Sam sent us the following email and pictures on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2015.  I'm late posting this week because our Internet was down for several days.  Grrrrr!

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

Subject: Well it's nice to be loved

Date: February 1, 2015 10:42:11 PM MST

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Yeah, I was a little bitter about not getting any emails from my loving mother and father last week, but you guys made up for it this week by emailing and having a semi-decent excuse. As I articulated to Skibby, you guys do have email access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so don't feel limited to sending your emails to me at 10 PM on Sunday nights. But I'm grateful that you do email me at all. Enough of that.

We had a pretty good week last week. After emailing we went and got delicious American food and then we all met and went out to a place called Phnom sompov, where a lot of white tourists go. They discriminated against us and made us pay $3 dollars to enter, but for the natives it's free. Like the reverse-discrimination in this country is ridiculous. The only thing that all people can't do in America is collect eagle feathers, for which I will forever be jealous of the native Americans. But seriously like it's such a joke and they don't even have a reason to back it up other than that our skin is white and they assume white people have money. But in reality 3 bucks is a bargain. This place was really cool. Lots of old rock stuff and stuff, but they also had monkeys. Real live monkeys not on chains, free to roam and bite tourists. They didn't bite anybody, but wow that was cool to chill with monkeys. I can definitely see more how monkeys could take over the world though because they're very smart, and they can climb trees, and there was just a whole lot of them. You'll have to put some of the good videos onto the blog because it's cool to see the monkeys. And there was a cave and vines and stuff. Apparently at 5 on the dot hundreds of thousands of bats come flying out of caves and it lasts for an hour and it's amazing, but we had to be back and proselyting so we didn't get to see it. But put that on your list for when you come.

Here is some of the video Sam sent us:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cl7BHA_Ic8&feature=youtu.be

Are you getting passports for when you come over in like a year and a half, or are you guys like taking a summer trip to Italy or something?  [Peter had mentioned to Sam that he and I renewed our passports, but we don't have plans to go to Italy or any other foreign country, darn it!]

We got 15 investigator lessons this week, which is a far cry from the 4 or 5 a week we were repping out last transfer. Things look up and we have several investigators who are legitimately solid. We had a baptism yesterday for a little 8-year old kid named Ranut. Cute little guy. His parents aren't members and ares surprisingly not very helpful or supportive, but his 3 older siblings are members and are great. I baptized the kid and then when we got in sacrament the branch pres asked him who he wanted to confirm him and he said me. So I got pretty nervous pretty fast because I though branch pres would just do it. But I did it and it was fine. So dad, when you guys come over A) you're going to have to bring little treats that we can give the people we visit, and B) you'll have to bring some cool little magic tricks to do for them because that will keep them engaged for days.

We had the bad luck of contacting another psycho last night. There's a lot of weird people in this world. We talked to the guy as he was riding on his moto and then he stopped and we talked. He was first surprised that we knew his language. Second, he asked us if we liked to look at his face. Third, he asked us, after you're married, how do you create children? Fourth we left him because he was outside his mind.

The other day before we started fasting we went to this place to load up on food. I got something called a Lok Lak. I don't actually know what's in it but it's generally clean and tastes good. They finally got us our food and it tasted fine. But then I found the tip of an unidentifiable claw. I asked the guy what kind of meat they put in the lok lak and he asked his wife and she said cow. This claw thing most definitely did not come from a cow. So for really one of the first times since I've been here I got a little tentative about eating the rest of that food. But I did and it was generally fine. I'm now fairly certain that it was chicken claw, so that's cool.

[Sam's wrist was injured a few months back and Peter is concerned that it is still hurting him.  Peter thinks Sam may need to see a doctor in Cambodia for an x-ray and some treatment, but Peter added this caution:  "Don't let them stick a needle in you there."  Peter also asked Sam if they got to play any sports on their P-days.]  Dad, I'll test my wrist out this week and see how it does. My grip is fine. I don't want them sticking needles in me either. Sometimes we'll get up in the morning and walk across the street to the church and play 21 in the dark.

Thanks you guys. I love you and I miss you.

-The Favorite

Sam with his companion, Elder Cook, and a Cambodian family

The rest of pictures are from Sam's trip to Phnom Sompov with his companion, Elder Cook, and a few other elders.