CHRISTMAS PICTURES

PRAYER IS SUCH A POWERFUL TOOL

HEYYY

So much to tell about this week! We have so many amazing people we meet everyday in Cambodia. Sister Smith and I were sitting at the church waiting for our investigators to come and one of the girls from our english class drove by and saw us so she went to the market and picked up some food for us and brought it back. These people are seriously so nice! We had two different Christmas parties with the stake and our ward this week which were so good. There were so many people that came and 4 of our investigators came as well!! The spirit was so strong and got me so excited for Christmas! It doesn't feel like Christmas time because it is in the middle of July weather out here but I can't wait. 

We got 3 new investigators this week who seem really promising. Maari, Kanida and Seumei. They are all about my age and are all so excited about learning. Kanida is from english class and she said everytime she comes to the church she feels that there isn't chaos and how it feels like a safe place. Seumei came up to us this week when we were handing out english class flyers and said that she wanted to learn about Christ. THIS NEVER HAPPENS. We are really excited. And Maari was a referral and so we cannot wait to continue teaching them these next weeks. 

We also got to play a hacky sack type game with some of the youth in the church parking lot as we were waiting for an investigator which was so fun. All of the youth and children here are so cute and I love interacting with them. The only 20 minutes that it was raining this week we were outside and got so drenched. The rain is my favorite. 

As I was studying this week I came across a beautiful quote by Elder Bednar "Spiritual creation preceded the temporal creation. In a similar way, meaningful morning prayer is an important element in the spiritual creation of each day and precedes the temporal creation or actual execution of the day. " I think this is so important that we are having real meaningful prayers each day and not just saying prayers. Our Heavenly Father wants to communicate with us and we have the amazing opportunity to do so. Pray is such a powerful tool we can use every single day to draw nearer to our Heavenly Father and to help bless His children. I love D & C 10:5 "Pray always, that ye may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work." Prayer is so powerful and I am so grateful that I am able to use it each and every day. I know the Lord loves all of His children so much and is just waiting to communicate with us!

Love Sister Stratford

THERE ARE MIRACLES HERE EVERY DAY

Hello hello,

This was another great week in Cambodia. There are miracles here everyday. My companion and I like to joke around about how tired the angels in Cambodia must be from saving us everyday in this traffic on our bikes. I had a crazy bike crash last Monday but no worries I am still alive and angels never cease to protect me! I just sometimes wish people actually knew how to drive on the right side of the road here. Also something interesting that I have seen is people with cars here have the steering wheel on the left in some cars and on the right in other cars. Super confusing and probably why the traffic is always so crazy but its the best I love Cambodia with all my heart!

I was reading an amazing talk by Elder Bednar this week and I came across this quote "It is one thing to know that Jesus Christ came to earth to die for us - that is fundamental and foundational to the doctrine of Christ. But we also need to appreciate that the Lord desires, through His Atonement and by the power of the Holy Ghost, to live in us - not only to direct us but also to empower us."

I have felt the empowering effects of the Atonement time and time again out here in Cambodia. The Lord truly gives us strength beyond what we can do on our own and helps us do more than we ever could on our own. I love in 2 nephi 2:8 that we truly need to come to rely on "the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah." I know and I promise that as we do so we will have so much more happiness and guidance in our lives. The Atonement is so beautiful and so amazing and I am so thankful for the Savior in my life and all that He has done for me personally and for each and everyone of us. I have been able to feel the Savior's love for so many people here in Cambodia and it is one of the coolest experiences to be given some of God's love for others. I can truly feel Christ's love for all those that I met here in Cambodia and can truly feel how much He cares about them and wants them to have happiness in their lives. I love this gospel so much!

Love, 

Sister Stratford

SEREI ROTH GOT BAPTIZED

FAMILY,

This week was so amazing and so many miracles happened! But the best news of the week is that Serei Roth got baptized!!! We were so happy! It was really stressful leading up to the baptism, we told her to come to the church at 1 and she didn't get there until 1:55 just 5 minutes before her baptism started. We were really stressed but so glad that she was able to come. The baptism was a really cool experience, she was so nervous. Cambodian people are kind of afraid of water and so she stood at the steps of the font for 10 minutes too scared, but she finally went in and after she got baptized she had the biggest smile on her face and said that she felt so calm and clean. We are so excited for her, and so happy that she decided to get baptized! 

