Loatian funeral

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This is a pretty interesting letter from the Risers
October 11, 2009



Dear Ones,



How can we briefly tell you about this week? It was significant in so many ways.



The holiday continued: Monday was the boat racing festival. We went to the Mekong twice during the day to watch races. It was sooooo hot and humid, but we won’t be here another year and this festival is pretty neat to see--especially the close races. Tuesday nothing was open because it was a day between two holidays. Wednesday was Teacher’s Day. We tried to stay busy and patient...succeeded sometimes…other times--not.
Sometime Tuesday, Bountheng Xaykhom’s brother was killed in a tragic motorcycle accident. Bountheng and his wife Viengxay were baptized last December. His brother-51, never married, not working, heavy drinker-lived with them. President Khamphee and two other men from the Branch went to be with them Tuesday night as soon as Viengxay called him. We went to visit them Wednesday at their village wat. Family and friends and people from the village were there with the family attending the body and waiting for family members to come from Attapeu province in southern Laos. They were grieving, visiting, and a couple of groups of people were playing cards. The next day--Thursday--we went back for the actual “funeral”. It was the Buddhist version--I’m not sure they call it a funeral. Extremely interesting! And it was a privilege to be there with Bountheng and Viengxay. The whole experience was another uniquely Lao surreal-is-this-really-happening event that we’re still trying to understand. Someday you can see all the pictures if you want…and we’ll tell you all about it…but for now, it was somewhere between a funeral and a Scout campfire program and the 4th of July and a wedding and a funeral. After the funeral we went to a kickoff ceremony for World Sight Day at the Vision Clinic. We were an hour late so we were just on time. The monks in the picture have donated their organs (eyes) when they die. After the speeches, everyone was treated to a tour of the operating rooms where two doctors were performing cataract surgeries at a time in a marathon display for the occasion--we were IN the room! Now would that happen in the United States? Then we taught English that night.
Regular English teaching…still no visas for the team coming November 7th (after all, the Ministry of Education has only had the stuff since September 21st…maybe we’ll get it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs tomorrow…picked up our mission president and his wife at the airport.
Saturday: The purpose of President Smith’s coming to Lao was to call and set apart members to serve on the Final Ecclesiastical Review committee for the Book of Mormon translation in Lao, which he did before and after the morning session of General Conference. The Asia Area Presidency wanted everyone in the Asia Area to have a “conference experience” like we typically do in Utah…so imagine last Saturday and Sunday in Utah, and that’s what we had this Saturday and Sunday in Lao, coupled with President and Sister Smith’s visit and the historic and spiritual significance of the Book of Mormon translation approval process. Very significant! It’s one of the great blessings of our mission to be witness to it. President and Sister Smith left to return to Bangkok about 9:00 pm.
Sunday General Conference sessions. We are so blessed to be taught be by prophets, seers, and revelators, and the Holy Ghost. What a spiritual feast!


We love you. Thank you for your letters, your love, your support, your faithfulness, your examples. Have a wonderful week.



Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma, Elder and Sister Riser, Scott and Jolene