Hello 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!
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:)
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!
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!!:)
Love,
Elder Steadman:)
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Time 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!
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!
Love,
Elder Steadman
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!
Love,
Elder Steadman
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Duck 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!:)
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!
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!
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!!
Elder Steadman:)
Elder Steadman:)
Thursday, January 7, 2016
New Year's... Cambodian style
Hello 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!
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!
Much love headed your way from the Kingdom!!:)
Elder Steadman
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!
Much love headed your way from the Kingdom!!:)
Elder Steadman
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Merry 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!!:)
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!
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!!:)
Much love headed your way!!
Elder Steadman
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!
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!!:)
Much love headed your way!!
Elder Steadman
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| Homemade gym equipment :) |
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Spreading love and the Christmas spirit
Hello 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!!:)
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!!:)
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!!
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!!
ដោយសេចក្តីស្រលាញ់
Elder Steadman
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!!:)
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!!
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!!
ដោយសេចក្តីស្រលាញ់
Elder Steadman
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Stocking up, "seeds", and reunions
Hello 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!!
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!
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!!:)
Elder Steadman:)
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!
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!!:)
Elder Steadman:)
Monday, December 7, 2015
"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! :)
Much love headed your way!
Elder Steadman:)
p.s. I made up for a lack of writing by sending lots of pictures this week:):)
Much love headed your way!
Elder Steadman:)
p.s. I made up for a lack of writing by sending lots of pictures this week:):)
From Mindy: Here are a few highlights from our emails back and forth to each other this week:
- The new area is called Chbar Ampov… not Chambeau :) It is a district in central Phnom Pehn. It’s “city living” according to Austin.
- 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 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 :)
- 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! :)”
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Time 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!
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! :)
Much love,
Austie:)
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! :)
Much love,
Austie:)
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Love and thanks from the Kingdom
Hello 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!! :)
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!:)
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!
Elder Steadman:)
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!
Elder Steadman:)
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| Homemade gym equipment... very creative :) |
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