Won't you be my neighbor?

We get a community newsletter for our little neighborhood every month. The entries and articles are sent in by the residents. One of Merinda's friends, a Mennonite missionary lady is frequently asked for entries because she is one of the few that is willing to write something positive. Most people just write in to complain.

For context, ours is considered to be a pretty nice neighborhood. It isn't the most upscale in Delhi, but pretty close. Here is a sampling to give you a taste of the goings on. FYI a "wallah" is a professional in something. Like, a plumber would be a plumbing-wallah, a guy who pedals a rickshaw is a rickshaw-wallah and so forth...

From the "Snapshots" Section of the New Friends Colony Community Newsletter:

• Munnilal, Mali! A gardener named Munnilal, after working very well for 1 1/2 years at the D-Block Park, took an advance of Rs. 7000 from a resident of the Block and disappeared. Apparently he is still working somewhere in the Colony. Any resident who knows his whereabouts please inform us.
• Low Cables Cause High Tension! There are electric wires hanging dangerously low in the Community Centre. The concerned authorities must take note as it could be a fatality if a passerby comes in contact with the cables and is electrocuted.
• Road Discipline Needed: The road between Archies and the Community Center is usually blocked by traffic largely because of rickshaws and auto-rickshaws parked haphazardly all over the road. The ricksaw-wallahs loudly shout out for passengers, literally compelling passersby to use their services.
• Roads Flood With Rain Water: With the few days of rain last month the road outside the Community Centre was so flooded that many girls who seemed to be stranded were spotted requesting Rickshaw-wallahs to help them cross over in their Rickshaws to save their shoes and clothes from getting soiled and soaked. Whatever will happen with the rainy season actually begins?
• Baraat Park? A tent-wallah has almost taken over the Park next to Shivji Mandir adjoining the Club. He books it for marriages and other functions in the Park, in league with the authorities. This has become a big business for him, especially because the courts have clamped down heavily on most other Parks and the illegal baraat ghars [wedding party houses] of South Delhi.
• Stop this Eve-Teasing [cat calling]: A resident of D-Block has complained that her grown-up daughter is being eve-teased by the young labourers working at a house construction site. They invariably pass lewd remarks and personal comments about her.
• From Smelly Corner to Community Centre: A new Community Centre is coming up on the empty plot next to Sujan Mohindra Hospital. The place that was known as the "stinking corner" has finally been given a cemented boundary wall and construction has begun. We will soon have a swanky area with another Community Centre to use for rest, celebrations, and shopping.

Finally here is a sampling of some of the main articles. This one is a little gross, but for the sake of documenting life in India, must be repeated:

Tragedy of the Park Taken over by the Club
by Vinod Aggarwal

Aruna Kapoor a resident of the D Block wondered why the authorities don't construct a toilet next to the park which has recently been taken over by the club. "I have to cover my nose with a handkerchief when I walk in the park. The entire area stinks. Urine is flowering down from all sides. As you enter from the D-Block side, sweepers, rickshaw-wallas and laborers can be spotted urinating with total disregard to anybody passing by. I have no choice but to walk there because of my illness, I am unable to go very far from my house."

Earlier the park was being looked after by the DDA [Delhi Development Authority]. They had maintained it in a much better condition. If the club is unable to look after it, they should return its upkeep back to the DDA. Even though there is a guard but he is helpless as nobody bothers about him. It seems the park is too big for a lone guard to control.

Once we spotted a furniture polisher polishing the chairs of the club in that park. This attitude further adds to the casual and arrogant behavior of the people who are constantly mauling the park.

Nowadays even the grass of the park has been ruined and the ornamented plants and flower beds are nowhere to be seen. Earlier the department malis [gardeners] used to get after people who used to ruin the park. Now the culprits are never questioned.

If the club looks after the park then they should put a board saying so, so the residents who use the park know where to go if they have a complaint.

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So, just to end on a upbeat note, here is the article written by Merinda's friend about their dancing get-togethers. I saw these ladies do their thing at a party and it was pretty impressive.

