This week started out with an evening with our Chinese students.  They attend our English class.  They had us over to their place several weeks ago for an awesome evening filled with Chinese food and a wonderful visit with them.  We had them over to our place for some American food.  Susan was so funny.  When they walked in I had the table sat.  We visited for a few moments and then invited them to come to the table.  Susan was overwhelmed!  She asked if it was ok to take a picture of the table and food.  I said, " Of course you may take a picture."  Before she was done she had taken a picture of every dish on the table.  When dessert came out she had to take a picture of that too.  We had a wonderful, fun filled evening.  They asked lots of questions about our family and a few about the Church.  They loved looking at the pictures of the grandchildren.  We were proud to share our family with them.  We really enjoy these wonderful people!
Thursday Sister Ann took us to visit a couple of families.  One was the Dias family.  The husband, Nishantha, is in Dubai working.  Nadi, the wife, Devidu, the son, Pipuni, the daughter, and Senidu, the little son is here in Sri Lanka.  They have been working on their visas so they can join Nishantha in December. Nadi was happy to see us and we enjoyed getting to know her and the children better.  We were able to talk to Nishantha also.  Nadi skyped with him while we were there.  He has lost lots of weight and is anxious for his family to join him in Dubai.  Nishantha was a counselor in the branch presidency when he left.  We miss him!
Sister Ann also took us to a less active family.  The father's name was Ottula.  He has been abroad working.  He has only been home a few weeks.  He will leave on Wednesday to go to Dubai to work with Nishantha.  His wife is away working so he will leave his two teenage children with his mother in law.  This is the way many families live.
Today we attended Negombo's Branch Conference.  The district leaders take over whatever organization they have been called to.  Since I am in the district primary I was asked to do sharing time, music, and also teach the older children's class.  Sister Lilani, our district primary president, was unable to attend.  She normally teaches the class. It was a wonderful conference but I was exhausted after church.
The Kellerstrasses invited the Meehans, a couple serving in Hong Kong called as welfare missionaries, and Elder Meyers and I  to have lunch with them at their apartment. It was great being able to talk with so many people that really speak our language.
Life is good!  We love the Church and our testimony grows each day.  It is true!!!

Helen, Guobin, and Susan

Three Chinese students with us at dinner

Pipuni, Senidu, Devidu & Sis Nadi

Elder & Sister Meehan

We had an interesting experience before our Wednesday afternoon English Class started.  Krishan, Gihan, and Dinuka come an hour before class starts just to talk and visit with us. They are three business men that have attended the class for almost three years now.  They have been with three sets of senior missionaries.  Elder Meyers was in the clerk's office working on records and I was across the hall visiting with these men.  Out of the blue, Gihan asks if I have read the Bible all the way through.  I reply, yes several times.  He asks, "How big is your Bible?" I answered, It is very big and went to the closet and brought in the Bible and showed it to him.  He said, "That is bigger than Mr. Biggs' Bible."  I walked back to the closet and brought in the Book of Mormon.  The men all chimed in with, "That's Mr. Biggs' Bible."  I said, "This is what we call the Book of Mormon."  It isn't our Bible but it goes along with the Bible and testifies that Jesus is the Christ.  One of them said, I have tried to read it but I can't understand it.  I told them that we would be glad to read it with them if they would like.  I did have a chance to explain the basis outline of the Book of Mormon and we talked a little about the prophet, Joseph Smith. Hopefully they will ask again or I can ask them if they have decided to let us read with them sometimes when we aren't in English since we aren't to speak about religion in our class.
We've talked with Elder and Sister Biggs several times but they never told us that they had given all three of these men a Book of Mormon.  I guess they gave them to Krishan, Gihan, and Dinuka the last time they saw them and told them that we would need to help them learn about this book.
After class, the same evening, Dinuka comes up to Elder Meyers and ask him what does resurrection mean?  They have a nice discussion about resurrection.  Brother Anura, our tri-shaw driver, heard that conversation. As he was driving us home, we were talking about the experiences we had had at class.  He said, "I will pray for them to open their hearts."  Anura has such pure faith.  We love being around him.
Yesterday we held Family Home Evening with Brother Harold and Sister Rosemary's family.  They wanted us to meet their older children, Amy and Robbie.  Robbie was called into work and Amy was planning on going on a date.  Her father told her that she had to come out and visit with us before she left.  She was a little reluctant.  Amy is 21 and hasn't been active in church the last few years.  When she first came out she did only what was expected.  Then she returned to her room and prepared for her date.  After she got dressed she came back into visit with us and her attitude was better.  As our children always say, FFF, Forced Family Fun! We enjoyed visiting a little with Amy and meeting her boyfriend, John.  Jessie is a special needs child.  He keeps everyone on their toes.  Kate is almost 12.  She is a very kind and giving young lady.  Harold served a mission in Arizona.  Rosemary is a hard working, loving woman, who wants to raise her family to love and serve the Lord. We were just told by the Brother Nihal, the Elder's Quorum President, that no one has been able to go home teaching at their house for ten years.  I guess they would come to church but won't let anyone into their home.  This made us feel good that they let us come and participate in their family home evening.  They also allowed us to come home teaching last month.
Elder Meyers wasn't able to attend church today.  He was having a little problem with his stomach.  He is feeling better this afternoon.  President Anton, who is  a doctor, said he would come after he is done at church and make sure he is OK.

The Harold Sandrasagara family.  Kate, Sis Rosemary, Bro Harold, Amy and Jesse.

As I begin our blog today, my mind is carried back to ten years ago.  All of you in America realize that is what we all call 9/11.  I am so grateful to be an American and be able to enjoy the freedoms that we have. The other day Sister Ann came over to cut our hair.  As she entered the apartment I commented on how nice she looked.  She replied that she had just been in court.  She told us that it is a law that you have to wear white or black to court here in Sri Lanka.  She had on a white blouse with a black and white skirt.  She also said that a woman has to either pull their long hair back in a pony tail or pin it up when she appears in court. I just thought that was interesting. America has its faults but we are blessed to make choices for ourselves. 
On Saturday Elder Meyers and I held our monthly Activity Day for the 8-11 year old primary boys and girls.  We had four attend this activity.  We are trying to learn the Articles of Faith.  We zoomed in on numbers 1,2,3,4,6, and 12.  Most of the children were able to repeat at least three of the ones that we worked on.   We played games, put puzzles together and repeated the Articles of Faith as a group.  It is rewarding to see how excited the children get studying and learning the gospel.
We have been looking all around for a Banana Tree.  The other day Elder Meyers comes into the room I was in at the Church and announces that he has seen a Banana Tree.  I follow him and he takes me to the back of the Church and points to the Banana Tree.  Hopefully the picture shows how pretty it is.  Look carefully and you can see lots of bananas.  They have many different kinds of bananas here.  My favorite is called Sour Bananas.  They are very small but so tasty!

Regno and Haran doing puzzles

Banana Tree

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.