Moroni 7:5 For I remember the word of God which saith by their works ye shall know them; for if their works be good, then they are good also.

As I walk the dusty streets of Kathmandu, I frequently look around and think of the many hymns that speak of not only our duty to WORK but  the blessing of WORK.  "There are chances for work all around just now, opportunities right in our way, do not let them pass by, saying someday I'll try, but go and do something today",  "I have work enough to do, ere the sun goes down," Put your shoulder to the wheel, push along... we all have work, let no one shirk, put your shoulder to the wheel."  or "Today while the sun shines, work with a will ....  prepare for tomorrow by working today."

The unemployment rate in Nepal is about 48%, 48%!!!!!!!!!!  An average Nepali makes less than $2.00 a day.  Can you even imagine what that must feel like?  Almost half of the people don't have jobs and those that do only bring home about $50.00 a month.  But even though I see many, many people on the streets, sitting and visiting and not doing much, I want to show you those who are working, and working hard in ways we can not even imagine.

Yesterday when we went to the temple (Kent's blog), I saw a man carrying a refrigerator on his back, delivering it somewhere, (I was in the taxi and couldn't get his picture quick enough) and today I saw another man carrying a couch AND a love seat tied onto his back.  Someone said to me, "they're not very heavy, NOT VERY HEAVY, they're both on his back for heavens sake!  Another woman, probably in her 50's, it's a little hard to tell here, she could have been 25 or 60, was carrying a huge cylinder of propane.

Those that are blessed enough to work, work very hard.  They are so innovative as to how they do their work, it's an amazing thing to see, it also makes me feel very blessed for the work I've been able to do in my life and now to experience this work, the Lord's work here in Nepal.

These little tuk tuks work very hard, there are probably 15 people in this people mover.

These are some of the girls in the sewing center, these women are disabled, the women knitting are also disabled, most of them are blind - BLIND and they are doing beautiful handiwork.

I've talked about all the construction work going on down our street, but just look how innovative these people are, they don't have much to work with but what little they have, they somehow make it work.

My neck aches just watching these guys, and sometimes women and even children.

People are walking underneath these guys all day long, I worry that someone's going to fall and knock these guys off of their bamboo scaffolding

Notice the little shops below - they remain open during all of this tearing down

This is what we walk through every day, I'll be glad when it's finally over - I'll be glad if it's finished before we leave.  These workers go through all of these bricks.  They clean all the old concrete off and then reuse them in their construction if they can.  It's a long and laborious task.

Breaking up and tearing down the hard way, all for about $2.00 a day.

But they are happy and grateful for the opportunity to have a job.

And they'll always stop and smile for a picture

Do you see anything wrong with this picture?  This is our cable guy- trying to figure out why our computer won't work - remember it's monsoon, aluminum ladder, head in the wires, lots of wires.  He got it fixed and lived through it!!!!

I needed some pads for some chairs made, Hari walked down the street and brought the tailor back, he looked like he was about 16, he measured the chairs and then Rukmina and I walked down the street and picked out the fabric and then we had to decide what we wanted it stuffed with, I chose the cotton.  We paid for it and waited.

Here they come!

Cutting the fabric on one of our roof top decks - they forgot their scissors so I found a pair -  too bad I left my Gingher fabric scissors at home - found a pair of paper scissors, not very sharp.  What the heck!

Now they beat the cotton to death to fluff it up for the cushion pillows

Almost fluffy!!

Whoops a little too fluffy, beat it down some more

Voila!   A cushion!  

These guys wanted some milk tea, Nepalis drink this all the time, they stop on the streets and buy little cups of milk tea, of course I didn't have any milk tea,  I got them some cold water and cookies, I don't think they were very happy!

Lots of different ways to move things to where they need to go - We have a few light bulbs that need to be changed, Hari says that's an impossible job because no one can reach it to replace, Kent tells him, "Hari, yes they can we just need to find the right guy with the tallest ladder,"   I think this guy may work.

The shoemaker on the corner

And doesn't everyone need an umbrella repair man, especially during monsoon?  Notice all the umbrella parts?

Kent is missing yard work so he finds a project, walks up the street about a mile and buys some bricks, they are delivered, within 30 minutes.  

I wonder what Kent will think of next - just a rhetorical question

Here's our local barber

 60 rupees and a head massage besides  - about  70 cents.  He wanted to trim Kent's nose hairs, but he said "no thank you", you never know where those scissors have been.

Hari working replacing old, and broken bricks

Hitson, doing his homework - he wants to be a doctor.  He teaches us Nepali, we teach him proper English.  Kent was going over one of his school papers, he had written the word learnt.  Kent said that is not proper English, the correct word is learned.  He brought home his English textbook and showed Kent the word learnt in it.  Oh well, it must be Nepali English.

Hitson and Rukmina, she is always working, working, for us.  She takes me shopping to places for the best prices, Nepali prices.  She gets upset with me when I've bought something that she thinks is too expensive.  She is also a great Nepali teacher, we meet for 30 minutes every morning and she tries to teach Kent and I Nepali, we'e slowly learning important phrases.  We've learned to write our names in Nepali.  She talks to the doctors or others in their own language when we need things from them.  She's also a very "rambro" (good) missionary here in Nepal.  She has a very strong testimony and shares it often with others.   

Elder Rempp hauling humanitarian kits from our house to his house in our beloved taxis.

In case you're wondering if Kent and I work, we do.  We spend lots of time on the computer, emailing various partners, visiting various projects, and making lots of contacts with people where we can best serve. We certainly learning to get out of our comfort zones.

We had to attend this important dinner with some of the Country Ministries.  I am sitting next to the Health Minister for women and children.  He tells me a joke, in his broken English and I can't understand a word, I just hoped I laughed at the right time.  Talk about getting out of my comfort zone!  Whew!

I teach an English class on Saturday mornings before church starts, several more wandered in after class started.  We're learning about homonyms today.

Shanti, Rukmina and me

Kent learning Nepali on his I-pad

Shanti and Rukmina and Kent

We work at the computer a lot.  We've requested from the church another computer so we can both work at the same time.  Request granted and we should be getting another one soon!

This is our primary program, the cute mother is Prima, she has a cute little daughter that is quite the character at church every week and a son that is about 7 or 8.  GC is her husband.  One of the things we do in the ward is shadow leadership, visiting and home teaching, visit inactives and investigators.  Working in the branch is the best part of our mission.  I love visiting with the members and non members,  there are so many obstacles to being a member but their testimonies are so strong.  Quite a few of them are returned missionaries and this little branch will continue to grow!  We have about 8 investigators coming, we visited with a family today, that are so eager to be baptized, another young woman can hardly wait, unfortunately she can't join the church until her Hindu father has passed away, but she comes every week.  Another young man, about 16 has classes on Saturday sometimes, but he takes a break and comes to church and then gets back to school.  

Our cute little primary had 10 kids here this Sunday.  The program was sweet and as spiritual as any primary program I've ever attended.  I wish you could have heard them sing.

"Doing good is a pleasure, a joy beyond measure, A blessing of duty and love!