February 28, 2016--Sunday

Skibby opened her mission call last night and has been called to serve in the Spain Madrid Mission! She will report to the Spain MTC on July 12th.  She is so excited!  Sam had been certain that Skibby was going to be called to serve in Cambodia, and Emily was equally sure Skibby was going to be called to San Fernando, California.  So both were a little disappointed...  But I really believe that every individual's call is the right one for them, and I am so happy for Skibby to have the same kinds of amazing experiences serving people that Em and Sam have had on their missions!

We recorded Skibby's mission call opening last night and then emailed it to Sam.  Sam sent us the following after watching the video:

Date: February 28, 2016 at 10:03 PM

Subject:  Play Ball

Hey, happy for Skibby, but I'm a little bummed. Still think she'd be great here. But you can't win them all. We had a transfer go through this week and that is always a little bit hectic, but we got it all figured out and everyone where they need to go. I think they're all happy. It was a good time with Elder Elieson. My new companion, Elder Asay, is really good. I'm excited to have him here and it will be good to help the area. I'm ready for Chaktomuk to get going and it already has and I think will continue to. Boy, I've learned a lot on my mission about a lot of things. I don't have any cool pictures this week, so cling to those Angkor Wat ones from last week. 11 weeks seems like a short time, but until the time I go home still seems far away. Hope all is well back home with you guys. Peace. Go Jazz, plus baseball season is about to get underway here.

Sam sent the following email & photos on Sunday, February 21, 2016:

Date:  February 21, 2016 at 11:21 PM

Subject:  Angkor Wat

Hey we took a surprise trip to Angkor Wat this past week. Also took another trip out to Phnom Chiso. We also got transfers all called out last night and it'll be this Wednesday.  Now this stuff barely registers a blip on the radar, but if you told me coming in that neither the Bishop or the EQP don't have a clue how to give a blessing for a sick person....  We walked them through that yesterday. Gotta love Cambodia, man.

I have plenty of pictures. like 300, but here's a few. And we'll get more when you come.

Angkor Wat

Left to right:  Elder Elieson (Sam's companion), Sam, & 2 other elders

Sam is on the far right.  His companion, Elder Elieson, is on the far left.

Sam sent the following email on Sunday, February 14, 2016.  Skibby submitted her mission papers this same day, and Sam refers to this at the end of his email....his very short email....again. ;)

Hey guys, I don't have time. But this week was good. We're teaching better with the Spirit. And I think finding people who have real intent. Thanks for the prayers. There's a few things that seem possible for us in the area. We just got done making out transfers starting in a week and a half and that took a bit of time this week but was fun and we were effective in the time that we had. I'm doing good. We're going to some mountain today which was not my idea but was roped into it and I'm not thrilled to go, but I'm on a mission and everything we do has to be a group project so I don't have a choice. The wards here just make you want to shake your head, but then you laugh at the ridiculousness of it, then you find out a way to help it. God bless Cambodia, it's a great place and I think Skibby will come here on her mission too. We'll see. Peace guys!

Sam sent us the following email on Sunday, February 7, 2016:

Date:  February 7, 2016 at 9:36 PM

Subject:  No pictures this week but maybe next week…

Heya guys,

We're in a hurry to get down to the south stake center to have a cook out and hopefully play some wiffleball/basketball stuff or something. Should be pretty fun. We bought 7 kilos of chicken breasts this morning and 4 kilos of potatoes. Plus 10 pineapples. Shishkabob here we come. 

There was a little girl on a trike or something that we saw take it right off a foot and a half curb and land right on her face. No problem, she popped up. Nbd. Gotta love that Cambodian spirit.

They're in a little bit of a cold spell (meaning the mornings sometimes get down to about 68), and the coats and winter hats are out in full force. If it ever snowed here so many people would die. Meanwhile we're loving it.

At the market (this kind of stuff happens all the time) some lady was talking about us right in front of us because they think we don't know the language and says joking to her friend, "They're handsome you should take one." The other lady cuts meat..."Careful, they know Khmae!" 

My study has gotten a lot better since President's zone conference this past week. Studying--I don't know--I was always afraid to mark in my scriptures, but now I'm not and I get a lot more out of it. If you need help studying, write stuff down and also don’t worry about marking in your scrips. 

s'good, love you guys!

Sam sent the following email, photos, & video clip on Sunday, January 31, 2016:

Date:  January 31, 2016 at 10:50 PM

Subject:  With love

I put some videos on dropbox for you guys, so enjoy. I hope that means I don't have to write much. It was a pretty good week, but the last half was pretty rough for us for some reason and we started to lose heart. But we're regrouping and think this week will be better. Alma 26:27. Thank you guys!

Could you send these to Elder Ey Long in the MTC, mom? Thank you so much!

Video Link: January 31, 2016-Cambodia

Above & below:  Sam, Elder Long, & Elder Elieson (Sam's companion)
Elder Long is currently at the Provo MTC and will be serving in the Oakland, California Mission. Sam wants me to send prints of these two pictures to Elder Long at the MTC, along with a little care package.  This poor elder probably needs thermal underwear and a parka in his care package, having just come from 95 degree weather in Cambodia!

Above & below:  housing areas where Sam & Elder Elieson teach and tract

Sam sent the following email & photos on Sunday, January 24, 2016.  Our comments are in italics:

Date:  January 24, 2016 at 8:39 PM

Subject:  Call to Repentance

Well, once again I find myself cornered into no time to write. I know yall probably don't like me for that (or maybe by this point my letters are boring anyways so you don't really care). But I will say that we're doing good. We're working hard. We got a bunch of new investigators.  This week the Church had a worldwide missionary broadcast.  I am not sure if you have seen or will get it by dvd this week.  Kind of cool and some nice messages.  I did see the world-wide training and since Elder Elieson and I have started applying it the quality of our lessons has gotten way better. I'm really hoping that as we work hard we'll find a family of people to teach, because as of now it's mostly teaching single individuals. But it's way better to be out there doing stuff. In the allegory of the olive tree in verse 72 i think it says the Lord will be there working with us. I think that's true for us out here.

Boo called me out for not sending pictures, so here's a few:

Sam sent us the following email on Sunday, January 17 (actually in the wee hours of Monday, Jan. 18), 2016:

Date:  January 18, 2016 at 2:42 AM

Hey guys, I'm doing good. Sorry, I ran out of time to write an email. I love you guys. Everything here is going well. We didn't get out as much as we were hoping to last week because of transfers, but we did on Sunday and we will now. I did a bad thing by challenging the lesson king (Elder Kim) to a competition of lessons for this transfer. Loser buys the other companionship ice cream. But it's fun. Today was a good day. I feel good. We are getting a lot of people to meet just in the short time we've been out. We'll see what we can do. Have a good Martin Luther King Day--the best day of any year!