In Which I Turn Over a New Leaf

Sister Fields in downtown Kampong Cham

Cumriabsua Everyone!

First of all, thank you for all the encouraging emails! It really made my day to get on and read them all. Last week was a little rough, but this past week was much better. 

It all started off with reading a really great devotional by Elder Holland called "The Miracle of a Mission." It completely changed my perspective of what a mission is supposed to be. If you haven't read it, google it and read it right now. The part that touched me the most was when he tells about President Hinckley's mission. President Hinckley went when he was a little bit older, after he had finished school, (I can relate to that) and he served in England. He spent all day proselyting and doing the soapbox thing and getting laughed at and rejected. He wrote home to his Dad after a little while and said it was time for him to go home, that he was wasting his time and his family's money. His Dad wrote him a one-sentence letter back which said: "Forget yourself and get to work."

My email last week was a lot like President Hinckley's, so his father's response really struck me. I realized that this is not about me. I need to be focusing on helping the people here, building up the branch, sharing scriptures and testifying in lessons, and making friends with my companion and roommates. And so I tried that this week, and the change was very stark. I was less self-conscious about my stuttering and lack of language knowledge. I was less homesick, and I just started to enjoy life more. I started to realize that I can do this thing. In this talk Elder Holland talked about how everything in life he owed to his mission, because he can trace back so many blessings in his life to the work he put it and the testimony he gained on his mission. I think this week I realized that it is a blessing to serve a mission. And I'm trying everyday to think of it that way. And to be grateful for this opportunity, because, as I've been told, it goes by quickly. 

Anyways. Just some thoughts. Here are some of this week's happenings:

We've had CRAZY rainstorms! In our bedroom that the four of us share, one wall is a sliding glass door. Monday night we had the craziest storm I've ever heard. We were all wide awake at about two in the morning because the thunder was deafening. And because one wall is window, the lighting would light up the entire room. We watched from the window and it looked like someone was turning on a light outside. We couldn't see any lightening bolts, but the entire sky lit up. All the while the rain just kept coming. We had a river running down our street! The whole place was flooded. It was pretty exciting! 

On Thursday it started pouring  while we were out proselyting. That morning it had been so hot and sticky. But then  we got drenched, and that night biking home in wet clothes I was cold! I didn't think that would happen in Cambodia! We are at the end of the rainy season here. And then "winter" will come and it will get "colder." We'll see how that goes. Actually, yesterday in church, each kid in the primary got a winter coat to take home. So maybe it will be cooler than I expected. At least at night without an insulated house, maybe?

We live in an apartment above a house of a member in another branch. She came out and met us one night as we were parking our bikes and insisted that we come over for lunch. The general rule is not to eat at members houses very often, mainly because most of them don't have the means to feed us, and they are too generous, but also because of health reasons. But this family is by far the most well-to-do family (at least by evidence of their house) that I've met here. We had a noodle soup that was delicious and lots of fruit. We looked at wedding pictures of her daughter who had married an American RM here in Cambodia. And her little boy's name is Mosiah! 

We spend most of our days visiting less actives and recent converts, or often, recent converts who are also less active. Sometimes (often times) they are not very receptive. I've realized that I have a hard time reading these people. It's not just the language barrier (which is still VERY MUCH a thing) but it's also just that I can't tell if they're feeling the spirit or if anything we are saying is sinking in. But this week we did see some of the less actives we visited at church. So that was exciting. 

I'm learning a lot about what it means to be a member. I think before my mission I always thought about church and the gospel in regards to me, rather than other people. I'd go for my own personal uplifting (or more often just out of obligation). But I'm so grateful for the strong, active, willing to participate members here. As Sister P. has said, church here often feels like a collection of individuals, rather than a family. And part of that is that more often than not, it's individuals who get baptized, and not families together. Or moms will bring their children (who run around outside). But it's so cool to see the few strong families that come. And then to see them fellowshipping other members of the branch. Because that's the key. Missionaries come and go so often (and like us, sometimes are whitewashing and come with NO prior knowledge), so it's the members that really need to be there to help one another. We met with the Relief Society president this week (who's awesome!) and taught her about visiting teaching. We're hoping that might become a thing. We need a strong sense of sisterhood especially I think here. These women have incredibly hard lives. And too often someone will say something about someone and that's how people become inactive. But if they could have a solid frienship in the  branch, that would make such a difference. 

