Sister Snyder enjoying her first tuk tuk ride. Note the fan for any extra air conditioning needed, and the driver's helmet.

This is a Cambodian taxi. Tuk tuks are everywhere, and their drivers anxious to serve. The 12-passenger van I drive around is in the background

This one-level market is filled with exotic items from all points international--paintings, wood and soapstone carvings, fancy plates, baskets, tapestries, jewelry, purses, scarves, etc. The walls of merchandise are so packed that vendors have to crawl in and over their wares to get to needed items. When asked her permission to take the photo, she surprised Sister Snyder by responding, "Go for it!"

This building was completed and dedicated about four months ago. The photo was taken by the former office couple, Elder and Sister Fairchild. They are wonderful people who went to great lengths to ensure our smooth transition to life in Cambodia.

Our mission will pass quickly if all weeks are as busy as this one. We have been learning our responsibilities while working through the daily administrative tasks associated with supporting mission operations. I handle finances and Sister Snyder does correspondence, visa management, travel, and other things. We work with wonderful people, all under the direction of our mission president and his wife. They are spiritual and down-to-earth, dedicated in their service to the Lord.

It was a special experience this week to facilitate a couple of the financial details surrounding the upcoming temple trips to Manila of families from the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh branches.

In addition to almost 100 young proselyting missionaries (age 19-24), we have ten senior couples who work in a variety of assignments, including humanitarian, perpetual education fund, welfare and service operations. Of recent note has been their work with non-governmental organizations (NGO's) in projects related to wheelchair distribution, increasing rice production, teaching hygiene to Cambodian children in outlying provinces, distributing school materials, and facilitating education and job training.

This week, one of the senior couples coordinated with a young Boy Scout from Colorado whose Eagle Scout project was to provide needed eyeglasses to Cambodian orphans. He accompanied his family who were here to greet his missionary brother upon the completion of his mission and, while here, personally presented an orphanage with 500 pairs of eyeglasses--truly heart-warming.

Sister Snyder managed to take a little time off to go to a couple of markets, and the below photos will give some of the flavor of those trips.

Our spiritual highlight this week was attending Sunday services at the Takhmao Branch. We were given a few moments to introduce ourselves in sacrament meeting. Sister Snyder created quite a stir when she announced our 25 grandchildren, and the people were very tolerant and encouraging of my attempt to speak a few phrases in the Khmae language.

They had a baptismal service for four people right after our meetings, and ended that service by inviting all four to the pulpit to bear their testimonies and, after the closing prayer, the congregation filed past them to express their love and respect via the traditional "cum riap sua" greeting of hands pressed together just below the nose.

This is the view from our kitchen window. We live on the second floor of the City Palace apartments. Our unit has one bedroom, a bathroom, and a combination kitchen and living room. We have a fridge, microwave and an all-important water cooler with an extra 15 containers of water stored on our balcony. We're in the rainy season so daily temperatures range from the high 80s to low 90s. Our bathroom has a 5-gallon hot water heater, but there's no hot water in the kitchen so Sister Snyder bought a big tea kettle to heat water for washing dishes. There is an A/C unit in our bedroom so we can be cool at night. The rest of the apartment gets a little muggy, but we have fans to keep the air moving. As time goes by, we'll become acclimated and it won't seem so hot and humid. There are two other senior missionary couples in our building, and we all enjoyed homemade pie and ice cream during a little get-together last night.

Newly-arrived missionaries with President and Sister Smedley at Phnom Penh International Airport. The younger missionaries spent more than two months in intensive language training in Provo. Four of them were trained to speak Vietnamese and four to speak the Khmae (Cambodian) language. There are many Vietnamese who have migrated to Cambodia and joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Cambodian Welcome

After a spiritually-rewarding nine days at the Mission Training Center in Provo, Utah, Elder and Sister Snyder accompanied eight young missionaries on the long flight to Phnom Penh via Los Angeles and Taipei. We were greeted at Phnom Penh International Airport by our mission president and his wife, and a contingent of other missionaries. We then experienced the marvelous cacophony of thousands of motorbikes ("motos"), bicycles, and small cars and trucks of every description somehow flowing together without mishap during the 30-minute drive to the mission home.

We've spent the last two days settling into our small apartment, and doing a little shopping. The Cambodians we've met thus far are extraordinarily gentle and solicitous of our needs. They smile at our attempts to speak a few words in their language, and are eager to communicate.

We're hoping to have time to post some of the stories of the people we meet, but wanted to send this brief message to let everyone know that we've arrived safely, and are happily acclimating ourselves to 1001 new sights, sounds and smells. As stated by the famous Dorothy, "We're not in Kansas anymore"!