Frog legs and humility

So.....frog actually does not taste that bad! haha Hello everyone! I hope you have all had as good of a week as I have had! :) For me it was just another week in missionary paradise haha, but here are a few specifics just so my mom does not kill me! :) First of all, at church this week we had four of our investigators receive the Holy Ghost! It truly was a special experience to be a part of and I felt like afterwards they even had a different countenance about them! One bummer was we did not have a lot of people attend church this week! My companion and I decided that we are going to try and work extra hard this upcoming week by contacting our less-actives and trying to meet with as many of them as we can, and then on Saturday night we are going to call everyone and invite them to come to church this Sunday so hopefully we can have some more people come to church and have the opportunity to take the Sacrament! Well I don't have a whole lot to share this week but if I leave it this short my mom might come to Cambodia and kill me:) 

Me: You really ate frog?

Austin: I ate 3 haha

Me: Shut up!!!!! 3 Frogs? So you didn't offend or because you really like frog? 

Me again: The whole frog... or frog legs?

Austin: Frog legs are the best part!!! At first not to offend and then it 

ended up being I actually liked them :)

So I want to share one more experience with you this week that was quite humbling for me! This week I caught myself in a very prideful moment! So we were at the village called Phum Singhae and it’s about an hour and 45 minutes away from our house, so needless to say it is a very long and very sweaty bike ride! haha Anyway, when we got there we came to meet this family (husband and wife) and they said hello to us but they were kind of busy sorting some fruit. My companion told me that we would just hang around until they were less busy so that we could teach them! So we waited around and 20 minutes later we decided to go and contact a little bit because they were still busy. So we went and contacted for 20 minutes and then came back, but they were still busy and we ended up waiting for another 20 minutes until they were all finished and ready for us to teach them! I remember I went into that lesson thinking to myself that this is the last time that I am going to come here! There are only 2 families that live this far and it’s just not worth it to bike all the way out here. I thought that they clearly did not have an interest in learning the gospel and we could be using our time in a lot better ways! Needless to say, heading into that lesson I did not have the Holy Ghost with me AT ALL!!! That lesson we had planned to teach on the Word of Wisdom and as we taught my companion did most of the talking because I was too busy being prideful and bugged. haha But then at the end of the lesson my companion committed him to stop smoking and guess what...he said yes! He said, “I know that what you’re teaching is true and I know it will help me in my life if I obey this commandment!” Boy did I feel like the scum of the earth! I was put in my place!! I had forgotten for a small moment the reason why I came! It was not to only help the people that are already super strong in the Gospel! It was also to help those who are not, and those who do not yet have a knowledge of the Gospel! Starting at that moment I made a commitment to myself that I would no longer judge people, but instead love them as Jesus would if He were in Cambodia serving a mission! I am not on my time anymore! I am on the Lord's time and I gained a stronger understanding for that this week! I am grateful to have a companion who was stronger than me that listened to the Spirit when it told him to wait just a little longer! It’s my new goal to be better at listening to the Spirit and being slower to judge people and quicker to love them! I'm so grateful to be gaining all of these experiences here in Cambodia and feel so blessed to be able to be on the Lord's Errand at this time in my life! I love all of you so much and hope you have an amazing week! All my love! 

Elder Steadman