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The following comes from The Columbus Dispatch, an Ohio newspaper that recently featured the efforts of LDS Missionaries in their area. To read the full article, click here.
Tulasi Bisda is a 74-year-old Bhutanese-Nepali refugee who loves to joke with the four young men who have come to Columbus to help her and others learn English.
When asked if she likes working with them, she exclaims “No!” then smiles up at them to signal that she’s teasing.
The men have come to understand that although she is diminutive, Bisda is tall in spirit and full of enthusiasm.
She works with Bryson Bean, Tanner Garner, William Valadez, all 19, and 20-year-old Keith Pells to learn English at the Bhutanese Community of Central Ohio center on the Northeast Side. The four are teacher aides in a class taught each Thursday afternoon at the center at 4646 Tamarack Blvd.
The young men, all missionaries from Utah with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, aren’t just helping Bisda learn English. They’re also studying for hours each day to learn her native language, Nepali.
“These people are amazing; they’re a blast,” Valadez said, of the Bhutanese-Nepali people, many of whom have warmly welcomed the missionaries into their homes.
The men are four of fewer than a dozen Mormon missionaries worldwide working with the Bhutanese-Nepali community. In total, the church has 71,000 missionaries working in communities across the globe.
To read the full article, click here.
