Final Day With My Sisters

We went to the Teul Sleng Prison on the 25th of May which was the day before my Sisters left.  This prison is where Pol Pot and his cronies would put innocent people because they had too much education, wore glasses, or any number of things.  They would persecute them with words and also physically and hurt the people in cruel ways.  If they didn't die there, they would send them to the Killing Fields.  This was a very wicked regime.  I took a picture of the "rules" and the narrow brick rooms.

 I took a picture looking out from the barbed wire over the housing units.  It would have been awful to know that out on the street were people walking around while you were stuck in a death sentence in the prison. Most died, however the man my sister Jill, is sitting with was one of the few survivors.  He wrote a book about it and that's how he feeds his family.  We also can see different kinds of meat and various grades of rice.

We pose in the Royal Palace gardens. The Royal palace I believe is the one in the blurry picture and the gold building is a wat, a place of worship.


Also they have a museum on the grounds of the Royal Palace.  Here we can see the different colors on the former national dress.  Each color represents a different day of the week. I love the picture of these very young monks in front of the replica of the Angkor Wat.

The tree here is believed to have some sort of Healing powers.  They will put incense and pray to the statue.

Riding all snuggy in the tuk tuk coming back from the Royal Palace. Then on to packing. They got packed and back home safely! We had a jam-packed week that Jill and Camille were here, but we managed to have some quality tiime

Sister Ming Ny prepares for the Temple

On our way back to Phnom Penh, we stop to Sister Ny's home.  This is our farewell visit with her.  She is probably one of the best member missionaries in Cambodia.  She joined the church about 2 1/2 years ago.  She has introduced the Church to many neighbors, friends, relatives.  She has lived in KC all her life and probably knows most of the people.  Through her efforts, many have joined the church.  She is now Relief Society President and on this particular day was preparing to have her first visit to the Temple in Hong Kong. She was going with several from KC and others from Phnom Penh. She is demonstrating for me how to use her ceramic stove because I brought a couple back with me.

Jill, Sister Ming Ny, Camille and me.

This was a special blouse she bought to wear to the temple.

Our wonderful and very capable APs pose with us and sister Ny.  Elders Ott and Nelson make a very good companionship and are a great help to Scott.


The Mekong River flows through Kampong Cham.

Final Zone Conference in KC

May 24 in the afternoon and early evening we had our final zone conferences with the Kampong Cham and  Kampong Thom zones.  We bid a fond farewell with singing Happy Trails to you while they all politely listen after the conference is over.


 We then greet each missionary personally to let them know how much we love them. We surely hope they know how much we do love each of them and appreciate all the good works they do for Cambodia.

Elder Pham, Elder Gootee, Elder Pearson, and Elder Mao.

Elders Wilcox. Decker, Jorgansen, and Mao.

Elder Weller, Sister Taylor, and Sister Kan.

Love our Senior couples:  Grimnes in Kampong Thom and Shelleys in Kampong Cham.  We cannot express how much we love and appreciate all of our senior couples and their sacrifice to come and help strengthen the church in Cambodia and Vietnam. 

Saying goodbye and getting suggestions from District Leader to Assistant.

From Siem Reap to Kampong Thom to Kampong Cham

On May 24, the wonderful Branch President of Siem Reap invited Scott and me and my sisters to eat at their home.  We ate wonderful food and a favorite dessert of mango sticky Rice, but Sister Loy added Jack Fruit to the mix which turned out very delicious.

On our journey to the Kampong Cham we traveled past cricket catchers and people hauling bags on their motos. Cricket catchers are the plastic hanging from sticks. Underneath are plastic tubs with water. Lights are on the plastic. At night they turn the battery operated lights on and the crickets run into the  plastic, fall into the water, drown. They  sell them on the market as fried crickets.  It is a definite money earner.

In Kampong Thom, we stopped to see Elder and Sister Grimnes and Sophal was making 500 ties to sell at a festival in Siem Reap. Two of her helpers were working hard with her.  We also passed loaded down trucks with people and lumber.

The beautiful fields of corn greet us in the Kampong Cham province.

We pass fields of potatoes, and rubber trees.


And also little carts hauling whatever to market.