tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85576692737761083032024-03-04T23:04:32.190-07:00Elder Austin SteadmanCambodia Phnom Penh MissionMindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.comBlogger109125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-33080958934330212002016-02-21T21:52:00.000-07:002016-02-21T21:52:12.334-07:00The Last Home Letter!Hello everybody! Well, I hope that you all had a great week! Mine was amazing as usual! :) I don't really even know how to begin this letter to you all this week! Ha my heart is filled with so much emotion I feel like it's going to just pop right out of my chest! How can it already be time for me to come home? What is home? I don't think I have the same definition for home as I did before I came out here! Cambodia has been my home for the past two years of my life and now they tell me I get to go back home... I feel like I already am at home in a way! Ha but at the same time I have an overwhelming amount of joy because I get to go back to America this week and see my family that I love and miss so very much!! :) I really can't begin to describe to you all how much my mission means to me! My mission has blessed my life in so many ways I could not even begin to try to count them all! Before my mission I did not have much of a testimony at all of the truthfulness of the restored gospel. To be honest with you all, I kind of just believed because everyone else believed! When I came out on my mission however, I quickly realized that I was the only one that was heading to Cambodia! Not my mom or my dad or my church leaders, just me. I realized that I needed to figure out what I truly believed in! Because if all of this was just some made up story, I was not about to go share about it for two years halfway across the world! So I started reading and praying for the first time in my life! And by the first time in my life, I mean the first time actually reading and praying and having a burning desire to know the truthfulness of the message! Well, as you all know, towards the end of the Book of Mormon there is a promise that the prophet Moroni gives to all who read the book with an open heart and a contrite spirit, that the truthfulness of that book will be made known unto them. Well I remember I was in my first area when I finally finished the Book of Mormon all the way through. When I finished, I quietly went up to the top of my house up on the roof/balcony where it was nice and quiet. I knelt down to pray, but I remember as clear as day that before I could even get anything out of my mouth, the Spirit rang through my whole body and at that moment I received my first true witness that the Book of Mormon was true. I did not even have to use words to ask, God knew the desires of my heart and answered my prayer that morning. Instead of asking, I thanked my Heavenly Father for the answer that He had already so generously given to me. My very favorite thing about this Gospel is that it is a Gospel of free agency. Nobody is trying to force you into doing anything you don't want to do. All God is asking, all that we as members of the church are asking, and all that I have ever asked anyone to do out here as a missionary, is to take what we have taught them and pray about it and ask God if what we are teaching them is true. What an amazing promise Heavenly Father gives to all of His children! He wants us to know! He wants us to receive! And all that He asks is we cry out to Him with faith and His end of the promise is always fulfilled! I have seen it countless of times out here on my mission! <div>
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I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's true church once again restored onto the earth! I know that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ and that through him, the power and the fullness of the gospel was restored. I know that we are led by a modern-day prophet, just like the prophets of old. I know that he receives revelation from on high to lead us safely back home to our Heavenly Father. I love the people of Cambodia. It's a good thing that you guys can't see me right now because I get way too emotional talking about the people of Cambodia! There is not a better group of people in this entire universe! These past two years, having the opportunity to be able to live amongst these people and work with them and talk with them and love them has been the greatest blessing in my life up to this point. How I was so lucky as to get to serve my mission in Cambodia I will never know, but what I do know is that the Cambodian people are some of God's most beloved children. The children that God knew could tough it out, that could handle all of the hard obstacles and trials that this life has. The toughest of the toughest were sent to live their earthly lives here in Cambodia! I love the people of Cambodia. I love my mission so much. In so many ways I do not want this experience to end! I feel like I have learned so much out here, and yet I feel like I am only beginning to scratch the surface! I want to thank all of you as well for all of the support that you all have given me throughout my mission! There have been days out here that were very hard, but one thing that I could always count on was feeling the love of those back at home. There were many days where I know it was because of the prayers of those back at home that I was able to keep on pushing forward! Thank you all so much for your love and support! </div>
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I testify to you all that this Church is true. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is very real and can and should influence every aspect of our lives. The Plan of Salvation is obtainable. Families can be together for time and all eternity. Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God. The Book of Mormon is true scripture given to us from God. I want to share a scripture with you all that I love so much in 2 Nephi. It's towards the very end when he is testifying of the truthfulness of what he is writing upon the plates that God has commanded him to write on. He says, "And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good." I know that this is true! I know that God has given us these words out of love and compassion for each and every one of us and I know that if we read and study these words, just like Nephi said, it will only teach us to do good! The Book of Mormon is true and I know that with all of my heart and soul! It's a gift that Heavenly Father wants every single one of us to receive! I know that anyone that reads the Book of Mormon and asks God with a sincere heart if it is true scripture or not, will receive an answer that it truly is of God! I love this gospel with all of my heart and soul. Please, as members of this Church, continue to spread the good word. We have been given a gift beyond measure and it would be nothing short of robbery if we kept this great gift to ourselves. Have the courage to share. Have the courage to invite and always have the worthiness to testify! For those of you who are not members of this Church, I invite you learn more about our church. Visit our website at <a href="http://www.lds.org/">www.lds.org</a>. Talk to a member that you may know and have them help you set up a meeting with missionaries in your area so they can come and teach you more about what we believe in. I promise that if you do this with a sincere desire, that it will be one of the greatest blessings in your life! For those of you that are already members, but for some reason or another have fallen away from the church, come back. We miss you, and we love you so very much! <br /><br />I have been trying to think of how I wanted to end this letter and how I could express to you all just how much I love my mission, and as I was contemplating about it a few days ago in my personal study I came across the testimony of Ammon and how he felt about his missionary service! As I was reading it, I felt that he and I had very similar outlooks on our missions! So to close I want to share his testimony with you all and I want you all to know that I echo all of his words! I summarized a little bit so if you want to see the full passage, it is in Alma 26. He says: </div>
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12. Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.<br />28. And now behold, we have come, and been forth amongst them; and we have been patient in our sufferings, and we have suffered every privation; yea, we have traveled from house to house, relying upon the mercies of the world--not upon the mercies of the world alone but upon the mercies of God.<br />30. And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.<br />31. Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us.<br />35. Now have we not reason to rejoice? Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began; yea, and my joy is carried away, even unto boasting in my God; for he has all power, all wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a merciful Being, even unto salvation, to those who will repent and believe on his name.<br />36. Now if this is boasting, even so will I boast; for this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation, and my redemption from everlasting wo. Yea, blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people, who are a branch of the tree of Israel, and has been lost from its body in a strange land; yea, I say, blessed be the name of my God, who has been mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land.<br />37. Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen.<br /><br />It could not be put any better than that! I am forever grateful for the experiences that I have had out here and I will cherish them and the relationships that I have made and the knowledge that I have gained for time and all eternity! God bless the people of Cambodia! I love this Gospel, I love my mission, and I love the people of Cambodia! One last time... <br /><br />Much love headed your way from the KINGDOM OF CAMBODIA!!!<br />Elder Steadman</div>
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-91743503870649432802016-02-17T22:52:00.001-07:002016-02-17T22:52:33.664-07:00Another wonderful week in the Kingdom!Hello everybody!!:) Another amazing week for me here in the Kingdom! I hope you all had a great week as well! I'll give you all a quick rundown of how this week went! So on Monday we had p-day and we spent the day just hitting up all of the markets and doing lots of shopping! It was actually quite an exhausting day! Then when we got back to our area that evening, we went to visit some members and that was super great!:) On Tuesday morning we had Zone Leader Meeting...I don't think that's what it's called, but the actual name won't come to my head haha… it was just a meeting with all of the zone leaders and sister training leaders in our mission! It was super good! I don't know if you guys know this or not, but a couple of weeks ago the church leaders had a World Wide Missionary Broadcast! Well, we had to wait for the broadcast to be available online before we could watch it so we were not able to watch it live with all of the other missionaries, but we were finally able to watch it this week! So we watched that in the meeting and it was like 2 hours long! It was super good! I really liked the focus that they put on relying on the Spirit and letting the Spirit testify that what you are teaching is true! That's one thing I love so much about this church! We are not trying to convince anyone of anything! We only state what we believe and then ask them to go to God and ask Him if our message is true or not! When you put things that simply, missionary work sounds so easy! Haha there is a little more that goes on in the background, but that's pretty much the overall gist! Anyway, I loved the broadcast! Then the Assistants gave a small message on repentance and the importance of teaching repentance clearly and understandably! Unfortunately, in this mission it's gotten to be a bad habit for some of us to just say repenting is feeling bad about something you did and then not doing it again. Well, that's technically correct, but there are other things that are part of the repentance process that are very important to understand! So they had us practice teaching repentance and I feel like it's really going to help with our vision this year, which is having 50% of our recent converts attend church! Right now we are at about 32%, but with the way President Christensen is running things I know we will be able to reach that goal by the end of the year! So overall the meeting was super good and Elder Bo and I got a ton out of it! We then had Zone Training with our zone that same Friday! Basically we just watched that Broadcast with them all and then Elder Bo did a great presentation on repentance as well! So my Tuesday and Friday this week were kind of like the same day, but they were super good so that's lucky I guess!:) <br /><br />Then there was a super sad thing that happened this last Tuesday as well. One of the members in our branch had his house burn down. His neighbor’s gas tank exploded and ended up burning down around 20 houses! I was so sad when I first heard the news because I had just been to his house the week before and he was telling me how he had just finished it and that it had been something that he had been working on for 20 years. I was so crushed. I went to go see them and to my great surprise he greeted me with a warm smile and a hug! He told me that when it happened he grabbed his 3 grandkids and ran out of the house, but because the fire was so big and their house was made out of straight wood, he literally had no time to go back in and get anything else. Literally everything that they owned besides the clothes on their back was gone! And yet he was still smiling and just telling me how grateful he was that he and his grandchildren were able to make it out alive! His faith is so inspiring to me! I was also so happy to hear that members from all over Phnom Penh, not just our branch, but everywhere, were coming to visit him and give him some clothes or a little bit of money! It's so cool to see the members come together and show love for another member who is going through a hard time in their life! And the coolest was on Sunday he came to church! He did not have church clothes, but he and his wife came to church! When we went to meet him earlier in the week, he told us he was probably not going to be coming because he was going to be busy trying to figure out everything, but then on Sunday he walked in with a big smile and was warmly greeted by all the members!! So it was a very sad thing that happened to him, but he is looking at it as a blessing in disguise! He told me he feels lucky he gets to start new! Sometimes the faith of the members here is so humbling!<div>
<br />On Friday we met a new investigator who's name is Bong Touch. She is so awesome! We taught her the first lesson and at the end committed her to pray about what we had taught her and then she said yes and asked if we had an extra copy of "that Book of Mormon book" that she could keep and read for herself! That was a first for me on my mission! Ha we gave her a copy of the book and taught her how to read it! We have not met her again yet, but we will be meeting with her this week and I am super excited to see how she is progressing when me meet again! Church was also super good this week as well! I did not have the opportunity to fast last week so I fasted this week for the family whose house burned down and when I got to the church, I saw all of these people offering their help in all of these different ways and I felt like the prayer to my fast was literally getting answered right in front of my eyes! It was a pretty cool experience!:) <br /><br />I love my mission so much! I feel so unbelievably blessed for the time that I have to be serving here in this wonderful country! I seriously believe that there is not another place in the world like this, with people like these people, and with experiences like these experiences! It's a once in a lifetime opportunity and I cannot think of a better thing I could be doing with my life right now then sharing the wonderful message of the gospel with these amazing people! I am the luckiest guy in the world to be able to live in the wonderful Kingdom of Cambodia! Don't miss me too much! I'm enjoying it way too much out here! I love you all so much and hope you have a very wonderful week over in America! Oh yeah, and happy Valentine’s to all of you love birds out there!!:) This Valentine’s Day I’m grateful for a family that loves me far more than I think I deserve! </div>
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Love you all so much!! :)<br />Elder Steadman:)</div>
Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-29898936309377157252016-02-10T07:09:00.000-07:002016-02-10T07:09:48.931-07:00Don't miss me too much...Hello everybody!!:) Well, I am sorry in advance because I don't really have a whole lot of time this week to write all of you! Today a whole bunch of Elders are getting together at the South Stake Center and we are having a huge Cambodian BBQ and playing some backyard baseball! I am super pumped!!:) We are in a hurry to get over to that party today so I don't really have a whole lot of time to write a long email, but I will try to update you as best as I can with the time that I have!:) <br />
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This week was super good! Monday was super fun because it was Elder Riches’ birthday and so a whole bunch of Elders met all together to eat pizza and it was so delicious! :) But way expensive, so it's not a place that I can go to eat very often!! Ha Then on Tuesday we were not able to do any proselyting!:( Elder Bo's knee was hurting him super bad! About 6 months ago he got in an accident and hurt his knee and then this week it was starting to hurt him again, so we spent Tuesday at the doctors getting X-rays and all that fun jazz!! At the end of the day they just told him to take some meds and to wrap it up and tough it up! I don't think that he was too happy about their answer, but it is what it is I guess!! Good news is that the medicine they gave him is helping and he is feeling a lot better!! Then on Wednesday we had English class and that was...ok! Haha we did not have a whole bunch of people show up, but I tried to be super enthusiastic when I was teaching so I am hoping that everyone will invite their friends next week!!:) <br />
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On Thursday we had Zone Conference with President! Oh my gosh! I cannot even express to you all how good it was!! President focused on the importance of studies and making your study hour worthwhile and also good ways to go at studying! It was soooo amazing! The only thing that would have made it better was if I had heard it 2 years ago!! Ha but it was also really cool because a lot of it was focused on after the mission studies as well! I loved it so so so much! I have always studied my whole mission, but I wish I would have known all these different ways to study like we were taught this last week! But hey, better late than never right!? Then on Friday we went to our far away area and we had great success in meeting all of our investigators and members down there!! :) We also have another potential investigator down in that area as well so I will try to keep you guys posted on how that goes!:) Then on Saturday we went out all day and had like no success at all getting lessons! We were able to meet a lot of members, but they were just too busy to meet with us! In Cambodia they celebrate Chinese New Year and it started on the 7th. So on Saturday everybody was getting ready for that and all of their relatives were coming over to visit them! Or they were gone because they went to go visit their relatives instead! Ha on Sunday we did not have as many people at church as we usually do because there were a lot of people that went out to the provinces, but it was still a great Sunday! It was fast and testimony meeting and those are always fun to listen to here in Cambodia! It's not so much of a testimony meeting! It's more like stand up and tell everyone everything that is going bad in your life and who you are mad at and then at the end tell everyone how much you love God and that's about it! Hahaha it's kind of awesome! They are all just so open with each other here it's so cool! Just one big family!:) But yeah, I think for this week that's pretty much all that I’ve got for you all! Nothing too exciting happened to us this week, but it was still a great week! :) Especially the Zone Conference!! I love you all so much and I hope that you all have a very good week!!:) Don't miss me too much! I don't have enough time left to be missing you guys!!;);) <br />
