Sunday, May 24, 2015

Forget Red Bull... The Spirit gives you wings!!!:):)

Hello everybody!!:) I hope you all had a very great week! For me it was just another fast and busy week over here in Cambodia!!:) There was nothing really too big that happened to us this week! We have finally managed to figure out our schedule so that we can meet with people at times and on days that we are actually in their specific area!! :) haha if that makes sense? I'm sure this whole two-area thing is super hard for you guys to understand! I'm sorry about that! I try my best to explain the whole situation, but even to me it's kind of confusing so I am sure it's quite confusing for you all back at home! Just hang in there 4 more weeks with me and I think next transfer I will just be in one area!:) 

So something that was cool that happened this week was on Wednesday for English class we had 21 people show up!!:) haha I was so pumped! Just a month before we only had 4 people and then the transfer I came in there were 0 people coming for an entire transfer, but now we have 21 students!!:) It's so awesome and even though most of them are super young, it's still super cool because we always teach a 30-minute spiritual thought after we have taught them English! The people that have been coming since I got here know how to pray and know a lot about what we believe in this church! So even though they might not all be investigators, they all are learning about Jesus and are remembering the things that we are teaching them so that someday they will have a desire to learn more! I like to think that I'm just doing some seed planting for some missionaries that are going to be here in a few years!!:) So that was super fun and I told the students in English class that we have a goal of 40 people attending English class by the end of this transfer so I will have to let you all know how that ends up going! Stay tuned!:) 


Anyway, the rest of this week was super good! We have an investigator in Kampong Cham and his name is Pu Mao! He is soooo awesome!! He was more than prepared to hear and accept our message! Every single lesson he just has the biggest smile on his face as we are teaching him and this week he asked us if we could meet him every single day that we are in Kampong Cham because he loves the way that he feels when he learns with the Elders! I of course said yes! We have a baptismal date scheduled for him for the 6th of next month and he makes sure to remind us every time that we meet with him that he is getting baptized on the 6th! Ha such an amazing guy! I can just see him being an amazing priesthood holder in a short couple of months!:) We have some other investigators that will be getting baptized on that same date as well, including Ming Touch and her two kids and Borey as well so it will definitely be a very exciting day!:) I think that this is probably the hardest that I have ever worked on my mission being in charge of so many things at one time, but I also feel like my load is being lightened by my loving Savior! I can feel His hand in this work and on the days where I feel like I just don't have the energy to bike out to the next house in the middle of the afternoon in the scorching heat, suddenly I can feel a surge of energy running through me, lifting me up as if I am being lifted up by unseen angels, and then I can keep on going and keep doing the work that He has set out for me to do! Forget Red Bull... The Spirit gives you wings!!!:):) hahaha I feel soooo unbelievably lucky that I have the chance to be able to come to Cambodia and give The Lord my absolute all to serve the wonderful people here! I know without a doubt that Cambodia has a very special place in Heavenly Father’s heart and I feel so lucky that he has trusted me to come here and share the most important message that these people will ever hear!! Cambodians have had a very hard history and it brings joy to my heart that I can bring to them a message of happiness that can truly bring eternal happiness and give them hope for a brighter future! I have the best mission in the whole world!:) I don't know how I got so lucky! I love every single thing that my mission has taught me and I will never be able to forget the things that I have learned and seen out here! I know with all of my heart that this is the true Church of God once again restored onto the earth and that he has once again called prophets again on the earth, just as he has done in every dispensation, to be our leaders, to guide us safely down the pathway that will lead to eternal life with our Father in Heaven! I am SO grateful for eternal families! It brings unexplainable joy to my heart knowing that I will be with my family after this life and that one day I too will have a family of my own that I will be sealed with for time and all eternity as well! There is not a greater gift that our Heavenly Father could give to us than the gift of eternal families! I love my family!:) I love my life! I love my mission!:) I hope all of you have a very good week! Know that you’re being prayed for!!:)

Much love headed your way!:)
Elder Steadman:)



Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Busy busy busy!

