Elder Smith

Elder Smith
Write to him at: Elder Samuel Smith Cambodia Phnom Penh Mission House 2B, Street 222, Off Norodom Blvd PO Box 165 Phnom Penh Cambodia email address: shsmith@myldsmail.net

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Week #2 MTC!

Whats up guys! First of all, I got a haricut cause I was like why not and they pretty much shaved my head off. So I like to think of myself as a legitimate monk. Its so short.... Well I'm two weeks down and it feels awesome. I feel like I really got the whole schedule down. My companion and I are figuring everything out. We finally dont feel like newbies anymore. Well this week we've done a ton of language study and teaching. Every time I teach its so cool because im speaking only khmer, but its so frustrating because I only know a certain amount of words and I can communicate like I want to. I've had to realize that its just going to take time and a whole lot of patience. I prayed a lot to have a true desire to learn this language because after the 7th hour of language study I feel like I want to die, ha but we watched this video on these missionaries teaching this guy and he committed to baptism. Idk why but the spirit was just so strong and I could just see myself in a room in Cambodia teaching a family and making there lives a whole lot better. I gave a lesson in Priesthood yesterday and while I was studying I realized that there are people who the Lord has put on the Earth for US. Its our responsibility to find them. They deserve to hear the gospel. Its not about us, its about the people who want to find the truth. 

The cool thing about the khmer language is that a lot of the words translate in such a funny way from English. When you say "Hey could I have a glass of milk" in khmer you're literally saying "Hey can i have a glass of breast water from Cow?" hahaha. Praecet is Repent and it translates to "Change in heart". When we ask a fake investigator to repent we ask them to change their heart. I though that was so cool. 

Our branch president is President Penrod. He's an awesome guy. He came into our class one day and talked about how we're so lucky to be in South East Asia. He gets to look at all the numbers and graphs of the baptisms and he said the Lord's hand is in our area right now. Cambodia had over a 1000 baptisms last year, Theres only like 50 or 60 companionships there. So pumped to hear the work is progressing thereI love the MTC, but every day we just get more and more excited.  

Every Sunday we are supposed to prepare a 5 minute talk on a topic and they just announce the 2 speakers right before they have to speak. So you can prepare and be ready or just hope you dont get called and pray. So Elder Rom toatlly forgot to prepare and they called him. Our whole distrct knew so we started to laugh, but he gave one of the most powerful talks I've ever heard. I started to tear up. His testimony about faith and the gospel is amazing. It inspired everyone. Then a super small asian guy who's speaking Mong went up and shared one of the coolest stories ever. The missionares came to his house and taught him when he was 14. Only he and his mom would listen to him. His father was totally against it. He felt the spirit and wanted to get baptized, but his father wouldnt hear it. He said he cried and prayed every night for two years to have the chance to get baptized. He never lost faith and never doubted God. Such a cool guy. It gave me such a different perspective on baptism and how many people want it so bad, but cant. 

Also thank you for the Dear Elders and the packaged cinnamon rolls. Its so nice to hear from you guys after A long day. 
P.S. Thanks Darcie for the popcorn and the letter. Love  you guys!




No comments:

Post a Comment