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All my love,<br />
Elder Steadman:)<br />
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-87035603041422216832016-02-04T06:14:00.002-07:002016-02-04T06:14:21.171-07:00"Completely and totally humbled"Hey guys!:) Well, it was another great week for me over here! This week felt like a really good week because we had a lot of success in our contacting efforts! That is super super rare for this area, so the Lord definitely blessed us this week!! I guess I will just give you all a quick run down of everything that happened! So on Monday we went and hit up all the markets and I just did a whole bunch of shopping to get some small things that I needed, so that was really fun!:) Then we went out to eat at Elder Bo's favorite fast food place and it was pretty good! He is so funny because he wants to like American food so much, but it's such a different taste for him that he just has not gotten used to yet! But every p-day he loves to go to this place and they make a hamburger there that he really loves and I think it makes him feel like he is really embracing the American culture every time we eat there!! Haha he is so awesome! So that was pretty much it for our p-day besides we went and visited a few members in the evening time and that was great too! <div>
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Then on Tuesday we went to our far away area and, I'm not going to lie, it was a super hard day!! We were out all day trying to meet our members and investigators and all of them bailed on us! Literally every single one! It was super frustrating and I was not really enjoying my day, but then at around 7 (so like an hour before we were supposed to go inside) we were about ready to throw in the towel when we remembered an old less active couple that we were not able to meet in the past because they were never home. We decided that we might as well give it a try with them before we went home! So we hiked over to their house and sure enough, they were home! Just to give you guys an idea, they are both about 60 years old and they pick up garbage and recyclables for a living and resell it back to small companies for a very small amount of money! Their house is no bigger than 10 feet by 10 feet and is filled with recyclables that they have not given to the companies yet. When they saw us, their faces both lit up! They are both Chinese, but have lived most of their lives in Cambodia. Neither of them speak the language super clear, but they welcomed us in their small house and grabbed some cardboard for us to sit on and then we all sat down and then the older man told us how happy he was that we were able to make it today! Then he told us that Chinese New Year was coming up really soon and he would love it if we could come to his house to celebrate with them. He told us that he does not have a lot of money to make some nice food for us, but that he has some rice that we could all eat together, and then he said something that I will never forget for the rest of my life. He said, "I don't have a lot. I can't make you any nice food because I don't have any money. I don't have any friends. You two are my only friends, and God too! So I would love it if you could come and celebrate with us." My emotions overcame me at that moment. I don't know what it was, but I was completely and totally humbled by this man. He had absolutely nothing going for him in his life and yet he was smiling from ear to ear. For that moment I was jealous of him! He can see the big picture. He sees that this life is only a small trial of our faith and that in the next life he will be able to rest from all of these trials and hardships. I only hope that I can try to be half as good as this man and women in looking for the positive things in life! I know that he is one of God's most precious children! I could feel it when I was at their house! The Spirit was so strong! Anyway, that made my terrible Tuesday into one of the best days of my whole mission! <br /><br /><div>
On Wednesday we were out contacting and met a man of another religion who has believed in Jesus for over 20 years already and he was super awesome! We asked him if we could come back and share a little bit about what we believed in! We were also able to teach a little bit about the Book of Mormon and he seemed intrigued that God could potentially have given us another testament of Jesus Christ's mortally ministry! So I will have to keep you updated on that as well!:) That night we had English class and that was pretty good too because Elder Bo and I are trying to get more people to our English class so we are doing a lot of contacting and inviting people to learn English with us and we already have a few new students, so that's pretty tight as well! Then on Thursday we had a good day and we were able to meet a lot of members, so that was really good! On Friday we went back to our far area, but this time we had a lot of success in going and meeting all of our members and investigators!:) Friday night we went again to the old couple’s house and we watched the Restoration video with them and they loved it so much! We listened to it in Chinese so I did not understand a single thing, but I have seen it so many times I already knew everything that it was saying!:) ha Then on Saturday we found two more people who told us that they were interested in learning with us about the gospel so we scheduled to meet with them this next week as well! Also, Saturday evening we went over to an investigator’s house to teach her and she lives right next to some members and so we invited them to come over and learn with us as well! When we got all together, the member started to tell us that she had a big problem in her life right now because the place that she was living was no longer going to be rented out to her so she was going to have to leave! She told us she was going to have to go and live with her mom, but she said the problem was that her mom lives on the land of another church and that that church has a rule that everybody that lives on their land has to go to their church and worship every Sunday. Kinda weird, I know ha, but anyway she said that if she goes there that she will have to go to that church! She asked us what she should do! Well, that was a super easy question for me because all I can do is invite her to ask God what to do! I am just a kid! I can't, nor do I have the right, to force her to choose one church or the other! I told her to pray to God and promised, “He will lead you and help you know what to do in order to follow Him with all of your heart!” Then we watched the restoration video and I think that it really hit home for her! She said the closing prayer and begged God to help her know what she should do to follow Him with all of her heart! Well, when Sunday morning came around, guess who showed up! :) She had a big grin on her face and I did not even need to ask her! I knew that she had received an answer to her prayers!:) Sometimes missionary work is so easy because we are really not doing any of the work at all! We are just small instruments in God's hands and we help people know the way that they can communicate with Him so that they can learn for themselves about what they need to do in their lives to follow Him! I love my calling:) It's a constant reminder that God truly is at the head of this great work! </div>
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<br />Oh, and guess who else showed up at church!? Bong Narit and his family!! For those of you who have been reading my emails from the beginning, you are going to have to jog your memories really hard to remember this family! I met them in my very first transfer here in Cambodia and fell in love with them and have kept in touch with them through letters throughout my entire mission as well! Well, they found out that I was leaving next month and asked the Elders in their area where I was serving, and then came and surprised me! How awesome is that?! Their little daughter is soooo big now! And they have a cute new baby boy!!:) I love them so much and it made my whole week to be able to see them walk into church! And to see that they are still strong and active in the church! They have such hard lives! The husband has to do different random jobs night and day just to be able to provide for his family! I have not met a more hard-working Cambodian during my entire mission! He is a huge example to me of what the role of a father entails! He does anything and everything to provide for his family! I took a picture with them that I will be sending to you all as well so you can see how they all are!:) Well, for me that's pretty much all that I’ve got for you this week! I love this work so much! It's so dang hard! But there is not any other work I would want to be doing in my life right now than this work! It is of God and I feel so blessed to be a part of it! I love you all and hope that you all have a great week!:)<br /><br />All my love!<br />Elder Steadman:)
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-63566846293866873612016-01-28T23:09:00.001-07:002016-01-28T23:09:24.971-07:00The gift you don't have to be a "VIP" to receiveHello everybody!!:) I hope that you all had another great week!:) The numbers on the calendar just seem to be flying by! This week was a great week for my companion and I here in our area!! This week we had a lot of success in finding new people to teach! We found 3 new investigators and they are all super awesome!! We did a ton of contacting and our hard work most definitely paid off! I will give you a little run down of the week! So on Monday we went down to the city and hung out with all of the missionaries and we had lunch there and stuff and then we headed back to our area in the evening to finish out our day visiting a couple of members and investigators, so that was super good! On Tuesday we had district meeting, and then after that we went to our furthest away area and we spent the day over there! There is this one investigator there who just started learning with us and he accepted the invitation to be baptized! It was pretty cool because he told us that his wife had been trying to talk to him about getting baptized for like 5 years, but he had absolutely no interest! He said it wasn't until he started learning with us that he started to have a desire to be baptized! I know that really it has nothing to do with us, but it was the Holy Ghost that was working through us! That right there is the reason we always have to be worthy, so that others around us can always feel that presence and know that what we are telling them is true and that it is from God! So if you guys would keep him in your prayers… his name is Bong Narin!<br /><br />On Wednesday we had English class and it was actually a pretty good turnout this week, which was kind of surprising! My comp and I stood outside the church with fliers for like and hour and a half and passed them out to people as they drove by hoping that some of them would come that night! Well, we passed out like 150 flyers and had 2 people show up that same day! That may seem like terrible odds to you all, but we were pretty excited about it! Thursday was a pretty regular day, but then in the evening we met a potential investigator and got to teach her for the first time! Her name is Ming Mom and she is so nice and so awesome! She was so engaged in the lesson the whole time and she asked lots of really good and inspiring questions as well! We taught her about prayer and she thought that that was the coolest thing ever! That we could talk to Heavenly Father whenever we wanted! I think sometimes we all take for granted just how amazing the gift of prayer is! Heavenly Father, who is the great creator, has given us a way to talk to him whenever we want! And not only that, but He also is always listening and promises us that in His time all of our prayers will be answered! Just like any loving parent! Prayer is pretty amazing guys:) <br /><br />Then on Friday we went to our far away area again and met with anther potential investigator whose name is Om Sunlee and he is super awesome as well! I met him at the Stake Christmas party last year and got his number, but he has been super busy up until just this week. He was super excited to meet us and was very interested in our church! He has some relatives that live far away who are already members of our church so he knows a lot and already has a small testimony about Jesus Christ! Saturday was a weird day actually! Literally everyone was not at home! Like I'm not kidding… everyone that we went to go see that day was not at home! No one would answer their phones! It was super weird! It was my first day like that on my mission! But hey, I guess that's quite the blessing right!? Then on Sunday we went to church and it was super great and we had another great attendance week at church, which was super awesome! I think it really helps when church is in the morning! For some reason everyone wants to come to church in the morning! But hey, I'm not complaining!:) So yeah, for me that was pretty much it for my week! <br /><br />In my personal study I have been reading a book called the Infinite Atonement! I am only 100 pages in or so, but it has really opened up my eyes to the extremities and the necessity and the absolute pure love that Jesus Christ has for each one of us! As I continue to read this book I continue to learn more and more about the significance of the atonement, but at the same time I feel like I am starting to realize more and more how little I know about the atonement! It's very interesting and I don't really know how to explain it, but the one thing that I always feel when I read this book is the overwhelming amount of love that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for us! It makes me shudder to think of where I would be at in my life without the atonement or without the knowledge of the atonement! The knowledge that you can be forgiven, the knowledge that no matter what you have been through in your life there is one person that knows exactly how you are feeling and knows just how to comfort you if you will but just let him in! Open up to him! I have not lived a very long time yet, but one thing I have always been able to count in is a God with arms wide open… anytime I am willing to embrace Him, He is always there for me. That's a blessing I will never be able to repay Him for! It's a blessing that He wants all of us to receive! Jesus did not just suffer for the sins of everyone in this church, He did not just suffer for the sins of everyone that believed on His name, He did not suffer for just the ones that lived in that era when He so mercifully gave up his life, but rather He atoned for everyone’s sins that ever lived on the face of this earth and that ever will live on this earth! This is not an exclusive gift that only people in the "VIP" section can receive! It is part of God’s plan to spread this message over the face of this whole earth! This is a message that everyone needs to hear! If there was no atonement, this whole life would be of no worth! As the scriptures share with us, if there was no atonement made for the sins of all man, then there would be no resurrection and man would become like unto Satan. How does that life sound to you? Does that sound like a life that you would want to live? I am so grateful for Christ, that he could see the big picture and come down and do the impossible! Only one being had the power from on high to complete the most noble of all callings, and that was our Savior Jesus Christ! I would invite you all this week to ponder and study about the Atonement of Jesus Christ! I promise that if you all do this, not only will you have a burning desire to share this wonderful message with others, but God will also put people in your path to share your testimony with about the wonderful message of the Atonement! This is a message God wants all of His children to hear and receive and we are his mouthpieces here on the earth! Please share it with the people around you! I promise the Spirit will testify that what you are saying is true! I know this because I have had the opportunity to do it for the last 2 years of my life! The Spirit has never let down His end of the promise! Strive to live worthy of the Holy Ghost so that He can be with you as you testify of truth! And if you’re not worthy then use the most wonderful gift that God has ever given to man and get worthy! The atonement is not just meant to be preached about! It's meant to be used!! Trust me! I have felt the healing power that comes from using the atonement many, many times in my life! I love you all so much! I want you all to know that I know this Church is true! Jesus Christ is at the head of it and we are lead by a modern day prophet! I know that he has been called of God for this specific time. I know that this is the only church with the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ! I know that the Book of Mormon is true! It's a book that is given to us from God as another testimony that this truly is Jesus Christ's church again restored onto the earth! I love my mission and I am so grateful I have been able serve here in Cambodia! I am certain there is not a better place in the world to give two years of service to my Savior! I have a burning love for the people here and will never be able to forget the amazing experiences and relationships that I have built out here! I love Cambodia so much!! Can't even explain it to you guys! It's just amazing!!! I love you guys! Hope you have a great week!!:)<br /><br />Love,<br />Elder Steadman:)Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-61197252203972634792016-01-20T15:53:00.000-07:002016-01-20T15:53:39.064-07:00Time is flying!Hello my awesome family!!:) I hope all of you had a great week! This week was fun for me because there was a little bit of change! Change always just makes the time fly for some reason! But before I get to all that, I will fill you in on what happened in the week before the big change!:) So on Monday my comp and I spent most of the day going to this place called the Killing Fields. It was basically a concentration camp back during the war! It was interesting because the last time that I went to that place I was still in my training and I was going out there with a whole bunch of missionaries that were super old in the mission, but this week I was the old missionary! I don't feel like I am an old missionary, but all the younger missionaries constantly remind me of how old I am in the mission! Haha but it was way fun! You get a headset when you go so you can listen about the history of what happened there and when I went the first time almost 2 years ago I tried to listen in Khmer, but couldn't understand anything and had to go switch! This time I chose Khmer again and laughed thinking about myself 2 years ago trying to understand that same voice that was now so easy for me to understand!! Haha missions are crazy! Anyway, it was a cool experience, but also a very sad place where lots of terrible things happened. The Cambodian people have been through an incredibly hard past! As I was walking through the place, there was this really old man that was working there and I saw that he was missing his arm. When he sat down to rest I went over to talk to him and asked him about how he felt about all of this, because he was alive when all of this was actually happening. He told me he was about 13 or 14 during that time and he also told me the story of when he lost his arm. It was a grenade that was planted on the curb of a busy rode and he and his brother tried to ride the curb and the grenade exploded. He said his brother blocked almost everything but because he had his hand wrapped around his brother’s waist it was completely blown off. Unfortunately, his brother died in the accident as well. It was a very sad story and then he went on to tell me all of the different hardships that he had to go through during that time! It really made me gain a great love and concern for him! I told him in our religion we believe that we can be with families together forever and gave him a pamphlet to read. He politely accepted and after a few more minutes of casual conversation we headed our separate ways! I will remember that experience forever though! <br />
