We made our first drive into the city of Phnom Penh. City driving was easier than I thought. You just get into a lane and stop. Wait for a few minutes, then go 15 feet. Wait...and go again. Easy. Making a turn though, is a test of faith. You stick your nose out and pray like crazy that you'll live through the intersection. And you do! Road rage doesn't exist in Cambodia. You stick your nose in far enough and people stop for you. The key is to have the guts to stick your nose in. Cambodian drivers are not aggressive, they are opportunistic. If they see a small opening, they take it. Cars, buses, motos and trucks honk their horns all the time. But they aren't saying, "get out of my way," or, "move it buddy!" They are saying, "hey, I'm passing you on your left." Or, "I'm in the intersection, watch for me." Considering the volume of traffic, there are very few accidents. I heard about a road rage incident in Utah this past week, where some guy shot someone over some stupid thing. We can learn a lot about accident control from Cambodia.

HOWEVER, you can't be in a hurry to get anywhere. If you have a hard deadline (like an airplane flight), you need to leave an hour earlier than you think - because traffic can come to a dead stop anywhere at anytime. You just deal with it.

After we returned yesterday, we made a trip to the backwoods with two sister missionaries. Both are from Cambodia, so we were somewhat on our own when it came to translation. We were on a bumpy dirt road less than 5 minutes from our house. Our little Corolla was NEVER designed for this kind of abuse. We scraped bottom, climbed rocks and dodged trucks on a road that was barely built for one vehicle. It was like driving on a mogul run. We can't wait for our small SUV that will have enough clearance to allow everyone to stay in the car while driving over the countryside.

We sat on the floor or their tables (tables are used for eating and sleeping) and taught these wonderful people about God's plan for families. We taught them that families are the foundation of eternity - that family life was designed from the beginning to extend past death. We testified that the power exists on the earth today to bind families together forever. "Until death do you part" was never part of God's plan.

As I read scriptures from my iPad, I watched a young man sawing wood to make a boat. The contrast couldn't have been more jarring. He was using tools and methods that were probably used during the time of Jesus. I was using a device from Star Trek. I have no intention of leaving my electronic world, but you can't help but love these people who live so close to the earth. In the background a young Mom was bathing her child in a stone basin. She then washed clothes in the basin, then threw the soap water onto herself and ladled water from their large water urns to rinse it off. Human happiness doesn't require IOS 9.2.

It started raining and driving back from the jungle was a race against the elements. If you snooze, you walk in ooze. By the time we hit pavement it was a torrent. We couldn't drop the Sister missionaries off at their house because there was a river in front of it. We took them to our palace - which was encompassed by a moat (very fitting). But, we forded the moat and made it to safe ground without incident. The rain slowed after an hour -long enough to get them safely close to home. It was a good day!