STAKES!!!!

The big news just came in!!!!! Ready? Drumroll please......

CAMBODIA IS OFFICIALLY ORGANIZING ITS FIRST STAKE!!!!!!

Technically 2 new stakes! Phnom Penh North and Phnom Penh South. I'm bummed I got transferred out of Phnom Penh right before the stakes are organized, but I'm still so happy!

This is HUGE NEWS!!! Getting a stake is a big deal. The church has been in Cambodia for 20 years now, and it's finally being recognized as an actual stake because we finally have enough members and enough organization. And I am one of the lucky few who actually gets to be in the country when it happens. I have often complained at the lack of organization the church has here. It's no one's fault, it's just that all the members here are new and dont really know how to run a ward or stake the way we do in America or in more developed countries. BUT the beauty of a stake is that it brings a lot of organization with it. The church here is going to progress a TON now that we're officially being organized as a stake, and I'm super pumped. I can't believe how lucky I am to be in this country at this exciting time! This is a huge milestone! GO CAMBODIA!

Okay so....................I'm in Battambang!! Seriously, I. LOVE. BATTAMBANG. This is everyone's favorite place to serve and I can totally see why. It's like Kampong Cham only a little MOREYou still get some rural places here, but they also have a bunch of good restaurants and American stuff. Por ejemplo, (or in khmer) utihah muay: All the missionaries in BB (like maybe 8 of us) are going to an Indian restaurant for lunch! I havent had Indian food in FOREVER. theyve also got a couple cafes and american restaurants. So its basically Kampong Cham only I'm not drowning in rice. 

Here's the bad news: Yesterday President Moon decided I should be the English Class leader in Battambang. MAJOR WOMP. I told myself right before i got transferred that if I made it through my whole mission without being an English Class leader, I would consider my mission a success. Not that I dont want responsibility or anything, but English class is so stressful just being a teacher. I guess you guys dont know much about english class do you? My bad. The missionaries teach a free english class at the church every wednesday night. Only the American missionaries teach: the Khmer missionaries are actually students themselves, but they help us plan and prepare and stuff. I kind of knew based on the missionaries in BB right now that it would end up being me. Some of them have already been the leader, some are too new, etc....I have no idea what the english class is like here either so it will be difficult to get started. but Sister Cloud will help me a lot, I'm sure.

Sister Cloud is great too. She's been really great with helping me become familiar with the area. She even gives me tips on how to interact with some of the members here so I know how to get them to like me. one of those priceless little tidbits was to actually open up my mouth and TALK to the members. Like be friendly and stuff. Crazy huh? No but really, that's always been a rough spot for me. I'm still really shy with the language (which I know I shouldnt be because its pretty obvious from the second they see me that HEY IM WHITE AND I DONT SPEAK KHMER) so anyway, I usually am smiley and try to be friendly and ask how they are but I rarely get to know them on a deeper basis because I'm afraid I'll ask a question and that, ya know, they'll actually respond. People in KC and Tuolkork didnt really have a problem with it, and I still had really good friendships with the members there. BUT it was a goal of mine to be more open and friendly so I've been seriously taking myself out of my comfort zone and forcing myself to have real conversations with people. Especially here in Battambang, it's really important for the missionaries to have good relationships with the members, so thats my goal for this transfer.

Oh also....I'm finally living in a house with other sisters! My whole mission so far, I've lived alone with my companion. Which is fine, but I'm really excited to live with other people too! The other sisters are in BB 3rd branch, and their names are Sister Hem (a khmer whos super nice and a great missionary) and Sister Fife. Sister Fife just finished her training and she is AWESOME. She can literally quote Nacho Libre backwards and forwards and last night she made the Nacho Libre face (you know the one) and thats when I realized......I've found my eternal companion. Honestly, she's hilarious. We also live in the same house as the senior couple, Elder and Sister Zemp. They live on the bottom floor and we live two floors up. Last night they invited us downstairs to eat ice cream with them while we did our language study. So they're great. 

It was hard for me to leave Tuokork because i absolutely adored the members there, and I also miss Sister Kohler like CRAZY. Shes back in America by now. how weird? BUT I think this transfer was a really good decision on President's part and I'm super stoked to be here.

Anyway, Ive only been in BB for three days so I dont have much to report, but I have a feeling i will soon. I LOVE BATTAMBANG! It's going to be such a good transfer guys. I can feel it. 

Daoy seckdei srolan,

Sister Davis

These pictures are all from my last few days in tuolkork. My last picture with SIs Kohler!!!

 My last picture with Om Sokha!!! I already miss this crazy old woman. Just for the record, right before this picture was taken, Om's parting words for us as we were saying goodbye was (to sister kohler, who she knew was going back to america): "When you go home, tell President Thomas S Monson that I need to borrow 5,000 dollars." Solid.

                              Boro's family. They were less-actives that I loved to go and teach.

                                                  Ming Srei's family! Sdaay naah!

                            Chendaa. One of my favorite memebers in Tuolkork. Shes so stinkin adorable,

                                 Bong Combei and her husband, Ming Phaa, and the twins Mei and Mian

                     Am I so happy to be back in a province? I am SOO HAPPY to be back in a province!!!

                                                        My new companion SIster Cloud

Battambang or Bust

And once again, transfer calls literally blow everyone out of the water. I'm leaving Tuolkork. Whaaaaaaatt???? I know it's probably hard to understand since you guys don't know much about the areas here or how transfers work so you're probably all like, "okay, shes leaving tuolkork. no biggie." WELL LET ME TELL YOU: its a biggie. First of all, I literally JUST whitewashed this area barely two transfers ago. And Sis Kohler finishes her mission this friday so shes not going to be in tuolkork, so we assumed i would stay to lead the area again. But no....President Moon decided to just take sisters out of the area. He's splitting up Elder Schleede and Elder Sorensen and giving each of them new companions so now tuolkork is going to just have two sets of elders. I JUST whitewashed this place man, come on. I cannot explain through email exactly what a big deal it is that im leaving. Its completely crazy. 

But guess what else???? I'M GOING BACK TO THE PROVINCES!!! I'm headed to Battambang! I want to parade through the street of Phnom Penh with a fanfare. I LOVE the provinces. The city is cool and you can buy lots of stuff (which reminds me to tell you that my bank account is gonna get a break after I went crazy buying stuff in the city. oops.) and the mission home is here and all the missionaries are here too. But everyone knows the provinces are where its at. Especially Battambang. Battambang is everyones favorite because the missionary work there is always on fire. I'm so stoked. My new companion is another American, her name is Sister Cloud. I've met her once before. So I'll meet up with her (shes in Battambang already) and we'll take the 6-hour busride to Battambang together on Friday. I cant wait. I already get to serve in two provinces and my mission is still in its first half. THere are some people in my group who havent even been to a province yet, so im really lucky. Battambang or bust! 

PS for those of you who are like Mrs Thomas, its pronounces baattam-bong, not bottom-bang haha.

Anyway, so today is sister kohler's last pday. We're hitting up all the major phsaas today because shes going back to AMERICA on friday!!! How crazy is that?!?! Being someones last companion is so weird because theyre always like "oh the mission flies by!" and youre just sitting there like.........ive still got ten months left. but i still believe her. when that day comes for me at the end of my mission its gonna be so weird. itll go by in the blink of an eye.

I have more great news! I finally found a big book of REAL Khmer food recipes. One of the members in Kampong Thom, her name is Sophol, she put together a big book of her recipes for things like chaa and kaa and curry and a bunch of other foods i havent even told you guys about. So I will OFFICIALLY be able to make you guys genuine, super yummy Khmer food, straight from the source: a real khmer. Ive had two khmer comps and I always meant to learn how to cook from them, but i was always too tired to actually want to cook. So get excited. You're going to be eating a lot of rice when I come home.

Oooooh sidenote: turns out this whole time when I've been trying to say the word "student" in Khmer ive actually been saying the word "horse." Suh vs. seh. My english class horses were probably really offended. 

And then also, Sister Kohler and I just found out the word for "squid." Its pronounced "yee-hoo" and neither one of us can say it without cracking up.

SOO last p-day I went to the Royal Palace. Its where the king lives, or im pretty sure where he used to live. its a big tourist attraction. Super cool. I went with sister thain and her companion. Ive got a ton of pictures of that for you. But as per usual, they were totally trying to rip off the foreigners (classic cambodia). First of all, its 25 cents for a Khmer to get into the royal palace. $6.25 for a foreigner. Huzzah. And then on top of that, they were selling cool fabric near the exit and noramlly at the phsaa you can buy one sompuet of fabric for about $7. Sister Thain asked the lady at the royal palace how much they were selling it for and the lady goes "Hoksep dolla." Hoksep means SIXTY. Sister Thain was HILARIOUS. She literally yelled out, "HOKSEP?!?! Well....I'm just gonna 'hoksep' over here" and she just turned around and walked out. That was a week ago and Im still laughing about it. 

Oh here;s a major bummer from this week. Sister Kohler and I got our helmets stolen. I'm still bristling over it. They basically dont wear helmets here, so you can bet that im not gonna find an American quality helmet here. My new one doesnt fit my head well, the strap already broke and I just look like a downright fool in it. My old helmet was pink and white and so easy to see! I loved my helmet! It was the weirdest thing when I realized I actually MISSED my helmet. I miss my helmet you guys. I'm losin it. Still...I had that helmet for half of my mission! I'm still way upset about it. Though it was probably my own fault for leaving out on my bike at night on one of cambodias main streets.

Why were we at one of cambodias main streets at night, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. We were watching the priesthood session of general conference!!!! and it was SO GOOOOOD. During the big meeting last week, President Moon said, "I want the sisters to watch the priesthood session of general conference because it applies very well to the power that you sisters have as missionaries." President Moon is awesome, because that session of GC was amazing. Is that what the priesthood session is always like?! Because I've been missing out! You guys should go watch it online like we did if you havent seen it. Super goood. I took like 6 pages of notes.

OH MAN. I almost forgot. A bird totally pooped on me this week. We were riding our bikes and I almost crashed into sister kohler when I realized it. I was NOT pleased. But its okay, because im pretty sure McKenna has been pooped on like 6 times already right?

Well, thats most of the stuff I have from this past week. Can you believe Im going back to the provinces?! Ugh I cant wait. BUT that does mean we're back to the scarce mailing system. Packages and letters may take months to get to me. So keep that in mind.

Some spiritual thoughts: I really liked what Uchtdorf said during the Priesthood session. He made a comparison to our life on earth and Rip Van Winkle. When our time on earth is almsot done, will you be able to look back and say that you used your time wisely? How did you contribute? Don't sleep through your time here on earth; use it effectively!

Also, this one is SOMKHAN MEINTEIN, SO SO SO IMPORTANT. I want you guys to read the Book of Mormon. All the way through. Beginning to end. Take as much time as you need, but take it seriously. Read it, think about it, take notes. You will get out of it what you put into it. Dont think of it as a big challenge. Just do a little bit every day.  It'll change everything for you. Theres a reason we have it! In Preach My Gospel, it urges us not to take the Book of Mormon for granted. And we are prmised that as we read, "there will come into [our] hearts the Spirit of the Lord. There will come a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments." Nothing makes me feel better than reading the scriptures. Thats my request for you guys! 

Okay mian tae ponnung! This was a really good week! And I'm SO excited for everything that lies ahead! I love you guys so much and miss you a ton! 

Love, Sister Davis (Chlobo, Chol, Chololo, Lolo, etc)

 Some pictures of us in a flooded street....aaaaaand its not even the rainy season yet.

Suesdai Chnam Thmei!

Suesdai Chnam Thmei = Happy New Year!

Today officially commences the three-day celebration for Khmer New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!

And guess what?!?!?!

Khmer New Year is THE WHIPS. And I dont use that term lightly.

The Cambodian New Year is hands down the BIGGEST holiday of the year here, and people literally put their whole lives on hold to celebrate. Everyone stops working, stops doing anything and basically they just hole themselves up at home with their families for three days straight. And heres the kicker: they dont just "stay at home." They go all the way back to their homeland, or their home province which is 99.999% of the time NOT Phnom Penh. We call this "going srok"("srok"means country, but they use it to refer to the provinces as well). 

"Sister Davis what happened to all your investigators?"

"They all went srok." --> Means WE HAVE NOBODY TO MEET WITH. Literally. Khmer New Year is the most unproductive three days in a Cambodian missionary's 2/1.5 years of service. Phnom Penh has to be one of the busiest most crowded, most trafficky cities in the world and it is currently a ghost town. All the shops are shut down, locked up, closed. No one on the streets. We had to search high and low to find this super sketchy internet cafe that im currently in because all the other ones were closed.

 

President Moon even told us that this wednesday, the last day of Khmer New Year, we should just spend the whole day deep-cleaning our apartments. And tomorrow we have an all-day meeting for the missionaries. It's completely useless to go out proselyting. Have I sufficiently explained what a big deal Khmer New Year is?

Needless to say, this past weekend when Cambodia got to watch General Conference, almost NO ONE came. Super sad. Like, yeah theres a prophet of God speaking this weekend.........eh I can afford to miss that. EXCEPT WAIT HOLD UP a single solitary ONE of my investigators came. Shes a brand new investigator, I had only met her once and she totes came to watch general conference. She is seriously SO AWESOME. Probably one of the best investigators Ive ever had. Shes super smart and her only desire in her life is to just do the right thing and be a good person. She said she wants to learn about our church because every time she meets with the missionaries or walks into our church building or talks to the members she just feels so good inside and she knows shes surrounded by "goodness.: So yeah....shes stinkin awesome. Her name is Srei Oun. Love her already.

Speaking of general conference though. AMAZING. I usually have a favorite speaker and its usually pretty obvious, but this year it was harder for me to pick. I studied my notes for a long time and decided that Elder Perry was my favorite. Hes usually not up there for me but I LOVED his talk this year on obedience. If we have faith in God and trust that He has a plan for us, we will be obedient and do what He asks of us because we know that He can make far more of our life than we can on our own. Loved it. The obvious otherswere Holland, Uchtdorf and Bednar (no surprise there). I also really loved Gary Stevenson's talk. This life is your four minutes! They have already begun and the clock is ticking! Are you using your four minutes wisely? You never know when your four minutes will be up. Never delay the things you know you have to do. 

I also went on an exchange this week with Sister Homer's comp, the other sister training leader. Her name is Sister Melton and she is HILARIOUS. one of my favorite people in the whole mission. She is seriously so awesome. Super fun, but also such a hard-working and obedient missionary. We had a blast on our exchange. At the end of the exchange, when we were evaluating together, we were talking about how sometimes we're not sure if we're being effective as missionaries because we're not good at the language and Cambodia is a hard place to be teaching about Jesus Christ, so sometimes we feel like "whats the point?" And Sister Melton said something that changed my whole mission. I told her, "I dont know the language very well and i still feel like i dont really know what im doing, so I know that there are tons of other missionaries who could take my place, and teach the people im teaching right now, and they could do a much better job of it too. Its not like these people are depending on me. This elder or that sister could do a much better job than i could, so sometimes i feel ineffective." And she literally just whipped around and turned right to me and was like "Dont EVER think that way." And then this is the part that changed my mission. She said, "Im not great at the language. I dont know as much as these other missionaries about the gospel. But these people dont need perfect teachers. they need someone to love them. Could that other elder teach my investigators better and more clearly? Certainly. But I am sure that no one in the world could love them better than I do." I had never thought about that before. I LOVE my investigators, no matter who they are. And I want nothing more for them to be happy. Missions are not about being the best at the language or knowing the most about the gospel. Its about loving, and showing Christ-like love to others.All we are asked is to serve others with all of our "heart, might mind and strength." By doing that, you fulfill your purpose as a missionary. So thats my missionary lesson of the week.

Quick question though: last week i saw two movies and I want to know if they were actually big, because they both came out after I left and obviously ive never heard of them. 1) Mandela. Looks like a biopic of nelson mandelas life. Yea or nay? and 2) Mr.Pip. Starring Hugh Laurie. and i think we all know how i feel about hugh laurie. Yea or nay? 

Also do you guys know the song "What does the fox say?" Cuz its huge here.

Heres your weekly Om Sokha story: We were telling her that conference was coming up, and we were teaching her how to say President Monson's full name (which cambodians seriously struggle with. You have to make up word games and acronymns and stuff to help them remember). Om Sokha had her own method: She made up a song. Just started singing on the spot. "Thomaaaaa EHHHHh Mooooonsooon. Cia Pyiakarei (is a prohpet) ....." and then like five minutes more that i dont remember.

So anyway, all last week was people preparing for Khmer New Year, then general conference, and now people are gone for Khmer New Year so it wasnt a very eventful week.

Quick funny quote from sister homer: "I have discovered that a well-placed 'meow' will go a long way." (...............no idea.)

Also read Colossians chapter 3!!!! ALL OF IT!!!!

Peace out.

Love, Sister Davis

PS you may have also taken notice of Elder Ballard's talk, since he talked about missionary work and suggested members start reading Preach My Gosepl. I would like to draw your attention to this little snippit: "Can you imagine the impact if family and friends included things they are learning from their personal study of Preach My Gospel in their letters and emails to their full-time missionaries? Can you picture the blessings that will come to families when they know and understand better what their sons and daughters will be studying and teaching on their missions?"

Ahem. Need I say more? I have actually been thinking about telling you guys this for a while, but I just kept on forgetting. Cant really ignore it now that Elder Ballard has spoken up. I believe Phoebe bought all of us copies of Preach My Gospel many years ago, because shes awesome. Find it. Read it. Its not just for missionary work. PMG taught me A TON of things about the church and the gospel in general that I didnt even know before my mission. Its cool. DO IT.

This is another one of my very new investigators. Her name is Ming Touch. Shes really great. Already committed to baptism.

Also....I know. My hair.

A picture of Sister Kohler, Sister Homer, myself and SIster Melton after our exchange. It had just started raining before we got to the church so we all look like poo (except for sis homer, because she always looks like a model).

THIS IS OM SOKHA!!!! Arent you glad you can picture her now? I went to teach her the day of the exchange, when i was with sister melton. and obviously sister melton didnt know om sokha so we got in that lesson and sister melton was looking at me the whole time like "are you serious?!" At the end of the lesson she was taking videos and pictures of this woman because she could not believe how insane this lady is. Totally nuts. Totally love her.

This was another tukgae we ran into in the church. I know this picture does not at all show you how big it was but it was.....big. Certainly well over a foot long. Theyre about the size of iguanas only they are terrifying. It moves at the speed of lightning. Im surprised i was able to get this picture.

RIP Tukgae

Okay so remember last week when I emailed you about the tukgae? It's the really big obnoxious lizard that makes a weird noise and that people are deathly afraid of. Well, like I said, there is one tukgae that just hangs out in our neighborhood. I hear it every night. I kid you not, maybe two days after I sent you that email, Sister Kohler and I walked down the stairs outside of our apartment and what did we find? The HEAD of a tukgae. It literally looks like someone just chopped its head off with a knife. It was the whole neck and the head just at the bottom of our steps, being attacked by ants. It was super nasty. But don't worry I got a picture of it for you guys. Obviously the picture doesn't give you a great idea how big it is, but if you ask for my humble opinion, I would tell you its approximately the size of a basilisk. (Laugh now, but just wait until you see the picture. It's weird how accurate that description is).

So this week we had zone training. That's when the zone leaders (for the North District Zone that is Elder Schleede and Sorensen) go have a meeting with President Moon and he gives them some direction for the missionaries and then we have a big long meeting conducted by the zone leaders where they relay that info from President Moon. And let me tell you.....it was a DOOZY. There were a ton of crazy things that were brought up in the meeting, but the one I wanna talk about is the 212 degree program that President Moon introduced. (there;s a metaphor behind the title of the program but I don't really have the time to explain it. Its a good one though). One of the points of the program that I found really interesting was this outline for missionary expectations: 20 lessons per week, 10 contacts per day, 2 baptism per companionship per month. I was pretty surprised to see that last one. 2 baptisms per companionship PER month is a lot. Especially in the area where I am right now. At first I kind of blanched at that and thought that it would encourage missionaries to baptize people who weren't ready, which is obviously not good. But then I was reminded of a quote I heard a while ago when I was in Kampong Cham: "You catch them, He will clean them." It was in reference to Christ's invitation to "Be ye therefore fishers of men."  It's my job to find and teach to the best of my abilities, and then God will do the rest. But Tuolkork is definitely a rough area to be in. Even Sister Kohler said that she's never been in an area this hard in her entire mission. And I'm not gonna lie, it's been a rough transition to go from Kampong Cham to here. I've got a lot less investigators and there are times when we don't have many people to teach, which brings me to my next point: CONTACTING.

