Happy 1 year anniversary Elder Steadman!

Hello everybody!!:) Well this was just another week that went by as fast as ever!! So this week I was lucky enough to get a package in the mail from my amazing parents!!:) It could not have been any better! There were a whole bunch of letters from some of the youth in my home ward included in the package and it was so fun to be able to read their cute little notes that they sent to me! It definitely was one of the highlights of my week!:) Thanks Mom and Dad!! I love you so much! :) So this week was another really good week! One small surprise that we had was on Monday night… I was calling the sisters because every night I have to call them to make sure that they are home safe and so when I called them one of the sisters picked up the phone, but when they answered the person talking was not the voice that I was used to talking to every night, but it sounded so familiar!! Finally I asked who it was that I was talking to and she replied Sister Jepson! Ha I was surprised and asked her what she was doing in Stung Meanchey and she told me there was a small emergency transfer for the sisters because there was a problem in another area and now she was going to be serving here as well...in my same area!! I was super pumped when I heard about that! It's been so fun to see each other around so much! It's super weird as well because the last time that we were with each other was in the MTC and we did not know the language at all! Haha and now we are able to speak and listen to the people without hardly any difficulty...most of the time! (Keep praying for me!) So yeah, she is in my district so I am able to see her all of the time!! Now we just need to get Elder Quirante over here and I think I will be the happiest Elder on this entire planet!!:) So that was the surprise that happened this week!:)

Reunited with an old friend :)

As far as other news goes, this week was a little bit hard to get lessons! Ha mainly because this week was Chinese New Year and so everyone and their dog does not go to work… they will just go back to their hometown and so most of the time Phnom Penh is kind of a ghost town because most people are from a Province! The people that did not go to a Province would gather together and drink their faces off!! Haha so contacting was kind of funny this week!! I think we got invited to a house like every 10 yards we walked because everybody wanted to have a drink with the random white guy! Haha but once I told them that I didn't drink and actually wanted to teach them about Jesus instead they lost interest in the random white guy quite quickly!! Hahaha it was ok though because even though I did not get any potential investigators this week, I was giving it my all and also had some dang good laughs along the way! :) Drunk people in Cambodia are different than like any drunk person in the world! One job that lots of men here have is called driving a Tuk Tuk! It's a motorcycle with like a small carriage thing attached onto the back of it so that they can take people places! Anyway so it's kind of notorious that if you have this job, you also enjoy drinking a lot haha because you have a lot of down time so lots of them will just get together and drink with each other! So we had to go to the mission home this last week for my companion because he is in the process of getting his visa and stuff so when we went we decided to take a Tuk Tuk to get there. So we went up to this guy and asked him how much it was and he was absolutely plastered! Haha he could not really put a complete sentence together so we started to walk away, but then he offered us a price that was literally half the price that it usually costs to go to Phnom Penh! I turned around and made sure that I heard him right and he nodded his head (kind of in a circle motion) and so I hopped in! Ha it was a price that I could not let go! Plus the permanent driving speed here is like 10 mph cause there is always traffic so it is literally impossible to go any faster than that! So in my mind I was thinking, “What is the worst that could happen!?” Haha but before my mom kills me for telling this story, here is the craziest part! Cambodians are amazing drivers! This guy could not complete a sentence to save his life, but he was an unbelievable driver! He avoided all the bumps and was able to snake through traffic no problem! It made me kind of laugh a little bit! So I guess it's not true what they say! There actually are some good Asian drivers!;) Man I love Cambodia:) Anyway, we offered him a pamphlet and asked him if he wanted to learn, but he was not interested at all! Maybe one day though he will remember that pamphlet and give the Elders a call!:)

Let's see, other than that nothing exciting really happened to me this week! We had some investigators show up to church this week, which is always an amazing blessing!:) There was one investigator who called us and told us that he was not going to be able to come because he was going to one of his friend’s wedding, but then when we got to church we saw him walk in and he had also brought his sister, who we had never met before! He told us that he left a little bit early from the wedding so that he could come and worship! I was so pumped!! After first hour we asked him if he was going to continue to stay and he kind of hesitated for a second because he was originally planning on just coming for that hour and then going back, but then he decided that he wanted to stay for the other hours as well and he stayed for all three hours! Not only that, but his sister ended up staying even longer than that! At the end of third hour they were practicing singing for an upcoming Sunday and she stayed to sing with the members! It was super cool to see the members just instantly welcome her into the group! The Church here in Cambodia truly is amazing! Everyone is just best friends… it does not matter how long you have known each other or how old you are, as soon as you walk into the church building you are family!! It's amazing to watch! I think it's exactly how Heavenly Father would want things!:) Anyway, so we talked to him after third hour and he expressed how glad he was that he had stayed for all three hours and really enjoyed getting to know people better because usually he ends up leaving after first hour, but he told us that because he stayed longer he was able to make more friends and feel a lot more comfortable! :) He is going to be getting baptized in a couple of weeks and he is very excited!:) Anyway, that pretty much sums up what happened in my life this last week! I am so grateful to be out here serving in Cambodia! I already feel like I do not have sufficient time left here to do everything that I want to do and be everything that I want to be, but I am so grateful that I still have the time that I do left! :) Which to some may seem like a very long time, but the way that my mission has been going so far, I am very scared it's going to go by way faster than I want it to! Ha I love my mission and would not want to be with any other people in the entire world right now than the people of Cambodia! This place has filled a spot in my heart and will forever fill that special spot for as long as I live! I know that this church is the church of God and that He is the leader behind this Gospel! I know He loves each and every one one of us so very much and through His wonderful plan, we can live with Him again someday! If you don't know of this plan, I invite you to learn with Elders or Sisters close to you and find out for yourself just a little bit more about how much your Heavenly Father truly loves you! I promise that this message will bring more happiness and blessings to your life than any other thing this world could possibly give to you! I love you all and am always and forever thankful for your love and support! Thank you for those who have not forgotten about Elder Steadman way over here in Cambodia!!:) I hope you all have a great week! Much love coming to you from the Kingdom!!:)

Elder Steadman

Dead lizard... time for a prank...