A Sampling of Garrett's Responsibilities and Experiences While Serving as Assistant to the President

There are everyday things that we obviously need to get done around the office like setting up interviews for missionaries, updating the missionary transfer board, planning, etc.  Every transfer we have a leadership training for all the Zone and District leaders. We teach for two 45 min to an hour segments.  I feel more tired in here at times than when I would bike 50 kilos a day in Battambang.   

One week was interesting on Friday and Saturday.  Friday was the funeral parade for the King that died about 3 months previously.  We were at the mission home when it happened which is just off the main road where the parade went down.  Everyone was wearing white shirts and then some type of black color.  Most people had a black ribbon pinned to their shirt.  Almost all the roads were shut down.  Lots of police.  When the parade started they told everyone to either sit or kneel in the group.  I kneeled on my shoes, but it was still painful.  The whole thing lasted probably 30 minutes or so. I did not understand a lot of it. We saw the King's coffin and all the floats.  There were some strange floats as well.  One of them literally just had fake animals on it; like a dolphin, gorilla, bird, etc.  It was a little bit strange.  It was cool to see though.   

On our P-day, we went to the royal palace which is where his coffin is until Monday when they will burn it.   There were a lot of people there.  The floats were there.  That was my first time going to the royal place.  We got in line to actually go into the area where the coffin was, but as we got to the front they would not let in white people.  We walked away and were talking to a press guy from England, and he said that they had not let in anyone.  Then we see a whole group of white people get let in and then for some reason they let us in as well.  It was cool but I definitely felt out of place.  We just walked in single file and then walked past the coffin and went to the other side and it was done.  It was a little strange.  It was cool to see everything though.  A lot of people really loved this King. 
  

We had some trouble with our bikes and eventually could not use them because they were broken.  So we rented two bikes for 2 dollars for the day.  The woman was worried we would steal them.  I promised her that we would not take them.   

One Pday, we went to the famous Wat Phnom.  It is the most well known and major wat or temple in Phnom Penh and maybe in Cambodia.  The legend is that a woman named Penh found a floating basket of sorts in the river that runs through PP and that in the basket/raft things she found some little statues that were somehow connected to the Buddhist Religion.  She then took them to the top of the hill (very small hill) and since then there has been a wat there, and it is a place of worship and also a place of acknowledgment for the area.  It was cool to go to.  Not the coolest wat I have been too, but it is famous and you just have to do those things.  It was beastly hot though.  We will go there when you guys come back.  If you look at the cities name...Phnom Penh.  It is named after the lady.  Phnom means hill and Penh was her name.

  

Well the Kite trip, where we go on training exchanges with all the Zone Leaders, was awesome.  

On Monday we typed in the weekly results and did a little work around the office and then headed up to Battamabang.  I was so excited.  The whole time in Battamabang on Monday night and Tuesday; it was just like being home.  I really miss that place and miss the members.  I could not see everyone.  It is not like I was there to go visit people.  I was to proselyte with the missionaries.  I was able to see a good amount of people though.  I saw Bang Iat, my Branch Mission leader up there.  I love that guy.  I also saw Sov and Tevy; they got baptized right before I left.  They are doing well. Sov has the Aaronic Priesthood and Tevy just told us when we met with them that her sister and mom want to learn.  I loved Battambang.  Kaliyan is doing well.  I was happy to teach them.  I was nervous to leave all those members and recent converts that we had worked with to another set of missionaries.  I was really happy with Elder Sorenson, the elder who replaced me up there.  He seemed really on top of his game.  Battamabang.  The best!

Then the next morning we got up and traveled to Kompong Thom.  It is a really small place, but it was really pretty.  A lot of the time we were riding on raised dirt roads through little villages or rice fields.  There were also some really cool members up there as well.  Then we went to Kompong Cham.  I met a lot of cool members and was able to work with this one older women who is kind of famous with missionaries because she does a lot of member missionary work.  It was really cool, and we had some good lessons with recent converts. 

 The next day we went to Siam Reap.  It was a really pretty drive up there.  I got to proselyte in the area of Angkor Wat.  Siam Reap is really pretty.  There are tons of big trees and such.  We saw monkeys while proselyting.  Like the pictures showed, we helped someone carry those buckets of sand up the hill so he could sell them.  It was really cool.   There are some really cool members in Siam Reap.  It was fun to get to know a lot of new people.   

