What a great day to update the blog! So many wonderful experiences!  A baptism, two car accidents in two days, one involving a semi, a monsoon storm and a pot luck with the branch members. It doesn’t get any better than this!

First, an update on the accident situation...yesterday we were driving through an intersection, and as we are inching our way through another car was coming through the intersection as well, didn’t slow down, clipped the front of the car and kept going. That’s how it is around here. Traffic isn’t as crazy as the drivers. Tonight we were coming home from the church when we got scrunched between a huge semi-truck and a city bus. They were both angling in toward our direction, Raju (the driver) was practically at a stop, we cleared the bus, but the semi nicked the drivers mirror. Luckily, no one was hurt in either of our encounters, and it is safe to say neither incident was Raju’s fault…now when he hit the security guard coming out of our building…

For tonight’s pot luck Ryan wanted to make pasta. Anyone who knows Ryan knows he makes good pasta. All day we traveled around the city to different places to get our ingredients, a restaurant to get our Parmesan cheese, a specialty grocer to get red peppers, etc, etc. So while we’re out we decided to eat lunch at a new place. As we’re sitting there eating I look outside and you can hardly see the building across the street because of the rain pouring down. I’ve never seen anything like it. The rain only lasted for about 30 minutes, but you’d think it had rained for days! We couldn’t believe the amount of rain that fell in such a short time. With that being said...we figured out how to lighten the traffic in India...

Rain, rain and more rain

the streets were so empty while the storm passed through

This morning we started our day off by attending a baptism, yes, another baptism. This area has averaged about a baptism each week we have been here. This was our third. The boys (including Ryan) sang a song. It was a sweet, sweet baptism.

Brayden, Raju (our driver), the gentleman that got baptized and us

Singing 'The Lord is My Shepherd'

After the baptism we took one of the young men from the branch home with us...this is what all the boys looked like in the back seat of the car...

this is how we get around in the car

Seriously, I have to say, the best part of the day was attending the pot luck. When we first got to the church building there were already 25 people or so. We asked where to put our food; we were directed to put in into one of the rooms off the main room where we were going to be. When we went into the room to put our food down, there was nothing else there…nothing. Um, ok, we did bring a big pot of chicken pasta, 2 loaves of homemade French bread and two big plates of my “eyeball brownies”. Yes, we brought at ton of food, but not enough to feed 30 people. So as people are coming in a few would have a little dish, when I say little I mean probably 3 cups or so full in a little metal container with a lid.  There was a little program, when suddenly (or like clockwork) the power went out. Here we all are sitting, now in a non a/c room, with about 80 people. This is what it looked like...

During the branch activity when the power goes out

Some light in the corner

 But, here, most of the cell phones have a flashlight built into the top of the phone (wondered why for the first few days we were here, now I know why…for power outages). 

Young men doing a skit about taking advantage of white people...haha.

So we wait, do a little program in the dark with cell phones as the lights and about an hour later the lights went on. When it’s time to bring the food out I looked at Ryan, he looked at me and we were thinking, “oh, crap…we should have brought more food”. As the table are being brought out, I turned around and suddenly all these containers of rice and other food were being pulled from nowhere. I have no idea where all this food suddenly came from. It was so fun to take pictures of all the foods, but before I could take as many pictures as I wanted to take, everyone crowded in and started eating. It was a great night of fun and socialization. Here is what it looked like before everyone started diggin in...

If you look close enough you can see what we brought...

Lots and lots of rice...brownies were a safe dish at this pot luck!

More food

More rice dishes and other "gravies"

 

Time to "dig in!"

Look at that yummy slice of French bread we brought

One of the Elders enjoying the food

Brayden not sure what Mounika is eating

One of the branch members...also serves with the Young Men

When it was all said and done...they didn't stop eating until everything was gone. Literally. If someone was going to leave and they wanted to take their dish, they would go around and scoop more rice on your plate until their dish was empty.

No more pasta, no more bread (the brownie pan ended up with the missionaries who wanted to take the crumbs home and eat it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.)