Called to Serve!: Well I hit my year mark!! 7/10/16 Week #53

Ayyye

Well it looked like the 4th was a ton of fun. America is the best. S/O to Ellie, you da best. Im so sorry about your accident. hope you feel better. You got prayers coming from Asia.

Well it was a successful week. Even though this area is super hard to deal with, it was good.

The work is going pretty well, we have about 5 pretty solid investigators, it's been fun seeing our investigator pool get bigger almost every week. Elder Medley and I have set some good high goals, we will see if we can do it. I've kinda realized there is no such thing as a "bad area" people talk about areas and about how crappy they are but i think its maybe because they just didn't try or work that hard. You cant call an area crappy if you've worked your hardest at it, you will eventually love it if you try.

We had a way good lesson with our two golden investigators. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they had a lot of questions. It was a ton of fun. The man we are teachings name is Sopheap and his wife Teeda (translated Angel) is like 15 years younger than he is. He works for the government and has a ton of money so he gets a young beautiful wife. Little side note, Sopheap has the weirdest laugh ever. i just think of a little gremlin who buries his neck in his shoulder and stares at you when he laughs, it gets me every time. Our member help said she thought sopheap was Teeda's Dad. I had to tell her that wasn't cool after the lesson. They want to get baptized, but they are super busy with their jobs so it will happen in like 5 or 6 weeks. I'm super excited.

We also had 2 amazing lessons with Rithia. At the end of one of the lessons, he said "Elda, when i talk to you guys and i learn, and i read this book, i just feel happy. I dont know why im just so refreshed." it was fun trying to help him realize it was The Spirt of God telling him what he was doing is right.

the first couple weeks of teaching a new investigator are so cool. You get to watch them pray better, ask questions about Nephi and Lehi and teach them that their families can be together forever. Its so fun. Some people you have to just let go because they aren't interested, but sometimes they notice the Spirit and they run after it. Its so cool to just sit back and watch the spirit work on them.

So i hit a year, man time is just so weird on your mission. But I've been thinking about my mission and what Ive put in and what I've gotten out of it. I've worked hard, no regrets and now i have one more year. As i thought about this past year i started to become so much more grateful for Cambodia because its given me the opportunity to change. Im so grateful that Christ has given me an opportunity to just change for the better. There's no other thing, organization you can volunteer at, a job or church thing that offers anything like a mission. You get to leave everything you once knew, your family, friends, house, school, everything and then be put in a group of people you have never met and live in a new place. The only ounce of familiarity you have is your Heavenly Father and your scriptures, I think that is part of the reason why missionaries and myself start having such a strong desire to read and pray. Its something that isn't new, and you start to cherish it so much, and you just start praying and reading like you never have before. You rely and depend on your Father in Heaven and you get to watch first hand God helping you and making you a better missionary. Missions are dope. I highly recommend it.

Have a good week guys

Lots of love form Cambodia

ELDER SMITH