New Philosophy: Victory over Vermin

This week was the week of SERIOUS issues with......lets call them "creatures." I saw ANOTHER cockroach. It was dead, but basically the size of my head. Then there was a frog in our recycling. And THEN...okay heres a story. So Sister Homer and I are eating dinner, munchin on some rice, the usual. And she stops mid sentence and looks up in the corner of the kitchen and just goes dead silent. she doesnt even look scared or anything. And just after a long pause, she just very calmly goes: "A mouse just crawled in through our roof." I turn around and there is legitimately a mouse (though it was NOT a field mouse, it was the size of a rat. probably was a rat) just sitting on a pipe in the top corner of our kitchen. It just came in through a huge hole in our roof. (Have i told you guys that my kitchen just has a tin roof? I don't think I did. My kitchen has a tin roof. Literally. Like the kinds of the houses I've shown you. the rest of our house is fine, but yeah.) So i turn back to her and whisper "what do we do?" And out of NOWHERE she just stands up so quickly freaking out and goes "ITS MOVING ITS MOVING ITS MOVING" and I jump up too and watch this mouse crawl on the piping above us but I guess our sudden movements scared it and it turned around and crawled back out the roof. So thats the end of that. This week was just a week full of vermin. and dont worry, i fully intend to include a picture of the dead cockroach. 

More animal things....Riddle me this: what do you do when you're riding your bike through a round-about and encounter a large herd of goats in the middle of the street? Because that happened to me. Just food for thought.

When we went to Bung Snaay this week, a dog took my shoe while we were teaching a lesson. In Cambodia (as in most asian countries) you take your shoes off before going into the house. But because these people don't really have houses, they mostly have shacks, we just leave our shoes at the bottom of a ladder usually and then climb up the ladder to get inside. So anyway, I climbed down the ladder after a lesson and one of my shoes was gone. So the investigator we were just with rallies pretty much the whole phum (village) to look for my shoe. And its lookin like Im going to have to go shoeless for the rest of my mission. So then i think about those little toddlers who always speak in church about prayer and it always goes something like this: "one time, i lost my toy and i couldnt find it so i prayed to Heavenly Father that he would help me find my toy and then i found it and i know prayer works in the name of jesus christ amen." Right? Every Mormon reading this knows exactly what im talking about. So to test the waters, in my head (and with a smirk on my face) I said, "Heavenly Father, I know that this really isn't super important, but it would make my job as a missionary a lot easier if i had both my shoes. So if it's your will, please help me get my shoe back." I kid you not, ten seconds later, a girl behind me yells out "Sistaa! Sistaa!" and shes waving my shoe in the air. I was smiling about that for the rest of the day. Probably one of my favorite stories from my mission thus far. 

Also, one of the less-active members we visit sometimes said my feet look like baby pigs this week. Sister Homer just about died, she could barely ride her bike because she was laughing so hard after Ming Hian said that. I don't really get it. This woman is freaking hysterical though. Shes totally nuts and just makes fun of us the whole time. The first time I met her she went on a rant about how Sister Homer should marry her son. She also tries to feed us food from the little stand outside of her house that she sells from. But its always NASTY stuff. This isn't like Cambodian food that she cooks. They're little treats that seriously make me gag. Like one time, she gave us these little hot dogs. But they're uncooked snack hot dogs if that makes sense. And they're spicy. And warm because they're just sitting out in the sun at her stand all day. so disgusting. That woman cracks me up. Anyway, if you can tell me what it means to have feet that look like baby pigs, let me know.

