"I think I can say I'm like 5% Asian now!"

Hello everyone! Another great week over here in Asia! :) It seems like this week has just flown by! I really can’t even remember what happened this week and what happened two weeks ago! It all just seems like one big blur!! ha So I guess I will start off with church this week! I was really hoping that some of the investigators and less active members that we have been working with would make their way back to church this week because we have really been encouraging them and promising them that blessings come to us when we attend church! But as everyone who has served a mission knows, you just do not know what is going to happen on Sunday until Sacrament meeting starts! Every Sunday is full of anticipation! It’s the anticipation that I used to feel right before I would watch my Utes play football, but now it’s watching my investigators and less actives come walking into church! haha Oh how things have changed! Anyways, this week was a huge blessing because we had tons of people show up to church! It was the most that we have had since we have split into two branches! Usually we have like 50, and last week we only had like 45, but this week we had 78!! It was so awesome! Almost every single one of my investigators showed up, and a couple of the less active members that we had taught showed up as well! (Including a less active family that we had not been able to go and teach yet, but we were planning on going and teaching them this week!) So that was AWESOME!!! I felt really grateful to be able to have so many people show up to church and really show their faith by making the time to come to church! Especially during these busy months in the year for them… some of them are literally risking not having anything to eat that night in order to make time to come to 3 hours of church! It truly is amazing the faith that they have here! I wish that I could say that I had the faith of some of these members before I came on my mission, but I would be lying to you all if I said that I did!

Another cool miracle that happened this week had to do with an investigator named Sophiap. He has been learning with the elders for over a year and a half and he has had the strongest desire to get baptized since the very beginning, but the company that he works for has not allowed him to get work off. They do not like people that worship Christ so every time that he has asked if he can get work off on Sunday, they have quickly denied him! Two weeks ago we taught a lesson on fasting and the miracles that can come from it. We challenged him to fast and to ask Heavenly Father to soften the hearts of his employers so that he could be able to get work off on Sunday. Sure enough this week, guess who showed up to Sacrament meeting!?:):) When I saw him come in I almost fell off my chair! He told us that his boss would let him work the midnight shift on Sundays so that he would be able to come to church!!! Wow the blessings that come to us when we put our faith in the Lord! He had already asked them countless times to get work off, but he still had the faith to ask again and when he did, Heavenly Father provided him with a miracle!! He now has a baptismal date for the end of December and we cannot wait to continue to teach him and help him learn and grow so he can truly be ready when that special day comes!

As far as a funny story, unfortunately I do not have anything for you this week! I promise I will try to do something stupid you all can laugh at next week! ;) I did however eat a duck egg with a half developed duck inside of it! It’s super popular here! They stick the egg in the ground for like 2 months and then when the duck is halfway developed they punch a whole in the top and let it dry out and then eat it! haha It’s interesting! Not as bad as you think it would be! Or maybe I'm just getting used to eating weird things… I don't really know haha because some of the stuff I hated when I first got here I find myself craving! haha Oh and one more thing is I got to work in the rice fields for the first time this week! I really felt like it brought out the true Asian in me! I think I can say I'm like 5% Asian now! :) Anyways that's all I have for you all this week! I love you all so much! I love being on my mission! I honestly would not want to be anywhere else in the WHOLE WORLD right now than right here in Cambodia! Don't be jealous! :) Love you all! Love the gospel! Love my mission!

Love,
Elder Steadman