Sam sent the following email & photos on Sunday, May 24, 2015:

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

Subject: Another Day, Another W

Date: May 25, 2015 12:42:38 AM MDT

Hey guys,

Wow, I was really missing keeping up with major league baseball. That stuff is good times. [Peter had sent Sam an email with some current baseball stats and information.]

We met a less active girl who speaks english really well last week and she served a mission like 8 years ago or something. She told us that "good people leave the church, and bad people stay in it." It's sad. We decided she was one of the most prideful people we'd ever met. She was very nice, but some of the things she said.. She's gotten caught up in anti-literature I think.

One thing we tried to do this week is "spread seeds" because we just felt that the area was a little cold and not very open to us, so to spread a seed we either smile or wave or say hello to someone and if we can see that they are visibly uplifted with a return smile or say hello back, then we count it as a seed. It has to be a positive experience for them and we hope that their countenance will be lifted. So that's nice because it's not really anything extra, it just forces you to focus on looking happy and seeing all people and being nice at all times, mostly when you're riding your bike. Hopefully by putting all that positive energy into the area, one day someone will come and find one of the seeds that we planted in someone. We were going for a weekly total of 600 but came out with 490, but we're going to do better this week.

We do have a few new people to teach, and that's really nice. Missionary work is pretty dang boring when there's no progressing investigators. And one of our current investigators is really good. He found out for himself about prayer and repentance and told us about it. He's a really cool kid.

We were visiting an active member family last week and sharing a lesson and in the middle of the lesson a yellow liquid started dripping from the wooden slat of their ceiling and falling onto the bags that they were sewing for their job. Their neighbors live upstairs. They casually called up to them and said something was dripping through, and got a response that it was just scrambled duck eggs. That's a relief. They moved the bags and carried on listening to the lesson. So the next time you think you don't love your neighbor because of something they do, just think about these guys and be glad you don't have duck egg embryo dripping into your house. They took it completely in stride.

My piano playing skills are coming back up because I've had a little bit of time to practice like a few weeks ago for like an hour or so. I sight read all the hymns in sacrament yesterday and i could play them all right. I don't know what they are beforehand. But honestly, if I messed up, they wouldn't know the difference, so there's not that much pressure. They didn't ask me to play the hymns. No one did, they just expect that someone will and no one else will, so there you go.

A nice lady at sacrament gave a talk yesterday and closed it by bearing her testimony about coming to church all 3 hours. "You should come to church all 3 hours, because it's cooler than your house. That's why I come to church, because my house is really hot, but the church is cold."  Amen. The congregation nodded in silent approval.

Another woman named her son Komsot, or, "Tragic" because he was sick a lot as a child. Isn't that like cursing that kid for life?

Elder Myers and I are doing well. I don't do as much talking as I did before when I was a senior companion, but I am getting to learn a lot of new, good words. My language isn't that good. Like I can talk to people and they can understand me, but as they're quick to point out lots of times, I'm not so clear. But that's ok.

I got to do a baptism interview for one of the district leaders in our zone this week. The lady I interviewed was really amazing and it was amazing to hear, from her with basically no prompting, how much better her life has gotten and how much peace she feels in her family and how her husband has changed so much, since they've entered and learned and applied in the church. It's hard for me to testify about stuff like that in my life, because (obviously) I've been born in the church and had positive influences around me for so long, so to hear her say stuff like that and really share how much better her life is because she has the church makes you step back at appreciate all that we have in our lives, and hopefully gives you greater desire to help other people find the missing link in their lives. I know if people haven't yet become acquainted with the gospel or haven't fully tried, then there is something out there that they should try-wholeheartedly- and see if it brings any change or not. 

That's all I've got, guys. I am promising to myself that I will not be the "devotional" missionary, and now it's happened two weeks in a row. Crap. What's happening to me?

Sam's Email:  samuel.christensen@myldsmail.net

Sam celebrated his 1-Year anniversary last week with cookies and milk. :)

Sam wrote:  "This was on a random building. Go Cougars"

Sam wrote, "This river marks the entrance to our area. Isn't it beautiful? It smells great."

Sam sent us the following email on Sunday, May 17, 2015:

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

Subject: On the Downhill

Date: May 18, 2015 12:52:53 AM MDT

Hey guys, 

I don't know if you remembered, but this last Thursday was my one year mark. [Yeah, we remembered...!]  I only have one year left. For as much as I get annoyed being on a mission and get tired of people and situations and stuff, I was really sad to think that I only have one year left to be a missionary. It makes me sad to think about, and honestly, I don't know what real life will be like when I go back because now this is my life. Like grinding until you get a bright spot of getting a new investigator and visiting less actives and fixing broken bikes and sweating and stuff. Going back seems so strange to me. I'm glad I generally don't have to worry about all the problems that people have to worry about in the real world. I like to be an "Elder" where that's my name so that everybody, even random people that I don't know, can call to me and feel kinship.

