Cambodia!! 2nd E-mail

Dear Family,
Well this last week as been very fast-paced and fun. We just had our first baptism in our companionship. Their names are Vun and Sokha, they are terribly terribly poor, but they have faith that blows me away. They have four little kids, all younger than 8 years old, and they live in a swamp. .
. I guess that's what you'd calll it. But it was really great to see them take those first steps towards heaven.
Oh, bytheway, it rains here like you've never seen. It's absolutely incredible. We were sitting in a small restraunt and it started raining. .
. I honestly got scared, it was as if someone had taken a bucket of water over the city of Battambang and had just dumped it over us. It was scary how hard it rained. It rains here pretty much every day and it's kinda funny, because the other day we were riding our bikes to visit one of our investigators (a few miles) and it was raining the whole way, just then I realized. . . . it's raining like there's no tommorrow, yet I don't feel any different from when it's not raining. (just to give you an idea of how wet it is here). I've been through some of the most beautiful jungles here. I love it! Oh, but the way, there's a huge river that runs through the city of Battambang, and right now it's like 9 feet deep or so, and I noticed that the roads and city is elevated about 20 feet or so from the river, and the banks of the river were actually pretty close to empty, my companion tells me that every rainy season the river rises about 20 feet or so. It's pretty crazy.
Oh my goodness the other night we went and taught our great investigator named Sahrahn, it was pretty dark out and we taught him a lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ, we were sitting on a platform that is about 4 sq feet in area (by the way we always teach sitting on the floor or a platform, indian style) and we had the three of us sitting together with a candle in the middle as our light. It was raining it was muddy outside, and the background noise to our teaching were the frogs in the grass behind us.
It's so cool to be in this environment. He committed to be baptized, he said that after he read the scriptures and went to church, he wanted to live his life according to the church. It's so great to see the complete change of spirit come over him. I love it, I still don't understand a lot of what they say, but I am understanding more and more each day.
Can I just say, honestly, when I got here. . .I understood that the people were poor here. I'd been taught in school or wherever that their were people in India and other 3rd world countries that didn't have what we have in America, but honestly. . . I had no idea. No clue. I've seen somethings here that would make you want to cry. Some of the most humble of circumstances imaginable. But most people are happy here anyways.
My companion and I are getting along great! I really enjoy being his companion. His name is Elder Douglas and he's from Georgia, he's way cool, he's a student at Harvard, so he's quite smart. He's very kind and spiritual as well, so we get along great.
Oh, one other thing. . . . if any of you have seen the Princess Bride. . .
if you remember the part where there's a giant rat (R.O.U.S) well we've got some big ones here in Cambodia. They actually rival the size of a normal cat. When you see them. . .they don't run, they're too fat. . . they "bound" they just go "abounding" along. It's really sick, but funny. The people here eat them, but my companion tells me they are out of season right now so the street vendors don't sell them as much right now. Well I've lost
5 pounds in 10 days here. . . riding the bikes everywhere is quite the workout, especially since we ride through alot of water and mud. But it's all good and fun.
Well, I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm loving it here and Cambodia is truly a great place to be, and I can think of nothing more important for me to be doing than preaching the gospel.
Well, I'm afraid that's all I can think of at the moment. But, I know that this gospel is true, and that Joseph Smith saw our God and His Son, Jesus Christ. I'm here because I know that to be true.
I hope to hear from you soon! I love you all!
Love, Elder Ormsby