"Sisters, Please tell me more"

Sunday July 23, 2017 at 8:37PM

Hello Hello

This week has touched me in a level which really brought me closer to my Savior. We met this wonderful woman in her early 30s and my companion and I are amazed at how God has been preparing her to meet Him. Her story is such an inspiration for me. Her conversion is a result of her sacrifice and utmost diligence in trying to give her life to the Lord, Jesus Christ. We first met the woman at church in a different branch in Tahkmao. We contacted her, but I believe she stopped using her phone. She worked in a place where she only makes about 5 dollars a day and she is not permitted to go to church or to meet with the missionaries. Before the job, she had to runaway from her husband because he was so abusive to her. She has  a little baby girl who is the heart of her life and is trying to make ends meet to take care of her. We have been praying that God would allow us to meet this woman again. This week, we got a call from her saying that" Sisters, I have given up my job, so I could seek to find my own refuge in what I believe to be most in important in my life, to follow God, I wanted so bad to go to church. She further told us that she could not take care of her child because she wouldn't have enough money. She had prayed to God to find someone who could help her find God. A few weeks later, she met a family, who is a total stranger to her and they had offered her a place to stay. It was such a miracle for her. She prayed again to be able to know which church to attend. She then decided to call us missionaries and asked if we could meet with her.

The moments of teaching this woman helped me draw closer to my Savior. Just listening to her sacrifice and devotion for God. She loves her family so much. We told her about the Plan of Salvation. It was then and there I got a further witness of the truthfulness of God's plan for my life and that woman's life. There was this sweet moment that I wish I could capture forever. The woman had longed to be with her mother who passed away years ago. She has had this burdening guilt that has been dragging her spiritual frame for years and to have known this sweet message, that she could see her mother again. That she could fix her relationship with her mother through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was such a tender experience to know that what God had prepared in our hearts answered the question she longed to be answered for years. I felt like this shadow that had followed her for her whole life up until now, had been swept by the sweet serene light of Christ.  I couldn't hold my tears, neither of us could. The next day, we met her she had asked us to teach her again. Our branch president and one of our recent converts had joined in. The spirit was so powerful in the lesson.

I am so grateful to have served in Tahkmao. The good Lord has given me much,  much much more than I could ever fathom. Brothers and Sisters, I know Christ lives. I know He does. I get to see his living divinity each and everyday of my life. Nothing is as sweet as knowing that I can live with my family forever. I know He lives and I am even much more closer to Him as I surrender and follow His will to love the people around me. I see that He lives through the beauty of this land, through the beauty of those I meet and the trees and rawness of everything around me. I know He lives, because I am able to give: my talents, my love, my all, and through the Grace of God; other's lives are changing.

Training and serving in this area has been a memory of a lifetime. I have absolutely learned and was able to improve much during this journey. I am evermore closer to my savior.It's crazy how time flies, almost a year in the mission now. I am being transferred to white wash this area called Tul Tompung with  my new companion,  Sister Smith.

With love and gratitude,
Sister Sok

Pumping water at this lady's house. She got really sick, so we had to help carry buckets of water.
Pioneer Day!

Oh my hello!

Sunday July 16, 2017 at 10:53PM

A few pics of Cambodia. My comp and I would stop to eat our meal and rest at this riverside in Tahkmao. It's so beautiful!

To love them from a different place

Sunday July 9, 2017 at 10:55PM

Hello,

Thank you for your love and letters. I'm not quite sure on what to type out, since there are so many thoughts running around like squirrels on steroids right now. However,  I'm standing firm to say that I am absolutely grateful to be serving in a place so far off the distance from where my parents are, yet so close to my heart and blood. In this journey, one of the most difficult of challenges is not from physical pain nor exhaustion, but in the emotional inadequacies in watching someone else suffer. But nevertheless, in this journey, one of the most joyous of experiences is to see Christ lifting them up through it all at the same time. The Grace of God is immeasurable. The Good Lord has given me much and I've never felt so so privileged in my life to share others how I feel of the Gospel, how much it has changed me. I stand in awe to witness how much God has changed the lives of those around me. All in all, He lives, the Book of Mormon changed my life, and the Gospel has helped me become a much better person. I came from a small farming, agricultural town in Arizona, not knowing much of God, but the mission has helped me understand so much more of the Nature of God and what He has done in my life and lives of many around me, and what I know to be true. One of the greatest treasures I've witnessed is to love and minister to those from a different place, those of different lives, who walked of different paths in the united purpose of trying to find the living well, of eternal life.  