So yeah, I got some cookies and milk for the one year anniversary. I took pictures but I forgot the connector stuff to send pictures, so I'll have to send some next week instead.

We only have like 2 investigators. They're both really good people and good investigators, but they're hard to meet, so we pretty much didn't get to meet any investigators this week. It's hard to go from not having investigators in Battambang, to finally getting some, to leaving and coming here and not having any once again. But we've really been praying and hoping and we got 2 referrals yesterday of people who are hopefully good, and a little bit more hope of some people that attend our english class that came to church yesterday. So I hope that will get better. 

There's one guy here named Pu Pan, and he's been a member for a long time, but over the past 2 years he had a stroke or something and lost movement in the left side of his body. And his family didn't help him or anything, so he's been left to veg on a bed in their house and nobody goes to talk to him or do anything to help him. His muscles are all gone and he can't do anything. But on the left side of his pathetic little cot bed thing he's got the book of mormon and the bible. We've been going there pretty much everyday to do physical therapy on him the best we think we know how. It's just us bending his knee and ankle and hip. His family hasn't helped him out at all. As we do the physical therapy we've read aloud out of the book of mormon, and he's found peace in that. It's a pretty humbling experience to do physical therapy on him because he's not very clean (he's got a urine bucket right next to his bed that he just holds a little cup thing to and dumps out whatever he's got into the bucket, and I don't know where he goes number 2, but I think it's right where he is), and his legs have gotten so thin from not being used and there's no muscle. But we hope that by doing this one day he can at least sit up and if we're really lucky he can walk again. We took a few other people there yesterday and he started weeping kind of hysterically just because no one ever comes to see him.

The area is very hard to learn. It's like a dang maze. My companion still gets lost every now and again and he's been here for 3 months. But I still have a lot of faith in this area and really think that there's people who need to learn about the church

I had to speak in church yesterday. The ward here is really strong. Like lots of solid people. Probably because the church has been here longer than any other ward in the country.

I think the hardest thing to do in life is live in the moment. We're always thinking about the good old times, or what we're going to do in the future, but boy, it's hard to live in the present and appreciate all that's around us. I'm terrible at it. But I'm trying to soak all of it in and enjoy where I'm at right now because I know that one day this'll be "the good old days."

I hate "devotional"-type emails, but I feel like it's important, so y'all remember that and try to enjoy every day that you've got, for tomorrow we die. Or some scripture like that. Carpe diem!!!

K I hope you all have a good week and are doing good stuff to get ready for a fun summer! Peace and love

We got to Skype with Sam on Mother's Day--Sunday, May 10, 2015.  It was one year ago--on Mother's Day, 2014--that Sam gave his missionary farewell in church, so he is now officially half-way through his mission!  He just got transferred last Friday from Battambang down to Phnom Penh. He grew very close to many of the people he knew in Battambang and he will really miss them.  Sam and his new companion in Phnom Penh are zone leaders, and they are hoping they can do some good in their new area. :)  

After our Skyping session, Sam emailed us the following photos he took in Battambang before leaving:

Sam grew very fond of these two older men.  They lived through the Khmer Rouge era and have seen a lot of sorrow in their lives.  But they are happy and kind.

We think this beautiful church is located in Phnom Penh where Sam is currently serving.

Sam sent us the following email, video clip, & photos on Sunday, May 3, 2015.  Our questions are in italics:

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

Subject: The King is Coming!

Date: May 3, 2015 11:16:45 PM MDT

Hey guys,

Um, first of all Pacquiao and Mayweather happened and I missed it? That's a nightmare! This fight is legendary! I actually heard about it a few months ago but wasn't sure if it was actually happening. I can't believe it did. I'll have to watch it when I get back. That poor Pacquiao. I was hoping that little Filipino underdog could pull out a victory. 

The king of Cambodia is coming to Battambang for the annual national "Royal Ploughing Day" holiday. They've done it in Phnom Penh for the past forever and this is the first time here. They've been preparing the field for the king and tending to the ceremonial rice field and putting up pictures of the king all over the place. He'll get here on Thursday, which is perfect because I'll just get to catch him before I leave to go back to the city on FRIDAY for transfers. I'm transferring back down to Phnom Penh into South Zone in Toul Tom Pong ward. I get to have an American companion and be zone leaders with him. I'm super excited to be in a good situation and get to do good stuff. My father, Elder Yorgason, is going to come out for one transfer and take my spot in my branch with my companion and he'll finish his mission out here. I was pretty dang close to punching my companion in the face last night.. closest I've ever been to hitting a human, but that can wait for later. 

You guys ever try My Boy? It's all the rage here and I finally got it and it's great. I toast bread, put My Boy on top and then put cinnamon on top of that and it's delicious. You should try it.

I did get the Easter package when we went down to the city last week. I have been plowing through that thing (pun intended). 

I never liked mangoes in America, but we're entering mango season here, and these ripe mangoes are soo delicious. It kind of reminds me of peach season in that I feel like I really need to make the most of it. They're really good and they're everywhere.

There's a lot of people that I'll really miss in Battambang. I made a list of "people I like in Battambang" and I had like 45 different families/people. Then I starred the really good ones. We'll have to come back and visit here for sure.

Do the people in Cambodia plant little vegetable gardens for their home use?  I know they plant lots of rice, but I was wondering if they do small-scale home gardens as well.  Most people don't plant vegetable gardens. Generally if they have a garden they only plant one big one with one thing so that they can sell it at the store.

In that photo you sent last week of some men sitting in a circle, eating, was there a bat on one of the serving dishes? I'm pretty sure that was a fish those guys were eating. It was just a classic photo because they were all toasting and drinking their beer and they offered us to drink and we're like naww, we don't drink that. Why? Because we want good health. I had a word of wisdom pamphlet in my backpack so I gave it to the guy and he read it aloud to all the people. Irony.

That's crazy about that Baltimore stuff. Like we've gone back to the Sixties. Crap.

Ok, that's all I've got. Thanks for all your emails and everything. You guys are great! Have a good sports-watching time. It's baseball season and the NBA playoffs: a good time to be alive. 

Peace and Love

Sam's email:  samuel.christensen@myldsmail.net

Video link to "Leaving Battambang":https://www.dropbox.com/s/juyppwreqw9y4ex/Leaving%20Battambang%20.mov?dl=0

There's a truck hauling the front of another truck it its bed. The cars here make it feel like the island of misfit toys. Everything's just kind of thrown together randomly.

This is an investigator that we've been working with for a while. 

She is very smart and asks good questions.

 That's a haircut place which I never actually got to try out.

This is one of the best members ever. Seriously, he's great.

This is our RC Huam, who's in the blue shirt, and his whole family who came in for the picture.

That lady said she carves that whole thing in two days.

Mangoes!

Sam sent us the following email, video clip, & photos on Sunday, April 26, 2015.  Our questions & comments are in italics:

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

Subject: It is the 27th of April

Date: April 26, 2015 11:38:53 PM MDT

Hi Guys,

We had our best statistical week of the transfer this week with 23 total lessons and 14 new investigators. My companion counts new investigators differently than I would. I would have said 4 new, solid investigators, but 14 is good too. Regardless, it is picking up here and that is good news. That family from before is continuing to progress and came to church yesterday and when we taught them yesterday before church the mom got really stoked to learn about the temple and saving ancestors and stuff. Apparently she is training with a women's handicapped Cambodian professional wheelchair basketball team with the hopes that she can go outside of the country? I don't know, I was confused about it too but thought it was kind of cool. One thing that I've felt this week when we've been teaching people (and maybe skipping over points that I think are important for them to know), is that they are still understanding what we're saying and our message because they've heard it before. I've heard this or read it somewhere, but basically what we're doing here is reminding people of the plan that they learned and knew a long time ago in heaven. I've seen it in a few peoples' eyes where it does seem to resonate with them a little bit even though, logistically and orderally, it doesn't make much sense what we're teaching. Well that's enough of that.

We were shocked when we read that you had eaten baby duck! I sent a video of eating the baby duck a different time. It's harder to eat in the daytime when you have to look at it.  Do you still find stray hairs revolting?  Yes, I still dislike hairs: I picked 2 of them out of my rice/pork breakfast that we bought, and am often picking them off of my bar of soap in the bathroom. Except those hairs are black and I'm not sure where they're coming from..... But I probably have a little more patience than I did with them before. There is a lot of hair at our house between all the animals.

Did you like Ephraim’s Rescue? Ephraim's rescue was ok, but I was hoping for Meet the Mormons.

Where were you in that picture of you squatted down in front of a bunch of skulls???  The picture was at phnom sompov at a memorial for a place that they would hit people and then push them off a ledge to fall to their death in a cave. I even managed to capture a ghost in that picture. It's called like ghost cave or something like that.  How was your second visit to Phnom Sompov to see the monkeys? The monkeys played a more minimal part of the trip because there were a lot of people at the mountain this time for the holiday. The lizard picture you sent last week is so cool!  Is it a gecko?  Did you see it in a zoo or something, or was it just out in the wild?  The lizard was wild and I accidentally sent the blurry picture.

