WHAT HAPPENS WHEN: Cambodia is a real place

CHOMRIAB SUA from Kampucia!

Suisadaay everyone! I'm actually typing this letter from a very sketch dark internet cafe in KAMPUCIA. It's actually a real place! it really is here! and it is literally INSANE here. So the flight here was good, long, we slept a lot. The elders in my district even placed a book of mormon on the plane in khmer! #proud. The journey was long, but when we finally arrived it was really fun to step out into the literal choking air! it is crazy humid here! and, every time i say it is so hot outside my comp just laughs because it is actually the cold season right now. I know I look a little bit ridiculous with how sweaty I get because I'm not used to the weather yet! #nast. We got off the plane and met our presidents the Christensen's and they brought us to our mission home! If anyone can name my first meal im cambodia i would give you 5 bucks because guess what, it sure wasn't cambodian! haha my new companion Sister Fields (who rocks btw) was waiting for me at the mission home with...... KFC burgers (because that is a thing in asia)! After we ate KFC, we all said our goodbyes and we were on our way to our house. We live in this cute little asian apartment where the bathrooms have colorful flower print tiles and the water cuts out like 3 times a shower. LOVE ASIA. We live like 5 floors up top of the city! stairs are real steep and narrow here in-case you are wondering, that's the real test of the mission here. I have been assigned to stay here in the Phnom Penh city in Deuk La?ak area. It is insane crazy business out in the streets. Riding a bike here is basically riding through a freeway full of motos and cars and bikes and carts and whatever else will go. Imagine the belt off the freeway in SLC covered in motos and bikes and cars and no lanes, everyone just kind does their thing! Very often we see 1 moto with like 5 people or the whole family on it! haha it's insane! and when the lights turn green, EVERYONE goes straight into the intersection for a free for all into all sorts of different directions! it sounds really scary, and it looks really scary, and it is kinda scary, but really its just a bunch or organized chaos! everyone is really nice and no one drives in their specified lane, so it all somehow works out.So after I learned how to very unskillfully ride a bike, we went on to teach my first lesson in cambodia. Yep. 4 hours into my real life mission I taught a lesson in Khmer! to a real life Khmer person! We taught our investigator SreiNet. She's like 20, could pass for 11 by america age standards because she is so tiny and young looking, and she is learning with her member-friend Bnyaa. These girls are so sweet and silly. I love them already. We have gone to their house 4 times already. I really wanted to help Bnyaa. She is in a hard family situation and doesn't know what to do about moving homes, finding food for her nieces she lives with and I think she is really struggling with faith. We went back to her house just to see her on afternoon and sang her "be still my soul" and shared a quick scripture. It was a good quick lesson, and i hope we were able to help her out in the sense of finding peace. We also met with MingSophiap yesterday night for the first time in a while for sister Fields, and guess what? she accepted my invitation to baptism! apparently Sisters taught her before and thought she really wasnt that interested, but when we saw her last night and i met her for the first time, she really seemed to like listening to what i had to say. haha I was so scared and did not think that would happen and neither did Sister Fields, but apparently MingSophiap. She is such a sweet woman is really interested in the church and really does want to get baptized! so that's happy! Not going to lie, seeing the ache and struggles in the lives of these people is not easy, some of the people we teach live in a literal concrete box under ground with rats. but seeing how much the gospel can effect them is amazing. All I'm really able to do at this point is share my testimony and promise that if they trust God everything will work out. I already have so much love and desire to serve these people here! Hopefully we will go visit Bnyaa and Srei Net again tonight and continue our lesson on the plan of salvation. The people here are so loving! I went to church yesterday for the first time here and everyone LOVES the miissionaries. They all came up to introduce themselves and of course all ask why I am from america because I look asian and then they all get excited when i tell them i'm half korean. So usually the missionsaries speak their first week in the mission field at church, but thank my lucky stars it was stake conference yesterday! which means the church building was packed. which means it looked like an everyday usual sunday in utah. haha! that was 6 wards??? lucky for me i didn't have to speak yet. I'm getting a little bit more familiar with the language as we go out each day. I don't understand everything well because the natives shorten and slang everything, especially in the city, but we are making progress! We have gone contacting only once so far for lack of time, but when we did, everyone was so sweet and nice and open to talk to us! thank goodness. I really like it here!

I haven't yet gotten hit by a car, but I have been clipped by a motto.. like my first day here. the kid just kinda ran into my back tire in the intersection... the kid on the motto looks up at me and says "somtooh" (sorry) but then noticed i am not khmer and was like "oh eh.. sorryyyyyy" and just kept going. I thought it was hilarious! don't worry I didn't fall off or anything, just got a little shaken up but that's ok. One night we were on our way to the church building and there was the biggest line of traffic on the highway. Bikers usually just weave through the traffic to keep going, and thats cool and also off limits in the US, but we needed to be on the left side to turn into the church, so we just hopped the meridian (i hope that's what it is called in english) and rode through on-coming traffic until we got to the church. In the dark. Ha! "srual". easy. Basically that is cambodia for you. Also people answer their cell phones in church and let their kids run wild. and i think it is the funniest thing. When Neakruu told me she didn't know the word for "reverence" because it doesn't exist here it is actually so true. Kids running, people chatting, church is so fun! The food here so far is great, havent had anything super duper authentic yet. That willl come in about an hour. I am so excited! I did eat a dragon fruit though, that was really good. and we went to the market today at 6:00 am cuz that's a normal time to go, and there was a lot of good excited fruits and half butchered pigs hanging off motorcycles for sell. Basically, I feel right at home here ;) Thank goodness for some of the asia experiences i've had before, other wise this would probably be chaos! I am so excited and happy to be here! Thanks for the letters everyone, I really love hearing from back home. So much has happened the past 5 days that I'm probably forgetting like the whole thing, but I hope you find some fun in my letters. Cambodia is actually a real place I've decided. I waited since May to actually get here, so this is the most exciting thing ever! Love and miss you all!!! Happy Holidays too.

Love,

Sister Haddock

One of the last pictures as a district in the MTC with one of our favorite lookruus.

tuk tuk! they're every where. I got to ride one home from the mission home the first day with all my luggage. that was fun.

Cambodia from the plane!

My district on the front runner on our way to the airport in utah