Now to the actual important parts of being on a mission (though I could talk about the weird things all day long and be very content). So we taught in Vial Ksaac this week. that's the place thats literally out in the jungle. I flippin LOVE Vial Ksaac. Not only is it the epitome of being on a mission on a third world country (riding your nike along bumpy dirt roads, past herds of cattle and bamboo huts in the blistering heat) but the people there are amazing. When we come to teach people, ESPECIALLY the kids, we basically just teach the whole neighborhood (I've got a picture of that too). We went to go teach a girl named Srei Mei, and all the little kids see, even kids who aren't familiar with our church at all, and then we end up teaching like 20 people at once. It technically only counts for one lesson but i couldnt care less. The people there just love meeting with us, it's so cool. And when I was there this past week, it was around 4pm and it had cooled down a bit but it was still warm, and we were sitting under a mango tree on a little mat in the afternoon sun and just singing hymns with all of these kids gathered around and i just felt so........HAPPY. and so peaceful. Like where else would I rather be? The Spirit was so strong there. happiness like that is different from any other happiness, and it doesn't come from any source other than this gospel. I know that for a fact. Being a missionary is sometimes the most amazing thing in the world. 

We also got a few new investigators this week! We already have about 10, which is a lot to handle considering we also have to meet with recent converts and other members, AND we have two branches. We are seriously always busy. BUT these investigators are looking really promising. One of them is named Ming Rong and the other is Ming Moom. they're gold. So remember those names because I'll probably talk about them a lot in the near future. they are both so sweet and genuine. My new projects muahahaha.

I'm so glad that I'm going to be here for a while. Did I tell you guys this? Here's the deal: I'm still training and will be until the end of january, but the thing is that Sister Homer has been in Kampong Cham for 6 months now, and thats a LONG time to be in one area. Shes most likely going to get transferred after shes done training me. But we're the only sisters in the area (im the only sister being trained in a province in the whole mission
, which is kind of cool) which means they need to keep at least one of us here, someone who knows the members and the area and such. So that'll be me. Which means I'll be here until at least March most likely. Which I'm totally cool with. I LOVE KAMPONG CHAM. its seriously the best.

Anyway, i'm gonna finish up because I don't have a lot of time to email today. This afternoon we're leaving the area pretty early to go to this really cool wat (buddhist monk temple) called Han Che. So keep your eyes peeled for those pictures next week. I hear its awesome. Today I'm also sending you some pictures of a wat that I went to the first week I was here. They're from when i had been in Cambodia for 4 days. I dont know why I never sent them to you, but it was super awesome. That wat is called Phnom Broh (brother hill) but we all call it the "monkey wat." you'll see why. YOU GUYS LOOK WHERE I GET TO SERVE MY MISSION. 

Enjoy the Christmas season for me! Christmas is nonexistent in Cambodia. I love you all and miss you so much! 

Looooooooooooooooooooooove, Sistaa Daivee

The cockroach that ruined my life. It was already mostly dead (still twitching) so we sprayed it with half a can of Raid and then poured dish soap on it for good measure. I'm in trouble for when i serve in the city, I'll just say that now. 

These are all the kids we taught at Vial Ksaac that one day. We're standing in front of a huge pile of rice stalks after the grains of rice have been taken from them. I get to harvest some more on friday!!!

Sister Homer with the Viall Ksaac people. I LOVE THIS PLACE.

This girls name is Linaa. She's getting baptized this week!!!! Stinkin adorable.

Okay the rest of these pictures are from Phnom broh (monkey wat) on my very first P-day. So freaking cool!!! We biked up this GIGANTIC hill to get to this wat and I thought i was going to die. I was sweating like no other that day. That elder in the front is Elder Sorensen. He's our district leader.

MONKEY WAT!!!!!!!! What you don't know is that rtwo minutes before this picture took place, that monkey attacked me and the bag of peanuts i had just bought. Literally ran to me full speed and snatched the bag out of my hands. Peanuts were flying everywhere. But i pretended we were on good terms for the sake of this awesome snapshot. Don't be fooled. We're not friends.

More monkeys!!!!! They were actually everywhere.

worth the hike

Still part of the same wat area, but on a different hill techincally called Phnom Srei (sister hill......get it?) This is the staircase we had to climb. It has like 300-something steps that were all diferent heights and levels. it killed me. 

It wouldnt be a wat without some awesome gigantic buddha statues.