Monday, January 23, 2017

A Place to Rest

Sunday January 22, 2017 at 11:05PM

Hi Hi families and friends,

This week is another week of miracles. We made a plan with the relief society president, members, and young women's president that we will meet together on Saturday mornings to visit the less-actives in Branch 3. So far, our attempt has brought a miracle. We went to a less-active's house and found out she was very sick. She hasn't been to church for quite a while. She is shameful of coming back to church, since she has been less-active for a while. She told us she was sleeping for death to come. She is hopeless and feels that life has no meaning. As we talked with her, we just felt like things weren't going forward at all. However, the relief society sister kept speaking and comforting her up until we said, "you are a child of God and to Him, the price of your life is worth more than anything in this world, more than what you can comprehend". Tears of grace came down and she told us that she was actually wanting to go and buy poison pills for herself. She felt such a spirit from that visit. Often times I wonder if the lessons we teach have such power that the spirit could really impact someone's life that day. That once, we leave their place, we leave them hanging with the spirit of God, compelling them to desire it more and more unto repentance. Nothing is more important than if the lessons have relevance in that person's life. Once relevance is there, the spirit can easily enter their hearts. I am learning more and more of the purpose of the Restoration, not just on the Gospel, but also restoring my innate self to understand my identity from Heaven. If that makes sense. I am trying to think of ways to have effective lessons. I feel that the spirit is most powerful when I leave their house and a part of me, a part of my conversion is left with them. That once walking out of there, I am leaving a part of me with them and taking a part of them with me. I am more and more seeing the change in myself. Not in a boasting way, but as I lay down at night, I start to think about the people we teach and really feel the love I have for them. To be honest at the beginning of my mission, many thoughts would come to mind. But now it's almost like you really think about their suffering and feeling so helpless because you can't fix their illnesses or the circumstances in a blink of an eye. That is what the Gospel is teaching me, the imprints we leave in our conversion to better understand the eternal perspective. No matter how poor our states are, having Jesus Christ is ENOUGH! That there is a place for us to rest.

Another miracle happened when we went to visit another less-active's house. She happened to not be home. She is suffering from lung disease and is very sick. We got her some fruits and met with her mother who isn't a member of the church. We visited with her mother for a while and went off to visit other less-actives. Little did we know, God granted us such a tender mercy, because we saw her at church the next day even if we didn't see her face to face. Her mother felt inspired that the Relief Society president have shown her care for her daughter.

In another lesson, I don't know why! I remember sitting on a straw mat on dirt floor, in this straw -bamboo built house. A surge of of this weird feeling came over me. I realized that: Dude! My comp and I are sitting on dirt, preaching the Gospel to this single mother. I am no longer in my air-conditioned environment and studying engineering . It was such a strange feeling on how things happened so quickly. Like Wow, what happened?! I've been a member of the church for 2 years! and I've been on my mission for almost half of a year now. Where did the time fly to? Crazy!

Here are some things I thought was interesting:

Things in Cambodia that may or may not happen in the U.S

1) A little kid starts to pull down his pants and pees on the carpet during a church lesson
2)While you are biking, there is a roasted dog head in front of yah.
3) A man juicing sugar cane  while bees are stinging him
4) Teaching at a fruit stand on the streets while Chinese funeral is going on and white tourists trying to buy your investigator's fruits
5) Old ladies trying to kiss you because they think they could inherit your skin and face.
6)Members asking if we could take them to the U.S or if you can marry their sons.
7) Blow drying your clothes, because you didn't have enough time to hang up your laundry
8) Having ants in your food and shrugging off your shoulder that it's normal
9) Biking in 1/2 forests and 1/2 city areas every single day




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