This week has been a rather down week for us.  We were all fired up after our visit with President and Sister Funk.  We had arranged for some visits with members and wanted to see some less active members.  Our week was planned out on Monday and we were ready to get started.  It seemed that no matter what we had planned  it fell apart.
Elder Kellerstrass called and asked us to come to Negombo on Thursday.  They had a sister that was ready for baptism and Elder Meyers needed to interview her.  We were suppose to leave here at 10 am but Elder Kellerstrass called at 9 am and said that Chandi was out of town and wouldn't be home until 4 pm.  We called Sister Ann who was going to drive us and she was able to make arrangements to drive us later.  When Ann showed up she wasn't in her car, she had borrowed a friend's car because hers had broken down. We just had to laugh because that was how our week went.  Anyway we got to Negombo and Sister Patirannahelage Chandima Lasanthi Weerasingle (Chandi) was interviewed.  Her baptism was suppose to be on Saturday and she was to be confirmed today, Sunday.  She flies back to her home in Rome, Italy on Monday.  The Kellerstrasses were so excited.  This was their first baptism. They have only been here three weeks. We were excited for them. Chandi walked into church the first Sunday they were there and asked for the lessons. 
We went shopping on Saturday.  We had planned on going to the beach but it was raining.  I needed some new sandals.  I was able to buy two pairs for 1600 rupees or about $16.00.  While shopping we saw a pool of fish in the mall.  It was nice to get out and enjoy ourselves.  Afterwards we stopped by Baskin Robbins for an ice cream cone.
Today, Sunday, was filled with our normal activities of church.  The pianist didn't show for Sacrament so I got to play.  Sister Premila, our Primary President, was sick so I got to teach her class. Sister Nimali didn't come to play the piano in primary so I had the opportunity to play and try to get the children to sing at the same time.  It all worked out.
We know that the Lord loves us and we are learning how to handle different situations when things don't always go the way we had planned.  The main thing is we must keep smiling and never give up.  We know the Lord will provide for His work to move forward!

Sister Kellerstrass, Sister Chandi and
Elder Kellerstrass

Pool at Majestic City Mall filled with fish

We started the week having dinner with our Chinese friends.  All three of them are here in Sri Lanka teaching Chinese at a school.  Their English names are Susan, Helen and Gobin.  They invited us to their home and served a wonderful meal.  Gobin lives in another apartment but he made two dishes and brought them. It was different from what we expected but it was great!  They asked if we used chopped sticks and we said no.  They brought these small bowls out and put in front of each of us.  They gave us a spoon and fork to use.  They each had chop sticks.  Two friends came in just as we started to eat and joined us.  They were Chinese so they used chop sticks also.  Scott and I put a small amount of food in our bowls and ate as normal.  They all reached over to the plate of food they wanted to eat and took it in their chop stick then they would eat it and reach again and take more food and eat it.  I thought that was interesting.  I guess the bowl was just for catching any food that happened to drop.
It was a great experience to be in their home!
We home teach and visit teach Sister Sherine and her two children, Shanuka and Shamindri.  We told them several weeks ago that we wanted to have them over to our house for an American cooked meal.  They came to lunch on Tuesday.  They brought Loretta, who is Sherine's mother.  Loretta is a member but less active.  We invited her to Church.  She said she would come but she didn't come today.  We enjoyed having them over.  I made tacos for them.  Sherine is a vegetarian but she ate the veggies in her taco shell and loved it!  Elder Meyers taught Shanuka how to tie a tie.  He came to Church today with his tie tied perfect.  Shanuka was proud of himself.
We went shopping and bought a new camera.  It is similar to the other one but just a bit different that we have to think about what we are doing.  We are glad to be able to once again take pictures of people and our activities.
President and Sister Funk came to town late Thursday evening.  Scott arranges their driver for them while they are in Sri Lanka.  We went with them to Negombo for training with the Kellerstrasses on Friday.  Around one we stopped the training and went to lunch at, "The Bijou."  We all enjoyed ourselves and wanted a nap after we had eaten.  President Funk wouldn't allow that. He interviewed each couple. I guess we could have taken our nap when he interviewed the Kellerstrasses.  I think they were with him for an hour and a half. It was a wonderful day!  It is nice to be with Americans that truly speak our language. On the way home we stopped at McDonald's and had a Big Mac.  That is the first one we have had since we left home. 
Saturday  was General Priesthood Meeting for all the brethren.  President Anton asked me to play the piano for them.  I played the opening song and left to attend a training that Sister Funk was doing for the Colombo District Primary Presidency.  Sister Funk's stake in Colorado had prepared materials for each branch in the India Bangalore Mission.  There a 27 branches in the mission. The materials were for sharing time and music time in primary.  Sister Funk was training the district so that they can train the branch primary presidencies.  I was so excited to get some new materials to use in my own calling as 2nd counselor in the primary.  We had a fun time being children and being trained in using these materials.
Today, Sunday, we went to Church as usual.  President Sunil spoke on the establishment of the first branch in Sri Lanka.  That happened 34 years ago today.  He was in attendance at that meeting.  He later became the first district president.  He is a wonderful, gentle, kind and humble man.  He reminds us of Brother Theron Hall. 
We had several visitors at Church today.  One was the Jim Smith family.  They live in Charlotte, NC.  Sister Smith was here visiting with her family.  She was raised in Sri Lanka. One fellow was from Hong Kong, originally from Australia.  He was here on business. The interesting one was a mother, Nandika and her two sons, Roshen and Ashen.  She just walked into the Church and said she wanted to attend to see what it was like.  She stayed for all three meetings.  Roshen and Ashen came to primary and seemed to enjoy themselves as much as 8 and 11 year old boys do.  I asked Nandika how she liked it and she said she would come back next week.  We are starting an investigators class next week.  At least Scott is.
We are thrilled with our English Classes.  We hold three each week.  The last few weeks we have had 30-32 people each week.  We feel the Spirit so strong as we teach English.  The Lord truly blesses us as we do our part.


