^^^^^How Sister Harris
describes canned soymilk. Sage words from my companion.
On the topic of
soymilk, Om Im did not make us any when we visited her this week, but she still
had her moments. 1) Sister Harris and I offered to help her hang up her wet
laundry, and obviously she said no (they always do). So instead, Sister Harris
and I snuck behind her while she was talking to a neighbor and started hanging
things up. When she saw she yelled "NO! STOP!"and waddled over like
lightning and snagged this MASSIVE pile of clothes and started running away
from us so we couldn't help. And then when I offered to help fold the dry
clothes she grabbed my arm with one of her hands and with the other hand she
gave me a WHACK. It hurt pretty bad but the crazy thing is that it was meant in
love. Go figure. Then she sat us down and put a bunch of bananas on the table
and just pointed her finger out and yelled "EAT!" Trust me, that word
is way funnier in Khmer. She's actually not a scary or mean woman, she's just a
very classic old Khmer woman. I love her to pieces.
Other classic
Cambodian things: Their love of rice. We're all aware of that one. The other
day, Sister Ray and Sister Nov got into a fake fight over soemthing and Sister
Nov yelled, "FINE! We break up now!" And Sister Ray yelled back
"Okay we break up! YOU CAN'T EAT MY RICE ANYMORE!!" I died laughing
and ran upstairs to write it down. You know things are SERIOUS when a Khmer
tells you that you can't eat their rice anymore.
Last of the cultural
mishaps this week: Cambodians are Buddhist. And they put their little buddhist
shrines EVERYWHERE. Complete with the idols, incense, and food offerings. And
all i've been told by Khmers is that those thigns are sacred to people and I
shouldn't even touch them. Well, Sister Harris and I were walking in a phsaa
and I totally ran into a shrine. It should've been in a movie. I wasn't looking
where I was going, walked right into it, and ended up kicking a silver bowl. It
bounced and rolled for like ten feet and made a clattering sound so everyone
turned around and looked at me. I just ran away and hid behind sister Harris.
We wont be going back there anytime soon.
So back to America. It
was Thanksgiving this week, wasn't it! We got to go to the senior couples house
for an hour and they made mashed potatoes and turkey and stuffing, and after an
hour, it was back to regular proselyting. No football games, no Macy's
parade.....just a lot of less-actives. But it was a pretty good thanksgiving
lunch otherwise. While we were there, we got to see the new church ad "He
is the Gift." SO GOOD. I'll get into that later.
Also, speaking of
America, Sister Harris and I were curious how Black Friday went over.
The day after thanksgiving, which was thanksgiving night for you guys, Sister
Harris looked at her watch while we were biking and goes, "According to my
watch its 12:04 on Black Friday. Do you think anyone has died
yet?" We tried explaining the craziness of black friday to the
khmers and they were so confused. Our only advice to them: "If you're ever
in America, DON"T go to Walmart the day after thanksgiving." **Not sure
that was helpful. I dont think they know what Walmart is.**
So, Thaksgiving night,
SIster Harris FINALLY gave me persmission to set up my Christmas tree from last
year that Sister Homer gave me and start playing christmas music. We have a
tree, ornaments, wrapped gifts, fake snow, flashing lights, a nativity scene
(lego style....thanks mom) and a scented pinecone. It's basically like we're in
America, except for the fact that I'm sweating from the heat and our house
smells like fried fish instead of pie.
So, we also had Stake
Conference for South Zone this past Saturday and Sunday. It was
at the South Stake Center in Chamkarmon instead of in Steungmeanchey, so a lot
of the members from SMC didn't come because it was too far. BUT our faithful Om
Im called a tuk tuk and made her way over. When we taught her the day before
she was like, Its so far and I dont know where it is! And we were like, we'll
talk to your neighbors (long time members) they can explain to you where it is,
and you can totally come! You can do it Om! And she was like Yeah!!! I can get
a tuk tuk! And she totally followed through! We later found out that she rode
her tuk tuk to our other recent converts house and was like "hop in!"
