Well, let me tell you what, I only have two weeks left in India, which means I only have two, maybe three, posts left for this blog.  So, today I am feeling lazy and thus we will be using a bullet point format.

·         Yesterday, I was head-butted by a cow.  I wasn’t hurt, but I was shocked.  I was out walking with Ashley, and so when I jumped to the side in surprise, I just ended jumping on her.  Then, this Telugu lady who saw it told us that it was because I was wearing a red shirt.  I had always thought that was just an old tradition, but apparently not.  That was pretty funny, all in all, though I was grateful that the cow was a momma cow and didn’t have any horns!

·         I went to the Devi Puram temple again this week.  One thing we did was to walk around the main temple 108 times.  We did so from 11 pm on, so that we could avoid the crowd of other devotees, and it was actually really cool.  There is something powerful in the continual, repetitive movement, accompanied by the sound of your own voice chanting.  It leaves little room for your mind to focus on anything outside of the moment you are in.  While I don’t think I would quite classify it as a spiritual experience, per say, it was a powerful experience, and I can see now why so many people turn to this type of meditation to find personal peace and even divinity.  Also, it is a lot more physical exertion than you might thing to do your 108 rounds.

·         Also at the temple, I stayed overnight with a room full of Indian women.  I don’t know much what to say about this except that I really am grateful for the manors and rules of basic hygiene that we have in America.  And, our understanding of personal space.

·         And, I made a fire offering to the goddess while at the temple, which was actually really cool.  No animals were harmed in the making of this sacrifice – just fruit and trees.  But I was able to actually be sitting at the fire, making the offerings myself.  It was SO HOT, which wasn’t great, but man, I was glad to be a part of that homam, as it is called.  And then Krishnayya said it was the first Homam he had ever been to, so that made me feel even more cool.

·         I did more Kalavahena as well this weekend.  I am a certified … priestess, spiritual guide, teacher of Hinduism… at this point, and while I am not planning on propagating these borrowed beliefs when I return home, well it is pretty neat to have so much ‘street cred,’ or ‘Hinduism cred,” as it were.

·         I went shopping on Tuesday, just because I could and because I was quite bored, and while all I ended up buying was a necklace, well I just love the beautiful things that can be found in India.  I love the bright colors of the blouses, even if I don’t think I would be courageous enough to wear them back home.  Still, I was browsing on Zulily yesterday, and India seems to be at the head of the fashion industry just at the moment, so maybe I will try and be brave after all. 

·         I saw Ant Man.  He is definitely no Capitan American, but considering it’s a movie about a man who can shrink to the size of an ant, well I think that Marvel did a pretty good job.  

·         Um, I ate lots of rice… 

So, yeah, life is slowing down here, but it has been good.  Hopefully, I will have a good story or two next week.  Love to all,

Emilee

This week was… seriously uneventful.  It was super productive, in that not having too much to do allowed me to catch up on a lot of notes and transcripts I had been neglecting, but that doesn’t make for the best of stories.  One thing we did do, however, was visit this fishing village to interview a few people, and I guess that was the moment I realized that we BYU students do actually live in a rather nice area.  This family we went to visit lived in a room.  Like, it was an apartment structure, but the ‘apartment’ was literally only one room.  The cookware was in the “back yard,” just a small area of concrete, and the bathroom was attached at the front of the home.  And this one room was big enough to hold a double bed.  That’s it.  The bed and room to walk from the front to the back of the house.  And I swear I saw four HUGE rats through the back door in the hour that we sat and talked with this family.  That is the one thing about the third world that I just cannot get over.  The bugs, I kill ‘em, or ignore them (that is the more common choice).  The squat toilet – I am a pro.  Showering with buckets, not a problem.  Mice?  Well, if I take a deep breath, I can let them be.  I just have to count to ten and remind myself that mice do not in fact eat people’s faces.  Rats?  Oh, heck no!  I hate them, Hate them, HATE THEM!!!  They are so SO gross.  Remind me to bring lots of Tupperware when I move to Nepal, because I am determined to have a rat-free home, even in Nepal!  One of the rats bit Dr. Krishnayya’s toe the other day.  And, heartless as this is, it was actually quite funny, because earlier that day Ashley had pointed the rat out to Nuckolls, and he’d been all ‘there is nothing you can do about them, but they are harmless.’  And it was THAT NIGHT that a rat bit Krishnayya’s toe.   He is fine, or it would not have been so funny, but seriously, they are worth fearing. Also, in this village, which smelled very bad, as it is a fishing village and so it’s all about dead fish up in that place, I saw a rat that had been run over by a rickshaw or motorcycle or something.  Gross!  Also, the women in this village were consumed by playing this game with broken bits of bangles, which was pretty crazy.  Our trash is the entertainment of these grown women.  Crazy!

Another thing we did this week was to have dinner with a member family that invited us over.  It was actually very nice.  I don’t know what more to even say about this, except that they made really good curry, and they had a dog which lived in the apartment with them.  That was kind of funny, just because there are so many strays here, and I have no idea where that dog goes out each day if it lives in an upper level apartment.  That is really all I have to say about that, but I just do not know why an Indian family would ever have a pet dog. 

Okay, seriously, that is all I’ve got to say this week.  Maybe I will add some pictures.  Maybe I will not.  So, yeah, that was India this week.  Hope all is well in the good old USA.  Love,

Emilee

A Sri Chakra

This little girl just happened to be beautiful, so that is why this picture is here...

This girl, Deeksha, became my BFF in Sri Sailaam

And this is her little sister, whose name is currently escaping me

Some old men reading the paper.  Do you see the one facing the wall.  This proves that old people are crazy in EVERY culture!

Sri Sailaam temple

Kalavahena being performed

Mani in the back (oh, I love this good and sweet woman so much!!!) and Padamaja in front.

These pots are all used to make rice at this cafeteria-style restaurant in Sri Sailaam 

More Kalavahena

This is the older woman who dedicated her week at Sri Sailaam to being a very protective mama bird!

This is the guy who proposed to me.  I really should get less picky...

A cool view.  Do you see those ledges.  Yep, I rode a bus over those roads, all the way down.  There were only a handful of near-death experiences along the way...

This is the second largest dam in Asia, so that is pretty cool.  Mostly, I loved the view.

New friends.  Clearly I don't take selfies often, as I accidentally stuck my tongue out while concentrating to get this shot (which isn't even that good)

My new Indian mom, who gave me American oatmeal.  She is a Saint!

Okay, that is it :)

It’s been two whole weeks since we’ve last spoken… Sorry about that.  Well, in my defense I was gone for over a week of that, at this amazingly beautiful place called Sri Sailaam, but I will get to that.  First, I want to talk about church today, because during sacrament meeting a beautiful talk was given by someone visiting from the district presidency, and it was in English with no false doctrine shared, but also it just filled my heart with understanding and a desire to repent. So this brother started out by telling us how, after Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit in the garden, it was Satan that told them they needed to hide themselves from God, while Heavenly Father sought them out and invited them to come before Him in spite of their disobedience.  He then said that we, too, are often told by Satan that we should hide, rather than go humbly before God and seek His help (remember, it was Christ who clothed Adam and Eve after they choose to go before Him and the Father).  And these last few days I have been feeling dark and distant from my Heavenly Father without really knowing why or how to return home to Him within myself, and part of it was that I didn’t have the opportunity to take the sacrament last Sunday (oh, how I love the light that enters into me upon partaking of the sacrament!), but I realized that the other part of it was that I was hiding from Him.  Like, I want to be close to Him, and to have His love close to me, but I don’t (didn’t?) want to give up the thing that was dividing us.  And so, because I was cleaving to my sin (anger towards some people I work with her) I was choosing to hide pieces of myself from my Father.  I wanted the feeling of love and being perfectly known, and the feeling of forgiveness and power as the atonement works in my life, and yet my Father couldn’t give that to me if I was only giving a part of me to Him.  It was like I was saying “fill 2/3 of me with light, but I have this dark 1/3 of anger right now, and I’d really like to keep that so could you just turn the other way?”  Shockingly, He doesn’t work like that, haha.  I was trying to hide in my anger, but still get the blessings that come from being in his presence, and honestly, I was trying to do the impossible.  And because of that, the other stuff wasn’t ‘working’.  My prayers were hollow and left me feeling hollow because they were untrue, and while I was reading my scriptures, I was making room for the light of their words because I was busy nursing the darkness of my pride.  And, well, I haven’t fixed it yet, but I was just so grateful today for this idea of how we still do things to choose to hide from the Lord, even though we know that it is only when we leave our place of hiding that He can really help us and clothe us with His love and light.  And I am not totally over what has been bringing me down, but I am ready to come out of hiding, and I think that is a pretty good first step.  Oh, I wish I could love people better, and be more like my earthly father who has taught by example to give without question and to continually and proactively choose to be unoffended by my fellow Children of God.  I wish charity came naturally to me, as it does to those who so eagerly and continuously love me each day.  I wish I could love people just because they are God’s little ones, rather than continually dissecting and over-analyzing and worrying about how it is they are seeing me.  I wish I was less self-absorbed.  But, I am so grateful, because I know that the atonement of Jesus Christ is real, and that He fills us with light in spite of the darkness we sometimes choose for ourselves.  I am grateful for His promise that we can change, and I am happy to think that, maybe, just maybe, He has grown in me greater charity than was there two years ago.  And I am grateful to come out of hiding, and know that He will heal me over and over again, while continually building me into who it is We want me to be, the greatest and most expanded and most full of light version of me there can possibly be.  Mostly, I am so grateful for the privilege it is to repent!  What a joyful word of light and hope!!!

Other than that, I also went to Primary this week, and the kids are doing so well and I have found I am in love with me.  My new dream is to be Nepal’s primary chorister once I am living there, because there is just something so good and sweet and pure in sharing the gospel in its simplest form with these oh so faithful kids, who, of all the millions and millions of people in India, are privileged to know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and He lives.

