We have been working for a month trying to see if we can do a PEF loan for a young man from Ivory Coast who is studying in India--today was sooooo funny--i e-mailed his Bishop in IC for answers to some questions--i was soo excited to get a fast response--til i opened up the letter--it was in FRENCH!!!--duh! the youngman's native language is in french. but, i could decipher enough words that it appears the Bishop must have been able to read english as it seems he probably answered all my questions :) every day is an adventure. We had a wonderful pef committee meeting the other day with a General Authority from Hong Kong who listened to all the information we had to share about India and how the loans need to be changed to fit the requirments...he was really humble and we learned a lot and we are excited about the possibilities for pef.
Did i tell you about "our" elder giving me a costco size book of pancake mix for a present?? we finally have 4 elders back in our branch and living in our area, which means i cook for 4 again on sundays. yesterday, i made breakfast-pancakes-yes, i used the whole box-they were not going to stop eating until i stopped cooking!!!
Do you want to hear about Sri Lanka?? all senior couples left monday-came back sat. - for senior conference/vacation/rest-we stayed in the hilton hotel close to indian ocean (though you could only see it early early or late late-during day time it is closed to public because of security issues). This part of ocean is like oregon coast--too rough to play it, but pretty to see. Luckily, the hotel had nice swimming pool (only me and one other sister were brave enough to put on suits :)--but, it was soooo hot that i had too!). Found a great book, The Legacy, the history of Sri Lanka plus fictional character story line--it was very very good and i enjoyed learning about the places we were visiting. One day jack and i visited a large Buddist temple-feed a baby elephant, toured the temple, saw all the Budda statues including the world's smallest pure gold statue-maybe 1/8th inch tall, and an ancient necklace with very very large blue gem-it had been cut in half and one part given to queen elizabeth-the other part into necklace and the Sri L. president holds it for 14 minutes for good luck...then a monk put a holder of Budda's tooth on our heads and in some language gave us a blessing (or curse, who knows :)-and then put a string of color string on our wrist for good luck (or i think probably more like their way to "mark" who had been there!). anyway, it was very interesting to learn more of what i had been reading in the book. another day, all couples went by bus (if you can call the sandwich press a bus) 3 hours north to elephant rescue. started out by meeting some elephants, for picture taking as we petted them, then down to the river to watch them come down in a group to bath, it was scary one time when we did not know the men were bringing a few of them back up, and we were kind of in the way, then over to an area for riding the elephant..notice no saddle, just a thin blanket. It was way fun -and a little scary, but the elephant was barely walking!!--only us and one other couple chose to ride "down" to the river and let the elephant spray us with his trunk. The conference part was just two days for 4 1/2 hours each day, training by the mission president and stories of spiritual experiences by all the couples, and the SL District President came and told his conversion story-we really should be taking a tape recorder everywhere we go, everyone has stories to tell that we would love to remember.
just for those who are still "enjoying" the snow, summer has now arrived in bangalore-winter is over-it was dec-feb-sleeping with the fans going and fighting mesquitos-soon it will be turn on air condition. Just thought i would share that with you :) and torment those of you who are snow birds still. going to go to bed now....been waiting up in case nikki called to say Alivia was arriving but...no such luck, so going to go to sleep...happy "snake God" holiday!!!--noises outside, the hindus are supposed to stay up all night celebrating and praying--they are not tooo noisy yet anyway.
Did i tell you about "our" elder giving me a costco size book of pancake mix for a present?? we finally have 4 elders back in our branch and living in our area, which means i cook for 4 again on sundays. yesterday, i made breakfast-pancakes-yes, i used the whole box-they were not going to stop eating until i stopped cooking!!!
Do you want to hear about Sri Lanka?? all senior couples left monday-came back sat. - for senior conference/vacation/rest-we stayed in the hilton hotel close to indian ocean (though you could only see it early early or late late-during day time it is closed to public because of security issues). This part of ocean is like oregon coast--too rough to play it, but pretty to see. Luckily, the hotel had nice swimming pool (only me and one other sister were brave enough to put on suits :)--but, it was soooo hot that i had too!). Found a great book, The Legacy, the history of Sri Lanka plus fictional character story line--it was very very good and i enjoyed learning about the places we were visiting. One day jack and i visited a large Buddist temple-feed a baby elephant, toured the temple, saw all the Budda statues including the world's smallest pure gold statue-maybe 1/8th inch tall, and an ancient necklace with very very large blue gem-it had been cut in half and one part given to queen elizabeth-the other part into necklace and the Sri L. president holds it for 14 minutes for good luck...then a monk put a holder of Budda's tooth on our heads and in some language gave us a blessing (or curse, who knows :)-and then put a string of color string on our wrist for good luck (or i think probably more like their way to "mark" who had been there!). anyway, it was very interesting to learn more of what i had been reading in the book. another day, all couples went by bus (if you can call the sandwich press a bus) 3 hours north to elephant rescue. started out by meeting some elephants, for picture taking as we petted them, then down to the river to watch them come down in a group to bath, it was scary one time when we did not know the men were bringing a few of them back up, and we were kind of in the way, then over to an area for riding the elephant..notice no saddle, just a thin blanket. It was way fun -and a little scary, but the elephant was barely walking!!--only us and one other couple chose to ride "down" to the river and let the elephant spray us with his trunk. The conference part was just two days for 4 1/2 hours each day, training by the mission president and stories of spiritual experiences by all the couples, and the SL District President came and told his conversion story-we really should be taking a tape recorder everywhere we go, everyone has stories to tell that we would love to remember.
just for those who are still "enjoying" the snow, summer has now arrived in bangalore-winter is over-it was dec-feb-sleeping with the fans going and fighting mesquitos-soon it will be turn on air condition. Just thought i would share that with you :) and torment those of you who are snow birds still. going to go to bed now....been waiting up in case nikki called to say Alivia was arriving but...no such luck, so going to go to sleep...happy "snake God" holiday!!!--noises outside, the hindus are supposed to stay up all night celebrating and praying--they are not tooo noisy yet anyway.
5 comments:
Good job Deb, altho they never taught us how to do THAT at girls camp!! ha
Thanks Erin! Awesome pictures.
Hi Yo Silver!
Wow! An elephant! You are amazing. Love the stories.
I'm so excited to hear some news. Thank Erin. What a great time they are having. Love the elephants! How fun is that!
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