Yes ice cream does exist in Cambodia and it tastes really, really good, but it can also be expensive so it is a once a month thing. I enclose pictures of ice cream, our first excited investigator Anh Hoang and what houses look like in Cambodia, I'm not sure how to explain what Cambodia feels like, but this is something of what it looks like.
Well I guess I only have two things to share today, I apologize for the shortness of this epistle, but ask my parents and Jennifer about rainy stuff or anything else.
First, missionary work really is hard. There have been some days that other than the biking life seemed pretty straight forward, you bike from lesson to lesson, you share your testimony according to the Spirit and what language you know, and then you leave. Life is fabulous, sure you eat whole chicken instead of chicken breast and sometimes the ant in your sink aren't the greatest, but you enjoy the puddles and going fast down hill sides and you love sharing the Spirit. Then reality hits. You realize people have their agency and they may choose to work on Sunday instead of going to church and your heart is broken. Because just earlier that week they told you they wouldn't work on Sunday and if their boss asked them to they would quit. You don't blame them for wanting to keep their job, you see the poverty and know they desire to survive, your heart hurts because the Spirit had taught them the importance of the Sabbath before you even taught that commandment, and you hurt because your investigator forgot so quickly (oh Anh Hoang). Or a branch presidents house burns down and you see the faith of the missionaries and the members wonder how the Lord could let that happen to someone so faithful. Or you leave a lesson and realize you had no idea what went on and you see people on the street and want so much to talk to them and you can't, because even when you open your mouth to say something nice or funny they won't understand you. This week I found out really how much I didn't know upon leaving the MTC. My teachers didn't correct me much the last month we were there so even if I knew I still had work to do I felt like I could at least communicate. But when I got here and having my companion fix everything from tones, to words that I worked so hard to memorize only to find out now I learned the word incorrectly, it hurts, a lot. Every time I have language study with my companion she tells me how much we need a native Vietnamese speaker teaching at the MTC, I shudder to think how un-ineligible I am when i talk to people.
But regardless of all of this we continue on. Yesterday I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting. This is the first time I have ever been nervous to share it in fast and testimony meeting. I began my testimony by saying that sometimes the Lord asks us to do hard things. But as I have been taught since I was very young, when the Spirit directs, do it. That will be the motto for the rest of my mission and I hope the rest of my life. Sometimes bad things happen, a home burns down, or you can't communicate even when you really want to and you really try or you are just so tired. But the Lord always, always makes up the difference. With the Spirit we truly can do all things. Like in a lesson where you think there is a mis communication about doctrine and you want to fix it. In that moment the Spirit speaks and says ""fix it" and you can. You stumble out your explanation and give a scripture you couldn't remember on your own. And somehow it just works.
Those are the moments that make this work worth it and this is why I am so excited to serve the Lord. I love you all...you can do hard things. When the Spirit speaks, do it.
Love Chi Dao,
enjoy the pictures.
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