Week 31: The Pumpkin is Orange

Hello family and friends! Sounds like Mom, Dad, Kaden, and Carson are having a great time in New York and Jessie and Dallin are having a blast staying at friend's houses. Cambodia is great, like always!

Shout out to my little brother Dallin who is 8. He has not missed a single week emailing me. He is staying at a friend's house right not and doesn't have our Mom's email to email me on BUT.... he managed to ask the family he was staying with to use their email. He is so dedicated! I love him so much!

On one of the days this week all of our lessons and back up lessons fell through in the morning. We pondered on where we should go next. We thought of our BM leader and went to his house. When we got there he and his daughter were so excited to see us! They explained to us that they got this new speaker to listen to the church hymns with but the speaker was broken. He prayed that God would help him figure out how to fix it and said that God sent us to fix it! I know nothing about machines/wires/technologies but they asked me to look at. After about 15 minutes of me studying it I realized that they didn't switch the the nob for the speaker to work. I simply turned it on. They thought it was a miracle! He told me that I was an answer to his prayers! haha! It is important to listen to the spirit because sometimes you are going to be an answer to someone's prayers! ;)

For English class this week we taught colors. I was working on pronouncing sentences with the class. I had them repeat sentences I would say. One of the sentences was "The Pumpkin is orange." Little did I know I have been pronouncing  "Pumpkin" and "Orange" wrong my entire life... It was pretty funny. This was a beginners class and the students had to correct my pronunciation. Oh gosh........

It's so hot......

Love these people and their simple ways

Week 30: Doping for Transportation

Bong Amap got baptized! We were so happy for her! The day of her baptism was the most choatic day of my life. We showed up to the church at 9 AM to set up our English class before the baptism which was at 11:30 AM. We got a call and were told that Sister Heang was suppose to be getting her patriarchal blessings that morning! They forgot to call us about her appointment! We had to do an emergency exchange so that I could stay for the baptism and she could get her blessing before she goes to the MTC. The next problem was when we went with Bong Amap to get the jump suit for her to be baptized in, it wasn't in the clothes cabinet...Turns out the Elders brought it home to wash it and forgot to bring it back! So the Elders had to bike home and get it before the baptism started! On top of all that, one of the speakers in the baptism came up and asked for help with their talk 5 minutes before the baptism started!  Oh, and we didn't have a towel. It was so chaotic! I was dying. This was only the second baptism I have ever done so I had no I idea what to do! After the baptism started, it all fell into place! We are so happy for her! It took her two years to find an asnwer to her prayers! She has had a total change of heart! I was honored to be able to to witness her baptism.

 **Bong Amap**

This week I have done a ton of doping. Doping is when you have someone ride on the back or your bike. It is a very common way for people to get around! Our recent converts have been helping us teach our investigators and less actives so we dope them to their houses! It is a lot harder than it looks! Since I am the biggest out of all of them I'm usually the one doping the others! I will put a picture of it below. It's pretty fun. I'm gonna get a dope seat for my bike back home. 

**Doping**

The Language.... This last week I have learned two things that have changed the way I look at speaking this language! One, you have to fake it until you make it. Two, If you go into a lesson thinking, "Crap I don't know this language" or just plan on letting my companion to talk instead of me, I am setting myself up for failure. I am faking this language so much and it turns out that I know a lot more than I thought. When I don't let doubt overcome me I try to answer questions or explain the Plan of Salvation, or directions to a house, or answer a phone call (which is so hard to understand). When I do these things I am showing God that I have faith that he will help me. I was promised the gift of tongues and through my faith and diligence I am able to say all that I need to say. I am so thankful for this opportunity to learn this amazing language. I love Khmer so much even if it makes my tongue and throat sore from speaking it. haha

Funny story, I was doing language study on the floor and my companion came and sat next to me. I looked up and realized that she had a phone with her!  I asked her where she got that and she said it was hers! hahah I was so shocked. She told me it has been off the whole time and I do believe her. I'm not fully sure why she had it with her but don't worry, we are sending it back to her home today. 

I love my companion so much. One of my favorite things that she does is every night she waits for me to finish my nightly prayer and sometimes it's a really long time but she waits to make sure to tell me good night and sweet dreams and that she loves me. Something that I wasn't so good at before my mission was verbally expressing my love which I am a lot better at now. So everyone make sure to tell everyone you love them! 

**Sister Heang is such a good cook! I never know what it is I'm eating but its always good! Check out the thorns on my dinner.**

week 29: I'm Dying Hot

Hello from the dying hot country of Cambodia! Apparently Idaho is struggling with snow and freezing rain! Pretty crazy! I'm glad our church has taught us so much about food storage and preparedness for times like this! 

