Absolutely Amazing Christmas in Ta Khmau

Dear everyone,

Just a quick little email. Such a great Christmas. This week turned out being such a joyous, fun, merry Christmas. I will forever remember this Christmas. What a blessing to be a missionary during Christmas!

So this week I had two big performances.

1. In Baku I was turned into a little short man Elder. My arms became my legs, hands feet and Sister Kosal's arms my arms. Try your hardest to envision it. I’m too lazy to type it all out. Dang it Cambodian keyboards. Anyways so I ended up having peanut butter, hair gel, toothpaste all over my face and hair. Take a bullet for the joy of the Cambodians I guess.

2. I sang a solo in front of 800 people not knowing beforehand that we were singing. I didn’t know until I saw it on the program! How awesome is that! haha. And it was actually horrible. I was laughing all the way through it. It was probably the most embarrassing moment of my life so far. So awesome.

Such a fun time talking to my family. I have the best one, no doubt about it. A Merry Christmas and a happy new year!!! Much love! He is the Gift!!! Share His light!!

Love always,

Sister Mortell

 

Reading a scripture to my family

Zestful Week in Ta Khmau

Hello everyone!

First let me tell you how awesome Cambodians are at Christmas. On Saturday we had our branch Christmas party. So much fun. Curry was enjoyed, crazy romantic Cambodian ballads were a booming and Cambodian dancing was a happening (not missionaries sadly). Anyways, so much fun. Christmas time is awesome in Cambodia. Yes sometimes I wouldn't mind some snow, Christmas lights and an Elf movie night with my family, but Christmas in Cambodia is very special. It's fun to be in a country where the culture of Christmas hasn't been changed. Christmas is about our Savior. It's about Him. It's about saying "thank you" to Heavenly Father for our Savior. Also you better believe it I sang a most horrible solo with all of the missionaries at the party. Everyone just expects all white people to be good at singing. It's quite false. 

So our investigator, "Sheilla" is still awesome. She brings a lot of light into my life. She wants to follow Christ with all of her heart. She is one of my great friends and we've only known each other for a few weeks. I feel blessed to know her. We gave her a Book of Mormon a week and a half ago and she's already read to Mosiah 15. Crazy. She wants to meet with us every day. Sadly we can't but it's so joyous when we do. I feel like she's one of those people that you would leave your family for 18 months and travel to a country half way around the world just to meet. 

I would like to bear my testimony of our Savior. He loves us. He will carry us. He knows what’s best. He is our Brother. He is our friend. He is the GIFT. The greatest gift of all. Because of Him, we can have eternal life. How awesome is that? Because of Him, this life can be happy and after this life can be joyous. I hope all of you have a Merry Merry Christmas. Eat some spaghetti and syrup for me ;)

LOVE always and Merry Christmas and happy holidays and all else that is joyful, 

Sister Mortell

P.S. Vienna Woods Ward--thank you for the video! It’s awesome.

Sheila

Merry Christmas from Ta Khmau. Thank you to the Thurstons for the tree and Grobergs and Mortells for the ornaments.

pretending I'm a weird European tourist in Siem Reap

Fun fun fun last pday :)

We went to this place that is basically a ghost town amusement park. We were the only ones there. It gets busy at night with good old karaoke. haha

Yuletide Blessings in Ta Khmau

This week was so good! Such a happy week! Sorry no pictures this week. I’m in this sketchy internet cafe with computer software from like 2004. Anyways it was a great week this week! Let me first just tell you my mission president is awesome! He is so good! I had my 3 month interview with him. I am in good hands. 

So being a missionary during Christmastime is actually awesome! I bought a nativity set from Sister Kosal's little sister in Steung Mean Chey a couple months ago. So we teach about the birth of the Savior with this cute little nativity set. It's so fun! We were teaching this member. She's about 55 years old. She's so faithful. She's been sick for about 20 years. She doesn't have any strength. Anyways we taught her the nativity and afterwards she slowly gets up, limps to her dresser and pulls out two beautiful Christmas colored kramas (scarves everyone wears) for us. Cambodian people are the sweetest most generous, sharing people I have ever met. 

