We began our week with a Skype session with each of our kids. It was wonderful to speak with each of them. Everyone seems to be doing well which is a great blessing. We anxiously are waiting for the announcement of our newest grandson. He may come before the end of May. We received word that his delivery estimation date has changed to June 5. We know he will come when he is supposed to come. We are grateful that at this point in this pregnancy our baby should be well developed.
It is coming to the middle of the month and so we have been trying to make contact with our high priority PEF participants. This is not an easy task to accomplish. There are too many cell phones that have been turned off. We can not make contact with an "unawailable" phone number.
The highlight of our week was a two day country wide Young Single Adult conference. Elder and Sister James, the public relations Senior couple planned,organized and carried out this conference with the assistance of several of the District Presidents and their counselors here in Cambodia. The event cost around $10,000. The Cambodian saints thought it was the best activity ever. It was pretty "over the top".
Day one began with the arrival of chartered buses from the Provinces. Some of the Relief Society sisters from the Phnom Penh branches prepared a lunch for everyone. They prepared food for 1,000 people. I do not believe we had that many people but that is what was planned for. Dale believes there were about 600 people. Lunch was a soft drink, rice and chicken. Dale and I had safe PBJ sandwiches.
Cooking meat over an open fire. The pots and pans they use are huge. They cook with what looks like small shovels. Mix the noon day sun with fire and you have EXTREME HEAT.
After lunch all participants received either a number 1, 2 or 3 tag. We all gathered in the chapel and gym area for a talk by a guest speaker. Elder and Sister James' son, Josh James spoke on "Believing in Yourself". If you are interested in knowing about Josh you can Google his name. He is a very successful American entrepreneur. After his talk all participants were directed to different classes to be uplifted and enlightened. After the classes everyone met outdoors to enjoy a catered dinner.
While the classes were in session Dale and I walked around the church and enjoyed the "behind the scenes" activities.
What we have noticed is that although the people are poor in Cambodia they like "fancy" stuff. This is one of the chartered buses the Province members rode in. At the end of the day everyone from out of town stayed at a Guest House. The Church budget paid for everything.
Dinner was catered. Dale and I and a few of the other Senior couples walked around the parking lot to observe the dinner preparations.
The caterers set up their cooking equipment. This is the same type of cooking that takes place for Khmer weddings. Most of the caterers were wearing look alike red shirts.
Whether it is cooking for a group, at a restaurant or for a family this is the cooking method that is most common.
On the orange table in the foreground is some kind of a salad. We watched them mix in a lot of oil and sugar. On the tables in the distance are dishes that were eventually filled with a lumpy green broth. It was kept warm by a candle.
We are not sure how these fish were prepared, but they sat in these baskets in the hot shade for a good portion of the day. At this point I believe they are ready to be served.
The caterers provided the tables, plastic chairs, table clothes and dishes. We were told there were 80 tables set up.
We are watching from the church balcony at everyone chooses a place to sit for dinner. We were keeping a low profile.
More people are gathering to find their table.
People were really enjoying the meal.
After staying out of sight during the eating portion of the evening we thought we were spared having to eat. To our dismay when the dancing began and things were getting cleaned up one of the District Presidents told us that a table was reserved for the Senior Couples and our food was waiting for us. Oh great! Now the food was really out of the safe temperature zone. What to do...
Oh yum...fish...scary fish! Pictured here is Elder and Sister Dilworth. They came down from Kampong Cham to join with their young single adults from their branches. What good sports they are.
Elder Dilworth is so brave. Sister Dilworth is the mission nurse. I suppose she figures the food has been blessed. We each took small portions. Everyone knows that "elderly" people do not eat much. Our pot bellies are due to the lack of food we all eat.
Elder and Sister Tuck are "vegetarians" including not eating fish. Most of us figured the rice would be safe. Dale and I ate rice with soy sauce. I actually tasted the rice with soy sauce. One tablespoon was all I had room for.
We did not get a picture of Elder and Sister Capener. They are more willing to try new things. Sister Capener raved about the fish. Being the thoughtful person that I am, I sacrificed my fish portion so she could have more. The orange pop was good. It was canned in New York, USA. "God bless America!"
