Cambodia Town

Cambodia Town

Monday, April 28, 2014

HAPPY CAMBODIAN NEW YEAR!!!

Khmer New Year was awesome! 
We had a booth at El Dorado Park for one of the biggest celebrations outside of Cambodia. We Painted a giant Cambodian Book of Mormon, made posters, and woke up at 4:30 to set up.

During the day we proselyted from 9 AM to 5 PM. We handed out over 1000 pamphlets and cards. It was a really successful day for our church!  We did a little shopping and had some really great Khmer food.  This is what I have learned... In the Cambodian culture you can basically say anything obvious about someone and they don't care. You could call someone ugly and it'd be a normal thing. 
Last week I was probably the most tired I've been in a LONG time. Earlier in the week, I had to wake up really early 3 other times which makes for really long days. We woke up at 4 to go to the LA temple, 6 to exercise for longer, and then we also woke up at 5:30 to get to zone conference on time, which was all the way in Whittier. SO, I'm tired.



Yea, I know...I don't like my haircut too much, but it's easy, and I don't ever have to worry about it. I'm probably going to let it grow long again.
Elder Low and Elder Fowler are leaving a week from tomorrow (pictured here on the right), so it will be the three of us for awhile. I'll probably go back to the apartment on Walnut. 



Ganya got baptized yesterday and it was a great service.

We started teaching her a few months ago, but it wasn't until recently she really wanted to get baptized. Her husband has a ton of cousins in Utah, who are all Mormon, so we are working really hard to get him baptized as well. He really likes church, and has a lot of friends here, and his wife just got baptized, so that should be enough force to influence him. He really likes church too, so it's just a matter of time! 

HUMOR FOR THE WEEK...
THIS IS THE LOCAL ICE CREAM TRUCK.  YOU THINK ICE CREAM TRUCKS ARE SAFE FOR CHILDREN....UM...


News: there are now two stakes in CAMBODIA! Which is huge! We're not the only Cambodian ward in the world anymore! It's so awesome. The church is spreading fast there!

PS  It is safest to continue to send all mail/packages to the mission home address:  6500 E Atherton St., Long Beach, CA 90815.
Sending good thoughts and love to you all!
Nick


Tuesday, April 15, 2014

A GLIMPSE INTO THE LIFE OF AN ELDER IN THE GHETTO

So, I know I have included a lot of times in my letter that I am in the ghetto, but in this email home, I wanted to include a little more detail and show some evidence for the things that I sometimes see. To start of my list of ghetto things I saw this week I want to talk about the two people waiting at the bus stop. On second thought, you better not include that in the blog...anyone curious, ask my mom....she may not want to tell either!  Next, we were in an apartment complex full of Cambodian people, and a bunch of little kids started to tease a kind of chubby, black, teenage boy. He walked away from the kids and asked us, "Do you know how to say knife in Cambodian?" "Kambut." And the Cambodian's all ran away really fast. We then drove to drop off our Ward Mission Leader at his house, only to find a mattress leaning against the apartment complex next to him. This wasn't any ordinary mattress though, this mattress had the word's "FREE HOOKER INSIDE" and an arrow pointing to their door spray painted in huge letters.

ANYONE NEED A....MATTRESS?

We then saw a Jaguar, which was pretty cool. It was a pretty nice car. The license plate though...only in the ghetto.
YEAH, BABY? 
I was also going to take a picture of all of the dog poop on the grass, but I felt bad sending that. 

This week were teaching a Cambodian lady, and Elder Fowler turns to Elder Low and tells him that he "just got poo-ed on." (someone in the mission made up that phrase to denote things are going badly with an investigator) Elder Low was just thinking, "Oh no, what happened, are we going to have to drop our investigator?" But in reality a bird literally pooped on his shoulder while we were teaching her.

POOP HAPPENS

The next incident with poo actually just happened this morning. We woke up at 4 to get ready to go to the temple, only to find out that our shower wasn't draining very quickly, so we all took 3 minute showers. Then someone flushed the toilet, and water started coming up through the drain in the shower, very slowly. The water was pretty clear, and it stopped going up and we had to leave, so we went to the temple. When we came back, the water was the same, but the next time the toilet was flushed, strait sewer water started to rise. So we grabbed buckets and drained as much as we could... It eventually stopped rising, and the plumber was called. I hope by the time I get home it's fixed...

So there is a little glimpse of my every day life in Cambodia town.

I'M NOT SURE WHO THIS CAN HOLD OR HOW COMFORTABLE IT IS!


And that is why I am serving here! These people deserve and some really need the gospel of Jesus Christ BADLY. I know that the work here is inspired by God.
"HE LOVES US"

Great things are happening in the Park Ward! In 3 weeks, we'll be down to 3 Elders for the entire Cambodian speaking mission.
ANOTHER AMAZING DINNER BY SISTER PREL!


Thank you for your letters and pictures.  I love getting a chance to see what all of you are doing and what is going on outside of my little world. 
HAPPY EASTER TO EVERYONE!!!!
Love, Elder Liddell