HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY!!!

St. Patrick's Day is quite big here in Cambodia.

................just kidding. last week my companion didnt even know what Ireland was, so I decided it was probably better to just not even bother explaining things like Leprachauns and shamrocks. When she said that i resorted to the only simple explanation of St Patrick's Day I could come up with that would help a Khmer: Ït's just really.......green."

On our way to the email place though, Sister Kohler and I were talking about how its so weird that all of these people don't even know that it's St Patricks Day, and like two seconds later, a random American guy on a moto rode past us and said "Happy St Patrick's Day!" because we were both wearing green and were both....white. He knows whats up. It made my day.

Oh, I'm sorry did I forget to mention something? I HAVE A NEW COMPANION!!!! Her name is SIster Kohler! And she's super awesome! She's like, the chillest person I've ever met. Super go-with-the-flow. And she's almost done too. This is her last transfer, so I'll be in Tuolkork for next transfer too to lead the area for the second time in a row (since I'm leading it right now). I hate leading areas but hey, someones gotta do it. Anywho, Sister Kohler: she's from Midway, UT and she grew up on a dairy farm! And here's the kicker: she's a runner. Dang that girl LOVES to run. And she's scheduled to run a marathon a month after she gets home fromher mission, so she's especially serious now. SO gues what I did this morning? I RAN. for like probably less than 10 minutes haha. Let me tell you, before her, my exercise routine was do jumping jacks until you dont feel like it anymore and then pretend youre doing sit-ups but actually just fall asleep on the floor (oh really quick in case you didnt know, missionaries are required to do 30 minutes of exercise every morning. FOr me thats 5:30 -6 am. Hooray.) SO anyway, I'm probably going to be actually going outside and running this transfer. Not sure how I feel about that. I sweat enough as it is, I dont need to sweat any more. 

SPeaking of running and sweating and stuff, can someone fill me in on the Olympics? I guess they already ended but you know how much i LOVE the olympics and no one breathed a word to me about my speed-skaters. Thats right. Tell me about the speed-skating (short track obviously). Did my main guy JR Celski win anything? Im not kidding let me know. 

So another part of transfers: Sister Homer is still in my zone as the sister training leader, but her new comp is SIster Melton who is probably one of my favorite people in theis whole mission. she is HILARIOUS. So youlll probably hear a lot of stories about her. 

Back to leading the area though: it's the pits. It sucks that Im the one introducing people sinec I'm a FOOL when it comes to this language. And when I was taking Sister Kohler to meet some of the members the other day, Ming Vibool (a long time and actually really good member) said something of the Khmer-variety that seriously put my knickers in a twist. She literally said, Öh its so much better when there are Khmer missionaries." 

..............ARE YOU JOKING?! Thank you for essentially telling me that I'm wasting my time here and that you would rather have a Khmer missionary. I get that I don't speak the language that well, but Sister Kohler does and we're trying to help your branch, your area, your people. MAN that comment drove me nuts for the rest of the night. Gotta love that Khmer blunt-ness. I hate leading the area.

Especially when my area is kind of sucking right now. We dont have a lot of investigators, and we have ended up dropping or losing a lot of our investigators too. Dont get me wrong, i love working with the less active members and recent converts but it can get pretty frustrating when all of your investigators end up being buttheads. (Hello to all of my friends serving in Europe: I get it now). BUT as far as I can tell, Cambodia is a country where the number of baptism you get can range from 0 to....A LOT. I was telling sister kohler about my frustrations of not having investigators in this area, and when she was talking to me about similar problems shes had on her mission, it was discovered that I had as many baptisms in my TRAINING as she has had in her whole mission. So i was like.................woah. stop complaining. Not that I'm saying "Öhhh ive had sooo many baptisms" no. not at all. I happened to go to Kampong Cham at a time when it was on fire. Some missionaries go to just really difficult areas. I know missionaries here who havent had any baptisms, and then there were people I know who served here before that had well over 50. It's just crazy, up in the air. So im trying to be patient. 

In other news, yesterday during language study I decided I wanted to learn how to spell people's names, so since everyone in our family has a name in the Bible, i was reading in my Khmer Bible to find out how they are spelled. They're all pretty accurate except for one. Can you guess who?

Bad news Phoebe: If ever a Khmer reads that verse in Romans that has your name in it, they will pronounce it as Pee-Bay. Hate to break it to ya. 

Other funny language things: Elder Scott (who just went home this past friday) was teaching me some fun Khmer words and phrases the other day. One thing, if you didnt know, is that Khmer is one of those languages that uses different words for different types of people based on a level of respect. So the word for ëat" is different for a kid than it would be for an older person. Likewise, words we use for kings and Gods are different than normal people words. So anyway, I learned the word for "butt" that is used specifically for kings: preahkuntiin. Cool. Also, apprently when someone is mad about something that another person did, they will say a Khmer phrase that translates to "fart in a bag and throw it in your face." Cooler. 

Okey doke, well thats all for this week. Not too much going on besides transfers. To end, I'll just tell you guys to read Doctrine and Covenants, Section 6. It's a good one. and also D&C 104:82. What an awesome scripture!!!!!

Okay I love you guys to the moon and back. Thanks for all the support! Keep the emails and letters coming! I miss you and love you so much!

Love, Sister Davis

Sister Mok's last district meeting! Shes the one smack in the middle. I LOVE that girl. Seriously the sweetest.

Elder Duffy, Sis Thain, me and Elder McGavin. We were all in the MTC together and now we're in the same zone! super fun!

Then another MTC reunion at the mission home on the day of transfers. We had the BEST MTC group ever.

I saw SIster Kong the day of transfers too! She just finished her mission. I missed her SOO much this last transfer.

Happy St PAtrick's Day!!!!!!! From me and Sister Kohler......and my crocs. Dont worry, they never see the light of day. 

                                           Sister Kohler and I with the Young Women of our ward.