Mission Tour, Battambang District Conference

Elders Faught, Chea, Murdock and Ballard all sang a hymn for the Mission Tour Specialized Training. They are all in Kampong Thom. We did this northern province training on March 11th, Friday morning. They sang with Sister Houser's help and some of it was Acapella. They did a terrific job. Elder Faught didn't even know he could sing so good! We also had a conference for the South Zone and I will get pictures of that on the blog and the rest of the missionaries in the Siem Reap, Kampong Thom and Battambang Zones.

We drove down to Battambang with the Watsons for a District Conference he was presiding. Scott and he did Priesthood Training and Sister Watson and I did the auxiliaries. I spoke Saturday and Scott bore his testimony and we both did it all in Cambodian. It quite surprised ourselves! Scott also spoke on Sunday and so did Sister Watson and Elder Watson both days. Sister Tay and Un pose for someone else and I took a side view without them knowing. They also like to get some counsel from President Smedley. Elder Christian is in the background waiting his turn!



Sister Sam Saphon is always so faithful to come with her husband to the conferences. Her husband is Scott's counselor in the mission presidency. She went visiting with us also. Elder Watson had her share her testimony on Sunday.

Baptisms,YSA Activity, Mission Tour

On March 6th, Scott and I visited the 12th branch for church. The sister in the middle is the mother of the little girl being baptized. The little girl is kneeling with her brothers. Her Mom, standing by me was interviewed by Scott and is now baptized. Elders Walker in the suit and Long in the baptismal clothes taught them both. This is at the 12th branch building.

March 8th we picked up Elder and Sister Watson for our mission tour. We had time before a scheduled dinner to go to the end of a Young Adult Activity. They are dancing a Cambodian type of line dance. It is like a wheel and the lines are the cogs. They move around the wheel moving their hands in traditional Cambodian movements and tapping their feet and that's it. They kept going until someone said, that's enough, stop the music! They like the music loud. The Watsons enjoyed watching them.

The Elders and Sisters in the North Zone. First day of the Mission Tour with Elder and Sister Watson on March 9th, 2011. Starting on the front row and going L to R: Elders Sookoo, Son, Nicosia, Sisters Chheung, Nouer, Pe, Erekson, Holloway and Harlan. Next row. Elder and Sister Thalman Scott and I, Elder and Sister Watson, Elder and Sister Spencer. Third row: Elders Boyd, Chum, Long, Huon and Haem. 4th Row: Elders Isabell, Frank, Schwindlehurst, Sanford, Thompson, Norgren, Huritz, Jensen, Zabriskie, and Conway. Top Row: Elders Matthews, Seang, Miller, Wright, Salmon, Walker, Humphreys, Schiefer, Eagan and Heywood. We had a great conference.

Sister Ang Returns

We left right after this leadership training March 4th about 4:00 p.m. we stopped by the North District Center for Scott to interview this sister for baptism, and then on to pick up Sister Ang who returned from the Salt Lake City Temple Square Mission. Her whole family are members of the church. While serving she had a brother get in a moto accident and pass away. He also had served a mission. Her two older sisters have served and served well. None have married yet. They are all very active and devout in the Church. Sister Ang was happy to greet her Provo MTC companions! They will be a good support to each other. Sister Kunthy Chhoeun and the left, Sister Phalla Try and Sister Ang. Kunthy has a temporary job teaching the new missionaries at the MTC starting theh 11th of April. She will be there for one month when our missionaries go. She will be the translator and a teacher as well. We are so pleased with them all. They served well. We love them and their families dearly.

Tonle Sap Floating Villages: Clean Water Project

We were invited by Elder Peterson, country director for LDSC, to come to the closing ceremonies of a clean water project on March 2, 2011. They had funded along with two other NGO's: RACHA and USAid a floating platform to some floating villages. There are some 20,000 people total living in floating villages in the Tonle Sap. We were invited by the Minister of Health to eat with him and the other NGO's at the Sokha Hotel in Siem Reap. The minister was late, but we did meet him and I sat by him. A very kind, gentle man. The above pictures of are of some of the people who have helped on this project. The two above are from England. He is a doctor and she works for RACHA, I believe and the other gentleman, a Cambodian works for USAid, I believe.

We got up at 5:00 a.m. to be at the boats by 6:00 a.m. to leave. It was going to take us around 1 1/2 hours to 1 3/4 hours to get to the end village that houses the water platform. We were on the boat with all the members, and the other boat had all the government officials and NGO's. On the way back they wanted us to ride with them, but we said we would stay with our members and make sure they ate. They gave us a sweet roll, sandwich, and something to drink. Everyone was starving because we didn't eat breakfast because Elder Peterson understood that they would give us some breakfast. So I guess afterwards was the breakfast. I don't know what the people on the government boat got. I hope we didn't insult them by riding with the members. I don't think we did.