Also we have a new investigator. Oh my goodness she is awesome! Her name is SiiLa. She's 18 years old, half Filipino (shout out to Ally). She is awesome. She came up to us during English class and told us "I want to learn. I’m free every day at 4. Here is my number". During the first lesson she asked "is there anything I can read at home?" BOOK OF MORMON. Then we taught her about the Plan of Salvation another day and she asked "so what do I need to do to go to the Celestial Kingdom?" THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. So awesome. She came to church all three hours and stayed for Christmas choir practice. She is so cute! I have gained a great friend this week. 

It was just a really happy, busy, tiring week. The happiest days and weeks are when you work your hardest. I'm thankful for my Savior. For His life, mercy, compassion, birth, death, Atonement, Resurrection, example and love. The most perfect, loving person that has ever walked this earth, loves us. He is our friend and our Brother. And all He asks of us in return is to follow Him. He will give us strength and even more. Much love to everyone this fine day. Merry Christmas. Enjoy the snow and watching Elf. (Don’t laugh too hard dad)  

Love always, 

Sister Mortell 

Dad, keep singing proudly! I think you actually sing better than most lookpuus. Cambodian singing is quite something. Also they are obsessed with "Onward Christian Soldiers."

Sister Pace said Ming Rut (the lady I gave my persons to) calls me "sistee dak dai" which means "sister hold hands."

X-tra Prayers in Ta Khmau

Hello Soosday!

So another week of being a missionary!! Wooh hoo! I can't believe I’ve almost been gone for six months! Crazy! Let's see what happened this week... let me tell you I am so pumped about Christmas. Christmas music all the time and we've been teaching about Christ's birth every chance we get. So so fun. It's actually so fantastic to be in a country where Christmas isn't a thing. No one except for church members celebrate Christmas. This is the first Christmas season where I've really just been excited about the true meaning of Christmas. The Savior!! His Birth. His Life. His Love! It's so awesome. I have felt so close to Him. And we all can too. 

We have pretty awesome new investigators. Last Sunday I saw this neakming (woman) who I swear I knew. I thought "in Steung Mean Chey" or "did we contact her?" Finally I figured out that she had come to English class! Anyways she came again to church this Sunday. I sat by her and she said, "I want to join." How awesome is that.  She found it through a simple little English class flyer. Anyways I'm excited for her. This Sunday we had six of our investigators come to church! So awesome! 

I just want to tell everyone right now reading this email that Heavenly Father answers prayers! This week was pretty hard for me. It’s easy to feel alone, stressed, not good enough. So I decided to pray and tell my Heavenly Father all my feelings. Those were some of the most sincere, heartfelt prayers I have ever offered. He is our Father. We are His children. He is proud of us. He sees in us potential that we cannot. He wants to hear our voice. And He loves us. So pray to your Father in Heaven! I promise He will listen, give you an answer, help and extra! So happy week this week!

Happy Holidays! Enjoy the snow, I will be sweating. 

Much love and luck and prayers, 

Sister Mortell

Beautiful Bakou with an even more beautiful little Sister Mortell ;)

Warm-Hearted Week in Ta Khmau

Hello everyone!

So awesome/tender/miraculous moments of this week!! 

1. This past Sunday we had the primary program! I can guarantee you can't imagine anything cuter than ten cute little Cambodian children, dressed in their school uniforms, singing primary songs totally off key. So cute and precious. I loved it. 

2. We made fresh rolls a couple days ago. I think we have some competition to Sa-Wad-Dee. Heaven!

3. This past Tuesday it literally rained the whole day. The roads were flooded and so many houses were flooded too. Our district attempted to help a less active member de-flood his house. So we took buckets and made an assembly line and after 2 hours and probably 400 buckets full of water later, there were 8 very tired and sore missionaries and a small dent in the water. We also learned afterwards that there were some sort of snakes found in the house too. ahh. 

4. For me, Thanksgiving was fun. Our whole zone went to the Thurston's house (Senior couple) in the city and we ate pumpkin and pecan pie and colored (so fun by the way haha) and played Thanksgiving bingo. So yes fun. I’m getting so excited for Christmas. I'm starting to learn how to tell the Christmas story in Khmer. Also our district is doing the whole service, lds.org video things? You should do it too. I think it's on lds.org social media or something like that?

5. I raked rice barefoot. 

6. Once again, the bucket toilet.

This week was way good, way hard, way tiring and basically any emotion you could think of. That's how every day is it seems. This week we had many sweet, uplifting, tender moments. 

