What Happens When: 'Merica is 8,161 Miles Away
Hello! Happy 4th to all of you! Here it is just the hotter than usual day with lots of humidity and no rain... everyone promised July was the rainy month, but so far, it's got me fooled! haha seems like I talk about the weather a lot, but it's a super influential factor on the work! If it's too hot, no one to meet. If it's rainy, biking is a blast, and still no one to meet. It's all in the Lord's hands though. He definitley protects us from storms. Like last saturday, we all went out to the island to do service whacking down some thorny trees for our favorite old grandpa out there. OmKhan is literall the funniest old man ever, and he loves when we come do service at his house. To get to the jungle island, we used to cross the famous bamboo bridge over the Mekong, but since the river has risen quite a bit, the bridge gets broken down each year and they use a ferry instead. This ferry-boat is actually 2 super old canoes with a pallet across it and a motor in-between. Usually, missionaries are not supposed to ride boats (why? watch "Other Side of Heaven") but because we have members out on the island we get permission to ride! So we did. All was calm, All was bright, and we returned from the island safe and sound. About 4 hours later after we had all gone home and showered, some serious wind hit KC and the water was definitely not peaceful. Luckily we were on our bikes by that time and we were safe on dry ground. I think that was a blessing in return for our service.
Nothing too crazy happened this week, we went on a 1 day exchange with Sister Ham while we waited for the new sister to arrive for transfers. Our house is going to be a blast this transfer with Me and Sister Nit, Sister Gallahad and Sister Ham. Party!!! While we were on our exchange, we were the only 3 missionaries in all of KC because the elders had to go down to the city. We took on English contacting by ourselves and English class had SO many people in it. #sistersuccess Bong Mom is doing great, she came to church again yesterday and after we spent a whole lesson reviewing all 3 of the first lessons, she seems to be remembering alright. She broke down and told us of her hope to become a better mother and more loving by learning about Jesus. She's right! If she keeps commitments and continues to apply the gospel, she will see dramatic changes and more love in her home. Super happy for her. Hiang was doing so so so good up until this week. I don't know if he's just on a 10 year old tantrum week or what, but hopefully next week he will continue to read and pray. His mom wants him to learn and continue to change. He's come so far already, hopefully he'll turn around and realize it. He's so young, but so good! Jariya still remembers everything! It's amazing that after she moved far away, she's still praying and came right back to church and everything. She asked me "sister. I;m getting baptized this week right?" "uh, well we have to teach you all the lessons again and if you come to church every week then yes!" "YES" she was so excited. Love her. That's about all that happened this week, time is flying to fast for me to keep up or remember what happened... we got a new branch presidency yesterday so hopefully our little branch will see some improvement there. We are now required to wear long dresses in this mission because of mosquito probs. I admit, my legs look like I'm wearing polka-dot tights everyday. Yappuh. So that means all the sisters will be given shopping spree allowances. Time to have fun. Love you all, enjoy America while you got it... I never really thought I would say that before. I'm really looking forward to the 24th. Pioneer day here is supposedly bigger than Christmas in khmer or the 24th in Utah. I believe it! Whatever these guys think pioneers did, that's what we're going to do for the next few weeks. Pretty excited! There also may be some violin fiddling involved if we have enough faith :) Love you! Sister Haddock
BaekSlowee hat "punk" and my compy
That is a krama khmer scarf that a member gave me for my birthday. So sweet!
The boat and brown mekong
Everyone standing on the boat
Me and My sisters
The KC crew at our favorite wood grilled meat place "Saek Koo Aeng"