Warm-Hearted Week in Ta Khmau

Hello everyone!

So awesome/tender/miraculous moments of this week!! 

1. This past Sunday we had the primary program! I can guarantee you can't imagine anything cuter than ten cute little Cambodian children, dressed in their school uniforms, singing primary songs totally off key. So cute and precious. I loved it. 

2. We made fresh rolls a couple days ago. I think we have some competition to Sa-Wad-Dee. Heaven!

3. This past Tuesday it literally rained the whole day. The roads were flooded and so many houses were flooded too. Our district attempted to help a less active member de-flood his house. So we took buckets and made an assembly line and after 2 hours and probably 400 buckets full of water later, there were 8 very tired and sore missionaries and a small dent in the water. We also learned afterwards that there were some sort of snakes found in the house too. ahh. 

4. For me, Thanksgiving was fun. Our whole zone went to the Thurston's house (Senior couple) in the city and we ate pumpkin and pecan pie and colored (so fun by the way haha) and played Thanksgiving bingo. So yes fun. I’m getting so excited for Christmas. I'm starting to learn how to tell the Christmas story in Khmer. Also our district is doing the whole service, lds.org video things? You should do it too. I think it's on lds.org social media or something like that?

5. I raked rice barefoot. 

6. Once again, the bucket toilet.

This week was way good, way hard, way tiring and basically any emotion you could think of. That's how every day is it seems. This week we had many sweet, uplifting, tender moments. 

On Friday night, we returned home from Baku and had enough time to visit one more person. Sister Kosal said, "Let’s go visit Ming Phuo." She is very sick. She has a big tumor growing outside of her chest. She doesn't have much money. Her mom (wrinkled, skinny, toothless 85 year old sweet lady) takes care of her. She doesn't have money for much medical care so she drinks ground up bone and bark. So we went to her house. We rubbed her back and legs so she could feel. We ground up bark for her to drink. She was in so much pain. She asked me to pray. The next morning we got a call that she had died the night before. So about 5 hours after we left, she passed away. I feel so honored to have been a part of her last few moments and to have said maybe the last prayer she heard. Such a tender experience. 

Another Hand of God: Sister Kosal and I were left planless. All of our backup plans and backup to those backup plans fell through. So we prayed. And I thought of a potential investigator, Bong Leak, we could go see. So we followed and she was just sitting outside her house. And to be honest it was a little awkward. She is very shy. As we were trying to think of questions or something to say, Sister Kosal kicked my leg aka: say something. So I opened my mouth and just started talking and I thought "well just tell her the truth". So I literally told her the truth. I told her, we didn't know where to go so we decided to pray and we thought about you. Then we taught her how to pray. I don't know what came out of it. We are going to start teaching her next week and hopefully she progresses. But I learned just to have courage. Follow the Spirit. It doesn't have to be the best, but if we have the Spirit, it's enough. That's our role as missionaries. Feel, recognize and follow the Spirit. 

Missions are awesome and great and wonderful and hard. But I guess the kind of hard that requires heaven's help is the best kind. (Henry B Eyring quote on President Ahlquist’s laminated missionary paper thing). God's hand is forever in my life and yours too. 

Anyways that was my week. I hope all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a happy almost December! Much love to you all! Love you big big. (Sister Kosal always adds big big)

Love always, 

Sister Mortell

These pictures are of last week's service project. The missionaries cleaned up a public area on the banks of the Mekong river for the Water Festival holiday. (Photos from Mormon newsroom)

Valid Week in Ta Khmau

It was a great week again. Always fun times on the mission. Also I am done with training! Woah!! Transfer calls and I'm staying in Ta Khmau with Sister Kosal. Everyone else in my MTC group changed though. Now we have Elder Otto and Elder Hale from my MTC group in our district. So much fun. We played revenge basketball for exercise one morning just like in the MTC. So fun. Let’s see what happened this week? Last week I said I was going to get crickets after emailing, and that for sure happened. #timon&pumba The crickets were delicious. We ate some silkworms too, not the same story. Sister Kosal ate those. We ate crickets (one full bowl) and watched the moon for the holiday. Apparently the moon is its biggest during the holiday. Another fun thing today we stopped by these mango trees and helped this guy, who was wearing itty bitty shorts climbing a tree, pick mangoes. So fun. He gave us some for free. 

On Thursday morning we had a service activity with our whole zone. We got to wear the helping hands vests and everything. We cleaned up this public area to watch the boat races for the past holiday. It was so dirty and trashy, just like everywhere else. haha I hope it stays nice for at least a couple of days. Oh man I love it. 

On Friday we went to Bakou! I love it there! So beautiful. So Bakou is basically this khite, rural area, that had one member family move there. Then all of the rest of their family members were baptized. They ended up turning their house into a little meeting house. There are about 40ish members and about 12 come to church. But this Sunday we had 14 (plus 4 missionaries). I'm really excited about this area. It's pretty frustrating because everyone is a member or has already been talked to so many times. Also some members literally live 10 feet away from church and don't come. Oh well. The work will go on! I'm excited to get to know everyone. There's a lot of good in Bakou. 