Well, after all of that, Sri Sailaam seems to fade in glory.  As much as I enjoyed seeing this temple and taking part in rituals, learning about them and seeing how they brought people joy (for even these things can add light to lives, though it is certainly in a lesser degree than is done through knowledge of and a relationship with Christ), well, I am just grateful that I KNOW that my Savior Lives, and hope lives in this world.  But, I will share some funny things, as I know (or tell myself to keep myself happy) that you are interested.  So, I went on this trip to Sri Sailaam and it was so fun, and the area was BEAUTIFUL, and blissfully not humid (as much as I am a Virginia Girl, Virginia has air conditioning), and I was there with these 5 Indian women, each of whom felt they needed to take on the role of my mother.  So I had 5 overprotective, micro-managing ‘moms’ this last week, which was an adventure all of its own.  The oldest woman there was probably about 70, and she went so far as to force feed me by hand when I turned down food (at least one mouthful), because… well, I actually don’t even know why.  She didn’t speak a lick of English, but she knew how to get her way.  Then there was Padamaja, who was so lovely and also spoke only Telugu, but she watched me and let me communicate with her, so that while everyone else was trying to make me take some curd with my lunch, she was explaining how it triggers my gag reflex and they really ought to just let me be.  And then we met up with a women there who spoke perfect English because of her brother who lives in the States, and she made me Quaker oatmeal that her mom had brought back from her last trip to Maryland.  I am so tired of eating rice, it is all I can do to eat half a cup at lunch each day (whether this is a physical or psychological rejection of rice, I have yet to determine), and so you would have thought that little packet of oatmeal was manna from heaven.  She also gave me 5 little mangoes.  Okay, I am realizing that this is all revolving around food, but food is an important part of life, and becomes more so when you are always hungry but can’t bring yourself to eat what has been made for you (okay, it is not as bad as all that.  I PROMISE I am not starving, though it would not be an overstatement to say that we students go to the local bakery about once a day to eat something that won’t make us feel slightly sick).   Anyways… But, these women were just so very funny, and they were proud of me because they said most other foreigners make it through about two Kalavahena rituals and then bow out, but I just kept on keeping on.  That made me happy.  I like being in this community of women and learning from their meekness and faith.  I am learning here the true meaning of “meek does not equal weak,” and I want to be a more gentle and submissive woman than I am.  But, yes, it was a very good and funny and productive and meaningful week.

Okay, that’s it.  This was all a whole lot of random put together into one unit of a weekly report, but then, isn’t it always?  Love to you all,

Emilee

I love the fourth of July!  Just saying.  So here is what we did!

Made and ate delicious food!!!  It really was good, thank goodness.  And I ate ABSOLUTELY NO RICE yesterday!  Woohoo!  (Even though I really like rice)

There is just nothing more American than apple pie.  A huge thank you goes out to our friend Sirisha from the local bakery

This is what India looks like when you try to decorate it for the fourth...  Not great, but not too shabby either :)

Anyway, our fourth was great!  I am getting better at being away for the fourth.  Three years ago, I was in a remote village outside of Kathmandu, and the only thing I had to celebrate with was oreos, so there is that.  Two years ago the fourth was the WORST day of my mission.  Seriously, it was horridly awful!  I was so homesick, and there was sister drama, and it was just a bad sort of day.  Last year I spent the fourth with one of my best friends Sis Falke, aka Jenny, and we sat on the back porch to watch fireworks and both of us said "I wish you were a boy right now" #notsucharomanticmoment.  That was actually a REALLY good fourth.  This year, it was India, and the food was good and there was pie and in the evening I took a walk on the beach, so all was lovely.  PLUS, I was able to skype home/skype the Hughes Crew, which was such a treat and a blessing.  I talked with them all for over an hour, and LOVED it!  I am so grateful for family and friends and love and tradition, even as I grow old and grow kinda far away.  Also, here is one funny story.  Because we were celebrating the 4th, Rajyalakshmi asked us how long we were ruled by the British, and I said 150 years as a rough estimate.  She then said "We were ruled for 200 years," but with an inflection in her voice that made it sound like she was trying to say "haha, the British ruled us longer than they ruled you.  Beat 'cha."  I just don't know why she was so proud of that.