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On Tuesday and Wednesday we spent most of our time just visiting the members that Elder Riches wanted to say goodbye to! Then on Thursday I got my new companion! His name is Elder Bo! He is soooo awesome! I love him so much! We have only been together for less than a week, but he is so much fun! And I just love being able to speak Khmer all of the time!! He knows English pretty decently as well so we have fun speaking in both languages!:) This week while I was with him we already have found 3 new investigators, which is super awesome! He is quite old in the area too so he is a really great teacher and I am learning so much from him!! Sunday was super good as well because we had 75 people show up to church, which is more than I have ever had here!! So overall this week was a super great week and I hope that all of you guys have a great week this next week as well! Sorry this letter is not super long this week! Hopefully I will have something crazy to tell you all about next week! Love you all so very much!<br />
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Love,<br />
Elder Steadman<br />
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-5825559698140282502016-01-13T22:10:00.001-07:002016-01-13T22:10:37.091-07:00Duck embryos, exciting announcements, & the LAST transfer!!Hello everybody!! Well, I hope that you all had a great week over in the good old USA!:) Over here in Cambodia it was a pretty regular week in the life of a missionary!!:) I'll just give you a quick rundown of everything that happened to us this week! Monday night we went to a family home evening and it was super fun! There is this return missionary in our ward and he invited us over to his house for dinner on Monday night, so we went over with the Sisters as well and ate! He had bought this food called ពងទាកូន…which translates into baby duck eggs. It's kind of hard to explain what exactly this is, but long story short, it's a duck embryo, meaning that it's only partially developed and then they boil the egg so that it dies and then they eat it! Haha so we ate those and they’re actually really good:) I know none of you will believe me when I say that, but I'm really not lying! Ha so family home evening was a success! Then on Tuesday I had to go to Mission Leadership Conference, which is just for all of the zone leaders and sister training leaders, and that was super good! It was from like 8 in the morning till 12 so it was pretty long, but we talked about a lot of great stuff and some things that we can do to help this mission grow even more!! Another cool thing that President announced was that there is going to be a worldwide missionary training video that will be broadcast to all of the missionaries throughout the entire world! So that's pretty tight! I think that the actual broadcast date is on the 20th, but we won't be watching it till the 26th! So when we watch it I will let you know how that went!:) <br /><br />On Wednesday we got to go out and meet a lot of our investigators and members and that's always just the best!:) We had one member compliment us, saying that she just thinks it's so crazy how we can always be smiling despite the heat and biking and everything else! So that made us smile even bigger!:) ha Then later that evening we had English class and it was kind of sad because we did not have a ton of people show up, but it was also kind of cool because we had 4 non-members show up and usually our students are all our members so we were super excited to see some new faces and also invited all of them to tell their friends to come to our class next week as well! Then Thursday was a pretty regular day of missionary work! We went to this guy’s house named Pu Somnang and he is a midget and he is also really sick and can't walk by himself, but he loves to walk so we usually go to his house two times a week to help carry him around so he can practice walking! Basically we just hold him underneath his armpits to support him and then we go walking! It's a workout on my lower back because he is so short, but he is always so appreciative that it's definitely worth the sore back:) On Friday I had to teach Zone Training! So basically I just take everything that I learned in the Mission Leadership Conference meeting and teach it to the rest of my zone and also add things that I think our zone needs particular help on! It went really well! I am a solo zone leader and the meeting is 3 hours long so it's a lot of talking for me, but everyone helped participate and gave their input so it made things a lot more fun and exciting! Oh, we found out one amazing thing this week! I was in the middle of teaching at the Zone Training thing when the AP's called me! I knew that they knew that I was in the middle of teaching everyone so I figured that it must be important so I stepped out of the room to answer their call really fast and it turns out it was important! They told me that they had an exciting announcement for me to announce to the rest of my zone! They told me that starting March 1st, Vietnam will be considered their own mission!! When they told me, I just got the chills! I was so pumped! I went right back into the room to tell everyone and when I told them, they all started screaming and celebrating! It's a huge step for Vietnam to be their own mission and to have their own mission president! I think it's going to do amazing things for that country! :) So that was probably the most exciting news that I received this week! <div>
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Saturday was just a regular day with visiting members and investigators, but then Sunday was Transfer calls!! Can you believe that it's already been a transfer!? SO CRAZY PEOPLE!! Where does the time go!? Anyway, so transfer calls came in! This transfer I was really hoping that Elder Riches and I could go one more together just because we really get along, but the problem is that he has already been in this area for a really long time! So I was nervous what this transfer call had in store for me! When the call came in, they told me that the ride for my companion and I had come to an end! I was sad, but then they told me that my new companion is Elder Bo! He is a Khmer elder and from what everyone has said about him, he is one of the coolest elders in the mission! I was super excited because I told myself that if I was not able to be with Elder Riches again, I wanted to be companions with a Khmer elder to finish out my mission! So I got what I wanted, plus he is an awesome Elder so I cannot wait! We will start being companions this upcoming Thursday! I feel like this is the best way that I could start the last transfer of my mission! I am excited for all of the fun times ahead these next 6 weeks! I love you all so much and am so thankful for all of the prayers that you send my way each day! They really are felt! I can't wait to talk to you all next week and tell you how everything is! Much love headed your way from the Kingdom!! <br /> <br />Elder Steadman:)</div>
Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-16640422546364076232016-01-07T06:02:00.002-07:002016-01-07T06:02:39.427-07:00New Year's... Cambodian styleHello everybody!!:) It's 2016!!! Can you believe it!? It just does not seem real to me!! I hope that everyone had a great New Year’s, but did not party too hard!!:) For me this week was super good! On Tuesday I got to go on an exchange with one of the district leaders in my Zone! His name is Elder Allred and he is super cool! He is in the same group as Elder Lauritzen actually! So I got to go out to his area for a day and see how things are going for him! It was actually super interesting because I have been on an exchange with him before, but it was when he was just 2 weeks into the country! Now he is where I was at (as far as time in the mission) when I went on the exchange with him way back then! So crazy! It was cool to see how much he has grown in the language! It really is so crazy how fast we are able to learn this crazy language! It truly is God's work!! Then on Wednesday we just had a regular day and had English class as well, but there were not a whole lot of people that showed up this week. For the people that did show up, I tried to make it a fun time and invited them to invite their friends next week! Thursday was pretty good except for the fact that I came down with a stomach bug so we stayed in for the afternoon, but we had people that we had to see in the evening so we went out and visited with them and that was super good!:) Then we stayed up and watched the clock hit 2016! We heard fireworks so we went up to our roof and watched the fireworks go off that they were shooting over in Phnom Penh! It was pretty cool because they were super big and colorful! I sat and pondered about the last year of my life and just felt extremely grateful that I have had the amazing opportunity to come here and serve a mission and meet the wonderful people here in Cambodia! On Friday our ward had a New Year’s party so we went to that and they had some small games for the little kids to play and there was music and dancing and it was a blast!!:) There weren't a ton of members that showed up, but we had about 40 so it was a pretty decent turnout!:) Then on Saturday, all of the Priesthood brothers got together at 2:00 to clean the church! We cleaned it up and down spotless and then at the end the Branch President from the other area made dog meat for everyone!! I'm sorry for all you dog lovers, but it was delicious!!!:) By far the best that I have had on my mission so far!! If it makes you guys feel any better, the life for a dog here in Cambodia is nothing like America and I think some dogs would rather become a delicious meal then to stay living in Cambodia! It's a rough life for dogs here... no pun intended. ;) On Sunday we meet in the mornings now and we had 68 people at church this week, which was super awesome!! It seemed like everyone showed up to church and they showed up on time! I got to church like 15 minutes early and there were like 20 people already at church and I was like, “Am I on punkd??” Haha no one shows up on time to church here, but for some reason this morning everyone and their dog (get it? Because we ate dog yesterday....:)) showed up on time!! But hey, I'm not complaining! I was happy to see everyone there! But yeah, that's pretty much all of the news that I have for you all this week! Overall it was a really great week! <br /><br />Oh, and we also had a breakthrough with one of our investigators! He was supposed to get baptized a couple of weeks ago, but he started drinking again and for the last week and a half he has not wanted to meet us and he even yelled at us with his friends to stop coming to see him. However, when we drove past his house the other day he called out to us and so we went over to talk to him and he just broke down and told us everything that was going on in his life and how he had no hope at all for his future because he messed up and he felt like he was not going to be able to get baptized anymore or be able to follow God. Well, it was amazing watching his face light up as we told him that he can follow God and that he can repent and still get baptized, and as we were telling him all this I could see a spark light in his eyes and he knew that what we were telling him was true! As we ended the lesson, we sang a hymn together and then he said the closing prayer and it was the most beautiful and most heartfelt prayer that I have ever heard anyone give since I have been out here on my mission! I was overcome with the Spirit and my eyes began to fill up with this water stuff... I think they call it tears? Ha but I recomposed myself and as he ended I thanked him for the wonderful prayer and then we planned to meet each other again so he could start on the repentance process and get back onto the path that he so desperately wants to be on! It was an amazing spiritual lesson that I don't think I will ever forget!! It's amazing to watch the Light of Christ light up in people as you share gospel truths! I know without a shadow of a doubt that his truly is God’s work! I know that He knows each one of us by name and cares and loves us more than we could ever even begin to imagine! I have done wrong so many times in my life that it would be impossible to even try to begin to count all of them, but thanks to a loving Heavenly Father, I know the way to be relieved of those faults and be forgiven of those sins! I know the Atonement of Jesus Christ is real and that through it we can be healed from our spiritual wounds and forgiven for our wrongdoings! There is only one way to have the heavy burden of sin and heartache lifted from off of your shoulders, and that is through our Lord and Savior! I know that He lives and I know that He cares about each and every one of us! He died for our sins and He rose again so that we too can rise again and live with our Heavenly Father in His Kingdom! I love you all so much and am so grateful for the love and support that you have given me throughout my whole mission! I hope that you all will take the time to make some goals for what you want to come out of the year 2016 and what you are going to do this year to show your Heavenly Father that you love him too!! Have a great week!<br /><br />Much love headed your way from the Kingdom!!:)<br />Elder Steadman<div>
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-33676685680123812412015-12-29T22:06:00.000-07:002015-12-29T22:06:03.366-07:00Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year!!!Hello everybody!! Well, I hope that everyone had a very merry Christmas!!!:) I really can't complain at all because I got to Skype with my family and see some of my buddies this Christmas!!:) It really does not get much better that that for me!!:) It was so good to see everyone's faces!! It's been too long! The only bummer of that day was I had food poisoning and had a total of 23 bathroom visits in less than a day!! Haha look at me just constantly trying to break my records that I don't ever want to break! I felt bad for my family because I was not 100% there, but just know that I am all healed up now and feeling better than ever!!:) <br /><br />This week was super fun, but we were not really able to visit with a whole lot of our investigators because we were constantly caroling and making treats and sending them out to people and also just visiting everyone! Lots of visiting, but not a whole lot of lessons! But that's ok because I think that this week we still were able to help people and show our love for them through our visits!!:) Christmas day was super fun because Elder Quirante was able to come down to the city! The area that he is in does not have any computers that can Skype, so he got special permission from President to be able to come down to the city and have Christmas with my Zone!! :) He slept over at my house on Christmas Eve and then on Christmas Day we all woke up and worked out on top of our house and then got ready for the day. Then we went to this huge mall that is in the city and they had a bowling alley inside the actual mall! It was insane! So we went bowling and... of course, I won;) Not that that's important or anything, but I had bragging rights for the rest of the day! Haha then I bought some athletic shoes for when I go home and then in the late afternoon we went over to the mission home because President and Sister Christensen were in charge of catering Christmas dinner for our Zone! All of my Zone and Quirante and his comp met at the mission home and we got to watch a video of compiled pics of 2015 and it was so awesome! I was surprised to see that the very last pic of the whole slideshow was of me doing that karate kick with the sunset in the background!! Haha I was so pumped!!:) Then we ate all together and the food was super good except for the fact that I am pretty sure that it gave me food poisoning, but oh well! You win some, you lose some, right!? Then the next day I got to Skype my family and like I said, that was just amazing! On Sunday we went to church and had 4 investigators show up as well, so that was super awesome to see!!:) Then that evening we went and visited some of the investigators that weren't able to make it to church and that was pretty much it for our Sunday! <br /><br />This week I feel like a whole bunch of stuff happened, but then when I write it out I feel like not a whole lot happened. I guess you'll have to trust me when I say that it was a very busy and yet very fun week for us here!!:) It will also be kind of nice to be able to get back into a more regular schedule with the Christmas season coming to an end, but it sure has been a blast while it lasted! I love being a missionary around the Christmas season! I think that I am really going to miss it next year at this time!! I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of a loving Savior coming to this earth to take upon him my sins and everyone's sins so that we can repent and return and live with Him again! It's the greatest gift that anyone could ever receive and it's the reason that I am out here on a mission… to share about this amazing gift with a people that in my opinion deserve it more that anyone! I love the people here in Cambodia and want all of them to receive knowledge of a Heavenly Father who loves them with a love unimaginable to the human mind! I want them all to have the very best because they deserve it! I am so lucky to have been able to come and serve among these amazing people! I could not have asked for a better place to serve! I thought I would be repaying my Heavenly Father in a small way by coming on a mission, but once again he has just poured out his blessings upon me while being out here on my mission and I am forever indebted to Him for this opportunity and experience of a lifetime! I will never be able to deny the things and experiences that I have had out here! I know with all of my heart that this church is true and it truly is the Church of Jesus Christ and that He truly does stand at the head of it. I know we are led by modern-day prophets and that they receive inspiration from on high to lead and guide His church. I love this gospel! It's a perfect gospel and I am so grateful for the knowledge of it! I love you all so much and hope you have a very happy New Year! Do something exciting and light a couple fireworks off for me!!:) <br /><br />Much love headed your way!!<br />Elder Steadman<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Homemade gym equipment :)</td></tr>
