In Which We Buy a Friendship Fish

Hello,

It's been another good week! It's been a really great week missionary-work wise too. Lot's of progression over here! So this week I'll break it down person by person.

First. Ming Thida! When I met this women two weeks ago, she hadn't been able to meet with the missionaries in a while because she was a out of town for Khmer New Years, and she came to church for the first time in a while. But over the past few weeks she has grown so much. When we come over to her house now she is ready and waiting with her Book of Mormon out and glasses on the table. She accepts things so readily and has lots of good questions. And she just seems so happy! It's like she can't stop smiling now. She's come to church all three hours the past three Sundays in a row. We just finished teaching her the commandments, so we just have lesson five stuff left. We had a really great lesson yesterday on tithing and fasting. She committed to both without any issues and even said she was going to do a special fast the very next day for her son who is sick! Not even long-time members fast here! So she's doing great. And then the other day she said that she had someone she wants us to meet. She took us behind her house on a long path through a field to a little wooden house of a young mother with five kids. Turns out Ming Thida, our investigator, doesn't really know this woman, but the other day she was walking by her house and overheard her talking about a dream she had in which she saw God or had some spiritual experience. Ming Thida excitedly told us, "I think God is preparing her heart to accept the gospel!" And then when we went over to this woman's house she took the lead, promising the blessings that come from the gospel like she had been a member all her life. It was awesome! We'll teach the referral tomorrow. Ming Thida will be baptized on Saturday the 13th. I'm excited!

Second. Bong Mei. I don't remember how much I talked about her last week, but she's our investigator who's struggling with Word of Wisdom addictions. She's been having a really hard time (with money and with her husband) which was causing her to smoke and drink even more. But when we visited her on Tuesday, it was like she was a different person. She had swept the little concrete step outside her house we meet on.  Her usually shy kids were bouncing around excited to see us, and she was just so happy. It was like a night and day difference. She pulled out her book we gave her where she keeps track of how much she had smoked, and it was substantially less. She had read the Book of Mormon. Reading is a struggle for her, and she didn't understand everything, but she recognized the difference it made in her home and the Spirit it brought. Also, she prays with her husband every night! And sometimes he helps her read! And she says she thinks he would be willing to start learning as long as it doesn't go too long (because long lessons give him a headache? which is fine, we can be short)! She's still got a way to go before she will be ready for baptism. Actually, she's still scared to accept a baptism date because she doesn't know if she will be worthy. But in some ways that's a good sign, because she's taking this so seriously. But things are going well. The gospel really changes lives.

Third. Last week we began teaching a grandma and her grandchildren. It's been going pretty well so far. They don't have anything to ride to church, so we convinced them to walk with us this Sunday. We showed up at there house at 6:00 in the morning (because the grandma thought it would take two hours. Turns out it took 45 minutes, but that's okay. Better safe than sorry). Unfortunately, the grandma was overwhelmed with work, and ended up just sending the two oldest grandkids (Davan, 13 and Udom, 12) to church with us. So we walked with them. They're both shy, but I think they were excited. As it would happen we got to church an hour and fifteen minutes early. And both of the kids brought their own paperback copies of The Book of Mormons we had given them with them. So we all read a chapter or two together. It was pretty cute. It think they had a good experience at church. They ended up knowing one of the kids of a member already, and I think all the kids fellow shipped them pretty well. They want to come back next week. The trick will get the grandma to come. I think she's more interested in her grandchildren learning than she is for herself. We're hoping that as we continue to teach them all together, she will start to realize that she needs this for herself as well.

So those are our main groups of progressing investigators. But we've also had a lot of success finding more investigators. Sister A. and I made it a goal this week to be bold in our contacting. Sometimes I think we just get in the habit of inviting to English class and that's all. And while that's certainly important and useful, we miss a great opportunity when we don't also talk about the gospel in all our contacting. So we made it a goal to specifically ask everyone we contact "Do you want to learn about Christ?" That's not necessarily our opening line, but we get it in there. And so far it's had good results! Then we follow it up by asking if there's a day and time we can come back and share a short message with them and their family. And it's so simple, and I don't know why I haven't been doing this all along. But just this week we've gotten three return appointments. So I have great faith in contacting now! I still hate it, but I'm getting better at it!

