🎶Monday Monday🎶

After a busy day we decided to go eat at this Italian Restaurant called Dolce. We decided to have our anniversary dinner early.

 

Started out with salad and bread. I had lasagna.

 

Ken ordered chicken and potatoes with salad. They even gave us some cookies as a special treat after our meal. This is a great place to go.

 

Walking home we saw more lights.

 

This is outside our apartment building in Colombo.

They even hung lanterns in the parking garage.

Monday Checklist:

1. Skype family

2. Walk to the store to buy some food. Cupboards are bare.

3. Elders come to the apartment to use the computer to write letters.

4. Sisters come to the apartment to use computer.

5. Work on finances.

6. Write to Mission President.

7. Work with President Anton on Visas.

😉Good thing we didn't have anything to do 😉

Wow! More Lights!

We had to ride the train from Kandy to Colombo. We needed to do some work here in Colombo. We arrived around 7:00 so it was dark. We knew it was the Festival of the Lights but we didn't know how much they decorated. It reminded me of all the decorations we see during Chrstmas in the United States.

We had a great driver take us through the lighted streets. We were moving so some of the pictures are a little blurry.

This is known as the Buddhist Festival of Light, colorful bamboo framed lanterns aborn the interior of every home and incredible luminous displays decorate the streets of most towns.

Stalls on the roadside distribute free refreshments to people.

This is a day spent in reflective prayer as people cease worldly pursuits and engage themselves in religious actvities.

As the sun sets, devotees partake in processions and return to the temples in the evening to hear monks read stories from sacred texts.

 

Many huge lanterns were displayed. They were very impressive!

 

 

What a great ride to the apartment!

Festival of Lights!

 Vesak is known as the festival of light, a very appropriate name since almost all the decorations are in the form of illuminations.

Families prepare decorations in the days preceding Vesak in their homes, consisting of paper lanterns, little clay oil lamps and intricate ‘kudu’ which are large lanterns surrounded by tiny lanterns decorated in many colours. All these are lit up on Vesak evening. The true creative talents of the people in this island emerge during this time as every lantern or ‘kudu’ is unique, and produced with dedicated devotion and piety. In recent years competitions have been organized by private and state institutions to judge the best ‘kudu’, and a very significant feature of these contests has been the innovative use of natural materials such as twigs, jute and leaves, veering away from the common practice of using paper when making these decorations.

This morning we rode out to a friends Book Store. We needed to purchase some copy paper and pencils. On our way to the Book Store we saw many lanterns being hung to decorate the town. There were also small shops selling many different sizes and colors of lanterns.

You will notice that they also hang the Buddhist flag. It is a symbol of faith and peace used throughout the world to represent the Buddhist faith. The six colors represent the colors of aura that emanated from the body of Buddha when He attained Enlightenment under the Bodhi tree.

We stopped at one of the members place who was selling lanterns. They look so pretty that I couldn't resist and had to buy one. 

After going to the shop we headed to a funeral. The young lady was a neice to our friend Hilda.

Here I am sitting with our friend Hilda.

Some of the members from our church.

Many people were there to support the family.

Apparently she was hit by a train. She had headphones on and was walking on the tracks. Didn't even hear the train. Really sad.

When someone dies they hang the banners and streamers around their home and down their lanes. In the US people usually wear black at a funeral. Here people wear white. 

I am grateful that I know that when we die our spirits go to heaven. That we will be able to see our loved ones again.

FAMILIES ARE FOREVER!!

Springtime Is Coming. . .

This is our front porch light. Two little birds decided to build a nest for their family. Our driver Shantha said it means good luck. Let's hope!

One of our appointments cancelled tonight. We were able to go and help do some more English assignments with Sister Diana. We sure love their family and enjoy being with them. They live in a very nice village.

Spring time is coming,

Is coming today.

For I heard a Robin 

Who was calling her his way.

Two little Robin's 

High up in a tree

Were building a nest

And were as busy as could be.

Even though it is April, here in Sri Lanka it is hot. I don't think we get spring. It's hot or hotter. We do cool down at night in Kandy which is nice. Today's high was 88 degrees but the real feel was 99 degrees. 

🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞

Verbs - Transitive or Intransitive????

We visited a family that had this huge coconut tree.

Flowers from their garden.

If you look closely you will see mangoes on this tree.

Love all the green trees!

Showing me his small hot peppers.

More peppers.

Brother Shantha was driving the Elders today so we called Brother Sunott. This is the back of his three wheeler. On the way to our appointment we happened to see Brother Shantha and the Elders. We didnt know they would be in that same area. (What a tender mercy.) They asked if they could go with us to our first house. We said, "Sure, why not?" It was a blessing that they followed us because Brother Sunott's three wheeler had the clutch go out. With the help of Brother Shantha and the Elders they were able to get the three wheeler a new cable, get it fixed and we made it to our appointment. 

Here they are working on the cable. We know that we are being blessed and watched over.

Our last appointment was helping a Sister with her English homework. Wow! We had to look up what transitive and intransitive verbs were.  It has been too long. 

A transitive verb requires one or more objects.  Example; She played the piano.

Intransitive verb does not have an object. Example; It rained.

We hope we helped her with her assignment and not mixed her up too bad. The Universities really stress the gammar.

It's Great To Be Eight!

Look what we got in the mail! Macey (our granddaughter) is getting baptised! We are sad that we won't be there to share her special day but so happy for her. We love you!

At our church house we have a nutmeg tree.

This is the papaya mango tree.

 

When you cut the papaya mango open this is what it looks like.

Just a little sour since it's still green.

Before English class tonight I decided to practice some piano. Maybe I'll be playing a few songs before I get home.