Monday, June 20, 2016

Happy Fathers Day 2016


Happy Fathers Day to my wonderful father and husband!  I am so blessed to have such a fabulous dad and I love him with all of my heart!  I miss him terribly!  And I am so grateful for my sweet husband who I love so much!  He is a great father and husband and companion!  I am so lucky!
Another busy Kandy week!!  We began with a missionary district activity.  We celebrated Elder Wijetunges birthday.  Deek and Shashrika came too!  We began with lunch at Burger King.  And it was YUM!  We then went bowling!  They redid half of the bowling alley and it was really nice!  Had a fun time!  I have also been teaching my final piano lessons!  Recital in a month!  We were able to visit Mali and her kids at her home!  She cooked us a wonderful dinner!  Such a sweet family!  Steve is their home teacher!  We visited Brother Alexander and his family!  His wife cooked a very nice dinner for us and we had a wonderful visit with them!  We headed to Kandy on Thursday for 4 days on the train!  Sister Seetha was our guide today!  We began by visiting Kumari and Mahinda.  Such a sad story.  They married and had 4 children.  They couldn't afford to send the kids to school or really just to take care of them.  So a Buddhist monk offered to take them and school them and promised the father a home and other things.  He took the older 2 boys and they have now become monks.  He swindled them out of the land and other things.  Their 3rd son is handicapped and now they have a daughter.  They live in a house that is ready to fall in.  They want their boys back but the monk won't give them back.  The father can't work either because of some sort of accident.  Oh my.  These stories are so terrible.  We then visited an older, very shy lady named Violet!  She lives with her daughter and husband and they were recently robbed.  Her daughter said that they got robbed because it is the last days.  Nothing was taken so that was a good thing.  We visited Prayma.  She made a little treat for us!  We were in the neighborhood of dear Sister Soma and her son, Jagath.  She is the greatest lady!  We were supposed to meet Deepani to begin teaching her the lessons!  She is a hair stylist and was helping a lady for a wedding.  We waited one hour for her and then saw that she was very tired from a long day....which we really felt the same way.  Steve taught her a little bit and also how to pray.  Deepani actually said the prayer before we left!  Such a beautiful, sweet gal!  The hardest part about Kandy is the language.  We always have to have someone there to translate as most do not speak English.  Susila was our companion on Friday!  We went to visit Kasun.  He said he would be home in 15 minutes.  We waited an hour and he still wasn't there so we had to leave.  We visited Osmond.  He took us for a little treat so we could visit with him.  He said he can't come to church because of his work.  So much to do on the weekends.  His wife, Shritha and daughter Ann are such good members and come faithfully.  I am not sure that he lives with his family.  We visited Carmelani and her grandson, Lassie....who lives with her because his father passed away.  We then went to D.I.G and his wife, Shanti.  It was Shanti's birthday.  He used to be a branch president but has not been to church for 10 years.  They were very nice.  We then went to Sunil and Dammikas.  They have not been to church for about 10 years also.  Funny little guy!  Got offended I think.  He told me that the next time Steve and I get in a fight, just leave him and come and live with his family and be his servant...because he likes white........????!!!  Another busy day in Kandy.  All these people used to be active members and for some reason, quit coming to church.  Another thing, Sister Susila said that one of the old missionary couples wanted her to send them her husbands name that had passed away so they could baptize him.  She said that was ok....but please don't seal him to her.  She doesn't want to be with him forever!  So many of these ladies have such hard stories with husbands.  Saturday, I decided to try and buy some pants.  It is the new ruling here in our mission that we can wear dress pants during the mosquito season.  I have been getting bit so much lately...and I put spray on every day!!!  So I did a little shopping!  Found some....so I decided to wear some for the rest of the day.  Boy, was it strange!  I kept feeling that I was breaking the rules and doing something I shouldn't!  We bought a cake and went to Leelas since it was her birthday!  She has been coming back to church and her daughter is coming with her!  We then met Sister Seetha at her home with Promode.  She gave us a drink and some bread and jam.  We then met her trishaw driver and he took us to his sons home...Eranda and his wife Ayesha.  The driver had given us a ride one time and was so impressed with Steve!  He wanted his son to meet us and come to our church!  We had a lovely visit with them.  Ayesha had a lot of questions and liked the answers about our church!  Hopefully they will come to our church in the future!  We got home pretty late that night!  Sunday brought Fathers Day....which is not a very big deal in Sri Lanka.  Pres Kolitha asked Steve to speak on behalf of the District Presidency...since he is a district councilor.  But he didn't tell the Kandy branch!  So they already had 3 speakers ready to go!  Steve did give his testimony at the end which was really great!  I think he has spoken on Fathers Day for the past 20 years in a row!  I taught the RS lesson on reading scriptures.  These women are great examples of faith and hope.  They were teaching me with their tender stories and experiences with the scriptures.  Of course, it was all translated, but I could feel the Spirit so much when they spoke!  Such a blessing to be among such special ladies!  We caught the train home, dropped off our things, and then headed to Anuk's home!  His mother, Roshini, and father, Asiri wanted to make dinner for us and it was hard finding a day that worked for all of us!  We picked up the elders too!  It was Poya day so there were people out all over and lots of traffic!  There were tons of free food booths all around town (called Dansila) and the traffic around them was so busy!  The dinner was so very good!  They were really great!  Sister Nimali came also!  She is the one that brought Anuk into the church!  She said that his mother really wants to get baptized!  She just works 6 days a week and it is tough to get to church.  We could not find an uber car to get us home that night so we called Kumar who got his friend to come.  But it took him an hour to get there!!!  So we didn't leave until 10:45 that night.  But we had no choice that night!  We were pretty tired!  A very long day....and very busy week!  District seminary and YSA activity this week!!  So yes...I will be nervous about it all until it is over!!  But it is crazy how things are coming to an end here.  The Area Presidency asked us to extend.  Pres Berrett said not to worry if we did not.  Because of our family commitments and business things, we decided not to.  We so hope and pray they get missionaries and couples here soon.  Sri Lanka is really taking off with missionary work!  But the Lord is in charge!  It will all come at the right time!

