We Are No Longer The Newest Missionaries In Cambodia

Elders Hall and Gardner

It is nice to not be the greenest missionaries in the country.  Yesterday the group we ate meals with at the MTC arrived in Cambodia, and as we left the Stake Center this evening we ran into some of them.  Elder Gardner who serves in the Chaktomuk Ward and sometimes translates for us, has one of the new Elders as his companion, Elder Hall from Texas.  And Sister Fife, who will go home in a couple of months has a new Cambodian Sister, Sister Hum.  It is great to see the new young missionaries come into the field and begin their labors.

Most of our day was spent working on the special project for Hong Kong.  We have been asked to put together a cash flow analysis for the PEF Loans so that we know how much will be going out and coming in on the current loans. Sameth, the full-time PEF employee, has been a great aid to us by helping Sister Oveson understand the computer program so that we can complete this project. Elder Oveson worked on the format for the cash flow analysis,.  He was having way too much fun being back in his accounting element. We are at least 60% done, which is great. We will finish it up next week.

We have already shared that the gospel is very young here in Cambodia.  They celebrated their twenty year anniversary a few months ago.  The first two stakes were created on the same day last year, that was only the second time in Church history that the first two stakes in a country were created on the same day. Tomorrow is an important day for the people here in Phnom Penh, they will be sustaining their very first Patriarch ever here in Cambodia.  There is a Stake Priesthood Meeting tomorrow in the Phnom Penh North Stake, where they will make the announcement and sustain him. The members are very excited to have a Patriarch here in Cambodia.