Family Home Evening with the Seniors

L-R me, Scott, Sister Westover, Sister Meier and Sister Tuck. On the back row, is Elder and Sister Rhyne, Elder Meier,Elder Westover, Elder Spencer, Elder and Sister Henderson, Elder James, Sister Spencer, and Elder Tuck. Sister James is taking this picture.  In the one below, I am taking the picture. We enjoyed being with the Senior couples when we could attend some of their events.

The first Monday of June we were able to go to a FHE at the James's apartment with the other senior couples who are living and working in Phnom Penh.  We didn't make too many of the FHE's with them, but we surely enjoyed all that we went to.

Final Visits to Branches 3 and 10.

We were delighted to find out that Sisters Bayles and Sparks had a baptism after the 3rd branch Sacrament when we attended there.  The sister in the red on the stairs is a convert of about 20 months.  Her and her husband had been living on the street when first approached by the missionaries.  They both joined the church, started paying tithing and were blessed with a small room with a roof over their heads. She has noo legs and lives in her wheelchair which she usually rides in to church every Sunday.  I think it takes about 30 minutes.  To get to Relief Society upstairs, she pulls herself up with her hands.  Is that not someone who has the fire of their baptismal covenant in their heart?  The cute littlel girls belong to the district Relief Society President of the Central District, Sister Ai. 

We were invited to the 10th branch FHE our last month.  It was great. They had a spiritual thought, a fun game and two kinds of fruit.  Elder Workman was doing one of the games and was a great windup toy.


Brother and Sister Hai are letting us know of their love for us.  She gave me a bracelet of her own that happened to be in her purse because she wanted to give us something to remember her by.

The brother in the black shirt is Thai.  He joined the church about 2 years ago.  He speaks a little Cambodian and is learning Vietnamese. His wife, on my right, translated all the lessons as the Elders gave them into Thai from Vietnamese. He is now in the Branch Presidency of the 10th branch.  Great Family.

Farewell Pictures

Our Assistants give us a great final pose about a month before our departure!
Elder Nelson did a self-portrait and Elder Ott poses at our final trainee/trainer training!  We had to send off our shipment the end of May and off goes our Red Carpet with it.  So, we got a picture of us Walking the Red Carpet.  We figured we were Returning With Honor too!   We also got a picture of President Saphong walking the Red Carpet too. He was Scott's counselor for over 2 years and now is a Branch President (for the 2nd time!)  He definitely is a Man with Honor!

We finally received our shipment yesterday, August 2.  As you can tell, I am just a little behind, but I am now in June so almost done with the mission blog.

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.