July/August update

Couples Missionary Life
It seems that time goes by in waves of being overwhelmed to having little or nothing to do but it does goes by. Much of life as a couple serving a mission is very similar to how we live at home. By this I mean that one can do as much or as little as one chooses. We can be involved in most anything we wish to get involved in. We have callings and similar responsibilities as any member may have anywhere in the world. However, one major difference seems to be the overwhelming need of so much to be done. Most of the members are new converts coming from a totally different cultural background than the "born in the church" "multi generational Mormon family". In addition we have a much greater opportunity and exposure to teach others about the blessings of the Restoration than we would in our neighborhood and city in Utah. This aspect of life as a couple missionary (proselyting and teaching) is for us the most enjoyable and rewarding of all the many things we do. So as an update we will begin with these experiences over the past two months.

Dwarka Branch

The little Dwarka Branch we attend has grown from an average attendance of 24 to 36 This growth is the result of convert baptisms and reactivation of members who did not know the church had a branch here.

We enjoyed a great Branch Aug. 15, India Independence Day Celebration with lots of games, food, story telling, and talent show.

Humanitarian and Employment Program work
The work of organizing and preparing for the Neonatal Resuscitation Training has taken much time and effort. Finding vendors for various items needed, negotiating prices, coordinating travel and accommodations needs, meeting with various agency and official organizations and all have been very taxing at times. Just when we think we have all in place and things are set with dates, arrangements, etc., etc. we get a call that the program needs to be postponed due to major flooding in the state of Bihar. So, all things are on hold and attention is now focused on disaster relief efforts for all involved, including the Church Humanitarian Disaster relief program. We have received a request from UNICEF for baby blankets and any and all other supplies we can provide to meet the needs of their temporary field labor and delivery, child care stations. Displaced persons have reached close to 2 million with little relief from flooding in sight in the near future.

We so look forward to the arrival of the Humanitarian Couple Missionaries Elder and Sister Tanner from St. George, Utah. They will arrive on Sunday Sept. 14. There is so much we have been doing that has stretched us to the limit and we are anxious to turn it all over to them. They will for sure have plenty to do as soon as they arrive. The trip to Bihar will take place only 3 days after they arrive.

The work of employment program development continues. There has been much achieved through the Career Planning Workshops we have conducted. The need now seems to be to provide much needed educational and improved job qualification training as most of the easily employed have found jobs. So, we are in the process of defining individual needs which will provide guidelines for development of appropriate resources to help meet these needs.

Proselyting and Teaching
There is so much we can say about this part of our work. There seems to be no end to the many people we meet who become such good friends. People will come up to us at the market, on the street, in the metro and even knocking at our door wanting to talk. Often they too are Christian and because of our missionary name tags, they will introduce themselves as Christian also and want to visit. We have occasional invitations for lunch or dinner with families in our apartment complex. There is such an openness and genuine friendliness with most of the people we meet.
Needless to say this part of our life here in India is the most joyful and rewarding. We have such dear friends, both among those whom we have taught who have been baptized as well as those who are not interested. All seem to continue a sincere and genuine friendship. It is such a joy to experience and will make it so hard to leave when the time comes. Just thinking about it brings tears and sadness to the heart.

Thanks to a visit by Elder and Sister Gibbons, Asia Area Employment Program Directors, we enjoyed another visit to Agra and the Taj Mahal during our day off. One of our good neighbors, Archana, joined us for the day. Interestingly she had never been to this historic place. It seems that most Indians make at least one visit in a lifetime to this most beautiful national monument. It truly is one of the greatest wonders of the world and would you believe, it took 22 years to complete.

Of equal beauty, but little known, are the twin buildings at each side of the Taj. One is a mosque and the other is an ancient guest house for distinguished visitors.

June Report

June has come and gone with many new and unusual and unexpected experiences. The weather has been very unusual, according to all the locals. Never before can they remember of having so much rain before the monsoon season. This only adds to the humidity resulting in an extremely hot and sweaty life. Thanks for A/C, at lest in our bedroom and office.

We continue to enjoy the experience of helping grow a branch of the church here. Members are very faithful in attending meetings and fulfilling callings. We have an average attendance of 24 at Sacrament Meeting.

