Elder and Sister Condie Mission Blog

Another fabulous week in the mission field! We are sure enjoying life in Sri Lanka! We have had a great week! One of the craziest experiences happened on Monday night! We went back to Jayanthi's home to have Family Home Evening. She had invited some people over to share in the evening. The missionaries came with us and had a lesson all planned. The lesson was wonderful. Talking about families and how we could be together forever. She had prepared some sandwiches and cakes for us. We were on our way over to the table when she came scurrying out of the kitchen! There was a huge 5 foot Komodo dragon in the kitchen! It had come in the back door and was eating the dog food! Of course Steve and the Elders went chasing after it so they could get some pictures! It was huge! I think we found out after it may have not been a Komodo dragon but a Monitor....or something like that! Regardless, it was giant! One of the women that came wanted to know more about the Church. She is worried about what her husband and children will say. But the missionaries are going to visit with her again! Tuesday was a really fun day also! We had a young man in the ward who received his mission call! We have been working with the mission home and a courier trying to get it delivered to him! The courier finally called us and was ready to deliver it and they made the connection! They decided to come to our home on Tuesday evening with his family and the missionaries and members of the ward! We went to Pizza Hut and bought some pizza for the occasion! (By the way, the pizza selection here is very different! Everything is spicy! Some of the choices are Deviled chicken, corned mutton, Moghui chicken, Hot and spicy chicken, tandoori chicken, Spicy Seafood, and Chili chicken! Oh yes and Hot garlic prawn!) It was very exciting! The future missionary is Akash! He is 19 and has been a member for one year. He finally got to open the call: Philippines San Pablo mission and leaves on May 8! He was excited! Since there is no temple here, the missionary leaves a day earlier. He will go through the Manilla temple to get his work done. Then he will report to the MTC there the next day. The church is amazing. They have everything figured out! It was a really nice evening with everyone! We left a little bit later and went to the hospital to visit one the members there. She is a wonderful lady. She has an older downs syndrome daughter that they let stay in the hospital with her...in a bed by her side. There was a huge down pour of rain as we were going there. She had a balcony outside her room where we could watch the rain come down and see the lightening! It was crazy! There is no air conditioning in the rooms and it was pretty warm. But she was happy to be feeling better! Wednesday we were invited to dinner at one of the councilors in the branch presidencies home. He and his wife have 3 young children. They cooked us a feast! I have a reputation here of not enjoying the spicy food. It makes people nervous to cook....because they really don't cook without spice. I feel so bad about that. I really like the spicy food....but as my Dad would say....it don't like me!!! But the food was really good! She had so many options of pork and fish....plus macaroni and vegetables and of course ice cream. They always have bananas as a dessert also....and jelly (which is jello). We had a great time with their family! Thursday we went on splits with the missionaries. Steve and I went with Elder Nugara and a young priest from the branch went with Elder Perera. We visited Nandica.....a women with 2 boys and a husband. She wants to get baptized again because she had a worry about the first time she was baptized. She is doing it alone because her husband and boys are not interested and it is tough I am sure. We left a great message with her and I think she felt really good when we left. We then visited an older man..Mahasivam...who has been a member for a little while...but his wife and daughter is not. His wife doesn't like him to go to church so he doesn't get to come very often. He is trying to get a visa to go to Sweden and visit his mother who has not been well. It takes quite a bit of effort to get a visa to go anywhere. He knew a lot of Sri Lankan history and it was very interesting. His wife came into the room with us here and there and was very nice. We met his beautiful daughter who is going to the University there. She spoke some English and it was great to visit with her! (Unfortunately, he called the next day and his mother had passed away.) A few mornings this week, we had some training with the CES Asia area rep from Indonesia. He was surprised that they don't teach a lot of things pertaining to our CES assignment in the MTC. Hopefully we will remember the things he and his secretary, Ana, taught us. He is coming to Sri Lanka tomorrow and staying until Friday. We have set up a weeks worth of visiting the other districts and the seminary teachers in each district. It will be a good and busy week. He is a very nice man and we look forward to learning those things we need to do with our seminary assignment. We met with Brother Lyle again because we have been helping him out in a few things. He has great faith and wonderful stories. He wanted us to help him find the senior couple missionaries who baptized him 20 years ago....and we did! On Facebook of course! That was great to get a message in return from them. We found another couple that served here....and as we were looking to find out if it was the right couple, we found out that Sister Biggs was originally a Stephenson....and I visit taught her mother, Berniece, for a few years in Holden! Amazing! We have enjoyed feeding the missionaries a few times this week and feeling of their wonderful spirits! Today was another wonderful Sunday! We like to go early so we can meet with the members! The meetings were great! We had great investigators there today. And a less active returned missionary from New Zealand came today. Steve had so much fun visiting with him and he is ready to get going back into the church again. He invited us over next week and wants his parents to be there too ( who are not members). Steve is learning how to make things using curry. He is good not to get it too spicy for me...so he leaves out the chili seasonings. But it is good and I don't mind it at all. There is an American couple living here who can get some American non perishable things at the commissary . I think we will try and see if we can get some things like poultry seasoning, pumpkin, molasses, etc. So that will be great! Anyway, great week ahead! Love to you all!

