A Sunday When We Were Able to Finally Attend All Three Hours in Both Of Our Wards

With the various conferences and extra meetings that we have had lately it felt like it had been a long time since we just attended the full three hour block for both of the Wards that we are assigned to visit.  There are times that we are clueless about what is going on, when we don't have a translator, or when our translator forgets to translate.  But we do our best to look interested and try to follow the lessons at least in English.

Today in the Chaktomuk Ward Elder Oveson got asked to say the closing prayer in Gospel Doctrine class.  He did his best in Khmer and the class members seemed happy and surprised that he did it in Khmer, but we are sure they were just being kind.  Sister Oveson had previously prayed in Khmer in the Gospel Doctrine class in the Steung Mean Chey Ward.  Now we can both say that we have offered our first public prayers in Khmer.

Our daughter Brenda works in a dental office in Utah, and a couple of weeks ago she found out that some of their patients, Ty and Melissa Palmer, were coming to Cambodia for a humanitarian trip.  We corresponded with them several times before they left the U.S., and they arrived in Cambodia yesterday.  The place that they are staying is not far from where we live, so we picked them up on our way to Church this morning.  They stayed for all three hours of the block and then we invited them over for lunch.  That let them chill out for a little bit because their place does not have air conditioning.  They were kind enough to bring us some things from home.  It was fun visiting with them and telling them about Phnom Penh.  They are planning on going to church with us again next week.

Our picture for today is the cement drive from the main road into the parking lot at Steung Mean Chey Building.  There is a story behind this beautiful new cement drive.  Three weeks ago as we went out to Steung Mean Chey it had been raining and the approach which was just dirt had turned to mud.  As we drove through it, we wondered if we were going to get stuck or not.  The next day I spoke with Touch Sophorn, the coordinator for Seminary and Institute and First Counselor in the Stake Presidency, about the mud puddle.  He immediately call the FM group and told them that Elder and Sister Ovesons had a new car and they did not want it getting stuck. When we went out last week the concrete had been poured. Today the edges had been added.  The power of the right person making the call, but we are grateful that we may have had some influence in getting it fixed.