Monday, October 26, 2015

Week 4: The One with the Head-butt Sneeze

Hello everyone! can you believe that this week, I will have been in the MTC for a whole month?!

To begin, let me explain this week's title. One day, I was walking through the hall to class after lunch and it was pretty crowded because everyone was trying to get to their various classrooms. Suddenly, I had this huge sneeze, and I turned my head so as not to rudely sneeze on my companion. Well, in the process of trying not to get her sick, I ended up headbutting some random elder in the elbow, and got a little goose egg on my head! How unfortunately unlikely is that? I apologized profusely, and then busted up laughing.

This week we worked on reading a lot, and it is super fun. Our teachers also explained to us why we have to learn to read Cambodian, because most of the Asian languages don't have to. However, as some of you may know, after the Vietnam war, Cambodia was ruled by the Khmer Ruge, which was basically communist to the extreme, and they wouldn't let anyone go to school. Everyone just had to work in the rice fields all day. They Cambodian people get to go to school now, but a lot of the older generation never got that opportunity, and therefore they don't know how to read. So, any scriptures we want then to know, we have to read for them. I think this helped us all get more excited about reading because we are doing it for others who cannot do it for themselves. Actually, in that way, it is kind of like Jesus Christ's Atonement, because He overcame death and sin for us, which we could never do for ourselves.

Also in Cambodian culture news, I learned this week that "rice" and "food" are basically synonymous in ever day use. One of the first questions you ask when you greet someone is "have you eaten rice yet today?" because if they've eaten food, you can assume at least some of it was rice. The exception is white people. They assume all white people are French, and that French people love bread, so the question to a white person is "have you eaten bread yet today?". Apparently they think it's really funny, and they laugh when the white people say yes.

Other than that, I don't have a lot to say this week. I feel like everything is starting to get pretty routine (finally!). Everything is still amazing here. I grow closer to my companions, my district, and my Savior every day. Some days are hard, but I have such amazing teachers and friends here, that I never go to bed frustrated. Basically I'm just super happy and I'm loving my mission!

I want to leave you with a thought from choir this past Tuesday. We were singing a number called "I Feel My Savior's Love", and the choir director (who is AMAZING at both music and telling engaging stories) brought in this little girl who is one of his voice students. She is 8 years old, and just got baptized, and she is adorable! She sang us a song, and we were all infatuated with how cute and innocent she looked. Then the choir director said something along these lines: we all believe that God loves Mia (this little girl). It isn't hard to believe that, because we all already love Mia, and we just met her 5 minutes ago. She looks so pure and adorable, how could we not love her? Remember, that is how your Heavenly Father views you. He sees you as one of His little children. Compared to him, you have so little experience, and you are so innocent and cute. God loves you, even when you have a hard time loving you.

I just loved that, so I thought I would share it with you all.

Anyway, that is all I have to say this week. I hope everything is going well for all of you, and I will write you again next week! Until then,

Love,

Sister Lemon





This is all of my district's name tags. We thought this picture was "creative".


This is my district with Brother and Sister Moon, who used to be the presidents of the Cambodia mission, and are now our leaders at the MTC.

This is my district this morning, featuring the temple and the Cambodian flag.


This is our weekly Smatching Smunday picture. I think this one was the best one yet, even if I had to wer Sister Nguyen's skirt! I am wearing polka dots, too, they are just in my hair.

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