Here's an old guy with two beautiful women. Ba Thu is the matriarch of the Vietnamese church community. She is hard-working and highly respected.

Sister Snyder is the center of attention of these young women attending the Central District Conference. Note the colorful ao dai's worn by several.

Sisters Doan and Mai at the entryway to the chapel. They are both returned missionaries.

Sister Vo Thi Gai modeling her ao dai. She finished her mission last summer.

Sarong, the tallest, is a faithful sister from one of the new Steung Mean Chey branches. Lam Sophy is from the (Viet) branch 3. Both are returned missionaries.

This is the home of Em Dung (Yoom) and his wife and two children. The home is larger than most of the homes belonging to the Vietnamese who live close to the river. It is about 12x20 feet.

Em Dung is using scrap lumber to build a loft in his home so his family has a place to sleep when annual flooding occurs. In a normal year, the water is about a foot deep on their ground floor. Note the open vents and tin roof. Em Dung is shown in the lower left corner. He sells bread from a rolling cart to make his living.

Our dear Canadian friends, Elder and Sister Ellingson, walking the red carpet just prior to their flight home. They faithfully served as the administrators of Cambodia's Perpetual Education Fund. They also taught Institute of Religion classes and loved and strengthened the people. An accomplished musician, Sister Ellingson taught piano skills to many.

Transitioning from 95 degrees (F) to the temperatures common to springtime in Alberta may be a bit challenging. :-)

Senior missionaries welcoming Elder and Sister Meier from Vancouver, Washington. They will be administering the Perpetual Education Fund. The fund pays university tuition for qualifying students who, in turn, repay the loans when they graduate and have better jobs. The Meier's are delightful people who are already heavily involved in the work.

Chhoeun Kunthea has a sad story. Since he works at the mission home, he is frequently queried about whether or not he has a girl friend. Sister Snyder asked him the other day and he said, "Not yet". She said, "But you're so cute you should have lots of girls looking at you." He hung his head and responded, "Sometimes being cute just isn't enough."

For all the men reading this, "Isn't that the truth!!??"

Vietnamese children singing at The School of Hope this week to celebrate some of the structural improvements made by Latter-day Saint Charities. The school is close to the river and the November flood waters caused the school's support posts to tilt. At the left of the photo, you can see the angle difference between one of the old posts and a new one.

The view from the front of the school.

Two of our favorite missionaries, Elders Nebeker and Garlick, with a Battambang family just before a baptism. Elder Nebeker flew to Phnom Penh with us in July 2010, and we recently found out that Elder Garlick and I are related through our (Montana) family roots. Battambang is the second largest city (250,000) in Cambodia. This photo was taken at the recently-constructed district center building.

Elder Garlick took this photo of one of the side streets in Battambang.

We greeted Elder and Sister Rhyne (next to Sister Snyder) this week at the Phnom Penh airport. They will be Family History specialists for Cambodia. Elder Rhyne served as the president of the Vladivostok, Russia mission from 2004-07. From the left, behind us, are the Shelley's (member/leader support in Kampong Cham), Henderson's (Humanitarian), Ellingson's (Perpetual Education Fund), Greer's (member/leader support in Siem Reap), Tuck's (member/leader support in Takhmao), two newly-arrived Viet speaking missionaries from Utah (Elders Pham and Nguyen) and President and Sister Smedley. We now have 12 senior couples serving in the Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission.

All the senior couples stopped for dinner at Mike's Burger and spied this young couple ready to assault Mike's famous Crazy II burger. They must have thought the paparazzi had arrived with all the cameras flashing, but were good sports throughout. We didn't stay to see their consumption strategy.

The highlight of this last week was visiting Kim Loan, 'Thyda', who suffers with incurable cancer. We had a fun hour where she showed us a slide show she had made, we played a riotous game (see next posts), and Dave Sorken told the story of how he and his wife, Charlene, first met Thyda. Quiet and unassuming, the Sorkens have dearly loved Thyda for the last six years and have made multiple trips to Cambodia to see her. They are special people sent by a loving Heavenly Father to care for and comfort Thyda as she completes her life's journey.

Elder Sanford brought a game (similar to Jenga?) that has three rectangular blocks to each level and the object is to remove blocks from the interior and re-stack them on top. The one whose 'removal' topples the stack is the loser. Sister Snyder is taking this very seriously as Thyda gives advice. Thyda acquitted herself very honorably in the turns she took. She had a steady hand!

Sister Snyder snapped this photo just as Elder Sanford toppled the stack.

Elder and Sister Greer arriving in Phnom Penh. She's wearing the red blouse and he's wearing the white shirt--okay, the long-sleeved white shirt. They are great folks who live two blocks from the MTC in Provo. They are being assigned as member/leader support in Siem Reap and are staying at the home of the Tuck's (far right couple) for a few days before heading north.

Since the Greer's arrived just before noon, it only made sense to stop for lunch at the iconic Mike's Burger. (Where else would one eat in Cambodia?) Mike himself took a photo of us to use on his next business card. He can be viewed in the upper left corner of this photo.

Nine new missionaries at the Phnom Penh airport, including Elder Garlick (4th from left) who, as it turns out, is Elder Snyder's cousin (twice removed?) with roots in Montana. His mother, Kay, emailed us after talking to my brother, Dennis. Elder Garlick has been assigned to Battambang as the junior companion to Elder Nebeker with whom we flew to Cambodia 'way back' in July 2010. The two young men without suit coats are the Assistants to the President, Elders Mickelsen and Hill.

A typical scene in the mission office during the transfers that occur when new missionaries arrive and old ones depart. Happy bedlam might be a good way to describe it as these young servants of the Lord compare notes while waiting for the signal to depart to new branch assignments. Sister Snyder (the photographer) treats them as she did her own teenagers--she loves them and they love her.