The Sun Got Hotter and The People Got Colder‏!

No one was home this week because everyone went back to Srok to celebrate Khmer new year with their families. It was super quite in the city. I couldn't believe it! And there were no cars on the once hectic roads. So for four days, we were sure to keep ourselves busy. On Tuesday, we spent the entire day doing a mission-wide apartment cleaning and then afterwards. On Wednesday, we had weekly planning in the morning and then went to English class in the evening. If anyone is interested, our beginners class of about 40 students had a whooping 5 students come. On Thursday, we went to lunch with all the missionaries in the city and President and Sister Christensen. The place was incredibly nice. On Friday, we had Zone Conference, South and East combined and it was very spiritually enlightening. President talked about how the two most important things we must teach are about the BOM and about the Holy Temple. I'm so grateful for both and know they are tremendous blessings in the lives of saints. Sister Soem and I are still trying to find new investigators but no one has showed interest in learning. Hopefully, when everyone comes back this week we will be able to have a more interesting and exciting week! WAIT I FOUND OUT WE GET TO STAY TWO EXTRA WEEKS!!!! WHAT A BLESSING. Anyway, I love this work! I am grateful for the Atonement of Christ and that we never have to go through anything alone because of Him. I love you all too!! 

Picture 1 The Day Sister Soem and I shared a bike. It was very very hot. 

 Picture 2 This is Sister Sok. She has been a real blessing to me these past two transfers. She is serving in Comkarmon but we are in the same house. 

 Picture 3 Khmer sunset #skypic #basic 

The week of Conference!

Good Morning!!! 

No one was really home this week. And so it begins. Khmer New Year. We spent a lot of our time calling to and biking to the homes of investigators, less-actives, recent converts,and even members. Unfortunately, most everyone has made their way back to their hometowns for New Year. And so Phnom Penh is a lot more quiet. Less traffic which is good ;)

On Wednesday, in the morning, we took one of our members to the mission home so she could talk to President about some of the problems she was having. She was a little nervous at first. President said he would talk to her one on on, because she knew a fair amount of English, and if he needed help, he would call us in.So we waited outside the door for a little while. On the bright side, it was transfer day, so I got to see Sister Brown and some of the Elders from my group! They all sound like they're doing super well. I was way pumped to see them.

On Thursday and Friday, Sister Sok got her teeth pulled and requested for me to stay inside with her while her companion and my companion went out to proselyte. Sister Sok is sick a lot,so Sister Clark doesn't get to proselyte as much. So Sister Sok just wanted to give her companion that opportunity. We got the OK from Zone leaders so I just stayed inside and did paperwork and studied for a long time. On Friday,we also had zone training and learned a lot about going out and contacting and looking for as many people to teach as possible. 

And then on Saturday, Sister Soem and I were getting ready in the morning to go watch General Conference with our ward. We thought we were all going to watch it in Khmer together. But when we got there, we saw all the missionaries from South and East zone. Turns out we were watching it in English together and then the natives and members were watching it in Khmer! What a blessing. Other than that,not much happened this week. And this week will be even more quiet. Will update you all.

Conference was awesome and I definitely felt love from the Prophet and Apostles. I lvoe you all and hope you have a fun and safe week! 

Love,

Sister Nguyen 

The Week Maninoot Got Dunked!

Guys. I'm really sorry I didn't get to write last week. But this week was really good so I'll try to make up for it! 

But first! Transfer calls came last night! And I am staying in Toul Tom Pong with Sister Soem for one more transfer!! :) I'm super pumped and I know this transfer will be really good.

It is now April and Cambodia is getting blazing hot. They call this their hot month and when everyone tells me that they have this look of fear on their face. We leave the house at 9 AM sometimes and it's already really hot. We are always soaked from biking in the heat. In a few months, we will be soaked from the rainy season. I have accepted that I will never be dry ever again for the next year. By the way! I hit my six month mark! It wasn't as significant as it sounds and didn't really feel any different. Plus counting down makes me really nervous because I can't imagine not being Sister Nguyen.

