Going to Church

Armed with just an address we got off the church's website, lds.org, we took a cab to find the Delhi 1st Branch this morning. I had a general idea by looking at a map we got from the hotel desk, and even the driver wasn't quite sure where we were going. We got off what could best be described as an expressway, and the driver actually got out to ask directions (what man does that in any country?). To his surprise and our delight, we were on the right road and just four houses away.

After my multi-national church experience in Cairo, I was expecting to see the same here in Delhi, especially since the Branch President's last name is Winter. Not so! We were the only white people there until another visitor showed up (a man from Cincinnati here on business). And then five of the six missionaries who came in were white. It was such a cool experience. These members of the church reached out to us and welcomed us to their little branch with open arms. All of the meetings were in English, but in Sunday School and Relief Society sometimes the teachers would speak in Hindi as well to accommodate some of the members whose English isn't so great. I got to play the piano in Relief Society because there are no women who know how. It took the sister in charge a couple of minutes to find the plug and turn on the piano.

After the meetings, Reid spent some time outside by the baptismal font just talking to President Winter. He joined the church just a year ago, and has been branch president for four months. He says there are about 300 members of the branch, but their Sunday attendance is around 80-90. This was a great way to spend our Sunday morning!