Week 64: 6 Months in Black Grandpa

Hey everyone! Sorry for the late email this week. We had transfers on Monday, so p-day got pushed back. For p-day today we played chair soccer with almost the whole zone, and it was so much fun. It might have gotten a little too competitive though. There might have been blood. It might have been mine... But anyways, I'm staying in Ta Khmau for one more transfer and get to finish my កូន's training. I could not be happier! 6 months in my favorite area and ending it with my កូន Elder Nielsen.

I am so grateful to spend more time here in Ta Khmau. I truly love it so much and love the members and all our friends that we are teaching.

This past week was really good. We have truly been able to see the hand of the Lord in our work, especially these past few days.

A few days ago, we had a lesson with our friend Ramid who has been Christian for a long time. It's kind of hard to teach him sometimes because he just wants friends and wants to hang out with us, but this past lesson was by far the best we have had with him. I asked him if he had been baptized before and to our surprise, he said no. So we had a great lesson with him about baptism and being baptized by authority. As Elder Nielsen shared about the importance of baptism with him the Spirit was so strong. Ramid says he wants to be baptized, but he just doesn't know when. He has some struggles family-wise because he is the only one who believes, and he also doesn't know where he wants to be baptized because he grew up learning with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Please pray for Ramid!

Right after, we went and got burgers with him and a returning member named JB. They are both very interesting guys and not similar at all. They both know fluent English. Ramid is 19 and likes to work out. JB is like 40 something and a schoolteacher. The most legendary collab of all time.

On another day we were visiting some inactive members and one of them wasn't home so I felt like we should try and visit another member who started coming back to church recently. She hasn't been able to come in months because of work. I kind of forgot where she lived so we stopped for a second to look at the map. Then out of nowhere I hear someone say, "Elder" and it was her biking right in front of us. She was on her way to the market, but we were able to ride our bikes alongside her for about 5 minutes and just ask her how she was doing.

Right after, we still had some extra time before a lesson with a couple of RCs (recent converts) so we were trying to decide if we should just go see them early or do something else. We ended up feeling like we should visit another member, so we did before going to our RC's house.

The RC's names are Pu Chamroun and Ming Theary. Usually, Pu Chamroun isn't there and we don't get to teach him often because he basically works 24/7, but when we pulled up to their house, he was right behind us. I knew it was the hand of the Lord because if we had gone earlier we wouldn't have been able to meet with him. He just received the Melchizedek priesthood as well, so he had a lot of questions and was asking about his responsibilities, so it was a perfect time for us to be able to teach and share with them.

There was a lot of other cool things that happened this week, but if I wrote it all I wouldn't be able to finish this email. I am just so grateful for this gospel and the opportunity to share the love that comes from it with others. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Mendenhall

📸 All the photos:
Current - Ta Khmau

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tzWgFE7cJhuxBrgf7

Battambang

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

Phnom Penh

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

A sampling: