Monday, May 9, 2011

Missionary Update and Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers and mothers yet to be!!

What a great day it was for us!! We had the two of the three sets of missionaries over for dinner and let them all call their Mommies! It was great to hear these young men and women talk to their families. Made me want to talk to my missionary, but I had to wait one more day.

Monday morning began for Dave at 3am! He couldn't sleep so he came downstairs to flip through movies and catch up on the world news. Five am arrived and our Skype began ringing....it was our Aimee girl!!! He came upstairs to wake me and Kaitlyn while Aimee bought more time for her phone call. It was so great to hear her voice!! She sounds so happy and so excited about being in Cambodia. She has been learning a lot about the culture, people and a simpler way of life! She has also been teaching these beautiful people the Gospel of Jesus Christ!! She has grown to love rice and fish since arriving in country. As with any other mission, they are going through a dry-spell right now. They have had a few baptisms since January and those members are doing great. The sisters of the church in Cambodia are faithful and try to do their best, the brothern are slow in converting. She has had a few experiences with mice, cockroaches and monkeys. Our germaphobic daughter is learning that the things of nature aren't going to kill her and give her diseases just by existing. ;0) She rides a bicycle everywhere she goes and thank goodness hasn't had any accidents except maybe a hip bump or two by the "crazy" drivers. Two of the sisters with her are from Utah and one is from Hanoi, Vietnam. There are several senior couples called to serve in the mission as well and Aimee has had to do quite a bit of translation for them. She is slowly becoming more proficient in the language and I'm sure the more she practices the better she will be and by the time she is ready to come home she will be very good. I can't wait to hear her bare her testimony in Vietnamese!! The American missionaries are unable at this time to get Visas to travel to Vietnam so their teaching pool and area is quite small (consisting of a small area in the capital city of Phnom Phen). The Church is so very new to the people that the Elders are teaching the Branch President how to give priesthood blessings and perform baptisms. An amazing experience for all of them.

The Church has relaxed the dress code for the sisters since Aimee entered the MTC. When she entered the dress code was more business attire and now they are encouraged to wear brighter colors but still stay modest. They have been trying to find some modest clothing at the street markets that would fit American women, but have had no luck, so we have to send her some new dresses in the next month or so. We try to send a box to her every three months or so with different things that she might enjoy, she was extremely happy to get the Crystal Light mixes that we sent to her for her birthday and Christmas. So I guess we will be sending her some more. I can't believe how happy she is!!

She has asked us if we will be able to meet her in Cambodia a few days before she is sent home next year, but we had to tell her no. :0( But we will meet her in Utah when she arrives there!! ;0) We are planning to be on vacation when she comes home. We are sad that we weren't there when she was set apart for her mission so we WILL be there when she is released!!

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