On Friday night, we returned home from Baku and had enough time to visit one more person. Sister Kosal said, "Let’s go visit Ming Phuo." She is very sick. She has a big tumor growing outside of her chest. She doesn't have much money. Her mom (wrinkled, skinny, toothless 85 year old sweet lady) takes care of her. She doesn't have money for much medical care so she drinks ground up bone and bark. So we went to her house. We rubbed her back and legs so she could feel. We ground up bark for her to drink. She was in so much pain. She asked me to pray. The next morning we got a call that she had died the night before. So about 5 hours after we left, she passed away. I feel so honored to have been a part of her last few moments and to have said maybe the last prayer she heard. Such a tender experience. 

Another Hand of God: Sister Kosal and I were left planless. All of our backup plans and backup to those backup plans fell through. So we prayed. And I thought of a potential investigator, Bong Leak, we could go see. So we followed and she was just sitting outside her house. And to be honest it was a little awkward. She is very shy. As we were trying to think of questions or something to say, Sister Kosal kicked my leg aka: say something. So I opened my mouth and just started talking and I thought "well just tell her the truth". So I literally told her the truth. I told her, we didn't know where to go so we decided to pray and we thought about you. Then we taught her how to pray. I don't know what came out of it. We are going to start teaching her next week and hopefully she progresses. But I learned just to have courage. Follow the Spirit. It doesn't have to be the best, but if we have the Spirit, it's enough. That's our role as missionaries. Feel, recognize and follow the Spirit. 

Missions are awesome and great and wonderful and hard. But I guess the kind of hard that requires heaven's help is the best kind. (Henry B Eyring quote on President Ahlquist’s laminated missionary paper thing). God's hand is forever in my life and yours too. 

Anyways that was my week. I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a happy almost December! Much love to you all! Love you big big. (Sister Kosal always adds big big)

Love always, 

Sister Mortell

These pictures are of last week's service project. The missionaries cleaned up a public area on the banks of the Mekong river for the Water Festival holiday. (Photos from Mormon newsroom)

Valid Week in Ta Khmau

It was a great week again. Always fun times on the mission. Also I am done with training! Woah!! Transfer calls and I'm staying in Ta Khmau with Sister Kosal. Everyone else in my MTC group changed though. Now we have Elder Otto and Elder Hale from my MTC group in our district. So much fun. We played revenge basketball for exercise one morning just like in the MTC. So fun. Let’s see what happened this week? Last week I said I was going to get crickets after emailing, and that for sure happened. #timon&pumba The crickets were delicious. We ate some silkworms too, not the same story. Sister Kosal ate those. We ate crickets (one full bowl) and watched the moon for the holiday. Apparently the moon is its biggest during the holiday. Another fun thing today we stopped by these mango trees and helped this guy, who was wearing itty bitty shorts climbing a tree, pick mangoes. So fun. He gave us some for free. 

On Thursday morning we had a service activity with our whole zone. We got to wear the helping hands vests and everything. We cleaned up this public area to watch the boat races for the past holiday. It was so dirty and trashy, just like everywhere else. haha I hope it stays nice for at least a couple of days. Oh man I love it. 

On Friday we went to Bakou! I love it there! So beautiful. So Bakou is basically this khite, rural area, that had one member family move there. Then all of the rest of their family members were baptized. They ended up turning their house into a little meeting house. There are about 40ish members and about 12 come to church. But this Sunday we had 14 (plus 4 missionaries). I'm really excited about this area. It's pretty frustrating because everyone is a member or has already been talked to so many times. Also some members literally live 10 feet away from church and don't come. Oh well. The work will go on! I'm excited to get to know everyone. There's a lot of good in Bakou. 

For investigators... we teach Srey Na and Srey Nooc. They are both ten years old. They are doing really great but still it’s hard to teach kids so young. We are also teaching Ming Heng again. She was a former investigator but she says she wants to learn again. She’s really great. We have an investigator in Bakou now! We were walking and talking to people and we saw this lady sitting outside. She told us to sit and hang out. haha that always happens. And we just ended up talking and teaching her. I hope she'll continue to want to learn. We'll see. Investigators are a bit slow in Ta Khmau but I’m excited. Lots of work with the less actives and strengthening members. It’s hard because most solid members here have only been members for around 5ish years. It’s a whole different church culture here. 

What I've learned this week is unselfish service. This week I tried hard to serve. Attention to all missionaries: serve your companion. It starts at home. Serve your companion and you will want to serve others. So many dishes washed, drains drained and fish de-anted. (ant problem oh well). A desire to serve starts out with actually doing it. And when you serve, you're happier anyways!