Oh! I got to do my first exchange as a sister training leader. I went with Sister Y., which was super fun because she was in my group in the MTC. It made me realize how much we had both progressed in the language. There were certainly some things we couldn't understand in our conversing with Khmer people, but we could totally be good companions together. We went in her area, so it was fun to see a different side of Battambang. We bought a friendship lunch! I'll explain. She has a recent convert who works at a restaurant, just this little shack on the side of the road ,and for some reason this middle-aged Indian man who doesn't know any Khmer works there. And every time Sister Y. and her companion go to meet the member, this Indian man gives her a hard time, saying they're just trying to baptize everyone into their church. So that day Sister Y. and I decided to go by lunch and make friends with him. We got there and he still gave us a spiel about how all religions are good and we can't force people to join ours without giving us a second to respond. But then we told him all we want is to teach and invite and that we had come for lunch and what was his suggestion for something delicious. We ended up paying $5.50 for a fried fish without rice! (That's expensive, by the way.) But he totally warmed up to us once he saw we were just trying to be friends. And by the time we left, he was joking around with us. So I think it was money well spent.

And then on Wednesday we did something pretty cool. Because Sister A. and I are both still not very familiar with our area, the Branch President offered to take us out and show us a bunch of members houses. So we ended up going in Elder and Sister S.'s car, and it worked perfectly! It would have taken so much longer on bikes. We went to probably ten or fifteen houses. It was a bit of an adventure. Because lots of roads in Cambodia were not built for cars, we almost got stuck going down one little alley but we made it out alive. The S's are troopers, putting on their crocks and walking out in the mud with all of us. They are really wanting to meet all the members and learn the language as much as possible, so it was fun to got out with them and translate for them a little bit.

Okay this is boring. I'm only talking about missionary stuff. The terribly sad news this week is that Green Mango (the bakery with the banana bread) closed! I was in mourning for about a week until we we're driving along the river and saw a sign saying they're moving locations! Good news is they'll be back in June.

Also, last Monday we went and checked out the Battambang museum. It cost one dollar for foreigners and was free for Khmers. The building is super cool on the outside. I should have taken a picture. And inside it's just one big room with lots of big carved stones unlabeled and not in any cases. My fellow museum cohorts would have freaked. It wasn't super interesting because there wasn't really any information. But it made me excited to go to Angkor Wat one day. And then they had a little exhibit to the side which really was just a series of panels. But it was on the Khmer Rouge and when they forced everyone to move out of the city in masses and go out to work in the country side. It told stories from a bunch of different people and had pictures. It was really sad. And it made me realize just how much context I feel like I'm missing still from these people lives. The Khmer Rouge was such a huge thing and such a recent thing that is just not talked about very much. The last panel was kind of a call to action of sorts, saying that the Khmer people need to confront their past in order to learn from it and make sure something like that doesn't happen again. It was way interesting and very sad. Someday I'll go home and do research.

But it was a good week! Today we're going to go check out a Bamboo train! Should be fun. And if the S's go, we don't have to find a tuk tuk. I'll take pictures!

Last, just a quick spiritual thought. Inspired by who else but my good friend Paul. He wrote a lot. And it's taking me a while to get through the New Testament. It's interesting though. In 1 Timothy 1, he says in verse 12, "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;"  This is how I feel. The Lord definitely took a chance on me when he called me to serve a mission. But it is through his enabling power that I'm able to do it, and able to become actually (hopefully, someday) an effective missionary. And then in verse 15 he goes on to say that the Lord came into the world to save the sinners "of whom I am chief." I love that. It reminds me of President Uchtorf's most recent conference talk about grace. I was just reading it this morning. And I will just paraphrase because I'm running out of time, but he talks about how we are all indebted to the grace of Christ through his Atonement. And like the woman who washed Christ's feet with her tears and expensive oil, we should never take for granted His sacrifice for us or forget our indebtedness to Him. And then I will find this quote because it's too good. He says: "When we kneel to pray, is it to replay the greatest hits of our own righteousness, or is it to confess our faults, plead for God’s mercy, and shed tears of gratitude for the amazing plan of redemption?  Salvation cannot be bought with the currency of obedience; it is purchased by the blood of the Son of God."

And that's too good. I can't add on to that.

Well, thanks for making it to the end of this particularly long and ramble-y email. Hope you have a good week!

