កម្ពុជាមានបេះដូងខ្ញុំជារៀងរហូត

Hello Family, 

Words can't even begin to express how I feel about my mission and the beautiful people of Cambodia, they have truly changed my heart forever. I have learned so much, and grown in so many ways I didn't even think possible. I am so thankful for this opportunity that I have had to work along side the Savior of the world it truly has been a blessing and a privilege. I have learned countless lessons as I have served as a full time missionary and I will just share a few:

• God LOVES LOVES LOVES His children (especially in Cambodia)
• The true key to happiness is to labor for the happiness of others
• The Lord can only shape and refine us if we let Him
• His arms are always outstretched in love
• The Lord always prepares a way as we work hard and are exactly obedient
• It's all about the small and simple things
• Heavenly Fathers plan is perfect
• Being quick to observe
• The Lord is involved in EVERY detail of our lives
• Love is the essence of the gospel
• PATIENCE
• Where much is given, much is required
• The Savior of the world labors alongside those who serve Him
• Expect miracles - they happen everyday
• Being deliberate about my discipleship
• The Book of Mormon has power - and truly heals the wounded soul
• Humility
• Meekness
• Love and Charity
• How to be effective and efficient with time
• Keeping an eternal perspective
• We have an infinitely patient Father in Heaven
• How to weave through traffic on a bike
• Raid is a man's best friend
• Cambodia is too hot
• Cambodia has the kindest, most loving people
• I love my Savior and Redeemer and know that He lives and is directing and guiding His restored church today!

I just can't even express to you the overwhelming joy that I have found as I have served this mission. This mission saved my life and I am eternally thankful for it. Cambodia has my heart forever.

Love Sister Stratford

សីុស្ទើរស្រ្តាតហ្វឺត  

P.s. My homecoming will be on March 24th at 12 pm at 900 Eagle Pointe Drive North Salt Lake, Utah 84054

SEE YOU SOON!!

THE FOURTH WATCH

Hello Family!

Time really is flying it is crazy how fast it goes. I am just trying to live up every second out here and am grateful that I still have a week to be a missionary :) 

Oh man Steung Mean Chey 3 is a wild ride to say the least. You literally just never know what is going to happen. Unfortunately this week we lost 3 of the people that were supposed to get baptized this week. Botom and Sokom told us that their parents aren't allowing them to get baptized. Originally when we talked with their parents they didn't have a problem. Not sure what changed but their parents won't give permission so hopefully when they are older they can make the decision for themselves. They were so cute. 

Also my most favorite YAY :( Yay Suang is having a lot of temptation right now and lots of doubts and discouragement and we don't feel she is ready to get baptized yet. SO SAD! The good news is that I still get to see her all the time because we have a lot of investigators right by her house,  but we are giving her a break right now so she can figure out what she wants to do. Satan is working really hard on her. But we also want to make sure she is ready to commit to her Savior for the rest of her life and don't feel she is quite there.

So we were supposed to have a karaoke night as a ward activity. The Cambodians are big karaoke fans, people do it at their houses on the daily so we thought it would be a good idea for some ward unity since our ward is struggling. So the activity was supposed to start at 5 but keep in mind we are on Cambodian time here so basically the elders and sister hafen and I showed up early to set up. 5 o'clock comes around and there are 3 people there. Bishop and the people who were supposed to be running the activity didn't show up until 5:45 and then we didn't even end up doing karaoke but ya know it was still fun. 

I have been thinking a lot this week about how we worship a fourth watch God. We have so many people that just say "well sisters I have been doing all these things and changing my life around and I haven't seen any difference, I am not seeing the blessings. My life is still hard and God isn't helping me." 

In Mark 6:46-48 it says "And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray. And when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and he alone on the land. And he saw them toiling in rowing; for the wind was contrary unto them: and about the fourth watch of the night he cometh unto them, walking upon the sea." 

There are times in our lives when we toil, rowing against the wind. We try so hard to make progress but we feel like there are all these forces against us. There might be some trials that we wish badly to be over, or some blessings we desire with all our hearts, and it doesn't seem as though we are making any headway against the wind and we start to wonder if the Lord is really listening. 

But something I think a lot of us need to understand is that Heavenly Father is a fourth watch God. And sometimes we wish and even expect that things would come immediately and we get discouraged and think maybe He isn't listening or maybe He isn't there but in this account it says that he saw them. He was watching and is always watching. He watched them as he watches us toiling in rowing. But ultimately He knows that it will be for our good so we can learn and so we can be prepared to receive His answers. Because sometimes we aren't in a place to receive the answers and Heavenly Father doesn't know where to put these answers to our prayers. But as we struggle and go through these challenges it refines us and creates a way for our Father to reach us, humbling us and preparing us for the reassurance we need.

So when we have trials that are seeming endless, and blessings that aren't coming we just need to assume we haven't reached the fourth watch. He is always there, He is always listening and He always cares about us. We just need to be patient and wait until the fourth watch comes, because it always does. He will never leave us. 

I love my Savior and know that He lives, that Father in Heaven cares about us and is always watching after us. 

Love Sister Stratford

18 MONTHS

Well hit my 18 month mark this week and still have a few weeks to go. Can't believe that it has already been 18 months literally the time just flew by. 

We had some exciting things here in SMC 3 this week, without our bishop our ward literally falls apart. This week our bishop didn't come to church and about 2 minutes before sacrament was supposed to start we had no bishop, no counselors, no Elders Quorum President and so we weren't sure what to do. We had about 5 members there and like 15 investigators. Right at 2 when we start the first counselor walked in - Miracle. But then after sacrament meeting everyone just booked it home. We ended up only having 15 members of our ward show up and no second hour. We love SMC 3. 

Had my last exchange this week, and also my favorite investigator in SMC 1 got baptized this week - Peak! She was so happy. 

We had another miracle, Yay Bon's husband is starting to soften his heart. When we used to go over to teach her he would yell at us and be so mad. And yesterday he joined in our closing prayer, I hope one day he decides to come to church so they can get sealed in the temple. Also we finally got some new investigators that are actually in our area this week so that was good. 

Found out Ming Liang is not actually against the word of wisdom so she will be able to get baptized a lot faster than we had her planned. Lots of miracles!! 

Love, Sister Ford

GUESS WHO'S BACK

Hello

Don't have lots to say today, time is flying!!! We had my last zone conference this week which was so good, talked a lot about expecting miracles. I got to bear my testimony, as all missionaries do that are going home. I was grateful for the opportunity I had to share some thoughts and feelings about my Savior and the privilege that it has been working along side Him these past 18 months. As I was bearing my testimony in English a Khmer word accidentally just came out of nowhere. I just really am forgetting my English its a problem.

BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY YAY SUANG IS BACKKKKKKKK!!!! Talk about miracles. We walk into sacrament meeting and SHE WAS THERE. I just ran up to her and gave her the biggest hug. I am so happy, literally best day of my life. She said these last 3 weeks have been hard and she has realized that is was her fault that she wasn't completely following the requirements for baptism but she missed church and the spirit and she is no longer against the word of wisdom sooo we have her back on date to get baptized with her grandchildren Long, Sokom and Botom. I CANT WAIT. They are all just the cutest. I definitely think Yay Suang and I were best friends in the pre-mortal. We probably hung out all the time. 

The rest of the week was just a blur all I can think about is how happy I am that my Yay is back. I know that Heavenly Father has been comforting her and helping her have the confidence and courage to continue on the gospel path. I love the work!!

Love Sister Stratford

Sivmey one of my recent converts from my first area was asked to speak in a fireside with Elder Muers she did such a good job!

Also she wrote my name in the sand- love her

EXPECT MIRACLES

Well here is the biggest miracle of the week. Ming Lian - we have been teaching her for several weeks now and she has been trying so hard to commit herself but it is so hard for her to remember anything. We taught her how to pray probably 10 times and she just couldn't grasp it. She would just say "Heavenly Father Jesus Christ Amen" over and over again. We were getting a little frustrated with her because she couldn't remember anything we taught but she comes to church every single week. So we went back on Friday to teach her and asked if she remembered how to pray, she said yes and we were like okay here we go again. Asked her to say the opening prayer and BAM out comes this most beautiful prayer. Sister Hafen and I just looked at each other jaw dropped just in awe. IT WAS SO COOL. So we are just expecting more miracles with her and her progression. 

Funny stories of the week - When we were teaching Tola this week she was in a bit of a rush and so in the middle of the lesson she just says "Sister Ford says these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen" and then halfway through the closing prayer she just said amen and left. Pretty hilarious. She is doing great though - being such a good missionary teaching her siblings how to pray and reading the book of Mormon with them. 

Also had some funny Sister Hafen moments. We do a lot of role playing to practice teaching and so she was teaching me about tithing and accidentally said when we pay tithing it helps us get a boyfriend in stead of helps us build... I love new missionaries. She is the greatest and knows so much Khmer its crazy. So glad she is such a hard worker. Also this week one of our members tore down their house to rebuild it and I told Sister Hafen that if they don't pay the rent they take the house. She totally fell for it it was awesome. 

Cool experience with Kim Yeng this week but a little backstory - as I was personal studying I had wanted to finish my study from the previous day about prayer but felt impressed to review the new come follow me book for the week. Well when we were teaching Kim Yeng she still couldn't grasp the fact that the Godhead is 3 separate beings and that she didn't see it anywhere in the bible, so I pulled out Matthew 3 when Christ is baptized and explained it to her blew her mind. Thankfully I listened to that impression otherwise I wouldn't have known what to say. God really is in the details of the work.

I love missionary work and am really trying to live it up, it goes too fast. 

Love Sister Stratford

WE GOT WRECKED

Well just about everything that could have fallen through this week did. We got wrecked. It has been the weirdest week. A senior couple - the armstrongs took us to the zoo this week and we got to feed some elephants and monkeys which was fun, Sister Armstrong got slapped by an elephant it was hilarious.

But cool miracle of the week. We were over at Tola's teaching and she just started telling us about all the hard things that are happening in her life. She has been sick this whole week and if she doesn't go to the factory to work, she doesn't have money to eat so she told us she hadn't eaten in 3 days and she didn't know what to do because she was too sick to go to the factory. She didn't have anyone that could give her some money and so her and her cute little 3 year old son are starving. Her son was just crying at her begging her to give him some money and she was just yelling/crying at him that she didn't have any money. He sat on the ground and just started crying and literally out of nowhere 500 riel just appears in between the little boys legs. I was like hey right here look there is money take it. And he looks down, looks back up at me, grabs the money and runs to buy something to eat. Sister Hafen and I were just looking at each other in awe at what just happened. It was SO COOL. Miracle. 

Sad story of the week is Yay Suan. She has been learning with us for a long time now, she finished all the lessons, we filled out her baptismal forms and practiced the interview with her and she has such a strong testimony. Well she didn't come to church this sunday so we went over to her house after church and she said she wanted to stop learning. We had to postpone her baptismal date because she was still taking this plant/medicine thing she sucks on - don't know what to call it in english but its against the word of wisdom so we told her we would have to postpone her baptism for a little while so she could overcome more fully her addiction. She just told us before she was so excited to get baptized and now she just said she doesn't want to get baptized anymore, doesn't want to come to church anymore. She said she would still pray everyday but she just is done. I was so heartbroken - literally the worst thing as a missionary is to see these people from the first time you meet them, see how much they grow and how much their lives start to change and see all these miracles that God provides and then just just deny or stop wanting to progress. Respecting people's agency is so hard sometimes. Hopefully she will come around I am so sad for her.

I really loved in alma 34:31 this week where it talks about how if we will repent and not harden our hearts immediately the plan of redemption will be brought unto us. No matter how long we have been wandering off the path or how far away we have gone, once we decide to change we are helped immediately. I  know that once Yay Suan decides to change Heavenly Father will provide her a way back. I really hope she decides to change soon.

Love Sister Stratford

CUTE LITTLE GRANDMAS

Hello Fam,

This week was another great, sweaty week. Everyone keeps asking me if I am cold because it is the cold season but still have not gone a day on the mission without sweating to death all day. But its the best I love Cambodia. 

This week we found out that Yay Suen and Yay Bon's children are married, don't know why it took so long to figure that out but we are teaching some of their grandchildren and it is so fun. It is the cutest group of families and I always love going to teach them. They always call us "Mister". Yay Bon got baptized yesterday!!!! She was so so excited. After her interview she ran out and gave me a big hug and was just glowing and was just so giddy and happy that she passed her interview so she could get baptized. She is 65 years old and the cutest little grandma ever, her faith is so strong. I want to take her back to America with me. 

We had a way cool experience with Kim Yeng this week. So she is currently going to two churches right now. She has a protestant church and our church. She said she just loves to go to lots of christian churches and worship all day on sunday. I started thinking about her during sacrament meeting and what we could do to help her understand that she needs to choose one. I felt like we should show the restoration video,after we watched it she said "Sisters this video touched my heart so much, I feel exactly like Joseph Smith and I need to choose which church is true and ask Heavenly Father to help me." She said she feels like she has known us for a long time and it was almost like she knew us before she met us. We also had her join Yay Bon's baptism and she said that during the service she just kept thinking "Do I need to get baptized? Is this the right thing to do?" I know that our Father in Heaven is directing her path and will help her to know of the truth. She is so amazing and I hope she commits to following the impressions that she receives. 

Peak is doing so good and will be getting baptized in a couple weeks she is so cute and I love seeing her family. We had transfers this week and we are now only over Steung Mean Chey 3 - the smallest area in the mission. I am happy I will still get to see my om's but sad to leave some others I love in Steung Mean Chey 1. 

I loved John 13: 14-15 this week "If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you." On the eve of His Atonement, the Savior washed the feet of one who betrayed him, of another who denied Him, and of still others who fell asleep in His most needed hour. There are so many people around us who are in need of our service. We need to follow the example of the Savior and serve as He served, love as He did and strive to always becoming more and more like Him. He is our perfect example and our Friend. I love Him with all my heart and have been loving working beside Him out here in Cambodia for these beautiful people who need so much help. 

Love Sister Stratford