Hi Everyone --

Especially HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Brice! The big 21! Congratulations! Celebrate it like every good missionary does -- with extra tracting and teaching!

We had 17 at church here in Pune today. The Nabrotzky family (the ones we went to Israel with) were here (6), us (3), Vijay and his family (3), George and his mother and father (3), and another cousin of Shubaum (1), and Rashmi (1). If it continues at this rate, we will have to get chairs, real sacrament cups, and hymnbooks. I don't think that would be a bad thing. George is to be baptized next Sunday in Mumbai and his parents have committed to be there. When the missionaries come to Pune next weekend, I think they will have plenty to teach.

The Nabrotzky's came to visit this weekend -- they came Saturday afternoon. We went to see Prince Caspian. It was fun to see it with them. We also had our friends the Davisons come for dinner with us. I made chili and wild rice and chicken soup and homemade bread. We had mangos and ice cream for dessert. Then we got to play! We played Do you Love your Neighbor?, and hide and seek. The kids just had a blast. I went to bed very tired! Dad made yummy pancakes for breakfast. We are all very tired here, but at least we don't have the 4-5 hour trip back to Mumbai.

We took the picture that Heidi sent us and bought some brown fabric and took it to a tailor (or master) to have made. He just took Hannah's measurements and said it would be done in a week. The fabric was 280 rupees and the stitching is 300 rupees. That's about $14.50. Not a bad deal for a bridesmaid dress.

Hannah took her Creative Writing final this week. She will take her Biology final next week. She has one week of geometry lessons left, then order the final. She is waiting for the English teacher to grade her last portfolio so she can order that final. We may make it by the time we leave for the US. French is marching slowly along, but it will be done! That's the power of positive thinking!

Our bedsheets have gotten a bit thin here -- to the point of non existence. This week I will have to go get some custom made to fit our bed. Stay tuned for the continuing adventures of "can this really be done in India!"

Have a great week! We love you!
Love, Lucinda

P.S. We put some more pictures from Israel on the blog.

May 11, 2008

Hi Everyone --

This letter is getting off a bit later than usual. We had a long day with church yesterday. We left the house about 8:30 a.m. and picked up four people that were coming with us to Mumbai. We had to stop and visit George's parents. I guess they wanted to make sure that we were ok for their son to be with. They were certainly nice people and very gracious and invited us to dinner -- after meeting us for 5 minutes. The mom is an ICU nurse -- so I will make sure that Julia gets to visit her and go to the hospital with her to see what it's like here. We got to church right on the minute of 11 a.m. When we were about 5 minutes from the church we got a call from one of the counselors asking if we were going to make it. I guess that's what you do around here. Well, we weren't the last ones there -- plenty more came in behind us. There were 75 people in attendance yesterday! The room was crowded with 35. It's amazing! They are planning on enclosing the ground floor and making that the chapel, but it hasn't even started yet.

We had nice meetings. I taught Relief Society, Doug taught Priesthood. Hannah helped in Primary. Then we got set up for the pot luck. It's like feeding the 5,000 with a small amount, but somehow it works. After lunch, the missionaries taught George for an hour. We just hung out and visited with all the members. We finally left for home at 4 p.m. and got home at 6:30 p.m. Luckily we were having leftovers for dinner and we could just take it easy.

We got to talk with Brice this week for Mother's Day. That's always great! We talked with him on Friday night -- not exactly the day of Mother's Day, but it was ok. It seems that the schedule between Chile and India isn't the best, so the mission president is ok with a different time. Brice sounded great. His English is a bit rusty, but that's ok. He says he weighs 90 kgs. That's a big boy! We didn't talk too much about coming home -- it makes him "trunky."

We purchased tickets this week to Salt Lake for the wedding. Doug, Lucinda, Hannah, Brice, and Michelle all fly from Omaha to Salt Lake. Emily and Amber are still working on their tickets. Spencer starts school that week, Matt will stay with the boys, and Ryan has to work. We understand and appreciate being able to get this many together.

We are getting excited to come to the US. Only 5 weeks to go. Our list of things to get while we're there is getting longer and longer every day. I hope we have room to bring it all back.

We hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day and know that we love and miss you.
Love, Lucinda