The Athukoralas

Advisory: This blog post is quite long and about my friend David Athukorala, his conversion, family, and life.

My host and friend in Sri Lanka is a man named Dharmapriya Athukorala, but he goes by David to me. During my time as a missionary in Hong Kong I had the pleasure of teaching him the gospel and getting to know him well. I have never really put much stock in the whole idea of promising people in the pre-existence that you will find and teach them the gospel, but if there was anybody I had a connection with before this life it was David. We both love politics, business, sports, and the gospel, and get along really well. Even if we had met in another context we could still be really good friends. When I left my mission, my mission president asked us to keep him informed about people we had taught and share good stories with him and his wife. Pasted below is part of a letter I sent them in June 2004, and afterwards I will update David and his family’s activities since then:
“I thought I might share a story with you that started on my mission but keeps growing over time. One time in a PPI I asked you about preparing a candidate for baptism and if they have a checkered past whether or not we should ask them about things involved in it. Our candidate had been involved in some revolutionary/civil war activities in Sri Lanka and I was worrying that he might have killed some people. You advised not to ask and all went well with his interview. His name is Dharmapriya Athukorala, but he usually went by David. He now is a thirty-two year old father of two. On April 20th, 2002, he was baptized in a cool creek a little bit above Discovery Bay. On a humorous side note, my camera was a victim of the occasion, water and electronics don't mix. We had met about three weeks before in Mui Wo when he asked me in ParknShop (grocery store) for a Book of Mormon. I happily obliged and we scheduled to see him again the next week. He was a golden investigator, accepted all we taught and acted on it. He even offered to give money and asked if he could attend some scripture classes before we had even taught the fourth discussion. During teaching him we found out he was in Hong Kong seeking asylum from the U.N. because he was afraid of being extradited back to Sri Lanka and facing false charges stemming from politics. In ten years of hiding after leaving his homeland he had attended college, learned four languages, started a successful business, settled in South Korea, married and had a child, and became a leading citizen in the Sri Lankan community of South Korea. Sadly, nearly all this was lost when someone from his past recognized him and he had to flee to Hong Kong. Little did he know how important his time in Hong Kong would be. While teaching him his wife was hesitant as she didn't know much English and just wanted their family to keep their traditional beliefs. Thankfully, through attending church with her husband, meeting the missionaries and members, and seeing the positive influence the gospel had on her husband and family, she became interested in the gospel and was baptized by her husband on June 30th of the same year. David and I became fast friends during my time in Mui Wo as we shared the same interests (sports and politics) and his enthusiasm for the gospel gave me my first experience with seeing a person truly and completely converted to the Lord. Over the next year or so he and his wife were integrated wonderfully into the Discovery Bay branch (the members did an amazing job helping them in so many ways), he received the Aaronic and then Melchizedek Priesthood, served admirably as an Elder's Quorum teacher, home teacher, and ward missionary. On his own through an amazing ability to be a friend, he brought over a dozen people into the Church including a whole family and spread goodwill to all he encountered. In November 2002 he and his wife had their second child and first son, whom they named Deshan Hughes Athukorala, the middle name coming from a certain missionary they had grown to love, and who loved them. The day I went into the mission home to come home Elder Carter and I traveled to Peng Chau to see their family one last time and I got to see Deshan for the 1st time. It was a joyous, but sad occasion. Later, in what we thought was a sad occasion, his case was refused by the U.N. and he had to leave Hong Kong and go into hiding again. Before he left he went to the Temple and took out his Endowment. First he hid in Sri Lanka before returning to South Korea with a fake passport. Back in Korea and separated from his family he embraced the Church and his new ward. He received multiple callings and became the Ward Mission leader, and made sure to live a few minutes from the Temple so he could attend there often. Struggling to find work and support his family back in Sri Lanka he told me of his efforts to start up a company similar to the one he used to own. Everything seemed to be in place, but he couldn't build any capital or find investors. I asked my Dad and he happily agreed to help David with a little seed money. His business started and continues to go well and he had everything going well, except a few important things like being separated from his family and an outlaw in his country. Luckily, the Lord was in the work of taking care of those. An election was called in his homeland and his party history that had plagued his life for ten years became irrelevant. They were in a coalition that won the election and all charges were dropped against party members. For the first time in ten years last week he was able to return to his country freely. For the first time in ten years he saw his parents and siblings, and introduced them to their grandchildren and niece/nephew. Every time I talk to or David emails me he thanks God and the missionaries for teaching him the gospel and changing his life. His testimony is strong and he and his wife will raise their children in the Church, serving and building the kingdom.
To be honest, David and his family are the pride and joy of my mission. Over time the number of converts I helped shrinks and it can be discouraging when someone I saw embrace the Church leaves it. However, I would have served the whole two years for a single one of them. The funny thing about baptizing David is that he brought a lot more people into the gospel than I ever did. Probably the greatest thing about my friendship with David is that it has taught me about true love. Our relationship and the desire I have for his and his family's well-being is as close to true charity as I probably have ever come. I thank God for the chance to meet him and to learn from my time with him. There were many amazing converts and saints in Hong Kong, and I just thank God that he was generous enough to bless me with the opportunity to get to know one well.
I guess my little story has gotten a little long and could very well end up making little sense. Anyways, I thought you might appreciate a remembrance of our time and work in Hong Kong. Thank you for being there for me, teaching me so much, and leading me in the pathway back to Christ.
Love,
Yale Layton”

