Our Mission to Sri Lanka

This is Sujani. She will be cleaning for us every Saturday for 3 hours...from 2-5 for $4 an hour!...apparently that is good pay here in Sri Lanka. I couldn't remember her face and name, but when I opened the door to greet her today, her smile melted my heart     and it was love at first sight! Her husband (Anil) is a Tailor but has given up sewing for trishaw (taxi) driving. They have two children: Gefni (girl-13) and Gefan (boy-16)...the boy is handicapped from birth. He cannot see or hear or communicate. Sujani stays at home to care for him. When she is here cleaning, Gefni will care for him. We have an appointment to visit with this family on Friday afternoon. Our whole week is already booked!

We visited President Saliya’s family tonight.   They live about 30 minutes away by trishaw. They laid out a feast of egg sandwiches, cake, cookies, bananas, and Coca Cola. I had fruit juice.  Elder Lee showed a video of President Monson encouraging us to stand alone if we have to.  Sara shared how she has been given a gift from God--a great teaching job. She recently read King Benjamin's words about how we are all beggars...that God has given us all that we have.  Those words motivated her to want to serve a mission, and give back the job to God...to whom it belongs in the first place. Her parents are supportive as she studies Preach My Gospel and the Missionary Handbook.  She knows in February when she tells the school about her mission, and that she won't be coming back after the April break, that they are not going to be happy.  I shared how when my cousin was a Mission President his children would play a game...they would write down the names of mission...

Aakash and Tekla came over to visit today. Elder Lee showed 2 videos and taught Aakash how to pray after we got to know him. He told us that he has noticed a good change in his brother since he joined the church. He is very open to learning more and offered a sweet prayer at the end. Chuck said afterward he could feel the old missionary juices flowing!

Today we are headed to the hospital to give Shirantha's wife a priesthood blessing. She has high blood pressure and is 8 months pregnant.  After the blessing, Chuck leaned in close to bear his testimony of Jesus and his power to heal the sick...President Saliya translated.

We visited Luckna's family tonight. They live in a beautiful house in a small village outside of Negombo. Sumarathunga, Luckna’s father, is a Buddhist. Rakitha has many questions about the Church. They had been playing a competitive game of bad mitten when we took this picture. 

We had a beautiful Christmas!!   We had a one hour Sacrament Meeting and a pot-luck lunch afterward. Then we went to the hospital with the Seminary kids and youth leaders. The kids rode in the back of a pick-up standing up...CRAZY!! The hospital reminded me of a WWII tent with rows of beds. We were in the pediatric wing with sick children...most of whom had Dengue fever from mosquito bites! The sad part was that the hospital is "open air" so there were mosquitos flying around re-infecting the patients and staff. The hospital was very dirty. There was a “bleeding room”...I wondered if the doctors still believed in the practice of  “bleeding out” infirmities, as they did 100 years ago??   Sandun dressed up as Santa and handed out candy and gifts as  he danced to the music of another young man playing a bongo drum. The youth sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" to the tune of Feliz Navidad!! It was hilarious...I hope it didn't give the sick children headaches!...

We attended the Branch Christmas Party tonight...held outside of the meeting house.  There was a cute Christmas tree in the foyer!   We met and sat with a beautiful family--Samarathunga (father, NM); Sister Sherine (mother); Shaveen (son--not pictured); and Luckna (RM daughter).   We went around taking pictures of Branch members, so we can start putting names and faces together!  Munniamma (mother) with daughter, Rashmi and son, Roshan;  Brother Srinath ‘s wife, Shamali, niece, Riyasa, son-Yohan (not shown), daughter-Ruth, and daughter-Reumah;  Sister Somakanthi and Sister Kanthi...both go by “Kanthi”;  Vimukthi’s family;  Dinithi (daughter), Dimuthu (mother and Seminary Teacher) and Dimuthu’s mother, Lalani. The Christmas Pageant was very colorful and beautiful! A delicious holiday buffet was laid out for all to enjoy. After all of the dancing and singing, w e took a group picture of the converts stemming from Elder Mortensen’s mission....

Today, Colombo Branch had set up appointments for us to visit two more families with Brother Tandiman .  First, we visited Darshani Sellar and her children: Deyan 18, Anju 16 (friend-convert), and Casy 14.  Darshani is the Colombo Branch Primary President and a hairdresser. The young man pictured in the back is Shamika...he drove us to Colombo today.  Darshani  told us how 10 years ago she taught a group of 19 young Buddhist girls English...they all ended up getting baptized. At that time, she owned land (inherited), which she sold, so she could take all 19 girls to Hong Kong to be baptized for the dead in the Temple! Seven years ago, her husband disappeared. She was angry with God and stopped going to Church. However, when Elder and Sister Condie were here, she came back, and is now thriving with her hair and wedding business. Her three children (the 16 year old boy is not shown) all are preparing to go on missions. They read scriptures as a family and individually ...

Today, Brother Tandiman from Indonesia came to train us.  He is a paid employee of the CES Department.  After our training, we went visiting. Our Branch President had made appointments for us to visit families with Seminary-age kids.  First, we visited Brother Pathmasiri’s family.  Pathmasiri was in a lot of pain with a snake bite. Chuck and Brother Tandiman gave him a blessing. They grow vegetables to sell and create bio-gas with cow dung! They live very humbly, but are very proud of their English speaking children. The children took turns performing: singing, playing a keyboard, and playing the drum. We love this family!  We also visited Brother Dharmapala’s cute family in their very humble abode. They roast cashews and sell string hoppers as a family business. They accepted the invitation to study the Book of Mormon as a family. There’s Brother Dharmapala, Sister Manoja, Chathurya 18, Samudra 13, and Anuja 6...who did not want to have his picture taken! ...

Sundays in Sri Lanka feel overwhelming!! There are so many names and faces to remember!!    President Kolitha is the District President. His Councilors are President Thomas & President Nihal. I took a picture of Sister Eashani (President Nihal's wife) and their son, Joel;   Also, of President Kolitha with his wife, Primali; Then one of me with Sister Dimutu who teaches Seminary, and is also the District Primary President; Sister Harshi (District RS President) with her mother, Sister Daya, and father, Brother Jay; Sister Harshi with her husband, Achala; And finally, Brother Mario with us...he helped to translate the Book of Mormon into Sinhala.

Today we went for a walk...exploring the shops and picking up a few things along the way.  The roads were crowded with honking traffic! We are still trying to get our bearings before diving into the work next week.

In the morning we walked down to the beach...just in time to see the fishermen and their wives pulling out hundreds of tiny fish caught in their nets! It appeared as though streams of raw sewage are being fed into the ocean! Help! The fishermen and their families live in tiny open shacks surrounded by coconut palms.   We took a picture of a woman who was sitting outside of her hut cutting up a coconut. She mixed water with the meat of the coconut, squeezed the milk out with her hands, and then threw away  the dry ruffage . Later in the day, our trishaw driver took us downtown to buy phones for the mission with local SIM cards. Everything is bustling with life around here!