Cambodia Calls

Weeks 9, 10, 11

This Sunday, June 27 was a special one for the Saints in Cambodia. It has been 25 years since President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the country of Cambodia for the preaching of the gospel. Elder Randy and Sister Karen Jensen put together a very nice powerpoint presentation to be accessed by all the members here in Cambodia. We went to the mission home to watch this presentation which included faith-promoting interviews with many of the pioneers in the church here, among them, Vichit of whom was mentioned in a previous post. Several missionary pictures were included as well as a rendition of ''Called to Serve'' sung by our current missionaries. Following the presentation the missionaries that were viewing online were able to say another good-bye to President and Sister Lewis.

A couple of years ago President Nelson announced that a temple would be built here in Cambodia. Hopefully groundbreaking will take place this fall. The site has been chosen and the Saints are anxiously waiting. There are currently 17,000 members of the church in Cambodia with numbers rising each weekend with faithful baptisms.

Dan spent the bulk of the week visiting and finalizing plans for the Prea Reang Hospital water, incinerator and bathroom project with our translators and potential contractors, and in Bati at the Champei Health Center and Chumreas Pen for some of the same. Cleanliness is a hard thing to teach when it has never been much a part of their culture so hopefully some of the equipment will provide them with a sense of pride and they will, with prodding, want to keep everything clean and in good working order.

As a final farewell, we had dinner at the Jensen's apartment Monday night to say goodbye to the Lewis's. Jensens and Lewises lived in the same neighborhood in Arizona for years, raising their kids together. Some fun facts about the Lewises: before their mission he was the mayor of Gilbert, Arizona; his dad was Ben Lewis, former VP at BYU. She raised 8 children, one adopted from Africa; she's working on her PhD-even while being the president's wife! Her parents have a building at Tuacahn named after them (Smoot), and her sister is Mindy Smoot Robbins who is a singer and actress at Tuacahn. The next night we waved our white hankies to them as they traveled out of the parking lot to the airport.

We met with His Excellency Sun Chantal with Vichit and Elder Meurs on Zoom to talk about the hospital in Koh Thom. It is old and in need of much work so HE asked if it would be better to bulldoze the hospital or to renovate it. We scheduled a time when he could come to the hospital to take a 'tour'. We did that on Wednesday along with several of his entourage and the hospital operations director. Also present were several people from Camette Hospital, a progressive and modern hospital here in the city who have agreed to partner and train people as a sister hospital to Koh Thom. After a long discussion and a powerpoint presentation that Dan put together it was decided that it would be better to tear down the existing hospital and build a new one. However, the church usually doesn't build buildings: we provide equipment and some maintenance. HE has agreed to find ways to fund the new building. We have to figure out how to upgrade the health centers in the meantime so they can handle the increased load until the new hospital can be built.

Another couple completed their mission this week, Doug and Debra Cross who were the mission secretary and nurse. The Jensens, who are Public Affairs, are taking over until the Yans arrive in a few weeks to begin their duties. As it now stands, there are only two couples here in Phnom Penh and one in Kampong Cham, a few hours away. Steve and Vicki Lewis have been a huge help to us as we've struggled to get on our feet, but they will be leaving in September and will be replaced by the Andersons.

We spend an incredible amount of time doing the necessary paperwork to get our projects approved by both Salt Lake City and Hong Kong, the area office. It's all very tedious work and has to be done just right. Many times Dan will happily submit a project at night and wake up in the morning only to find out that the paperwork has been chopped up and has to be redone. He is getting better but we look forward to the time when it passes muster the first time.

The new visas finally came so Virak from the service center came to take us to get our drivers' licenses. He picked us up at 10 AM but realized 10 minutes into the drive that he'd forgotten to bring my photos for the license, different from the US! He decided it would be faster to find a place enroute to get a new photo than to go back to the office. Wrong! By the time we found a place and got to the license place it was 11:30 and they were closing for lunch. They said to come back at 1. We came back and they said they were in a meeting--go to another place that will issue the license. We arrived at the other place at 1:30 and they said they didn't open until 2, so we waited. At 2 they said they were in a meeting. So we waited until 2:30 when they finally began the very tedious process. We paid them $2 directly for applying for the license, then after the paperwork and the eye test we had to go to another place to make a payment for the actual license, then back to the drivers' license place where we finally got our licenses. We left the building at 3:30! So I won't complain about Farmington anymore! Dan drove home during heavy traffic and we arrived in one piece!

We had our two translators and their girlfriends over for dinner on Saturday night. One of them is engaged but can't get their marriage license because her birth certificate is lost. It is a long and nearly impossible task to get a new one so they have no idea when they will be able to marry. Sad!

Because the health centers will have to take up the slack when the hospital is razed we went to visit all 12 of them on a Monday with an emissary of Her Excellency, Koy Sadony who was representing HE, several people from her team, several people from the hospital again and two official photographers, one with a drone. We started at 8:30 at health center #1 and didn't finish #12 until 7:30, in a driving rainstorm! We were able to assess the needs of the needs of the health centers and apprise them a bit of what will be happening. Her Excellency's emissary wasn't feeling well after the first visit so had to return back to PP. I don't blame him!

We picked up along with the Jensen's 3 new elders from the US from their quarantine hotel and went directly to a baptism Sunday of a wonderful man from another country that we can't talk about due to his inherent religious status. The baptism was zoomed to several people around Cambodia, France, Canada and Woods Cross Utah. Elder Weiler from Woods Cross performed the baptism which was a very sacred and wonderful experience for all who attended, including Elder Weiler's parents by Zoom. Members of the Pathways program were all in attendance as this man is a student of Pathways.

After the meeting we went back to our apartment where we fed four sister missionaries living in our building. One of the sisters, Sister Son told us of her conversion. She and her brother grew up in an orphanage that was run by some Latter-day Saints. Because of their influence she and her brother joined the church. Her brother served a mission in the US and she has been on her mission about 5 months. It is amazing and humbling to see the lengths some of these missionaries go through to join the church and what sacrifices they make. May I never take my membership for granted!

The next morning a secretary in the mission home came in not feeling well. The new president panicked, tested her--positive, so sent everyone home to quarantine. He even ordered the new missionaries back to quarantine even though they had left the building before she came to work! Covid is very much feared here and lots of misinformation abounds. Dan was able to talk to the president regarding the guidelines as outlined by the CDC as well as the church and the missionaries were allowed back out and things were relaxed a bit.

Dan has been going to the health centers nearly every day this week meeting with contractors and evaluating incinerators, wells and following up on plans to renovate health centers in preparation for the tear-down of the current hospital in Koh Thom. Dan was tasked with getting a rough idea of the cost of renovating these Health Centers, so the Church and HE can decide who can cover what in the renovation stage. I have taken on the task of learning Excel and making master equipment lists, etc. and will hopefully be able to take some of the paperwork load off of Dan. So now we plan in earnest!!

A few pics corresponding to this timeframe: