A Language Lesson and Other Doings

The articles continue in the papers, but one yesterday actually gave me a chuckle. The article, in Hindi, had a picture of the elders taken at the police station with the usual lies about their activities, but instead of referring to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the reporter wrote, "The Seventh Advertiser ..." apparently confusing us with the Seventh-Day Adventists who also had one their members visiting from the states verbally harrassed on the street today.

Robin came over Wednesday evening to go with us to Seminary/Institute and was disturbed by what had happened to the elders and also concerned that the 2 missionaries were being transferred to Delhi and no one was going to replace them. I can understand the feeling since Robin has worked hard accompanying the elders and always welcoming the new ones when transfers occurred. In some ways, the feelings could almost touch on abandonment, but Robin is strong and will survive.

As we, Robin, Sister Tanner, and I, were riding to the church in an auto for Seminary/Institute class, we were talking. During the conversation, I put a hand on Robin’s shoulder and told him sincerely that he was a great guy. His response surprised me as he answered, with what I thought was a trace of a grin, that he was not a “great guy”. “Of course you are Robin”, I repeated, and I turned to Sister Tanner and asked her if she agreed with me. “You are a great, great guy, Robin”, she added. “No, I am not” Robin stated adamantly and then with a big smile, he added, “A ‘guy’ is cow in Hindi”. We had a good laugh over that one as I changed guy to young man and told him again.

Sister Tanner has put a mountain of effort into preparing for Youth Conference and we head out tomorrow morning at 6 AM. The elders came down tonight and the power was off over 5 hours, but thank heavens for the inverter that kept a couple of lights on and a fan going. Sister Tanner whipped up some great soup on the propane gas stove so the power didn't matter and the elders enjoyed just being here. They're going a little stir crazy being confined to their apartment. Tomorrow is zone conference and they'll find out what the new guidelines will be for doing the work. We'll find out when we get back Saturday evening. Since Sister Tanner has assigned me the job of conference photographer, expect to see a picture post on it.