Alma 60:24 ..... and begin to be up and doing.....

As I was exercising on the elliptical machine and reading in Alma a couple of days ago this scripture not only spoke to my mind but to my heart.  Moroni had written an epistle to Pahoran criticizing him for  his lack of military support and he threatened to fight against the government unless help was supplied to his armies.  He tells Pahoran, "and now, except ye do repent of that which ye have done, and begin to be up and doing...........  

I need to be up and doing.....we only have about 6.5 months left in Nepal and I think of the things we have done and sometimes wonder if I've done what I was sent here to do?

We're in between some of the major projects that we've been involved in and now need to "begin to be up and doing....." something new and  something different.

This is something new and something different,

I've shared pictures of the great haircuts Kent gets but now he's going for the "whole works" 

Shave and a hair cut - three bucks, oh and a massage too!

This isn't what I had in mind about up and doing....

Kent and I have talked and prayed  a lot about how we can help our branch here in Kathmandu.  We hear "but that's the Nepali way" quite a bit and we're convinced that the Nepali way may not be the best way to help the Church grow in Nepal.  Not many people in our branch will accept callings, (or so we've been told) or many won't be given a calling because they don't attend church on a regular basis.  As we've discussed ways that we can help, we keep remembering President Monson's talk in conference last October - See Others as They May Become. "We need to be told that we amount to something, that we are capable and worthwhile. We need to be given a chance to serve.  For those members who have slipped from activity or who hold back and remain noncommittal, we can prayerfully seek for some way to reach them.  Asking them to serve in some capacity may just be the incentive they need to return to full activity.  But those leaders who could help in this regard are sometimes reluctant to do so.  We need to bear in mind that people can change. They can put behind them bad habits.  They can repent from transgressions.  And they can serve the Lord diligently."  So for now this is how we want to begin to be up and doing, helping our branch to better understand the "church culture" rather than the "Nepali culture".
In Nepal parents don't quite understand the principle of baptizing your children when they are eight years old.  We're going to work on that........

Utpati and Santa Gurung have a  9 1/2 year old son who has not bee baptized, but, he's going to be on August 31st, and Kent is helping Santa be ready to baptize him.  Santa is a police man and many times has to work on Saturdays (our Sabbath) and so hasn't felt like he could baptize his son.  No one thought to help him understand that sometimes our jobs require us to work and not attend Church and that we just do the best we can.  Santa was excited that he really would be able to baptize Sajun at the end of the month.

Just last week Sister Rempp and I were both given callings, (finally).  President Bishnu told us he was reluctant to give us callings because there have been some missionaries in the past that said "missionary work was their calling," we are excited to be given an opportunity to serve in our branch and to help them understand how the church is supposed to work, in the Lord's way.  Carol was called to work with the YW and I was called to work in the primary. 

This is Sajana, our Primary President with her brother, Krishna.  Kent is working on Krishna to get him involved with us as we work with our YSA.  He's just never really been invited, but that is going to change.

Kent and I have also talked with President Bishnu about our desire to really work with the YSA and light a fire in their hearts and minds.  We're holding Family Home Evening with them 2x a month, most of them are returned missionaries, with little direction in their lives.  We want the Gospel to give them the direction they need, to find hope, and happiness.   We'd like to see them marry and raise families in the Gospel, we'd actually like to see them even want to get married.  Our YSA probably should be just called Single Adults since many of them are over 30.

Fireside at our house

The guy in the wheelchair first came to our wheelchair peer training and he has been coming once in awhile.

We had 2 nonmembers at this fireside.

One thing we'd like to work on especially when we have nonmembers/investigators is that they feel welcome.  People come, the members are nice and say "hi" but that's about as far as it goes.  We sometimes have a teacher for our investigator class, we can't teach so it really has to be their responsibility to teach.  We had a branch council meeting and talked about inviting our investigators to be baptized, they feel that the investigators should ask to be baptized, so they come and keep coming and nothing ever happens because the investigator is waiting for someone to tell them that the next step is baptism.  DUH!!!!

Kent has spent the week downloading everything he can find on the Church's website to help the auxiliaries function as the Church would have them function.

Meeting with Sajana (Primary President) and looking at all the resources she has on the Church web-site and now the pen drive that Kent made for her.  She was so excited.







A couple of weeks ago we were able to spend the day with Ruth and Sarada.  It was Ruth's birthday (the same day as our granddaughter, Bryton's birthday).  We go VT and HT to this family that we have adopted as our own.  Their husband and father has gone to Kuwait to work because he can't find a job here.  Twenty-five percent of  Nepal leave the country to find work every year.  We had invited Ruth and Sarada to come to lunch with us and then back home for swimming and birthday cake and presents. (Most Nepalis don't celebrate birthdays, a lot of Nepalis don't even know when their birthday is).  We were going to take them to KFC for lunch but on the way Ruth whispered to me that she liked pizza, so we told her she could chose Pizza Hut or KFC, in her quiet little voice she said, "I request pizza", so Pizza Hut it was.

Ruth enjoying the cheezy pops

Nepalis don't usually smile when they have their picture taken, Ruth ran over to her mother and got her to smile.

