Elder Sam Christensen

Sam sent the following email & pictures on Sunday, Nov. 16, 2014. Our questions & comments are in italics.

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

Subject: I'm Moving

Hey I don't know if you've sent stuff for Christmas already or not, but if you havent, you could send like a companion book to reading the D&C to help give more background info. If you have sent it already, just wait and send the D&C book for next year or something. Also, Ty wants to know the recipe for eggie pancakes and I don't know it off the top of my head.

[Peter updated Sam on the Ebola epidemic, ISIS, and other world (and baseball) news.] Another missionary told me about that guy in America that was quarantined in the hospital and ended up dying. He also told me that a few people got into Cambodia with it and when they found out about it, they quarantined them and then they killed them. Meaning that they didn't "let them die," but rather they "killed them." So I'm not sure if that's true or not. But wow, that's pretty crazy. I hate not being up to date on world events. Like I know that when I run for president in the future one of the questions in a debate will be "In the year 2014 in the month of November, what political group in the middle east led an uprising in Iraq" and I'm going to flounder because I don't know any of this stuff anymore. I used to be so smart. That's awesome for Trout. It also just sounds so cool how you said ISIS probably would have taken over if the US hadn't stepped in. Oh I love America.

Tell Bompa Lloyd happy birthday from me. 88 and still going strong!

And Emily, I forgot to tell you, but I actually did get the letter that you wrote to me in October.

I got another hair cut this morning and it feels really uneven and lopsided. I haven't really had the opportunity to look at it yet. I don't know why they just can't do it good. You have like one moment of truth when they finish and they wait for your approval and you do all you can in 5 seconds to identify problems and then you pay them and leave and then you realize they forgot to cut the top. That's exaggerated, but still. It's only $1.25 though so I guess you get what you pay for.

Jessa Homer told us that the reason why are no McDonald's restaurants in Cambodia is because Cambodia's meat quality doesn't measure up to McDonald's standards. I didn't know that about McDonalds. Hmmm. Burger King's here. I guess that tells ya something.

[For some reason, Peter decided to read a Cambodian newspaper on the Internet. He learned that Dominoes Pizza will be opening up in Cambodia and that Cambodia has a 3-day water festival/holiday coming up.] Dad, you're reading the "Cambodian Daily"???? Yeah the water festival destroys proselyting.

Sam, if the tempos of the pre-recorded hymns on the keyboards at church are such a problem, why don't you just play the hymns yourself? Mom, I don't play the piano for them because they need to learn to become self-reliant and not dependent on the missionaries. Otherwise they will never progress. [Heidi's note: Yeah, I'm not buying that excuse.]

[At the conclusion of Emily's mission next month, she is going to bring some converts she absolutely loves home with her for a short vacation.] That will be cool to meet German and Francisca and Eric who we've definitely heard so much about. Maybe I'll bring a few friends back to the states too when I'm done.

Our guy who is the golden investigator that we were really hoping would get baptized yesterday didn't because he didn't pass his interview on Saturday night. He didn't tell us something when we reviewed with him, but we were so happy because he really did tell it when it counted. So he has to get another interview and hopefully he'll get to be baptized next week instead.

Which brings me to my next point. I'm transferring to the Battambang 2 branch. So I'm kite-bound. Battambang used to be super famous for having really good members out there. They speak really clearly out there, and it's probably going to be a little more like what you all were expecting with a call to Cambodia. So that will be interesting to go out to the country-side. I think it's about a 7 hour bus ride or something from Phnom Penh. My new companion will be another native, Elder Roem. He is infamous in the mission. When I say infamous I don't mean in the "more than famous" sense. In the "he is widely known as the most difficult companion in the mission" sense. So that kind of takes the cool level down a notch or two. To be honest, I'm already really worried about having to go out there with him. I hope we're going to be living with other people because I knew about this guy from multiple sources even before yesterday and he is a psychopath. He told his last companion that when he's mad he just wants to make people hurt. I think that sentence comes across so frightening because of his limited vocabulary, but still. So I thought things were tough, but they're about to get a whole lot harder. But we'll see. I can't judge it til I've actually tried it otherwise it's not fair. I thought for sure I'd go somewhere in the city because the kites were pretty full. And I started to get excited about that because I was hoping maybe I could come back for Somuen's baptism because I've been with him since the beginning. But I guess that won't happen. It'll be sad to leave Teuk Thla. There really are a ton of people in and around here that I will miss. I'll miss just riding down the street and waving to my "friends" who maybe I've talked to only once or twice, but I've just waved to them every day for 4 months. There's a lot of stuff and people I'll miss here. Darn it all.

So yeah, that's what's happening here. Business as usual. Are you guys going Christmas tree hunting? What day is Thanksgiving again?

Keep up the good work guys. Maybe go see interstellar and tell me how it is.