What Happens When: You Escape the Black Hole
Hello Hello Hello! It is officially one week before Khmer New Year, and mango season is in! How yáll doing? Spring break is soon I assume, and all my pals at BYU are prepping for finals. I can't believe time has passed so quickly!
This is going to be a quick email, full of interesting (maybe) updates of the Cambodian life. Anyway, transfer calls came last night, and to my surprise AGAIN, The Black Hole AKA Steung Mean Chey AKA my current area is no longer going to be my home after Tuesday :( I'm way shocked and sad! Everyone warned me when I got the call to come here that I would never leave, or get sucked back in real soon to come back, But I guess I'm just an exception to that rule and the lord has different plans for me! I am WAY PUMPED for my new area Kampungcham. It is a "kite" (province) and I have heard it is the kite of kites. Which means super duper country side. I'm excited for a change from the city! I think my new companion is Sister Nhem... except when Elder Monson called to tell me I was leaving, I got so flustered I forgot to listen to the last part he said about who my companion is. We had a baptism this week! Zion (siyon) got baptized on friday and confirmed in church yesterday. It was quite the experience because the church is currently under construction, so the font was NASTY. We had to drain it again and hike up our skirts to clean it and fill it again. But then we figured out the font wasn't actually dirty, but that dirty yello-green water was coming out of the faucet.... oh boy. It's a good thing we got started on the font filling job early! it all worked out and she was still baptized and we had a great experience. Om Im. She is the cutest old lady. She asks a lot of questions and sincerely wants to know so much about our Savior. I love teaching her. I'm SO sad to be leaving her! We also found a new investigator this week, but she wasn't actually in our area so we had to give her to the other sisters. Her name was Navii. She is like the GOLDEN. She lives in Korea for 3 years and then comes back to cambodia to be with her kids for 6 months. But while she was in korea the last time, she joined a christian church. So when she moved back to cambodia, she looked for a church to join and she walked into ours just in time for sacrament meeting. She attended for a few weeks and yesterday, we finally got a hold of her to go to her house and teach her a lesson. When we showed up she was like "so this Book of the Mormons... how can I add that to my phone so I can read it at work? and I know I have to be baptized again for your church, so what day is my baptism? Can you come to my house next week and we will eat together? I know I'm not in your area so what time is my new ward? I wanted to bear my testimony in sacrament, but I don't yet have the courage. Next month I will for sure." WHAT. She is so cool. I know she's a gift given to this area, because investigators like her don't come around too often! Navii told us how much she already loved the people and the teachings she has learned. Ah I don't want to leave her. I went on an exchange with Sister Sheffield this week, to trash mountain! It was quite the view. We met this Yay ( like 85+ years old) and she lives in this little dirt floor hut. She noticed we were just dripping sweat, even though we were under a roof, and she grabs this peice of cardboard and just starts fanning us for like 20 minutes. Then she says "sisters, do you know I love you hauy nuo (already)?" SO CUTE. The people I meet everyday just make every single day of the mission the best day of my life.
I've learned this week that when you pray to overcome any weakness, like patience or untimeliness for example, the Lord will give you double the amount for every opportunity to want to be impatient or untimely. Seriously, every opporuntity until you figure out how to overcome it. And when you realized you need the strength of the Lord, you become stronger and you overcome it! - seems simple, but it's a fact of missionary life!
Some funny things this week: -we helped a bishop move and a rat jumped out of one of the buckets of pans. Sister Sheffield didn't see it, and she accidentally stepped on it. I thought I was going to puke. We also lifted a wardrobe to the second floor of this house through a window with the strength of 10 elders and sisters and a single rope. #pros -I was teaching English this week about the weather and we realized the word "frost" is unexplainable and doesn't really have a translation into Khmer because it does not exist here. -new years means that all the kids just sit outside their houses with loaded water guns and balloons and baby powder and they just throw it all on the traffic that passes by. Its insane! I love you all so much, I hope you all had a great conference weekend. I haven't yet seen it, next week they will have it all translated and we will watch it I think. Happy New Years from Khmer. Love you a lots! love, Sister Haddock p.s. sorry I lie every time I say this is going to be short....
I write letters to my RCs :)
Baptism
Siyon's Baptism!
Sister Sheffield is SO CUTE
TRASH