There's one in particular neighborhood called Phum Tenang that is really rough. These people live in shacks and there are naked children and mean, stray dogs, and trash everywhere. One thing this week that's been heavy was meeting with a woman in that neighborhood. She lives in a dirt shack with her three children. She comes to church with two on the back of her bike and her baby in the basket. Her husband drinks and gambles and cheats on her. We met with her this week and she told us that things aren't going to work with them anymore. But that they have no money, and that he wants to sell her two oldest children (9 and 4). And she would take the baby and move far away with her mom. We didn't know what to do about that. Sister P. said she'd never had something like this happen before. So we set up an appointment with her to meet with our Branch President. But then she didn't show up to the meeting. We met with him later and learned some more things about her. She also drinks and gambles and has been given a lot of money from the church already. So they don't know what to do either. 

It's heavy stuff. And all of our members (or at least a lot) just deal with poverty and family situations on a daily basis. And honestly, what they need, I think is just more faith. But I don't know if I can tell them that. Because for some of them, not working in order to go to church might mean they don't have enough food that day. I have never faced any problem like that in the world. not even close! And I don't know if I would have that faith, actually I probably wouldn't. It's just a different world here. 

These are lessons I didn't think I'd learn on my mission. Keep in mind this is all coming from someone who considered visiting teaching leaving cookies and a note on someone's doorstep on the night of the last day of the month. So, yeah... I'm learning lots here.

I'm also learning to appreciate Kampongcham a lot more. It's really quite beautiful actually. It's right on the MeKong river. It has a unique downtown area, and then it also has really rural, very lush countrysides. I'm learning to look out and enjoy these things as I'm biking around. And I'm enjoying the biking part more too.

One last thought: Another thing I've been thinking about a lot is about grace. That's a word I never really paid much attention to, but I read a Liahona article by Elder Bednar about it. And in it, he equates the word grace with the enabling power of the Atonement. And then I read another article that I don't remember who wrote it (how are my citations so far..?) also about the Atonement and grace. In it he shared a story of a girl who was talking to him one time who said something along the lines of, people say that we just have to do our best and Christ will do the rest, but what if I can't even do my best? I feel this way a lot. It's so easy to get down on myself (particularly when it comes to the language) and think about all that I could be doing more. But that's not how grace, or the enabling power of the atonement works. Christ isn't at the finish line waiting for us after we can do all that we can do. He's with us the entire time, helping us along the entire time if we just turn to Him. That thought is so much more comforting and empowering I think.

Well, that's all for this week. Thank you all for your encouraging thoughts. This is hard, but I know that it's going to be worth it! I love you all!

Sister Fields

The more rural area.

Mekong river

I don't know if you can tell, but this building is right on the river. After a few storms, it started to crack and fall. We drove past it the other day after the BIg storm and it was gone! It was in the river. We used it as an object lesson yesterday about the wise and foolish man with a less active girl we met with!

Me and Muay Lii in the rain! She and her mom are recent converts. She's 12 or so and reminds me of a little Hermione. She knows all the answers in lessons. Her mom is crippled and so has to take a motorcycle taxi to church each week. Two weeks ago for conference she had to save up so that she could go there and back and out there again. They are so strong and great!

Lunch with the member who lives downstairs and the other missionaries we live with.

In Which I Meet A Talking Bird

Sister Fields and her companion with a sister missionary who was showing her parents around her mission on her way home.

Hello,

Well, I made it through my first official week in the field. And I have a question: For all those of you who have served missions, how did you do it?? Serving missions is such a normal thing in the church and I think I came in pretty naive to the amount of work it would be. I thought, hey I'm a college grad, I've even lived in South East Asia before! This week has been humbling. I have a new-found respect for the 18-year-old boys who come straight out of high school! Not to dissuade people from serving missions. Maybe it's like childbirth and you forget all the bad stuff (or so I'm told). Stay tuned. 

I've learned a lot about the church in Cambodia this week. As they celebrated the 20th anniversary this year, it is still very new. I am told that our work here in Kampong Cham is about strengthening the branch and the members as much as it is about finding new people to teach. There are about 8,000 members and about 3,000 are active. So this week we focused on meeting our members, inactive members, and recent converts. 

The majority of the members of our branch live in two different neighborhoods (or Phums). So we spent a lot of time in those two areas. Both are a bit rough. Though there are some very nice houses here (and I've learned Kampong Cham is one of the more well-to-do cities in Cambodia) the members are still quite poor. We spent a lot of time in very humble houses this week. 

