Driving in The Driving Rain

Our Institute class continues to amaze us.  Last week we did not have any new members join the class, but today we had three new participants.  We have a core of about twelve to fourteen that show up every week.  Then there are the others that are hit and miss.  We have a total of 32 on the roll and today's attendance was twenty-one.  Everybody keeps telling us that is a very big class, so we are honored to teach it.  It felt like it started off slow but by the end the spirit was extremely thick.  Oh what a blessing.

We were able to FaceTime with five of our children and their families this morning and then we went to get our weekly groceries.  While we were at the store President Christensen called. We had tentatively scheduled to visit today, and they were available at 11:30.  We hurried home and unloaded the groceries and then went to meet them at our office.  We had a wonderful visit for over an hour telling them about what we do.

We also had an appointment with President Uk of the Phnom Penh South Stake at 2:00.  We have been invited to a meeting tomorrow out in Steung Mean Chey about the 3rd Ward that we attend.  We wanted to share our thoughts about the leadership out there in a private meeting.  It was great to talk to him and feel of his love for the people.

The Phnom Penh North Stake had a special choir program this evening at 6:00 and a member of their stake presidency had specifically invited us.  Just as we were getting ready to go, the sky got very dark and it began to rain very hard.  We felt obligated to go because of the special invitation, so off we went.  We did not even make it half way there before we found ourselves driving in a river and found our way back home.  There were several times that the water was up to the floorboards of our car.  We now understand about the streets being flooded during rainy season.  After many prayers, we did make it home safely.

After reaching the safety of our sixth floor apartment, we looked out at the flooded streets below. The "river" was flowing over the bumpers of most of the cars that ventured down the water ways, and the motos looked like wave runners if they had not stalled and had to be walked. As we look at the city it is no wonder the streets are rivers. The city blocks are covered with tall buildings that have roofs sloped for the runoff to go into the streets. The natural lakes and runoff basins have been drained to allow for additional land to build more homes. One would think they would have better plans for rainy season runoff.