SISTER MARKER

HIIII

This week was a hot one. Lots happening over here in Cambodia, Kanha came back and started meeting with us again and we got her on date! Kim is supposed to be baptized this evening, switched her date because of school finals, by her older brother who got baptized about 4 months ago so I think this will be a super powerful baptism! I am super excited and hope all goes as planned! You never know what's going to happen baptisms are always crazy but we are excited! We had a little miracle this week with one of our investigators. Her name is srei lek and she has a really hard time remembering anything and isn't all there and so we were going to drop her, BUT she has been consistently coming to church the past 5 weeks and when we taught her she remembered the law of chastity and word of wisdom before prayer which was kind of weird, never taught that lesson first but you just do what the Spirit directs and we see miracles! We are really hoping that we can help her remember the simple truths of the gospel and bring her closer to Christ. 

Ming Naet that we haven't met with forever is still in her kite we are way sad about it, her neighbors told us she was really sick and so we are hoping she can get better and come back to the city. Sina is still progressing and we have a lot of great new investigators we are hoping will continue to want to learn. ALSO we had 2 members from TTP and 1 from CTM receive their mission calls this week and they are all serving in CAMBODIA WAHOOO. They will come next transfer which we are super excited about we are kind of lacking missionaries (especially sisters) right now. We only have 88 missionaries and 22 sisters. But we should be getting lots next transfer so we are pumped! Also President Moon came and visited the mission and we were able to visit with him and his wife in TTP super cool.

This week I was studying a lot about the Book of Mormon. I have made some goals about using the Book of Mormon more and I want to be able to answer all of our investigators questions through the Book of Mormon to help them really base their testimony and conversion on it. One quote that I loved was "Within the book's pages, you will discover the infinite love and incomprehensible grace of God. As you strive to follow the teachings you find there, your joy will expand, your understanding will increase and the answers you seek to the many challenges mortality presents will be opened to you."-Elder Stevenson. THIS IS SO TRUE. I have found so much joy from this book. There is so much power in it and most importantly it brings us closer to our Savior. 

"...they have come up hither to hear the pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul."(Jacob 2:8)  

The Book of Mormon truly heals us and brings us to our Savior, I am so thankful that we have this book and I promise that as you read it you will feel of your Saviors love and draw closer to Him. And you will receive power to overcome the temptations of the devil. REAAAAD IT EVERYDAY! 

I LOVE YOU ALL 

SISTA Stratford

(I changed my name to Sister Ford because Stratford was too hard for people to remember and say. If you translate that it means marker in Khmer so I am now Sister Marker)

NON STOP SWEAT

Hello,

You know that feeling when you bake some cookies on a hot July day and you take them out of the oven and the steam hits your face and its super hot? That is about what it feels like in Cambodia right now only x10. We are in the hot season and I am sweating to death but I am so happy because ITS MANGO SEASON :))

Kim accepted to be baptized and is on date for the 17th of March. I am so excited for her! She is a super amazing investigator. Sina is also still progressing and we have a lot of potentials we are working on right now. So the work is good! We had an exchange in Steng Meunchay this week which was super fun. 

This week I studied a lot about desire. "The Lord blesses those who want to improve, who accept the need for commandments and try to keep them, who cherish Christlike virtue and strive to the best of their ability to acquire them. If you stumble in that pursuit so does everyone. The Savior is there to help you keep going... He will help you get back up. He will help you repent, repair, fix whatever you have to fix and keep going. Soon enough you will have the success you seek." (Elder Holland) 

"As you desire of me so it shall be done unto you...Put your trust in that Spirit which leadeth to do good - yea, to do justly, to walk humbly, to judge righteously...Then whatsoever you desire of me in righteousness... you shall receive." (Doctrine and Covenants 11: 8,12,14)

"We are going to be blessed for our desire to do good, even as we actually strive to be so."  I know that the Lord blesses us for the desire of our hearts and that we truly do get what we desire in this life. I know that 'all things work together for good to them that love God' and I have a strong testimony that the Savior is truly involved in the details of our lives!!

Have a great week!!

Sister Stratford

This is jackfruit and its my favorite fruit here

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

I LOVE BEING TALLER THAN EVERYONE

Family,

This week was so good! We had zone conference which is always the best. President is so amazing I learned so much from him! 

We have started doing activities every saturday night for the youth in CTM since mutual isn't a thing here and there aren't very many youth we decided to start off with sharing some spiritual insights and then playing basketball. It has been a blast, also I love being taller than everyone in basketball quite a different game. 

We have been doing a lot of finding this week and 3 of our new investigators came to church this week! Bong Toic,Vwandee and Linka. We are excited to start teaching all of them and help them come unto Christ. We haven't been able to meet with ming naet this week because she went back to her kite. This is a really common thing in Cambodia. Families living in the city will often go back to visit their hometowns for weeks at a time. But she is back and was at church yesterday so she will continue to progress towards her date. We also have Kanika back on date! She is continually progressing and we are getting excited about her. I am loving the work!

Something that I have been pondering this week is what it means to be a disciple of Christ. As I have been studying and thinking the attribute of love is what stuck out most to me most.

"Love is the guiding light that illuminates the disciples path and fills our daily walk with life, meaning, and wonder. Love is the measure of our faith, the inspiration for our obedience and the true altitude of our discipleship. Love is the way of the disciple." (Elder Uchtdorf) 

I think that developing love and charity towards others really shows our discipleship. as we are truly trying to become like Christ we need to love as He loved. Every other commandment hangs upon the principle of love, if we truly learn to love all else will fall into place. I feel like love fuels everything else we do and this is why the two greatest commandments are focused on love. 

 "By this shall men know, ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." 

I hope to be able to continue to strive to love as the Savior would love and truly give my all to serving others. I have seen so many miracles with love and am so thankful for the Savior's perfect example!

LOVE,

Sister Stratford