Dear Family and Friends,
This week was crazy!!! But every week is crazy here, so that isn't saying much :) I have officially been here for 1 transfer! Woo! I survived!! I can't remember if I told everyone this, but after about two weeks in the country, an American sister and her native companion moved into my apartment! It was great to have someone to talk to about all the cultural things I didn't understand. Well, she finished her mission on Friday, and now Sister Kuoch (my companion) and I live with two other native Cambodian missionaries! That means that I am now 100% immersed in the language, so hopefully this transfer my language skills will improve a lot. Already, I have noticed an improvement. Sister Melton (American sister that finished) had her parents at church yesterday and I was able to translate for them when she spoke! It surprised me at how much I actually know.
Anyway, now on to my week. Last Monday a couple of us sisters when to a clothing market. There were a ton of tourists there and it was weird to see so many Americans! I bought a couple fun elephant print pants for about 3 dollars each and enjoyed myself. Today we are going to a different market, a more local one and apparently a lot cheaper. It should be fun. Monday night, Sister Kuoch and I went to visit an active member that is struggling financially because her husband has a blood disease that requires him to go to the hospital to get blood transfusions twice a week. She was so sweet and really wants me to learn the language quick. She is going to teach me a lesson for about 20 minutes before we share a spiritual message tonight. I am excited!
Tuesday we had district meeting, and talked about the importance of enduring to the end. It is so important to help the members here understand this concept because so many of them think that once they are baptized they are set. We all need to continually have faith, repent, keep our baptismal covenants, and rely on the Holy Ghost to guide us!
Wednesday was CRAZY! Dark clouds rolled in at about 4 or 5 PM and then the rain just started to come... and when I say come, I mean the heavens were literally open and I was concerned we would need Noah's ark to survive. We were doing service for a less active when this all happened, and we only had about 15 minutes to get to the church for English class. Normally that would be sufficient time, but as we put on our ponchos and headed out, I realized this was going to be an adventure. We literally rode our bikes through 2 feet or more of water. There were WAVES on the street! Everyone had taken cover, but we had to get to the church and so as we rode through the streets, everyone was looking at us like we were crazy. Nevertheless, we made it to the church! Luckily the rain slowed down and about 50 or 60 people turned up for English class. Because it was the last week of the transfer, we had a murder mystery activity! Afterwards, we divided everyone into about 5 groups and taught the first lesson (in Cambodian so they could understand it). It was cool to see how many people were interested in taking a copy of the Book of Mormon! I am not sure if they wanted it because it was an English book, or because they are interested in the Gospel... but I like to think it was the latter.
Thursday was full of rain as well, which made is super hard to contact... but we met up with a less active and she took us to a referral- a family! Well, a mom and her 3 kids and 1 nephew. We have already taught them the first and second lesson and they all came to church yesterday! They are SO humble and prepared to hear the gospel message. Getting to their house was interesting and quite frankly, a little bit scary.... They live next to a small river. The name of the river is stinky water, and it is very stinky, but I am not sure it is water. It is black. We had to park our bikes a block away because as my companion puts it "ot mian savatapiap" (dont have safety). After walking next to the river for another block, we walked down an alley, up some very steep stairs, and down another alley. There were definitely angels protecting us, and I hope they will continue to protect us because this family is so awesome and we are going back three times this week :)
Our other investigators are continuing to progress, and we will hopefully be having have 2 baptisms next week!
I can't remember what day it was, but sometime last week we made a quick stop at a members house, and she was adamant that we had to eat dinner at her house. yikes, I was more than a little nervous. As I watched/helped her make the meal, my nerves turned to complete fear. The meal consisted of boiled pig skin, pigs foot, some sort of fish, a few baby shrimps, and a couple veggies. She also had some leftovers, of a delicacy- fish that has been preserved for a long long time and smells just wonderful. I put a smile on my face, and swallowed all my food whole. It was a great experience and super kind of her to feed us because she doesn't have much.
I hope all is well at home, I love you all so much! Keep reading your scriptures and going to church. There is power and answers in the Book of Mormon, I promise!
Love, Sister Lindley
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