It’s coming to an end!

Yes my last post was a month ago. I know. I’m sorry. These blogs would’ve been so boring if I posted every week, especially in these last few weeks. 

We have been enjoying the last month leisurely. We’ve spent our time in service, and hanging out with the brothers and sisters in our group in Lekhnath, and it’s been a blast! 

Even though we’ve been having so much fun, there comes a time in the last couple weeks where you have no motivation. No reason to do anything. When you go in service, you have to give up your calls. When you go to your studies, it’s only to say goodbye. This is the time when I realize that I really wish I didn’t have to leave. I’m happy to go home to see the friends, and talk with my students, but if I never went home, and I had to stay here forever, I wouldn’t be mad. I’ve come to a point where I have 2 families/groups, one in Omaha, Nebraska, and one in Lekhnath, Pokhara. And I don’t know what to do. Lol! I can’t be in two places at once, yet I don’t want to be away from either family for too long! It’s a true dilemma! But since I have this dilemma, I also am realizing my goals, and Jehovah is helping me to realize them, and put them into effect! It’s really faith strengthening! 

This last month we got into such a routine, and got so much closer to the friends! Please! If anyone is even thinking about coming to Nepal, come! You won regret it! Also, Lekhnath needs a lot of help, and it’s a really amazing group! (They’d be mad if I didn’t say that 😂😉 but it is true!) If you do want to go to Lekhnath just let me know and I can get you in contact with the brothers and sisters there! 

Our last meeting the brothers and sisters made us chatpat, and gave us cookies! Such a nice send off! 

The loving sisters not letting us help them cook and plate the food

Eating, and enjoying our snacks

It was so bitter sweet leaving, but we kept smiling and being happy that we were able to meet and become a huge family! 

Say goodbyes are hard…even to our kitty

With Namrata

Saying bye to the cutest baby, and nicest brother! 😜

Now we are in Thamel for the next few days spending time with our friends here, and getting last minute gifts 😉😂 We are seeing how much we don’t want to be tourists anymore! Lol but we are already excited and planning to come back! So, this blogs not dead! 😂 See you all soon! 😄👌🏻

Elephants, Annie, and Bryce, oh my!

Last week we had an adventure to Chitwan to meet Annie and Bryce while they were here for 2 weeks! What fun! It was a busy week starting out with a long bus ride and an adventure in this truck/Military Type thing lol 

Fun!

Then we made it to a little village run by Tharu people, and it was the coolest place ever! We are and then rested for the next few busy days 

Our welcome coffee

Reunited!

A beautiful sinset to end a beautiful day!

Annie and I’s room in the Tharu village

The next morning we were able to go on a walk, then we headed over to the elephant bathing place or was so much fun!!!

We met a nice man on our walk

Annie and Quinn playing tag

They were so big and playful! After that we were able to go and catch fish for our supper with people in the Tharu village 😄 

Quinn caught some mighty fish

The next day we went on a jungle walk and went to the breeding center

Quinn got tired so the guide picked him up

Then the next day we went to Bandipur! Such a beautiful city! 

As you see we even got to go rafting! Such a fun adventure with these two! But now that they are gone, that means we only have about a month left here in Lekhnath, and after that only a few more days in Nepal! Crazy how fast time flies! 

Living the Lekhnath Life 😎

Abby 🙂

Hey guys! Sorry I haven’t posted in a while, we’ve been getting into a routine, and settling down. It’s been so nice! We have got some new return visits, and even started a few studies. Brandon and I even went to one of my calls, and her father-in-law was extremely upset. He was Hindu, and kept yelling and telling us that we have come to Nepal to preach “an English religion”. When he said that, I was even more upset with the accusations he had against us. But to my surprise, I stayed calm. Shaking and all, I explained to him that we are learning Nepali in order to teach those who want to learn in Nepali. I said that if people don’t want to learn about the bible, we simply won’t teach them. Brandon went on to explain that we most definitely are not “an English religion”, but we have magazines and brochures in over 800 languages! This caused him to calm down a bit, and talk with us in a better way. He kept saying that we were trying to force our religion on people, and we think America is the best country, and we look down on the simple Nepalese life! What?! So we explained how much we love Nepal, and don’t want to leave, and we told him that we know that there are bad things that happen all over the world! In every country! So obviously one is not better then the other. After that, he was so much nicer! He even told us to come back and drink tea with him!!!

I’m SO beyond thankful to Jehovah for the help he gave me in carrying on that conversation in Nepali, and for helping me to apply Colossians 4:6 “Let your words always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should answer each person” I definitely couldn’t have done it without his holy spirit 😂

That’s just one of the amazing experiences we’ve had, and it’s definitely been the one that’s had such a whirlwind of emotions. 