The Bijou resturant



Sister Funk training Sister Lilani



Kellerstrasses after 2 weeks in Sri Lanka

One of our goals this week was to get some of our visiting teaching and home teaching done.  That is a chore with people living so far away.  We had no problem seeing Sister Sherine and her kids.  Of course it helped that we had been there before.  We decided to find out where Sister Rosemary and Brother Harrold lived.  We thought we had their recent address but when we got to the place they were suppose to live there was no such address.  We called several different people and finally got a working phone number for them.  They had shifted so Anura turned the tri-shaw around and headed for their area.  After making about five calls to them, we finally located the home.  We enjoyed our visit with Brother Harrold and daughter, Kate.  Sister Rosemary was gone to get their special needs son from school.
Tuesday all three of our Chinese English students came up to us after class and invited us to their home for dinner.  They decided that tomorrow, Monday, would be the best time for them.  We said that would be a great time for us also.  We got a text from them today.  They asked if we drank beer.  Elder Meyers and I just laughed and text them back and let them know that we didn't drink any alcohol.  We're looking forward to being able to visit these special people away from our English class where we can talk about religion.
I made chocolate chip cookies this week.  I think Elder Meyers thought he was in heaven for a few minutes as he tasted those cookies.  They don't have chocolate chips here but we found some good chocolate squares and cut them into tiny pieces and used those.  They were pretty good!
We're zooming in on studying "Preach My Gospel."  One day we pray that we will have someone to teach and we want to do our part to be prepared.  It will be great to get young missionaries back into Sri Lanka.  We hope to see that before our mission is over.  We can teach the discussions but we also have many other things that we are assigned to do as part of our calling.
President Anton and Sister Ann came to dinner with their family tonight.  They brought their two nieces, Codi and Milli, who they are raising, Ann's sister, Mary, who is visiting from England and Papa K, who is President Anton's father. We had a great time together.  After dinner we played Uno.
Sorry there are no pictures this week.  Our camera was stolen today.  Elder Meyers put the camera in the seminary closet at church and forgot to lock it.  When he went down after Sacrament to get something out of the closet he discovered it was missing.   Needless to say we were a little upset.  Maybe who ever stole it needs it worse than we do.  We will be going to the Kodak shop to get a new camera this week. 
Have a great week!