Something funny about Cambodia, when people have weddings here there isn't really anywhere to rent out and so they just build the wedding right in front of their house, which usually takes up at least half of the road and sometimes the whole road. And so a lot of times when we are biking there are just random weddings in the middle of the road its the weirdest thing. 

The CTM elders and Sister Smith and I put on a Christmas fireside for our investigators and members of the ward. I was asked to speak about Christ's life. I am so thankful for the gift of tongues and know that it is so real, I was able to feel the spirit so strongly and truly speak through the heart and say all the things that I wanted to say. I am so thankful for this gift so that I am able to communicate with the beautiful people here through the Holy Ghost.

This week as I have been studying I have really felt that Heavenly Father and our Savior want to have a deep relationship with us and they truly care about us so much. I love in Helaman 3:35 where it says "sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts to God." I know that all the Savior is truly asking is for us to give our heart and our desires to Him. President Uchtdorf promised that as we do this "God will be with you. He will direct your steps. He will walk beside you and even carry you when your need is greatest." I know that these things are true, there have been so many times in my life where the Lord truly carries me through hard times and always directs my paths for the better. I am so thankful for the Savior and how much he loves us and cares for us. I know that as we give Him our hearts we will be blessed more than we can even comprehend.

We had transfers this week and so we have two new sisters living with us. Sister Her and Un, they are so cute and I am excited to get to know them better. One of my favorite people here in Cambodia is Bong Pana, she is an investigator that we were teaching that never had time to meet and so we haven't seen her for 3 weeks. But this week she showed up to church and said she found a new job that allows her more time and that she wants to meet with us. We are so excited! She is such an amazing person and you can truly see the light of Christ in her eyes. I hope that we can continue to help her Come to Christ. 

I love Cambodia with all my heart! I love you all!

Sister Stratford 

EVERYONE HERE IS VERY BLUNT

HELLO

We had transfer calls last night and I am staying in Toultompong and Chaktamok with Sister Smith. I am so excited about this transfer!!! We have so many progressing investigators and are really excited to continue to grow these areas. We got three new investigators this week who have been so receptive to the gospel and we are excited to continue meeting with them. We think this transfer will be really successful in bringing people to Christ.

We went on an exchange this week to Steng Mean Chey, it was really fun to go to new area and get new perspective on the work. Everyone here is very blunt, after we finished teaching and old lady she told me that I was very tall, white and very fat. First time anyone has ever told me that before, I didn't understand what she was saying so I just said thank you and we left and then my companion told me what she said. I thought it was so funny, Cambodians are the greatest! Also I love being tall :) 

Serei Roth is planning on getting baptized this week! We are so stoked. We had stake conference this week and she came with us. As one of the talks was born about preparing yourself to go to the temple she just started crying and the spirit was so strong. You can truly see the Lord touching these peoples hearts. It was such a cool experience for me. 

I love Alma 18:32 "He looketh down upon all the children of men; and he knows all the thoughts and intents of the heart; for by his hand were they all created from the beginning." I can truly see the Lord's hand in my life and the lives of my investigators and how he truly knows all the thoughts and intents of our hearts. He loves us more than we could ever comprehend and knows what we desire. I am so thankful for the Savior, who understands me perfectly and is always there to help me. I love this gospel so much!

Loveeee you all!

Sister Stratford

WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS

Hello,

This week was so crazy! We had some straight downpours. I have never been in rain like this before but I LOVE IT! I have never been so wet in my life, literally soaked from head to toe and dripping. All of the streets start to flood and it feels like someone is just standing over your head with a bucket of endless water. It is the happiest (only time I am not sweating is when its raining). Everyone thinks that we are crazy for walking around in rain up to our knees trying to talk to us. None of the Khmer people like the rain, even if it is just sprinkling outside they won't go out until the rain stops. 

We visited Tuol Slang Prison this week and it just broke my heart, these people have been through so much and my heart just aches for them. This prison is where Pol Pot kept prisoners and killed millions of people here. So many of our investigators lived through the Pol Pot Regime and their stories are so crazy. As I have been thinking this week about all the hard things that these people are going through I have grown so much in my gratefulness for the things that I have been given. 

I love in Alma 34:38 where is says "live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you." We truly have so much to be thankful for everyday and it is so important that we are thanking our Father in Heaven daily for the gifts that we have. 

I also love Helaman 3: 29-30 "Yea, we see that whosoever will may lay hold upon the word of God, which is quick and powerful, which shall divide asunder all the cunning and the snares and the wiles of the devil, and lead the man of Christ in a strait and narrow course across that everlasting gulf of misery which is prepared to engulf the wicked. And land their souls, yea, their immortal souls, at the right hand of God in the kingdom of heaven..." 

The Lord has given us the Book of Mormon and fullness of the gospel in this time. We have so many things so easily ready for us to use and it is so important that we are studying and pondering them daily. As we are reading the Book of Mormon daily we are promised so many blessings. The gospel brings us so much happiness and peace and guidance. I know that as we read the Book of Mormon daily that we will be blessed. The Book of Mormon has so much power, please read it!!! 

We are still getting really excited about Serei Roth, she is planning on getting baptized on December 3 and progressing so well! We also found 3 new investigators this week who seem really good and we are really excited about teaching. I love serving in Cambodia with all my heart!!!!!

Love you lots!!!

Sister Stratford

BUDDHA

Hello Hello,

This week was so much fun, I love Cambodia with all of my heart! Last P Day Sister Smith and I tried to go explore a watt and we went to go talk to the Lookpu that was in charge of letting us in. He instead brought us to another room filled with Buddha idols and offerings and started lighting candles and gave us incense to hold and we were just sitting there looking at each other like what on earth do we do? We didn't want to offend him or be disrespectful but also we aren't trying to worship Buddha haha. We just kind of sat there and looked at each other for 5 minutes as this old man was trying to get us to pray it was so funny. 

We got invited to go to a wedding this week which was super fun. In Cambodia they rent about 5 dresses and change throughout the day, super fun. We also found a krispy kremes which was so delicious and happy! 

We have an investigator named Serei Roth who is sooo solid! She has a baptismal date set for December 3 and we are getting so excited. We met her a few weeks ago. She already has such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and hasn't missed church since we met her. She is so good and we are loving meeting with her. 

I was studying a little bit about the Atonement this week and came across some scriptures I love:

Mosiah 24: 15 "And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs."

1 Peter 5:7 "Casting all your care upon Him; for he careth for you."

I know that the Savior cares about each of us so much and is constantly calling for us to rely on Him and Come unto Him. I am so thankful for an infinitely patient Father in Heaven who loves us no matter what and is always willing to work with us where we are and always has a plan for our lives. This gospel is so amazing and I am soo thankful for the love and care I have felt from the Savior in my life. 

Love,

Sister Stratford

This is what Sadie wrote her mom personally - 

Things in Cambodia are so amazing I love it here!! 

My health is doing better my stomach still hurts a lot but I am doing good no problem

I usually just have fruit for dinner so I dont eat dinner a lot but that is okay when i am really hungry i make something or have cereal

The language is coming slowly. I can understand words here and there and depending on the person I can pick out phrases and understand the basic idea but there are some older people i literally have zero idea anything they say 

We have 5 investigators right now and most of them are progressing. There are so many hard obstacles for these people to overcome to receive baptism. We have 3 with a baptismal date in beginning of december so we shall see if they can make it. Ming Vanaat is the lady I took a picture with she is the one who needs to get a marriage license that her village leader wont give her other than that she is so ready to get baptized i love her. Bong pana is an amazing member but we just found out she is living with an abusive girlfriend and she is trying to get out of that situation to get baptized she says she doesnt love her anymore but doesnt know how to get out of that situation it is so heartbreaking. She showed us some of the bruises that she got and it broke my heart. Serei roth we meet maybe 3 weeks ago and she is so solid and planning to get baptized on december 3 she came to all three hours of church yesterday which was amazing hardly anyone does that in cambodia usually just sacrament. 

The discussions with investigators are so fun. I dont know what you want to know about those?

