Missionaries Coming and Going

These are exciting and sad times in the Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission. Next Tuesday on March 1st the new Hanoi Vietnam Mission will officially be the newest mission in the Church. It seems like President and Sister Christensen have been to Vietnam more in the last month than in the last six months. The last big hurdle of the preparation happened this week with transfers. Those Vietnamese speaking missionaries in Vietnam with this transfer will be in the new mission, with a new mission President on Tuesday. And those Vietnamese speaking missionaries still here in Cambodia after the transfer are assigned to serve only in Cambodia. In the past the Vietnamese speaking Missionaries could serve in either country.

Along with the new mission there are nine wonderful missionaries that are returning home, and about seventeen new missionaries that have arrived. Of the nine departing, six of them are sister Missionaries and we have interacted with all of them. Three of them have served in Wards where we attend and have translated for us. The missionaries leave tomorrow morning and had a free evening, so we invited them out to dinner. One of Sister Christensen's favorite restaurants is The Corn, a vegetarian Cambodian restaurant, that is within walking distance from the Mission Home, where they are staying, so we went there. What a wonderful evening, the company was fantastic and the food was very good.

These departing missionaries will leave a big whole in our heart, that we are sure will be filled in by the new energetic missionaries that have just arrived. In so many ways these fellow missionaries have become an important part of our lives, that we hope will continue even after we finish our mission. If nothing else they will be part of our memories in the pictures and posts in our daily blog.