Week 49-Bong Rany got Baptized!!

Hello! It was a great week and I am just loving life. God is blessing us right now because He is sending us so many people who are so prepared and begging to meet us instead of us begging to meet them....which is pretty awesome. 

Bong Rany got baptized!! She got baptized with two other girls from my last area that I actually also taught, so I was there for all three! It was perfect! When Bong Rany walked into the church before her baptism,she was wearing an all white dress and said, ""Today I am an angel." She's cute. Before her baptism she asked if she could go pray by herself. She is very sincere and was so prepared to learn. I'm so proud of her. After they are baptized they are asked to share a quick testimony. She shared how she came to know God. She said she could never sleep through the entire night and it has been a problem for her for a long time. She ended up coming to our English classes a couple months ago and at the end of every class we give a quick spiritual thought and invite everyone to stay to hear more. (It works so well. Usually everyone stays!) Someone taught about prayer and how to pray. She said she went home that night and tried to pray and asked that she could get some sleep. And she did! So she prayed every night for good sleep! She started learning and just had undoubted faith and about 2 months later, she was baptized! So cool! 

Funny story about the baptism. We want the members to get involved and for the Priestood holders to be able to use their Priestood! We asked an Om Saren (an elderly man in the ward) if he could use his Preisthood authoriy and baptize Bong Rany!  He was so excited because it was his first baptism. He was a new member also! Anyways. we get to the church and asked the elders if they could help Om Saren get dressed and explain how to baptize someone. They said yes but the lesson they were in went a little over time and they were not able to get to help us teach Om. We brought Om into this room with all the baptismal clothes and while we were showing him the clothes we turned around and he is undressing! Sister Hall and I just book it out of there! But poor Om had no idea what to do in the room but he also had no clothes on! He ended up coming out of the room, with no clothes on, and walking into the elder's lesson to ask for help. People are just very open here. Anyways, it all worked out and he was so happy to be able to baptize her! 

We had an exchange this week with the Vietnamese sisters!! So, you're probably wondering... How do you do an effective exchange if you teach in Khmer but the Vietnamese Sisters only know Vietnamese and English? Translation! I was so tired by the end of the day because you just translate everything! I would teach in Khmer, look at the other sisters and translate it while the recent convert says something in Khmer and then i would translate that really fast and then respond in Khmer to the recent convert and then translate what I said to the Sister and then the Sister would say something in English and I would translate that to the recent convert. It was a little tiring, but kinda fun! I love the Vietnamese missionaries! They are some of the most powerful and hardworking missionaries I have ever seen! They contact in KHMER!! So yes, they do know quite a lot of Khmer! and let me tell you, Khmer and Vietnamese are nothing alike! Anyways, I love the Viets in our mission!! 

Yesterday we were trying really hard to make it to a meeting earlier than the elders (haha we are not competative or anything...) and we were running down the stairs of our appartement (Fun fact-we climb up 80 stairs a day to get to our apartment) and when we opened the gate to get out to the road, the whole road in front of us was fresh tar... so we were trapped in our apartment!! we ended up lifting up our bikes and trying to walk around it. haha now my shoes have tar on them... ugh. 

Thank you everyone for everything! I am scared to send pictures from this internet cafe incase I get a virus from the computer that would take off all my pictures... when i get to the mission home I will send pictures! 

Loves! 

Sister Snooks

Week 47 & 48-Two weeks of Updates

Wow! So much has happen in these last two weeks! It was so good to see you guys last week on our Skype call, even though it didn't work on Monday... Thank goodness my Mission President is merciful and let me try again on Tuesday. I'm grateful that is my last time skyping because it is just wayyy too stressful. 

Last week the BYU Folk Dance team came to Cambodia and all the missionaries in the city helped set it up and attend the performance. It was so fun! It was a great opportunity to get the church's name out to all the people who attended. The funny part was I saw one of my bosses I worked for at BYU! I sold tickets at the Marriott Center for sporting and musical events while I was in Provo. When I worked in the Arts building I was in the same office as a manager named Jeff! Small world!!

This is the place they did the BYU fold dance! So many seats!!

 Saw Sister Om, my old companion at the BYU Folk dance! She is so cute!! She stopped her mission a couple weeks ago so it was fun to see her again!

A dancer from the Folk dance team

We also had the 2 day training for all the new missionaries. They are all amazing and have so much to offer to the mission. My favorite part of the two day missionary training was when all the sisters got to stay over at the mission home. We totally could have gone home because our house isn't that far, but it sounded way more fun to be with everyone.  Plus, Sister Hall and I need to get to know all the new missionaries. We have some amazing sisters. Also, I got to hang out with my whole group from the MTC. Always Super fun!