   

Love,

  

Sister Fields

In Which I eat banana bread, mangos, and potstickers!

Sometimes missionary life is a bit starved for entertainment...

Hey there,

It's been a good week in Battambang! It was super fun to Skype last week. It kind of feels like Skyping should become a weekly thing now, except for the fact that technology never works when you want it to. 

Let's see what happened this week. I'm starting to get familiar with the area and with the members. My companion has only been here one transfer. She whitewashed and then she ended up joining a tripanionship and serving in two branches. And for various reasons, they didn't get to proselyte a lot in our branch (branch 1). So she doesn't know a whole lot more than me about the area or the branch. So we're learning together! There are lots of moments (nightly planning for example) where we just look at each other and don't know what to do next, but we're getting some good CBR (convert baptism retention)  hunting in (AKA finding inactive members). 

One thing we've had quite a bit of success with here is investigators! We have progressing investigators!! And we've been finding more. We found three more this week. We have one who is getting close to baptism. She's come to church (all three hours) this week and last week. And her faith is really growing. She had a cool experience last week. She got a moto (for the first time) and was going to ride it to church, but was worried about driving in traffic (sidenote: traffic doesn't exist in Battambang). So before she left she prayed, and then when she got to the busy part (read: two-lane road) there weren't any cars at all! So that was a faith-building experience for her. It's the little things. So hopefully in a couple weeks we'll have a baptism! She's scheduled for the 20th of next month, but if she keeps coming to church we can move it up.

Last week we met with a referral from the Elders. Her name is Bong Mei. She's a young mother with two kids and one on the way. She actually learned with missionaries before in the city. She remembers a lot. She's smart. She's also very poor, which is a struggle. The biggest obstacle preventing members here from coming to church is poverty and not having anything to ride to church (not even a bike) and no money to pay for a moto taxi. So we're hoping some nearby members can take her. We invited her to be baptized last week, which was when she told us she drinks and smokes. A lot. So that's going to be a challenge. But she was very upfront with us. She knew (before we even taught Word of Wisdom) that it was going to be in issue, so she didn't try to hide it. So we're now working with her to break her addiction, which neither my comp or I have much experience with. But we bought her a little notebook to keep track of when she drinks and smokes so she can become aware of it. I really want to help her. She has some issues, but she also has a ton of faith. She told a us a really cool experience. When she was pregnant with her first child she was in a really bad place and was contemplating suicide. But then she had this awesome spiritual experience that stopped her from doing it. I can just see how great she can be if she can make the changes in her life she needs too. It won't happen right away, but I have a feeling I'll be here for a while. 

We're also teaching a grandmother and her grandchildren. We had nothing to do one afternoon last week after an appointment fell through. So we walked down a dirt road along the railroad tracks (much less sketchy than the tracks in Pochentong) and we stopped at the house of the first person who smiled at us. We just said hi and they immediately welcomed us into their house. It's moments like that that I really am so glad I'm serving in Cambodia. Not like that happens every time we go contacting, but people really are very welcoming here. We've only just starting teaching them, but we're going back tomorrow, so I'll keep you posted. 

So the work is coming along here quite well. Despite the fact it is sooo hot. Hotter than the city I think. Everyone is saying it's hotter than the average year. And that the rains should have come by now. Some days it rains, but some days it just stays hot. But regardless, Battambang is beautiful. And I'm enjoying being very much a tourist on P-days. There's a museum here that we're going to go check out today if there's time! And there is so much delicious food. There's an Indian restaurant we've got to try soon. And a Chinese place Sister A. and I have already decided is going to be our weekly Saturday lunch. Fried potstickers. So much oil and garlic, and so good! They also have a really delicious bakery we order bread from every week. Fresh baked white and banana bread! Also, it is full-on mango season here. And so many members have bags they just give away. So we've stopped needing to buy fruit at the market! So lots of good eats here. 

We live upstairs in the same house as the brand new senior couple. It's been really fun getting to know them and helping them get used to Cambodian life (taking them to the psaa [market], translating at church). They come to our district meetings and English class, so we see them a lot. And they invited us over for dinner last night and Sister S. made pot roast! It was delicious! We ate it over rice, because what else do you do in Cambodia? 

