March 22, 2015

Another fabulous week in the mission field!  We are sure enjoying life in Sri Lanka!  We have had a great week!  One of the craziest experiences happened on Monday night!  We went back to Jayanthi's home to have Family Home Evening.  She had invited some people over to share in the evening.  The missionaries came with us and had a lesson all planned.  The lesson was wonderful.  Talking about families and how we could be together forever.  She had prepared some sandwiches and cakes for us. We were on our way over to the table when she came scurrying out of the kitchen!  There was a huge 5 foot Komodo dragon in the kitchen!  It had come in the back door and was eating the dog food!  Of course Steve and the Elders went chasing after it so they could get some pictures!  It was huge!  I think we found out after it may have not been a Komodo dragon but a Monitor....or something like that!  Regardless, it was giant!  One of the women that came wanted to know more about the Church. She is worried about what her husband and children will say.  But the missionaries are going to visit with her again!  Tuesday was a really fun day also!  We had a young man in the ward who received his mission call!  We have been working with the mission home and a courier trying to get it delivered to him!  The courier finally called us and was ready to deliver it and they made the connection!  They decided to come to our home on Tuesday evening with his family and the missionaries and members of the ward!  We went to Pizza Hut and bought some pizza for the occasion!  (By the way,  the pizza selection here is very different!  Everything is spicy!  Some of the choices are Deviled chicken, corned mutton, Moghui chicken, Hot and spicy chicken, tandoori chicken, Spicy Seafood, and Chili chicken!  Oh yes and Hot garlic prawn!)  It was very exciting!  The future missionary is Akash!  He is 19 and has been a member for one year.  He finally got to open the call:  Philippines San Pablo mission and leaves on May 8!  He was excited!  Since there is no temple here, the missionary leaves a day earlier.  He will go through the Manilla temple to get his work done.  Then he will report to the MTC there the next day.  The church is amazing.  They have everything figured out!  It was a really nice evening with everyone!  We left a little bit later and went to the hospital to visit one the members there.  She is a wonderful lady.  She has an older downs syndrome daughter that they let stay in the hospital with her...in a bed by her side.  There was a huge down pour of rain as we were going there.  She had a balcony outside her room where we could watch the rain come down and see the lightening!  It was crazy!  There is no air conditioning in the rooms and it was pretty warm.  But she was happy to be feeling better!  Wednesday we were invited to dinner at one of the councilors in the branch presidencies home.  He and his wife have 3 young children.  They cooked us a feast!  I have a reputation here of not enjoying the spicy food.  It makes people nervous to cook....because they really don't cook without spice.  I feel so bad about that.  I really like the spicy food....but as my Dad would say....it don't like me!!!  But the food was really good!  She had so many options of pork and fish....plus macaroni and vegetables and of course ice cream.  They always have bananas as a dessert also....and jelly (which is jello).  We had a great time with their family!  Thursday we went on splits with the missionaries.  Steve and I went with Elder Nugara and a young priest from the branch went with Elder Perera.  We visited Nandica.....a women with 2 boys and a husband.  She wants to get baptized again because she had a worry about the first time she was baptized.  She is doing it alone because her husband and boys are not interested and it is tough I am sure.  We left a great message with her and I think she felt really good when we left.  We then visited an older man..Mahasivam...who has been a member for a little while...but his wife and daughter is not.  His wife doesn't like him to go to church so he doesn't get to come very often.  He is trying to get a visa to go to Sweden and visit his mother who has not been well.  It takes quite a bit of effort to get a visa to go anywhere.  He knew a lot of Sri Lankan history and it was very interesting.  His wife came into the room with us here and there and was very nice.  We met his beautiful daughter who is going to the University there.  She spoke some English and it was great to visit with her!  (Unfortunately, he called the next day and his mother had passed away.) A few mornings this week, we had some training with the CES Asia area rep from Indonesia.  He was surprised that they don't teach a lot of things pertaining to our CES assignment in the MTC.  Hopefully we will remember the things he and his secretary, Ana, taught us.  He is coming to Sri Lanka tomorrow and staying until Friday.  We have set up a weeks worth of visiting the other districts and the seminary teachers in each district.  It will be a good and busy week.  He is a very nice man and we look forward to learning those things we need to do with our seminary assignment.  We met with Brother Lyle again because we have been helping him out in a few things.  He has great faith and wonderful stories.  He wanted us to help him find the senior couple missionaries who baptized him 20 years ago....and we did!  On Facebook of course!  That was great to get a message in return from them.  We found another couple that served here....and as we were looking to find out if it was the right couple, we found out that Sister Biggs was originally a Stephenson....and I visit taught her mother, Berniece,  for a few years in Holden!  Amazing!  We have enjoyed feeding the missionaries a few times this week and feeling of their wonderful spirits!  Today was another wonderful Sunday!  We like to go early so we can meet with the members!  The meetings were great!  We had great investigators there today.  And a less active returned missionary from New Zealand came today.  Steve had so much fun visiting with him and he is ready to get going back into the church again.  He invited us over next week and wants his parents to be there too ( who are not members).   Steve is learning how to make things using curry.  He is good not to get it too spicy for me...so he leaves out the chili seasonings.  But it is good and I don't mind it at all.  There is an American couple living here who can get some American non perishable things at the commissary .  I think we will try and see if we can get some things like poultry seasoning, pumpkin, molasses, etc.  So that will be great!  Anyway, great week ahead!  Love to you all!

Our friend the Monitor!!

Akash and his mission call!

The Colombo Branch building

The side of the church and the play area

Brother Lyle

Did I say I got a(nother) new dress?