Typical day we wake up at 5:30 and exercise and then get ready for the day and eat then study personal for an hour and plan for a half hour and then we either study language or go meet some investigators. We just throw in our other studies where we have time throughout the day. We just go out and bike to lessons ususally 20 minutes away for most our investigators right now. Then we contact people or visit ward members that need help or we are close with for referrals. We have an hour for lunch which we just cook at home and then we have two english classes as week on saturday and wednesday. So we just contact and teach lessons all day and then come home at 7:30 and either eat or get ready for bed and usually go to bed at 8:30 because we are always exhausted but we can s tay up till 9:30 but we hardly ever do. 

These last few pdays we have ran errands and gone to markets to buy fun things and explore. Today we are going to a paul pot killing field which is going to be so sad. We always go the market on pday to get groceries for the week. There isnt a ton of things to see in the city

Sundays are crazy long. If the speakers dont show up they ask us to speak but i didnt speak yesterday. We are at church at 12 to meet with bishop from CTM and then a 1 and 3 o clock ward we go to.

I will try to send a recording this week

I am only allowed to take pictures on pday which is so hard because there are so many things i want to take pictures of throughout the week but its against the rules and i dont ever care to take pictures on pday because we havent done anything too exciting. Its so hard because there are so many things i want to take pictures of but cant

I love riding a bike because you can weave through traffic but the traffic is so insane i always feel like i am going to die but its fun

No big rain storms it rained a few nights. The rain scares away all the people they all go inside and we cant knock doors its illegal so the work is better when it doesnt rain but i also love the rain because i dont sweat to death

Funniest thing I will write about in my mass email as well as spiritual such a fun week! I will go check the mission home today for the package

That picture was one of our investigators in her house ming vannat she is so cute i love her\

Thank you for the ant advice!!! we will try that

That makes me laugh so hard about blake he is the funniest i miss him. Church in cambodia is literally the funniest i will tell you more about that later remind me its so

HELLO

Family, 

This was a slow week in Cambodia as far as teaching goes. We had the water festival all week and so all of our investigators cancelled on us. But we had a lot of training this week. We had new missionary training as well as zone conference. So amazing! President Christensen is an amazing mission president and I learned so much from him this past week.

One thing that I have been studying this week was about patience. I love in Psalms 27:14 where is says "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord." I know for me a lot of times I get impatient and have a hard time being patient waiting on the Lord for answers and for guidance. But I have had a reaffirmed testimony of the power of patience this week. I know that the Lord always hears our prayers and He always answers them. Sometimes we just don't recognize the things and that ways he answers us and He doesn't always answer us in the ways that we would expect. I also think that sometimes the Lord doesn't answer because we aren't ready to receive the answers. It is so important to be continually striving to become more converted unto the Lord each day and be worthy and ready to receive the things He would have us know. Patience is a virtue and I am trying to become a more patient person. We need to work as hard as we can and do all we can to try to come to the Lord each day.

We went with some of the elders this week to bless a house of one of the members in our ward. She is a super funny lady. After the beautiful prayer on the house she asked the elders to go throw flowers at her house. It was the most hilarious thing to watch these elders as they threw flowers along the pathway of her house. I wish I had a picture.

There are so many amazing people here in Cambodia and they make my heart so happy. I hope to be able to become as loving as they are. You can truly see the light of Christ in all of His children here in Cambodia. I love Cambodia!!!

Love Sister Stratford

HOT AND HUMID

Hello Hello

This was another crazy week in Cambodia. At the beginning of the week we were meeting an investigator at the church for a lesson and we saw a crazy lookpu swimming in the baptismal font. It was pretty funny. He is always hanging out at the church. Hopefully he doesn't do that again. 

We went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders this week and so I got to go to Steng Meanchey for a day. It was super fun we taught two families about the book of mormon and restoration of the gospel. They had the cutest little kids that were listening to the lesson with us. 

We have 3 new investigators this week. We met a girl named Serei Roth this week when we were contacting and she invited us into her house to meet each other and we briefly talked about Heavenly Father and His love for her. She called us again 2 days later and said that she wanted to meet us. We went back and talked about the restoration and she just soaked everything in and we gave her a baptismal date for December 3. She is so solid, she asked us when church was because she wanted to come and learn more. We are really excited about teaching her, she already has been reading the Book of Mormon everyday and you can tell that she is so prepared to receive the gospel.

