Week 18: The B Word

Hello everyone! This has been a great week for Elder Schofield and me and we have been able to see the Lord's hand in our lives through many miracles. We haven't really been finding any new people to teach recently so this week we made a goal to find two new friends. We were praying a lot for the opportunity to find them and one night, Elder Malquist called us and referred two sisters to us that want to learn! One is 11 and the other is 15 and their aunt is a member and wants to help them get baptized. They've already learned a little bit before, so when we taught them about Heavenly Father and prayer they remembered most of it and one of them said the closing prayer for us! They also came to church this Sunday with their aunt and her family which was so awesome to see!

Last week Elder Schofield and I went on exchanges so I had to teach one of our friends, Om Oum, about the first three points of the gospel. Om Oum is an elderly man who learned with missionaries about a year ago and wants to be baptized, but his only problem was that he was going to another church. When we were teaching him about repentance he started talking about how he was in Cambodia during the time of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge and how it was a hard time for him. I was prompted to tell him a little bit about my mom and how she was also living in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge and how it was a hard time of her life as well. Then I told him when she went to America she was able to find that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church and it blessed her life in so many different ways. After I taught him about baptism I asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he of course said yes. So I just told him straight up, "If you want to be baptized you have to stop going to the other church," and he committed to that. This week when we met with him we asked him if he was going to the other church still and he said he isn't going anymore because sometimes we have to make sacrifices for something better. I was so happy to hear that he followed through with his commitment and we put him on date to be baptized next month! We also have another friend, Socheat, who has been progressing very well and we were able to put him on date for baptism next month as well! We put him on date more towards the end of the month to give him more time to take everything in and so he doesn't feel like he's being rushed, but he is doing amazing.

The past few weeks we haven't been able to meet with a couple of our friends and it was a bit frustrating, but a lot of people were busy and out of town for the holidays. This week we were able to meet with BOTH of them TWICE and it was such a miracle. Charlie has been learning for a while now, but he was having some issues with drinking coffee, tea, and alcohol, but this week he told us that he has completely stopped drinking coffee and tea! The only reason he drinks alcohol is because he lives with his friends and they peer pressure him, so he's just in a bad situation. We had a really good lesson with him this week though and he really wants to be baptized. He is making amazing progress! Our other friend Sopheak is really smart and just soaks up everything we teach him. We haven't been able to meet with him recently because he works a lot and is actually just busy, but we were blessed to meet with him twice this week as well. He has honestly progressed very well so we asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said he wasn't sure yet because he said if he did get baptized he would want to be able to come to church consistently, which I totally respect because that is exactly what God asks of us! Hopefully we can continue to meet with him and he can have time to go to church. Please pray for all of our friends, it would help a lot!

While I have seen many miracles this week, I have definitely had my struggles. Before my mission my brother told me the three most important things to do are: be obedient, be patient, and have fun. I have been working on trying to be more obedient recently, by getting out of bed on time when the alarm goes off. It is hard to just get out of bed sometimes, but just that small effort is why I think I was able to see so many miracles this week. I also have been learning to be more patient and just laugh at my mistakes more. A lot of the time I get super frustrated learning this language and feel like I am not progressing at all and obviously my language isn't the best and I mess up a lot, but that's okay. It feels a lot better when I can just laugh it off and move on. Because of all this and the miracles I have seen, I am truly having so much fun. And that's a very important thing we need to remember as servants of the Lord. Have fun. "If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." ~ Brother Rast.

Love,

Elder Mendenhall

📸 All the photos:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Bgcnr25uJdQ1sYcY9

A sampling: