Food in Abundance...Then Why Do I Have So Few Choices?

19 April 2016

Food. I have an ongoing love-hate relationship!   Food will strengthen you but too much can weaken you.   It can comfort you but an excess will depress you.   Food can serve as a greeting, as well as, a good-bye.   What a fickeled thing food can be.

Phnom Penh is laced with food carts (Cambodian fast food), grocery stores and restaurants.   You will see beautiful, orderly stacks of fruits and vegetables displayed as sidewalk stands.  No matter how attractive that fruit is, I still have to wash it all in bleach water before we eat it. 

there is also the drink carts... corn on the cob carts....

 

a multitude of rice carts..... noodle carts.... bread carts..... dumpling carts....

  
You can get pig ears (not the deep fried, sugar coated, cinnamon sprinkled kind either!), chicken feet, intestines, tongue, Crickets, spiders, and an even greater multitude of unidentifiable things.   Thank Goodness the carts are forbidden to eat from within the Mission!   Food is everywhere!  

It is so interesting to go into the food stores of Cambodia.   Just because it is a grocery store doesn't mean that you won't find some of the same "cart" items.   There are many grocery stores.   Three stores that we frequent due to their marketing of North American brands.   It is not unusual to see a Kirkland brand on the shelf or Campbell's soups.

Although, the soups they stock are so obscure!  Cream Style Corn w/ Mushrooms??? Really?  Who buys that?  You can readily find Cream of Celery soup, most of the time find Cream of Mushroom soup, and rarely find Cream of Chicken soup.   I quickly surmised that the Khmer really don't have an understanding of the casserole!
Grocery shopping is a multi-cultural event.  There is Korean products.....

There are Khmer products..... 

Chinese products.....

I can find regular chickens (although they are the scrawniest chickens I have ever seen). And then right next to them are the BLACK chickens.  And they are nasty looking.  I won't even pick up the packages! 

Eggs also come in a variety of different colors over and above the white or brown eggs

What about pink eggs?   Never tried pink eggs yet either!!!

But my all time favorite that makes me shutter are the BLACK eggs rolled in some sort of salt... like that would make them more appetizing! 

 We see plenty of familiar products...

 And certainly rows

and rows of foods that I wish I had Fiona, our sweet little Taiwanese daughter-in-law,  at my side to help me know what to use

. 

Honestly, I think we should go back to the days of Abraham and the first recorded Relief Society Luncheon served by Sarah (Genesis 18).  Sarah didn't have to go to any grocery store.  She didn't have to fret over a menu, nor did she have any national food guide she had to follow.  She didn't care if there was too much salt or extra additives.   She didn't have to worry about cholesterol, purines, or blood-sugar counts.   She just baked bread and Abraham chose a calf and had it cooked!   I'm not sure abundance and lots of choices has made us wiser.           

Easter....do I need a do-over?

27 March 2016

I am usually annoyed by the commercialism that the Easter holiday brings but, this year, I even feel cheated from that part of the holiday.  Not one chocolate bunny or colored egg.

Not one store had multi-colored baskets with fake green, pink, or yellow grass.

I even feel cheated of being able to roll my eyes at the little girl's basket created by the OCD mother who was obviously tutored by Martha Stewart herself (at least on-line!)! 

There was no build-up to the holiday at all.   Now that I think of it.... Good Friday was just a regular end of the week kind of day! 

It's Easter Sunday but I have seen no evidence of that!  We have gone from dawn to dusk and my Sunday is finished.  We attended two different Branches today.   Six hours of Church but not one mention of the Last Supper.

Not once did I hear about Gethsemane or Peter's anguish because of his predicted denials.

 
Not one talk focused on the Savior and His incredible, selfless, atoning sacrifice. No mention of a crown of thorns

or nails in His hands.

Neither in Sunday School or Relief Society was any word of His life or death.  I left both Church buildings thinking that this is the most empty Easter Sunday I have ever experienced.  How could a whole country miss Easter?

Then I was reminded (again)... I keep forgetting that many of our Cambodians are first-generation Latter-day Saints.  They know nothing about Christian holidays.   My bubbled shelter is showing, isn't it?   Just because I live in a Christian world doesn't mean everybody else does.   So Cambodia continues to surprise me and teach me every day.  

I have thought about today's Conference talks that were at the center of my Sabbath day.  They were about faith in Jesus Christ and the happiness and joy that He brings.  The question, "What Lack I Yet?" was also a focus .... wondering if I am really brave enough to sincerely ask that question?  And ultimately, would I be able to hear the answer and be obedient "with exactness" and allow the atonement to help me make that change? 