Quote of the week: "Whatever our calling, regardless of our fears and anxieties let us pray and then go and do, remembering the words of the Master ‘I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’ -Thomas S. Monson

Much love to you all!! This Gospel is true and so joyful!

Love always,
Sister Mortell

P.S. happy thanksgiving to all you Americans out there. Eat some stuffing for me. We had a Thanksgiving lunch on Sunday with the Thurston’s (Senior couple) and we're having a zone party thing on Thursday.

On our way to Bakou we listen to Christmas music (Donny). I love it so much!!!

 Low and behold, the crickets

the tuk tuk ride to Bakou

in Bakou on this crazy bridge and my very stylish helmet

She is awesome (lied about being a member) but still awesome

This little boy was scared of me at first but I gave him a candy and now he loves me.

Upbeat Week in Ta Khmau

It was a great week this week! We went to Bakou twice this week. Bakou is this random area that has a pocket of about 40 members. They’ve turned a regular house into a small meeting house and about 15/45-ish members show up every week. That is about to be changed though ;). Sister Kosal and I took a tuktuk to Bakou on Friday. It's about an hour on a tuktuk away. AND SO BEAUTIFUL. So beautiful. Sometimes I literally gasped because of how beautiful. We met members and less actives and tried our best to get familiar with the area. Then on Sunday we went again, this time with the Elders. We went to their church meeting. There were 10 people there plus us 4 missionaries. This whole set up is pretty impressive. I'm excited for this area. Also I totally used my first ladel/bucket hole in the ground toilet in Bakou. And I survived. Somehow I made it 3 months in Cambodia without using one. Quite an experience.

There were transfers this week and I am staying here. All the missionaries in my group are changing areas. Crazy!! One elder from here is going to Steung Mean Chey 2! There’s a little part in my heart that is extremely jealous. I love SMC so much! I'm trying really hard to love it here too! Also Sister Kosal is great. Sometimes it's difficult with the whole language thing but she is so very sweet. Also a couple days ago she was wondering about the seasons in America. So I desperately tried to use my 7th grade knowledge of the whole solar/sun rotation equator thing to explain it to her. Do you have any idea how hard it is to explain the whole seasons, equators, sun thing in a different language? Anyways... wow I'm very sidetracked. 

I started feeling really discouraged in relief society. It’s just so hard when you don't understand that much. I just want to go to church that isn't also language study. But I was just feeling a little down. The lesson was on family history and I had my little family history pamphlet that I had filled out. I started reading what I wrote about Grandma Barbs (My grandma who died when I was 1).  I just felt really close to her. So sweet. Then I stood up and shared my book and invited them to do the same. Family history is actually kind of different here because of all the wars all of the Cambodian history and records have been burned so literally family history seems impossible.

This week I have gained a testimony of courage. God can give us courage. There have been many moments these past few months that I know wasn't me. There are many things in life and on missions that are totally out of our comfort zones. Whether its change, sorrow, talking to people, making friends, going to school, raising a family, working. . . anything! We all have things that we don't want to do. Things that we are scared to do and worry about. I know I sure have a long list of those. But I know when those things on our list are what God has asked us to do, He will help. When we do things that are hard, God gives us courage. For example, this week I took my sweet friend’s (Sister May, serving in Bentonville, Arkansas) advice. She said it was hard for her to have courage to follow the Spirit. For me, same problem. Sometimes I'm biking and I think, "Wow, I could totally go talk to her or "I should go talk to those two ladies" And this week after many weeks of not totally doing that. I DID it. I followed the "should I’s “and the "could I's" and you know what? It was actually awesome. I became a contacting machine this week. And it was so happy. I met some pretty cool people. And some of them understood what I was saying, some of them just touched my skin, some of them weren't interested, some of them were so sweet and smiley, and some of them (one) wants to learn. So follow the “could I's” and the “should I's”. God will give you courage. 

Random weird/scary/sweet moments: 

1. The sky was so beautiful this week. Hence the pictures. It's things like Cambodian skies that I know God created the earth. 

2. My eye was a little irritated this week from the dust (no biggie-it’s fine now) and Sister Kosal came over to me and put a piece of cucumber on my eye. Khmer people are sweet. 