If you dont know, contacting is that classic missionary thing that everyone pictures when they think about missionaries: going up to a rando on the street and being like "hey, do you know Jesus?" Though hopefully a little more creative than that. Anyway, we go contacting when we have nothing else to do, like no one else to teach. And let me just throw this out there: before I came to Tuolkork, I had not once, not EVER gone contacting. That's right people, I'm barely a missionary. I had NEVER gone contacting before I came to the city. I always had someone to teach, whether an investigator or a recent convert or a less-active. But now in this new program, we're expected to get 10 contacts a day, which is TERRIFYING to most of the missionaries here. People were sitting in zone training being like, "how are we gonna do that?" We're a suuuuuper low contacting mission and President Moon was like, ok that needs to change. So Sister Kohler and I have been doing that and guess what? It's not that hard! My personal preference is to buy something and then contact the seller. Its wayyy less awkward that way and they kind of have to be nice to you since you're giving them money. Plus in Cambodia people just sell whatever they want on the side of the street so you dont even have to go into a store. You just stop your bike. On the downside, I'm gonna go broke. Anyway, it's definitely getting me out of my shell and pushing me out of my comfort zone, but it's making me feel more accomplished as a missionary.

It just occurred to me right this very second that there's actually a huge aspect of my mission that I don't think I've ever told you guys: Cambodia is a non-tracting mission. Tracting is when you go door to door to contact people. It's kind of a symbol of missionary work, but the Cambodian government doesn't allow us to do that. Which probably works out just fine anyway, because a lot of people don't really have doors............? I can't tell you how many times I've been in a situation where they've like closed the curtain (or a door if they have one) to their house and my companion and I just don't know what to do. Most people leave it open so when we come to a "closed house" we're like.....what do we do now? Do we knock? I don't think knocking on doors is a thing here. If that does happen usually you just stand outside and yell "Ming ay!" or "Bong ay!" or whatever their name is, ming, bong or om or whatever.

But anyway, back to the zone meeting. When we were talking about contacting Elder Duffy, who was in my MTC group and is hilarious just pipes up and goes, "Bikes are free game yo! Let me tell you: they are a captive audience! The most they can do is turn....and then you can just follow them!" We were all cracking up at that because its kind of true. *disclaimer: missionaries do not chase people down the street against their will*

On that topic, I got McKenna's weekly email from Mrs. Thomas and was laughing about her comments about biking. I remember very vividly being that missionary who can't ride a bike, running into stationary objects and overall just making a fool of myself. My bike squeaks too McKenna. But I can say that I have drastically improved my biking skills. Last Monday I was with Sister Litchfield and we were talking about riding with no hands. I've been working on this for while but haven't quite mastered it. so i was like, "I can only do it for about 10 seconds and then I just start to veer off into the middle of the street (hello phnom penh traffic). I think my bike is faulty." Of course my thought process being that maybe, like a car, I need to have my tires realigned. And sister Litchfield's response?  Laughing at my very serious comment she goes, "Shut up Sister Davis, your bike isn't faulty, YOU are faulty!" Gotta love that brutal honesty from Sister Litchfield. I miss hanging out with that girl a ton.

Overall it wasn't a super eventful week. But here are some good quotes that I liked/laughed at:

SIster Kohler: "When I burp it tastes like peanut butter." (she eats a whole jar a week, so this was no surprise).

And now for the serious ones:

Elder Johnson (senior couple missionary talking about his mission): "They say 'if you give the Lord a piece of bread He'll give you a whole loaf.' In my case, I've given the Lord a crumb and He's given me a whole bakery."

Elder Schleede at zone training meeting: "You shouldn't be looking for ways to justify breaking the rules. You should be looking for ways to fulfill the rules. Conform your situation to follow the rules. That is the spirit of Christ-like obedience."

This week I really liked 1 Nephi 18:16, and 2 Nephi 11:5. I also super liked Romans 10:14-15. Huzzah for missionaries!

Okey doke, I think I'll sign off for now. Love you guys a ton!

Love, Sister Davis

PS I SAW A ROLLS ROYCE THIS WEEK. IN CAMBODIA. I almost fell off my bike I got so excited. We were with the elders and Elder Schleede was like, "Sister Davis...do you know cars?" And I was like heck yeah I do! But seriously....a rolls royce. what the freak, man.

                                                     Its most definitely of the basilisk variety. 

Remember that Joma bakey and cafe i told you about? Well....I got a ham egg and cheese on a bagel. well, a "bagel". It was still the closest thing ive had to a sandwich in months.

All the american sisters went to the south district center to watch the general women's conference broadcast on saturday. 

This is my new favorite word in Khmer. It means "chatter" or "jibber jabber" something along those lines. And its cracks me up. THAT IS A WORD.

Sweaty as a bird

Only my family will understand that subject line. But to explain a little further.....

I HAVE NEVER SWEATED THIS MUCH IN MY LIFE. I think I told you guys a few weeks ago "hey its pretty hot." I had no idea what I was talking about. The REAL hot season is starting and I honestly don't know if I'm gonna make it through without losing my mind. The hot season starts a bit towards the end of february and then it really heats up in March. By the time I wake up in the morning to go for a run at 5:30 am, it's already about 85 degrees. By 1 pm, the hottest part of the day, it's well over 100 (based on what sister moon tells me). Add that onto the humidity and the fact that I'm in the city which is super hot and that I have to ride my bike amid the exhaust from trucks and cars and the BILLIONS of motos..............I'm dying. No, I'm dead. And here's the kicker: this isn't even the hottest part of the hot season. April is apparently the hottest month of the year. So I've still got khai buan to go. I don't know how else I can describe this. I AM SO HOT. Thank the heavens above we have an air conditioner. It's just a little one in our bedroom, so the rest of the house is horrific, but that makes all the difference at night and I have literally thanked God in my prayers for it. Sister Kohler and I thought it broke the other night and I almost cried. I know there are houses in places like Takmau that don't have AC. Those poor unfortunate souls.

