Sister Fife Concludes Her Mission Life and Evaluating our Self Reliance Team

Today for District meeting we decided to join District C with Elders Gardner, Hall, Brewer, Eppley, Bostrom, and Olsen, and Sisters Fife and Ham. We made the decision of which group to join based on the fact that this is Sister Fife's last week in the mission. Half of this district "were born" in the same MTC group. The missionaries refer to beginning their time here by being "born" and completing their mission they "die", so Sister Fife "dies" next week.

As Elder Gardner led the district discussion he asked each person in the group to tell of their reaction as they received their call to serve in Cambodia. All the stories had one thing in common; the need to learn the language. Even Sister Ham, who is Cambodian, is from a different province and has some language differences, as well as her need to learn English. The discussion ended in a challenge to set goals and do more towards learning the Khmer language. We have recently started doing more language study and trying to refresh out studies, so we are hoping the lesson today will help us progress.

One thing we were asked to do in our Self Reliance office is to report to Hong Kong on three things are doing well in our office, and three things we need to improve. With this assignment we gathered as a team to consider these questions. Here is what we concluded:

   Our Accomplishments:

• More PEF Participants are Paying Off Loans -- we have been helping them understand the available incentives that reduce their loan balance.
• Each Stake and District are ready for Self Reliance groups. We have been working with the priesthood leaders in helping them understand the Self Reliance needs. As a result, the Phnom Penh North Stake has opened their Stake Self Reliance Center.
• We work together well as a team. We hold weekly meetings and coordinate what we are doing and how we can help each other.

   Areas Needing Improvement:

• We need to get committees in the Stakes and Districts to meet together monthly, and help them understand their responsibilities in regards to Self Reliance Specialists and Facilitators.
• We need to improve our contacts (phone calls and in person) with the PEF participants in our efforts to encourage them to pay their loans regularly and on time.
• Cambodia really needs the government approvals and licensing to be able to completely implement the Self Reliance Services Initiative and move these services forward.