General Conference in Cambodia

Here in Cambodia we may be 13 hours ahead of home, but General Conference for us is a week late. We have had a wonderful weekend watching conference along with the other full time missionaries and some of the local members. This was a powerful conference! There are lots of conference messages worth going back and listening to or watching again!

 Between sessions of conference today the International Branch provided a lunch and invited us to join them. The senior couples stayed and enjoyed the visit and the food. They had prepared soup, pasta salad, and lots of fruits. The young missionaries chose instead to go the mission home where Sister Moon had prepared lasagna and chocolate chip cookies. (They reported that the cookies were all gone in very short order.)

It was nice to come home this evening and not have to worry about traffic coming home from church in Steung Mean Chey. Instead we made use of our little oven and made Crumby Chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner. Thanks to seasonings in the recent package from our family, dinner tasted almost like home!

Institute, Yuri, General Conference, and Dinner

As much as things become routine, they are really not the same! This morning we taught the Institute class. There were 6 students in attendance. We chuckle that we usually have six, but it's not the same six two weeks in a row. This week was no exception.

We only had a short time between Institute and General Conference, so we used our time to Skype some of our family. As we were ready to FaceTime, Sameth was there with his daughter Yuri. She is such a cute girl. We let her talk to Kaylee and Gabby on FaceTime for a minute.

Conference was scheduled to be shown at 9:00 this morning, but Sister Oveson also promised Phanna's wife, Sokhom, to help her review a research paper.  As Sokhom was running behind,  we were just headed into the room for Conference as President and Sister Moon asked if Elder Oveson was available to go help give a blessing to a Sister missionary. That gave us a change of plans. We followed President & Sister Moon to the clinic, where the sister had been seen, then to the mission home for the blessing, then Sister Moon took the Sister for additional medical care, and President Moon returned with us to the church for Conference. Sokhom was there by that time. Busy morning!

Sister Oveson helped Sokhom with her paper while Elder Oveson enjoyed conference. (A big thanks to Becky and Marla for reviewing the paper. Sokhom was very thankful for all the help and her paper was almost finished when she left for home just after noon.)

The afternoon session of conference was to begin at 2:00, so we had time to go to Lucky's for a few groceries ($90 worth), and take them home before conference again. But wait... the trunk wouldn't latch closed after opening it to take the groceries in. The parking attendants jumped into action to help. Elder Oveson was grateful for the help.  With their help, and the help of our landlord, it took about 15 minutes.  (Looks like we need to take the car to the dealer for some warranty work.)

After all that we had just enough time to eat a quick lunch before returning to the church for conference. The rest of the day was much less eventful. The missionaries only scheduled 30 minutes between the afternoon and the Priesthood sessions.  There were three senior couples (including us) there for the sessions, so the sisters stayed for the meetings. We couldn't pass the chance to visit with the Meinzers and Vanbrocklins, so dinner at Brooklyn Pizza was our final activity of the day.  What a great visit, but it was also good to go home!

Missions Are Like Babies

Elder Oveson made the observation recently, that missions are like babies.  When a baby is first born, we say how many days old they are. The same is true with missions, the first while is counted in days.  Then with babies we move on to how many weeks old they are, and the same is likewise true about missions.  After a baby is about three months old, then we say they are so many months old. We have not made it to three months yet, but other missionaries who have use either months or transfers (transfers are every six weeks).  Finally when a baby is a year old, we start using years as the gauge, including year and a half, also true about missionaries.

So why the above analogy? Because we have been in our apartment now for a whole month.  That is amazing! In someways it was just yesterday and in others it seems longer.  It is a safe haven for us to return to every evening and a comfortable place to call home for a while.  We have not met many of the other occupants. We have met a young adult male from the Netherlands and another is the building owner, but they are all quiet and respectful of each others privacy.  Our friendly parking attendants are the only ones that we see on a regular basis.

The senior missionary couple in the Mission Office, the Hollenzers, said to us a couple of times that we needed to go have lunch together someday, so today was that someday.  We met them at the Mission Office. They have a tight schedule of when they can be gone, since someone has to be there to cover.  We went to a Mexican Restaurant that we have been to before, it was a good choice and we enjoyed the excellent company.

Just so that you know that we still mainly eat food that we have for years, tonights dinner was pancakes, one of those comfort foods.  Senior Missionaries really can choose what they eat, the only limitations are what is available in the stores.

Another first: Cambodian Haircuts

It is inevitable...  we have to have haircuts. Before our mission we would visit Wendy about every 5 to 6 weeks to take care of those too long spots that no longer cooperate.  It has been 6 weeks since we had Wendy cut our hair that one last time before we left, and our hair was is great need of a cut. (We can't wait until Wendy might be able to come for a visit to Cambodia.)  We have been asking around to find who to trust with this important task.  At the recommendation of one of the mission couples, we selected a spa to do the job.  The price was a little more than we had been told,   Elder Oveson's cut was $5, while Sister Oveson was more: $9 for the cut and $4 for a shampoo. The massage was worth it! When all was said and done we feel they did a very nice job, and so far no pop-up-timers have been noticed. 

Today was also when we had the web training for the Asia Area Self Reliance team, and the presentation from Phanna and Jitender which we have been helping with for the past few weeks. There was a minor glitch or two. First, we had a hard time being accepted into the conference call. Then as they were ready to begin their presentation, Jitender had a difficult time sharing the PowerPoint with the group. It finally worked, and they both did a wonderful job. We could not have been more proud if Phanna and Jitender had been our own children!

This evening after fixing a quick dinner, we sat down to watch more of General Conference. We are grateful for the words of these inspired men and women.  Isn't it wonderful that even though we are around the world in some little country that we can still hear all of conference! (It takes a few more days to get through all of conference here).  We will gather with the Saints here on Saturday and Sunday to participate with the members here in conference. We can hardly wait!

We Feel the Lord's Hand in Many Ways

This morning we had a very rewarding, but humbling experience.  One of the Perpetual Education Fund participants came in to payoff his loan.  An interesting part of the current PEF program is the incentives that the participants receive as they do certain things.  The incentives are for graduating, having good grades, finding a good job in the profession that you studied in, having a mentor that helps you keep your commitments and paying off the loan early.  These incentives have not been available to those with older loans, but just a couple weeks ago they were extended to those who would have qualified on older loans.  The participant that came in today, qualified for three of these incentives and received a significant discount on his loan as he paid it off.  What made it even more special for us, is that he is the first participant in all of Asia to take advantage of these incentives.  After he had paid off his loan, he was so excited and wanted to give both of us a big hug.  That is called a payday in the Church.

We had another wonderful treat today, our first package from home.  Some of our children told us that they wanted to put together a small package for us for Easter.  The small package grew bigger as additional requests for things that we wish that we had were added.  The postage was a lot more than we ever imagined, we will have to be careful with our requests in the future.  Sister Oveson now has seasonings that she could not find Cambodia and Ranch Dressing mix.  Elder Oveson now has the type of pant hangers that he likes, which will help, so that his pants are not wrinkled and need ironing. We received M&M's (both almond and coconut) which were greatly appreciated, along with some peeps that we shared.

One of the ways that we will be helping with the Perpetual Education Fund is contacting the participants and making sure how they are doing, including keeping on track with their payments.  Sameth had given us a list of seventeen participants that should speak well enough for us to contact them.  As we looked for contact information on the PEF software, we noticed that all seventeen had email addresses.  After talking to Sameth about it, we decided to email them for our first contact, if they do not reply, we will call them.  There are a lot more participants that have email addresses that we will email also. We plan to gradually make regular contact with as many as can communicate in English via email or phone to keep them on course.

Pork Roll-ups, dinner was delicious!

As we complete one project it seems two are added! Elder Oveson has pretty well completed the Cash Flow report he was working up for Hong Kong.  This completed report has led to another project for Elder Oveson. In the meantime, Sister Oveson has begun a project to update the picture board of all the PEF students in Cambodia.  Some of the information for this project is directly from working up the Cash Flow Report.  Another spin-off project we have been given is to call the PEF students.  Late this afternoon we received a sheet of names of students who speak English for us to begin calling.  We have 17 on our list; Sameth has 54.  With that we are scratching the surface phoning 71 out of the 272 with PEF loans.  I guess we better get started!

One more project we have almost completed is the PowerPoint presentation with Phanna and Jitender (from India).  The web training is Thursday morning when they will present their project.  Phanna practiced his part by Skyping with Elder Oveson.  We are very proud of Phanna for the progress he has made on this project. We are hoping to do a similar run-through with Jitender tomorrow.

At the end of a long day at the office we are glad we have only a short distance to go through the CRAZY Cambodia traffic to get home to our apartment, and glad we don't have to go out again tonight.  Instead we can sit and listen to more of General Conference while we made pork roll-ups for dinner.  We were able to pull together all the ingredients we needed.  The little oven worked great!  We improvised for the baking dishes to go with our little oven.  Dinner was delicious!

Did you hear. . . temple in Thailand was announced!

This morning as we went to leave our apartment, there was a text from our daughter Wendy that said, "Did you hear . . . temple in Thailand was announced!"  You can only imagine the stir that caused here in Cambodia!  If you are not familiar with the geography of Asia, Cambodia is next door to Thailand.  Currently to go to the temple the worthy members have to either go to Hong Kong or the Philippines, which is an expensive plane ride away.  Thailand is a $30 round trip bus trip, which will be a great blessing to the members here.  Comparatively speaking there are few endowed members here in Cambodia.  The tough part was telling them that they are still five or six years away from the completion and dedication of the temple.  But, at least they now have hope with the announcement that one is coming.

We forgot to mention that the Phnom Penh South Stake sustained a Patriarch this last weekend, so both of the stakes here now have one.  The Church continues to progress, which will bless the lives of the members in so many wonderful ways.

This evening as we were sitting watching a download of General Conference, all of a sudden the wind really kicked up and didn't really subside.  It was the strongest wind that we have heard while we have been here.  There are no double pane windows or weather stripping on the patio doors of our apartment and the wind was blowing the curtains into the room about two or three feet.  We had our first thunderstorm in Cambodia and the rain was coming down in sheets.  We did not actually see the streaks of lightning, just the bright flashes.  We may not get the seasons of the year while we serve, but that does not mean that there is not wild weather.

Happy Easter!

Today may be Easter, but we had a very different holiday than past years.  There was no candy or treats, no egg hunt.  We didn't even have a normal General Conference schedule. As church started at 8:00 a.m. at the Chaktamuk Ward where we attended, General Priesthood Session would have been about halfway through back.  It was fast Sunday here. After our meetings we went back to our apartment to watch the recorded Saturday Morning session of General Conference before eating our lunch. General Conference Sunday here will be next week.

There was one special event this afternoon. Elder and Sister Vanbrocklin, the Public Relations Senior Couple, were given 10 tickets to a Multi-denomination Easter Program.  We decided to follow the rule that if other missionary couples invited us to do something, we should do it!  We caught a ride with Elder and Sister Hollenzer and President and Sister Moon.  The Vanbrocklins and Meinzers were there somewhere, but we never saw them.

As we went to find seats, President Moon showed his VIP ticket to one of the ushers, who showed us all the way to the front, to the 4th row of seats.  Before we were seated, however, President and Sister Moon were invited by the Deputy Minister of Religion and Cults to take seats on the stage.  After about 10 minutes we were asked to move up to the 2nd row. They wanted all the seats in the front section to be full.

This was a very interesting cultural program in a nice large auditorium.   There were beautiful Khmer dancers, drum performers, flag twirlers and more. Very entertaining!  The program was entirely in Khmer, so we spent the time listening for the few words we might recognize.  One word we picked out that they used quite a bit was "Kampuchea".  We asked the meaning and learned that is the country of Cambodia. Khmer is the language.  We learned something new today!

What A Difference A Week Makes

Last Saturday as we went to leave our apartment at 6:15 a.m. to go teach our Institute class, our car was blocked and the parking staff had to wake several people, including the building owner, to get our car out.  This week as we went done everything was cleared out of the way and the gates to the garage were open for us to leave.  What great service!

We had six at our Institute class this morning, which was great and exciting, we enjoy teaching them.  After the class we Skyped with all of our children and their families, except for Israel and Melissa, they were both at work.  There were several good news stories, congratulations to Melissa on her new job and to Paul on being accepted to go the the U this fall.  Elder Oveson worked with Sameth on reviewing some PEF renewal loans, before we left our office.  We made our weekly journey to Lucky's for groceries.  As we have said before, some items are very reasonable and others are really high since they are imported.

This afternoon we went to a My Path Devotional at the Tuol Sang Ke Ward In the Phnom Penh North Stake, which is Phanna's Ward.  The bishop was hoping for about thirty, but ten members and an investigator showed up.  In Utah we say that Mormon Standard Time is five to ten minutes late, in Cambodia Khmer Time is half hour to an hour late, we even had a member show up basically two hours late.

Unlike many of the other Church Buildings in Cambodia, the one that we went to today was not built and owned by the Church.  It is a rented building that has three floors.  The bottom or ground floor is the chapel, and the others are classrooms and offices.  A Cambodian Ward and Vietnamese Branch meets in this building.

Khmer Banks and Elder Hall's shared blog

Some days you might think we sit around and say, "What new thing can we do today?" Well, let us tell you abut our NEW items of today. This may not sound like much, but we made our first stop at an ATM to withdraw some cash from home. That cash was spent on another NEW event: going to a (different) bank to make a deposit for our car rent payment.  Banks here are a little different than in the US.  There are security guards around the ATMs and around the bank.  Elder Oveson stayed with the car as Sister Oveson went inside for the deposit.  Once inside, you receive a number for the order to be helped.  The tellers are behind a plexiglass screen, and of course there are more guards in the waiting area.  The tellers are watched over by a senior employee as well.  None of the personal space invasion opportunities here.

We did spend most of the morning at the office where we accomplished a great deal. Elder Oveson and Phanna worked on the upcoming PowerPoint presentation. They spent a couple of hours refining slides as well as rehearsing the actual presentation. We also have been putting the report together for Hong Kong, which we got sent off today.  We are not sure how soon they will be reviewing it, though, as their offices are closed this weekend for Easter. (No such holiday observance here in Cambodia).  Instead of Easter break here, we are quickly coming up on Khmer New Year.  That should be interesting!  We are told the city will be pretty empty that week as most people go home to the Provinces.


Tonight we had the opportunity of teaching an institute class at the Phnom Penh North Stake.  This class is the one Elder and Sister Vanbrocklin usually teach, but they had to go out of town with their Public Relations assignment.  We enjoyed getting to know four young single adults tonight. The lesson tonight was on Tithing.  We will be teaching the same lesson again tomorrow morning at the South Stake Center.

I have received permission to copy an entry from the blog of one of the new elders here.  Elder Hall was one of the missionaries we had meals with about 6 weeks ago.  Elder Hall has given a very good description of first impressions of Cambodia.  Here is a post from his blog:

“So there are also three main smells that I have seemed to mainly smell here in the city. 1. Rubber and tires 2. burning wood/ campfire smell 3. fish that are either being cooked or rotting. All of the smells that I have smelled here consist of one or two of these smells. In fact the rubber and campfire combination isn't that bad, and the campfire and fish isn't that bad either, but when you combine the fish and rubber it makes me almost gag. But it's all good...I have 2 years to get used to it.

"I have a whole new perspective on traffic lights and it only took 3 days. Right after my mission I'll probably rack up a few tickets from running red lights. But let me explain: There are basically three types of roads. Big, Medium, and Small. So when two big roads intersect they usually have a traffic light. Which most people obey and would be dangerous  not to, but the people that really need to be somewhere can make it across fine. And as the light starts to count down (they have timers, which if they didn't I feel like they would totally ignore the lights altogether) at about 5 seconds left everyone just starts going. So here is where I needed to practice because taking a right turn and going straight is super easy but turning left is tricky (yes, I may need to mention that the roads are just like the US, they drive on the right). SO here is what you do. you go left before anyone starts across the intersection coming from the other side, and you start riding into oncoming traffic (mom just try to imagine that the cars and motos are made out of pillows) so then once you are on the very left side of the road you wait till there is a break and you shoot over across however many lanes of oncoming traffic there are, and then you go all the way across the lanes that are going your direction to get to the very right side of the road and then you're good to go. Until you need to make another left turn."

 If you are interested,  you can find his blog (which he sends letters to his mom and she puts together the blog) at:  elderwyattjhall.blogspot.com  

What We Love The Most, Are The People That We Meet

Before we left on our mission, we met several couples and younger returned missionaries that we asked the same question, what did they the love the most about their mission?  The answer was always the same, the people they met.  After one short month we can truly say the same.  But we didn't understand what that meant completely.  We did not understand how big that circle of people and friends truly was and how fast that circle grows.

The other couples serving here in Cambodia are a very important part of that group.  Add in the faithful young Elders and Sisters that are out in the heat sweating every day to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the honest in heart.  Then there are the Church employees that we get to rub shoulders with on a very regular basis.  Add in the leaders that work so many hours to care for their own families and then serve without any complaints.  We have even made friends in other Asian Countries as we have been trained, Skyped and worked on presentations.  The members are a happy and faithful group, that have been willing to sacrifice, because they believe.  Now we are starting to meet and love the Young Adults of Cambodia, as we get to know them in the PEF office and Institute.  What a total joy.

Every morning as we kneel down to pray, we ask for the Lord to help give us work that we can do and that will be helpful and he does.  And every day so far our prayers have been answered.  We also already know projects in the future, like calling the PEF loan participants that speak English.

In Cambodia most apartments do not have ovens, including ours.  One day while we were at the Mission Office we say a countertop oven just sitting in a box.  We asked if it was available and they said that they would find out.  Next time that we were there they told us to take it.  Tonight Sister Oveson decided to give it a try with on Pao de queijo.  For a first try, they came out really good.  We do need to find some different baking dishes to make it work better in the future.

Our life in Cambodia is becoming routine... Only if Routine means every day is different!

The one thing we can count on to be the same ever day, is that every day the Lord provides something new for us to do.

We are enjoying working with Sameth and Phanna. Amazingly enough, they are both relatively new to the office as well. Phanna has been the Self Reliance Manage since October.  Sameth has been a full-time employee as the PEF Manager since January.  Sameth was a contract employee before that.  There are plans for a new Self-Reliance Model Center, which will create a new space for our SR/PEF offices, but things move a bit slow in Cambodia sometimes.

Today we had another Video Conference with seven Countries. This was with the Asia Self Reliance group, and included Cambodia, Mongolia, India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Indonesia. This is about our 5th meeting with this group.  The representative from India is Jitender, who is part of a group with us and Phanna for a PowerPoint presentation at the meeting next week.  This is a wonderful office of people to work with. It is amazing how through technology we can be connected from such long distances.

We took a break from the office this afternoon and went out to lunch with Elder and Sister Vanbrocklin, the Public Affairs couple here.  We joked that they have been here twice as long as we have; two whole months! We introduced them to Brooklyn Pizza., which has an American menu that really is American cooking! It was good to visit with the Vanbrocklins as well as to have a taste of food from Home. (The ribs were yummy!)

As part of the responsibilities the Vanbrocklins have, they meet with lots of different dignitaries. Before joining us for lunch today they had a meeting with the Minister of Religions and Cults. (Budhaism is the religion, all others are cults).  They invited us to join them this Sunday for a multi-denominational Easter program.  This should be another wonderful new adventure!

We Have Been in Cambodia For One Month

When we started this blog, we wanted to see how long we could go with a post every day.  As many of you know, we got behind a few days a couple of times, due to travel and just being busy, but we caught back up.  We have been here in Cambodia now for a full month of the 22 and a half that the Lord has given us and it has been very interesting.  This a great place to be with some of Heavenly Father's most choice children.

We participated in a seven nation video conference again today. There was Hong Kong, Mongolia, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Indonesia and Cambodia.  The Church has secure video conference software that you have to promise to never abuse before they let you download it.  Today's video conference was additional training on the new PEF software that came out last week.  There is a learning curve to it, but we are getting there.

We also continued to work on the Excel spreadsheet project for Hong Kong. We are at the point now that we need some information and input from Phanna and Sameth before we can finish it up, hopefully by the end of the week.

Even when we are in our office we see very interesting things.  Yesterday as we looked out our window we saw that a cat had found a safe and secure place to take a nap.  It was more than fifteen feet off of the ground asleep on a air conditioning unit.  It used the Church fence and a pile of lumber and debris to get up there.  So it is our picture for today.

Farewell Elder & Sister Zemp

When we were in Battambang about ten days ago we met Elder and Sister Zemp for the first time.  They faithfully served in that area their full eighteen month mission and they fly out this evening for Edmonton, Alberta Canada. They will be greatly missed in Cambodia!  As a last farewell get-together, the senior couples joined them along with President and Sister Moon for dinner at the Titanic Restaurant. It was good food, a great environment, and wonderful company.

Today at the office we were quite productive. We worked more on the report for Hong Kong. We also had a great coordinating meeting with Phanna and Sameth. These are wonderful for us to plan and prepare what we have going in the office for the week.

The weather has been hot and muggy today.  The sky was gray and overcast this morning, but only seemed to put a lid on the area. We might expect the humidity to be up for the next while, along with the temperature. The car told us it was 37 celsius (which is 98.6 fahrenheit).  Sister Oveson remembers putting on her missionary application that she didn't do well with the heat.  The Lord seems to have a sense of humor.  Even though it is plenty warm, we are doing just fine.

Every Day Things Just Feel a Little More Settled In

During the week we have our safe little haven in our office and we mainly interact with Phanna, Sameth, Sophorn and an occasional PEF student.  Sundays are completely different.  We go to two different wards, and if the young full-time missionaries are not there to translate for us we only understand the few words that we have learned so far.

At first that felt strange, but now that is just fine.  We follow the class lessons on LDS Library, and even though it is not the same language we have a better idea of what is going on.  In fact in both wards today they asked if we had any other comments, and thankfully we had interpreters there to help us.

With transfers last week, we have a lot of new young full-time missionaries to meet and get to know.  In the Chaktomuk Ward, we mentioned in a different post that Elder Gardner has a new companion, Elder Hall from Texas.  They also changed one of the Assistants to the President.  Elder Brewer is now with Elder Eppley who is from Texas as well.  In the Steung Mean Chey 3rd ward Elder Long is still there, but his companion is Elder Morgan.  We also have Sister Missionaries in that ward, Sister Jepsen and Sister Spangler.

Since it took us so long to get home last time we went out to Steung Mean Chey 3rd, we asked others if there was a different route to take.  There was, but it was a little longer and not as straight of a shot.  We figured that since we were trying a new way we better leave as early as last time.  To our pleasant surprise we made it there in thirty minutes, exactly the same amount of time as the other way two weeks ago.  On the way there we came across another of those purely Cambodian picture opportunity, a whole group of workers working up a power pole.  Coming home was still really congested, but at least it was moving and it only took 50 minutes, half the time of two weeks ago.    

Four Weeks In Cambodia

Four weeks ago today we landed in Phnom Penh, Cambodia! Really?  It has been four weeks? There has truly been a lifetime go by in that four weeks!

Today started early with another first for us.  We have been asked to teach a Saturday morning Institute class. Elder and Sister Hollenzer had been teaching this group since the Wylers left last fall. Their workload has increased and something needed to give for them. We are grateful for the opportunity to be with these marvelous young adults, even if it means getting up at 5:00 on a Saturday morning.  We had 8 students in attendance this morning. We felt the discussion and lesson went very well. We look forward to teaching them again next week. (In fact, next week we have been asked to substitute for the Friday night class at the PP North Stake Center as well!) One of them had a question for us, though. He asked if we would provide an Easter egg hunt for them, since next week is Easter! We really had not thought that far in advance. We will see what pulls together this week.

After the Institute class we took a few minutes for Skype calls with each of our family. It is always good to visit with them.  Sameth, the Cambodia PEF Manager, was in this morning so we spent a little more time doing some work before we were off to take care of our P-day shopping.  Sameth brought his 6 year old daughter, Yuri, with him. She spent time coloring and entertaining herself. We were blessed with two pictures and a butterfly creation as gifts from her. She is such a cutie! (Too bad I didn't get her picture.)

As we left the office this morning we were privileged to come across a threesome of young Vietnamese missionaries, Elder Lee, a new Elder from Argentina, and Elder Thai, who were waiting for an investigator.  One of these elders, Elder Hall, just arrived this week. He had been at the MTC with the group we met there.

Some of the other senior couples have told us about places to shop around Phnom Penh. We decided to shop at some of them today. First stop: Dan's Meats. Here we found sandwich meats as well as some fresh cuts of meat to put in our freezer, planning ahead for some future meals.  Next stop: Tous les Jour Bakery. Here we found fresh baked breads, pastries, and rolls. Hopefully we have enough to last for a week.  On our way home we stopped at Thai Huot Market.  It is pretty hard to count on getting everything at one shopping stop around here.  There really are not markets quite like the supermarkets back home in the US. Thai Huot has a variety of American products.  With these three stops we were able to check off most of our list. There are still a few items to look for later.

The parking garage at our apartment is always an interesting adventure of its own. With the Institute class starting at 7:00 this morning, we headed out at 6:15.  That was great, except for the red Ferrari parked just inside the entrance, as well as a black Lexus sedan parked directly behind our car. (Both are owned by the landlord).  Unfortunately this meant the garage attendants had to wake the landlord to get cars moved so we could go.  We almost resorted to calling a Tuk Tuk, but cars were moved and we made it to the church by about 6:35.  The return to park after shopping was not too bad, since several of the cars had left the garage.  The parking is tight enough, however, that you can never just pull straight into a parking stall.  Parking requires what I have come to call the parking engineers!  These garage attendants are great at directing us to pull forward with only and inch to spare, then back up (including hand signals for what direction to turn the wheel), then forward again, etc. until we are safely parked in our parking space. Sometimes we have to maneuver past a large Lexus SUV, two Ferraris, and a variety of other very nice vehicles.  All in all there are really only 12 parking spaces, which really has about 10 autos and about a dozen Motos.

One last note of the day:  It is RAINING IN PHNOM PHEN!!! This is the first rain we have seen here. We think it is just a prelude to rainy season, but it left the air smelling nice and clean! We may not be so happy for rain in a few weeks.

We Are No Longer The Newest Missionaries In Cambodia

Elders Hall and Gardner

It is nice to not be the greenest missionaries in the country.  Yesterday the group we ate meals with at the MTC arrived in Cambodia, and as we left the Stake Center this evening we ran into some of them.  Elder Gardner who serves in the Chaktomuk Ward and sometimes translates for us, has one of the new Elders as his companion, Elder Hall from Texas.  And Sister Fife, who will go home in a couple of months has a new Cambodian Sister, Sister Hum.  It is great to see the new young missionaries come into the field and begin their labors.

Most of our day was spent working on the special project for Hong Kong.  We have been asked to put together a cash flow analysis for the PEF Loans so that we know how much will be going out and coming in on the current loans. Sameth, the full-time PEF employee, has been a great aid to us by helping Sister Oveson understand the computer program so that we can complete this project. Elder Oveson worked on the format for the cash flow analysis,.  He was having way too much fun being back in his accounting element. We are at least 60% done, which is great. We will finish it up next week.

We have already shared that the gospel is very young here in Cambodia.  They celebrated their twenty year anniversary a few months ago.  The first two stakes were created on the same day last year, that was only the second time in Church history that the first two stakes in a country were created on the same day. Tomorrow is an important day for the people here in Phnom Penh, they will be sustaining their very first Patriarch ever here in Cambodia.  There is a Stake Priesthood Meeting tomorrow in the Phnom Penh North Stake, where they will make the announcement and sustain him. The members are very excited to have a Patriarch here in Cambodia.

It is Nice to Feel Needed and Appreciated

Just when we thought we could catch our breath from the non stop agenda we have had for the past month, we were given additional projects to keep us going. We are part of a team who has been assigned to put together a Power Point presentation to be used during a Self Reliance training for the Asia area. We have done more Skype sessions in the past few days, working with Jitender in India and Elder and Sister Powell in Hong Kong, along with Phanna in our office. We are truly amazed at the technology that allows us to be in three different countries, but work together as if we were in one office.

Our Skyping was not limited to preparing the Power Point. We also were pulled into Skyping with Marco and Candy in Hong Kong regarding the PEF segment of our responsibilities. We have been asked to put together an Excel spreadsheet report for the area office showing the aging of the PEF loans in Cambodia. Elder Oveson is right in his element with this project.

After all the reports and Skyping, our brains were in need of a bit of a break. Since we were in need of a few groceries, we took a quick trip to Lucky's. When we got back to the office we were informed Marco needed one more Skype with us to add another element to the details of the PEF Analysis. (We must be trying to make up for not having the craziness of Tax Season).

Our photo today shows some of the unique characteristics of Khmer traffic, as well as the power lines we see throughout the city. Motos seem to be the family vehicle of choice here.

All of the Little Blessings of Heaven

Over the years we have learned that the Lord carries you in a new calling until he knows that you are ready to take your first steps.  Little by little He lets you take more and more steps and before long you find yourself running.

The first two weeks in Cambodia were spent trying to get our arms around what we are suppose to be doing.  Last week was full of opportunities to train the leaders and members about Self Reliance.  This week we are off and running with multiple assignments in both Self Reliance and Perpetual Education Fund.  We have spent more time on Skype calls in the last two days than we did in the first three weeks.

This morning the internet was still down at the Stake Center, and Hong Kong still had not been able to get us into the site to work on the project we were assigned yesterday.  Since we have so much to do and learn with the new programs, we went to the Stake Center and got some training videos loaded on my laptop to watch.  By time we got back to our apartment they had worked out the kinks and we were on the PEF site that we needed.  The project they asked us to work on is to use Excel to gather and sort information on the loan participants.  We got that project about half way done today.

We spent more than two hours on Skype with Jitender from India to prepare the PowerPoint for the presentation that we worked on yesterday.  It is getting closer, but it is not quite there yet, but we will have it polished before they have to present it to the group of Country Self-Reliance Managers here in Asia, via Skype.

We are so grateful for all that are looking at our blogs and for your prayers, which are greatly appreciated and felt.  We need all the prayers and faith of our family, friends and loved ones.

Computers - Can't live with 'em -- Can't get your work done without 'em

Tuesday 24 March 2015

This morning seemed to be going quite well at the office ... that is until about 10:00 when the internet went down. We did all we could to get it back up, but to no avail.  Before lunch we worked on other training that had been downloaded and didn't require the internet.  We finally took our lunch break, hoping it would be back up after we ate.  (No such luck!)

One of the projects we needed to do today required internet to Skype with Jitender, the Self Reliance Manager in India. We are assigned a team project with Phanna, Jitender, Elder and Sister Powell, and Elder and Sister Oveson.  This is to be done together and will be presented in a web training in a few days.  Since the internet didn't work at the church, we retreated to our apartment for the Skype session.  While using our internet, we received an email requesting a Skype call at 4:30 with Sameth, Marco in Hong Kong, and us.  We returned to the office hoping that the internet would be back up by then. Nope! Sameth hooked his cell phone to his computer to become a hot-spot. It worked! Marco was late to the Skype because he had computer trouble as well.  The  call with Marco gave Elder Oveson an additional assignment, but he was not able to access the program he needed to do this work either.  (We think someone really doesn't want us to get this work done today!)

Thanks and Goodbye to Elder and Sister Powell

23 March 2015

Mark Twain said, “I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.”  Elder and Sister Powell became our very good friends as we traveled with them throughout Cambodia. This morning we picked them up at their hotel and took them to the airport. We said good bye for now, but it is more of a "'Til We Meet Again" departure. We were glad we would not be traveling today.

We had a few errands to run. Our pantry and refrigerator were pretty bare, so we stopped at two different stores for a few groceries. At Lucky's we picked up some croissants and pastries along with fresh meat and some produce and boxes of milk (the closed process variety that does not require refrigeration). Chicken and pork chops were $8 a pound. Beef is $15. The bananas we find here are about finger size. The mangos here are sweet and juicy and taste wonderful. We stopped at Thai Huot on the way home to pick up a few boxes of cereal. We were able to find Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Shredded Wheat, Honey Bunches of Oats, Blueberry Morning and something called Weet-Bix Bites (from Australia). Thai Huot was cheaper than Lucky's, but the cereals were still $6-$8 a box.  After spending the afternoon at the office, we were glad to be back in our apartment, eating dinner at home, getting laundry done.

Our Fourth Sunday and Our Fourth Ward/Branch We Have Visited

22 March 2015

We went to church today at the Siem Reap 1st Branch.  It was interesting because they had headphones setup for translation before we got there, but we found out that it was not just for us. With Angkor Wat being a tourist area they end up with English speaking members stopping in for Sacrament Meeting on a regular basis.  We met a member from Virginia and two from Utah that were on vacation.  There were two other families that were definitely not Cambodian, but we did not get to talk with them, so we do not know if they live in Siem Reap or if they were just visitors.

After church Sister Belcher caught Sister Oveson to talk about the Steung Mean Chey 3rd Ward that we are now assigned to visit.  They served in Steung Mean Chey before being transferred and she was concerned about their Primary.

We had to hurry back to Phnom Penh right after church because we had more training scheduled there at 6:30.  It is only a 145 miles drive, but it took over six hours, and with the rough roads, it felt like a lot more than that.

This evening we taught the Phnom Penh East District Self Reliance Committee about the initiative.  It started out a little iffy because the High Counselor, that is also their Specialist, said that he only had a half hour before he had to leave.  There was no way that we could properly train them in a half hour.  But the spirit was so strong, that he did not leave and we had a great training meeting.

Wow, what a full week of teaching the principles that we were set here to share.

Battambang and Siem Reap Self Reliance Services Training

21 March 2015

When we received our call to serve as full-time missionaries, our specific assignment in Cambodia was PEF (Perpetual Education Fund)/Self Reliance.  Before we ever made it to Cambodia the name was changed to Self Reliance Services (SRS) and PEF.  Education is one of three emphasis that is taught.

The Church has provided wonderful and inspired printed material for us to use, starting what is called "My Path."  The My Path booklet is the basis for a two hour devotional where the spiritual and temporal principles of self reliance are taught.  At the end of the devotional the participants decide if they need Starting and Growing My Business, My Job Search or Education for Better Work.  Right now we only have the first three lessons of Starting and Growing My Business translated into Cambodian, but the rest of the lessons are promised by the end of the month.  There are twelve lessons in the manual and there is a small manual called My Foundation which we use with all three options.   Without a spiritual foundation and other basic principles, like budgeting and time management, they will not have a firm foundation to build on.  You can see these manuals at  SRS.LDS.org, then click on Self Reliance on the left of the screen and then manuals and videos, the videos are great too.

This morning started off with a My Path Devotional in Battambang taught by Phanna, the full-time Church Employee who works with Self-Reliance.  There were twenty-three members there who were anxious to learn and that they would commit to attend all twelve sessions and learn from each other.  If they attend ten out of the twelve classes they receive a certificate from LDS Business College stating they understand the principles of self reliance.  There was a great spirit in the devotional and they are a humble and willing people.

We drove back to Siem Riep this afternoon so that Phanna could present the My Path devotional there also.  We had about twenty for My Path in Siem Reap.  There were also ten non-members who had come to learn English that ended up getting invited into the devotional, along with six full-time missionaries.  It was a big group, but less than ten committed to attend the twelve week course.  Next time we will not invite in those who are not there for the devotional, but we may ask for the full-time missionaries help in the future.  Live and learn.

What a full and rewarding day.

Angkor Wat and More SRS Training

20 March 2015

The most famous tourist destination in Cambodia is Angkor Wat.  A Wat is a Buddist or Hindu Temple, and Angkor means City.  Angkor Wat was a Hindu Temple that was built in the 12th Century, starting in 1,112 a.d. Their temple took 37 years to build.  This area of Combodia was the center of the Khmer Empire, which covered what is now Vietnam, Loa, Thailand and Cambodia, so it was a great empire.  The kings built a large capital city and over two hundred Wats in that part of the country.

This morning we hired a tour guide who is a member to give us short tour of part of the restored Wat. We only had six hours. Many tourists take three or four days. We went early to see the sunrise over Angkor.  Tomorrow is when the sunrise would be better as it is Summer Solstice, and the sun will rise directly over the center spire.  It was an amazing tour, but very hot! Temperatures were close to 100 degrees by the time we left.

This afternoon we drove to Battambang to train the SRS Committee tonight and then to do a My Path devotional tomorrow morning. These member only speak Khmer so it was up to Phanna to do the training.  Phanna also met with a member that would like a PEF loan to be trained how to make banners.  We are struggling with this loan because the teacher wants too much to train him.  Phanna also trained the local member that will facilitate the SRS. We were blessed to meet Elder and Sister Zemp who have spent their mission in Battambang and return home to Canada in just over a week.  They are a very humble couple working with a very humble people in that province.

Road Trip

Thursday 19 March, 2015

Training new self-reliance leaders in Siem Reap and Battembang is the agenda for this week. That necessitated a road trip. with Elder and Sister Powell in town they came along to help and to train us. With a hired driver and Phanna, we made our way North toward Siem Reap. With roads that are under construction and low speed limits, it took most of the day to get there. Phanna scheduled training and visits with very little down time.

Rice Drying along the road to Siem Reap

As we got to Siem Reap we needed to find a school. Phanna had no idea where it would be. We stopped and asked some tuk tuk drivers, but they didn't seem to know. as we continued down the street were amazed to see the sign for the school we were looking for. What was even more amazing was Phanna, Elder Powell and Elder Oveson were able to meet with the school director.

