2 Chronicles 25:2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart.

During my personal scripture study I came across this scripture and after I underlined it I thought about MY imperfect heart some days, even though I'm trying to do that which is right most days I know I sometimes complain and whine, so I'm going to work on having a more perfect heart to appreciate all my blessings every day and do the Lord's work and find joy in what I'm doing.

One of the places we go as missionaries for breakfast, we officially call this our missionary meeting breakfast, is Mike's.  It's homey, they have pretty good breakfast and we like the manager and waiters.  Here's a picture of one of our friends at Mikes, with his newly dyed hair.

When the Nepali's dye their hair, this is the color it turns out.  More men than women dye their hair.  The last time we were at Mike's we he was letting his hair  go "natural"  Sister Rempp and I both commented how much we liked the natural look and how handsome he looked.  I guess he either didn't believe us or he didn't really care what we thought.

On Monday the 28th, Dr. Ashish called and asked us to meet him at the Paropakar Hospital.  It was the last day in January that they were HBB training and he asked us to be there.  When we got there he asked Kent if he would be the closing speaker.  Of course he would and he did a great job!

Kent explaining how important this training is and the difference it can make in their hospitals in saving the lives of newborns.  According to the latest statistics in this hospital between 3-5 newborns die everyday in this hospital.  We've just received a couple of reports from the American Pediatric Society,  the protocol they use in HBB can save up to almost 50% of those babies and that's not including those babies that don't get the oxygen they need in the first minute of life and thus have mental and physical disabilities.

The next two days were spent working on the Project Development Worksheet with Dr. Clark and Salt Lake to get it ready to submit to Hong Kong for the next HBB training in April.  This is a very complicated task - to try to make everybody happy with what we see as important .

On Thursday we went to the Monkey Temple with E/S Rempp.  But first Sister Rempp and I stopped at a little shop to check out their kurtas, of course we had to buy one.

Swambyau or the Monkey Temple is a place of worship for Buddhists. In a previous blog  I posted pictures but here are some more.

The prayer roll is a way of Buddhists worship. They walk by it and spin clockwise.  I asked what happened if you spun it counterclockwise.  It would bring negative energy into your life.  So always make sure you turn a prayer roll clockwise.  Who needs any more negative energy in their lives?

This is a huge prayer roll

These are smaller prayer rolls where they walk and spin, there are probably 2 blocks around the temple of prayer rolls.

These are pictures up on top - I'm not sure of the significance of all these little stuppas on the left.











And of course there must be monkeys at the the Monkey Temple

This woman is preparing a pooja for worship, there are flowers and food and all sorts of stuff and the monkeys were helping, mostly making a mess of her preparation.

On Friday, Latter-Day Saint Charities was invited to a wheelchair training by the World Health Organization, 

it actually wasn't very good, but lunch was good and we met quite a few people that were interested in talking to us.  Someone told us that LDSC actually does a better job at wheelchair training and distribution than WHO does and that was a comment from someone in  the WHO.  

One of the government officials speaking at the WHO training.  The young man on the right is blind.  He was interpreting for the minister.  He also came and sat with us and interpreted some of the meeting for us.

Saturday after our church meetings we had a wheelchair distribution at the READ Nepal Leprosy clinic. 

Raj Kumar Shah from READ Nepal, he is our friend who runs READ Nepal and also has a serious case of leprosy,  notice his hand.  He's also lost one leg to leprosy and the other leg is not in great shape.

These are a few of the wheelchair recipients. 

Kent making some wheelchair adjustments.

                                                                                                Kent speaking at the closing ceremony

On Monday we had a quick appointment with Dr. Thapa at the Police Hospital.  He's going to be our monitor for HBB, making sure that the trainers are training in their own hospitals.  We caught him in the middle of a pretty intense badminton game.  He's the one in the yellow shorts and black t-shirt, and he's not a young guy either.

On Tuesday morning we went to the Indian Embassy  to get our Visas for our trip to India at the end of the month for our couples conference in New Delhi.  

We didn't have our applications filled out right so we got to come again the next day.

We went again on Wednesday, and again on Friday, we'll eventually get it right.  Every time we went we waited about 2 - 3 hours.  Finally on Friday we got everything paid for and they told us to come back on Monday to pick up our Visa stamps.

