Well I hope everyone has had pretty
close to the same week I have had! Minus the 10 hours of class time every day
getting taught in another language! ;) haha But seriously this week has been
great!! To be honest I can't really put my finger on why it has been so great,
but all I can say is that it's been a great week :) I guess I will start out
with the bad news of the week so then my letter doesn't seem so depressing! :)
So this week I developed an ingrown toenail and I tried to avoid doing anything
about it but as the week was continuing on it was getting progressively worse
and worse! Finally it got to the point where I told my companion how much it
was hurting....not a good idea! haha He assured me that he knew how to fix the
problem and got out his sewing kit...that was the first sign that he had no
idea what he was doing! haha He then took out a spoon-like tool and grabbed my
foot. I grabbed the elder’s hand sitting next to me and then Elder Q. dug out
my toenail so that it was no longer in my skin but laying on top of my skin! He
did a great job but it hurt like crazy!!! It's a lot better today though so I
think that he just might have done the trick!! Who knew I had a doctor for a
companion!? What a stud :)
 |
| The surgeon himself :) |
Ok good news- so this week Elder Q. and
I decided that we wanted to try and do an entire day speaking only Khmai! It
was so hard haha…we lasted until about 3:00 and then we were so exhausted from
trying to think of words that we just spoke Piasai Angle :) (English), but it
was fun to try!! :) Eventually we will be able to go a whole day before we
leave the MTC!!! As far as the language goes, it is coming!!! I just can’t wait
till I can become a little more fluent because the more I listen to it the
cooler it sounds! We have gotten pretty good at understanding our teacher,
which is super nice because I don’t feel like I am playing charades all day
haha!
One spiritual experience I had this
week was (of course) at the devotional! So the speaker’s name was Brother
Foster of the Quorum of the Seventy and he gave an amazing talk! His talk was
on prayer, but throughout the entire talk he shared with us over and over again
just how much our Heavenly Father loves us! I mean of course I know that I have
a Heavenly Father who loves and cares about me, but every once and awhile I
think sometimes we accidentally forget or lose sight of just how much He loves
us!! He has given us prayer!!! Prayer is so huge! Without prayer we would not
be able to talk to our Father in Heaven at all!! If He wanted us to just come
to Earth and figure everything out on our own than He would not have given us
this great gift! The power of prayer is so real!! I learned this week that
sometimes when we say a prayer we are just speaking in our heads and not really
taking into consideration who we are talking to! We are literally talking to a
God!! How blessed we are to have the knowledge that we have a Heavenly Father
who loves us so much and has given us a way that we can return again to His
presence!! What a blessing!! As I was leaving the Devotional the words to a
hymn came to my head. The words were, "Because I have been given much, I
too must give!" I felt the Spirit stronger than I have felt it in my
entire life! I knew, in that very moment, that my Heavenly Father knew me. He
didn’t just know that I was one of His children; He knew that my name was
Austin Joel Steadman and I was preparing to go serve the people of Cambodia. He
knows my difficulties and He knows what I need help with, but He is not just
going to give it to me! I need to pray! I need to study my butt off and do all
I can do to be the best missionary that I can be and then He will come and
finish what I cannot do alone. He loves me and I know that He loves me! I’m so
blessed to be able to have that knowledge and I cannot wait to go share it with
the humble people of Cambodia! They deserve to know that just as much as I do
and because I have been given much then I will go give! I bear testimony that
God knows each and every one of you! I KNOW that He knows our struggles. I know
that He knows our names and where we are at in our lives and I promise you that
He does not love any one of us more than the other one!! He is our Father in
Heaven and loves all His children equally! My prayer this week is that you will
go to Him in prayer. That no matter where you are at with your relationship
with God, you will pray to Him this week! Let him know how you are doing! Let Him
know what you could use some help on, ask in faith, nothing wavering, and God
will come, and He will bless you. This is my testimony and I KNOW all of these
things to be true!! I love you all so much and love all of the support that you
have given me thus far!! Thank you so much for everything!!
All my love,
Elder Steadman
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