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-26037407326843467382015-12-23T06:43:00.000-07:002015-12-23T06:43:26.760-07:00Spreading love and the Christmas spiritHello everybody!! Well, another amazing week down in the books!! :) I don't really know where to start this week because there were a lot of really fun things that happened, but I guess I will start off with last p-day! So Monday we went shopping and I found some really cool Nike shoes and got a pair of them for my birthday! Then after that, we went to a place called the Pizza Company for lunch! It's really expensive, but it was soooo worth the price because it was delicious!!:) After we went there we went to a driving range and for the first time in almost 2 years I got to hit a bucket of balls!!:) It was an absolute blast!!!!:) It was so relaxing and I had the time of my life! Then Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty regular days! We just went out and taught lots of our investigators and members, which is always awesome!! We had a couple investigators move out of our area this week which was really sad, but hopefully they will continue to learn with the elders in their new area!!:) <br /><br />Thursday was my birthday and my companion surprised me with a gift! He bought me shoes!! At the Nike shop I was trying to decide between these two pairs and when I finally decided, he secretly bought me the other pair that I really liked! He is so awesome! I was super surprised because I did not see him leave my sight for one second! But then he told me he had written on a sticky note and given it to one of the workers asking him to put the pair of shoes in his bag and he said he would pay them for it when I was not looking! What a stud! Then I got another surprise when a member from one of my old areas sent me a birthday cake! Haha she lives super far away so she had it sent by car and then asked one of her friends that lives pretty close to me to bring it to my house! So that was another cool surprise! To top things off, that night I got to dress up like Santa Claus and go Christmas caroling!! It was so fun! I had a big bag of treats and we went to visit some of the less active members of the ward and as we drove from house to house we sang the Khmer version of Jingle Bells, and then when we got to each house we sang Joy to the World and then Silent Night! It was super awesome and I cannot think of a better way to have spent my last birthday here in Cambodia then to have dressed up like Santa Claus and spread love and the Christmas spirit to the wonderful members here!!:) <br /><br />Then on Saturday we had our Stake Christmas party! It was so much fun! It was just s full day of dancing and singing and performances of every kind, and then at the end they had some good things to eat! President Christensen came to the party as well!! When everyone was done eating they all started to dance… but it's not the same dancing as in America! It's a little more traditional ha :) You basically just move your hands around a lot and that means you can dance like a Cambodian! Anyway, I went up to President and told him he had to come and dance with me! He told me that he had already danced, but I did not accept no for an answer!! Haha so President, Sister Christensen and I all headed to the dance floor to do some Khmer traditional dancing! Haha once the other missionaries saw that President and I were dancing, they all joined in around us as well!! Haha we danced all together for a couple of minutes and then headed out to enjoy watching the members dance around! It was overall a super fun Christmas party!:) Then on Sunday we had church and we had 3 investigators show up this week, which was super awesome, and the best part was they all stayed for all 3 hours!!:) After church we all went caroling again, but this time Elder Riches dressed up as Santa Claus!!:) He is way too ripped to be Santa though haha!! We went to this cute old lady's house and she just started to cry and give all of us hugs as we were singing to her! It was seriously the cutest thing ever and the Spirit was super strong!! It was a great way to end a great Sunday, and a great week for that matter!! <br /><br />I am not gonna lie, I am super excited to be able to Skype my friends and family this week! I can't believe the time is already here to see my family's cute faces again! And all my friends’ ugly faces!!:) Just kidding guys! Anyway, that's pretty much all that I have for you all this week! I love this work so much and I LOVE the people of Cambodia with all of my heart! I would not have picked anywhere else in the world to come and serve than right here! It truly is the best mission in the whole world! Please pray that the hearts of the people here will continue to be opened and that they will accept the wonderful message that we have to share with them! I love you all so much!! <br /><br />ដោយសេចក្តីស្រលាញ់<br />Elder SteadmanMindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-56108074697936836362015-12-17T07:23:00.000-07:002015-12-17T07:23:58.507-07:00Stocking up, "seeds", and reunionsHello everybody!! It's already that time of the week again! Crazy!! Well, this week as usual we are going to be crazy busy so I don't have a ton of time to give you a big long run down, but I will do my best to tell you a little bit about what went down! Last Monday was INSANE!! The house I moved into was missing a ton of house appliances (stuff like a microwave and toaster and pans and tupperware and a slow cooker), so my companion and I made a huge list of everything that we had to get on p-day and it was a full page front and back of different items to buy and errands we had to do, and guess what!? We did it! But almost at the cost of our lives!! We were running around Phnom Penh ALL day and by the end I was seriously so exhausted!! One of the most exhausting days of my whole mission! But it was super worth it because now we have all of the stuff that we really need in the house! Apparently, the senior missionary couple had been begging the Elders before me to go out and buy some of that stuff, but no one wanted to do it so I guess I was the man that was up to the challenge! Mainly because I can't survive without all that stuff haha!!<br /><br />Anyway, Monday was crazy and then Tuesday was good because we got to meet a lot of less actives and invite them to come to church! All of the members are super awesome here and super welcoming even if they don't want to come to church! I love it so much! On Wednesday we had our English class! It was really fun! There are not a whole lot of people that come to the class, but the people that do come always have a blast!!:) Oh, and then on Friday we had a pretty cool experience! Earlier in the week we were contacting and we met this really cool couple and she was already a member of a different church, but when we asked them if we could come back and teach them a lesson about what we believe, she invited us back to her house! So on Friday we went back over to their house and we taught them the first lesson, and we had some really good member help with us as well, and the lesson went super good! She was a little bit skeptical about Joseph Smith, but she loved the fact that she did not need to just take our word for it that what we were telling her was true, but that she could pray to Heavenly Father and He would be the one to tell her if it was true or not! Then we asked if we could come back again another day and they accepted! They also told us that they have been contacted by the missionaries lots of times before, but have always politely declined; but this time when we contacted them they felt like they should learn with us! I was very flattered and at the same time I was also very grateful for the dedicated Elders that served before me! They were the ones that planted the seeds! It makes me feel better knowing that when I go contact and no one wants to learn, I can have peace in my heart knowing that I am just laying the foundation for missionaries in later years to come!! Then on Friday evening we went to go teach a recent convert of ours, and her neighbor joined in on the lesson! After the lesson we asked her if she would like to learn with us as well and she accepted and so we went over the next day and taught her the first lesson, and to add to that she came to church as well!! Super awesome!:) Then Sunday evening was an absolute blast!!! We had a Christmas devotional that was held at the South Stake Center and all of the wards and branches in Phnom Penh were invited so it was an absolute blast for me because I was able to see all of my old friends from all of my different areas!! It was seriously sooooo awesome! I had on a perma-smile for the entire 2 hours just catching up with all of my long lost friends!! It made me miss all of my old areas so much! The one thing that's kinda hard about missions is it is just 2 years of having to say hard goodbyes! But then every once in a while you get to have those amazing reunions and it makes everything worth it! Anyway, that was super awesome and I had a blast! <br /><br />For this week, that's pretty much all I’ve got for you all! I am sorry I don't have a ponderize scripture this week yet! I have been so busy trying to get to know my new area, and there’s been the craziness of the holiday season as well, but I will try to get one to you all next week! I know this church is true! I love this gospel with all of my heart! It's brought me to people that I know I must have known before this life and has helped me create friendships with people half way across the world that will last a lifetime! What other kind of gospel can give you that kind of happiness!? I know that it's true and I am so blessed to be able to share this great message with the people of Cambodia, especially during this special time of the year! I hope you will all take a minute to prayerfully thing about who you might share the gospel with this Christmas season! It could be a loved one or a friend or a neighbor or a stranger! What's important is that we open our mouths and share this wonderful gift that we have been given! Without it, I don't know where I would be in my life right now, and I am sure some of you think the same thing! So now let's go and help others feel the same way we do!! I love you all and hope you have an amazing week and a very festive Christmas season!! Much love and prayers headed your way!!:)<br /><br />Elder Steadman:) Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-66525867114781659982015-12-07T15:01:00.002-07:002015-12-07T15:01:42.435-07:00"Short letter... but the church is still true!"Well, I am in a new area folks!!! I guess first of all I will just tell you a little bit about saying goodbyes in my last area! Because I was coming back down to the city (Phnom Penh) to be a Zone Leader, I had to leave my old area and head for the city on Tuesday when usually you don’t have to leave till Thursday! It was kind of hard because we had to pack our p-day with me just saying goodbye to everyone as fast as I could, but luckily I was able to see pretty much all of the members that I wanted to see before I headed out! I’m not gonna lie, it kind of scares me at just how "ok" I am with saying goodbye to members now! In my first area I remember it was the hardest thing ever, and now I feel like I am starting to become numb to the sadness of saying goodbye to members! I don’t think that that is a good thing!!! Anyway, it was sad, but I’m ok:) Then I went down to the city and we had a meeting for all of the Zone Leaders! They told us that we were going to have to have Zone Training the very next Saturday (so in like 4 days) and I was pretty nervous especially because I don’t know anything about my Zone and I was going to have to teach all by myself! But when Saturday came around it actually went really well! The time just flew by and everything kind of just fell right into place! :) So that was super cool! Then the rest of this week has just been busy with me meeting new people and I don’t really know anything about them so I don’t have anything exciting to tell you all yet, but I am sure in the next couple of weeks I will have a lot more exciting updates for you all! :) I am so sorry, but I have not had time to be able to come up with a “ponderize” scripture this week. I promise next week I will have one for you all! Overall, I really love my area and I love my new comp! He is seriously just like me and we get along soooo well!! I would love it so much if I could finish out my mission with him as my comp! Anyway, I am sorry this week my letter is kind of short, but the church is still true! :) I love you all so much and I hope you all keep enjoying this Christmas Season and are remembering the true reason we celebrate this special time of year! :) <br /><br />Much love headed your way! <br />Elder Steadman:) <br /><br />p.s. I made up for a lack of writing by sending lots of pictures this week:):)<div>
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<i>From Mindy: Here are a few highlights from our emails back and forth to each other this week: </i><ul>
<li><i>The new area is called Chbar Ampov… not Chambeau :) It is a district in central Phnom Pehn. It’s “city living” according to Austin. </i></li>
<li><i>Comments about his new comp: “He loves to lift! He is ripped! He is a total stud! Loves to do missionary work! Super good at the language and wants help to be even better so I am doing my best with that! It’s just over all really good!” He is apparently from Mesa, Arizona. I asked Austin how he is already so good with the crazy language when he’s only been there a few months and he said, “Because he is super smart!!!” and also because he is working really hard every day to try to master it. </i></li>
<li><i>I asked if he wants to have us invite some of his high school buddies over to Skype on Christmas now that they are all home from their missions. He said, “Invite everyone! tys, cars, wit (if shes home), landon, frost, hayden (have tys text him), zac and his wife…seriously just tell them to bring everyone over! And make them treats and have a party so I can watch!” (Noted… buddies, you are all invited to Skype at our house on Christmas night :) </i></li>
<li><i>Elder Quirante stayed in Kampong Thom to train a new elder… a Cambodian elder… and guess what?! He’s a kid that Austin baptized a little over one year ago in Siem Reap!!! Austin said, “Pretty cool how things came full circle for me on my mission! :)”</i></li>
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-36808839164385774402015-12-02T07:17:00.000-07:002015-12-02T07:17:03.594-07:00Time for one last change! :)Hello Family! :) So as you all already know, this week was transfer calls! I am leaving my area. I am kinda sad about it, but I am also excited for the adventures that lie ahead for me in my new area! So this week is kind of crazy because I have to leave to Phnom Penh on Tuesday because I have to go to a meeting! I am the Zone Leader for the entire East Zone! That's about 20ish missionaries! Usually there are two zone leaders per zone, but when President called me he told me that I would be Zone Leading all by myself!! Haha kinda crazy!! My new companion is Elder Riches or Rich?... I already forgot haha and from what I have heard from other Elders, he is super awesome! He is just coming out of being trained, but they said he is a super smart kid and is really good with the language already! Also, he is very muscular apparently and loves to work out and rumor has it he has already made a ton of weights at the house he is at so that's pretty awesome and lucky for me! :) The area is called Chambeau...not really sure how to spell it in English yet haha, but it’s a very small branch apparently! Only like 20 or so people come to church every week so it sounds like it will be like my area before this one! But my favorite family in Cambodia was in that small branch in Brae Choe so you never know what this area could have in store for me! :) Anyway, this is going to be a really short email today :( I’m really sorry! I have to spend my p-day going to everybody’s houses to say goodbye to them! I really want to say goodbye to some of the members that I love here and I have to do that before I head out on Tuesday morning! I love you all so much though!! I will be sure to have lots of updates for you all on next week’s email home! <br /><br />For this week, I will give you a super fast update! Thanksgiving was amazing! We went to my old area (Kampong Cham) and the food was delicious! I had turkey for the first time in a year and 9 months! :) The Zone Leaders came up with us on our way home and one of them proselyted with us on Friday and that was a blast! He used to serve in this area so he got to say hi to a lot of people that he already knew! Sunday was super good! We had 106 people at church, which was a new high for us! That was pretty cool because it was my last week in this area as well! I am sad to be leaving this area because I love the members so much, but I also know that the Lord has amazing things planned out for me in my next area! Plus, we are going to be Skyping each other in like 25 days!! What!?!? How does time go this fast!? I will probably be inviting my buddies over again if that's cool with you all!? Oh and just so you know, as far as my area geographically, it’s just outside of Phnom Penh like 30 minutes so I will be able to have a p-day in Phnom Penh and get me teeth whitened when it gets closer to that time! :) Quirante is going to be training in our area and Lauritzen will be headed to Phnom Penh so I will still see them every once and a while! It’s weird to think that I am headed to my very last area of my mission!? How crazy is that? I never thought I would actually have a death area, but I guess it really does happen at some point! :) Anyway, I love you all so very much and I feel so lucky that I am a part of the best family in the entire world! :) I hope you all have an amazing week! :) I love you all SOOO MUCH!!! :) Less than 3 months baby:) Don't miss me too much… I’ll be home before you know it! :) <br /><br />Much love,<br />Austie:)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-28314514904671058422015-11-25T06:35:00.001-07:002015-11-25T06:35:02.819-07:00Love and thanks from the KingdomHello everybody! Can you believe that we are already to Thanksgiving week!? That's so crazy to me! I am super excited for Thanksgiving this year though because we are going to Kampong Cham and we have an assigned senior couple that is in charge of making all of the elders and sisters in that area a Thanksgiving feast!! How cool is that!? Our senior couple is super cool too! They are the couple who work in the mission office and they said that they are super excited to be able to come and spoil us! So I am super pumped for that and I will try to take lots of pictures and eat my weight in food as well!! :) <div>
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Ha this week was super good though! It was not too crazy of a week! Pretty much just normal missionary work, but I'll give you the rundown anyways!:) On Monday we went out to a place called Phnom Sontuk! It's a mountain (more of a small hill really) that's famous in our area and the members wanted us to go out there with them because one of our members was leaving to start her mission later that week! So we went out with them and it was pretty fun! We took some good pics and a couple videos I will make sure to send to you! Then on Tuesday we went out to our far away area, but when we got there we found out that one of the members out there was at work and had passed out while she was working and was in the hospital! So we said some quick hellos to everybody in that area and then booked it all the way back to the city to go to the hospital to see her! When we got there she was doing a little bit better already! They had put in an IV and that was helping gain some of her energy back! Anyway, we just stayed and chatted with her for a little bit and then we headed out and told her to keep us updated if she needed anything! We learned a couple days later that she was released from the hospital and was back at her home doing much better! Apparently the place that she worked at was hardly feeding her any food (she said she got a piece of meat the size of the top of her thumb and a plate of rice) and they were making her work insane hours as well, so she decided to quit the job and just find something else once she starts feeling better! One more thing that was pretty funny that happened this week was Quirante and I were at this member’s house and the member was telling us how she has this coconut tree, but she can't reach any of the coconuts! So Quirante volunteered to climb up this tree and get some coconuts! Well let me just tell you right now, climbing one of those things is not as easy as the little Cambodians make it look!! Haha especially when you are as big as Elder Quirante! That's like 210 pounds of pure muscle you’re trying to lift up that tree! So he started climbing up and I think once he got like halfway up he realized how hard of a task this really was, but he was still determined! Well, after 4 or 5 minutes of struggling and tearing the poor sole of his right foot to shreds, he finally came down!! The funnies part was when he showed the member the gash on his foot, she ran and got him medicine (straight alcohol) and poured it all over his foot! Hahaha I haven't laughed like that in a long time! I think the member thought I was a terrible person for laughing at his pain, but I just could not help myself! Haha so later that night when we got home, he was super sore so he proposed we make an ice bath and we take turns sitting in it! Well I have never been in an ice bath before and I was kinda scared, but he told me that I would sleep like a baby after if I decided to do it and well.... I am a sucker for sleeping like a baby! Haha so we went to this shack that sells ice and bought 180 pounds of ice!! Hahaha it only cost a little over 3 bucks! Haha gotta love Cambodia!!:) Anyway, we filled our tub with ice and if you did not know this already, ice baths suck! Haha like seriously that was maybe the most painful thing ever!! We made a video while I was in it and well... I think the video sums up pretty well how I feel about ice baths! Haha let's just say there was a lot of screaming involved!!:) Haha so that was a funny experience that I'll probably never do again, but it will be fun to look back and laugh on that's for sure! :) Then this Sunday we had a lot of people show up to church, which was super awesome!:) After church we invited all of the Priesthood men to meet at the church and break up into groups and go and visit less active families! We had a good amount of people show up and even had some young women ask to go as well so it was super awesome!:) We got to visit a total of like 20 different houses so it was super effective!:) <br /><br />For this week that's pretty much all I’ve got for ya, but before I go I just want to share my “ponderize” scripture with you all really quickly! It's in Doctrine and Covenants section 58 verse 4 and it reads, “For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand." I know that this scripture is so true! God never promised us that this life would be easy! We are supposed to face hardships and we are supposed to have trials come up in our lives, but just like this scripture says, it is after those tribulations that our Heavenly Father will pour out His blessing upon us! I know that this scripture is true because I have seen it in my life! Before my mission I did not have a whole lot of direction in what I wanted to do with my life and what I thought I wanted in life was not working for me at all. I felt like God had somewhat forgotten about me, but then I realized that God had a plan for me and I tried to push through those difficult times. I can now look back and see the reasons I had to go through those trials and also see the tremendous amount of blessings that my Heavenly Father has given to me for enduring through them! I know there are many more to come, but I can look forward with hope and faith knowing that Heavenly Father will fulfill His promise as stated in the scripture above! I invite all of you who are feeling overwhelmed with the trials that life brings you to just take a second and not worry about all of the things that overwhelm you, but instead ponder all of the things that you have already conquered. Ponder the blessings that you have received from your Heavenly Father, big and small! Ponder the length you have already traveled! I echo the words of the prophets when I say that I promise you all are doing a whole lot better than you think! Don't be so hard on yourself! God is proud of you and He sees every single one of your efforts and He is proud of all of the battles that you win! And He is there to pick you back up and brush you off on the battles that you have lost! There are so many people in your corner, so don't give up! Keep pushing! The time is not yet, but it's soon at hand, and I promise once that day comes we will be so happy that we kept on pushing and kept on trying all the way to the end! I love you all so much and hope that you have a great week and a very happy Thanksgiving! Much love and thanks headed your way from the Kingdom!<br /><br />Elder Steadman:)</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Homemade gym equipment... very creative :)</td></tr>
