In Which We Clean House

Me teaching body parts at English class.

Hello!

So not too much went down this week. Sometimes I can't believe it's P-day again. These weeks just keep flying by. Transfer calls came last night, and Sister L. and I will be together another transfer to finish training together, so that's good news! We were happy about that. 

As for this week, the first two days were spent cleaning our house (because Pchum Ben shut the city down). We thought it would be a quick job because our apartment is very small, but we cleaned all the way from 6 in the morning until 12:30 pm when the senior couple came for cleaning check. But our apartment is spotless! Somehow we still get ants all over the kitchen; but hey, it's Cambodia. Everything is very alive here. All the missionaries in the city got together Tuesday evening for a celebration at the stake center. We watched the Joseph Smith movie and ate ice cream and cookies so that was fun. 

Then the next day it was back to work, despite the fact the city was still vacant. We had English class that night. Usually we get an average of 40 or 50 students at our building. (I'm English class leader, did I mention that before? I literally hate being English class leader. You have no power or authority, but you get the blame for everything!) And we had approximately ZERO students show up. So that was cool. 

So we didn't really get a chance to meet with too many people. Hopefully next week will really get back to normal. Holidays kind of shut the work down for a month, which is a little frustrating, but it's okay. We do what we can do. We have some baptisms coming up next week. The teenage girls we've been teaching for a while are on date. They are the daughters of our recent convert. I've taught them ever since I first arrived, so it's been about two months now. And it's fun to see how much they've grown. At first they were VERY reluctant to learn, but the mom pretty much forced them. But as they've come to church every week and started reading scriptures (mostly without having to be prompted from mom) they are really starting to develop their own testimonies. It's hard sometimes to tell with investigators if they are truly experiencing conversion in their hearts or if it's kind of a surface change that will cause them to revert back after a while. But we had a really good lesson with them on covenants and helped them understand that baptism is a chance to become a "new creature." I think it's really starting to click for them. And the youngest (14) is now wanting to serve a mission! They're all really cute and funny. We have a lot of fun teaching them. We like to dream about the day that they're all going to go to the Salt Lake temple together to get sealed and we'll go meet them there.

We've had a lot of fun teaching that family. Now every Sunday they do an FHE and invite us and different families from the ward over. It's a lot of fun. Everybody gets a chance to share a verse and a little spiritual thought. We always end up laughing a lot. And then they feed us too much food and make fun of Sister L. for not "knowing how" to eat Khmer food, even though most of the time she really does like it (though sometimes it can be quite sketchy). There are some really great members in both of our wards, and it's been fun getting to know them. 

We had a good lesson with Srey Leap our 17-year-old investigator from English class. She's smart and really sweet. She wants to learn everything. She keeps asking me to teach her piano and Sister L. to teach her basketball because she asked her if she knew how to play and she said yes, haha. So we'll see about all of those. For now though, she's just learning about the gospel with us. She went home to her srok for the holiday, and then gave us a call right when she got back wanting to meet that day. We've taught her the first few lessons and we invited her to get baptized, but she said she's not sure yet. She wants to understand more before she agrees, which is an answer I actually like a lot. We helped her understand that she can know for herself what we are teaching is true mostly through the Book of Mormon and prayer. She read the first chapter and then re-read it again just so she made sure she understood it. These may not sound like big things; but here in Cambodia, they are. So she's doing well. 

Hmmm, what else is new? Friday we went on an exchange. The sister training leaders in our zone are in a trio now, so two sisters came to be with me in my area. We had a good day, and taught a lot of lessons, but I really missed Sis L! We were reunited the next night when we met up at the church to exchange back and it just felt like I really had parted from my actual koon. 

So this week I'll just share a quick scriptural thought I've been ponderizing for the week. This one comes from 2 Ne 26:24. I'll even insert it right here so you don't have to go looking, that's how considerate I am:

"He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation."

That is the character of Christ. Everything He does, has done, and will continue to do is for the benefit of the world. For us. Despite our imperfections, and our selfishness, He gave His life to us. Why? Because He loves the world (read: us). And it is His love that draws us in. He stands there, arms outstretched, inviting us to come to partake of His salvation. Tae be nung (that's all). 

So that's it for this week. Life continues to go on in Cambodia. Trash is burned, monks do their door-to-door trick or treating chants (tis the season) the roads flood, the children run around naked, and such is the life. And I do love it. Not because Cambodia is particularly beautiful or anywhere I would want to live for the rest of my life, but because it is Cambodia. And then experiences we are having are crazy, and hilarious, and sometimes heartbreaking, but overall pretty life changing. It's a good life. And I've got four more months of it. Here we go! 

Love,

Sister Fields

Movie party at the church after we cleaned house.

Sis L. and Srey Pov (the youngest of the teenage daughters--the one who wants to serve a mission) coloring together.

 One night we had no one to see. So we went home to work on CBRs, but just before we swung be a new Domino's that just opened up around the corner! Not your American Domino's for sure, but not bad. 

Okay so the theme is food. These are no-bake cookies we made one night a few weeks ago. Turned out super good.

Spent forty minutes cleaning grease off the walls.

Kind of hard to see, but this is a desert a less active made and had us try. It's jack fruit stuffed with this special kind of rice pudding thing. You dip it in the liquid stuff. It was not bad.

Last but not least. I'm rich! This is the stack of 100s we took to the psaar the other day. Hint: one 100 is equivalent to about 3 cents.  The least  I have spent is 500 for something.