Elder Jack Kellerstrass &
 Sister Pamela Kellerstrass

The big event of the week was trying to figure out when to go to the airport and pick up the new couple.  They left Salt Lake on Monday and were suppose to land in Sri Lanka at 6:15 am on Wednesday.  When they got to Chicago they emailed us to let us know that their plane was delayed coming out of Salt Lake so the flight plans were all screwed up.  They said they would let us know more when they landed in London.  We kept waiting but never heard from them again.  We finally called the travel agency in Salt Lake to see where the Kellerstrasses were and when we could plan on them getting to Sri Lanka.  Elder Meyers woke up the on call agent and she told us it looked like they would arrive on Thursday at 9:30 am.  We also called the Sri Lankan Airlines here and they had the same information. So we left our apartment at 8 am and headed for the airport.  They came into our view about 10:30 am.  We recognized them easily and they were excited to see us.  Sister Ann was at the airport picking up her sister so she came over and introduced herself.  We loaded all nine of their bags into the van and headed for their apartment in Negombo.  They were so excited and full of energy.  We visited for a while and then went to the Bijou Restaurant for lunch.  After lunch we took them to the bank to get some rupees and then headed to Arpico for groceries. After showing Sister Kellerstrass how to clorox all of her fruits and veggies so that they wouldn't get sick, we said our goodbyes and headed back to Colombo.  The Kellerstrasses were exhausted by this time and their energy had left them.  The next morning they called and told us that their power was off.  Come to find out, the whole neighborhood had lost power and it was off most of the day.  They are a wonderful couple and will be awesome here in Sri Lanka.  Their mission is for two years.  They are from Reno, Nevada.
We carried on with other activities this week.  One of those activities was another planning meeting with Brother Jeffries and Sister Sherine.  They are the district young men and young women presidents.  We got the youth conference all planned and we were feeling really good about it.  When Brother Jeffries presented it to the district for approval they decided they would change the date and give the adults time to get off of work.  Now we don't know when it will be.  At least it is planned and now we just have to carry it out and make a few more assignments.
Saturday Elder Meyers and I carried out the Colombo Branch Primary Activity Day for the 8-11 year old boys and girls.  We always work on the Articles of Faith and this time we talked about obeying the laws of our country and then we discussed the food pyramid and cooked and served a meal.  We had two girls and four boys.  They seemed to really enjoy themselves.  We made tacos, which none of them had ever had.  Sister Eshani came up to me at church today and thanked me for making her son so happy.  She said he really enjoyed the activity.  That always make us feel good when a child goes home and tells their parents about what went on.
Life is good and we are happy serving the Lord!  We feel of your prayers daily.  Some days it feels as if the Savior and Heavenly Father are encircling us in their arms and guiding our thoughts and actions.