Hello everyone!!:) So I'm sorry that I did not send out an email last week for you all to read, but I was just a little bit too busy skyping my awesome friends and family!!:) It had been SO long since I had seen some of their faces so getting to see them last week was such a huge blessing and confidence booster! I can't wait for when we can all be reunited again in a few months!:) It was also awesome to see my family and all of their cute faces! It had been a couple months since I had seen them so it's always nice to be able to talk to all of them and hear their laughs and see their smiles! I have the best family and friends in the whole world! Thank you! I love all you guys!!:) Anyway, that's the reason why I did not send a home email last week, but this week we are starting up again with the weekly letters!!:)

This week was a lot of fun! It was super crazy, but it was good because when it's busy it's fast! This week, as you know already, we are having to go back and forth from one area to another area so it's a lot of driving and literally no time for rest! Ha on Monday morning last week we drove to Kampong Cham and had p-day over there and played some soccer which was really fun because I have not played in a bit so it felt good to sweat a little bit...oh wait, I sweat all the time haha it just felt good to be out in the sun... Oh wait... Ok it just felt good… you get the point!:) haha We stayed in Kompung Cham all the way up until Wednesday and then Wednesday evening we drove to Brae Choe to teach English class up there and teach some investigators from English class as well, and then as soon as we got done with English class at like 7-ish at night we had to catch a bus back to Kampong Cham. We slept there for the night and proselyted there on Thursday as well, and then on Friday morning we went to Brae Choe and were there all day on Friday, but then on Saturday we had to go back to Kampong Cham because we had a baptism!!:) Yay!!:) He is super cool and we actually had an investigator show up on Saturday to watch the baptism! I was so pumped! This investigator is a stud! His name is Pu Mao and he has been learning for a couple weeks now! Just this week he asked us if it would be ok if we met every single day so that he could learn as much as he can about Jesus! He also told us that he loves the way that he feels when he learns with us and so he wants to feel that every day! I thought that was pretty cool and we told him we would be happy to meet him every day that we are in Kampong Cham!!:) On Sunday he also came to church in the morning! It was so cool to see him dressed in a nice button up with his hair combed over! I could just picture him as a future priesthood holder!!:) And so yeah, the baptism was super good and then right after the baptism we went and taught some lessons in Kampong Cham and then we slept the night there and then we went to church in the morning there and we had 3 investigators show up to church so that was pretty cool as well!! Right after the first hour of church in Kampong Cham we had to peace out because we had to drive back to Brae Choe so that we could get to a lesson and then go and remind all of the members to come to church in the afternoon!! Unfortunately, there were not a whole lot of people that actually made it to church in the afternoon! I think it was because it was super super hot that day and so people felt too lazy to leave their houses and come to church! Haha but on the bright side we had 3 investigators come to church in the afternoon, so I felt pretty good about that!!:) Overall, I feel like both of the areas are still progressing! It's a lot of work to be worried about both areas and all the investigators, but I am happy that I have the opportunity to be able to be helping two different areas at one time! Not a whole lot of missionaries get to do that during their mission so that's pretty cool!! So life is good right now! I love being a missionary and I love being able to share this wonderful message with a people who deserve to hear it more than any group of people in the world! It's so cool being able to witness people change their lives in order to follow Jesus Christ!! I love this gospel! I love this country and I LOVE my mission!!!!:):):) As always, I am praying for you all!!!

