Fiber optic nightmare!

Having helped run a fiber optic telecomm business before I had to put up this picture.  This is a very normal sight.  I am always amazed when I see such rats nests of wires hanging from poles, wondering how they ever make it work right!

South District Conference Oct 27-28 2012

We had a wonderful district conference in the South District in Phnom Penh 27-28 October 2012.  Elder Larry Wilson and his wife came to preside, he is the second counselor in the Asia Area Presidency.  They stayed with us at the mission home for 3 nights.  This is one of our stronger districts, with some very good Priesthood leaders.

Visiting members homes-- this is the family of one of our wonderful sister missionaries.  She has four younger sisters that all want to serve missions too.

With Elder & Sister Wilson in the halls at the district center.

Some of our wonderful missionaries who serve in the South District!

This is the first counselor in the district presidency and his darling family.

This is our mission clerk (secretary) and his wife.  He often helps with translation and is a great blessing and help to the church here. 

Two of our wonderful sister missionaries.  Sis. Tsuchida is from Japan, and is having to learn two languages on  her mission-- English and Cambodian.  Sis. Johnson is her companion, is so sweet, and only has 1 transfer left.  They are both amazing and full of faith.

Elder Wilson with Bro. Saret and his wife.

Many members mingling after conference

This is the South District president, Pres. Sophal, and his wife and young son, (also below) together with his wife's father, Pres. Sophorn (on the left) and some of his family, and the Wilson's.  Pres. Sophorn is a branch president, a long-time member, and has had four children serve missions.  Pres. Sophal's wife is one of the translators in the service center here, and is obviously very pregnant!  She is due in December.  Pres. Sophal is a wonderful Priesthood leader and is always smiling and happy.

Mackenzie with some of her friends from the Chamkamorn and other branches.

Two of our sister missionaries with a 9 and 10 year old that were baptized that night in Tuol Sang Ke branch.  Their aunt was recently re-activated and is now the relief society president in that branch.

More Water

I was trying to get a picture of all the rain but it doesn't really do justice with pictures. This is a tin roof as you look out our kitchen window in the back. It is really noisy when it rains because of all the tin on some of the houses.

This is out our bedroom window into the street in front of out house. Not real deep yet

 

This is one of the guards Kontia. He is a councilor in one of the branches. I took this from our bedroom also.

More from our bedroom. I loved this day! It rained so hard and it sounded so fun. The thunder here is very loud and long .  It isn't good for the missionaries but they all take it in stride and they just get wet , but everyone here just stops and puts on their little rain jackets and moves on.

Lots of Water and Baptisms!

We only seem to have a few photos from all the many things we do, but we'll try to post some of these we do have.  Perhaps they can help give a snippet of some of the things we are doing.  We are definitely in the thick of rainy season.  It rains every day, sometimes very heavily-- like the kind where if you are caught in it you are drenched in a few seconds.  Some days it drizzles and rains off and on all day.  So there is a lot of water everywhere and flooding in lots of places.  This is fairly normal, thus the reason that many homes are built on stilts, or are designed such that the bottom floor is basically a garage or parking area, not living area.  But some homes are not.  I visited one member's home this past week where they had been dealing with a foot of water in their home for several days and it had only just subsided.  Sometimes the missionaries are pedaling through lots of water, and getting splashed by motos and cars.  When it rains heavily I always worry about our missionaries.  And the members who deal with flooding.  Below is a picture of a street near where our cook, Sarat, lives.  She was sick with pneumonia for over a week.  One day Kathryn made some wonderful homemade bread and we took a loaf to her and her family.  Luckily we were able to park where there was a spot of high ground on the right and we all climbed out that side.  We also gave her a blessing.  The homemade bread was delicious and mom also gave a loaf to the pair of elders who accompanies us and showed us where she lived.  We also gave some to the office elders which they loved.  It was a big hit.

About a week ago Kathryn and I went to visit the family of one of our missionaries, Sis. Kan.  Her family are not members and live on an island in the middle of the river.  So her mail to her family rarely gets to them.  A pile of letters had stacked up at the branch president's home.  A member in that branch agreed to go with us and we took a small ferry boat to the island.  It was wonderful to meet her mother and two of her sisters.  We gave them a pile of her letters and took some photos.  Our missionary sister was so happy when we were able to tell her that her family was well and doing fine.  We also visited the family of the member sister who took us, some of whom are non-members.  She has a couple of wayward brothers she worries about and we tried to talk to one of them, although he didn't really seem in a mood to listen to us.

On the ferry boat crossing the river.  This is the Mekong River... much wider in most places but doesn't look as wide here because we are only crossing to an island.  Notice the VERY old diesel engine powering the ferry boat.  It was interesting to watch them start it and how it shuddered and groaned to start up each time.  We're glad it made it back and forth!

The little baby belonging to one of her sisters is adorable.

A papaya tree on her family's farm, loaded down with papaya.

The family showed us their vegetable garden/small farm.  They grow some specific types of vegetables and sell them.  Apparently it is best when picked and used very fresh so they get up at 2am in the morning some nights to pick it and prepare it and have it ready at the market by 6am.  It was a nice and well cared for farm.  The island where they lived was quite peaceful and beautiful.  Small farms, lots of smiling people, very quiet and serene.  Felt like we were out in the countryside.

This last weekend I needed to travel up to Battambang to hold a disciplinary council and do some training and interviews.  It is about a 4-5 hour drive.  I drove up alone and Kathryn stayed with Mackenzie here.  I only stayed one night.  After interviews I went with two of our elders in the evening to visits to some less active members to invite them to church.  These are home in a more rural place, so typically wood, on stilts, very muddy underneath and on the small dirt roads getting to their homes because of all the rain.  My pants and shoes were quite the sight after we were done but I was able to clean them up in the hotel room afterwards.  One visit we were teaching a sister and her son and daughter, and as we were teaching I noticed some huge black ants crawling around the area where we were sitting Indian-leg on the wooden floor.  That sort of gave the willies the whole time.  Not a lot of them, but they were really big.  The next morning I got up and drove all the way back to Phnom Penh so I could go to a baptism-- someone I had told I would try to be to their baptism.  It only took me four hours to get to the city, or just outside the city, despite rain the whole time, but then it took me 2 whole hours to go from one side of the city to the other side.  The traffic all around the city was like a parking lot.  Very slow going, so I was late to the baptism, but made it in time to say hello to them afterwards.  Below is a picture of some flooding on the main national road on my way back to Phnom Penh.  There were several areas where there was a lot of water on the road. And it rained the whole way back.

Sunday evening Kathryn and I went to another baptism service-- this is a family of four, the dad, mom, and their 8 year old daughter were all baptized, and they have a younger son as well.  Wonderful family.  I had a chance to meet them earlier in the week.  The sister missionary to their right had initially contacted them.  Then they moved to another area of the city and the elders continued teaching them.  Then the sister was transferred to that area as well so she was able to help finish teaching them and was so excited to be a part of their baptism.  We have had a lot of baptisms the past few weeks.  Lots of water and lots of baptisms.  A good combination!