Church Growth In India

The Gospel was first preached in Calcutta, India in 1850 by missionaries sent throughout the world. Any converts who remained faithful emigrated to the United States, and no significant church presence was found in India until the 1980s when the Book of Mormon was translated into Hindi, the more popular of the Indian languages. The first formal mission was organized in Bangalore in 1993 with Gurcharan Gill as the first mission president. He was a BYU mathematics professor. The church has grown slowly. A 2nd mission was organized in 2008 in Delhi. There are no stakes in India as yet. There are over 5,000 members in India as of 2010. There are five districts in the Bangalore Mission. The Fairbanks are assigned to the Bangalore 3rd Branch. They meet in a rented hall in the northern part of the city. The mission headquarters, the service center, and the distribution center are all located in a rental building near downtown Bangalore.

Sign displaying the Mission offices and service center. They are on the 3rd floor of the buiding.
The service center manager for India, Nepal and Sri Lanka is Robert William. He is here with our new boss, Floyd Ko, when Robert visited Hong Kong two weeks after our India visit.

The 3rd ward meets in a rented buiding in the suburb of Nagar adjacent to the suburb of Baniswadi where the Fairbanks live. It is about a 6 minute auto rickshaw ride from their home to the church. The baptismal font is on the first floor. The chapel is on the 2nd floor, and the classrooms are on the 2nd and 3rd floors. The chapel uses moveable chairs so it also becomes a cultural hall. The Bangalore 2nd branch has its own building near the service center. The Bangalore 1st branch meets in a rental building.



These hygiene kits boxes are being stored in the ERS office of the Bangalore 2nd Branch that had been occupied by Elder and Sister Eichelberger before they went home. They will be taken to the NGO, Help Age India, over the next few weeks to distribute to the elderly in the slum areas of Bangalore.

The branch had a baptism on February 7, the day we visited the branch. We attended the services. The sister being baptized goes by Sister Preethi. Elder Fairbanks performed the baptism. Her nonmember brother on the left attended the baptism.

Elder and Sister Fairbanks with newest member of the Church, Sister Preethi.

Sunday everning, we spoke at a fireside for about 40 young adults from Bangalore. Many of these are returned missionaries. After the fireside, they had three large cakes to eat.

The members of the branch were friendly and ready to pose for pictures by Sister Smith. Most of them are converts of less than ten years.

Sister Nichols, wife of the Mission President, and a beautiful Indian family.

These young girls aren't quite sure about having their picture taken . There were many children among the 180 who attended the 3rd Branch Sacrament Meeting. All meetings of the Church in India are in English.

The women wore beautiful sari's. Sister Smith enjoyed her Relief Society meeting very much.

Notice the colorful dresses. We were impressed with the modest dresses of Indian women wherever we went.

Brother and Sister Jerry Louis. Maglin is the Relief Society President. She also is a leader in the community.

Brother Krishnar speaks six languages. He accompanied us on our visit to the young women's shelter to deliver hygiene kits and translate for us as we spoke at the ceremony. After our trip, he came to the Fairbanks apartment with his three teen-age daughters and prepared an Indian meal for us including coconut rice and a specially prepared chicken dish. The daughters are all multi lingual as well.

The young adults enjoying their cake and visiting after the fireside. We had an early "Happy Birthday" chorus as we came into the room.

This was one of the three cakes. The candle was shaped like a flower. When it was lit, it opened up with a swoosh of fire and each of the 6 petals had a tiny candle on it also burning. It was very impressive.

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President Nithya Kumar, Bangalore 3rd Branch President.

On Tuesday evening, we attended a Young Adult Family Home Evening for 14 young adults of the branch. It was held at the church. After the lesson, they played two games. One of the young men is "it" as they play "Duck" and scramble around the circle to get back to the space occupied by the one who he identifies as the duck. The circle gets smaller as the one who is "it" fails to win the race. It can get wild.

This was another game, "Chicken and Eagle". The eagle is outside of the circle trying to get the chicken who is inside the circle. The participants in the circle try to keep the eagle out and protect the chicken. If the eagle gets in, the circle lets the chicken out. After being in the circle for several rounds, I was put in as the chicken and Elder Fairbanks was the eagle. Here I am being helped up after a slip sent me flying. I decided this chicken was too old for such fun and I watched from the sidelines with Sister Smith from then on.

The chapel on Tuesday evening as it is cleared of chairs for Family Home Evening activity.

A few of the young adults who attended the Tuesday night Family Home Evening. Elder and Sister Fairbanks are the advisors for the group. We had watermelon as our refreshments tonight.

The church owns 2 acres of prime land in the midst of a new Internet Technology center on Whitesides Road. There are large office buildings and apartments being built all around the property. Plans are almost complete for a chapel, mission offices, service center, distribution center to be built here. The two rented buildings will be given up when it is completed in about two years.

The view surrounding the property.