church in mumbai

we went to church today..which usually is pretty easy...but, there is only one branch in all of mumbai...it's about an hour away..in navi mumbai, which means new mumbai...a suburb...so we drove through alot of the city...so many slums..it's unreal...we saw where 'slumdog' was filmed...we saw the 'new ' government housing for the slum people which look like they are 50 years old and they are brand new...can't figure out what happens to those buildings...there are the roadsiders, they are people that don't even live in the slums, they are more like homeless...so we got to church about 20 min. early...it's in a muslim home that is rented as the church...they have a guard standing outside the house...we went inside..a small room with about 40 chairs set up...people started arriving and everyone of them said hi, introduced themselves and shook our hands...very friendly...we met the branch pres...a very young indian man..very nice...met a few americans, one john lee who is from camarillo...small world...i think we will hang out with his wife next week...they were very nice and he loved talking to russ about surfing...he knew just from looking at russ that he hurt his nose on the surfboard! they are here for 3 years...the meeting started...they had the prayer, they welcomed us...had the sacrament..one deacon...they asked kathy to speak...she had brought a wonderful talk...then the deacon spoke and gave a great talk on Christ...i was very impressed...afterwards we sang, along to cd music...prayer...then we split up for rs and priesthood meeting...their church is only 2 hours..so every other week they have rs/priesthood and then the other is sunday school...not sure if they have primary...they have a primary pres...but only 2 little children about 3 and 5...there were 8 of us in rs...the primary pres. gave the lesson..it was her first time giving one...i thought she did a great job...very sweet...2 of the sisters were baptized last week...one of them broke down crying, saying how her life is so hard...etc.etc...i guess that doesn't happen ever...it was very sweet...afterwards we said goodbye...they were very sweet and loving...so hard to be a mormon in india! what strong people they must be...some take 3 hours to get to church..amazing...then, we had lunch on the way back to our hotel...so, it basically took all day...it was very nice...