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-50968621271145027842015-11-16T06:38:00.000-07:002015-11-16T06:38:43.931-07:00"It's not a sacrifice, it's a reward..."Hello everyone!:) This week was another great week here in the Kingdom of Cambodia!! I guess I will get right down to it and just walk you through what we did throughout this week!:) So this last Monday was a pretty chill p-day! We went to the market and got all of our food for this week! I bought a kilo of pork and threw all of it in the crockpot and then had pork sandwiches for the rest of this week! It was sooo good!:) That just might have to become a tradition!:) Haha then after we went to the market we just came home and chilled because that same night I pinched a nerve super bad in my neck so I just laid down and used Elder Quirante's hot pad, which actually helped a ton and got me feeling good enough to go out and do regular missionary work on Tuesday! We went out to our far away area that day and we were able to meet all of our investigators and members out there which was super awesome! That day we also had a member tell us that they knew of another person who wanted to learn, but she lived even further away! Haha we decided we would go see her on Friday and teach her a little bit about prayer and our church! <br /><br />On Wednesday we went out to look for a whole bunch of less active members, but we didn’t know exactly where they lived! It’s kind of hard because when we are trying to find these people, the only information that we have is a piece of paper with a map (drawn by a former missionary), and sometimes the village that they live in as well! And the worst part is, I am terrible at looking at maps! Well anyway, funny story coming up! Haha so we were trying to find this one house and on the map it showed (or made it seem like) the house was pretty far out, so we hopped on our bikes and started heading in the direction that the map was leading us. The one big landmark that the map had on it was a place they apparently called the Old Stadium! Well, we had never heard of it so we figured we would just ride down this road until we came across this Old Stadium! Haha because on the map it showed it right up against the main road! So we started on our way and we were biking down this road for what seemed like forever! It was fun though because it was a place we had never been before so it was nice to see some new scenery!!:) Well, once we had been riding our bikes for 45 minutes or so, we kind of forgot what we were looking for and were just having a good conversation with each other on our bikes when all of a sudden we see this stadium! Haha we both started to laugh because I think we both thought we would never actually find this Old Stadium place! Well, old it was! We went in and it was pretty cool! Not a single person was in the stadium though! Just Quirante and I! We took a couple random pictures and ran around on the field for a second… like any mature missionary would do:) Haha then we headed out to go look for the houses! We took a right (just like the map told us to), but when we took this right it was not looking anything like what the map was showing it should look like! Well, we weren't too worried, considering the map hadn’t really told us how far away the old stadium was either, and so we just kept on going down this road all the way until it basically went off into a dead end! But at this dead end there was this house, so we figured we could stop at this house and ask them if they knew where the person that we were looking for lived! We saw a man chilling on a hammock outside the house so we walked up to him and I said hello and right after I said hello, one of the craziest things happened! All of a sudden I just see people flooding out of this house! Like seriously, people are literally just coming out of this little house like clowns come out of those small cars! It was insane! Haha I was just laughing as it went from me and this man, to me and this man and 20 of his apparent relatives all interested in what the white guy is doing in their front yard! Haha they were all talking at the same time and then they found out we spoke Khmer and they all started freaking out at the same time :) Haha once things calmed down I took out the piece of paper and asked all 20 of them if they had seen the person in the photograph before. Well, all 290 of them didn't know who he was, so we were just talking with them and then they asked us where we had just barely come from and we told them that we had just been over checking out the Old Stadium. Right when I said that, the guy (and like 7 other people at the same time) said, "That's not the Old Stadium! That's the New Stadium! The Old Stadium is way the opposite direction from here!" Quirante and I just started dying laughing! We could not believe it! Not only did we not find the old stadium, but we managed to find their new stadium instead! Hahaha and believe me, if that's their new stadium, I am terrified to see what their old stadium looks like! Haha we thanked all of them for helping us and then got back on our bikes and made the long journey back home! Haha needless to say, the Elder that drew the map definitely did not find a job in architecture and layout when he got home from his mission! Haha we chalked the day up as a good story to tell and also a new fun place to go to on p-day and throw the football around!:) <br /><br />On Thursday we mostly just stayed pretty close to the house and taught all of the people close to our house and we actually found a new investigator, so that was pretty cool! He is a brother of a member who is in Phnom Penh learning! He can only meet with us on Saturdays and Sundays, but he seems like a really nice kid!:) Then on Friday we went back out to our far away area and we went even further to go and meet our potential new investigator! It was like another 15-minute bike ride, but the view was soooo beautiful! The path that we rode on to get to the village was right up against a ledge and then there was a beautiful river that snaked along and we just followed the river all the way up to the village! It was so pretty!:) When we got to the village, I think that it was the first time that some of the people in the village had ever seen white people because I'm not lying or exaggerating in any way when I say that there were screams, gasps, and multiple jaws drop when we came riding through on our bikes!! Haha they couldn't even say hello because they were so shocked that they were actually seeing a white person! Ha well we got to the person’s house and she is super awesome! She is like 18 years old and has a strong desire to learn about God! Her mother also sat in on the lesson and her mother’s sisters (2 of them) also sat in on the lesson! Then right as we were ending the lesson another lady came in who turned out to be another sister of the mom, and as soon as she walked in she locked her eyes on me and I'm serious when I say I don't think she ever stopped looking at me! Haha she asked me how old I was and I told her I was 21 (she was 37) and then she proceeded to tell me that she was not yet married and wanted a husband that believed in Jesus! Haha as I got up to leave I told her I knew of the perfect place to find that guy and gave her directions to our church and the time we worshiped! I guess she was not really interested in other members of our church as much as she was interested in me haha, so her next question was a little more straightforward because apparently I didn't get the hidden message of her last question! She asked me if I would be her boyfriend haha, so I told her that I am a missionary and that all I do is teach about Jesus Christ and I'm not really in the market of looking for a wife right now! She told me that was no problem and that she would wait till I ended my mission and then she would marry me! Well I had to tell a small lie… I told her that I actually already have a girlfriend! She asked where she was and I told her she was in America and her face lit up and she said, "So you don't have a girlfriend in Cambodia yet!?" Haha I laughed and told her that's not how it works and that I was not going to be able to marry her! She was bummed at first, but I think she got over it! Except for when we were leaving she yelled out she would never forget me...yikes!! Haha it was pretty funny though:) <br /><br />On Saturday we stayed pretty close to the house and went and visited some of our less active members and we also went and had a lesson with a person that I contacted the night before! As we were riding home from that far away area, we realized we had not had enough contacts that day so we tried to find a few more people to talk to and so we were passing this small market and I saw this lady just kind of chilling so I stopped my bike and started talking to her. At first she was not interested at all, but then I started talking about eternal families and just bearing my testimony about how families can be together forever and then I asked her if we could come back another day to share more with her and she immediately accepted! So that next day we went to see her and we taught her about prayer and she was super interested and invited us back for another lesson next week so that's pretty cool!!:) Then Sunday was just a regular good Sunday! We went to church and we had 3 investigators show up, which was pretty good! We were hoping for a little bit more, but there's always next week:) But yeah, for this week that's pretty much all that happened! <br /><br />Oh, before I go I will share my “ponderize” scripture with you all! It's in Ephesians 5 verse 8 and it reads, "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light." I really love this verse! Some of you may not know, but I kind of used to be a punk! Haha at one point in my life I was in darkness and Satan had me convinced that there was no way out. But there was a way out! Through the help of my parents and friends I found the light again! The light that can only be found through our Savior’s atonement. I am so grateful to be a 'child of light' and walk in His path! I love this gospel so much and I love the hope and happiness that it brings to me every day of my life! I don't know what I would do without the knowledge of this gospel! To those of you who are thinking about going on missions or for those of you who have children that are deciding whether or not to go on a mission, I am begging you from the depths of my soul to go!!! You WILL change lives and you will help create eternal families! You will see the effect that this gospel has on families right in front of your very own eyes and because of your service you will have an everlasting effect on generations to come! Serving a mission is far and away the very best decision that I have ever made in my life! I would not change that decision for all the money and riches of this world! It would NEVER be able to buy the happiness that I have felt sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with the people of Cambodia! Please go! If your trying to decide, let me decide for you… Go! The Lord will bless you and your family while you are away! It's not a sacrifice, it's a reward that you will never be able to repay! I am forever indebted to Him for giving me the chance to come here and learn from these people and to share this wonderful message! I love my mission and I love being a missionary! I encourage all youth that are preparing to serve missions to make the decision right now to serve! Don't put that decision off till later on in life because it will just complicate things and Satan will try to make it seem like it's not an important thing to do in your life. Well, he is wrong! It's the most important thing that you can do at this point in your life! It's a commandment given to us from God! It's not something that we can simply say yes or no to (for young men at least). We need to say yes and we need to start preparing now! Learn from my mistakes! I was as old as some of you are now just a couple years ago, but I did not make it a priority to serve a mission! Looking back, I know I could have made my life 100 times less complicated had I stayed on the path and worthily prepared myself to serve a mission! Luckily I made it back, but I walked a fine line that I would hate to see any other young man of this church walk! Just choose the right! It makes you so much happier in the long run and I promise you if you do, you will be an amazing missionary! You can always spot out the missionaries that have always just been pure and good! They have a certain light about them and when they speak, they speak with power and they know that what they are saying is true because they have lived it their whole lives!! I love you all so much and I hope that you can all find ways to prepare yourselves to become missionaries! Old and young! We need member missionaries just as badly as we need full time missionaries! I love this work and I know that it is of God! I know that this is His Church once again established on the earth! I hope that you all have a great week! <br /><br />Much love headed you way from the Kingdom!<br />Elder Steadman:)<div>
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<i>P.S. from Mindy: Austin won't brag... but I will! He told Joel and I that as of this week, he has officially read the entire Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price ALL IN KHMER!!!!! He's currently working on the New Testament in Khmer and hopes to have completed that before the end of his mission!</i></div>
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-80365951695776249972015-11-09T20:07:00.002-07:002015-11-09T20:07:58.836-07:00I LOVE MY MISSION! I LOVE CAMBODIA!Hello everybody!!:) This week just flew by!! Man, I feel like I have said that sentence a million times now! I can't even imagine how sick you all must be of all my super repetitive beginning sentences at the start of these emails! Haha so if anybody has any ideas on what I can say at the beginning of these emails that does not sound cliché I will be happy to take any advice!! It's been over a year and a half and I'm just running out of interesting ways to start out my letters! I'm sorry people! Hang in there… only a couple more months and you will be free of these retched emails!:) Ok, now to my week! It was a super solid week as far as progression and finding new investigators!!:) So one cool thing that happened this week was we got to go down to Kampong Cham (my old area) for training! Before we went I printed out a whole bunch of pictures of members from my old area and I wrote a little note on the back of all of them so that I could give them to the Elders in that area and they could pass them out to all of the people there! It took me forever to write all the notes, but I finally got them all done and when we got up to Kampong Cham, guess what!? I forgot all of them!! Haha I was so bummed! Oh well… I guess I'll just have to wait till transfers to send them all out!! Anyway, we went for zone training and it was super good! Our zone leaders are pretty cool so it was a good time! Then we all went out to eat together and then after that we peaced out to go back to our area!! It was a long day because it's a 3 hour drive there and back and we did it all in one day so we did a lot of sitting that day, but it was good overall!!:)<br />
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Another cool thing that happened this week was that there was a young woman in our branch who received her mission call!! She called us on Tuesday to let us know that she would be opening it up at the church that evening! Of course we could not miss that for the world so we went to watch her open it up! It was super intense because she opened it and then just started laughing/crying for seriously like 5 minutes and would not tell us where she was going! Finally she just screamed out, “CAMBODIA PHNOM PENH!!!” Haha we all cheered super loud for her! She was so happy because I don't think she wanted to leave Cambodia at all! Haha I don't blame her either! This place is awesome:):) So we were super excited for her! The craziest part is that she starts her mission in 20 days!!!! Yeah, you heard me right! Twenty days! Ha so that means next transfer I am going to be seeing her in the mission home and she will be a missionary! She was freaking out! Ha she said she thought she was going to be able to party it up till the end of the year and then go, but I guess God had other plans in mind for her! She will be an amazing missionary and I am super excited I get to have a couple transfers with her! <br />
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Ok, the other exciting thing that happened this week was that we had another baptism! His name is Sok Chiet and he is so awesome! He such a humble kid and has such a strong testimony already! He is also just one of those genuinely nice people that you come across every once and a while! This week we were teaching him at his house and his house is in our furthest away area and by the time we got done teaching him it had gotten dark. As we were leaving his house he begged us to let him follow us behind our bikes with his moto and light the way for us all the way to our house! Our house is like a 45-minute bike ride away at least and he was completely serious about it too! We politely declined, but man he is just so nice! :) Anyway, the baptism went super good and he bore a great testimony afterwards as well! He also invited two of his buddies to the baptism and I contacted both of them before the baptism and they both told me that they would love to learn with us as well! How sweet is that!? He is getting baptized and inviting all of his buddies to learn too!! What a stud! I will keep you updated on how things work out with that! Then after church we had interviews with President on Sunday evening as well! He is so awesome! The interview was great! He is one of the coolest guys I have ever met! You can truly see that he really does care about you and genuinely wants the very best for you! I love him to death! And his wife is equally amazing!! They compliment each other perfectly and both just love to make each other laugh! I really do love them both so very much! <br />
