17 February 2012

It's been a pretty quiet week - I think it's the calm before the storm as we have quite a bit coming up. That's good as we like being busy. 

It started out partly cloudy this morning but it’s cleared up and has been a beautiful day. We were happy to see an email from Alan and Susan Webb. We don’t get many emails for it was a nice surprise. They are doing well and have started their medical stuff to go on a mission again. Their daughter Kimi is getting married in May and they want to be there for that. They are good friends and great examples to us.

I looked at the Preach My Gospel DVD’s and felt that we should use the first one in our Missionary Prep Class tomorrow. It gets you excited about missionary work and shows real missionaries in the field. It’s motivating and spiritual and when Gene s saw it, he agreed.

We walked over to Bhat Bhateni’s and got a few things. They even had some vanilla. They are really small bottles and I got four. I’ll give Sister Deppong a couple.

Next door to the site of Wheelchair Distribution.....

BEAUTIFUL!!!

16 February 2012

It’s hard to believe that a year ago we arrived in Kathmandu. What a year it has been. We’ve had many great experiences and made memories that will last a life time. With only a few months left, we find time is flying by.

We taught English today and it was fun. Our class size is down a bit and I’m not sure what that means but the women who are coming seem to enjoy themselves and I hope they are learning as well. Today we had them write: Tell me about – your mother, father, sister, brother, dog, friend or whatever they wanted to write about. We found we spent most of the time with their sharing. They seemed to like that and we enjoyed hearing from them. We also talked about telephone etiquette just a bit. We will probably spend just a bit on time on that next week. Monday we won’t have class as it’s a Nepali  holiday.

Construction in Kathmandu

How would OSHA like this?

No concrete trucks here - - -

 We did make airline reservations for New Delhi for March 4^th. Pres. Jackson suggested we come to India to see an ENT doctor and since I’ve still been having trouble we are going to go. We will leave on March  4^th and return on the 8^th. We pray the doctor there will be able to help me. We have been in contact with Pres. Jackson and he said the doctor there was anxious to see me. Pray all goes well.

We’ve both been cold all day and finally Gene said he thought we should go ahead and bring in the new propane tank and light up the heater here in the office. He said there’s no sense sitting here freezing to death. We brought it in, hooked it up and fired it up. Oh, a little heat feels so good!

15 February 2012

Gene and I went to the Indian Embassy this morning, taking copies of our medical papers from my treatment here in Nepal with us. The man was very nice and we were successful in getting our ‘medical visa’ going. He said it should be ready the end of next week. I did send an email to Pres. Jackson updating him on our progress and telling him we could come to India after March 4^rd. I am happy we are getting this taken care of. This morning both ears feel quite full. I sure hope they can help me in India.

It sounds like we will need to make our own airline reservations. Pres. Jackson said he would make hotel reservations for us. We will probably be there four or five days. He also said if we wanted he could arrange someone to take on a tour and see the Taj Mahal. I think we should do that. It looks like we will go about the 4^th of March. I will be happy to get this done. Today both ears seem quite full. I’m not sure what is going on with them but this has been going on since October.

I’ve worked on English today and Gene has worked on his talk for Sunday. It’s been cool today and we have both had a harder time staying warm.  We emptied the gas cylinder here in the office and think maybe we should just tough it out. It’s supposed to warm up in a couple of day. I hope so.

14 February 2012

I can hardly believe that a year ago today we got on that big airplane and flew to Nepal. The year has been full of wonderful experiences and yes, some challenges as well. We look forward to our last six months and know they will go quickly. Hopefully, we can make the most of the time we have left.

This morning we went to the bank again, taking them the right papers this time. The papers were updated information for their files. Then we walked up to the Indian Embassy. Laxmi went with us as we never know when we might need a Nepali speaker, and she is always happy to be involved.

When we got there we told the guard we would like a visa to go to India to get some medical help. He  had us take a number. We waited over an hour and then when they did call our number, the guard came over and said a man would come out and talk to us. We talked  with him a minute then he took us inside the building and we talked a little more. He asked if we had a letter from a doctor here requesting us going to India. We told him no and explained that after four months of treatment and no success, we would like to go to India and that we knew a doctor there (referring to Pres. Jackson) who suggested we get medical help in India. He asked if we had brought the medical papers for the treatment we’ve had  here and we told him ‘no.’ He asked if we would bring the papers in to him and we told him we would. Then he would need to send the application to San Francisco to be okay-ed. He asked when we wanted to go and we told him as soon as possible. It sounds like this could be a process. We will take the papers back tomorrow and see what happens.