I also loved studying the picture of your bedroom.  I noted the positioning of the fan (aimed directly at your bed).  We put the fan on swivel mode.

Were you able to find all the baseball pictures of you that I put in Dropbox a couple weeks ago? I did get the pictures but haven't gotten to print them yet. Lots of things trigger memories of baseball. Sometimes it's a smell, sometimes I'm sweating and something reminds me of a particular time sweating playing baseball. This last week I put my church pants on, and they're so casual now that it felt like I was wearing baseball pants. I was just feeling like "ok, let's go" like it was normal. I don't know how to describe that..

When I watched that video clip of the zealous elder dancing with his sign and chasing motorists down, I laughed out loud!  I had to watch it several times, and I laughed each time!  HILARIOUS!  His mom and dad need to see that someday! That elder is always like that. He's great. I have a longer video that I'll send sometime. He said his parents don't need to see it because they've seen it for 18 years.

Do you currently have an English class going in Battambang?  I teach the middle class of english still. I teach it all by myself and usually do the gospel thought all by myself. There were 13 people in my class last week. At the end of class we tried to get meaning out of the first verse of "Good Riddance" by Green Day. Meaning that I explained it and they kind of grasped it. But then I looked it up on someone's phone and we listened to the first verse twice and they enjoyed that.

Peter and I were wondering this week how you do your laundry there.  Do you have access to washing machines and dryers?  We have our own laundry machine and then we just hang our stuff up to air dry in the house.

When will the rainy season begin?  We keep hearing that our current water supply is below normal and is going to get really low by summer because we got almost no snow this past winter.  That is worrisome.  It's finally started to rain a little here. People are in dire need of rain here too. Like if they don't get it, they won't survive. Because they just rely on catching all the rain water that runs off their tin roofs into their big pots and storing it. If they don't get rain, then they have to but water from the water truck which gets it from a well, and if they don't have money to buy it, then they don't get water. They're in something of a drought here in Battambang too, so they really need rain. One member we talked to was really scared about it.

Did Elder Holland ever make it to Cambodia?  I know nothing about Holland coming here anymore. Hmmm.

We're leaving in 30 minutes to go down to Phnom Penh again for another leadership meeting, and it should be good. Our area has been put through the grinder the past few months, but we're looking to climb out now that the holiday is past us.

We had one of our best investigators get baptized the other day. Our member help, and now his good friend, baptized him. He's a really good guy and when you guys come we'll go visit him and hopefully by then his family will have learned and joined, including his kids Krista, Roseann, William, and Phillip. He didn't get confirmed, but we're counting on next week.

Also, I've been making better progress in reading the scriptures for personal study. One is that sometimes I get more time for personal study.... The second is that the scriptures become more applicable when I have someone to compare the Lamanites to, if you know what I'm talking about.

I hope you guys all have a good, happy week!

Sam's email:  samuel.christensen@myldsmail.net

Video Link:  Sam Eating Baby Duck https://www.dropbox.com/s/jgsmgcqhbvafy05/Sam%20Eating%20Baby%20Duck%20.mov?dl=0

It looks like one of the entrees is a bat...

baby duck in its shell

Sam's companion, Elder Kim, is on the far left

Sam sent us the following email & photos on Sunday, April 19, 2015:

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

Subject: O Home Beloved

Date: April 20, 2015 12:29:14 AM MDT

O home beloved, wherever I wander, on foreign land or distant sea, as time rolls by, my heart grows fonder and yearns more lovingly for thee!

That's just a little ode that I wrote this past week. I could go on, but I won't.

Just kidding! Well this week was better than the last, so we're seeing progression. My companion likes me now, which is a great relief and makes life easier.

This past week was Khmae New Year and there was not a ton of work to be done there. People are busy and don't want to meet you or are gone. I went on an exchange to Pursat, which is one of the new areas that they opened a few months ago. Since it was the holiday, there wasn't a lot of work to be done, but it was fun to be there. I'd love to serve there one day. It's got an exciting vibe to it with those guys just holding church in their apartment every week. We came back the next day and our Battambang zone got to meet together and watch Ephraim's Rescue. Movie nights never happen here, so that was a big thing.