Saturday was a baptism, this is what I've been waiting for.  Ajay is a great young man.  He's been coming since we've been here but has wanted to get his parents approval to be baptized.  His mother finally told him to go ahead but she wasn't very happy with his decision.  She should be - he's made a lot of changes for the good in his life.  He's a better son.

                     The font at our building

On Sunday I got some of my visiting teaching done, this takes about 3 hours per visit considering the travel time and then we had ANOTHER wheelchair distribution at the Nepal Orthopedic Hospital.

The next pictures are at the hospital, some of these patients live here full time, there families have left them here because they can't take care of them, they are too much of a burden - so sad.

This beautiful young woman fell from a tree when she was 13.

She was so excited to have a wheelchair

Kent and Rakesh, he's about 3 feet tall, but such a happy young man

This guy was trying to get us to buy him a lap top or an IPad, 

Rakesh, me and this young man who was born with only half of a body

Kent gets to speak again - it's a good thing he so good at it

Kent racing

The orthopedic doctor wanted us to go and see his hospital - it was very nice and very clean.  There were even private rooms that the people could use and pay for but not very many use it.  The hospital caters to mostly those who can not pay, and the doctor said that those who could pay wouldn't come because they didn't want to be in the same hospital  with those who were so poor.  It doesn't make any sense, it's that caste thing again that so many say doesn't exist here.  But in the next few days I saw it more than ever.

Rakesh, the other Rakesh, then took us to dinner at a new place for us, Chinese food, ummmmmm it was good, will go there again.

We finally got a call back from the government regarding our participation in the Emergency for those who were freezing and dying because of the cold from about six weeks ago.  They want us to go to the Terai and take blankets, just a note, it is starting to get pretty warm in the Terai now, but I guess it's better late than never.  Please remember I'm trying to have that perfect heart in doing that which is right in the Lord.  It's just sometimes so frustrating working with the Nepali government, so inefficient along with the corruption.  The Church funded 1,500 blankets that we will distribute over the next few days, and we had to pay a high tax for them.  The next pictures are of our trip 

On our way we stopped to take a picture of the beautiful mountains, we climbed up on a concrete ledge to take these pictures.  When we got to the top to take pictures a wild pig came up to Elder Rempp and bit him on the leg.

         Elder Rempp and the mean pig

We would have had to turn around if the pig had broken the skin

The Orchid Hotel where we stayed the first night in Hetauda

Not too bad except for the twin beds and they were like sleeping on a door and the pillows were like a brick and sometimes looks can be deceiving .........

No working shower - a Nepali toilet and no hot water, but I did not complain - honest.

As we were walking around trying to find something to eat we saw these young women dressed in their Tamang attire.  

This was dinner the first night - barbecued mutton, better known as goat.  Do you love the use fans when barbecuing to keep the flames going? It actually doesn't taste too bad.

We got up early the next morning to get to Malangwa for our distribution, we stopped along the road to get a bite for breakfast

They fry these things and then dip then in a sugar syrup.  They are yummy if you buy them right out of the oil. We see them all the time along the streets for sale - covered with flies and sitting for I don't know how long - yuck!

The next pictures are at the blanket distribution

This is the school class, I am standing next to the teacher.  These children come from a very poor village but they are lucky to be able to go to school.

The children were having recess.  They had found bricks and were laying them around like legos.  Kent got right in there and made a real maize out of them.  They were having fun!

Before the blanket distribution started we were taken to a part of the village where the "untouchables" lived, if you can even call it living.  I'm thinking, how can anyone be classified as "untouchable?"  Here we are in a country that says the caste system no longer exists, but what I saw this day, the caste system is very much alive and well in Nepal.  These are the people who the first 500 blankets went to. 

As we walked around we soon were in the middle of all these villagers, they had gathered round wondering what on earth these white faces were doing amongst them.  We were snapping pictures like crazy.  They all wanted to be in the picture.  These children were not in school.  I'm sure they have no means of putting their children in school.  As we walked around and looked at the mud homes, they slept  on the ground and only on mats that were made of straw with no blankets at all 

Aren't these two girls beautiful.  They are probably about 14 years old.  In this village the women all wear saris, no kurtas and I did not see a one with shoes on.

