The Godfather, Part 7: The Sister Training Leader

Okay Im really sorry you guys, but emailing seems to be pretty fruitless to me nowadays. Dont be surprised if you dont get these big long weekly emails for the last couple weeks of my mission.

Anywho, recently Ive been making jokes about how Im not even done yet and the mission has already bot caoled me. that is Cambodian for toss into a trashcan like a rotten fish head (PS Sister Spangler bought me an actual fish head to keep as a pet this week, but thats another story). I dont actually feel that way, but I started cracking jokes about it when i stopped being the Sister training Leader for my last transfer, and then there was this secret English Class meeting that I wasnt invited to (im trying to be sarcastic by the way. President Moon doesnt do "invite-only" meetings). So we were laughing about that to and i was like, whelp they dont care about me and my opinion anymore. this all became quite poignant as Sister Spangler and Sister jepsen called me into their room to have a little chat. They were all like...we need your help. You are the most senior sister in this house and we're doing a sister training leader exchange but we need you to go with one of the sisters because she wont listen to us. I started laughing because I was like, I dont know why you think she would listen to me, but they made the point that in Khmer culture age has a big pull. So they pulled me in to be a third sister training leader to help out with this one exchange.

(obviously Im making this sound way more dramatic than it actually was).

I am not kidding I had a field day with the whole fiasco. I couldnt take it seriously. I SO BADLY wanted to grab my stuffed animal and start petting it and throw some cotton balls in my mouth and go, "You show me nothin but disrespect. And now, you come to me, askin for help, on this the day of my daughters wedding." (Brooklyn accent implied).

I was a brat about it because exchanges are on of my least favorite things, BUT I did what they asked me to and came out alive. it was actually a really fun day and I was happy to do it. I went with Sister Harris comp and at the end of the day she and I were cracking each other up as per usual. And then Sister Jepsen stole Sister Harris'cake mix so all in all, it was worth it.

I also have your weekly English Class Sign Holding quote of the week.

A young man who speaks decent English for  CAmbodian comes up, finds out that we speak Khmer and goes "Wow! how long have you been here for?" Me: "a year and a half." Him: "You lovee Cambodia?" Me: "Yes, I love Cambodia." Him: "Good. CAMBODIA LOVE YOU TOO!" That was great. It finally loves me back, you guys.

Speaking of weekly things: Bong Sokhaa's weekly spotlight. here it is:  We decided to go see her as a back up one night, so it was an impromptu lesson that we hadn't fleshed out much. We just did a really basic lesson on the life of Christ and shared John 3:16 (classic). And she just sat there and after reading the verse she goes, "Sometimes I wonder how He did it. I wonder how God would send His own Son. it would be too hard to send your own child to do that. But I know He did it for us. Not just for one of us, but for EVERY ONE OF US." And I was like, you bascially just dissected one of my favorite quotes from brilliant author CS Lewis without even knowing it and you live in a shack in Cambodia! I swear she is perfect. Her kids are doing great too. They are still learning with the elders, and they join in and pray in our lessons.

I would also just like to go on a rant about this one guy in our ward named Bong Dara. He has been a member for probably close to ten years and he is seriously AWESOME. He is one of those people that you look at and just go....youve got a special place in the celestial kingdom, my friend. I wont go into too much detail, but essentially He runs our whole ward and does everything. he sacrifices times to help everyone in every activity and the whole place would be nothing without him. Anyway, a couple weeks ago, a random guy came up to us (again while holding the English Class sign......you guys probably think its the only thing that we do. In reality its just that a lot of crazy things happen when youve got two white girls standing on the side of the road in the middle-of-nowhere cambodia inviting people to come talk to us) and this guys handed us to cans of orange juice. I took it gingerly and then the guy took off his helmet and what do you know! its Bong Dara. I cannot tell you how busy this man is and how so much fo his good deeds go unnoticed, but he still makes time to buy the missionaries some soda. He is the definition of  Saint. Look it up.

Sidenote: as part of the exchange I missed a wedding for a member in SMC and Im still a little bitter about it.

OH ALSO, this week, I have my very last Zone Conference of my mission EVER. and its fantastic because Elder Gong is coming! A member of the Seventy is gonna be all up in our Zone Conference and I'm stoked about it, so wait to hear more about that.

i think thats all I've got for this week! Love you guys very much. Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Davis

                      Sister Spangler doing something. I think these photo creds go to Sister Jepsen.

Some exchange pics. We couldnt keep it together long enough. 

                                                                             semi normal.

                                     also a delayed photo from siem reap i stole from sister litchfield.

One of the best members in Cambodia. Named Zion (pronounced Seee-yon). She should be leaving on a mission soon.