No "Clue" what's next... but ready for anything!

Hello everyone!! :) Wow this week has just been packed full of events! I am excited that I can actually give you guys some information that is new and exciting! haha So this past week, as you know, I received a call that I was being transferred to a different area! As I said last week, I knew that this was going to be super hard because I have come to know and love the people in Stueng Mean Chey so very well and so very much! So I decided that I was going to make the very best out of my last week that I possibly could! This past Wednesday we had Special Activity Night! I was assigned as English Class Leader this transfer and so the idea that we came up with for this particular special activity night we had been planning for over a month. I was super worried if everything was going to work out the way that we had planned it and if people were actually going to show up or not, but everything went so good! We had over 50 people come that week, which is a new record for Stueng Mean Chey!!! We played the game called Clue!! :) So for the activity we sat everyone down and I was the "Narrator". I told everyone that we were going to be acting like different people, and turned their attention to the back of the room where some of the other missionaries were dressed up (more or less) as actors! I introduced everyone and then I pointed and said, "Here is the professor...oh wait where is the professor?!" And then I looked over to my right and I said, "Professor what are you doing over there by the lights!?" And right when I said that, he turned off the lights so the room went pitch black! When the room went black one of the missionaries made a loud bang (like a gun shot) and then the lights turned back on. One of the missionaries (or actually “the mayor”- was who he was acting out) had fallen on the ground dead. (Earlier that week I ruined one of my shirts, so we drew blood and a gunshot wound on that shirt to make it look as if he had been shot). I ran up to him and yelled, "He is dead!!" Then I told the police officer (missionary) to lock the doors so that no one could leave until we figured out who had killed the mayor! 

So there were 4 suspects who could have possibly killed the mayor: the "Happy Couple", the Police Officer, the Professor, or the Student. I told all of them to go into separate rooms and then I came back to the front of the room and told the students that I needed their help to find out who had killed the mayor! We spilt them into groups of 4 and then each group went to a different station (or room), and each station had a different activity. They had like 10 minutes in each station to play the game and to try to get clues from the actors (missionaries) before the 10 minutes were up! So each group went to each station and then at the end we all gathered back to the "Dining Room", and then they had to walk into the room of who they thought killed the mayor! The majority of the kids thought that it was the student (because it was haha), so they went into his room. Once everyone had picked a room, I ran back to the front of the room (where I had written on the white board who killed the mayor and then turned it around so they couldn't see) and flipped the white board around to reveal that the Student was the killer! Then the police officer came over and arrested him and took him out of the room and then everyone cheered! haha It was so much fun and it was a great success and a great way to go out! :):) 

So after the Special Activity Night I had to pack all of my stuff and get ready to leave! Friday I got to the mission home and I met my new companion there! He is my first native companion! His name is Elder An and he is so awesome! Just a few transfers ago he was AP and he is just the nicest and funniest guy you have ever met in your life! He is never not smiling, which is so awesome, and our personalities match together SUPER good!! :) He knows the Gospel super well and is very spiritual as well! This is his last transfer as a missionary so I am his last companion, but with how hard he works you would never guess that he is at the end of his mission! I love him so much:) Anyway, we made the long drive up to Siem Reap (7 and 1/2 hours) and eventually we made it! :) It is so beautiful here and so very clean compared to where I was serving last! There are seriously a million white people here, which is super super weird and I'm not a huge fan of it to be honest! haha But once you get to the more rural areas here, it’s just the people I know and love (the Cambodians) haha :) 

Mom: Austie, why are you riding your bike in a river? Austin:
Mom, that's not a river haha, that's the path to someone's house!

Elder An :)

This week at church was super cool! Everyone treated me so nicely and as if they had known me their whole lives! :) When I got to church, the Stake President told me he needed me to give a talk on not gossiping (this was about 10 minutes before church was about to start and that kind of sucked because I did not even know the word “gossip” in Khmer until the moment he said it to me!) haha So I stumbled my way through a talk but it’s ok:) haha Then after church we had a baptism! It was super awesome! He was one of Elder An’s (and now my) investigators and he is so strong in the Gospel! I am really excited to be able to keep on teaching him! Anyways that is pretty much it for me this week, but know that I love you all so much and you are all in my prayers! Much love coming your way from Cambodia!! 

Love,
Elder Steadman