Another one of our investigators is Bong Panaa, she amazes me. We have taught her all the lessons and continue to teach her as she is preparing for her baptismal date. She is progressing so well and has shared so many spiritual experiences with us. I love these people here they are so amazing! 

I love Alma 37: 36 and 37 especially where it says "cry unto God for all thy support; yea, let all thy doings be unto the Lord, and withersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever." This scripture has had so much meaning to me these past few weeks as I am constantly striving to follow the will of the Lord and finding the people he wants me to talk to. 

Love you!!

Sister Stratford

CAMBODIA!!

Hello!!!

I finally made it to Cambodia and it is so so hot! Apparently this is the cooler season and this week has been really nice weather but I am constantly sweating. I am serving in two areas right now, Toultompong and Chaktamook. This is in the city and it has been so fun. We wake up at 5:30 everyday and return at 7:30. People get up really early here. We have 4 sisters living in our apartment and one of them is a native Cambodian. She is such a good cook! The food here is SO DELICIOUS. And the people here have the biggest hearts. My companion is Sister Smith she is super nice. 

My first night here we had a lesson with Bong Penaa. She has had all the lessons already and wants to get baptized but she can't yet because she isn't married. She needs to get a marriage license from her village leader but he won't give her one even though she has met all the requirements. Those are really hard to get here because they are so expensive and these people are so poor. It is so sad. After our lesson with her, she prayed that I would have strength in learning this language. She is the cutest ming. 

There were so many miracles this week! We went to go visit a potential investigator and she wasn't home. But as we biked by her house we passed someone and she took out her headphones and started talking to us. She said that she wanted to learn about Christ and we set up an appointment with her for this week! It was so cool.

The second day we were here I was super frustrated about the language and not knowing what anyone was saying to me but I had a goal to hand out a Book of Mormon for that day. It was the end of the night but we still had 30 minutes left and I was pleading with God to give me an opportunity to share the Book of Mormon. And to know what to say so that I could communicate with these people. Sister Smith told me to lead us and decide where to go. We turned down some seemingly random streets and there was a Cambodian on the side of the road with a broken down car so we stopped to try to help him. As we starting talking to him he started speaking in English. Huge tender mercy for me. As we were talking he said he knew a little bit about our church and that our trade mark here are the bikes and our hearts. I was able to give him a Book of Mormon and bear testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon. He kept telling me and my companion that we were his angels and that he felt like God sent us to him. It was so cool. 

The traffic here is insane. There are no traffic rules here or at least nobody follows them. I got hit by a moto on the way to visit an investigator and almost fell off my bike in the middle of an intersection, so funny. There are also no addresses, the people just base their directions off of big buildings that people recognize. So it is really hard to find different houses. 

Love you!!! Sorry I am out of time

Sister Stratford

TODAY IS THE DAYYYYYY

Hello Hello,

I leave for Cambodia in a few hours and I AM SO EXCITED!!! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by it's so crazy. I almost made it all 9 weeks without having to speak in sacrament but President Moon called me up this week to speak on the last sunday. The topic was on enduring to the end, as I was studying about enduring to the end this week I read through a talk called "Stay by the tree"by Elder Kevin W. Pearson. I would recommend reading it, it's a really good talk. After I spoke President and Sister Moon spoke to us and President Moon focused his remarks and patterned his talk after the Stay by the Tree topic which was super cool. Must have been on the same spiritual wave this week.

 We had D. Todd Christofferson and Elaine S. Dalton come to give devotionals this week in the MTC and they both focused all of their thoughts on the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is so important!!! Read it everyday and I promise you it will bless your life! It is such a powerful book. I packed up all my notes from the devotional but it was so powerful. And is so important in our personal conversion READ IT! 

We read in class Ether 6 and I loved reading verse 6. The Lord always pushes us towards the path that we need to go but that doesn't mean that it is going to be easy. Life is hard, but God is good and I know that as we turn to Him he will guide us to where we need to go and help us. As we rely on the Lord we will be blessed and have more happiness than we could ever imagine! 

I can't wait to meet the Cambodian people and sweat to death everyday. This is going to be such a fun adventure :)) 

Love you!

Sister Stratford