The most unusual, unexpected and new experience for the month was our trip to the cities of Dehradun and Mussoorie in North West India. These cities are in the state of Uttarakhand, which borders Nepal and China. Our purpose in making the trip was to meet the families of our dear friends and recent converts the Upadhyay family. They are the family that was baptized shortly after we arrived. I think I included a picture of their baptism in one of our previous postings.

We had the most enjoyable and memorable experience of living with them in their homes. This was most significant in that we were able to experience first hand what life is like for the majority of people here. We were welcomed with warm and genuine love and friendship. Sleeping on one inch mattresses, taking bucket baths, and eating home cooked Indian foods was a choice and memorable experience. There is such love, warmth and depth of family relationships in these homes.

We had the privilege of teaching this family the Message of the Restoration lesson and the Plan of Salvation lesson which was a very special and extremely spiritual experience. As far as we know we are the first to take the message of the Restoration to this part of India. Recently, just this month, two member families have moved to Derhadun which means that there is the potential for them to have church home gp. meetings and this family can begin to experience more of the blessings of the restored gospel.

We next stayed with Sunita Upadhyay's family in Mussoorie (sounds like Missouri).
Their home is built on the side of the mountain. As you can see from the pictures this is a very quiet and peaceful setting. Her brother built the house. He is the principal and teacher at a small elementary next to the home.

The water catchment dam project is progressing with 5 of the 20 dams completed. They were finished in time to catch a significant amount of run off water from recent rains. This has proven to be such a benefit to the people of the nearby villages. It provides water for the aquifer feeding the pumps as well as water for cattle and agriculture.

We continue to be involved, weekly, in teaching spoken English. Most of the students are young people from the area. They are so excited to be learning English and work very hard at the lessons.

The Career Planning Workshop attendance has dropped of but we continue to provide one on one coaching for many adults. Two people obtained employment this month, a direct result of having attended the workshop.

We continue to enjoy good health. We have much pleasure and joy in the work in spite of the occasional inconveniences. There is so much opportunity for meaningful service in this mission and we enjoy seeing the fruits of the Lord's work almost daily.

I think the pictures posted at the beginning of this blog are self explanatory. Should you have any questions or want further explanations, please send us a comment.

Reynold and Diane Brown

May Report

Dear Family and Friends:

May has come and gone so fast. We continue to be happily involved in may different aspects of the Lord's work here. Below are some of the events we experienced in May.
Sorry we don't have any new pictures to include in this posting, didn't use the camera much this month.

Perhaps the most significant and impactful event of the month was Elder Brown's trip to Patna, the capital city of the state of Bihar. It was a 1-1/2 hour plane trip away from New Delhi. This trip was to introduce us to the UNICEFF and local doctors involved in the upcoming neonatal resuscitation training project co-sponsored by UNICEFF, NNF (Neonatal Forum of India) and Latter Day Saint Charities. Elder and Sister Dunn returned home from their mission on the 19th. Since their replacements have not yet been called, we have been asked to continue supervision of this project.

The trip to Patna was one of the most impactful experiences in India thus far. I have never felt the ever present oppression of poverty as I experienced it in this city. To give you some idea of the magnitude of this project, I want to share the following: The State of Bihar has a total population of 85 Million. In comparison this is the same size as all of Vietnam, twice the size of Myanmar and three times the size of Malaysia. It is composed of 38 districts or counties. The health statistics of Bihar illustrate the incredible poverty and suffering of this region.
There are and estimated 416 newborn deaths each day, making Bihar the state with the highest newborn mortality rate in India. Sixty percent of the population is below the poverty line for India ($1 us dollar per day). The present health system is in a significant upsurge in improvement due to recent changes in State Government leadership. The desired midwife ratio of one per 3,000 people is one per 30,000 instead. The health center ratio of a desired one per 30,000 is one per 300,000population.

