Kyle's Mission in India: July 8th Vikas Baptism

A resident of Chennai is called a Chennaiite. As of 2001, Chennai city had a population of 4.34 million, while the total metropolitan population was 7.04 million. The estimated metropolitan population in 2006 is 4.5 million.In 2001, the population density in the city was 63,926 per mi, making it one of the most densely populated cities in the world. The average literacy rate is 80.14%, much higher than the national average of 64.5%. The city has the fourth highest population of slum dwellers among major cities in India, with about 820,000 people (18.6% of its population) living in slum conditions. In 2005, the crime rate in the city was 313.3 per 100,000 people, accounting for 6.2% of all crimes reported in major cities in India. The number of crimes in the city showed a significant increase of 61.8% from 2004.

The majority of the population in Chennai are Tamilians. Tamil is the primary language spoken in Chennai. English is widely spoken especially in business, education and white collar professions.

According to the 2001 census, Hindus constitute about 81.27% of the city's population, and Muslims (9.37%), Christians (7.63%) and Jains (1.05%) are other major religious groups

Chennai is a major centre for music, art and culture in India.^[77] The city is known for its classical dance shows and Hindu temples. Every December, Chennai holds a five-week long Music Season celebrating the 1927 opening of the Madras Music Academy

Among Chennai's festivals, Pongal is celebrated over five days in January, is the most important. Almost all major religious festivals such as Deepavali, Eid and Christmas are celebrated in Chennai. Tamil cuisine in Chennai includes vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. Many of the city's restaurants offer light meals or tiffin, which usually include rice-based dishes like pongal, dosa, idli and vadai,

Climate

Chennai has a tropical climate, specifically a tropical wet and dry climate. The city lies on the thermal equator and is also on the coast, which prevents extreme variation in seasonal temperature. The weather is hot and humid, for most of the year. The hottest part of the year is late May to early June, known locally as Agni Nakshatram ("fire star") or as Kathiri Veyyil,^[32] with maximum temperatures around 38–42 °C (100–108 °F). The coolest part of the year is January, with minimum temperatures around 18–20 °C (64–68 °F). The lowest temperature recorded is 15.8 °C (60.4 °F) and highest 45 °C (113 °F). The average annual rainfall is about 51 in. The city gets most of its seasonal rainfall from the north-east monsoon winds, from mid-October to mid-December. Cyclones in the Bay of Bengal sometimes hit the city. The highest annual rainfall recorded is 2,570 mm (101 in) in 2005.

Friday, August 14, 2009

July 8th Vikas Baptism

So, we baptized Vikas last week. (By we, I mean me.) Funny story: So, we realized about 5 minutes before the baptism service started that the baptism font wasn't filled. Well... it fills very slowly. We delayed as we tried to get it filled, but it was tough, people don't want to wait and we didn't really tell anyone what the situation was. We hoped that the introduction and the talk would take some times... but it was really short. When it was time for the baptism the water still wasn't as filled as we had hoped. It looked fine though. Long story short, Vikas and I went into the water and found that it went knee high (wow.) I went ahead and tried it the first time but his KNEE came out of the water (even though his feet were planted on the ground.) I told him to lay his legs out straight, the second time it worked out fine. Well, Elder Ward had a baptism next (his name is Tarrak.) He's not as small as Vikas. As we were changing we heard some loud splashes a few times and then a smack. I figured that they had either succeeded or died trying. It took Elder Ward 4 dunks to get Tarrak fully covered. The last time was a *little* forceful. Haha.

Zone conference was amazing, I learned great things about the spirit and how to follow it. I LOVE serving a mission. I LOVE you too!

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