Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Weddings!

This was a wedding in one of our Vietnamese branches.  The couple are very young, but seem very happy.  The branch president married them.  I believe the bride and her parents are not members.



After the wedding they fed us a wonderful dinner of traditional Vietnamese food in the courtyard of the church building.  The power went off part way through the dinner, as it got dark, although it sort of added to the "romantic" ambience as they brought out some candles to eat by.




Below a traditional VIetnamese "hot pot"-- they bring out a cooker on the table in the middle, filled with hot soup.  You keep it heating until it boils.  Then you add a lot of fresh vegetables and greens, and put in a variety of shell fish and meats, let them simmer and cook, and then ladle it out in your bowl family style.


Below are pictures from a wedding in the North District -- the bride and groom asked Pres. Moon to marry them in the church.  They flew to the temple in Manila to be sealed a couple of days after this civil marriage.  Both are wonderful members.  None of their parents are members, but bride's brother in law is our district president.  Below the "reception line" with Mackenzie.




Their reception was in the church building, lots of fun balloons, which are the common thing to decorate with here.



Brother and sister below, wonderful members from Taa Khmau.   He also works as one of security guards here at the mission home.




The main course-- a steamed fish (the whole fish).  Very tender and delicious, although you have to watch out for the bones.



Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Busy November - Comings and Goings


We spent a day working with the Taa Khmau elders and sisters-- here is Sis. Moon with the sisters preparing to head out on their bikes.  It was a wonderful day and we had many spiritual experiences and interesting visits.











We went with Elders Ott and Sorensen to Stean Mean Chey to visit the family of Sis. Kong, one of our missionaries-- this is her family.  It was raining heavily and the lower level of their home and surrounding area was flooded, so waded in a foot and a half of water to get to their stairs.  We enjoyed visiting their family, and the elders taught a wonderful lesson about the parable of the house built on the sand vs. house built on the rock and importance of doing vs. just saying we believe.














New missionaries arrive Nov 2nd from Provo MTC -- we had 1 sister and 11 elders, plus 3 missionaries from the Manila MTC arrive the same day.








Farewell dinner with Elders Ott, Humperys, and Tran, and Elder Ott's family.








A group of families and members take the "wagon" ride to church in Battambang!








We bid a fond farewell to Elder & Sister Spencer at the airport in November.  We will miss them-- they have been a great help and strength to the church here during the 2 years they have served.