May 1, 2016

Can you believe it is May?  It is a holiday today...Labor day!  So people are out in the streets marching, chanting, campaigning .......all day long!  Tons of buses, tons of people on the streets....streets are closed to cars....so it is hard to get around!  More on that later!!!  We started out the week with piano and baptism interviews!  Some of the best.....Ajantha, Thilukshi and Kavishka.....are getting baptized on Sunday!  8 total actually!  It is such a wonderful blessing!  We met them when we first got here.  They were friends of Brother Lyle and came to our english class...until Thilukshi got cancer.  Then they pretty much disappeared for 6 months!  But then she got better and they took piano lessons from me....and now.......BAPTISM!!  So happy for them!  They are so happy!  It is so wonderful to see the light of the Gospel in them!  We then went to Sister Pooja's that night!  She made us dinner and we had a great visit with her and her sweet daughter!  I taught District meeting....about drinking water and being safe!  Sister Berretts last subject for us to teach!  We then went and visited with Sister Anula!  She is such a nice lady.  I have only seen her a few times in church.  Hopefully, she will return someday!  I taught piano and then we were off to Darshani's!  Steve gave Anju her baptism interview.  She is a 16 year old girl who is adorable!  So happy for her!  We had a great visit with the family as well as them spoiling us with a lovely dinner!  I had piano classes on Wednesday before picking up the elders and heading to the airport!  We are off to India for a missionary training!  Elder Funk is doing a mission tour so they decided to have us and the elders come to Bangalore for it!  The elders stayed with the AP's and we stayed at the mission home!  Of course, we had to have one of Sister Berretts famous cookies before going to bed!  Sure love the Berretts!  They are almost done with their mission...just a few more months!  Thursday morning was the conference.  Steve and I went walking in the morning around the neighborhood.  People are not as friendly as Sri Lanka but it was nice to see everything around us!  We had scrambled eggs and then headed to the church!  There were 5 zones at this meeting.....along with Pres/Sister Berrett and Elder and Sister Funk!  Not sure what his title should be.....!!  He is President of the Asia Area and is also in the second quorum of the seventy!  He so reminds me of Grandpa Crebs!  Such a great man!  Sister Funk is great too!  We had workshops in the morning and a nice Indian lunch of biriyani!  Spicy!!....so I just added this yogurt type stuff on the top of mine!  More workshops in the afternoon!  Great to visit with so many missionaries!  Great young men and women!  We then had a wonderful dinner with the Berretts/Funks/Grundys/Condies!  Salmon and potatoes and veges and bread!  So yummy!  Then we sat around the kitchen table with all of them for a few hours and talked, told stories, asked questions....and laughed!  So fun to be around a General Authority and hear his stories!  He has had some wonderful experiences!  He also was the mission president before Pres Berrett in our mission!  But he didn't do the entire time because he was called to be a general authority before his 3 years were up!  Enjoyed the evening so much!  We walked again Friday morning and then sat in on the MLC meeting!  Very interesting!  We had another nice Indian lunch and then listened more to the meeting.  Sister Funk asked if I wanted to go shopping with her to some spots she liked to go when she lived there!  So Sister Grundy, Sister Berrett and the 2 of us decided to all go!  It was fun to see the city and to visit with those wonderful ladies!  We met up with the "guys" at the Phoenix Mall....just down the street from the mission home.  We ate at California Pizza Kitchen!  It was NOT the same as in the US or even Hong Kong....but it was still good and fun to visit with everyone again.  We went home and tried to get some sleep before heading to the airport at midnight!  We picked up the elders....who had gone on splits with the missionaries that day!  Then off to the airport.  Our plane left at 3:30 am!!  We got home about 6:30 am!  We slept a little while and then went to the church!  It was the branch activity celebrating the Sri Lankan New Year!  Sister Darshani worked so hard and spent a lot of time getting everything just perfect!  They bought gifts, decorated, and got the members to help do the games, etc.  They opened with all the traditional things the Sri Lankans do.....like lighting the candle thing, boiling the milk, eating the milk rice for breakfast with all the sweets.  Then all the games began!  Everyone had such a great time!  But it was extremely hot of course.  So hard on Steve.  He went in the District Pres office for a lot of the time to stay in the A/C!  And....he did 4 more baptism interviews!  This is a family from Sri Lanka that was living in England but got deported recently.  They were beginning to get the discussions there...and finished them here!  The teenage girls have had a hard time moving....they miss their friends a lot!  But they are darling and seem to fit in with the girls in the branch!  We stopped awhile for lunch and then right back to the games!  We had a DJ too!  We had entertainment with the traditional Sri Lanka dances....so so fun!!  I think everyone enjoyed the day so much!  Dale and Sheramy were the MC's and did a great job!  We ended the evening with prizes and dancing!  Steve and I were getting pretty tired as we had been up most of the night so we left before the dancing finished!  Fun, fun day!!  But then...................Labor Day!!!  So let me explain.....we were so excited for the baptism of our 8 wonderful people!  I typed up the program and had all the baptism clothes ready to take to church.  I also was prepared to teach the SS lesson in gospel doctrine class.  About 3 in the morning, I woke up and noticed Steve sitting up in bed.  He said he had a back ache.  He got some Aleve and I fell back to sleep.  I woke up at 6:30 and found that he had been up most of the night with back pains and nausea...even throwing up (luckily it was Fast Sunday and he didn't have anything in him)...and he just knew.......he had kidney stones!  He was in so much pain.  He said he wanted to go to the baptism first and then we would go to the hospital.  I got in the shower...and when I got out...he said we needed to go straight to the hospital.  I felt so bad for him.  He was in such pain.  We got there and had an ultrasound...where they found an 8 mm stone.  He was given an injection for pain....which made a huge difference for him.  He was able to relax a little and rest a little.  Pres Anton and Ann and Nihal came to the emergency room.  They are always supportive and wanting to help.  They decided to admit him and probably do surgery in the evening.  There were no specialists available because of the holiday!  So we would have to wait until 9:30 at night to see anyone.  They also did a CT in the afternoon.  Steve said when they were doing that and pushing on his back....that it was quite sore!  We had visitors!  Shanika and her family came.  Nishan and his family came.  Pres Kolitha and his family came....and Deandra and Timothy.  Steve was doing so much better in the evening.  We were hoping he passed the stone!  The doctor finally came!  The CT said 2 stones.  They figured one had passed.  The other one was ready to drop into the bladder....right on the edge.  Of course the pain is when it travels through the teeny tube on its way to the bladder.  The doctors said they heard the pain was right up there with Labor pains.....!!  So of course Steve picked up on that...being Labor Day and all!  Saying he was in labor and couldn't wait to see if it was a boy or girl!!  Anyway, the doctor said no surgery right now....YEA!!!!  But they wanted to keep him overnight to make sure he didn't have the pain back and get into trouble again!  He had a lot of medicines and was very relaxed!  So I decided to just go home and sleep and then come back in the morning!  I needed to do a little laundry!  Made it home about 10:30 pm and went back around 8 am.  Steve had had a good nights sleep and everything went great!  So he was able to be discharged....although that takes forever!!  He is on medicines for a week so that they make sure the stone can pass.  Then we go back in for an X-ray to make sure!  WOW!!!  What a crazy end to a great week!  The worst part (besides the pain of course) was missing the baptism of those wonderful 8 people!  They were all so happy!  Thilukshi called and said she was happier than she has ever been!  So grateful that her cancer is gone for now!  She is a jewel.  Praying that Steves kidney stone has passed.  Sure don't want him to have to go through that again.

