Just for fun

This is a picture of the ring I had on when I took my wonderful fall and broke my finger. Now, if you all look closely you can see that it is no longer round in shape, but oval in shape. Hence, that is proof that it indeed was a nasty fall! I just had to show someone!

The other picture is of some of the things you see in the middle of the street. This man sells things from the cart and this is him trying to go across the road. We were at a light waiting to turn left and he just turned left and walked into the oncoming traffic and people went around him. He made it across!

Zone Leader Council, New Senior Couple and Baptisms

Well, we just had a Zone Leader Council and as part of Scott's (President Smedley's) presentation he taught several ways to light a fire and then we went back in to the office and he taught them about everyone having a spark. There may be different ways to light the fire, but everyone has a spark or the light of Christ and we shouldn't give up or cross someone off our list permanently. I talked about having a focus and purpose which will bring about unity. I did the yarn game where you toss it and hang on to the string, then I had them figure out what the purpose of the activity was, told them a story of how Andrew Jackson turned the War of 1812 into a victory by uniting his troops with a focus and a purpose, then we talked about Captain Moroni in the Book of Mormon and how he had a focus and purpose that brought about unity. His first focus was God. I showed them that stick writing of Jesus that I have at home, and they had to figure out what it said. We pointed out to figure out what it said you really had to focus. Then shared a story about a young man who joined the church in Tonga. Elder Groberg shared that story in his Book, Fire of the Faith. He tells that this man had such a strong testimony that the beatings of his Dad and his brother never changed his mind. Eventually they repented and told him they were sorry. He was totally forgiving and never harbored ill will because his focus was knowing that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. So that's the summary of our talks.

We also met on Tuesday at the airport a new Senior Couple, the Curtises from near Herriman, Utah. How grateful we are for their willingness to serve. They will do LDSC (that is LDS Charities) and also manage the service center and shadow lead 5 branches. So, they will be busy, busy! Many of our Senior couples were here to the airport to greet the Curtises.

This past Sunday, we visited a branch where there were two baptisms. The sisters in the pictures are Sisters Yang and Essma. The Elders are Elders Salmon and Elder Cox and Elder Nybo and Elder Allred. The two new members bore their testimonies afterwards. The room was full of very supportive branch members. Elders Nybo and Allred are our two office Elders, but Elder Allred was allowed to go back to this branch to baptize this young woman. He had taught her all the lessons and was transferred right before the baptism and since it was fairly close to the mission home, he could baptize her. It was great!

Week in Review

Wednesday the 23rd we had an appointment with the 3rd Branch President of one of the Vietnam Branches. The Central District President went with us because this was one of his BP's and he also speaks Viet and English so he could interpret for us. We were to meet at the Branch President's home and then he would take us to two other homes to visit. This Branch President lives out on the water on the river Tonlee Sap (I think that''s the name). We walked down a narrow alley and then out onto the water on these manmade bridges. You just had to walk carefully! You don't want to fall in, mainly because I can't swim so good, and secondly there is just a bit of junk in the river that I didn't want to meet up with! He lived at the end of this bridge. Then you step up to his home to a landing, and from there up three steps made of limbs into his wonderful home. I was so pleased at their home. Pictures on the wall of the prophet, Christ and a Family Home Evening Board. The floors were made very solid. They had 3 rooms, the main room and two bedrooms, maybe one was a kitchen. But he had a TV and a small hutch for dishes. Church books were there also. All in all a wonderful, but very humble home. They truly love the Savior in this home. I was honored when they asked me to pray. We then went to another similar home on another part of the river where Scott was asked to pray. He also gave a gift of his tie to this former Branch President. We didn't get a picture of that! I'm sad about that. We then followed the BP on his Moto to another member's home, down one alley then another. We went to the end of the housing area after greeting a little store owner with her three kids. Twin boys and a girl. We new they were boys because they weren't dressed and so there was no doubt that they were males! Cute kids and she wanted to practice her English. This family the mother isn't a member, but ended up being friendly to us. The wanted Scott also to pray. He gave this man a tie and later the BP All were pleased with their gifts. He even tied them for them. This home was one room, no furniture, but a mat for a bed. They had porridge cooking on a one burner stove that sat on the floor. Again, what an honor to be in homes of such humble people. He accepted to come back to the Church, especially after he got a tie. He had no tie, and not too many clothes. Neither he nor his wife. They followed us out and waited until they couldn't see us anymore.

Here are the bridges we had to walk over. We saw children swimming (one), and a little girl pretending that the lily leaves she had gathered from the river were her supper she was cooking.

