We started the week out with a death.  One of our less active members died on Monday.  His name was Rodney Perera.  He would have been 47 on Wednesday.  The doctors said he had a stroke.  His wife, Sonali and son, John were very upset.  It had happened so fast and unexpectedly. Sister Ann went with us to see the family at the mortuary. It is so hard to know what to say.  We are getting more comfortable in this type of situation.  This is our 4th death since we came to Sri Lanka.  At least we know how it feels to go through this sort of ordeal.
On Wednesday we went to Crow Island to visit one of our members, Quintus George.  He is a wonderful man that is very active in the branch.  He was a school teacher for many years so he and Elder Meyers had something in common. His daughter, Marina, is a member but less active.  She was at work when we went to visit.
We also saw several temples that were in the area.  One was a Hindu Temple, the other a Buddhist Temple and we saw a huge Catholic Church that was very old.  I think they said it was build in 1875.
When we told our English Class that we had been to Crow Island, they said that Crow Island is a bad place.  We found out that during the war several people had been killed in that area. It fit in with our theme that we were doing in class.  We were having the students ask: when, where, what, why, who and how questions. Then their partner would have to make up a story to answer the question that was asked.  The person asking the questions was visiting their friend who was in jail.  It was hilarious!  We had a lot of laughs.
On Thursday Sister Ann went with us to Negombo.  We went to say our goodbyes to the Fluckigers.  They will be going home at 3:00 a.m. on Monday, August 1st. We took them out to lunch at the Bijou Restaurant and we also attended the last English class that they taught here. We will miss them.  They have been very helpful in answering any and all questions that we had for them. We will be the only senior couple in Sri Lanka for ten days.
While we were in Negombo, Elder Meyers interviewed Sirani Padmini Korale Gamage for baptism.  She had walked into the Negombo Church several weeks ago and asked to be baptized. Brother and Sister Fluckiger visited with her and asked why she wanted to be baptized.  She said, "My son taught me about the Church in Malaysia and he is getting married in the temple in a year.  I want to go to his wedding."  The Fluckigers continued to teach her and she gained her own testimony.  At the interview she told Sister Fluckiger, "I thought I was doing this for my son but I know the Church is true and I am doing this for me."  She has a beautiful testimony of her Savior, Jesus Christ.  She was baptized today, Sunday, July 31st.
We have included the story that was told by President Anton.  He is our District President.  This story is just like President Anton.  He is a humble, gentle, and loving man.  He loves everyone.  We hope you enjoy the story.  It is in the August 2011 Liahona and also the August 2011 Ensign.



Krishnan in jail



Old Catholic Church in Crow Island



Buddhist Temple

Quintus George

Sirani and son

Jay & Sandra Fluckiger

Anton's Story

President Anton Kumarasamy

We have had highs and lows this week.  But we know the gospel is true, whatever happens.
The high for us this week was to hear that we were being blessed with a new grandchild.  Kyle, Wesley and Jonathen Skyped to tell us that Heather was having a baby in February.  Wesley and Jonathen were happy because they each got a new toy.  This will be Heather and Kyle's third child.  We love our grandchildren with all our hearts and are so happy that Heavenly Father has chosen to send  one of his choice spirits to our family.
The low for the week was that we had our first discussion to teach on Friday.  We had studied and prayed all week for success with Brother Matthew.  His wife is a member but he has a word of wisdom problem so he was not baptized when she was a few years ago.  Sister Jasmine, his wife, wants him to feel the Spirit and she feels that he can over come his word of wisdom problem if he will let the Spirit enter into his heart.  When we got to the home Sister Jasmine and the two girls were there.  Brother Matthew was not there.  She apologized for not calling.  She couldn't find our phone number.  We visited with her and the girls and left.  We told her that when Brother Matthew was ready for the discussions all he had to do was ask us and we would come running but he is the one who needs to ask.  That way we know he is ready.
Elder Meyers spent much of his time helping Elder Shammika Randeny.  The other couple, The Fluckigers, were helping him.  First of all they sent a bank draft in rupees.  Thailand would not take rupees so Elder Meyers used our credit card to fix that problem.  The next day the Fluckigers called and said that they were contacted by Thailand because the doctor that signed the physical form was not a doctor on the list of doctors to be used.  Elder Meyers contacted the mission home to get an approved list of doctors.  He sent those to Fluckigers and Elder Randeny got an appointment to see an approved doctor on Friday.  He stopped by the apartment to let us know that he was sending the physical to Thailand by DHL.  Hopefully that is behind us and he will be on his way to New Zealand where he will serve as a missionary.
We went to visit teach at Sister Sherine's home and also Sister Ann's home.  As we were returning to Colombo,  Elder Meyers took a picture of some of the beautiful scenery.  It reminds me of  South Carolina. So green and lovely!

