Sis Lilani

Today in Sacrament Meeting Elder Meyers was sustained as District High Councilman in the Sri Lanka Colombo District.  Sister Meyers was sustained as Second Counselor in the Sri Lanka Colombo District Primary Presidency .  Sister Lilani was sustained as the president.  President Anton set us apart after meetings.  He gave both of us a powerful blessing.  He also blessed our family to have all that they needed while we were here in Sri Lanka.  It was a beautiful blessing for all of us!
It is Easter today but they don't celebrate much here for Easter.  We stuffed plastic eggs that we found.We were going to have an egg hunt but it was raining so we just rolled them and let each kid get one.  They thought that was great!
It has rained over four inches here in Colombo in the last twenty four hours.  When it rains it comes down so hard.  I love watching it rain.  I have to learn to take my umbrella with us more often.
Our English Class with the Sri Lankan Air Force men started on Tuesday.  There were only two men in attendance but we enjoyed the class.  I guess they went back to work and told all the men that it was great.  Brother Nihal, their boss, says that more should be in attendance this week.
President Anton called Tuesday morning and asked us to go to the hospital and give Sister Rosemary's father a blessing.  President Anton  had called Anura and asked him to pick us up and take us to the hospital.  Anura helped Elder Meyers give the blessing.  Anura has only been a member of the Church for four years.  He always gets a little nervous about doing things like that but he does fine. Rosemary's sisters were there and thanked us for coming.
We also went to a few more stores this week but didn't find anything that was any better than where we already shop.  We did discover the lake that Elder Meyers took a picture of for our blog.  The country is beautiful and we want to do a little more sight seeing as we get things situated.

Colombo Primary egg roll

Lake Beira in downtown Colombo

We were so busy this week.  We were able to get out and visit some of the members.  We visited with Sister Sherin and her family.  We are her visiting teacher and home teacher.  We were told that her less active husband doesn't let many people in his home but we met him and he seemed to be okay with us being there.  He didn't stay but he welcomed us and left. Sherin has been a member for 17 years, I think that is what she told me.  She served a mission to the Philippines.  She has two children, a 14 year old son, Shanuka and an 11 year old daughter, Shamendri.  We had a fun visit.  Shumendri calls her brother the walking encyclopedia. They loved the banana nut bread I took them.
This week is New Years for the Sri Lankans.  New Years was on Thursday.  That was the day that we traveled to Negombo to interview a family of 5.  Four of them were getting baptized. They were a lovely family.  Some didn't speak too much English so we had to have a translated go with us.  He was the Branch Mission Leader from Negombo.  It was very difficult to get a driver to take us on New Years.  Ajith said that everyone wanted $70.00 to make the trip.  He rearranged his scheduled and took us himself for $45.00.  The Lord takes care of his servants.
President and Sister Funk came to Colombo late Thursday night.  On Friday they met with Elder and Sister Fluckiger and Scott and I for training.  I wasn't looking forward to the training but it was wonderful.  We got so many questions answered. We truly felt of the Funks love for us and our family.  When President Funk interviewed us he asked about each of our children and how they were doing.  We could feel the Spirit so strong as we talked about our love for our family and the great desire to be the Lord's servants here in Sri Lanka.  
After our training on Friday, the Fluckigers came and spent the night with us.  We had a great time visiting and getting to know them better.  Elder Fluckiger is a big teaser.  He reminds me of my Dad.  They told us that their replacements had been called.  They are from Reno and their names are Kellerstrauss.  The Fluckigers will be leaving the first of August and the new couple will be arriving the middle of August.  We are glad to know that they have another couple coming.
Saturday we attended the Priesthood/Auxiliary Training for the District.  After the training we had lunch and waited around for seminary/institute class at 3 pm.  Then at 6 pm we attended a fireside for all prospective missionaries. A wonderful day of training for all.
Today was Sunday.  We taught out Temple Prep Class.  Sister Funk attended our class.  Then she went to Primary with me and helped with the music.  All I had to do was just play the piano, not play and led at the same time.  It was great!  The Funks came home with us and had lunch with us.  We have come to really appreciate them as our Mission President and his wife.
Know that we love you and think of you often but we are happy and know that we are where we need to be at this time of our life.  We love busy weeks!!