On Tuesday, we went to visit Bong Mao. She is the wife of the Elders Quorum President. She's less-active so she only comes twice a month. Anyway, we went to her house and she was home with all of her kids. Salina the second to oldest always hides her face from us. She's only like 5 years old. She's so shy and last time we went, she laid face down for the entire hour that we were there. We could tell she was really hot and quite frankly were scared she was going to suffocate but she still wouldn't come up. Good news! This time she tried to do it again but we went over and talked to her a little and now when she sees us, she doesn't hide her face anymore! So, Bong Mao's oldest was sick and she wanted the Elders to come over and bless him. It was weird because her husband is a worthy priesthood holder too, but that's not my business. She started talking about how her son goes to bed at 9 every night and every night at the same time, we come running to her freakishly afraid of something that he saw. It's been happening for a while and then we got started on the topic of ghosts. This is NOT a good idea because Khmers will talk about it for hours and it really does take away from the Spirit. We told her she could pray and ask Heavenly Father to protect her house and her family and only invite good spirits in. The next time we saw her, on Saturday, she said since we came to visit her, her son hadn't seen anything crazy anymore! 

On Wednesday, we went to see Yiay Rut, who is one of my favorite people ever. She's this super old grandma who lives alone. Her family all died in the Khmer Rouge and when she tells stories about it, it's incredibly heartbreaking. She has so much faith and hope, even after something as terrible as that happened to her. What an example she is. So,we visited her and she started telling us about how her eyes are beginning to not work anymore. Everything is super blurry unless it's up close and tears are always falling out of her eyes. We told her the Elders could come and give her a blessing in about 15 minutes and as soon as she heard that, the biggest two tooth smile came upon her face. She was so happy! It was a really tender moment.She is seriously the sweetest person ever. 

On Thursday and Friday, we went on an exchange to Stung Men Chey with Sister Sheffield and Sister Gallahad. We planned to meet at 2:30 at the Olympic Stadium, a place none of us had been to. We ended up riding around in circles and then Sister Soem got super dehydrated and had to rest for a second. We ended up not meeting until 4. Hahaha it was the worst. But I got to go proselyte with Sister Sheffield for two hours on Thursday and then 1 hour of service and 2 hours of proselyte with Sister Gallahad (a new missionary) for two hours. It was super nice! The members in that area are super kind. Also, Trash Mountain is part of their area! Google it if you can. It's disgusting. Sister Leng calls it Trash World. People actually live right next to it and stuff. 

On Saturday, we had a "ward fire side" and only a few people showed up. It was still a really good fireside and we talked a lot about loving the people around us. They even showed the video "Lift" from lds.org about the lady who has multiple sclerosis and how the people in her neighborhood come every night to help her get into bed. It was really moving and our RC Bong Sovann (the one in the wheelchair) cried when she watched. The ward has started a schedule for people to take her to and from church so we don't have to walk her every week now. A real act of charity. In other news, Maninoot was baptized! She's still way good an even invited her brothers to come and they are interested in learning! 

I wish I could write more., but I running out of time now. I love you all and thank you for your support.I know God lives and loves us! Until next week!!! byeee

Love,

Sister Nguyen 

 Picture 1 Maninoot got baptized!!!!!!!

Picture 2 Our investigator Sophia made food for us 

The Week My Companion Didn't Recognize Me‏ - -This Blog post was delayed due to technical issues! Apologies!

March 20, 2016
Suisdaay!!! 

Toul Tom Pung is still awesome!

 This week, Sister Soem and I had to go to SOS International Clinic every morning because Sister Soem has had a cough for more than three months and they are testing her for some things. We are waiting to hear back from the doctor. Hopefully,they find out what's up so she can be cured. I can tell it really frustrates her sometimes.

