Elder & Sister Stone

New Projects Beginning

What a wonderful week! Traveling to two provinces and meeting with leaders of Health Centers, Hospital Directors and School Principals. We were finalizing the agreements to start providing clean water and sanitation facilities.

At a Buddhists Temple, the statue faces a pagoda that is under construction. The area is on a hill overlooking the community. Center is Sister Lewis and our interpreters.

We were delighted to execute 5 contracts and by the end of the week our contractors are beginning the work. Now comes the travel to follow up on the project progress. We also will begin the process of gathering more quotations for more projects.

One of the contract signings. The little guy in the blue shirt is the village chief. After signing the agreement that allows us to begin, we discussed with him the idea of providing his community with wells to bring fresh water to 300+ families.

We ended the week by traveling to the Sen Sok Branch to clean the church for the next day Sabbath. The building is not particularly tight from the weather, so it needs a thorough cleaning each week. With the help of the elders and sisters, we cleaned up inside the building, then moved outside. We gathered 5 bags of garbage that collected around the building. We were delighted to review the results of our work.

Sunday, another wonderful morning of worship. The Branch President welcomed a sister home who had completed her mission. She, along with the current missionaries spoke, and afterward, we attended a ward council meeting. Everyone committed to work together to help the young people to prepare for serving a mission. The members here are so sweet and kind to each other.

Our contract signing with the Kampong Roling School Principal inKampong Cham. He came to the school shortly before we started our mission. The district was considering to close it, but he gathered more children in the community and it is now a thriving school, albeit a very poor school. His vision has preserved the right to an education for the children.

Sometimes, one might wonder if we are on a mission, why are we not wearing a tie and white shirt? The answer is that we are humanitarian missionaries, and we are committed to the government that we do not proselytize but serve the nation in a humanitarian role. We rely on the young elders and sisters to teach and share the Gospel. Our religious efforts occur on Saturday and Sunday as we interact with the wards and branches. Thus, to avoid confusion, we were these shirts during the week to avoid confusing folks about our intent.

While signing an agreement at the school, we met a few of the students looking for the playground. They were delighted to pose for a photo. The smiles come naturally and spontaneously. The children here are beautiful. We are pleased to be able to work with the principal to improve it for the kids.
Our meeting with the district health center administrator. He opens many doors for us to help the health centers in Kampong Cham. We work in cooperation with the Doctors who are here on missions to help improve health care here.

We love what we are doing. We have so much to do. We look forward to the challenges ahead. We hope that we have missionaries to replace all of us senior couples serving here. There has been so much invested in helping in health care. Surely this is a blessed place to be. It would seem that heaven has protected this land from the Covid 19, there is nearly no infections here. A safe place in the world to help people who need the help so badly.

We love you all. We love our wonderful family. Have a wonderful week. With all our love,

Elder and Sister Stone