Betrayed by Chicken Bojangles

I've officially run out of introductions, since McKenna scolded me for speaking spanish last week (if you don't understand that reference, i suggest reading McKenna's mission blog). ANYHWAY, This week had some MAJOR ups and MAJOR downs. 

Major ups include: MING RONG AND MING MOOM WERE BOTH BAPTIZED YESTERDAY!! Hoo-rah! I've got pictures of that. Pretty self-explanatory. I love them both. 

Also, We received a referral for a family in first branch! I've never taught a family before. A lot of times, sister missionaries get stuck teaching ALLLL of the single women in the area, since it's more difficult for elders to teach single women (they have to have other people present to teach since they cant be alone with one girl) and elders just tend to get more families. But I finally got a family referral and it's lookin pretty good, even though we've only taught them once so far. What was the biggest "up"of my week you ask???? Cambodia is delightful you guys. I FOUND A DVD OF THE SECOND LORD OF THE RINGS MOVIE. thats right. As in, the lord of the rings movie that came out AFTER i left on my mission. it was literally sitting in a pile of other random khmer ninja dvds. and i found it. now guess how much it was. go ahead, guess!! 2500 RIAL!!!! Ok, now guess how much 2500 rial is. go ahead, guess!! approximately 60 cents. I win for life. Obviously, I cant watch it until after my mission, but its really more the whole story that makes it worth telling. this happened 7 days ago and im still pretty thrilled about it.

Major downs include the subject line of this email. A couple days ago, I suffered from my first case of food poisoning. From the chicken bojangles i mentioned a couple weeks ago.  After three months without ANY digestive problems whilst living in Cambodia and eating pig skin, snails and sketchy fish from less-than-reliable people on the side of the road, the one thing that gets me sick is..........chicken fingers. From probably the most westernized restaurant in all of KC. The irony is not lost on me.

Anyway, it only lasted about 12 hours and then I was well enough to make it to district conference that weekend (which is really good since President and Sister Moon came to KC for that). 

On the topic of food though, I have a new fruit to obsess about. MILKFRUIT. its incredible. It's like a soft, round fruit that has a white juice come out of it if you squeeze it that looks like milk, and has an almost creamy taste to it. But its a really mild sweetness. I could eat like 10 of them in one sitting. So that's your weekly dose of Cambodian cuisine.

Spekaing of fruit, I had one of my funnier lessons this past week. Sister Kong and I were teaching these two sisters, Long and Liang. They're awesome, but they can't read because they don't go to school. We've actually started teaching them how to read a little bit when we go see them. Anyway, we were talking about Adam and Eve and we asked them if they remembered the story (they just got baptized a few months ago). And Long goes, Ëve ate the fruit and it made her pregnant!" I was trying so hard not to laugh. Sister Kong and I were like, um yeah we'll go with that.

Also, this week one of our investigators asked us to take her kids. Like she doesn't want them anymore and she wants us to take that responsibility away from her. It was super sad to be like uhhhhhhh we can't do that. Unfortunately that's what a lot of people are like here. It's what a lot of families are like. They don't have the same life that we do. It's not just the fact that their houses are different. Their whole idea of how to live life is different and I don't really know how to wrap my head around it sometimes. What do you say to someone who asks you to take their daughter while their daughter who's like 10 years old is sitting right there? 

HOLD UP HOLD UP HOLD UP. WE LITERALLY JUST GOT TRANSFER CALLS. not even joking. in the middle of my email writing, Elder Sorensen called me over to tell me about transfer calls. remember me saying that i would probably stay in KC for a while after Sister Kong finished her mission? And remember how I said that President Moon is notorious for doing the craziest things during transfers? WELL I WAS WRONG AGAIN. 

I GOT TRANSFERRED TO THE CITY. I'm off to Phnom Penh this friday!!! I'm serving in an area called Tualkok (pronounced Dual-goak). And get this: Sister Homer is the Sister Training Leader in my district so I'm going to go on exchanges with her ALL THE FREAKIN TIME. Sister training leaders are the equivalent of elders' zone leaders for sisters and you will go on exchanges with them every couple weeks. So Sis Homer and I will be companions for a day probably a few times! I am so flippin excited!!!!

Plus going to the city means I'll get my mail on time! And I get to go to the mission home every P-day and actually see people I know! And I'll get to go to the HUGE markets and buy awesome clothes and souvenirs for you guys!!! Don't get me wrong, I'm super sad to leave KC and being in the city definitely has its downsides, but I'm up for the change! Oh and also get this: I'M WHITEWASHING. That means I'm taking an area from scratch and totally starting over. President Moon does that all the time, but its way hard. I'm super nervous.  My new comp is Sister Von. She's a Khmer too and I hear she's really sweet. AHHHHHHHHHHH this sister, born and raised in KC, a corn-fed country hick in the eyes of Cambodian missionaries, is headed to the big city!! By next P-day I'll be in a totally new area with a new comp and everything! Guys, missions move by at a crazy-fast pace!

I honestly can't even focus on anything else! I've gotta go say goodbye to all the members here! I've gotta pack! I've got so much stuff to do! 

 I wish you were on this crazy adventure with me! It's so hard to explain everything that happens, especially when i know you guys don't really understand what missions are like - I didn't either before I left. What's a sister training leader? What's a transfer call? 

I love you guys! I miss you a ton! 

Love, Sister Davis

PS - Dear McKenna - SOMEONE is clearly becoming a "Spanish-speaking Supremacist". I feared this would happen to you. Remember that time it took me 6 weeks to teach you the word for spoon? Look at how far you've come, my little nina!

Picture where ming rong is not smiling:

I know, I know. Ming Rong looks simply thrilled to be here. One thing about Khmers is they tend to not smile. A lot of them will look like this in pictures. Where Ming Rong is smiling, Elder Sorensen forced her to, which I appreciate.

Killin it in KC. Ming Rong is on the left, and Ming Moom is on the right. 

PS I call this my "prairie outfit"