Journey to the Floating Villages

We started out by going down a normal type river. Well, normal in my way of thinking! Meaning that you can see shoreline on both sides. It was quite interesting to see these floating homes. The boats are loaded with fish and shoppers ready to buy and sell. The general store looks like it is well attended.

The further on we got, the more we lost the shore and we were in the middle of the Tonle Sap Lake. So we went from River to Lake. I think they still consider it a river here, but to me, it was a lake! On the bottom left are three little children in wash tubs paddling and floating away trying to catch up to us so they could get some money for a picture. At one point on our journey a mother and 4 children paddled up to the boat. One of the little boys had a snake over his shoulder and wanted to know if we wanted to pet it. NO! No one did, but Elder Peterson gave him some money so that people could take their picture. I'm sorry to say, that my camera was almost out of battery so that is one picture I selected not to take! Scott didnt' get it on his camera either. When we came back the above boat that is moored above right had people in it, getting it ready to take out and use. There were two villages right in the middle. on the above right it was the Cambodian village and on the left is the Vietnamese floating village and never the twain shall meet. They do not converse with one another and were about 1/2 mile apart!

The boy in the hammock was Supposed to be watching for debris to get out of the engine and he got tired! We had to stop once and get debris out of the blades. We are getting closer to the floating water platform and are going through the other floating village near two shorelines (back in the river....in my book!). As you can see they even have cell phone service and store!

We are now getting closer to our destination and passing some stores and homes. Yes, these are totally in the water. We think the water must be about 6 feet deep, not too deep. This took about 1 and 3/4 hours to get to the shore village.

Floating Clean Water Project Turnover

We arrived to the village shore on the Battambang side of the Tonle Sap about 2 hours after we had started.
Here Scott gave his talk. He explained how the Church gets Humanatarian money to fund these projects. He said a little spiel in Cambodian and they all clapped. I guess it was because as an American they didn't expect him to speak any Cambodian. They were pleased. The bottom picture shows how we were greeted with cute little Khmer dancers and drummers.

The floating purification station is below. Pictures above show it from different views and the top LH pic is of members who came with us. This is the Relief Society President and the Cleaning person and her little boy for the Church building. Both are stalwart and faithful members. The other pictures show the people waiting to get their water.

This is how the system works. They pump this very dirty water out of the Tonle Sap. It runs through these tanks and several purification filters. In one day they can filter and clean 700 litres of water. If people can pay they pay .12 cents for a 5 gallon container such as above. If they can't, then they just can have it. It should be self sustaining now with those who can pay. LDSC, RACHA, and USAid are the NGOS that helped build this. They have been working with the villagers for one year and they are doing it all now. So this ceremony was all about the villagers receiving this and maintaining it. They have some people that do it and they are paid from the funds of people paying to get their water. It looks like it should last and last as they take care of it. Now it is all up to them. They have been trained and know what to do and have done it. I hope they will keep it up. This will save many people from diseases.

President Loy and his wife also went with us. Elder Peterson who is the country director with LDSC here in Cambodia invited us all. His wife was home in a wheelchair after she broke a leg and a foot. She has to stay off for another week and can gradually put weight on her feet. We arranged through my very kind brother-in-law to get her a boot and a couple coming for the church to Asia for a month brought it over. The above pictures are before we went on the boat and after the boat ride. I had my hair all nice and straightened and by the time we got back it was very curly!

Mission Presidents Interim Seminar

February 21-25th I got to go to the Interim Mission President's Seminar with Scott in Hong Kong. Usually us wives don't get to go to the February one, but the Church wanted us all trained on some new information. For our first night there as a group on the 22nd, they took us over to Kowloon to a really good Chinese restaurant. We went on the Ferry. It was actually cold, so Sister Pratt took me up to her apartment and loaned me the red jacket I had on. Coming from Cambodia, it is so hot, that I didn't think about it being chilly in Hong Kong. It felt so good to be a little cool! The above picture is of the Grimley's who are in Taiwan and the Chans who are in Hong Kong.


The Restaurant was huge. This chef came out and was making homemade noodles so Scott caught it on camera.

Hong Kong at night. I took the first first picture from the ferry window. It almost made a perfect frame.

We went to the Temple the second night. Across the street are the mission offices, temple patron housing, and two chapels all in one building! Scott and I poised (sp?) in front of the temple. I have on a new jacket that I had made in Cambodia. It is made of Chinese silk I got at the Russian market here. So, it is an international thing. But I think it will be one of my favs. It seemed so good to be in the Temple. It has been since September of last year that we went last. We get to go whenever we go to the Training Seminars which are held once in September for all and in February usually for just the mission presidents. Anyway, we had a wonderful and spiritually uplifting time for the whole seminar and learned alot to help our mission grow and improve.