Bhangra at Bindu's: More Residents Can Come & Join
by Amy Klassen

What motivates you to exercise? For many, it helps if the exercise is fun and involves others. For a few months now, some ladies have been dancing the Bhangra in A-Block to keep fit and have fun together. It has also proved to be a great opportunity to get to know each other and learn together.

At the moment the group is exclusively for ladies, there are ladies from various backgrounds in the group, as well as various ages represented. Most of those involved had no previous experience with Bhangra, so anyone who is willing to give it a try is welcome.

There is no charge for the workout and there is presently room for more ladies. If you are interested, please come and check it out. For further information please call Bindu at -- or Amy at ---

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So, it really is true that there are low-hanging wires, flooding roads, rickshaws everywhere, parks in chaos, Bhangra dancing, and spots that smell worse than others, but it's also true that it's easy to become accustomed to all that, and it's really not as bad as it sounds above.

What is interesting is why write these complaints in a community newsletter? I don't know but a few reasons come to mind:

1. Raise awareness in the hopes that something may happen.
2. Actually complaining to the "authorities" is not going to result in anything, so you might as well vent in a newsletter.
3. Nobody is really sure who the "authorities" actually are...especially the authorities themselves.

For the sake of the good residents of New Friends Colony and of the rest of India (where it's all downhill from here) we hope that things get better, but until then it's nice that there are still interesting places in the world!

Graham Goes Pink

Hamilton Temple & Hong Kong

Hamilton New Zealand Temple

Graham just barely learned to walk on his own while we were away on the South Island.
Graham and Grandpa chowing down on a leg of lamb together.
The Zoo
Me in that horrible frenzied state of packing up after a long vacation and dreading the inevitable goodbye to loved ones. Yes, it's great to travel the world. But dealing with all the stuff and goodbyes isn't always fun.Superdad Rich at the airport with his buddy.
Atop the Victoria Peak in Hong Kong on our layover on the way home.
The view was spectacular. This is a place I'd like to come back and visit!
Jet lag starts to set in on the tram down the Peak.
Graham enjoying a good meal at the Hong Kong Airport. Russell asleep in the background.

Hang Gliding!

For our anniversary present Rich let me go tandem hang gliding. What a rush! I got two chances to get all suited up because the first time the wind wouldn't shift to the right direction so we had to give up and try in the evening. This is the first time . . .This is the mountain we literally stepped off of. Normally you run and then jump off and start flying, but the wind was so strong that we just stepped off. At first I couldn't keep my legs from shaking, I was so nervous once we took off, but I willed them to stop and they finally did. Then I started to enjoy the ride.
I was flying tandem with this old crazy guy who handed me the reins to steer and instructed me to send us spinning around. Scared me to death!
It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Mindy flying like the wind!
We were up in the air for about 25 breathless minutes. All the while my tandem partner was chatting away like we were sitting in his living room. Very surreal. Rich met us at the bottom where we came in for a landing in a field. We land on our bellies. Come visit us and we'll show you some videos of the fun adventure.

Our Romantic Getaway in the South Island, NZ

While Mom and Dad graciously played with our kids all week in Auckland, Rich and I ran away to the South Island for a much-needed break. We hardly knew what to do with all the quiet, the wide open spaces, and the breath-taking beauty!

Rich posing in front of a roadside field of lupine flowers. Delicious. We almost felt like we were home on Grandma & Grandpa Key's farm with the bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush in full spring bloom. G&G Key's Farm + Utah-like Mountains = Paradise!
The boat we took to explore Milford Sound. This is a must-see spot in all the tour books, but we had a difficult time capturing its grandeur on camera. You've gotta just go see it for yourselves.Posing in the rain by one of the many temporary waterfalls in Milford Sound. It rains almost all the time here and it was cold!
Cycling around Lake Wanaka. We stayed at the Mt. Aspiring Hotel and they loaned us some bikes to ride. We had a great time, but we eventually discovered you can't ride around the lake! So if you ever go, don't try it. But I did get a taste of some tame mountain biking, which Rich loved and I liked more than I thought I would.

