Cambodia Phnom Penh South Stake Conference

This weekend was the Semi-Annual Conference of the Cambodia Phnom Penh South Stake. These are always inspiring to attend. Elder Oveson has participated in the planning for the past several weeks, giving suggestions and guidance to these young leaders. It was rewarding to see it all come together.

Saturday afternoon was the leadership session, with the theme of "Love and Service".  All the leaders were invited instead of just priesthood leaders. There were 63 in attendance for this meeting. Elder Oveson was one of the speakers, having Bishop Kang as a translator for his message. Brother Kosal, President Touch, and President Uk were the other speakers.

Saturday evening Adult Session focused on "Hastening the Work", and had about 100 in attendance.  President and Sister Christensen spoke and encouraged the members to be actively engaged in the missionary work. They encouraged everyone to look around and fellowship the investigators and new members. They also encouraged each to bring people to the missionaries to be taught. Other speakers were a member of the High Council and President Uk (Stake President), and President Touch (First Counselor).  The High Counselor told of serving as a missionary in 1998 and being led to a family of a widowed mother with four small children. He told how the gospel had made a vast difference in their lives. He saw that sister again in recent years and he was happy that the family were all still active members in the church. He encouraged us to look around and see who needs the gospel, and help them receive the blessings of the gospel.

The Sunday morning general session was attended by 310 people. We were blessed to sustain a new counselor in the presidency, the former second counselor now lives in West Valley City. The new counselor is Ul Phornn who has been serving as the bishop in the Steung Mean Chey 2nd Ward. The speakers included a broad range of ages from a primary child and a young woman to the oldest member of the stake, Brother Him Hen who is 85 years old and serves on the High Council. Following the rest hymn we heard from all three members of the presidency. We were uplifted and blessed for attending today.

The church parking lot was full, and the overflow parking lot was open and had several vehicles parked there as well. The motos and bicycles were parked in neat rows, which you don't often see here. The members in Steung Mean Chey had the option of riding on a bus that was chartered for the day,

The afternoon and evening were quietly spent at our apartment writing letters and blogs. It seemed a bit different without our weekly drive to Steung Mean Chey.