Week 19

September 22, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

I wanted to start this email off by explaining something about the names that I use in my emails. Whenever I say Bong or Ming, that isnt their actual name. In Cambodia, there is no word for "you". Whenever we address or are speaking to someone, we call them by their name. BUT if they are older than us, we must address them by their "title" and then their name. If they are the same age or within 10 years older than us, we call them "Bong _____". If they are around 40 to 50 we call them "Ming______" for girls and "Look Puu______" for boys, and if they are in their 60s we call them "Om_____". If they are super old we call them "Look Yay____" for girls and "Look Taa_____" for boys. I just had to clarify that so everyone didnt think that everyone here has the same name. 

Anyway, this week was good. It was a little slower than our past weeks because this Tuesday is "Shume Bun". I am not 100% sure what it is, but everyone and their dog leaves the city (I am in the city), and goes to their home town (outer provinces). It is a Buddhist holiday and people take food to the Watts, but everyone in Cambodia celebrates it, whether they are Buddhist or not. We had about 75 in church yesterday, but only 5 in relief society...

One of the highlights of this week, was that we now have 2 more investigators! They are friends with some of our other investigators and so we teach them all together. There are four of them and they are all about 20. They are students and so they don't have much time to learn with us, but when they do, they are awesome!! They have only heard of Jesus Christ, and so every thing we tell them is new. It is so interesting to tell people about the Atonement when they have never heard of it before. They are usually in awe that Jesus Christ died for them and knows exactly what they have been through. That is one of my favorite parts of being a missionary; helping people understand that they are not alone and that Christ can ease their pains and burdens.

All of our investigators but one have gone out to the provinces for Shume Bun. It is super frustrating, but has given us a chance to focus on Bong Leda- our investigator that is still in the city. She is all ready to be baptized, she just has to get married to her boyfriend. Their wedding is planned for December! YAY! She is so awesome. Her story is very interesting. She is 21 years old and grew up in the city. She began dating a less active, Bong Samnang. They really hit it off and wanted to get married. As custom goes, the male must pay the females family to marry her. If they dont offer enough money, or if someone offers more, the father of the daughter will chose the man with the most money. Bong Samnang and his family are very poor, as his mother is widowed and has 7 children. A 60 year old man offered Bong Leda's father a large sum of money to marry her and Bong Leda was terrified. She left her family and was therefore disowned. The widowed mother took Bong Leda in and Bong Samnang used all his money to buy a small house for the two of them. They now live together, but they will be getting married in December and want to be sealed in the temple a year from her baptism! She is one of my favorite investigators and is honestly like a best friend to me. I love her!

Anyway, I hope all continues to go well at home for everyone. Thank you for your prayers and support!

Love, Sister Lindley 

P.S. Last week I saw a store called "6-eleven" hahaha. Gotta love Cambodia :)

P.S.S. I ate 100% Cambodian food for a straight week! My companion and the other 2 Cambodian sisters that live with us made me food every day. They told me it makes them happy when I eat Cambodian food. They made mostly vegetarian dishes and I LOVED it. We all contribute 5 dollars and buy enough food to last a week.