Dale and I are so grateful to the many people that have been sharing with us their experiences in Cambodia. We were given this letter written to Elder and Sister Pond who then sent it on to President Colton who shared it with many. It is from a young Cambodian man updating his LDS friends on what has been happening recently in the church. His letter is dated August 6, 2011. Pretty current.
The Church in Cambodia are going forward and growth, because there are many faithful members who with full purpose of heart to follow the Lord, and willing to service and fulfilled their calling. We have six districts, North District, South District, Central District (Vietnam), Battambong District, Kampong Cham District and Hanoir District in Vietnam, and there are 24 branches in Phnom Penh, three branches in Kampong Cham, two branches in Battambong, one branch in Kampong Thom and one branch in Seam Reap.
In Cambodia now we have four buildings that belong to the church, such as North District Building, South District Building, 4th and 11th Branch building, Takhmao Branch Building, Battambong Branch building. The church bought land in Kampong Cham, Kean Svay (Kndal Province) and Seam Reap and there are eighty full time missionaries and seven senior couples missionaries are serving and we will have four new senior couples missionaries are coming very soon by October 2011.
On 2nd July 2011, we had returned missionaries reunion, I saw many returned missionaries who cam with their children, their wife and their husband, we had dinner, watched slide show and listened to mission president and another returned missionaries shared their experience before, and after their mission. We was grateful for all those blessing that we have, we had good time together and know each other more during that time. There are more than three hundred Cambodian returned missionaries but some of them are less active but the average sacrament meeting attending over than two thousand per week in Phnom Penh Cambodia Mission and the total membership in Cambodia is 10,739 and total adult endowed is 398.
I am happy to hear that you and your family are growing, any strong in the church and his gospel and I can see that you and both of your family are blesses because of the true gospel, I know and believe that the gospel changes and blesses my life. I am so grateful for the gospel that I have, and his plan. I know that he loves us and he knows us very well.
Now I am dating and I hope that I can marry very soon but now I do not have any money yet, so I need to earn enough money for my wedding. I wish that I can marry after my graduate next year. They still call me charlie.
A lot of great information packed in this letter.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Learning about Cambodia and the People
Needless to say we have been surfing the Internet to find out all we can about Cambodia. Sunday night I was trying to see if there were any Cambodian branches of the church in our area. I came across this you tube entry" Seeds of Faith: The Saints of the Kingdom of Cambodia". Here's the link: http://www.ksl.com/?sid=10267645&nid=296 It is in 5 Parts each I believe to be about 10 minutes in length. It is not produced by the LDS church but it is about the saints in Cambodia and the work that the missionaries are doing there to improve living conditions. If you care to check it out it will give you a sense of what we will be doing and the conditions we will be working in. To be able to have all this information at our finger tips is such a blessing. By the time we get to Cambodia it should be quite familiar to us. I know the heat and smells and sounds will blast us when we first arrive in the country. It'll be a shock no doubt, but at least we will arrive there with some knowledge.
We are so blessed to be serving a mission at a time when technology is so advanced. We will be meeting with President Smedley our mission president and his wife via Skype next week. Cambodia is 14 hours ahead of us so we will be meeting with them at 7 AM our time and 9 PM their time. To me that is amazing.
Another amazing gift is that we will begin language classes next week. Our tutor is a BYU student named Josh. He will work with us one hour 3 times a week. It is not mandatory for us to learn the language because many of the people in Phnom Penh speak English, but we feel our mission will be richer if we put forth the effort to speak the peoples language. I know I appreciate it when people from other countries who come to live in the United States work to learn English. Also when we attend church we will be able to communicate better.
The other morning Dale did a fun thing. He went on google earth and via satellite we flew into Phnom Penh. It was crazy. We were able to see the airport and various rivers, lakes, the stadium and other places we have been reading about. Pretty cool. It is densely populated. Blocks and blocks of rooftops seemingly with no space between.