3. We have a musical fireside! It was so fun! The missionaries sang Homeward Bound. (Shout out to Cantus for already teaching me the soprano 2 part)

4. I saw my first dead person. There was an accident and there was a dead woman on the road. She had a lot of blood coming out of her head. People were just driving along.  Things are a little different here. 

5. There's a Chinese soap opera with a Khmer translation playing right above my head in this internet cafe. The acting is hilarious. I’m trying to shield my eyes. 

6. I have only eaten two frogs this week. Frog is actually probably my favorite type of meat here. So delicious. Yesterday we saw a place that sells crickets so I’m going to get some after email. 

7. Don’t have any more but I’m loving it! Cambodia has my heart. 

Much love to you all. Good luck! God loves you!

Love always, 

Sister Mortell

Cambodian Skies!!

 

 This cool Wat (temple) we stopped at to wait for the elders before doing service.

 Another Cool Wat

 Bakou Church

 Cool old Cambodian picture

 Cute little girl we met in Bakou

 These mings are trying to explain to me how to cut down these plants. So fun!

 Bakou is beautiful!

 Cute Sister Kosal

 Tuk tuk ride home. Cambodia is so cool!

 Cute girl, Saphia from Bakou

 This is Srey Nooc. She's our investigator. So cute!

This is the artist that painted that beautiful painting. She is so good! and so sweet! (don't mind my ghost-like white face)

Tender Week in Ta Khmau

So another week! Let's see... random weird moments... 

1. Sister Kosal and I were trying to find this house. It was inside a Wat (Buddhist temple area). Anyways we were left hopeless, we couldn't find the house but all of the sudden the doors of the temple opened and all of these monks emerged. Monks are always just walking around everywhere. It was quite the experience!

2. We visited a less active member that literally built a church outside of her house. Sister Kosal leans over to me and looks really serious and says, "If she gives you any food, don't eat" and of course this is all in Khmer. 

3. Everyone here is even more amazed by my skin. Everyone just wants to touch me and sometimes kids are scared of me. haha oh my goodness.

 4. Tiidaa from Steung Mean Chey (the other ward) got baptized last Saturday!! So exciting!! I love her so much. 

5. On Thursday night, Sister Kosal asked me if she could do my makeup. This then led to full on face make-up, hair, traditional Cambodian dress and jewelry. I became a Srey Sa'at. So fun and strange but so fun.

 6. We gained a new area a couple days ago! Before the Sisters didn't go there. It's called Bakou. It's about an hour TukTuk ride from Takhmau. One member moved out there and all his family were baptized and now there's a group of about 60 members there but they are all less active. They meet in a house that they've made into a church. So cool. So this week we're going there for the first time!

7. I eat frog about 3 times a week and rice every meal. Bring on the rice cheeks!

8. Also it rained so much yesterday like all day and it looked like a scene from Harry Potter with everyone in their rain ponchos and everything. And everyone in Cambodia believes in ghosts anyways so it makes sense.

9. My area is great. It's about an hour bike ride from Phnom Penh. It's in the middle of all these rivers so there are a lot of big bridges and houses on the water. There’s actually a big holiday coming up called "water festival" and the center of it is in Ta Khmau so everything will be crazy this next week! So fun! I love the members here but I still miss Steung Mean Chey. 

10. Want to know what we carved for pumpkins? We had a zone Halloween party . . . so funny. American pumpkins here are like 50 dollars so all of us had old water bottles and we literally carved water bottles and spray painted them...oh my goodness haha

Anyways those were just some of the fun moments of this week. This week was a very emotional, great, hard week like most others. Emotional as in these people here have such hard lives. Hard lives that I cannot begin to imagine.

On Saturday we met with Bong Pheet. Her mother has cancer. She has this big lump on her chest. It's been cut into and I'm going to be honest, it looks very disgusting. The treatment that they use is ground up bone. So I Asian squatted and ground up this bone for about an hour. So sad. I just held her hand because I didn't know what else to do. And she just whimpers every time she breathes. And you know what happened last Sunday? She came to church. Yes, she came to church. Talk about a faithful follower of Christ. These people are so amazing. Yes quirky and sometimes I just think to myself "in what way is this efficient?" but somehow they always seem right. And they are so kind. I mean some others are more kind than others but these people are quite amazing. 