So I think that's all for this week. I'll end with an excerpt from our most recent transfer letter from President Moon. It's about priorities and progress. He compares our personal progress to completing a puzzle:

"It's like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. You cannot complete the puzzle if you stop after one piece or a few pieces--each piece is important and required to complete the picture. If you are looking at all the pieces and trying to put them all in their proper place all at once it would be overwhelming--you would not accomplish anything. You have to focus on one piece at a time and add it to the picture. If you have one piece that you can't quite master yet--one part of the puzzle that you still struggle to find how it fits--don't let that keep you from working on other parts of the puzzle that you can make progress on. don't let imperfections keep you from making progress in as many areas as you can and using your strengths to move the work forward. The Lord wants us to keep moving forward in faith, even if there are some things we have not figured out completely yet. Don't get so focused on one specific area where you still have faults or fears that you let that keep you from moving forward n a positive direction in your life." 

This is an important lesson for me. The puzzle piece I'm still really struggling with is the language. I'm realizing it's probably going to be a mission-long struggle for me. And I don't really know why it comes easier for some missionaries than others. But what I'm realizing is that the language really isn't everything. That there's so much else (teaching skills, knowledge of scriptures, testimony, service, real friendship) that I can bring as a missionary. And that I can still be an effective missionary and still struggle with the language. And I am working hard to learn this language. And I am progressing. Sometimes it's hard to see the progress, but when I turn around and look back, there's definitely progress. Faith means continuing to act and moving forward. 

That's all I have! Have a good week!

Love,

Sister Fields

View from our investigator's house while waiting for her to show up. It definitely beats Pochentong!

Baby monks! I didn't get a very good picture. But they were so cute. Lots of wats [temples] and lots of monks here.

Sunday dinner at the senior missionaries' home.

In Which I say Goodbye to Pochentong!

My investigator Ming Chan.

Hello!

Greetings from Battambang! This is just going to be short this week, but I will write as I wait to Skype the family! But I am officially in my new area! It is so beautiful and I love it already!

It was a good week. I spent a lot of it saying goodbye to members in Pochentong, which was a little sad. I had gotten to know the members and recent converts especially quite well in my four and a half months there. 

On Monday we ended up sacrificing a good chunk of our p-day to help Bong Pich move. Even though she moved from one very small one-room apartment to another, it still took a lot of work and she had a ton of stuff! But we got it all moved and got her set up by the evening. And the bishop was there helping and was able to give the new home a blessing. The next night we came over under the impression that we were going to share a little lesson/FHE thing with the Relief Society President and the bishop's wife (though really we were throwing a surprise birthday for her daughter). It was actually quite cool. We invited Bong Pich (our recently re-activated member) to share, and she shared from 2 Nephi 4. She bore a strong testimony about relying on the Lord through trials. After we made it seem like we were leaving, but we really just went out to the front where we had stashed a little cake a gift for Srey Niat who turned 6. We came back in singing Happy Birthday with the lights off and the candles burning and she was so excited. Her birthday is not until next week, but we wanted to do it while I was still here. 

As for the rest of the week we said a lot of goodbyes. We had a good last week at English class. I'll miss teaching my little beginner students. I had a good group of regulars. The bishop came after and gave the spiritual thought. Then he and his wife brought dinner for us as a goodbye for me, which was very nice of them. 

And then I packed up my things and took off! We took a bus to Battambang. It's about an six hour ride. Four of us came up together, but the problem was none of us had ever been there before, so we weren't sure where to get off the bus! We ended up passing the church and realized we had gone too far so we told the driver to pull over. And there we were stranded on the side of the road.

This is where her email ended.  But she told us the rest of the story when we Skyped and here are a few other things she told us:

She said they were told to get off the bus at the first stop in Battambang.  But they didn't know how to tell when they arrived in Battambang.  They were told if they saw a statue of "a black man" they had gone too far and they should get off. She said they need to find out the story of the "black man statue" but it has some Buddhist significance.  The statue is near the Church (a legitimate LDS chapel) and makes a good land mark for directing people to the Church.  So they asked the bus driver to pull over to the side of the road.  The three sisters and one elder got off the bus and it was quite late, 9:30 pm.  They got off the bus and a set of sisters live near the Church. So, she and the new sisters spent the night at the sisters' apartment and made it back to their new place the next day.

