Grammy Googie

Family and friends can you believe it is December?

December 2011 we were sitting at home contemplating what we would be doing in Cambodia. This past week has been slow at the office because of the Khmer holidays. It was Water Festival , but in the city there were no celebrations because everyone is mourning the death of their king. I believe he will be cremated sometime in February. Apparently celebrations did take place in the Provinces outside of the city. I wish we could have seen the activities. There are usually boat races on the river. The city was fairly quiet.

Our office was open all week as usual. We had a little success talking with hard to contact students. The trick was to use Dale's phone which is not in their caller ID listing. I was able to make contact with two students that I haven't spoken with in several months. That was my high for the day. Some students who have not paid their loan in months and years avoid us. We never pressure anyone concerning their loans. The students put pressure on themselves. When they do answer our call they instantly begin apologizing. The one sided conversation usually goes like this. "I'm am sorry I do not pay the loan. I'm sorry I don't go to the church. I am very busy. I still love the God and the church. Someday when I make lots of money I will come back and pay all the money's back so somebody else can have the blessings too. I give my money to family." I usually tell them we just want to know how they are doing and that we appreciate the payments they make when they can. Heavenly Father will be happy when they return to church.

Tuesday morning was the routine computer work and phone contacting. In the late afternoon we traveled to three different areas to inspect missionary homes.We hoped the trip would be quick with all homes in order, "spic and span" and ready to be deemed livable. Our tuk tuk ride was extremely dusty. We took precautions.

Best smiles ever!!

We arrived at our first check point in Kean Svaay earlier than scheduled. The refrigerators had not been cleaned yet. Refrigerators are always scary. We said we would check out the rest of the house while a couple of Elders worked on the refrigerators. Almost an hour later their place was much better. We gave them the go ahead to attend "Sports Day". I was insistent that they clean most areas before we left. We did leave with a few areas still needing work. We left with the promise by the Elders, "On our honor we will complete the jobs before tomorrow". An area under their stairs and back in a corner was missed. To tackle it at this point would mean all of the work that they had already accomplished would be trashed. I didn't say much about it except it looked like a lot of work. Cambodia dusty build up at its best.

Traveling towards the Killing Fields we arrived at our next destination, Steung Mean Chey. Even with the wait time in Kean Svay we arrived early for our second inspection. We miscalculated our travel time to these areas. Travel time like anywhere, depends on the day, time of day and how heavy traffic is. When we arrived at the apartment we sensed that the missionaries were not happy. Apparently there had been a Zone Leader meeting. This left two Elders at home to do the work of four. The Zone leaders had been told to work extra hard with their cleaning efforts on the previous preparation day. The reasoning was so that those left to do the work on deep clean day would not feel "life is not fair". We are not sure what happened but there was tension in the air. We went easy with our inspection critique. We committed the group to the "On our honor we promise to keep working after you leave". If anyone needed "Sports Day" it was these guys They needed it to let off steam. The apartment was not as deep cleaned as it should have been but no one will die this week from some dreaded disease because of a filthy apartment. Any cleaning is better than no cleaning.

Our final stop was the Office Elders and Assistants to the President home. They live within walking distance of our home. For the most part their place is always orderly. About 3:00 we received a phone call from them requesting us to inspect their apartment on another day. I told them only if they got permission from President Moon. They had been in training meetings all day and only had a couple hours to clean before we were to arrive. Apparently President Moon told them to do the best they could and that we were to do an inspection. They had about three hours to clean. Because they are rarely home three hours was plenty of time for them to complete the assignment. Theirs was the only apartment that had washed their bathroom mirrors. At one of the apartments the excuse was that they had no Windex. I told them a rag and water would do. The reply, "Really?" My reply,"Yes, really."

Wednesday Dale was sick. It was not his asthma. His digestive track was turned upside down. I walked to work by myself and Dale stayed in bed. I had an appointment to teach Sovanmony, one of our institute students, this weeks lesson. One of us also needed to be at the office because we had told our PEF students we would be available during the holidays. It was quiet until 3:00. At about noon I left the office to go to the ladies room.The hall was pitch black. Apparently the janitor not realizing I was in the office switched off the lights. If anyone had come to see me they no doubt saw a dark hallway and figured the office was closed.

