THANKSGIVING

It was an exciting week over here in the promised land. We had a water festival for a few days this week and lots of our investigators went to their hometowns to meet with their families and spend some time together. We had a thanksgiving zone conference, and had a great feast!!! (spiritually and physically) We just have so much to be thankful for God has been so good to me and I am so thankful for the many wonderful blessings I receive daily!

I went on an exchange with Sister Dy this week (old companion) and we had a blast! She is hilarious and we had a great time working together again. We also had a stake conference this week where the leadership urged all the members to get on the south stake boat and help save all those who are drowning around us and to get ourselves and our families ready to go to the temple. I can't wait for the temple to come to Cambodia it is the biggest blessing and as a result of it's announcement the work is just exploding right now. 

We got 3 member referrals this week and they all seem really excited and ready to receive the gospel. We have ming veancheangchan who is vietnamese who has been to every christian church here in cambodia but said she just is having trouble finding the right one. We had a member come with us and bore powerful testimony of the truthfulness of this church and the power of prayer. Om Bon came to church this week and said she just feels so much peace in the church and said she wants to come every week. Sitha is the niece of our relief society president and is constantly surrounded by good influences and also has a little christian background. 

We have Phearom and Srei Pov lined up for baptism this week and hopefully Chinda. It should be an exciting week!

We have a recent convert Sok Khim and she has such a powerful testimony. She has a son who is 3 and can't yet walk or talk and is really hard to control but she just said "Sisters I know that Heavenly Father is blessing me, I pray everyday for help and even though I know a miracle won't happen in just one day I know eventually the blessings will come as I am faithful and continue to ask in faith." This reminded me of a scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 58:3-4 

"3 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation.

4 For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand."

I love this scripture and I know that God has so many miracles and blessings to give us as we push forward with faith through our tribulations!!

Love Sister Stratford

GOD IS GOOD

So basically I have no idea where all the time goes but this week was the fastest week of my life. We are super busy and always running around. Well Chinda, Phearom and Bong Pov are all progressing toward their baptismal dates. We had some great lessons on faith this week with Borey. Tola and Sok Nai came to church (new investigators) and just talked about how much peace they feel the second they come to the church. 

We picked up 3 more investigators this week from english class and a member referral. Hopefully we can keep up with all these people and help them to enter into sacred covenants with the Lord. This week really just feels like a blur. BUT it was annual photo week this week so I have some good pictures coming your way. 

We did a mass english class flyer handout this week with all the missionaries here in SMC and we could not have chosen a hotter time of day. It is supposed to be the cold season right now (it is literally NEVER cold here) I am still sweating to death but I love it!!!! Luckily Sister Sok brought an umbrella to keep the heat off a little bit. The poverty here and the circumstances I see and hear about daily breaks my heart. I know that this gospel is truly the only thing that will heal these people. 

We had an impression to go and visit Phearom right after church and a member walked up to us and asked to come. We walked to her house and caught her right as she came back home from buying some medicine. She is having a really hard time with her husband and was contemplating suicide. We got there at the perfect time, the Lord really does lead us to those in need. Long story short there are a lot of hard things out here but in the strength of the Lord we can do all things.

Random note - two of my recent converts from way back in my first area are finishing up their mission papers to send in this week! I am so excited for them :))

It was a good week as always here in paradise. I love being a missionary and being able to see change happen in the lives of those I am blessed to teach. God is good!!

Love Sister Stratford

SMALL AND SIMPLE THINGS

Good week this week. Literally feel like investigators were just falling into our laps all week. Srei Noic walked into church and wants to learn, srei Nit was at one of our investigators houses when we visited and said she wanted to learn as well. Ming Soknai just walked up to us wanting to learn. Ming Theary came to church last week and so we went and found her house to follow up and see if she was interested in learning more. We caught her right before she was about to go back to her hometown. Her older sister got hit by a car and passed away this week and so she was going to the funeral. We told her that she would have the opportunity to meet her sister again and bore testimony of the plan of salvation and she just got so excited and you could see this light in her eyes. She says "Wait what really? I just have goosebumps all over, are you serious?" She was so excited and we are looking forward to meeting her again this week when she gets home. Tola who we meet last week asked if she came to church 3 times if she could get baptized. It is so crazy to me how many people are wanting to learn here. 

The sad news of the week is Bong Borey. She is our investigator. She has a rare disease called myasthenia gravis and basically there isn't a cure. We don't know how much time she has left to live but she has so much faith. We went over (not knowing before of her disease) and planned to teach about the hope that comes through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. She just started crying and telling us how she is losing hope because she is too weak to hold and take care of her kids anymore and she can barely even walk around. Despite her weakness she came to church for the sacrament. My heart breaks for her and I hope she can find more hope as we continue to teach her about the amazing healing that comes from the gospel. Please pray for her and her cute family!

Phearom and Srei Pov and Chinda have baptismal dates and the work is really progressing over here. 

We had MLC this week and we taught about our next spiritual step. There are so many spiritual steps being made in the church with the changes to 2 hour church and ministering. There are some big steps we are trying to help make with our members here. We focused on the next spiritual step for our mission and specific zones and what we need to do. I shared in ether about the story of tightening the ship like unto a dish. And talked about some things we need to "tighten" in our mission and asked them to prayerfully consider things they need to "tighten" in their lives. 

I also was asked to speak in sacrament meeting and I decided to focus my remarks on alma 37:6 "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass." I know that as we are focused on doing the small and simple things consistently and continuously we will see great things happen in each of our lives!

Love, 

Sister Stratford

40 COCKROACHES CAME RUNNING OUT

Well another crazy week out here in paradise! 

We had transfers this week and I was really sad to see Sister Clark go back to America but also way excited for her! We had a leadership meeting the morning of transfers and taught all the leaders about how important their example is, as well as exact obedience. After transfers were all finished we had a sisters conference which was really fun that lasted until the next day. Sister Sok, Sister Clark and I all taught about how to be an effective missionary as a training segment during the Sisters Conference. It was really fun and it seemed like all the sisters enjoyed it!

We had a short new missionary training for the new sister from Cambodia and I finally headed on over to SMC. The first night we were there I saw a cockroach and so I sprayed it and it ran into the cupboard. To make sure it was going to die I opened up the cupboard and literally 40 cockroaches came running out, we ran outside to buy some raid and came back and raided the whole apartment complex out. So very thankful for Raid, it saves lives out here. Good news is haven't seen any ants yet!

I still haven't met all of our investigators, but Pirom and Bong Pov are way cute they both came to church this week. When we were out contacting we found Tola who came up to us and said she wanted to learn and then came to all 3 hours of church, miracle! 

The people here are so funny I have had 6 or 7 people come up to me and ask to take a picture because I am white and have blonde hair pretty funny. There are more dogs than people out here. The wards are great and I have a lot of missionaries from my MTC group in this area so it should be fun!

I have been thinking a lot about the importance of the sacrament and how important it is that we have it every week, so that we can remember. We need to be coming to the sacrament table hungry and prepared for the feast. No matter how monotonous the speakers are or how crazy the children are running around, as we come prepared we can feast! 3 nephi 20: 8 says "He that eateth this bread eateth of my body to his soul; and he that drinketh of this wine drinketh of my blood to his soul; and his soul shall never hunger nor thirst, but shall be filled."

I also really love 2 nephi 26:24" 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." 

As we partake of the sacrament we can truly feel the draw pulling us closer to our Father in Heaven through His Son. 

Love Sister Stratford