I needed a reminder to be thankful...

I was in the throws of planning out my day (two birthdays today), errands, a car in the shop, a kink in our showing service, and a three year old who was so exhausted she killed over at 8:15am for a nap. After a 15-minute clean, I decided to hop on the computer while she was still sleeping and I found the highlight of my week:

Our weekly email from Dallen. I always have a new appreciation for life after I read his emails. My heart ripped open as I thought about the sweet members over in India and Dallen has basically told us that BAPTISM=SACRIFICE (understatement) over there. I hope you don't mind if I share some of his comments because I know YOU guys are all awesome. I'm sorry it's long!

Thought #1

We are suffering a fairly desperate crunch for missionary senior couples here in India...if anybody knows a couple that is considering serving a senior mission could they please send the e-mail addresses on to me, or my mother? My mission President can request them specifically for service in the India Bangalore Mission, and can assign them as proselyting, humanitarian, CES or Public Relations couples depending on their preference.We have had about 7 of our eleven couples go home in the past 3 months, and there apparently aren’t any left to replace them.

Thought #2

President Nichols has encouraged every missionary to make long term, as well as short term goals, and while this really gets the average American missionary excited as he dreams of blue jeans, basketball and BYU, I have noticed that the Indian Elders shoulders almost droop a little bit when they think of their release date.

This could be because they will be going home to families that are not members of the church; to houses that don’t have floors, beds, air-conditioners, running water, or more than a single light bulb, like my companion Elder Polupalli. It could be because they are expected to go back to their home with the obligation of supporting their parents, and their younger brothers’ and sisters’ educations, as well as affording a dowry for this marriage, and various “gifts” for various other family members, all with the strong possibility that their parents will arrange marriages for them to Hindu girls and they will have the option of either dishonoring their family by running, or being attached to a woman not of their faith and struggle to raise their children the way they should without even the possibility of a temple sealing. Thoughts of further education for most of them don’t seem to have really crossed their minds--their family obligations will take care of that.

We talked until about midnight on the bumpy sleeper cars of the Jaghbal express on the way back to Chennai from Bangalore, and I lay on my bunk awake for a few more hours pondering. It hit me at about 3 o’clock in the morning and so I made a quick note in my study journal using the light up light on my watch, and then made a phone call to our CES director early the next morning.

Side note: The Indian Missionaries weren't able to benefit from PEF

We had a good hourlong conversation about the PEF (Perpetual Education) fund, and he promised to come out to Chennai to speak with each of the native Elders in my zone personally, so that a solution could be found for each of them to not only extend their education options, but also their career options. I was particularly happy to note that several of the things I had pointed out in my letter writing binge on the PEF fund last year had been corrected... Hopefully soon we will have approval for the PEF fund to begin loaning enough money to returned missionaries that they will be able to afford a Masters degree, as opposed to the two year technical and mechanical training courses the PEF fund typically caters to.

My favorite comment was made last night by Elder Polupalli, who was born and raised in Rajahmundry and who spent several years with the 4 other members of his family crushing large rocks with hammers into smaller ones to make gravel for cement ten hours a day. They were paid 120 rupees (about $3) for every dump truck load of boulders they completed. Last night he told me after companionship prayer, “Elder Allred, my generation will not go for press rocks again.” It has been a great couple of days.