Week 37: White Iverson

As Post Malone once said, "When I started ballin' I was young." We have been ballin' literally and metaphorically here in Battambang this week! 

We have been able to see so many awesome miracles this week and we owe it all to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ! This week we had zone training and we really focused on our purpose as missionaries and how to be as effective as we can in everything we do. We have really been trying to apply what we learned so we can just always find opportunities to love, share, and invite.

Earlier this week I was able to go an exchange with my wonderful zone leader, Elder Nydeggar. We worked hard, saw some great miracles, and most importantly, had fun. I was also able to learn so much just from our one day together. When we started our exchange, we set the expectation that we would follow the spirit no matter what and I know that helped guide us to where we needed to go throughout the day. I'll share one amazing miracle we were guided to. We contacted this one lady that wasn't really interested so we just asked her if she knew anyone that wanted to learn about Jesus Christ. Then she pointed to this house across the street, so we walked over and started talking to this ពូ that said he already believed in God and Jesus Christ. We taught him about the Priesthood and how its authority that comes directly from God and he completely understood how it worked and the importance of it. This was an insane miracle because literally nobody in Cambodia really understands the priesthood. Then Elder Ny kicked my foot and said, "Do it." And we put him on baptism date right there. Unfortunately, his wife doesn't want to change her beliefs right now, but I know one day this ពូ will have the opportunity to receive the gospel. Afterwards, we said a prayer and thanked God for the opportunity and miracle we had witnessed.

Elder Hunt and I were also able to play basketball with this group of kids at the church for about an hour and we planned to have a lesson with our boy, SpongeBob (nickname), afterwards. Right before we started the lesson SpongeBob brought in another one of his friends, Hong (now Patrick), and we were able to teach both of them! We're planning on playing basketball with them again later this week and having another lesson which is so awesome. I'm really looking forward to it.

On Saturday Elder Platt, Elder Tiraphatna, Elder Hunt, and I were able to go do some service for some members in BB1 (Battambang 1st Branch) and we had so much fun even though we were sweating buckets. We started off the day cutting up the ground for a មីង in her backyard and then right after we went and cut down a tree for another member. We were absolutely dead when we got home, but we had so much fun being able to do service together and help some of the members.

Overall, this week was so much fun and I'm so thankful for the Lord's hand in our lives and everything we are able to do through faith in Jesus Christ.

Keep ballin' everyone! I love you all so much.

Love,

Elder Mendenhall

📸 All the photos:

Current - Battambang

https://photos.app.goo.gl/eH2QQ25DGxRj8cNH9

Phnom Penh

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

A sampling: