Reunions, a new comp, & an invitation

Hello everyone! Wow, so this week was amazing! So first of all, this week I had to go down to Phnom Penh again because my companion was ending his mission so I had to go and drop him off at the mission home and pick up my new companion! Not gonna lie, I was not looking forward to the trip all the way down to the city because it’s an 8, or sometimes 9, hour drive and I was not wanting to ride on a bus that long! haha But I quickly changed my mind when I found out that my companion from the MTC, Elder Quirante, was also going to be coming down to the city as well! Pretty much I have a small man crush on him and I was SO pumped to be able to see him because it's been a month and a half since I saw him last...wow that sounds like I'm dating him haha Oh well! :) Anyway, we got to hang out most of Friday in the mission home and go to lunch as well while we waited for our new companions to arrive! It was awesome! :) 

Blast from the past (i.e. MTC): Sister Jepson & Elder Q

After that I got a new companion! His name is Elder Sok (អែលឌើរ សុខ) He is so awesome! :) He does not know much English at all, but he has a really strong determination to learn so I am going to do everything I can to try and help him learn lots of English! He loves to laugh and I am finally decent enough at the language that I understand nearly all of his jokes so that's good! :) haha 

Elder Sok is from Cambodia & the only member in his family. He
has been a member 2 years, and on a mission for one of them! 

As far as other news goes, this week we got to watch General Conference! I was a little worried that I was not going to be able to understand as much as I wanted to… listening to it in Khmer, but my worries were for naught because all of the English missionaries got to listen to it in English! Wow- I was so pumped! And wow!! Conference was seriously so amazing! I think it would be kind of hard to say that I had a favorite talk, but I do have a few talks that I really liked! One of my very favorite talks that I really enjoyed listening to was given by Elder Bednar! He focused his talk DIRECTLY on people who were not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He talked about the reason why we spread the Gospel and the reason we are always trying to bring people the knowledge that we have! He hit it right on the head! It’s because it has blessed all of our lives so exceedingly that we want to go and have it help the lives of others as well! He had a story about his 2 sons playing outside and the younger son got hurt and scraped his arm. He explained how the older brother helped him inside and washed his wound of with pounds of dish soap! The litter brother did not like the cleansing one bit, but afterwards the older brother coated his little brother's arm with almost an entire tube of Neosporin and half the box of band aids. The younger brother enjoyed this feeling a lot more than the scrubbing that his brother did before! The little brother’s immediate reaction was to take the Neosporin and band aids and go apply it to all of his friends’ arms so they too could know how soothing it felt. This is the exact same for all of the members in the Church! In some way, all of us have felt the healing powers when we joined, or came to the knowledge of the truth of, this Church! When we feel these healing powers it is a human’s instant reaction, as you see in the story above, that we have a desire to go and share with our friends! He went on to explain that sometimes the way that we decide to share with our friends can be awkward or too straight forward or even relentless, but you have to know at the end of the day we are only spreading the news because WE LOVE YOU!!! That's the only reason! We love you and we want you to feel what we have felt and know what we have known! I share the same invitation that Elder Bednar gave to all at conference, "Come and see". I bear my testimony that it will be the greatest blessing of your life if you come with a willing heart and as an honest seeker of truth! I love this Gospel and I am so grateful every single day that my Heavenly Father has given me the knowledge of it! I love my mission and I love being able to serve the wonderful people of Cambodia! I wish you all the very best and most happy week!

ខ្ញុំស្រឡាញ់អ្នក ទាំងអស់គ្នា ( I love you all!)

Love
Elder Steadman:)