Sam sent the following email & pictures on Sunday, January 11, 2015.  Our questions & comments are in italics.  Sam's opening sentence needs a little explanation.  In Peter's email to Sam, he had written, "We got Emily in school this week and have had a little bit of the first week of shock by all that is required of college classes.  We have a science fair project due this week.  Nate experimented to see if people would pick up an old penny, new shiny penny, or a quarter more quickly.  Not much action at the mall or theatre for people picking up coins.  Church on the other had was a great place for people to pick up money."

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

Subject: Hey guys

Date: January 11, 2015 11:13:52 PM MST

Hey guys,

Ok, first of all, I loved Peter's email how he said that "we" had college starting back up, and that "we" also have a science fair project. Funny. I'd be intersted to know with Nate's project how the places affect how many people will pick up the coins. I'll pick any coin up, but I'm less likely to do it in a mall where people see me pocketing a dirty penny than when I think no one will see me. That reminds me. Yesterday when we were walking home from church, there was a 100 bill that I walked over lying on the pavement. I can't tell you how many fake 100 dollar bills I've seen here so I didn't think much of it. But as I picked it up, a moto with two ladies pulled up next to me. I was like "fake, right?" and was kind of holding it up to the light. Then they like motioned to hold it so they could inspect it as well. So I passed it right off. They kind of looked at it slowly for a second, and then slowly just pulled off and drove away without saying anything or looking back. We kind of just stood there in the street all alone trying to figure out what just happened. These people really don't have a conscience because not only did she steal it from me, but also from whoever dropped it. I wouldn't have taken it. Honestly there's not a whole lot that you could have done to try and find the owner, but I could have given it to fast offerings. But naww, they just drove right off. Kind of numbing, like... what just happened. It was real, by the way. But that's enough money to almost pay for half of a year of college for them. Or it could just buy them a lot of booze. Either way, cheers.

[We gave Sam a report on the violence that occurred in France last week.] That's a terrible thing that happened with France. I'm glad it isn't happening in the states. How can these religious groups justify violence like this? It's like anti-everything we learn. 

Last week after emailing was so smooth. I didn't have to [politely] beg to go to the American store, but instead was the one who was more going along for the ride. I loved it. I'm thinking now that the scale I got on a few weeks ago might actually have been broken. I've done a few more knuckle pushups recently. They hurt my knuckles, but not my wrist. I don't know where I'd get an xray. Also I got a haircut here last week and it was my best one yet. Good place, they even massaged my back after and then cracked my neck. I wasn't expected the neck crack. Let's just say a little bit further and they could have killed me quickly and quietly. But hey, I'm still here!

Grammy wondered about bugs and animals. Just the usual array. With cockroaches, there's not a ton of them, but I realized that I'm not surprised by them at all anymore. It's kind of just second nature. I just love when there's a dead cockroach lying on the ground and nobody really wants to clean it up, so it just gets dismantled by ants, and lo and behold, a few days later the cockroach is completely vanished. Nature. One guy offered us fried frogs that he had made. We politely declined.

Skibby talked about a teacher at RHS that was talking about Cambodia. Let's just get something out of the way now. White people, who aren't missionaries, DO NOT KNOW CAMBODIA. I see tons of white people here riding on tuk tuks to go to their tourist destinations. They know nothing. They come back and say things about things that they don't fully know. Trust me on this, we (the missionaries) get to know what real Cambodia is like, and the people. Those other people get to experience it in rose-colored, week and a half glasses. It's great sometimes, but like when we talked to some tourists from Europe that we randomly met and talked to for a little bit a few weeks ago, the lady said that there was like a "buzz of progression" in Phnom Penh and all kinds of stuff that she'd picked up on and liked from her very short stay. Honestly, lady, I just thought it was dirty. So don't trust anyone that's not a missionary to give you an honest depiction of Cambodia because they don't really know. Jessa knows, trust her.

Have you gotten the Christmas card we sent yet? Do you have any candy left from your Christmas package?  Do you need anything?  The Christmas card hasn't yet come, but I'm betting it will be here this week. The candy is long gone. It was very good, thank you. I don't need anything, but for the next occasion to send something over, I've learned from other missionaries that getting like bagged food, like easy to make American food is a good way to go for that. So we'll stash that in our brains and cross that bridge when we come to it.

We're hoping to get people progressing and to be doing really good things here. And I think we can do it. The language hasn't been a barrier for us at all yet.

Thanks for everything. I love you and miss you all.

This picture was taken at Christmas.

