What Happens When: the children lead the area for New Years
Hello everyone! im currently sitting in a internet shop with a bright pink keyboard that doesnt actually work. there is also not a backspace button, so bear with me, this will be quite short and everything i type has to be permanent i guess! This week was quite normal, but we did move houses the day before new years. In our mission we kinda of do what we can with the area rules, we have to leave our area a lot so don't worry that we moved to a new area that we don;t actually work in. anyway, we now live in Toul Kork which is about 15 minutes from our area and 30 mnutes from most of our investigators houses. We moved the day before new years eve, which was exciting. we get a call that the moving crew was ready to help us and here comes 2 guys in their flip flops as usual with only a tuk tuk to move our entire house's contents... well that wasnt going to possible, so they call their pals for back up. their back up included a rope to drop stuff over the balcony and some random pickup truck. we have no idea where that extra help came from. Us sisters were a bit unsure of that idea, but i guess it worked quite well! we lived up on the 4th floor up a billion steep narrow stairs, so throwing our life's worth of stuff off the balcony was the best idea i guess? I have just decided to not question anything strange and cambodian anymore. :) Also, the house we moved to is so fun. it is almost perfect except that there are spiders in it. and it still smells like china plastic. if you have been to asia, you know the stench. ;) our landlord is super nice and his wife brought us this big package of coke for new years! we love them", coke, and dreaming of using their pool on the 8th floor rooftop. no worries, we aren't kooik. or kohchbab. two favorite words for (broken or rule breakers). we had an exchange on New Years Day, we didnt really plan out the holiday part of things. international New years isn't crazy big here, but there were a few days where the city was pretty mellow because there was no work or school. everyone goes home to their original kites during those days. I got to exchange with Sister Or Max, who is khmer, fluent in english, and so cute. she has also only been a missionary for 1 month.... and i've only been in country for 1 month... and our "moms"' (trainers) thought it would be cool for us to lead the area for a whole 24 hours... don't worry Teuk La?ak is still all in one piece haha. Sister Or Max had never been to my area before, so i had to lead the way through the traffic and the crazy city, and the lessons with the members and investigators!, we didn't even get lost, and our appointments that day all worked out for once! #blessings. It was way fun, and made us very very grateful for our trainers!
That's about all that happened this week, we have been busy teaching investigators and less-actives. One investigator, who is probably one of my best friends now, is KimSia. she is 20, loves learning so much she calls us to come teach her every day. she goes with us to church for all 3 hours , takes notes in our lessons, and asks to be our "non-member, member present" at our other lessons following her lessons. So cute. And so excited to be baptized. I am so excited for her. she's a great example to me of faith and diligence! one interesting fact about cambodia for you: the church has only been here for about 20 years. It is basically run by the missionaries, and there really aren't any "2nd generation mormons" here yet because it is so new. if there are 2nd generation mormons (people born into member families) they are only like 5 years old or younger. It's so cool because when you meet people, they introduce themselves by saying their name, where they're from, and what year they were baptized. and that's the norm because everyone here is a convert. Which means all of the khmernative missionaries are converts, most only converts of a year or so. They are such great examples and such strong people. I love it! So i always say my letters are going to be short but then i remember how much fun the week was... so sorry that i probably lie sometimes. and then you get stuck with all 70 paragraphs. but this really is the end of this weeks letter. Love you all and I hope you have a wonderful new year! make this year the best one yet. That's the best part of having this life. its all about changing and becoming something better. I miss you all! Love, sister haddock
me and sister fields at Dominos getting some BBQ chicken pizza that includes corn and green peppers as the toppings... what?
this Tuk Tuk (moto with a carriage = cambodian taxi ) has BYU all over it. only seen in the church parking lot of course.
My exchange with sister Or Max on new years eve. she is adorable!
also coke is like the only soda in this country.
Our investigators at church yesterday. MingLiang and MeiKiim are both so ready for baptism, everyone just thinks they are already members. hopefully we can get them baptized soon. MeiKiim (10) loves when i teach her primary songs in english.
This week was pretty normal, nothing too exciting happened. and then we moved houses cambodia style. you just hire the moving crew and they bring their friends and a rope because you live on the 4th floor and the stairs are too narrow to take anything down, so they just use this make shift pulley system off the balcony. I wish i had pictures of the actual shelves and water buckets going over the edge. seriously crazy stuff!
Me and BongHeeng. Shes a super solid recent convert. she's one of my best friends in our ward now.