Baptisms, testimonies, and Taylor Swift

Hello everyone! :) Well another week is down in the books! It’s been such a great week for me here in Cambodia! I love my mission and I hope all of you have a great week as well! Much love! 

Elder Steadman 

Just kidding haha my mom would literally come to Cambodia and kill me if I really sent that short of a home letter! :) haha My week has been super awesome! First of all, the highlight of my week was that we had two of our investigators get baptized this week! :) It was a middle-aged woman named Ming Mom and a girl about my age named Bong Bou! We have been teaching them for quite a while now and they have seriously been looking forward to this day since the very first lesson that we taught them! I remember in the first lesson they asked if they could receive baptism the next Sunday and although that was music to my ears, I had to explain to them that we had to teach them everything that we believe before they could get baptized so they would fully know what they are going to be covenanting to do rather than just getting baptized and then having no clue what they got themselves into! ha So we continued to teach them and work with them and they accepted everything that we taught them and yesterday they got to make one of the most important promises that this life has to offer! It was a beautiful baptism and the Spirit was so very strong in the room as they both got up to bear their testimonies! 

In church this week it was Fast Sunday as well and Ming Mom got up to bear her testimony and it was the cutest thing ever! ha I was up on the stand doing translations for the foreigners that were there and then she got up to the pulpit to speak and she told everyone that she was super new and that if she said anything that wasn't completely right not to get mad at her. Then after that she just turned to me and started having a conversation with me hahaha She just gave like a mini lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and after every sentence she said, "Right Elder? Isn't that right? That's what you taught me!" It was so cute! haha I agreed with everything that she said but it was literally impossible for me to translate while she was bearing her testimony because really she was just having a full blown conversation with me at the pulpit! :) ha Everyone one in the ward just loves her though because she is so humble and has such a strong desire to follow all of the commandments of God and know all of them perfectly so that she can follow them! She definitely has a special place in my heart as well! :)

As for other news this week! Do you remember when I told you that I would try to do something embarrassing so that you guys could have a good laugh?! Well I did quite a few embarrassing things this week! haha In English class (I teach English 2 times a week if I haven't told you that already ha) I made up an activity for the students because we have really been trying to work on speaking full sentences so that people can understand them! For some reason that is a super hard thing for them to do, so I made up an activity where I gave every student the chance to have me do anything that they wanted me to do (within the bounds of missionary rules), but when they asked me to do whatever they wanted me to do it had to be in a full and complete sentence or else I did not have to do what they asked me to do! I figured I might have to do a couple things here and there, but that mainly we would just be working on how to structure sentences. Oh how wrong I was! It’s like the whole time before that class period, they were just messing around with me! All of a sudden ALL of my students knew how to speak in complete sentences! haha Not only that, but they had great imaginations about what they wanted me to do! The student that went first told me that he wanted me to wrap my tie around my head… that one was not too bad, but then the next student told me to 100 push ups in a row. After that I knew that I was in trouble because now all of the students’ heads were churning thinking of what they could have me do! haha To my surprise the next student asked me to sing 22 by Taylor Swift....how do they even know Taylor Swift!?!? Well I did what anyone would do if you’re forced to sing 22 by Taylor Swift..... I sang my heart out!! ha After that there were a few students who got the sentence wrong, thank heaven! They tried asking me to do the Michael Jackson dance, the worm, and an impersonation of a drunk Khmer.....dodged a bullet there!! haha But then the last two dares that I had to do were to act like a karate master and then sing the Lazy Song by Bruno Mars....they really got a kick out of me singing! haha It was a super fun English class and although it was a little bit goofy, I feel like they really are starting to get the hang of English sentence structure! It did help that if they said it wrong I was not going to have to do what they said! That really made them think about what they wanted to say and then say it correctly so they could laugh at me! :)

Overall this week was super fun! Lots of laughs (well people laughing at me) and also some great spiritual experiences! I sure do love my mission! I love the people of Cambodia and I love making them smile! Even if that includes me embarrassing myself! I encourage all of you this week to find someone you can make smile! A smile goes a long way… you do not always have to embarrass yourself but you can do something Christ-like towards someone so that all people all around the world can feel the wonderful spirit that this time of year always brings! :) Christmas time is such an amazing time of the year! Go and share the love with others so that we can all feel the true meaning of Christmas this year! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Steadman