Harvesting rice

Pig heads at the phsaa

Me with a big black man they worship

Sam sent us the following email and photos on Sunday, January 4, 2015:

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

Subject: Hi guys

Date: January 4, 2015 11:07:06 PM MST

Hey so I didn't budget my time very well today at email so I’m not going to write a lot. 

Just say that we finished the farewell tour this past week up until I got the new companion. We're doing well. We're doing hard work and at least I'm feeling fulfilled. My new companion is a good guy who wants to work hard. He's from Idaho named Elder Cook. He's bigger than I am. So I feel like we attract a lot more attention with two giant white people on bad little bikes going down the road and talking to people.

Once this week when I was in a 3-some with the zone leaders, one of them looked up into the distant sky and remarked on the beauty of the fireworks that he was seeing. When we all looked a little closer, we actually saw that it was just somebody up in a high building welding something and that sparks were shooting out of that. But it was a very close call.

We committed a family (mom not included) of like 5 people to baptism yesterday, then all the kids came to church but the dad didn't. We're going to get our district straightened out and restore Battambang 2 to all its former glory.

I moved houses and so now all 4 of us Americans live together. It's nice and fun to not just be one-on-one, which is how I've been for all but 4 weeks of my mission so far. The house isn't as nice, but it's still fine. The stairway up to it is probably about on a 70 degree angle.

We're doing the best we can out here. I'll probably say more next week. Ok, thanks, good luck all you good people!

Group picture~Christmas 2014  [Sam is 3rd row from the back, 5th in from the right]

Sam with a Cambodian family and his former companion

We got to Skype with Sam on Christmas evening!  It was great to see and talk to him!  He sent the following email and pictures a few days later, on Sunday, December 28, 2014.

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

Subject: Hey There Guys

Date: December 28, 2014 10:00:28 PM MST

Hey Mom, Dad, Aunts, Uncles, Grandmas, Grandpas, Brothers, Sisters,

That's how they start every talk in Cambodian here. They address EVERYONE in attendance.

Anyways, yeah, I'm good. We got transfer calls last night. There's a lot of shake-up in the mission right now. I'll be staying here and getting a new companion named Elder Cook. He is actually fresh out of training, so that makes me the senior companion. They want me to be the district leader. My current companion is going into the city to be with a missionary on his last transfer. But for me and my new companion, we'll have 6 completed transfers between the two of us. Yikes. We do not know that much of the language. That's the thing--I can usually say all that I need to say here, but not all that I want to say. And in times past, if people ask hard questions that I don't understand, I just turn it over to the native speaker. Now, that responsibility falls to...me. So pray that the language between the two of us can progress enough to answer peoples' questions.

I'm worried about that, but not too much. I think that we know what we need to teach, and people can't ask questions that are too hard to answer, they just need to ask them simply. So maybe we'll just try to teach every lesson simply and by Preach my Gospel. Have I ever said how much I love Preach my Gospel? I didn't like any of it at all before my mission, but now I absolutely love it and try to only do exactly what it says in here. That's further proof that I've been brainwashed out here.

You're probably all concerned about me being homesick after skyping home on Christmas. That was a weird day. It feels like a dream. I don't really know why I was crying, but it was just coming. They were real tears! I think I was just confused and frustrated a little bit. But I feel better now and I'm excited to finally get back to hard, grind-your-face missionary work that maybe has been absent for a few transfers. Our area is picking up a little bit, and I'm going to make some personal goals that I feel like will help me feel more like I'm accomplishing what I came here to do.

Like I said on Skype, Christmas was really fun. It was great to go into the city and see all of my friends and people that I hadn't seen for a while. I'm really glad that I was born in the city so that I got to know a lot of people fast. We stayed overnight in a guest house which in America would be really, really ghetto, but here was pretty decent. I will say, though, that it was the hardest floor I've ever slept on...

I got on a scale this morning that an old person was carrying around and charges people to stand on and I weighed in at 74 kilos, I think it was. I converted that on the computer here and that's about 163 pounds. When I left the MTC I was about 178 I think. But I think most of that loss is muscle loss. That's something that I need to work on.

I'm excited for the future. I will say that I didn't learn a lot from my current companion, but I learned a lot during the time that I spent with him up to now. We're friends.

Can I just say one thing? People are seeing God way too much. I swear, I've met more people out here who have met God. Like I was under the impression that only prophets or God's very elect ever see Him, but people (mostly members) are always telling me they met God in a dream and stuff. Like I can't just discredit them for being crazy, but I also feel like maybe they....I don't know. Am I wrong on this?