This week in District Meeting, we talked about how we could be more sincere in our daily prayers and how we could simplify our prayers with our investigators. So many times when we are teaching,our investigators are too scared to pray or they always say, "You pray. I like it better when you pray". And we talked about trying to help them get over that hump and see the importance of their own prayers. It was suggested that we make our prayers simple so they won't be so intimidated and think they have to say this HUGE extravagant prayer. Just simple. Like a real conversation between two people. Because essentially, that is what prayer is! A conversation between us and the Lord. 

We met with our investigator Maninoot and she is staying! She is going to get baptized in a few more weeks right after we finish up the lessons with her. It's getting harder to meet because she's so busy with modeling and learning. But she is still doing so well and wants to serve a mission as well! SHE'S SO GOOD. AHH.

Our other two progressing investigators are SreyKaa and Oon Sophia. They are both about 8-9 and getting ready to be baptized. Their families are members. Actually Srey Kaa's mom is a RM. She served in Cambodia about 10 years ago. Oon Sophia's family however is less-active and only comes every other week.It's so hard because Sophia has a real desire to come to church and she remembers so much of what we teach her. Srey Kaa is really quiet and never really talks when we teach her but yesterday, she opened up a lot. Sister Soem told me that something I can do while we're teaching is say a little prayer in my heart so I can know what to say, pray for my companion to teach by the Spirit, or pray for the investigator. And yesterday, I said a little prayer in my heart for Srey Kaa to be more comfortable with us and to realize that we only wanted to help her. It wasn't that a huge miracle happened, but for the first time ever, she said the closing prayer!! After the lesson, we talked for a little bit and now we're best buds. 

Sister Soem and I were still at little lost this week. Not area wise but just thinking of who to meet with. Luckily,the Elders were super in-tune with the Spirit or something and called us up after all of our appointments fell through and said they wanted to show us some members and less-actives we could meet. So for about 2 hours, we rode around and met a lot more members and stuff. It was way helpful and will hopefully help us this week! 

Here's something funny that happened. Sister Soem and I were looking at a printed out schedule for which companionships will contact for english class at what time and what day. Sister Soem saw her name and then saw the romanized, "Sister Nguyen" next to her name and was like,"Who is that!?" She was sincerely concerned, but I told her that was how you spell my name and she thought it was the weirdest thing ever hahaha 

That's all I've got for this week! I love you all so much and hope you are enjoying the Spring weather that is coming your way! I just want to invite you all to do what I was invited to do this week to. Pray. Sincerely. Just talk to God. If we do so, I promise He will hear you and WILL answer you.

I LOVE YOU BIG BIG

Love,

Sister Nguyen

 Picture 1 Tarantula 

Picture 2 I totally forgot to send a picture of my companion! This is Sister Soem. She is about 4 times smaller than me. Her ankle is the size of my wrist. Lol.

The Week I Discovered the Origin of Dolphins‏

Week 2 of this transfer finished!! Sister Soem is my new companion and boy, could I just rave about her forever. She is 19 and the youngest Khmer I have met in the mission. She is super tiny and very very cute. She grew up in an orphanage and has gone through her fair share of trials and more, but she is the strongest person I have ever met. At first, she was really quiet and didn't really talk much, but now every night she tells me these ridiculous stories that are hilarious. My favorite one so far was about where dolphins come from. Are you ready? So the story goes that an angel came down from heaven because he saw this incredibly beautiful girl. He took the form of a snake so he could talk to her. They fell in love and got married and he was super rich because he's an angel and all. Anyway, a family next to the girl saw what happened and were jealous. So they went into the wilderness and captured a huge snake in hopes that the same could happen for their daughter. They brought the snake into their home and had plans for a wedding and everything. But one night, the snake was super hungry and just starts swallowing the girl. Everyone heard her screaming but just thought they were joking around, until some guy decided to go check up on them and the girl wasn't there!! So he cuts the snake open and pulls her out. She was so embarrassed, that she jumped into a well and became a dolphin. Hahahah none of it makes sense to me. 

