Yap

Dear Family,

Mom asked for a pronunciation guide for my companions name, haha, and I did giggle a little when I saw how you have been saying it. Probably this is better: koo-eat. Eat as in eat food. :)

Let's see, this week was kind of super... yap. You don't know what that word means but it is a wonderful word that we don't have in english and it just means like frustrating/ugh!/not ideal, but it's not any one of those. Anyway, this week was just a touch yap. The work is still going good and we are teaching more lessons than ever, but I'm not sure how much progress there is. Most of our investigators aren't really progressing. :( We have a lot a lot a lot of recent converts that we visit each week, and they are good, yet hardly any came to general conference. That was yap.

As far as general conference goes, it was so awesome! I can't even express what that means to me! I was so fortunate to be able to sit in another separate room and watch it in english with just me and the senior couple and 4 other american elders. It was so quiet. And I understood EVERYTHING! It was the best thing ever. Conference was so incredible as well. I feel like many of the talks said something that was meant for me. Also, an Elder Gifford spoke and please tell me he is some sort of announcer at Lavell Edwards Stadium. I feel so strongly he must be. I know that voice.

Mom asked about Cynthia, the deaf girl who recently got baptized. She is so sweet! She counts down to sunday every week now, and she gets super frustrated when she can't go to church. Haha, that's the attitude we need here in Cambodia!

Mom also asked about Lookpuu Dore. He is the on-and-off smoker. He is also super yap, haha. His wife started working full-time now, even on sundays, so she can't come to church anymore. Which means he comes like half the time. Ugh. And I have seen him smoking again, but when we asked he says he stopped and so do the kids... so I don't know what to do about that. It doesn't help that we have had a hard time meeting because they can only meet in the evenings when the mom is back from work, but now with two branches we are only out there one evening a week. Yap!

But despite all the yap-ness, this week was really good!

But let me tell you about this one other yap experience. Haha, get ready for this. So we have a branch missionary who helps us all the time, and she is going through the process of filling out her own mission papers. So we are good friends with her, but she's been a little bit frustrated with us lately. But not an issue. BUT THEN, on Tuesday we were with her and everything was fine. We then left to go teach lessons, she was busy teaching seminary. She called us while we were teaching a lesson and so I quick just pressed the end button to turn off the call. Apparently that is NOT the right thing to do. We called her back later and she was super mad and wouldn't really talk, and then we saw her later by her house and she just walked right past us into her house and wouldn't talk to us or come out. So we left. The next few days she was still upset with us. Finally we got her to talk to us on the phone and she told us basically that she was super mad and she has lost all her faith, won't be going on a mission, leaving the church, and I had destroyed her future... soooo that was my bad. Apparently turning off the phone while you are trying to feel the spirit is simply not okay. Which I should have known, considering everyone always talks on their phones in the middle of sacrament meeting. Well, back to the story, we didn't really know what to do. I kinda figured it was mostly talk and she would get over it, but it was stressful there for a while. Luckily, she did get over it and now she is happy with us again!! Phew! Close one. Just remember that kids, do not hang up on a Khmer, but it is okay if you just press the silence button to silence the call. YAP!

Besides all the yap-ness, there still were really great things this week! One was with a recent convert Srei Banana. She is a teenager and she is kinda moody like a teenager. And often when we would meet her to teach her she was kind of just like "whatever". But we met her this last week before she moved to go work, and honestly it was so neat to see the change. She told us that morning she had done her scripture study in which she said an opening prayer, sang an opening hymn, read the scriptures, said a closing prayer. This is her personal study! If only all the members of the church studied like that! And the sweetest part is, so doesn't comprehend the scriptures when she reads. She can read but doesn't really know what she is ready. I just felt so touched by her and her example and am so just joyful about the change in her! I'm sad she is leaving and I won't get to see her anymore. :(

Something awesome this week was with Om French. I talked about her when I first got here to Kampong Cham. Sister Payne and I took her a birthday cake, if you remember. Well, we have been meeting with her weekly. She is a less-active member who has been to the temple. When sisters first started going to her house she wouldn't even talk to them, and now just this week we went and we invited her to General Conference, she couldn't go because her mom is old and she has to stay with her, but honestly, she wanted to go so much. We shared a thought with her, she shared her thoughts with us. I love her. I love visiting her because it reminds me that people aren't ever lost. There are a lot of members here who kind of seem like a "lost cause" but i'm sure people thought that once about Om French. And now everytime we go she prays and we share a thought, and now she wants to come back to church! A success story!

So this week was really good. I'm sorry there really isn't much exciting happening, just more of the usual!

I hope you all have a good week!

Love,

Sister Homer

 Sister Kuoch told me that my face looks a lot like this....

General Conference: Sister Kuoch and I with a member who really really likes us!
(my hair is not permanently straightened I just tried it out for the day.)

This cow is the friendliest baby cow in existence. It was like a dog!! It was so so cute!!! I'm bringing it home, and it's staying a baby forever.