Back to the apartment for a swim.......

and then cake and ice cream and presents.......

We will miss this little family when we come home.

We were at their home a while ago, when we set up an appointment, Rukmina usually calls because Sarada speaks very little English but Sarada told us when we come to "bring our empty stomachs."

She always feeds a yummy Nepali meal, but this was the best ever.  

On Saturday after Church we were invited to Rakesh's daughters "coming of age" celebration.  She is only six but because his sister was here from Ohio they decided to celebrate a few years early, funny huh?

This celebration is the first time a girl gets to wear a sari.

Rajasee in her first sari, besides all the bangles on her hands she has the tatooted hena.  She also got her ears pierced.  

This celebration is a very big deal in Nepal, there were over 100 people at this party.

Sunila, Rita, Asa, Rupa, Me, Rajamaya and Rajasee

She's quite the little beauty queen 

Nepal has a very unique and interesting policital system, we're learning everyday about the corruptness of this government and sometimes it's a pretty frustrating and discouraging process that we have to through as we work here.  I do not believe that Nepal could exist without the billions of dollars that other countries and numerous INGO's contribute here.  We have to have a PAC meeting twice a year and review the projects that LDSC has committed to, we invite various government officials we let them know how our projects are running.  They have an opportunity to ask questions, get clarifications if needed and they want to make sure that we are spending the money that we said we would in our Project Agreement.  We have to pay them all stipends to come to this meeting, we provide a dinner and then we smile and let them know how grateful we are to have them let us come and help.  We also have to have an annual evaluation meeting that costs us 3-5,000 dollars.  They go to various project site and see how we're doing.  I wonder how much of all these extra costs go into government officials pockets.  

We're keeping busy, there just are not a lot of photo opportunities lately.  Rakesh has kept asking us to invite his sister from Ohio over, she wanted to see our new apartment, so last Monday we had the whole Hamal family over for dinner. There were 15 of us, Carol and I thought we would fix something very American or at least very unNepali for dinner.  We made lots of different kinds of salads and meatballs and bread (they always love the bread) and a couple of different kinds of cookies.  We weren't sure what they would think of mostly salads for dinner but they loved them.  Rajesh (the moviestar) was going to come but he was busy, but he did call Kent and apologize that he wasn't able to make it.

Today we had the YM/YW over after church, we're discussing with all the youth maybe doing "I'm from Nepal and I'm a Mormon." video;  We get emails usually a couple of times a month of someone coming, usually to go trekking and they want to know if the Church exists here so we want to put the Nepalis out there, to the world and let the world know that yes, there is an LDS Church in Nepal.

   

Maya, returned missionary from Maryland and our wheelchair monitor and Kent's Nepali teacher

Sajun, Rajat and Barssa eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in between General Conference sessions.

Sajun is getting baptized at the end of the month.  This week Kent wrote the baptismal prayer in Nepali, English words but Nepali script.  He's pretty amazing, I got too discouraged because everyone tells you how to say or write it differently, I just gave up, but Kent has stuck to it.

GC, a member of our branch presidency, Pratima, YW President, and Prasab and Prayushka

Hari, Rukmina and Hitson

Mala and Subhadra, both returned missionaries

Ganesh, Sarada, Ruth and Sarada's mother

Kiran and Sadhana

Shyam and Prayushka

Kamala, Mala and friend

Beautiful sisters in their saris

Suman, a returned missionary, Rosina and new baby boy

Kabita

Tara and Barssa

Laxmi

Aayusha with her father Aygya

Lots of wonderful and beautiful Nepali brothers and sisters, we just need to help them "begin to be up and doing......"

Today in primary I was trying to figure out the childrens' birthdays, one young man was 12 and I asked "what are you doing in primary?"  He didn't know so I walked him down to where the young men were , hope they can figure it out.   There are times when it is very frustrating that no one seems to understand how things are to run, they must figure it out.  We can .... begin to be up and doing and try to help them they just have to have the desire, like I said in my last blog, until THEY are ready, this country will not open up to missionary work.  

This week we have a RS enrichment activity, Sister Rempp and I are going to teach them how to make homemade noodles, spaghetti sauce and garlic breadsticks.  They are excited and we know of a few nonmembers who are planning on coming, we also have or YSA FHE on Friday.

At the end of the month President Sackly is coming for our Ward Conference and I think we're going to have 4 baptisms, 2 of them are children who should have been baptized when they turned 8, but we'll continue to work on that.

We have our new HBB doctor probably coming in October who wants to meet with government officials and maybe hold a small training.  We continue to participate in wheelchair distributions and closing ceremonies for our JAWS and Sewing Centers.  Things have slowed down a little for now, but the rush will come again.  Josh and Kristen are coming in October, so excited.  We love sharing the country of Nepal to visitors but it is especially fun when our children get to come.

 Missionary work is both challenging and rewarding.  I'm so grateful to have this opportunity, I know we are doing good things in Nepal, I pray that it will make a difference in the lives of Nepalis, that there will come a day when missionaries have the opportunity to serve here and spread the gospel, in the meantime we will "....begin to be up and doing..." in those things the Lords expects and requires of us. We will help our branch and teach them the Lord's way and the easy part ..... loving the people.