"These are a few of my favorite [and least favorite] things." - The Sound of Music

I got here to Cambodia on Friday afternoon and immediately hit the streets of branch 6 with Sister Thi. Not the same Sister Thi that's my companion though...a different Sister Thi. The Sister Thi that is my companion, her last name is Tieng. We would call her Sister Tieng...but we already have two other Sister Tieng's as well. 

Being back in branch 6 is fun, but like always, Cambodia just kicks my butt. I'm here getting my visa renewed and we have leadership council with President Moon on Wednesday. Meaning I have left my area for a week...Let's hope the elders didn't mess anything up while we were gone. I told them they couldn't have any parties while I was out of town, but I found out they had a huge Halloween party and invited all of the members! #NoInvite

I'm staying in a house with Sister Litchfield and her child Sister Thao, the one from Laos, and Sister Thi. The child is really cute and super goofy. She can't really say much in either English nor Viet, but she always laughs at my jokes so she's pretty cool in my eyes.

Honestly, there's not a lot to say about this past week. We just got permission from President Moon to start a Chinese class in Vietnam! Sister Thi will start teaching that next week so hopefully it goes well. 

Last night Sister Litchfield tried to sabotage me by giving me a bunch of chocolate right before bed. (By the way, if you want to send me anything for Christmas I found out that I really really like caramel apple Milky Ways...) After we all binged on chocolate none of us could go to sleep so after laying in bed for an hour or so Sister Thao sang us a song in Laotian and Sister Litchfield sang in French. I thought we were all singing songs to get in touch with our roots so I was going to sing Para Bailar La Bamba or some song in Spanish...but they all fell asleep before I could get the chance.

I was still wide awake though so I made a mental list some of the things I like and dislike about Cambo:

- I do like that there's a lot of missionaries here. It keeps things diverse and more fun. In Vietnam it's just the twelve of us. We're all Vietnamese people and we're all pretty boring.

- I don't like that I sweat so much. I didn't even know so much water could come out of my face.

- I do like that the missionary work is similar to the kind of stuff they teach you about in the MTC and all the stories I hear my friends talk about from their missions. No one ever really talks about the time that they accidentally contacted the police and thought they were going to go to jail. Serving in Vietnam in unique, but sometimes it's fun to hear stories from my friends and understand what they're experiencing because I'm going through similar stuff. 

- I do like seeing members and other missionaries when I'm out in public. Here it's a totally normal thing and people are always shouting "hello Sistaaas!" It reminds me of all the times while growing up that I would roll down the car window and say hello to the Elders while they walked down the street. 

- And the thing I've realized that I hate the most - REJECTION. I hate it in real life and I hate it as a missionary. I hate when people do it to me, and I especially hate doing it to other people. Because we are allowed to go to the homes of investigators here in Cambodia, there are a lot of times that we get to their homes and they reject us saying that they don't want to learn with the missionaries anymore. And all I can do is just awkwardly moon walk away from the situation. I hate it! Rejection and rejecting are literally the two worst words in my vocabulary. 

Sorry this email isn't very exciting. Emotions cause wrinkles so I try to stay away from those. Haha

Love you all! See ya in 15 weeks!

Love, Sister Egelund

Carving Viet pumpkins and a photo bomb courtesy of Elder Bao. 

Co Cuc Nga just got her call to serve as a church service missionary! She will serve in the Thao Dien and Tan Son Nhat branch and starts this week!

This is Sister Thi and Sister Tra's family! They're some of the most devoted people I know! Chi Xuan, their older sister, just got baptized a couple months ago while Thi and Tra were on their missions.