I have to include these pictures because for some reason they tickled me so much. Maybe because cows are so present in India and these are so different from what I've become accustomed to. I stopped to take a picture of them and they all turned and looked at me blandly.
Within a few minutes, all the cows in the field had mosey-ed on over and were all just standing there staring at me as if waiting for me to entertain them or tell them something they hadn't already heard. I found it hilarious for some reason!
In front of the Fox Glacier. I'd never seen a glacier before. Fascinating.Us in the window of the train we took that crossed the South Island from Greymouth to Christchurch.Our last stop in Christchurch. We stayed at a great hotel called Livingspace and ate Mexican food.
As we got off the train we saw this scene of a cyclotouring company picking up their clients. On this trip we discussed an idea for our next life adventure of starting a cyclo-touring company near Niagara Falls and doing cyclotours to Church history sites similar to what we did in 2002. One of us could teach school to get the medical insurance and a steady income and then we could run the business between us and even get the kids involved when they get older. I thought I'd write it down here so we don't forget!

Christmas in Delhi

Though we left for Christmas for a trip to visit Mom and Dad in New Zealand, we did celebrate a bit beforehand with a district Primary activity at Sister Pritchett's house and Mommy's Musikgarten Family Music Party.

Isaac and Russell getting in the mood (Russell trying out Amy's Christmas gift of pearls).Graham and Sister Vimla Mani the Primary president. He was very happy at this little party.
Graham taking a break from charming everyone.
Isaac took the cookie-decorating very seriously, but was humored me with a half-smile.
Here's Sister Pritchett dressed up as an angel surprising us with her praise dancing. We expected her to come down the stairs singing the Hallelujah chorus, but instead she pumped up some hip hop and danced her heart out to all of our wondering eyes!
The boys well-integrated into the Primary group decorating cookies.
Russell with Dolly reverently examining Sister Pritchett's nativity set.While the kids decorated cookies, the men were downstairs playing pool. Here's President Beesa taking a shot. Photo courtesy of Rich.
Here's the party we had for my Musikgarten students and their families. So much fun! Gotta love a place where you can spread out picnic blankets at Christmastime.Here's the craft table at the party, manned by Amy Klassen (and her daughter Alexis--they have three girls to match our three boys in age). Amy is my new great friend who is here in India with her family as Mennonite Brethren missionaries.
Teething Graham. Don't you just want to give him a squeeze?
Graham standing on the drum so he can reach the musical instruments

Sacrament Meeting Talk in Leander Ward Dec. 2005

I'm tackling my piles of papers these days and found this talk I gave in our ward just before we moved. I thought I'd put it on the blog to preserve it and have a blast from the past.

December 18, 2005

Joseph Smith and the Proclamation on the Family

Introduction

Many of you know that we are moving to India at the end of this month. We are excited, sad, and terrified all at once. When I was in college I spent a semester in a rural village in Mexico teaching literacy to adults. Though I enjoyed it and probably did do some good, I often felt that I could do good more at home with my family who were struggling with various things at the time. So when this opportunity came to our family, I was grateful that now I have my own family and we are all going together. We may be disappointed by the amount of good we can do in India, but the influence we can have within our own family will remain unchanged.

My topic today is Joseph Smith, but I want to focus what I say about him around the Proclamation since President Jackson in Stake Conference urged us to “return to the Proclamation.” As I read through these journal entries compiled by Susan Easton Black, I was touched many times to see Joseph as a real person who got sick, who played with his family, who loved his wife. Though he pre-dated the Proclamation, he certainly lived each of its principles. Let me share some of these snapshots of his exemplary life with you while I bear testimony of the Proclamation.

I know that, as the Proclamation states, marriage between a man and woman is ordained of God.

November 24, 1835: Marriage is an institution of heaven, instituted in the Garden of Eden.

April 4, 1839: Dear and Affectionate Wife, I would gladly walk from here to you barefoot, and bare headed, and half naked, to see you.

