Dear Value Customers,

We received this notice taped to our door the first week we were here.
Dear Value Customers,
First of all, we would like to show hearty thanks for using our service apartment, we are Gold 1 Apartment also pleased to inform you that the water supply is unstable for 2 hours from 13:30 to 15:30 PM (14-03-2012) because we have problem with plumbing system.  So please be forgiving for Gold 1 Apartment's water supply service. We hope that all value customers will know our concern to all of you and our problem.
It has been a pleasure to serve you and greatly appreciate for your understanding.
Sincerely yours,

Our first lunch in Cambodia was at a little restaurant called MaMa's New York Deli.  I made the mistake of ordering a grilled cheese sandwich. At least I learned early on in the mission. The bread was warm..not grilled...not even toasted and it was filled with a very bad quality nacho cheese sauce. But what made the lunch worth every moment was the background music..."Santa Claus in Coming to Town". Good old Santa. I sure hope he wears something other than red velvet trimmed with white fur while visiting here.

Yes, that is Elder Meier with a blizzard in hand. We were able to take a trip to the airport. Yes, Elder Meier finally was able to have his Dairy Queen ice cream.  The only Dairy Queen in the country is at the Phnom Penh airport. The airport is quite some distance from where we live. Senior couples have the opportunity to visit the airport when new couple missionaries arrive.  Elder and Sister James arrived close to midnight on Tuesday night.We don't want to hurt their feelings, but Dairy Queen is a big draw to get us all to the airport when it is well passed our bedtime. We can endure many things thanks to this great franchise.

We walk to and from our office every morning and evening.  We were walking home from work and this happy person happened by so Elder Meier took his picture.

 We live a little less than a mile from our office. When the sun goes down it gets pretty dark on the streets, because of this when we leave our office late we take a tuk tuk home. During the day you can find a tuk tuk fairly easily. Where our office is located getting a tuk tuk after dark is a bit more challenging.

Saturday we were suppose to go to work.  This week has been really hard. Elder Meier has been trying to figure out the PEF software and clean it up a bit. Some of the information that should be in our PEF Students files is missing.  We are trying to get information in its proper place and work out details on our PEF students loans. Each night we arrive home wanting to drop. As everyone that goes on a mission discovers, you are never really trained until you get to your assigned area and experience it first hand. As I said in the beginning of this paragraph...we were supposed to go to work...but instead we went to Central Market and walked along the Tonle Sap River. Our cupboards were bare and we were down to the last of our clean clothes...we said," we need to get some of these things done". We knew the problems at the office would not be resolved on Saturday anyway.  It felt good to get away for the day. We did inspect 4 young Elder's apartment in the morning and then went to the church building later in the evening to teach Institute. Our day was not all play...not that grocery shopping and doing laundry is play...but those that know us know what wild and crazy people we are...so for us going shopping was a relief.  Hey, we had ice cream at Dairy Queen this week...party on!

Here Elder Meier is  enjoying the hot streets of Phnom Penh. In the background is a mother and her children. The gathering of small groups of people is very common. Many people live on the streets.  We often see people sleeping in hammocks they have attached to two trees along the street. Tuk tuk drivers sleep in their tuk tuks. People sleep on the benches along the street.  At the side of make shift shops are lines with laundry drying. 

In another week is khmae new year. Most of the population in Phnom Pehn will be gone. The people go to their home provinces for three days.  It is a time to celebrate their ancestors and to play games with family and friends. We have been told the more "western style" stores will be open but all other makeshift shops, etc. will be closed. It should be interesting to walk the streets here during that time. Walking the streets on a normal day is liking playing reality "road toad".

Family and friends another week begins...we pray it will be a good one for you. Your prayers for us are greatly appreciated.  Or as the khmae would say, "Dear Value Family and Friends, we would like to show hearty thanks for praying for us."