Bangalore Mission Home Experience--7 Sep 1015

Outside the Bangalore, India Mission Home.
The ground floor contains a Church Distribution Center
and the Mission offices.
The first floor contains the Service Center and
the top floor is the Mission President's residence.

The Whitefield Branch meeting house is in the Mission Compound, in front of the Mission Home

We had three days of senior couples instruction and sharing with President and Sister Barrett. 

Also present were Elder and Sister Condie from Sri Lanka;
Elder and Sister Grundy, who are the new office couple in Bangalore; and Elder and Sister Bedke, who move from the office to member/leadership services in Bangalore.

Dinner Sunday evening in the Mission Home.

The streets of Bangalore

There were dozens of granite and marble rock
counter/floor distribution centers along the road.

We went on a jeep "safari" at an animal preserve and saw 

window-licking bears, grazing elephants, sleepy lions, pacing 

tigers, and wild man-eating butterflies.

Da Bears...

Elephants grazing along the road...

Lions--highly engaged with life...

Tigers pacing the fence line...



A white tiger in an enclosure for special treatment.

Here is where the deer--NOT the antelope--play in India.

The butterfly preserve

And we found a Common Mormon butterfly. Huh.

Lots of amazing flowers also in the compound.

Moneys danced along the block fence on the way out of the park.

And finally, a trip to the outhouse before we head back.

More typical traffic--by the way, missionaries do not even touch a steering wheel anywhere in India.  The traffic rules are very different.

The Elders came to our Indian dinner to instruct us on how to eat properly with our fingers.

First, grab a little rice, meat and curry; make a ball of the mixture; place the ball of food on your index finger and the next two fingers; and slide the food into your mouth with your thumb--like shooting marbles only slowly and back at you!

Traveling to Bangalore

We were up at 3:30 a.m. on Friday, 4 September 2015 to catch the hotel shuttle to the Salt Lake City Airport at 4:30 a.m. Mountain Time.  The line for TSA security was nearly long enough to go from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2, but we made the gate with plenty of time left. The airplane was wheels up at 6:05 a.m.

Our flight to Seattle on Alaska Airlines--
arrived at 7:09 a.m. Pacific Time

Waiting at Seattle Airport

The flight announcement board for Flight EK 228 to Dubai 
on Emirates Airlines--
14 1/2 hours northeast over Greenland and North Europe.

We met Elder and Sister Grundy in Seattle and traveled with them to Bangalore. Emirates Airlines is the largest airline in the world as well as the world standard for service.

A warm towel, Diet Coke, great Indian food--with REAL silverware!

We arrived in Dubai at 10:55 a.m. local time on 5 Sep 2015. We chased the sun all the way--it never did set, only went down to dusk and then back up.

The Dubai Airport has rather unusual architectural design.

Another Triple-Seven airship to Bangalore:

4 hours

We finally made it to Bangalore, India at about 7:00 p.m., Saturday, September 5, 2015. WOW!

Post-MTC--July 24 to September 3, 2015

We so enjoyed the Mission Training Center experience--each day was filled with uplifting training and spiritual highs. We loved the Sunday and Tuesday night devotionals, mingling with the young Elders and Sisters, as well as the training and our camaraderie 
with the other senior missionaries. We met some amazing people and learned a lot about our calling and potential as missionaries.

We left the MTC on July 24th with heavy hearts--we knew that our visas to India had been delayed and that we had been reassigned to the Ogden Mission to serve in the Ogden Employment Resource Center for an undetermined period.

When we entered the MTC on July 13th we had already rented our house in Morgan, so when we were told that we were going to be "live at home" missionaries until our visas were approved, we did not know where we would live. We were essentially homeless senior missionaries!

While having lunch at the MTC one day, a senior couple--Elder and Sister Larson, who were on their way to central California as office missionaries--sat beside us and we talked about the usual stuff: where were we from, where were we going, our children and grandchildren. They asked if someone was living in our house and asked when we were flying out to India. We told them that we had rented our home and did not know when we were flying out because of the delay in our visa approval process and that we had been assigned as live at home missionaries until the visas were approved.  Elder Larson said, well, you are homeless! What are you going to do?  We said we don't know. Sister Larson said that her mom and dad lived in Harrisville and had a room we might be able to stay in.  We said, that's nice and thought it was small talk and that she was just being nice. The next day Elder Larson found us in the hallway and said "You're in!  Ken and Elaine Judd are expecting you to call them and make arrangements to come stay at their house!" 

