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.

Transfers and New Missionaries!

We had a couple of very busy days Nov 1 & 2.  On the 1st we welcomed 12 new missionaries from the Provo MTC at the airport, pictured below.  11 elders and 1 sister.  Snow White and the 11 spiritual giants I guess.  They are a wonderful group.  We let them do a little actual work contacting Thursday, then lunch with them, an afternoon of orientation, interviews, and then had an evening devotional before dinner and to bed-- they were very tired by that time and struggling to stay awake. 

We also welcomed 3 new local missionaries that evening-- it was late and pouring rain at the airport  These 2 elders and 1 sister have been at the Manila MTC for the past 3 weeks and so we have 15 new missionaries all together, with only 3 departing.

A busy and chaotic day Friday with transfers, luggage and bicycles everywhere!  Lots of energy and enthusiasm as the missionaries come to the mission home for transfers, meet up with new companions, and head off to new assigned areas.

Happy Halloween!

This rather scary bunch from the Chaktomuk branch surprised us on Halloween night.  Halloween is not something celebrated here, but I think a pair of the sister missionaries put them up to it and painted their faces.  We had a call from a missionary to come downstairs.  When we got to the main floor where the office was all the lights were off and it was dark, but then this group of ghouls yelled surprise and gave us a good fright.  We taught them how to say trick or treat and gave them all some candy.  Very fun.