"I'll See You When You See Me."

Family and friends, Monday morning we walked to work as usual. We busied ourselves at the office. After work we put on shorts and climbed the stairs to the 14th floor of our apartment. We then went into the exercise room to use the stationery bikes. This type of exercise is pure torture. We have never sweat so much in our entire lives. We have been doing this exercise regiment for about a month now. Walking to work is just not enough exercise to prepare us for our planned hike in the Grand Canyon

Tuesday morning began with a trip to Room Chang Dental.

Waiting for the dreaded shots and hours of jaw breaking torture.

Leisure shoes to relax the patient.

Leisure shoes for me too. I'm already relaxed!

Waiting room reading material. Paparazzi Khmer Style. Sure hope there is nothing obscene written on this cover.






Great news! Dale did not need a root canal. The shots he received were not too bad. We are to return this Tuesday to have a permanent crown put on.

Lately our days at the office have been low key. Dale resolved some trouble shooting problems and created an orientation packet for Elder and Sister Wyler, our replacements. I created a spread sheet list of businesses in Phnom Penh to help the Wylers get oriented to their new home town. After all the shredding I did the other week I was amazed to find more old stuff to shred. I think I had shred fever.  I stopped shredding just before the office had nothing in its files. The file cabinets have lots of space now.

We had a few of our students visit us this week for their Participant Progress Reports. Every student is suppose to interview with us every three months. Most do not come to see us. The ones that do are our most faithful students. They are so grateful for the the opportunity they are having to attend school. Interviews are the fun part of our calling.

From July through October student visits to our office should increase. Most of our students need renewal loans for school start dates in September and October.

Since we completed our Institute class we have no lessons to prepare. We both have a goal to complete reading the Book of Mormon before we fly home. We've been doing lots of reading in our spare time.

This Monday I will begin once again contacting our students for the month of July. There were a few students I missed contacting in June. They are students that we do not have accurate phone numbers for or they read their caller ID and choose not to answer.

June and July are proving to be the months to get married in Phnom Penh. In the last week we have received three invitations to weddings and one invitation to an engagement party.  We have not gone to too many of these events in the past. Our first wedding we went to was sometime in the first month that we arrived in Cambodia. That was because the branch President wanted help from Dale to be sure he was performing the ceremony correctly. Our only street wedding we attended was when we were in the Provinces. Remember they served "ant sauce". We have gone to a couple ring ceremonies. They were for our PEF students. We have received  invitations from complete strangers. We don't even worry about attending those.  It is rude I suppose, but weddings are almost a business. Why we are invited is because we are white and therefore "have money". The cheapest amount you can get away with is a $20 gift amount.

We did attend Kheng Chhy's wedding reception Saturday evening. He is one of the clerks at the Tuol Thom Pong Branch that we go to. We had fun. Many of the members speak English which helps the comfort level. The food was prepared outdoors but it was served in the cultural hall of the church building and it was piping hot. We felt it was safe to eat. There was air conditioning and no flies. Not even in the sauce!!

Keng Chhy and bride Sokhom.








The reception was suppose to begin at 4:30. We arrived at 5:00. Nothing got started until about 6:00. The bride and groom never made it into the reception. They were busy changing their clothes for many many photo shots. I felt bad because we would have liked to have interacted with them more. We sat with Kim Sang and his wife and baby daughter and also with Sombian the maintenance manager for the church buildings. Sombian kept us informed on what we were eating. He was a good eater. He said he likes everything. He said he has eaten bugs and dog too. No problem. We had an assortment of appetizers including slivers of pig ear. We ate the cashews and spring rolls. There was duck, and snapper. Rice and noodles and some greens. There was also sour soup. We tried a little of each of these. We ate with chopped sticks so there was no problem with worrying about eating too much. It took a very long time to eat a few grains of rice.

Cooking the wedding feast. The silver dishes behind this young man is what the sour soup was served in. The soup had shrimp, chicken and other floaty things. We opted to spoon the broth on our rice. We were not interested in the chunky stuff.

We sat at the best table (my opinion). Several of the young people were our Institute students.

Fun people we have grown to love.

More great people we will miss when we leave.

Making memories.

Groom and the grooms men.

Bride and bridesmaids.

Saying goodnight. Yet another outfit. This was the brides white dress.

Iy Rathana, Debbie, Kim Houn, and a friend.







Sunday we went to the International Branch. So many people are returning to their homes in the USA. Mackenzie Moon, our mission president's daughter, spoke in sacrament meeting. She will fly home July 5. There are eight missionaries also returning home that evening. Since she has never traveled by herself  she will travel with the returning missionaries for safety reason. Mackenzie has a sister she will stay with before beginning school at BYU.

The Rust family are also returning home to New Jersey.  Sister Rust has been working at the US Embassy doing work in the science field. Her job is coming to an end. She and her oldest daughter also spoke in sacrament meeting today. It was interesting to learn about their Cambodian adventures. The Rust's have three children ages 12,10,8. They chose to take advantage of the many Khmer holidays and did some family traveling. There motto to "do as the Khmer do". Part of that challenge was to pile on a moto. That wasn't enough, they had to crash on their moto. I call that "experience extreme".  It really wasn't in the plans. Their daughter reported that the scar on her leg will forever remind her of her Khmer experiences. Their family went camping in the jungle. She and her father got Dengue fever. They stayed with a Khmer family in a one room house and experienced life in that setting. She learned that children are children everywhere. No matter the circumstances they love to laugh and play. They compete, they get mad, they forgive and move on. She said when her parents announced they were coming to live in Cambodia for a year she was afraid but now  she hopes to one day travel the world.

Kuntheavy has been using Dale's computer and our printer to create graduation certificates for Institute and Seminary. She has not had a working printer for about five years. Dale is pushing her and Sophornn to purchase a new printer. We think Hong Kong is going to actually allow them budget money to do this. It would be incredible if this happens before we leave. Graduation is July 6 so this certificate project will soon come to an end. There may be a few late certificates to be made after graduation. Some students have not turned in their make up work.

Haem Seyha one of our PEF Students drives the BYU tuk tuk. Bun Houch Eng is keeper of the BYU tuk tuk and the gentleman in the glasses is just this really nice guy from Tuol Thom Pong Branch that does not speak English but gave Dale the biggest hug when he saw him at the wedding on Saturday.



As one of our PEF students likes to say, "I'll see you when you see me." Then we all crack up laughing.
Ha Ha, Chuckle Chuckle, Har Har, Ho,Ho,Ho.