We left the MTC on Monday, January 10th. We went to Salt Lake Airport on a bus with several other Elders and Sisters. We all went our separate ways. We landed in San Francisco and had to take the air train to our next terminal. That was interesting trying to figure out where we needed to go. Thank goodness we had a three hour lay over to figure things out. We got out of San Francisco around 4:30 pm their time. The next part of the flight was interesting. There were about 500 people on this huge plane.
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| Plane to Dubai |
We had around 11 infants aboard and 30 other children between the ages of 2 and 10. The flight to Dubai was around 16 hours. We were so glad to hear the announcement that the plane would be landing in Dubai shortly. We got a little sleep during the night, but it seemed some infant was always crying. When we got to Dubai, we had a 7 hour lay over there. The terminal was beautiful.
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| Dubai Terminal |
It was so clean. There was an attendant in each rest room. The attendant was constantly cleaning up after people. Our last plane took us to Colombo. When we landed we had to go through immigration. Then pick up our luggage which seemed to take forever! As we walked out of the terminal we were ever so happy to see two white faces smiling back at us and they actually had name tags on from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That was Elder and Sister Fluckiger. They walked us to the curb and introduced us to President Anton and his wife, Sister Ann. They had their two nieces with them, Cody and Milly. It was great! A van soon arrived at the curb and we quickly loaded in our suitcases. We were so excited to go to our apartment so we could get some rest. To our surprise we were going to go to a wedding reception. We stopped by Fluckigers apartment in Negombo and freshen up a bit. We were so sleepy we weren't sure where we were. After about a half and hour we headed to the reception. The people here in Sri Lanka call it a Home Coming.
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| Bride and Groom |
The couple had been married the day before at the chapel. We waited for the bride and groom to arrive. It was suppose to start at 11:30 but it was after noon before they arrived. I guess time isn't too important to the people around here. We did get to meet and visit with several members of the church. They treated us like royalty. Many of them were
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| Sri Lanka saris |
dressed in their saris. They were beautiful and very colorful. The bride wasn't dressed in her wedding gown but she was dressed in a red sari. I am told the bride always wears red at her Home Coming. We finally arrived at our apartment around 5:30 pm. President Anton had to go to work. He is a doctor. Sister Ann got a trishaw and took us shopping. She was very helpful. We got just enough to get us by for a couple of days. At last we are in our apartment alone. We are exhausted!!! At 7:30 pm we collapse on our bed and fall asleep. We wake up around 2 am and get up and unpack our suitcases and organize a few things and climb back in bed. We woke up at 7 am and got going. We felt a lot better after a little sleep.
The next day President Anton came over and answered many of our questions. We still aren't sure exactly what we are doing but President Anton says he will go over things in detail with us next week. President Anton is the District President.
We also have a CES Director. That is Patrick Cheuk. He is in Hong Kong. We skyped with him and he also said he would get back with us next week.
President Funk is our Mission President. We haven't heard from him yet. He is traveling this week so he will probably get in touch with us next week too.
Our apartment is great! We have a large living room with a balcony off of it. The balcony has two picnic tables and chairs. We had breakfast out there yesterday. We also have a dining room, small kitchen, laundry work, cleaning room, office, two bedrooms, the master bedroom has a balcony off it. There are drying racks on this balcony. We have a small washer but no dryer so we hang our clothes on drying racks on the balcony. We have 2 and 1/2 bathes. The apartment building is a 7 story building. We live on the first floor but there is a garage underneath us. There is a gym upstairs a on the 7th floor and patio the length of the building. We go up there most evenings and walk around. No one is allowed up to our apartment unless the downstairs attendant calls and ask us if it is OK.
The country is nice and green. It has lots of trees and shrubbery. The scariest thing is the driving. They have a 3 lane road and you look up and they are making it a 5 lane road. Motorcycles are dodging in and out. Elder Meyers and I hold on for dear life.
We have ventured out a couple of times by ourselves. This morning we walked a few blocks and discovered a fruit and vegetable open air market. We were grateful to find that. We purchased some fruits and vegetables. Now we feel we might actually be able to survive.
We were without computer access for a few days. We were so happy when we were able to Skype our family and hear their voices and see their faces. We were informed that my Dad was near death. The doctor expects him to go in the next few days. He hasn't eaten or taken a drink since Monday. My heart aches that I'm not there but I know I am where I need to be. When he passes away three of our children, Jason, Mandy and Parker are planning on attending the funeral services in South Carolina. I was suppose to do the Eulogy but our daughter, Mandy, has agreed to do that. I wrote it and now she will deliver it. Scott was suppose to dedicate the grave but our son, Jason will dedicate the grave. We are grateful that these children are able to attend the service and represent my side of the family.
The Church is true! Hurray for Israel!!
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