THE GIFT OF DISCERNMENT

Family,

This week was really hot! We are starting to get into the hot season and I have never sweat so much in my life but I love it. We moved houses this week which was super exciting our new house is really nice and it has an oven so we are way excited about that. It is just Sister Dy and I in the house but we have a good time. We got invited to eat dinner at a members house this week. They are from the international branch and they made us fetticini alfredo! SO GOOD. I haven't had cheese in a long time so delicious. 

The work this week is moving along. We had Kim pray about a baptismal date this week and we are meeting with her today! So hopefully she will be getting baptized in the next few weeks. We got a really promising new investigator Sina who we are also excited about. Cool story- There is a member in our ward Thida. She has been a member for a little over a year now and is preparing to go on a mission and currently waiting for her call. She has been working on her family to come to church for a long time and her mom finally committed to start learning!!!!! We are so excited to start teaching her, this is such a huge blessing for Thida and she really hopes that her mom can get baptized before she leaves on her mission.

This week I was thinking a lot about this quote "Inviting the Lord to help us find ways to serve will allow the Spirit to open our eyes to see the needs around us, to see the one who needs us that day and to know how to minister to him or her." I want the Lord to always be able to count on me to lift those around me and find ways to serve them. As I was thinking about how I could better serve my companion and my investigators I thought a lot about the gift of discernment. This is something that I am constantly praying for because "Discernment is a light of protection in a world that grows increasingly dark... The gift of discernment opens to us vistas that stretch far beyond what can be seen with natural eyes or hear with natural ears. Discerning is seeing with spiritual eyes and feeling with the heart - seeing and feeling the falsehood of an idea or the goodness in another person. Discernment is hearing with spiritual ears and feeling with the heart - hearing and feeling the unspoken concern in a statement of the truthfulness of a testimony or doctrine." (Elder David A. Bednar) 

I know that as we are quick to observe - promptly responding to spiritual impressions and the prophets counsel that we will be blessed with the gift of discernment that can help guide us through the world that we live in today. And help us to lift, inspire, edify and bless those that surround us.

Love you!!!

Sister Stratford 

KANITA GOT BAPTIZED!!!

Helloooooo

We had transfer calls last night and I am staying for my 4th transfer here in Chaktamok and Toul tom Pong with Sister Dy. It will be me and 3 Khmer's in the house so no more english for me! I also hit my 6 months mark last week which is exciting! This weekend was Chinese new year and so its been crazy trying to meet with anyone. When we were contacting we got taught by a monk which was quite the experience. All our investigators went to their kites and trying to contact was insane because everyone was drunk but it was a good week because... KANITA GOT BAPTIZED!!! We are so excited for her!!!! We got some new investigators we are getting excited about this past week. Kanha and Kim are progressing and we are hoping to get them on date this week. 

I love this quote from PMG "We will all stand before the Lord at the last judgement and give an accounting for what we have done with the opportunities He has given us." The Lord gives us so many opportunities each day and it is so important that we are using our time how the Lord would want us to use it so we can stand spotless before Him at the last day. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.' (3 nephi 13:33) I know that as we are always trying to do the will of the Lord first, and seeking to build His kingdom we will be blessed. I love this gospel so much and am so thankful for a Savior who provides us with so many opportunities and chances to come unto Him and to progress towards eternal life. 

Love, 

Sister Stratford

I KNOW THE LORD TRULY LOVES US

hELLO, 

This week was a good one. We dropped 7 of our investigators because we are trying to find the elite and they weren't progressing. So we are excited to find some new investigators this week. The past few weeks we have found two really good progressing investigators, Kim and Kanha. They are so good and have been coming to church for the last month so we are hoping they will get baptized soon!! Kanita hopefully will be getting baptized this week as well! 

So they had a wedding right outside of our apartment and it was blasting music from 3 am to midnight all day long so we haven't had much sleep for the past several days but its over!! The walls here are so thin. We have 3 members that should be getting their mission calls in the next several weeks we are way excited for them! Funny story this week when Sister Dy and I stopped on the side of the road for some ice cream this random man came up to us and turned around and took a bunch of pictures and ran away. So random. Its like these people have never seen a white person before.

I loved 1 nephi 19:9 this week "Änd the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long suffering towards the children of men." I know that the Lord truly loves us and the Savior suffered for us because of his loving kindness towards us. He wants us so badly to come unto Him and I am so thankful for His sacrifice so that I can learn and grow and become more like Him each day.

I love you all!!

Sister Stratford 

RESPECT PEOPLE'S AGENCY

Family,

Crazy week this week. Kanita didn't show up to her baptismal interview and Ming Naet went back to her kite and Mey won't answer her phone. So major lesson learned this week is just to respect people's agency. Once Ming Naet comes back from her kite she will continue to progress not too worried about her, we just dont know when that will be. She doesn't have a phone and so we will just go to her house occasionally and hope she comes back soon! 

Cool experience this week. As we were preparing to go out and proselyte I had the impression to go and visit a member Ming Sovanna and immediately after a specific verse of scripture came into my mind to share. So we planned to go to her house first thing after studies. As we started to meet with her she told us she was really busy, but I told her I wanted to just share a quick scripture. After we shared the scripture she just started to cry. She said she has been praying for months about a specific question and felt like she couldn't receive an answer and was very discouraged but she said she was praying that morning that someone would answer her prayer. She was very thankful that we stopped by. I am so glad I followed through on that impression and that through the spirit we were able to meet her needs. I am so thankful for the power of the Holy Ghost helping me teach these people everyday. 

This week I feel like everything was so busy and crazy. We have gotten 8 new investigators these past couple weeks and I feel like we just never have enough time. But then I was reading Elder Bednar's talk where he says "Sometimes we try to run so fast that we may forget where we are going and why we are running." I definitely feel like this week I was trying to run too fast and we were so busy doing what we thought we needed to do. But then we sat back and thought we just need to do this the Lord's way. 

President Eyring said "We can know which tasks, of all those we might choose, matters most to God and therefore to us." Truly what matters most to me is what God wants me to do and so as we prayerfully rescheduled our week we knew it was what God wanted us to do. I am so thankful for the power of prayer, don't know how people live without it. I am so lucky to be able to teach people about it everyday! 

Sister Stratford