Pioneer’s day activity started with the Opening remarks by President Mekala. Then all the members went down to the Basketball court where ice blocks were arranged in order. And the saints were invited to walk on the ice where they had glimpse of early pioneers. Most of the members walked through it several times and expressed their feelings of appreciation and gratitude for the early pioneers.
After the members assembled back to the sacrament hall where President John Santosh Murala, 2nd Counselor in the Mission Presidency who is one of the Pioneer member in Hyderabad shared presentation. In his presentation, he explained how his uncle Edwin Dharmaraju was baptized in Samoan islands who then came back to Hyderabad on assignment to begin the church. This presentation made members to understand, how the Lord has established his Church in Hyderabad.
Then the retuned missionaries formed a Choir and sang “Ye Elders of Israel” & “Called to Serve”. Most of the returned missionaries expressed they have felt the Spirit. Some even got tears when they were sharing their feelings as it brought them great memories of their mission. Then they were joined by all the endowed members and sang “High on the Mountain top” and “Families can be together”. All the members were enlightened by these songs.
Later every convert, each returned Missionaries and all the temple returned members were given invitation to maintain the spirit of early pioneers as all of them are pioneers for their families. With this invitation, the activity was concluded in a wonderful spirit.