Maybe that's not such a bad Easter message anyway?!   

One Such Little Child

11 March 2016

In one of those far away moments when the disciples were the captive audience of the Savior they asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
As you read these scriptures you get the feeling that there was no hesitation when the Savior responded by calling a little child to him and "set him in the midst of them" and began to teach,
            "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the 
             kingdom of heaven.  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, 
             the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
Then He identified the reward of such behavior,
           "And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me."  
Last week we stood among the "greatest in the kingdom of heaven".

It started with Elder and Sister Meinzer, our LDS Charities Sr. couple.   They had heard of a little school up in the hills of Cambodia that needed school supplies and clean water.   It is a one-room school with 110 students.  Because the one-room won't hold all 110 students at a time they split the day with 55 students in the morning and 55 students in the afternoon.   The Meinzers asked if the Sr. couples wanted to be part of a service project.   Of course, we said, yes.  We started with filling 110 backpacks with school supplies.

We got help from several missionaries throughout the day at the mission office.  Elder Meinzer in the forefront of this picture could talk an Eskimo into building a bonfire in the middle of his igloo!

  Pencils, pens, paper, rulers, erasers, colored pencils and some candies.... they were all there and ready to be assembled in the backpacks. 

The missionaries were in place ready to work.

This was the last day for some of these missionaries.    They went home the next day.

What a great way to complete your mission! 

Elder Meinzer and Elder Leavitt were boxing up the backpacks.  The parents of one of the missionaries who were going home came with a suitcase full of soccer balls and donated some to our little school.  So our four Sr. couples and President and Sister Christensen loaded with 110 backpacks, 3 huge whiteboards with markers, 3 water filters, and 6 soccer balls headed out of Phnom Penh.  It took us 3.5 hours to drive to the Phum Thmey Kirirom Primary School.

From the very moment we arrived I was overwhelmed with the evident presence of the Spirit. I felt as if the Holy Ghost were a common and welcome guest here where no introductions would be necessary.  Large, beautiful canopies of trees embraced the school, but this hardly compared to the open arms filled with abounding love we were about to receive from the school children.  When we got there the school children, their parents and their siblings were all there.   The children formed two lines and as their honored guests we were to walk down the path they had just formed.  The children clapped and cheered as we walked by.

 

This is the school.  It literally is one-room...nothing else.  But this is where the education takes place.   This where their little lives change because they can read, write, and add.

The teacher was so humble and appreciative of the gifts.  

Two little girls used their new supplies to draw me a picture.  They each wrote their name and "I love you" on the papers.   

Unequivocally, this has been the best day of my mission... the day I got to rub shoulders with "the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven" and reap the reward offered because of  "one such little child"!

Tender Mercies and Miracles

20 Feb 2016

I believe that God talks to us every day in some way.   It is just up to us to see it, recognize it, and have an awareness of the possibility.    It could be a random thought, a small act of kindness, a smile, an act of generosity, or a prompting.

Recently, Sister Chirstensen was asked and she in turn asked me,  "what is the biggest miracle that you have seen since you have been in Cambodia?"

I had to think about that. Was it just that I got off of the plane last June and have stayed?   Was it that we didn't get washed down the street and into the ocean during the rainy season?   Was it that we have survived driving and walking in the unruly traffic of Phnom Penh?  As miraculous as this may sound they were mostly just problematic!

Then it became very clear to me, its not the miracles that have been the most impressive but instead the daily flow of the Lord's tender mercies.
 
              " ....But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the 
              Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make 
              them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."   1 Nephi 1:20 

It seems that certainly wherever there are missionaries this scripture rings true.  Such as daily communications..... as broken as their English is and as non-existent as my Khmer is we always seem to be able to understand one another when needed.


In our Vietnamese Branches, they love us and voice that readily and often.  Their open and loving arms welcome us each Sunday which seems to soften the ridiculous things that they do in Church....like answering their phones during Sacrament Prayers, or popping the top of a can of pop and slurping it back during a talk in Sacrament Service,  getting up in the middle of a Sunday meeting to go buy from a drink cart and then bringing the drink into the meeting.  The "tender mercy" of nothing more than my head shake and a softened heart has gone a long way helping to teach the Lord's way.  (Instead of my usual method of "Are you NUTS?" "You can't do that in Church!" or my most frequently used, "What is the matter with you?" ) Tender mercies......

