Broken Finger after last morning of training and skyscrapers.

The Church Office building on the right. If you look close you can see the steeple. It is the golden glow building because of how the sun was shining on it. The middle two pictures of my hand. The bottom picture is before surgery when I didn't have my knuckle because it was over by the cut that you see. The above hand is after the surgery. It is still swollen, but now I have my knuckle back. For those who don't know, I took a fall on the afternoon of our last training. I spent the night in the hospital where I had surgery at 10:00 p.m. in the Adventist Hospital. I would go there any time. They are very clean, organized, careful, kind and competent in all that they did. I was taken care of very well. The above left hand picture is typical of the 700 plus skyscrapers in Hong Kong. More than New York and my understanding more than any city in the world. You may correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway this is the final post of the Hong KongTrip. It was great even with the great fall I took in the middle of the street in Hong Kong.

Dinner At Victoria Peak after Training

Views above are from the restaurant where we ate. Two of the guests were Elder and Sister Quintin Cook from the Quorum of the Twelve who did training that day. Also Elder and Sister Costa from the Seventy. All did excellent training and we all got interviewed the next day. A great experience and helpful.

Hong Kong Temple

This is a tree in Stanley Market right by the floral shop. We were with another Mission Presidentand his wife. President Sister Clark who are serving in Singapore. The above two pictures are Scott and I front of the Temple then the one on the right is the Temple. The Temple and the Church offices are about 20 minutes away from each other.

Trip to Hong Kong for Mission Presidency Training

Above is a view of the ocean side of Hong Kong, a

floral shop in Stanley Market where I also bought two jackets for a steal of a deal! The picture on the right are four mission presidents that all served in the same mission under the direction of G. Carlos Smith. From Left to right Presidents Smedley to Cambodia, Marchant to Indonesia, Smith to Thailand, and Grimley to Taiwan. President Winegar whom Scott replaced also served in the same mission as these four. Pretty remarkable event, I'd say!

New Mission Presidency

This is President Smedley's new mission counselors. On the left Pres. Sappon and on the right President Ang. Both are seasoned in the Church. Pres. Sappon has had 9 years of leadership and President Ang has been in a district Presidency and is a returned missionary. Both are married and have children. They have been sealed in the Temple. I might have the names a little wrong, but I'm close!

Phnom Penh lighter traffic

Well, I can't believe I finally got this loaded. This is just mild traffic here in Phnom Penh. I am with two senior missionary sisters: Sister Whitesides and sister Fairchild. The driver is sister Whitesides. This is 3 days after we arrived and they took me to do a little shopping. Hope you enjoy the little trip!

Beautiful People and Beautiful Country

On the left is the Branch President of Kampong Thom that we went to see. What you see is what you see from street, the whole front door is just a pull down one and the house is open. The sister is holding one of her granddaughters and another is standing by her. He has to drive one hour to get to church and it is a great sacrifice financially. They have great testimonies of the gospel and are so sweet. She fed us bananas and plae mian which is kind of like a big white grape once it is peeled. It very humbling being offered food, when you know it is scarce for them too. You can't tell from the picture but I have even lost 2 more pounds. Yeah!!!

The girl on the left didn't know me. She only heard me tell a little story at their youth conference and she wanted a picture with me even though she has no camera. So I showed her the digital picture after we took it. The group below is a combined youth group of teens and single adults from three branches: Kampong Thom, Kampong Cham and Siem Reap.

A great family in Battambong going home from Church on their Moto. I am so amazed at how the women just sit side saddle, with their backs straight sometimes carrying babies, or packages and just ride along.

Driving in the Countryside

You see interesting things on trucks. We just love the look of the country side as you can see from the pictures below. These are on the way home from Kampong Thom. We were coming back from a Zone conference. It takes us about 2 1/2hours to get there and to Battambong it takes us about 4 hours. I haven't tired of the drive yet because there is always something interesting to see and I also do a little crocheting which I don't have time to do when we are in the Mission Home.

There are many roadside stands. In one area you will see the same product being sold, but by different vendors. They don't care who you buy from because everyone sells for the same price. In some areas, ceramics are sold, some have vegetables and fruits, etc. The turck on the left was full on these pigs. We just found it interesting.

Driving to Kampong Thom. This little truck is hauling people and products with a broken down truck on the left

Driving up to Battambong. It's a beautiful drive and the roads are a little better than the next drive, but all still very serviceable. The roads here are not as many cars, but all of a sudden motos come onto the road or a cow will walk across the road out of nowhere. In Phnom Penh it is so crowded and so different. One of these days I'll post pictures of driving here. It's just a way interesting experience.

Picture water buffalo in these fields above. These are rice fields and they are all over the countryside. You can see people, but not in this picture working in the rice paddies along side the water buffalo. Just beautiful, hard working people. We love them.

Pioneer Day celebrations

This is Elder and Sister Whitesides at the Viet Pioneer Day Celebration talking to the sister below that I have my picture taken with. This little Viet Nam Sister just returned from serving her mission here in Cambodia. She lives in Branch 10 which is one of three Viet Nam Branches. She speaks a little English, but does well in her native tongue and also in Cambodian. Young sisters want their pictures taken alot with the Senior missionaries.

We were invited to attend all of the 24th of July celebrations but were able to only attend two. The picture just above is of one of the Cambodian Branches. Branch 8, and the other is from the Central District VietNam Relief Society Sisters. The Cambodian one is of their original folk dance describing how they are angels and spread happiness in the jars they are carrying. We went on a Saturday to one, July 25th and July 28th to the Central District. The reason why Cambodians are big on celebrating the 24th is because they also see themselves as pioneers (most are first generation members) and they so appreciate what our pioneer forefathers have done for them so that they can have the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They truly honor our Pioneers.

This was on a transfer day a couple of weeks ago. We have another transfer coming up Friday.
This is the west part of our foyer on the left. President Smedley is talking to Elder Jackson who
goes home Saturday. It is a custom in Cambodia as in many parts of Asia to leave the shoes outside the door. These shoes are pretty worn and muddy, but still functioning.

These are the first Cambodian missionaries we have sent off to the Provo MTC. It has been over a year since any Cambodians have gone to the States. Elder Vay is going to Sacramento, Sister Chheum is going to Everett Washington, The middle sister (can't remember her name) is going to the Salt Lake Temple Square Mission, and Sister Try is going to the Utah Ogden North. I think the sisters are doing well because they have each other for now, but Elder Vay is a little homesick. We heard from him today and he is missing everyone. I'll have to get him a little note off. I don't think his parents write to him. They are not members but came to hear him speak, to his setting apart, and to the airport. The day he spoke, President Smedley decided to give him a gift. The gift was President Smedley's tie! So look close at the picture and you can see President Smedley's tie. As soon as Elder Vay received the tie, he took his off and put President Smedley's on and he wore it to the MTC. His parents were touched by that, and wanted us to meet all the family at the airport.

Special People-Special Country

These are two of our missionaries. They work in Kean Svay. This is a very poor community on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. We came here to interview them so we could see where they are living. Their home is on the left. They are very excellent Elders. The one on the left is Elder Dueng from Cambodia and Elder Oldroyd from the States. Their home is one of the nicer ones is this area. They have everything they need. Last year electricity was made available here and our missionaries were very grateful for that. They are truly Boy Scout missionaries!