How To Write Elder Anderson Now That He's In Cambodia + new letter

NOTE TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY

I would suggest you those who want to write Ryan do so through www.DearElder.com.  I signed up for it this week, and it is super easy.  All you have to do is put in some personal info to register for FREE and then you can write your elder.  You choose his Mission, Cambodia Phnom Penh and input Ryan’s name and then just type in your letter and push SEND.  This service then prints your letter and delivers it to the pouch department in Salt Lake City and they include it in the weekly pouch that goes to Cambodia.  The Cambodia pouches are sent out on Mondays, so be sure your letter is in the cue by Sunday night to get in included.  It takes three weeks for Ryan to get the mail, but it costs you nothing for this service.  You don’t have to worry about envelopes or stamps.  The pouch is sent express mail, so it is faster than sending it by regular mail to the Mission Home in Phnom Penh.  It is FREE and SECURE, give it a try.  Please don’t write Ryan on the myldsmail website, he only has a few minutes to read and write on that site on his pdays and we want him to spend his time writing to us.  Thanks for all your prayers and support of our missionary.  Also, I have asked Ryan to put a list of those he has received letters from in the first sentence of every email he writes home, that way you can know your letter was received by him.

IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEND IT DEAR WITH DEARELDER.COM
(this is if you want to add photos to your letter or other "goodies")

Elder Ryan Anderson

House 2B, Street 222 Off Nordham Blvd.

PO Box 165

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Or

(Mission Pouch Mail):

Elder Ryan Anderson

Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission

POB 30150

Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

Heres Elder Andersons most recent letter as well

Dear Family

To answer questions. Right now my area is on the edge of the city so living conditions are still moderate. It’s a very nice place compared to everyone else.  Very primitive compared to America. I sleep on a mattress that’s on the ground in another companionships room because it’s the only room with air conditioning that we are only allowed to use at night. A lot of the time the power doesn’t work and the sometimes the water won’t turn on either.. So you have to work around that.  The food so far for the most part isn’t bad. Since I’m near the city on p day we go to a grocery store and get a few expensive American things that keep my stomach happy. Other than that we go to a market by our house that looks like a horror film!!! I almost can’t stand it! We run in, grab what we need and get out fast! The spirit is just not there. That gets us by for the week pretty much. Haven't eaten anything too scary yet! I have seen dog and snakes and bugs and rats! But haven’t had any yet.  Speaking the language, I do with the Khmer, but not with my companion. All the American elders like to have a break from Khmer because it can literally give you a head ache. The average elder gets the language down between 6-9 months not including the MTC so I still have a long way to go but it’s coming along! What’s hard is that I only have 30 minutes of language study a day. But oh well.  

Ok stories!  Last week I had to get a haircut! And it was awesome! The place looked terrible! I wish I knew how to explain it! Anyway I go up there and take off my helmet and as soon as they see my hair there are like 4 guys that stand up and want me to sit in their chair! I picked the one that looked the least scary! So I sat down and without saying anything he just starts cutting.. and while he was cutting my hair he kept saying ''sok poah      sa?at.. Which means hair color pretty! He took a long time but he did a way good job! He only had a blunt pair of scissors and a dirty comb. I then asked him if he would shave my face because I saw another guy doing it. That was fun! Long story short I got a haircut shaved face, neck and shoulder massage all for one dollar and fifty cents!!!

Yesterday was probably the worst day yet, but it was so funny! It’s the day we ride out to Bakuu. And apparently President Smedley wanted to ride out with us and visit. So he did! He got his bike and everything. Here is how it went... It poured rain so we left late, my bike broke again, we were more late, Elder Conway’s bike broke, more late, I had to pull my companion on his bike through mud for miles! My bike gets a flat front tire, more late, more tired, finally get into town with the mission President pulling my comp and I’m riding on rims!! I ditch my bike and we miss our first lesson. In our second lesson we have members show up and ruin the lesson.  Next lesson was good but we were all so tired and muddy! Going back our investigator gets his brother to give us a ride back to our house and hour late. President Smedley was such a good sport for all of this! 

The work here in Tak Khmao is interesting, it’s very hard to explain.  We are basically building the kingdom of god from scratch like I mentioned last week. It’s hard because everyday you don’t see the immediate results from the work. You just have to have the faith that this is what we need to do in this area.  The members are a pain to work with along with all the branch leaders because they have all lost the vision and the spirit of missionary work! Sorry I don’t have very much Gospel news to share but that’s because it’s just very slow right now.  

I’m out of time and have to go into the city and get back before our P day is over!

I love all of you and please send me more suggestions on how I can make my email better!

Elder Ryan Anderson!