Day 18

Sorry about the lateness of these final posts.

So Day 18 is the big Chiefs service. We were up early to meet with groups of people to practice where everyone had to stand and where to go and what will happen when. Just last minute prep. The service was scheduled for 11:30 to accommodate anyone that might get stuck in traffic etc. I should mention that its Saturday. In Nepal the religious day is Saturday so for our members this is normal but for us it was a little weird. After breakfast we still had plenty of time, which was good because the hotel guys were rearranging the chairs in the hall for the fifth time. All the buses started arriving with member around 10am or so and by 10:30 pretty much everyone was there.

Included with the group for the service was a young lady from the U.S. I had said Hi to her in the hall earlier in the morning and didn't think anything of seeing another white westerner in a hotel. It turns out that Maria was from Madison, Wisconsin and she had only been in Nepal for 2 days. She was in Nepal visiting a friend, which accompanied her to service, that she worked with in the USA. As the story goes, her parents weren't too keen on her traveling to Nepal on her own and as she was doing research into whether there was a church in Nepal, she came across the Chief's list of countries that he was visiting and noticed that Nepal was on the weekend that she arrived. This sealed the deal with her parents. I'm not sure how she found out where exactly it was but she got a front row seat for the service. After hearing her story, I asked if she had been to a Chief's service before and she had been in Colorado for DOTY several years before but had never got to shake hands with him there. SO….we made her day. Not only did she get a chance to shake his hand, but also to talk with him several times, she got pictures with him and her friend and finally she got one of the bibles that we lugged over from Canada with signatures of all the Apostles on it to take home. Needless to say she was overwhelmed.

We all shared lunch together on a big patio just outside the hall and the Chief got the chance to go around and say hello. That was after I found a translator to walk around with him because there's not too many that speak English. The formal part of the day finished with an impromptu youth concert that he really enjoyed.

It was a great day and the weather was great…meaning warm….meaning I probably shed a few pounds from sweating so it was off to the pool before supper.