The evening ended with a dance. It was hot and we were hungry so we left the festivities about 7:00. It is always fun walking home in the dark. The real challenge is crossing the busy intersection, Mao Tse Tung Boulevard. It is one street that we can not avoid.We were to be back at the church building in the morning about 7:00 for the second day of activities.
Elder and Sister James resurrected a controversial youth activity that was put to rest many years ago. Some of our "ancient friends" will recall an airplane flight scenario activity where the participants are seated in an airplane. During "the flight" the airplane loses an engine and the plane must return to its starting point. As the plane begins the return flight it crashes.Everyone"dies". The participants are led to different rooms and the degrees of glory are explained to them. All of the participants move to each of the glories ending in the celestial kingdom. The activity concludes with a testimony meeting.
Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission has now experienced this activity. Elder and Sister James and their committee put forth an astronomical amount of work to prepare for this event. Sister James ordered honey roasted peanut packets that the flight attendants distributed to all the passengers. She ordered flight attendant hats and scarves for the girls to wear. Making HUGE banners is a BIG business in Cambodia. The Cultural Hall was transformed into the interior of a passenger plane with the use of banners. The James' found photos on line of the inside of plane windows. The walls were lined with these window banners at eye level. It really did give the illusion of being in a plane.Yards and yards of blue fabric created a false ceiling which covered the entire Cultural Hall ceiling area.
From there they returned to the Cultural Hall where mammoth banners of nature had transformed the airplane into a room representing the Terestial glory.
We sat in the back of the room. Sophornn translated for us. There were some moving testimonies but their was also some funny things that were said also. Our friend, Sophornn translated for us. One young man began by saying that the pilot should have checked the plane engines before they took off. Had he done that no one would have died. Several people retold different detailed account of what had happened and how scary the air plane crash was. No one wanted to stay in the first glory. One girl talked about how the room was hot and then cold and then hot. She was very dramatic as she spoke about the uncomfortable feeling she experienced. Elder James was sitting with us and told us why the room was hot-cold-dark-light. He said that he kept going to the different rooms turning the lights and air conditioner off because people kept turning them on. The rooms were suppose to be hot and dark only. The testimony meeting lasted 1 1/2 hours! Near the end of the testimonies Sophornn was not translating for us anymore. We asked him what was being said. His comment, "Oh just more of the same."
Face book entries among the church members in Cambodia has gone crazy with photos of this major country activity. Dale and I had approached this activity cautiously. We knew a little of "the air plane" activities history. But it was approved and so we kept quiet. For Cambodia it was a positive event. We just hope that it was not a spiritually confusing event. Sister James is writing an article for the Liahona magazine. Only time will tell if it is accepted for publication.
Two of the flight attendants are PEF students.
Sreypheap Noeur and Sayon Bun Ang
Sreypheap Noeur is engaged to an American.
Sayon Bun Ang has been called to serve a mission at
Temple Square. She reports in August. One of her sisters also served at Temple Square and another one of her sisters served somewhere else in the USA.
After the testimony meeting the Relief Society served everyone lunch. Once again they had rice and chicken. When lunch was over all the out of town people boarded their buses for the long trip home.
We spent the second half of the day hard at work in the office.
Making our way down the street in our tuk tuk.
This was the shortest tuk tuk ride ever. When we got to our apartment the tuk tuk driver giggled a bit because he knew we were so close to home that if we could have we would've walked. The least amount of money we have spent on a tuk tuk ride. Dear family and friends that water is nasty stuff. I would have paid a tuk tuk to take me 5 feet!
This week was the Kings Birthday. It is a three day holiday in Cambodia. For three nights fireworks were set off in honor of the king.
This next week should be fun. We will be traveling to the Provinces. We are looking forward to seeing the green of the countryside. We are also looking forward to leaving the city for four days. Last time we were in the Provinces we had a grand daughter born. Who knows....maybe our trip will bring us another bundle from heaven. We hope so.
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