This week was a little frustrating for Sister Soem and I. I haven't been in the area for too long and Sister Soem just came so we are basically white-washing. A lot of the investigators that the Sisters before had can rarely meet with us and aren't progressing so much. So this week, we just tried to do CBR finding ad look for less-actives that haven't been to church in forever. Oh btw, I don't know how american missions work, but in Cambodia we have CBRs that are records of the persons, all of their paperwork, a picture of them, updates on how they are doing, and a hand-drawn map that we have to try to decipher. It's been a little hard to try to read the maps. Also, Sister Soem is feeling a little under the weather so we have been inside looking at maps and resting up a lot. 

Other than that, we were able to meet basically our only progressing investigator Maninoot. She's doing super well and always understands what we teach and has great questions to ask! One of my favorite was, "When we are in heaven. Will we be able to eat food?" Good question. If anyone can answer that, that would be great. She, however, broke the news to us that she might be moving back to her hometown where the church is non-existent. She is not sure yet. We are praying that she stays here so she can get baptism and continue building her already strong faith. 

Yesterday, we were able to get a member to take Bong Sovan to church! It was way awesome and we hope we can continue to get members to fellowship her. The Korean church payed her a visit and is trying to get her to join their church too. *sigh* 

Sister Soem got her patriarchal blessing yesterday and it was way cool for her! She kept asking ,e how long mine was because hers was so short. I could tell she was a little bummed, but we all tried telling her that her faith was so strong already and the Heavenly Father trusted her a lot! 

This week, we are going to try to find more members houses and less-actives and maybe get help knowing the area. Also, we got two referrals yesterday so we will go see them this week and are super pumped! We are hoping this week will be a lot better than last week!! All we can do is work! I read this awesome quote from President Benson today that said if we work, we will have the spirit, and then we will be able to teach by the spirit, and then we will be able to touch the hearts of others. I wholeheartedly  believe it! I love you all!! 

Love, 

Sister Nguyen 

Picture 1 We got to help with a Primary activity! They were cleaning the church and learning about service!! HOW CUTE. 

The Week Sister Yin and I Are Breaking Up‏

Friends, Family!!! This was a craaazzzzyyy week.

 On Monday, we had interviews with President and it ended up taking longer than anticipated because he got a little backed up so we didn't get to proselyte at all. And then Tuesday and Wednesday, Sister Yin took me all around the area so I could get to know  the area more before she leaves. Funny story, on Wednesday, we had to go back to the American Embassy to pick up Sister Yin's visa. We went back and there were a group of Bong's standing around and we decided to contact them! We gave them all pamphlets and they knew a lot of English so they wanted to talk for a little while we waited until Sister Yin could go in to the embassy. One of the Bongs took a pamphlet and immediately started sketching the front cover of pamphlet. And afterwards, he gave us the sketch with his number on it...hahaha. We told him that we weren't interested and that we were here to preach the gospel and also that it was against the rules. And he said, "If I could take both of you to be my wife, that would be really good luck. I would love you both the same". We told him no and let immediately after that. Sister Yin says these kinds of things happen a lot to her because she looks Korean. Also because she looks Korean, people always say they can't understand when she is speaking and then tell me I speak clearer than her. I don't like it but Sister Yin thinks it's so funny and is actually super flattered when people say that.  

On Thursday, Sister Yin and I got permission from President to head up to Siem Riep  which is 7 hours away. It's where Sister Yin is from. She had to go home and pack her things for her mission. Her original call is to Salt Lake City, but she had to wait for some paperwork to get done and now she is headed out tomorrow!! She hasn't yet been to the MTC or even through the Temple and I had no idea! She is so experienced and knows so much already that she had me fooled! Anyway, it was super nice to be back in a khet even if it was filled with a million tourists. We packed her clothes for about forty five minutes and then caught the bus Friday back to Phnom Penh because by the time we were done packing it was too late. It was the worst bus ride ever. There was only one restroom stop. But there were a million tiny stops because the driver wanted to pick up more people. Sister Yin did however teach me a lot of vocab on they way back though! 

