Sunday, May 8, 2011 (Mothers Day)

It’s been a wonderful day.  Sister Deppong called early and  I wished her a Happy Mother’s Day and she did the same and said that was why she was calling. She asked if I would like to go shopping today and suggested that we take Laxmi and Rukmina with us. I told her I would love to do that. She said she would arrange a taxi and come pick us up.  It wasn’t too long and Debbie had called again and the party just got a little larger. Loren, the girl from Blanding, UT was back in Kathmandu. She has been here in Nepal for four months working in the little villages. He is here in the city for a few days before heading home to Utah. Debbie invited her to go with us and she was thrilled.

Shyam and the other taxi driver. Shyam takes us to School most days.

We had a great day together. We ended up taking two taxi’s and that was fine. (We had two drivers the whole day. They charged us 2000 rupees, which amounts to about $34. That's $17 each for them. I would have paid them more. It sure was nice for us.)Debbie had wanted to see if she could find some yarn, maybe some Yak yarn. Shyam suggested we go to the Tibetan Refugee Center. We did. They didn’t have yarn but there were women there who were weaving beautiful 100% wool rugs.  They sat on a mat on the concrete floor with balls of yarn around them. They had a pattern that looked a lot like a cross stitch pattern. Their fingers flew as they wrapped and tamped the yarn down. It was really interesting. They also had a show room and they had some beautiful rugs and they felt really nice. Actually, I didn’t think the prices were too bad. For a pretty good size rug, it was about $225 US dollars. Laxmi and Rukmina thought we could find some just as good quality at a better price. Debbie really wants to take one home.

There were so many beautiful rugs

 We went to a few other shops, looking for pottery and whatever. Laxmi called Jessica, her daughter, and we picked her up and then went to lunch at the Garden Gateway. It’s a nice oasis in the middle of this big city. You had to buy a ticket to get in and then pay for lunch. We didn’t know but when we sat down, they were serving a buffet and it was expensive. It was NP 1350 which amounts to about $19 each. Debbis said it was her treat. I wanted to split it with her, but she wouldn’t let me.  Anyway, the Nepali’s all really enjoyed it. Debbie and I didn’t eat too much. It was Nepali and a little spicy and some strange things. I have to say, the chef is a member of the Branch and Debbie told him we would come.

Loren, Laxmi, me, Debbie, Rukmina, Jessica and the chef.

We then went to Thamel and looked in a few little shops. I did buy a couple of bags (purses). By then it’s after five o’clock and we decided we had better head for home. We had kept the same taxi drivers all day and it was nice to do it that way. We really had a fun day and it was good to be with the girls. Gene spent the day in the office and got quite a bit done. He was happy that I could go and he didn’t have to.

Loren, me, Rukmina, Bebbie, Laxmi and Jessica

 Saturday, May 7, 2011

We went to church and we love being with the Saints here. Fast and Testimony meeting was great. I had wanted to bear my testimony, but the Nepali members just kept the microphone busy – and the meeting went overtime as it was. Just before meeting began, Pres. Bishnu pulled me aside and said he wanted to sustain me. I told him that would be just fine. After the block, Sister Deppong and I were both set apart, her as a Primary teacher and me as a Relief Society teacher. Pres. Bishnu gave me a wonderful blessing. 

GC, Sajana and Bikki - approved for IRFD

 These three young people have been approved for education help from the church. All are returned missionaries. GC is the Elders Quorum President and studying networking. Sajana is teaching Relief Society and is going to cosotology school and Bikki, teaches Sunday School and is going into computer technology. They are all wonderful young people.

Pres. Bishnu announced that next Sabbath, Michael Peck, Head of the Translation Department will be here in the Kathmandu Branch. They are working on the translation of the Book of Mormon and wanted to come and see if some of the chapters in 2 Nephi were translated correctly. They will have a special meeting after the block next Sunday. He was looking for feedback from the Nepali Saints.

Tyler Cline and his father Dave were in church today. They have been climbing the Annapurna Himalayan Range the last couple of weeks. We invited them over for dinner. I wasn’t sure what I would fix, but they came home with us. I found out on the way, that Dave is a vegetarian. That made it easier. I just cooked up some one pot vegetables, potatoes, onions, carrots and green pepper.  I also made a peach cobbler and it was a hit. They stay till about 5:00 and we had a great afternoon, hearing about their trek and talking about Nepal. They are from Sandy, UT. It was good to have them here.

About 6:30 pm, Rakesh called and said the professor from BYU who was here for the Forum on the Constitution, would like to meet us and could we come to the Everest Hotel and have dinner. We weren’t too hungry, but we told him yes. He had also talked to the Deppongs. We hurried and changed clothes and they picked us up in a taxi and we were off to the Everest Hotel. The delegates to the forum on the Constitution were meeting together for dinner before their event was over. We met quite a few of them, including two professors from BYU.

