April 19, 2015

Beware!  Lots of pictures ahead!  And probably lots of words as well!  It was a really great week!  Lots of fun and lots of spiritual strength too! It was actually New Years here.  Everyone leaves the city and travels to the villages to see relatives.  It was so crazy around here.  No traffic, no horns honking, most shops were closed, people lighting off loud fire cracker type of things, some sky fireworks, not many people around.....and this was for the whole week!  We would find groups of people in different areas that were having big celebrations with races and games....all over the place.  They would take over the roads and play in the streets sometimes too!   We visited with some wonderful families this week!  We began with visiting Prianka!  She is a darling young gal who is getting ready to serve a mission.  It was her birthday and her family invited us all to come to lunch!  They are less active members and yet Prianka is coming to her meetings and doing great.  The strength these young people have is inspiring.  We ate wonderful Sri Lanka food!  They would see that your plate was getting down and they would come over and keep loading more on!  It takes a couple of hours to cook all the food they give you.  This family lived in a big high rise.  There were about 4 of them together.  They don't have windows really and everyone keeps the doors open all the time.  You are very very close to each other in everything you do.  They are all so happy when we come!  It was a wonderful time!  We also visited a young Pakistan family, The Sohail family.  They are refugees from Pakistan because their lives were in danger for being Christian.  He found the gospel a few years back and she joined last year.  They have 2 beautiful daughters who were so funny and really enjoyed the chocolate cupcakes I brought....well, at least the frosting!!  They live in a small room with a twin bed and a few chairs.  They bring a small mattress from off the porch at night.  The bathroom is outside by the entrance to the home.  It has a small toilet seat and bucket for showers.  It makes my heart ache.  We have so much at home that I take for granted.  So very blessed.  They are so humble and have so much faith.  Such a great feeling being with them!  We had a nice visit with the Wijendren family as well!  They are the parents of one of our wonderful missionaries here!  It was Sister Christines birthday and she had cooked up a fabulous feast!  They have another son serving a mission in the Philippines.  Their conversion story and life story was so interesting and amazing!  Yes, again, so much faith!  We got to spend a wonderful day with our Mission President on Wednesday!  He was coming for Zone Conference and had not had a Pday in quite sometime.  So they came a little early and wanted to do some sight seeing up North.  They called and asked if we would like to join them.  It was a wonderful day.  We went to the Wilpattu National Park.  It took us about 4 hours to get there!  It is an animal sanctuary where if you are lucky, you can see leopards and elephants.  We were not that lucky but we got to see many other kinds of wildlife and birds there!  It happened to rain a little so it was nice and cool (well, cooler than normal) and there was no dust!  Plus it was absolutely beautiful!  We really enjoyed getting to know Pres and Sister Berrett!  They are really amazing, kind, smart people!  He was a lawyer that had worked for the church for many years in Hong Kong and all around Asia.  Sister Berrett is as sweet and kind as can be!  We didn't get home that evening until almost midnight but it was so worth it!  We had Bernard Pang here from Hong Kong helping with the audit.  He trained us on some things and took us out to a very nice Chinese dinner.  He was so funny and full of energy.  Fun time with him.  Our Zone Conference went very well.   Only part of the Zone I guess.  We are just the ones from Sri Lanka.  We had a wonderful day of classes and learning many things to help us on our mission.  We had made lunch and everyone came to the apartment to eat it.  Very American meal of chicken and mashed potatoes, home made rolls, etc....YUM! Saturday we traveled to Negombo for their branch New Years activity.  It went from around 9 am to about 7 pm.  They had games for all different ages!  There was a potluck lunch and then more partying!!  Everyone got involved....from young to old.  The bad part.....95 degrees and 100% humidity.  It was very tough for Steve!  Luckily, there was a room in the church with air conditioning that we could escape to once in a while.  Made for a really bad hair day for sure!  But everyone was friendly and just enjoyed being together.  We did not stay the entire day and left about 4.  Fun to meet the members in the other branch!  Sunday, we had the Sunday session of General Conference.  We watched the morning session for 2 hours, had a potluck dinner and then watched the second session.  I think you get much more out of it being dressed in church clothes and having to sit there and listen than I do at home in my pjs and laying on the couch!  We really enjoyed it!  We got to visit one of the members from the branch that was in the hospital.  He just had a pacemaker put in.  There were 8 men in his room with the beds only a few feet apart.  Lots of people were visiting.  So different...(Steve hopes we never get too sick on our mission).  But he looked great and was in good spirits.  Such a nice man Brother Lyle!  We then went and visited a new young family that is investigating the church.  A young man with his wife and baby.  His family has already disowned him for becoming Christian about 6 years back.  The Elders taught about prayer and reading the Book of Mormon.  It was a wonderful lesson and we enjoyed being there very much!  We are enjoying this mission so much and love meeting new people and hearing all their stories!  We are so blessed!

Brother Shajan Vaeghese from India - for audits!

Our first flat tire on the trishaw!

Prianka's family (the girl in the back) She is getting ready to serve a mission!