Much love!!:)
Elder Steadman!!:)



Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Crazy transfer news

Hello everybody!!:) Well this transfer has gone by super crazy fast!! We are already at the last week of this transfer and it seriously seems like it was yesterday that I was coming into this area!! So on Sunday we had transfer calls and of course I was super antsy and nervous!! Haha I don't know why! I pretty much knew for certain that I was going to be staying in my area, but I always get excited for a little change!:) I also pretty much knew that this transfer I was going to be getting a new companion because my companion has been here for a very long time so I knew it was time for him to go!:) Anyway, on Sunday night I got a call from President Moon!! Usually the APs are the ones that call so my heart started beating kind of fast when I saw that he was on the phone! I answered it and he told me about the transfer! I have to say that I was pretty surprised when he told me that I was going to be training! Not only that… I was going to be staying in my area, but he also wanted us to work in another area as well! Haha I guess we are like low on missionaries right now, so I now have two areas that are a 45 minute drive away from each other and I have to be able to teach people from both areas at the slotted times that I am actually physically in that area!! Haha it sounds kind of crazy...and that's because it kind of is!! Haha So I also will be living in two houses, which means I will have to split up my clothes and keep half of them over in Kampong Cham and the other half of them in my current area of Brae Choe! Oh and President also asked me to be district leader for branch 3 in Kampong Cham as well!! So I am training a new missionary, district leader in Kampong Cham, and running two areas at one time! CRAZY!!! But I love it:):)

The name of the kid that I am training is Elder Palmer! He seems like a super cool kid! He has been here for a couple weeks already, but I am going to be training him all the way until he is done with training. He is very excited about missionary work so I know that we will be able to do some serious work even though we are going to have to share the love in two different areas!! It definitely was a crazy transfer call because since I have been here, I have never heard about anything like this happening! Usually they will just collapse an area down for one transfer and wait until the next group of missionaries come in and then open it back up again, but I guess this transfer President wanted to keep it open and trusts that we won't sink both of the areas into the ground!! Haha I think it's going to be super good though because my area right now is currently growing a ton and the new area that I will be going into is also growing quite a bit as well, so this is going to be one incredibly busy transfer that I have got ahead of me!! I am super excited for the challenge!! I know that this will be a great opportunity to be able to show this new elder just how hard missionaries can work...and have fun at the same time!!:) So yeah, that was transfer calls!! Pretty crazy!!:)

As for some other things that happened this week as well… we had a baptism!! :) Ohm Nuuan was baptized this Sunday and it was seriously awesome!! Everything went super smoothly and her husband even showed up to watch! He used to be an investigator, but he could not stop drinking. Now he wants to learn again and we are hoping that him seeing that experience that his wife had really will spark a desire in him as well to stop drinking and get baptized!!:) We also had 3 investigators show up to church, which is super good because we had church in Kampong Cham this week and so usually no one from our area will show up because it is just too far away and they don't have enough money. We were pleasantly surprised when 3 of our investigators showed up to church this week!!:) It really shows their faith and desire to follow Jesus Christ!!:)


Also, we are hitting record highs in our English class as well!!:) Right before we got into this area they had 0 students showing up for like 4 weeks in a row, but now just a month and a half later we have 12 students coming to learn… with 1 investigator and 2 potential investigators all just from English class!!:) Pretty cool stuff man! This week we also got another referral from a member in our area of a person that wants to start learning about Jesus Christ! As soon as we heard about that we went over to her house that next morning to visit her!! She is super awesome! Her name is Bong Lean and she used to live in one of my old areas (Stung Meanchey), but she moved to here because her husband found work here! Before she had gone to a Christian church and when she came here she found out that we taught people about Jesus so she asked if she could learn with us! Of course we said yes! That same day we taught her about prayer and invited her to pray and practice for herself. She did awesome for her first time and we have met her a couple of times since then and she is doing super awesome and accepting all of the commitments that we have been extending to her! She has a baptismal date set already for June 5th!!:)


Anyway, I think for this week that is all that I have got for you guys!! I can hardly wait to see my cute mom’s face in one week from now!!:) Only one more week and I will be able to see all of those faces that I love!!:) Wow, time is flying!!:) I love this church! And most of all I love my mission!! I love the person that it's helping me become!! I am so grateful for all of the challenges and all of the rewards that come from a mission and I know that these experiences that I am making out here everyday will be experiences that I will cherish for time and all eternity!! I love you all and I want you all to know you’re in my prayers!! Don't miss me too much I am having way too much fun for you to do that!!:):)

Much love headed your way!!:)
Elder Steadman