Saturday, May 14, 2011

Three months ago today we boarded a plane and were on our way to Kathmandu. Wow! The time is  going pretty fast. We are happy and doing great! In fact, on Wednesday as we were sitting at the Inaugural for the beginning of the water project high in a little mountain village, I turned, looked at Gene and asked, ‘Can we really believe that we are actually here?’ We are having great adventures.

We have had a wonderful day today. We went to church. I had the opportunity to teach Relief Society today. The topic was Service. This morning I asked Usha if she would translate for me and she said she would love to do it. I have to say, we made a good team. I had prayed that I would have the Spirit as I taught and that prayer was answered. I would give a little and Usha would translate. There were quite a few there who only speak Nepali, so it’s important that they know what’s going on. And We had good discussion. I think we all learned and shared together and that’s what I had hoped would happen.

Today was a historic day for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Nepal. The translation team is here working on the translation of the Book of Mormon into Nepali. Today after the block, members of the branch stayed and they had the ‘ecclesiastical review.’ The team worked all day yesterday going over the work that had previously been done by people in Utah. Mike Peck is here from the translation department and today, chapters  4 through 6 of 2 Nephi were read in Nepali for the first time. Brother Peck said they picked these chapters because they have a lot of the words and phrases that are used throughout the Book of Mormon in them. The members were so excited. After the reading, they passed out copies of those chapters and asked the members to read them over, see how it felt and to make sure it was correct and then to give feedback.

They were thrilled to have it. Loxmi and the group she was with found one word used frequently. It was an Indian word and they said there is a Nepali word that works better. Why use an Indian word when there is a better Nepali word? I imagine they will change that. That’s the reason for the meeting today.

People wanted to know if they could take the copies home and Brother Peck told them he was sorry, but no. I said something like the 16 pages of lost manuscript and he said exactly. They don’t want different copies floating around. There will surely be a few changes. This is quite a long process and will actually be several years before the Nepali translation will actually be finished. What a blessing it will be in this land. There are so many people who only speak Nepali and to have the scriptures in their own tongue will be such a blessing in their lives.

Sister Esplin, Usha, Tseten Sherpa and Elder Esplin

We got home about 4:30 pm. Usha and Her boyfriend, Brother Sherpa came to the house. She wanted to change clothes before taking him to meet her family for the first time. They stayed and chatted with us for a while. It was so good. They expressed appreciation for our example. It was so fun to visit with them. They make such a perfect couple and desire to serve the Lord. They did tell Pres. Jackson and Pres. Bishnu of their plans and of course, they were happy for them. Pres. Bishnu counseled them to wait for the six months and then Usha can go to the U.K. and they can be married in the London Temple. They so want a temple marriage. I know things will work out for them.

We did get the water projects from the Trust last night. Gene got a minute to look them over and said that two of the three are way over the guidelines for LDSC. I’m sad about that. We so need to get the two Year Agreement submitted. Now I don’t know what will happen. We sent an email telling them and hope they can submit another project quickly. Should be an interesting week.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Usha just wanted a Diet Coke before heading to the church and working on the translation today. She really carries a special spirit about her. She will stay with us again tonight and be her for meetings tomorrow. The meeting with branch members to go over the translation will be after the block tomorrow. We are looking forward to it.

Mike Peck, Translation Supervisor, with Nepali Saints

 Today there is a strike and no traffic moving. There are lots of people on the streets walking. We understand there will be another strike next Thursday and Friday. That one will be put on by the Moist and we will really need to just stay at home.

Today has been pretty quiet. Laxmi asked if I would like to learn to cook a Nepali dish and I readily accepted. We made Aalu Paradha. It is a dough wrapped around a potato filling, rolled out very thin and then cooked in a heated skilled. It seemed like a bit of work, but I will make it again. They were quite good and though take time to make seemed pretty easy. The Nepali’s don’t have written recipes, so I tried to write down what she was doing.

President Jackson called this afternoon and they are in Kathmandu. He said they would like to invite us and all the returned missionaries to dinner tonight at the Shangri La Hotel. I told him I would be happy to make some calls for him. Since the strike doesn’t end until five, he thought we should have dinner about 7:00, there at the Shangri La Hotel. I called the returned missionaries. They said they would love to come, but finding transportation might be a problem and then getting back home is an even bigger problem

We did go to dinner. There were only four returned missionaries, the Deppongs and us, along with President and Sister Jackson. Some of the RM’s tried to catch a bus, without success. We missed having them with us. It was an enjoyable evening as we ate outside in their garden and there was live music,  as there were very few buses running. Usha, the young woman working on the translation, stayed with us again. She is so wonderful. She wanted to talk with me. I sent Gene upstairs and she and I visited about a lot of ‘stuff’ for an hour and a half. It was a wonderful experience for me and I hope for her too. We just seemed to connect. She even told me she felt that we knew each other before we came to earth and  that we were the same age; I just came to earth before she did. I thought that was pretty sweet.