Church Reports, Life as a Missionary and Cambodian Money

When Elder and Sister Powell visited from Hong Kong one of the assignments that they gave us was to make sure that all of the monthly reports got submitted timely.  Last month Cambodia was the first country to get their reports submitted, and the Powells thanked us for making sure that they were more complete.  The first report is due on the 5th of each month, so we made sure that it was submitted today. The rest are due on the 10th so we will get them in by Friday.  Not only are the reports getting in on time, but our numbers are going up.  We now have a Self Reliance group going in Battambang and one in the Phnom Penh North Stake; we have also taught the My Path to 127 members and we hope to have a group going in Siem Reap and the Phnom Penh East District this month also.  With new initiatives it takes a while to get everything moving like it is suppose to.

Once a week we hold a Self Reliance Staff devotional and talk about what we have going on this week.  When we met today Sameth and Phanna let us know that this coming Wednesday is a holiday in Cambodia; it is Plough Day.  That is when the King allows his prize bull to pick which crop should be planted, by putting mounds of the grains in a field and whatever the bull eats, they should plant.  If the bull eats grass instead of the grain, they are in big trouble that year.  They also have ploughing demonstrations at the palace. We will skip that, it will be way to crowded.

We have shared previously that the economy here is cash only and they primarily use U.S. dollars.  We have our Debit Card and we don't use it in stores, we use it to get cash out of the ATM.  Likewise, the young missionaries use a debit card to get their cash from the mission on a monthly basis.  There is Cambodian currency, but it is primarily used for change, they do not use U.S. coins.  A dollar is basically equal to 4,000 riel.  The value fluctuates a little but not much.  The smallest denomination is 100 riel, which is only 2.5 cents, and 1,000 riel is 25 cents.  There are also larger denominations like 10,000 is $2.50.  Today's picture is the Riel that we had in our pocket.