Sam sent the following email & pictures on Sunday, November 30, 2014.  Our statements & questions are in italics. 

From: Samuel Christensen <samuel.christensen@myldsmail.net>

Subject: Hi Family

Date: November 30, 2014 9:54:09 PM MST

Wow, can you believe I just finished my second-to-last Thanksgiving in Cambodia already? Time flies.

First some matters of business. They said that we will be able to call home on Skype on my Thursday morning December 26 meaning that it'll be the evening of Christmas day for you. For this, it would probably be easiest if you guys just made a Skype account for me and sent me the username and password so I can just log onto it because I really don't know much about Skype. Second, I sent home a big envelope about a week and a half ago, so it should be arriving soon. It's my meager Christmas offering for everybody so don't open it until Christmas. And no, your Christmas package has not yet arrived but I'll be glad when it does.

That sandwich you sent us the photo of last week looked mighty appetizing...  Was that just a seriously sub-standard sandwich offering, or are sandwiches like that pretty much the norm?  The sandwich is a typical side of the road sandwich.

We had Thanksgiving at the senior couples' home and it was really fun. They had everything American and Thanksgiving there except stuffing and apple pie. I ate a lot of food. It was super nice of them to let us all come over and have a Thanksgiving and feel like Americans again, even though they're Canadian.

I gave a talk for the first time in sacrament meeting yesterday. I don't know why it took so long because usually missionaries speak pretty often, but this was my first time. 

There are a lot of good things that are happening here and a lot of bad things. I honestly think that my companion has some acute psychological disorder that is undiagnosed, because he clearly has some problems.

We have next to no investigators right now, but about a million recent converts.

I don't really ever have much to say on email, but I write a ton of stuff in my journal. So I have it.

I guess that's all. Do you have any pictures from christmas tree hunting you could send to me?

There's your stack of delicious sandwiches.

And a grasshopper. I didn't eat that one because it was too big, but I did eat 2 smaller ones.
I don't know why people decide that things that shouldn't be eaten are acceptable to eat.
A lot of times, recently, I don't know what I'm actually eating. Most of the time it tastes ok, but I really don't know what I'm putting into my body.

I don't have any good pictures of me in the jungle yet, but I'll get one someday.
And I'm not just going with the open-necked look because it's more comfortable. We were helping gather rice for some people so I felt justified in taking it off for a few minutes. My companion's tie is still on because he volunteered us to do it, but he didn't actually do it.