Collin(father), Udeni(mother) and two daughters
Shalomi and Kaushalya who were baptized, with
little brother Iron



Nishan & Sandy with Riley and Garrett

 We had our first invitation to dinner from one of the local members.  We had a lovely dinner with Nishan, Sandi, Riley and Garrett.  Nishan and Sandi are both return missionaries.  Nishan is a counselor in the Branch Presidency.  We had a lovely dinner of salad, curried potatoes, shrimp and hoppers.  Hoppers remind me of Top Ramon noodles.  We had ice cream for dessert.  We enjoyed the dinner but especially enjoyed being with this special family!
On Wednesday we were invited to a Family History Training Session.  A missionary couple serving in Hong Kong, The Gibbs, came and trained us with three other sisters from the Colombo Branch.  The Internet kept closing down on them so they were frustrated and unable to do all that they wanted to do. 
The last two days we have had the opportunity to hear General Conference.  It was wonderful to hear the Lord's servants and to listen to their advice and warnings.  In seminary and institute we have been talking about how the prophets warn us.  The last few days we made a list of the warnings.  It is interesting to look over that and review what they are really telling us.  Now the hard part is to listen and do what they tell us so that we will be protected.
One thing that really touched my heart this week was a simple act of kindness that Anura, our tri-shaw driver did on Friday.  He took us to the bank and on the way home he pulled to the side of the road and said, "I'm not hungry today."  He reached behind us and got his lunch.  He walked over to an old lady sitting on the side walk begging.  He gives her his lunch and jumps back into the tri-shaw and takes off.  As Elder Meyers and I talked with each other, we both commented on that Christ like act that Anura showed us.
On Thursday we went to Negombo so that Elder Meyers could interview a young couple for baptism.  They were really excited.  They have a three year old daughter that couldn't quit smiling.  It is wonderful to participate in these wonderful activities that bring God's children to Him!

Family History Training

Jonsan Napoliyan and wife Naranjala
Joseph with daughter Shalami Jonsan,
 Elder Meyers interviewed for baptism

We were able to go out this week and visit with one of the families that were baptized in November.  Sister Sherin and Sister Premila went with us.  Ajith is driving for a movie production company the next month so he arranged for another driver to drive us.  When we picked up Sister Sherin she was suppose to know where these people lived but she didn't.  The driver called Ajith and he gave him directions and we finally arrived at the home, way out in no mans land.  We had a wonderful visit with Mary Elizabeth and her sister, Indrani.  They asked Elder Meyers to give their mother a blessing.  Their mother wasn't aware of anything around her.  She just lays in bed all day.  Her hand is withered like she has had a stroke.  We left a loaf of homemade banana nut bread with them and invited them to come back to church.  Indrani said that she has a son that is studying on weekends but when he finishes he wants to take the discussions.  From the time we left our apartment to the time we arrived back home took us under four hours.  We felt good about the visit and the sisters were so happy to see us.  Indrani was at church today.  I made sure I went and gave her a hug.
A Chinese lady, Helen, attended our English Class on Wednesday.  She was looking around the Church from the moment she entered it.  We met in the Relief Society Room.  There was a poster up with the Relief Society Theme.  Helen was writing that down during class.  After class she came up to me and was asking questions about the poster.  I answered her questions.  I thought she had left but she had walked into the Primary Room and found a Bible and the Book of Mormon.  Sandi, a church member, started telling her about the books.  Sandi asked her what religion she belonged to and she said Buddhist.  Sandi said, I used to be Buddhist before I converted to this church.  They continued to visit.  In a little while they both came out  and Sandi said that Helen wanted a Bible and a Book of Mormon.  We gave her both.  We are anxious to see if she comes back to class this week. 

We are looking forward to seeing General Conference next weekend.  They always get conference the week after there is conference in the United States.  We have been going on the Internet and listening to a few of the talks.  We were excited to hear the announcement that there will be a temple built in Meridian.  People here in Sri Lanka dream of the day when their country will be able to have a temple. Many of them want to go to the temple but it cost so much for them to go to Hong Kong.  They diligently take the Temple Class and save as much as they can so that maybe one day their dream will come true and they can attend a temple. We that live near a temple are indeed blessed to be able to attend when ever we want.  May you all take advantage of attending the temple and give thanks that you can! 


Indrani and Mary Elizabeth



Premila and Sherin

  

Last Sunday we attended Branch Council Meeting.  Every time the leaders wanted something done they would turn around look at Elder Meyers and me and say, "The Mayers can do that."  After several times of saying that I said, "We will be glad to help you do anything, but we feel we are here to help you, not to do it for you."  I'm not sure if they really understood what I was saying but I hope so.  We don't want to do it for them because we will be leaving and they still won't know how to do it unless they actually do whatever it is that needs to be done.  We did find out that the last couple had baptized seven people the night before they left in November.  Out of those seven only one is still coming.  We were asked to visit with those individuals.  We said that we would be glad to do that if they got us a list with their names, addresses and phone numbers since we had no records of them in our apartment.  When we left the Church we still didn't have the list.  The next day Elder Meyers was going through some papers and low and behold what did he find, the baptism records of these seven people.  We prayed that a way would be provided that we could contact some of them.  We arranged for a driver and a member to go with us but that fell through.  On Tuesday we held our English class and a new person came.  After class we discovered that he was one of the seven newly baptized members.  He said that he had to work on Sunday.  The next night during our other English class another new lady came.  After class we were talking to her and found out that she too was baptized in November.  She said that her sister and brother in-law were also baptized with her in November.  She said that they all had been sick with fever for the last month or so.  The Lord provides and gets the job done in His own way.  This week we plan to try and visit others.
I was asked to talk in Sacrament Meeting today.  I was given the assignment to talk about living prophets.  I used Elder Neil L. Andersen's last conference talk and made my talk around that.  He spoke about taking offence and being ashamed.  I guess the members around here are offended very easily. 
Today after church, Brother Nihal, asked if Elder Meyers and I would be willing to teach a private English class to some men in the Sri Lankan Air Force.  We said we would be glad to do that.  That class will be on Tuesday after our other class.
Life is good! Hooray for Israel!!!

