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

Arrived in Vietnam

We made it fine to Vietnam. We are in Hanoi today and through Saturday morning. Then we catch a flight to Ho Chi Minh City. Tomorrow we do a mini Zone meeting with the two missionaries and the LDSC Charities couple here. I will post a picture of them. We will also take them to lunch and go see where they all live. We have been invited to a member fireside to meet the president tomorrow evening. So we will be at the other end of town. This is a big city. It reminds me alot of Phnom Penh with lots of motos and interesting drives! The taxi ride to the Hotel here took 45 minutes. On our flight we had a brief layover in Laos, Vieten I think was th city. I probably spelled it wrong. So now we can say we have been in Laos! It's so amazing to be here. Never in my life did I think we would come to Vietnam. Everyone here has been so kind and nice to us. We already love the people and the country. My hand is healing up. It still is a little swollen and I can't straighten out my finger too good yet, but it's coming along.