New Mission President

Introducing the new mission president and his wife, President and Sister Smedley. We will be meeting these folks in just two weeks (unbelievable!) when we go to pick Ben up from the Mission Home. They have invited us and other missionaries' families to dinner on Friday evening, after which they will release Ben to our care until he returns home to Spokane for his official release by President Tait from the Spokane Washington West Stake.

The Adventures of Flat Christopher

from email date July 14, 2009

(We had mailed "flat Christopher" to Ben at the end of April...)

hey, i just got "flat" christopher in the mail yesterday...that took awhile. there were two stamps on the front of the envelope that said "mail missent to boroko papau new guinea" so i'm guessing that had something to do with the delay, huh? :) i checked the address you wrote and there was nothing wrong with it, so i wonder what happened...oops. anyway, i took a couple pictures with the cutout just a second ago next to the independence monument here in downtown phnom penh, and i emailed them to you. i noticed that they wanted them back if not by may 1st as the due date said, at least before the end of the school year, and not smack dab in the middle of summer vacation. maybe christopher's 3rd grade teacher will have some use of it? ;)

Final Transfer - Phnom Penh to Kien Svay

from email dated 19 May 2009

okay; here's the transfer update.

i don't know if i'll run down the whole thing for you as you don't know names and places, but i'll give you the skinny. i'm going to a place called kien svay, a little bit outside the city with another khmer companion named elder leng. i really couldn't be happier, being with a khmer companion and out in a peaceful, country-side place for my last area, in a reportedly-strong branch where one of my companions, the former elder nhoem lives. that'll be way fun. i'll enjoy not speaking any english again. there are 11 new missionaries coming on two different days this weekend which will make for mayhem at the mission home and crazy transfers throughout the mission. lots of changes, but it's nice to know my fifth and final area...my resting place if you will. haha. it's weird to be talking about such things; after all, i just got here, right?

things here are quite peachy, though a bit tiring with the three of us together covering a total of 4 areas in two branches on our bikes. it's hard to get all the people in that we have planned day by day in both 7th and 8th branch. quite busy, and also quite sweaty. that's nothing new, though.

the pictures are of two of the little people i've really grown to like in my time here in 8th branch. they really like me, too.

love tons,

Elder B Gilbert P

Mangoes and Chicken

from email dated April 7, 2009

i have one funny story this week. members and investigators always love their elders and always love to show their love by giving us food. they especially seem to love us during mango season. we get tons and tons of mangos, nearly every day. we've actually started giving them away because there's no way we can keep up with them all. my khmer mom even came down from siem reap to eigth branch to see me with a bag full of mangos and said she wants to ship a whole box but i'd have to go pick it up at the bus station. yeah, lots of mangos. anyway, that's normal, the mangos. what's not normal is what happened with a recent convert last friday. we just got done teacher her when she asked us if we like chicken..."sure, chicken's great", we said unknowingly. she went and caught a live chicken (she's got tons of them) and tied its legs and gave us the whole darn thing. "you just cut its throat, boil it, pluck the feathers, and cook it however you want",she said. oh yeah, easy enough i guess, though i didn't want that mess in our house. i did however take the chicken; i stuck it in the basket on the front of my bike and rode to the next appointment. at the end of the day we got another member to fix the chicken for us and take most of the meat (i figured butchering a chicken myself would make a nice mess of blood and feathers i didn't much feel like cleaning up). we ate some of it anyway, and tasty it was. yeah, i'm not sure how many elders have ever gotten live chickens from those they teach...we did. :) i'll attach a picture for you.

Ben the Elder P, with a G in the middle

Baptisms

from e-mail dated 3-25-2009

the other is a new convert we just baptized last week. two more this week, and one the week after. the work progresses, even in buddhist countries.

Editor's Note (mep) These other pictures are not from the 8th branch; but since it's been awhile since we've received a CD of pictures and since I've not posted any of these other baptism pictures previously, this seems like an appropriate place for them.

from e-mail dated 2-29-2009

attendance here in 8th branch is climbing, which is a good sign; we just had 88 people last sunday, the highest since i've been here. we have ridiculous numbers of investigators every sunday for the past month as well, over 10 people at church every single week. we have several baptisms lined up for march and more for april. it's amazing what can happen when you start to feel comfortable speaking the language and can actually have your personality back, bilingually. i can't tell you how many times these past few weeks people have done double-takes, believing themselves bamboozled by some magic trickery seeing one thing and hearing another, looking at me and listening to my voice.


from e-mail dated 3-3-2009
my week has been very good; we have 7 investigators to be baptized in the next 2 months, something i'm pretty happy about. that number just seems to keep growing by the week.




from e-mail dated 12-31-2008

my week wasn't all that eventful, and i haven't had time to get back to the sausage place to get pictures for dad. sorry on that one. we've been getting fairly busy with investigators recently (i see what other elders write in their emails...it's all about mission stats and stuff...maybe you guys feel left out and would like a piece of that pie?)...we have 4 people with baptismal dates currently, which is good. i enjoy the people i teach, which is even better (i've never been much on the stats), and there is real faith in a few of them, which is the best.

Operation Smile

from e-mail dated 3-25-2009

one picture is of the doctors i translated for at the operation smile project at the russian hospital here in phnom penh a few weeks ago. nice guys, two of them Indian, the really tall white one from orem, utah.

Family Home Evening Photo

from e-mail dated 3-17-2009

the picture is of a family i've gotten pretty close with here in 8th branch; we went over to their house for FHE this past monday.

i had a chance to do some translating for a charitable organization called operation smile last friday and i will be going again this coming friday. i translate for doctors who came to help people with all sorts of problems: dental work, cleft lip surgery, speech therapy...all sorts of stuff. the weird thing is i knew nearly all the medical terms i needed before i even went in to do the translating; i'm not really sure where i picked them all up, but it was somewhere along the way.