July 15, 2009

Summer has arrived! (That is for all of you- we have summer every day!)
Our new mission president and his wife, President and Sister Smedley flew into Phnom Penh June 30th, and on July 1st, President and Sister Winegar left. We immediately felt of their love for the Lord, for us and knew the mantle had come to our new president. Because Cambodia is not a stake, our mission president must assume the ecclesiastical responsibilities for the Church as well. The Lord has truly called a man who is prepared to do the Lord's will and work- and his wife is right at his side. We have much to learn from them and count it a great blessing to be able to serve under his leadership. Within a few days of their arrival, they were on a whirlwind tour of of mission and we had the opportunity to visit with them one-on-one- since we are the only senior couple serving our zone. At the mini zone conference they held with our missionaries, he shared a story that I wanted to record for our mission history.

President Smedley shared a story told of Itzhak Perlman, perhaps the world's most accomplished violinist. He had contracted polio as a child and wore steel braces and used crutches the rest of his life. In his adult life, as he preformed, it was with reverence the audiences would wait as he slowly made his way across the stage to his chair where he would remove his braces and position himself before beginning to play. On this particular occasion, Itzhak Perlman was preforming at Carnegie Hall in New York City to a packed audience. Within minuets of beginning the concert, a loud "snap" was heard and one of the 4 strings on his violin had broken. The audience assumed that the concert would be delayed as either a new string was procured or perhaps another violin substituted. To their utter astonishment, Itzhak paused, closed his eyes, and then signed the conductor to began. Never had anyone attempted to play a symphonic work on three strings- it was considered to be impossible, but not to Itzhak Perlman.

Never had an audience heard such passion, power and purity as they did that night.... When he finished, absolute silence filled the great hall and then an outburst of applause and standing ovation as had never been given before. Itzhak Perlman wiped his brow, smiled, and waving his bow to quiet the audience, slowly and reverently said, "You know, sometimes it is the artist's task to find our how much music you can still make with what you have."

In our own lives, a loving Father in Heaven gives us opportunities to find out what kind of music is in our souls when we feel that we have had what was needful and necessary taken away, and in the process, the music can be more powerful and pure than ever before....

In our missionary experiences, we have had some real challenges in our KT Branch with an unfortunate episode at Church when the Relief Society president lost her temper. Nearly everyone saw and heard her, and it caused offence and hurt feelings- not to mention, a tragic situation for the investigators. Over the course of the last few weeks we have been trying to work through the resulting challenges, and slowly we are making positive progress with the Lord's help. I wanted to record the experience that one of our older sister's shared with us. She was particularly hurt because respect for the elderly is part of their culture and tradition, and she was treated with great disrespect. As we met with her and husband, she shared with us the following:

"I (Sister Om Ti) knelt in prayer and pleaded with the Lord to know what to do. As I ended my prayer, I happened to glance down at my ring. To my astonishment, one of the stones was glowing and brilliant and all the others were dull and lifeless. I went to my husband and asked him what could it mean? My husband, (Om Tick although not a member, is a humble and sincere believer in Christ and a great student of the scriptures) he told me that he believed that I needed to return to Church where my light could shine to others...and if I did not, my light would become dull and lifeless like the other stones in the ring."

Our faith continues to grow because of the simple trusting faith that these wonder people have in their Heavenly Father and their confidence that He will answer their petitions.

One of our main focuses is trying to help our members in both branches understand the importance of daily reading of the scriptures and daily prayer- with particular emphasis on the families. ElderDickerson purchased rolls of different colored ribbon, and we are meeting with each family, sharing the promised blessing by President Ezra T. Benson regarding daily reading of the Book of Mormon, and gluing in colored ribbons for markers. They love picking out their two colors- pink and purple are top favorites for everyone! We encourage them to use one color for family reading and the other for their personal study. It has been one of the highlights of our mission to see these families read together for the first time. We have taught the parents to have each child, whether they can read or not, take a turn. In one case, we have a father who can not read, and we have given his oldest son the privilege of helping his father learn to read through following this simple commandment of reading together.

In addition to missionary work, I got hit with another "experience" to add to my mission. About two weeks ago after we had gone to bed Monday night, both of my calves just began to ache terribly. I managed to fall asleep, and then in the morning, I woke up to find a prickly rash all over my body- with patches of red splotching and the pain in my calves had traveled all the way up through my legs. We are 2 hours from competent medical care in Siem Reap, or 3 hours to Phenom Phen, so we made a phone call - "Take Benadryl, rest and see what develops". There was no Benadryl in KT, but with a low grade fever "rest" was about all I was up for. By the next day I was red and splotchy, the fever down, but I developed what felt like pins and needles sticking in my arms and hands- another phone call to a different doctor and the verdict- most likely a bite from something and all the symptoms pointed to a reaction to venom. Since I wasn't developing any other symptoms and I was starting to feel better, we just waited it out and by Thursday I was up and out the door again.... Elder Dickerson thinks it is such an odd thing that he is the one constantly getting bit by mosquitoes and yet I am the one who manages to get the hand's on Asian experiences!!!

We know the Lord is mindful of us and we are the recipients of your prayers in our behalf....This is the Lord's work and we are constantly humbled at the Gospels' power to bless and transform lives for good. We love you and each of you are constantly in our hearts and prayers. Hugs and hugs! Love Elder and Sister Dickerson---- Grandpa and Grandma!