Sister Hall and I got a call from a potential investigator who wanted to meet, so we dropped everything and started biking. About half way there the rain hit hard, like to the point you are soaking in 10 seconds and neither Sister Hall nor I was prepared (again) so we had to stop. We were so sad because there was no rain coats being sold around us and we were afraid our Book of Mormons and cameras would get too wet but we had no way of telling the investigator we were going to be late. (she used her friend's phone to call us)  I said a simple prayer in my heart that we would somehow be able to continue biking and out of no where two random girls walked up to us and gave us two free rain coats. I kinda wanted to cry. It was such a small tender mercy but it meant so much to me.

This last week was great! It was basically the first full week of proselyting I have done in the last two transfers. We have been struggling to find investigators because we didn't spend a ton of time in our area. We were blessed this week in finding a ton of new, golden investigator. I think God is also blessing us because Sister Hall is close to the end of her mission (so sad). We even have an investigator who wants to meet more than we possibly can! It's crazy! We have been contacting a ton in our area also and getting a lot of potential investigators. Before I hated conacting soooo much because I didn't know how to small talk so the converstation would be like, Hi, How are you, Have you eaten rice yet? Do you want to learn about Jesus?" haha no wonder  I was rejected every single time! Now I usually get invited into random houses, get to talk to the family, they will usually give me some crazy looking food, and I try to get out of eating it. But it's way fun. I look forward to contacting everyday. 

It's blurry but if you can't tell, it's a snail. It tasted alright... haha 

One of my favorite members is the older lady I've talked about before, Mac Yay. She is really sick and in the hospital. We went and visited her. When we went to the hospital with the elders we couldn't figure out where in the building she was. We wandered around aimlessly and realized we were in the maturnity part of the hospital. I said another prayer asking if we could please find Mac Yay.  We started walking down a hallway and a lady asked if we were Christian. We said yes and she asked if we were looking for the Yay (yay is what they call elderly women) who is Christian. We said yes and she led us to Mac Yay. Once again, God listens to our prayers. She was in a big room shared with around 20 other sick people. She told us she hasn't been able to sleep at all and has no strength. We started to sing hymns to her and she would sing along until she was finally able to fall asleep. I love her so much. Please keep her in your prayers!

That's all I got. Hope everyone has a good week! Everyone should go find a friend or neighbor the missionaries can meet :) 

Found this in the bathroom.. it's the size of my hand.. I about died.

Week 46-Bible Bashed, locked doors, and a Golden Investigator

This week was another crazy, full week! The allstars of our mission all ended this missions this week! It broke my heart.  I love them all so much. 

We had our huge transfer on Wednesday which consisted of meeting after meeting all day and making sure everyone made their buses and had their new companions. The next day was when all 20 of the new missionaries came in! We scrambled to get all the trainers in tuk tuks and tried to beat the traffic jam but sadly, we were late... The poor new Missionaires were just waiting on the ledge for us! But everything turned out alright and now they have a funny story to tell about their Mission President being late to pick them up... oops. 

Guess what? I get car sick now... I'ts horrible. We were in Presidents car and Sister Hall and I about threw up on the way to the airport. Greatttt.  

The new missionaries are amazing! They had so much energy and were so willing to try and speak and understand the language! It made me think to when I came off the plane and how terrified I was because I could not understand anything. It is fun to be able to see how far I've come from then and how much more confident I am in myself. Gift of tongues is real guys. I know all the trainers are going to be so good! All the girls in the group I came with (Sister Cook, Mortell, Benson, Winters, Luke) are trainning. These new missionaries have the best of the best for their "moms". 

This last week a member had a party. He name is Soovann. She is amazing and is the happiest person I have ever met. She is paraplegic but yet always has the biggest smile on her face. She is the one I wrote about in a previous email about how she wheel chaired herself to church. She invited us over for dinner and we had baby duck eggs! yay!! haha I actually dont mind them but while I was chewing I bit on sometime hallow and realized it was the baby ducks beak.. HAHA so that time it was a little harder to swallow. But bless her heart for making us food! She is the sweetest.

Our house it the party house... As in, when there are people that come in to the city, they stay at our house. The only problem is our house is the smallest house in the mission, BUT  we managed to fit 11 sisters and find places to sleep for everyone. This past week I think someone has stayed at our house almost every night.  Sister Hall and I made it a goal to be in bed before 9:30 so we could get more sleep and be obedient. We were in our room about to fall asleep when we heard this loud banging noise that woke us up. Somehow the other sisters in the house locked themselves out of their bedroom and the banging noise was one of them trying to body slam the door open! Haha We ended up getting the door open with a hair clip, glue, broom, and prayer. Honestly it was all because of the prayer, there was no way that door was going to open on its own. So, once again, God really does listen to ALL prayers, even if it was a simple prayer like, "Please help us get to bed, it is so late." (boom)*Door magically opens*

Our last grill together before Sister Om went home!

We have a golden investigator right now! She is probably going to be baptized next month! We just taught her the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chasity and she said her only problem was tea but said she trusts God and knows that if she follows the commandments she will be blessed. Like I said, she is Golden. I love her so much!! We have a couple other investiagtors but our area is a little slow due to the fact we have not been in it a lot. We have been meeting with a ton of part member families and having dinner with them and starting to have a good relationship with them! It's great because as we are finding people, making good realtionships with them AND we are learning how to make a ton of Khmer food at the same time because usually we ask them if they could teach us how to make Khmer Food. It's a great way to get in their house and be able to small talk also. 

