Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Saying our goodbyes

I’ve moved a lot in my life, so I’ve said a lot of goodbyes. However, after living in Littleton for 26 years, most of my recent goodbyes have been to other people leaving—until coming on this mission, of course. And since our call was for 18 months, I knew we would have to say goodbye to India sometime next spring. Five weeks ago when we decided we just couldn’t complete our mission here without seriously jeopardizing Elder’s health, we started to say our farewells. It’s been hard—we have both shed many tears. We truly love so many of the people, active members, inactive members and investigators alike. Add in the two visits from our kids (2.5 weeks of the five since our decision), and the time has just flown by. Here are a few pictures from this time:

Dwarka goodbyes:
With the Primary kids
 With the Young Women:

At a mutual activity:
With the Relief Society:
The front of our church building--we use the top two floors--see the sign :
With President Vijay and his family:

With First Counselor President Rajesh and his extended family, plus friends:
With Second Counselor President Jitender and his family:
With First Counselor in the District Presidency President Pandey and his new wife:
With the Talwars:
With the Sharmas:
With Brother Akram Shah and later with his wife and baby son:

With Sahil Sharma:
With the Sambaria family:
With Nicolas Massey:
And of course with a branch of 350 members, we have worked with and love many whose pictures aren't here. Some we neglected to take a picture with. Some we weren't able to see 'one more time.' We love you all and will miss you. I am crying as I write these words. Know that you are in our hearts. And the same goes for many we have worked with in the District. We will continue to pray for you all.

Noida goodbyes:
Our last week there was during our son's visit. They even brought a "Good Luck Allens" cake.

With the whole group of members following church:

With the missionaries:

With President James and the Gupta sisters, Monica and Ruchi:

With Sister Barnabus and Brother Rajiv:

With the Hukil family:

We also had a last District Self Reliance Committee monthly meeting with District Councilman Brother Paul Frost:

And District Self Reliance Specialists Sisters Honey Rai and Nicole Goldrup:
All of our Indian friends have a special place in our hearts reserved just for them and we will truly miss them when we leave.

Of course we had to go see some sights with Jon, Marci and McKinley:
Old Delhi is always crowded but this day it was extra crazy:

We finally saw the Lotus Temple here in Delhi--striking design and beautiful grounds.

We saw the Taj and Agra Fort again, but this time in Jaipur the elephants were riding to Amber Fort so we all hopped on:

The next day it was time for a camel ride:

Back in Delhi, Gandhi museum was a favorite:

Kinley found her favorite brand of bottled water:

It was great doing fun things together, but my favorite was the time we had for visiting. Thanks for taking the long plane ride to spend a week with us.

Last Sunday was Diwali, the Festival of Lights and stores go all out decorating:

Last night we had one more senior couples FHE activity at the mission home: cutting out the last of the fleece blankets we started a year ago. Notice what the men use of weights at the corners—pretty clever us of Institute manuals!




Now you might be asking yourself a question about now like, “Did I miss something? I don’t know where they have been reassigned to.” And I would respond, “Nope, you haven’t missed a thing. We haven’t received our reassignment yet. We have been assured that it is coming this week and after its arrival, we should be out of Delhi within a couple of days.” So once again I must end with a stay tuned. . . . . 

5 comments:

  1. Glad you had fun with the Allens. I hope you hear soon. We are excited to see where your adventures take you next!

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  2. I'm glad you've been able to say goodbyes and didn't have to leave abruptly in July. It's fun to see all these people you love. I hope you go somewhere with high calorie/heart healthy food!

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  3. Thank you for the update. So glad you are okay and being reassigned.
    Love to you both.

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  4. Thanks for sharing. We love the look on Kinley's face with her kinley water.

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  5. Good luck and God bless you two!

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