Madeline in Cambodia: Excellent Week in the MTC

Cumriabsua Krom Kruasa nun mitpheak!

Hello! It was another great week at the MTC. I honestly can't even remember what happened this week but it sure was a happy, ordinary, busy week. Friday was our monthaversary! One month down... one to go! I'm 1/18 of the way done! We celebrated with confetti poppers and lots of chocolate. With the three other sisters in our room we have about a whole 50 pound suitcase full of food. haha we love it. On the day we hit our month mark, the Indonesian and Malay districts in our zone got their flight plans. They're only here for 6 weeks. I'm not going to lie, it kind of hurt seeing their flight plans but I'm so excited for them! I love my zone so much. We are all so close. Also Sister Winters and I have quite a talent of becoming great friends with people right before they leave. First the Vietnamese Elders and now the Indonesians. Oh well.

Our investigators are doing great... well kind of. Our teachers role play as investigators from their mission. We have three right now, Bcng Van, Neakming Ranni, Om Tom. We taught Om Tom (Lookruu Garlick) for the first time this week. He's the sweetest man. You can tell by what Lookruu Garlick says and does that the real Om Tom in Cambodia is beyond sweet. You can also tell that he's very very poor but he has such a sweet simple spirit. I love it. Funny story while teaching Bcng Van... We were supposed to teach him on Friday but the Elders before us took way too long so Van said he didn't have time. So because we are persistent and excited missionaries we decided to "call" him on Saturday (this was Sister Winter's idea). So we "called" Van (Lookruu Sorenson). He was standing on the other side of the door, I raised my hand to my face like a phone and let me tell you I owned that phone call. So i guess I'm better at Khmer phone calls than English ones :)

TRC was awesome as always. We taught two returned missionaries, Jacob (Yacob) and Mitch (Mit). I actually read some of Mitch's blog before I left so that was funny. Anyways we taught them about charity. We asked them about times where they've seen charity. Both of them mentioned their missions. I just had this strong impression to tell them that they can feel that same love from their mission here. All we need to do is ask with a sincere heart. The Spirit was so strong. You could see in their eyes and in the way they talked that they love the people of Cambodia. When I say love I mean truly, with all their heart, love! It was so sweet. It made me so excited to have a part of that sweet love for those sweet people. TRC also gives me hope that I will be able to learn this language. Such a sweet day.

Sundays are the best as always. I'm sad to say that our Branch President has been moved to the Filipino branch (dang Filipinos). So our new president is our first counselor, President Moon. He was actually the mission president in Cambodia before my mission president now. Such a tender mercy. In honor of the Pioneers, we had a special devotional from the Nashville Tribute band. The MTC choir (mainly the whole MTC) had the privilege of singing with them. It was one of those moments were afterwards you feel like you can do anything. Ugh so good!!

So yes it was kind of a boring, kind of an awesome week! That's usually how it goes here. OH! can i just tell you that Khmer is the cutest language. Let me give some examples: "kaapraecetcua" means conversion. prae=turn, cet=heart, cua= believe. So it literally translates to turn heart and believe. So sweet. Also "cet l'cc" means kind. translates to good heart. Though khmer is squiggly and incredibly inefficient, it's the sweetest language there is.

Thank you for all the love!

Sister Mortell