For investigators... we teach Srey Na and Srey Nooc. They are both ten years old. They are doing really great but still it’s hard to teach kids so young. We are also teaching Ming Heng again. She was a former investigator but she says she wants to learn again. She’s really great. We have an investigator in Bakou now! We were walking and talking to people and we saw this lady sitting outside. She told us to sit and hang out. haha that always happens. And we just ended up talking and teaching her. I hope she'll continue to want to learn. We'll see. Investigators are a bit slow in Ta Khmau but I’m excited. Lots of work with the less actives and strengthening members. It’s hard because most solid members here have only been members for around 5ish years. It’s a whole different church culture here. 

What I've learned this week is unselfish service. This week I tried hard to serve. Attention to all missionaries: serve your companion. It starts at home. Serve your companion and you will want to serve others. So many dishes washed, drains drained and fish de-anted. (ant problem oh well). A desire to serve starts out with actually doing it. And when you serve, you're happier anyways!

Quote of the week: "Whatever our calling, regardless of our fears and anxieties let us pray and then go and do, remembering the words of the Master ‘I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.’ -Thomas S. Monson

Much love to you all!! This Gospel is true and so joyful!

Love always,
Sister Mortell

P.S. happy thanksgiving to all you Americans out there. Eat some stuffing for me. We had a Thanksgiving lunch on Sunday with the Thurston’s (Senior couple) and we're having a zone party thing on Thursday.

On our way to Bakou we listen to Christmas music (Donny). I love it so much!!!

 Low and behold, the crickets

the tuk tuk ride to Bakou

in Bakou on this crazy bridge and my very stylish helmet

She is awesome (lied about being a member) but still awesome

This little boy was scared of me at first but I gave him a candy and now he loves me.

Upbeat Week in Ta Khmau

It was a great week this week! We went to Bakou twice this week. Bakou is this random area that has a pocket of about 40 members. They’ve turned a regular house into a small meeting house and about 15/45-ish members show up every week. That is about to be changed though ;). Sister Kosal and I took a tuktuk to Bakou on Friday. It's about an hour on a tuktuk away. AND SO BEAUTIFUL. So beautiful. Sometimes I literally gasped because of how beautiful. We met members and less actives and tried our best to get familiar with the area. Then on Sunday we went again, this time with the Elders. We went to their church meeting. There were 10 people there plus us 4 missionaries. This whole set up is pretty impressive. I'm excited for this area. Also I totally used my first ladel/bucket hole in the ground toilet in Bakou. And I survived. Somehow I made it 3 months in Cambodia without using one. Quite an experience.

There were transfers this week and I am staying here. All the missionaries in my group are changing areas. Crazy!! One elder from here is going to Steung Mean Chey 2! There’s a little part in my heart that is extremely jealous. I love SMC so much! I'm trying really hard to love it here too! Also Sister Kosal is great. Sometimes it's difficult with the whole language thing but she is so very sweet. Also a couple days ago she was wondering about the seasons in America. So I desperately tried to use my 7th grade knowledge of the whole solar/sun rotation equator thing to explain it to her. Do you have any idea how hard it is to explain the whole seasons, equators, sun thing in a different language? Anyways... wow I'm very sidetracked. 

I started feeling really discouraged in relief society. It’s just so hard when you don't understand that much. I just want to go to church that isn't also language study. But I was just feeling a little down. The lesson was on family history and I had my little family history pamphlet that I had filled out. I started reading what I wrote about Grandma Barbs (My grandma who died when I was 1).  I just felt really close to her. So sweet. Then I stood up and shared my book and invited them to do the same. Family history is actually kind of different here because of all the wars all of the Cambodian history and records have been burned so literally family history seems impossible.

This week I have gained a testimony of courage. God can give us courage. There have been many moments these past few months that I know wasn't me. There are many things in life and on missions that are totally out of our comfort zones. Whether its change, sorrow, talking to people, making friends, going to school, raising a family, working. . . anything! We all have things that we don't want to do. Things that we are scared to do and worry about. I know I sure have a long list of those. But I know when those things on our list are what God has asked us to do, He will help. When we do things that are hard, God gives us courage. For example, this week I took my sweet friend’s (Sister May, serving in Bentonville, Arkansas) advice. She said it was hard for her to have courage to follow the Spirit. For me, same problem. Sometimes I'm biking and I think, "Wow, I could totally go talk to her or "I should go talk to those two ladies" And this week after many weeks of not totally doing that. I DID it. I followed the "should I’s “and the "could I's" and you know what? It was actually awesome. I became a contacting machine this week. And it was so happy. I met some pretty cool people. And some of them understood what I was saying, some of them just touched my skin, some of them weren't interested, some of them were so sweet and smiley, and some of them (one) wants to learn. So follow the “could I's” and the “should I's”. God will give you courage. 

Random weird/scary/sweet moments: 

1. The sky was so beautiful this week. Hence the pictures. It's things like Cambodian skies that I know God created the earth. 

