From me to you

{editor's note: from now on, missionaries will have their real names on here, as per request of Sis. Homer.  I will eventually get around to changing old posts.  Natives, however, will continue to have nyms.}

Dear Family,

I hope Lake Powell was super fun for everyone that went!! I definitely missed being there, but at the same time, I really had hardly any time to think about it, so I really didn't miss it too much! :)

Lookpuu Jordan's family!!

Our week was definitely SUPER busy. We had one family we were really trying to prepare for baptism this week and another for next week, so that kept us busy, plus with our other investigators and recent converts and less actives, it was just busy!! So much fun!! But yes, Lookpuu Jordan's family did get baptized yesterday!! Woohoo!! It was really a stressful ordeal. I told you about how people here don't remember a lot. Well, this family is probably the top of the list of people who don't remember things. So we really reviewed so much with them. It's interesting because we have seen their faith grow, yet they can't remember hardly anything. How does it work, I don't know!! But you can just tell that they have grown so much in Christ. Anyway, they had their interviews on Saturday which was a super stressful ordeal, on the lookpuu's part, that I won't get into. But I just felt sick about it all day. But long story short it all worked out and they got baptized yesterday! They are so sweet and I'm excited to continue working with them!

This week Sister Payne and I also became the new assigned English Class teachers for the transfer. So once a week we will be teaching English at our church building. We did it our first time. It was fun! It's also hard because pretty much no one knows anything. It's super interesting how they learn english in school here. It seems to me they learn it from reading, and thats it. They can read pretty good, but they don't know what they are reading and they really can't speak it. They also have a hard time understanding when we speak to. So, sister Payne and I are going to just turn that right around. We are going to implement a TON of activities where they are just speaking and practicing. I know it will help more than anything. I'm so grateful for that class I took right before coming out here where I observed all those foreign language classes. I'm totally finding stuff to apply! It's fun!

This week I have also really been learning how to cook more. I have been helping Sister Mok make food every night. Turns out it is all super easy and all pretty much the same. Almost every dish includes: sugar, salt, oyster sauce, and chicken bouillon. And then you just through stuff in and fry it. Mmm mmm mmm, it's delicious. I'm writing a bunch of stuff down, and I will totally make you all Khmer cuisine when I return. One thing we had this week was friend mushrooms. I can't even describe how delicious this was. So good!

My RS president holding a picture that has her
missionaries in it, one of whom was my mtc teacher!

Something exciting this week happened in regards to Visiting Teaching in our branch here. Two weeks ago we met with our Relief Society president to begin trying to implement VT in our branch, we also presented on it during relief society. Earlier this week we were meeting with two of our recent converts and they showed us their visiting teaching assignment! Sister Payne and I were VERY surprised. We thought it was going to take a lot of meetings with the RS President. Turns out she just went ahead and got right on it. There are still some things that will probably needed to be sorted out, but that was definitely a miracle for us here this week! Very exciting!

Yesterday I also got to speak in church again. I'm gonna be honest, I'm really not a public speaking kinda person. But, it went well! I read some scriptures, which went smoothly! I talked about sharing the gospel, which is the sweetest fruit of all. (1 Ne. 8:12).

Something sister Payne and I are finding is that we got a little excited with a lot of our investigators and probably committed them to be baptized a little too soon. We knew that we could teach them in that amount of time, but we didn't really take into account the time they need to develop faith, to keep commitments, to start making the change. So, we are going to slow down a little bit on that. Save us some stress, save them some stress, help them be firmer rooted in Christ. haha, good stuff. Our bad. We pushed back Ellie's baptismal date just a few weeks yesterday, and she looked devastated! I felt SOOOO sad!!! But it will be best for her. She is so awesome though. She continues to amaze!

Moiraine also says she still just needs more time. She said she would feel like she would be disrespecting our church if she were baptized before she is sure. I appreciate that so much. I also told her that it will take some faith on her part and she never may be 100% sure. She totally understands. I told her we'll continue to invite her. :) She also went to church yesterday! she is super smart!

I feel like my language is getting better and better every week! I am feeling really comfortable with everything gospel related, and started to be fairly comfortable with general every day conversations. I can say almost everything I want to say, it is still hearing things though that get me. Also when you start talking in-depth specifics about any certain topic you probably lost me. :)

Super green. Yes, I had just been soaked in a rainstorm.

So yesterday we were visiting that same recent convert who lives right by the Wat, and a monk came over to their little store to buy something and he says "Hello sisters!" Hahahaha, what??? First, are you even allowed to talk to me? Second, you speak english, third, How in the world do you know I'm "sister". It was crazy and super funny. He kept trying to talk to us for a while. We closed our meeting with our RC by singing I am a Child of God. He sat and listened. haha, oh the weird things that happen here. I guess it's okay for him to talk to us in English. Just not in normal Khmer? Monks have their own special language, which of course we don't know. It was all just so bizarre.

This morning while walking to the market, we saw like 50+ tiny itty bitty little frogs! They are like the size of a penny, but not flat, obviously. They were just hopping all over. It was the cutest thing ever! I was super worried I was going to step on them though.

Anyway, I guess that is my week!

I love you all!

Sister Homer

Panoramic view of my life