Wow!
Cambodia is AWESOME. This is a whole different world guys. I love every second though!!! When we got off the plane in Cambodia it was instantly hot and muggy. I said hello to an airport worker and told him I was learning Khmer. He told me I spoke very clearly! I was pretty excited about that haha. We met President Moon and his wife outside of the airport which was this little thing that had a runway next to a bunch of water. It was wild. We only had to give them our passport and visa and walk through. Then we were out of the airport which didn't really have a door haha. We went from the airport with the Assistants to the President in a van to the market while the two sisters went in The president's car. The roads are insane. Everyone has a moto. there are a lot of cars too but not nearly as many as motos. Only really well off people have cars. Everyone kind drives however they want and if they are gonna pass you they just honk. They usually stay on the right side of the road like in america but anything goes really. There are rules I guess but the cops just stand on the corner and do nothing. You only get in trouble if you wreck. Everyone is pretty alert here though so that doesn't happen. At the market I went with one AP Elder Lyman and we went contacting. I gave away a book of Mormon and a few pamphlets and got a number of someone that wants to meet and the other people said we could come back. It was really cool!! Everyone tells me I speak really clearly which is a blessing for sure!! I don't really know whats going on but when I talk they know what I'm saying so that''s good haha. The food here. Oh my gosh. Let me tell you. I'ts fantastic. I got assigned to a native from Phnom Penh who is 28 and has been serving for a year and a half already. his name is Elder Hong. He's such a good cook and he has cooked for me everyday so far. I'm gonna start cooking this week and we're gonna switch off. My area is Kean Svay. It is a 20ish minute bike ride outside of Phnom Penh and 40 minutes from the mission home. So for P-day we go to Phnom Penh. Elder Hong knows tons of English which is very nice for me cuz I can ask lots of questions about words. During our companionship study we read from the Preach My Gospel and the white handbook and each week we switch off on whose language we read from haha. While we were still waiting at the mission home on Friday he took me over to dairy queen and we got blizzards haha. Then we rode a tuk tuk to our area, hung out at the house for a minute and talked about who we were going to meet and what we were teaching and then grabbed our bikes and rode. Our area is a 25 minute-ish bike ride away from our house in the opposite direction of Phnom Penh and there are 2 other Elders in our house that make up our Whole district who work in the first 25 minute area closest to our house. We went to a recent convert's house of only 3 months whose name is Ming Tii. She goes with us a whole bunch to teach lessons. She's fantastic!! She is a 'Ming"which means she is about the age of my parents. We went with Ming Tii to teach Piset and Rut and helped them move a concrete mixer on this weird thing they drove. See pictures below! That's my companion. And yes little kids run around naked half the time. We taught them about Service, Learning, And Teaching. The people here are so funny!!! they asked me if I was trying to find a Khmer wife and I was like: I'm a missionary I'm not worrying about that! We were teaching Piset and Rut's whole family basically and they all laughed at me. They are recent converts also! We went to meet Ming Srey after that and she lives in the jungle basically and it was dark already and we taught by an oil lamp which they tilted over every once in a while so it would burn brighter. Everyone here is mega poor and lives in home made shack things that usually don't have walls except for one maybe. Ming Srey is going to get baptized soon but she has to go to church some more before she can because the mission rule is 4 times. She has gone 2 times now so just 2 more! We taught her about the plan of salvation and followed up on her prayers and her kid's prayers. Her daughter's name is srey toik which literally means little girl. Haha that is a common name. We wake up at 5:30 here and go to bed at 9:30. The next day we woke up and did our studies for the first 4 hours and then at 12 we went to work. Ming Tii went with us again and so did Penny and Pirayat two girls who are branch missionaries. We taught puu Tii who is a recent convert and that went really well. He played this thing that is like a violin called a trow. It was really cool. I tried it but its pretty hard haha. We taught 6 lessons on Saturday and made sure everyone we taught was going to church on Sunday and they all said they would and they all did!!! We were stoked!! We taught one big family who is almost 10%^of the branch. We had 160 people at church yesterday!! This family was rad, the dad is so funny, his name is Puu Jantaa and he has 9 sons. His nephew was there and his wife and son and we are going to teach them today as a result of our lesson with Puu jantaa's family. Woohoo!! Referrals!! We started our fast at noon on Saturday and went till noon after church on Sunday. Riding a bike in the humid hot weather on no food and then sitting in a blazing rrom for church is really difficult. I think the only reason I didn't faint was because I was praying really hard and The lord wasn't going to let me be a bad example to the recent converts. haha Church was cool. A couple of the members know a lot of English which is wild. I'm shocked at how much English they know. I don't really know what anyone was bearing their testimony about most of the time but its okay I'll figure it out someday. After the 3 hour block we met as a Branch Council in the which I almost fainted but afterward They gave us these desert cups which were sweet liguid with colorful noodles inside. It was really good and it was the only reason I made it back to the House without fainting cuz the church is a 20 minute bike ride from our house. We went and taught after we filled our bellies and studied. We taught Tone and the church about eternal marriage and then did a choir practice with some of the youth. Mostly girls. They don't sing very well but they really try. Then we went and taught Bong Srey about eternal marriage and promised that if she would prepare herself and her husband and have faith the lord would provide a way to go to the Temple. The only temple they can go to is the Hong Kong one or the Philippines one. So they have to save up for a longgg time to go even with the church paying for most of it. But they still do it somehow!! I'm pretty Excited. My area Kean Svey is exploding right now and I just got to learn enough Khmer to keep up with it!! I love you all. The Gospel is true and truly blesses our lives. I can see the effect of it on the people's lives here. They are so happy to have the Gospel. God truly loves us. Study the Book of Mormon and pray everyday. I love you all! This work is so vital! Keep enduring to the end!! 
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