There are two girls in our branch preparing to leave on missions (both the same age as me and my companion) who have been lots of help to us this week. They will meet up with us and go meet members. Since Cambodia doesn't really use addresses, missionaries draw maps on our CBRs (convert baptism records) with important landmarks listed like "pile of toilets" or "big house with lots of poor people." Needless to say, having a member along who knows the area can be a big help. 

We have met a lot of people, and I have been able to keep them mostly straight in my head. Fortunately, lots of our records have pictures. It was exciting on Sunday to see a lot of them at Church! 

As far as investigators go, we've taught a couple first lessons to a couple different people. We met one woman (a referral from the Branch President's family) on Tuesday who was super great and really wanted to learn. She had a Christian background and had felt recently like she needed to return to her old faith. We met with her and with a member and had a really great lesson. She took a Book of Mormon and was excited to read it. But unfortunately, she has bad health, and decided to move back to Phnom Penh for a while. She wanted to get in touch with the missionaries there though, so that's good. 

On Wednesday we met went to visit the home of a recent convert and her friend was over. She said she wanted to learn, but was too busy (which is an excuse we hear a lot). We offered to teach her the first lesson right now, and she accepted. So we'll see how that goes. 

Basically, whitewashing is really hard. We're starting from scratch here, and it's hard not to get discouraged. But it'll work out. We will help the people who we are supposed to help. And if nothing else, we're going to leave the branch a little better and stronger than when we found it. 

I'm starting to become more familiar with the area. It is a beautiful place. And we have an interesting mix of city and rural area. Early in the week the branch mission leader (who is a tuk tuk driver) took us around and way out in the country to meet some members. It was fun ride. We also learned that we have an island in our area! The Mekong river runs along one side of our area. Apparently there's a ferry that goes out there. So at some point, we'll have to check that out. 

In order to get out to Phum Tenang (where a lot of our inactive members are) we have to ride out pretty far. The other day I almost hit a cow. So between the cows and the roundabouts, I'll probably have some bike incident.

Okay, time for some highlights (and lowlights) of the week:

--I met a bird who speaks Khmer better than I do! (Which isn't too hard...) Out in Phum Tenang a former investigator invited us under her roof for a little bit to escape a rainstorm. And there was this little bird that shrieked and talked Khmer! It kept saying the name of the neighborhood over and over. And hello.

--I gave my very first talk in Cambodian! It was far from a success, but I will never have to talk for the first time ever again! We thought that the Branch President would probably ask us to speak, so we prepared short talks. Mine was probably only two minutes. I talked about receiving answers through prayer. The first half was a stuttery mess. I stuttered on probably every other word. But it got a little smoother towards the end.

--At church we met a sister missionary who was finishing, and her parents were visiting the area and picking her up. They were very nice and said nice things about my talk. It was nice to talk to the Sister as well and she commiserated with me about how hard the first few weeks (and months) are. It's just nice to be reminded that I'm not supposed to know a whole lot now. And that it will get better. 

--I popped my bike tire! I was driving along and must have rolled over something sharp, because it made a huge squeal and popping noise. Luckily I was going pretty slow at the time and we were only about a block away from a bike repair shop. But the tire split almost the whole way around! It was pretty crazy.

--One of my favorite moments this week was learning that President and Sister Moon were coming to visit! They came Friday and he spent the morning interviewing missionaries. So Friday morning we met them at the church. When I wasn't in the interview, I chatted with Sister Moon. She made each of us a loaf of banana bread! It was so delicious. My interview with President Moon was really great. I told him my concerns about learning the language and my fears about doing this whole mission in general, and he gave me a lot of great advice. I wish they could come visit more often. 

--We've started teaching English. We'll teach every Wednesday night at the church for an hour. The class is supposed to be 18 and up, but we had four kids/teeens come last week. We taught them about numbers and telling time. It reminded me of Thailand, and it was a lot of fun. It also felt nice to teach something I was good at for once!

--We've been having a lot of rainstorms in just the past few days. Even though it's still the rainy season, it hasn't been raining much lately. But the past few nights we've gone to bed with the rain pounding outside. The streets were flooded at night, but were dry by the morning! Our power has gone off a few times, but never longer than a few minutes thankfully.