After checking into our hotel we had some training at the church with the District Presidency. This gave us the opportunity to meet Elder and Sister Belcher, a full time missionary couple serving in Siem Reap. Elder Belcher is also serving as the District President. This was a very good meeting! We will follow up on Saturday with additional training with members of the Siem Reap District.

Another First: Our First District Self Reliance Training

Elder & Sister Powell took a Tuk Tuk from their hotel to the PP South Stake Center this morning and Sister Powell came in so excited about the ride.  She actually told me that she would rather take a Tuk Tuk than ride with me, no offense intended, or taken.

This morning we continued with the training which they came here to Cambodia, to give us.  It has been extremely helpful. They sit in the Area Self Reliance PEF Committee meetings and understand the concerns and what they would like us to do.  The four of us and Phanna met together and then Sister Powell met with Phanna for his annual review.  Elder and Sister Oveson met with Brother Powell and went over a lot of different items that he felt would help us (and it will).  We also sat down with Saphoran Touch, the Seminary & Institute director for Cambodia, to talk about Self Reliance.  He is a counselor in the PP South Stake and has Self Reliance as one of his responsibilities.

One of the current Senior Couples in Hong Kong served as a Mission President in Cambodia a few years ago, so he told the Powells to make sure to go to Mount Everest Restaurant and say hello to the owner.  We went and found it for lunch today and it was very good.   On the way back, we tried to go the wrong way on a one way street, but quickly realized our error, and we survived.  We also went to the "Russian Market" to pickup some items requested by various Hong Kong staff members.  There are several "Markets" here in Phnom Penh, they are a lot of small booths a common roofed area.  The problem with that is, when it is already hot outside, it is even hotter in side.  Sister Oveson did get a new top and we got a little nick-nack for our apartment. We figure we have done our turn at visiting the Russian Market and it will be okay if we don't go back again.

This evening we went with the the Powells and Pannah to train the Phnom Penh Central District, or also known as the Vietnamese District.  There are three Vietnamese Branches in the District.  We met with the District President, one of his Counselors, the District Relief Society President and two of the Branch Presidents.  Brother Powell did the training and the counselor translated into Vietnamese. 

Our Hong Kong Visitors & Our Trip to the Airport

Welcome, Elder and Sister Powell from Hong Kong!

This morning we went to the SR/PEF office to get things started for the day. Then about 9:45 we left to find our way to the airport to meet Elder and Sister Powell. The airport was off the map, but we felt we would find it. We were surprised by how far off the map, but we did find it. When we arrived at the airport the board indicated that their flight had landed, so we were surprised as we waited about a half an hour before they came through customs. Apparently the authorities had taken Sister Powell's passport and entrance papers, then asked for them again. It took some talking for them to return her passport, but the entrance papers were not included. They did finally make it through, and we were glad to welcome them to Cambodia.

Elder and Sister Powell had never been to Cambodia before, so it was interesting that we were their guides. I guess the fact that we had been here 2 1/2 weeks longer than they had qualified us for the job. They were intrigued by all the little things: the power lines, the mass of traffic, the loaded motos and more. Even the traffic impass we encountered along the way as cars, buses, motos and Tuk Tuks all tried to move through one intersection in different directions at the same time.

After stopping at the office for a bit we went and found lunch. We chose an oriental noodle place none of us had experienced before, then back to the office for an afternoon of training. We had an appointment to introduce the Powells to President Moon. We had a longer visit than expected, but it was a great meeting. He discussed some of the things we needed to be aware of as we go into the provinces later this week.

The highlight of the day for Sister Powell seemed to be driving through this unique city. The electric lines are just a jumble of wire that are strung above the streets. You would never see such wiring in the U.S.

Fortunately we had a map and were able to easily find the hotel where they are staying, then a short trip to the TELL Restaurant for dinner. TELL is Bavarian cuisine, and Sister Powell was excited to have Escargot for her appetizer. She had lived in Germany years ago, so this was an excellent choice for her.

The Powells are prepared for more adventures tomorrow. Phanna has arranged for a Tuk Tuk to pick them up at their hotel in the morning and drive them to the office. I think we are in for a week of great adventures with our new friends!

As The Work Rolls Forward, Changes Always Happen

Last Saturday Sameth told us that the PEF software would be down for a week starting today.  Since the PEF Staff cannot work on loans, they were asked to go through training on the new software. Sameth received an email this morning with the link to the new software training. The problem is, only one of the links actually works.  We are hoping that they will get the rest up and that we can go through the training so we can learn our duty.

From our Living Room Balcony

Since we will have visitors from Hong Kong, tomorrow until next Monday, there were some things that we needed to get done today.  What we thought would be an hour or so of errands ended up being almost three hours.  We got the car washed, clean inside and out for $2.50, we finally found a fan to help the clothes dry faster, we got some more bath towels and found something to work as a drain stopper for the kitchen sink (something that you can find in the U.S. that was not easy to find hear). Our errands were successful!

The View From Our Bedroom Balcony

We decided that we will be eating out most of the rest of this week, so tonight we are just eating at our apartment.  We also need to get some laundry done and see how the fan helps. (Hopefully it will.)

It is hard to believe that a month of our mission is already gone.  We have had slow days and busy weeks.  With a week at the Provo MTC, almost a week at the Church Office Building for training and now over two weeks in Cambodia, wow! It has been a long year this past month!