New Companion

My new companion, Elder Tatton, is a really good guy! He really is good at keeping up, so it's nice. He is from Roy, UT, and from what I can tell he is not homesick at all. 

I opened the Christmas package! And all the presents too! No just kidding. I'm saving 3 of them for Christmas--my curiosity got the best of me. Thank you so much for it! I can't wait to see how many 100 dollar bills you put in the envelope [editor's note: none]. And you bet I already hung up the Christmas tree. With all the ornaments. 

There is a rule that it is discouraged to email back and forth like instant messaging, but it doesn't really affect me because I try to email for less than an hour now. It helps keep me less trunky so I can go back to work easily, and it leaves more time for doing stuff on P-day.

This week was really good. Slavens and I had our last stretch together, and I'll tell you what, I am going to miss him so much. He was a great companion, and a great missionary. He left Wednesday before English class. Elder Tatton, my new companion, came in on Thursday at 12. 

So we have 3 people with baptismal dates (it should have been 4, but one of our really good investigators--Da--moved to work at a construction place for a while). Two of them went to church, while the other 1 had an emergency in his family, so he couldn't make it. The two that came to church were Ming Da (date: 12/20) and Lok Pu Kum On (date: 12/27). They are doing well, and the more they come to church, the more I can see them building connections with the members. For example, all the members that seemed to just not pay attention to him last week were all asking him why his daughter didn't come to church with him this time, and I could tell that he was flattered that they paid attention. Ming Da is good because she still hasn't had her neighbor take her to church, which is like our secret weapon, so when her neighbor ends being busy, Ming Da will be super solid.  

So we have 3 Zones in the city (North, South, and East) correlating with the stakes that they are in. And then each Khaet [province] has its own Zone as well: Battambong, Siam Reap, Kampong Cham etc. In each Zone there are about 2 districts. Each Zone has a companionship at the head. In total our mission probably has 12 Zone Leaders. There are only about 100 people in our mission, so if this number looks small to you, pray for more missionaries to come to Cambodia. Haha 

I don't have much to say for this week, and no pictures because I came down to the city for the day and I forgot my camera in Kampong Cham [editor's note: I found some pics on his companion's blog...Thank you, Elder Slavens!]. So I give you permission to not make a blog post this week. I'm sorry. Next week will be a long email, don't worry.

Elder Hall