Anyway, this week was pretty non-eventful.  Mostly I was feeling very lazy, so that is why.  I did get some beautiful henna for the fourth, though.  I LOVE henna.  Also, this next week I am going on an adventure, so I won't be here to blog next Sunday, but I will get back to ya'll when I return to Vizag, probably next Wednesday or Tuesday (I don't know why I wrote those in that order).  Anyways, today was also very fun, probably one of the most fun days I have had here so far.  First, I went to church.  Then I took a nap.  Then I went on a walk with Momoksha and Siddhartha, Durga's two little men.  Then I indexed, and for those who don't know, there is currently an opportunity to index records from the freedmens bureau, which was created to protect the rights of 'colored' people after the end of the Civil War and slavery.  They were actually supper interesting to work through today.  Also, the Home Teaching message this month is really good.  Anyway, then everyone went to the park, because Dr. K isn't here, and since it was fast Sunday Durga didn't have to cook for us students, so pretty much everyone in the house had a day off, and it was so fun to go to the park with them.  What I was not fully aware of was that the park leads to the beach, and so Silouja and I were wading in even though we were both in dresses.  Well, a wave came and caught us by surprise and got us wet past our waists, at which point we just went for it.  I am now the proud owner of a very sandy dress, but it ain't no thing since I got the dress for only $2 at the Salvation Army (aka my favorite store!  Try it, I bet you'll like it).  Anyway, so here are some pictures from that. Also, after that, I ate left-over American food, complete with a pepsi-float (as they don't have root-beer here).  It was such a good day.  Okay, all my love!

Emilee

Oh, PS, today we were in Primary again, and someone forgot the keys to all the upstairs classrooms, so Primary was booted and got moved to the Branch Pres. office.  That was a TERRIBLE idea, if you ask me, but I do have greater love for Primary than others, so I guess it was okay.  The kids handled it well, though.  Unfortunately, it limited some of the activities we had planned (we were in charge of lesson and singing time this week), and so when we had gone through all of our material and still had 20 minutes to burn, I taught the kids how to make paper birds, a skill I perfected as a 6 or 7 year old during sacrament meeting (after the sacrament was passed, to be clear).  The weeks lesson was on obedience, so I told them they had to obey my instructions if they wanted to end up with a bird.  It was actually pretty fun, in the end.  All I am saying is that you never know when your hidden and half-forgotten talents from childhood will spring up and save your hide.  Again, it was an awesome day.  Especially the part where we went to the beach!

All the pretty flowers at the park!

The pretty beach at the park!

A VERY wet me.  Also, what was nice was that at this stretch of beach there were all these rocks, which broke the HUGE waves before they could get to us.  Let me tell you what, I love to go swimming in the Indian Ocean, it is SO FUN!!!

First, I guess I need to apologize for not writing last week.  So, here is my ‘I’m sorry’.  Hopefully this post will make up for it in some small way, but you will have to be the judge of that.

In any case, last-last week was pretty typical.  I had class every day, and I have officially learned the three main puja’s of Devipuram.  I am enjoying class more and more lately, because as I gain an understanding of the basic tenants and rites in DP, I am now able to ask better questions, questions that mean something more than just “what was the next step in that ritual again?”  I am slowly but surely beginning to understand the revolutionary role DP has the potential to play in Hinduism, if it ever gains enough momentum, as well as how it does seamlessly fit into the rest of the Hindu tapestry.  One thing I am becoming increasingly aware of is how important community is in the empowerment of the self.  Community is something that Hinduism essentially lacks, as there is no central leadership or even religious services designated for one specific day.  But, if one is committed to following a specific Guru, as DP people are, then all the sudden there is a unit, and something for these women to belong to, and that gives them strength.  Even if the strength is simply knowing they can go to Soujanya or Mani to talk through their problems, that option is there, that support is there.  My puja teacher, as it were, doesn’t even worship the goddess Devi on a regular basis, at least not in the ways that Guruji teaches us to, but he LOVES Guruji, and says that he can talk to the guru about things he won’t even discuss with his parents.  I think that is what keeps him in it: having a community linked to a compassionate guru.  Anyways, there is some thoughts on that.

In other news about community, yesterday we went to Primary again, and they told us, Ashley and I, to do singing time for 20 minutes, and then they would teach a lesson.  So, we go and are singing and all is well, and then, right about the time we are supposed to end our portion of primary, all of the leaders leave, as well as half of the children.  They all had to go take the sacrament with the members of the second branch, as only about ¼ of the ward makes it to church on time to take our sacrament.  So, we keep teaching songs, but there are no leaders there and the kids are squirrely and they keep hitting each other and a girl can only restrain so many little boys by holding them on her lap.  So, thirty minutes later, the sacrament must have been passed, because all the kids who had left come back, as does ONE LEADER.  Only one.  We ask if she is going to do a lesson, and she says that the manual is lost so she can’t teach a lesson.  Well, as much as I love teaching primary kids, when only two of the kids you are teaching speak English, there is a problem waiting to happen.  It was at this point that we taught the kids the hokey pokey, and then how to play Simon Says.  Singing time has its limit, and if that was the only lesson prepared, well, there it is.  Let me tell you, the church is different here.  Also, some things I have learned over the pulpit in this ward: you need to be 12 to get baptized, some contemporary story about a family that wanted to be sealed, and so they chose to be sealed in the Kirtland Temple, and finally a story told about a woman who was 14 months pregnant and began having complications (well, I’ll say!).  Yep, church certainly is a bit different here.  And yet, here in India, the gospel is still true, there is still great power when Primary children sing, and families are forever. 

