Our only sure reliance is to trust in the Lord and His love for His children.
— President Dallin H. Oaks, October 2019 Conference
It just keeps coming back to our mission scripture, Proverbs 3:5-6. We do acknowledge Him in all our ways, and marvel at His goodness, His love, His grace.
We got to see more of Nepal this week than we could have hoped for, and in the process participate in more humanitarian work lifting and blessing lives. Nothing was our doing, we are trusting in our dear friends and mentors, the Wolfgramms, to carry us along in the wake of their previous work. And they are sure evidence that trusting in the Lord is paramount, their example of not leaning to their own understanding reaffirms to us the vital importance of following suit.
What work? Kicking off a vocational training program in rural Nepal (the Bhimeshwor municipality near the city of Charikot, in the Dolakha district in the Bagmati province of north-eastern Nepal, to be exact), co-sponsored by LDS Charities and a local NGO. The people who went besides us and the Wolfgramms were a spunky woman, Sunila, representing the NGO; a friendly consultant, Sukum; and a young woman, Sunita, also employed by the NGO — actually, she met us there and then came back with us the next day.
Hotel Ambrosia was Wednesday’s, our first day’s destination, a 6-hour drive from Kathmandu. The road is paved, we were told, but our driver had to negotiate many stretches of severely damaged and bumpy pavement on even more narrow, twisty mountain roads than we encountered en route to Darjeeling! Happily, his expertise and 4-wheel-drive vehicle saw us there safely.
The accommodations were very nice, although it’s still weird to have a shower just stick out of the wall next to the toilet, no separating wall, no stall, no curtain, nothing! (Just like in our hotel in Birtamod.) Our rooms did not have numbers, just names of sacred Himalayan peaks: ours was Gaurishankar, the Wolfgramm’s, right across from us, was Kanchenjunga (the one we saw from Darjeeling).
A nice dinner, sleep, and the next day’s breakfast and a bit of sight-seeing later, we went to the training venue.
The opening ceremony followed a bit of celebration of the dignitaries (us!), including the mayor of the municipality whose meeting hall was donated for the ceremony and the training. 35 young trainees were there, including 19 women, some to learn bricklaying, the others plumbing. They were all happy to be there and celebrate the occasion.
Sunita was the Master of Ceremonies. She introduced all the dignitaries and then the speakers, which included the mayor and the Wolfgramms! So they are not only dignitaries, they are celebrities too! Maybe for the closing ceremony we will get to attend in a couple of weeks they’ll ask Taunya and me to speak!
Ceremonial bricklaying — the man crouching is the mayor, who started it off.
On the way back we stopped at a restaurant where the favorite dish of the Nepali folk was fish soup. We were non-fans, so just watched them eat and enjoy — Elder Wolfgramm was a fan so he partook.
Other Attention Getters
What really got our attention this week? Food from home! Real maple syrup! Heavenly bacon bits! Not pictured, a 20-oz bottle of A&W Root Beer!!
We have branch members, the Jeff and Amy Howe family, to thank for this wonderful gift of food they thought we would like and that they can easily get once back home. Jeff works at the US Embassy here, but he is retiring and they are moving back to the States next month.
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