Training in Bangkok Completed

23 wonderful and enthusiastic people donated 3 days of their valuable time to come to our wheelchair training in Bangkok. 

Our translator was a beautiful young mom named Isrin O'Connor.

Sister Noorda getting the class members registered

Our darling co-trainer, Kristie Beddes

This elderly woman, a double amputee, was thrilled to have a new wheelchair.

 This sweet woman cried through the whole assessment process because she was so happy and grateful.

Three Trainings in Thailand

We're excited to be in Thailand again working with Elder and Sister Noorda to do three wheelchair trainings in ChiangMai, Bangkok and Ubon.  We've traveled here with Matt and Kristie Beddes from Farmington.  Matt is a PT who did a training with us in Malaysia last year and his wife is a PT Assistant.  Matt served a mission here 20 years ago and now he and Kristie will take over Thailand as the Wheelchair Specialists going forward.

Our first training was completed yesterday here in ChiangMai.  We were so blessed to have Elder and Sister Treasure join us from the Asia Area office and have enjoyed being with them tremendously!!!!

Love the Elders.  This young man is from Lehi.

Elder and Sister Treasure posing with President Ken who was

 our terrific translator.

Major Sirichai (center)and his organization is one of the LDSC partners for these trainings. 

A super happy wheelchair recipient.

Kim left for the  Czech Republic to do a training with Judd Thalman, the son of his good friend and PT School Lab Partner, Jeff Thalman.  Jeff was supposed to be going with his son but didn't get his visa for his trip to Russia in time, so Kim is a fill-in.  I'm happy to stay at home and do Preschool with my darling Lincoln, Bonnie, and Brooklynn.  We've had a terrific and busy summer and are now anxious to begin the NEXT THREE YEARS of our mission as Wheelchair Missionaries for the Asia Area.

 Our beautiful Amanda turns 30 years old today!!!!!

My cute mom will

turn 90 in October and has enjoyed lots of time with our family this summer.  We moved her to the

Cottages at Legacy Village in Layton.

   We welcomed our Mitchionary home from Canada in June
and enjoyed every day with him until we helped him get
settled back into college at SUU in Cedar City.
 
 Mitch's fun friends, the Demetrioff's from Canada, surprised
him by showing up at his Mission Homecoming.

We took the



whole family to San Diego for a week right after Mitch got home in June.  It was a blast!

Training in Bhairawa, Nepal

Our 2nd training on this trip to Nepal was held down in the South in a city near the birthplace of Buddha (Lumbini) right close to the India border.  We had 17 class participants, mostly Physiotherapists who were an enthusiastic and capable bunch.  25 people were assessed and fit for wheelchairs and we were joined by Raju, the Nepal Physiotherapy Association President, who was also in the area to organize a new chapter of the PT Assoc. in Rupendehi District.

Nepal for the 3rd Time

We returned to Nepal after an invitation from the Nepal Physical Therapy Association to come back and conduct another wheelchair training especially for their membership.  We just completed the first training here in Kathmandu with 16 Physical Therapist and one Occupational Therapist.  It has been an amazing 3 days and we are so proud of these great Therapists and their desire to learn these skills.  Today they evaluated 27 people and gave out 24 well assessed and fit wheelchairs.

TERRIFIC THAILAND

We've been blown away by the beauty of Bangkok and the Thai people.  We've met with three wonderful groups who look like potentially great partners for wheelchairs.  Elder Leon and Sister Katherine Noorda from Las Vegas are the hard working Humanitarian Couple here and arrived last fall just after the terrible flooding occurred here and have spent much of their time in flood relief work.

Loving Life in Cambodia

People often ask us "what is your favorite country you've worked in on your mission?"  I always think of my mom's mantra of the words to an old song "if I'm not with the ones I love....I LOVE THE ONES I'M WITH!"  This is our second time working in Cambodia and this time we have been working with a wonderful couple from St. George, Utah,  Elder Robbin and Sister Nancy Henderson.  We were priviliged to meet with them in St. George last summer before they started their mission and get them updated on what had happened in Cambodia with wheelchairs, so it was like "coming home" to meet them here in Cambodia and be able to work with them these past few days. 
LDSC will go forward with two small projects with two local wheelchair manufacturers, AARWCD and VIC.  We also met with another larger organization that we hope can do wheelchairs on a larger scale in the future.  This is such interesting and rewarding work for us.  We feel like we've made so many new friends all over Asia.  We're fascinated by the variety of culture and people in each country and never tire of pondering on the vast scope of humanity all created by the same loving, caring God whom we serve.

Ho Chi Minh City Highlights

We feel extremely honored to have met the Nguyen family who owns and runs the Kien Tuong Wheelchair factory here in HCMC.  We had a lovely meeting with them including a tour of the factory and a fantastic lunch with Mr. and Mrs. Nguyen and two of their adult children.  Mr. Nguyen is a veteran, an inventor, a poet and author and in our mind....a hero who has done so much to benefit the disabled of Vietnam and many other countries who have received his incredible wheelchairs and trikes.

Elder Felix and Sister Jan Blinn from Maine are the hardworking Humanitarian couple here and have made some connections with 3 groups who will potentially be able to attend our wheelchair training sessions in a couple of months to learn how to assess and fit wheelchair users to the appropriate wheelchair.



Exploring new possibilities in Vietnam

We are privileged to work with great couples like Elder and Sister Michel from Sandy, Utah who are working hard in Hanoi to bring the Church "out of obscurity" through their great Humanitarian work and dedicated service to the pioneering members of the church here in Vietnam. 

December in Nepal

We traveled to Nepal after Thanksgiving to work again with Rakesh Hamal, the Deppong's and the Esplin's to do two trainings, one in Kathmandu and the second in Chitwan to the southwest.

A Class Participant named Kalpana

Gene and Pauline Esplin     Debbie and Ollie Deppong

Tyler Huish was the other Trainer.

I'm Delinquent in Keeping up my Blog Reports!

We did a second training with the Larson's down south in Kuching.

Alan Nybo was the other PT that joined us for these two trainings.  Unfortunately for Kim, he got Malaria in Malaysia and had a rough last week of our training and felt pretty rocky on our trip home to Utah where we only had 8 days to spend over Thanksgiving to be with our family and help his recuperate before our trip to Nepal!