Tourist adventures and impromptu service opportunities

Hello everyone! Well it’s been two weeks of fun that I have to catch you up on this week! I apologize for not being able to write last week. I did not get back from the temples until right before I had to go out and start proselyting again! But this week I have plenty of time to write to you all and let you know how my last 2 weeks have been! First of all I have to tell you all about how amazing my last P-Day was!!! So last Monday I had the opportunity to go and visit all of the very famous sites that they have here in Siem Reap!!! It was so awesome! The first site that we went to was called Angkor Wat and it is one of the Seven Wonders of the World! We got to wake up early and go to see the sun come up over the temple, which was just unbelievable!! After that we got to go inside of the temple and honestly it still boggles my mind how that temple could have possibly been made so long ago!!! All of the artwork and everything that was carved into the rock and all of the statues were just amazing! There were quite a few things as far as what they believed back then that correlate with some of the things that we believe in our Church, which I thought was interesting!

Anyway, so after Angkor Wat we went to this place called Bonteay Srei, which was an old kind of red looking temple that a queen used to live in, and that was beautiful as well! :) After that we went to Bonteay Sray and saw another temple there that was of, course, beautiful as well and then our last visit was to a place called Angkor Thom and that was easily the second coolest temple that we saw that day! At that temple there are a million head carvings. Well actually there are 37 I believe that represent all of the different provinces in Cambodia! Over all, the day of being a tourist was an experience of a lifetime! It’s so cool to be able to go and learn a little bit more about the Cambodian people!

As far as the rest of the week goes, I do have one funny story that I want to share with all of you guys! So on Friday last week we were headed to a house of one of our investigators and one of the members offered to help us with the lesson. Of course we said yes! haha So he took us in his car and we warned him before hand that the road there was not very good and was currently flooded at the time, but he told us not to worry about it so we went! On our way there, the road was super bad but luckily we did not get stuck! When we got to the investigator’s house, we had a great lesson and then after the lesson, we hopped back into the car to head home! On our way home though, we were not as lucky as we were on the way to the house! Sure enough, we got stuck in some mud! My companion and I got out to look at how bad it was! I got out and looked at the drivers side, which was not stuck in mud… it was on a small patch of cement, but my companion got out and looked on the passenger side and it was stuck pretty good in the mud! We told him that we would help him push so that he could get out easily! So we counted to three and started to push and he slammed on the gas! I was pushing super hard, but as I was pushing I heard my companion kind of scream a little bit! I was worried that something bad might have happened, but I could not yet look because

I was just trying really hard to get the car out. Finally we got the car out of the mud, I turned to look at my companion to see if he was ok and I saw a picture that I will never be able to forget! He was literally covered head to toe in mud! hahahahaha When the member went to hit the gas, the wheels were spinning out and spraying my companion with incredible amounts of mud! haha He tried to turn and take cover in a small pond, but just ended up getting his whole backside covered in mud by the tires as well!!! haha I am SOOOO mad that I forgot my camera that day! His face was absolutely priceless! Covered in mud and beet red trying to explain in Khmer why he didn't move in time, which made it all the funnier! haha Needless to say, we had to go home to get him cleaned up but that has got to be one of the funniest stories of my mission so far! haha

Anyways as far as doing actual missionary work, the work is going so good here in Cambodia! This Sunday went better than the last Sunday and we had lots of our investigators show up to church this week, which is always good! Last Sunday, the president assigned 3 people to speak in the first hour of church, and all of them finished their talks at 2:35! haha We had 25 more minutes left in first hour and no speakers! The president and his counselors were all looking at each other, not knowing exactly what they should do, and I could tell that they were super lost, so I stood up and went up to the stand and gave a talk as well! haha I talked about enduring to the end and the importance of enduring! I spoke for as long as I could and got to 5 minutes before the hour haha, so we ended first hour a little bit early but that’s ok! It was still a good meeting! :) And then this Sunday I got to do translation for the foreigners. We give them a headset and then I just speak in a microphone and translate what the speakers are saying! This week was fast Sunday though, which made it a little more difficult because people tell different random stories about their lives, which sometimes can be really hard to translate, but I got through it! :) haha

Over all things are just amazing over here in Cambodia! The work is progressing and I am loving the opportunity to be able to proselyte here in Siem Reap! I hope all of you are doing well at home! You are all in my thoughts and prayers! Love you all so very much! Until next week! :)

Love,
Elder Steadman

P.S. A ton more pics are posted under More Pictures on the blog :)