Elder and Sister Condie Mission Blog: January 24, 2015

From the jungle in the south east to the island in the west! What a beautiful and fulfilled week! The elders had been wanting to have a big district activity on our pday! We had always wanted to go to Yala National Park....so we did it all! The Bedke's came too of course! We rented a van and cruised down the highway! It still took us about 6 hours to go 320 kms! The drive went a long the beaches of the southern tip of Sri Lanka. It was beautiful! Yala is on the ocean so the ocean breezes felt wonderful! We saw animals and birds....but still no leopard! But it was such a nice day, with great people and lots of fun! The traffic coming home was much better and we made it in 4 hours! Long, driving day....but really great! Tuesday, we got to talk to the kids in the morning! Love it! I had piano and then we visited Darshini's family and Shanika's family together....meeting at McDonalds! It was great fun laughing and enjoying each other....and of course McDonalds! Steve even admitted he quite enjoyed the food tonight! WOW!! At dinner, Sheramy told us we needed to get a newspaper on Wednesday and turn to page 5. She didn't say any more that that. I had piano lessons in the morning so Steve ran the errands. He found a newspaper after searching awhile (most places sell out in the morning). He brought it home and we looked it up. Sheramy had written a sweet poem and had it published in the paper! It made me cry of course! I just love her! She is going to make a fabulous missionary!! We visited Inoka and taught the English class. Naveen was sick but we went there anyway and it turned out great! Steve gave him a blessing. We hurried home and realized we had not turned the oven on for dinner that night! We were having a new family over...a Sri Lanka family that had been living in England and were seeking refugee status. In the middle of the night, the police (or whoever does this sort of thing) came into their house and told them they had 1 hour to pack and they were being deported. They have 2 beautiful daughters. They were all devastated and have been having a hard time of course. They were investigating the church in England and are still interested now. It was great visiting with them and getting to know them. They all ate like champs! Pres Anton and Ann came but they had already eaten. Later, Pres Nihal came by and picked us up to go to the near by hospital where his friends daughter was. She has dengue fever and is 12 years old. That stuff is nasty! It was great visiting her and meeting her father! Thursday is more piano and our English class. After, we had Pres Nishans family over to go over ideas for our vacation with the kids when they are here. We fixed a great dinner and talked about all the possibilities! I can not wait!! We had piano classes on Friday and then we loaded up for Hagobians! Steve taught Radi a lesson! She is getting baptized next week! So excited and happy for her and her family! We brought pizza and wings! YUMMY!! Our YSA monthly activity was on Saturday. Kasun came from Kandy the night before and stayed with us. We hired a van and met the Colombo people at the church....and picked more up on the way! Then we were off to Negombo! It was a beautiful day...hot but nice! We ended up with 24 people! We went to the beach and took a boat over to a small island across the way. We had games, lessons, lunch, singing.....all sorts of fun! These kids amaze me! They want to do the right things....like marrying in the temple, etc....but it is so hard! They are fabulous young people! Shamika did such a great job organizing! He ordered chicken and made salads and dressings on his own! What a great young man! Everyone had a great time! And then it is Sunday again! I taught Relief Society today from Pres Uchtdorfs talk from Conference! It was fun! I then taught seminary and Steve taught mission prep to start the year off! The kids are great and I think they will do wonderful things! Steve gave a lot of blessings today! I got to visit with people and enjoy them all! We brought Deek and Deyan back to the house for dinner...and then Radi followed with her family......so we had yummy shrimp and chicken! It was a wonderful week!