Waves crashing below the dinner table

Our week started with Maljini inviting us to dinner at the Sea Spray Restaurant.  This is the view that we saw as we sat in our seats enjoying  dinner.  We had our choice from the wonderful buffet.  We even had squid for the first time.  It was pretty tasty but a little spicy.  Of course most Sri Lankan food is spicy.  We were entertained

Sea Spray Band

by a live band that actually played and sang songs that we knew.  It was a wonderful relaxing evening with our friend Maljini!
On Wednesday afternoon Anura called and said that he had a gift for us.  He asked if we would be free after English class.  He wanted to drive us around Colombo when it got dark and show us all the beautiful decorations for Vesak.  He picked us up around 6pm and we had a wonderful time as he drove us through the streets of Colombo.  Here are a few of the sights that we saw:

Vesak is the most hallowed of  Buddhist festivals, celebrating the Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death, all of which are believed to have occurred on this one day. It is kinda like our Christmas.  Anura was so excited to be able to give a gift to us.  We loved the evening and Anura felt great giving to us!
We love going into the people's humble homes.  We were asked by Sister Jasmine to go to her friend's home and give her a blessing.  Her friend has breast cancer.  As we went into this humble home, we could feel God's love for his children.  Elder Meyers and Anura gave her a blessing.  She was most grateful to have us in her home and to pray for her.  She was concerned for her husband who had to quit his job to care for her and the two children.

Dashinya, Nirmala Peter & Ethan Frank

Dashinya is five years old.  Ethan is only two years old.  You can imagine the struggle for this family as they deal with Mom having cancer and no job to support the family.  They have a great attitude and we feel that they will be blessed as they battle this disease.
We were happy to see new faces at church today.  There is an American family that has moved into the branch.  Their names are Emily and Ben Whittaker.  They have two sons, Jack who is five and Thomas who is almost three.  Ben is working at the US Embassy here in Colombo.  They will be stationed here for two years.  They have both served missions, so they should be very helpful to the branch.
It was Mother's Day today.  They don't usually do much for Mother's Day here in Sri Lanka.  But today the primary children sang in Sacrament Meeting and all the talks were on mothers.  The Young Women had made cards for all of the mothers and also

Flowers from Mandy

donuts.  I made muffins for all the women and the primary children took them to Relief Society and handed them out.  It was a wonderful day for all the women at church.
This week I have been studying the book of Job.  In my study guide I came across the following thought.
The Lord finally answered Job's prayers.  He did not seem, however, to answer the questions Job and his friends raised, like: Why was Job suffering?  Instead, the Lord gave answers in the form of more questions.  The answers to the Lord's questions give us perspectives about God and life that are very important to people facing trials in their lives.
Elder Richard G. Scott said the following:  "When you face adversity, you can be led to ask many questions.  Some serve a useful purpose; others do not.  To ask, Why does this have to happen to me?  Why do I have to suffer this now?  What have I done to cause this?  will lead you into blind alleys.  It really does no good to ask questions that reflect opposition to the will of God.  Rather ask,  What am I to do?  What am I to learn from this experience?  What am I to change?  Whom am I to help?  How can I remember my many blessings in times of trial?..
"This life is an experience in profound trust--trust in Jesus Christ, trust in His teachings trust in our capacity as led by the Holy Spirit to obey those teachings.... To trust means to obey willingly without knowing the end from the beginning.  To produce fruit, your trust in the Lord must be more powerful and enduring than your confidence in your own personal feelings and experience."