Elder/Sister Meyers

This is a picture of an end of the year school party. We crossed a four lane road with eight lanes of traffic just to take this picture for you. The kids were enjoying themselves jumping in the jump houses and dancing to Christmas music. It was so hot but they were dancing their little hearts out and enjoying every moment.
The same day that we saw these children, Elder Meyers was able to snap a picture of the local bicycle bread man. This guy rides around from early morning ringing his bell and waiting for his customers to come buy his baked goods.
Since most schools are out, we too have slowed down. With no English classes and no seminary/institute to teach we are trying to get ourselves organized for the new year to start in January. We will be teaching Old Testament in seminary/institute this year. That should be a challenge for us but with the Lord's help we can do anything. We spent most of this week doing reports, preparing new lessons for our English class, and making flip charts with the 2012 songs that will be taught in Primary. I love the Sugardoodle web site!
We were invited to a wedding this weekend. This was an arranged wedding. Many of the weddings here are still arranged weddings. J. B. Anton, who is a Sri Lankan living in Canada, and Luxmy Balakrishnan were married in a Methodist Church.(This church was built around some graves.) Luxmy is a member of the church but has become less active. She is a wonderful girl and seems very happy about this marriage. Anton will return to Canada and she will join him when she is able to get a visa. They hope in the next 3 months that they will be together.
I was shocked at how elaborate the wedding and especially the reception was. Luxmy lives in a home with her parents, brother and aunt. The home is a small four room home made of cement and hardly meets their needs. We were told that many families do without and go into debt to host such huge weddings.
It was interesting to see new customs. The bride and groom are dressed about like any American at their wedding. When they go to the reception(here it is known as a Homecoming) they take pictures in the wedding dress and then the bride changes into a Saree and the groom wears a long white jacket with pants that match the brides Saree. Anton told me that he and Luxmy had to go to 10 different stores to find the right Saree. I told him he was lucky that he didn't have to go to 25 stores.
There were about 200 people at the reception. After the bride and groom changed into their Saree and matching outfit, they went around the room to each table and personally greeted each guest. Then a wonderful Sri Lankan dinner was served to everyone. Next there were pictures taken of each family with the couple. Many people handed the couple an envelope with money in it. We tried to just hand our envelope to the couple without the picture but they insisted that we take a picture with them.
Today at Primary Garrett and Riley made a big announcement. They told everyone that they were going to get a new baby at their house. Riley says it is a girl and Garrett says it is a boy. I said I think we had better tell mommy she is going to have twins.
Most people only have 2 children around here. They say they are unable to financially care for more than that. Sandi, Riley and Garrett's mom, just told me a few weeks ago that they weren't having anymore children because they couldn't afford it. She said the kids had told her that they wanted a new baby and she told them that she couldn't get one for them. They told her to just go to the hospital and they would give her a baby. Sandi was excited when she called us on Tuesday to tell us that she was pregnant. Sometimes the Lord knows what we all need and He is definitely in charge!