Sovanmony, who came for her lesson, knows enough English and enough about the gospel that we were able to have a meaningful hour of gospel study together. She reads her New Testament in Khmer and I read the same in English. We discuss what we have read. It is interesting how concepts and teachings are translated. For example when the scriptures talk about the will of the Lord. Sovanmony said that her bible talks about doing what Jesus's heart would have us do. The same message. In church today I was surprised when the teacher spoke of hiding your light under a bucket...I don't know if she meant bushel or if the Khmer are not to hide their lights under buckets instead of bushel. I do see lots of buckets here and I do not recall seeing any bushels. I do know when the scriptures talk about the Lord providing food for His children the Khmer translation is rice. The examples may be different but the message is the same. Heavenly Father provides for His children and He wants His children to set a good example for the world and share the truths they know with others.

Sovannomy and I finished our lesson about 4:15. I closed the office and proceeded to walk home. When I got to the busiest intersection of my walk I was waiting to cross the street. A tuk tuk driver beckoned me to stand beside his tuk tuk and walk along side him. I did so and was able to cross the street safely. I said thank you in Khmer and he chuckled. The rest of my walk was pretty uneventful. A few people asked me where Dale was. In "cave man" Khmer I said he was not feeling well.

Dale was doing better when I arrived home. He said that he slept until about 10:00. He showered a couple hours later. He really hadn't eaten much. I made some chicken soup. That seemed to help. Later that evening his laptop started acting up. He ended up staying up half the night trouble shooting. He finally gave up and went to bed for a few hours.

Thursday morning we walked to work together as usual. Another slow day but, I was able to speak with one student and did email messages to some. Whether we will get any email replies is yet to be known. We were looking forward to Friday. The office staff would be back to work. We were hoping to have calls made to our non English speaking students.We got a call letting us know that the Khmer staff would not be back to work until Monday. There will be no non English speaking student contacts for November...this is F.R.U.S.T.R.A.T.I.N.G!!!

Friday was another quiet day. We had two students visit the office. Dale sent text messages to some of the non English students. They don't speak enough English to have a meaningful conversation with us but they are able to read simple text messages. We prepared for institute for Saturday morning.

Saturday started with Institute class at 6:30 in the morning. We had a good turn out of students. Dale taught the lesson. He always does a good job. The students enjoy his personal stories and he is good at explaining concepts. After class we met with Mok Sarorng who needed money for her next term. She still has money available. We created a payment requisition for her and verified she was keeping her promises which are to be current on her loan payments, be active in church, have 75% institute attendance and keep in contact with us every 90 days. She qualified. She is a wonderful person. She served a mission in Cambodia and now her sister is also serving a mission in Cambodia.

Saturday evening we met with the other Senior couples in Phnom Penh for a welcome dinner for Elder and Sister Capener. We ate at the Khmer Surin. The Capener's transferred from India to Cambodia. They will complete their mission in July. There has been problems renewing visas in India. Apparently the Capener's are not the only missionaries to have this problem. There are concerns that some of the young missionaries in India will also be transferred somewhere else. The Capener's served as Member Leader Support and will continue this assignment here. They were assigned to the Kean Svay Branch. We will no longer travel that dusty trip. We will miss the members but are happy they can have Senior Missionary support. This will be a real blessing to them in locating members that have become less active and helping them understand the programs of the church. This is the Capener's second mission. They also served as country Humanitarian Directors in Russia. They said it was a difficult mission, but one they loved. Sister Capener said that about six weeks home from their mission in Russia they were wanting to serve again. Three years later they began their second mission. It is wonderful that they are helping here in Cambodia. We were talking about what to expect here and Sister Capener said that Cambodia is much cleaner than India. I thought to myself, that it is incredible that it could be worse. I do not doubt it. I just am amazed.

Today we visited Tuol Tom Pong Branch. It was a good day. We actually had someone sit with us to translate in all our meetings. Samnang, one of our institute students asked me if I would like him to translate for me in Relief Society. I said sure.There were no women available to help me.The sisters in the room were upset because they thought it not proper for me to have a male translator in Relief Society. I told them it was OK. The teacher who speaks a little English told Samnang that it wasn't necessary for me to have a translator because I could understand pretty well. I said ,"not really". When I can read the lesson in English I can sort of figure what the class discussion is. Today the lesson was from the Liahona Magazine. I did not have a copy. It was good to have a translator.

Tomorrow evening we will be meeting with the Senior Couples at Elder and Sister Tuck's home for a Family Home Evening Christmas dinner. They live in a Villa. We have been there once before. I put pictures of their home in a previous blog. They want to move to a smaller home and wanted to do one last big group entertaining in their home before they move on. We were told to come hungry. Looking forward to the feast.

We didn't take too many pictures this week. We have seen a few decorated Christmas trees in some of the businesses. The Lucky Grocery store is selling candy canes. I think we will have a low key Christmas when it comes to the glitz this year. We will keep it simple. Alleluia!