Monday, Monday

It was good to get back to the office after the long holiday last week.  A lot of what we do is helping Phanna and Sameth as they deal with the members here in Cambodia.  The Perpetual Education Fund is a Church program that has to have rules to make sure the funds will provide the benefit desired.  That is when it becomes tricky because their are members who feel that the rules should be changed for them.  Sometimes that can happen and sometimes it can't.  We have been working on one of those situations last week that kept going today. It will be interesting to see how it all finally works out.

One thing that we keep forgetting is how new the Self Reliance Services initiative really is.  Phanna has only been a full time Church employee for seven months.  When you add that to how new the Church is here in Cambodia, just a year ago they celebrated the 20th anniversary.  Then added to that the first stakes were created just a year ago.  So the Stake Presidencies and Bishoprics are all still trying to figure out what their roles are, compared to when they were Districts and Branches.  They had never even seen Stake Presidencies or Bishoprics function before. Because of all that we have to be patient and realize that they are being asked to do a lot more than just what we have on our agenda.

Yesterday we talked about our visitors, Melissa and Ty Palmer. We failed to mention much about their "special delivery" package. They brought a few things from our family, including a mother's day gift for Sister Oveson, but the highlight of the package was the bag of treats. We received a new variety of M&M's, as well as a bag of delicious Pumpkin Pie Almonds. We have treats to ration for a while now.

One random picture we could pull together for today. Common everyday things here are often slightly different than the common, everyday items back home. Here is a picture of the standard brooms we find here.