Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Mirrors of Eternity:YSA Conference

We just spent a most enjoyable 3 days with about 100 young single adults, ages 18-30, including 13 flown in from Nepal and 7 or 8 who spent 2 nights and a day on a train coming to Delhi from Mumbai. We had 2 busses and an 9-person taxi which transported us to Jim Corbett National Park and Tiger Reserve. Here we are with those that rode in the taxi with us, along with the driver.
 We stayed at The Wind Crest Resort and had a great time! There were workshops,

art activities,
playing in the swimming pool, early morning walks along the river
and even a bon fire and talent show the last night, started off by those from Nepal.
Some of the native dances were amazing and so graceful! And there were quite a few really good singers. Elder A and I sang our family's rendition of Ragtime Cowboy Joe! It was fun!

It was a beautiful resort complete with clean air, mountain views and lots of vegetation.
One thing that was new for me was the shower from a bucket--it works just fine!
We were impressed by some of these young people’s stories of conversion, especially from Hinduism and Buddhism. They are very strong, since they were often the only members of their family to join.

Now the only negative about the location of this conference was that it took 8 hours each way to get there. That said, we shared the road with cargo bikes
cargo tractors,

horse and oxen drawn wagons,
women carrying cargo on their heads,
and lots and lots of motorcycles,
as well as trucks, busses, and cars. Now I would have never thought of a motorcycle as a family vehicle, but we saw many with 4 people on them and quite a few with 5! All these different vehicles travel at very different speeds and make for something that reminded me of a video game—only live! There isn’t a fast lane and a slow lane on the roads—remember there aren’t really any lanes at all—even on divided highways we quite often had vehicles traveling the wrong way on our side of the road. But somehow these remarkable Indians just honk and proceed and make it work!

Other sights seen along the way included fields of sugarcane
and rice, houses and shacks complete with satellite dishes even in the most remote of regions, lots of monkeys, goats, dogs and cows and even a camel, elephants to ride and a huge termite hill.
Since we traveled during a festival, we saw lots of colorful dresses as people made their way to the gathering—and through the towns, walking on foot was definitely the fastest way to go!
This was yet another amazing memory!

11 comments:

  1. What a neat conference. Hooray for Ragtime Cowboy Joe! (Except now all those YSA think that I live where all the bad men are.....)

    I loved all the transport pictures!

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  2. Thank you so much for letting us readers vicariously share your mission. Luv you two!!!!

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  3. I love all the pictures, thanks for sharing! What a wonderful experience you are having. I thought of you when we heard of the earthquake in Afghanistan--did you feel it? One report said it could be felt in Delhi.

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    1. Yes, I could feel the earthquake but didn't recognize that was what was causing the shaking. I thought it might be some work outside, or even the batch of towels being majorly off balanced! Then the shaking stopped and I didn't think about it again until later when someone told us there had been an earthquake. Kind of funny.

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  4. So glad you got some fresh air!

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  5. Wow so neat! How did that many people fit in the taxi? Was it a minivan? Did you get carsick? Did you teach? How neat to meet all those amazing people.

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    1. Our taxi carried 2 in the front, 3 in the middle, and then had two bench seats facing each other in the back that each carried 2 for a total of 9. If our picture had more people than that in it, the young people loved to have their picture taken and just joined in. I sat in the middle of the middle seat, facing forward, and didn't get car sick, thank goodness! Elder A and I taught a workshop on missionary work--since we're such experts! Mainly we led a discussion and then had them do small group work. We had to use an interpreter since many had limited understanding of English. We loved it!

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  6. What a great post. When Bill and I were in MD in 2008 we got to know lots of missionaries and would give them rides to their conferences and hang out in the chapel and listen to them. There was one sister from Napel who was at the end of her mission headed back home.. She said there were no other members of the church in her country. The Mission President said, "now there are," and told her to go home and share the gospel. I wonder if your 13 were a direct result of her efforts.

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    1. It is my understanding that the only missionaries sent to Nepal have been humanitarian so any sharing of the gospel has been by the members themselves. Those attending our conference did share that there are less members following the earthquake and that they are experiencing a real fuel shortage right now.

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    2. Dear Allens,

      I have so enjoyed your blog. India has always been of great interest to me and you all have brought it into my world. Thank you for your sacrifice and hard work. The Christmas display is fantastic. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone in Delhi. pat livingston

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  7. Brian just sent Wayne your blog and we have enjoyed reading it and seeing your pictures. It sounds like you and Roger are really doing a lot of good and having great experiences. We hope you continue in good health and being able to help the Indian people. Claradene Stewart We have 10-12inches of snow that fell today in Denver! That would clear the air where you are!!!!!

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