It Was Like Riding a Bike!

 Dear Family, 

Disclaimer, it was a big week so this is probably going to be too long!!

But what a week it has been. We mentioned on our Sunday phone call last week that there was a possibility of us going to Cambodia. On Monday morning Dad's "boss asked us if we would mind going to Cambodia on such short noticed. He really seemed worried that we might not want to go, when really we were just trying not to look too eager. by Monday afternoon the tickets had been bought and Tuesday morning we got up early and caught a taxi to the airport. It was so fast and if we're being honest it really didn't feel real to us until we actually landed in Phnom Penh and saw the big airport sign. 

I've tried to imagined so many times what it might be like to go back to Cambodia, but I never saw it being such a quickly arranged event, or one where we would go back with missionary badges and a job to do. But here we were! And it was so exciting.  In my excitement I bounded off the plane, leaving my computer in the seat pocket in front of me! More on that later!

It was about 4 o'clock when we arrived and we didn't have any meetings so we just unpacked quickly and hit the streets. Wow, it was like riding a bike! Within minutes we were weaving in and out of the traffic like pro's, walking over the broken bricks on the sidewalk, and loving every minute of it. We headed over to the mission home where like so much of everything else it felt just the same.

We're still on the wall...so I guess that dreamlike mission actually happened.

And this just made me laugh right out loud! One of our missionaries put this up on the bulletin board 6 years ago. It was solely to tease  me for all the times I would tell them that drinking more water would make them feel better. So many of the health complaints really boiled down to being dehydrated that I really did recommend it a lot and they still tease me at reunions today. I couldn't believe the cartoon was still there!

After a quick but emotional visit to the mission home we got ourselves a tuk tuk and headed to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner where we new we could get all our favorite foods. We had a long discussion on the way there about what to eat first and finally decided we would just get it all, and all the mango shakes we wanted! It was so so yummy!

We drank two mango shakes...

We had Lok Lak, Curry, and Pineapple Chicken Chaa. And I'm proud to say we ate almost all of it!!
(You also might recognize this restaurant, The Titanic, I'm pretty sure we took most of you here!)

After this oversized meal we decided to go on a walk along the riverbank since we had a half hour before out tuk tuk driver would come back. The riverbank park as you know is crowded and noisy with hundreds of people. As we were walking along there suddenly was a young man who wouldn't get out of our way and let us pass. We were doing that little dance to get around him when he smiled and said, "You don't remember me, do you?" Gosh I hate that sentence! So we looked again and realized he did look very familiar. Turns out he was a member from out in Kampong Cham who wanted to go on a mission after joining the church, but he was too old. This had let to a series of appointments with Grandpa back then as he tried unsuccessfully to talk his way into a mission. Now suddenly, here he was again! We celebrated seeing him and began to visit. Upon inquiry he told us that he really wasn't that happy and that he had fallen away from the church, so of course we rose to the occasion and reminded his that being connected to his Heavenly Father and to the church could bring him the peace that he was missing. He told us that he still prayed but he didn't go to church so we encouraged him the best we could before saying good-bye. As I hugged him and reminded him that we loved him he said, "Oh Sister Christensen, you're going to make me cry." I responded by inviting him to the little reunion we were planning for Thursday and we parted ways.

He came to the reunion, coming early and staying to the very end, What are the chances of "randomly" running into this one lonely son of God in the middle of all that riverwalk chaos? Not likely!

We had actually come to Cambodia so that Grandpa could meet with the Minister of Cults and Religions here to file Articles for a new registration. This was necessary pursuant to a new law that was passed in the last year or so. Grandpa and a team (of our friends)  from the Service Center had that meeting Wednesday. As with all things Cambodian things move slowly with the government but they were able to make some real strides and they are confident that in another few weeks the official Articles will be completely filed. Sadly, the final filing won't require our presence! 

Grandpa with the Minister of Cults and Religions and Samnang who runs the Service Center here and is  one of our best friends. (Fun fact: the church is considered a cult in Cambodia, only Buddhists can be a religion!  Another fun fact: Samnang, on the right, is one of cousin Renee's best friends from her years at BYU Hawaii. Samnang and his wife actually give Renee the credit for giving Samnang the courage to ask his wife to marry him!  