Our friend the Monitor!!

Akash and his mission call!

The Colombo Branch building

The side of the church and the play area

Brother Lyle

Did I say I got a(nother) new dress?

Good morning from sunny Sri Lanka! We have been out in the mission field now for an entire month. It really has gone by so fast! We are learning so much and enjoying this wonderful experience! It has been a great week! We seem to get busier as the weeks go by. We started off the week with our first district activity with the young missionaries. We were going to go bowling. The missionaries picked us up at our apartment and they decided to take the bus. That was a new experience for us. It is really cheap to ride the bus.....and we found out why! The buses are packed, there is no air, and they stop about every block! It was quite the experience! But we made it to the bowling place....and it was closed! As we were trying to figure out what else to do, we found out that it was Elder Rajah's birthday! So we went to the Cinnamon Grande Hotel and bought him his favorite cake. We then had Pizza Hut pizza....the spicy chicken....which was so very spicy! We had a thai rice dish and an Indian dish also. We then picked up the cake and brought it home to the apartment and had a little party for Elder Rajah. He loved the cake! Steve and I had an appt with a family that was quite aways away so we got ready and rode the trishaw out to their home! It was Brother Franklin and his wife Katherine and their daughter, Nuwani. Her husband, Tesan, is not a member, but was there also with their little girl. We got to visit with them and find out their conversion stories and enjoy their family! They have a nice place....but I forget that they keep their doors and windows open.....and I got quite a few crazy bites on my legs! But they were wonderful. Tesan was at church on Sunday and enjoyed Steves talk and wanted to get the book! You can tell he is interested in the church but is trying to figure it all out right now. The book might really help him! We stayed a few hours and then got a trishaw to come home. I think I have figured out why I still have a cough. The pollution from the buses and cars is quite terrible. It really affected me on this ride because we were in rush hour traffic and the fumes were bad. It makes us cough and makes our eyes burn a little. Going to have to try and travel at better times of the day!!
Tuesday brought our district meeting at the church. They really do such a great job! We had a meeting after with Brother Lyle. He is an older man who wanted to visit with us because he had an answer to prayer that we would help him. He has bad health and is in need of a pacemaker. He is trying to come up with funds for that. He is also trying to get his Priesthood Line of Authority and wants us to help him with that. It was great hearing his wonderful story and listening to all the things he has done in the church. Such great faith! We found the Welliwatta fruit market we had heard about. This place has an open market with quite a few people showing their fruit and trying to get you to come to their place to buy. The pineapple, the mangos and papayas, bananas, etc are amazing! Steve was so happy to find this place!
Wednesday was early morning seminary so we walked to the church! It was a great lesson. Only 3 active boys come to that class. We had to go to the American Embassy that day to find a notary for some forms. Such a funny experience to me. There are really no Americans working in the American Embassy....at least the ones we saw. All the guards are Sri Lankan, the workers inside that we talked to were Sri Lankan......we did see an American soldier at one point. That was just so funny to me. It cost us 50.00 US dollars to have that done. We ate at Burger King that day. It was actually really good! We had to mail these forms we had notorized to the US so we found a post office to do that. But they don't sell envelopes so we had to find a place that did. Plus we wanted to copy the forms we had notorized for our records. That was so funny. We finally got that all figured out and went back to the post office to mail them. No one really spoke English that well so we aren't really sure if the letter will ever get there or not! When we got the postage for it...I started licking the stamps, but some of them wouldn't stick, and the guy pointed to a room that had a big board and lots of glue! OOHHH!! Then I started worrying about licking those stamps....and what was on the back of them that I licked.....I can't go there!! Hopefully, the letter gets there at some point!!
