Siem Reap Open House

This past weekend was the Open House and dedication for the new Siem Reap meetinghouse.  It was a huge rush to prepare as we had only three weeks to get everything ready. The branch president, Pres. Loy, chose his 2nd counselor to be the committee chairman. Bonan is a very busy man and did not have much time for this assignment. Thank heavens for Sister Roth and Sister Kohler, they were the driving force behind the event. We traveled back and forth to Siem Reap 4 times for planning and preparation.  We drove one time and it took seven hours to get there so we decided to fly the other 3 times. A 40 minute flight is so much easier and we still had a full day to work. The drive is exhausting as the roads are very bad through the provinces.  We used a past open house in Singapore as a model as they had published a great report.  They had 6 months to plan so there was not much comparison to what could be accomplished. We think it was a miracle that it turned out as well as it did.  The Branch members were really diligent in preparing for their stations and learning the scripts for each area.  They really did a great job.  The flowers were outstanding and the food was good although they did run out in the afternoon and had to finish with cookies.  We had great response from the invited guests,  The deputy prime minister of Religion in Phnom Penh came and also the minister of religion from Siem Reap. The governor of Siem Reap came and we had to bring in special chairs for him to sit on. These three men spoke along with President Moon of the Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission.  We feel blessed to have already established a relationship with these men through the food distributions in the 2 weeks before the open house. There was great press coverage because these men attended so there were segments in the papers and on TV about the open house. The YW did a traditional Khmer dance that they had practiced hard for. They really did a good job. After the program there was a ribbon cutting ceremony and the a building tour for the VIPs. There was good feedback from them, especially in the Primary station.  The food was served outside under a pretty tent and was good except I had a little trouble with the soup with tree ants in it!  Tasted good but seeing the ants was a little disturbing! There were many visitors from the community and we hope some great referrals for the missionaries. The dedication the next day was so nice. Elder Pon of the Area Seventy was the visiting authority.  What a good experience it was to meet him. So unassuming. President Moon gave the prayer in Khmer which impressed us all!  To top it all off, there was a baptism right after the dedication.