Counter-Intuitive

Elder Me and Wyatt

If I could write a one-word slogan for this country it would be, "counter-intuitive." Haha. People cut their grass with scissors and then harvest their tiny herbs with sickles. I don't think there is much that is "intuitive" about this country. I'm not complaining though, because it's something I have grown to love. It also makes impressing people a lot easier. 

Phnom Penh skyline

So Kian Svay is nice (except for the hour long bike rides to "clay" twice a week). Dei edth (clay) is where the branch president and a bunch of other members live. That is where the real Kian Svay is. The church is in the Kian Svay "county" (srok), but the "county seat" is about an hour away from the church--close to Dei Edth. The Elder who turned Stung Meanchey from having just one branch into 3 branches is in our ward, too, and when I asked him to help with our work, he said, "You have to use the spirit when you contact." So I asked him to help us contact one day. The new area has the exact same amount of members as KC it seems; however, here it's more like 4 or 5 really big families plus a few others that make up the whole branch. The Branch President is a baller. He gets things done. I asked him for new people to teach and he told me to dig a ditch for him and then move dirt. So I did it, and now we have two new investigators from him. Man, that guy is cool. He has been to the temple, and his children are all super rowdy, and the wife is always stressed out. He's fairly young, too. (Does this sound familiar?)

When I'm with Elder Me, he wants me to speak as much English as possible, so I do until he doesn't understand, and then I tell him in Khmae. Also, it's been kind of a bummer having to wait for people to get tired of talking to Elder Me to want to talk to me. Since he is Khmae there honestly isn't really much of a reason for people to talk to me if they can just ask elder Me, so I just wait for the person to ask me if I'm sok sabbay [basically, how are you doing?] in their most slowed-down version of speaking. When Elder Me leaves, then people will have to talk to me more, but I've been enjoying feeling like a trainee again. 

Elder Me

This is Pu Bot

I think my stay in this area won't be as long as KC, unfortunately, since I am all but white washing [starting from scratch], because Elder Me leaves for America tomorrow! On Tuesday Elder Me got an interview at the embassy to get a visa. Since he passed, we had to go back on Thursday to pick up the visa. Lots of trips to Phnom Penh. He heads out to Oakland tomorrow morning, and I go back to Kian Svay with Elder Bolo. He's American despite the Khmae sounding name. He gained some fame by getting attacked by a drunk guy in Stung Meanchey a few weeks ago. I'll have to ask him about it and then I'll tell you next week. 

American soil

Love, 

Elder Hall