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So as far as this week goes, I think that that's pretty much all that I have for you! But before I go I just want to share my “ponderize” scripture for this last week! It's in Alma chapter 26 verse 12 and it reads, "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." I love this scripture because I have seen the truthfulness of it throughout my mission! I have come to see that as I have humbled myself before God and given Him the credit for the amazing miracles that I have seen and had the opportunity to be a part of, he has always continued to bless me with those miracles! I know that the people that I have baptized or the people that I have been able to help on my mission are not from me just being good at communicating with people or anything like that, but instead I know that it is by the power of God that I have been able to see all of the miracles that I have seen out here on my mission! As the scripture states, I cannot boast of myself, but I can only boast in my God because through Him and through His power I am able to do all things that He would have me do! I love my Heavenly Father so much and am so thankful that He trusted a punk kid like me to come and teach His beloved people here in Cambodia! I am sure without a doubt that these people have a very special place in His heart, and for me to have the opportunity to be able to come and interact and live with these wonderful people for two years is a blessing I will never be able to come close to repaying my Heavenly Father for!! I LOVE MY MISSION! I LOVE CAMBODIA! And I love every single sweaty, hot, rainy, sticky, smelly, dirty, nasty, humid, funny, sad, hard and priceless experience that comes along with this mission! I would not trade these experiences for the world! I love you all and hope you have a great week! Talk to you all next week... which I'm sure in the beginning of my home letter, I will say something about how fast it's gone!;) Maybe pray this week will go slow for me so I'll have something different to write about!;) Or maybe I'll just wait two weeks to write you all and then it will actually feel like a long time since we have talked!:) Mom, I'm just kidding! Put the telephone down…there is no need to call my mission president! You will be hearing from me again next Monday!;) Love you all so much!!:) <br />
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Love, <br />
Elder Steadman:)<br />
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-37307272302101226082015-11-04T20:55:00.001-07:002015-11-04T20:55:52.375-07:00Ponder the path of thy feetHello everybody!:) Well, the weeks just keep flying by! I feel like they are meshing together so much that I don't remember what I have and have not told you! Ha so if I say anything I have already said I'm sorry!:) This week was a good week though! We had no interruptions this week! It was a full week of missionary work so that was super nice for us, and for our investigators as well! Speaking of investigators, we found a young man that is super interested! He is friends with one of the members here and the member invited him to church last week (what an awesome member right!?) and we talked with him and he agreed to meet with us! So we met with him twice this week and he is so awesome! His mom wants to learn as well, but she is working far away right now. She gets home next week I guess, so we should be able to meet with her then, so that's pretty awesome news for this week!:) Also, this week our President here in Kampong Thom asked us to come over to his house so we could help him with some service! So we went over there on Friday morning and helped get his land ready so he could plant some vegetables! It turned out to be super easy! He thought that it would take us an hour or two, but we finished in like 45 minutes! Maybe even less! Ha he was super surprised when he went into his backyard and then came back 30 minutes later to see that the project was all but done! Ha he was very appreciative and after that we headed back to our house to plan out our day! Later that night was also Elder Lauritzen’s one-year mark! It's so crazy that I have literally been with the guy since the very first day that he got in the country all the way up to his one-year mark!! Where does the time go!? Anyway, we went to the only American restaurant in our area and we stuffed ourselves with American food and it was sooooo good:) Oh, and they also had homemade ice cream at the place we went to and oh my goodness people, it was unbelievable!!! <br /><br />Oh, and another cool thing that happened this week was that two of our investigators were baptized!!:):) Ming Khee and Bong Dara were both baptized this week and it was super awesome! I have some pictures that I will be sending you all of the baptism!!:) Bong Dara's dad got to baptize him and it was so amazing! It was his dad's first time ever doing it and when he went to actually baptize him, he sent his son (and most of himself) straight to the bottom of that font!! Haha there was like a huge tidal wave of water when they both immersed!! Haha needless to say Bong Dara definitely was completely washed of all his sins!!!:) haha So yeah, that's pretty much all that happened to us to this week! It was a good week but we just didn't have a whole ton of exciting things happen that I can tell you all about! Sorry about that:) But trust me when I say it was a very successful week!!:)<br /><br />Last but not least, I just want to share my “ponderize” scripture with you all really fast! It's in Proverbs chapter 4 verses 25-27 and it reads, "Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil." I really like this scripture because it has always reminded me of my baptismal covenants! When I think of pondering the path of thy feet I think of always pondering before making me a decision! I have to remember that I don't just wear my name, I also wear Christ's name and as his representative I need to always make decisions that would make Him proud and that will keep me on the straight and narrow path! We, as followers of Christ, have all agreed to take upon His name and as we keep His commandments I know that He will be proud to have us be His representatives! I love my Savior and I love His gospel! I know that it's true with all of my heart! I love having the opportunity to be able to share it right now with the people of Cambodia! I love you all and hope that you have an amazing week and also hope you all had an amazing Halloween!!:) Oh, and my Dad's birthday is on this upcoming Saturday and so I need all of you to wish him a very happy birthday!:) I don't know if you guys know this or not, but he is the best dad in the whole entire world so send some love his way!:) I love you Dadio!!:) Anyway, I love you all! <br /><br />Love,<br />Elder Steadman:)<div>
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-57505393037726168482015-10-26T09:42:00.000-06:002015-10-26T09:42:02.613-06:00"Living the dream" in the Kingdom of Cambodia!Hello people!:) I hope that you all had a great week over in the good old USA!!:) This was a good week for Elder Quirante and I over here in Kampong Thom!!:) I don't have a ton of time to write to you all this week so it might be a little bit shorter of a letter, so I am sorry in advance! Or for those of you that hate my long letters, this should be a great read for you this week!:) So on Monday we just had our regular p-day, but then in the late afternoon we got to go and play some basketball, which was super fun! Elder Quirante and Elder Lauritzen were on an exchange with each other last week and they contacted some Cambodians that were playing basketball and they invited us to play with them on Monday and so of course we were soooooo down! :) We went and played with them and it was super fun, but they got tired super fast so we didn't play for loo long, but it was still a great time! :) Then on Tuesday we went out to our far away area, but everyone was gone because a couple of our members were in a small moto accident earlier in the week (don't worry, everyone is ok). The people that got in the moto accident live in the far away area and so there were not a whole lot of people out there at that time just because they were all at the hospital! So we visited the members that were actually home (which was only two) and we helped one of them tie up some leaves that she had grown to sell to the market people! Then we taught her how to read a little bit because she does not know how to read and she really wants to learn so that she can read the scriptures! So that was pretty much it for our Tuesday! Kind of boring, but it was a good day! :) Then on Wednesday we had English class and that was really good because we get to teach it with all four of us now! Before, Quirante and I taught on Saturdays and they taught on Wednesdays, but the President does not want us to teach on Saturdays anymore because he wants to keep the church really clean for the Sacrament on Sunday! So now we just teach on Wednesday! :) It was really fun to teach all together and I do enjoy making the class laugh, but also having an effective class as well! :) <br /><br />Then on Thursday we scheduled to do service at a member’s house and so we went over there and we had to cut some grass with a hoe type of tool and it took forever!! Not to mention, there was not a cloud in sight and it was sooooooooo hot!! Haha we were all drenched in our sweat, but finally finished in the late afternoon and then headed home to do personal study and do weekly planning as well! Haha Then on Friday we spent a lot of the day looking for less active members, which is really hard in Cambodia because there are no such things as addresses here! Just names and the village that they live in! But most the time when you get into that village you can just ask someone if they know them and then they can help you and plus it’s a great opportunity to contact new people! :) ha On Friday night we bought some toys for the three members that were in the hospital (that were little kids) and we went and brought them to them! It was cool just watching their faces light up as we gave them these small little gifts! In the hospital rooms there were a whole bunch of other little kids that were all looking at their new toys and Quirante and I wanted so much to just buy all of them a toy too, but we just couldn't do that because we didn't have the money! But we walked across the street and bought a bunch of bags of candy and went back to the hospital and gave a piece of candy to all of the patients in the hospital! Old and young!:) It was so much fun and I felt the Spirit so strong as we were just walking around sharing our love with just a super small and simple act of kindness! It was cool to be able to sit and listen to some of their stories as well, and try to lift them up by giving them words of encouragement and telling them that things would soon get better for them! Hospitals are a sad place, especially in Cambodia, but that day I felt like we were able to life the spirits in that hospital just a little bit! :) Being a missionary is seriously so amazing! It’s the greatest blessing I have ever received to be able to be apart of this work! <br /><br />Then on Saturday it was Quirante's birthday!!! :) Everyone wish him a happy birthday! montana.quirante@myldsmail.net! Attention all ladies! My companion is single and very handsome! Feel free to shoot him an email and let him know his buddy Elder Steadman told you to wish him a happy birthday! :) So he is 21 now! So we hit up the nearest bar and.....contacted! hahaha Just kidding! Really we just had a pretty regular day! But in the afternoon we got a call from the post office saying that Elder Quirante had something waiting for him there and when we went to go pick it up, a member from Kampong Cham (our old area) had sent him a birthday cake and some food! It was so awesome! He was so happy and the food was delicious!:) Then in the evening we went to the only American restaurant here in Kampong Thom and I treated Elder Quirante to dinner! :) It was expensive but soooooooo worth it because the food was seriously amazing! Tasting a cheese and bacon hamburger was something that was very much needed for me and I accomplished that desire when we went to that restaurant on Saturday! :) Sunday was super good! We had to push our baptisms back one week because some of the people that were involved with the moto accident were the ones getting baptized so we were not able to teach them very much this week, but we have 2 people scheduled to get baptized next week! :) <br /><br />Ok, I'm sorry this letter is getting long and I promised you a short one, but I just want to share my “ponderize” scripture with you all really fast! It’s in Doctrine and Covenants, section 130, verses 20-21 and it reads, "There is a law irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated- and when we receive any blessing from God it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated." I love this scripture because I have seen personally in my life the blessings that come from being obedient to God's commandments! Before my mission, I thought commandments were given to us because God did not want us to be too happy in this life. Well, I could not have been further away from the truth! God gives us commandments because He is dying to give us blessings! He wants to bless us more than anything, but if we have nothing to follow or no way to show Him that we love and care about Him, then how is he supposed to be able to bless us!? This is the reason why God has given us commandments! God gives us commandments so it gives Him an excuse to give us blessings! More blessings than we are worthy of or that we will ever be able to number! All He asks is that we follow what He has laid out for us! The laws and commandments that He gives us are not to impede us from being happy or enjoying life, but rather are there to help protect us from the temptations of the adversary! Satan is very real and he wants very badly for us to be unhappy just like him, and to do try to make us so he likes to dress up the commandments that God has given us to be annoying, unfashionable, out of date, or unhappy rules. But it’s not true! I have found in my life that the times I have felt the most happy about myself and towards other people have been the times that I was following the commandments that God has give me! I know that the happiness that we receive when obeying His commandments is true and everlasting happiness! Nothing that the temporary pleasures of this world will ever be able to measure up to! I love my Heavenly Father and am grateful that He loves me enough to help guide me and help me know what I need to do to be blessed and protected by His loving hand! I love this church and I know that it’s true with all of my heart! I love my mission! I can’t even start to explain to you all just how much I love my mission! I am starting to catch myself getting more emotional because I will find myself in a moment that I know will soon only be a memory. I don't get to do this my whole life and I know it will never be the same again, even if I come back to visit it can just never be the same as it is right now. I just don't want it to end! I don't want to not be able to see the sunset and sunrise in Cambodia every day! And everything that comes in between that sunset and sunrise! I don't know how I'm going to do without it! But I still have lots of time to enjoy, so I'm going to go ahead and stop playing the world’s smallest violin and go back to work! :) I love you all so much and hope that you have an amazing week over in America! For me...well, I’ll just keep on living the dream over here in the Kingdom of Cambodia! Don't be too jealous! :) Until next week! <br /><br />Much love,<br />Elder Steadman:)<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Things you don't see every day...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy Birthday Elder Q!!!</td></tr>
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-83909749470182137402015-10-20T07:37:00.001-06:002015-10-20T07:37:29.486-06:00"Drum roll please!!"...Hello everybody!!:) Well, this week was a super fun week that also included transfer calls!!:) So I have got some news for you all, but you are going to have to wait till I talk about some other things first!:) Ok, so this Monday was super fun because we got to go to Siem Reap! It's one of my old areas and it's about 3 hours from the area that I am in right now. So we got to go there on our p-day to do some shoe shopping because my shoes are terrible and I needed to get some new ones! We went up there for the day and it was super fun! Elder Lauritzen got to come as well with Elder Beckstead because he also needed some new shoes!! So we had a small party up there shopping around for the day! The only bummer was that this whole week was a very big holiday here and so lots of the shops that we tried to go to were closed, but we were able to find the stuff that we went for!:) <br /><br />Then on Tuesday it was the big holiday so all of the missionaries were told to not go out and proselyte and to stay in and spend the day cleaning our houses! Well, lucky for us, we just moved into a brand new house that was already spotless! Haha so we spent the morning deep cleaning our already clean house and cleaning all of our appliances, and then the rest of the day we just hung out with each other! It was fun to just be able to relax for a day, but at the same time it felt super weird that we were not supposed go out and proselyte! Haha anyway, on Wednesday we had to go to Phnom Penh to run some errands for Elder Quirante and I, so we went down there and when we went to the mission home, President bought us both lunch and it was soooooo good! It was like a Subway sandwich and I was in heaven!!!:) Then on Saturday I went on an exchange with Elder Beckstead and that was super fun! He has only been in the country for a little over a month now so he is still very new, but luckily I have been with new Elders for a fair amount on my mission so it was pretty easy to adapt the lessons, and it was fun being able to help him out for a day and to try to build up his confidence in himself about his language abilities! <br /><br />Then on Saturday night I had something cool kind of happen! Elder Beckstead and I were outside of this gas station contacting these guys and I was just ending a conversation with them and starting to bike away when I heard this girl’s voice coming from behind me screaming, “Elder! Elder!!” I was kind of taken back! When I looked back, I saw two Americans running towards me! Haha it was definitely not something you see every day out here in Kampomg Thom! They came up to me and one of them explained to me that she was a member of the church as well, but that she had not gone to church now for a while. She said that it was a sign that we met each other! The reason why was because just a few days earlier she had been assaulted by someone and it was obviously very scarring emotionally and mentally for her, and so she was talking to her parents on the phone and her parents suggested that she try and find some missionaries so that they could give her a blessing! Well, I guess right before she saw us she was explaining what her parents had told her to the other girl that she was with, when all of a sudden she saw us! Kinda cool right!? Talk about God just lining things up perfectly for his children! If that doesn't show that He loves her, I don't know what else would! Especially because that gas station was super far out of my way and I randomly felt like going in there because I was hungry and wanted some Pringles, and once we got in the gas station I felt like I should contact some people in there which actually took like 15 minutes, and so if all of that would not have happened we would have not met up with each other! Heavenly Father really does work in mysterious ways!! Anyway, I invited her and her friend to come to church on Sunday! Her friend was American too, but she was half American half Thai, and she had actually never been to a Christian church before in her life! I told her I thought she would like the experience and they both happily accepted!!:) Well, when Sunday came around they actually came to church!!:) They came for the first hour and then after the first hour they said that they had to get heading out, but before they left the girl that is a member asked me if I would give her a blessing! Of course I happily accepted! I don't really remember anything that I said, but I just remember that right when I laid my hands on her head the Spirit just poured over me! It was so strong and I knew with all of my heart that Heavenly Father loved this girl very much and cared about her very much! It was a really cool experience! <br /><br />After church we taught a few lessons and then headed home for the evening to finish up some studies, and then we had transfer calls!!!! Are you all ready!?!? Drum roll please!! Elder Quirante and I are still companions!!!!!!!:):):) Yep, you heard me right people! We are with each other for another 6 weeks baby!!!:) We could not believe it! We were literally bouncing off of all of the walls with excitement! For those of you that like math, that means that by the end of this transfer Elder Quirante and I will have been companions for a combined total of 6 months on our mission! That's 1/4 of our mission!!!!:) How lucky is that?! I seriously could not be more excited! I love my mission soooooo much! I love my area, I love the members, I love my comp, I love my house! I just can't believe I am so lucky right now!! Haha it still doesn't seem real!! :) <br /><br />We have a few investigators on the board to get baptized these next 2 weeks, so please pray that all of them will be able to continue to learn and grow and progress! Their names are Ming Khee, SokGiet, Bong Dara, Bong Canada, and Bean. Oh yeah and one more thing! I have to share with you all my ponderize scripture for this week! This week my ponderize scripture is in the Bible in James 2:26 and it says, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." I really love this scripture because to me, this scripture talks about the importance of having commandments! If our Heavenly Father did not give us commandments, there would be no way for us to be able to show Him our faith! And like this scripture says, we mush show our faith by our works! We show by following what we know to be true! No matter the circumstances! I invite all of you to show your faith through your works! Show your faith through your everyday actions and your strong desire to follow the commandments that God has set out for us! I know that as we do these things, Heavenly Father will pour out His blessings upon us and will help us to stay on His straight and narrow path so that we can return to live with Him again someday! It's my hope and prayer that we can all help each other walk that straight and narrow path so that we can all live together again in the kingdom of our Father!:) I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!! <br /><br />Love,<br />Elder Steadman:)<div>