She is excited to live in her new place.  She and her companion  and two other sisters live on the top floor of a three-story house.  A missionary couple lives on the bottom floor.  She is already thinking about the advantages of living near the missionary couple: they have a car and they an  oven!  The only oven she has seen is the one in the mission home.  So, she has hopes of making some cookies on a p-day.  The missionary couple is learning Khmer.  They are excited to be there.  They have offered to drive them to any appointment that Lindsey and her companion might find it helpful to have them along.  The only challenge she sees so far about living in this house is there is a limited supply of electricity.  She turned on the hot water when she took a shower, which turned off the power in the building.  She ended up taking a cold shower in the dark.  But the advantage of the missionary couple in the basement is that she thinks they will look into any problems with the house.

She is really happy to be out of the city.  Battambang feels more rural and it is very green.  It is mango season right now and they are every where.

She said the branch has between 60 - 80 people attending.  Things are done differently than in some areas of the Church.  Her example was the branch president put the Primary in charge of Sacrament meeting on Mother's Day. They had Primary children speak and sing.  And the Primary President even conducted Sacrament meeting!  But, they apparently had no pianist.  So Lindsey got to dust off her piano skills and play the piano for not just the hymns but the musical numbers the Primary kids sang.  She said they wanted to sing "A Child's Prayer" and that song has accompaniment that is different from the melody that is sung.  She played the accompaniment and the kids ended up reading the words!  And her companion, who has never been involved with music, lead all the numbers.

She sent lots of pictures of her farewell to Pochentong.  Here are a few of them.

Ming Thavie is a recent convert. She teaches gospel principles and is preparing to go to the temple right now. 

Saying goodbye to Pochentong...

We threw a surprise birthday party for Bong Pich's little girl with the help of the bishop's wife and the relief society president.

Me, Sis Phon, and Bong Ryna (who helps the missionaries all the time! She's awesome. Also she's already making plans for us to hang out together when I come back to Cambodia). 

This is Ming Sarun. She was really sad I was leaving because we didn't get to do an FHE together. Maybe next time I serve in Pochentong (Jkjk)

Samnang is our recent convert. She's in the middle next to me. This is her family. We're going to work on them next. 

This is our recent convert Amy. We went and visited her the day before I left and it was deathly hot outside. So we went down by the lake by her house, and there was a nice breeze coming off the water and it felt wonderful! I'm really going to miss Amy. We've met her twice a week since I came in January. She's so good and has seen so many blessings come in her life just in the past few months. Also she made me a scripture case as a going away present. It's beautiful. I'll have to take a picture of it. 

Enjoying the breeze at the lake. You can't really tell in this picture, but the pleasant breeze turned into a huge windstorm. 

Om Narath. She's less active because of health problems, but she is so nice to the missionaries. And she makes delicious food. 

This is Bong Kunthy. She teaches Relief Society and her daughter.

Srey Khuat (my recent convert) and her baby Srey Leak

Bong Phiap (another recent convert) and her family. Her kids are crazy so we have to bribe them to be reverent with candy. But it still doesn't work. 

Classic tuk tuk pic on way to mission home. Bye bye Pochentong! 

In Which I Move to Battambang (or will soon, at least)

We played a game where everyone had to go around the circle naming a fruit and remembering all the fruits everyone else said. Needless to say I did not win and thus the cake on the face.

Cumriabsua! 

Well, I have some news. This is officially the last letter you will receive from me from the dusty roads of Pochentong. Transfer calls came last night and I'm headed to Battambang! I'm really excited! I will admit it, I was ready for a change. I was trying not to get my hopes up, but I really was wanting to go back to the khets (provinces). And that's where I'm headed! Last night my comp and I were headed home when the phone rang and it was President Moon! But then it stopped after just a few seconds, so we didn't know what to think! Usually President only calls if you will be training or fulfilling some other assignment, but we knew that there weren't any new missionaries coming in this transfer. So the whole ride home we were speculating about it. I always get so anxious about transfer calls. It's like the night before signing up for classes for BYU. So much adrenaline. (Okay, I'm not really an adrenaline seeker, guys). Regardless, he called again while we were planning and asked if I could serve as a sister training leader in Battambang 1st Branch with Sister A. Woo-hoo! So on Friday I'll head to the mission home and then hop on a 6-hour bus ride out to my new area! As for Sister Phon, she will be staying here, but serving in two areas. President is combining Pochentong with Sensok, and she and Sister Khim will be together. They're excited about that too, so it's good all around!