It's been hard to adjust to this new lifestyle. One suggestion I received from President Moon is to chunk the time. Not to think of it as 18 months, but as just these 12 weeks of training until Christmas. And just think of a few goals to set. I won't be a perfect missionary by any means, but I can improve. And if that's too much to think about, just think about getting through the day. So this week I've been waking up and telling myself to just get through the day. And it struck me the other day as I was struggling to contribute in a lesson, that it won't always be this hard. It won't necessarily get easier, but I will get better. And have faith that I will love this. It's just going to take some time. As I get to know people better and we start finding investigators, I hope that I will be able to see the good changes that come from the gospel. I think that will help me remember the real reason why I'm here. 

So it's been an interesting experience here in this town. I imagine that we are seeing something similar to what the Church must have been like when it first started out. People don't always understand what it means to be a member. There are misunderstandings about doctrine (as I observed in church on Sunday). But people have incredible spiritual experiences. For example, in Khmer culture dreams have incredible significance. When they have a dream, they will always seek out it's meaning. Lots of members and converts have experiences in which they have spiritual dreams and visions. God will talk to them in their dreams. At first I was a bit skeptical, but as I learn more about it I'm realizing that Heavenly Father knows all his children. He knows every language and every culture and so he knows how best to communicate with his children in ways that they will understand and treasure.

Well, that's all for now. I hope all is well in America. Feel free to email me! I love emails! (Lindsey.Fields@myldsmail.net)

Love,

Sister Fields

The church. It's a rented space right now, but the church is building a real church across the street!

A shot of the city.

This was a meal I ate last week. I ordered a hot dog, but, silly me, forgot to order the "hot dog bread"to go with it.

In Which I Find Out I'm Not a Biker

Hello! Cumriabsua! 

Greetings from Srok Khmer! I did indeed make it to the other side of the world. And it has been a crazy ride so far. So I'll just start from the top. After a VERY long flight across the ocean, a layover in Hong Kong, and a final flight, we landed in Phnom Penh. It was a very clear morning, so we could see the whole countryside and city stretched out before us. Cambodia is similar to Thailand in a lot of ways, and not in many others. Same, same but different, if you will. The most striking difference is probably the poverty. I've seen more poverty here in the past 4 days than I have in any other SE Asian country. But more about that later on...

We landed around 10:30 am and the mission president and his wife were there to greet us, President and Sister Moon. They are very kind, and I think I will like them a lot. President Moon decided to immediately throw us in and we went contacting! We met up with some experienced missionaries and paired off around the outskirts of a market. I and another new sister were paired up with a Khmer sister. Mostly we just trailed along behind her. It was all kind of a whirlwind. And lots of culture shock all around! 

We only did that for about an hour, and then we went to the mission home for lunch and orientation. We had sandwiches and then later lasagna for dinner! They were giving us a last taste of America. At the mission home we met up with 8 other local missionaries from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. With all of us together there are 30 new missionaries, the biggest group they've had yet! 

To be honest, I remember little to nothing from the orientation. We were all struggling to keep our eyes open. It''s good that they kept us up though, because it hasn't been too bad to adjust to the time change. We crashed around 7:30. We spread out all around their house on a bunch of mattresses. The sisters got bunk beds. It's a pretty cool house. It's tall and skinny with these really cool carved wood stairs. 

The next morning we got up at 5:30 am. That is our usual schedule. Get up at 5:30 and go to bed at 9:30. I'm sure once I get used to the time change it'll be harder, but right now, I'm about ready to collapse by the time 9:30 comes around. That morning we had more orientation and then headed over to the church to meet our trainers! This was the part I was quite nervous for. I knew it would be a good thing if I got a local companion, but I was also terrified of not being able to communicate! But don't fear, my companion is American. Her name is Sister P. and she has been out just over a year. We got sent out to a province. Which means we're not in Phnom Penh where a good bulk of the missionaries are. We are in a place called Kampongcham. You could try googling it. It's about a 3 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh. It's definitely a city, but our area in it is more suburban-ish you could say. Some of the roads are dirt. 

We got to the city around 7 or so, so we loaded all our luggage into a tuk tuk and got to our new apartment. We are living with two other sisters. Sister E. and Sister Khut. The apartment is pretty nice. It's above another apartment. It was a gated driveway where we can park bikes. We have two rooms (one is just an office, and a bedroom for the four of us), two bathrooms, and a very hot kitchen without A/C.  

We are doing something called "whitewashing" which means that we are both new to the area. And the sisters who were here last did not keep very good records. So it's proving to be a bit of a challenge. More about that in a minute...