Sacred tree for the Buddhist people

Missionaries are so helpful!

We have never seen anything like this since we have been here!  NO TRAFFIC!  Because of New Years!

The Sohail family from Pakistan

Saying good bye to them!

They have the Eiffel tower too!?!

Sister Christines birthday!

The Wigendrens have 2 sons on a mission...one in Negombo!

Wonderful birthday dinner!

The Negombo branch

Beautiful Sri Lanka scenery

Lunch with Pres & Sister Berrett before the National Park Tour

Our wonderful Mission President and his wife!

Our tour director, Sashika..from Negombo branch.

Our ride into the Park!

Steve kept trying to pull the trigger........

The Sri Lanka National bird

Looking for crocs!

We found a crocodile as we were in the water about 3 feet!!  You can barely see the eyes!

I loved the creepy trees!

Brother Pang from Hong Kong took Pres Anton and us to an amazing Chinese restaurant!

Part Zone Conference!

Sister Berrett made Snicker Doodles for everyone!

New Years celebration at the Negombo branch

Get the cap out of the Brandy bottle!!

Put the eye on the Elephant!

Beautiful Nishara

More beautiful seminary students...Melani and Rishell

A swing....

and a miss!

A chop......

and a miss!!

Sister Ann tried too!

Potluck!

Palm leaf weaving contest....amazing how fast and pretty!

April 12, 2015

Another great week has come and gone!  The first of our week always begins with calls to the kids and the grandkids!  We really enjoy these calls so much! It truly makes a difference with the homesickness.  I guess it could go both ways but for us….it makes us feel soooo good!  We love our family so much!  It has been a very hot week this week.  We have been told that this time of year is when the sun is the closest to Sri Lanka.  These are the hottest times in the country!  Steve takes his hankie with him wherever he goes and it is soaked so early in the day!  We were able to get our visa’s this week as well!  That means we are good here until February.  We will have to leave the country then and go somewhere else but for now….we are here to stay!  That is a big relief.  We made many visits this week as usual!  We love doing that!  We really get to know the members and less actives so much better when we go into their homes.  We went with the missionaries to the Nimal family.  They are members but haven’t come for several years.  Their 3 daughters are attending another church.  They are fun to visit.  She is a great cook and she fed us this fried egg thing with dhal.  She is starting a business from home this week by selling things she cooks.  They want us to pray for them in their new venture!  We had the missionaries (all 4 of them) over for dinner for FHE.  Sister Ann taught us how to make real Sri Lanka food….minus the extra spice of course…..and it was so very good!  Fried rice, chicken, dhal, cauliflower salad, etc.  We had a really great evening with all of them.  Steve and I split up on Tuesday.  I went with Sister Ann and Sister Sherine to visit Rosemary on her birthday! She is also not healing after her diabetes problems.   It was quite a ways out.  But it is always fun to see new things.  And she is a wonderful lady with so much faith.  She has done so many things for the church here.  Steve went with a young man who is investigating the church for lunch today.  His wife is a member.  He is really great and Steve and he have hit it off really well.  I hope things keep progressing for him.  We have also found that we can only visit one family each evening because it takes so long to get there and to get back.  It will take at least 1 to 1 1/2 hours to get somewhere in the trishaws and the traffic.  The people live far away from us!  But we love visiting them!  We also began our home seminary classes for some of the youth who don't come to church.  That has really been a lot of fun!  Sherines kids, Shanu and Shami are really great!  They are super smart.  We gave them the new manuals and gave them assignments and were able to visit with them and enjoy them.  Sherine is a great mother and has a wonderful relationship with them.  It is fun to watch her with them!  We also visited a family who's mother works at a salon.  We surprised them by going there with the Elders!  The girls were really sweet.  The oldest has been reading her scriptures and doing all her seminary stuff even though they don't attend.  The younger girl is not old enough for seminary yet. She had drawn some patterns on her hand and arm.  It is called Mehendi.  People will pay a lot of money to have that done.  She had drawn her own.  She showed us what she used and how it is done.  So she did a design on my thumb!  It is still there but not very dark anymore.  I guess it wears off after a week or so.  We had a great visit with this family and were able to get seminary started for them!  We were also able to visit Elder Rajan best friends while we were out that way!  Elder Rajan is serving in Negombo.  That was really fun hearing stories about him when they were growing up together.  They said we could come back!  Hopefully we will meet his father on one of the visits and try to teach him!  We had another big Skype conference with Ana in Jakarta.  Hopefully we will get all the computer stuff down sometime soon!  Later, we visited Inoka and her husband and daughter in their home.  She is a returned missionary who was in a bad marriage at first and then married a Buddhist guy.  They seem to be happy.  She has a testimony still but hasn't been coming to church.  She wants her daughter to be baptized.  Her daughter, Stephanie, is really excited to learn.  She is 9 and so cute and shy!  It was really a wonderful visit with them.  The Elders were supposed to come but had helped a family that was moving.  Steve actually helped for awhile but came home for an appointment.  I started my piano lessons....well sorta!  I had a whole list of people coming....and they didn't come!  Everyone apologized and said since it was the holiday they had so many other things going on and forgot to call!  Oh well.  I got to read a bunch of the Conference talks!  We will see what next week brings!!  However, everyone is now gone for the New Year.  It is so interesting to learn about this Buddhist/Sri Lankan holiday.  We had a wonderful church meeting today!  I was surprised that so many were there when we heard so many leave for the week.  The talks in Sacrament meeting were great and the lessons were wonderful as well.  They still count on us to say things in their lessons...or they ask if we will add something or if something is right!  It makes me laugh.  We try to explain that they know so much too but they don't think so!  What a blessing it is to serve as missionaries!  We are so grateful for this wonderful experience!  

