Elder Meyers tutoring Kate

After last weeks excitement, we are back to the grind stone of tutoring, teaching English classes, and every day living in Sri Lanka.  It took us a couple of days to rest up from the trip to India.
As we travel around the area we see many interesting things.  We thought you might like to see a few of these items.

Office sing in 3 languages-Sinhala,
Tamil & English

Bus junction

Elder Meyers did inservice for the seminary/institute teachers on Friday.  I made lunch for them.  One of the teachers was unable to attend so we just had Sister Sheron and

Last picture of Whitney aka Charlie

Charlie(her little girl) with us.  We enjoyed having them for the lesson, lunch, and a visit. 

We gave our last lesson to Wimala.  This is the after baptism lesson, "The Laws and Ordinances".  It is nice to see Wimala have such a strong desire to read her scriptures, pray, and participate in church meetings.  President Sunil confirmed her a member on May 27th.  We were in India so we didn't get to be at her confirmation.  She recorded in her journal some of the things that were said in her blessing.  She shared that with us.  She was told she was a special daughter of God and that he loved her.  She was given the gift of discernment which helps her know right from wrong.  She will return and partake of all God's blessings if she lives up to all that she has committed to as a member of the Church. 

When we finished the lesson Wimala left the room and returned with a gift bag for Elder Meyers and also one for me.  Inside Elder Meyers' bag was a tie clip and cuff links.  Inside my bag was five moon stones.  She said one stone for each lesson that I had taught.  She is so shy this was hard for her but she was so sweet in showing her gratitude.  Of course it touched our hearts to have her do this for us.
Message for the week:  After having Wimala show her gratitude I thought that we each have so much to be grateful for. I was reading in "True to the Faith" and came across this about gratitude:
Be thankful for the wonderful blessings that are yours.  Be grateful for the tremendous opportunities you have.  Be thankful to your family.  Let them know of your gratitude.
Thank Heavenly Father for His goodness to you.  You can express your gratitude to God by acknowledging His hand in all things, thanking Him for all that He gives you, keeping His commandments, and serving others.  Thank him for His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ.  Express thanks for the Savior's great example, for His teachings, for His out reaching hand to lift and help, for His infinite Atonement.  As we express gratitude a spirit of thanksgiving will guide and bless us in our life.

Green Park Hotel

We have had an exciting week!  It started with our arrival in Hyderabad, India.  We stayed in a wonderful five star hotel called the Green Park Hotel.  The staff catered to our every need. 

Lobby of hotel

After we arrived and unpacked we were able to assist the other couples serving in the India  Bangalore Mission with whatever needed to be done to prepare for the arrival of the youth.  These are the names of some of the couples, most of them are from Canada.  The Allisons, Hatch, Wigg, Teefenbach, Zobell, and Kellerstrass(from the USA).  It was fun to talk, laugh, and work with these wonderful men and women.      

Couples working on YSA packets

On Friday the youth arrived from all over India.  Many of these youth had never traveled out of their area.  Some came by bus, others by train and a few by plane.  Many traveled for hours.  One group traveled 31 hours by train to attend this wonderful event.  They were so tired as they they walked off their buses but anxious to get going and start having fun!

The YSA Conference began with a devotional.

YSA registration

Elder Dallin H. Oaks, Elder Donald L. Hallstrom, and Elder Anthony D. Perkins were the visiting general authorities.  Of course our beloved mission president, President Funk was also part of the devotional.  They each spoke and then we were all invited to form a line and shake hands with the brethren.  I thought about the Nephites when they waited to greet the Savior.  I was overcome by those thoughts and tears flowed freely not only by me but many others.  We were not allowed to take snaps(pictures) of the brethren.  If you want to see pictures of them at the conference you can go to this website.  http://www.allindiaysaconference.webstarts.com/

YSA Choir

Sister and Elder Sharma

During the day we met other couples.  One was Elder and Sister Sharma.  They are the first senior couple to serve a mission from India.  They were amazing.  Sister Sharma has only been a member for three and a half years and Elder Sharma for two and a half years.  They are from Delhi but serving in the Bangalore India Mission.  They invited us to go to Delhi before we leave.  They told us they would have their kids show us around.  We loved them for their kindness.
The rest of Friday was spent in assisting with whatever activity we were assigned.  Some of the activities were family history, games, social media, service project, workshop on eternal marriage, speed dating, and line dancing.

