Sara's week 9 in the MTC

I don't want to be cliché by saying this MTC experience has gone by SO fast, but it's true. This is the last email I will send out from the MTC which is both amazing to me, and exciting. There is still a lot of Cambodian I have yet to learn, but it amazes me how much I have learned in such a short time here. Elder Duffy in my district can almost fluently read the script and has nearly every word in our small dictionary at least familiarized so if he doesn't know if at once, he's at least heard it before. It's amazing the great examples I have around me, because although he is naturally very quick and observant, he is an example of what's possible. 

Elder Jones is also our next smartest missionary. Yesterday our teacher didn't have his grammar book and we were joking that Elder Jones had it all memorized, so the teacher took it and Elder Yu randomly asked "Elder Jones, what's on page 74?" to which Elder Jones responded "Nothing." Elder Yu flipped to the page and gasped "Holy cow, he really does have it memorized!".... which really he doesn't - he was just really lucky, but it gave us a good laugh. Oh I'm going to miss my district!

Good news; we got our Khmae name tags (which we're not allowed to wear except in the field) and travel plans this week! I leave Tuesday morning at 4:30am which means Monday will be full of hugs, handshakes and tears as a good two thirds of our zone says goodbye to the missionaries of our zone going all places. (California, Minnesota, Washington, Australia and Cambodia)

Every Wednesday we go to the temple it seems I always find someone I know. This week's a bit of a stretch to say I "know" them, but I met a sister in the cafeteria line going to Argentina who I found out is the sister of a Jared Ricks who I played in the same orchestra with my first semester of college and danced with at the Latin dances. Crazy connections, right? And then to top it off I saw the girl from the Mormon Messages video "Origins" in the temple. So weird to me, but hey, I'm in Utah!

Other than the fact I've lost my appetite for food from the cafeteria food here, the MTC's been a really great experience for me and I can't wait to go out in the field and see how much more progress I can make! Our investigator Phoan (Bro. Mickelson) is getting baptized this Thursday, and I'm excited about that, but I can't wait to teach real people and see the gospel change their lives.

Sister Dunster

  The Cambodian, Vietnamese and Cantonese sisters! (me, Sisters Walker, Thain, Egelund, Litchfield, Davis, Choi and Peterson)

                 Me with the old Thai sisters (Sister Ellis, me, Sister Barber and Sister Peterson)

                                                                         Khmae name tag!

                                                           Saralee with her companion.