Zone Conferences in May

The first two weeks of May we had zone conferences-- we left here on a Wednesday, traveled to Kampong Cham, and had Zone Conference there on Thursday... the picture below is all our wonderful KC elders and sisters, plus those from Kampong Thom.  For this Zone Conference we focused on receiving the Holy Ghost-- how to recognize, understand, and follow the promptings of the Spirit, and how to help our investigators do the same.  Key training and commitments included keeping houses and apartments clean, invitation to pray with members and investigators for someone else by name when asking for referrals, and keeping a personal study journal.  We also talked about importance of bearing testimony frequently, especially when extending commitment invitations.  We really enjoyed this round of zone conferences, in every location, and the spirit that we felt in each one.

Every time we make the loop to the provinces it is a lot of driving-- neither Elder Nam or Elder Khan had driver's licenses at this particular point in time, so I had to do all the driving.

Our wonderful group of missionaries from Battambang and Siem Reap, in front of the Battambang chapel.

We are missing photos from the two city zone conferences because we had so much material and training and had to make lunch a little short, so we really didn't have time to set up for pictures.  We'll do better next time!

Goodbyes and hellos

"Charlie" -- Bro. Saret, our mission office admin assistant, at our party celebrating his birthday-- he is leaving to take a position at the service center in finance.  We are sad to see him leave the mission home but glad he will be helping at the service center.

We said goodbye to Elder & Sister Rhyne in early May -- they have been absolutely wonderful here and have contributed so much to the work.  They have helped with family history and been able to get some impressive things started with family history work here, and in addition spent the last couple of months helping tackle some very thorny problems with membership records.

Elder Ban, from Teuk La'ak branch, returned home from the Boston Massachusetts mission in early May-- it is wonderful to have him back!

School Program for Graduating Seniors

A couple of weeks before school ended they had a nice program for parents at Mackenzie's school for the graduating seniors.  They said nice things about each student, and what their plans are for the future.  Also some funny things about each student.  It was a casual event, but fun.  Here are some photos from that day.

Below Mackenzie with three friends from this year at school-- Holly on the left, then Merlin, and I'm not sure the other girl's name.  Holly's parents are also missionaries-- self-appointed type, Protestant, wonderful family, from Canada.

Temple Trip April 2013

Elder & Sister Tuck accompanies a group of 12 Saints from Ta Khmau and Kampong Cham to the temple in Manila in April.  Above is a picture at the Ta Khmau chapel, and below the group at the Manila temple with ordinance cards for work they did, in addition to their own work.  We really appreciated all the hard work the Tuck's did in helping the group and helping it be a positive experience.  Wonderful to see these families sealed and endowed.

New Missionaries in April

April and Khmer New Year also brought us a wonderful group of new missionaries from the Provo MTC-- all Khmer speaking-- this group of 12 missionaries are wonderful and we were so happy to have them join us.  3 sisters, 9 elders.  All fantastic.

Elder Kham and Elder Nam-- our wonderful assistants.  Love that smile.

We usually do a puzzle activity with the new missionaries the first evening-- by then they have had several hours of interviews and orientation, and have been up for 2 days straight traveling, so they are usually very tired-- if we let them sit they just go to sleep, so we try and have a "participatory" devotional where we do the puzzle activity and talk about lessons learned from it.  It usually works well and they stay awake during it.  If we can keep them up until evening they usually adjust much better to the time zone.

Khmer New Year

A pretty sky behind Independence Monument-- close to the mission home.

This is a picture of the forests in the National Park we visited on Khmer New Year, April 13-15.  It was quite a pretty area, tall trees.  Our "cabin in the woods" below that we stayed in 1 night, together with lots of geckos and other friends.  Kind of felt like going to the cabin at home-- Khmer style!

"Prom" night

Mackenzie's school held a special evening of dinner and dancing-- sort of like a "prom", but more focused on the dinner and less on the dancing.  She did her hair up nice and Mom and her had a dress made for her.  The dress didn't get finished until an hour before the event.  Only a few of the seniors went-- most of them went to a different party with drinking and such, but Mackenzie and the few friends that went together to the "prom" seemed to have a good time and enjoyed the dinner.

Various member visits

This is a wonderful family in Steung Mean Chey 3rd branch that I visited one afternoon with the elders as I was proselyting with them.  All members except the elderly man sitting, the grandpa, who is strong Catholic and very sick at the moment.  They asked us to give him a priesthood blessing which we did.  The family owns a small textile business located at their home.  Wonderful sisters in the family-- very strong faith-- we had a vibrant discussion about a section of the sermon on the mount together as we read from 3 Nephi.

I joined a zone training meeting with the East zone, after which we all had lunch together at Mama's near South District Center.

The photos below are from a dinner out with a family in the 10th branch-- a Vietnamese family-- Bro. Yieu and his family.  We had not been to Nhong's before-- close to Independence Monument-- we think it will be a favorite now.  Great vietnamese food, and fun stations where you can watch them make it.

baptisms, departing missionaries in April, and soon-to-be missionaries

I took a quick trip to Battambang to do some training and was able to be there for a special baptism service for 3 families-- 11 people... it was a wonderful occasion.  Such a wonderful spirit.  Included in the baptism was the 8 year old granddaughter of Pres. Bunno, who he baptized.

We were pleased to welcome a new elder to our mission, Elder Pham.  He will be part of our Vietnamese speaking program.

We bid a fond farewell to our group of "12 apostles"-- a fantastic group that served so well.  We will miss them, but are so grateful for their wonderful service and the leadership and example they provided to our mission.

Several of the group had family come to pick them up, and some were local missionaries-- this group of 6 were the ones we took to the airport late that night.

It was a very busy day with transfers and exit interviews, and a dinner for the big group of departing missionaries.  Mackenzie was so nice and did all the dishes for us while we were gone to the airport-- the kitchen was literally filled with dishes.  She was our "kenzie-o-matic" dishwasher.

This group of young men and young women are all from Tuol Sang Ke branch and all preparing to serve missions.  Two of them have calls now, two more are awaiting their calls, and one more preparing papers.  They are all fantastic and we hope they come to our mission here!