She is too awesome. Even better, she brought her neighbor, a woman named Bong
Sokha who is ineterested in learning with us. Right now her schedule is a
littel nuts, so it has been difficult, but she has been to church once, and
brought her kids, and she came to stake conference so we are super impressed
with her, especially since 80% of our members didn't even go to stake
conference.
BUT we are not getting
too down about it. Even though the numbers were way less than they should be,
it was still fun to go. There were about 250 people there from 6 wards, and the
room was pretty packed. We started the opening hymn and lots of people were
still coming in, and it was awesome because we heard the intro to the hymn, and
as soon as the congregation started singing, they opened the doors for the
overflow room because we needed more space for people to sit down. And I am
used to hearing about 40 people singing off key, so to hear 250 people singing
loud and proud together as a congregation was super awesome. Gave me chills.
Another movie moment for the week.
Fun story about Sister
Harris this week though. She got SASSY with the choir director at Stake
Conference. The director for the choir is a woman named Seila and she has about
fifty callings. She's young, and really cool and fashionable and sort of one of
the key members in Cambodia. So she's a bit intimidating and Sister Harris and
I have been happy to be her slaves for a while, playing the piano for the
choir. But the night before stake conference, she asked us to stay late (past
our curfew) to practice and we were like, Seila, we have no elders to take us
home past curfew, and we have to BIKE home 40 minutes away. We can't stay! The
main issue was that there was a piano player there who was more than capable of
taking Sister Harris' spot for the night. And Seila was like, "no. you
have to stay." So Sister Harris took matters into her own hands and asked
the guy to play the piano so we could go home and he was fine with it, and she
went up to seila and was like ok, its taken care of we're leaving now. and
seila goes, "You can't leave!" (not in a desperate way, shes a bit
scary). And Sister Harris goes back änd days "You don't own me Seila!!!
We're going home!!!" It was kind of hilarious from my perspective. I was a
little terrified of both of them, but also super happy Sister Harris stood her
ground so that we could be home on time. I was like, well you handled it in a
very gruff manner, but I'm still proud of ya. Thats my girl.
So anyway, the main
conversation Sister Harris and I have been having this week is this: missions
are LONG. Since this is my second time going through the Christmas season in
Cambodia, I have come to a realization: missions are, in fact, quite long. And
everybodydoes that thing where they are like "oh it goes by so fast!"
and thats true. But DANGIT!!! I've been here for forever!!!! I just didn't
realize it until now. The only logical explanation is that missions are so
wonderful and so worth it, and thats why it goes by lickety-split.
Okay my other thoguht
for this week: The church advertisement for "He is the Gift". Okay,
this video almost made me cry. It was so dang inspirational that all I wated to
do was go outside and tell every unassuming Cambodian "HEY!! GOD LOVES
YOU!!! So He sent His Son just for you!!! Christ IS the Gift!!!!" But unfortunately,
they wold have ZERO clue what I would be talking about, so that would be a
less-effective approach. But here are my thoughts:
1) watch the video.
Its like 2 minutes and absolutely worth it. Here it is: http://www.mormon.org/christmas?cid=HPFR112814529
2) be grateful for the
greatest Gift that mankind has ever known. The birth, life, example, ministry,
and Atonement of Jesus Christ. That is God's gift to you. Every single day.
there is no greater gift in the world.
3) Share the gift. I
read a quote by someone important (forgive me for not remembering who or
exactly what they said) but they essentiqally said that the beauty of the
Christmas season is that everyone is touched by the Spirit of Christmas, which
in reality is the Spirit of CHRIST. People want to love more, to serve more, to
be a little kinder, to be a little more grateful. Use that Spirit to your
advantage, and share the gift of Christ's life with a dear friend, a family
member, someone who needs that gift in their life. Because we all need it.
I'm going to end with
a really cliche scripture. We all know this one, but I love it now more than
ever, because every time i think about it, it holds new meaning for me. This
Christmas season, think long and hard about this scripture. Think about what
God's gift has done for you, and think about how it can help everyone around
you, too.
"For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten Son
......that the world through
him might be saved." John 3:16
I hope you all have a
wonderful Christmas season. Wish me luck in SMC.
Let's do this again
next week.
Love, Sister Davis
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Happy Thanksgiving from the SMC missionaries!
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