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









Elder Vino with his mom and dad

Tomorrow marks our sixth month anniversary on our mission.  One of our first assignments was to get Elder Vino, Rumesh Kumar Ramiah, into the mission field.  He will leave tomorrow to enter the MTC in Provo.  He has been called to serve in the California, Santa Rosa Mission.  He is so excited to  get going.  His parents are also excited to see him enter the mission field.  We are happy that our assignment in this area is complete.  Elder Meyers has worked hard to make sure everything is in order and runs smoothly as Vino leaves Sri Lanka for two years of service to the Lord.
We had a few hours this week to do a little sight seeing.  We went out to Beira Lake and walked around the Buddhist Temple on the lake and we also walked around the children's island.  It actually looked like lover's lane to us. We saw a lizard about three feet long on the island.  We thought the grandchildren might enjoy seeing a picture of it. After that we went to the large Buddhist Temple a few blocks away.  It also had a museum.  There was also a live elephant.  The elephant kept spraying water all over itself and everyone that was near.  It was nice to get out and see some of the beauties of the city.
We are healthy and happy that we are able to serve the Lord and His people here in Sri Lanka.

Live elephant

Monitor lizard

Bridge to Children's Park

Buddhist Island Temple

Buddhas at the museum

Buddha elephant draped with jewelry

We are excited about all the things that we have been involved in this week. 
 We had a Colombo Branch Primary Activity on Wednesday.  We told scripture stories and had role plays with them.  The children enjoyed games and doing the Hokey Pokey.  There were about ten children in attendance.  The children and parents enjoyed the refreshments and visiting. 
On Friday President and Sister Funk came to our apartment for lunch.  Elder and Sister Fluckiger, the other senior couple here in Sri Lanka, joined us.  They brought three young men with them so they could interview with President Funk. Two of the young men are getting their paper work in to serve a mission.  I made chicken noodle soup, homemade rolls, and chocolate cake with ice cream.  I thought the young men were going to pop from eating so many rolls.  The Sri Lankan people love bread!
Saturday was the first day of the Colombo District Conference.  Elder Anthony D. Perkins, a member of the First Quorum of Seventy, was the presiding authority. It was interesting to us that his father is our son Jason's bishop.  He is a wonderful man and we loved hearing all of his stories.  He told of two missionaries that were riding their bikes in Japan when the Tsunami hit.  They were near the Church so they rode as fast as they could go.  They reached the Church and ran up to the second floor.  The water was coming in rapidly.  They climbed onto the roof.  When things settled down, everything in the area was destroyed except for the Church.  Elder Perkins said, we all know that the Church was saved because there were two elders on the top of it. As he told this story he had tears in his eyes.
 Elder Meyers and I were invited to a luncheon on Saturday before the conference started.  Sister Ann had it catered.  It was a lovely luncheon with fried rice, lemon chicken, something that looked like collards but it was spicy, tossed salad, potato salad and a custard for dessert.  After lunch we attended the Priesthood and Auxiliary Training that was given by Elder Perkins, President Funk, Sister Funk and Robert William.  The Adult Meeting was held after that.  Many people got the opportunity to speak.  Thank goodness we didn't. 
 Today, Sunday, we went to Negombo with Elder Perkins, President and Sister Funk and Robert William.  We thought there was going to be a change in the district presidency but there wasn't. It was a wonderful day!  I played the piano for several of the songs during the meetings.  After the meetings we went to lunch at the Fluckigers.  We arrived home about 8 pm this evening.  We're tired but it feels awesome!
Our high light of the week was when Yohan, our repair man for our air conditioner and refrigerator, called Elder Meyers and said, "I'm outside the Negombo Church."  I have been teasing Elder Meyers that things are breaking just so Yohan has to come to the apartment and repair it.  Yohan is a returned missionary but he married out of the Church and has become less active.  A few weeks ago when he was at our place Elder Meyers told him about the conference.  He said, "I should go."  We were shocked that he actually came.  He was greeted by the members with open arms. Our hearts were filled with gratitude as we watched Yohan being hugged and welcomed by his brothers and sisters in the gospel.

Primary Activity

Lunch with Elder Perkins

Yohan

Elder & Sister Meyers with Elder Perkins

This has been a week of highs and lows. 
When it was time to teach our English class, it was pouring down rain.  Many of the regulars didn't show due to the rain.  We were amazed to have eight new students for the class.  We so enjoy meeting new people but we have a terrible time pronouncing their names.  We have learned most of their names after a lot of practice.
We finally got our air conditioner put in.  We have been without an air conditioner in the front room for over five weeks. I'm glad you weren't here to see how we dressed during those five weeks of unbearable heat!
We held a Young Single Adult Fireside at our apartment today.  There were five young single adults in attendance.  We had a nice luncheon that I had prepare with mashed potatoes, gravy, fried chicken, cabbage salad, veggie tray, fruit tray and chocolate cake for dessert.  We planned to have ice cream also but our fridge is having problems and the ice cream melted.  We enjoyed watching Sister Rosemary Wixom, Primary General President.

The repairman that does the air conditioner and refrigerator is a less active member of the Church.  He served a mission a few years ago in Singapore. Every time he comes here to repair something we talk to him about the Church.  We invited him to District Conference next week.  He said he just might come.  I told Elder Meyers that everything is breaking just so Yohan can come and talk with us.  You can feel that he is ready to come back but a little afraid to make problems with his family.


Hagobian, John and in front V



Achala



It has been a week filled with lots of joy and rewards.  Vino and Elder Meyers spent most of this week off and on filling out paper work and going different places to arrange for Vino to get his visa to America.  On Friday he had his interview with the USA Embassy.  He was so excited when he called us to tell us that all went well.  He can pick up his passport with his USA visa stamp on Monday.  He can hardly wait to get started as a missionary in California. His excitement rubs off on us!
Our air conditioner in the front room has been out for a month now.  We finally got the landlord to agree to let us replace it with a bigger size that will cool all the area that is open.  He should give us the money back when we do a new lease in July but President Anton says that he will tell you that and not always follow through.  We hope to get most of the money back but right now and air conditioner would be nice.  We have gotten used to the weather and the sweating without the AC but it is still a lot nicer to have the AC.
Elder Meyers taught inservice to the seminary/institute teachers on Friday.  Sister Kumari was unable to attend because she was moving.  Sister Sheron was the only teacher in attendance other than myself.  We had a nice meeting and lunch.  I made tacos.  She had never had a taco and she loved it!  She ate three of them.  She came at 8:30 am because that is when her husband went to work and left at 6:30 pm when he got off of work.  We had a fun day visiting.  She took a nap while we taught an institute class at 3 pm.
Tonight we went to President Anton and Sister Ann's home for dinner.  They had fried rice, potatoes with coconut milk, chicken in a tomato sauce, and ice cream for dessert.  We had a wonderful visit.  It was nice to see where they live and to feel the special spirit that was in their home.  They live in an area where about five houses are connected together.  All the people that live there are related to them in one way or another.  They also let people that are needing medical assistance come and stay with them free of charge.  Of course President Anton is a doctor and most of those people are his patients.  President Anton and Sister Ann are wonderful people!  I don't know what we would do without their help and assistance.  As we go to leave they walk us to the tri-shaw and tell us that they love us.  It's a wonderful feeling to be able to return, "I love you too!"

Sis Sheron, seminary teacher in Negombo

Anton's cousin taking a nap

Papa K, Codi, Pres Anton, Milli, & Sis Ann

Kumarasamy Family with
Elder and Sister Meyers