Sam sent us the following email & photos on Friday, December 11, 2015:

Hey guys,

For a lot of this week it was pretty boring and depressing and I felt like I couldn't do a lot of the stuff I wanted to. I tried to keep up on it by handing out the little Christmas pass-along cards that we have, so I passed out a bunch of those out the passenger-side window at stoplights and stuff. You forget how much of a rush you get when you contact people when you don't get to do it as often. It's good. But Friday was a good day because we had 51 trainers/trainees come into the mission home to have a day of training/fun/whatever else. And that was a good day that felt like it was fulfilling. For a lot of the day it felt like trying to herd cats though.

There's downsides and perks to being in here. Last week we got to go to North Stake conference to translate and I got to see Someun and his 3 younger brothers that he's now brought to the church. Love that guy. Translating from Khmae to English was really tricky for me. I do get to drive now, so that'll be nice for you guys when you come over. You won't need to get a driver, just a car. It's actually not super crazy to drive like I thought it would be because I've been riding on these roads for a year and a half so I kind of know how traffic flows. But before on a bike, you're making cuts in front of cars that are good cuts, and now in the car, you're like hey that guy just cut me off. More perspective.

It's really happy to see all of the really good missionaries that we have. I love sending them out and knowing they're going to go do what they do best and what they're trained to do. We're confident in the missionaries that are in our mission right now. I really like a ton of people here. Just good people. Speaking of good people, Elder Elieson, my companion is a stud. We've known each other since day one and he's such a good dude. Fun to be with him.

I'm going to look and see what I can do to get out [proselyting] with two transfers left, or with at the least, one transfer left. I'm trying hard to keep a good journal still. We might be hitting up the khets next week, so that'd be sick to go around there, but we'll see.

Peace and love!!

Elder Elieson & Sam