Speaking of that last bit, I just want to say that the Supreme Court broke my heart this last week.  I cannot say that I was surprised by any means, but I was sad.  I know this blog is not necessarily the place for it, though there is no reason it shouldn’t be, but I just want to say how grateful I am for families.  I am grateful for two parents who are proud every day of the right and privilege they have to be parents first, and then employees, community members, friends, etc. second.  I am grateful that from the moment I entered into this earth, I was blessed to belong to a home that was and is a sacred place.  I am grateful for my many siblings who now are following this example and created homes and families of their own, with great humility and great hope for the future.  I am grateful to know that I will be sealed to a great Elder in Israel within the walls of a Temple of the Living God, even if I have not met him yet.  I am grateful to know that I will be blessed with the privilege of bringing children into this world, and that together this family will have great joy.  I want all people to be happy and to have a fullness of joy in their lives, but I know this can only happen when we are obeying the commandments of the Lord.  One of His very first commandments, and one which has never been revoked by Him no matter how unpopular it may be to the eyes of the world, is the Law of Chastity.  Exodus 20 says “thou shalt not commit adultery”, and I promise you that our Heavenly Father has not changed His mind on the topic.  This means that to have sexual intercourse of any kind outside of the bounds of a legally wedding couple made up of a male and a female is a sin, one which shows utter disregard for the sacred gift of a physical body that has the power to create life which our Heavenly Father has given us.  The good news is that Christ always says “come unto me”, and He means it so sincerely!  Anyone who wants to be close to Him has that right through the gift of repentance and faith on him, whether their sin is of a sexual nature or not.  All of us can have a fullness of joy by coming unto Christ.  We simply have to have the courage to reach out and grab it!  I am, again, so grateful for the promise that those who come unto Christ can be with their families forever, and I am grateful for my family, present and future.  And now, back to India.

So then this last week there was a vacation, in which Dr. Krishnayya took Ben, Ashley, and I down to the city he grew up in.  It was one of the most odd vacations I have ever been on, and I LOVED it!  There were so many things to laugh at, all along the way.  Also, there was a beautiful gift of a showerhead that produced HOT WATER in the hotel we were staying in.  I am telling you, if you want to be happy, live in the third world, in third world conditions.  I appreciate every small joy I am given here more than I ever appreciate all the plenty that is found in the US of A.  And maybe that is just a me thing, but I like third world me better than I like first world me – she complains significantly less here.  Plus, there is so much beauty all around, and because life is just so much less complicated and fast-paced, well, I am able to appreciate it more.  I love being up on a rooftop, passing a bright green door against a white-washed wall, and seeing the brilliance of a completely sincere smile set against brown skin.  Plus, there are some beautiful men here.  Confession time:  There is an elder serving in the branch that meets after mine, and he is Indian, born in Dehli but raised in England, tall and strong jawed and one of the most beautiful people I have ever EVER seen.  If he weren’t a missionary and probably 5 years younger than me, well, I think I would fancy myself in love, haha.  But seriously, there is something about me and Indian men, and when they are beautiful, they are seriously beautiful!  Anyways, enough of that, I was talking about our trip.  So, besides a hot shower, another beautiful thing was that we went to this textile place, where like the whole city was devoted to textile production, from making dye and fabric to producing a finished project, and it was so SO cool!  The way they make their products is they take white fabric and they take these stamp sets that are hand-carved out of wood and they go, square by square, stamping dye onto the fabric.  Then they let it dry, get the next stamp in the set, and do the same thing over again with a second color, let it dry, and do it again one or two more times, until the entire design has been stamped on the fabric, be it a bag or a bedsheet or a Sari, all of the product put together by hand.  It was INCREDIBLE!  And Ben, who I really like so don’t think I don’t, but he was all ‘don’t they know there are machines that can do this stuff now-a-days’.  And one, guess what labor is cheaper than machines here, so yes they know, they just choose to do their work in their way, but also, and more importantly to me, the process is beautiful.  The process of starting from a basket of cotton and taking it all the way to a finished product all in one place, the steps taken in stages all throughout one village, well that is pretty cool.  And we in America have sacrificed and given up on that type of beauty for the sake of the machine. 

Now, here are two funny things about our trip.  First, after we went to the textile place, we went to visit this historic fort.  We were given a tour by this man who is a member of the Indian Archeology Society, which was kinda cool, except his English was pretty rough.  Anyway, the tour consisted of

1.      Going into a small room in the corner of the fort, and being told “this is where they would hang people”, being shown the door they used to carry out the dead bodies, and then leaving that room.

2.      Being escorted out of a hallway quickly because the tour guide was afraid the ceiling might fall on us, and then being led from there to stand on the roof (aka the collapsing ceiling). 

3.      Being told the fort was destroyed by a tidal wave, and then all three of us Americans looking up from the roof and not one of us are able to see the ocean.

Anyways, that was the funniest, most understated tour I have EVER been on.  At the very least, India is always good for a laugh!

