Am I even a Missionary?

Dear Family and Friends, 

This week was full of meetings. It was like we weren't even missionaries really. Not much proselyting was done... but I learned a lot and was spiritually uplifted to cloud nine almost every day this week, so I think the blows our area took because of the meetings was worth it. 

We had a really incredible opportunity this week to have Elder Wong, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy, come and visit our mission. so cool!!! Tuesday we had MLC (mission leadership council). Typically it's just training for the leaders of the mission (ap's, office elders, sister ap's, zone leaders, and stl's), but because Elder Wong was there, he just talked to us for a really really long time. He expounded two scriptures D&C 43:8-9 for a good 30 minutes and it blew my mind. It was incredible. He’s got so much knowledge. 

Wednesday we had mission tour conference. We learned about the importance of the temple for our investigators and members from Sister Christensen. She shared in Alma 26:5-7. SO AMAZING!!! The sheaves are our investigators and our members and the garners are the temples. What cool imagery is that?? I love it so much. And then in verse 6 we learn that "the storm cannot penetrate to them" what a wonderful blessing that we get from going to the temple. We truly are endowed with power from on high when we go to the temple. And the best part comes in verse 7 "they are in the hands of the lord... and they are his." Ah, so good. If you haven't been to the temple, start preparing, and if you have been start going on a regular basis. I miss the temple so much!!!!!! President talked about repentance and shared in Mosiah 3:19 he drew a chart and said that we are all natural men and then we experience change, a mighty change of heart, conversion, and we become a saint. It’s not a question why the lord chose the name “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” for His church. That is the goal for all of us in this life: to become a saint. Then Elder Wong just kind of worked off of what they shared and talked about David and Goliath. Kind of hard to explain it all, one because I don't have much time, two because I left my notes at home... sorry!!! But it was so amazing!!!

Thursday night we FINALLY got to meet Jia Mian... it was quite the tender mercy too because typically she comes with her boyfriend, but his moto has been broken, so he's been coming with one of his friends.  I was trying to find some pictures that I had lost, and that took longer than expected, but as we were getting on our bikes to leave, here comes Jia Mian on her own moto saying "sisters don't leave. I want to meet you!!!!" So cool, so we taught her. It’s rough though because she never comes to church and I fear the only reason she wants to get baptized is for her boyfriend. We moved her date to July 2nd to try and give us more time to work with her and really get her converted before we baptize her. Please pray for her!!!!

Friday we had zone training; my first zone training as STL. I was assigned to talk about senior couples. We are really trying to utilize them more to help move the work along here and we were trying to brainstorm ideas on how we could do that. What we as missionaries can do and what they as senior couples can do. We also want to help them learn the language a little better because sometimes they completely butcher names of people and places and the members think it is so cool when they can speak their language, so we were just trying to brainstorm ideas for all three of those, but it was like pulling teeth? Why? Because we had a senior couple jool ruam (attend) and everyone was scared to say something and offend them, so no one was saying anything. There were lots of awkward silences, but then the senior couple left half way through our discussion and it did a complete 180 the second the door clicked shut behind them. Oh, how grateful I was for that. After that it went very well. We were able to throw some ideas out. Super good. We just went over what we learned from mission tour conference, so not much more to share there. After zone training we went back to SMC and did some service to try and clean our church up. It took a really long time, but it was fun. my district is pretty cool. I felt super legit with the yellow vest. We tried to clean the road in front because there are always big trucks that park there and they just leave all sorts of garbage there and oil and they also pee on their trucks (that's something about Cambodia-no law about public urination, so the males do it everywhere. I think it's so gross, but whatever...). we borrowed one of the shovels from one of the trucks, we decided if it's parked in front of our church, we can use it, and started shoveling all the garbage out. It smelled so so so horrible!!! But we made it look pretty nice. 

Sunday was good. We had a few less actives come, so that was really cool. But no investigators which was really disappointing... but it's okay. There is always next week and the week after that. haha 

That’s all I’ve got for you this week. Enjoy summer!!! Love you all! Keep reading the Book of Mormon and praying!!!

Love, 

Sister Loftus

Double D

Last Pday we got Pho. Super delicious. I told John Groen I would get a picture for him, so here you go!! 

The results of mlc. Lots of pizza and donuts were consumed... I felt so gross after.......

Sister Loftus and Baby (Sister Gallahad) were matching for mission tour conference, so of course we took a picture.

  Cutest service workers you will ever see.  I wear these sunglasses and all the members call me dara, which means movie star. haha   I just laugh every time. (:  

Elder Monson is a pro at taking selfies. Guess that's what 2 years on a mission gets you. haha

This is Srey Toic. She got baptized on Saturday (forgot to put that in my email.. haha sorry!!!) She was supposed to be my investigator but ended up learning with the elders (that is a story for a different day... haha). I'm just glad she is now a member of the church!!!! She's the best.