January 20, 1840: My Dear Emma, my heart is intertwined around you and those little ones.

August 13, 1842: I was much rejoiced to meet my dear wife once again.

August 14, 1842: Spent the forenoon chiefly in conversation with Emma . . . both felt in good spirits and very cheerful.

Today is our anniversary! I am so grateful for a loving husband and for the commitment and joy that temple covenants bring. He is my best friend and so good to me.

I know that the family is central to the Creator’s plan. I know that the divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave.

Parley P. Pratt, Apostle, 1835–1857: It was Joseph Smith who taught me how to prize the endearing relationships of father and mother, husband and wife; of brother and sister, son and daughter. It was from him that I learned that the wife of my bosom might be secured to me for time and all eternity; and that the refined sympathies and affections which endeared us to each other emanated from the fountain of divine eternal love. . . . I had loved before, but I knew not why. But now I loved—with a pureness—an intensity of elevated, exalted feeling. Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, ed. Parley P. Pratt Jr. (1938), 259–60.

April 16, 1843: In the morning of the first resurrection let me strike hands with my father.

March 20, 1842: The Lord takes many away, even in infancy, that they may escape the enemy of the man, and the sorrows and evils of this present world.

I know that we will see our loved ones who have gone before us to the Spirit World. I can’t wait to meet my dear loved ones there, and to join with many of my sisters in this ward and elsewhere in raising the children we only knew for a short time. I can’t wait to “meet Brother Joseph again.”

I know that parents have a sacred duty to . . . teach [their children] to love and serve one another

Joseph Smith: “It is a time-honored adage that love begets love. Let us pour forth love—show forth our kindness unto all mankind, and the Lord will reward us with everlasting increase; cast our bread upon the waters and we shall receive it after many days, increased to a hundredfold.”

September 1, 1835: Fathers should be kind to their children, husbands to their wives . . . children obedient to their parents.

September 14, 1843: My house has been a home and resting place for thousands.

June 25, 1844: Dear Emma, Myself and Hyrum have been again arrested for treason.

June 26, 1844: Could my brother, Hyrum but be liberated, it would not matter so much about me.

I learned a good lesson from my son Isaac recently. I said in passing one day, “Isaac, I need you!” Later in the day, he asked with a solemn face, “Mom, why do you need me?” I could tell he was flattered and excited at the thought that I might need him, and I started to think of all the reasons that I really do need and rely on him. We all need to be needed—allowing yourself to need someone strengthens the love between you.

I know that the family is ordained of God. I know that mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children.

March 27, 1834: Remained at home and had great joy with my family.

I am so glad for the teachings of the Church that urge women to stay at home with their families. I have found the sweetest joys there as I watch my children grow and see the world through their eyes.

I know that successful marriages and families are established on the principle of faith.

August 31, 1842: Rode to the Grove with Emma, and attended the Female Relief Society’s meeting.

October 13, 1832: My Dear Wife, You must comfort yourself knowing that God is your friend in heaven and that you have one true and living friend on earth in your husband.

There is sweetness in sharing your faith with your children and your husband. I know that God is indeed my friend in heaven and my best friends on earth are in my family.

I know that successful marriages and families are established on the principle of prayer.

February 10, 1836: I asked my Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ to heal my brother Hyrum, and bless my father’s family.

April 25, 1842: I was engaged in reading, meditation . . . mostly with my family.

January 16, 1834: O Lord! Keep us and my family safe, until I return to them.

January 28, 1836: I felt to praise God with a loud hosanna, for His goodness to me and my father’s family.

To me, being a mother is scary because so much can go wrong. I find solace in the fact that I can pray to Heavenly Father for the safety and well-being of my children, and rely on the Spirit to guide me as I care for them, and know that if something goes wrong, the Lord is mindful of us and will help it work together for our good.

I know that husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. I know that successful marriages and families are established on the principle of compassion.

September 16, 1838: I was at home all day with my family.

September 8, 1843: My wife being sick, I was at home all day.

August 19, 1836: My beloved Wife: You may know that you and the children are much on my mind.