Also met a guy last night who said his mother wasn't able to provide milk for him, so he ate ONLY bananas from age 2 months to 2 years. Hence he was adorned with the name "Banana," but in Khmae. He says he still doesn't know how he survived on bananas alone. That guy is a living testament to the healthiness of bananas and their ability as the sole provider of life.

The ad for someone who speak English good. Presumably to replace whoever it was that originally wrote the ad.

The Samuel the Lamanite-themed Nativity shortly before Samuel took a nasty spill off his ladder

The food they made for the stake christmas party that I think made me sick

Free rice day at the church

The hardest ground I've ever slept on for my Christmas Eve night

My MTC group that all came over together

Me and Elder Zierenberg [Sam’s MTC companion]

You guys!   [This is a picture Sam took of his computer screen while we were Skyping on Christmas evening!]

Sam sent us the following email and pictures on Monday, December 14, 2014.  Our questions and comments are in italics.Emily is completing her mission this week and will be home with us on Friday, December 19th!    

Man there's all this excitement going on at home and I just want to be a part of it so bad!

I got the Christmas package on Wednesday and was enjoying everything in it. I also received the Halloween letter on that same day, so that gave it a nice touch. Thank you so much for everything in there. The candy is great and the letters are better. Nate's was my favorite--sorry everyone. His opening sentence was "Things have never been more lame at the house." I mean, how do you top that?! And mom, the nativity set is totally adorbs! Thanks for spending so much time making that and sending it. I really do like it! That being said, I was wanting to ask you a question about it. Would you be upset if I were to give it to a family here? We've taught them the Christmas lesson and they don't know much about Christmas, but when we went to their house last night they had bought a small string of lights from a little store and strung them up to try and get in the spirit of Christmas. There was a little spot on a table that looked like it was just missing a little nativity scene, and I feel like having a nativity scene would mean so much to them. I want to keep it, but I feel like it would be for the greater good if they had it and they could get it out every year for Christmas. You can let me know on that.

The zone conference we had on Wednesday was pretty good. Elder Yorgason was there and I got to sit next to him for most of the day and talk to him, so it was fun. We had "mexican pizzas" (I also had it later this week on the exchange), which were good. Like, it's bad Mexican food, but because we're in Cambodia it becomes good Mexican food.

Like I talked a little bit about last week, people do not know when Christmas is. Only a few. Example: a guy we taught this last week we asked if he knew what Christmas was and he said it was Jesus's birthday. Wow, I'm super impressed, so I ask him a follow-up question because he answered correctly the first time. "Do you know what day we celebrate Christmas?" He answers now with increased confidence "For our church.....they celebrate every Saturday." I told him he was so close!

English class isn't as big of a deal for me here as it was before. Before I had to teach a class so I'd prepare and teach all by myself. Here, right now, we're just taking sign ins and then I join a class and sit by students and help them and they ask me questions that I don't understand, but I still try and help them.

I actually went on an exchange this past week and that was kind of a fun change of pace. We were actually riding in his area and we rode past a white guy on a moto and he yelled out "Go back to Utah!" So that's something I really haven't heard since I got here. It was also nice to have another white french person with me to absorb the blows of being in the minority. We talked to one guy for a long time who we contacted. He spoke in English. Long story short, I asked him if he believed in God and he named a bunch of different Gods, but for like God God, like our God, he told us that there's no proof of God. Me and the companion on the exchange were just completely dead silent for like 10 seconds. Finally I was like "....earth?" Cause you know, we were talking while standing in the middle of the jungle. But he said that no one made nature or something like that. OK, pal. Also we kind of contacted a monk.

I decided yesterday that my relationship with my companion is a lot like that between Zelda and Ivy in the picture book, just not as sweet and decidedly more sinister. But we're still trying to survive here.

[In my email to Sam, I thanked him for telling me last week that he loved me back. :)]  Thanks for all your updates mom. I know I don't usually have a lot to respond to them, but I do enjoy reading them and hearing what's going on with people at home and who's where and doing what. I really do love you, mother! And all of you as well!

I won't get to have a P day next Monday because we're going to have days off for Christmas, so don't worry about emailing.

I need to take more pictures because I haven't taken many and the ones I have aren't very good. I'll send a couple. I guess the next time I'll talk to you will be Skype in a week and a half. Have I told you before how much I don't like talking via skype? It always seems so awkward. Think of some good conversation points and I'll do the same.

Love you and miss you! Drive safely to California and give Emily all my loves and kisses.