The second funny thing that I will share is that Dr. K scheduled for us to go on a boat trip on the Godavari River (which is, by the way, filthy, and I am so excited to take a holy dip in it next month!  And then to shower RIGHT AFTER!).  The boat ride was a total of eight hours with plastic chairs crowded on the top deck for people to sit on, and the destination was this tribal village but the really funny thing was that after being on a boat for 5 hours, and knowing we would have a 3 hour ride back down the river, the trip was such that passengers were given 20 minutes to be in the village.   Who travels for 8 hours to visit some place for 20 minutes!!! I could not even believe it, it was so SO funny.  Oh well.  Later we asked Dr. K what his favorite part of the boat ride was (because he had been trying to get us pumped up for this trip since the day I landed here), and he said “the river”.  Okay then…  But, on the ride back there was music playing so Ashley and I taught like 7 or 8 little kids the Macarena, and that was actually super fun.  I don’t know the last time I had done that dance, but it came back pretty easily, and it was fun to do it with all of those kids.  And, let me tell you, their parents loved it.  Because there are not many white people in this part of India (aka, there are NONE), people just love us.  I feel like I know how Princess Diana felt, what with people always wanting to hold your hand, know your name, ask where you are from (I often tell them Slovakia, to which they reply by becoming rather confused), take your picture, and have you hold their baby.  Well, it can be annoying, but it can also be super fun, and sometimes people give us free stuff just because they can J

Okay, so that is a hodge-podge of thoughts.  Hope you enjoyed them!  That is India to me lately.  Also, if you want any kind of souvenir, speak now or hold your peace.  As much as I love gift giving, I am too poor to buy things unless I know that people actually want them.  So, if you are needing some elephant pillow cases or a Sari or gloves from Nepal, let me know.  Otherwise, I will just see you in America.  Okay, I send this off with so much love,

Emilee

PS. On Saturday I climbed 1218 steps up a smallish mountain to see a temple.  If you don’t think that is impressive, well it was.  But the view was worth it.  I will hopefully have photos forthcoming.

some cows

a Sri Chakra: This is the most sacred yantra built in Devipuram

Me visiting a temple with the house staff :)  I love these ladies!

My brothers!!!  They left for their village this week :(

A view of Vizag from a beautiful rooftop.  Man, I love hanging out on rooftops!

Ashley, Ben, and I at this old temple for Shiva.

Us at the train station

Dr. Krishnayya on the train.

Us on the train.  In case you don't know this, I LOVE trains!!!

A temple on the banks of the Godavari River

These just happen to be beautiful Indian children!

Some boats on the river

a village home

inside the village home

Us sitting outside the village home

Some beautiful women in the village

The beautiful village

Some goats

A cool temple

The steps to the temple

The Church!

Today, as it is Sunday, I went to church.  I love church hear.  Everything is done in this weird mix of Telugu and English, and people say the funniest things.  For example, two weeks ago a man was giving a talk and he said “none of us our perfect as I……… am also not perfect.” But seriously, the pause between these thoughts was long, and I just really wasn’t sure what he was trying to say, haha.  Anyways, today at church one a woman spoke, and her talk was based on Pres. Eyering’s message in the Ensign for the month.  Accordingly, she taught us all about a kid who got baptized when they were twelve “as that is the right time of baptism”, and who wanted to be sealed to his adoptive family.  They asked him where he wanted to be sealed, and he picked the Kirtland Temple, so that is where they were sealed.  Oh, my, goodness, I don’t know if it is bad, but I was just sitting in my seat trying not to let anyone see how hard I was laughing!  Its always an adventure.  And then the next speaker said two sentences in English and then the rest of the talk was Telugu, you know how it is :)

So, after sacrament, we went to gospel principles, as that is the class with the most English spoken.  The teacher today wanted to teach in English, so he asked who could translate for him.  Finally one of the Elders volunteered, but it was so funny because (1) this guy speaks Telugu, obviously, so he translated half the lesson himself without even realizing it, and this poor Elder was just standing there in the front of the room doing nothing for most of the time.  (2) When he did let the Elder translate, he wanted him to do so sentence by sentence, and he  kept using these odd phrases that we don’t use in English to begin with, and the missionary had NO IDEA how to say it in Telugu.  But then if he tried to say something that was the same idea, the teacher would correct him and repeat his sentence until it had been translated the way he wanted it to be.  (3) He also turned this poor missionary into Vanna White, expecting him to write every scripture that was mentioned on the board.  And it’s so funny to me that, no matter what language a lesson is in, they always write on the board in English!