Anywho, I've got some more food news for you guys: First of all, what was on the menu for me this past week you ask? Well, I'll tell you: intestines and chicken hearts. Elder Schleede and Elder Sorensen (did I tell you guys I'm in the same area as Elder Sorensen again? He was with me in KC, and now we're serving together in Tuolkork) insisted it was a mushroom even though I told them I was pretty sure it looked like an intestine. But I figured hey even if it is an intestine, you get to tell people you ate an intestine. And I did. But I will tell you this: It had stuff inside it. Like.......stuff. I won't go into detail but just know: there was "stuff." As for the chicken heart, I enjoyed that much better. They're actually really small. Like just an inch or two in diameter. But they look just like a mini version of a human heart. Pretty cool. I also found duck flavored ramen so I'm pretty excited to try that out (you guys know my long-time obsession with ramen. It's in full throttle now that I'm in Asia). 

But here's the BEST BEST BEST news about food for the week: Sister Kohler and I were biking to the branch president's house for a meeting and he lives in a really far awar area of Tuolkork. It's an area we very rarely go to. On our journey we found......a bakery cafe. A real one. A good one. Its like Starbucks only a million times better. They have all manner of cakes and croissants and scones and cookies and fresh baked breads AND BAGELS YOU GUYS THEY HAVE BAGELS. (Can we just take this moment to applaud me for spelling croissants correctly on my first try. My grasp of English may be waning but apparently my French is right on track.....?) Sister Kohler and I walked in and we started laughing we were so amazed by what we were seeing in front of us. We literally stopped and took pictures inside this place and I will tell you if we hadn't  I would have assumed it was all a dream. What's weird is that this bakery is honestly in the middle of what seems like a desolate wasteland. Like flat land and no building around it. Totally random. "Joma Cafe and Bakery: Middle-of-Nowhere, Tuokork, Phnom Penh, Cambodia"

Don't you worry I've got pictures of the outside, the inside and everything in between. Even the menus. They have sandwiches and salads and smoothies. They even have a ham egg and cheese on a bagel. I can't tell you how excited I am about this place. We're going bakc there today actually even though its 30 minutes out of the way. It's that good.

So I have a couple animal concerns from this week. First of all a bat flew into our church building and was tormenting us after English class. The elders were purposely scaring it to fly in the direction of me and Sister Kohler and Sister Homer and Sister Melton and we were freaking the heck out. Sister Homer hid in a closet until I told her it was safe to come out. The screams were heard for miles (though nothing like Sister Homer's screams when Satan the lizard attacked us in KC so many months ago). Second, I saw a cockroach during one of my lessons and almost had a panic attack. It was alive and well and just creeping about 5 feet away from me the whole time. I didn't even close my eyes during the prayer because I had to keep an eye on it. I don't trust cockroaches for one single solitary second. Third, Sister Kohler and I saw a Tukgae. I actually have no idea how to spell that. It's just a really really large lizard but for some reason Khmers are terrified of them because apparently they latch onto you and don't let go. Ask me more about that when we skype on Mother;s day because I can actually make the tukgae call/sound.

 AND FOURTH: you guys, I can't even describe the toll this last one has taken on my psyche the last week. I just.....can't.....even............okay here it goes: I and Sister Kohler are like 90% sure that my bed has termites. MY BED. My bed is my sanctuary. You all know that. They have attacked my bed. It's only a matter of time before I get eaten alive in the middle of the night. A couple nights ago I had one of those moments where I could feel things crawling on my skin even though you kow nothing is really there and I actually got up to get a flashlight and check to make sure I didn't have things crawling all over me. I'm telling you, it's psychologically damaging. Needless to say my companion thinks I'm crazy.

Okay maybe I'll actually spend a little time on things that actually matter: So I taught Luna Lovegood a couple times this past week. Real name: Sveta, my Russian investigator. We teach her in English, which I haven't done since I was in KC with Moiseng. And Sveta is actually super fluent in English. So I have to be on my A-game, which we all know is questionable right now. I have finally gotten a glimpse of what it's like to teach in Europe or America and it is exhausting! She has a background with christianity and has actually studied religion a lot so she has crazy smart questions. Luckily none of them have stumped me yet, but sometimes you don't realize how hard it is to explain a concept to someone until they ask you a direct question about it. For example, we were talking about the Fall of Adam and Eve for a solid half hour. Also, with Svets she sort of......I don't really know how to explain it. In the words of Sister Kohler, "Her ideas are like the sky." They seem totally up in the clouds and have no end. If you ask her a question like "Do you believe in God?" Her answer will be something like "Well, what is God really? God is a different thing to every person." And she will just go OFF. During our last lesson I asked her "Do you believe that God is omniscient, and that He knows everything?" And she literally said "Well, it's difficult for me to describe what 'everything' is." What? Evrything is...EVERYTHING. Geez louise. But I absolutely LOVE teaching her. I love that she challenges us. It reminds me of what our family was probably like when we were learning, asking questions just to be stubborn in a sense.

Other than that, nothing super interesting going on the world of teaching lessons. SIster Kohler and I had probably the funniest lesson with Om Sokha that I've ever had. I wish I could describe her, but I've already tried and failed. I was laughing that entire lesson. It slays me to see a 70 year old woman with a sense of humor like her. She told Sister Kohler that she looked like Mary, Christ's mom and then she told me that I look like Elizabeth......as in John the Baptist's mom who's like a thousand years old. And then she just started cracking up. She is probably one of my favorite people to teach out of everyone I've taught in my whole mission.

