Rib Thursday

We found out a new blessing of taking our walk this morning. As we were finishing our lap around the monument park we saw the Leavitts. We usually wave acknowledgement to each other, but today they walked up to where we were and asked what we were doing for lunch and if we had a hankering for some good ribs. Two of the Vietnamese Elders had started what they call Rib Thursday, they barbecue racks of ribs and have invited several other missionaries to eat with them. They told us they would pick us up at 11:30 and to be ready for a treat.

They were absolutely correct in this description. There were four racks of ribs that the Elders had cooked in a little oven similar to the one that we have. The tradition had started because Thursday morning is planning time so they are in their apartments until after lunch. That gave them plenty of time to slow cook the ribs and they have the process down to a science now. Along with the ribs we had real mashed potatoes and green salad. Sister Leavitt had brought some delicious cupcakes that were very heavy and extremely good. That meal was definitely not good if we want to keep the weight off that we lost at the first of our mission. We will need to walk a little further and watch what else we eat after this week.

One of the true joys of being the Communication Couple for the Self-Reliance Missionaries here in Asia is Skyping with the other missionaries. Today we were able to Skype with Elder & Sister Ricks in Thailand. We had a great visit and came up with some ideas about training at the Manager Meeting, they will also be there since it is in Thailand. We also came up with some suggestions on how to leverage the Education for Better Work groups to allow a second entry date. We will run that one by our Area Manager.

In our seventeen months of being here Elder Oveson has not had the same barber do his hair yet. He has tried several barbershops more than once but each time there has been a different barber that has cut his hair. That happened again today. He tried a new shop last month and they did a great job on the sides, but left too much on the top. He went back to try and get the same barber but explain that he needed more off the top. Unfortunately his plan did not work. We have often heard the difference in an okay haircut and a good one is a couple of weeks. That has not quite worked yet here in Cambodia.