Well, as I was dying of laughter (my new resolve this week is to laugh at India.  Not in a mean way, I hope, but it is better than getting frustrated with the way things are done, and there really is a LOT to laugh at if you’re looking for joy!), the Primary President came into the room (something else SO FUNNY about this class is that the teacher doesn’t stop teaching until he has made it through the material, no matter what time it is.  Last week class went over by 15 minutes, and afterwards he was chewing someone out who had come to tell us the time, asking him why he thought his message was more important than the words of the gospel.  So, it was time for class to be over, and third hour to start, just so you know) and told us she was sorry to disturb us, but did we know the primary hymns.  I jumped up quick as I could, because do I know the Primary Hymns!?!  Hello, it’s like the most pure doctrine in the church after the actual scriptures (including the ensign).  I don’t just know those songs, I adore them! So, we all went down to where primary is, the whole time being instructed by the Primary President that the CPSM is on the 28^th of this month, and the theme is family history, and the children know one song about families, but they want them to sing four songs in the program so did we think we could teach them three more songs this week and next week.  And then would they be ready for the program?  Can you even imagine.  In the states, the Primary Program is the most important moment in the Primary Presidents year, and she and the Primary Chorister (a calling they clearly do not have filled in the branch) are preparing and stressing at minimum two months before the actual program.  Not here!  If we start thinking about it month of, we are good.  Oh, but it was so fun!  So, the kids already know Families Can Be Together Forever, and we were going to teach them The Family is of God, only to be pleasantly surprised to see that they already know it.  The sister missionaries taught it to them at some point, bless their little hearts!  So, we taught them I love to see the Temple and Family History – I am doing it, and it was awesome.  We were given the whole hour to fill, and since the primary is so small it was both junior and senior together for third hour. But, these kids did so great!  It was the cutest thing!  It was funny as can be to watch them try and say ‘progenitors’, and we had to practice pronouncing it quite a few times, but it was just so SO much fun to hang out with those kids, and talk to them about families and temples and how they make us happy and how we want to be with our families forever.  And they fell in love with I love to see the Temple, and just wanted to sing it over and over.  It was just a great experience, and I think for having to do the whole thing on the fly, Ashley and I did exceptionally well teaching them.  Another funny thing: with about 5 minutes left in the hour, one of the councilors in the presidency came up behind us and started writing all the words of the temple song on the white-board.  One, the kids have books they share to look at, and two, we were at that point working on singing without the books, and three, if you wanted to write the words, why did you wait until the last five minutes of class?  Oh, it was too funny!  But, it was also infinitely more fun than an hour of Telugu Relief Society, aka my weekly pondering hour, so Ashley and I have decided to take on the calling of Primary Chorister for the rest of the summer, unless someone tells us – very strictly – otherwise.  Maybe if we do that, they will know more than one song when it is time for next year’s program.  And of course, who can blame them.  The leaders don’t know English well enough to read the words a lot of the time, and since they didn’t learn them as Primary kids, they don’t know the tunes now, much less how to play the piano.  But still, it is a great branch, and I was so happy to be helping today!  It was a pleasure!  I am grateful to be able to give just a little bit, and I am always grateful to be in Primary!

PS.  Sunday night is the staffs night off, so we go out for dinner.  We went to Pizza Hut, and it was the first American food I have had in a month, and oh my heavens, I think I could have cried from joy!

To be honest, India and I have not been getting along so well lately.  Well, there is so much I love, but the people are often, and this is probably due to this being a BYU program, suffocating.  And I love so many people here, but sometimes I just want to scream "give me some space!  please..."  So, there is my rant, now on to cooler, happier things.
So, while Indian people can sometimes be overwhelming, they can also be so loving and giving and kind, which is really fun.  They just want to give and include and share the things that make them happy.  At least, I can say that is true of the Devipuram devotees.  Last week, I was invited to participate in a Puja at this young woman's house, and it was so beautiful.  I mean, the worship was cool in and of itself, just because it was done around a yantra (again, pictures will be posted... sometime...) that was built out of flowers.  Nine rings of flowers, each a different type and color, each sacred in its own way.  But what was cooler was how this girl, Sirisha, was so excited that we came to her Puja, and how she made sure we took Prasadam (fruits, bananas and mangos) with us when we left, and how she gave us her phone number and said to call her anytime we needed a visit or a place to stay.  So kind, and good.  And, I think I have said it before, but the smiles in the faces of these women I work with each day are so beautiful and sincere and they truly carry light on their faces.  Oh, I love all that they teach me about happiness.
And then there are my 'brothers'.  Next door to the BYU house there is a small family with three boys, ages 16, 14, and 9.  And they come to the house all the time, just to hang out and help where they can.  They play with Momoksha and Sidu, and they always walk me home at the end of the day to make sure I get there safe.  It is a two minute walk at the most, on brightly lit and still active streets, but they walk with me anyways. And, the other day I got home and my house was FULL of bugs!  Like, they were these tiny flying things, and they were swarming around any light that I turned on and there were literally thousands of them. I try really hard, when living in the third world to not be overly affected by the ants and cockroaches and lizards on the wall, but oh.my.heck.  They were everywhere, and I knew I would never fall asleep with them there.  So, I called on the aid of my brothers.  We got some real powerful roach killer from the BYU house, and then they told me to stay outside while they took care of the issue.  15 minutes later, well they had sprayed my house DOWN (seriously, I had to leave the windows open for a good while after they left because there were some serious fumes going on) and then, when the bugs had all died I grabbed a broom but they took it from my hands and swept all the bugs out of my house.  I mean, it was a 14 year old boy sweeping my house, so I may have had to re-sweep in the morning, but they got 90% of the dead-bug-confetti (seriously, these little guys were EVERYWHERE!!!) out of my house, and I was so SO grateful!  And, then my neighbor/translator Rajyalakshmi asked if they would do her house and they did, but told her she needed to pay.  I, on the other hand, told them "thank you" and their response was "no thank you, sister.  Friends."  I loved that moment SO MUCH!!!  Man, they are just such good boys!
Anyways, I also went to this super cool temple last week, that was centuries old, and there was all of this stone carving within the complex, and I can only imagine how that was done so many hundreds, or even thousands, of years ago.  So beautiful.  I will try to post pictures of that, too.  Anyways, there is my taste of India for the week.  I do love it here, and am so grateful for the opportunity to be here, learning and growing each day.  I feel like the "adventure" part of my post is a bit overkill, as I have fallen into a routine, but its fun!  Til next week, I love ya all,