Sister Anula in her home

India Mission Tour

Missionary Conference in India

Elder Funk of the Seventy

President/Sister Funk at the mission home

Zone leaders

Shopping in the streets of Bangalore, India

Little antique shop

Dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen! Grundy's, Funks, Berretts, Condies

Anju and Cass; New Years Party!

Plus Deyan!

Plus Julia!

Opening ceremony with the drums!

Traditional breakfast with Milk rice, and then sweets!

Traditional lighting to begin the party!

Emily got a turn!

Then Devin 

Pres Nishans turn

Then President Kolitha

YUM!

Traditional boiling of the milk

Panarama of the beginning of the festivities!

And there it goes!

Sandi and Darshani worked so hard to put this party together!

Beautiful traditional dancing!!

Anju, Cass, Deyan, Julia

"Elder" Frank

Shanika

An authentic Sri Lankan!

Deek, Joel, John, Dale, Gnana, Rosemary

Gnana, Rosemary, Cristine, Anula and visitors!

Zeeniya, Mytili, Pooja, Ester, Sandi, Darshani, Tamil, Ishari

Shanika, Sherine, Shamindri, Kanchana

Thilukshi, Hansani, Stephanie, Elder Condie

Add Me and Shamindri

The races are first!!

Look at the girls run!

Now the boys!

Hi Inoka and Ester

Mali and Methasa

Ladies race!

Mens turn!

Hansani and Methasa

Bun eating contest!

Garrett and Anuk....the winners!!

Girls turn!

Who is that peeking from the AIR CONDITIONED ROOM!!!!

YW Lime carrying on the spoon contest!

Add some RS sisters!

2nd heat of sisters!

Wahoo!

Finals between Pooja and Mytali

YM turn

Girls balloon popping contest!

Watching the festivities from inside!

YM drinking with a baby bottle nipple contest!

Deek is the winner!!

Trying to cool off in the shade!

Beautiful YW!

Getting ready for the contest where you have to find the coin in a pile of flour!

Ready, Set, Go!

White faces!!

Shamindri and Thilukshi

Weaving contest

Hitting the pot blindfolded contest!

Pres Kolithas turn!

Sister Pooja...so pretty!

Sheramy's turn

Pres Nishan pretended that Sheramy hit him in the head and knocked him over!

Shashrika

Mali

Sherine!

Errol

Kavishka

Sonali and Methasa

Coconut scraping contest!

Emily trying to hit the pot!

And Pres Nishan

My turn!

Still scraping...Sherine won!

Shihani, Jennifer, Shamindri, Thilukshi, Hansani

Yogurt feeding contest!

Myrna, Kanchana, Ester, Ru, Anula

3 legged race

And then it rained!!

Hendriksens!

Baptism interviews

Lunch!

Steffani, Sonali, Methasa, Hansani

The little girls were doing it too!

Hat race!

Mali and Mytali in the finals!

Fast dance, slow music....slow dance, fast music

Tug of war....young guys

Tug of war...old guys!

And the rope broke!!!!

Richard and Jarell

Judges!

Richard and Tania

Darshani...the party girl!

The contestants!

Zeeniya...the crazy lady.....so funny!

Inoka, Steffani and Naveen....the doctor, nurse and patient

Gnana....the fortune teller!

Ester and Mali...teacher and student

Now for the prizes!

And then the dancing begins!!

What?  Another hospital visit??  Shehan visiting

Sheramy, Shanika, Joel and Shehan visiting the patient

8 baptisms!  The church is so true!!!