More fun in Kampong Cham

We had primary activity day yesterday and we have been teaching them about the OT prophets.  This one was about David and Goliath.  Well this is Goliath.  Some of the kids screamed and some cried, but most laughed their heads off.  The adults really laughed their heads off.  Our driver was David and he shot Goliath with his sling shot and ping pong balls.  It was really funny,  You will have to guess who Goliath is.  It is pretty  hard to walk with two 15 inch stools tied to your feet, but it did make for a tall Goliath

Sister Pin, Sister Thalman, Neak, Elder T, Sister Askerlund.  This is a boy who asked me to baptize him.  I really tried to memorize the Bapt prayer, but the pronouncation is so hard.  I finally made a card to hold in my hand while I did it and it worked out well.  Sister Askerlund was kind enough to romanize it for me so I came close I guess.  A really neat experience.  This little kid can really dance Khmer style, better than most of the girls.  I am trying to let me video it, but he is so shy I will probably have to sneak up on him sometime.  Sister Askerlund is from Santiquin and her parents are here now.  We are going to spend some time with them next week and then she will be going home.  She has been an awesome missionary and we already miss her.

Some of the visitors who come here just can't understand why we have a cross, lite up cross at that,  on our church.  I say well we just do things a little different here in Kampong Cham.  One visitor from the US wanted it taken down immediately.  I said that would be impossible and he could not figure out why until I told him that our back door neighbors are the catholic church and the cross is really on the top of their church so we just live with it.  I think it is pretty unique.

Sister Askerlund and Pin with some of the youth in 1 and 2 branch after mutual.  We usually have a lot more kids than this come to sabie, sabie as they call it.  Sabie means fun and that is how they announce mutual in sac meeting.  Instead of saying mutual they say come to sabie sabie on Sat night at 5 pm.  How do you think that would work at home.

These are some people that got baptized in Br 3 last week.  We are having a lot of baptisms and it is really fun to see how much the gospel changed their lives.  Ming (aunt) Nie on the Right finds all these people for the elders to teach.  She is just awesome.  The 2 teenage boys used to sing songs and really give the elders a hard time a few months ago and tell everyone they were crazy to listen to stupid mormons.  Well Ming Nie went to them and said you know nothing about the Mormons so you need to learn with the elders and then if you still feel the same you can say anything you want.  Well you can see what happened.  Pretty cool.

Yes the triantula is alive.  She kept trying to get me to buy it.  Soon I will try to see if Ilene will let it crawl on her.  I did and lived through it .

Priesthood leaders in the district when they just found out the first humanitarian project by the church to be done in KC was approved and will begin at the end of Sept.  We are doing water filters, nearly 400 of them, latrines, 20 five inch wells and 20 chicken ranches.  This is life saving for these good members and it is all possible because of donations from good members like all of you.  The church is also doing a humanitarian project for the city of KC where we will help with clean water  and sanitation at some schools.  It is for elementary age school kids and will help probably 4000 kids.  We will drill 35 five inch wells and build some latrines and give hygiene kits.  That is another miracle.  I will try to put it in a email soon.

Still trying to stay out of the mud as we go visiting members.  Lim said it has not started to rain yet so it will just get worse.  We just walk through it and then he washes out the van.

A grapefruit with Ilene's hand.  They are huge, full of seeds, and full of flavor

Elders eating noodles with chop sticks in their off hand with wrists tied together.  We did this for mutual and the kids really had a good time.  They just love to laugh and they really laughed at this one.

Some member were practicing a dance at someones house and they saw us walk by and opened the window and hollered at us.

A sweet member named Sok Hen.  She lives and works at a bread store.  Her husband left her and took all their kids and moved back in with his mother.  They really hate her since she joined the church and won't let her see her kids.  It is really sad, but she is so good and faithful.  I will try to tell her story in an email soon

Picture of more beautiful flowers just outside of the door of a members house.  More flowers come out during the rainy season, but there are already many and it is really getting beautiful.

Bread made out of some sort of tree root.  Wheat flour is really expensive over here so they try everything.  It is about the consistency of Styrofoam and tastes somewhat like styrofoam too,  but with enough syrup and peanut butter is makes pretty good french toast. 

Rice starting to grow.  The green color is just beautiful and it turns golden just like wheat in Nov. so that will be pretty too.

The mighty muddy Mekong.  That is not mud, but that color of water in the Mekong since it started flooding in China.  Taken from the bridge looking right down on the river.

