Returned Missionary Reunion

After spending the day at South Zone Conference in Phnom Penh, we had an hour break and then came to a Returned Missionary Reunion. This was for anyone who had served a mission from Cambodia whether they served here or somewhere else. Most served here. Some that came are inactive, and we were so happy they came. Hopefully they felt the spirit while they were there. This is about 80. Altogether since the church has been here, there have been a total of 258 missionaries. About 21 are serving now. 5 of them are in the states and the rest here. Scott and I were invited to speak. These are good people. Too many single!

Coming Home from Zone Conferences in the Provinces.

Piled high with compacted garbage. I hope the doors stayed in place, and the rest of the stuff didn't fall off!

Because of a lack of transportation, some people just catch a ride with whatever will take them. And they love sitting on top of whatever vehicle or whatever that vehicle is hauling.

Coming in to Phnom Penh and going through a sort of round about. The picture does not do it justice. It's amazing how it all works.

Siem Reap Branch

While waiting for Scott to do two member interviews who are preparing for the temple, I took the time to take a picture an English class being taught by two of our missionaries. Elder Thompson above and Elder Merrill below. Elder Merrill is also the Zone Leader. He gave a great lesson the next day in Zone Conference on how to get members to help invite investigators to Church. He also played the piano and sang in a trio of missionaries.

Elder Sweeten was sitting right by me. He is studying his new scriptures that his family sent him for his birthday which is tomorrow. Happy Birthday Elder Sweeten!

I decided to bring in my crocheting rather than study. I finished a burp pad while I was waiting.
Outside the Paradise Angor where we stay, a crew of two gardeners were up in the tree trimming. So they kindly posed for me.

Battambang and Central Zone Activity

On Monday, June14, 2010, we took the Battambang Zone and the Central Zone to this mountain. To the far right is where the cave is where maybe a million bats come out every night between the hours of 6:10 and 6:20. That's when they start to come out. It takes over an hour for them all to come out. We are heading first of all near the top of the mountain where the Wat is. Near the top of this mountain are the Killing Caves of Battambang. I don't know what it is called. That is what I call it. I have put it on the blog before. Most of these missionaries hadn't seen either the bones at the bottom of the cave nor the Wat and monkeys, nor the bats coming out of the caves.
The Central Zone are the missionaries assigned to Vietnam speaking. They are pretty much confined to the city their whole missions. So Scott decided it would be a great break for them to go to a Zone Conference with another Zone out of the city. They really enjoyed themselves.

Elder Ly and Sister Harlan are in this picture. This is looking up from the main bottom of the cave. On my other blog I have a picture of the hole where the Pol Pot killers would line people up and kill them, then drop their bodies down into the cave. This is now a park where they respectively have made the holding house into a wat of sorts and have a big Buddha laying down at the bottom of the cave. One of these days, I'll take a picture of him.

The cave goes further down, so of course these brave missionaries thought they would go to the bottom of the steps and take more pictures. I was very happy when they all came back up.

Near the buddha that lays down are some of the skulls found at the bottom of the cave. They are housed here as a mass burial similar to the Killing Fields. It is a very sober place, to be respected and sorrowed over in the brutal way the people were murdered during that sad period of time here in Cambodia.

Just up and out of the caves are rocks that have large holes in them. Elder Pyne, above has climbed into one of them and thinks maybe he'll use that vine to swing off. Elder Lines I think is encouraging him.

We drove further up the mountain towards the Wat at the top. At the very top of the mountain is a Wat. This is a large Buddha with statues of monks worshipping him. This mountain has many older women who wear white and shave their heads. They are also considered monks and people show them great respect. From this point we walked up some steps to an overlook and also there were many monkey's up there that loved bananas.

Battambang and Central Zones. President Smedley was in the car studying for his Zone conference talk the next day. I couldn't believe how I could walk up all those steep steps and not even be out of breath. I think it's because I walk up and down the stairs here in the mission home many, many times during a day. I guess it must be very good on my heart.

From Left to right: Standing: Elders Cox and Jennings. Sitting: Elders Seang, Ly, Sweeten, Schwindlehurst,Meas, me, Sister Sok and Elder Oldroyd. Sitting: Front is Sister Harlan and behind her is Sister Nouer. Back row: Elders Peterson, Lines, Pyne, Nybo, and Andersen. Sister Vo. Standing in the very back are Elders Phirun and Long.