Two of our apartment security force

Sri Lankan scenery

We are always surprised that the Lord continues to bless us in the simplest ways.  The other day we went to visit a few of the members.  Brother Shilo, the Colombo Branch Mission Leader, went with us.  He had never visited in most of the homes that we chose to visit.  He was as lost as we were as we searched for their addresses.  Sushantha drove us to Deliwala and we found Hagobian's address.  Hagobian is a young man that works at the Iraq Embassy here in Sri Lanka.  He was shocked to see us at his gate.  All homes have a fence and locked gate due to the violence in years passed.  Then we headed for the next home. We had a lot of problems finding it.  We finally turned down a lane and drove to the end of the lane.  We didn't see the address we were searching for.  I said a simple prayer in my mind and looked up and there was Dale replacing the light bulb in their outside lamp.  Dale is the teenage son of the family that we were looking for.  You might say that was just a coincidence but I think Heavenly Father was watching out for us and helped a little. We had a lovely visit with the family.  The father, Namal, is 1st counselor in  the district presidency.  His wife, Visaka, is a movie star here in Sri Lanka.  She is also the young women president in the branch.  Rowena, their daughter, is seventeen and is the branch chorister.  Dale, their son, is fourteen.  He is the life of the party when anyone ever has a party.  He is a good kid.  Rowena and Dale both attend our seminary class each week. Shilo knew where the next family lived, so the driver had no problems getting there.  Their son, Vino, just left a few weeks ago to serve a mission in California.  They live in a very small home.  It wasn't much larger than our living room at home.  Wonderful people that have lots of faith. We arrived just in time to see Sister Vinitha take a machete and cut open a green coconut. She held the coconut in her left hand and cut it open.  I was afraid she was going to cut her hand off. Next she took the two parts of the coconut into the kitchen and hooked up a hand grinder to her cutting board and turned the handle and it took out the coconut so quickly.  It was a lot faster than the way I did it a few weeks ago.  On our way home we saw an elephant walking down the road.  Sushantha pulled over so that Elder Meyers could get a picture of him and his handlers.  We assume they were walking to the temple for a Poya Day Celebration.
At church today we were asked to teach three different people.  Our first appointment is scheduled for Friday.  We are excited but a little scared.  Pray hard that the Spirit will guide us as we strive to teach these people.  We will need a translator for most of them. This makes it a lot harder to teach.

Bro Shilo-Branch Mission Leader

Namal, Dale, Rowena and Visaka

Vinitha cleaning out a fresh coconut

A real live elephant!

Our 4th of July was spent differently than we have ever spent it.  We almost forgot it was the 4th until Sister Primali emailed and wished us a happy 4th.
We have been involved in several different things this week but one of the best was going to Negombo for Elder Meyers to interview four people for baptism. Then the next day he interviewed Patricia here in Colombo for baptism.  It is awesome to see these wonderful people embrace the gospel.  We just hope that they remained true and faithful and endure to the end!
This evening we hired a driver and took Brother Muthu to visit one of his home teaching families.  This is a wonderful family that was very active at one point in their life.  They have been to the temple, served in many leadership positions, and due to trials and challenges have left the Church.  Brother Muthu shared a powerful testimony with them.  All of us had tears in our eyes as he testified of the truthfulness of the gospel and the reality of Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ.  The family consist of Brother Castro, Sister Darshiny, Cathburg (a 13 year old daughter), Jedrick (an 11 year old son) and Cazindra (a 9 year old daughter).  They asked that Elder Meyers bless their home and promised that they would see us at church. 
Yohan came to church again today.  He gave the opening prayer in Sacrament Meeting. We were so happy to see him participate.  Just a month ago he wasn't coming to church at all.
Elder Meyers attend a training meeting for auditors.  The couple doing the training is a senior couple serving out of Hong Kong.  They are the Taylors and they are from Nampa.  Several years ago Brother Taylor was our State Representative in Idaho. They knew Brad and Teresa Little.  It is always nice meeting people that know people that we know.
Life is good.  The gospel is true! We are happy serving the Lord!

Muniamina Alagan, Roshan, &
Vellusamy Ravikamar

Rose

Ernie

Patricia

Sister & Elder Taylor

Cazindra, Darshiny, Zedrick,
Cathburg & Castro

Life is interesting  here in Sri Lanka.  The members of the Church sometimes remind us of the early years of the Church.  Some are steady and very faithful.  Others are offended easily and fall away.  Those that fall away try to make problems for the Church.  In the Kandy area the branch president was hauled into the police station this week for questioning.  When we called Sister Kumari in Kandy to remind her of the seminary/institute inservice, she told us that she no longer was going to church and that someone else would need to be called as the teacher.  It breaks our hearts to see the people struggle like this.
As I think of our upcoming 4th of July in America, I am grateful to be an American who can worship as I please.  I don't have to go to the police station and be questioned by authorities there because I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Be grateful for what you have.  We Americans are indeed blessed!

We had the opportunity to visit with the Augustine family this week.  They live about forty five minutes from the Church.  We were scheduled to visit another family but that fell through so we called Brother Augustine and he was happy to have us come.  The Augustine family consist of the husband, Brother Jeffry, his wife, Sister Darshiny, and three sons, Abishek, Regno and Haran.  They are a faithful family.  Brother Augustine served for a few years as branch president.  He left the country to work for a  year.  He is happy to be home.  They said that they hadn't had any missionaries in their home for a year and a half.  They were pleased that we visited with them.  We enjoyed getting to know them better.


Regno, Bro Jeffry, Sis Darshiny, Haran & Abishek



Beautiful flowers of the area