So that was by far the most exciting news of the week. To be honest I can't really remember much of what happened this week. But we did have some success with our investigators. On Tuesday we met with a new investigator. She was a referral from the APs and she seems really prepared to learn. When we talked to her on the phone, we misunderstood where she was from, and we thought she lived far out and only had a bike to ride. But when we met up with our member help, who helped us find the house, we realized she was much closer to the church than we had originally thought. In fact, she could probably even walk if she had to. So that was a definite blessing. Her name is Bong Theary. She's young, married, with two young children. And she lives with a lot of extended family who I think we might have some success teaching as well. She's busy taking care of her children and she cooks and does housework for the whole family, but she has the desire to learn. So I'm excited for her!

Also, on Sunday I don't know what happened. But we had 4 POTENTIAL INVESTIGATORS show up to church. It was the strangest thing. Two different members brought friends who are interested in learning. And then another woman just showed up because she had been interested in coming to a Christian church for a while and saw our doors were open. And to be honest, I don't even know where the last one came from. But we have quite the growing pool of investigators of the past few weeks. It's been 4.5 months here, and I can count the investigators I've had on one had (except for the past few weeks). So I'm not sure why, just as I leave, the work is really starting to grow. But that's okay. I can say that I left the area better than I found it, and that's always the goal! It was actually kind of a strange Sunday for investigators to come. We had area conference for all of Asia. (Which, sidenote: next Asia area conference maybe Mason and I will get to watch it together!). But the problem was the technology wasn't working. So we waited. Eventually the bishop said we would go up to the stake center to watch it. Which produced mass chaos for a second as we tried to figure out how to get everyone to the other building. Seriously it was like a scene from the Titanic: get all the women and children on the motos first! But eventually they got things worked out, even though we had to watch it on a laptop. I won't lie, I did not get a whole lot out of it (it was all in Khmer). But it was a lot of good talk about families. Elder Nelson spoke. 

Also this week we were able to attend family home evening at Ming Samay's house. Bong Pich and her children were able to come to. So with Ming Samay's five children and Bong Pich's two, it was a lot of fun. Boran, our Branch Mission leader, Ming Samay's son, and the one who is about to leave on his mission to California, taught a good lesson about humility. And it was good to see all the kids get involved. We were going to have it outside where we usually meet at their home, but as we were about to get started, it suddenly started pouring. So we all squished into the house together where were were safe from the rain. It was a lot of fun.       

       

And that's about it for the week. Nothing too crazy to report on. Oh but here's a funny moment of the week. Hermana Davis shares a funny moment every week, and I should start doing that... This came from zone training we had on Friday. Our Khmer zone leader was teaching about goal setting. And he shared an example that President Moon had shared from their training meeting. He called in the story of "the chmaa and the srey s'aat" or the cat and the pretty girl, which all of us were unfamiliar with until his American companion translated it to Alice and Wonderland. We were all dying. It's funnier in Khmer. 

And last, to end with a spiritual thought. I'm continuing my studies of Paul and today I came across another gem. 2 Corinthians 12. Pull out your scriptures and look it up. But especially verses 7-12:

7 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.
9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Paul glories in his weaknesses because (like we learn in Ether 12:27) weaknesses are what draw us closer to Christ and help teach us about the enabling power of the atonement. I've learned a lot here in Pochentong. And I've learned a lot in particular about weaknesses and trials and "the refiner's fire." And I've felt a lot like Paul in verse 8 asking the Lord to take away the trials. But instead He did and continues to do what is better and wiser for me. He strengthens me to withstand the trials and my weaknesses. Because His grace is sufficient. And like Paul, I can say. that it is when I am weak that I am truly strong. Humility is the ultimate sign of spiritual strength. In our humility we recognize the Lord's will and we accept His plan and His timing. And when we do that, we recognize just how much we can learn and grow from our experiences. And I'm really grateful for the experiences I've had over the past few months in this little corner of  Cambodia.

Well, that's all for this week! See you next week in Battambang!

Love,

Sister Fields

FHE at Ming Samay's.