Happy Fathers Day, DAD!!

Happy Fathers Day Steve!


Celebrating Elder Wijetunge's birthday with Deek and Shashrika



First stop....Burger King!


Birthday boy!

Elder Gunarathne tried the chili bun hamburger!

Next stop.....bowling!




Next stop....birthday cake!




Lovely dinner by Brother Alexanders wife


Bro Alexander and his wife and daughter and granddaughters!



Crayons drawing!!!


Nishara from Negombo!

Kandy visiting!

Visiting Kumari and Mahinda family with Sister Seetha




Durion tree



Boiling corn on the side of the road...not sweet like home...but ok! (eringu)





Bread fruit tree


Cocoa tree


Sister Violet...very shy, sweet lady!

Lovely nature walk to visit the members!



Buddhist temple pictures

Missionary couple!!


Prayma made us goodies!

Sister Prayma




Jagath

Wonderful strong Sister Soma!



Brother Osmond (not related)!



D.I.G. and Shanti on her birthday!  With Susila

Sister Carmalani and Lassie..and trishaw hair lady!


Is anyone home?

I guess not!  No one answered!


We found Pres Kolitha's old home!

Brother Sunil

Sister Dammika and Susila



More beautiful flowers!




The Sri Lanka Cookoo bird

Seeetha, Ayesha



Eranda and Ayesha

Potato curry

The engine connecting to the train back to Colombo!

Anuk, the artist!!


Sister Nimali, Asiri, Akein, Anuk and Roshini and Elders




Sherine, Roshini, her mom, Nimali



HELP!!

Steve is bending everyones spoons!


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