Sister Sok and me. I carry my water bottle wherever I go because of the heat. Beautiful view, isn't it?

More of the view by this orange blossom tree which I do not know the name of.

Just beyond the over look are more steps up to the top. We stopped where the monkeys were and spent enough time feeding them, that we didn't have time to walk to the very top. This mother is nursing her little one.

Elders Ly and Seang having a visit with her.

Sister Vo and Elder Jennings giving them bananas. There was a male monkey who wanted no more bananas. When the Elders tried to feed him, he would hiss at them and tried to swipe at a finger of one of them. I think one of the Elders was teasing it, and so that made the monkey mad at everyone else. I didn't get a picture of all of that action. Sorry!

From there we went to the bottom of the mountain and waited for the bats to come out which you can see in the next blog.

Videos of Bat Cave and Waiting Missionaries

From the Wats on the mountain, we came back down to the foot and waited for the bats to come. This time I got a good picture of the cave where the bats come out. Last time it was dark. I tried to catch everyone in both the Battambang Zone and the Central Zone while they were watching and waiting for the bats to come out.

Newest Additions to the Mission Home

A new pillow arrangement creation of Scott's.

A new haircut that made my hair VERY curly.

A handmade dragon fly made in Vietnam that sits balanced on this picture and NEVER falls!

And last of all a new handmade dresser for the mission home. This was much needed. The other dresser was very small, and often when you opened a drawer, it would fall onto the other drawers. This will be enjoyed by mission presidents and their wives for many years.

Another view. The paper machei (sp.)fish on top is handmade by women here in Cambodia. All proceeds go directly to these women.

Older, Middle, and Newer Missionaries

These Elders were "lucky" enough to come in to the Mission Home right after I took pictures of the Zone Leader Council Compass Course. So with my camera handy, they got to say hi to their parents. Elder Hawkins on the left and Elder Baird on the right. Elder Hawkins is Elder Baird's District Leader.

Elder Eagan is a trainer and Elder Baird is the first missionary he has trained. Elder Hawkins has been out for almost 2 years, Elder Eagan has been out for about a year, and Elder Baird for a transfer (six weeks), hence the title of the post! I hope you "get it"!

Zone Leader Council Compass Course

On June 9, 2010, we had a Zone Leader Council. As part of Scott's lesson, he did a compass course which would lead to a treasure. One of our guards, President Chheum (branch president of the Takhemao branch) helped Scott set this course up. He divided them into two groups. Nephites and Helamanites.


The Helamanites are a little confused on course directions even though they have a Liahona and directions!

The Nephite group not only had the directions, but a measuring tape, so that they would be exact in where to go.

The treasure was hiding under this desk. The treasure was President Smedley. As they opened it, he said, Surprise! The point of the whole experience was that you go faster to your spiritual goals when you can follow with exactness.

Elder and Sister Oakes with some of the Missionaries

Elder and Sister Oakes and Elder and Sister Pratt came to visit the mission including Vietnam from May 23-26, 2010. While here in Phnom Penh, Elder Oakes held a missionary meeting on Monday, May 24th. A group picture was taken of those attending this meeting. Those attending were all the missionaries in Phnom Penh and also those in Kampong Cham. Kampong Cham missionaries were allowed to come because they are only 2 hours away and could come and get back in a day. The others were far away and would lose at least 2 days of proselyting time. We had just had several Cambodian holidays and quite a few days of time was lost. Those in the outlying areas received the audio broadcast. We tried to get video, but there isn't enough broadband speed or width or something like that to handle it. It was a wonderful meeting and we were grateful all got to here the words of the General Authorities and their wives.

An Afternoon on the Mekong Delta

On Saturday, May 29, 2010 we went on a Zone Activity to the Mekong Delta area. This area is about 1 1/2 hours out of Ho Chi Minh City. The city where the boat dock is, is called My Tho. It was so hot, that Scott and felt like we couldn't survive unless we had some shade. So we each bought a rice hat. Scott's is more cowboyish. Mine is worn by men and women alike especially out working in the rice paddies, hence a rice hat. It cost me a big $1. We were greeted by this friendly, gentle guide named Hoa. She is married with a two year old child. Elder Jackson explained to us that the Mekong is called the River of 9 Dragons because it breaks off into 9 rivers before it enters the China Sea.