In Kampong Chnanng province.  I love palm trees. 

Our focus for all the exchanges was on evaluating the elders’ teaching and then other things that we saw that we wanted to help them work on.  We took turns driving.  The roads at times are nice and smooth.  And at other times incredibly broken up and bumpy.  So many potholes.  From Kompong Cham to Phnom Penh was the worst.  Everything on the dashboard, seats, cup holders, etc. ended up under my feet (I was not driving).  Cambodia is a little bit dry right now, but it was still really pretty.  A lot of the times I was just so thankful to be from America as we drove through many remote and poor areas.  I was so thankful that I get to serve here.  One of the best parts of the Kites trip was seeing all the awesome members through Cambodia.  There are a lot of them!  I love this place so much.

Elder Wilson, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy, and his wife came from Hong Kong for the week.  We had our first zone conference for the north and central district in Phnom Penh.  The focus for all of the Zone Conferences was about reading the Book of Mormon with our investigators and others in order to get them started on the path.  They also talked a lot about the tree of life and about how to teach about the fall of Adam and Eve more effectively.  Elder Rucker and I only had a short 20 min segment on effective language study.  We did a pretty good job on it.  It was fun to see Elder Wilson teach; let's be honest he is a member of the Seventy.   We did a ton of translating for the district conference.  It is just a little more nerve racking when you are up there in front of 400 people.  I think I did a good job though. 
  

Battmabang village 

Famous statue in Battamabng,  They say that she protects the city. 

We also sent 8 missionaries to the MTC this past week.  2 sisters and 2 elders from Cambodia and 4 sisters from Vietnam.  We did some training with them here at the mission home for a day or so and then sent them off to the Philippians.  The two sisters from Cambodia are from Sen Sok, and they said that they followed Elder Chan's example.  It was fun to have them here, and it made me think about the day before I went to the MTC and things like that.  So long ago, but it feels so recent as well.  Two of the sisters threw up in the car (in a bag) just on the way to the airport.  It was maybe a 30 min drive.  They are just not used to cars.   

Driving in Cambodia is obviously hard, especially when it is a two lane highway through the provinces and there are bumps everywhere.  I think I hit a bump and it caused Pres. Moon to hit his head on the top of the car.  It was awkward after that.   

Proselyting in Kompong Thom

We had a cool experience where we got to place dodgeball with the local U.S. marines at our church.  One of the senior couples is an ex-marine pilot so somehow people respect him and will do things that he wants.  We met them at our local church and played dodgeball with them for 25 minutes or so.  It would have been longer, but they backed into a tree and came about 20 minutes late.  Quite honestly only one of them looked like an actual marine that you would think about.  The other ones were kind of tall and lanky.  I mean they still had a lot of muscle, but not what you would typically expect.  It was fun. 

A famous statue in Kompong Thom

Rubber tree forest. Who knew it came trees?

Before we came back to the city one day, we went to the bamboo bridge.  (See pictures.)  That bridge is awesome.  They make it every single year from scratch during the dry hot season so that motos and people can get to and from the island.  The island has a good amount of people on it that need to get to and from the city.  Even cars could ride on it.  When a moto or car rode by while we were standing on it, it was like a wave in the strips of bamboo.  It would roll and give just like a wave.  It was really cool, especially to go under it.  Completely made out of bamboo and some small metal strings to keep the pieces together.  Not cables or anything but simply metal strings to tie the wood together in some places.  When the rains come again in a few months and the river rises, the bridge will be destroyed and all the people will need to ride a boat across to the island. 

Monday was busy with transfer meetings (trying to figure out where each missionary will go and what companionships there should be).  Preparing for transfers is pretty fun when you actually know what is going on. Friday, we will have 12 new missionaries come in.  We will have 9 elders and 3 sisters.  

We had 5 or 6 of the ending missionaries come in for their exit interview.  There was also the departing devotional/dinner for these missionaries.  It was kind of weird.  Well, it was really weird.  I knew a lot of them pretty well and being there and seeing them have their final interview, eat dinner for the last time in Cambodia, have the last devotional and bearing their testimony for the last time as a missionary was just sad because it made me think about my group and me and how we are next.  It was just weird.  I did not really like it.  

lder blocker. one of the office elders at a shoe place. lettuce in bags on the trucks.

My car and drying corn. They feed it to animals. 

An old school temple that was supposedly built during the Angkor period.