Sister Jessalyn Homer: Baptism!!

Hey Family,

Yesterday I had my first baptism in quite some time! I actually didn't realize that it had been so long since I had a baptism. Despite no baptisms I have had investigators and a lot of recent converts and less-active members to work with. There really is a lot more to missionary work that just finding people to baptize!

The girl who got baptized yesterday is Sasha. She is the daughter of a member and is maybe like 12 years old. Sister Khut and I have really cracked down on who we will get baptized in this area because this ward does not need any more inactive recent converts. BUT Sasha has gone above and beyond. She has been to church for like the past 7 weeks. She is reading in her scriptures, praying everyday. We go and she loves to sing hymns with us. It's funny because based on her personality you wouldn't think she would care, but she really does! And even if her mom doesn't go to church or pray she still does! More than anything we are so excited because we think she can be really strong. We are going to work with her so much and get her so deep into this gospel. (As deep as a 12 year old can get). I really love this girl!

This ward is so interesting. I kinda feel like I'm in a bad relationship where I'm putting A LOT into it but not getting much out of it. Yet the more I invest the more I care and the more I need it to not fail! It's this vicious cycle where we work really really hard and then get disappointed a lot, but somehow I really love it. I can't explain what is going on. I don't think I even know. All I know is we are working really hard to see this branch progress and I think it really is just on the verge.

Actually just this morning during personal study I was reading in Alma 21 about Aaron and his brothers doing missionary work. And verses 12-17 ish talk about how they were really not having success, and then they were thrown into jail but they just keep pushing on and do everything they can and FINALLY they see success! I was just giddy as I was reading it this morning. HOW COOL ARE THE SCRIPTURES! Mostly I just feel like this ward is just on the verge of success. I haven't been thrown in jail or anything, but we keep trying everything we can and even if it doesn't happen during my time here I know that someday this Ward will be strong. It is so comforting to me that God's work can't be stopped and that he has one big master plan.

I have been enjoying teaching English these past few weeks. I am assigned to teach a very BASIC, BASIC class that they kind of just created special. I teach them the ABC's if they don't know and kind of how to start reading. I'm not sure why, but it is a really tough concept for them. But I have a lot of fun teaching and I especially love seeing when they start to get it. When they read a word successfully their faces light up. It is really fun to help them learn!

Things with Sister Khut are going well! I try to make her laugh a lot. I have found if we are laughing, then it relieves a lot of stress. So I kind of run around like a 5 year old trying to get her to laugh, but it works! I'm pretty positive she thinks I'm crazy though! We actually teach really well together and have similar perspectives on how the work should be done, so we have a lot of fun together!

This week we took the senior couple with us to help us teach. So we would teach a lot of the lesson and then ask them to teach parts and I would translate. I think it had a really great affect on our investigators! They really value age in this culture and they loved that an elderly couple form American would come to their home. We will have to use them more in our teaching, it was a great experience!

I realized this week that I can have deep gospel discussions in Khmer and yet I don't even know the word for triangle in this language. What does that mean about my fluency? I think I need to go back and learn all the basic words I missed because they weren't essential. Oops!

I guess that is maybe all I have this week! I love you all so much!!!!

Sister Homer