On Saturday, we met with most of our investigators! One of our only progressing investigators is named Maninoot. She is super sweet and has even helped us teach a few lessons. One time she taught about the Atonement with us and started crying in the lesson because she felt the spirit so strong. She's awesome and is getting baptized pretty soon. But since she is an actress/model this is her only free time and she says that this next month will be pretty busy for her. Hopefully, she has been converted enough and has enough faith to continue to come to church. We have another investigator named Bong Sophat who is super willing to learn and she always keeps the commitments we give her EXCEPT she does not come to church. We taught her about the Word of Wisdom and she said, "well if it's bad for my health then of course I will follow it!". And so we invited her to church and she said she just goes to a church close to her house because it's closer and they teach exactly the same things. We were really confused and reminded her about why our church was different and that we would come back a later time to teach her lesson 1. She said ok so we will see how this goes! 

Every Sunday, we have to bike over to one of our recent converts house and walk her to church because she is in a wheelchair and can't bring herself. I tried to talk to Sister Yin about getting members to help and she agreed! It was a little frustrating though because even though we tried, everything fell through and we had to walk her anyway. It's so important that we get members to fellowship these recent converts especially because us missionaries will not be here forever and because even President Kimball (I think) taught that it's one of the three things every recent convert needs. Also, this Sunday was a little slow because we didn't get any lessons or contacts. Sister Yin wanted to go meet with members, less-actives, and recent converts so she could say goodbye. And we had a few lessons lined up but they ended up falling through. It was good though, because now I am more familiar with the area and members. The members here are incredible and are always so willing to help the missionaries teach. They also love Sister Yin sooooo soo soooo much and I'm a little scared that I won't be able to measure up. But I know this is the Lord's work and that's the real reason I am here.

Tomorrow, I get my new companion and I have to lead out the area after just a week! I'm a little nervous but I know that the Lord will always help and will always lead us to those who He needs us to meet if we just obey His commandments. I'm way excited and will let you all know how it goes! I hope you have the best week ever and enjoy your girl scout cookies!!!!!!! 

Love,

Sister Nguyen 

Picture 1 From last Pday.  - I really wish I could tell you what you were looking at. All I know is it'was inside the Royal Palace *ooooohhhh ahhhh* 

Picture 2 -  The Creepy Bong 

Picture 3 -  Sister Yin and I got a watermelon from one of our Investigators but it was Fast Sunday and we couldn't eat it yet. This is us stalling. 

Picture 4  - The Young Women! 

The week I set foot on US soil!

Hi family and friends! 
I don't have much time to email this week but I would like to shortly sum up everything for you! I am in Tultum Pong with Sister Yin right now. She came out just two weeks after I did. Her original call is the Salt Lake City but she has been waiting for her visa and stuff. Btw, she went to do her interview at the US embassy today and she passed!! She's going to America pretty soon which means I will have a new companion in many a week or two. She is an absolute gem and everything she says, I completely agree with. We like read each others mind and it's so cool. 

I love her so much already and don't want her to leave just yet. This week, I met a lot of the members, less-actives, recent-converts, and investigators. Everyone is super nice and tells me I speak Khmer like I am from Kampong Cham haha. There is a member here that is a Look Yiay and she is super old and cooked food for us and it was so yummy. She speaks fluent Vietnamese which is nice because we switch on and off with Khmer and Vietnamese. I am also teaching one of the English classes here at the south stake center. Did I mention we have a stake center? ITS HUGE. AND WE HAVE A REAL CHAPEL. I will tell you more next week! I love this work and I love being here!! 

love,

Sister Nguyen 

Picture 1 The Look Yiay

Picture 2 Some of the youth