That's all for this week I think! A couple things I read this week that I liked: Ether 12:33-34 and John 8:32. I also read in Moroni 8:16 and the end of it says "fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth away all fear." I LOVED that.

I love you all so very much! I miss you a ton and hope you have a great week!

Love, Sister Davis

PS I know General Conference is coming up but Cambodia doesn't get it until a few weeks later, because we have to wait for it to be translated in Khmer for all the Khmer missionaries and then we watch it all together. SO NO SPOILER ALERTS. You can tell me which talks you like but don't tell me anything about them! General Conference is the best thing in the world as a missionary, I'm so stoked.

This is Bong Combei and her adorable son. She;s a recent convert, and such an awesome member, ALWAYS gives us referrals for her friends that want to learn. And she also bought me the headband I'm wearing in this picture. Shes the best.

Another Sunday lunch at Ming Srei's. She fed us goose. This is elder Sorensen and elder schleede trying to point out the head of the goose.

Some other awesome members. The Lookpuu on the floor is Lookpuu Broh, you;ve seen him before. His daughter is the one in the polka dot skirt. Chendaa is the girl in blue and red in the middle. She's Combei's little sister and seriously one of my favorite people. SO SWEET. And she wants to learn english, so we help each other tuo vin tuo mook.

Carrot, cake, chocolate cake, cheesecake, chocolate creme pies, lemon bars, brownies and QUICHE. I bought the quiche. It had real ham in it. whats up. AND THEY GAVE ME A NUMBER! Do you see that?!

Cool government building thats on the way to the main city. and yes thats a new dress, thanks for noticing. 6 dollars. Which is a little pricey for Cambodia but I said what the heck and bought it anyway. 

This week: Ants launch their attack on my sanity.

Cumriabsua's all around!!!!

The first full week after the new transfer was full of ups and downs. Let me just start with church yesterday, where a couple awesome things happened. First of all, Om Sokha came to church (she's the old less-active member who we work with a lot and she came back to church! I love that woman to death). And on that note, she sat in the row behind me, so at one point I was looking over my shoulder trying to see out the door and she saw me looking in her direction and I KID YOU NOT this 70-something year old woman gave me the head nod. Like the quick, "sup" head nod with the eyebrow raise. And I did it back. And then I died of laughter right in the middle of church. I wish you guys could meet her, she is so awesome. 

SECOND cool thing to happen - I am actually teaching Luna Lovegood now so thats cool. Seriously. She's this Russian girl named Sveta (why is a Russian living in Cambodia you ask? I still havent figured that one out.) She's just a wisp of a thing and she has translucently white skin with hair thats long and wavy/frizzy that is so blond it just about glows, and she wears long, purple and pink and blue peasant like flowery dresses and skirt and she just sort of floats in and out of places. She's really quiet but seems nice. She speaks english with a heavy Russian accent and we're teaching her for the first time today! SO yeah. I'm teaching Luna Lovegood. Tell your friends. 

I have another investigator named Ming Sophea and she's been super awesome the whole time and loves learning with us, but her work wouldn't let her come to church on Sundays. But this past week she told us that starting next week she should be able to come to church! I was SOOO happy when she said that I was literally speechless. I had no words other than "khnom sabay cet khlang meenteen" --> "I have a very happy heart." Ming Sophea's house is just like a cement box, probably 5 feet by 5 feet, and only maybe 4 feet tall. She sleeps with her son, cooks and lives in this tiny little shelter that's in the basement of an actual house. It kills me, but it also makes me love her more. She's awesome. So that's what's going on with some of my investigators right now. 

But back to Om Sokha for a bit, because I wanna say something about less-active members that I realized. I know I say that I really like working with less-active members. So true. Maybe it's just the ones in Tuolkork, but I love working with them and teaching them. They are some of my favorite people to go visit. But anyway I realized something when Om Sokha came to church.  Obviously, its way exciting when an investigator progresses well and gets baptized. Hooray, super happy, exciting, all that jazz. But I realized that I am EQUALLY as sabay when a less-active comes back to church. If not, more excited. When I saw Om Sokha come up the stairs and walk towards me in the church building I almost dropped everything I was holding so that I could wave my arms and jump up and down and be like, "OM!!! OM!!!!!!" I had the biggest smile, I was almost laughing and I was just sooo happy to see her. When a less-active member becomes active in the church again, missionaries call it a "rescue." And especially in Cambodia that's a huge thing. (I think I mentioned once before that the church here has over 10,000 members but less than 3,000 are active and that statistic makes me want to vomit.) One of our mission goals for the year of 2014 is to have 800 rescues. It's hard work, but I think it was President Hinckley that said a while ago that a rescue is just as good as a new convert baptism. Just as good! Just as important! And when that happens, I am just as happy! So anyway, a cool realization. 