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-15977026896336118552015-10-13T09:35:00.002-06:002015-10-13T09:35:48.786-06:00Mud & "ponderizing"Hello everybody!! I don't know how or why the weeks insist on going as fast as they do! Haha but this week was super good! So as you know already we had Soklae's baptism last week and it was super awesome, but ever since his baptism he has wanted to help us go out and do missionary work around the clock!! Haha it's so awesome! He calls us every day in the morning and asks us where we are headed for the day, and then asks if he can come along for the ride! Of course we are more than happy to have him along with us and he really is quite the entertainment… he has both Elder Quirante and I busting a gut for the better part of the day! So on Thursday we were headed out to our area that is the furthest away and it's called Sojay. Anyway, Soklae called us and asked us if he could come with us and we said yes and then planned a time where we could meet him at the church so we could all ride together! So we met at the church and started to ride out there together. Well in order to get out to that area there is a stretch of dirt road that's super bumpy and bad that stretches out about a mile and a half (if I had to guess)! Anyway, we were driving down that dirt road and I guess it had recently rained in that area because it was super muddy! We kept on trying to ride our bikes, but eventually the mud got so thick that it wedged in between our tires and the guard thing and we could not pedal forward any more! At that point we still had another 300 yards (I’m guessing again...it looked way far people!) until we got to the end of this bad road. We could see that if we took our feet off of the bike, the mud was so sticky and thick that it would take our shoes right off of our feet! So we all three took off our shoes and our socks and rolled our pants up to our knees and then cleaned off our bikes in a little ditch near by, just enough so that the mud would not get all over us while we were carrying our bikes. We then threw the bikes over our shoulders and made the long 300-yard trek to the so-called finish line! Haha needless to say, by the time we got there I was drenched in sweat from head to toe...literally my muddy toes, haha and I was very very tired! Quirante and I got to the end at pretty much the same time and then turned around to see where Soklae was at. He was another 100 yards back moaning and holding his bike in the most awkward way you can possibly imagine! Quirante and I had a good laugh as we jogged over to help him, but he insisted on finishing the journey himself! He is such a stud! It's kinda cool because he just wants to be like us in every way! He does everything that he sees us do! The way we talk, the way we walk, even the way we ride our bikes, he is trying to copy us in every way! Haha it's pretty awesome! <div>
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Anyway, so we all finally reached the end of that terrible road, but had another hour of biking to actually get to our destination! Haha so we found a small river and we hopped in up to our thighs and threw in our bikes and started cleaning them down and getting them up and running again! The biggest mistake of the day was when I asked Soklae if he could pass me my shoes because he was just up a little bit watching us, but I forgot that Cambodians are not the best passers! haha Long story short, he missed me by a mile and sent both of my shoes straight into the river but just close enough to me that it splashed all the mud that was on the bottom of my shoes all over my shirt! Haha Oh and the socks that I had nicely tucked into my shoes in the hopes that they would stay dry were nice and soaking wet as well! Haha You win some, you lose some, right!? Haha it was hard to be mad at him with how hard he was laughing at his own terrible throw! We all had a good laugh! Then after that we got back up onto the path and there was this guy who was driving this thing, this is really hard to explain, but it's basically like a moto with 4 wheels attached to it and an open area in the back of it where you can just put a whole bunch of crap! Well, we said hi to him and jokingly asked if we could hop on the back and then he stopped and was like, “Yeah sure, hop on!” So we did not ask any further questions! Haha we threw are bikes on and off we went!:) It was so much fun and he took us straight to where we needed to go! It was a huge blessing because we were all trying to hide it a little bit, but we were all super exhausted!! When we got to Sojay we offered to pay him, but he repeatedly refused and off he went! It's crazy how an act of service can literally make your entire day!! What an awesome guy!! Then we had super good lessons in that area and reminded everyone to come to Conference and listen to the prophet! Soklae was on his game as well, constantly bearing testimony and literally inviting everyone that he saw (which is a lot of people because the dude is super cross-eyed haha) to learn about Jesus Christ!! It's crazy how bold he is! He will be one monster missionary! He is a good example to me of being spiritually bold in your calling!! Then that evening we rode our bikes back home. but took a longer path because we did not feel like having that same experience all over again! Haha so yeah, Thursday was a super fun day! </div>
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Oh and one more cool thing that Elder Quirante and I did this week was make a pull-up bar!! So we have an open shed thing on the side of our house and we asked our landlord if it would be ok if we tried to make a pull-up bar and he was totally down for it because he is so chill and super awesome! So we bought a super long pole and some chains and then we stretched it across two posts and then had it welded to both of the posts and since it was so long we used the chains for support in the middle! It's so sick! Three people can do pull-ups at the same time, so that's pretty sick! So that was a fun p-day project!! </div>
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Then Saturday and Sunday were obviously amazing because it was Conference week! All of the talks were sooooamazing! I wish I had time to talk about all of the talks that I liked during this General Conference, but because I am short on time this week I will just share the one that hit me the hardest and that was by Devin G. Durrant. For those of you that don't remember his talk, his was the one where he invented the coolest new word that I have ever heard! Ponderize!! He inspired me to find a new scripture ever week and then ponderize it! What a cool challenge! He promised so many blessings that will come if we follow his counsel and I want to take him up on the challenge! So I need all of your help to keep me on my game! Don't let me forget!!! From here on out until I finish my mission, I am going to share with you all the scripture that I ponderized the previous week and bear my testimony about that scripture! Now because I did not know about this earlier in the week, I have only had one day to ponderize last week’s scripture, but it's better late than never right!?:) As I was listening to Conference, there were 2 main topics that stuck out to me. The first was on keeping the commandments, especially the Sabbath day, and remembering our covenants that we have made with our Heavenly Father. And the second was the importance of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and the reality of it! This week my scripture relates to what I thought to be some of the bigger topics shared in this General Conference. It is found in Mosiah, chapter 3 verse 19, and it reads, <i>"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."</i> This scripture is rich with meaning and I know that even now I do not even close to comprehend its full meaning, but I just want to share my testimony that I know that what this scripture speaks is true! We all go through the great battle in this life of trying to put off the natural man. It's no easy task! And it's not meant to be either. But as this scripture states, if we yield unto the enticings of the Holy Spirit, meaning that if we strive to obey God's commandments so that we can have the Spirit to be with us, the Spirit will help guide and direct our lives and keep us away from the fiery darts of the adversary. Then we must become a saint through the atonement of Jesus Christ, meaning that we must try! As we learned last Conference, a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying! How do we try? We repent over and over and again! If we do this, we can have faith that no matter what, as long as we have sincere hearts, His grace and his mercy are sufficient for us. And then at the end of the scripture it tells us we must become as a little child. Like the comparison made in Conference, we are all little children of our Father in Heaven and we are all trying to walk on the path to get back to Him. Sometimes we fall, and we feel like we can't get back up onto our feet, but if we can lift our heads up, just a little bit, we will see our loving Father with his arms outstretched and a warm smile of encouragement telling us to get back up and keep on walking, keep on trying, so that one day we can live with Him again! It's my goal that I can try every day to become more submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, and willing to submit to all things that the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon me. I know that as I do these things, the Spirit of God will rest upon me and I will be led and guided by Him, just as a child is lead and guided by loving parents. Just like I have been led and guided in this mortal life by an amazing Father and Mother that love me! I am forever grateful for what they have done for me and who they have helped me become! I am nothing without them! Mom, Dad, I love you both to the deepest part of my soul and with all of the energy of my heart! Thank you for being the best parents any son could ever ask for!!:) I love my Savior and I am forever grateful for His atoning sacrifice that He made for me! I try to remember the song ‘I Stand All Amazed’ each week as I partake of the Sacrament. <i>"I marvel that he would descend from his throne divine, to rescue a soul so rebellious and proud as mine. That he should extend his great love into such as I, sufficient to own, to redeem and to justify. Oh it is wonderful that he should care for me enough to die for me. Oh it is wonderful, wonderful to me." </i>I am forever indebted to my Savior for His undying love for me! I love this gospel and I know that this gospel is His. It's true and I know that it's true with all of my heart! If there are any of you who don't yet know, or are maybe struggling and unsure of whether or not this truly is the church of Jesus Christ, I invite you to ask! Don't ask your mom or your dad or your neighbor or your bishop, ask God! I know, and as a representative of Jesus Christ I promise, that if you search and study and you get on your knees and pour out your soul to your Heavenly Father and ask in faith if what you are studying is true, I promise you that you will receive an answer to that sincere prayer! I love you all! You’re all in my prayers! May your prayers be answered and may the love of God fill each of your hearts this week! <br /><br />All my love,<br />Elder Steadman</div>
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-24770968445735203762015-10-07T16:28:00.000-06:002015-10-07T16:28:09.388-06:00Mug shots and missionary work<span style="text-align: center;">Hello everybody!!:) I don't know why, but for some reason this week just flew by!! Now we are in October!! That's crazy people!! Where has this year gone!? All right, so this was a really great week for us because we were able to be in our area for the whole week and there was no sickness or injuries involved either!!:) How amazing!!:) So I will give you a little rundown of everything that we did this last week! On Monday we had a good p-day and we went out to the market and got all of the food that we needed for the week and it was the end of the month so we did not buy a ton of stuff! Basically just enough to get by! Then at the end of our p-day we played some football! We only have 4 elders here, but it was still lots of fun being able to throw the football around and exercise a little bit!:) </span><br />
<br />Then on Tuesday we had to go to the police station here in Kampong Thom because they wanted to see our passports and visas to make sure that we were not illegal immigrants...haha I'm sure that's a huge problem for Cambodia right now… Americans trying to sneak into their country...haha that seems kind of backwards to me! Well, to amuse the police we decided to go to the police station so they would not go on a wild manhunt for the dangerous foreigners dressed up in conspicuous clothing (white shirt and a tie with conservative slacks). When we got there they checked out all of our stuff and, after giving us the stink eye, told us that everything seemed to be in order! Phew!!:) But then they proceeded to tell us that we were going to have to go get our pictures taken so that they could put the pictures in a book...not really sure what the book was all about...looked kinda like a scrapbook to me! They told us that it was not up for debate and it would have to be done if we wanted to live in Kampong Thom! It would have been way easier to take this guy more seriously if he had not been wearing flip-flops haha, not to mention that his name translated into English was “Fresh Women”...yaaaaaa enough said there! Haha so we complied with his demands, but we also decided that we were going to have a little fun with this opportunity as well!! So this is going to be kind of hard to explain to all of you guys, but I will do my best! So you know the picture that everyone has to take in order to get a passport? The one with a blue or white backdrop where you are not allowed to smile and it always turns out horrendous!? Yeah, well, Cambodians love that picture SOOOO much!! Pretty sure that every Cambodian has gone and taken that picture at least once! Most of the time when you are leaving an area and they want to give you a picture so that you will be able to remember them, they will give you that passport picture!! It's a classic over here! So anyway, we decided that we would go and take our own passport pictures and try to make our faces look as Khmer-looking AND as cheesy as possible! It's just going to be too hard to explain it any further to you all so I am going to attach the pictures that Elder Quirante and I took at the photo shop place! Needless to say they turned out PERFECT!! So perfect that we actually decided to frame our pictures and hang them up in our room!!:) Yes, we are weird… I know!:) haha Anyway, so that was a blast and now every time the police look in their little scrapbook they will see the two most goofy looking Americans they have ever seen!!:) So that was one of the more fun parts of my week! <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Then on Wednesday we had a super good day and actually found a new investigator and he is super awesome! He has learned with a different church before, but he is interested in our church and wants to learn more about it so that's pretty cool! And then we had dinner at a member’s house! Her name is Sophal! She is the lady that makes ties for all of the missionaries here in Cambodia! She is the reason why I have spent a good part of my life savings on ties!! Haha they are just too pretty not to buy!! We got to go to her house and saw some of the ties that she is planning on making... I'm so excited!! Haha and since we are in her area, we get first pick over everyone!! That's what I am talking about baby!!:)</div>
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Thursday was an interesting day as well because we got a call from this member who was Cambodian, but then moved to Thailand for work, and now was coming back to Cambodia. He looked us up and it turns out that he was not a member when he originally left Cambodia, but then when he was in Thailand working the missionaries found him and he became a member over there! He decided that he wanted to go on a mission so he turned in his papers and he now has a call to go to England for two years and he leaves in November! We were talking to him and he was telling us how he really wants his family to learn, so we asked him where he lived, but we did not recognize the area. He just told us it was a ways a way and so we should take a tuk-tuk (a motorcycle with a little carriage attached onto it for people to sit in). We decided that we should at least go and give it a shot and see how far away it really was! Well folks, it's far!! Haha it took like an hour and a half to get to his house, and that was riding at motorcycle speed!! Haha when we finally got there we got to meet his family and that was super awesome! None of them had ever learned about Jesus before so we got to share a little bit about what we believe and talked a lot about prayer and being able to communicate with our Heavenly Father. Then we gave them a whole bunch of books and pamphlets and magazines and a couple of Book of Mormon's as well and it was super awesome! Unfortunately, we cannot teach them because it's way far out of our proselyting area, but we invited them to come to church any time they are able to make the long drive out and we also encouraged them to read what we left for them and start to pray. We promised them that sometime in the near future, God would provide a way for them to be able to continue learning! We didn't know in what way yet, but we felt confident that God would provide a way for them in the near future! So that was a pretty fun thing that happened to us this week as well! I'll send a few pics of our drive out there and a pic of his family as well!!:)</div>