August 1, 1838: I tarried at home with my family . . . to refresh myself after many late fatigues and arduous duties.

July 13, 1843: I was in conversation with Emma most of the day.

March 24, 1832: I told Emma, she had better retire to rest . . . I would watch with the sicker child.

February 26, 1843: My mother was sick with inflammation of the lungs, and I nursed her with my own hands.

I am so grateful for a husband who, like Joseph, cares for me and my children with his own hands—changing diapers, staying home to help, fixing and building things, laying hands upon our heads. He is sensitive and thoughtful, faithful and strong.

I know that successful marriages and families are established on the principle of respect.

August 22, 1842: I have thought of my father who is dead . . . he was a great and a good man.

August 23, 1842: I loved my father and his memory; and the memory of his noble deeds.

My father-in-law often thanks Heavenly Father in his prayers for those who have gone before us. I hope we can be as Joseph Smith and retain in our memory our ancestors and our indebtedness to them.

I know that successful marriages and families are established on the principle of work.

June 4, 1842: My Dear Companion, we all enjoy the fruits of our labour if we hold out faithful to the end which I pray may be the happy lot of us all.

May 13, 1842: Spent most of the day in my garden with my family.

March 9, 1842: Continued translating and revising, and reading letters in the evening, Sister Emma being present in the office.

Some of my sweetest memories with our family and our ward family center around working together. There is great joy in working and serving together. I am so grateful to have worked and served with you.

I know that successful marriages and families are established on the principle of wholesome recreational activities.

September 4, 1834: Circus performance, which I attended with my family.

February 8, 1843: At four in the afternoon, I went out with my little Frederick, to exercise myself by sliding on the ice.

July 21, 1843: Rode to the farm with my daughter Julia.

June 3, 1843: This morning, I, with my family . . . started for Quincy, on a pleasure voyage.

March 18, 1843: Played ball with the boys.

My father, too, was always good at finding time for wholesome recreational activities with his family. I always knew Daddy worked hard at work, and then came home to play with us. We’d wrestle around with him, play outside, take fun and cheap family vacations (which usually included camping and hiking!), and share silly made-up stories.

I know that by divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families.

March 25, 1839: There are many teachers, but, perhaps, not many fathers.

September 9, 1842: I offered a blessing upon the heads of my sleeping children.

July 6, 1842: Transacted business in the city, and rode to LaHarpe with Emma.

May 28, 1842: Walked to the store with Emma, transacted some business in the city.

March 3, 1834: O Lord, bless my little children with health and long life, to do good in their generation.

March 5, 1843: I stayed home all day to take care of my mother, who was still sick.

It’s tricky to balance work and home, and it appears from Joseph’s writing that he did a pretty good job of it, despite his busy schedule. He seemed to always be willing to take time out from work to help family members in need, and included his family in his work when he could.

My Testimony

I am grateful for Joseph Smith. I am excited to meet him in the next life and shake his hand, thanking him for all he did for us. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God who was bold enough to restore the Gospel on the earth and spread it throughout the earth. I am so grateful for that.

President Hinckley said, “Joseph Smith set in motion a program for carrying the gospel to the nations of the earth. I marvel at the boldness with which he moved. Even in the infant days of the Church, in times of dark adversity, men were called to leave homes and families, to cross the sea, to proclaim the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Prophet’s mind, his vision encompassed the entire earth.”

I am grateful that our family has the opportunity to cross many seas and do our best to build the kingdom in India. I wish we didn’t have to leave our home and ward family to do it! But I am grateful that I can go with my little eternal family and that as we rely on each other and serve together, we will find joy that can only come together as a family. Please come visit us, and we’ll come back to visit you.

I know God lives and loves us and had a plan for us. I know our Savior Jesus Christ lives and was resurrected and suffered so that we may live forever and return to His presence. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he saw God the Father and His Son and translated the Book of Mormon, the word of God. I know this is the only true church on the face of the earth because of its awesome priesthood authority from Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the peace and joy that my testimony brings me and my family.