So we’ve made a fairly substantial change to our lifestyle for the near future. In our travels we have always wanted to include a service component, but we couldn’t make an extended commitment, since we wanted to be available to help Susie’s mom as her health declined. However, her mother’s decline and passing happened in about a week last February. Since Dave’s brother is soon to be living close to his parents, that now provided an opportunity to make an extended commitment. We are now living in Cambodia as missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint, and expect to be here until March 2020. We are helping with various efforts here, including humanitarian projects, educational projects and supporting the local congregations.
It’s great to be back in Southeast Asia, exploring a country we had hoped to visit earlier this year. Being in a place like Cambodia doesn’t seem strange to us, as we are accustom to the cars, duk duks, mopeds, street vendors, heat and humidity that is common to this part of the world.
However putting down some roots for 18 months is the strange part. We own some “stuff” again, though we are keeping that to a minimum. We are living in a nice 2-bedroom 2-bath 10th story apartment and have the use of a car. There are other “senior missionaries” living in our apartment building as well. We help each other with our various projects, and go out to eat together from time to time.
For some specifics, we recently attended a “rice distribution”, where LDS Charities provided 25 pound bags of rice, canned fish, soy sauce, ramen noodles to 600 families who’s livelihood was affected by the recent flooding. It felt good to represent a church that doesn’t just talk about being good, but also goes about doing good.
So over the next year and a half, our reporting will be coming from various places in Cambodia, where we hope to make new friends and have adventures of a different sort.
teaching by candlelight 
Kampong Cham and Mekong River
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