Line dancing



Speed dating

Service project

Marigold Hotel where YSA Conference was held

On Saturday we were excited to have the privilege of listening to Sister Kristen Oaks, Sister Diane Hallstrom, Sister Christine Perkins,and Sister

Sister Oaks

Andrea Funk speak at a devotional.  This was probably my most fun activity.  Sister Oaks spoke about her life. She and Elder Oaks have only been married for 12 years.  Elder Oaks' wife died and after a couple of years Sister Oaks and he were married.  She was 52 years old and had never been

Sister Hallstrom

married.  She continued to be faithful in the church even though it was hard.  She went on a mission and had a companion that would butter her bread and then put it in the toaster and the toaster would catch fire.  She said I wondered why people were so weird like that.  She pause and smiled and said

Sister Perkins

now I know, Elder Oaks does the same thing, but don't tell him that I told you.  The youth were able to ask the sisters questions at the conclusion of their talks. As the sisters were leaving, Sister Oaks stopped by Elder Meyers and I and thanked us for serving.  She went on to tell us that Elder Oaks had given her a blessing that morning to help her through this event.  She also told us that they had received a phone call and something had happened in the family to worry her.  After she left I thought, no matter who we are we have our trials and challenges.  We  just follow Sister Oaks example, have faith, move forward and the Lord will bless us and give us the strength to do whatever we need to do.
The rest of Saturday was filled with activities that were done on Friday.  If the youth didn't attend those activities on Friday they participated in them on Saturday.
Sunday was an historical event.  We went to the Novotel Hotel to

Loading buses for Stake Conference

attend conference.  This is when the Hyderabad Stake was created.  It is the first stake in India.  Of course Elder Oaks, Elder Hallstrom, Elder Perkins, and President Funk were all there with their wives.  The former district president (Brother Gudae, spelling is probably wrong) was ordained as the Stake Patriarch.  He is such a humble

Arriving at Novotel Hotel

loving man.  You can tell that his people admire him.  The stake president looked to be around 40 years old (Brother Gudi, spelling probably wrong).  He organized the travel for the YSA Conference.  He is very capable of carrying out his new responsibility.  There were 1,519 people in attendance at this historic event.  Once again we were not allowed to take snaps of the brethren.  Elder Meyers took a picture of the overhead screen

Elder Oaks greeting the saints

before they made that announcement.  As Elder Oaks left the stage he stopped and waved to the audience.
We left for the airport early Monday morning.  It was a good thing that we left early because Hyderabad was going to have riots throughout Monday.  Some beloved politician was arrested and accused of fraud so the locals were rioting.  When our group of youth tried to leave Hyderabad by bus, they were stopped three different times.  They finally made it out of Hyderabad and to Chennai where they met us and we traveled back to Sri Lanka.

Most of the Sri Lankan YSA group

Bananas on stalks

We have been on the road a lot this week.  We have seen many sights that we thought you would enjoy.  These bananas were hanging at a roadside fruit market.  We also finally got a picture of a Sri Lankan van.  When we first arrived Brother Nate Jones asked me if I had seen a Sri Lankan van.  I replied that I had seen a van but they didn't look very different from our vans in America.  He said, Sister Meyers a Sri Lankan van is 4

Sri Lankan van

or 5 people on a motorcycle. I've had a good laugh many times as I have remembered this joke.
President Sunil called last Sunday and asked us if we could teach his daughter,  Ranatunge Arachchilage Wijeyratne Menike, the discussions.  Elder Meyers told him that we would be glad to do that and asked when he wanted us to start.  President Sunil said that he would like to start right away.  We made an appointment to be at their house at 10am on Monday morning.  They live about an hour away by tri-shaw.  When we arrived we were greeted by Wimala, the name Sister Lilani gave her daughter. Before we began the discussion President Sunil told us the story about how Wimala came into their life.

Lilani, Wimala & Sunil

Twenty six years ago, Sister Lilani had a miscarriage.  She needed help in her recovery so it was arranged for Wimala to come into their home and help.  At this time Wimala was only 13 years old.  Sister Lilani said that she was very small for her age and she was unable to assist her.  They decided that they would have to send her away.  Then they discovered that Wimala's mother had died and by this time they had fallen in love with her, so they kept her.  She has never been adopted by them but they consider her their daughter.  They have never had any children of their own.  Over the years Wimala went to church but never showed any interest in getting baptized.  She continued to practice her Buddhist faith.  President Sunil and Sister Lilani fasted and prayed often that Wimala would one day want to know about the church.  A few weeks ago President Sunil said that he and Sister Lilani would be unable to come to church because their daughter was struggling with some health problems and they couldn't leave her alone.  I fasted and prayed that a way would be provided for this to change because President Sunil and Sister Lilani are looked up to by the members.  I knew if they stopped coming others would too.  Soon after Wimala went into her room and prayed about the church.  Her parents were unaware of what she was doing.  After about four days of pleading with the Lord, she came out and told President Sunil that she knew the church was true and wanted to be baptized.  We gave two of the discussions by Tuesday afternoon.
Thursday was one of our institute student's birthday.  His family invited us to dinner on his birthday.  This is a less active family. We