We have had a busy week!  It started out on Monday.  We met with the young men and young women district presidents.  They wanted our help to plan a youth conference that will be held the end of August.  The first thing was to decide where to have the conference, how many days and nights to have it and how many youth were going to attend.  Elder Meyers and I suggested that they have rotational classes that used an object lesson and then give a spiritual message that would center around the theme that had been chosen.  The theme for the conference is: "Be in the World but not of the World." We suggested that we have eight rotational classes with each class lasting thirty minutes. We were each given our assignments to do and we will meet together again this Tuesday.  Our assignment was to gather ideas for the rotational classes. 
Tuesday Sister Ann and Sister Shanti came and I showed them how to make bread.  They formed their own pan of rolls and baked them.  I had made Taco Soup so they stayed for lunch with us. We made the bread dough and while it was raising Sister Ann cut our hair.  It was a wonderful day filled with lots of laughs.  These two ladies are a lot of fun to be with.  Shanti feels uncomfortable speaking English but she does just fine.  If I can understand her anyone can.
Wednesday we held our English Class.  After class Dinuka, one of our students, surprised us with a demonstration on the Jack Fruit Tree.  He began by telling us the uses for the tree.  He said it is used for medicine, wood to make furniture and roofing, and it is used as food.  Sri Lankans make lots of curry from the fruit and nut of the tree. His mother had made food from the Jack Fruit and she also made sambal, a spicy coconut mixture.  He brought banana leaves that he had formed into a plate to serve everything on. Another student, Nishanta, who is a baker brought a couple of loaves of bread to dip into the sambal and curry. We were so touched that these men would do all of this just for us.  After we ate, we walked out to go home and it was pouring down rain.  We all waited on the porch of the Church.  Helen, a student from China, sang a Chinese love song for you in Chinese.  It was beautiful.  We could feel the Spirit so strong, even thought we couldn't understand a word.
Thursday we left our apartment at 9:30 in the morning.  Anura picked us up in his tri-shaw.  He took us to Sister Carmarleeta's home.  It took us a little over an hour to get there.  We surprised her.  We don't call when we go visiting because they spend all day cooking and cleaning if you do.  She can speak English but prefers to speak in Singhala so Anura translated for us.  She stays with her daughter and her family.  She babysits while her daughter works. She served us chocolate milk and bananas.  We had a nice visit with her. She showed us her garden and lovely yard with many fruit trees. As we were leaving her home she ran back in and gave us a bunch of bananas.
After leaving Carmarleeta's home Anura stopped to buy something at a store.  There was a tri-shaw parked in front of the store with a sheet of metal hanging over the edge.  Anura didn't see this and he walked into the metal.  His left eyelid was sliced open.  We weren't far from his house so we went and picked up his wife, Renuka.  Anura drove all of us to the hospital.  The doctor came in and put three stitches in the eyelid.  The doctor didn't deaden the lid at all. When that was over we went back to Anura and Renuka's home.  They served us something that looked like a donut, but not sweet, sambal, and bananas.  Anura cut the top off of a coconut for each of us and we enjoyed our first taste of delicious coconut milk.  Renuka doesn't speak any English. I was  a little worried about visiting with her.  She isn't a member and sometimes gives Anura a hard way to go about the Church. She and I hit it off like we had known each other all our life.  We laughed and had a fun time together. She loves to dance so I told Anura that he needed to dance with her.  He laughed and said, "I'll try, Sister Meyers." Renuka asked for a blessing before we left.  She asked that we come back and visit again.  Anura and Renuka have a son and a daughter but they were away at work and school. As we left their home they gave us a watermelon.
The next stop was Rosemary and Chubby's home.  Rosemary has been a member for 17 years.  Chubby is her 23 year old daughter, who has Downs.  Chubby loves to dance to Michael Jackson music.  Her mother was telling us about how Chubby danced each evening.  I said, "Chubby dance for us." She disappears and comes back all dressed in a bandanna and her dancing outfit.  She turns the music up loud and starts to dance.  We start clapping and yelling.  She thinks this is great! Rosemary is a very faithful member that is always helping people out with food or money.  Her husband isn't a member but he is very supportive of her and Chubby. Like everyone else, she insist on feeding us.  We had bananas, sugar wafers and pop.
Saturday Brother Patrick Cheuk came to our apartment for inservice with all the seminary and institute teachers.  Elder Meyers gave an awesome lesson.  Brother Patrick is our Seminary and Institute Supervisor.  He is a calm, gentle, and spiritual man.  He is a stake president in Hong Kong. After inservice we had lunch that I had made for everyone.  Then it was time to head to the Church to teach seminary/institute.  Brother Patrick went with us.  I had promised the students brownies.  They don't get things like this very often so they were excited.  It was a good class and they loved meeting Brother Patrick. At 6pm Brother Patrick took President Anton, Sister Ann, Elder Meyers and myself out to dinner at Hotel 168, which is Chinese Restaurant.  Brother Patrick ordered for all of us.  It was great!
We were exhausted after all these busy days.  I looked at our email after coming home from dinner and discovered a message from Sister Premila, our primary president.  She wasn't going to be at chuch today so she was asking if I could conduct primary and also teach her lesson. It all worked out just fine!


Dinuka doing his Jackfruit demonstration




Class eating Jackfruit dinner



Sister Carmaleeta

Anura & Renuka

Chubby dancing!

Sister Rosemary & Chubby

Sister Meyers drinking a Coconut

Brother Patrick Cheuk

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