This weekend was general conference round 2, which I am infinitely glad about. The English speaking missionaries in our zone all got to watch it in an upstairs room in English! It was a nice way to ease into the field lifestyle, because it meant we got to spend 8 hours not having to be out working. 

On Saturday in between sessions, the zone leaders took us around our areas. On bikes. The bikes are shared by the mission and just go with the apartment, but we're asked to contribute $75 if we can to the bike fund. Biking is not the most enjoyable thing I've ever done in my life. My bike is quite sketchy. It sometimes jerks randomly like I'm switching gears while I'm riding it. But I put the seat way low to the ground for now. It was actually good practice to go around our area with them, because the elders just got on their bikes and took off. And I had no choice but to follow. Sister P. is great though, she will always turn back to make sure I'm doing okay. Kambongcham has a lot of traffic circles. I hate traffic circles in a car, so a bike was a bit of a nightmare. Like in other SE Asian countries, there are traffic laws, but they are rarely followed. I've learned to stick near cars or bigger vehicles, because they are less likely to get hit. Basically, please pray for me. That's what I do as I'm flying along playing frogger. 

Yesterday we thought that the English translated conference was out at the other branch's building, so we road out for probably 30 minutes to the building only to find it was in Khmer. So we road back another 30 minutes to the original building. But then we had to go drop off Sister Khut again for the second session so we made the trip twice. Over the past few days I've probably biked over 20 miles. Oh did i mention the skirt thing? That makes it all the more fun. We're supposed to wear biking shorts, but mine only go down halfway to my thighs, so my white knees are usually blinding traffic. I need to buy some longer ones. 

Okay now let's talk about the heat. I don't think I have ever sweat so much in my life. I'm dripping 80% of the day. It's much hotter than Thailand was. Particularly when I'm biking uphill in the sun. We do have A/C in our room and office though, which I am very grateful for. It's still hot, but it's not unbearable. 

Food: Let's just say, visiting a market as a tourist and visiting a market as your weekly grocery store are two completely different experiences. This morning at the market we bought a fish that was still flopping back in forth before the seller smacked it with a butcher's knife. But the food I've had so far is not bad. We have typically been cooking for all our meals. We're not supposed to buy food from anything that has wheels. But it's been pretty tasty so far! Veggies, pork, eggs all served on rice. And I haven't had a lot of fruit yet, but I will! Once I get the money system down. It's interesting. They use khmer currency for change, but use US dollars as well. 

So we haven't had a lot of time to proselyte, but we've done a little bit of work. Saturday in between sessions we met a lot of members. In our mission it sounds like we'll be doing about just as much re-activating as we do teaching investigators. And even the members do not really understand what it means to be active. It sounds like nobody really comes to church every week. There's just such a different conception of what church is and what it means to be a member. 

Yesterday we taught our first official lesson to a semi-active Om (meaning she's about 50ish. In Khmer they don't have a word for ""you"". You fill in a title or their name instead). We taught about prophets and a little bit about what we learned at conference. It was interesting how similar the experience was to my lessons in the MTC and how INCREDIBLY DIFFERENT it was. Her house is a tiny little shack that is completely flooded. Apparently it's always that way. There are a couple logs between the road and the house so you avoid the water. But there's just water in the house and broken floor boards, it's crazy! I almost lost my balance and fell in after knocking over my bike and causing a domino effect (I'm kind of a disaster here). We sat on a little bamboo platform and taught her as the sun set. It was kind of a surreal experience. I'm finally doing this mission thing for real now. 

Okay, now a bit about the language. I'm not exaggerating when I say I can't understand a thing. Like nothing anyone says to me. I can get some of what my companion and other non-native missionaries say, but when anyone else starts talking I'm out. People out in the kites (Provinces) do not speak very clearly. They slur their words together. And the pronunciation is what throws me the most. Turns out my teacher in the MTC (one in particular...) speaks Khmer like an American. Everyone here speaks so nasaly! Even the missionaries. So it's going to be an incredibly long, incredibly steep learning curve. It's what is stressing me the most. I'm coveting all the time I used to have to study in the MTC!

But even in the midst of these struggles, I've had many tender mercies. Like not being hit by a bus, for example. I know it's going to take a while (maybe 18 months) but I'm going to be able to do this. I'm doing what I'm supposed to and I'm trying hard! 

Until next week!