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<br />Then Friday and Saturday were super good days just full of missionary work! We had lots of lessons and it was kind of cool because when we planned, everything seemed to just fall right into place as we were out proselyting! Which, to be honest, usually is not the case at all! But this week everything just seemed to be going our way! Everyone was home when we came to visit them and everyone made time to meet with us when we got to their houses! So awesome!!:) Since Quirante and I have been in this area, we have been able to help 12 less active members come back to church! I know that's not at all because of us, but I know that God is working through us and allowing us to touch the hearts of those members and let the Spirit touch their hearts so that they can start to regain that desire to come back to church and continue to walk the path that our Heavenly Father has planned out for us! I just love being a missionary in Kampomg Thom right now! I would not want to be anywhere else in the whole world!!:) <br /><br />Then this Sunday we had a baptism!!:) Soklae got baptized! It was so awesome! He was super nervous at first! He came up to me in church and told me that he was so nervous that his eyes were getting cross-eyed (the kid already has terribly crossed eyes! haha) I reminded him that his eyes were already cross eyed and then he was like, "I know, but now they are super cross eyed! See look!" Then he opened his eyes super big and I just started laughing! He started busting up laughing too and told me he was just messing around with me! Man I love that kid so much! He is the first investigator that I have had my whole mission where it has just been easy for us from start to finish! He had problems just like every one of my other investigators have had too, but the difference was he had a strong determination to do whatever he needed to do to be worthy so he would be able to receive baptism! Honestly, he is a huge inspiration to me! People might say that I taught Soklae, but I feel like Soklae was the one teaching me instead! He has an amazing heart and strong testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel! It's truly been inspiring to watch him grow and be able to be with him throughout the process of his conversion! He wants to go be an Elder in exactly one year from now because that's the soonest that they will let you after you have been baptized! I know when he does serve a mission he will be an amazing tool in the Lord’s hands in helping the work spread! So the baptism was a huge success to say the least and I have got lots of pictures for you so don't worry about that! I even got one where you can see just how cross-eyed he is!! It's funny reading with him because he struggles seeing it clearly and he always curses his eye that won't look straight forward!! Haha he is the best man!</div>
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<br />Anyway, that was pretty much it for my week! Overall it was a super good week and it felt awesome to finally be able to spend a whole week in our area without having to worry about anything besides helping our members and investigators! I love this area! I love this church and I especially love my mission! Quirante and I will be riding our bikes and just talk about how lucky we are to be serving in a place like Cambodia! I would not want to serve a mission anywhere else in the whole world!! I truly believe that I am the luckiest guy ever to be able to serve here in Cambodia!! I love every single good and hard thing that comes with this mission as well!! It just feels like things are moving all too quickly! Next thing you know I am going to be too far away from the amazing country that I now call home! But until then I am going to make the most of every minute!! Don't miss me folks because I don't have enough time left to be sitting around missing all of you!:) No offense!!;) I will see you all in a bit!!:)<br /><br />Much love from the Kingdom!!:)<br />Elder Steadman:)</div>
Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-64052337390598131792015-09-29T21:55:00.000-06:002015-09-29T21:56:19.367-06:00Deliberate disciples of ChristHello everybody!!:) Well, I hope you all had a great week over in the good old USA!:) We had a great week here in the Kingdom!:) So this week we had Zone Conference, which means that President comes from the city and teaches us! So our zone has two different areas in it. The first one is Kampong Thom, which is where I am serving right now, and then the second area is Kampong Cham, which is where I was serving before the place where I am serving right now! So President had us drive to Kampong Cham to meet all together as a zone so that was kinda fun because I got to see some of my old members from my other area!!:)<br />
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Then on Saturday morning we had Zone Meeting and it was super awesome!! President talked about his vision that he has for this mission that he wants to focus on for the couple of years that he is here and his vision is helping missionaries become Deliberate Disciples of Christ! He said lots of us were born into the church, which makes us what he called Accidental Disciples! Now the word accidental makes it sound like that's kind of a bad thing, but he continued to explain that it's not a bad thing to start out as an accidental disciple! If you look at the New Testament, when Jesus called his disciples they were not learned men that were well educated according to the world, he just picked ordinary fishermen! Do you think that when they were called to be Jesus's disciples they were just immediately transformed into deliberate disciples of Christ? Of course not! They did not fully understand the process that they were about to go through! They did not know that they were going to become deliberate disciples, therefore they started just as most of us do… as accidental disciples! Then President continued to explain that moving from an accidental disciple to a deliberate one is part of the process a lot of us who are born into the church or have been members since we were very young must go through, and that's not a bad thing. It starts to become a bad thing only when we do not work at becoming a deliberate disciple of Christ!<br />
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Well, in order to know the difference between the two you have to know what both of those words really mean! The word accidental could be explained as something that was not expected to happen or something that you were not expecting, whereas the word deliberate means something that is full well known or something you do that you have full knowledge and desire to do. So then President asked us, "What kind of missionary do you want to be!?" I think with the intensity in his voice and the spark he had in his eyes, it lit a fire under each and every one of us! He explained that his goal is to help all of us become Deliberate Disciples of Christ and he said that if he can manage to do that, then he won't have to worry about the work because the work will do itself! I think he hit the nail right on the head because when you are a deliberate disciple of Christ you are given power from on high to do His work, and when you are given power from on high you are able to touch the hearts of your investigators in a way that you could never do by yourself!! We talked about some things that we can do each and every day to become deliberate missionaries and then we had a small discussion about things we have done on our mission to try to become deliberate disciples!! It was probably the best mission conference that I have had on my whole mission! It really just made me want to keep on pushin’ and keep on trying all the way until the end! I loved seeing the passion President had as he taught us and I could truly tell that he really does care about us and really does want us to become the best people that we can possibly be! I love him so much!<br />
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Anyway, the conference had so much other amazing stuff that happened, but it's just too hard to tell you everything that happened! Just know that it was amazing and I am trying to become an even more deliberate disciple! I invite all of you to do the same! Don't just do the basics because you <i>have </i>to do the basics, but do them because you <i>want</i> to do them! Pray and ask Heavenly Father what you personally can do to become a more deliberate disciple of His! I promise that if you ask, He will answer!! He is just like any parent, always wanting to help His children become the very best that they can possibly be!!:)<br />
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Church was also super good this week! We have someone on the calendar to get baptized next week, so keep him in your prayers please because he is going to be getting interviewed this next week! His name is Soklae and he is 20 years old! He is the biggest goofball in the world haha, but he is super smart!! He has really bad cross eyes and he makes fun of himself too sometimes and he has always got Quirante and I laughing!:) His parents don't want to learn, but they are letting him learn so that's pretty good! Everything should go just fine with him, but if you wouldn't mind keeping him in your prayers just in case that would be great! Anyway, that's all the news I’ve got for you all this week! I love you all so much and I hope that you know that!!:) If not… you do now:)<br />
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Love,<br />
Elder Steadman<br />
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-65244381931218665312015-09-22T17:08:00.001-06:002015-09-22T17:08:46.426-06:00Thank heaven for guardian angels...Hello everybody!! Sorry to you all that I went missing in action last week!! I was down with a really bad sore throat and some pretty good migraines, but the good news is I am alive and better than ever!! I got all healed in perfect timing too! As you know already, I was not feeling good last p-day so I took the day and pretty much just rested up as much as I possibly could because the next day we had to move houses!! Now for those of you who have been on a mission and have seen what Elders’ houses look like when generations of Elders have been in there, you will know that this was no easy task!! Ha not only were we moving out our stuff and the furniture, but we were also junking everything that past missionaries had left behind!! Needless to say, we found the expense of buying a hobo can (just one of those big tin barrels) one of our smartest purchases throughout the entire moving project!! It was not easy! As soon as we got done exercising on Tuesday morning, Quirante and I went out to go and find a truck that we could rent for the day and after a little while of aimless bike riding (you just don't realize how good America is people!!) we found a guy that said he would let us rent his truck and after arguing him down 40 dollars, we had ourselves a deal!! Because we are white we are very susceptible to getting ripped off by people on prices, but we know how to speak their language so we have got an upper hand on all of the other foreigners here:)<br /><br />Anyway, it was raining all that morning so we were really hoping that the rain would stop so that we would be able to move all of our stuff without it getting soaking wet! Well luck was on our side because as soon as the truck that we hired got to our house, it stopped raining! We thought that it was going to take at least three loads to get all of the stuff out of our house, but because we are all geniuses and Elder Lauritzen used to work for a moving company, we got it all in just one load!!! It was stacked way higher than the walls of the truck so all of us had to climb on top of everything and hold it down and then when we passed electricity wires we would have to lift them up so it would not hit our stuff and tear the electricity wires off of the pole!! (Insert from Mindy to all concerned mothers out there: I have since explained to Austin that he is lucky to be alive and made him swear never to touch electrical wires of any type again!) Haha it was pretty fun I'm not gonna lie! It was a little scary at first, but we got some pretty funny looks from all of the Cambodians as we were riding past them sitting on top of all our stuff!! Not a picture they see every day I'm sure!! Haha anyway, so we got all of the stuff into the new house in perfect time because as we were bringing it all in it started raining again, but everything stayed dry for the most part!! So that was probably the biggest activity of the whole week! I love our new house so much and soon they are going to be laying cement outside so we will have somewhere to exercise and that will be awesome as well!! <br /><br />We had lots of investigators show up to church this week which was really cool because we ended up having to go down to the city earlier this week because Quirante had to go to the dermatologist because he's got a weird rash all over his body! So we really were not in our area a ton this week, but it was really cool seeing some of the investigators that we did not meet this week still come to church! It really shows their faith! But yeah, for this week that's pretty much all of the new news I’ve got for you folks! Hopefully this next week we can just have a normal week for once and get a ton of missionary work done!! Ha I love you all so very much! <br /><br />Love,<br />Elder Steadman:)<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just another shopping day at the local market :)</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The new digs!</td></tr>
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-47246639337584207902015-09-14T15:08:00.000-06:002015-09-14T17:23:36.681-06:00Prayers<i>Hi everyone, this is Mindy. We got to email a bit with Austin last night and he sends his apologies, but he did not get a home letter written. He's been quite sick this last week (it sounds like with flu-like symptoms) and has pretty much just had to stay in bed. Anyhow, he didn't feel like he had much to report, but I wanted to send this update so that all of us who love him can be praying that he will be able to overcome this illness quickly so that he can return to the missionary work he loves! Also, he and Elder Quirante are in charge of moving everything in the current missionary apartment to a new location so prayers that they can manage that would also be much appreciated I'm sure.</i><br />
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<i>I'm attaching a few pics... all but one were taken a week ago on p-day when they did a little sightseeing. I guess the tree-climing one means his wrist is feeling better? The last one, taken since he's been ill, had me a bit concerned. I asked what in the world those marks were and he said, "Oh it's just a Cambodian thing they think helps when you're sick to release all the toxins". That sounded like midieval bloodletting or something, which did not ease my panic. I was worried they had scraped him with something and remembrances of my time in Ghana teaching HIV/AIDS prevention and the importance of sterile razors, etc. were swirling around in my head. When I shared that concern he responded with something like, "Oh my gosh, you're such a nerd!!!" and then proceeded to explain that Elder Q had administered the "treatment", which apparently involved icy hot and rubbing a coin on your skin... much preferred to scraping with unsterile objects :) He assured me the marks are nearly all gone now and that he seems to be on the mend. Still not sure I'll embrace the "treatment" the next time I have the flu!</i><br />
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8557669273776108303.post-55027277752327080102015-09-10T09:35:00.000-06:002015-09-10T09:35:07.384-06:00Members and missionaries<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
Hello everybody!:) Well, I hope that you all enjoyed your week over in the good old USA!! Elder Quirante and I had another great week here in Kampong Thom!!:) So this week was pretty much the first week that we were actually in our area for the whole week and we were able to go out and do work every day! I feel like now we know a great part of the members here in Kampong Thom and they all know us now so it's nice not feeling like the new guys anymore! :) One cool thing that happened this week was that we got permission to teach English class two times a week instead of just one! So Elder Quirante and I will be teaching one class on Saturday and the other Elders will teach another class on Wednesday!! <br /><br />Oh yeah, and I just remembered something else that happened this week! So we were just doing our regular studies on Tuesday and then we got a call from the Senior couple from the mission office in Phnom Penh and they told us that they were on their way to our house right then and they wanted to meet with all of the Elders when they got there! They did not tell us why they were coming, so as you can imagine we were very curious as to what exactly they were coming here for! Well, when they showed up they took two steps into our house and then told us that we would be moving to a different house! I was caught way off guard by that one! They said that it was direct orders from President Christensen! Our house is about a 15-minute bike ride from the church and President said that he wants us closer than that so that we can do more proselyting closer to the church! So we went to go look at our new house and it's soooooo nice! I could not believe it at first! It seemed a little too good to be true, but I guess it's really going to happen!!:) So on the 13th we are going to have to start moving our stuff out of the old house and into the new house. I am assuming that's going to take a couple of days to be able to complete, but it should be pretty fun!!:) And interesting, considering there is no such thing as a moving truck here in Cambodia!! Haha wish us luck!!:) <br /><br />Another cool thing that happened this week was we got 6 new investigators and we had 5 potential investigators who agreed they wanted to learn, but we just have not met them yet!!:) The work seems to be blowing up right now so that's pretty awesome!!:) I really just love this area so much! The members are constantly giving us referrals for people who want to learn and it makes the work sooo much easier and more efficient!!! We had 9 investigators show up to church as well, so we had big smiles on our faces all through sacrament meeting!!:) <br /><br />This week I truly have gained a testimony about the importance of member missionary work!! When the members are working with the full-time missionaries it is 10 times more productive work than anything just the missionaries could do!! I know that when we share the gospel with our friends and family sometimes it can be very scary because we don't know how they will react or what exactly we even want to say to them, but I have learned and bear testimony to you all that when we open our mouths with faith and share about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ the Spirit WILL testify what we are saying is true!! He will not hang us out to dry when we are speaking of eternal truths!! He will ALWAYS confirm that what we are sharing with them is true as long as we too have faith and believe that the things we are saying are true!! You cannot convert someone above your own conversion! I invite you all to share what you know to be true and I know that as you all do this, your testimony will grow! I know because my testimony has grown immensely out here on my mission and that is because I have the opportunity to share what I believe with others every single day and so every single day my faith can grow just a little bit stronger than the day before, but I know that you don't have to be a full time missionary to be able to help your faith grow a little each and every day! All you have to do is exercise your spiritual muscles every single day with the basics like reading the scriptures, praying, going to church, sharing the gospel with others and much more! I love this Gospel! I am grateful that Heavenly Father gave a perfect gospel to an imperfect church filled with imperfect people, but people who try, and a church that tries! Like we heard in General Conference, we are Latter-Day Saints and a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying! I encourage you all to keep on trying! I promise that you are all doing SO much better than you think you are! Cut yourself some slack! You’re an amazing person!! Rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and you can NEVER lose!! I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week! <br /><br />Much love headed your way!!:)<br />Elder Steadman:)<div>
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Mindyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11782926898222242860noreply@blogger.com0