My Missionary Companion

Sometimes as transfer time approaches, senior missionaries joke about changing companions.  We are so happy to be together. I tell the young missionaries all the time that when they go home and get married they are choosing their senior mission companion. ' Make sure they are mission material!'

I love my companion because he is full of faith and love

And the kids love him,

And he works so hard,  (He is cleaning his shoes and my shoes from mud.)

(And planting rice.)

And serves hard,

And plays hard,

And looks good in Cambodia,

And he lost money on this negotiation,

And we are in this together.

Morning traffic in Battambang

Sister Spencer tries to take a walk between 5:30 and 6:30 every morning. It is the coolest time of day, perhaps in more ways than one.  She will always see interesting things and sometimes even gets a picture or two.

 If you look closely at this picture, you will see that passenger on the moto is holding a chicken on the left side.

Even tough it is early, there is already a lot of traffic. None of the intersections have any traffic control devices so it is a free-for-all with the larger vehicles apparently having the right of way.  Once you drive in Cambodia awhile you begin to sense the rhythm of the traffic and you begin to recognize some kind of order.  The great majority of the vehicles in Cambodia are either bicycles or small motorbikes/motorcycles called motos. 

 Here is a dad taking his son to school with a little one coming along. Children are often sitting or standing on the front of the motos just behind the handlebars.  We have seen as many as six on a moto.

This cute little boy sandwiched between the women is waving at me. Some women wear pajamas all day. (I wonder if they come with skirts so I could wear some pjs with my missionary tag.)

 The river is more serene with a single ferry.

A visit from an apostle

This post is a little late in coming.

Elder Jeffery R. Holland of the twelve apostles visited Cambodia in late August.  He presided over four hours of training for priesthood leaders on Saturday, a two-hour general session on Sunday morning and a two-hour meeting with all the missionaries serving in Cambodia Sunday afternoon.  It was a wonderful experience.

The Sunday morning general session was attended by a couple thousand Cambodian members of the Church.  Here is a view from behind Elder Holland and other visiting authorities looking out at the large audience of the faithful.  The missionaries were asked to sit at the very back.

The Sunday afternoon session with the missionaries was very powerful.  The missionaries will carry its impact for a long time.  A group photo was taken of all the missionaries in Cambodia surrounding Elder Holland. We are so privileged to serve among them.

After the group picture, we were able to shake hands with an apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Elder Holland just exudes love and compassion. We love him.

For missionary moms (and dads):  Here are some random missionary pictures from the luncheon that preceded the missionary session with Elder Holland.

Powerful sisters

Great  Khmer elders

More missionaries

The two tallest missionaries in Cambodia.

Final shots of some of the senior missionaries.

All in all, it was a spiritually exhilarating two days.

Our Chapel in Battambang

This post will give you a sense of the physical facilities serving the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Battambang.  This is where we spend approximately nine hours each Sunday because we attend the church meetings of all three branches that meet here. Also, we spend additional time here during the week as we teach piano, support the weekly English class and attend other meetings.

The building and lot are surrounded by a wall with entrance through a single gated driveway.  There is a guard there 24 hours a day.  There are signs on either side of the gate, one in Khmer and the other in English. The blue sign invites people to learn English on Wednesday evenings from 5:00-6:30 PM
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These are the steps at the main entrance.  It is a favorite place for group photos.  This is one taken at our first Zone Conference.

Here are various views of the building and the large parking lot required by the government.  Our car is the only one parked there most Sundays.  The many motos, bicycles, and a few tuk tuks that bring members to church are all parked in a relatively small area.

These are shots of an interior classroom and the chapel area.  The church building is large and quite beautiful in a functional way.  During most times during the day or evening there are members, usually young people there, if only for personal social purposes. 

It is a great blessing for the local members to have such a building to worship in - a building that would be far beyond their means to provide for themselves.

Transplanting rice

One of the places we love to visit is about 45 min away from Battambang. There are several wonderful members in the same neighborhood. When we visit with the young elders, at least two families meet together so no one has enough plastic chairs for everyone to sit on. It is fun to see them bringing their own chairs from across the street. It is like one big family joined by their common commitments.  In one of our recent meetings, one of the member sisters mentioned that she had just come from planting rice.  The Elders offered to help her and so we arranged to bring a crew of eight missionaries and a couple of others the following week.

The rice field that needed our help was some distance from the home of the member so we all got on a trailer pulled a two-wheeled tractor. 

With delightful kids tagging along, we were all ready to get out into those fields in our hats to give us a little protection from the sun and Khmer scarves to help wipe away the sweat. It was quite a crew and we hoped that we would be able to do more good than harm.

Everyone got into the muddy water with bare feet and took bundles of rice plants and transplanted them to the sparse area so that it will fill in.  It was all good muddy fun!

We love visiting the members

One of our favorite activities is visiting people with the young missionaries and sometimes on our own even though our facility with the language is pretty limited.  Some of these members are recent converts, some are very active, and some are less active.  We could post many pictures and notes and we love everyone we visit, but we will limit this blog post to just a few of our favorites.

Several members of the Church we have visited with elders and sisters are women in wheelchairs who are involved in playing basketball at a grant-funded rehab center on Fridays and Saturdays.  They receive a little money for their participation. On one Friday we were invited to come see them play.  It was fun to watch.  We were surprised at how aggressive some of the players were.  A couple of missionaries joined our cheering section for a few minutes.

Another of our favorite visits is to our "Mango farmer."  Even though the mango orchard at which he works is over an hour drive away with the last stretch over very rough dirt road, we love to visit him.  He spreads out a tarp to produce an instant "living room" for our visit.  He is a recent convert, and even though it is difficult for him to come to church each week, he has great spiritual depth.  We were also anxious to check out the two-wheeled tractor,  These are ubiquitous here and used for all sorts of things.

We also love going to a place we call "the jungle."  Very sweet members live in this area in several very humble homes.  We generally meet with women here because husbands are away seeking work in Thailand.  They cook outside over wood fires.  On the occasion pictured above, they were making rice cakes which they sell at a nearby school.  They were kind enough to share some with us and we were brave enough to eat them.  Several of these women are illiterate (and one is deaf). One of our goals is to find a way to set up a literacy program in the area so that they can prepare themselves to find better employment opportunities.

Here is a wonderful family with four children but the parents look after several nephews as well.  Both parents are in wheelchairs but they try to be very independent since there is no real government support for them.  The father repairs electronic equipment.  The kids are delightful and always happy to see us whether we are with the young missionaries or not.  They are not getting a good education, however, as evidenced by the fact that the 12-year old twin boys struggle to read.  We love them.