You look closely and that whole truck is filled with ducks. Also they're speeding at probably 60 miles an hour or so and there's people riding on top. I've seen several trucks just filled to the brim full of pigs that have been packed in and are heading to Phnom Penh to be slaughtered. Just not stuff you see on an average day in america. Cambodia. 

And two hilarious old people that we teach that are recent converts and you have to yell so they can hear you. One of them is 81 and I have a picture of him from when he climbed a palm tree. In this picture they're both putting in eye drops

It's rice-harvesting season in Cambodia

Sam got the Christmas package we sent!

  Subject)

Samuel Christensen

 

Add to contacts

 

12/14/14

 

 

To: Mom, Dad

Outlook.com Active View

He is the Gift khmer

Play video 00:02:44 Added on 12/12/14

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAm_iBQ1zyQ&feature=autoshare

This is our He is the Gift video if you're interested

Sam sent the following email on Sunday, Dec. 7, 2014.  Our questions/comments are in italics.

Hey Everybody!

I'd like to report that I'm enjoying the warmest December of my life, so that's great.

I hope you are having a good day in Battambang.  We have tried to look up the church building in Battambang but the Google maps arrow doesn't point to a specific building and doesn't give a "man on the street" view.  Does your church have some kind of street address we could try typing into the search bar?  I would just try on lds.org, but it sounds like you've already tried that.  I guess you can see it when you come over.

I know Cambodia had only branches up until this past summer when they created the two stakes there.  But Battambang isn't included in either of those stakes is it?  Battambang is a district--not a zone.  What is the name of your branch?  My branch is Battambang 2 or sometimes they call it Ratana.  Does your branch have a piano?  They have a piano.  Are the Zone Leaders in your city?  My Zone Leaders and most of the rest of the missionaries live like 3 houses down from us, still right across the street from the church.  

Is there a transfer coming before or after Christmas?  There will be a transfer a few weeks after Christmas, but I don't think anything will happen with me. I'm pretty sure it'll just be me and the same companion for one more transfer.  

I was wondering if you missionaries use DVDs or media of any kind.  Is there much translated into Cambodian that you know of? The only dvds I've used are the finding faith in Jesus Christ/Restoration videos, and I only used those back in TT [Teuk Thla].  

Last week, you said you didn’t have many investigators, but that you did have a lot of new converts.  I’m curious to know how many new converts there are in your area and how there came to be so many of them.  Did the missionaries just before you have a  blitz or something?  Are you responsible to help the new converts, or are you primarily focused on finding and teaching non-members?  By members I assume you mean active members. We had 170 at church yesterday (apparently, it didn't seem like that many), but that's a ton. But there are soooo many people who are technically members. I think we have upward of 55 recent converts in the ward. Meaning they have been members for less than a year. I think the missionaries just had some crazy success a while back and found some big pockets of people and hit it hard. We have to teach them for a year after their baptism.  We only had 4 investigator lessons last week, which is dangerously low. On Wednesdays and Fridays we go out to one of the pocket areas that blew up with the church and visit new members. It's about 10 kilometers away one way.

The First Presidency has started sending emails to those with an email address listed on LDS tools.  I got one this week with a message about Christ and how "He is the Gift."  The church has got a large billboard ad about the "He is the Gift" initiative in Times Square, and it will be there during the New Year's Eve celebration.  It also has a hashtag associated with it.  They are inviting everyone to share the gift.  This campaign is supposed to reach millions of people on the internet.  They've told us about the "He is the Gift" initiative. I guess it's a pretty big deal then, huh. We just teach people about what Christmas is and why we celebrate it. It is amazing though. Probably 75% of the people don't know what it is, and the other 25% only know that it is Jesus's Birthday. Longtime members alike just don't know. It's shocking to think that, but I guess if you asked someone in America what Pchum Ben is they wouldn't have a clue. So we try to teach them and I try to make sure that what my companion says isn't too...not exactly accurate. It is a cool idea though to think about Jesus being "The Gift" and we were given that gift because Heavenly Father loves us so much. I don't know how much actually sticks in their mind, but we're trying. I have seen the little 2 minute video.

We will celebrate Christmas on the 24th and 25th in Phnom Penh. I think they're making us do service or something. We have Zone Conference this week on Wednesday.

Sam, are you seriously eating grasshoppers?  I ate 2 grasshoppers for real. One was because my companion told me to and he wouldn't leave me alone and I was just trying to please. The second one I ate so I could take a picture and have it be somewhat authentic.