Balakrishnan, Sis Bala, Aunt, Raj & Luxmy

have grown to love them dearly.  We had a wonderful dinner and Raj was happy that we came.  As we left we invited them to come to church.  They all came today except for Brother Balakrishnan.  We were so happy to see them at church.  Now we hope they continue to come.
Saturday evening we attended what they call "A Big Girl Party".  Some of their customs and traditions still keep us on our feet.  Milli is 12 years old and had her first menstrual cycle. I don't understand all that they did but I will share some of the things that I was told about.  For 3 or 4 days the young girl is banished to her room.  She is not to look in the mirror, bathe, or comb her hair.  She also has to eat certain foods. One of the worst things she had to do was drink a raw egg from the egg shell and then drink Sesame oil.  After those 3-4 days the women in the family give her a purification bath.  I am told that they put flower petals in the water.  They dress her and comb her hair and make her look beautiful.  I was told that Milli has a multi cultural background.  She has Sinhala and also Tamil in her family.  The Tamil people tend to do more in public than the Sinhala side.  After all this she is given a huge party.  We were invited to the party.  She had a least three

Big Girl Party

First outfit

different outfits that she changed into during the evening.  One dress was Sinhala, one Tamil, and one more modern day.  The party had a catered meal.  This event was a big as a wedding reception.   Relatives showered Milli with gold jewelry.  Milli lost one of the gold rings, that cost $160, at her party.  Milli sat on the same chair all evening. 

Second outfit

Third outfit

She greeted each of her guests as they came to visit with her.  She loved it when someone her own age came and spent some time with her.  Just when I think I know what is going on around here they throw us a curve like this Big Girl Party!
Now back to Wimala.  We gave the rest of the discussions on Saturday.  Sister Lilani and Wimala treated us to a delicious meal after we were done.  Wimala was baptized today by Elder Meyers.  President Sunil has a back problem so he was unable to perform this ordinance.  Elder Meyers was thrilled to do this! There were about 50 people in attendance at the baptism.  Sister Visaka made a cake to share with everyone after the baptism.  Wimala said she felt very

Elder Meyers & Wimala

Wimala

clean after she was baptized.  She is anxious to attend church with her family every week. 
We just got a call from the assistant to President Funk.  He asked if we had a baptism.  We told him that we had, he was so excited!  The mission had 30 baptisms for the

Enjoying cake after baptism

week with our baptism, this is the highest number of baptisms in one week for the India Bangalore Mission.  Yeah, we broke the record!!
Our hearts are full from this great experience that we have been blessed with this week. We know that Father does hear and answer our prayers.
Message for the week:  3 Nephi 27:20
Now this is the commandment:  Repent, all ye ends of the earth and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the last day.

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."

Perigee Moon

A Perigee Moon is when the moon is the closest to the earth.  That happened on Poya Day which was May 5th.  This picture was taken from the rooftop of our apartment building.  It is very beautiful!
We have had house guests off and on for almost two weeks now.  We enjoy them but we are ready to have some time to ourselves.  Of course I cook more, do more laundry, and try to do things that will make it special for our guest.  Teri left Sri Lanka early Friday morning. 

DeAndra Perera

Right after Teri left Sister Vesaka called and asked if DeAndra could stay with us for two nights.  She was suppose to stay with Vesaka but Dale(Vesaka's son got the chicken pox).  We did enjoy getting to know DeAndra better.  She returned from a mission to England a couple of months ago.  We loved hearing her conversion story and how the Church changed her life.  She attended a YSA activity all day Saturday.

Sunethra & Gianna

 Our Saturday began by making a trip south to visit at Sister Gianna's home.  Gianna is a wonderful little lady who is always happy and loves everyone.  Sunethra is staying with Gianna.  They are both members but struggle to come to church.  They need lots of love and attention to keep them active. Sunethra just had eye surgery.  She lost her job and didn't have a place to live so Gianna told her to come live with her.

Priyanthi Thudawa

On our way back to Colombo, we stopped at Sister Enoka's home.  As we were visiting with Enoka, Sister Priyanthi came to visit Enoka.  She didn't know we were there but was happy to see us.  Priyanthi and Enoka are both return missionaries.  Neither is active in the church.  They come once in a while but not on a regular basis.  Enoka is a

Enoka & Stephanie

single mom with a daughter, Stephanie.  Stephanie is six years old and loves it when she comes to primary.  We also met Charles.  Charles is Enoka's father.  He is also a member.  We didn't realize that he was a member.  We had a nice visit and they seemed to enjoy our visit as much as we enjoyed visiting with them.  They all promised to come back to church.  I guess time will tell on that one.

Thought for the week:  Ether 12:6

...faith is things which are hoped for and not see; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of you faith.

Homes between the road and the beach

Ocean waves along the roadside

Crossing bridge between lake and ocean