August Highlights

August started out with a fun visit to the Chauhan family with one of the new couple missionaries, the Hubbards. Brother Chauhan is a chef and Elder Hubbard wanted to learn how to cook from him. We first went shopping for all the needed ingredients and then the cooking began, with both Brother and Sister Chauhan doing the teaching and help from their daughter and son as well. 

We first met the 3 Chauhan children in our English Class in Dwarka and they have since been baptized. Their mother joined just a couple of weeks ago. They are a great family!

Dwarka Branch was the location of our next wedding: President Arpit Pandey (1^st counselor in District Presidency) married an RM Sister he met while she was serving in Delhi a couple of years ago.

They are a very handsome couple!

And everyone dresses up for weddings!

Some of the Young Women loved the dance floor at the reception.

One of the youngest in attendance at the reception held by her proud father—Branch President Stanley Massey of Delhi 3rd Branch.

August 14 was the baptism of Brother and Sister Talwar.

They are a couple in Dwarka that we have been teaching since last fall. Their son joined 7 years ago but it was last July when they went to his wedding in SLC and they couldn’t go inside the temple that they decided they wanted to learn about the church. They spent a month in Utah and loved it.

They were all smiles after the ordinance, and then the next Sunday, they were confirmed members.

Now we are visiting them as new members. It has been a great experience getting to know them and watch their growth in the gospel.

August 15, we celebrated our 41^st anniversary by eating at Barbeque Nation.

Someone had gone all out and decorated it with lots of balloons and they even knew my favorite colors are green and orange!

Actually, it is India’s Independence Day, so everyone was celebrating something with us that day.

When we got home, I noticed all these returned emails that I had never sent. I had been hacked!

I immediately changed my password and hope that none of you were adversely affected.

We get excited when new missionaries join us, but the opposite also happens.

Here are five Elders from the US all going home soon. Elders Hagen and Gustin worked with us in Noida and are already sorely missed.

Now we are hoping the seven missionaries from the US waiting for their visas get to join us soon!

I finally bought and conquered a coconut.

It was delicious! My seminary students helped me enjoy it last week.

Here are some repairmen working on one of our air conditioners.

They brought it in from our balcony and bring their tools in their backpacks. It is now working fine. Yeah!

Last week India celebrated Raksha Bandhan—a festival celebrating the relationship between brothers and sisters. Sisters tie some bracelet around their brother’s wrist and he gives her gifts of sweets or acts of service. A couple of families we visited the next day shared their extra bracelets with Elder and I.

What a great relationship to honor.

Here are a few interesting photos:

13 passengers packed inside a share auto with 4 more upfront on our way to visit members.

One family lives next to a dairy.

Look what was causing a traffic jam on a narrow side road:

A Tractor!

A goat tied to a tree in the median.

Narrow side street scenes while waiting for a member to come guide us to their home.

Traffic Jam: when the light turns green, no one moves because there is no place to go.

A herd of cattle using the same road as our taxi.

Life continues to be very busy and most interesting here in New Delhi, even at our slightly slower pace.