2. My eye was a little irritated this week from the dust (no biggie-it’s fine now) and Sister Kosal came over to me and put a piece of cucumber on my eye. Khmer people are sweet. 

3. We have a musical fireside! It was so fun! The missionaries sang Homeward Bound. (Shout out to Cantus for already teaching me the soprano 2 part)

4. I saw my first dead person. There was an accident and there was a dead woman on the road. She had a lot of blood coming out of her head. People were just driving along.  Things are a little different here. 

5. There's a Chinese soap opera with a Khmer translation playing right above my head in this internet cafe. The acting is hilarious. I’m trying to shield my eyes. 

6. I have only eaten two frogs this week. Frog is actually probably my favorite type of meat here. So delicious. Yesterday we saw a place that sells crickets so I’m going to get some after email. 

7. Don’t have any more but I’m loving it! Cambodia has my heart. 

Much love to you all. Good luck! God loves you!

Love always, 

Sister Mortell

Cambodian Skies!!

 

 This cool Wat (temple) we stopped at to wait for the elders before doing service.

 Another Cool Wat

 Bakou Church

 Cool old Cambodian picture

 Cute little girl we met in Bakou

 These mings are trying to explain to me how to cut down these plants. So fun!

 Bakou is beautiful!

 Cute Sister Kosal

 Tuk tuk ride home. Cambodia is so cool!

 Cute girl, Saphia from Bakou

 This is Srey Nooc. She's our investigator. So cute!

This is the artist that painted that beautiful painting. She is so good! and so sweet! (don't mind my ghost-like white face)

Tender Week in Ta Khmau

So another week! Let's see... random weird moments... 

1. Sister Kosal and I were trying to find this house. It was inside a Wat (Buddhist temple area). Anyways we were left hopeless, we couldn't find the house but all of the sudden the doors of the temple opened and all of these monks emerged. Monks are always just walking around everywhere. It was quite the experience!

2. We visited a less active member that literally built a church outside of her house. Sister Kosal leans over to me and looks really serious and says, "If she gives you any food, don't eat" and of course this is all in Khmer. 

3. Everyone here is even more amazed by my skin. Everyone just wants to touch me and sometimes kids are scared of me. haha oh my goodness.

 4. Tiidaa from Steung Mean Chey (the other ward) got baptized last Saturday!! So exciting!! I love her so much. 

5. On Thursday night, Sister Kosal asked me if she could do my makeup. This then led to full on face make-up, hair, traditional Cambodian dress and jewelry. I became a Srey Sa'at. So fun and strange but so fun.

 6. We gained a new area a couple days ago! Before the Sisters didn't go there. It's called Bakou. It's about an hour TukTuk ride from Takhmau. One member moved out there and all his family were baptized and now there's a group of about 60 members there but they are all less active. They meet in a house that they've made into a church. So cool. So this week we're going there for the first time!

7. I eat frog about 3 times a week and rice every meal. Bring on the rice cheeks!

8. Also it rained so much yesterday like all day and it looked like a scene from Harry Potter with everyone in their rain ponchos and everything. And everyone in Cambodia believes in ghosts anyways so it makes sense.

9. My area is great. It's about an hour bike ride from Phnom Penh. It's in the middle of all these rivers so there are a lot of big bridges and houses on the water. There’s actually a big holiday coming up called "water festival" and the center of it is in Ta Khmau so everything will be crazy this next week! So fun! I love the members here but I still miss Steung Mean Chey. 

10. Want to know what we carved for pumpkins? We had a zone Halloween party . . . so funny. American pumpkins here are like 50 dollars so all of us had old water bottles and we literally carved water bottles and spray painted them...oh my goodness haha

Anyways those were just some of the fun moments of this week. This week was a very emotional, great, hard week like most others. Emotional as in these people here have such hard lives. Hard lives that I cannot begin to imagine.

On Saturday we met with Bong Pheet. Her mother has cancer. She has this big lump on her chest. It's been cut into and I'm going to be honest, it looks very disgusting. The treatment that they use is ground up bone. So I Asian squatted and ground up this bone for about an hour. So sad. I just held her hand because I didn't know what else to do. And she just whimpers every time she breathes. And you know what happened last Sunday? She came to church. Yes, she came to church. Talk about a faithful follower of Christ. These people are so amazing. Yes quirky and sometimes I just think to myself "in what way is this efficient?" but somehow they always seem right. And they are so kind. I mean some others are more kind than others but these people are quite amazing. 

Something that I'm realizing is the necessity of Jesus Christ. The Atonement doesn't just happen after all is done. It's loving, healing, merciful power is open to all, now. We don't have to perfect ourselves. We can't. But Christ can. All we have to do is try, but we really have to try. So that is what I'm coming to realize. As we cheerfully and patiently submit to the will of the Father, He will be with us. (Mosiah 24, one of my favorites, also Mosiah 3:19 is basically my goal and motto for the rest of my life). Anyways, He will be with us. He was with us then, and now and will be forever. I love you all and I know He does too. Much love and luck. 

Love always, 

Sister Mortell