Emily chose to go on an amazing humanitarian experience with the HXP group. This non profit organization is an independent organization but aligns with the principles, values of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Emily mentioned going a few times after hearing her best friend Alix talk about her trip. The day of registration she sat me down and we discussed the $4000 price tag and Emily committed to paying for half. Although you can't simply pick the experience or the people you are with they let you pick your top 3 and dates available and then assign you the place. Emily talked always wanting to go to Japan but I said if I'm helping to pay for this I want you to go to a real 3rd world country. India was her top choice and I told her Nepal would be an amazing once in a lifetime place to go so she chose that as her second choice.
A day or so later she found out the was chosen to go to Nepal. She was so happy she got Nepal and I was so happy she would experience such a different culture and people than she is used to. Emily painfully gave me most of her pay checks for the next few months and completed lots of prep work with Dr notes, passports and buying airline tickets and supplies but the closer it got to July 10 the more excited Emily was for the adventure.
I dropped Emily off really early at the SLC airport for her to make her way to meet up with the group later that afternoon at LAX. She texted me she discovered one of the trip leaders and another person in her group was on the same flight. I was relieved she had others to navigate LAX with. When it was time to board the airplane to Dubai the leaders had them turn in their phones. This trip was a no phone zone for the almost 3 weeks she was going to be gone. What a relief it was for me to discover the HXP-Nepal instagram page where a dear "Parent Builder" basically a mom who signed up with her daughter to chaperone the trip posted daily updates of what the group was doing. I lived to see this updates and loved every single picture, video glimpse and smile of Emily. Emily sometimes jokes that I live vicariously through her. This was one of those times I whole heartedly admitted I was living through her.
Here are the daily instagram posts and pictures from momma Mandy that Emily said she became besties with along with her daughter Gracie.
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Soon after this last post we were all anxious to get our Emsabob home. Everyone wanted to come to the airport except the early to bed Dad in our house. We made her a little sign and treated it like she was coming home from a mission.
In many ways this was like a mini mission.
A couple weeks after Emily got home I got a text late one Thurs. night asking me to speak in Sacrament meeting. As I was reading over the conference talk about service and Heavenly Father's unconditional love for his children, I had an impression that Emily should give this talk for me. Emily came home from work and was sitting at the counter and I ask her if she would be willing to give my talk in sacrament and speak tie the conference talk to some experiences she had. She shared about how this experience deepened her testimony that God loves all of his children no matter what circumstance they are in. She talked about how service is the way to happiness and was strengthened one day when she was on the work site really struggling to want to do the hard work. She thought "I can't believe I actually paid money to come all this way to shovel gravel and move rocks". Just then a group of kids got off a bus from school and came running up the hill eager to help and would pick up any small rock they could lift and were so happy doing it. Then Emily thought "I am in Nepal this is incredible and if these kids can be happy doing hard work so can I". She shared about how sad she was to leave the orphanage after playing with a boy. He smiled and told her to "come fast" meaning come back quickly. She turned away and started to bawl knowing she would never see him again. Her friend looked at her and said "You will see him again. When we are in the next life I promise you he will be your eternal friend." Emily also mentioned even though the food tasted good it was really hard to eat the same potatoes, rice and curry soap every day. They are mostly vegetarians in Nepal and she really missed meat. A few days before coming home she was really homesick, her stomach hurt and she had no energy. She was picking at her pancake and potatoes for breakfast not really eating it and a boy from her group noticed that she was her happy self and asked her what was wrong. She told him she felt so sick and just didn't think she could do much on the work site. He volunteered to say a prayer for her and Emily said almost instantly she felt so better and was able to eat her breakfast and go to the worksite. It was a miracle to her that during the day she had even more energy than normal and in fact felt like could go build the who medical center herself.
Emily made such good eternal friends thinks back and gets a little teary feeling so grateful she had this experience.