These next two are pictures of the last couple we visited. It is just so rewarding to have these people accept the invitation to come back to church and help strengthen the branch where they live. They all believe, they just get caught up in trying to make a living, and forgetting that the Gospel can continue to give them hope and ideas on how to improve their lives. The former BP is not totally less active. He still prays and tries to listen to the Holy Ghost and has started a new business that he felt prompted to start. We sure hope it works for him.

The Week in Review

Friday, Sept 25th we hosted the mission presidency and their wives to a dinner. Left to right is Brother Kim Sang and his wife. He is the Executive Secretary, then President Sapong and his wife, then us, and then 2nd counselor President Eng and his wife. All wonderful people. They enjoyed my sweet and sour chicken and the chocolate cake Scott made for me and the chocolate chip ice=cream. We were surprised that they liked the dessert so well, because Cambodians don't like those kind of sweets too much. We also had the Whitesides over right before this dinner. They headed home on Saturday, so they got to walk the red carpet on Friday.

Rice paddies and Chicken Project

This is a continuation of the story below. The pictures are of going out to the chicken farm. Also it is the second from the top that is the Church project. The picture of the family is the chicken farm family. The other two pictures are of the Bamboo Train where you can see what the flat car looks like and how we sat on it. Isn't the country just beautiful? It is so green and looks like a postcard picture most of the time. Except when it rains and it is the rainy season. Many people have been flooded out. They all seem to take it in stride that that is part of life!

I am also including a little video of feeding the chickens.

Rice paddies and Rice Storage Building

The above picture is the old fashioned way to plant rice. The top pciture is the churche's project.

Next up is a building where rice will be stored. Many people will benefit from this people, that is why the church is helping with it. Anyone will be able to buy rice from here, and also businesses can order rice here. So, it will be a great thing because there is no other building around this area to house all the rice. We stopped to take a picture of how most Cambodians plant rice. They take many stalks and plant them together, then it kind of goes yellow as it goes into shock and then they have to come and thin it out. The way the Church has it done is that they put one stalk in at a time. They are all planted in rows and spaced about 3-4 inches apart so that they can weed it (they do that with a water buffalo and a little plow) and I think they said fertilize it. I took a picture of the old way and then one of one of the church sponsored paddies. We got back in our vehicles and road a loooooooooooooooong ways on one little path after another, with water deep enough that we hoped our vehicle would make it back out of the hole. Sister Whitesides was riding in the back and I took a picture of her holding on with both hands. When we got to our destination, we got out and walked about a half mile along little paths in between rice paddies. We took pictures of the cows along the path and Elder Whitesides seeing if he could get up a tree, but it wasn't quite safe enough! We walked back to a home where the woman received a loan from the NGO that works with the Church to start her own chicken business. She raises them for eating. The first year she made $1000 (which is a pretty good wage here for the year) and the next year she made $1500. She has improved her home, bought a moto and a couple of pigs. So I guess she will start raising pigs. She also has a large rice paddie to the side of her home that is well taken care of. Her and her husband have 4 children, but only 3 of them would pose for us. We got back in the vehicles and went on some more interesting roads, and walked back into a lady who is very poor and so she was able to get aloan to raise frogs (people eat fat frogs here), and mud fish. To feed the fish, she took two pieces of dead wood and tapped them together over her little homemade pond that is surrounded by a little fence and out of the wood came hundreds of termites. The mud fish come up from the mud and eat the termites. They have wide mouths and big whiskers. The frogs are also in a fences enclosure with lots of greenry and bugs to eat. She took a stick and hit it around and the frogs were jumping all over. She wanted us to see her other ponds, but we were ready to eat and then go home or it would be too dark for us to drive on these little roads. The scenery is gorgeous, the people genuine, sweet, and wonderful and so happy that they will be able to improve their lives. Last year through the projects that were done, the church working with the NGO's were able to helpe hundreds of people. It was a very long, but very rewarding day with great company and good experiences.

Bamboo Train

The last thing we did was to ride on the Bamboo train. The man over the project we had been to see is also LDS and he arranged for this ride. The little community is very poor and any ride you pay for of course, and it will help the economy. We went on a little flat bed car about 8 foot by maybe 10 feet long. There was a mat for us to sit on for about seven of us. There is a diesel engine at the head of the flat bed, when they want to go the other way, they just reverse the belts. It was quite fun. There were cattle on the track and some goats, and water that we had to slow down for.

