March in the Mission

Happy Spring!  It is hot here in Bangalore as it is now summer. Not as hot though as some of the other cities in the mission.  In June it will be monsoon season so we got a big umbrella this week in preparation.  We are well and happy and keeping busy with the work in the office.  We try not to let our senior brains make too many mistakes.  Here are some pictures from the past month of some of the things we've been involved in.  Forgot to take a picture though of Elder Bedke playing basketball with the Elders, which he did twice.  They were all quite impressed with his playing. What they don't know is how much pain he was in after those games!  He needs to start acting his age.

We went with the Elders on a Monday night to have Family Home Evening with these 2 families.  The family on the left attends our Temple Preparation class.  The family on the right are both returned missionaries and have been to the temple.  

Another photo of our church building with the name of the church written in Hindi (we think).  Our apartment complex is in the background.

My great-grandmother had one of these foot powered sewing machines.  Some things never go out of style.  Grandma Pett would get a lot of leg exercise! 

We visited Commercial street, a famous shopping area in Bangalore.  We didn't find much to buy. Actually it was quite difficult to shop as our eyes were always on the ground watching where we walked.

My dad was proud of the texture and flavor of the grass fat beef we raised.  Other touted their corn fed beef. Anyone want to try garbage fat beef? Too bad, this cow is not available. 

We were walking to the mall when we were passed by this boy leading his sheep.

We had to celebrate our daughter Janae's engagement at our favorite Indian restaurant, California Pizza Kitchen. So happy for her and Kyle!

It has been a long process getting the mission home completed and the furnishings delivered.  On Monday 30 March it was finally dedicated and we had an open house.  The district presidency, the office staff and the Bangalore area missionaries were invited.  The mission home is the top level of our 3 story building.  Following are some of the pictures taken at the event:

I went to Hyderabad, the home of the first stake in India, to check out the missionary apartments. One of the areas I visited was Charminar in the center of the city.  It is a famous mosque built in 1591. I was able to go the upper level and take some pictures. The entrance fee was 15 rupees, except foreigners had to pay 100 rupees.  The area is very crowded with produce vendors, souvenir shops, and pearl stores, to name a few.

Traffic is often congested in India--for a lot of different
reasons!
















I love the diversity of transportation vehicles here in India.




We are enjoying our mission and the experiences we are having.  We are very blessed with good health (except basketball pains) and wonderful people that we associate with.