I had my first experience with Bible Bashing. But let me just say, Sister Hall took him down! (In a appropriate and spiritual way though) He was a brand new member of his church and I actually give him a lot of credit for having so much faith in his church. He was getting the power of God and the Holy Spirit mixed up. I think we blew his mind because after Sister Hall shared the First Vision and that we have the restored church with the Power of God here on earth today he was so quiet. It made me really respect all my friends serving where they get Bible Bashed. You guys are tough! 

This week is super busy! We have some meetings, stake conference, and the BYU Folk Dance is coming and we get to help sell tickets and watch the show! I am so excited! I hope everyone is having a good week! Thank you for all the support! Love you all!!

 My best friend Sister Sum <3

We went and picked Mangos this morning!

 All those mangos are for us... HAHA 

Week 45-Transfers, Zone conference, MLC, Mission Tour, and BAPTISM

This last week has been so busy. We had our mission tour with Elder Funk and his wife, Zone Conference, MLC, transfers, and a Baptism! It was a great week!

On Monday of last week we met with our investigator who has been learning since Januruary. (Fun fact, I contacted her to learn about Jesus) She told us that she didn't want to wait until next month to get baptised and that she wanted to do it on Saturday! Since she was already done with the lessons, we made it happen! It was great! She has such a pure and strong testimony. She is so cute. Before the baptism it got a little crazy though! We showed up an hour before to help prepare her and get her white jumper ready. When we went into the closet to find it, it was no where to be found! After calling everyone in the ward, she ended up wearing some of the white pants we found in the closet and a white shirt. Even though it was a little old, she still was so happy and looked so cute! It is always so rewarding so be able to help someone find the Gospel. I love missionary work so much. 

We had Zone Conference with President Funk and it was so good. He taught so much to us that was so amazing. One point I loved was when he taught about the Savior's first miracle which was when he turned water in the wine (John 2:1-11). Elder Funk explained about the 6 water pots. Before people would enter into the temple they would place their dirty hands in the first pot, then the second, third, fourth, until the sixth and by the sixth their hands would be clean. The servants were told by Mary "Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." Jesus told the servants to fill the same water pots that were used to clean their hands to the brim and he performed his first miracle of making dirty water to delicious wine.  This is now my favorite miracle Jesus performed because there is so much to learned from it. I love how we can see the faith of Mary and the servants that believed and did what He asked of them, even though they knew how crazy it was logically. I also loved that His first miracle was Christ making dirty water clean wine. It can be compared to His atonement and how He really is able to make anyone be clean again. I was so thankful for Elder Funk's lesson on this because it was  eye opening for me. 

The next day we had MLC and Sister Hall and I taught about the importance of using the Book of Mormon. I didn't realize until I got infront of the room  that I was going to be teaching infront of a member of the Quorum of the Seventy! It turned out to be great. We used the story in 1 Nephi 8, the Iron Rod, to compare the Iron Rod to the Book of Mormon for our investigators. When the mist of darkness comes upon them that is like when they are learning and start to have doubt, or they don't receive an immediate answer from God, or start to have pressure from their family. But, if they hold to the Rod (and continue to read their scriptures) it will help them get to the Tree of Life and have the happiness the gospel can offer. I'm sure this doesn't make that much sense right now but I promise it was a lot better at MLC. It was so good that Elder Funk thanked us for the lesson. (Homeschool-highfive)

After he asked if he could interview Sister Hall and me. He asked us questions like what is a Senior Sister Trainer Leader and what do you do? We answered by telling him the SSTL is like an AP but for the Sisters! We help with  problems the sisters have  or if the Sisters have any questions they will come to us first to ask. We do exchanges with all the STL's in the mission and if there is ever any companionships that need some help, President will ask us to go and exchange with him. Another big responsiblilty is translating for the Khmer Sisters when they have a question for Sister Christensen or President.  I love being SSTL so much. It has been eye opening and has also humbled me a lot, but I have learned so much. President Funk continued to ask questions about our mission and something that got brought up is the obedience in our mission. At Zone Conference President Christensen spoke on obedience and that through obedience is how we can all become better missionaries. President Christensen also implemented new rules like not using your camera while proselyting ( I'm so sorry mom...). It was hard for our mission to hear this but because we love and respect our mission President and know that he gives us these rules for a reason, we follow them. President Funk was very impressed by our mission culture of obedience, which I thought was really cool. I love my missions so much.

Transfer calls were last night. Sister Hall and I knew we were staying but everyone else in the mission got moved around except us! It was a big trasnfer. We have been up all night getting calls. This morning we are trying to help everyone out. It will be another busy week. Also, we get new missionaries this week! So excited to pick them up! They will be so great! Okay I have to go! Love you all! BYEEEE