Ok! Time for randomness. I’ll show you some pictures of our service adventures! 

The coolest tree ever

The coolest drain ever

The coolest baby ever

Needless to say, we are have if so much fun, and can’t wait to share our experiences with you guys back home! 😄

Searching for a Store is Harder than it Looks

Abby 🙂

Yesterday after service we decided to go to look for a nice little super market, because we needed groceries and didn’t want to go all the way to Pokhara to shop at BhatBhateni (Nepal’s equivalent of Walmart…well maybe a classy Walmart…like Target 😂) So Tomy said that one brother had pointed out a nice store that was enclosed, and wasn’t only an outside market like you see all over the place here, so we went looking for it! Brandon, Tony and I walked and walked and walked all the way to this shop, we even got lost once, and had no idea where the store was! But then we found it! We bought our stuff, and even went across the street to the vegetable market, and a nice lady helped explain to me what the seller was saying, which was so nice considering there were about 5 people all trying to pay, and they were all saying, “Chito! Chito!” (“Fast! Fast!”) and I was trying to wait my turn, then a really nice lady comes up to the seller, and tells him to calm down and help me with my vegetables. After the potatoes were weighed, I also had eggs to buy, so he kept going back and forth between me and the other costumers, saying different things, asking us different questions, so I had no idea what he was asking me. I kept looking at him and trying to understand what he was saying, but then he’d turn his back, and I would be able to hear half of it! But thankfully the same nice lady came back over to me and explain he wanted to know how many eggs we wanted. Finally! Lol so I finished that and payed, and what do you know?! We walk out, and it’s raining! Yay! Lol it would’ve been ok if we had an umbrella, but the three of us looked at it as an adventure…we got drenched lol 

Oh what fun!

First Day Preaching in Lekhnath

Abby 🙂

Today was our first preaching day in Lekhnath, and boy was that an adventure! To get to the service meeting we had to call a bus, which we thought would be easy considering our house is so close to the main road…we were very wrong. We called 10 busses, and none of them said they could take us to Adarshan Chowk, where the meeting for service was. We walked for 45 min, 15 min past the service meeting, and still couldn’t get a bus! 

A picture of defeat after yet another bus turned us down and drove away

Walk walk walk walk walk walk

You see us we’ll be walk walk walk walk walk walkin’ abiseblidefurururur

flurflurflurflurflurflru

 After being soooo late to the service meeting we found a bus that would take us! Sadly we were almost there anyways lol 

We found a bus!!

Once we got to the Chowk (market round about thing), a brother met us and took dad to his study, while Brandon, Tony and I headed to meet up wth some other brothers. 

This young bhai was tugging on his goat to get it to move

In service we all were able to get return visits! So it was a very successful day! 

Service finished 😜

A Week in Dharan

Abby 🙂 (sorry if this post seems rushed, because to be honest, it was, but I promise when we get to Leknath it’ll be easier) 
On Tuesday we set off for an adventure in Dharan! Our Jeep was meant for 10 people, but even with 8 it seemed squished! Then again, we are big Americans 😂

The trip was long and tiring, but we had fun talking, laughing and anticipating the week. We even stopped to look for river Dolphins 

Looking for the dolphins

Wednesday was the Dharan congregation’s meeting, so we didn’t go in service, but we had breakfast with a sister from the UK, Anita, and a sister from Germany, Joy. 

After breakfast Nirmala (mainly know as Nirma) decided to share her thoughts on this prison

Quinn and Anayas on the bike

On Thursday we spent our first day in door to door feild service! 

Monica, Sunena, and Joy. My service buddies! lol

I placed a tract! And in the evening it started to rain while we were eating dinner 

We even had to take a couple safaris home! 

The next day (Friday) we went to preach in the refugee camps!! 

Bala’s sister

Saturday was service and meeting, then Sunday was an adventure! Lol 

After service ice cream

 We went to go to see the city from above, and we went to a suspension bridge,  then Quinn fell and cut his knee and we had to take a trip to the ER. Don’t worry he’s fine! It made for an adventure lol 

Meanwhile at the ER…

After this fiasco, we set off to Biratnagar for some kurta shopping, and we found some coconuts 


Monday and Tuesday we spent enjoying our last days in service, and even got to hear the CO’s talk in Nepali 😄 We even got caught in a huge wind storm on our last night in Dharan. What an adventure it was! Lol 

It was sad leaving Dharan after such a fun week, but we can’t wait to start our adventures in Leknath 😄 We will keep you updated!!!

The Fun Continues!

Abby 🙂

This post is going to be all over the place…you have been warned!

We have been having a blast here! It’s crazy how easy it’s been for us to get into this routine, and it’s nice to be able to see how everyone lives. Now we are getting ready to leave for Dharan tomorrow 

It’s a 6 hour drive to Dharan, so we are renting a Jeep, and heading over there. 