View of KC from the bridge over the Mekong

The Monorom Hotel.  Here is where we did the first family history in KC and were able to print out the names with bar cods to go to the temple.  A lot of people here think the church owns the motel because they think the name of it is Mormon.  Pretty close, but not quite

Yes cows in a van.  Still one of the greatest sights I have seen in Cambodia

Writing on the board for temple prep meeting in KC.  They claim they can read it, but I'm not sure anyone can read this stuff.

We are still having the time of our lives and have so many things happen each day we can hardly keep up with it.  All's we can say is the Lord is really mindful and cares about the members here.  We just love just going along each day and watching marvelous things happen.  We send our love to all.  

Random Picts in the day of senior couple in Kampong Cham

A view down a lane where we walk to visit some members

Trying to stay out of the mud.  It is pretty impossible and the rainy season is just starting.

t

The members at the end of the muddy lane.  Her dad is in a wheelchair.  The mothers name is Key and the little girl is Nita.

Flowers along the way.  I'd say they look pretty and the flowers are just starting to bloom

 Closeup of the flowers along the way.  Pretty beautiful I'd say.

On the trail to planting rice.  We walk along the ridges around the rice patties for about 30 min to get to where we plant rice

 What the rice looks like after planting.

Prettiest rice planter in Cambodia.  She really did plant alot of rice and never even got one leach on her.  How do you like the Khmer sarong around the head?  Water 6 inches deep, mud 4 inches deep.

 

Mother on the left Vie Neak, Daughter on the far R Shrea Peak just got baptized.  Father and other daughter.  Their bike was completely worn out and they had to walk to church, about 3 miles.  Never missed.  Some kind person from home gave us some money to help these poor people over here so we bought them this bike.  You would have thought it was a Cadillac with all the accessories.  It put the biggest smile on their faces.  We see them all over town now that they have  transportation.  We told them the bike just dropped out of the sky from Preah vobeda.  (Heavenly Father)

This is a great little member and her neice.  She is 16 years old and leads the singing all the time in church.  She is just getting ready to cook dinner for all 7 in her family on the fire behind here.  She had 2 small fish that they were lucky enough to catch that morning.  They dried the fish and chopped them up to mix with rice.  They use every single bit of the fish.  They have 6 kids in their family.  Their father died 2 years ago and they are so faithful, but soo poor.

 This is their house.  Note the dirt floor.  They sleep on the bamboo bed with the cooler and stuff on it.  Pretty heart breaking to us, but they are always so happy.

We are still having the adventure of a lifetime.  I have started putting more pictures on facebook so if you are interested you can check those out.  We are in the process of doing a humanitarian project here.  One has never been done here before and we are doing latrines, water filters, chicken farms and hopefully drilling some wells.  The members are really excited about it.  We just did the first PEF loans in Kampong Cham and they were all approved.  10 kids applied.  The most that have ever been done in one day in all of Cambodia.  I'll tell you more later.  More to come.  Thanks for all your prayers for us we really do feel them everyday.

Another Month has flown by

We have had several baptisms this month.  This is the second family that we taught after we first arrived in Cambodia.  They are 4 great kids and have been so fun to teach.  You will see that the sad thing is that the parents are missing.  The parents were doing really good, but the father could not live the WofW and he talked the mother out of being baptized, but he really wants his kids to be active in the church.  He knows some kids who are members and knows it is a great way for kids to live.  He just does not have the faith to do it.  Maybe someday.  They still come to church every week.  There names are so interesting over here.  L to R Elder Boyd, Chamran, Sis Thalman, Bit, Elder Thalman, Retie, Somnang, (Lucky) and Elder Jensen.  Bit is 10 and is about the size of  Caleb.  We ordained the boys to the AP last Sunday.  We are having about 90 people come to church in Branch 3.  The priesthood is still very weak.

This is Nie.  She was baptized a week ago and usually brings about 10 investigators to church with her every week.  She is the one who had the dream about being all dressed in white and going under the water and then about the baptisms in the temple with the font on the backs of oxen.  She finds people for the elders to teach and then when they talk to their neighbors and decide not to have the missionaries come (they say they are disgracing their parents by turning away from Buddhism)she goes and talks them back into having the elders continue teaching them.  She is really awesome and has a great testimony.  She is really a character and has been fun to teach.  

This is the relief society president in the third branch.  This is her garden that she has behind her house.  She grows all these things and then sells it in the market.  She supports several people with this garden.  She is such a good person and really is helping the church here in KC.

This is the RS pres mother.  She is 78 years old and wearing my hat.  The old grandmas lose all their teeth and then they shave all their hair off.  Their care centers are their kids and they really take good care of them and respect them a lot

.