One thing that Elder Monson--the Elder in Pursat--pointed out to me is that everyone there is wearing the same red polo-branded hat. I hadn't noticed it before, but it's true and it's so funny. Then I realized the trend is catching on in Battambang too. I don't know why, but probably 10% of the population are rocking the same red Polo hat, and they don't seem to be conscious of it at all.

Also on the exchange I ate baby duck eggs for the first time. That's baby ducks that are still in embryo stage I think. So you crack them open and eat them out of the egg. I'd been avoiding them for a reason, but what the heck they were there and I didn't want to be that guy. They taste fine. Just don't look at what you're eating or you'll see the feet or the soft little skull. yeah....

I told Jennie this in an email, but the reason I get upset out here sometimes is because I don't want to go home and feel like I wasted my mission or I didn't do the things I should have. So when we're not doing anything I feel bad.

We really did have a miracle yesterday with a new family that we met. We met a lady several weeks ago who said she'd gone to our old church about 10 years ago before we changed locations. We invited her to church and she ended up coming with her husband. She's crippled and after that meeting 2 weeks ago her husband came up and asked me if they could take the wheelchair. I was like ümmm, what?" No. So I thought they'd only come to try and get a free wheelchair out of us, but we met with them yesterday before church and they brought their whole family of 5. They listened to the whole lesson, digested it, asked some questions, and agreed to be baptized at the end of May. It's too early to tell for sure, but they seem really good and I hope it'll all work out for them. Their eyes lit up when Elder Kim said "Joseph Smith" for the first time because they recognized the name. It was really cool. So that, honestly, is an answered prayer and I'm grateful for all of you guys in helping us get them. The circumstances in finding them for the very first time were very happen-stancial. Is that a word?

One lady speaking yesterday in sacrament meeting got up to the pulpit and said "they gave me a topic, but I didn't look at it." She turned around to the presidency: "what am I speaking on?" These people aren't trying to be funny, that's just how things shake out here. She's got guts.

Our Branch President diagnosed our drop in sacrament attendance as the members struggling with the new "self reliance" book that the church is pushing here. He says they try to fill it out and then get frustrated and then are embarrassed to come to church. He suggested maybe we could learn it and then go teach it to members who are having trouble with it. Sure, why not. I don't think that's the problem anyways, but I asked him which members or families specifically had looked at it and felt frustrated and hadn't come to church as a result of it, hoping to have an idea of which families, specifically, we need to teach. He responded "All of them." So that was helpful.

I'm hoping that things will continue to progress. It's funny, of almost all of the best investigators we have, they're almost all crippled in some way. We're going to need more wheelchairs. I also think those people are a lot more humble and open to accepting the gospel.

The 10 kilos of rice last week was just right, so we bought 10 more this week. Heaven forbid we run out of rice.

I love you and miss you all. Best!

Sam's email:  samuel.christensen@myldsmail.net

Sam sent the following email, photos, & video clips on Sunday, April 12, 2015:

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

Subject: Hi There

Date: April 12, 2015 10:48:43 PM MDT

Hey Guys,

I'm feeling better today than I was last week. It was still a rough week. We only got 9 total lessons and 16 total contacts. You can compare those to some of the other numbers we've previously had here. But we got to watch conference yesterday and Saturday, so that was 10 hours of relaxation. They send the dvds up to us and we got to watch it in English just the 6 American missionaries in Battambang.

I wish it was a different situation, but it is what it is. We'll cross over the halfway mark of this transfer this week. It shouldn't be that bad, it's just that we had to get the start off on the wrong foot.

It's the biggest holiday of year for Cambodians. Khmae New Year. It's officially three days, but we've been suffering the effects of it since last week and it pretty much runs for like 2 whole weeks. So this will be another difficult week for meeting people.

It was funny because a sister missionary with us was like "we have GOT to be in there (with the members) when they announce the Thailand temple." So we stopped our broadcast and they ran over there to listen. When they announced it there was little more than a stir. I saw one person turn and say something to his neighbor. We were kind of hoping for cheers of joy and recognition, but there was nothing of the sort. They don't really understand the significance of it, but it is a pretty big deal for us here. 

There's a lot that's frustrating, but I'll get through it just fine. There are a lot of good people here. There's a lot that aren't really..good?.. but the ones that are are great.

Sad to hear about Susan the Duck

We ran out of 8 kilos of rice last week, so this week they bought 10. That oughtta do it.

We're going out to Phnom Sompov again-the place with the monkeys-so I don't have much time, but hopefully I can get some good videos for you guys.

Take it easy, don't work too hard! I love you guys and miss you!

Video Link:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/ygxxb3weug0mo8d/Sam%20with%20cute%20little%20kids%20copy.mov?dl=0

Sam's Email:  samuel.christensen@myldsmail.net