I can't say the hat does much for my looks, but it did wonders to keep the hot sun from beating down on me.

I thought Scott looked so funny in this hat. After the picture he pulled down the rim and then it looked more like a cowboy hat.

The first island stop was Phoenix Island. They have a lot of honey bees on this island. They do not sting you. They allowed us to put our finger on the honeycomb and the bees just ignored you. The honey was good. They gave us alot of samples of food made from this honey. We bought some peanut honey candy that was good.

They allowed us to try these bambooshoulder carryalls. Many use these to not only haul fresh produce, but here in Cambodia women use it to haul dishes and the food they want to sell that day. People will stop them and they serve them from their dishes and then move on. I am amazed the weight that they carry on their shoulders. Sister Jackson is below.

They then took us on a canoe ride through the jungle. It was surprisingly smooth and also very busy. In the post below this one, I have a video of it.

We stopped off at an island that had these 9 posts representing the 9 dragons which represent the 9 rivers breaking off from the Mekong. There is a restaurant and hotel, well more like a motel here.

Back in the boats again we went to Turtle Island where we ate lunch. We ate at this restaurant in the jungle that was kind of like a grass shack. It rained, but we were perfectly dry.

This was behind where we were sitting.

We ate an Elephant Fish. They had us go choose what fish we wanted out of this big cement holding pond. They scooped up this fish, and then bashed it on the head, weighed it and withing 15 minutes we had this. They put an almond breading on it, so those are not worms you are seeing, just almonds. The fish was good. A waitress came and broke off the meat with chopsticks .

You can see we were well on our way to eating it all. They also served us a chicken soup that we watched them kill that chicken and then weigh it too. They served everything of that chicken. One plate had the thighs, legs and breasts and the other had all the rest. It was good.

Some of the menu items from this restaurant are: Iguana Rice Soup, Snake head fish hot pot, Elephant ear fish (that's what we had), Snake curry, Turtle Curry and medicine heads, eel, crocodile, cat fish and squid. So they had quite a menu selection.

Did I tell you I bought two hats? This one I see Cambodian women wear all the time on their motos to keep the sun off. As they travel along the flap looses it's dignity when it blows upward. But Scott likes me in it, so I posed for him. Elder Ly is behind me.

In the town of My Tho where we got on the boat, there was a street with this extremely long dragon celebrating a future fruit festival. It is all hand painted and brought in in sections. Quite something to see!

Many homes in Vietnam are long and narrow because of a tax issue. If you build too wide then your taxes go up because it takes more space. So, many build narrow, tall and long. In Cambodia you see houses very similar, but they are a little wider.

So that was the end of a very relaxing, but educational day. Oh, I should tell you that in this city, My Tho, as we drove in, I made the comment that I like this town, this has a good feel to it. This would be a good place to put missionaries when the time comes. Scott felt the same way and Elder and Sister Jackson had the same thought. So, I hope it comes to pass while we are here. But who knows? I think we're aways from that! Anyway, nice clean town. We've had the same impression about another city here in Cambodia, but it's not going to happen there either for a while.

Visiting the Mekong Delta

On Saturday, May 29th, we continued on our Zone Activity to the Mekong Delta. This is the rice basket of Vietnam. These little video clips were taken on a tour of the Mekong Delta. We visited three islands. The first second island we visited a little restaurant that gave us many fresh and delicious fruits and people came and sang for us. These are original instruments of Vietnam and is also the singing their cultural way of singing. The canoe trip was delightful and we felt like we were in the middle of the jungle, which I guess we were.

Flowers and Members

A beautiful arrangement that we saw daily in the breakfast room of the hotel we were in. These are fresh flowers. Fresh flowers are all over Vietnam and also here in Cambodia.


We stopped at this shop on Monday morning, May 31, 2010 after the sister on the left took us to find a tablecloth for one of our daughters. This is owned by the member of the church on the right. She is the former branch Relief Society President, and is now the first Family History person to be called in Vietnam. She sells toys, costumes, and uniforms for young people. They hand make them there in her shop, I believe.

The sister in purple works for the one in blue. She was baptized in 1974 and has remained faithful even through the Vietnam war era. The young man is the son of another employee.