This is Vane and his wife Key and their little baby girl Nita at Vanes' baptism.  Vane is the one who wheeled himself to church for about 3 miles the first 2 times he came to church.  We just ordained him an elder.  He has read the Book of Mormon 2 times and is now reading the D&C.

These are some of the members at the baptisms.  You can see how weak it is in priesthood.  There are 4 local Melk priesthood holders there.  The dist pres on the far R with elder Jensens arm around him, the 1st and only counc in the branch pres on my R, the branch pres kneeling by the two AP boys in red shirts and our driver Lim kneeling in the front on the R side.  They are all such wonderful people and the youth are really great.  It takes 3 months gross pay for them to go to the temple and the church will help with the rest.  That is usually about $200 and is so hard for them to save.  The closest temple is Hong Kong and they have to get airline tickets, passports and visas, etc and the church pays all of the rest of the expenses.  The only members who have been to the temple in this group are the dist pres and his wife and the branch pres.  The baptismal font is right behind us in the picture.  They have this big square fiberglass tank.  You can see the lid is open on the top of it in the center on the back.  There are usually frogs in the bottom of it before they fill it (Josh).   I will have to get some pictures of that too.

This is a new house that some members just built and they are so proud of it.  The one they had before just fell apart when the wind blew.  Hopefull the wind won't blow again.  It is just amazing how they live.  

This is how they collect water for drinking and bathing and cooking etc.  You can see the rain gutter above the doors that slopes down and the bucket and pot for collecting the water.  They are having a really hard time because it has not rained for a long time and it is hotter for longer than anyone can remember.  114 every day.  The mother has to ride on her gong (bike) for about 3 km to get water from a well many times a day and she carries it in that 5 gal bucket balanced on the cross beam of her bike.

This is her front room where the chair is and her bedroom in the back.  This is much better than the house they had before.  I know it is hard to believe, but it is true.

This is the lady who owns the house, her son and her husband.  They went and put on their good clothes before I took the picture.  The son and mother are members and the father is not.  He is 84.

This is the father with a back scratcher that he made and he is really proud of it.  Check out the teeth not on the back scratcher but in the mouth.  He has many more teeth than most people.  They usually lose their teeth in the early 40's and yes that is the true color of his teeth.

Here is sister Thalman visiting with some members out in their front yard.  You can tell she is really enjoying her mission.  She just loves these people and the girl on her R speaks good english and loves to go visiting with us and helps interpret for us.

These next two kids are kids who had their cleft pallets fixed a year ago and they had us come and help when they took the followup pictures.  The parents were so thankful and happy.  The said it had completely changed their kids lives and they could not thank us enough.  The sad thing is they cannot help everyone who needs the surgery, but for these kids it is an absolute miracle.  They just kept saying abutahit, abutahit which means miracle.

This guy lost his arm fighting the Khmer Rouge when Pol Pot was killing all the Cambodians.  He got a prosthesis and makes his living as a moto taxi driver.  It is pretty crude, but it works for him and he can support his family.

Here it is and it works for him.  We have gotten to know him quite well and he is really a nice friendly guy.

He could not believe that I would want to take his picture.  They never get pictures of themselves so I try to take some and then print them out for them.  They think it is so awesome to have a picture of themselves or their family.  The people are so friendly and love to help us wherever we go even though we cannot talk to them it's amazing how far you can get with sign language.

Here is the hand in action.  He put some rubber tape around the throttle grip and he can drive his moto.  There are so many horror stories about the Khmer Rouge that happened in the 90's.  I have yet to ask a person who has not lost family members during that time.  

These next pictures may freak you out.  I have never seen anything close to this in my life.

I need some advice for the pictures above from the orthopedic surgeons and physical therapists.  What do you think?  About 25 years too late to do anything, right?  This guy is 35.  He fell off of a house when he was 12 years old and Fxed both arms and legs.  He just laid in bed until he was 18 and an NGO got him a wheel chair.  He had no treatment on the fractures.  The only healed fx is the R arm and it is severely angulated.  The other arm and legs have false joints where the fxs were and the L elbow is still dislocated.  He is able to get around well in his antique wheel chair and rides it several miles per day just to keep his arms in shape.  It is incredible that he has not had any nerve damage and all the mm still work, weak of course, but still all intact.  He says he has learned a lot from the elders, but lives at the pagoda and that is all the religion he needs.  This is one of the most incredible things I have ever seen.  He is able to transfer independently and is amazingly mobile.  Here is a picture of his face and he is so happy.  

I am going to try to never complain about anything again.