With much love and gratitude,

Sister Sophia Sok

The love she has been searching for: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Sunday July 2, 2017 at 11:09PM

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

This week has been good with Sister Jex and I. I am feeling better and recovering pretty quickly from the accident, I owe it up to God's love and miracle. We went to the city to receive some medical treatment right after. I felt a little uncomfortable to see how modernized everything is. We ate at this pretty modern restaurant and I just had the urge to leave it, because  I was just not used to the environment. Having been here for close to a year now and serving in the more rural areas have been making me feel so strange to the city, modern lifestyle. We were eating at this restaurant and the whole time, I kept having this feeling that I shouldn't be there, like I don't deserve this. Many of the people we teach couldn't even afford to buy rice. The whole time, I wanted to go back and eat food in the village with our members and  investigators.  It sounds corny, but really!

We received a baptism and confirmation last weekend. She is a wonderful recent convert, full of fire in following the Gospel. She is very committed and her actions show so. The moment leading up and during the baptism was spiritually uplifting. Her heart was so filled with the Spirit that she couldn't even find the words to voice out her testimonies verbally. However, I know without a doubt that he spirit testified through her heart. The members in the Sacrament room were filled with tears as they saw her coming back down and immediately collapsed and was just kneeling down on the floor, without being seated at first. My companion and I went to comfort her. She whispered to me "Sister I felt a love I have not felt in a while, I felt of my father's love for me" . It was the love that left her ever since her birth dad left her. The young woman has been looking for her father ever since she was a little girl. She had been separated from him. He had left her and she doesn't even know of his name. Her trials and experiences leading up to her conversion process and knowing of the Church has helped fuel her to seek the Love she has lost both from her birth dad and the LOVE that's from her Father in Heaven. The senior missionaries, members, and our branch president started crying as they gave her a welcome hug. At that moment, she knew that she does have a family who loves her. Before coming to know the church, she had told us of a vision she had as a young girl, of a man  dressed in white, standing beside her. He had told her that one day later in her life, she will have the opportunity to join the true church of God. I am blessed to know of how one woman can have such an experience in her life, for such a time as this, to come closer to her Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ. In Romans 8, " Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the daylong; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

For this week, our plan is to help one of the families we are teaching understand the importance of repentance and their sacred steps in coming closer to understanding how baptism is a covenant, continual offering of love between God and His children. I've never had to fight so hard for the salvation of the people we are teaching, especially for this family. I've never had to be so emotionally invested so that they can become a part of God's fold. I feel so much for the love the Savior has for them. I can feel the member's love and support for them! For them to hold on as tight as they can for a better world, for their future families, I can feel the shouts and cheers of God's spirit children, pleading for the family to keep going. The father and his family faced many trials. We went to see how they were doing, but received a note that they had to go and get help from one of their family members in order to receive enough food to eat.

Lately, I have been studying on God's Nature, the influence of light He can have in the lives of his children in Cambodia. Some of the challenges we have faced are in regards to the idea of change from one's comfort zones of traditions and the process of moving away from them. It is soooo uncomfortable for them. My companion and I would always have to remind ourselves to take it slow, change for someone may be slow and gradual according to their circumstances.  I feel that the family we are teaching has such a strong desire to be baptized and we are all on their side, combating with them to overcome their challenges in preparing to enter into a covenant with Heavenly Father.

Miracles:

A HUGE Khmer tree fell 2 seconds a head of us, where we could have been seriously injured. But, we stopped right before. So things are good. God is good!

Love,
Sister Sok

Could you imagine the way the Savior would look at her?

Sunday June 25, 2017 at 11:48PM

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

Not much time, however I want to bear a sweet testimony that Christ lives. I know this even more so because of the experiences I am going through in this labor of love.

