Geckos, Institute, Self Reliance Group, Preparation Day and Surprises

This is one shy little gecko
who knows how to give big surprises!

Some days are full of surprises. That has been the case here for sure. Yesterday as we got home, Sister Oveson went to wash her hands in the bathroom. As she turned on the light switch there was a funny sound and a little gecko jumped from the ceiling, landing just in front of her, then hurried out of the room and under the curtain of the patio door and basically disappeared. Then this morning after breakfast as she went to rinse the dishes, a gecko jumped out of the sink and scurried under the microwave. (We did get pictures of this one!) This was much more startling than really being scary.  We didn't have time to look for it after that, we'll just have to see where the little critter jumps out from tomorrow!

Reaksmey, Dawath, Phally, Si Pheng, Vathanak,
Vannanoeun, Sony, Hanh, Somaly, and Monikeo.

A second surprise was our Institute class. We have jokingly commented that we usually have 6 students, just not the same 6 each time. Today we started with 6, then gradually went up until we ended with 10! What a wonderful group of young adults. This is such a wonderful part of our service in Cambodia.

After a couple of FaceTime calls and a quick shopping trip to Lucky's, we had a little time to relax at the apartment. Elder Oveson even had a rare nap. Our preparation day was mostly otherwise uneventful.

This evening we had another appointment to attend a Self Reliance devotional at the North Stake center. There was a Bayon Market we had planned to check out that could be visited on our way to the meeting, so we made our plan. The surprising thing with this store visit is that we have been there before! On the day we arrived in Phnom Penh, President and Sister Moon took us there on our way to the Mission Home, we just had no idea where we were at the time. We found a few items at this market that we will probably visit there again, just not one of our regular stops.

One more surprise today was the Self Reliance group. It was supposed to start at 5:30, but not enough of the group was there to start on time. The facilitator arrived at about 5:20, and there should have been about 14 participants. By 6:00 there were still not enough to begin. Finally a couple more came and we would have had enough to start, but it was getting too late. Instead they discussed options of when else they might hold the class, but Saturday evening was the only option for some of them. They discussed why they should have the class, the need to be committed to attending, the importance of always being on time to the class could proceed. The group seemed to be ready to try again. We hope everything will move with more success next time. Then as we reported to Phanna about what happened with this group meeting we learned we need to be to another devotional tomorrow evening. Surprise!