Day Trip with our LDSC Country Directors to Kampong Cheang Province

Last Tuesday, September 8th, the Whitesides, who are the Cambodia Country directors for LDSC picked us up at 7:00 a.m. and we traveled for about 1 1/2 hours to see a new project that they had sponsored along with an NGO (non governmental organization). This project is to make chicken and pig feed. They have a little mill set up at a home of a couple who had some room and let them have it there. I think they get paid for it. We met the LDSC area director who is an LDS Cambodian man. He is just a lot of fun. His sense of humor reminded Scott and I of our neighbor, Dave Jennings. We went down a red dirt road about a mile and there it was. I am attaching the pictures of this project. This is a little coop and it will help all those involved in the project improve their financial status so that they can improve their life and not just be in survival mode. The chicken loved this feed. The funnel in the middle is where it comes out and the picture on the right is the diesel engine on the right and the mill on the left. The pipes where it goes are up on the ceiling of this shed. Great project and they were all so thrilled with what they can do.

The Saints in Ho Chi Minh

Our second stop was in Ho Chi Minh. So here are some pictures of that City. We stayed in the New World Hotel of Saigon. Very, very nice, for a good price including breakfast! We will stay there again. The pictures are of the Relief Society sisters in the Ho Chi Minh branch, the building, a young couple who are Koreans, the Jungs. Polly was a missionary with Brother Jung when he was Elder Jung in Vancouver Canada mission. Small world, to think that in a remote country like Vietnam, in a small branch of the Church in Ho Chi Minh city, we meet someone who knows our daughter. He said she was a spiritual and excellent missionary, by the way! The young girl just returned from a mission to Cambodia. She left a couple of weeks before we came, but she has been here visiting to the mission home, so we knew here. She was a great sister missionary I am told. The second picture is of an older man trying to push his load of cardboard or something to sell. I felt bad for him because he was old and it was hard to push that heavy load. Scott told him he was strong (by way of pantomine), and it made the man laugh. The top picture is of Scott in a museum that had an old cart that is pulled by oxen. Many in the country still use these carts and the oxen (well, water buffalo, sorry!)

PIctures in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh

These pictures are still in Hanoi. The big building is a memorial to Ho Chi Minh. He is very respected by the people in Vietnam for helping them receive liberty from France and also for helping the youth get an education. His body lies in state here. It is our understanding that every 6 months they take his body out and embalm it again. I don't know how all that works. The picture with me and the fan lady was taken by Sister Talbot. The lady followed me everywhere in that park and wanted me to buy a fan from her, but I told her I already had one, she said, not as good as my fans. My fans are high quality and yours isn't. I finally bought postcards from a little 7 year old street savy girl. Who asked me, in English, Lady, what you pay for this postcards. I told her $2 because she had 10 postcards in there. She said okay, deal, and if you take two, you pay $5. I said, no deal, just the one packet. She was just so smart, I couldn't resist her, so the fan lady asked me why don't you buy from me? I told her because she wasn't little. She just laughed, but still followed me for another couple of minutes. We parted as friends.

Pictures and Thoughts on Vietnam

We really enjoyed our trip to Vietnam. We stayed 2 1/2 days in Hanoi and 2 1/2 days in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). They are somewhat similar to Cambodia, but the people are a little more aggresive drivers than Cambodians and not quite as friendly. The members of the Church are really great and friendly and when you start to visit with the Vietnamese people they are just warm and friendly. There are more motos than Cambodia. Alot more motos! We have Elders in Hanoi and one couple for LDSC (Latter-day Saint Charities). The couple have been there for one month, the Talbots from Snowflake, AZ. Our Elders there are Vietnamese from Ho Chi Minh. They are somewhat tied in teaching the Gospel because it can only be taught in the Church and it needs to be taught by Vietnamese, which they are so that works. If people ask them why they are dressed up (they only wear name tags in the Church building), they can tell them come to our Church and we can talk to you about it. Sometimes, people just ring the Church doorbell and want to know more. IN the last three years they have had 35 baptisms and they now have a Vietnamese branch president who does an outstanding job. There are 5 ex-patriots there who are a great strength to the Church. Our Elders are just valiant young men, who live on their honor. They are far away from the mission headquarters, yet obedient in all things. Just great young men and when I look at them, I become overwhelmed at how hard they try and they are all alone there, and tears freely flow down my cheeks. We had a mini zone conference with them and the Talbots. The Talbots are somewhat restricted in how much they do, they are only allowed one project at a time, and here in Cambodia the LDSC do about 10 projects at any one given time. They are a wonderful couple and trying to be patient until they build trust with the government. In Ho Chi Minh branch, they have around 100 members and in Hanoi around 45, but have 60 people to church sometimes. The Ho Chi Minh branch has pretty much Vietnamese leaders and there are 4 families that are English speakers. ONe