Be Careful What You Think

When we moved into our first home our whole Ward was starter homes with young families. There were Fast and Testimony Meetings where there was not any time for testimonies because of the many baby blessings. That is not true here in Cambodia yet, at least in the Wards that we have been assigned to attend. In our first eighteen months here there had only been one baby blessing. The bishop was not there that week, the counselors had never been involved in a baby blessing and it was the first child for the parents. The father pronounced the blessing like any other priesthood blessing he had ever been part of, even though it did not follow protocol we are sure that it was still acceptable to Our Heavenly Father.

Fast forward to today. As we went to the Steung Mean Chey 3rd Ward today, a father brought their new baby to be blessed. The bishop and his seasoned counselor were up there with the father to bless the new baby, still Elder Oveson was wondering if they would do it right this time. Just then the bishop motioned for him to come up, he figured they just wanted him to stand in the circle. As he got up there the bishop motioned for Elder Oveson to bless the baby. He found out the name, Hoy Dara Vichtur, and started the blessing then realized he did not even know if it was a boy or a girl. He quickly learned not to question if things will be done right, the Lord might answer the question in a way that you did not expected.

We have mentioned before that we miss some of the comforts that we enjoyed in the buildings back in Utah. The pews are usually cushioned with nice fabric coverings. In Steung Mean Chey they are hard individual plastic chairs that are linked together. Those same chairs are also in the classrooms. In Chaktomuk there are pews, but they are hard wood without any cushioning at all and again in the classrooms are hard plastic chairs. By time we have sat on hard benches and chairs for six hours our old bodies are ready for anything, including our less than soft couches.

We hope that it does not sound like we do not love to attend either of the Wards we have the privilege of attending, they are both great. It is good to realize the differences in the meetinghouse accommodations around the world. Here in Asia they seem to like hard surfaces, which our old bodies do not.