Madeline in Cambodia: 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