Brother and Sister Anderson, a couple we work with at the Temple on Thursday nights, gave us a book titled Out of the Killing Fields into the Light by Penne D. Conrad. It is inspirational interviews with Mormon converts from Cambodia. After reading this book Dale and I have a clearer understanding of the Cambodian people. Words can't express the horrific experiences these people have endured. It is amazing how they are embracing Christianity. From Seeds of Faith: The Saints of the Kingdom of Cambodia their is a convert to the church who has many tattoos. He said he got the tattoos for protection. He discovered that the tattoos did not protect him. He found that his Savior the Lord Jesus Christ gave him the protection he had been seeking. Such humble people.
We are so blessed to be serving a mission at a time when technology is so advanced. We will be meeting with President Smedley our mission president and his wife via Skype next week. Cambodia is 14 hours ahead of us so we will be meeting with them at 7 AM our time and 9 PM their time. To me that is amazing.
Another amazing gift is that we will begin language classes next week. Our tutor is a BYU student named Josh. He will work with us one hour 3 times a week. It is not mandatory for us to learn the language because many of the people in Phnom Penh speak English, but we feel our mission will be richer if we put forth the effort to speak the peoples language. I know I appreciate it when people from other countries who come to live in the United States work to learn English. Also when we attend church we will be able to communicate better.
The other morning Dale did a fun thing. He went on google earth and via satellite we flew into Phnom Penh. It was crazy. We were able to see the airport and various rivers, lakes, the stadium and other places we have been reading about. Pretty cool. It is densely populated. Blocks and blocks of rooftops seemingly with no space between.
Brother and Sister Anderson, a couple we work with at the Temple on Thursday nights, gave us a book titled Out of the Killing Fields into the Light by Penne D. Conrad. It is inspirational interviews with Mormon converts from Cambodia. After reading this book Dale and I have a clearer understanding of the Cambodian people. Words can't express the horrific experiences these people have endured. It is amazing how they are embracing Christianity. From Seeds of Faith: The Saints of the Kingdom of Cambodia their is a convert to the church who has many tattoos. He said he got the tattoos for protection. He discovered that the tattoos did not protect him. He found that his Savior the Lord Jesus Christ gave him the protection he had been seeking. Such humble people.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Called to Serve
The morning of September 1, 2011 we received a phone call from the Missionary department in Salt Lake City, Utah. Elder Adams inquired if we had received our mission call. We indicated that we had not. We were instructed to contact Elder Adams as soon as we did. After saying good bye to Elder Adams we looked at each other and began guessing what that was all about. Where were we going and what were we going to be called to do? The mail came that afternoon and there was no envelope from Salt Lake.
Friday September 2 was going to be a fun day. We were going to go to the Portland Children Museum by the zoo with Jenni, Rylie, and Owen. Admission was free from 4:00 to 8:00. Earlier Rylie attended a birthday party at Chucky Cheese Pizza. In order to get to the museum on time Googie and I were to pick her up from the party and Jenni would meet us at our house with Owen. When we arrived home with Rylie the mail had just been delivered. Rylie and I went to the mailbox. I had Rylie unlock the box. The box being at her eye level she looked inside and said, "you got your calling". Sure enough the familiar large white envelope that Kyle, Jon and Jay had received extending to them their calls was in the mailbox. This time it was addressed to Elder and Sister Meier. Rylie handed the envelope to me and we returned to the house to share the news with Googie. The long awaited moment had finally come. The envelope was thick....what did that mean? We had briefly discussed with Jay the possibility of using Skype to share "the moment" with all the family scattered between Washington, Utah, and Colorado. Now that the time had arrived the logistics of making this happen seemed daunting. We decided to let the envelope remain closed until we got home from the museum.We called everyone to let them know we had the envelope and would contact them later. Home again after a fun time at the museum we had Jenni record us opening our mission call. We hope you enjoy this mouth opening moment.
We have been assigned to labor in the Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission. Our primary assignment is to labor in the Phnom Penh Cambodia Employment Resource Center as welfare specialists and assist with member and leader support. We will serve for a period of 18 months.