So, now back to my missing computer! While Grandpa was meeting with Ministers and other official things I enlisted the help of my friend Rathana to help retrieve my missing computer. Of course we hadn't realized what I had done until late Tuesday night when getting ready for bed when the Lost and Found was closed. (And may I say props to Grandpa for not expressing any frustration with me over this potentially expensive mistake!)  Anyway, Rathana, who works at the Service Center, called the airport only to find out that I would have to go out there in person to report it missing. When we discovered that I just told her I would get a tuk tuk and go out there there by myself as the airport is over a half an hour away. She wouldn't hear of it and volunteered us to drive one of the Service Center cars. That seemed like an okay idea till she told me she didn't know how to drive such a big car and that I would have to drive. Now, most people know that driving in Cambodia was always one of my favorite things, but I haven't done it in nearly 5 years, I don't have a current Cambodian license any more, and it wasn't my car. For all those reasons I kept telling her this was a bad idea, a very bad idea, but she kept insisting we could do it. Finally I told her she had to get permission if we were going to take the car so she went upstairs to talk to someone and came back downstairs with the keys. I couldn't believe it!, but I'm not going to lie, I was pretty excited. The guard helped me back out of the complex and off we went. I felt like a teenager who had stolen the family car and was out joy riding! And not only was it so very fun, again, it was like riding a bike. I just got in the middle of that mass of humanity and flowed down the road like the traffic requires. I was giddy with it all!

Two girls up to no good!

I found out later that she really didn't get permission, she just got the keys and told them we were going! Luckily we got back with no incident and with my computer, so all was well. 

On Wednesday we got to eat lunch at our favorite "Mexican" Restaurant and we walked in and found the place full of missionaries. Immediately we could here them whispering, "It's President and Sister Christensen!" That felt amusingly awkward but couldn't be ignored so we approached them to say hi. As we did one of the elders jumped up and came over announcing that he was Elder Mendenhall's little brother, and when he smiled that was totally apparent. He was the younger brother of one of our old missionaries. Then another one of the other elders asked if we knew Sister Loftus, and he announced that she was his cousin, and then another elder asked if we knew Elder Hale and confessed that he was his cousin! I am certain that any connections we have in the entire mission were in that little restaurant at that exact moment! This trip just kept getting more fun!

The elders with the two cousins on the right and Elder Mendenhall in the back on the left. The two  khmer elders sitting in the middle in red and white shirts were teenagers back when we were here, and now are in the first wave of 2nd Generation missionaries in Cambodia, which is also so exciting. They also both recognized us from when we were here before.

Wednesday night we ate at a new rooftop restaurant that was recommended to us. Cambodia might still have crumbling sidewalks and bad water but they still have some amazingly ritzy places for those who have enough money. This was like eating at the top of the Space Needle in that the restaurant did a full rotation while we ate! And the food was all less than $40.

Annie, I need another lesson in selfies, ours always turn out so dumb!

We ate at all our favorite places this week. Brooklyn Pizza with the delicious ham and fresh pineapple pizza, and our favorite breakfast that you all had at the White Mansion Hotel.

That fruit! And the baguette and hot chocolate!  So good!

In so many of our old haunts nothing seemed to have changed, including the people. So a funny and slightly embarrassing story. At Brooklyn Pizza we recognized the owners when we went in but of course didn't expect them to know us. But after a minute the owners wife came over and greeted us saying she'd been watching us and was sure she knew us from years ago, but it was when we ordered our Dr. Pepper that she knew it was us for sure!! Really?? We've been "dry" since leaving the states and we got busted on our first drink! So funny!

Thursday Dad met with the khmer attorneys that represent the church and then the business was done We spent the day riding a tuk tuk all over town doing fun errands. I have so many pictures of tuk tuk rides which I will spare you...

Okay, no more pictures! But seriously,  tuk tuk rides are so wonderful, the moving air, the smells, the bumps, the drivers, the moto's that drive so close that you can reach out and touch them, the traffic all around you. We couldn't stop smiling!

But the very best part was Thursday night. When we finally realized we were really going to get to go to Cambodia we threw out a Facebook message to our missionaries saying we were going to be at the South Stake Center Thursday night and we'd love to see anyone who could come on such late notice. Then Rathana sent a similar message out to some members. It was such late notice that we really didn't know if anyone would come. It wasn't huge but it was wonderful. In true Khmer fashion there was good food, lots of laughs, tons of pictures and so much love all around.

After the group picture, everyone insisted that we stay sitting in our chairs and then they literally lined up and each person or family jumped in behind us and had their picture taken! Pictures are one of their super-powers! We just smiled and enjoyed it.

Then my favorite picture of the whole trip was snapped by one of them as they waved good-by as we drove away!

Then we were up first thing in the morning got on the plane, and it was all over. It was crazy, chaotic, and magical, certainly better than a trip that had been months in the planning.

Have a great week,

Love,

Mom