Hey familia!
Life is good in India! Life is just good. I'm a fan. Anyway, where to start? So much happens that its hard to pick and choose what aspects of my days to highlight. Mom asked about the church situation, so I will start there. One of these days, I'll include a picture of the church building, but I don't have my camera with me right now. Anyway, the church building is a nice, one-room structure right by Mathew and Geeva's. There is a gate that goes around the property which consists of the building and another building, which is the restroom, where we BYU students shower. As I bathed today I realized that its kinda exciting to say that I showered in the middle of the floor of a church bathroom. Anyway, there are also trees and a spigot where we do laundry. It's nice. The building has the church name in blue letters, written in Tamil, and the front wall by the entrance gate has the name of the church in English.
Inside the church there is a chalkboard, a podium, and a sacrament table in the front. There are plastic patio chairs that are set up in three rows. Typical attendance is about 13, most of which are family of Matthew. The regular attendees are Mathew, Geeva, Edwin, Priya, Jaeshela (Geeva's neice), Kartig (15 year old boy), Kartig's dad, and Mathew's sister. And occationally there are others that come in, typically late. This Sunday Nate and Ashley spent the weekend in Coimbatore, and so Mathew was the only Melchizedek Priesthood holder. On other weeks the BYU males are asked to bless the sacrament.
With such a small branch (and as I understand it, this is actually only part of the branch, the other part is in a neighboring village on the other side of the mountain and the counselors run that...I think) when there are visiting BYU students, we are assigned talks, so that the people can hear from someone besides the regular few. Youth speakers speak about something from the Liahona. I was the speaker this past week, and I was asked to speak on The Book of Mormon. And, as I'm sure you are quite familiar, I LOVE The Book of Mormon. I started reading it anew on the flight over, with the resolve to read it before the end of the year. I'm getting addicted to it yet again and am already in Alma. So good. So good. Maybe I'll be able to read it twice here.
Anyway, my talk was very simple and basic. I was aware that my talk would be translated. I thought of a phone conversation I had with Mom a while back. I remember being in the SWKT basement, under the stairs, pacing as I walked, and trying to give advice as she was preparing for a speaking assignment at the Spanish branch. I tried to recall and implement my own advice.
I touched on four points. I was very basic, hopefully not too much so. I spoke of what the Book of Mormon is (using the Introduction), how it is another testament of Jesus Christ and what that means (reading a good chunk of 3 Nephi 11 which contains the witness of thousands who hear the voice of God and saw, felt and knew of the reality and divinity of the resurrected Lord), I spoke of how it is a source of peace and revelation (sharing a time on my mission when a prayer was answered by leading my to the scriptures which contained the counsel and perspective I needed, accompanied by the spirit), and I spoke of how we can gain a personal witness of its truthfulness (using Moroni 10:4-5). And I testified. I testified of each principle I shared, and I taught from the scriptures, partly because it is a more powerful teacher than I, and partly to make translation easier. I only spoke a sentence or two at a time, which helped me to be direct and concise in my ideas. I felt good about my talk in that I tied it in to the Atonement and testified and felt the Spirit. There are things that I would do differently if given the chance (namely encourage daily study) but I enjoyed the experience.
For Sunday School Gwen and I were asked to lead the group in songs that they weren't familiar with. They had a little keyboard, and Gwen played and I led. That was an adventure. I love the hymns. We may start teaching piano lessons to Edwin and Priya in our free time on the veranda.
What else to write? Well, we are working on getting interpreters. (I wish I knew how to spell that...but not enough to actually find out.) Today we went to Shanti Ashram in the morning and they drove us (yay vehicles!) to Coimbatore to meet with the principal of a college about arranging interpreters. There had been some miscommunication and they had thought we only needed someone for the day. So we explained our needs and have another meeting arranged for Friday. They the real school work can begin. I've mostly been doing reading assignments all day and wandering around the village and having awkward speechless visits when invited.
I had a good visiting spree on Saturday morning. Saturday was Ganesha's (a hindu god) birthday and it was a big holiday. At night there were lots of lights and loud music. As far as I'm concerned, it was a lot more exciting than last night's meeting of the communist party in town. Anyway, I headed out to walk about...and ultimately ended up having some young girls walk me through puja at one of the temples (a short, politically incorrect way to describe it would be to say that I had sticky powdery stuff stuck on my forehead, rang a bell, and ate part of a frog idol's grass lei while barefoot) and then took me to visit three different families in the village, all of whom fed me and had me watch television with them (including a Indian version of the Emmys which included singing and dancing which was horrid and yet entertaining). So basically that was one of my most culturally productive days in the village, and in my journal my description isn't so un-PC, I promise.
It has been raining for the past three days, unfortunately for Nate and Ashley who started their laundry on day one of the rains. And yesterday was the monthly no electricity day. Granted, it was also the day that Geeva made us some delicious chips and we cut up a pineapple.
Oh, and may I just comment on how much I love my group. They are fabulous. It is a lot of fun and we manage to have some good laughs, and also some great conversations. I love talking with my roommate Gwen. And also Nate and Ashley. We talk about all sorts of good things, ranging from the nature of religion to current events to international development to childbirth. I love the conversations we have in our rooms or walking to Chavadi. I enjoy my village companions. They are great clinical material for helping me to learn and think about things that I don't typically.
Anyway, life is great. I'm both scared and excited to get things arranged with interpreters. It will mean that my work will progress and also that I will be faced with a lot more challenges. But that is great. Challenges are stepping stones to growth and progress, and I'm growing discontent to spend my days simply sitting around and reading. I need some good challenges to help me learn and grow as a researcher.
I hope that all is well on the homefront. Somebody give Granddad a big hug for me. And y'all should write me. Have a good one. You are loved.
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