Voting Dangers

The newspaper showed a polling place where there was minor violence. Our city voted last and there was not this kind of trouble. Many areas suffered kidnappings, murder and all manner of invasion of their right to vote.

The Indian government went to great expense to protect voters by bringing in special troops. Here women line up for their turn in the voting booth as a guard stands at the door. A little artistic touch as we view the scene past the trigger of the solder's rifle.

Voting is serious business in the world's biggest democracy.

Monsoon ? ? ?

In the west part of India you can expect monsoon conditions. They actually have two monsoon "attacks" a year. The paper next morning called ours a "sharp shower" - we said sharper than a serpents tooth. It started with amazing flashes of lighting and then thunder like only summer air can roll it. When we heard the first rumble we thought it was celebration for the elections.

We watched the flashing sky and endured the noise for awhile then knowing the human mind can only take so much drama went back to out reading and studying. All of a sudden there was no mistaking the fresh, sweet smell of rain in the air. It was steady for ten minutes and then the faucet turned and the water stopped dropping and just poured out of the sky. Only an inch they said the next day. Okay, but it all came quickly.

One bedroom window is warped and the catch at the bottom won't slide into place. There is a tiny gap about three inches high and less than a quarter of an inch wide. There was so much force that even sideways and tucked back in, the gap let in enough water to travel ten feet along the floor and turn to soak a thick, six foot rug. What will the real monsoon bring?

We All What To Be Sally

Baby Mac

Emilia, We all love to dress up in Grandma Sally's lovely red coat that she left us when she went to Heaven.

We love her stories of when she was a school girl. The outcome of it all is that she acquired a marvelous education. She was an inspiration to her children, those who married into the family and to this day all of her grandchildren and great grandchildren. A favorite thing was that the English department of one high school always called on her to settled disputes over the correct usage of certain words in the English language. Happy Mother's Day dear Sally.

I Got Mail

These are the people who wrote me such beautiful, funny, spiritual, tender and poignant letters for Mother's Day. Here they are the oldest just back from a mission.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Most of my mother's young life was spent living in the back room of the family store, but there were many times when the family was without a business and they had no place to live. She told me that she was in the second grade before she knew that people had furniture. She was use to sitting down to dinner on a wooden box at a table that was used in the daytime to make dough for donuts. She was invited once to a friends house after school and was introduced to lamps and couches with end tables adorned with lace and nick knacks. This was in Salt Lake City a good place to live. Later the family left to start over and lived in downtown Los Angeles, California not such a good place to live.

When High School started my mother was invited to move to Santa Ana, California and live with a cousin of her mother's. In that home she helped with two young children but there was lots of time for school, Church and learning the gospel and driving. She was taught and then immediately given a car to drive in the evening. Well one lesson went over her head and she never learned to park the car. All was well however, because her girl friend was a good driver and would park the car in the driveway and then walk home. One night her friend was too tired to walk and my mother had to go it alone. She tried for the driveway but ended up on the front lawn. The next morning she refused to speak and so no one knew she couldn't park and she got to keep driving. Getting your drivers licence was a lot easier in those olden days.

This year my children gave me the Mother's Day gift of writing memories from their younger years and relating things that were important to them. A recurring theme was the gift of having lots of time just to enjoy being young. My mother gave this to us too. Hours were spent in the big front yard of our little house in southern Utah. She taught us to appreciate roses as their perfume filled the hot summer days. The yard was full of trees that we could climb or just sit under and enjoy being cooled. There were few cars so we could play outside the green hedge and dip our feet in the irrigation water. Mother would always leave her work when we called and tell us a magical story then help us create a new game to play. Someone asked me how I knew so many games to play with young children and I answered because my mother played with us.

I don't know the process but even though my mother is in Heaven she has let me know that she and my father are championing us on our journey through this mission in India. How blessed I am to be born of this noble woman.

It's A Miracle

Its the end of Sunday and this picture seems appropriate and is the only one available since the miracle happened in Church and pictures during the meeting would not be appropriate.

When you are in one place for six months you know a lot of people. When you are the only white guys on the street you are not a celebrity but a rarity and people want to know you. Remind me if too much time passes and I haven't remembered to post for you what Indian babies think of us.

Anyway we know a lot of people who are members of the Church and just as many, no more who aren't. Both sets were in Church today. When we came in October the average attendance was fifty. Last week we had ninety-two and we were nervous that we could get to one hundred and not fit. We had one hundred and twelve and the hallway was lined with chairs.

When you know a lot of people all of a sudden you know a lot about them. Looking around the room in testimony meeting for sacrament today we saw faces that represented miracle after miracle. They represented great loss and suffering but through showing faith new strength and success is coming to them. Church was an especially nice place to be today.

S U R P R I S E ! ! !

A young friend came by and we surprised her and her parents with a birthday party. We started with a game of Skip BO and she won.

Then came a pretty smile to go with her new birthday dress.

And we ended with cake and presents.

Happy, Happy Birthday Steffie! ! !