Week 14 - One month in Cambodia

9:27 AM

A note from Mom:

Here are some definitions of words she uses.

oon- someone younger than you

bong- your age or about 15 yrs older

neak ming (women) / lookpuu (men)- older than a bong

om- older than a neak ming/ lookpuu

lookthaa (men)/ lookyiay (women)- this is the old of the old there aren't a ton of them around. I'll take a picture of the lookthaa in our ward.

Hi family and friends,

I’ve been in Cambodia for a month now! Time is so strange on a mission it’s so slow but fast at the same time.

I went on my first official exchange this week. It was me Sister Harris and Sister Kimball in a trio. We cleaned Om Chan Tahns house again. The piles of trash in her house were so big and old they were literally compost at the bottom. I’ve also never seen bigger cockroaches... but we love her and we were glad that we could help. By the way we are still only half way done.

Oon Kaa is progressing so much it's great! We are going through the lessons pretty fast, she reads and prays everyday, and she came to all hours of conference on Sunday and stayed for the women's broadcast! We also talked to the family she lives with and her neighbor and they said they'd be willing to listen to us after the holiday (which is today and tomorrow). We tried to visit her neighbor already but she wasn't home when she told us to come by; hopefully, they all will still want to learn. Also people here ditch out all the time.

It happened earlier this week with another contact who told us to meet with her. We biked all the way out to her house to find out she went to the market, so we started to go back home and we saw a bong (see definition below) sitting out on her porch. She invited us over and we started talking. She was so nice; She said some of her friends believed in Christ but she hadn't had time to learn (luckily she doesn't work anymore). She said she's Buddhist cause her family is and it's just a part of her (it seemed more as a cultural thing) but she said she always accepts what people give her and that she always reads part of it. So we gave her a Book of Mormon, she told us to come back after the holiday and that we could share the lessons with her. I really hope she read some of it already and I'm anxious to know what she thought. Also we'll pick up a few more investigators who also told us to wait till after the holiday, so hopefully things will get pretty busy.

We finally had conference this week! We did get to watch it in English but had to wait for the native missionaries and members to get it in khmae. So we were suppose to get a disk that had it recorded, but because were in the kites and 3 hrs out from the city no one brought us one. So Elder Brewer went to the internet shop in the morning and downloaded it on a jump drive for 2 hours. When we got to the church we found out there wasn't another screen to watch it on. We decided to watch it on a small portable DVD player (all 9 of us) but then the DVD player could only play the audio! We decided to suck it up and deal with it but then after the opening prayer on the Saturday morning session it skipped to the afternoon session. We figured we'd just listen out of order but then the afternoon session did the same thing. I was so bummed i thought we weren't going to be able to watch conference. Lucklily the great neak ming (our landlord) let us use her house and flat screen. So in the end it felt like watching conference at home minus family, but it was great. I'm so excited about the new apostles. I loved President Monson's, President Eyring's, Elder Holland's, and Elder Kim B Clark's talk. I also am excited to take the challenge to ponderize. I actually just finished memorizing my mission scripture in khmae its Alma 26:37. It was way hard but worth it and I think about it a lot. It tells us so much. God knows us one by one he takes the time to number us. He doesn't care where or who we are he loves us, and he extends mercy to us. I'm grateful to my Heavenly Father for restoring the fullness of the gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know he translated the Book of Mormon and that it testifies of Christ. I know Christ suffered for me and that he understands me and I'm grateful to have him on my side. I'm grateful to my mom and family for their love and support and I want nothing more than to be with them for time and all eternity. Love you guys have a great week and share with me your scriptures you're ponderizing! (especially my little cousins! get to it!!!) 

Love love love Kendall