The upcoming training project is truly monumental and will have a significant impact on the infant mortality rate. This project will train 160 master trainers who in turn will train other doctors, nurses and midwifes in the simple procedure of resuscitation. Asphyxia at birth accounts for 23% on all newborn deaths in the first week of life. The project includes providing the simple equipment and training materials needed in 36 counties (districts). When finished in Dec. 2008 the projected number of doctors and para medical professionals is estimated to reach 2,496 medical care personnel. A team from Salt Lake of Doctors and nurses from Latter Day Saint Charities will arrive in Sept. to facilitate the training.

The future of this project is expected to be extended to at least two if not 3 other states with equally high infant mortality rates. This is an amazing project with such far reaching results in the lives of millions of people.

I have taken time to share this with you in the hopes of increasing your awareness of how far reaching the Lord's work is in behalf of the poor and the needy of the world. And remember this is only one of 4 major initiatives that are part of the Church world wide humanitarian efforts, not to mention the disaster relief efforts. We are so blessed and feel it such an honor to be part of this, the Lord's work in these latter days. You should know also that the funds for these projects are not taken from Fast Offering contributions but come from contributions to Church Humanitarian Services not only from individual church members but from major corporations as well. The best part is that this is mostly administered and delivered by a great army of volunteers who give of their time and talents to furthering this the Lord's work. There are no middle man administrative costs it all goes directly to those in need. WHAT A PHENOMENAL WITNESS OF THE LOVE OF GOD AND HIS SON JESUS CHRIST AND TESTIMONY OF MILLIONS OF CHURCH MEMBERS WORLD WIDE!

Well as you can tell we have very stong feeling about the humanitarian part of our mission. We were not expecting to be involved in this work but are so thankful for the experience with this side of missionary work in India.

We continue to be meaningfully involved in the spiritual side of life here as well. Reynold continues to be engage in employment services and is spending much time in one on one coaching with those who are seeking to improve their employment and educational needs. We meet with the little Branch here in Dwarka weekly and feel such a strong sweet spirit of strength and faith among the members here. We will soon be teaching a Church Institute Class on a weekly basis. Diane continues to teach Primary and loves the enthusiasm of the chldren. The are so egar to learn. We are also finding much joy in teaching Spoken English each week. We have recently added 4 new students, a Grandfather with his 3 grandchildren. We met him one day during our morning walk in the park. This daily morning walk is such a pleasure as we are greeted by so many people and have many opportunities to make new friends and answer questions about why we are here. We go all day each day in this area and never see another "white" person or foreigner.

Well I think I have rambled on long enough for now. We hope this little blog is giving you some feeling and understanding of the joy of serving the Lord. We are in good health, in fact we are loosing weight and feeling so good. If any of you have been wondering about serving a mission in your "advanced years" please know that from the Browns we think there is nothing better for this time of life.

Until next month - Love Reynold and Diane

Update

We have been here 3 months now and have settled into a regular routine of our new missionary responsibilities. Here are a few of the things we have experienced and accomplished in the first three months of our mission.


1. Established our new residence, moved in and became settled in our new home away from home.












2. Assisting Elders in teaching wonderful families and people about the message of the Restoration.








3.Participating in the baptism of 6 new members.









4. Helped find and secure the location for the new Branch meetings in Dwarka.

5. Involved in the creation of a new Branch of the Church in Dwarka, Reynold is a Counselor in the Branch Presidency and Diane is the Primary President.

6. Conducted Career Planning Workshops as part of the developing Church Employment Program in New Delhi (completed three workshops, one per month) resulting in three people obtaining good employment so far.

7. Diane has provided labor and delivery classes for expectant mothers, 2 new babies born with future additions of at least 4 more.

8. Became involved in existing humanitarian projects. We will provide continued supervision when the present LDSC couple is released (mid May) until a replacement LDSC couple is called.

9. Traveled to the neighboring State of Rajahthstan to review proposed sites for construction of 15 rain water run off check dams.














10. Adjusting to new modes of transportation and many different foods. The rickshaws are anything but comfortable, very bumpy and difficult to get into and out of. The food on the other hand is very good and tasty.



In general we feel very much at home and are finding much joy and happiness in serving the Lord in his glorious work in this part of the world. We miss our friends and association with you all and think of you often. We look forward to correspondence with you and hope you will post your communications and comments to this site.
Love to all - Reynold and Diane