Two of my most favorite "tender mercies" have recently taken place with local missionaries on their way to the MTC.   Elder Ey (ee) was on his way to the Provo MTC.   This is a young missionary that is from the Provinces.  Battambang is his home.  This is about 5 hours NW of Phnom Penh.   His two months serving in the Phnom Penh Mission prior to receiving his USA visa was the first time that he had ever left Battambang.  It was as if we had taking him right off the rice paddies  just to put him on an airplane for 24 hours with 2 connecting flights in foreign countries thousands of miles away with little to no English skills.   The AP's and I gave Elder Ey a crash course on the how-to's of flying.   I had pictures printed of what to look for, airline logos, key airport phrases written in English and translated in Khmer for this missionary.   We took him to the airport armed as best as we could but deep down inside I knew it would not be enough without divine help.   And sure enough that divine help came at the SLC airport.

Elder Ey was tired, confused and lost.  He was looking for the Shuttle to take him to the MTC.   Just then a woman walked past him and noticed his name tag that was in Khmer.   She was a very good friend of President and Sister Christensen and had recently been in Cambodia.   She asked Elder Ey if he was from Cambodia and he acknowledged that he was and was looking for the MTC shuttle bus.   She told him that she was on her way to that very same shuttle bus and would help him get there.

Another tender mercy hinged around a missionary heading to the Manila MTC was equally as sweet.  Elder Danh is a Cambodian-Vietnamese, meaning that he is a Viet that has lived in Cambodia all his life.  He was carrying a brand new Vietnamese passport.   When he went to Viet Nam before his mission to visit family he failed to stop at the border to get his proper stamps on his Vietnamese passport from the Cambodia side.   So when he got to the airport they would not let him fly until the passport was properly stamped.   Through a few phone calls we realized that his only recourse was to go back to the border and get the proper stamps and re-schedule his flight for later that night so that he could still make his MTC date. The next problem was that it is a 3 hour bus ride one way or a 2 hour car ride one way.   His new flight (and the last flight of the night to Manila) was at 7:30pm.  It was noon when Elder Leavitt and I drove out of town with  Elder Danh heading to the Viet Nam border.   It was a spectacular drive.   If the traffic hadn't been so heavy and the road hadn't been pocked with multiple potholes it wouldn't have taken any longer than an hour to drive it.  We had to pass through ten or more single lane, rickety, old bridges.   The bridges loudly clattered as we drove across them and I prayed that we would not be it's "last straw"!  (I am pretty sure that was a miracle!)
We got him to the border where he had made an arrangement to meet his cousin who could take him across the line.  Elder Leavitt and I could only stand on the outside looking in because neither of us had a visa to cross into Viet Nam.   We allowed Elder Danh to break 4 or more hard and fast missionary rules within 15-20 minutes!!!   He walked through this field alone (no shoulder to shoulder companion), then walked out of sight, and came barreling  through the field with his cousin on the back of his moto!  He took off is name tag and his tie (said it made his look like a casino worker!) and it seemed like he was riding "off into the sunset" the rest of the way across the border.  It was an aweful 20 minutes.   I prayed every minute, "PLEASE come back!"  "PLEASE don't stay over there!"  "PLEASE don't make me phone President Christensen and tell him I have lost you!"
Well, he did come back!   By 2:40 pm we were on our way back to Phnom Penh.  We were on the very south of Phnom Penh by 4:45pm.   This is the very highest traffic times for the city.  It has taken us an hour or more to get to the airport from the mission office (the center of Phnom Penh) where in normal traffic it is a 30 minute trip.  Interestingly, the traffic seemed to part like the Red Sea as Elder Danh directed Elder Leavitt to the airport through some little community roads only known by local natives to Phnom Penh.   We were at the airport by 6pm.   The tender mercies did not stop there.   We got Elder Danh checked in but we still did not have a flight itinerary for him.   He needed to make a connections in Bangkok.  I was on the phone with the office to see if I could get the itinerary so I could tell him the name and number of the flight in Bangkok.   As I was on the phone in the middle of the airport a woman walked by and over heard our dilemma.  A stranger out of the blue said, "Do you need help?   I can help him get to his next flight.  I fly all the time."   I could do nothing more than to say "yes" and turn this sweet faithful missionary over to her care.  He made it on time to the MTC the next morning. 

The Lord's hand was all over this day and all over this young priesthood-bearing missionary that He had chosen.  His tender mercies have been abundant and clearly in sight.  I am grateful to have, as Sister Christensen put it, "a front-row seat" to watch it all happen.