Today I went to a study with Nim, and met the cutest children. 

They would’ve watched the Caleb and Sofia videos all day if they could! And the little boy didn’t want to get off my lap (granted that’s cause he had to go to school, but I think that’s irrelevant 😂) so cute! 

….

Also, on Saturday we went to the monkey temple! Let’s see how many monkeys you can spot!

There are some here I promise

It’s all the way at top of this “hill”

Bethel!!! And Bhaktapur Square

Abby 🙂

We got to go to visit the RTO building yesterday! That’s where all of the translation is done, and it was so cool to see 😄 It was tiny! Like a house! But we learned there are 15 translators in 5 groups of 3, 2 formatters for the publications, and then a regional building group, and service overseer…we met like 20 of the 40 bethelites and there are an additional 10 commuters…also we met Solomon (a brother from Instagram) while he was helping move to the new bethel, and Lara (a sister from Instagram), and her family were on our tour, so we got to meet them too. There are 36 congregations, 12 isolated groups, and 8 isolated publishers….so amazing to see all that! I hope these are correct statistics! 😂 Right now we are staying in Kathmandu with our friend Feena, and we are going shopping today, and seeing The Jungle Book in 3D 😂

The other family in out tour was so sweet

Quinn holding up the JW.org sign

Quinn in the recording studio

 

 On Tuesday we went to Bhaktapur square, but I couldn’t get all the pictures to download on here (the wifi isn’t strong enough) but here’s at least a few.

That is the kings statue up there

Quinn and Nim being risk takers

A huge 5 story temple!

The Flight

Abby 🙂

9:26am: We are sitting at our gate right now…contemplating life and stuff…I see some Nepali people right now, but am afraid to talk to them 😂 maybe I will on our plane to Nepal, then I’ll know they are Nepali for sure 😂 TSA was easy to get through. Actually the whole thing was so easy, but I think that was Jehovah’s hand in the situation, considering all the crazy stories we’ve heard about the airport 😂 so now we have 45 minutes until boarding, and an hour before take off 🙂 also this place is like a mall! 

Just waiting

6:39: This flight has been sooo boring and long! We have already been on it for 7hrs, and we have 5 more to go 😫 I’ve tried to keep myself busy with watching movies and sleeping, but I have just ended up being bored and finding I have nothing to do…and even though I planned to get a ton of studying and reading done…this is not the atmosphere for that! This is more of a “short little games for Abby” kind of trip. Right now I’m sitting here wishing I could sleep, but sadly that’s not happening. And that brings us here. To me typing trying to find something to do 😑 Fuuuunnnnn. The worst part is that we have another 4hr flight lafter this. 

Oh! I forgot about takeoff! I was super terrified, but since we got up here it’s not that bad at all. We’ll see how landing goes lol 

6:06AM KTM time; 7:21PM OMA time: We made it!!! Landing was fine the first flight, but with the second one it was rough. We circled KTM for about 2hrs before we could land because the wind was so bad! But we made it! Also, the KTM flight was so full, behind Brandon and I was tony and a Nepali man. We all talked with him a bit about Nepal and why we are going and why we want to learn and such, but then when we were landing and saw KTM he asked me “Mon paryo?” (You like it?) and all the people in the seats around us laughed when I said “Yo sabaibanda sundar desh ho!” (It’s the most beautiful country!) now I don’t know if they laughed because it was a weird thing to say or if I said it wrong, but either way it makes a good blog story 😜😂 Thanks Nepali dude!

Bhaktapur from above

Bhaktapur from below

If Only I Had a Clever Name For Driving Day Two

Abby 🙂

Today we had a nice day driving and had a few interesting experiences. Let’s get this out of the way. The car is SO EXTREMELY boring! So I decided to play with some stickers.

Ignore my terrible face

 Ok now let me continue. Last night we stayed at a Super 8 right outside of Ohio, and the owners were Patels (a popular Punjabi name) and they asked if we were going to the local flee market, and when we told them we were headed to Nepal, they were so excited and said that next time we need to go to India! 😂😄 that was a good start to our day!

Then after driving all morning we stopped for lunch in Pennsylvania, and at this gas station/restaurant/ motel place we met some witnesses taking a break from service! It’s so awesome to become instant friends with their witnesses 

Witnesses from PA

 Now we are headed to Scranton PA for the night to get some rest, and buy last minute stuff for Nepal (that means your air mattress pump Nim 😂 lol) and then we will head to stay with some friends in Connecticut tomorrow 😄 I can’t believe how fast it’s all moving, but I’m still anxiously waiting to actually be in Nepal!   

Quinn is sleeping on me as I type 😂😄

 

Pennsilvania is so pretty!