We are to report to the MTC in Provo between 10 and 11 in the morning on Monday February 27. We will be trained on Preach My Gospel our first week there. The following week we will learn about our welfare assignment. We have our flight schedule. We will land in Phnom Penh March 12.
Our inquisitive minds led us to ldsjobs.org where we searched for the employment resource center in Cambodia. To our surprise there is a picture of the building we speculate we will be serving at. You may wish to check it out!
We also have utilized google earth to view satellite photos of Phnom Penh. Technology is amazing.
Many have asked what our children think of this news. Here is what some of them placed on their face book sites and comments from their friends.
Our son J- My parents were just called to serve in the Phnom Phen Cambodia Mission for the LDS Church. I'm not sure I could have thought up a more foreign place for them to go.
Comments on his face book from friends:
Mallory Platt...oh my goodness! one of my dearest friends is in that mission right now and she is loving it! congrats to your parents!
David Oakes- Fun
Cyndi Taylor- That is awesome. What an adventure!
Jenny Michaux Sasser- Awsome! We have friends from there and a friend that served there! So cool!
Jereme Conley- That's pretty crazy.
Our son Kyle- My parents are going to be leaving on a service mission to Phnom Phen Cambodia in February. They will be there for 18 months. I'm excited that they will be in South East Asia. I served as a missionary in Thailand for 2 years. I'm sure we will have a lot to talk about together when they get back...only in English because I speak Thai and Laotian not Cambodia ( Khmer).
Comments on his face book from friends-
Stephanie Young Grimstead- That is so cool!
Leigh Summers Grimstead- Wow! I am very happy for your parents. Wish them luck and tell them we will keep them in our prayers.
Our daughter Jenni- Go back to the video to hear her response. She is also excited for us.
Our son Jon- He was very surprised since we were pushing the thought of a states mission. He also thought it was great and would be quite the adventure for us.
We have been assigned to labor in the Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission. Our primary assignment is to labor in the Phnom Penh Cambodia Employment Resource Center as welfare specialists and assist with member and leader support. We will serve for a period of 18 months.
We are to report to the MTC in Provo between 10 and 11 in the morning on Monday February 27. We will be trained on Preach My Gospel our first week there. The following week we will learn about our welfare assignment. We have our flight schedule. We will land in Phnom Penh March 12.
Our inquisitive minds led us to ldsjobs.org where we searched for the employment resource center in Cambodia. To our surprise there is a picture of the building we speculate we will be serving at. You may wish to check it out!
We also have utilized google earth to view satellite photos of Phnom Penh. Technology is amazing.
Many have asked what our children think of this news. Here is what some of them placed on their face book sites and comments from their friends.
Our son J- My parents were just called to serve in the Phnom Phen Cambodia Mission for the LDS Church. I'm not sure I could have thought up a more foreign place for them to go.
Comments on his face book from friends:
Mallory Platt...oh my goodness! one of my dearest friends is in that mission right now and she is loving it! congrats to your parents!
David Oakes- Fun
Cyndi Taylor- That is awesome. What an adventure!
Jenny Michaux Sasser- Awsome! We have friends from there and a friend that served there! So cool!
Jereme Conley- That's pretty crazy.
Our son Kyle- My parents are going to be leaving on a service mission to Phnom Phen Cambodia in February. They will be there for 18 months. I'm excited that they will be in South East Asia. I served as a missionary in Thailand for 2 years. I'm sure we will have a lot to talk about together when they get back...only in English because I speak Thai and Laotian not Cambodia ( Khmer).
Comments on his face book from friends-
Stephanie Young Grimstead- That is so cool!
Leigh Summers Grimstead- Wow! I am very happy for your parents. Wish them luck and tell them we will keep them in our prayers.
Our daughter Jenni- Go back to the video to hear her response. She is also excited for us.
Our son Jon- He was very surprised since we were pushing the thought of a states mission. He also thought it was great and would be quite the adventure for us.
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