Something that I'm realizing is the necessity of Jesus Christ. The Atonement doesn't just happen after all is done. It's loving, healing, merciful power is open to all, now. We don't have to perfect ourselves. We can't. But Christ can. All we have to do is try, but we really have to try. So that is what I'm coming to realize. As we cheerfully and patiently submit to the will of the Father, He will be with us. (Mosiah 24, one of my favorites, also Mosiah 3:19 is basically my goal and motto for the rest of my life). Anyways, He will be with us. He was with us then, and now and will be forever. I love you all and I know He does too. Much love and luck. 

Love always, 

Sister Mortell

Surprising Week in Ta Khmau

Well, what a surprising, "What the crap?" kind of week I have had. So on Thursday, Sister Pace and I were biking home in the worst storm we've been in. I felt like I was in one of those hurricane movies. Ahhhh! Anyways we came home, soaking wet, ready to plan for the next day. We were sitting on our floor, planning when all of the sudden the phone rings. Sister Pace looked at me and said, "President" I thought she was joking. She answered the phone and gasped and looked so serious. She finished the call and then just screamed. EMERGENCY TRANSFER. AND I WAS THE ONE TO LEAVE AH. So I left my wonderful, dirty, trafficky, awesome, lovable birthplace of Steung Mean Chey to go to Ta Khmau. I'm now companions with Sister Kosal! She's the daughter of the Kosal family in Steung Mean Chey that I love so very much. I'm not going to lie when I found out I was leaving Steung Mean Chey I cried and cried. I did not want to leave Sister Pace, Sister Y, Sister Winder, the members, our investigators, our English class students. Oh I love them all so much. My heart still hurts a bit. It's just so sad that I didn't really get to say goodbye and I'll probably never see those people ever again. Ah my heart. But all is well. Sister Kosal is awesome. She is so sweet. Sister Pace was her companion before and told me all about her. She paints her nails about every 3 days. She absolutely hates banana and she makes salty food. So of course our first day together she painted my nails, I ate salty-ish food and offered her every banana I could. She screamed. Anyways she is so cute! I love her! It's quite difficult with the whole language barrier though. But I swear the Khmers have a talent of loving without speaking. That’s how Cambodians are. They push love on you. That’s the only way I can describe it. Oh my goodness, they are awesome. 

Also Ta Khmau is beautiful! It's more country-ish than Steung Mean Chey but still city. I think the economic gap is less balanced here. A lot of wealthy people who can speak English and live in mansions and a lot of poorer people who live in stick houses and can't read Khmer script. The roads are less crazy. Apparently Steung Mean Chey has the craziest traffic of the mission, so now I’m a pro. Anyways, I'm doing well. My Hand of God this week is my new companion. I love my trainer, Sister Pace so so much. You have no idea. I feel very blessed to already have loved Sister Kosal's family before I even met her. I'm excited to be friends with her too, just like her family. 

The senior missionaries here are from Utah and are in charge of LDS charities here in Cambodia. They are super awesome. Also, I actually really love our house here. It’s all a mintish blue green color - like everything - the walls, curtains, paint, and tile. It’s awesome. It’s so beautiful here. Our room has a balcony and the view is so beautiful. Cambodian skies are like no other.  I don't really know much about the area yet. Let me tell you my Khmer is going to improve these next weeks.

Oh and every Sunday, our senior missionaries make lunch for the Ta Khmau district. And two of the elders in my MTC group are in our area. So fun! Anyways, yesterday for the Sunday lunch we had cheeseburgers! What! Burgers with CHEESE! wooh! So that was a nice welcome.

Cambodia is awesome and so is its missionaries! I honestly think Cambodia is the best place ever. It’s beautiful, the people are so tender and nice. Yes it's dirty and quirky and far from home but I've gained a whole lot of more friends for the rest of forever. I love it!

The members here remind me of the early saints . . . so faithful and hardworking and such hard lives. It will be so awesome when the temple in Thailand is finished! It will change Cambodia!!

I’m excited to get to work and get to know the people here. I will so very much miss everyone but I guess that’s what missions are. It seems like when you get into your comfort zone you're ripped right out of it and plopped into another out of comfort zone scenario.

I love you all!! Enjoy Halloween and the leaves and all things Fall, I will be biking in the rain. Eat yummy chili and cornbread, I will be eating rice :)

Also a few days ago, I gutted a frog and salted a whole fish (inside its mouth too). I’m quite talented. haha

Happy Halloween!