Saying So-Long!

We don't like 'Goodbye's' so we are just going to say 'So-long'! See you soon.

Firstly, we saw a few friends from Indiranagar Branch and said take care and so long.  

Then we had the opportunity to speak in Church.

 We are so happy that Pauline can come to church these days.  Her health is much better.

 The Relief Society President, Jennifer, and I were Visiting Teaching companions for a while.  She's a wonderful person and she's waiting to go on her mission.

 These photos are taken outside the church in Indiranagar where we have attended our whole mission.

 Here we are with Terence.  He is a great success story.  He was baptized just over a year ago. He was called to be the 1st councillor in the Branch Presidency only 4 months after his baptism.  That's so cool.  He has continued faithfully to attend, serve and grow in the gospel.  His mother also joined shortly after he did.

 This wonderful family came all the way from Coimbatore to see the Tiefenbach's and spend the Sunday with them before taking the train back that same day.  

 Elder Solomon and Elder Aeshamalla, great Elders working hard in the service of the Lord.

 The Johnson family are great people.

 Here are our dear friends, the Kumar family.  We miss them so much.

Here we are with Kamal and his family.  They are sweet and dedicated to the gospel.

Next we headed over to Whitefield Road Church to say goodbye to a few members.

We know almost all of these Sisters well.  They were in our branch before the split last June.

Elder Fitzpatrick & Elder Yardley

This is Ragu. (We affectionately call him the spaghetti man!)

Man, these McDonald boys have really grown up in many ways since we've been on our mission.

Shomo Kumbhakar & Elder Wigg are good friends, as well.

Elder Wigg gets to shake the hands of some previous members of his Sunday School Class.

Whitefield Road Branch Young Women

Okay, it's time to be going.  We are now leaving Whitefield Road building and going to the old 3rd Branch building, now called Ramamurthy Nagar.  It also has Lingarajapuram Branch there in that building. Unfortunately, we never made it over to Convent Road Building to see those people.  We just can't always do everything we might want to do!

Our friend Sam and his little daughter, Tia.

2 great brothers: Thomas & David

Thomas, Portia and their 2 wonderful boys, Galvin & Sherwin.

Deepak & Elder Wigg, good buddies.

Our dear friend Rebecca, who worked in the Service Center upstairs from our office.

Elder Sommer with Elder Wigg and I.

Elder Sommer, Elder Vaddi, Elder Dass, Elder Wigg, Elder Barker, Elder Emrich, Elder Kocherla

Elder Vaddi. He used to be our FRO Consultant in Kakinada.

We interrupted the Relief Society of Ramamurthy Nagar Branch to say a quick farewell.

These are such great sisters and we are privileged to know them.

We stopped to see one of Elder Wigg's home teaching families. This is George and his parents. George will be going on his mission when his brother comes back from his mission in Delhi.

George took a picture so that I could be in this shot.  Thanks, George.

Jerome was able to visit one more of his Home Teaching families.

Baskar drove us to the Mission Home for our last supper there.

We had a rainbow of delicious foods for our farewell dinner. We also had Potatoes, cooked veggies, roast pork and gravy which were all really good.

Thank you, Sister Funk, for your diligence and great service to us.

Elder & Sister Smith, Elder & Sister Tiefenbach, Elder & Sister Wigg, President & Sister Funk

Ya gotta love these guys.  Elder Barlow & Elder Ram are always having a great time!!

Thanks for being great Assistants and great people, not to mention being great Missionaries!!

Usha & Kumar came over to say goodbye and give us a couple gifts.  One of their gifts was spectacular. It's 2 photos framed.  One is of them in front of the Hong Kong Temple.  The other is a picture of Elder Wigg and I at the top of Big Buddha.  Thank you so much for being so thoughtful and giving us such a great reminder of our time together.

We will miss all these great people but we can remember them through our pictures and we promise to keep in touch through Facebook and email, or maybe over the phone. Bye now!

Farewell Indiranagar Branch

Our branch, Indiranagar Branch, had a nice Farewell for us. 

Thank you for all your kindness and love towards us during our mission.  You are great people.  Stay faithful and active and growing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we will see each other again.

We love our Branch and it's wonderful, sweet members of the Church.

 This is Elder Wigg with his Sunday School Class, Camy, Cynthia, Gracy and Nancy.

 Elder Wigg and I with Shirley and her family.

This is Samson, Judy and their girls, Cameron and Megan.

President Anthony and his family!  We love you guys!!

 Brother Bhuvanesh (aka Mike), the Branch Mission Leader.

 Kamal is the Sunday School President in our Branch.

 Usha and I were Visiting Teaching companions for almost a year.

 The Solomon family are great people.  This is Elder Solomon's Grandmother and Aunt & Uncle.

Brothers & friends in our Branch: Jake, Rohith, Bhuvanesh, Arvin, Terence, George, Elder Wigg, Kamal.  Look how great your smiles look!

A great family: 4 on a bike!  Bye, drive safely!

This is our Landlord and Landlady.  They own the house on 3rd Cross, where our apartment is located on the top floor.  

This is Hema and her husband, Doctor Rajendra Prasad and their 2 sons. 

The other couple are the Dr's brother and his wife, who also live in the house.

They are a wonderful family and were always kind and thoughtful towards us.  Thank you!

Last Day in the Office!

Friday, the last day in the Office, is a day we have anticipated and dreaded!

Some friends, the Elders: Elder George, Elder Pace, Elder Fitzpatrick, Elder Yardley with Elder Wigg

Elder Yardley, Elder George, Elder Vaddi, Elder Sommer

Sister Tiefenbach and I got our hair cut at "Bounce" Salon.

Finally, Prakash gives me a smile.

Baskar took our picture outside the salon.

Elder Barlow, Santosh, Elder Ram, Deepak

Elder Ram chugging his pepsi!

Elder Barlow is a funny guy!!  Thanks, Elder Barlow!! Stay that way!!

This is the whole group of us. 3 Senior couples, the Assistants and 2 other friends.

We went for lunch as a group to 'Empire' Buffet.  It was good.

Sister Tiefenbach is learning the office.  She is actually better at most things than me already!

Elder Tiefenbach is also a quick study in the office!  He is good on the computer, too.

Shomo came by the office to say goodbye.  Nice to see you, Elder Kumbhakar...er...Shomo!

We are nearly done our mission...and it's sad.

Today was the changing of the guard.  We passed on our keys at the end of the day. 

It's kind of hard to do... leave our mission... all the people that we've met and grown to love.  But the Tiefenbach's will do just fine!!  They know the office well enough!

Elder & Sister Smith are serving in Bangalore, as well.