Sister Fields

Riding the Front Runner from Provo to the airport.  Sister Fields was one of the more experienced riders and felt like the mother of the group.

Sister Fields and her new companion Sister P.

View of rural Cambodia on her bus ride to her first area.

"My new grocery store."

"View from my bedroom window"

This will be the last time . . .

Cumriabsua!

This is the last letter to be written by Sister Fields in the MTC. Tomorrow afternoon we'll be headed off! It's been quite the crazy week, but it's been a good last one! 

We had our last lessons with our "investigators" this week. We had set baptismal dates for both of them for Saturday the 4th. So we met with each of them one last time and went over the baptismal questions to prepare for their "interviews." It was a little bit sad. We've had great teachers here and it will be a little bit sad to leave them. Fortunately, both of them are coming back tonight for class and one last lesson. I'm sure we'll take one last class pic. 

We started saying "this will be the last time we'll ever do this" for everything we did this week. It got a bit melodramatic, but it was funny. We had our last service Thursday, and we rose the Cambodian flag one last time (see following picture).

Our district has bonded a lot this week too. For a while we were all friends, but not super friendly. But then somewhere along the line of spending 14 hours a day in the same 16x16 ft room and eating all our meals together, we became close. One of the Elders had a birthday this week, so we threw him a party. Sister S. and I are the designated Party Planning Commitee (she's a big Office fan as well). I'm Phylis, she's Angela. 

There's also a tradition in the MTC to buy little journals at the bookstore and pass them around to have everyone write in. It feels a little silly. I'm calling mine my mission yearbook. But it really will be fun to read. Especiallly because a lot of our friends in our zone will be serving around the world. I figure I'll hang on to mine and have all my companions write in it. It'll be a fun keepsake. 

On Friday we had In-field orientation. It's hosted by the MTC and all missionaries headed out the next week go. It was from 8 until 5 and made for a very long day. They had four sections: finding, goal setting, baptism, and working with members. It was a little overwhelming. In calss we focus so much on the teaching aspect and the language learning aspect that we haven't really talked about any of these things. In one scenario we pretended we were in an airport and had to sit down next to someone and lead into a conversation where we could testify of gospel truths. I did not love it. And we came to the conclusion that, yeah, we could probably do this in English. But Cambodian is a compeltely different story! The leaders of the orientation kept saying things like, "Now next week when you're out contacting...". Overall, it just made everything seem very real. And caused me to stress a little bit. Honestly, I just don't know what to expect. And I feel like no matter what I do to try to prepare myself, I can never really be ready or feel ready. I am just really hoping I will get a good trainer. 

In-field was not my favorite, but this weekend made up for it. General Conference was great. I did miss the pajamas and the food, but don't worry. I stuck candy in my scripture case. We watched conference in our big assembly hall. Even though the seats got old, it was fun to watch with a big group of people. One of the coolest things was when they announced that some of the talks would be in their native languages! That was so cool! The first one was Cantonese, and when they announced it, the Cantonese missionaries in our zone were so excited! The church is really becoming a worldwide. And it's cool to watch it happen. I thought that as we were watching the Women's session too. The Korean girls singing "I Love to See the Temple" and the video of interviews with women around the world. And now we're headed off to Cambodia! 

Speaking of the Women's session, we watched it this Saturday instead of last one while the Elders were watching the Priesthood session. It was a really good meeting. I liked the focus on the temple. And I liked what they said about covenents bringing strength and spiritual power. That's an important message for women. And everyone. 

My favorite talk though, for all of conference, was Elder Bednar's. One of my concerns and questions I've had as I prepare to leave has been, "do people really need this message?" I often think, who am I to show up on someone's doorstep and say that what they know is wrong and what I have is right. But Elder Bednar, in a powerful way, explained that we are not erasing everything other people believe when we share the gospel. We're adding more truth. And when we really feel and know it's true, we can't help but want to share it. This will be a good talk to reflect on when I'm not feeling so confident about walking up to someone's door (AKA this week! What??). 

Well, I think that's all for this week. Next time you hear from me, I'll be on the other side of the world! For now, I'm thinking emailing will be the best way to write me. Though the address to the mission home is: Cambodia Phnom Pehn Mission/ P.O. Box 165/ Phnom Penh/ Cambodia. Asia, here I come!

Cumriablia!

Sister Fields

final flag raising

study break

cleaning the water fountains

They will be there tomorrow.