Investigators of all kinds

Hello everyone!! :) Another great week down in the books!! I decided for my letter this week I would start out with a funny story that happened to me the other day!! So at the end of the day on Thursday we were just talking to random people and we had stopped at a shop to grab some water when this lady with absolutely no teeth and smashed drunk came walking up. We said hello to her and she got super excited and kept on telling me to talk to her in English... the only problem with that was she did not know one word of English hahaha :) So anyway, that was super weird so we left and walked over to the lesson with the family that we were going to teach, which was just a few houses over. We went in and sat down and were just chatting with them for a bit before we started the lesson. Just as we're about to start, the crazy drunk lady walks in and takes a seat on the floor! I was straight up stunned and did not know what to do! She would not stop looking at me! The worst part was there was not anything that we could do about it because it was not our house to kick her out of, and Cambodian people are way, way, way too nice to ask someone to leave their house!

So there is like a moment of awkward silence because we have no clue what to say or do, but then Net Ming (the mom) breaks the silence by starting to teach her the Word of Wisdom! hahahahaha I was dying inside!!! Somehow that did not seem to get rid of her, so we just decided we would teach with her there!! We explained that we always start out our lessons with a prayer, and right when I said that she took the Book of Mormon from out of one of the little kid's hands and held it up to her head and started to give a Buddhist prayer! My companion and I just looked at each other in absolute disbelief, doing everything we could to hold in the laughter! About 20 seconds into the prayer, Lokpu (the father of the family) told her that we were Christian and that his wife would be the one giving the opening prayer haha. So then we went into our lesson and things were going good! She was sitting there quietly and listening, when all of the sudden she just started to bawl her eyes out! Neither of us could really understand what she was saying, but after she had settled down we told her that God could help and we taught her how to pray. After that, we finished our lesson and we asked Lokpu to give the closing prayer. Right when he started to give the closing prayer, she started to give another Buddhist prayer during his prayer. Well, he just kept on praying and so did she! hahaha After the prayer was over, she just got up and peaced out without saying another word! Needless to say, this was definitely one of the highlights of my week and so far the weirdest experience I have had here in Cambodia! haha Ok, so that's my funny story for this week!

I do have a great spiritual experience that I had happen to me this week! So we have been teaching a recent convert's mother and right now she belongs to a different Christian church. She has a great love for God, which is just awesome, but right now she is struggling because she knows that the Book of Mormon is true but she is really scared to go make new friends at our church. My first thought was, "No problem. Tell us who your friends in the other church are and we will go teach them!" :) ha But in all seriousness, we were really trying to get her to come to church this last week so she could meet some of the members. Before church we went out and met with some of the people who were her age and let them know that she would be coming (to make sure that they would sit by her and make her feel super welcome!) So when she came, she had people there for her and it looked like she was having a good time, which was awesome!! It is very true what President Hinckley said about new converts- every new convert needs a friend in the Church!! We went to visit her later that day and she had had a great experience and now Lokpu (her husband) is going to start to sit in on the lessons as well! She has a baptism date for the 6th of next month!

It's so amazing to see people come closer to God and gain a testimony in this Church right in front of your own eyes!! The people here are all so willing to listen and are humble enough to change!! It's hard to find that in the world we live in every day!! I say it every letter, but I mean it every time! This is the best mission in the world and the best people in the world! I would not want to be anywhere else right now than right where I am! Hard times come and sometimes there are hours where I want to come home and sit in a nice cold air-conditioned house and be with all of the people that I love, but every time I think of that I think of how much I would be missing out on over here!! I have already had so many amazing experiences in the short month that I have been here! There is no way I am leaving!! :) I love you all and appreciate all your love and support!

Until next week :)
Elder Steadman

P.S. (from Mindy) Someone asked me this past week if Austin he has had the opportunity to teach many people or if it's mostly service kinds of things that he's busy with. I wasn't exactly sure so I asked him in my emails this week and this was his response: "We did so bad last week on contacting and lessons!! We only had 2 contacts the whole week and 12 lessons!!! This week we decided to freakin step it up a notch and we had 21 lessons and 77 contacts and next week we are going for 100% which is 22 lessons and 70 contacts so we're gonna kill it :)" Sounds like he's teaching :)

This is the entrance to their apartment... I don't think the
poncho is necessary indoors, but I can't be entirely certain :)

Apparently they found a pizza place in their area. I asked
him if it was good and he said it was "AMAZING"!!