Dining room

Kitchen

Our Living room

We were so excited to be asked to do the Primary Activity Day for the 8-11 year old boys and girls.  We held this activity in our home. We discussed how our talents can help Heavenly Father and others.  Then  I taught them a new song and in turn they are teaching it to the Primary children.  Elder Meyers taught them about tithing and budgeting.  He made some rupees and gave each one of them so many rupees.  Then they had to figure out how much tithing they needed to pay.  They also talked about other bills that their mom and dad might have to pay each month.  When this part was over they were all wishing that the rupees were really real.  We had banana bread and yogurt for a treat and then we played UNO until their parents came.  We enjoyed having all six of the children in our home.  They were wonderful well behaved children. 
One of the spiritual experiences this week was when Steven, an institute student that comes to be taught by himself on Friday because he works during our regular institute class on Saturday, said the closing prayer after we taught him on Friday.  He expressed his gratitude to the Lord for sending us here to Sri Lanka so that we could teach him about the gospel.  The spirit was strong and I had to fight to keep from crying.  Those little things make it all worth while.

Treats on the balcony at
Primary Activity Day



Primary Activity  Day



Bangalore Airport

 This week was filled with lots of new things.  We made our first trip to India.  We arrived in Bangalore on Monday morning.  Elder and Sister Fluckiger and Elder Michael Senevirtne went with us.  Elder Senevirtne was set apart by  President Funk on Monday afternoon. Late Tuesday night he was taken to the airport by Elder Teki and Elder Anderson.  Elder Tikki and Elder Anderson both work in the mission office.  They were both wonderful young men.  Elder Tikki tried to give us everything that was in the mission office.  Elder Meyers asked for a military copy of the scriptures.  Elder Tikki said he only had a small Book of Mormon.  Elder Meyers asked for two copies.  Elder Tikki kept bringing me Book of Mormons, by the time we got home I had ten in my bag. 
All the couples were invited to President and Sister Funk's home for dinner on Monday evening.  There were four couples: Fluckigers,  Funks,  Pratts, and us.  Brother Pratt is a member of the First Quorum of Seventy.  He and his wife were wonderful people.  He said that he will be 70 in October so he will probably be replaced at that time.  He talked in depth about getting some young elders back into Sri Lanka.  He said that they would need to look like the people of  Sri Lanka. He was very excited that Elder Meyers and I had been given a visa as religious workers for the Church.  After dinner, Sandpot( Funks driver), took us back  to our hotel.  I loved the hotel.  It had balconies all over.  I loved sitting on the balcony on the third floor and watching the people as they passed.  There was a school just down the street and the children would walk by in their uniforms.  Some of the children wore regular shoes, others wore sandals or flip flops.  Many wore no shoes at all.  They all seemed so happy.  Each morning we went to the roof of the hotel and there we were served breakfast.  It was lovely having breakfast outside amongst the beauty of nature. 
On Tuesday we attended the Bangalore/Chennai Zone Conference.  We were taught and trained by the Funks and the Pratts.  It was an awesome experience to be among these people.  There were also 20 young elders in attendance.  The elders are having a hard time getting visas into India.  When the Funks came in July there were around 80 young elders.  Now there are just over 40 in the whole mission.  Even though the numbers are down the baptisms have remained the same.  Elder Pratt pointed out to us that we were in on a miracle.  He said that in years to come we would be able to look back and say that we had been in the Bangalore Mission when things were just beginning.  He said that this mission will grow and people will come into the Church.
On Wednesday we had the day to do what we wanted.  Elder Fluckiger had a cold so they stayed in most of the day.  Elder Meyers and I went to a book store, the mission office, to a sandwich shop for lunch and on the way home we stopped at the grocery store and bought a few items that we can't get in Sri Lanka.  At 5 pm our driver came to take us to the airport.  We were able to leave about a 1/2 hour early because everyone was there and boarded onto the plane.  It was a wonderful adventure but we were tired and glad to be home!

Elder Michael Senevirtne after setting
apart with APs and President Anton

    


Hotel in Bangalore



View from breakfast



Streets of Bangalore