Cole Durham, one of the professors, came and sat with us at our table. He’s an interesting guy. Cole Durham is internationally known for his contributions to protecting religious freedoms and he is the director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at BYU. Oh, it would be wonderful if the country of Nepal would open up this country so the Elders could come in teach the gospel.  Right now, it is illegal for any church to proselyte. Anyway, it was nice to meet some of the people there. I don’t know why we keep getting invited to these kinds of things, but it’s quite nice and hopefully we can plant seeds as we go along, even as we represent Latter-Day Saint Charities.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Today has been a little bit of a different day. We had a couple of interesting conversation with Elder Ko in Hong Kong. When all was said and done, he told us to submit the Agreement with all the water and wheelchair projects, plus the Area Initiatives. The Area Presidency will meet on Thursday and talk about it. We aren’t sure what will happen. I guess, we will just go with the flow and do whatever the Brethern want us to do.

About 12:00, Steven in India asked for our Team Viewer ID and Password and took over our computer, installing Tally, the program for our auditor. It took a couple of hours. This guy was in India and I had a bit of a hard time understanding him. He couldn’t finish the application and asked a friend for help and I couldn’t understand him any better. But I guess they knew what they were doing. After a couple of hours they had it ready to roll. Dipok , our auditor, will be happy.

The Board member over the Five Village Project (that’s been going on for many years) Tej Prasad Dhaka, called and wanted to come over and visit about the project. He did come and explained to us what is happening. Most of the people involved are to the point where they are in agreement. Now there is one guy who is holding things up and they are in a tough spot. This fellow holding things up is in a position to do so. Tej Prasad Dhaka, the fellow here visiting, said they had a few options to try, but they needed some money to finance and get the ball rolling again. Gene ultimately told him, our hands are tied, but he would approach Hong Kong and see what they say. I know Hong Kong would love to see the project completed as it would provide water to over 45,000 people. We had invited Deppongs over and they were here for the discussion. We were glad for a second opinion and support in this.

We had another good rain storm tonight. I don’t mind it. Perhaps the monsoon season will be here early this year.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

We got up and went to the store, Bhat Bhateni, early. We bought a couple of umbrellas and a new backpack. Laxmi always thinks we pay way too much and we probably do. She’s always telling us that downtown it would be less money, but we are never downtown. It was less than $30 for the backpack and umbrellas. There were cheaper umbrellas by far, but they looked it too.

I did call Debbie and told her that Rakesh said not to wear our badges tonight. I was glad when she said, ‘oh, then we can’t go.’ I told her we really felt that we needed to wear our badges when we were out and about and she agreed. She called Rakesh and called us back and said that he was disappointed. Still, we feel that’s what needs to be. Rakesk called us later in the day and he really would like to see us attend. We told him we would talk to Deppongs and let him know.

We received an interesting email from Elder Ko. I think they are looking at our budget and thinking we are really spending a lot of money in Nepal. He asked how SWC would respond if we should drop the water projects and just did wheelchairs.  Wow! That a shock to us. We weren’t ready for a question like that and our first thought was – then what would we do? They sure wouldn’t need two couples in Nepal if they drop water projects. We send him an email and asked him to give him a call.

He did call back and we talked for about 50 minutes. It’s an interesting thought. The church does like to do humanitarian work, but first and foremost, they like to take care of its members. After we talked about it for a bit, I think we would be okay with whatever they decide. We could certainly cut back and maybe do one or two projects. Or just do wheelchairs. My concern is what would the two couples do. Without being able to proselyte and have young elders here, it would be hard to stay busy, and busy is what we want to be. W had thought that perhaps they would send one of us couples somewhere else, but that wouldn’t happen. Now we are in a bit of a dither – not sure which way to go. Do we put all these new projects in the new Two Year Agreement?  We feel a little like we are here in a boat without a paddle and aren’t sure where we are going.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

We looked at our preparations for school. Yesterday we didn’t get through everything we had planned, so we just had to come up with a little more stuff. School went well. We still only had about 24 students and that was nice.  Now, Deppong’s will teach next week and we will have the week off. I would rather go every week and teach fewer kids. It’s easier and the students learn more. Today, I got the camera out and took pictures. They like to have their picture taken and then want to see all of them.

This afternoon, we went across the street and got a few eggs and vegetables. We came back and fixed an egg sandwich. We spend the afternoon responding to emails, mostly from Hong Kong. There is a bit of a stir regarding the two year agreement. We also got an email from Sister Jackson. Sounds like they might be here to visit May 14.

Gene did talk to a couple of the evaluation team members. We are hoping we can pull that trip to Chanute together for next Monday.

I did call Rakesh and told him I was giving him our RSVP for the Constitution Meeting to be held tomorrow and that we planned on being there. We had debated about whether we should go or not but decided we could keep a low profile. The, he did ask that we not wear our badges, that the people from BYU said it probably wouldn’t be good to have churches represented. When I hung up the phone and told Gene, we both felt that if we couldn’t wear our badges, we shouldn’t go. It just doesn’t feel right

We did get a good thundershower tonight. Those showers are helping as we have had electricity most of the day. I’m liking it.