New Missionaries!

Aug 30 and 31 we welcomed 8 new Khmer and Vietnamese missionaries to our mission, and sent them off to the MTC in Manila, Phillipines.  They arrived Thursday afternoon, I had temple recommend and final missionary interviews with each of them that afternoon, then we went to the South District Center and had setting aparts for each of the 5 Khmer missionaries and their family members who came.  The last two pictures below of them and their families/friends after the setting aparts.  That took a couple of hours-- after that we returned with them to the mission home, joined up with the 3 new Vietnamese missionaries who had arrived by bus from Ho Chi Minh City, had dinner with all of them here, and then had a special temple devotional.  We taught them about the temple, the endowment, and other things to help them prepare for going through the temple in Manila.  After the devotional I set apart the three Vietnamese missionaries (two elders and 1 sister).  A long day but a very spiritually rewarding day and wonderful to be with these new missionaries who are so excited to serve.  The next morning we woke early, had some fried rice for breakfast with them, and then all piled in the mission van and car with the luggage and headed to the airport.  The families and friends of the Khmer missionaries were there waiting to say goodbye to them.  I think this is the first time on an airplane for all but one of them. We look forward to welcoming them back in 3 weeks to serve with us!  

The same day that we had the new local missionaries arriving at the mission home we had a new elder arrive from the States-- Elder Cannon.  He was just transferred to our mission from the Boston MA Cambodian speaking mission, and we are excited to have him join us.  He has been serving for 3 weeks in Boston, and was a part of the same group in the MTC that we welcomed here 3 weeks ago.  It was a great little reunion for those who had been with him in the MTC... they were excited to have him come here.  We are too!

Angkor Wat with Chantelle

Some pictures of Chantelle & Dad-- took a day and a half to drive up and let Chantelle see this amazing sight before she left the country.  It was wonderful to spend some time together.

District Conference - Kampong Cham Aug 4-5

Here are a few photos from District Conference in Kampong Cham.  First is our family with Elder Pon, the visiting Area Seventy from Hong Kong.  He was wonderful and very fun to be around.  This is in the home of Elder & Sister Shelley in KC.

Below pictures from the muddy back road where we got stuck.  Couldn't get out the side door because of mud, so first just Elder Nelson got out driver door and tried to push us out.  We were all just watching.  Couldn't move it.  So then we all figured out how to climb out the back through the rear door, and all helped push, and we were able to push the van out of the mud hole.  Only a few mud spatters, though Elder Nelson was pretty muddy.  It was a good lesson for us that all of us have to do our part and help-- which we used with the Priesthood leaders there in KC.

August 10 2012 - New Missionaries & Transfers

New Missionaries arrive!  9 elders and 3 sisters from Provo.   Lots of excitement today anticipating their coming.  We got to the airport and thought we were plenty early because it was still not even their arrival time, and we knew it would take a while to get baggage, get through customs, etc.  We looked, didn’t see them coming out.  Then Elder Pearon looks over another direction and says—there’s a group of missionaries over there!   They had been out and waiting for us for 10 minutes!  We felt so terrible.  But to be fair they were very early to be there and already through customs and visas and baggage.  Anyway, it was fun to meet and greet them.  We took photo at airport, then loaded up one van with luggage, one van with elders and our car with sisters.  The AP’s took the elders to a market area and did contacting with them for about an hour.  The office elders and some other elders met them there.  We had felt really good about having them jump in and be able to do some real missionary work as soon as they got here.  They have not done that before in this mission, at least not recently.  But we tried it.  It was really good.  The AP’s said it was an amazing experience.  All the new missionaries were paired up with an experienced missionary and they did contacting, mostly letting the new missionaries do the talking.  They gave away Books of Mormon, got contacts to follow up on, and were able to try out their language skills.  The experienced elders say this group has very good language skills already.  We were at the mission home with the sisters preparing lunch and making ready for the orientation.  

We also loaded all the luggage out of the van into the foyer.  It was quite a sight with luggage for 12 elders filling the first floor.  The new missionaries all seemed to really like the opportunity to jump in quickly to do some missionary work.  Once they got back to the mission home we had a lunch of sandwiches and fruit with them.  Then we took some photos in front of the mission home with them and started an afternoon of orientation.  

We had four rotations.  The whole thing lasted about 3 hours.  I did interviews with each of them.  That was a wonderful experience.  I had been praying for inspiration as to which trainer to assign each of them to, and had made a list of the trainers so I could refer to it as I talked with the new elders, but I did not expect to have such clear and unmistakable impressions while I was interviewing the new elders as to who they should serve with.  It was just as if a voice was speaking to my mind very clearly and matter of factly.  “He should serve with Elder so-and-so”.  I have rarely felt such clear impressions.  It was a real testimony to me that Heavenly Father cares about these new missionaries, cares about who they serve with, and is really directing this work.  I felt a great deal of peace about the assignments we made.  While I was doing interviewing, other missionaries were having orientation with the office couple about money things, apartments, bikes, and others were meeting with the AP’s learning about our mission rules, schedules, things about doing missionary work here.  Others were with office elders having visa pictures taken, learning about our mission organization, and e-mailing their parents at home to tell them they got here safe.  Kathryn met with the ones I wasn’t interviewing in our rotation group and just talking tot hem and showing them some slides of missionary work in Cambodia that the elders had given her.  We finished about 5:30pm. 

We had a short devotional with them, we had planned on a testimony meeting but they were falling asleep and tired and we didn’t have time.  So we had dinner together with them upstairs in our family dining room, we had lasagna and fruit and bread.  Then we sent them all to bed.  

Friday was even quite a day—transfer day, new and departing missionaries.  We were up early and preparing for the orientation and training meetings.  Got breakfast out for the new missionaries—had the office elders buy some rice/pork stuff so they had some local food.  Then we had an orientation meeting with them for a couple of hours.  I spoke about missionary work and what our focus should be on here, used a slide show to help.  Kathryn talked about the 10 commandments of health and safety, went over a lot about cleaning food, staying sanitary and getting medical help.  Then I announced their assignments – companions and areas—to them and we excused them to do personal study and met with their trainers, who had all arrived by that time, for 1 and a half hours.  Went over the 12 week training program with them.  Then had lunch with all of them up on the outdoor deck, pizza we had ordered in and fruit, and then did a meeting with all the trainers and trainees together, again about the 12 week training program and some other general missionary things.  

It was about 1:00 by that time and all the missionaries from all over the mission were arriving at the mission home for transfers.  It was crazy, with the first floor completely filled with missionaries, very loud everyone excited to see people they hadn’t seen for a long time, meeting new companions, etc.  In the afternoon I interviewed our 3 departing missionaries and formally released Sister Loy since she lives in Siam Reap, part of our mission district, so I am also her stake (district) president.  By the time we got done the families of Sis. Loy and Elder Oleson were just arriving to pick them up—that was a tender moment to see their reunions.  Many members came to say their goodbyes to them as well.  Then we invited them all upstairs and had a dinner of Khmer “stew” & rice and fruit with them and their families.  As we started dinner we received a phone call that the sisters returning to HCMC in Vietnam were stuck at the border unable to leave the country.  Sis. Lam had an expired visa.  They did not have enough money to pay what was required to update it and continue.  The bus they were on was going to leave them—it had to continue.  They had no phone so were borrowing one from a stranger in the little town there.  We decided we had no choice but to send the AP’s in a car to go rescue them.  5 hours away.  But then they called back and had been able to withdraw enough money out of an ATM to pay the necessary fees for the expired visa and get on the bus… we hoped.  They didn’t have a phone and so couldn’t confirm they were on the bus.  The lady whose phone they had borrowed said had left.  So we had the elders turn around back home again and were able to confirm later that night that the sisters got through ok and to HCMC.  Thankfully.  The Lord was watching out for them and opening up doors for them.  We had a testimony meeting with the departing elders and their families—it went much longer than we had anticipated, but the parents shared very heart felt testimonies.  And hearing the testimonies of the departing missionaries was such a spiritual treat.  We took Elder Mickelson to the airport and said goodbye -- we decided we like the part about welcoming new missionaries better than the part about saying goodbye to departing missionaries!

