Sister Zoe's Cambodacious Journey: Another Week in KPC

Dear Family and Friends,

So every time I sit down to email, I feel so bad because everything here is so slow. Like nothing really exciting happens, but things are starting to pick up, so here we go!!!

Monday was so fun!!! We went to Phnom Bros and it was so cool. It's a mountain that has hundreds of wats and MONKEYS!!!! We went with our district and it was so fun. I didn't realize how scary monkeys were until you are holding two bananas and they start surrounding you, bearing their teeth... I got way nervous and ended up throwing the bananas real fast so they would leave, but we did get some cool pictures and of course we contacted them. Just like most of the people in KPC Kam Pung Cham) they weren't interested, but we had fun getting the pictures nonetheless. (: Please enjoy.

Tuesday we had a service for all three branches in KPC. We met at the church at 7 and at first there were more missionaries there than youth, but eventually they started showing up. The service activity was picking up trash. We definitely had our work laid out before us because there is trash everywhere!!! It didn't seem very fun at first, but it ended being two very fun filled hours. (: We picked up A LOT of trash. We did it in preparation for what they call the River Festival. Sounds way fun, right? Oh, it was very sabbaay (happy and fun), like so good. As we were wrapping up the activity, I was walking back to the church and this bong (lady) started talking to me. That always gives me a heart attack because I can't understand the people here to save my life, but I just started talking to her. She asked me about my family and all was going well until she asked me how old I was and about school. I got my age right, super easy, but then I accidentally told her that I was already done with college. She said, "wow, you’re only 19 and already done with college. You must be really smart!!!" I just smiled and said "yep!" hahaha I walked away and later asked Sister Nhem what college was and what high school was.... I mixed them up with one syllable. That was something I just had to laugh about. (:

Thursday we taught Jariyaa, do you remember her?? She’s our investigator that can't remember anything?? Well, we taught her about the word of wisdom and law of chastity. I'm not really sure how it happened, but she understood everything perfectly. She remembered all the points we taught and then proceeded to say her first coherent prayer. WHAT?? Prayers do get answered and miracles are real. So cool. After teaching her we went down to the river to contact. Oh my goodness. It was like the state fair. There were booths everywhere and I got a little trunky, but we managed to get some contacting in as we looked at all the delicious food they had and way cool souvenirs they were selling. It was SO cool.

Because we had so much fun on Thursday night at the river festival we decided to go eat lunch there with the other sisters. It was so good. We had some Thai dish. I'm not really sure what was in it, but it was delicious. We got some chicken wings with it and I licked the bones clean. Usually that grosses me out, but they were honestly so delicious. Then we proceeded to buy the coolest pajamas ever!!! DUCKS!!!! So cool and of course we had to get all matching ones. (: Then we went to the church for interviews with president, but he was way late, so we ended up joining a YSA activity. it blows my mind how well the youth run those things. They had it all set up an hour before it started and had all the speakers prepared and everything. Not a typical Khmer church activity. Finally president showed up. He is like a superstar. All the youth stopped what they were doing and shook his hand. They even announced it over the pulpit. He's the coolest. My interview was shorter than I wanted (he had to interview all of us in like 3 hours) but he imparted a lot of presidential knowledge to me. He again told me that I needed to have patience. I am learning more and more everyday that I do not have the kind of patience I thought I did, but the experiences I am having are slowly teaching me how to have it, so that's cool. (: We talked about studying and I’m way excited to apply the things he talked to me about and really increase my gospel knowledge so that I will be better equipped to be an instrument in the Lord's hands and in the Spirit's as well.

Saturday we had zone training and I was able to be reunited with Elder Grimaud and Elder Walker once again (in the MTC together). Oh how I love those elders. They are both incredible missionaries and I am so blessed to have them in my group. They have taught and continue to teach me so many things!! Ah, I love them. (: We went and taught an investigator. We watched Finding Faith in Christ with her because it's one of the only church movies translated into Khmer. I'm pretty sure it helped me more than her, she wasn't really watching or listening, but for me it was so good. As I was sitting there sweating my butt off watching all the many miracles that Christ performed I was overwhelmed with the spirit. I've never known more clearly than I did in that moment that Jesus Christ is our Savior and redeemer and that he loves us so much. Wow. That is literally all I can say. I was crying as I continued to watch. I would encourage all of you to think about your relationship with the Lord. You can always make it better. Always. After that we went and taught Jariyaa again. She lives at the hospital, the sketchy one, remember?? Anywho... as we taught her like 6 people gathered around us. One neak ming (older woman) told me that I had beautiful Khmer!! WHAT??? That has never happened. I was so surprised. I just said thank you so much!!! But the thing that is really cool is that one of the bongs that was listening to us wanted to learn more. We shared a little bit with her about the plan of salvation. She proceeded to tell us that a few weeks ago she had taken medicine in an attempt to kill herself, but that it didn't work, so we were able to take that lovely piece of information and run with it. We testified that that was Heavenly Father preparing the way for her to meet with us. She also hasn't been able to have kids, so we used that as one thing she can pray for and if she has faith the Lord will bless her. So of course we set an appointment with her and ended up teaching her. She seems really really promising.

Sunday was a typical Sunday. Only about 40 people at church, but two of those were nonmembers that we contacted and got their numbers!! One is the friend of a young man in the ward and the other, a neak ming, is the friend of a bong in the ward. We were really excited to start teaching them. We went through sacrament meeting and right before we started singing the closing hymn they proceeded to pass the sacrament... AGAIN. What????? I'm pretty sure that's not kosher, but no one said anything, so the people that came late were able to take the sacrament. It was really nice of them, but definitely something I’d never experience before.... We went home and ate lunch and as we were about to start Companionship Study we get a call from the other sisters who were at the church, the neak ming who had come to sacrament meeting was waiting at the church because she wanted to learn with us. What?? so cool. We quickly got ready and raced to the church. She ended up falling asleep in the lesson, but she has the potential to become really really solid. We went and taught our new investigator Maliga!! She didn't come to church, but she asked us about the steps to repentance. She wanted to make sure that she wasn't missing anything. I would count that as progress, wouldn't you??

Things here in KPC are moving really really slow but they are moving nonetheless and I’m way excited to see where things go.

Love,

Sister Loftus

Double D