*The elders hid our helmets the first day Sister Heang came. I turned my back on her and the next thing I knew, she was in a tree hiding their helmets! I've never seen someone climb a tree so fast in a skirt! ​​​I like this girl!

***Our ward party*** 

These last two weeks we have been finding less actives to meet with. It's been hard and we have worked our tails off and the work has paid off. This last weekend we got three investigators out of the blue! They were all so prepared. One of them came to church (all 3 hours!!)  and at the end shared that she has been searching for the true church for a long time and feels God has led her to the church. We are so happy for her. 

Before one of our lessons Sister Heang and I pulled over on the road and starting going over what we were going to teach about. As I was talking I could hear someone mocking what I was saying in Khmer! I tried to hard not to turn around and finally I couldn't take it anymore. I turned around and there was a bird. I said, "What the heck?" and the bird responded, "What the heck?" The bird would repeat everything I was saying! I was dying laughing! But anyway, the language is getting so much better. I am becoming more confident in what I say and the words are coming out a lot faster. Sister Heang has helped me so much with the language. A member told me that my language has improved so much. I ALMOST CRIED. I was so happy! Its been so hard for me. I still have a lot to learn but I can tell it is improving. 

Have a great week! 

***Sister Heang loves Spiderman! hahaha***

***Our BM leader wanted to learn how to take a selfie.***

***This is what an ice cream sandwich looks like in Cambodia***

***I had the privilege of attending a member's Cambodian wedding.***

***We had the sweetest member invite us over for Christmas Eve dinner and they fixed us a "traditional American meal"! Cambodians are the BEST!!!I love them!***

**Our hearts are broken as Sister Semones is transfered out of area.**

 **Always trying to make others burdens lighter**

 **Love this ward**

Week 28: New Year, New Companion!

These last two weeks have been full of surprises! On Christmas Eve Sister Semones and I were setting up our beds by the Christmas tree when I got a very unexpected phone call from the Missions President. It went something along the lines of, 

President: "Sister Snooks! It's Christmas Eve and Transfer Calls! How are you feeling right now?" 

Me: "President I didn't even realize transfer calls were tonight!" 

I promise I am a good missionary and I plan every day but I completely forgot it was transfer calls because I thought I was going to have six more weeks with Sister Semones before she "died" (Completes her mission). NOPE. Instead, I am training a mini missionary this transfer while she waits for her visa! She is going to serve in the Perth Australia Mission! I was pretty shocked. It's not very common for someone as young as me in the mission to train! So I'm leading the area and training and it has been great so far! Saying goodbye to Sister Semones was hard. I'm gonna miss her. I have been so blessed to have such amazing companions on my mission. Sister Semones was my saving grace this last transfer and helped me grow as a missionary so much. I can't wait to meet up with her again at BYU!

My new companion, Sister Heang is the best. Like I said earlier, she will be serving in Australia but right now she is waiting for her visa to go to the MTC in Provo. She has been training with Sister Brown for the first 6 weeks and I'm training her the last 6 weeks! So right now my job is to teach her as much English as possible and practice doing all the lessons. It has been so fun! I am learning a lot. I was shocked I was training so soon because I don't have a ton of language down but I have found out I know a lot more Khmer than I realized. I also live with 2 other Khmer sisters so in order to communicate I have to use Khmer or act it out!  (My charades game is getting strong) Sister Heang and I can ususally always understand each other but there have been three times when we could not figure out what the other was saying. We sat together with a dictionary, acting what we were trying to say to each other and it just didn't click.... still have no idea....but other than that we work great with each other! Sister Heang is hilarious! Our first night together we both got in bed and I turned off the lights and she said, "Goodnight. I hope we dream of Spiderman tonight." I died. She really likes Spiderman! Also, I asked her if she knows who Taylor Swift is and she explained the whole music video of You Belong to Me. Hilarious.

Here is another story that explains her personality. We were practicing her visa interview questions and I asked her, "Why will you come back to Cambodia when your mission is done?" She responded, "If I don't come back, where would I go? I would have no money! No money means no honey." I have no idea who taught her that. She is hilarious!

Sister Heang is a huge example to me. She has so much faith. She has been a member for 23 months but is the only member in her family. She is from Kampong Cham and her family doesn't have a lot. When she was decided to go on a mission her family tried to discourage. Her family found a boy in Korea who was nice, had a good job, and had a lot of money and wanted to marry her but she knew that if she put God first and served for 18 months, God would bless her life. She is a huge example to me especially when I realized what she gave up to come on a mission. I know that if you put God first, He will bless your life and I know Sister Heang will receive so many blessings through out her life because of her decision to serve a mission.  I am honored to be her companion and to learn from her! If any wants to get to know her and wants to write her an email her email is chenda.heang@myldsmail.net

No pictures this week. The computers at this internet cafe aren't cooperating. 

Love you all-

Sister Snooks