With the sister missionaries

Sis. Moon heading out with the sister missionaries on some teaching visits.

Puzzling

At a recent leadership conference that we held at the mission home for all zone leaders and district leaders, we started with a puzzle activity where they were in teams putting together small puzzles (with a few twists to make it interesting) and no picture of what it was supposed to look like to guide them-- we talked after about the importance of having a vision of what we are trying to accomplish and communicating that.  It was a fun way to start the meetings.

The front of the mission home often is filled with pairs of missionary shoes on preparation days, conferences, and other times when we have lots of missionaries here...

Pioneer Day Celebration

On July 27 and 28 we went to several Pioneer Day celebrations in different branches-- they all celebrate it with a fairly similar program in each branch-- they watch the movie Legacy in Khmer, then have youth act out various scenes from the restoration, then have various ages group dance the virginia reel to "Turkey in the Straw", dressed in pioneer costumes.  Then food afterwards.  Very fun.  The little Primary kids dressed as pioneers and dancing was so cute.  The pictures below are from the Vietnamese-speaking branches-- they also had some traditional Vietnamese dancing from the young women.

They loved having us wear our "Trek" clothes

Some traditional Vietnamese dancing

These kids were darling-- they sang "You Raise Me Up" (Josh Groban) in English and it was absolutely endearing.

Joining in dancing the Virginia reel with some young adults

Vietnam (Mission Tour)

The third week in July we went to Vietnam to tour the branches and meet the missionaries there.  It was  wonderful to be there, there is such a special spirit with the members there, and we have wonderful missionaries serving.  Below are some pictures of the traffic and scenes in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon).

Mackenzie trying out one of the public exercise machines in the park across from our hotel.  We went walking around the park several times in the morning for exercise and enjoyed seeing the locals there having their early morning aerobics and dance and martial arts classes... lots of people playing badminton too.

Our wonderful missionaries in the chapel in Ho Chi Minh City.  1 pair of sisters, 1 pair of elders, and a senior couple-- the Blinn's-- who are very fun and are doing a great job there.  After the "Meet the President" meetings we all went to eat at a nearby restaurant.

These are our missionaries in Hanoi-- a very special group.  It is so amazing how the work is progressing there despite the restrictions.  The members are so wonderful at bringing their friends to church and to English classes, then the missionaries teach them.  You'll notice we don't have our nametags on-- we didn't even bring them on the trip-- you can't wear them except inside our chapel, and we didn't want to risk forgetting to take them off.  The elders and sisters are used to that.

A view outside our hotel in Hanoi -- it was a very nice hotel

A scene on the way back to the airport in Hanoi.

Goodbye to the Greers

Elder & Sister Greer are the first missionaries we have had to say "goodbye" to.  They left to return home end of July after having served faithfully for the last six months in Siam Reap.  But really they have been on a mission for over 3 years-- also serving in Saudi Arabia and one other country I'm forgetting.  Just the last six months was here in Cambodia.  They are wonderful and did a fantastic work in Siam Reap.  We will miss them!  We do not have a replacement couple for Siam Reap yet.

Walking the red carpet-- a tradition that the Smedley's started that we will try to continue-- a fun way to honor the departing missionaries!

My two counselors in the mission presidency, I had just set them apart.  They had already been serving with Pres. Smedley, but only for the last couple of months.  Pres. Am Than on the left (2nd counselor), and Pres. Thaong Chanta on the right (1st).  Yes, they really are that short compared to me!  Neither speaks very good English, but we get along.  Usually we have our clerk and exec secretary with us when we meet, both of whom can speak good English and help translate.  Although translation definitely means it takes more time to cover matters in our meetings!  Below with our wives.