Ken and Elaine Judd with Sister Newton

Brother and Sister Judd--both 91 years old--welcomed us with open arms.  We stayed with them for the next three weeks while we worked in the Ogden Employment Resource Center and Bishops' Storehouse. 

Bishops' Storehouse and Employment Resource Center

On Friday, August 14th we decided to do some work in the Pleasant View Church Peach Orchard. 


At 9:43 a.m.--while picking peaches--Larry's cell phone rang. It was from Jamie Steele at Church Travel. 

Larry hesitated 
answering 
it because he thought it was bad news 
regarding our visa approval. It turned out OUR VISAS WERE APPROVED--AND FOR TWO YEARS DURATION!!

Email from Church Travel to the Ogden Employment Center and President Berrett at the India Bangalore Mission notifying them "Visa Received! The Newton couple is booked on the next available date that the mission has available housing." That travel date turned out to be Friday, September 4, 2015. We left Salt Lake City at 6:05 a.m. and arrived in Bangalore at 7:15 p.m. on Saturday, September 5, 2015.

We gave thanks to our Heavenly Father right there in the orchard. Oh, happy day! We left the orchard, changed our clothes, and headed for Church Headquarters to pick up our passports with approved visas.

Elder Newton visiting with Elder Nathan Huggins at the Ogden Bishops' Storehouse.

Elder Steve Shaw, Sister Ellie Hitchcliff, Sister Newton and Elder Newton at the Ogden Bishops' Storehouse

On Saturday, August 15, 2015 we moved to the home of Keith and Theresa Wheatley in Clinton. We met Keith and Theresa at the Bishops' Storehouse when we worked with them as service missionaries one day per week. 
They took us in for the last three weeks before we left for India. 

We are so thankful for the support and love we have from our family.  Without it this mission would not have been possible. 

We love you!

Our goodbye dinner with the family.
Thursday night, September 3, 2015

The Mission Training Center Experience--July 13 to July 24, 2015

Darla receives her new missionary badge at the MTC.

Our MTC identification badges--this is how we got
to eat and to get in and out of campus and buildings.

Our apartment.

Hey, the view out this window
is pretty cool!!

This is where Bangalore is!!

This is the group of senior missionaries that entered the MTC the same day we entered. There were about 75 people in this group.

The first week we studied "Preach My Gospel" and practiced teaching other missionary couples as well as volunteers from the neighborhood around the MTC who role-played as investigators of the Gospel.

We worked hard all day long
but it was GREAT!!

Our District with our instructor, Brother Gubler

Our District with our other instructor, Sister Yazzie

With our friends, Sister Day and Sister Nielson.
They sought us out each day to find out
how things were going with us.

On Saturday we took a ride up Provo Canyon to see Bridal Veil Falls--it was spectacular!

We also went to the Provo Temple.

                 Week Two: Our Welfare Training

Monday morning we visited Welfare Square in Salt Lake City and toured the Bishops' Storehouse, the cannery and bakery. We also visited the Deseret Industries Store, the granary and saw how cheese and milk is processed in the dairy. In addition, we were able to taste the newly baked bread, and just produced jam and cheese as well as chocolate and white milk.

And then it was off to the Joseph Smith Memorial building for lunch and training at the top floor overlooking Temple Square and Salt Lake City. 

There were eight Welfare Missionary couples on their way to different countries around the world. This was one of the largest groups of Welfare Missionaries the Church has had in several years.

What a view!

The rest of the week was filled with classes back at the MTC in Provo on such topics as Church Major Humanitarian Initiatives (like Mother/Infant Care Training of Medical Personnel, Water Projects/Sanitation, Wheel Chair Distribution, Vision Care Training, Immunizations, etc.); as well as Emergency Response and Recovery. We also had classes on taking care of our own health--such as purifying our own water and our mental health in a foreign land.