Brother Nemal and his family

A real Sri Lanka feast!

Want some water??!!

Coconut tree

Our first monkey...up on the roof

Monkey eating the mangos out of the trees!

Cows roaming in the middle of the street!

Mehendi

Deyan and Cassandra

Stephanie!

Inoka, Stephanie and Nevine

April 5, 2015

Yes, you are right.  My posts are way too long!  There are just so many new and exciting experiences that we have every week!  Plus, this is my journal and I don't want to forget any of the great things that happen!  Our week this week was busy but not as many new and different things happened.  We began our week with a District mission activity.  Since our bowling activity last time didn't work, we decided to try again!  It was a lot of fun!  The building was extremely hot and I think it was the first time that it really affected me!   We played 2 games and really laughed a lot!  We went to Pizza Hut for lunch, followed by Baskin Robins Ice Cream!  YUM!  I know I keep saying it, but the Elders are wonderful young men.  We really enjoy them!  We had a wonderful district meeting with them on Tuesday morning.  We have been doing a lot of our seminary and institute things this week.  Trying to figure out the seminary reporting site and then getting everything into the computer.  We finally received the teacher and student manuals for each branch.  That will help these wonderful teachers out a lot!  We had some wonderful visits this week.  We were able to visit Brother Franklin and his family.  We showed them a Mormon Message about forgiveness.  We really love that family.  Brother Franklin, his wife, Katherine, their daughter, Nuwani and her husband and daughter.  Her husband is not a member.  A great guy!  He hasn't had a job for 8 years.  This is not uncommon in Sri Lanka.  There are not many jobs.  It is tough for these wonderful people.  That is why they live with several generations of family.  He had a really promising interview a month back but found out that he didn't get the job.  We feel so bad for him.  But our visit was great!  We keep praying for these wonderful families.  We were able to go to President Kolitha's home with his wonderful wife, Premali, and their daughter. Sister Premali is also the District RS President.  It took us over 2 1/2 hours to go 8 km to their home because of the holiday traffic.  Friday was Good Friday plus a full moon which is a big holiday (Poya Day...a buddhist holiday)  every month.  Everyone travels out of the city to their family members somewhere else.  We hit that traffic....of everyone leaving the city!  It was nuts!  But the evening turned out to be really great!  We had an amazing meal and wonderful company.  More faith filled stories of conversion to the gospel.  They are very educated people with good jobs.  And yet they are so humble and full of faith.  Another family we visited was Brother Jeffry, his wife, and 3 boys.  That was a wonderful visit as well.  These young boys too have great faith as there are no members at all in their schools or neighborhoods.  There are great pressures in school to be in the top 2% so you can go to the University for free.  You have huge exams at the end of each year which you need to pass and do well in.  Really sharp youth in the church here.  We visited with a young family, the Hagobians.  He is from Iraq and served his mission here in Sri Lanka.  He married a really fun, Sri Lankan girl, Radika, and they have 2 children.  She is not a member but welcomed us with so much spunkiness and love!  She fed us a wonderful meal, along with the Elders, and even invited our driver to come in and eat!  Another wonderful story of a young man in Iraq, who found the gospel in Yemen, lost his way, came back and served a mission, and has a strong testimony of the gospel.  Really fun visit.  We hurried home to prepare a meal for Umanda and Santhush and Umanda's father, Tissa.  He is a legend here in Sri Lanka as he was the first missionary here.  He is also Nancy Ferdinando's son, and we promised her we would contact him.  Nancy lives in St George and we met her before we came on our mission.  He converted many of the stalwart members in the District.  Unfortunately, he is struggling right now with his testimony.  But we had a great visit and enjoyed their company as well as the Elders.  We had a wonderful fast and testimony meeting this morning in church.  Once again, the members kept coming up and not leaving any spaces between each other.  What a wonderful spirit we felt today.  We love the members so much already.  I am starting piano lessons this week.  Should be fun.  The church has a course that teaches you to play the hymns as you learn.  Lots of visits and seminary stuff this week!  Always a lot going on and we love it!

Pizza Hut with the Elders

Cosmic bowling

Strike!

Pres Kolitha and Sister Primali and Sonali

Amazing meal!

Holiday at the beach for many Sri Lankan families.

Unbelievable!  No one is on the road!

Brother Hagobian and his adorable wife, Radika

Emma and Joshua

Brother Tissa with Santhush and the Elders