Since David returned to Sri Lanka he has been greatly blessed by the Lord. His name was quickly cleared and he got re-involved in politics. At first, he tried to start another business but didn’t have much luck as the economy is growing slowly (byproduct of the civil war), so he eventually decided to work full-time in politics. In less than 3 years he has moved from party organizer to chief of staff for the largest cabinet department in the country. Along the way he has moved through jobs including: Director of the Sri Lankan Tea Board (in charge of marketing Sri Lankan tea to the world even though he didn’t drink it, kind of funny), Chief Secretary and translator for the Minister of Plantations and Fisheries, and Ampara Province party chair (kind of like a state political party chairman). Currently, he is Chief Secretary to the Nation Building minister (in charge of 62% of the country’s non-military budget). His boss is an MP and is often out in his district or at public events, leaving David to run things. Additionally, he is in charge of diplomatic relations for Chief Secretaries to Ministers, tsunami relief work, and coordinating work with NGOs. Granted he has a staff that does most of the work but he oversees it all. He works like a beast, but is amazingly competent and has kept his modesty, humility, humor, and kindness. In the next parliamentary election David is going to be a candidate for his party and he puts his odds at 50/50 or being elected. He is an amazing man and I just feel thankful for having the opportunity to know and teach him. Any missionary could have done it but for some reason I was blessed to be the lucky one (he asked me for the Book or Mormon and never had any problems, it was amazing).
In the Church he served as 2nd counselor in the Branch Presidency when he first got back to Sri Lanka, but when he started working crazy hours in politics he was released. He still serves in other callings and has become the Church’s behind-the-scenes point man for government relations. For the missionaries he is basically the immigration officer as he pulls strings to get visas extended and help them out. Even though the Church has been here for over 30 years, it still is lacking legal recognition and the missionaries proselyte on tourist visas and without name tags. David has been working with lawyers, senior missionaries, LDS charities, and his government contacts to get the Church legal status and help the missionaries become more permanent. His old boss (Plantations Minister, and former minister of Religious Affairs) has agreed to propose and push a bill in parliament to give the Church legal status and David hopes it will pass within a year or two. Getting a Christian church legal status and forward progress in Sri Lanka is quite remarkable as there has been a negative focus on Christian’s proselytizing activities and religious-tinged tsunami relief. There was a bill that would have passed parliament if the Supreme Court didn’t shoot it down that would have made it illegal to change religions in the country. Needless to say, his work has been quite remarkable.
The Athukorala family is doing well. David and his wife Shewantie had another son in the fall of 2004 and name him Chamal Yale Athukorala. I’ve only seen him in pictures and look forward to meeting him in a few hours. I will admit I’ve enjoyed bragging about my namesakes the last couple of years and now I get to hang out with them. I better be on my best behavior to live up to half the reputation that David seems to have built for me. David speaks pretty good English, but Shewantie’s English wasn’t too good in Hong Kong and I don’t know how much their children will speak. Their oldest, Deshenie is 7 now and was adorable 5 years ago so I suspect it will be the same. The two boys should be fun and I suspect I’ll end up bonding with them over sports. Maybe they can teach me to play cricket. The area I taught and baptized them in was the one in Hong Kong without its own building or easy access to a baptismal font. As a result, we baptized in a creek during dry season and a swimming hole when the rain had been more plentiful. Pictures include David’s and Shewantie’s baptism, the Athukorala family the day I left Hong Kong (the girl in front was a neighbor one they were babysitting), the family when I was teaching David (Deshenie holding Mickey Mouse), David and I, Le Jong Ling or Jasmine’s baptism, and photos of the kids from 2006. There might be a cousin mixed in here, not sure.