Wednesday, January 5, 2011

First Email from Cambodia


Okay, the best way to wake up in the middle of the week is to an email from our favorite Sister Missionary!! She is obviously doing well dispite the anxiety, but she'll get over that. I've included some pictures of her time at the MTC. I hope y'all enjoy. Please forgive her spelling and lack of proper punctuation, remember she is learning and speaking in a foreign language. ;0)

hey mommy!
good news i can take as long as i want to email!

Okay so Cambodia is not at all what i expected it to be! orz its so hot! we are constantly sweating! okay so pretty much everything here is dirty and gross. there is trash everywhere and i'm in constant fear for my health... everyone says they love this country, but i guess i havent found that love yet. i pray everyday that i will though and that the worry and anxiety will go away. the only time i dont feel worried or afraid is when we are teaching or at home or at church.
so my new companion is sister harlen. she is from mapleton, UT and is an amazing missionary! we get along very well and she is helping me so much and encouraging me to teach alot.
there are only 7 viet speaking elders here.
Elder Ly is from vietnam. he is so funny! i cant understand him yet, but he is always smiling!
Elder Sing is from australia. hes 25ish and his accent is awesome! hes the Zone Leader so he has to call us every night to make sure we got in okay.
Elder Frank, Elder Wright, and Elder Sanford are all from northern utah. they have been here for like 6 months. so i'll most likely be going home with them.
Elder Suku (i think i spelled that right) is half south american. Orz i cant wait to get to know them better. its hard being the noob. *headdesk*
Elder Humphreys is doing well too. he's serving with the Zone leader.
*glances at her hands* great i have 2 mosquito bites already...i probably have malaria now....
orz no they said we dont need malaria pills here in the city. so i hope they are right...anyhooo....
we leave in a 4 story house. the bottom floor has the kitchen and a bathroom and a large living area. its all marble and tile in our house. we occupy the 3rd floor. the 2nd floor just has 2 small rooms and a bathroom. the 3rd floor where we sleep has a large bedroom an open area for our washer (which is tiny like the one in italy) and a bathroom...ah the bathrooms here are bizzare! there are no tubs! we stand between the sink and the toilet and there is a hose where the water comes out and we wash in that. O_o
we dont have blankets we just sleep under 1 sheet. we have an air conditioner in our room too. and we each have a desk to study at.

the vietnamese people we have met at taught so far are so amazing! i just love Chi Thúy! she is a member who comes and helps us teach. she's so happy and just so adorable!
Em Anh is also a member. shes 21 and hopes to go on a mission soon. if she does we hope to be companions! :3 shes so adorable!
Em My Hoa is 21 also, her mother Co Kim is the Relief Society president. they were the very first ones i met. It scared me so much because they live in a tiny tiny shack. and i wasnt use to how cambodia is. so i was sitting there freaking out about the cats and germs running around...but now i think i'll be okay when i go over there because i've gotten to know them some and like it doesnt matter how these people live, because God loves them anyway. its not like i was judging them or anything, but there is just no reason for me to be afraid. Heavenly Father didn't send me here to get sick, He sent me here to share the gospel with these people. *determined face*
Co Cuc was recently baptised so we have been teaching her the review lessons. its been awesome to talk with her...even though i couldnt understand her..yet.
we lost an investigator this week too.
Co Lang...she claims she is too busy and cant take time to learn. it was kind of a culture shock to be sitting there on the floor with her while shes feeding her baby...not that its nothing i havent seen before but you just learn to ignore it and go on. her husband seemed interested when we were teaching, but he was the one that told us that they were too busy to study.
Co Tha lives at the very top of a building with her husband. they make baskets to sell for money. she doesnt know how to read, so we commited her husband to read to her the Book of Mormon. I hope he does so that she can learn to.
oh the Elders refered us to a woman and her son! Co Hong (pronounced 'Go Home) and Em Bao (Eh-m Bow)". Co Hong cant read, and Em Bao is 16. there is another younger lady in the house, i'm not sure of her name, but she had twins that were so cute! they cried when they saw us..oh well..but anyway, they came to the FHE activity on monday and the elders took us to her house to meet and begin teaching her. we taught them to pray, and we even had Em Bao pray afterward. I had such a good feeling after the lesson, i hope they keep thier commitments and become baptised!
so everyone has been saying how clearly i speak. and like they can all understand me when i talk. now if i could just understand them. ^-^' they have all said that i speak better than sister harlen when she first came. XD ha ha ha...ah well..
so yeah i have some more emails for you to forward this to they are just my elders from the MTC. just kinda let them know how i'm doing...they probably cant email you back, but i just want to stay in contact with them all. :)

okay i hope these are all right XD if not let me know ^-^and please just especially let elder lam and elder hammond know how i'm doing. i miss them all so much!

okay well i'm going to go now. i'm going to double check on who i can for sure write and then i'll let you know.
so yeah, i love you all and i miss you all so much!! (ps i had a dream wendy was dating brad peterson!...tell wendy to email me! i can email family for sure so i will email gma and gmpa too next week!)
so i love you all! give each other a hug and a kiss for me!!
Sister Holloway

1 comment:

The Page Family said...

Pam, she sounds great! Once she gets busy and really starts serving the people she will forget all she is seeing and be in love with the people. She is reminding me of my mission and the first few things that had me pretty worried for my health as well!! Thanks for sharing her letters.