Emilee

So, I have now completed my second full week in India.  The Americans arrived today, but they are sleeping.  I went to church today, wearing my beautiful pink Sari, and that was fun.  I really love wearing Saris!!!  I still need help to wrap them correctly, but I am slowly getting better at it.  Today Durga, who usually helps me said that I had done a good job.  And I was all excited and like, oh I did it right!?!?!?  And then she said "a little"  and proceeded to fix me :)   Oh well, a little is better than I had been doing before.  She told me she has to take care of me because she is my India mother.  I am lucky to have such good mothers here.
Anyway, this week I have been learning how to correctly worship the goddess, and one of the biggest things I have learned is that my Sanskrit is terrible!  My mouth just is not familiar with the way in which one pronounces these sacred words.  But, my teachers are very patient with me, and it makes Rajyalakshmi happy, maybe even proud, to see me learning about her faith and her patterns of worship so diligently.  I love doing this project with her as my translator because she loves doing this project.  She told me that she thanks the goddess for the opportunity that she has to learn with me about Devipuram and how to best approach the goddess.  Its fun for me to learn it all, but it is also pretty cool to watch her excitement in learning about this branch of Hinduism that is as new to her as it is to me.
Anyways, I honestly don't know that I have to much to say.  I taught these boys that are always hanging out around the BYU house how to make popcorn last night, which was fun, except they have no patience and I think the pan was a bit too hot, and so one of the boys took the lid off the pan while it was still popping, and a popped bit of corn flew out and hit one of them in the eye!  He can still see, therefore it was really funny.  But then, they were all really scared of taking the lid off after that, and I was like, okay, let me do it, and they were all "no, sister!"  But, in the end they let me and the popcorn was delicious.
Also, another funny thing was that, the other day we were in a rickshaw and,let me tell you, it is a miracle every time you survive a trip in one of these things, but the drivers are the masters of stopping on a dime!  Anyway, you just get used to the constant almost-crashes, and I have actually yet to witness a car crash in Nepal or here, but the thing is its just the way of the road and no one even bothers to react.  Well, that is the state of things, and I was in this Rickshaw with Rajyalakshmi, and this calf wandered out in front of our auto-ricksahw and Rajyalakshmi GASPED!  The fact that she reacted at all was quite remarkable, but while our own and other humans lives are not worth any response, the life of that cow is/was.  That was pretty darn interesting!
Okay, the rest of this post will be show and tell.  Hope you enjoy!

 This is the first time I wore a Sari.  I look so tall in this picture!  Mostly, Durga is just short, but still.  Anyway, that is Durga my Indian mom who is also the Sari master, and her 18 month old Momoksha.

This is a picture of the Goddess from the Devipuram complex.  She really is quite beautiful.

Here we have me, a priestess at the temple, and Soujanya, my guide and teacher into the world of Devipuram.  She is the woman dressed in green.  I love her, and she has this amazing smile that just brings brightness into her face.  Also, see, I am not so very tall after all.

This is a picture from the local farmers market.  Look at all those yummy mangoes!  I LOVE mangoes!  And, while in the states it is like a dollar+ per mango, here is is less than $2 for a pound.  So, that is pretty great!  Oh, the mangoes are everywhere, and I love it!

I took this picture while walking down a hill overlooking the city.  So, everyone, this is Vizag!

Here we have a priest next to the goddess Gayatha.  She is a local goddess with no significance outside of Vizag, but her temple was really cool.  Anyways, you can see that she is totally decked out with flowers, ect, and may also notice the different materials that are used in Puja in this picture.  This priest was very nice to let me take a picture of him. 

These are some cows.  It is baby cow season, and they are just so cute!  They just wander free, all the time.  Its pretty funny to watch the cows.

Okay, I love you all!  Have a happy week,

Emilee