Another realization I had this week. I know that in my emails I frequently call myself a fool. That's because it's true. HOWEVER, it baffles me to think about the person I was before my mission by comparison: what....a....FOOL. Sister Kohler and I were talking about efficiency and using your time well, especially on a mission. When we're only here for such a short time, its important that we work work work every single second and not waste any time. And my first thought after we finished that conversation was this: "Hey Chloe, remember that time when you were in your dorm room and McKenna was gone for the night and you spent 9 STRAIGHT HOURS watching the first seven episodes The Walking Dead?" (shoutout to Mommy and Daddy for paying for my college education). I was the QUEEN of wasting time before my mission! Wasting time was my favorite activity! And now I'm just on-the-go all the time and I can't imagine going home and acting the way I used to. Every single night, I go to bed totally, completely exhausted because you just never stop moving. You get time to eat lunch in the middle of the day, and then you just go and go and go for 7 hours and then you go home and study some more. I'm always tired and I LOVE it! Because I know that it means I gave my all and did something worthwhile. Now, I would hate going to bed without having done something significant during the day. There were days before my mission where I would wake up, watch TV, put on pants just to go and buy myself some food, and then come home and watch TV some more. And then i went to bed. What the freak man! I spent 20 years being (in Daddy's words) a little sod when I could have been actually doing stuff. Here's another great anecdote from those days I spent in Helaman Halls: One evening,I was sitting at my desk with no one to play with because McKenna was at her musical practice, and I actually spent probably a solid 2+ hours cutting the split ends of my hair. That's all. (Notice how most of these things happen when McKenna is gone.......?) I was such a fool you guys. I still am, but now I'm a fool that studies and cleans dishes and stuff. You probably won't recognize me by the time I come home.

Also, when I come home, I fear I will probably have the worst manners EVER. In history. Surprise, surprise, Cambodians don't value politeness and manners in the same way we do. The way they eat, the things they talk about, it's just not there. One example from this week that Sister Kohler and I were laughing about for a long time: There's this one woman in our ward, she's the one who had an FHE at her house a couple weeks ago that I sent pictures of. I think I described her as the "classic Cambodian mom." Her name is Ming Phaa. I took Sister Kohler to her house to meet her this past week and we sat down next to her and she randomly starts pushing my arm, like trying to push me away and she goes, "I just farted, go stand over there." So we did. Then we came back and sat down again. But here;s the kicker: It happened AGAIN. A second time, she was like "I farted again, get up and stand over there." And that's just totally normal here. I don't exactly go into detail about those kinds of things, but I will say that my eating has become probably quite horrific. SO watch out for that.

Speaking of eating, I found a "Thai Market" not even two minutes from our house and it's literally a grocery store. So guess what Sister Kohler and I have been eating this week? MILK. AND BREAD (like a real portuguese loaf) AND CHOCOLATE. I swear you guys, I ate rice like maybe only two or three times this week. WHo needs rice when you've got bread?!?! But its okay, remember because SIster Kohler has me running every morning now. And when you run, you can eat whatever you want. Thats the rule. Right mommy? I also bought (drumrolllllll) CHEESE. I actually haven't eaten cheese AT ALL in about 5 months. When I took the first bite, I'm not even joking my tongue started to tingle. It was so weird, but I was like dang, dairy products are awesome.

But here's the best part. You guys will NEVER in a million years guess what I found at this store: 

HOB NOBS. I FOUND HOB NOBS. Yes, the British chocolate cookie that was always present during tea time at Grandad's house. (Daddy, confirm or deny: McVitie's is the brand right? I want to make sure I didn't get some stupid knock-off Hob Nobs). It has a little union jack flag on the wrapper so I'm pretty sure its legit. That's really all the assurance I need. 

Also, one other thing I want to tell you guys. BEcause SIster Kohler finishes her mission after this transfer, she's going crazy on the souvenirs. She wants to go to the bug phsaas pretty much every week and i'm LOVING IT. So last week, I went CRAZY. When you see the numbers in my bank account and how different it is from when I was in KC, thats because I've got access to all the awesome phsaas in Cambodia and the things I have bought for you guys are just.....awesome. You're gonna love it. I'm seriously just going to be throwing things at you when I come home. Bags, shirts, scarves, wallets, skirts, pants (all of which have elephants on them, don't you worry). I have no self control. I just tell myself that I have to spend a lot of money because I just love my family so much. That's a reasonable excuse right? 

Okay so I'm pretty much done for this week. Sorry if I repeat myself a lot in my emails? SOmetimes I feel like there's only so much to talk about and then I'm like...oh yeah. You're in Cambodia. You can find something to talk about. Sister Kohler is awesome. Super chill, but also a super obedient, super hard worker and I'm LOVING IT. We're doing well. This is a tough area but I really love the members and I'm still loving being in the city. I miss you all a TON! And I love you all so very much!

Love,

Sister Davis

PS Here's a quote that Alex Lysenko sent me last week that I super duper loved and I want to sen it to you guys too. CS Lewis rocks my socks. Always has. Sister Homer and I decided we wanted to take a CS Lewis class together when we go home. He's the best:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right, and stopping the leaks in the roof, and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably, and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of– throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” - CS Lewis

I joked to sister homer that she should buy a parenting book (i dont know if this is the case in other missions, but in our mission we use a lot of weird lingo e.g. Your trainer is called your "mom" or dad if youre an elder) and she actually went and bought one before english class. She cracks me up.

Sister Kohler had to get a root canal redone and I got to sit cit 2 ft away from her the whole time while they were drilling into her mouth and ripping her tooth out. You know how much I love the dentist. 

Also at this dentist, they make you take off your shoesd before you walk in (thats just a normal custom in asia) but they also give you white crocs to wear around the dentists office. I thought it was the funniest thing in the world. PS this dentists office is the cleanest place ive been to since being in cambodia. I was just wanna go hang out there its SO NICE AND CLEAN.

This is really yummy baeng houy that Ming Srei made for us. 

Sorry I didnt take lots of good pics this week. these are kinda boring I know.