4 Sep 2013
There’s not nearly enough paper to record everything I want to say, and
I had to use a piece from my companion as it is--I thought I’d have
time to grab one from the bookstore beforehand.
During the time we killed before the MTC we went by Jan’s place and saw
Jonathan just before they started pulling out the driveway, so we got
to chat for a bit before heading out. First thing after Jess and
Anthony dropped me off, a sister “host” took my luggage and showed me
the way to go.
I
got my nametag, keys and important documents, got my heavy bag of
books; and, fortunately, was the second person to arrive, so I didn’t
get completely over-whelmed like my companion did coming in as the last
person. But seeing a white person speaking fluent Cambodian makes it
seem a little more possible. And that’s all my young, very enthusiastic
teacher spoke was Cambodian. He had sentences on the board and
half-readable transliterated words for us to practice on one another.
My companion is Sister Megan Walker, and looks like me in size, height,
hair color and length, and is very easy to get along with for which I’m
grateful. She’s going to the same place, and according to our teacher,
we are the 2nd ever call Tacoma WA Cambodian speaking sister
missionaries. We are the only girls in our district/class. (Oh, and
you can type and save my letters. It’s bedtime and I haven’t even
written in my journal!!)
5 Sep 2013
We room with a Sister Litchfield who has graduated and studied in
Cambodia when she got her call there--but speaking Vietnamese. Sister
Egelund (egg-lund) is her companion with the same call, plus she’s half
Vietnamese, so she’s pretty happy with her call.
Our district consists of 8 missionaries, or, our whole classroom; Elder
Jones and Elder McGavin are going to Cambodia/Khmer speaking, Elder Yu
(Korean) and Elder Marriott (?) are Redding CA, Khmer speaking, then
Elder Chiu & Elder Duffy (our recently appointed District Leader
whom I would elect for any voice recording--he has the perfect voice for
business man or an instruction video). Our teacher (look-ru in Khmer)
is Brother Mickelson and when he does speak English, he only does so
with a Cambodian accent. He has such a ready smile and enthusiasm I
swear he is the best teacher in the school, even though I haven’t seen
other teachers teach.
After class was lunchtime in a packed
cafeteria. Insane. But we managed to eat, Sis. Walker & I. Then
we went into 3 different rooms, each one with a different acting
investigator which we had to ask questions and teach as a group of 40-50
people. They were not sympathetic and bashed missionaries very
realistically if they said something dumb or laughed at something that
wasn’t supposed to be funny. I managed to say a few things here and
there fairly successfully, and Elder Engle was there too. :) I’ve
actually seen him pretty often surprisingly and today when randomly
passing he said “Oh, Hi, Sara! - I mean Elder D...er...” I never heard
him say my name right, for the group of missionaries around him busted
up laughing. That was funny.
I have 20 mins left to write and I haven’t written in my journal, yet;
but I wanted to let you know, that the fact the MTC is selling skirts
for $17 is false. They may have had a sale that went really well, but
they have only Mikarose now, so I had to buy their cheapest black skirt
for $30. And it will do, but for a basic I’d rather have more durable
material. Oh well.
We’re teaching our first investigator tomorrow--in Cambodian! Yeah, There’s no taking your time here, it’s all business.
Oh yeah, something I wanted to say really quick (sorry for rushed
handwriting but I figure you’d like to get a letter sooner than later),
today I went to try out for a musical number. I didn't know you had to
have something prepared, so after a bit, I went up to ask where I could
get music. Just as I went up, though, an Elder came up and realized he
needed an accompanist for his solo. So the sister in charge told me,
“Well here, could you be his accompanist?” I said, “Sure!” We found a
room (with our companions), practiced twice, performed our
audition...and made it! I love the piece as well, it’s beautiful. (“My kindness shall not depart from thee)”
6 September 2013
I saw Elder Twede, too! First day, in that crowded classroom I spotted
him getting food. I went up, said “Elder Twede?” cause his face was
turned away, but when he turned around, there was an awkward pause of
smiles and stiff arms as we both fought the impulse of a hug before
admitting it out loud and settling for a handshake.
I really enjoy it here. The schedule is given to us, outlining
everything we do which is nice, and there are plenty of opportunities to
fill your time otherwise. Today (the 6th) we go to the gym for the first time. That’ll be interesting.
The only drawback is I underestimated the number of outfits I have. I
have about 6 cardigans, 5 skirts, 1 pair of shoes with another on the
way via order, 3 short sleeved tops (2 the same color) and about 2
long-sleeved tops that are plain, so I don’t have a lot of
variety, yet, especially as I’m in the middle of changing black skirts.
I hate to do it, but the $30 skirt is a bouncy/heavy fabric that’s a
plain tube skirt and bouncy skirts that show every crease and wrinkle
underneath them are uncomfortable to me, so I’ll have to switch out for
the $40 black skirt. Ugh. But it’s better.
Today’s the day we teach our first investigator in Cambodian! My
companion and I plan on drilling each other on sentences first, so
hopefully it’ll go well enough for a first time....
Love you, and enjoy your week! I look forward to getting letters from
you or anyone else. If he wants, Dad can go to DearElder.com, send them an email, and they will print it out to give to me, for free. :) So he can do that if he doesn't want to write.
Again, I love you, and thank you for your prayers.
ÏSara
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