The Khmer people here are beautiful, they are such angels. At times, one lady comes to my mind as lay my head to sleep at night. She has been a member for 15 years. She is in her late 70s and one of the strongest disciples of Christ that I have ever met. Her husband passed away a few years ago. She had endured through many hard times, trials and tribulations of abuse from her children, but what has been keeping this woman going is the love that she had for our Savior and sharing the Gospel. This elderly woman would get up in the morning on every Sunday and walk all around her village to share everyone the Gospel, and inviting them to church. This is the same woman had nothing, but just a povertous house to live and an unbearable  income to sustain. Not even having enough for food, but to only share others what she knows makes her happy. Because of her, many people of the village got to meet the missionaries and hear of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I got to be one of those missionaries to blessed to meet her!

I know God lives. I know much more of his power as I serve here, as I wear my heart on my sleeves to give what I know is true and to share the Light of Christ. I found that doing so, makes me realize more of how our Savior would look at those who are penitent, those whose lives have been touched, those around me who would give all that they have! I know this to be true. I am blessed to be apart of seeing, even at the tip of an iceberg, the way the Savior looks at us all, with charity, mercy, and love.

Another miracle that happened this week.

 I got into an accident last night. I am OK. The miracle of it is that the guy who had hit me bled and got road rashes, but I did not receive any rashes and no blood! It is a miracle. The guy rode his moto really fast and swerved past my companion, but hit me while trying to correct himself. My bike is broken, but it is being fixed right now. It flipped over and so did I. I rolled over a bit, but I am just sore from knocking my head really hard on the ground and the lower part of my back. We are going to see a chiropractor today to re-align I guess ...my bones, but all is well!

I hope you have a wonderful week and please keep sharing your love to others!

With Love and Gratitude,
Sister Sok  

20 Plus Years Ago

Sunday June 18, 2017 at 9:33PM

Hello Brothers and Sisters,

It has been good this week. Life is good here in Cambodia. I am really happy here and there much that goes on in the missionary work in this country.

While attending a Gospel Principles class, a senior sister missionary mentioned something that made me realize how much Christianity has such an impact in the lives of the Khmer people, the culture, and their lifestyles here. It's incredible. She mentioned how if we were to go back twenty years plus ago and ask people who Jesus Christ is, most would not be so familiar with His name, in just hearing the name. However, NOW  not only that most have heard of the name Jesus Christ, the Khmer people here have taken upon themselves His sacred name as a covenant for a brighter and better life. His name does not only enter in their ears for a moment, but His name is even more so engraved in their hearts for eternity.

A couple weeks a go I got to visit the genocide museum a little way far off the city of Tahkmao. It took a lot of emotional investment to see the unfathomable cruel acts of humanity. One man, one leader and his corrupted, atrocious mind had killed nearly 3 million people. The persuasion of an evil mind has scarred such a negative impact in so many lives.  If we were just to think if this man has been shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to have accepted it, to see how much of an impact would it have made in the country, of years of anguish, of bitterness, of despair, of potentials of many souls who could have made more difference in the lives of people around the world.

In a smaller, yet utmost beautiful scale, I am blessed to see how anguish to turns to care, resentment turns to forgiveness, hatred turns to love, selfishness turns to charity, despair turns to hopes and dreams for a better life. I am so much more blessed to see that in the people I get to share the Gospel with. There are many times as we arrive at our family investigator's house, their little girl would run far off a distance, as far as she could see us, calls our names "Sisters, Sisters..Mom , Dad the sisters are here!". As my companion see the light in that little girl's face and how it shines unto her parents, we get to see how great the Lord has been for us. It truly is amazing. I remember a time when we were helping them move in and getting their lights in their little shack house, there came this sense of empathy that entered my heart. My companion and I were holding our flashlights to shine on the father's work to connect together the wires that were attached miles away from their house. They tried again and again, but it didn't work out so well. The family did not even have light for cooking and seeing really anything in their house. I remembered praying in my heart to God to help them have light in their house. I've never prayed so hard to receive light in a house before. My life up until this point was not even opened to  realize how much I have been blessed. Up until that point, I learned a greater lesson of empathy and of love, of gratitude, and pleading for help to my Father in Heaven.

The work is hard. It drives my comp and I to our knees, but at the end as we place our heads on our pillows, there is no greater satisfaction than to see the good we've done that day.

With Love and Gratitude,
Sister Sok