SO to recap
the last week: My beloved trainer, my mother, my roommate, my companion, DEAR
SISTER HOMER, GOT TRANSFERRED IN THE MIDDLE OF MY TRAINING. And now I, a lowly
new missionary, have been left to the dogs to LEAD TWO BRANCHES in a province
with no other sisters. My new companion is a native, she's Khmer, and her name
is Sister Kong (pronounced "Goong"). She's really nice and I've been
told she's a great missionary, so it's not like I'm dying here. But she's not
Sister Homer and as you can imagine, there's a big adjustment to go from an
American companion to a Khmer one. On one of our first nights in Kampong Cham,
Sister Kong says to me "YOU are the trainer." Yep, that's right. I
essentially have gotten half the training as a normal missionary. Plus I've
been trained in two branches so I only know my areas half as well on top of
that. (We are the only missionaries in the whole mission that oversee two
branches. There's a reason for that). Needless to say, I am ENTIRELY inadequate
for this situation. I have to do all the paperwork, planning, and organizing
(which is like 70% of a mission) because poor Sister Kong doesn't know
Kampong Cham (be aware that I find no fault with her - she is a good
missionary but when you don't know the area there isn't much you can do for a
while). Sister Kong is good at teaching and obviously she knows Khmer, but
that's not as much of a mission as you would think. It's hard, but hopefully in
a few weeks she will learn her way around too and it won't be so much of a
struggle for me.
Anyway, in
the long run I know that this is going to make me a much better missionary.
I've already started working harder and taking things more seriously, even
though I didn't think that was possible. I'm going to come out of my training a
transfer ahead of other people because I'm basically going at it alone right
now. The first night I really thought I wouldn't be able to do it, but after
the second day I realized there's not much I can do, so I might as well work
harder than I've ever worked before and make the best of it. It's gonna be a rough
transfer, you guys.
BUT, my Khmer
has made leaps and bounds in the last week. Seriously. I think part of it is
having a Khmer companion, so I'm learning a lot more words. Another part of it
is that I have to talk to the members and investigators since Sister Kong
doesn't know them. So I don't have someone else to fall back on. It has sort of
forced me to understand and speak more Khmer. So I'm excited for my language to
get better. It was kind of a necessary change, since I recently came up with
the idea to sit next to the deaf girl at church. Sit next to the deaf girl and
there's no risk of anyone talking to you! Genius!
Sister Kong
is pretty good at English and during language study we help each other which is
cool. Yesterday she cracked me up. She was reading out loud and trying to
pronounce a word and then she just started laughing, so I asked her why she was
laughing so hard and she just said that she can tell she sounds silly when
she's trying to pronounce English words. And then she goes, "I laugh by
myself." I guess she was trying to say that she was laughing at herself.
Honestly, the girl is adorable.
She's also an
AMAZING cook. I'm learning so many good Cambodian recipes. She's also getting
me to try new foods that I never would have before. For example, I now love
eating this salty dried fish that they eat. It's literally a fish that they've
cut in half and then they salt it and leave it out to dry. And then you just
eat it like that. Bones and scales and fins and all. That's right. I eat fish bones.
I am officially eating like a Khmer. IT'S SO GOOD. I never would have tried it
before with an American companion.
I have
another Khmer culture thing for you. It's called "The Long
Fingernail". I found out about this over a week ago with Sister Homer. We
were in church and Sister Homer leaned over to me and asked "Sister Davis,
have you ever noticed how some Cambodians have one particularly long
fingernail?" I told her that I had noticed our Branch Mission Leader did.
Then she asked me if I knew what it was for. I made an educated guess. And I
was right. IT'S FOR NOSE-PICKING YOU GUYS. Yum. I just find it odd that you go
around with permanent evidence of your nose-picking habits for the whole world
to see. Why? Because I'm in Cambodia, that's why. I stopped asking that
question a while ago.
Anyway, a lot
of this past week was spent in Phnom Penh and during transfers, so I don't have
many events for you guys, but I have a lot of pictures that will show you what
Christmas week was like for us.
I hope you're
enjoying your holiday break. Keep praying for me, I'm definitely gonna need it
this transfer. I love you all and miss you a ton!!!!!!!
Love, Sister Davis
We teach an Enlgish class on
wednesdays. The week before Christmas, we did a christmas activity for english
class. we taught them about american christmas traditions and we had them sing
carols in english and tell santa (elder soresnsen) what they wanted for
christmas in english.
Elder Barney as "Santa's
helper." He actually went home this transfer.
This kid is someone Sister Homer
and I fondly call "The Cutest Kid in the World."
Mommy, I brought the stickers you
sent me to this activity and they used them to put on their "gingerbread
houses"
"Gingerbread houses" in
Cambodia refer to crackers with peanut butter and coconut shavings with
knock-off oreos. This little girl is named MoiLii.
Sooooooo.....this is what i was
talking about over Skype. Although Mommy's lego set of the nativity was
probably intended for the children i teach, I decided i needed a little more
christmas spirit in our house and made it myself. I'm allowed to do one selfish
thing as a missionary okay?!?
I FOUND PANDA COOKIES. Apparently
sister homer loves pandas too. we didnt even figure out this huge piece of info
until our last week together.
I have tried and failed a million
and one times to capture that cambodian sky. You'll just have to come see it
for yourself.
Transfers.......saying goodbye to
my dear mother.
REUNITED!!!! the MTC girls back
together on christmas!
