Elder and Sister Condie Mission Blog: October 18, 2015

8 Months! Unbelievable! We have had a great week visiting our wonderful Sri Lanka friends! Inoka and Naveen invited us over on Monday for lunch. They made some yummy chicken curry with all the fix ins! President Berrett was skyping us later to talk and to meet the new elders! They had a nice visit with them. They are coming next week for Pres Nelsons visit so that will be great! We had a mini district meeting after that with the elders....going over the investigators and deciding who we needed to visit this week! They are really excited to work and teach and we are really happy for that! Tuesday, Steve went with the elders and visited Mahasevam and Taniya. She is really anxious to be baptized, along with her older daughter. She is having a hard time right now but she is a really sweet gal and is trying to do her best with her sweet daughters! We taught seminary to Deyan and Deek and had such a great time! They gave us a Mongolian dinner that was really yummy! We teach them in Darshini's salon. She cut my hair a few weeks earlier. Tonight they were having a dilemma! She and her students were trying to figure out the coloring of my hair! They have never really dealt with blonds before and they were really intrigued! They want me to save some of my hair that falls out once and awhile so they can analyze it! Too funny! We also received a package from Jamie and Matt! It was so fun! Like an early Christmas! We had given them a list of things we were missing and needing and it was really great to get it! Wednesday was visiting Gayani in the morning and then to Inokas for English class and piano. The elders were also teaching Malli there! Malli wants to be baptized too! She is a great gal! She has 2 teenage children and her husband is buddhist. Every time she has a question....the gospel has an answer! That is the same thing happening for Taniya too! Love the way the Spirit works! We picked up Sheramy and headed to Shanikas to teach Joel. It was another great lesson. These 2 new elders will be ok. One needs to talk less and the other a little more...but they will figure out how to work together! They have great testimonies and that is so good! Thursday is our errand day and we went all over town doing the things we needed to do. I taught piano and then it was English lesson time! Our English people/students are like family! One of our ladies is going to China where she is from for 40 days! Her husband and son are living there and she is living here right now. Everyone was really sad that she was leaving and told her how much they will miss her! It really is a wonderful group! Friday is piano class day for me. Steve went with the elders to teach Radi...our 1st counselors wife. She wants to be baptized too! She is so much fun and a great cook! They live far away and it takes a while to get there and stay and come back! So worth it! She has been taught by many missionaries but she seems to be ready right now! So happy for her! Saturday morning Steve taught Seminary at the church and I did piano classes! We then met with Inoka and her family and Taniya and her family at McDonalds for lunch. We stayed there quite awhile talking to Taniya about the gospel and her family and enjoying all of them very much! Our Sunday was wonderful! We had almost every seat in church full today. They had to redo the sacrament with the water because they ran out of water cups! These people are the best! Naveen and Steffani were confirmed. Steve confirmed Steffani in English and Elder/Steve Wijendran confirmed Naveen in Sinhala! We now have a new elders quorum president and counselor in the branch presidency. We are also trying to get our building for our YSA conference figured out. Hopefully we can get the budget approved and have a nice place to go. We had the old elders over for dinner today along with Elder/Frank's brother, Kevin. We had John Wijendran over also. We celebrated Elder/Steve Nugara's birthday! He is 21! We had a nice dinner and chocolate cake and ice cream. How we love these boys and miss them as "our elders!" The "new" elders came a little later to finish up the dinner!! They had been teaching Taniya, Malli and Esther! It was great hearing the things they taught today and seeing what we need to do in the coming week! We also called my mom and dad tonight! It was my moms 80th birthday yesterday! Sure love my parents! So fun to talk to them and see them and enjoy them! Another great adventure lies in the coming week! Can't wait to see what it is!!!