Mary and Rajesh

Mary and Rajesh celebrated their first wedding anniversary January 11 and invited us to celebrate with them at her sister's home (pictured below). This couple (only members in their families) was steered toward each other by the Lyerlys (couple before us) who saw in them a good match. We have spent quite a bit of time with them for couples' activities, PEF, employment, etc. even before we were directed to help in these areas. We invite them to ride home with us in our auto whenever we are at church together and leaving at nearly the same time. Mary speaks excellent English and is currently teaching English to children at a school as well as to adults at church. She has an inner beauty that causes her to glow. I told her one day how beautiful she was and she blushed and ducked her head and said, "Oh, no, Sister, not me!"

Above on the right are some of Mary's friends from work at a previous job. Sareesha (left) is a returned missionary in 2nd Branch. To the left (if it turns out that way) are family members. Others came as well prompting us to leave after we had eaten so there would be room for all the invitees. All who came were fed a hefty portion of rice and different curries. The buffalo below were on the ground floor of the apartment area where Mary's family lived--literally at the foot of the stairs. Boddu was there and said that he drinks their unpastuerized milk but we're not too interested. There doesn't seem to be any area for them to graze in as we went quite far back off the main road where small apartments are huddled closely together.