This afternoon we went to lunch with Deppong’s to celebrate Valentine’s Day. We went to Nina and Hager’s. They are getting ready to move their store down by Saleway’s. They will be able to have a bigger space for their restaurant and have more control over their hours of operation. We enjoyed our lunch and our visit.

A Buddhist Monastery we walk past on the way to Deppong's

13 February 2012

We taught English today. Our class numbers are down. There are quite a few who belong to the READ Nepal staff and they haven’t been coming. We saw Devi on the way in and she said they all had a meeting this morning. We did get a couple of new women in the second class and that will be good.

This afternoon Gene said that Deppong's needed some help on their computer so we walked over there. Debbie was trying to attach a document in her downloads to send to Dr. Clark. It took me a few minutes – finally having to copy and paste it into a new document, but we got it and she sent it on its way. She hates the computer and I’m impressed she does as well as she does – not being able to see very well. We were happy to help her out. And it was good exercise to walk over there and back.

We got an interesting email from Pres. Jackson concerning the Branch. He had received the Branch report and had comments: One,  that the Branch sacrament meeting attendance is flirting with 100.) That is great news. (I think they must be counting toward the end of the meeting as there’s not that many there, even for the Sacrament. Deppong’s told us that when they came, attendance was around 50, so that’s a great improvement. I know every week there are about a dozen people in the investigator class. It’s great to see the church growing here, even without full time missionaries.

Pres. Jackson said he thought it was time to make priesthood and member map of Kathmandu so they can look into the possibility of finding a bigger, better-located building that will best meet the needs of the membership.  He said he recognizes the sensitive nature of the Church in Nepal and that would need to be taken into consideration.  It sounds like we are about to outgrow the reliable old building the church has been using for more than a decade!

I guess there are 22 ACTIVE prospective elders. He wanted to know who they are and would love to see them as new elders by year’s end. Then there are the YSA and the report said there are 40 of them attending. He encouraged the Branch to have a great YSA program available and get these folks married in the temple and building the branch that way.

We checked the reservation site for Buffalo Campground again tonight and another site had opened up. With Clay's help we booked it. It's a single site. So now we have two. Anybody want to come????? It's a good time - we look forward to it. 

12 February 2012

We talked with Clay yesterday and he said it’s time to make reservations in Island Park. We looked at the site with him.  Tonight (our time) at 8:45 pm we will be able to reserve.  We gave Clay our information so one of us can book us a spot. This will be the best week to go before the kids all start school again. 

 We were all able to get campsites with electrical hook-ups in the Buffalo campground the week of August 12th. We ended up with a double site. It's more space than we need, but it's a site. It's a great campground and we love it there. The kids wanted to try for Upper Coffee Pot, but it's just so hard to get into. We are happy with Buffalo. We look forward to spending a week up there. It's been a tradition for many years.

We took Laxmi with us and went to the Bank and to the Social Welfare Council. The bank wanted updated information and so we took that in. The SWC had called and had some questions on the amended project we had taken in. We talked with Neeti Sherpa, the Secretary to the Secretary.  She asked for a copy of our Project Agreement. I don’t know why. They already have a copy, but we gave her another one. She went through it and it dawned on me that she was looking for something, anything, that would cause us to have to come back or change something. I told Gene ‘She’s looking for something’. He agreed. She didn’t find anything and Gene told her it was the same format as the last amendment we had submitted. She said if they had questions, they would get back with us.

We then walked over to the Indian Embassy to get moving on getting a visa for India. Wouldn’t you know – it was closed. Another day. And by evening, again, I’m thinking my ear seems pretty good. I had put a few ear drops in my ear in the night and it did seem lots better. Oh, I just don’t know what to do about going there to the doctor. . .

I did go over the material for English tomorrow. There wasn’t much to prepare as we hadn’t finished what we had outlined for last time. Then I crocheted for a bit. It’s been quite a full day.