Thursday we went out to a members home with the missionaries. We decided to hire a car since it was so far away. That was really nice!! Her name is Jayanthi. She is a single mother who has 2 daughters. One is downs syndrome. Her home has been in the family for generations. She was very nice and made us some lunch. When you get to someones home, they bring you a drink on a tray. They bring the tray back when you are done and you put it back on there. Steve learned how to eat the Sri Lankan way.....with your hands! All the years that you told your kids not to do that....but in Sri Lanka, they are teaching their kids to do it! You mix all the things together and then you scoop it on your finger tips and push it into your mouth with your thumb. Steve loved that! There is always rice and usually some kind of chicken. She made some Dhal, which is some kind of a legume, that was really good. She also made some onions mixed with tomatoes and cucumbers that was really good. It was a great visit. The missionaries left a message and showed a video and then asked her for some names that might be interested in the gospel. They committed her to have family home evening in her home on Monday night. So we are going to go back and take part in that! It is so fun to learn about the Sri Lanka culture! Friday we made our way out to do some shopping at Arpico. Still can't find molasses, pumpkin, shortening, sour cream.....! I decided that when we got to peoples houses, I should take something. I decided to try Dawna Drakes banana muffin recipe. It was so yummy! We had President Anton and Ann over for an American dinner. She was going to cut Steve's hair! We made chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn from a can, jello with bananas and even whipping cream, fruit, and veges that we copied from Jayanthi! It was really yummy! We had ice cream and banana muffins for dessert! Always so fun to visit with them. They have amazing faith promoting stories from their lives that are so inspiring! Ann cut Steves hair and did a great job. I am getting closer to the time that I need to have my hair cut.....so nervous about that!! Saturday was really busy because we had several appointments! I made more banana muffins and some sugar cookies. I went with Eashani to see our Relief Society president, Darshany! She was a little discouraged so we went to see her. She is a wonderful woman who lives in a humble home. We had a great visit. She seemed happier and that was really nice. While I was there, Steve visited Sister Ru and her mother. She is a college graduate and returned missionary. Really great lady. Then I met Steve at Umanda and Santhush home. We met her grandmother in St George! She moved there to live with her daughter and we got to know them before we left. So that was really a treat! They had just gotten married about 7 months ago in the Manilla temple. They showed us all their wedding videos and photo books! Their marriage was a "Love Marriage" as they call it. That means it was not arranged. They asked us if we had a love marriage. Of course Steve had some crazy remark after that!! They made us a nice dinner of a shrimp dish and a chicken dish with the rice. They said they didn't put spice in it for me.......! But the chicken dish was so darn hot. I can't believe I am so darn wimpy! But it was a great visit! Her mother lives with her so we were able to visit with her as well. They are a fun couple and full of life. Sunday was another great day at church. As we got there to start the meeting, the Relief Society president came up to me and said the teacher for RS was sick and asked if I would teach it! SURE!! It turned out fine. The ladies are really great. I just had to stop every once in awhile so others could translate for the older women! We enjoy these people so much. They are so great! There are some who are less active in the ward. I think the main reason is they get offended very easily. There is sometimes a feeling of "class" dividing....or so some think. It is amazing the stories of miracles and faith...but then falling away. Satan is so real and so scary! He knows exactly what to do. We went to visit a family in the evening with the missionaries. They were once in the church. They have 3 beautiful daughters...ages 28, 21 and 14. They had a wonderful ( ok...yes....it was spicy) treat for us to eat there too! The dog was afraid of us....they said because he had never seen white people before! The oldest daughter spoke very good English and it was fun visiting with her. It was such a great evening. We learned about Cricket! And the world finals are coming up this week. Sri Lanka is one of the teams in the finals so everyone is so excited about it! March madness is happening here too!! This morning we talked to all the kids! Favorite part of the week! It really makes a difference being able to talk to them on Skype or FaceTime. It has made it so we have not had much culture shock or home sickness. It also helps that you have your best friend as your companion! We are happy and love our mission!