These sister missionaires are hard core

I had an unforgettable afternoon with the sister missionaries of Phnom Pen biking through ridiculously huge puddles, teaching English and eating stuffed frog. I got the address of the mission office from a friend whose parents have been serving in Cambodia, and went there within my first few hours of arriving in PP. The office elders were so great and so helpful, but I think a little bewildered by me, a single 27-year-old traipsing around the country partly on my own. ("You've been home from your mission 41/2 years?!" they said.) They kindly hooked me up with a map, a bike, a helmet and an appointment to meet the sisters in two days.

I met Sister Atkins from Idaho Falls, ID and Sister Kop and Sister Lam, both Cambodians, at the rented church building. I was relieved to see that my bike was just as ghetto as theirs. They all only have one gear, mine only had one working break, and they creek. We took off for an appointment down an unpaved road that was littered with bricks, rocks, stones and huge crevices. They road like animals, but I hung back a little, worried that I would hit a brick at a wrong angle, overturn or pop a tire. This experience confirmed to me that while I consider myself a pretty experienced road biker, I am definitely not a mountain biker.

Just when I when I starting to get a little comfortable with the protruding rocks, there was a sudden tropical downpour and all the unpaved streets flooded. But did that stop these sister missionaries? No way. First they bought me a little rain poncho and then they sped off through the puddles, kicking mud up onto their skirts. Until we reached a small lake. They paused, consulted, and looked at me, to which I responded, "If you can do it, I can do it." I'm not really sure why I said that because then we were riding through the lake, my gears and puddles were completely covered in water, I started to hydroplane and had to jump off my bike. The water came over the top of my skirt. I walked my bike the rest of the way trying not to think what I was walking on, and they waited for me at the edge of the lake. Oh, I forgot to mention that the Cambodian sisters wear nylons because they don't want their legs to get tan, and they all have to wear close-toed shoes. But not one of them complained about their sopping state.

Between the intense bike rides and downpours, we had some great visits. We taught a group of teenage girls, a woman who was baptized three months ago, and a grandmotherly woman who has had the first lesson. In each appointment, they either asked me to pray or to share an experience or to bear my testimony, and they translated for me. I loved it. (I also liked watching what they did when an appointment fell through; they always had a solid back-up plan.)

On our way back to their apartment to pick up a Book of Mormon, they took me to their favorite frog spot. There, they barbeque frogs stuffed with pork, fresh herbs and peanuts. There were no frog head or guts, just stuffing inside frog skin. I really liked the flavor, but had a hard time with the texture - it was full of crunchy bones and ligaments.

Finally, we headed back to the church to teach their tri-weekly English class. While they usually have 10-12 students, we only had 3 because everyone else was rehearsing for their Pioneer Day celebration. It was cute/odd to me that they celebrate that here. They had me teach the class and we worked on verb conjugations and a lot of pronunciation stuff. At the end of the lesson, each student gave me a little speech thanking me. The sisters have to be in their apartment when it gets dark at 6:30pm, so we said good-bye and I rode the 30 minutes back to the mission home partially in the dark.

One of my favorite details of the day is that it was Sister Atkin's hump day and to celebrate, they wanted to make her a chocolate cake. But no one has ovens in Cambodia, so they tried to make the cake IN A RICE COOKER! Ufortunately, even after four hours, it was still liquidy.

The day made me really nostalgic for my missionary days. I was almost ready to sign up for another tour of duty! There is somethng so fulfilling and divine about having every moment and every thought of your day dedicated to other people. Yet at the same, I was relieved when I got to go back to my hostel, get on the internet and put on pants. Interesting, I almost just wrote, "and do my own thing," which I realized would negate that I just said one of the great joys of missionary work is being totally focused on others. I guess that's the great paradox of being a missionary: being so self-less is what makes it so great also what makes it so hard.