Sunday comes quickly.

Family and Friends,
Time on a mission is its own beast. When life becomes challenging in negative ways time seems to drag. In contrast, when life is smooth and easy, time flies. I love the fact that I have been keeping a blog because it is a record of our mission. I do not love the fact that Sunday blogging comes quickly each week. Today as I was waiting for my turn to use the lap top I began to drift off to sleep. As I slumped down into my chair and was just allowing myself to succumb to sleep I heard  Dale say, "OK your turn!" I knew that meant I would be sitting at the computer for the next couple of hours. It may not seem that I write that much. It certainly does not take that long to read each blog. Those of you that have ever prepared a special meal...or any meal for that matter, know that it takes far more time to shop, prepare and cleanup a meal than it does to eat it. The reward is knowing that someone looks forward to the meal and enjoys it. I have had enough people tell me they appreciate these blogs to keep me motivated to continue writing. You are my incentive and I feel accountable to have something to share with you...even if it is just a snack.

This month is filled with holidays in Cambodia. Unlike the United States where holidays begin and end on specific dates, specifics are "fuzzy". The people in Cambodia take advantage of every opportunity not to work. The current holiday  is actually  Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of this week. As Dale said," In Cambodia the people take off two or three days prior to the holiday and will return ten days later." Businesses and schools seem to take it in stride and accommodate for the vacationers. Like the Khmer New Year holiday, the streets are becoming deserted and the garbage is piling up. Rotting garbage mixed with the rainy season flood water allowed to bake in the hot sun for days results in unbearable air to breathe. Looking forward to walking to work!

Saturday as we were walking home I was somewhat pleased to see that "the toothless lady that lives on 63rd street" was not home. It makes me believe she must have family and has gone to one of the provinces for the holidays. We took advantage of her absence to take a picture of her home seen in photo below.

This is her home. It is smaller than I thought it was.

Her home is actually much nicer than many of the smaller city street dwellings. She has a nice brick floor and as I explained in the last blog this spot is in a covered area and sits a bit farther from the street traffic than most.

Remember the "new kid on the block"? We do not know where he went. A new store will open soon which shares the same vacant lot with him. He may have been told he had to move. He was just becoming part of our daily routine. Alas he is gone.

The streets of Phnom Penh are walled or gated. Behind the walls and gates are private homes like the one seen below. Outside the gates are homes like the above two examples.

People that live in homes secured behind gates also drive Lexus or other expensive cars. Often times these homes are occupied by people that work for the Embassy. Homes like this have guards. There are no automatic gate openers. A toot of the horn and a guard promptly opens the gate. 

Guard jobs seem boring. It is, however, a good job for students because they have down time to do their school work. Most guards are college age students. One of our PEF students just became a guard for a primary school. The school provides him with room and board. He also has weekends off and can live at his parent's home on those days.He is able to attend church. He struggled for months trying to find work. This guard job is a blessing for him. Not every one is so blessed. Often, school and work conflict with church. Our PEF students are required to remain active in church and attend their Sunday meetings. They are told to do their best to make their schedules work with their church obligations. This can be challenging.

It seems like laundry day comes as quickly as Sundays. I only wash once a week. Friday evening is the time of choice. It is actually the only time that seems to work for me. I wish I read Korean because when the machine gets off balance I would like to know how to solve the problem. I would like to know how to program the machine to "rinse only" or set it on the "spin cycle". Every week there is some fluke thing that happens. This Friday I noticed that water kept flowing out to the ground hose on one of the two machines I was using. Both machines began washing at the same time. Both should have ended at the same time. When there was 10 minutes remaining the machine that had the steady water flow switched back to 20 minutes. I finally turned the water source off.  The machine finally drained and went into the spin cycle. What should have been 10 minutes remaining ended up being 30 minutes.  An exciting Friday evening is NOT standing around in our laundry room waiting for psycho machines to complete their jobs. I really  should be grateful. I have it way better than so many.

This week we went to Kean Svay for church. Dale decided that perhaps a face mask would be a good idea to wear. The dust was flying. Dale is still recovering from last months asthma attack after our visit to Kean Svay. This time he took several other precautions. Lets pray that he can keep his asthma under control for the next 317 days.

Yes, we have a little count down on our computer letting us know how many days we have left. It is not that we are anxious to return to the states...well maybe it is that we are anxious to return...I don't know... missions are a bag of emotions...there are all the wonderful things that are happening here and then there are all the wonderful things that are happening on the home front... and then there are all the frustrations that happen on a mission... and there are frustrations at home...and... I don't know why we are counting down...I guess we do it because the computer has this nifty little program that we can use for free. We also have a clock that shows us the time where all the important people in our lives reside. When I'm thinking of you I look at the clock and know if you are sleeping or waking up or doing something in between. 

This sweet sister always greets us. She lives off the main road leading out of Kean Svay.  On our first Sunday we arrived at Kean Svay she greeted us warmly and asked if she could ride in our tuk tuk. She lives quite a distance from the meeting house. Her home is not out of our way.  We have given her a ride ever since. She often walks to church. It is a very long walk from her home. I imagine other members of the church if they have room give her rides also. I believe her name is Do (long "o" sound). 

You have seen pictures of this tuk tuk before. This is the famous CTR ( Choose The Right) tuk tuk. We caught Kosal's family just as they were leaving. They have had their tuk tuk since the mid 90's.

We saw many buses, vans, tuk tuks and motos loaded to capacity with passengers and baggage preparing for their trips to their homeland provinces for the holidays.

 This is a family leaving church.

Kean Svay Baptismal Font.

We attended the Gospel Principle class today. Attendance at church today was low.  Many members had already left to go to their homelands. Two of the Elders remained at home ill.  The other two Elders taught the lesson. We had no translators today so Dale and I were on our own to figure out what was being taught. I quietly read the lesson to myself. I wanted to share a portion with you on our blog.

Part of the lesson teaches that we all will have trials in our lives: sickness,disappointment, pain, sorrow, and death. These experiences are for our good.  If we allow them to, these trials will purify us rather than defeat us. They will teach us to have endurance, patience and charity.

Because of our weaknesses, all of us except little children will sin. A Savior is provided for us so we can overcome our sins and overcome death with resurrection. If we place our faith in Him, obeying His work and following His example,we will receive a fullness of joy.

Dale and I plan on taking one day this week to be tourists.  Hopefully we will have a few good photo shots to share with you next week.

This coming weekend we will be viewing the rebroadcast of General Conference. The Senior Couples will gather for a potluck lunch between sessions. It should be fun.

Plans are being made for a Christmas Choir program involving several of the Christian churches in Phnom Penh.  The plan is to invite many dignitaries to the event. Elder and Sister James, our public relations couple, are the instigators of this plan and will be overseeing it. Who knows what impact this will have on the community and relationships between religions here.

Sunday comes quickly and therefore I will be writing again soon. Have a blessed week.