I'm sorry your companion struggles with anger issues.  Do you ever feel that he poses any danger to you?  I'm in no danger with my companion, sometimes he's just dumb. I'm sure once I'm long passed from this companionship I'll look back and say hey, that wasn't that bad. It's just not really what you'd call "fun" though.

Yesterday there was a kid in our ward helping us go to teach people. Sometimes he's really cool, other times not so much. But he's getting ready for a mission, been a member for 10 years, and pretty much is the best-informed person in our ward. But it was in the evening yesterday [Sunday] and he just stopped on the side of the street and bought some little food thing. I was like come on bro, it's Sunday and he's like "Khlian" i'm hungry. I'm like bro, that's not a reason. Little things bug me. I'm tired of a lot of the people here teasing me for stuff that I don't understand and can't tease back about because I don't know enough words to. Like freckles for some reason people had a hayday with this week, and I don't know what to say so I just sit there helpless while they laugh at me. My companion doesn't back me up at all and usually brings up how I look 35. Ugh it's so annoying.

Our branch president left yesterday to go to Hong Kong to the temple. He's been a member for like 10 years, but was inactive for a long time I guess. Good for him. We met him at his house a few days ago and he's shirtless and is just wearing his little loincloth. I'm just thinking about how that just is so different from how you'd meet a bishop in America.

I tracked the Christmas package we sent you, and the usps website says it has been delivered to Cambodia.  I addressed it to the mission office in Phnom Penh. Have you gotten it yet? I don't have the package yet, but I imagine I will get it on Wednesday.

I haven't drunk milk in probably a month, and if you know me that is a really long time.

We watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional earlier this evening.  Some of the speakers were Bonnie Oscarson, Elder Christopherson, and Pres. Eyring.  They shared really good messages.  Elder Christopherson is probably my favorite GA to listen to speak.

The church is really on top of its stuff. The church buildings here are in fantastic locations and are big, clean, well kept, etc. I've seen other church buildings from different sects and they're just old and dirty. The church is smart.

I love you Sam.  You love me too, right?  I love you, mom!  [Yeah, I was soliciting... :)]

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.

Sam sent us the following email & pictures on Sunday, November 23, 2014.  Our questions & statements are in italics.  Sam was transferred from Phnom Penh to Battambang last week.  The map below shows the location of Battambang.

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

Subject: Battambang Week 1

Date: November 23, 2014 9:47:55 PM MST

Hi guys,

You must be in your new area... How many missionaries are there and how many Church units?  Are they wards or branches?  Do you live with other missionaries or just your companion?  I still don't know much about this area. There are 3 branches here. The best thing is that our house is literally across the street from the church. You can probably look it up on lds maps or google maps or something. We live in a yellow house. It's about a 30 second walk to the church. It's just me and him in this house. The other missionaries live in a house just down the street. I don't know how many missionaries are here. Probably like 12 or so.

I read that Cambodia was named again this year to have the best rice in the world.  I don't have all the rules of the competition, but this is what the Daily Cambodia newspaper said.  Haha. I really don't know much about rice, but I do know a little bit about propaganda. It's like in the movie Elf when he walks into that coffee shop and congratulates them for making "the world's best cup of coffee."

When I opened the mission call to Cambodia and you all got so excited because you thought I was going to the jungle, you were wrong. But now, 4 months later, I have arrived in the jungle. There's still a little city atmosphere here, but when you turn off the main road you're into the jungly areas. Wow, it's nothing like the city. It's so pretty and there are more bugs and it's definitely exciting to see a new area. It was cool to drive out of the city on the bus and see open land. There's a lot less garbage here than there was in the city.

Is Nate sleeping in my bed downstairs?

I don't know, there's not a lot to say yet. My companion has only been here for 2 weeks, so we haven't done a whole lot since I've been here. Just visited a few member houses. And I don't know any people or any of the area so I'm pretty handicapped at the moment.

Umm, yeah. That's all I have. I think we'll get to have Thanksgiving dinner at the senior couples' house this week, but I'm not sure. We'll see.

Ok, have fun Christmas tree hunting!

Jungle around Battambang

This picture, and all the following, were taken before Sam left Phnom Penh.

Sam wrote:  "Reshaping the future"--because someone's gotta do it.

Sam wrote: I mean seriously, is there a job market for proofreaders?
A 2nd grader can do this.

Sam wrote:  This is Vanny.

And this is what 50 cents gets you for a sandwich. Oh how I miss those sweet, sweet Subway footlongs.