of Mahatma Gandhi's personal hymns, has remain part of the ceremony over the years when many other foreign tunes were phased out to make way for Indian tunes, especially during the 2011 ceremony." 

Camels at the Beating Retreat

The other interesting thing was camels with riders standing on the walls surrounding some of the government buildings.  They were a long distance from where we were seating in the bleachers (there must have been 20 camels), and they didn't move throughout the entire 90 minute ceremony.  We debated back and forth on whether they were real or not,
until at the end of the ceremony  when they walked off.  I found this close-up picture of them. 

To sum up this "exciting" blog post, I quote from the local newpaper - ''Beating Retreat'' marks a centuries old military tradition, when the troops ceased fighting, sheathed their arms and withdrew from the battlefield and returned to the camps at sunset at the sounding of the Retreat. Colours and Standards are cased and flags lowered. The ceremony creates a nostalgia for the times gone by.  It sounds like this writer misses the days of good old-fashion war...