This little Nani sticking her head out the window of her mud home

The women started to gather in a designated courtyard to receive their blankets.  They each had to have identification stating what district they were from in order to receive a blanket.  Only one blanket per person, I saw very few children getting blankets.  As they would leave with their blanket word was spreading that we were handing out blankets, it became a little overwhelming with all the people that were coming in and we were having to tell them they could not receive a blanket

I was talking to Rakesh about how hard this was, to have to turn away people who obviously needed a blanket.  He reminded me that we could not help everyone, it would never end and that I should think about the 500 who did receive a blanket.

There were 1,000 more blankets that we'd purchased coming  and were going to be distributed to 2 other districts in need of the warmth of a blanket the next two days.

Some of the wool blankets

One blanket per family

Every time we do anything there has to be a closing ceremony, a big deal I wish we didn't have to do.  It would be nice just to come in and give or help and not have to go through all of this and then quietly leave.

One of the gentleman here insisted on buying us lunch.  We went to a little dirty cafe and he bought us rice and mutton (goat).  Elder Rempp wanted to pay for it but Rakesh told him "no,"  This was his thank you to us for helping his community.

This is deep fried beaten rice, regular fried beaten rice  and there is regular beaten rice.

This is the mutton, they save the fattiest pieces for us because they say that is the best part of the goat.  I had a hard time even chewing this mutton, I have tasted better.

In this little town I did not see one taxi and only a handful of motorized vehicles, this is their mode of transportation

cart and pony

ricshaws

By the time the distribution was done we had a 2 hour drive back to Hetauda, and so we spent the night here again, got up early and headed for home, about a 6 hour drive on the windy roads of Nepal where we saw people working hard in the fields of rice and sugar cane.

It never ceases to amaze me how very hard many of them work and then again how many more sit around in the sun doing very little waiting for someone to give them a handout.  Some days it's hard not to have a bad attitude but I'm working on that perfect heart.  And it's going to take a lot of work.

Yesterday we went to the Indian embassy to try to get our visas.  They had told us to pick them up today.  We got to the counter and they took our passports and told us to come back on Monday.  By this time Kent has about had it, we explained that we were told we could pick up our visa stamp today, they wouldn't listen.  He went to another counter and told the man that we would be out of town and needed our stamps today.  He told us to come back at 5:00.  We got to the embassy at 4:00 in plenty of time but they wouldn't let us in, they said "come back at 5:00."  And then we realized that we had left our receipts at home.  Kent and I grabbed a taxi and left Rempps waiting, because of traffic this took about an hour in "the Kathmandu jam" to go about 5 miles home and back.  We got back at 4:58, time to spare.  The sixth time was charm, we finally have our visas. " I hope I never have to see this building again," I 'm saying this with a smile. 

Today we were supposed to fly to Biratnagar to check on a venue for a HBB training in April but because we didn't know if we'd get our passports back in time the flights were all booked this morning so we'll go in a few weeks.  So we spent the day skyping back and forth with Hong Kong, there are new missionaries there and we're trying to help them understand  the logistics and craziness of Nepal so that they will approve our upcoming projects.  They've decided to come and see for themselves what it's really like when Dr. Clark and the nurses are here in April.  The last missionary couples hardly had anyone come and see them.  In the six months we've been here we've had so many, we figure it must be that we are such fun missionary couples to be around that everyone wants to come and share the fun or that we have no clue of what we're doing and messing things up, and  that we need all the help we can get.  I'm pretty sure it's because we're so much fun!

Next week we're going to Chitwan for another wheelchair distribution and a sewing center closing ceremony and the week after that we're flying to India for a senior missionary conference and then we'll probably go to Biratnagar.

Here's one another great thing about being a missionary in Nepal.  Returned Missionaries
Yesterday between all the India embassy fiasco one of our branch missionaries was returning home from his mission in New Delhi.  We went to the airport to meet him.  This young man was what they consider a "street boy" in Nepal.  He has not lived with his parents since he was 14 and has only a 3rd grade education.  I can only imagine how frightening it must be to leave the mission field and come back to who knows what.  He's going to be staying with the Branch President's family for a week or two.  I pray the Lord will bless him, that he may be able to find work and hopefully find a way back into school and a place to stay.  He seems like a wonderful young man.  

Elder Adikari and President Bishnu

Sometimes I have days when I do the right thing because I have to but I want to change my heart and do the right things because it's the right thing to do and will bring me joy and my heart will become more perfect in the sight of the Lord.  I have a long way to go but I'm working on it and I know if I do what needs to be done with love and gratitude in my heart then I will be the one who is blessed.