October 9, 2003
Youth Conference

We helped put a youth conference together for the North District this month I thought you would enjoy part of Susan journal with a few comments from me from the last week of Sept. Entries are just an extract of events of the week, but they are a fun picture of a great spiritual event for these youth.

Monday Sept 24

It appears that everything is going forward with the Youth Conference. Brother Leac (Young Men’s District President) has made all the arrangements for the memento’ which will be a laminated bookmark with words and a picture of President Hinckley on it. Sister Chanthy (Young Women’s District President) is taking care of the lunches. We decided to add a soft drink to the lunch instead of just serving water from a cup. We should still come in under budget ($600) unless we have any unexpected surprises.

Tuesday was another busy day of preparation for Youth Conference. The numbers we are getting are scary—up to 300! I am not sure where we are going to put them but it will be a fun problem to solve.

We did not get home until very late from working with the Elders and as we walked in the door we were hit with a real crisis with Youth Conference. Because it is a National holiday weekend, the six vans from Kampong Cham are going to cost $1,200 instead of $120! Elder Erikson had waited up to give us the news to call Elder Morgan in Kampong Cham. There is no way we can absorb that cost and it appeared that these 120 youth were not going to be able to attend. We talked about taking a separate youth conference to them. We talked about asking senior couples to go up and bring the youth down, but this proved unfeasible. We talked about postponing but how to get word to everyone. We called Elder Morgan and he had much better news. He had sent his driver out to find a way to get the youth to Phnom Penh. His driver found six vans for $270, much better than $1200 but still over budget. Gordon decided to call President Towers. He explained the situation. He said that our district president had already given us extra budget money for transportation but there was no more to give. President Towers said he wanted those youth to attend and he agreed to pay the difference—about $150. We called Elder Morgan and gave him the good news. Youth Conference is back on in full force. We crawled into bed happy and tired.

Friday--Went to Branch 12 to work on detail for the Youth conference. I went visiting teaching. Gordon was still working away when we got back. Sister Chanthy was really pleased with how everything looked. We took her to Branch 7 and then raced to the Mission Office to get the $150 we needed to help pay for transportation for Kampong Cham branches. At 3:00 PM we met at Branch 7 with a group of youth to transport 150 chairs to Branch 12. The youth were running up and down three flights of stairs to get the chairs. The truck we hoped to have there did come, but it was late and we already had the chairs loaded into three vans. We used the truck to transport the youth to Branch 12 to unload. We fit 250 chairs into the chapel area. It is a good thing the Khmae people are small as there was little legroom. We are as ready as we can get for the conference to begin. We have planned and worked. The rest is up to the Lord. (I had an interesting spiritual experience. I was pondering what more could be done and had the most interesting warm feeling come over me. With the feeling were these words in my mind. "I have excepted your offering and all will be well." It was the best "thank you" a person can ever receive. GMT)

Saturday--The youth started arriving before 8:30—not too many but a few. We had some assigned to park the mottos and bikes around the back so we could have the courtyard area for eating and the tug of war games. The senior couples all came for to carry out their duties. And the wonderful youth were there as well. We filled all 250 seats. It was great. Kampong Cham had six buses full of excited youth. I hurried and gave their four youth representatives their assignments since they had not come down for all the planning meetings. They were to introduce the speakers in the individual workshops. The opening session was wonderful. The young man who conducted did a great job. The little theme presentation that Gordon worked on with the youth was outstanding. He had a chorus of youth learn the chorus to Follow the Prophet. The mission office elders made a slide show of all the prophets in the various versus that Gordon provided to them and the narrator read those verses as Gordon played the keyboard. The youth chorus sang the chorus. The youth were absolutely quiet and sat and watched and listened. Elder Zenger presided because President Towers was out of town. He gave an excellent talk to the youth and then we were dismissed for the workshops. The workshops were dismissed one at a time and were led by one senior missionary. The senior missionary held up the color he/she represented and all the youth with that color followed. It worked great. The workshops were: Pres. Hinckley’s example, Preparing for life’s missions, Following and leading (Gordon huff and Puff through this musical exercise workshop.), Service to others, Emergency Aid to others, A Pledge to follow the Prophet. Sister Jones was in charge of ringing a little bell as a two-minute warning before each class ended. Twenty minutes is not a long time but the youth loved moving around. Sister Hoskins took pictures for me. Other senior missionaries helped with parking, managing the front gate, and with lunch. Sister Holmes was designated as my "putting out fires" person. Luckily, she did not have anything much to do. We did not realize that "Street" ice was going to be delivered but the ice truck pulled up and threw ice in the courtyard. Sister Chanthy had arranged for it to cool the drinks for lunch. She also had her husband there to take care of it. The ice was broken into chunks and put into large garbage cans along with the drinks. The workshops all went smoothly. The teachers were prepared. We got 300 of the school packets ready for the orphanage as a service project. I was thrilled. The ONLY think I had to worry about was the lunch. It did not arrive at the 11:00 AM hour and when it was not there at 11:45 AM I asked Chanthy if there was a number we could call. She was teaching one of the workshops but she left at a rotation time and called them. They were on their way and they did arrive at noon. By then we were into the last workshop so we just put the lunches on a couple of tables along with the drinks and let the youth walk by and pick them up. They all ate in the courtyard. Gordon and I learned a good lesson when we saw the lunches. We let the YW District President arrange for it and the food was absolutely delicious. She had talked about three pieces of bread and we wondered how that would fill them up. The "pieces of bread" turned out to be three different types of large rolls, each filled with a delicious filling. One was like a sandwich. One had a sweet filling. The other was like a flaky baked roll and it also had a filling. I did not see any wasted at all. It cost us $284 for lunch and drinks for 300. We learned to never doubt the natives when it comes to food. We were absolutely thrilled. The youth got full. The seniors all loved it. And Sister Chanthy had a big smile on her face. The tug of war games afterward were hilarious. The boys and girls wanted to compete. We had two ropes for two different games. There was so much strength that an inch thick nylon rope actually broke. They tied the two ropes together and played for over a half hour. Our driver is in the District Presidency and he loved it. He was right out there counting down for them to pull and laughing the entire time. He really assumed his responsibility for the youth in this conference.

I will have to share a couple of experiences. The counselor in the District YW presidency worked with Gordon because she could speak Khmae. They were upstairs doing the singing exercises. Gordon must have lost 5 pounds of sweat today. At any rate, Rotana did not think she could do it because she was so shy. She came up to me afterward and said: “Sister Taylor, we did it!” She was so excited. The two young men who conducted the opening session and closing testimony session were outstanding. Daly played the piano for the testimony meeting. She is one of our keyboard students so she has only had lessons since we have been here. She practiced for three weeks on We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet and God Be With You Till We Meet Again. She told me before the conference started that she was really scared. I looked at her and told her that she had done all she could for three weeks. She had prepared and she had practiced. She just needed to pray and tell Heavenly Father he needed to do the rest. She played both songs so well. She said: “I prayed 10 times and I made it through.” It was a touching moment for both of us. The chorister was also a young man from Gordon’s directing class. He did not miss a beat and the holds were perfect with the pianist. They were all so excited.

The Wedding

There was a wedding scheduled in the same building right after Youth Conference. The Branch President was not sure how to do it. The elders kept coming to Susan asking me what to do. I talked to the branch president about the order of things. He asked if I had any wedding music and I told him the best I could do was Love At Home. I played away while he worried. The elders worried about a document needed from Cambodian government and asked me if I had it. Of course, I had not a clue. They wanted our driver to take them to the mission office but our driver was with Gordon. It turns out the branch president had taken care of this. At any rate, we were about to start when Gordon walked in. The branch president went running to him and had him sit by him. He really needed him since this was the first wedding he had performed. The wonderful branch president did a great job. After he married them he said they could now kiss as husband and wife. The couple was so embarrassed to kiss in public that there were a lot of giggles from them and the rest of us. But they did get a little peck on the cheek from each other.

I have included some pictures of the Villa we call Branch 12 so you can see this beautiful home that has been turned into a small Church.

PEF Grant

We finally have grant money from the Church Humanitarian Fund for the "Seat Tax" subsidy for the really poor. We received half of what we need! The "Seat Tax" as I call it is a fee the school (K-12) students must pay the teacher for a seat in the classroom. It’s not much (25 cents a month) but we have many that cannot pay it and drop out of school. (Such a waste of humanity.) I have been chairman of the Perpetual Education Fund that administers the grant funds here in Cambodia. We have sent out the criteria to the Branch Presidents to have them give us a list of the most needy. I am very concerned that we can help only a small number of worthy children. I am also working on setting up an account that we can have others contribute to as well so we can support these students. I think the economy in America is having an impact on member and friend donations for humanitarian purposes.